Using Google Authorship to improve your SEO

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Solomon Thimothy

Have you Googled something and noticed that some of the search results that come up have pictures next to them? More results show images now and that is because more people are catching on to the SEO advantages of using Google Authorship. Search results with pictures stick out more and are more likely to receive clicks.

What Google Authorship does is make the author of a blog post or web article very clear by connecting the written works of the writer with that person’s Google+ profile. This can help searchers identify original writing and weed out spam pages and spin articles. It also gives searchers the ability to look at all published articles by a particular author. Using Google Authorship is beneficial to both the author and the publishing website (if they are not one and the same) because it leads to increased clicks.

Although Google does not reveal the details of their algorithm, they have made comments indicating that Authorship is one of the “social signals” that can affect where your article ranks in the search engine. If your Google+ profile receives a lot of traffic and your articles are linked to the profile, that will factor into where the article ranks in the search engine.

By now you are probably thinking, “I need Google Authorship for my articles!” You are correct! Here is how to go about setting that up:

1. Set up a Google+ personal profile.
2. Add a clear headshot as your Google+ profile photo.
3. Make sure your name appears in each article and that it matches your name on your Google+ profile.
4. Connect your Google+ profile to your content either by verifying your email address at the domain hosting the content or linking your content to Google+ with a piece of code.

Google added author clicks and impressions to Webmaster Tools so you can check to see how well an article you’ve claimed authorship of is faring in the search rankings. Using this, you can compare the traffic from articles that have Google Authorship with those that don’t to see how much of a difference there is.

While you’re setting up things on Google+, do not forget to “Circle” ClickXPosure. Also, if you would like professional assistance with setting up or maintaining a Google+ page, or improving your site’s search engine optimization, do not hesitate to contact us at (888) 909-7265 or through our contact form.

Did Google Penguin affect your site’s search ranking?

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Solomon Thimothy

What is Google Penguin?

On April 24^th 2012, Google released a new search engine algorithm update called “Penguin.” Google engineer Matt Cutts published a blog post saying the purpose of Penguin is to reduce “webspam” and punish those using black hat SEO techniques such as keyword stuffing or link schemes. Cutts writes that ultimately they “want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites.” It’s been over a week and many people are asking, “Is Penguin doing what Google wanted it to do?”

It appears that Penguin has hurt the search rankings of many more sites than just those that can be considered webspam. Although Google announced that this algorithm change would only affect about 3% of search results, the outcry from marketers, business owners, and many others who watch search traffic indicates that the change had a major impact on the ranking of many more sites than that. Many sites that have back links using keyword anchor text have been hit, including those of major brand names. Some people have gone so far as to suggest this was a strategy on Google’s behalf to encourage paid search ads. While we do not support that conspiracy theory, we do see that—for whatever reason—some non-webspam sites have taken hits.

How do I know if my site was hit?

Take a look at your analytics and see if there has been a noticeable decrease in organic search traffic recently. If so, what day did the decrease begin? If a decrease started exactly on or shortly after April 24^th, it was most likely due to Google Penguin. If the decrease in traffic started prior to that date, it was not because of Penguin. It could’ve been due to a change in the Google Panda algorithm update that occurred on April 19^th, 2012. Identifying what caused the change can help you figure out how to recover from the lower search engine rankings.

If my site was affected, what can I do about it?

If your site is ranking lower because of the Panda update, your best bet is to focus on putting out fresh, high-quality content. This should help with your search engine status no matter what. If you were hit by Penguin, however, low-quality content was probably not the reason for it.

If your site is ranking lower because of the Penguin update, make sure you are not engaging in anything that can remotely appear to be a black hat SEO technique. The offenses most punished by Penguin appear to be keyword stuffing and low-quality back links using keyword anchor text. Look over your posts and pages and delete keywords if you think a page is “over-optimized.” If you’ve been paying for links, stop.

Aside from that, there is not much more to do at this time. Google has been surprisingly quiet over the past week while site owners have been in an uproar. Perhaps sites that have unfairly taken hits right now will move back up after the next update. If you do not engage in black hat techniques, but your site has still taken a hit, there isn’t much you can do other than focus on creating good content, share it through social media and other non-search sources, and hold tight until Google comments on this or makes yet another update.

