May
13
Is SEO dead? The new rules of the search engine game
Filed Under SEO, Online Marketing | Leave a Comment
What’s the future of SEO? Jeremy Schoemaker says there’s none at all.
Apparently intent on starting a heated debate, he writes:
My honest answer is there is no future in SEO. From my experiences I am seeing Google SERPS results strongly influenced by Google Toolbar data, Google User history, and Google Analytics data. Google’s combination of SEO and social voting via toolbar/history/analytics will continue to sway more in the realm of social voting. I feel this technology will only get better. I don’t think anyone can argue that core SEO has gotten less valuable over the years and I see that trend continuing.
Well, sorry to disappoint, but SEO is here to stay. It’s just going to be done differently, but for as long as there will be search engines to get ranked in, there will be things you can do to get better rankings. It’s true that traditional SEO is on the way out, but it’s not about to die. SEO is going to evolve. And very drastically too!
The shift to social voting
In the early days of the Internet, getting top spot was easy if you knew which buttons to push. Search engines were pretty primitive back then and had a hard time figuring out what your page was about. In fact, they practically asked you to tell them what keywords you wanted your page ranked for (keyword metatags anyone?) and gaming your way to a great ranking was child’s play.
Modern search engines are way smarter. A lot of the old tricks don’t work anymore and SEO has adapted accordingly to keep up. But now the whole SEO industry is facing a chasm - the shift to social voting, as Jeremy says.
In a nutshell, the people who visit your website are getting an increasingly large say in determining how well you rank in the search engines. Whether your visitors vote for you tacitly by clicking your link in Google’s search results, directly via the Google Toolbar, or endorse your site publicly by writing about it in their blogs - and these are but three examples - the search engines are going to be watching to see what the public is interested in so that they can return the most relevant search results.
Social Media Marketing - The new face of SEO
Using blogs, podcasts, video, and all the latest Web 2.0 technologies to promote your website is going to be vital for those who want to remain in the game. And the emphasis is going to increasingly be on providing the great content that your visitors want - meaning high relevancy, good writing, strong branding. Once upon a time you had to choose between optimising a web page for the Google, or for your audience. Now that the people have power, the way to search engine success is going to be through your audience - which can only be a good thing.
This new way forward is called Social Media Marketing, and Jeremy Schoemaker has unwittingly given you a perfect example of how it works.
As I write this, there are probably dozens of keyboards - maybe more - tapping away in response to the heated debate that Jeremy started with a single, craftily chosen blog post. Some will be commenting on Jeremy’s blog page itself, others in their own blogs. People will be e-mailing his post to friends and colleagues, or discussing it in fourms. And as the discussion rages, Jeremy is in for a boatload of attention and links back to his site.
Of course, as the visits, links, votes, Diggs and what not come rolling in, Google and company are going to be watching. And when they realise that people are interested in Jeremy’s site, they will reward it with more status and better search rankings.
You see, claiming in his blog that SEO is dead is actually a great bit of SEO Jeremy has done for himself!
Of course, the benefits of Social Media Marketing go way beyond search engine rankings, because it has the power to bring you a stream of visitors to your site by other means too. And on the other hand, certain elements of traditional SEO, not directly related to Social Media Marketing, that have to do with making sure the search engines have an easy time crawling and figuring out your website are not likely to disappear any time soon.
It’s not SEO that’s dead, but those websites that fail to recognise the need to keep up with the times. So the next time you’re talking to someone who’s proposing to help you with your search engine rankings, you’d better make sure they know what they are talking about and you’re not chatting with a dodo!
Online Marketing SEOFeb
5
What is the position 6 penalty?
It’s no fun at all when your hard-earned Google search rankings drop overnight! But that’s what happened in recent weeks to many webmasters who found their top-ranked websites suddenly drop to position six.
Strangely enough, it emerged that the websites affected by Google’s so-called ‘position 6 penalty’ were established ones with a long history of ranking in the first or second place for the search terms in question. It goes without saying that theories abounded of why this was happening and many feared that Google was clamping down on ‘overenthusiastic’ SEO that it considered manipulative and in breach of the Laws of Googleland.
