It’s been about a year and a half since the launch of Google+ and it looks like things are going well for the search giant’s social network. So well in fact, that according to a recent report by UK market research firm Trendstream, Google+ “is now the second largest social network in terms of active users.”
Forbes cites that the above-mentioned report “estimates Facebook‘s active users in December 2012 at 693 million, compared to 343 million for Google+.” Of course, the term “active users” is still pretty ambiguous, as Google hasn’t confirmed the real definition of “active” (i.e. are these users really logging into the Google+ website or are they merely using Google products?). Still though, 343 million cannot—and should not—be ignored. Especially if you’re trying to increase your web presence.
Nonetheless, it isn’t just about huge numbers. The fact is there are a number of sound...
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Most Wordpress users love the platform, and it's got some great advantages over other platforms. It's also got some built-in flaws that are probably making your life harder, your blog look more cluttered, and confusing your users. Knowing what to get rid of and what to keep is not always intuitive. Here's the key to getting this right: think like your users.
Cut Down On Page Bloat
There is no end to page bloat on many Wordpress sites out there. It's actually surprising that more sites haven't picked up on this yet. Dedicated category pages, tag pages, and other miscellaneous pages make your site bigger than it needs to be, forces users to click through more pages than they need to, and it can create some nasty duplicate content issues for you.
Most everyone will beat you over the head with how important it is to have categories. There's a caveat to that "rule" though. Does it serve your user's interest? If not, ditch the...
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Traffic. SEO. Money. You want all of it. Problem is: it's not as simple as going to the money store and picking out your income off the shelf. Traffic is something that most companies struggle with, and t's the first link in the chain of a successful online business. SEO firms charge a lot of money. However, they can never guarantee you results. Methods are often shielded behind a permanent virtual wall of trust. Now, Clearspike is changing all of that.
What Clearspike Does
Clearspike takes a lot of the expensive agency stuff and simplifies it. For example, your typical agency goes out and submits articles, video, and even podcasts to various places. They submit articles to article directories, your website to search engines, and help you optimize on-page factors so that you'll rank better for your chosen keywords.
Clearspike's sophisticated algorithm automates the on-page optimization and submits all of your stuff automatically - no...
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Optimistic SEOs all believe that Google's message is consistent: meritorious links win the day. Content is king. Play by the rules, and you will be rewarded. Blackhat SEOs believe the opposite - that Google is pragmatic in allowing some paid links to influence search results while punishing other companies who use them. Officially, Google tells us that paid links are a one-way road to nowheresville in the search engine. However, there is evidence that Google allows spam to make it through - despite its much-touted Panda and Penguin solutions.
Proof That Google Allows SERP Manipulation
Our site specializes in sending traffic to other sites - a service that, arguably, a lot of webmasters need. Last month, we noticed a significant drop in traffic:
While this could happen for any number of reasons, we decided to look into the problem a bit further. What we discovered shocked us. Another site had taken our spot in the SERPs for one of our keywords using less than...
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Google PageRank is an algorithm developed and used by Google to determine the popularity of a website based upon the incoming links, as compared to other similar pages. It is assigned in the number from 0 to 10 with 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest PR. It shows how reputable a webpage is as per Google’s quality guidelines. The quality, quantity of incoming links for the website, number of outgoing links per page, the visibility of links and their position on the linking page are a few factors which determine the site’s PR according to Google PageRank.
However, due to the ever-changing search engine algorithms, it has become harder than ever to know what works and what doesn’t. There has been no “one size fits all” SEO or internet marketing strategy that actually works. There is a heated debate going online regarding the importance of Google PR. Many consider it to be important whereas others don’t consider it to be important for...
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Google has announced via a major Google Groups post that it has significantly updated its approach to the reviews that appear on Local pages. In addition to ramping up its relevant spam detection algorithms, Google also provided a list of guidelines for entrepreneurs and SEO professionals to ensure that their businesses are not penalized on Google+ Local.
The most important of these guidelines, as far as Google is concerned, appeared to be a recommendation that business owners steer clear of SEO companies that promise positive reviews. The release stated, “Be wary of an SEO or reputation management service that promises to generate reviews for your business. We’ve seen companies make up fake glowing testimonies – and we’ll take them down.”
However, many of the other changes announced in the update could impact businesses that had no idea they were doing anything Google would not like. For example, according to the new guidelines, Google will...
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Don’t know the answer to a question, just “Google it!” Google has certainly made a name for themselves as one of the top ranking search engines in the modern world. Providing millions of people all over the globe with the ability to navigate the internet effectively to gather any tidbit of information one could possibly think of, Google has it all covered. But when you type in your keyword and hit “google search,” what guarantee do you really have that the websites you’re being directed to do indeed feature the latest and most accurate information? Well, that’s where Google Panda steps into the spotlight.
Google Panda, named after Google engineer Navneet Panda, was launched on February 24th of 2011. Using a type of artificial intelligence in algorithm form, Google Panda’s targeted purpose was to reconfigure the ranking of websites, boosting high quality and purposeful content sites up the list while demoting low quality ones....
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The fact that SEO experts were caught off guard by radical changes to Google's search engine suggests that the experts aren't that good at predicting Google's moves. Yet, predicting algorithm changes is implicitly why clients hire SEO firms - to make sure that rankings don't tank, traffic keeps flowing in, and visibility is consistent. To be fair, no SEO firm owns Google. No one really could predict the devastation of the Panda and Penguin tweaks, so how much blame can website owners really place on SEO firms? A little, but not a lot.
Why a little? Consider Google's constant updates to Panda. It was just last month that 'G' updated its algorithm for the 23rd time. Did any SEO expert call it in advance with preparations for clients? It's unlikely, and here's where SEOs can take the blame. They know that predicting algorithm changes is shaky, at best. In fact, the better firms disclose this and focus heavily on providing quality.
Jayson...
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But first what is evergreen content? Honestly, it has nothing to do with the color or even trees for that matter. SEO content that stays fresh and relevant throughout the test of time is called evergeen content. Regardless of the up and coming trends and developments in the world, evergreen content still provides something of value to a lot of audiences. So if you are content writer then ensure that the web content that you write never grows brown.
An example of evergreen content in an SEO blog would be the frequently asked question, “What is the definition of SEO”. The relevance of the definition of SEO would never change over time. It would always be helpful to the newcomers in the industry. On the other hand the topic, “What are the current SEO best practices” would not be an example of evergreen content because every Google algorithm change necessiates a change in SEO strategy. That is in a nutshell the definitioin of evergreen...
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The idea that brevity and constraint spurs creativity has birthed a new service that could be the next big thing in the social networking and content marketing world. This week Twitter introduced Vine, an app that lets users capture and share very short looping videos, each limited to only six seconds or less. Twitter itself, being a type of microblogging site, has been known for years for inspiring originality through brevity. Its limit of 140 characters on tweets has led both private and corporate users to be quite creative in how they express themselves.
At the moment the Vine app is only available for the iPhone and iPod Touch; it can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store. Functionality for Androids and other mobile platforms is expected to be added soon, although no official date for this addition has yet been released. Other social media sites seem to be taking the development seriously; most noticeably, Facebook quickly removed the ability to...
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