Jacksonville Video Production: Search engine optimization

Showing posts with label Search engine optimization. Show all posts

DIY SEO

By Carl Weiss

English: a chart to describe the search engine market (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you own a small business and have a website or plan to launch a basic business website in order to get more visibility, it is imperative to consider Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO for your new website so that it can be found by prospects. This is especially important if you plan on selling goods directly on your site. The rub is that many times web designers spend more time fretting on form rather than function. As a result, many websites that we have surveyed are lacking many of the on-page SEO elements that are needed to get properly indexed by the search engines. To address this conundrum you need to either hire a knowledgeable optimization expert, or you can try a little DIY action. When you consider the number of website analysis programs on the market, DIY SEO is not as much of a mission impossible as many people believe. In fact, if you invest a couple of hours a month on your website’s SEO then you can do it yourself.

Before you start your analysis, it is important that you select the right keywords or phrases for your website. That is to say, you need to select the words or phrases that someone who is unfamiliar with your business would enter on the search engines in order to find businesses like yours. For example, if you have a furniture business, you must have the keyword furniture somewhere in your domain. We can take a second example, say your business is plumbing and fitting services provider, then you must have the keyword ‘plumbing’ or ‘plumbing services’ somewhere in your domain name.

Now that you have some suspects lined up you need to weed them out. The best way to do this is by entering your keywords and phrases into Google’s Keyword Planner which is found by accessing your Adwords account. (If you don’t have an Adwods account you can set one up by going to adwoords.google.com.) The tab for the Keyword Planner is located under the Tools tab at the top right of the page. Once you enter your suspects into the Keyword Planner’s lineup it will come back with the traffic count for each and every keyword or phrase entered. More importantly it will also suggest other keywords and phrases along with their respective traffic counts. The biggest mistake that most people make is to either choose too many keywords or choose keywords with little or no traffic. The Keyword Planner is the perfect tool to help you identify the best keywords to target.

Once you have selected the right keywords or phrases for your site now you need to plug them in. There are several areas that you need to apply these keywords, namely your Meta Tags, the Alt Tags and at the beginning and end of your website. The Meta Tags are located directly below the Title Tag. An example of how these tags should be formatted is listed below:

Next come the Alt Tags which are descriptors used at the end of the code for every image on your website. Since search engine spiders can’t see images, these descriptors tell the spiders what the image is all about. While many people ignore the alt tags this is a mistake since it is another way to let the search engines know how to rank your site. Below is some sample code that shows you what the alt tags look like. Make sure all off yours are complete if you ever hope to make it to page one of any search engine.

Next you need to include the keywords in your content. Whether you are creating verbiage for your website, blog or video you need to find a way to insert the keywords and phrases into each and every one of these. Just don’t go crazy with the keyword density or you risk being penalized by the very search engines you are trying to woo. (In fact there is a black hat SEO term called keyword stuffing that every search engine knows and loathes.)

So the key is to use the desired keywords in your content in a fitting way. That is to say, it should not look like keywords are thrown in unnecessarily. Always remember that content is designed first and foremost to be read by human beings. This means that keywords should be used only in the proper time and place. They should also be grammatically correct. Last but not least the most important keyword or phrase should be used at the beginning and end of your website in a font that is bold and italicized. This lets the spiders know that the word or phrase is important.

Off-Page SEO

In today’s content-rich world, even the best on-page SEO is not going to usually be sufficient to
generate a page one result on most search engines. But it is a good start. To really get into the game and get the spiders to sit up and take notice you next need to start providing regular content that is valuable and interesting. (That’s right folks, the spiders have learned how to read.) Weekly content has become king due to the increased competition of the marketplace. People are eager to learn what’s new and exciting with your business. They want to know how you can help them save time and money or overcome obstacles. They want to hear what other customers think about you. Since most people rarely update their website this makes it difficult for people and spiders to find out the latest about news regarding you and your business. That’s what blogs and social networks are all about. They are also good for creating backlinks to your website which is another benchmark that the spiders use to rank sites.

When it comes to self-promote your website you need to use both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO techniques. Once your website receives good ranking on all the major search engines, do not stop your Off-Page SEO activities. You should continuously work for your website each week so that your competitors will not overtake your ranking. Yes, you will require lesser effort and time to do the maintenance work as part of the Off-Page SEO once your website receives good ranking. If you do not have the time to promote your website, you can also outsource some or all of your online marketing tasks. Just take care to thoroughly check out any SEO expert that you are considering turning your web presence over to or your site could wind up DOA.

