All posts tagged with
Search Engine Marketing
Google Improves Border Accuracy in Google Maps
Category: Search Engine Marketing
21 Jul 2010Google has launched some improvements to its borders for over 60 countries and regions in Google Maps (coming to Google Earth soon).
“Making Google’s mapping tools as accurate as possible is a complex process, especially when a map’s accuracy has both quantitative and qualitative aspects,” says Google Geo Policy Analyst Charlie Hale. “We receive spatial data of all kinds – imagery, boundaries, place names, etc. – from a variety of sources worldwide, and we review them carefully before integrating them into the best representation of a given location in Google Earth and Maps.”
“In the case of geopolitical features on our maps, the depiction of borders is something upon which local authorities, governments and internationally recognized bodies often disagree,” says Hale. “Our goal is to provide the most legible and accurate maps we can given the information available in these oft-changing areas of geopolitical disagreement. Like most maps, ours include symbology that makes borders and other geopolitical features clearer to users.”
With the update, Google says many borders will more closely follow natural boundaries like mountains and rivers. In some areas Google has changed the symbology of the boundary lines based on political treaties and agreements. In other areas, there is simply just more information provided.
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion
Category: Search Engine Marketing
18 May 2010Recently, Site Reference published an article that discusses SEO tips to achieve double rankings in the search results because, simply put, two results are better than one.
87% of search engine traffic for a given keyword is allocated from occupying the #1 position in the search engine results page.
SEO is predicated on one simple premise, rankings. In order for SEO to be effective, it must produce ranking on the first page in search engines. Not only is this the crowning achievement of search engine optimization, but once you achieve a top 10 position, then you can pull other keywords into the spotlight as a result of strategic linking.
Search engine algorithms pay particular attention to individual pages capable of offsetting all of the other inconsistencies of competitor’s web pages and deem one page worthy above all others for any given search term.
Obviously the metrics are unique for each market, keyword or niche, but the reality is the same, once a top 3 or more importantly #1 or #1, 2 and 3 positions represent in Google.
It does not matter if that link is provided from your own website or another website, rankings are by the page and there is a daisy-chain effect of linking pages together that fuses the pages through a dynamic give and take relationship (based on citation). This citation can provide the algorithmic equivalents of trust needed for the newly linked page to jump in line past others duking it out for that keyword.
Depending on the competitiveness of the keyword or key phrase and the thresholds inherent to the barrier to entry; the time required to initiate a campaign, create all of the necessary content, inbound links and citation from other web 2.0 properties, RSS feeds and social bookmarking sites divided by the amount of time you invest managing or outsourcing the various components involved determine your profitability and return on investment.
With this in mind, from a tactical perspective, it’s better to leverage the SERP positioning you already have, than look outside of your own website for off page ranking factor. If you understand the power of a #1 position, then you can replicate this next simple SEO tip.
1. Identify all current #1 positions in Google for keywords.
2. Validate they still exist.
3. Use Keyword Research to find “related keywords” based on the #1 ranking
4. Link from the page that ranks to a new page (using similar anchor text or overlapping keywords to promote the new page).
5. Let the new page get indexed, then check the SERPs
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
PR for SEO
Category: Search Engine Marketing| Stevens & Tate Speaks
7 May 2010Press releases are great way to help improve your SEO. Generating articles that relate to the words you would like to be found in and then submitting them to the search engines through PR syndication allows you to generate and submit more search engine friendly content that makes you more relevant to the search engines.
Through syndication you also get the opportunity to build quality one-way links to your site from high traffic sites. Thus, getting your site optimized organically. Link building works best when you have a one-way link from another quality site to your own. When you submit your news releases they will be indexed by search engines like Google, sent to top news sites like Yahoo! News and placed into RSS feeds where journalists will have the ability to research and pick up your press release for further editorial.
Today, journalists and bloggers are searching diligently online for news to write about. Online press releases are easy to share in social networks; increasing the viral nature of your news and helping it become a bigger story. More news sites are writing about and linking to external web sites of all kinds. What better source of a quality link? Not only will these media outlets have large audiences, but they will be spidered frequently by search engine bots.
Stevens & Tate Announces New Webinar: Search Engine Marketing for Grocers
Category: Anouncements| Retail/Grocery| Search Engine Marketing
20 Apr 2010Is your website search engine friendly? How easily can search engines – and your customers – find you online? In today’s marketplace, being able to be seen where your competition is, and having your brand strongly represented online, is essential. Learn more, as Stevens & Tate Marketing and Endora Digital Solutions present the latest installment of our Marketing for Grocers Webinar Series, “Search Engine Marketing.”
For more information on this webinar and more, please Contact Us.
