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5 Ways To Protect Your Website from Future Google Updates — A SPN Exclusive Article

With the recent Penguin update that came down a few weeks ago from Google, a lot of site owners are wondering what they can do to recover from a search engine penalty. We know that Penguin was designed to target webspam tactics (Panda was more about content quality), and while glaring black hat tactics like keyword stuffing are easy to spot and fix, it’s not always as simple to find the gray hat SEO tactics that might be contributing (or will with subsequent updates) to a search engine penalty. Many DIY SEO site owners run afoul of the Google Webmaster Guidelines simply because they don’t realize they are doing anything wrong. If your site has managed to escape unscathed by a Google update so far, don’t assume that you’re free and clear forever. Each search engine update gets a little better at catching and flagging sites that are in violation of the Webmaster Guidelines. Before you find yourself in emergency mode because your organic traffic was cut in half due to a penalty, here are 5 things every site owner can do to protect their website and ensure that future updates will only help their site perform better in the search engines: 1. Forget About Keyword Density There is no “right” number of times you should use a keyword in any given piece of content. Forget every piece of advice you’ve ever heard about keyword density (2%, 6%, use each keyword at least three times!) and just focus on writing great content

Local Advertising: Devising an Online Strategy That Suits You

Experts squawk about Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube, designing websites, and a whole litany of online and social media possibilities, but not all of them make sense for every single business. When it comes to local advertising, small business owners must seriously consider how to concentrate their efforts. While we all must utilize the internet and social media to some extent, what will be most effective for one owner, may be a waste of time for another. By reflecting on some key issues, devising a successful local advertising strategy becomes less about what everyone else says and more about what you truly want and need. Before you embark upon any online advertising initiatives, you must decide whether you are going to do it yourself, delegate someone in house, or out source it. All of these are perfectly valid options, but you need to consider whether you have the technical expertise, time, and money to support your decision, whatever it happens to be. Initially, it may be difficult for you to gauge your resources and exactly what this undertaking will require

How To Measure The Return On Investment For Social Media In Marketing

“ROI on Social Media? What bloody ROI?” It’s only the first week of January 2012 and already I’m hearing the same refrain as 2011! “How do we calculate the ROI on social media in marketing?” When you begin using social media in your marketing strategy or as a stand alone campaign, it is hard to determine how those numbers of followers and ‘likers’ stack up against delivery of a return on investment. We have clients who ask us this regularly so here’s some clarity for you. Measuring social media ROI is very difficult for a few reasons. The first is that it is very hard to use social media trackers for individual sales and the second is that social media is not a direct sales channel, it’s a relationship marketing tool.

Endless Articles Ideas: What Everyone Wants to Read

Have freezer eye? You know, you stare at the computer long enough hoping to figure out which article ideas to write about only to have your eyes freeze. You ask yourself, “What do visitors want to read? What do I like writing about? What have I already written? What pertains to my website or blog? What will help sales? What will help people sign up for my newsletter?” And the main question most people ask, “What am I an expert on so I feel confident enough to write about?”, so on and so on

5 Common SEO Myths Explained

SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with it. Unfortunately many things you read about SEO on the internet are not always true. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions floating around the net and they can sometimes be hard to confirm or debunk because of the ever changing techniques and the complexities of the search engines. Some of the most common SEO myths are listed below and with it, the information to expose the truth so you can concentrate on real SEO methods to improve your site rankings and increase your traffic.

Has Google+ Already Won that War Against Facebook? A SPN Exclusive Article

Just within the last two years Facebook overtook Myspace as the king of social networking. Now Myspace has been regulated by the technology and advertising community to the garbage heap of websites. Now has arrived what everyone knew would come, Google+, the newest best “social network” to compete in a crowded pack, dominated significantly by Facebook. Many people see that Facebook has a stranglehold on the social networking, and that nothing will take away it crown. I see completely the opposite that Google+ has already won, and within a year will easily take away any dominance that Facebook has, quickly sapping Facebook’s influence and value. For the last few years, I’ve made the argument to friends and colleagues that Google should be buying Facebook, it was only a natural progression. Instead of selling to Google, Facebook felt that it was a long-lasting company that itself needed to buy other companies and become the next Google

When Paid Search May Be Losing You Money and You Don’t Know It

Using a PPC strategy was a good idea. From your perspective, it’s worked and it’s making you money. The figures tell the story. The click through rate is above average. The keywords and ads are working well. And you’re getting a satisfactory conversion rate and ROI. But simply taking your results at face value can give you a false picture. Because you can be making a big mistake when looking at these. The criterion of success for PPC search is whether it can meet your goals profitably through conversions.