Website owners breathe a sigh of relief
Well, the good news is that if your website has been affected by the position 6 penalty, you can sleep easy now. Google’s own Matt Cutts clarified last week that the position 6 penalty was the result of an error that Google was in the process of rectifying. Matt said:
When Barry asked me about “position 6″ in late December, I said that I didn’t know of anything that would cause that. But about a week or so after that, my attention was brought to something that could exhibit that behavior. We’re in the process of changing the behavior; I think the change is live at some datacenters already and will be live at most data centers in the next few weeks.
In general if you think a site might have a penalty (perhaps from past behavior) and you think the site is clean presently, you can do a reconsideration request in our webmaster console to ask Google to take another look at the site.
So what caused position 6?
It’s no secret that Google is constantly tweaking its search ranking rules and algorithms. Several theories have been proposed to account for the position 6 penalty, including that Google may be taking into account how often particular search results are clicked as part However, this seems an unlikely cause.
Most probably this phenomenon is simply a case of a rule or two applied too stringently. On the other hand, (if the conspiracy theorists are to be believed) it could be a portent of something up Google’s sleeve. But what exactly caused ‘position six’ is destined to remain hidden behind the secretive walls of Googledom no matter how much speculation there is.
Boost your website’s search engine rankings
If you were totally oblivious to the position 6 problem because your website rankings have never been anywhere close to the top ten, you might want to give our SEO team at Sorted sites a shout. We are available to discuss the best way to make your business stand out online by getting your website the search engine rankings it deserves. Get in touch!
Oct
3
SEOmoz have published an in-depth report on search ranking factors for google.
“This document represents the collective wisdom of 37 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization.”
The report is the most comprehensive and up to date I’ve seen. If you are interested in SEO for google this document covers Keyword use in the Title tag, anchor text of inbound links, the relevance of a site’s primary subject and more.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
Sep
6
Aaron Wall’s SEO Book
Filed Under SEO | Leave a Comment
This is an essential guide for the wannabe SEO Guru. Before reading Aaron Wall’s SEO Book I was trolling the forums trying to identify the secretes of being an SEO pro, more often than not I was left more confused than before. Although the forums are an excellent source of information there is a lot of miss information. Aaron Wall’s book is to the point and gives great advice; I would recommend the book anyone interested in SEO.
Jun
13
Which is better SEO or PPC ?
Filed Under Pay Per Click, SEO | Leave a Comment
A question I am often asked is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) or PPC (Pay Per Click) most effective? The answer for most site owners is the same…ensure that you have a balanced strategy which not only includes a healthy long term SEO plan and PPC but also includes other strategies such as advertising on other portals to generate sales leads or email marketing. We recently gained a client that had their whole Internet Marketing budget allocated to their PPC campaigns. There are some problems with this strategy - one being that as more competitors join your PPC arena, your costs go through the roof, you loose credibility by not being the natural search and when you stop your PPC campaign you are totally wiped off the search engines, whereas with SEO you will continue to be there for some time to come..
When we started our business six years ago, we were predominantly a web site design agency, but as the demand for online results has increased our services have evolved in this direction and we now aggressively market our clients online using several strategies. Not only are we using different ways to market our web sites but we are now closely tracking conversion results and stats.
The actual design of your web site only accounts for a small percentage of what actually makes it work! Other elements in having a successful site would include; the content of the site, ranking in the search engines, how well you deal with enquiries and how well you analyse the stats to interpret how your users are using your site. We now encourage our clients to start their own blog and constantly update it to keep their clients and potential clients informed of what is happening in their company.
The principles of marketing apply online as much as they do offline. Each strategy should be part of an overall objective which is measured and reviewed. Several of these strategies should be running at the same time with those that aren’t performing dropping off and new ones being added.
Jan
12
Accommodation Fuerteventura - Solymar Holidays
Filed Under Web Design Portfolio, Content Copy Writting, SEO, General Stuff | Leave a Comment
Rentals and Property Management company Solymar Holidays based in Fuerteventura are delighted to announce the launch of their new web site solymarholidays.com.
Finding a gap in the Fuerteventura accommodation rental market, Jane Ball – Co-proprietor was quick in wasting no time on this great new venture commenting “our focus is to find you the perfect place to stay, whether that´s for a few days, a few weeks or longer. In addition, we can also manage the property on your behalf should you so wish.”
With some of the best long term rentals and short term rentals currently available in Fuerteventura and a professional property management service, you are sure to be impressed with this company and its great new site. Contact them soon.
