The Bulls Roar » Web search engine http://www.thezenbull.com/blog More Meat, less potatoes & way more Cowbell! Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:08:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Internet SEO Lies Designed To Keep You Poor http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/internet-lies-designed-to-keep-you-poor/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/internet-lies-designed-to-keep-you-poor/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:56:09 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=424 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/internet-lies-designed-to-keep-you-poor/.

This post is quite obviously going by the title a  little bit of a wrist slap for all you people who think that old tired and ‘Black Hat‘  SEO and marketing methods are going to miraculously put your tiny site on the “first page of Google” which seems to be some hackneyed ideal that every one is still searching for.

The bad news: It WON’T!

Matt Cutts verified this himself: “NO-ONE can promise you the first page of Google any more!”

Unless, yes there is an unless… unless they are promising you to put you on the first page of Google under one keyword, in your locality (small defined area) with two adjectives that creates one long tail search term and most importantly you will be there more often on your computer not others because of Semantic Search practices.

Basically semantic search (and this is Google and Bing and all other search engines are following suit) where the search algorithms take into account your own search history on your IP including your locale, your previous search history and your keyword semantics – the meaning you put on those keywords or search terms e.g. if you search for fishing and your previous history shows you really mean fly fishing when you search the term fishing, your searches will be based around fly-fishing whether you want them to or not, until you show enough search history to Google to change the meaning placed on your ‘fishing’ search.

Please read the previous paragraph several times, enough times for you to fully understand the repercussions to your site and to your SEO practices!

There are heaps of SEO firms out there right now still trying to make promises they cannot keep. Read these vital posts I have collected for you over the past few weeks to validate what I am saying to you:

Don’t Get Google Slapped!


Link Farms – Link farms are a whole bunch of websites set up with one job in mind – to link to other websites and create backlinks. They have minimal or zero useable content and simply link out to other sites. You can usually purchase links from these farms (so as to increase your number of backlinks) for a price, but this is simply not worth it. As soon as the search engines recognize the site as link farm, they ignore all the links. It’s quite possible that you could get “blacklisted” for this sort of thing and end up ruining all your efforts.

When I was new to SEO, I bought 1000 backlinks from one of these link farms and anticipated huge results. Google Webmasters only picked up about 30 of them (out of a thousand!) and within a month or two they were lost (or removed). I was just lucky that I didn’t get banned!

Cross Linking – Similar to link farms, this is the practice of linking between a whole lot of websites that you own. Apart from being ineffective, the cost of this sort of practice is simply a waste of money (considering that you can easily get links from writing articles, etc).

Cloaking – Cloaking essentially involves having two different pages – one that your visitors see and one that the search engines see. This allows you to create a heavily optimized page for the search engines, and a very “pretty” page for users. This practice is strongly frowned upon by search engines and will in most cases get your site banned within a few months.

Duplicate Content – Whether it the same content placed on different pages within your website, or content copied from another site – the search engines don’t like this for one reason – there’s no value to the visitor.

Understanding Metaweb The Official Google Blog (Semantic ‘Entities’)

Google Buys Metaweb What this means for you!


Metaweb’s technology could change the way Google Search works.

Metaweb is a difficult concept to describe, although the video above does an admirable job. Essentially, it views keywords, the way we search now, as an inferior search method to what it calls “entities.” Words can vary in meaning, refer to different things, have different levels of importance or relevance at different times, and often return inexact results. So Metaweb has created a constantly growing database, or directory, of 12 million “entities,” which are really just persons, places, or things, and all the different ways you might refer to them. Wording isn’t so important with Metaweb, it’s the end meaning that matters.

