A Roundup: Google Panda and Penguin Algorithm Updates and What To Do Next!

Posted on April 30, 2012 By Jenny Stradling

I have been reading and reading and reading until I thought my mind would explode. About what? The Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates of course! So, rather than bombard you with 100 plus good blog posts to read, I thought I would recap my findings and share some personal thoughts…

Wondering what the heck am I talking about?

Read on…. It looks long, but I’ll make it worth your time.

What is an algorithm update?

When you use Google to search for something on the web, you are basically asking Google to serve you up the best, most relevant information on the subject you are searching for. When you use Google Search, your results are pulled from the algorithm Google created to calculate which web pages should be served up based off of relevancy and quality criteria.

Every so often Google updates their algorithm which changes the way they evaluate websites and calculate where these sites should rank organically in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

What is the Google Panda update?

The Google Panda update was first released in February 2011. The update aimed to lower the ranking of “low quality sites” and in turn raise the rankings of higher quality sites. It was said to only affect 12% of all search results, but as Panda 2 and 3 (I think we are at 3.3 now?) rolled out even more tweaks, many website across the web have been significantly impacted by this update.

So Google Panda targeted LOW QUALITY websites.

So, what does this mean to you?

Google used human quality testers who rated websites based on measures of quality including: design, trustworthiness, speed and even whether or not they would return to the website…. If you had a lot of ads on your pages, your content was lacking, your design was outdated or not user friendly – your site may have been flagged as “low quality” and therefore hit by THE PANDA.

However, as mentioned in a previous Panda and Penguin post by Kirstin Douglas here – just because your site lost some rankings doesn’t mean your site was penalized! Many, many other sites across the web were hit – particularly blog networks. If your backlink index contained links from these sources, they could have been hit and you are simply suffering from the loss in backlinks.

What is the Google Penguin update?

The Google Penguin update was first called the “over optimization filter” by Matt Cutts, then the webspam algorithm before finally being formally named the Penguin Update by Google. This update was first thought to be yet another version of Panda – but now we know it is its own animal (hardy har, I know). Having only rolled out this month (April 2012) there is still a lot of speculation as to what exactly this update impacts.

What we do know? Google Penguin targeted SPAM and OVER OPTIMIZATION (via what they consider “spammy”).

So, what does this mean to you?

If your rankings dropped this month, forget Panda – you might have been hit by THE PENGUIN! Unlike Panda, Google did release a list of questions that webmasters should ask themselves in order to ensure they are following the Google quality guidelines.

This awesome post from Webpronews lists them verbatim along with some additional thoughts for the areas that are still pretty grey:

There are 8 “specific guidelines”. They are (verbatim):

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

2. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.

3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.

4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.

5. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

6. Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.

7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

Some of them are more black and white than others. For example, avoiding hidden text or hidden links seems like a pretty obvious thing. Just don’t do it. The duplicate content one is a little different. What does Google consider “substantially duplicate content”? How much is too much?

Beyond the specific guidelines, Google also lists 4 “basic principles”. These are:

1. Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”

2. Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

3. Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

4. Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Google provides plenty more guidelines and elaboration on the quality guidelines in its help center.

Of course, none of this is new. It’s just that now Google has a better way to enforce them (or at least, it hopes it does).

END quote from WebProNews.com.

WHOA.

So, now what?

Run out and remove low quality links? Get rid of keyword stuffing and bad content? If I “fix” everything list above Google will automatically rank me again, right? Maybe… maybe not. Google has made a TON of algorithm changes in the last few months and they don’t appear to be stopping any time soon. Besides, do you know if you were hit by Panda or Penguin or hey, maybe you were one of the ones hit by the Google mistake parked domain classifier issue… ?

Of course you should do your best to follow the Google quality guidelines and PLEASE don’t use black hat spam (and if you were still using black hat spammy techniques, such as cloaking, you kinda deserve to be penalized, just sayin). AND, clearly make your website a great, quality site built for your USERS with awesome content (images, videos, design, function, speed, etc).