Design, Content and Internet Marketing by Sorted Sites.com
Jan
9
Sunway - Estate Agents in Fuerteventura
Filed Under Web Design Portfolio, SEO | 1 Comment
Sunway Fuerteventura offer an unrivalled service equal to that of their sister company. Working with the same company ethos as Sunway Tenerife, they are certainly well established as one of the leading Fuerteventura Estate Agents.
With its new redesigned web site, sunway-fuerteventura.com has a new look and feel to it. With a great property search facilty which allows you to quickly access Fuerteventura properties for sale, you can see at a glance what´s available. Whether you are looking for a house, bungalow, villa, apartment, finca or land to build on in Fuerteventura, you are sure to find what you are looking for.
If you see something you like, contact their office and take it further.
Oct
11
Why Ongoing Internet Marketing is Vital for Your Website’s Success
Filed Under Pay Per Click, SEO, General Stuff | Leave a Comment
You get your fabulous new website. You put it online. You sit back, and wait.
You design a great magazine advert. You file it away in a back room. You sit back, and wait.
The two are equivalent and the end result is the same!
Nobody will ever come looking for your ad in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and the same goes for the online world. Just because your website is somewhere ‘out there’, it doesn’t mean that any of your potential clients (or the search engines for that matter) will find it. They have to be sent there!
This is why allocating a separate budget for an ongoing Internet Marketing campaign to drive visitors to your website is every bit as important as investing in professional Web Design. Many websites totally flop because their owners fail to grasp this vital (and seemingly obvious) point.
Read on to learn more about Internet Marketing and how to go about it.
Climb up the search engine rankings with ongoing Search Engine Optimisation
The best known Internet Marketing strategy is to get your website to rank high in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc). This is known as Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO).
SEO should begin right from the Web Design stage, by designing your website and its structure in such a way that the search engines can easily access and index its content. Besides, you should entrust the writing of the text on your web pages to an experienced SEO copywriter, who will ensure that your web pages target the very keywords your potential clients are searching for.
Once your website is up and running, don’t be disappointed if it does not appear in any of the search engines right away – it won’t! Only one thing will actually get your website to climb up the search engine rankings and continue to maintain its position there – an ongoing SEO marketing campaign comprised of the following strategies:
- Add new content regularly to your website
By adding new web pages, articles or blog posts regularly – at the very least on a monthly basis – your website grows and gains greater credibility in the eyes of the search engines, resulting in higher rankings. On the other hand, if you do not keep on adding new content, your website will eventually be branded as ‘stale’ and penalise accordingly. - Add inbound links to your website on a monthly basis
The search engines can also estimate how ‘important’ your website is based on the amount of other websites that link to it. Some people will link to you eventually if you put a good deal of interesting and valuable content on your website, but this is not usually enough. The inbound linking aspect of SEO involves free and paying for a number of new links to be set up to point to your site. Keep in mind that rather than adding a large amount of inbound links at one go, it is much better (especially as regards Google) to add a few links regularly on a monthly basis.
Give your website an initial boost with Pay-Per-Click Internet Marketing
Achieving high search engine rankings is something that takes a considerable amount of work – and time. Your ultimate goal should be to get the majority of your visitors via the search engines and, since SEO generally takes about 8 months to 1 year to start producing results, it is something that you have to start working on right away.
In the meantime, you should drive traffic to your website using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing, where small adverts are placed prominently on the search engines (in the search results of your target search terms) and you pay only when someone clicks on your ad and is sent to your website.
We recommend that you budget to run a PPC Internet Marketing campaign concurrently with your SEO for the first year. Eventually, once the Search Engine Optimisation is yielding results and you are getting traffic on your primary search terms, you can divert your PPC marketing budget as needed, to cover secondary search terms related to your business.
Effective Internet Marketing is crucial for your website to receive the consistent volume of traffic it needs to produce results. The sooner you embark on a properly organised campaign, the sooner you’ll begin reaping the rewards of your online presence.
You can read more about successful long term Internet Marketing here.
Jul
6
How to Enjoy Long Term Internet Marketing Success
Filed Under Pay Per Click, SEO, General Stuff | 2 Comments
A good and solid Internet presence is not something that comes free.
Whether you’re just starting out, or even if you have been online for years, your website will be totally unknown to the Internet masses unless you devote a portion of your marketing effort and budget to online promotion.