Once Metaweb figures out to which entity you’re referring, it can provide a set of results. It can even combine entities for more complex searches–”actresses over 40″ might be one entity, “actresses living in New York City” might be another, and “actresses with a movie currently playing” might be another. Instead of searching through that jumble of keywords, Metaweb would just connect you to those three entities, and file down your results.

and of course this excellent post on what Google thinks of your Squeeze or Landing Pages:


Google Slaps Squeeze Pages

It’s true: squeeze pages are nothing less than poison as far as your performance in the search engines is concerned. Google and other search engines have been working on ways to discount the rankings of these pages, which are rarely the kind of content that users are actually looking for when they use the keywords which these sites target. It comes down to what it always comes down to when search engine rankings are the issue – relevance. A webpage designed to entice visitors to fork over their contact information simply isn’t that relevant to many, if any, actual search engine queries, no matter how much content you try to cram onto the page.

Speaking of the content, this is something which has changed about squeeze pages in the last couple of years. Once these pages started being penalized by search engines for their lack of content (”classic” squeeze pages, after

all, feature little more than an opt-in form), marketers started turning them into the online equivalent of the long form sales letter – in other words, something no one wants to read, especially not page after page. This unappealing content has led to a further decline in the ranking of these pages in search results, making them even worse marketing tools than they already were.

The Death of Squeeze Pages

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/internet-lies-designed-to-keep-you-poor/feed/ 0 Why Does My Business Need A Facebook Page? http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-does-my-business-need-a-facebook-page/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-does-my-business-need-a-facebook-page/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:07:18 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=380 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-does-my-business-need-a-facebook-page/.
My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
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Just this week I had a little idea and put it into action immediately, I created a Facebook Page to help my clients and other locals Buzz Up their businesses on Facebook and Twitter.

Now what has come out of this for me was the astonishing number of people who have created a personal profile in their business name!

When I did ask a few of them why, I recieved a number of answers including:

  • “I didn’t know how to make a page”
  • “I wanted to be able to comment as my page”
  • “It was just easier”
  • “What’s the difference?”

This post is for you! All of you who do now know how much you can get out of having a page on Facebook, most especially if you have a website!

Facebook ‘Like’ Pages or Fan Pages as they used to be called are Facebooks answer to business profiles and they are created to represent a business, an identity or brand. In fact they are the perfect answer to doing business on Facebook, as there are a number of hidden perks for your business and your website in having a Page.

  1. Pages are indexed by search engines, yes your Facebook comments, links and posts will show up in the search engines as being a representative of your brand, business and website and also serve as high quality back links to your site.
  2. You can have mutiple Pages, all linked by Favoriting each other and this creates a web of indexible links back to your site.
  3. You can have unlimited fans for a Page, but only 5,000 friends.
  4. The box provided under your profile image can be filled with keywords which will also be indexed by the search engines and this includes your site URL
  5. The “Like’ factor is like a vote for your page, the more ‘Like’s’ the more votes, and the higher ranked your Page and your own website which is linked to your fan page will be. This is great SEO for your page and your site!
  6. When other pages Favorite your page, this is like another vote for your page and your ranking goes up even further and a pic of your Page shows up on their Page under the term Favorite Pages!
  7. You can get away with a lot more marketing from a Page than you can from a profile, in face Facebook can and does ban you if you’re are caught using a personal Profile for marketing, too often.
  8. You are allowed to message all fans at once, whereas on a personal profile you are allowed at most 20 people at once, and if you message the same message more than twice in batches your account can be suspended.
  9. You can create a Welcome Tab for your Page which can look just a like a mini version of your website, and can gather readers for your blog, or Optins for your material.
  10. It looks much more professional for your business than a using a personal profile, and it looks like you know what you are doing!
  11. You can send every post on your Page directly to Twitter automatically
  12. There are loads of great apps created just for pages!

You cannot get any of this from a personal profile and if you tried you might find Facebook Admin breathing down your neck!

If you have a business on Facebook, please do yourself and your business a favour and get yourself a Page!

The Zen Bull

Websites and Marketing

More Meat, less potatoes!