Yahoo To Include Twitter Feeds On Its Web Sites
Category: Search Engine Marketing| Social Media| Web 2.0
11 Mar 2010Yahoo and Twitter have reached an agreement that will allow for Twitter feeds to be put on various Yahoo sites, including the Yahoo home page as well as search, e-mail accounts, and Yahoo sites devoted to news, finance, sports and entertainment.
The terms of the deal were not announced.
Yahoo also will include Twitter content on its sites containing complementary information. For example, a Yahoo user reading a certain news item may also see Twitter updates on that news on the same page.
Both Google and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing have similar deals integrating Twitter feeds.
To read the entire article, click here.
Why Marketers Should Care About Your Friends’ Interests
Category: Search Engine Marketing| Social Media
28 Jan 2010A recent article found in Advertising Age titled ‘Friendsoucing’: Search Gone Social explains why marketers today should care about social network users’ friends’ interests.
The article explains how in its purest state, Google’s page rank algorithm serves up the ideal result for everyone, but it is the same ideal result for everyone. How does Google know which articles are right for each individual searcher?
But we may be on the edge of something big in the search world.
Throughout the past year there was a flurry of activity from the major search engines. Bing announced deals with Facebook and Twitter. Next Google unveiled its social search product. Google has also begun integrating real-time, public conversations with hot, trending keyword searches. Marketers have only started to scratch the surface of what these partnerships mean for them and their clients. At the very leas, there are three paradigm shifts to deal with in the future:
- What brands say and do in social media has an increasingly direct effect on how they will appear in the search engines.
- The more friends in a user’s social circle that talk about a brand, the more likely it is that another user will see your brand and become another voice.
- Social media is not just a silo in the marketing mix anymore and the lines will become more increasingly blurred with mass media, CRM, SEO/SEM and other marketing channels.
It is never too late for marketers to launch a social media campaign for their brand. Social media is not just an Internet fad that will disappear as the years pass. It has changed the way marketers promote their brand and reach their audiences. Although social media may evolve throughout the years, it is a marketing channel that is here to stay.
Meta Descriptions Now Affect Your Google Rankings…Again
Category: Search Engine Marketing
11 Jan 2010Meta descriptions were once an important ranking factor when it came to organic search, until Google announced that they were no longer going to use meta descriptions in their search algorithms. However; recent developments in Google’s search algorithm have once again decided to take web sites’ meta descriptions as a ranking factor.
Now, your web site’s meta description can significantly affect your organic search rankings. Here is how:
In December 2009, Google announced that they would be tailoring search results based on a users search history, even when users are not signed into Google.
How does this work? All of the searches that a user runs, whether on Google or not, are stored in their browser cookies. This data is referred to as ‘Web History’ and Google uses it to customize your search results.
To learn more, click here to read the article recently published on Site Reference.
Google Announces New Search Feature: Real-Time Web
Category: Search Engine Marketing
8 Jan 2010Google has announced that they are introducing new features that will bring Google Search users results with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after performing an online search a users can see live updates from people on popular sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before the search was conducted. When relevant, Google will rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search engine results page.
This real-time search will enable users to discover breaking news as it’s happening, even if it is not the popular news of the day.
To read more details on the new Google search feature, click here.
Mobile Marketing & PPC Campaigns
Category: Search Engine Marketing
21 Dec 2009Smartphones, and other internet capable phones, are changing the way people use their phones and browse the Internet on the go. Although smartphones’ Internet experience is similar to a desktop browser, the impact of mobile search can have an effect on your pay per click campaigns.
In addition to the growth of search volume, mobile search may affect your PPC campaigns in the following ways:
- Mobile search queries tend to use shorter keyword phrases than desktop or laptop based searches. This is due to the mobile device’s keyboard and user’s environment.
- Mobile search queries are more likely to be local in nature.
- Mobile searchers are consumers that you want to get your brand and products in front of, but do not expect many online sales just yet. Many clickers on mobile devices are looking for a local store instead of looking to purchase online.
With more and more users switching to smartphones and phones with Internet capabilities, it is important for advertisers participating in paid search to be aware of these new trends to stay ahead of the mobile search curve.
Site Speed & Organic Search Ranking
Category: Search Engine Marketing
30 Nov 2009Through ever-changing algorithms, search engines organically index and rank the web sites they crawl. It’s he name of the game in search engine optimization: find out what makes a page rank – and use that tactic until the search engine changes its algorithm.
The page ranking algorithm used by search engines is a set of rules, which can vary by search engine. Exactly how a particular search engine’s algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. It can be based on the web pages’ meta tags, keyword frequency, and more.
Now, Google has begun to work on a new ranking factor: site speed. The search engine will be looking at page load speeds of web sites and ranking them accordingly, meaning that old site pages that load slowly with clunky images may be ranked lower in the search engine results pages.
To read more on what web site owners need to know about page speed and search engine rankings click here to read an article that discusses this topic from Search Engine Watch.
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