Search Engine Marketing Scams and You

An informational series for the curious- part 2

The Internet is a vast place full of information, resources and, sadly, scams. Search engine optimization is a valid, useful tool to help boost rankings of legitimate companies and businesses. However, some companies are deceitful in their tactics. They can lead to loss of site credibility, loss of site aesthetics, and most of the strategies can leave your website banned from the search engines.

In this second article in a short series, “Search Engine Marketing Scams and You,” I reveal some illegal or unethical tactics and suggest alternatives. In order to make the World Wide Web a more reliable source of good, relevant information, Search Engines have started banning such activities as:

Link Farms:

It has become more obvious recently that incoming relevant links to your website can help with website ranking. One marketing “technique” to avoid is participating in link farms. Link farms are created exclusively to increase a site’s link popularity. The more links you have going to your site, the more credibility is given to your site by the search engines. However, with link farms, sites whose links display on your site often are not relevant to your website topic. Search engines can recognize links that do not lead to relevant content and will disregard the link. It is becoming common for search engines not only ignore the spam type link, but they will often punish the sites found there.

Link farms can hurt your credibility and damage your ranking. As appealing as it sounds to “shoot to the top of the search engines,” real search engine optimization takes time. Try asking some professional associations that you are a member of or ask colleagues to add a link on their site to yours. These are just a few ways to get to the top of the search engines without cheating.

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page 1 Solutions

The Magic Hat of Blog Ideas

In an effort to help our clients stay motivated and on top of their blogs, I have came across a tidbit of information that might help.

One of the reasons that blogs get pushed aside is due to writer's block. We've all had it - we know we need to write something, we sit in front of the computer, type a few lines out, delete it, type a few more lines, delete it, and then walk away from the computer feeling frustrated because we have nothing to write about. Being in your chosen profession, there are ALWAYS things to write about. The industry is constantly changing and there is news about it every day. Yet, when it comes to writing it all down, our brain just shuts down.

One tip is to develop a place where you can jot down ideas as they pop into your head. Maybe it's a small notebook that you carry with you all the time. Maybe it's a folder on your desktop and inside it, you keep a Word doc with strings of ideas. Whatever works for you! Even if you aren’t going to post that day, whenever you have an idea pop into your head or hear an interesting bit of news, write it down. That way you can have a stockpile of topics ready to go when you are. Then, whenever you are ready to write a blog, you can just dig into your magic hat and pull out a great topic.

Hopefully this small tip will help you in your quest for eternal blogging power. If you have any other questions about blogging or need help figuring something out, please don't hesitate to contact your account manager.

Jessica Espinoza
Sales and Marketing Assistant
www.page1solutions.com

The Importance of Regular Blogging

Yes, this is another blog about blogging. While I’m sure you are aware of the value of blogging, many people find it hard to maintain a “blogging schedule.” This is the most important thing you can do when it comes to getting good results from your blog. You MUST update your blog regularly!

I know how it is (I’ve been there and I am guilty of it!) – you set up a new blog, get really excited about it, post some great entries a few times, and then the newness wears off. Other important things come up and blogging get pushed onto the back burner. Well, I am here to say that we have to keep posting, even if we feel we’re too busy to do it. You get no benefit to your website if your blog just sits there.

The best advice that I can give you on how to maintain your blog, is to make posting in it part of your schedule. We would love to see you post in it at least twice a week, but if you can do more, that’s even better (we’ve seen great results for client’s who post 3-4 times a week). Figure out a time when you have a few minutes to yourself and designate that as “blogging time.” It could be every morning after you get your cup of coffee, every other day right before lunch, or once a week on a quiet Saturday morning. Whatever works for you, but you have to be consistent. Believe me, it won’t take long to reap the benefits! Not only will the search engines love it, but your readers will too. If people see that your blog consistently has new information in it, they will continue to return to it to get the latest news!

The thought of all this writing may be overwhelming at first, but it will get easier as time goes on. If you have any questions about blogging, please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Manager!

Jessica Espinoza
Sales and Marketing Assistant
Page 1 Solutions

Search Engine Marketing Scams and You

An Informational Series for the Curious- part 1

The Internet is a vast place full of information, resources and, sadly, scams. Search engine optimization is a valid, useful tool to help boost rankings of legitimate companies and businesses. However, some companies are deceitful in their tactics. They can lead to loss of site credibility, loss of site aesthetics, and most of the strategies can leave your website banned from the search engines.

In this short series, “Search Engine Marketing Scams and You,” many deceiving tactics will be revealed and alternatives suggested. In order to make the World Wide Web a more reliable source of good, relevant information, Search Engines have started banning such activities as:

Hidden Text

Some SEO companies try to manipulate results by hiding text for the search engine spiders to read. They believe this action will increase their key word density and bolster their rankings on the search engines. Designers can hide text by changing the color to match the background of the site, so it is not readable by the public, but is by the search engine spiders. The trick to finding hidden text is to highlight blank areas of the page and if hidden text is present, it will be exposed when highlighted.

Most importantly to note, the search engines have adapted to this sketchy technique and will penalize entire websites because of it. When searching out an internet marketing firm, ask them if they use hidden text. Ask them if they have references for you to talk to, and lastly make sure you feel comfortable contracting with them. Ultimately, scams, including hidden text are out there and you have to be careful. Hidden text is a tacky, unscrupulous way to try to achieve good website positioning and the risks most certainly outweigh the potential benefits.

Noël Otten
Account Manager
Page1Solutions