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-does-my-business-need-a-facebook-page/feed/ 1 Are You Optimizing for SEO 2.0 and 3.0? http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/are-you-optimizing-for-seo-2-0-and-3-0/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/are-you-optimizing-for-seo-2-0-and-3-0/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:13:23 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=349 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/are-you-optimizing-for-seo-2-0-and-3-0/.
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The truth is the internet is changing very fast and one of the ways it is changing is with Search Engine Optimisation and what works now as opposed to even just 6 months ago. If you are paying for someone to SEO your site there is one very important question you need to ask them:

“Are you optimising for Web 2.0 and 3.0?”

If they do not know what you are talking about it might be time to rethink hiring them and this is why:

“Many old SEO strategies have become obsolete, for example ranking for keywords that no one ever searches for – you know, those “ego boosters” that show your site on the first page of Google. Submitting your site to thousands of web directories to get links and submitting your site to the search engines to get indexed are two techniques no serious SEO even considers anymore. Webmasters still believe that exchanging links is the magic answer to higher rankings (they do still play a minor role in Google PageRanks), and many are still obsessing over duplicate content penalties. All these techniques are today used by the inexperienced SEO and by the “old school” DIY who fail to understand the dynamics of Web 2.0.

The New SEO 2.0 Trends

Web 2.0 is a social entity, and obviously SEO for Web 2.0 needs to be social.

Building social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, YouTube, FriendFeed, Twitter and the like, is only one aspect. If you build them, the followers will not necessarily come. You have to give visitors a reason to become members of your community, and more importantly, you have to give them a reason to click on the links you submit to their attention if you want to fully benefit from the “network effect” so many web marketers are talking about today. Twitter is the perfect example of how this “network effect” can be beneficial. For example, Dell managed to make $3 million in revenue using Twitter to announce special offers and to communicate with their consumers.” (flagrantly plagarised from the SitePoint Blog :) just for you)
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/The-Difference-Between-SEO-Web-2-0-and-Advertising.html )

DIY SEO Hints:
•    Make sure your phone listings also include your website link
•    List your business website with Google Local Search, add a map, links and description
•    Write articles, press releases, list with directories in your niche and local directories
•    Link your internal pages to each other
•  Get a blog!
•    Use Social Media!

Notice the emphasis on the last two!

“Let’s Talk About Link Types

Link Reputation:
Link reputation is just that, the aggregate or culminating characteristic that an internal or external link has acquired.

Each link is viewed as a vote, get enough of them from the right sources and your website gains trust; that trust directly translates into link weight which you can invest into the page or pages of your choice via internal links.

Once a page reaches a certain degree of trust, all of the latent aspects of the (a) content (b) title meta data (c) H1 tag, bolded text, etc. and the various keyword combinations that exist on that page as well as the anchor text linking to that page are consolidated and that page can rank for (d) all of the above.

Authority / Trust:
To view the most trafficked and trusted websites online, just type in WWW into a Google search (with advanced filters set to 100 results). Every one of the sites listed there in descending order all represent the most authoritative sites online.

They are in such a lofty position since they are (a) linked to often (b) referenced often through citation or (c) visited frequently. This trifecta of link popularity and peer review augment the process of page and domain authority.

Getting a link from any website in the top 100 most trafficked or authoritative sites online (using the WWW keyword) could catapult your websites trust to a new level. The more authoritative pages your website has, the more trust, rankings and strength your overall domain can accrue.

How you spend that popularity (what we dub internally as ranking credit) and equity is up to you and ultimately determined by (1) the quality and topical theme of your content and (2) who you link to.

Once your website becomes a hub site (to other spokes in the wheel), each link is a valuable commodity which can be used to elevate other pages in your own website, pass traffic along to those who find that page (from search engines or through navigational means from other sites via links).

This is why it is particularly important to customize your website templates to prevent link loss through replicating too many shingles (text such as recurring navigation in the header, sidebar and footer).

By keeping the pages on topic and selectively using optimal anchor text, primary and secondary navigation and being selective with how you funnel the tiers within your website, you can sculpt link equity wisely within your website.

Trust is the last thing you get and it takes links from the right sources, quality content, popularity and time.