There is HOPE, keep reading…

No, SEO isn’t dead. Yes, there are still effective marketing techniques to get your site found again.

If you have been hit by Panda/Penguin, even if you have done everything you can do fix the issues – don’t expect to see your lost rankings recover over night. Google has come right out and said that the penalties are the effects of an algorithm change – so even if a human looked at your site, it takes spiders (not humans) to bring the rankings back up again. The best advice I can give is to be patient, carefully evaluate your current standings and make educated decisions. Getting too excited and making a ton of changes can create other issues. If your site is quality and deserves rankings – it CAN rank again. KEEP IN MIND, if you were marketing your site via SEO techniques before, your marketing is likely what helped you achieve your rankings in the first place. So, if you fix your issues you may no longer be “penalized” but that doesn’t mean you will rank again without continuing to market your website.

Don’t have time to wait for rankings to change?

Not sure what to do next?

Give us a call at 800-871-4130.

We are happy to do a discount website audit for anyone recently hit and help you come up with a strategic plan to get your site in order, diversify your long term marketing plans and help you supplement your organic traffic loss with other marketing techniques while we work on fixing your website issues.

Remember, Google is only ONE way to get traffic to your website…

Categories: Blog Updates

Tags: Google Algorithm, Google Panda, Google Penguin, Google Update

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Understanding the Penguin and Panda Updates

Posted on April 27, 2012 By Kirstin Douglas

Google and their algorithms have people jumping out of their seats and scrambling to fix the penalty warnings they received from Google Webmaster tools. But receiving one of these doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a problem. According to SearchEngineLand “Google might no longer be letting the traffic from the link networks you were in carry weight. You’re not penalized. You’re just not benefiting any longer…Getting a warning doesn’t necessarily mean you got a penalty, it seems.”

All that was in preparation for the release of the Penguin Update (designed to combat Spam) launched April 24th… along with its pal Panda Update 3.5 (designed not to combat SPAM but poor quality pages) – everyone is freaking out. Now that Penguin is fully live, sites are able to determined how much they were affected by this update. If you saw a decrease as early as a few days before the actual launch date then you were hit, if you have seen an increase you benefited from this update – and obviously see no change? It didn’t affect you. Currently, there is no way to determine if Penguin did affect you other than running a search and seeing if you disappeared completely.

To those of you who were affected, you can submit a reconsideration request, however according to Google since this is an algorithm change, all penalties were issued automatically from the system and not by a human. Because of this Google says that a reconsideration request won’t actually help nor will they be considering any of these – only fixing the issues will.

Categories: Blog News SEO Updates

Tags: best practices, Google Algorithm, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

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When Local Isn’t Really Local

Posted on April 19, 2012 By Jenny Stradling

There are a lot of SEO and Marketing firms, agencies and companies in Arizona. We are one of them. The other day a new client asked me if he Googled “SEO Arizona” would we come up first? I said no, because we don’t target a limited geographical area – we are an online firm, so our demographic is global. We have clients across the world and have found a way to service clients regardless of time zone and location by using online communication tools and streamlined processes.

“Should I Work with a Local SEO Firm?”

If you are looking for online marketing help for your business website in the Phoenix Arizona metropolitan area (think Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Queen Creek, Scottsdale) we are happy to meet with you, face to face – come see us at our office, let’s grab a coffee, or invite us to your offices so you can show us where the fun happens!

Not in Arizona? No problem – just give us a call! We can video chat, instant message, talk on the phone, email, communicate through project management tools and even text message! The internet is a beautiful thing. Technology is advancing every day and it’s becoming easier and easier to do business without ever leaving the comfort of your office, home or local Starbucks (we know you are using the free WiFi… *wink wink*).

How does this relate to your “Local” business?

Even though your business might be located in a specific state and city, unless you are trying to only drive visitors to a physical geographical brick and mortar location, you might want to think about expanding your target market and optimize for broad keywords that aren’t necessarily specific to a geographical location.