Carl Weiss is president of Working the Web to Win, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida. You can listen to Carl live every Tuesday at 4pm Central on BlogTalkRadio.

Who Needs Cyberbabble?

By Carl Weiss

When it comes to my day job, which is helping people succeed online, I am many times confronted by prospective clients who are dazed and bewildered by online marketers who make themselves seem important by spouting cyberbabble when asked even the simplest of questions. I don’t know if they do this simply because they are dyed-in-the-wool computer nerds that speak a language all their own. Or maybe it’s because they want their prospects to think that all SEO experts are part of some secret cabal. All I can say is that it undermines the job that I and other legitimate online marketing professionals have to do. More importantly, when I question most of these clients about what it was that they were paying for, they look at me like deer in the headlights.

What is SEO?

While intoning mantras like SERPs and Keyword Density may sound impressive, what it means to

generating online visibility is absolutely nothing. (As far as I know, you put SERP on your pancakes.) When it comes to making your website sticky, well that is another matter altogether. In the first place, Search Engine Optimization has changed so radically in the past few years that it is hardly recognizable as such.

Go back five years and ninety percent of everything you needed to please even the most finicky search engine was on your homepage. (The other ten percent being backlinks.) Today, only twenty five percent of what the search engines use for ranking is contained on-site. The other seventy five percent is contained offsite, including blogs, social networks, videos and podcasts.

While it is still important to include meta tags (code contained at the top of the page that identifies the site’s content) and alt tags (used to identify images), it is just as important to provide both the search engines and prospects with everything they need to make a buying decision on the homepage. Gone are the days when people will spend five to ten minutes clicking around your site to decide whether or not to do business with you. Statistics show that you have less than two minutes to dangle the bait and reel in the fish. So if your website contains twenty five links, if the prospect has a tough time finding your phone number and/or address, or if they are confused in any way, they are history.

The 5 Magic Bullets

If you want to turn clicks into cash, then what you need are the following 5 items in plain site:

1. Phone Number – Nobody wants to click onto a subsidiary page to find your contact information. That is so old school. Make sure your phone number is highly visible at the top of the page if you want to do business with anyone online.

2. Address – With all the cybercrime going on people need to know that your business is on the up and up. This means they want to see a physical address. If you don’t want to be taken for a fly-by-night operation make sure your address and google map are in plain sight.

3. Intro Video – Since 99% of the people that click onto your site have never done business with you and since you have less than 2-minutes to get their attention, why not commission an introduction video that introduces you and your staff, tells prospects why they should do business with you and asks for the sale?

4. Testimonial Videos – Want to turn your best customers into your best salespeople? Create a short video interview that lets them tell the world what kind of experience they had with you.

5. Unique Sales Proposition – Many times when prospective clients ask me what they need to do to start selling more products and services online I tell them they need to provide prospects with an offer that will make them want to give your business a try. (It doesn't always have to be a discount on the price either. Intangibles such as a white paper or e-book can be a great way to generate the initial sale.)

What you need to ask online marketers before you trust them with your site.

Like it or not, when you trust your online marketing to an outside agency, you are putting your business’

future in their hands. Should they make one wrong move you could find your website delisted or even blackballed. If this happens it could take months or even years to climb back onto page one. Below are ten questions you need to ask any online marketing agency before you sign on the dotted line:

1. How long have you been doing online marketing?

2. What services do you provide? (Web design, SEO, blogging, social networking, email marketing, video production)

3. How many clients do you currently have?

4. What kind of guarantees do you offer?

5. Can I view some videos testimonials?

6. Can I contact some of your current clients?

7. Has your agency ever won any awards?

8. How often can I expect to hear from you once I sign up?

9. How long do I have to continue using your service?

10. What do I do if I am dissatisfied with your services.

By having a clear understanding of the responsibilities of both parties, as well as being able to verify whether or not an agency that is vying for your business can get the job done, you will not only be able to sleep better at night, you will have something tangible to show for the effort. Now please pass the SERP.

Who Wears the Black Hat on the World Wide Web?