The real secret to link building is to start from within your website first, look for lateral opportunities to acquire links from trusted sources, use syndication wisely (RSS, Article Marketing, Directory Submissions, etc.), add a nice blend of social media, PR (press releases) and when possible get as many themed relevant links from others from within your own industry to balance your websites link profile.” (Again I have taken the best from another post on Site Reference here: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Link-Building-SEO-Link-Types-and-Tactics.html#ixzz0sJiuZ0x5 )

If you have been told that onsite SEO is more important than offsite SEO, that you must keep submitting your site to directories on a daily basis, that you must keep finding the best keywords and updating them weekly – you are talking to someone who has not upgraded their SEO education for a long time. These days SEO is more about what you do offsite than onsite, about 60/40 so get your site right, your keywords right and then get out there and be social!

Only submit to the newer directories which allow you to update all your information, add images, products and more, these are the backlinks that will count along with your social media linking. Facebook is the biggest site on the web, don’t you think this might mean that if you put a link back to your site on FB, it might carry a LOT of authority?

SEO is all about staying up with the times, I personally asked Matt Cutts (yes he answered me!) on Twitter the other day if anyone could really, honestly promise you first page of Google for your keywords, his answer was an unequivacle, “No! no-one can.” Paraphrased: Our newer algorithms are changed almost daily and semantic search is becoming more relevent by the minute.

What’s semantic search? Web 3.0 – where your past searches will influence your current searches for each persons IP address, how can anyone promise the first page of Google or any other search engine if all past searches that each individual person makes will influence their future searches? Think about it!

The people who are promising you this will not promise you first page of Google for your keywords, they do promise you first page for certain minor keywords in a local search, not the same thing at all! It is certainly time to be smarter with your time and smarter with your money, spend both wisely on what is working and what is going to continue to work.

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/are-you-optimizing-for-seo-2-0-and-3-0/feed/ 0 A TZB Collection: Best SEO Advice http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/a-tzb-collection-best-seo-advice/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/a-tzb-collection-best-seo-advice/#comments Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:21:47 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=182 [...]]]> Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/a-tzb-collection-best-seo-advice/.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 14: Artwork of th...
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There is a LOT of advice out there, some of it pure gold some of it ok and let’s face it – some of it pure drivel.

I have numerous RSS subscriptions to the ones I know are good to great and I thought you might like me to share the best of the best with you on certain topics each week, this week seems to be SEO week and here are the posts I thought were most relevent to you regarding your Search Engine Optimization:

  1. Noone Can Guarentee #1 Ranking on Google
    This first link is I believe the most important one as I had a (very short) conversation with Matt Cutts himself a couple of weeks ago and he verified that “..no-one can guarantee you the first page of Google..“, so please read this one carefully and do not be taken in by those emails that tell you they can. Let me tell you if they can, they can only do it for local searches and for certain keywords that will not necessarilly be the main search terms (keywords) you want to use.
  2. The Problem with SEO Advice
    Expect Change..
  3. SEO Traits Your Strategy Should Contain
    Headline says it all
  4. Matt Cutts says: Give Each Store Its Own URL
  5. Do Categories Matter for SEO
  6. The Second Biggest Search Engine is
    … wait for it….
  7. Tips to Double RAnkings Traffic and Conversion

  8. 3 Search Types Every SEO Should Know
  9. The Top 25 SEO Blogs
    Now you could read these blogs yourself every day, or you could trust me to let you know the most relevent posts and get them here :)

The Zen Bull

More Meat, less potatoes..

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/a-tzb-collection-best-seo-advice/feed/ 0 Facebook’s Facelift has Ignition! http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/facebooks-facelift-has-ignition/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/facebooks-facelift-has-ignition/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:24:14 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=98 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/facebooks-facelift-has-ignition/.

Well I guess it’s not a total surprise we have been reading about it for a while…

The emphasis is now on search and it is a great search engine, however I know there will be folks like myself asking where are the status updates? Where are my friend lists? etc..