Do you sell products/services that can be fulfilled and/or shipped online? Well, then your market is the world! Why only target your small city, state or even country if you can literally offer this product/service to the globe?

A quick recap:

Yes, we are located in Arizona. No, we have not optimized for “SEO Arizona” and the like… because we are an online marketing firm. Our clients can come from anywhere across the world.

If you need to get people to your office or physical location – target your local market. But, if you are offering an online service or sell a product that can be shipped outside of your geographical location – then we recommend expanding your online marketing targets so you can cast a wider net on the web!

P.S. We specialize in finding your market and diversifying your marketing strategies for better online visibility – locally, nationally or even worldwide. So, if now is your time to expand your market reach, give us a call…. 800-877-4130

Categories: Blog marketing

Tags: Arizona SEO company, Expanding Your Target Market, Local Marketing

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SEO Title Tag Best Practices

Posted on April 13, 2012 By Team Eminent SEO

When it comes to SEO essentials, nothing compares to title tags; those handy descriptions that show up in your browser bars. And though a great many search engines work to keep these tags hidden, their importance is far from debatable. Today we’ll take a look back at title tags, what they are, their role, and how to use them properly.

Meta Tags

Title tags and meta tags go hand in hand. These refer to XHTML and HTML elements used to describe a site for web users and search engines alike.

Meta tags are found in the header section of an HTML page, and include the Title Tag, Description, and Keywords.

Title Tags

Title tags make up an area of the meta tags, which appear towards the top of the HTML header. They serve to report a basic description regarding what each page of a site is about to users and search engines.

Title tags also serve to help people determine whether to visit a page when it is returned in search results, and will contain various keywords used by search engines to determine the site content.

Writing & Formatting

How To Write A Title Tag

Example: <title>Main Keyword Goes Here – Benefit – Branding</title>

Keep in mind that this tag is the single most important tag for any given page. It relays the content of your page to the search engine, making it vital to web traffic and ranking.  The Title should include your main keyword and a benefit for your users.  Keep the title under 70 characters including spaces.  Remember, not every page in your site has to contain your brand at the end of the title.  Include branding only if you have enough space.

Title Tags, Google & You

Google runs the show. If Google decides that your title tag is lacking, it may rewrite the tag without your direct say-so. In order to avoid a Google-altered title tag, you must follow a few basic guidelines: Make sure that each tag you write is page specific, short, descriptive to the content found on the page and not stuffed to the brim with unnecessary keywords. Google, along with most other search engines will likely dock you points for what they call “keyword stuffing”, and as such, this practice should be avoided at all costs.

Keyword Stuffing

Do:

Pink & Purple Neon Lights | Lighting | PrettyLights.com

Don’t:

Pink Neon Lights, Purple Neon Lights, Lights Galore | Lights & More | PrettyLights.com

As you can see, the difference lies in repetition. Nobody likes hearing the same old story over and over again, and the same rules apply to title tags. The key lies in getting your point across quickly, using as little a character count as possible. Combine your products, do away with repetitive words and try adding a category keyword to the equation.

Writing Examples

Let’s say your keywords are “Apple”, “iPad” and “3”. Your title tag should be arranged in that particular order: Apple iPad 3

Apple will serve as the initial word for the tag.

Let’s add more words to the batter, and include “retina display” in the tag. “Apple iPad 3” would serve as the first section of the tag, followed by a pipe | with “Retina Display”as the final phrase: Apple iPad 3 | Retina Display

Continue this practice in order of importance to the topic at hand. The further to the right the phrase appears, the less importance Google will place with it.

Need Help?

Title tags got you down? Give us a call today to discuss how Eminent SEO’s team of search engine specialists can help your site get the traffic and ranking it deserves.

