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7 Things NOT to Waste Your Time On When Doing SEO – A SEO-News Exclusive Article
February 9, 2012 by creative · Leave a Comment
Time is precious. They say “time is money,” but I think it’s even more than that. In this post, I would like to talk about the SEO practices that are a complete waste of time. Before writing the post, I simply sat down and penned my SEO experiences. As a beginner, I used to waste a lot of time on different SEO methods that later on turned out quite useless. So, I made a list of those. I’ve also “interviewed” some of my SEO buddies and included their piece of advice in this post, too. So, what I would like to present to you is our distilled wisdom. Enjoy! It is NO use: 1

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7 Things NOT to Waste Your Time On When Doing SEO – A SEO-News Exclusive Article
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Guru Kool-Aid: Are You Drinking It? – A SPN Exclusive Article
February 8, 2012 by publisher · Leave a Comment
What is a guru? Literally, a guru is a teacher. The word guru means “heavy” or “deep,” thus a guru is a person “heavy” or “deep” in knowledge. In this sense, a schoolteacher is a guru, a coach or athletic instructor is a guru, a fine-arts, or even a dance teacher is a guru. One’s parents are also gurus. In the religious field, where the word is most commonly used, a guru is a Hindu religious teacher. So a priest or any person learned in Hindu lore may be a guru

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Guru Kool-Aid: Are You Drinking It? – A SPN Exclusive Article
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9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
February 6, 2012 by elegant · Leave a Comment
A website’s title tags are very important for several reasons: 1) The title tag shows up in search results as the blue link, and a good one helps the site get more clicks and visitors from search results. 2) Title tags are a crucial SEO element that can help the website show up higher when people search for the words in it. 3) Title tags show up when web pages are shared on social media sites like Facebook. This is important because social media mentions are now a ranking factor in Google search results. So if you have the time to optimize one thing on your website, title tags are it. Here are some of the top mistakes and missed opportunities I’ve seen in title tags. Avoid these and you’ll be ahead of the game. You’ll rank higher in search results and entice more people to click on your site. 9 Signs of a Bad Title Tag: 1.

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9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
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Google’s New Page Layout Algorithm Penalizes “Above-The-Fold” Advertising – A SPN Exclusive Article
January 30, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, a category 5 hurricane named “Panda” swept through the Gulf of Google devastating businesses large and small alike. The hurricane was reportedly named after one of Google’s engineers. So what was the reason for this catastrophic and “game-changing” update? Well, according to Google: “This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites – sites which are low-value, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites – sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on. It is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.” (Source: Google Blog ) Mission accomplished. Anyway, in the aftermath of the Panda update, there are 11 important SEO facts I’ve learned based on my own personal experiences, the experiences of my clients, and from listening to top SEO professionals across the Internet. The above passages are from an article I wrote last July titled, Google Panda Update: 11 Important SEO Facts You Should Know . In item #7 of the 11 SEO facts I wrote: 7.

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Google’s New Page Layout Algorithm Penalizes “Above-The-Fold” Advertising – A SPN Exclusive Article
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Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web?
January 27, 2012 by publisher · Leave a Comment
While great content will always get you noticed, I have come to the somewhat obvious conclusion that “Content is NOT King, Google is King” on the web. This is a slightly different mindset when it comes to getting traffic and marketing on the net. This new mindset doesn’t change the fact that you still have to create great content, but it changes the way one goes about promoting that content on the web. In the last few years, Google’s share of the search market has grown to 65% or much more in most areas of the world. This domination of online search puts Google in control of what content is seen – regardless of its quality. It plays a major role in your content’s visibility, a role so great that without Google’s approval, your content is not exactly dead in the water, but your chances of succeeding is much less than with a thumbs-up from Google

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Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web?
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SEO Short Cheat Sheets
January 26, 2012 by creative · Leave a Comment
1. Keyword Basics: The most important thing with keywords for your website is that you have to begin the process with proper research. Take advantage of free tools and services at your disposal such as the Google Adwords tool, and consider paying for more advanced and detailed programs. Remember that keyword density is a thing of the past, there is no density you should be opting for. Instead, focus on natural inclusion of your targeted keywords, working them in where possible without doing it excessively. Google Keyword Tool – google for “KeywordToolExternal.” Note: The fastest results are seen in targeting a larger number of lower level competitive terms. 2

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SEO Short Cheat Sheets
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10 Ways to Improve Your Google Ranking
January 19, 2012 by publisher · Leave a Comment
Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Shortly after its creation, Google’s popularity skyrocketed and it soon became the dominant search engine for finding information on the internet. This is why, if you own a website, you want it to be high in the Google ratings. Google is constantly changing and evolving so you need to keep up with the changes. Their recent changes, called the Panda Update, caused many sites’ rankings to drop significantly

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10 Ways to Improve Your Google Ranking
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5 Reasons Why You Need to Use Rel=Author on Your Content
January 13, 2012 by creative · Leave a Comment
Have you heard of Google’s Authorship program yet? Whether you’ve heard of it or not, you’ve likely seen its fruits in the search results. You know those listings that have a photo of the author next to them? Most likely they get that extra cool stuff because they’re using Rel=Author correctly and Google has accepted them to participate. Unfortunately, it’s been a bit hit-or-miss as to whether your content gets accepted or not. I saw mine accepted for a day or two many months ago, and then *poof!* it was gone. I reviewed their new guidelines recently, however, made a few changes, and sure enough, within a week or so, my content started showing up… yay! While you may or may not get your content into the program, the only way to know is to try, and persistence is definitely a key. If you’re thinking it’s just not worth the trouble, here are 5 reasons why it’s super important: 1. It’s Kinda Sorta Easy to Implement

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5 Reasons Why You Need to Use Rel=Author on Your Content
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Getting Noticed on the Web
January 9, 2012 by creative · Leave a Comment
Website Engagement Techniques: The Caricature Effect Marketing is all about getting noticed, getting remembered, and motivating people to action. Whether it’s a website, display ad, or video, it must first grab people’s attention, it must stop the viewer from going onto the next website, turning the magazine page, or clicking the stop button. In order to accomplish that increasingly difficult task, you must understand the Caricature Effect. The Caricature Effect The Caricature Effect simply stated says that what we notice is variation from the norm. Caricature artists exaggerate reality because that is how we visually distinguish one person from another. Human beings are preprogrammed to look for patterns and variations in those patterns, it’s how we recognize who people are, and it is a basic survival mechanism that helps us recognize danger and distinguish friend from foe. By distorting an individual’s prominent facial features the caricature artist mimics the human brain’s way of remembering who’s who. Our brains are not cameras that take pictures and file them away for future reference

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Getting Noticed on the Web
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Holiday Tales: 10 SEO Search-Ranking Myths
January 5, 2012 by creative · Leave a Comment
SEO myths become larger every year. Some are based partially in reality, and others have spread because it’s often difficult to prove what particular SEO action caused a resulting search engine reaction. For example, you might make a change to something on a page of your site, and a few days later notice that your ranking in Google for a particular keyword phrase has changed. You might naturally assume that your page change is what caused the ranking change. But that’s not necessarily so. There are numerous reasons why your ranking may have changed, and in many cases they actually have nothing to do with anything that you did. Mixing up cause and effect is one of the most common things new SEOs do. If it were affecting only their own work, it wouldn’t be so bad, but unfortunately, the clueless often spread their misinformation to other unsuspecting newbies on forums and blogs, which in turn creates new myths.

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Holiday Tales: 10 SEO Search-Ranking Myths