The new Facebook redesign will take some people by surprise and others will be just plain ticked off – we know that’s true, but just like in times past when FB made changes you will all have to get used to it.

This is the page that greeted most users this morning :)

and this is the guide to what’s changed and what’s new:

As you can see Facebook is changing into a new type of social site, really it’s becoming what I would call a social search site, which is an interesting tack to take – are they going to compete with Google for searches? It’s not out of the realm of possibility as over Christmas Facebook searches out weighed Google searches and that is a huge coup for FB.

Now is the time to get used to the changes and to change the way you use FB to compensate for those changes – how will you compensate for the loss of your easy to find friend lists which is one of the changes most users are upset about. The secret is they are still there, just click on ‘Friends’ and you will see ‘Status Updates’ right there under ‘Friends’ click on it to see all your usual folders or then click more and you will see them there and this is going to be the easiest way for you to find your favourite people and coversations in the future.

We have to ask the question “What’s next?” as Facebook as made major changes almost every 6 months over it’s history there is almost no time between redesigns to get used to them.

The Zen Bull

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/facebooks-facelift-has-ignition/feed/ 0 Note to Self: keywords are words used by ordinary people http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/note-to-self-keywords-are-words-used-by-ordinary-people/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/note-to-self-keywords-are-words-used-by-ordinary-people/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:00:17 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=58 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/note-to-self-keywords-are-words-used-by-ordinary-people/.
Lifestyle Keywords vs Product & Brand Keywords
Image by Craig Key via Flickr

I was presenting a workshop on Social Media Marketing the other day and one of the biggest AHA! moments for the group was around how using social media search options and conversation could be a powerful research tool to help refine your site keywords, descriptions and metatags.

As we used the Twitter search tool to find users talking about the search terms (keywords) of some of the group, it became apparent that we can be so entrenched in our own niche we do not see the forest for the trees.

As an example one of our workshop group has a resort in Noosa Heads and he asked to search around one of his keywords “accomodation Noosa”, now as you and I know there is only room for 140 characters in a microblogging update and no-one is going to use them up with a big word like accomodation, they will use: holiday, resort, unit even holiday unit, instead.

This brought on a passionate discussion about how useful social media is as a tool for keyword research. After all, your keywords are search terms most likely to be used by a person searching for your business in a search engine. One of the tips I tell all my website owners about researching their keywords is to go to several of their friends and ask them what words they would use to search for their business. Why? because you can be too close to the industry to know what the average person is saying about your niche or business. You may even mistake the benefits your business provides as your keywords. Big mistake!

Your keywords need to be words used in ordinary (not industry) conversation about your niche, words the average person needed your service or product would use. One of the most invaluable tools to use is: ordinary people not associated with your niche, and that is where social media can be one of the most invaluable tools to use.

Use Twitter Search put in your keywords and see who is talking about your niche (a great way to start your follower list), it is also a great way to see what words are actually being used in conversation about your niche. Go find blogs by people not in the industry and take a look at their blog tags to give you another indicator. Ask your friends on Facebook for clues about how they would search for your business and use the search tool on Facebook in the same way as you did in Twitter Search. This will give you other groups and pages as well as conversations using your keywords and more ideas on what keywords you could be using.

As you must know your keywords need regular review and so this is one area in which your testing never ends: have your site stats gone up or down with this batch of keywords, change them and test again. When you find the perfect mix and your stats rise, only change one or two at a time to see which ones are working well and then test again.

Keywords need to be reviewed at least every 3 months, much more often at first to make sure they are still relevent. Remember when changing keywords on a page to be sure they are relevent to the copy (text) on the page at all times.

