Although Google’s algorithms don’t seem to have much use for meta descriptions anymore, that doesn’t make them any less valuable to you as a content creator. Often, a meta description is the first thing a user will see of your site; it’s quite literally the first impression you’ll make on your readers. You need make sure it’s well-written.
Otherwise, you’re very likely to miss out on a significant amount of traffic. Continue reading
Most of you who’ve spent any amount of time working with any form of marketing have noticed that the field is positively choked with jargon (as is virtually every industry, really). You shouldn’t be entirely shocked by this – oftentimes, jargon is the best way to condense a relatively complex topic down so it’s easier to convey. For that reason, I’m not entirely against its use, nor do I deny its efficacy given the right circumstances.
The problem with jargon is that when overused – or repeatedly misused – its meaning tends to grow distorted over time. It becomes a buzzword; an empty, meaningless propaganda phrase which is more a sign of laziness than knowledge. While jargon is best used sparingly, buzzwords should be avoided at all costs.
I’ve compiled a list of some of the more common buzzwords floating around the world of digital marketing. I’d advise against using any of them if you can help it. Your readers will thank you for it.
As Google strives to improve its algorithms and make content more relevant to the user, social networks gain more and more importance in determining how your pages rank online. How often people talk about your brand, how often they share your articles, how often they like your posts; all of these factors play an important role in how well you’re going to do (though true to form, Google’s remained fairly tight-lipped about just how important).
One thing should be clear: if content is king, then social media is most definitely queen. There was a time when I would have argued that not every organization has something to gain from going social. I think, at least in this context, that such a time is long since passed. At this point, it’s not a question of “if” you should fit social media into your SEO strategy – it’s a question of “how.” Continue reading
In the current climate, having an online presence is essential, and starting with the moment you begin designing your website, you should be considering how SEO, social media, and content marketing are being addressed and advanced. If you really think about it, these elements impact every aspect of a business from the moment it is introduced to the world all the way through its future successes. In that spirit, we gathered some of the best SEO, social media, and content marketing articles from March to help you get the most out of your business. Enjoy, and if you’re looking for the same great content the rest of the month, don’t forget to check in with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
With more people using their smartphones and tablets to browse the internet, it has become increasingly important to create a website that works across multiple platforms.
There’s a good chance that you’re going to use images at one point or another, regardless of the website you run or the publication you manage. We’re a very visual society these days, after all; a few well-placed pictures can drastically improve the look, feel, and readability of a site. Of course, if you fail to properly optimize these images, you’re going to be losing out.
Don’t underestimate the amount of traffic you can draw to your page with Google Image Search. Ensuring the images you use are properly optimized from both a user and search engine standpoint can work wonders for your site. By that same vein, improper image optimization could actually cause the rating on your entire page to drop.
Today, we’re going to go over a few best practices for your website’s images.
It should be clear to anyone with more than a passing interest in search engine optimization that it favors long-term planning and hard work over easy, short-term gain. If you need any proof of this, you need look no further than last year’s Penguin 2.0 update and how hard it hit websites that used questionable (yet effective) optimization techniques like paid links, content networks, and link schemes. What’s one thing all those strategies shared in common?
They were easy. They required minimal work on the part of the webmaster and gave immediate returns.
If you’ve spent any amount of time in the SEO industry, you’ve probably become desensitized to Matt Cutts’ warnings and announcements, as well as the Google algorithm changes. Let’s be honest though. If you’re doing things the right way, none of this should effect your strategy and continued success. Google has constantly evolved to penalize those in the SEO industry that break the rules, and this will not change. As always, it is important to have a multifaceted strategy that includes SEO, social media, and content marketing. In that spirit, we gathered some of the best articles on these subjects from February. Enjoy, and if you’re looking for the same great content the rest of the month, don’t forget to check in with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
More than several years ago now, some of my closer colleagues will remember SEOgadget had been subjected to a directory submission blast. Two, in fact. The domain had been submitted to around 2,000 adult website directories (sigh), and a batch submission to Directory Maximiser.
image(Flickr/ninepennies)
As I’m certain many of you are already aware, Google recently acquired Deepmind, an artificial intelligence firm with a focus on machine learning. You’d be forgiven for thinking the corporation is looking to augment its new army of robots with better intelligence (all the better to kick off the machine uprising with?). After all, this purchase came directly on the tail end of a flurry of robotics acquisitions, of which Boston Dynamics was the capstone. And while smart robots could certainly be in Google’s future, that isn’t the reason Google bought the startup.
See, what a lot of people appear to have forgotten in light of Google’s recent innovations and inventions is that it is, at its core, about search. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin first founded the company back in 1986, they set out to build a better search engine. Although their success has allowed the organization to branch out into pretty much any technological field it sees fit, the goal of building a better web remains the bread and butter of Google. Continue reading
Since it first exploded onto the scene back in 2003, WordPress has established itself as one of the best content management systems in the world. It’s not terribly difficult to see why, either. It’s got one of the most user-friendly interfaces around, and is equipped with excellent features and functionality for both free and paying users. Because of this immense popularity, there exists a staggering amount of plugins with which writers can optimize their blogs.
One thing I (and many others) love about the platform is that much of the SEO is already built into the blog design. Using a tool such as All-In-One SEO should truthfully be enough for even the biggest SEO newbie to properly optimize their blog posts. However, that doesn’t mean proper optimization is a cakewalk. If you aren’t taking the necessary steps to write SEO-friendly posts to begin with, you’re not tapping into the full potential of the platform. Continue reading
Hudson, FL, February 24, 2014 – ASEOHosting, a provider of premium multiple IP hosting, has commented on the confusion surrounding the optimal use of IP addresses for search engine ranking in specific geographic areas. Many business web masters and SEOs do not have a clear idea of the best strategy to ensure that market-specific sites have the greatest chance of ranking well in the regions they target.
Google employs over 200 signals to determine relevance, authority, and quality of content. Among the signals are country-code top-level domains and the location of the site’s server as determined by IP geolocation. Together these factors form a strong signal that a site is relevant to a region. Continue reading