What is black hat SEO?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Solomon Thimothy

Many businesses with websites are engaging in search engine optimization (SEO) these days to ensure that their site ranks highly in search engines when people search for specific keywords. SEO is a good way to obtain more site traffic that should ultimately lead to more clients and increased revenue. Search engine optimization is something ClickXPosure does on behalf of clients in order to help their high-quality sites be seen by people looking for the type of content it contains. When done correctly, SEO is an honest, useful, and powerful way to promote a business’s website.

Sometimes, site owners or even consulting agencies become overzealous and try to game the system. They use techniques that are against the rules in hopes that they can trick search engines into giving them a high ranking quickly. These are called “black hat” techniques. Search engines have caught on to them, however, and engaging in them will most like backfire.

What are the most common black hat SEO techniques?

1. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing involves overloading the website’s content with keywords. All of the content on a website should be readable and provide useful information. Sentences that hardly make sense or read like spam because every other word is a keyword are not valuable and will not remain high in search results for long.

2. Invisible Text

Sneaky webmasters might add extra content to pages and make this text the same color as the background of the page. This makes the content invisible to visitors of the site, but able to be crawled by search engines. It is against search engine guidelines and considered “cheating.”

3. Paid Links

Because back links increase search rankings, site owners might be tempted to buy incoming links from the countless online sources offering them. These links are not helpful because they do not come from quality sources. They are often part of “link farms,” or the result of spam comments left on blogs. Search engines have learned to ignore or even punish the use of these types of links.

When Google and other search engines catch a site using black hat SEO techniques, they punish it by pushing it down in the rankings. Trying to game the system is not only unfair, but not worth the risk of worsening the site’s search engine standing. Google is definitely serious about cracking down on black hat techniques. They even penalized a portion of their own company—Google Chrome—for sixty days after finding out the Chrome site had utilized paid links. Don’t think they won’t penalize your site, too!

How Varied Content Can Help You Stay on Top of Google’s Search Engine Rankings

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Solomon Thimothy

If you haven’t heard, Google recently announced that it was making changes to its ranking algorithm. Essentially, the purpose of these changes is to prevent low-quality websites, those with poor value to readers or copied content, from ranking high on search engine results pages. By diminishing the rankings of low-quality websites, Google will reward websites with unique, relevant and high value content with better rankings.

So why the change? Google’s rankings have always been aimed at providing users with relevant search results. By decreasing the search rankings of low-quality websites, Google strengthens and promotes fresh, unique and relevant content, which is exactly what users want.

To improve your chances at better indexing by Google, use varied content in different forms such as podcasts, videos, e-books, blogs and instructional or informational reports. What this means to Google is that you are committed to providing useful information, in-depth reports or analysis of topics important to readers.

On the same token, avoid copying content for the sake of having new content or posts on your website. Most importantly, make sure that your content is relevant to your industry. Your content should make sense and have a natural place on your website. Unrelated, irrelevant content is just that.

Search engines and users are becoming more demanding of website owners. This is good for everyone, especially the general public. As Google makes changes to improve its services, it’s imperative for businesses to comply.

The Importance of Investing in Search Marketing

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Solomon Thimothy

If your business or organization doesn’t directly depend on your website for business, chances are that you are neglecting your online presence. A mistake many business owners make is thinking that having a website is all they need.

While having a professionally designed website that accurately represents your business or organization is fundamental, stopping there greatly reduces the effectiveness of having a website at all.

Just like you would try to let everyone in your community know about your newly opened store, you need to let the internet community know that you are online as well. Neglecting to invest in your online presence is like shutting the shades on your storefront: you’re there but no one knows it.

There are many different ways to increase the exposure of your website online, however, the most effective way to increase awareness and targeted traffic to your site is to use a combination of internet marketing techniques: search engine optimization and pay-per-click internet marketing.

Here’s how they work:

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a comprehensive internet marketing technique that works to naturally increase your website’s ranking on search engines. By making on-page and off-page modifications to your website (including content, design and structure), SEO helps to slowly increase your chances at being number one on major search engines.

Pay-Per-Click Internet Marketing

If you’re looking to jumpstart your internet exposure, opt for a strategically implemented pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaign. By focusing on keywords relevant to your industry or business, PPC campaigns increase website exposure almost instantly. Ability to control your budget and track progress real-time are just a few of the pluses of PPC campaigns.

Of course, combining both SEO and PPC gives you the best of both worlds: almost immediate increased exposure and a more search engine friendly website.

Make the most of your website with search engine marketing strategies that are sure to increase your site’s visibility. To get started on your SEO or PPC campaign, call us at 888-663-4671.