The Zen Bull

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/note-to-self-keywords-are-words-used-by-ordinary-people/feed/ 0 Why Onsite Blogs Are an SEO Winner! http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-onsite-blogs-are-an-seo-winner/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-onsite-blogs-are-an-seo-winner/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:59:53 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=56 [...]]]> Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-onsite-blogs-are-an-seo-winner/.
Moo cards for blogging workshop
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Last week I was asked a question about having a Blog as well as a site on our Facebook Fan Page and this was the answer I gave:
AskAnnie: Q I have a site.. do I really need a blog too? A: This is really up to u, I like to add a blog to a site as

  1. search engines love new content & blogs r gr8 for that,
  2. ur posts help to brand you as an expert in ur niche,
  3. adding ur posts to social media sites etc.. creates backlinks to ur blog & to ur site.. if you don’t like writing try outsourcing ur writing to a uni student or a place like odesk.com

Now that we have more space :) I thought I would give you a much fuller explanation:

Blogs are one of the easiest way to increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) especially for beginners, with almost no experience in SEO at all you can use an onsite blog to do some of the most important aspects of SEO for your site:- adding new content to your site, create backlinks, create deep backlinks, regularly add and refresh keywords to your site and that’s just for starters!

Let’s take a better look at what those things mean:

  • New Content: One of the things those little search engine spiders are looking for when they crawl your site every few days is NEW CONTENT (remember content is King!) and the easiest way to give them something new and tasty to munch on is one or more new posts.
  • Refreshing and Adding Keywords: New content that is matched to keywords used within the content is even more appetising to those cute little bugs :) and if you haven’t started using the keyword or tags in your blogging yet, may I suggest you do so immediately.
  • Branding you as The Expert: your blog posts when informative and interesting allow your readers to see the depth of your experience for themselves. They will often subscribe to your posts so that they can keep up with your updates and you become a trusted expert for them, who they will then tell their friends about (WOM), ReTweet, and generally help you create buzz around your brand.
  • Creating BackLinks: Once you have created a blog post you would immediately post the link and post description into your social media sites, bookmark it and ping the post out into the world (well at least I hope you do?:) This creates backlinks to your site. Adding into the post itself links to other pages on your site create what are known as deep backlinks into your site, something that search engines love!

There you have it just by having a blog attached to your site, like this one, you have become your own SEO expert! Well almost :)

The Zen Bull

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/why-onsite-blogs-are-an-seo-winner/feed/ 1 Anchoring Your Pages in the Google Pond http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/anchoring-your-pages-in-the-google-pond/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/anchoring-your-pages-in-the-google-pond/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:13:13 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=53 [...]]]> Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/anchoring-your-pages-in-the-google-pond/.

After th definitive announcement the other day by Google that their search spiders and bots take no notice of  Metatags, Google has also given us a new way to create more page ranking and get more click-thru’s from our organic Google listings.

Page Anchors! Yes, page anchors. You know those links that take you from one piece of information to another on the same page. Those cute little links that save you from having to scroll through lines and lines of information on a page to find what you want, often used on FAQ pages and other pages with lots of information.

This is what was announced on the Google blog a couple of days ago:

“For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a “search snippet.” Recently, we’ve enhanced the search snippet with two new features that make it easier to find information buried deep within a page.

Normally, a search snippet shows how a page, as a whole, relates to a your query by excerpting content that appears near and around where your query terms show on the page. But what if only one section of the page is relevant to your search?

That’s where these new features can help, by providing links within the snippet to relevant sections of the page, making it faster and easier to find what you’re looking for. Imagine, for example, that we’re researching trans fats and cholesterol, and their effects on the body. If we start with a generic query like [trans fats], Google returns several results with lots of information about trans fats in general, including this result from Wikipedia:

Google Search Results using Page Anchors

Now, included with the snippet are links to specific sections within the page, covering different subtopics of trans fats. Since we’re particularly interested in what’s healthy and what’s not, “Nutritional guidelines” is probably where the most relevant information is. Clicking this link will take you directly to that section, midway down the page.