On the Internet, all websites, great and small, are just like shops set up in unfrequented side streets on the edge of town. People will not visit unless they are actually sent there. And you’ll need a good online marketing and advertising strategy to draw them in.
In recent years, Pay Per Click Marketing in the search engines and on other websites has established itself as an excellent way to quickly attract targeted visitors to your website.
In fact, the second best thing about Pay Per Click Marketing is that you can have your website’s traffic shoot through the roof almost instantly. And the best thing about it is that you can calculate your cost-per-lead, or even cost-per-sale down to the last cent and see exactly what you are getting for your investment.
Pay Per Click works so well that we would recommend you spend up to 70% of your online marketing budget on this method while your website is still new.
And yet, even such a great thing can be overdone! Many businesses completely give in to the temptation of quick returns that Pay Per Click offers and totally ignore other complementary Internet marketing methods that promise even better results in the long run.
If you want to get the most out of your online marketing, you should aim at ranking high in the free search engine listings related to your business. Although this, so called, Search Engine optimisation is something that will take a considerable time to yield results, it should be your long term goal and will boost your credibility way over that of your competitors who only appear in the paid listings.
So, how do you go about it?
1. Optimise your web pages for the search engines
One aspect of SEO involves optimising your web pages by embedding targeted key words or phrases in the text on your main website. These key terms must be carefully chosen to be ones that your potential clients are likely to search for. The overall design of your website should also be taken into account as it can affect your rankings too.
2. Allocate some of your budget to obtaining inbound links to your site
Many search engines also place a lot of importance on the number of links to your web pages from other websites. This is based on the idea that the more people link to you, the more important (and relevant) you must be. By spending a portion of your online marketing budget on acquiring inbound links from other websites, you work your way towards an even higher ranking in the search engines.
3. Regularly add new information to your website
The search engines tend to notice when you don’t add new information to your website and your content becomes stale, and you will be penalised by sliding down the search rankings. And of course, your human visitors just won’t return unless you regularly add new web pages and interesting articles to your web site.
4. Start a blog
Starting a web log, or blog, where you post news and short articles related to your business is an excellent way to keep your website fresh. But a blog is much more than accumulating relevant content for visitors and search engines. Blogging is a great way to interact with potential clients who can leave comments about what you write. And, if you go beyond pure self promotion and post worthwhile content that people will want to link to, you’ll eventually end up with lots of free inbound links and traffic too. We’re barely scratching the surface of the awesome marketing power of blogs here, so watch out for more in future posts.
There are also other non-SEO marketing strategies that you should seriously consider, including:
Advertising on other websites
Although not usually a cost-effective way to get inbound links, advertising on other websites can be a great way to piggyback on their popularity to spread the word about you. For example, if you sell real estate, you can have your portfolio displayed on web portals related to the country or region where you operate and reach thousands of potential clients that way.
Opt-in e-mail marketing
The key word here is opt-in. Spamming a random e-mail list is not only illegal, but highly inefficient too.
By encouraging visitors to your web site, as well as your current clients, to subscribe to receive interesting information, together with news and promotional advertising by e-mail, you build up a highly valuable mailing list of targeted people who are actually interested in your services.
You can also consider purchasing mailing lists from list brokers, but you have to make sure that the people on the list are not only highly targeted, but are there because they have expressed an interest in receiving info from your kind of business. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time.
Well, those were a few Internet marketing ideas to consider as you plan your strategy. Remember, the secret is to think long term and, of course, to diversify your efforts for best results.
Jun
2
Search Engine Ranking
Filed Under SEO, General Stuff | Leave a Comment
After years of our own web site www.sortedsites.com being in the search engine abyss, we finally got round to practicing what we preach and getting our own site up in the rankings, with some surprisingly good results!!!
Here are some of our search results on www.google.com for the following keywords:
- search engine marketing in spain we are Number 2&3 on page 1
- web site design in spain we are Number 6&7 on page 1
- website hosting in spain we Number 10 on page 1
- search Engine Optimisation in Spain we Number 2 on page 1
- email Marketing in Spain we are Number 1&2 on page 1
- Pay Per Click Advertising in Spain we are Number 1 on page 1
These are just a few of the search terms driving traffic to our site. Well done to Aaron Smith and all his hard work in getting us into this position 
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