Categories: Blog

Tags: SEO Best Practices, Title Tag

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Buying Blog Content – Considerations and Strategy

Posted on April 9, 2012 By Team Eminent SEO

Link purchases have long been regarded as an effective offsite SEO strategy, one that dramatically increases your organic search engine placement. However, in-bound linking alone will no longer produce the desired results you are looking for. If you are looking to enhance your link buying SEO strategy, then you should consider buying blog copy. In the following entry, we will work to outline some strategies and basic considerations surrounding this popular SEO option.

To Buy or Not To Buy

Creating your own website content is beneficial to your blog presence due to the simple fact that it allows for direct communication between you and your target audience, not to mention the added SEO value. However, the amount of time research and effort required to create quality content can be extreme, resulting in the potential for lowered productivity in areas that require strict attention.

Alternatively, many blog owners have opted to purchase content for their sites through third party writers. There are however, a few considerations for those interested in pursuing this option:

Some site owners who switch to purchased content notice a decline in traffic and subscribers as a result of the stylistic change. Readers who are used to a familiar humor or approach on a particular site may feel uncomfortable with an informal presentation or unfamiliar writing style. To avoid these types of issues, a few tips should be taken into consideration.

Tips & Tricks

Before purchasing blogs or content, search around for content providers who offer their services at a reasonable rate. A little research will go a long way in this regard, quickly providing you with a comparison between price and quality. As with most services, those that are priced a little higher generally offer higher quality content. Ultimately, you will need to locate a service with a basic understanding of your needs and the services you provide in order to obtain the results you’re after.

Writing a novel and writing blogs both require solid writing proficiency… but in many cases, blogging requires more. As such, it’s important when assessing your content options to search for writers with experience in an array of areas, including SEO, link baiting, keyword research, etc. If at all possible, try to locate an individual or service that caters specifically to your niche market.

Those looking to hire a long-term content provider would be best advised to experiment with their options. Select three different content providers and publish articles from each to determine which entries are received best by your readers.

Once you’ve found a service that is able to provide your site with quality content that is appropriate to your needs and audience, be sure to keep them around to ensure content consistency! New subscribers and web traffic will eventually replace any readership you may have lost.

Still not sure who to hire?

Give us a call today to discuss how Eminent SEO’s team of content specialists can help your site get the, readership, traffic and ranking it deserves.

Categories: Blog

Tags: Blog Content, Tips & Tricks

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Happy Easter from Eminent SEO!

Posted on April 8, 2012 By Team Eminent SEO

Happy Easter from all of us at the Eminent SEO & Eminent Social Media office!

Give yourself and your company an Easter gift this holiday- let us create & manage your online marketing strategy and social media. Give us a call today!

Categories: Blog

Tags: holiday, Marketing, Social Media

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Into The Portal – YouTube Optimization

Posted on April 6, 2012 By Team Eminent SEO

These days, it’s not so much what you say, but the way you choose to market it. Whether you own a small business, play in a band or are looking to be the next big viral internet sensation, having a basic understanding in regard to best YouTube practices is imperative in getting your brand the recognition it deserves. Not only will proper use of these tactics place your content at a higher view count, but ultimately serve to broaden your potential web traffic overall. For the purpose of this entry, we will focus on YouTube video title and tagging optimization.

Title

Let’s say you own a small electronics supply company and have a new video describing how to wire a new light switch. In order to ensure your message is heard by your target audience, you must first determine which keywords will best serve your title.

Head on over to Google Adwords (adwords.google.com/select/keywordtoolexternal) and input some relevant keywords into the search bar to gain a basic understanding of your available options. With the information provided in this search, you will be best able to determine a proper title. Next, head over to YouTube and use suggested search with your keyword options to figure out which searches are most popular. Check out a few of the results of your suggested search to determine whether they are actually relevant to your video topic.

Once you’ve finished researching, it’s time to decide on your title. The process is quite experimental, but with a little time and data, you’ll be able to figure out which ideas work best. Keep in mind that you can always alter your video’s title down the road.