Now imagine we’re particularly interested in learning about good cholesterol and what levels of it are healthy, so we try a more specific query, [good cholesterol level]. The top result is from the American Heart Association and has tons of information about cholesterol levels. The specific information about good (HDL) cholesterol, however, is contained in one section titled “Your HDL (good) cholesterol level”‎. Since the query was more specific, the snippet for this result now provides the option to “jump to” just this section of the website.

Clicking on “Jump to Your HDL (good) cholesterol level‎” takes you directly to the most relevant information on the page:

Clicking on the title of the snippet (”What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean”) still takes you to the top of the page, as always.”

and

“We just announced a couple of new features on the Official Google Blog that enable users to get to the information they want faster. Both features provide additional links in the result block, which allow users to jump directly to parts of a larger page. This is useful when a user has a specific interest in mind that is almost entirely covered in a single section of a page. Now they can navigate directly to the relevant section instead of scrolling through the page looking for their information.

We generate these deep links completely algorithmically, based on page structure, so they could be displayed for any site (and of course money isn’t involved in any way, so you can’t pay to get these links). There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that they might appear on your pages. First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a “table of contents” which links to the individual anchors. The new in-snippet links only appear for relevant queries, so you won’t see it on the results all the time — only when we think that a link to a section would be highly useful for a particular query.”

This information is invaluable to anyone configuring SEO on their site, it just goes to show how important it is to keep an eye on and update your SEO every couple of months.

Now go take a look at your site, which pages do you have that you could use Page Anchors on, if none could you create some FAQ’s or some content pages just to take advantage of the latest Google update?

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/anchoring-your-pages-in-the-google-pond/feed/ 0 SEO Tactics to Use Even If You Can’t Use Metatags http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/seo-tactics-to-use-even-if-you-can%e2%80%99t-use-metatags/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/seo-tactics-to-use-even-if-you-can%e2%80%99t-use-metatags/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:32:16 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=45 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/seo-tactics-to-use-even-if-you-can%e2%80%99t-use-metatags/.
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I got a call from a dear friend with a website the other day, her web designer had created her site on one of those generic create-a-site online software and hosting places (which shall remain nameless to protect the innocent). Now this site building software does not allow you to enter your own keywords or metatags, so what can she do to enhance SEO and Traffic? Everyone knows we need food in the form of keywords and metatags for the search engine spiders to feed on.

As we all should know our websites usually need to have our well researched and constantly updates keywords entered in the appropriate places and those keywords also need to be turned metatag descriptions for our site and our contnet pages and this needs to be done in a way that is like porridge – just right. When done well our keywords and metatags encourage and make it easy for the search engine spiders to find, catalogue and crawl our site – thus improving our ranking, searchability and traffic.

So what do we do if we have a generic site building software that claims to add the appropriate keywords and metatags for us? Well, some of us will be very happy we don’t have to go to all that trouble :) , and some of us will be worried that this just isn’t going to be good enough.

The lady in question was in the last group, she was very worried about it and like most of us cannot afford to have her site all redone on other software, at least not right now. She arranged to spend a couple of hours with me on Skype to sort out her options and this is what I advised her to do:

1. Create high ranking links to the site: Did you know that Google and many other search engines now count incoming links at least, if not more highly than keywords and metatags. The strategy behind this is that if you have high ranking links coming in to your site (one way) and some going out (reciprocal) that each of those is agreeing that your site is about what you say it is. A kind of verification, if you will that your site is kocher, almost like a recommendation, and the higher ranked the site the more impressed the search engines are.In this case web directories are your answer,  the more highly ranked the better. Of course the easiest way to tell if they’re highly ranked is to choose the ones that are on the first page and at the top. What is really great is that as you are filling out the submission forms for these directories they ask for a site description (metatag) and your tags or keywords thus fulfilling your need to have keywords and metatags that are searchable by the search engines. General directories are great and the first one to go for is DMOZ.com which is a human edited directory with perhaps the highest Google ranking of all. When you have submitted your site to the general directores, the next ones to go for are those in your niche again looking for the highest ranking ones.

