Submit Express has been popping up in current press coverage — have you been paying attention? Online writers like Lana Bandoim, Frank Bergman, Bill Richards, and Andrew Moran have all mentioned Submit Express in their recent writings about the search engine optimization and Internet marketing industries.
2012 has arguably been a more eventful year for Google than the past few years combined. I should know – I write about this stuff. All year long, I read more news about the search giant than my brain could reasonably handle. Needless to say, I was never short on good material. However, I don’t just write about this stuff – I do it. I’m a webmaster of multiple domains and I follow the SEO scene closely, so I voraciously consumed every bit of search news I could get my hands on. After all, I needed material, but I wanted to learn for my own sites, too. And boy did I learn. Google’s morphed into a completely different animal than it was just one year prior.
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
Today I browsed through the 3,500 or so SEO questions people asked at Google and chose the most common ones to answer. I figured that, if so many people were seeking out answers for these SEO questions at Google, many of you may also be wondering the same things. Unsurprisingly, many questions were along the line of “How do I get my site found in Google?” (Answer: Read everything the High Rankings website!) And sadly, there were tons of questions about Meta keywords , as if they had anything to do with SEO. But there were lots of specific questions that you may also have wondered about recently, from very basic things that we in the biz assume everyone already knows to what’s happening right now with Google’s latest algorithm changes. (I’m starting out with the more tricky technical ones. If those go over your head, please scroll down to the “On-page SEO Question” section.) Let’s dig right in… Technical Google Questions Q. Can I recover from Google’s “Penguin Update”
“Compelling content.” “Written with the search engines in mind.” “Google loves quality content.” These phrases are bandied around by all and sundry when it comes to the qualities of content writing, and such well-meaning but often-oblique instructions can actually serve to confuse many new writers. What you really need is something altogether simpler. A single instruction, one thing to keep in mind that will ensure your writing comes out well every time. And I think I have just the thing: “Value.” The Imaginary Google ‘Value’ Search Filter What if there was a little box that you could tick when making a search in Google which said: ‘Click here to show only pages which actually provide value to the reader.’ How many people would click it? Somehow I don’t think I would be the only one. Just think how much that would shake up the SEO industry! Suddenly everyone would be talking about the value of good writing rather than links, keywords, density, or whatever else is the flavor of the month as dictated by Google’s latest algorithm shake up. But even without the magic ‘value’ filter, the fact is that if you focus on providing value in every piece of content that you produce, you’ll not only write better content, but you also write better SEO content. I’m no SEO expert, but I do know that Google is always trying to provide the most relevant content to its users, and no matter what changes it decides to make in the future, you never need to be one algorithm adjustment from catastrophe if you focus on content that provides genuine value.
Ahhh… Remember the days when you could just subscribe to a paid link network of your choice for as little as $49 and watch those rankings head upward every week. No need to get involved in the messy muddiness of “white hat” SEO, no need to build relationships with webmasters and spend days upon days researching and developing high quality, share worthy content… Those were the days my friend. And no, I’m not talking about pre-2008, or even 2011, I’m talking about 2012. Working in the casino SEO industry, it was quite common for me to see the top 20 competitors for any given keyword heavily loaded with blatantly obvious paid links in their backlink profile.
A couple of weeks ago, I visited one of the Internet Marketing/Small Business forums that I’m a member of, and noticed a new member had posted a typical newbie question in the SEO forum. The member wanted to know how she could be guaranteed to get her website on the first page of Google. As usual, members came crawling out of the woodwork with advice – including members who didn’t even own a website. Unfortunately, that’s pretty typical on Internet Marketing/Small Business forums… members who don’t own a website instructing other members how to get on the first page of Google… members who don’t own a business dispensing business advice. So be careful where you get your advice from… but I digress. Not surprisingly, not a single member responded with the correct answer. And what is the correct answer? The correct answer is there is NO magic bullet that will assure a first page ranking on Google. Never has been, never will be.
Hello Jill, If you could only ask 10 general (non-industry-specific) questions of your new SEO customers, what would they be and why would their answers help you help them? Thank you, Andrew ++Jill’s Response++ Hi Andrew, Great question! I have a variety of different questionnaires that I send to clients, depending on the type of SEO consulting that I’ll be doing with them. For any SEO service, the more information I get from the client about their business and website, the better I can help them with their SEO. Here’s a selection of some of the questions I ask and why they’re important to the overall SEO process: 1.
Let me start off by explaining exactly what I mean when I say “outsourced content.” Just because a piece of content wasn’t written inside the four walls of your office, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s “outsourced” as I define it. Do I think hiring a freelance writer to manage your business blog counts as outsourcing? No. Do I think having a PR firm write and distribute press releases under your company’s name counts as outsourcing? No. Do I think hiring a social media marketing or SEO firm to write and promote content counts as outsourcing? No
When one starts their online business, generally speaking they cannot afford to spend a lot of money on PPC campaigns or pay for Google Sponsored Ads, especially when they don’t even know if their efforts will bring guaranteed success. So how do people start a successful campaign without an advertising budget to play with? Well, you must’ve heard about Article Marketing. Most of us have heard about it but just feel it takes too much time and effort to do it. There must be an easier and quicker way to promote your business right? Wrong! Article Marketing has become one of the most risk free, popular, tried and tested online marketing strategies used to get more traffic and publicity for your online business, leading to more sales. There are no shortcuts to building a lucrative online business.