SEO

Paying Google Comment Left Me Speechless

Speechless after Google Comment This comment left me speechless. Twice. (And that doesn’t happen often.)

A local business owner told me yesterday that he didn’t WANT his website to be #1 on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).

I was speechless for a few seconds… I’d never heard anyone say THAT before. I couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t want that prime visibility – after all, the website at the very top gets more clicks than any other listing. That’s usually the goal!

So I asked why not, and he said:

“Because prospects will think I’m too expensive if I can afford to pay Google to be #1.”

I was speechless again. And asked him to tell more.

To make a long conversation short, evidently he – and he says, a lot of other business owners – think that you somehow PAY GOOGLE for high rankings. (By the way, this gentleman was very clear that he wasn’t talking about the Sponsored Ads – which you DO pay for – that appear at the top or right sides of the search results page.)

FOLKS – This IS is flat-out WRONG. You don’t pay Google anything at ALL for any ranking. Let me say that again in another way. You DO NOT have to pay Google (or Yahoo or Bing) anything at all to get found at the top of the search engine results when people look for your product or service online.

Those rankings are determined by RELEVANCE. Google’s job is to give people what they’re looking for. If they (their search algorithm) thinks a particular page on YOUR SITE is the best, most relevant match for what that person typed in, that page will rank #1.

That’s it.

Now convincing Google that YOUR site is the most relevant one – which is called SEO (or search engine optimization) – is something you might well hire someone like me to do for you. But you do not pay Google itself, nor does a SEO expert pay Google directly.

Got it?

Better to Advertise on Google or Facebook?

Is Google dead, now that Facebook gets so much traffic? I loved the answer in a recent blog post on AttorneySync.com. Author Jeff Berman makes very good points about the importance of intent and “interruption marketing”:

“People are on Facebook to be social, interact with friends, check out interesting stories, post updates, etc. People are on Google seeking information to help them answer questions, perform research, locate services, etc.”

When – and whether – Google or Facebook is more important to you when you’re seeking new business is highly dependent on that distinction.

When someone visits Facebook they’re looking to connect, to hang out, to talk to friends, to see what’s going on with the people and businesses they know and like.

When someone searches for “Columbia plumber” their intent is quite different – they’re not looking to chat, they’ve got a toilet that’s leaking or need plumbing installed, and want to find a reputable plumber.

In my opinion, putting your website or ad or offer in front of your prospect THEN – when they’re actively looking for your product or service – is what’s going to give you the greatest ROI. Search engine optimization (SEO) – the art of making your website easy to find in Google – is a good way to make sure people find you when they’re looking.

Yes, Facebook offers ads, and because of the demographic information Facebook collects, you can really target your offers/ads. Some businesses do very well with this approach. But as Berman also points out:

“In my mind, this makes Facebook a more targeted version of television-style advertising. You are blasting out your message to a certain demographic of users (or viewers in the case of television advertising) in the hopes that you catch a certain number of them at just the right time.

The advertising is interruption marketing. You are “interrupting” the users from their socializing in order to present them with your offer. They were not actively seeking it out at the time. The result is that many, many more people need to see your message at just the right time in order for you to convert those people into new clients. “

I couldn’t have said it better, myself! There are certainly sound reasons to add social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to your marketing mix.

But as Berman asserts “… doing so at the expense of marketing dollars devoted to the search channel would be a mistake.”

2 Great Ways to Encourage Online Reviews

As you probably know, online reviews have become more and more important these days, both to get a site to rank AND because people just like to READ them.

But most clients, even if they’re happy with you, won’t get around to giving you that review without a little nudge – so you have to ask, and you have to make it easy for them.

I just got hired to redo a site for a chiropractor in Austin, TX and get it to rank, and loved this strategy he told me about.

What Dr.Swanson did is add a reviews page to his website:

He then created a business card with that URL on it.

He and his staff hand that business card out to HAPPY CUSTOMERS – and ask them if they’d be so kind as to help them out by leaving them a nice testimonial. (This way he can control reviews somewhat – they only hand the card to people who are likely to say something nice.)

As you can see, when the customer arrives at that web page, all they have to do is click on a link – they’re taken directly to the exact page on which to leave the positive review.

I think this is a WONDERFUL idea!

If you want to use business cards, you don’t have to pay a lot – try FindBusinessCards.com, you can get them as cheap as $2.99 for a small order and they’re nice cards (no ads on the back!) Or you can request reviews via email and skip the business cards altogether.

The SECOND idea I have, to encourage reviews, is basically to offer an incentive. Just tell customers that if they put a review on Google or wherever, print out of a copy of their review and bring it in, you’ll give them a discount or a free meal or a free drink. This idea is especially suited for repeat-based businesses like restaurants.

Of course you can combine these ideas – the point is to:

Set up a system for asking your best clients for a review;
Offer them a reason for doing so;
Make it easy for them.

Just wanted to pass on these two ideas, hope you find them helpful. There are companies who charge hundreds of dollars a month to help businesses generate and manage online reviews – but as you can see, it doesn’t have to cost much at all. (Yes, you or your web designer need to create that page on your site, and create accounts at whatever review sites you want – but that’s a one-time, relatively small expenditure.)

I need to put up a page like this on my own website – but in the meantime, if you feel so inclined as to leave ME a positive review (hint, hint), here a few places to do so:

Thank you! And if you like this post, please share it with your friends.

Is your blog in the wrong location?

For optimal benefit – your blog should be on your website, on your domain name – NOT at blogger.com or blogspot.com.