2. Claim your site/s and blog/s: Did you know in many cases your sites and blogs have already been noted by some sites and are just waiting to be claimed by you? Any blog whether it is a stand alone blog or one attached to a site, is ready to be claimed at Technorati (and other blogging directories) so go straight there and create an account and claim your blog, this counts as a very high ranked recommendation. If and when your blog is over 6 months old submit it to Best of  The Web Blog Directory but remember it must be at least 6 months old. Now go to Alexa and claim your site, add information, keywords and tags etc..

3. Use social media to drive traffic and add incoming links to your site: via community sites like Facebook and Twitter, creating articles and pages on sites like eZine, Squidoo and HubPages with links to both your site and your blog, and internal pages on your site as deep links are needed for your site to be taken seriously. If you haven’t already get an account on all of these sites and learn to use them, add in some videos coming in from your YouTube account, and an online image album to your site with all the images tagged with your keywords and site url with Flckr and next thing you know your site will be high in the rankings and traffic will be increasing on a daily basis.

My motto in life is, “there is always another way”, and in my experience there always is. Use these tactics to improve SEO on any site, please don’t rely on just your keywords and metatags even if you have a site that allows you to add your own. This information is vital and in some cases even more important than getting your keywords and metatags exactly right!

Have fun!

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]]> http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/seo-tactics-to-use-even-if-you-can%e2%80%99t-use-metatags/feed/ 0 Five Reasons Why Therapists And Coaches Need a Website http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/five-reasons-why-therapists-and-coaches-need-a-website/ http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/five-reasons-why-therapists-and-coaches-need-a-website/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:02:45 +0000 AnnieInfinite http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/?p=6 Copyright © 2010 AnnieInfinite. Visit the original article at http://www.thezenbull.com/blog/index.php/five-reasons-why-therapists-and-coaches-need-a-website/.
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Therapists and Coaches often avoid having a website, ususally because they feel theirs is a personalised business and often people in heart centered businesses do not want to seem too commercial. However with the right touch a website can bring you and your clients together in a way you have not encountered before. Somewhere out there people are looking for you.

Here are some of the reasons a carefully stuctured and marketed website can bring the world to your door:

1. Word of mouth can become Word of Mouse: As your happy clients refer others to you, having a website that expresses who you are, what you do and achieves just the right sense of your personality, ethics and values will bring you far more custom than a business card. Your prospective clients will know a lot more about what you do and how you do it before they come to you, thereby alleviating a lot of the tension that surrounds a first time visit.
2. Communication is Easier: A website can help make it quicker and easier for people to get in contact with you, and to communicate with people collectively rather than just on a 1 to 1 basis. Having a secure and professional email address will mean that any pertinent information can be sent and recieved before an appointment and communication about time off or holidays can be given at a moments notice. Newsletters, another great communication device can be sent out giving useful tips and advice to all your customers as well.
3. You will be Perceived as an Expert: Keeping a blog or newsletter up to date with useful tips and advice is perceived by clients and prospective clients as giving expert opinion, if they like what they read they will devour the rest of your information and will return for more. A great way to get new clients who may not hear of you any other way, this often gives prospects the feeling of already knowing you and therefore removes the reluctance some people feel to book an appointment with someone they do not know.
4. Replace Many Labor Intensive Tasks with Automation: Thanks to automation many tasks that normally take up your time can become so much easier. answering the phone, making bookings, advertising events, sending out news, answering queries re: prices, hours of business etc, perhaps even chasing payments. Event things like invoicing, contact list and purchases can be done online if you have a range of products or a book you have written or recommend often.
5. Google is the new Phone book: Many people now jump online looking for local businesses rather than use a phone book, and search engines like Google are the easiest option, if you have a website listed with them under the search terms of your business and your town, you will come up under a local search and be so much easier to find, your clients will even be given a map showing how to find you, and you won’t miss out on the many searchers that come via the internet.

Extra Bonus reason:

6. You can automagically create an online footprint every time you create a post!

The Zen Bull

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