Tags

If you’ve already determined the best keywords for your title, chances are the same words will serve you in tagging. Because YouTube users are so prone to click random videos, tag optimization is imperative to your video’s vitality.  Users searching for particular terms within YouTube will be provided with results that include relevant videos determined by the tags used to describe those particular videos.

A simple technique in determining which tags to use is locating similar videos that have garnered a fair amount of attention. Click the drop down link under the video and check to see which tags are being used.

A Word Of Warning

DO NOT BE MISLEADING! Some users opt to include popular tags that are mostly irrelevant to their videos in hopes of gaining additional views. An example might be adding a Lady Gaga tag to a video that just happens to include a split-second shot of a Lady Gaga t-shirt…. When really, you’ve just uploaded a 2-minute silent opus of your new puppy. These types of practices will only serve to annoy users, and can ultimately get your video disabled. Lesson learned.

Still confused?  Give us a call today to discuss how Eminent SEO’s team of search engine specialists can help optimize your videos and get the traffic and ranking they deserve.

Categories: Blog

Tags: YouTube Optimization

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Why Content Marketing is Key (Infographic)

Posted on April 3, 2012 By Star Padilla

The old cliche, “Content is King”, holds it’s weight in value. With the multiple post-Panda updates we’ve seen in the last few months, it’s even more important to produce unique content while involving social media into the loop of your content strategy.

Content Marketing Investments are Significant

Based on Alinean’s infographic on content marketing, looks like we can expect budgets to increase. An average of 26% of marketing budgets are allocated on content marketing.

Content Marketing and Business Size

Small businesses seem to spend  the largest percentage of their marketing budget for content marketing. Small businesses with less than ten employees spend around the 34% mark on content marketing while the larger companies are spending anywhere from 21-25%.

Infographic courtesy of Alinean

One Size Does Not Fit All When it Comes to Content

Now more than ever, unique, personalized content that reaches your specific industry and audience is vital in creating any value for your business. Research from Marketingsherpa and KnowledgeStorm shows that targeted content is more effective when customized for:

Source: KnowledgeStorm & MarketingSherpa

Contact us now, and see how we can create a unique content strategy for you and/or your business now!

Categories: Blog

Tags: Content Marketing, infographics

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Meta Keyword Tags – Who, What, When, Why & How

Posted on April 2, 2012 By Team Eminent SEO

Image Source: The Outsourcing Company

While many of the more popular search engines, such as Google, claimed to-have abandoned the keywords meta tag, other’s, like Bing still do utilize these tags. Ultimately, the decision to use keyword meta tags on your site is up to you, but the general consensus is that when done properly, they will not hurt your site in any search engine.

Keyword Meta Tag Best Practices:

-          Interested in placing a special emphasis on particular words? The keyword meta tag may be the answer! Placing major keywords toward the top of a page or in a header tag isn’t always the easiest task. Important words may not be presented until the center of the page. By utilizing the keywords meta tag, these words can be added to provide search engines with a notice of emphasis. Keep in mind… there are rules:

• Avoid placing irrelevant keywords within the tag. This practice will only serve in getting the site banned from the search engine.
• Avoid placing keywords twice within the tag. Many search engines consider this practice a form of spam, and will only serve to reduce your page rank.
• Avoid placing too many keywords on each page, industry standards recommend no more than 10-12 keywords per page.

-          Want to include synonyms for particular keywords not found within the page content? Keyword meta tag to the rescue! Search engine users search a number of variations on different keywords. Depending on the site content, it can be difficult to cover each of these variations without making the search engines think your site is a pile of keyword spam

-          Some choose to utilize the keyword meta tag to include keywords in various languages. Sites that use multiple languages but use only one for the default page can benefit from this practice by snagging traffic from users who speak different languages.

Bing

Yes… Bing does use the keyword meta tag. No… it will not help your search results on the site. Bing mainly uses it as a means to identify spammers who are trying to get visibility for high searched phrases that are not relevant to the site.