I’ve talked to several business owners in the last week who are interested in hiring me for SEO (search engine optimization) work.

All have blogs – which is smart – but all have their blogs at blogspot.com. Not so smart.

For maximum search engine benefit, your blog posts need to be on your own website, your own domain name. In other words, your blog’s URL should be something like:

http://www.comoaccountant.com/blog/
instead of
http://comoaccountant.blogspot.com.

(No, linking TO your blog from your main website isn’t the same thing.)

If your blog is well-established and has been around a long time and has some good links to it and has some PageRank (in other words, if Google sees it as a popular/important site) – then it can be valuable, wherever it’s hosted. And having a valuable site link back to your main site is a good thing.

BUT most blogs don’t get that big or that popular – and you lose the search engine benefit of having the blog posts on your own domain name.

You see, when you blog you’re adding keyword-rich content to your site, which the search engines love. And you’re updating your site, showing the search engines that your content is fresh and relevant – which they ALSO love.

You’re most likely to be blogging at an external site if your primary site is built in HTML instead of in WordPress. You have to install WordPress separately, which requires some technical expertise. That’s how my site is set up right now; WordPress is installed in a subfolder of my domain.

However, I’m now converting my site to WordPress for the whole thing – and that’s one reason WordPress is such a popular site-building platform these days. It has that blog functionality is built right in.

Matt Cutts, Google’s spokesperson, recommends installing your blog on your own domain – and that’s good enough for me. If SEO is one of your major reasons for blogging, this is a change you ought to make.

Huge Google changes affect rankings – MUST READ info!

Google is now rolling out a huge change in the way it presents search results. Called “Places Search” or “Google Integrated”, it especially affects businesses who rely on local search traffic – which probably means YOU.

Google has, in a sense, combined the map-based Google Local/Places listings – part of what’s often referred to as “Local Search” – with the organic/natural results. They’re also incorporating more reviews into the results they display. So now the Map that used to appear (for some searches) in the middle, below the Sponsored Links, is now on the right. And the listings that were next to the map are now combined with the natural search engine results listings, in the middle of the page.

Here’s an example, from SearchEngineLand.com:

Google Place Search Results Sample

These changes are not yet consistent, especially when you search in different browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome). And search engine experts are all “abuzz” about this, as they try to figure out what’s going on and what it means for their clients.

A brief summary of what national experts are saying:

* Local results (e.g. “dentist columbia mo” or “columbia mo restaurants”) are now highlighted, more obvious on the page than general search results.

* If you were relying on your Places page (Map listing) and didn’t have a website, you may be in trouble. With Google now combining the local and organic listings, businesses that do well with BOTH are more likely to rank high.

* Conversely, if you didn’t rank #1 in the Map but ranked well organically, you may now leap back up to the top – I’ve seen that happen with at least one clients’ site I’ve checked today.

* Fleshing out your Google Place Page is more important – because Google is pulling data from it and enhancing the search results they display.

* Adwords Ads – at least the top ones – are easier to see, making them more important. Google seems to be making an effort to get small business owners to advertise using Adwords, which also means that it will get more competitive (costly) too. So you need to know what you’re doing if you use Adwords, or work with someone who does.

* You may get less clicks directly to your website, because there are a lot more things to click on in the search results. (Sites like Yelp or Citysearch, for example.) Those third-party sites that show reviews are more important and visible.

* Directory-type sites, such as ServiceMagic and SuperPages, are less prominently ranked.

Bottom line, as far as I can tell SO FAR, this is what it means to YOU – your site needs to rank well in the search engines AND have a well optimized local “Places” listing.

It used to be that there were two separate algorithms Google used – one for traditional search (relevance-based) and one for local/Maps search (geography-based.) Google specifically says that this is no longer the case. It sounds, then, like traditional SEO factors will more heavily influence who shows up for local search queries… and Google will then apply the local data to create the search results.

For many Columbia business owners, this can be a game-changer as far as their online marketing goes. Please share this with to your colleagues – members of your networking group – fellow business owners – Chamber members, et cetera.

And yes, I DO SEO – so if you need help, or need someone who says on top of all this to manage your search engine presence, please contact me.

Diana

Here are some of the sites I visited, if you want to learn more:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/10/27/what-are-the-implications-of-the-new-integrated-local-search-results/
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/5-quick-impacts-of-googles-new-local-search-results/3757/
http://searchengineland.com/new-place-search-shows-googles-commitment-to-local-53990
http://www.searchengineguide.com/miriam-ellis/new-integrated-google-local-a-game-chang.php

When I’m Doing SEO Work for You, Please…

Don’t change your website without telling me.

Even if my SEO (search engine optimization) project is “offsite SEO” – in other words, I’m concentrating on external factors, like backlinks to your site, instead of modifications to your site itself (“onsite SEO”) – I need to stay informed about what you’re doing.

For example, one of my clients hired me to improve their website ranking but did not want their existing web designer to know they’d hired me. So their web designer unwittingly made updates that messed up what I was doing – changing a page name, removing tracking code, et cetera.

Another client, who designed his own website, completely revamped it about 2/3 of the way through a several-month program of SEO work I was doing for him. If I’d known he was going to do that I’d have suggested changes that would enhance what I was doing to get his site to rank higher.

“Onsite SEO” and “offsite SEO” need to complement each other to get maximum benefit. It’s much easier if one person handles the SEO onsite AND off – but if that’s not possible, at least keep your SEO professional in the loop about website updates.

It’ll be easier and more profitable for both of you!