So Do I Use The Tag Or Not?!?!?

Sure! However, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll be chancing Bing stamping your site as spam if you over-stuff your tag. If you’re more the “better safe than sorry” kind of programmer, the recommendation is predominately “no”. Google does not support the tag, and any additional traffic gained from ASR isn’t worth having your site branded in a negative light by Bing.

If you already use the tag on your page, there’s no need to panic. You may choose to remove it… though the general take is that sites will only be branded in a spam fashion in cases where additional signals are present.

Confused?

Don’t be! Contact an Eminent SEO representative today to keep your site ranking high and keyword optimized!

Categories: Blog

Tags: best practices, Meta Keywords, Tags

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Online Advertising Agency – Focus on industry niche(s)

Posted on March 22, 2012 By Jim Peake

In my experience since about 1994 I have been working for an online advertising agency before the Internet got white hot and Netscape was all the rage and the browser wars were in full bloom.  I had been working in direct response advertising for fifteen plus years and in the “direct marketing” world and the direct marketing disciplines was the step child divisions of the big ad agencies.  However, the financial guys noticed that the direct marketing guys were holding their own with the general agencies in terms of profits.

Fast forward to 2012 and almost anyone who is a web designer can technically call him or herself an online advertising agency.  But if we go back in time in this Wikipedia citation in 1864, ad agencies had to be flexible and “create demand,” i.e. William James Carlton began selling advertising space in religious magazines.  James Walter Thompson joined this firm in 1868. Thompson rapidly became their best salesman, purchasing the company in 1877 and renaming it the James Walter Thompson Company, which today is the oldest American advertising agency. Realizing that he could sell more space if the company provided the service of developing content for advertisers, Thompson hired writers and artists to form the first known Creative Department in an advertising agency. He is credited as the “father of modern magazine advertising” in the US.

The distinction here is that the “true ad agencies” not only bought media for their clients they also created content as described above.  Today we see some of the very same similarities where an online ad agency will create content such as a video, game, widget or maybe an infographic then place these bits of content on various outlets and hope the viral buzz of social media can pick it up.  The challenge for both client and online advertising agency is that this really is not “bought media” but more like bought content with the hopes of getting some viral distribution.

There is a very distinct cultural divide between general print and TV ad agencies vs. an online ad agency.  In my experience the online guys tend to move a little quicker and also tend to be a little more willing to learn and take on new challenges just because in the online world change happens at a much faster clip.

Back in the late 1990’s many of the large multinationals felt the need to supplement their advertising spends by hiring smaller interactive and online advertising agencies just because their larger general agencies just weren’t up to speed with digital and online advertising.  However, it did not take long for the “big boys” to get up to speed by not only hiring away some of the best talent in the smaller firms but just outright acquiring firms like Modem Media at record pace.

While many of these smaller online advertising agencies could provide “online advertising” for just about anyone, in my experience the larger ad agencies broke down some of their skill sets into “healthcare advertising niches.”  Having this level of focus allows the ad agency to focus on some of the technical aspects of HIPAA, OTC and DTC regulations especially when it came to pharmaceuticals and privacy.   This can be extremely important because when the regulators come into play and liabilities for the clients.  A lot of this type of online and offline advertising requires different writing and editing skills for “normal advertising.”

In summary if you are considering hiring an online advertising agency see if they have been working in your niche industry because this can help shorten the learning curve for testing different marketing strategies.  At the same time even if the online advertising agency does not have experience in your field it always helps if they have experience in media buying in print, tv and radio and the traditional standby’s.  The biggest reason I think this is important is I think you can usually test online advertising for a lot less than traditional media and should you want to go to tradition media since your online advertising is so successful it is an easier pathway having the same agency involved in both online and offline.  For any questions or immediate pricing call Jim Peake @ SpeechRep Media, Inc. 781-990-8844.

Categories: Blog Business Relationships

Tags: Useful Marketing

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