By Carl Weiss

If you have been working the web for any length of time, then you know that the search engines frown on what is known as “Black Hat” techniques. This technology has been used to exploit search engine algorithms since the first search engines appeared. The reason black hatting used to be so popular was because it could move your website onto page 1 in a hurry.

Before the turn of the century, black hatting was practically a requirement since the practice was so prevalent. However, during the past few years, search engine operators have designed their spiders to search and destroy anyone employing black hat techniques. In fact, the past half dozen updates on Google have been designed specifically to crack down on sites that are still employing black hat SEO. While tricking the search engines into giving your site a higher ranking than it deserves may work in the short term, once the other shoe drops and the search engine spiders catch onto such tactics there most definitely will be repercussions. Many times it results in a site being either downgraded or even delisted.

The problem today is that most people still don’t know where the line in the sand has been drawn when it comes to black hatting. And the line keeps moving all the time. So to make it easy to understand what is considered black hat SEO I have compiled the list below.

Keyword Stuffing relies on inserting repeated keywords within the text, hidden text, title or meta tags in order to generate increased relevance of a page.

Spamdexing doesn't involve men in tights. Like keyword stuffing the technique involves repeating unrelated phrases, to manipulate the relevance or prominence of resources indexed in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system.

Doorway Pages are web pages created specifically for spamdexing. Also known as bridge pages or jump pages, their purpose is to redirect those who click on the page onto another website. If you have ever clicked on a search engine listing only to be redirected to a porn site or a spam site then you have hit a doorway page. Doorway pages are relatively easy to identify since they are designed for search engines and not for people. They redirect the reader so quickly that it is virtually impossible for a human being to even see the original page.

Link Farming doesn’t involve the swine industry, although the search engines tend to treat perpetrators of the technique as swine. What link farming does is create numerous backlinks for a site by generating an increasing number of fake sites that link to your own. Back in the late 90’s paid link farms were prolific. Since links indicate popularity, these businesses did quite well until the search engine spiders became savvy enough to determine real links from the farmed kind. Today, relying on fake links is one of the quickest ways to get delisted.

Cloaking does not have anything to do with the series Star Trek, although it works for web sites much the same way that it worked for the Klingons. Cloaking involves hiding the presence of Flash animations, by displaying a text-only version for the express purpose of getting the search engine spiders to ignore the fact that you are employing Flash (which Google hates).

Duplicate Content on Multiple Sites is an SEO no-no. Many people try to game the system by creating clones of sites with different urls in order to generate top ranking. The problem is that once the search engines catch onto to this tactic (and they always do), all of these sites will wind up delisted. Better to create unique content for each landing page (which is not a carbon copy) in order to go after the SEO high ground. They can have a similar skin, provided that the guts are different. (This is called a landing page and is a legitimate way to work the web.)

Automated Content Generation is becoming ever more popular with website owners. Everything from page generation to autoblogging has become all the rage. The problem is the fact that automated systems are still not sophisticated enough to take the place of a human being and the spiders can tell the difference. In fact, they regard the use of automated content generation for the most part as cheating. So if you ever hope to win the war for keyword dominance, this is not a technique I would recommend.

What happens if you get caught black hatting?

If you or anyone in your employ is caught using black hat SEO the penalties can be severe. Not only will your websites start disappearing from page one, depending upon the infraction, you may never be able to get back on top of the heap again. Google has an especially long memory.

Case in point: We were hired by a client with two physical locations and corresponding websites to help them conquer the search engines. What the client failed to mention was the fact that they had previously hired an SEO pro to promote one of their two sites. This pro had then used black hat technology to get them onto page one of Google. This worked for about a month, then they disappeared from the world’s most popular search engine altogether.

They hired us a few months later and failed to disclose this fact. After about four months we had worked their sister site onto page one of Yahoo, Bing and Google. However, the sister site appeared only on Bing and Yahoo. After questioning the partners they admitted that they had indeed hired someone whom they knew used black hat SEO on this site. So poisoned had the well become that not only did it affect their main website, but it also put the brakes on any other landing page attached to their physical address. This is due to the fact that Google Maps and Google Local link every landing page connected to their address with their previous black hat infraction. As a result, the only ways for them to generate page one results were either to move their office, or resort to pay-per-click ads on Google. (Guess which of the two they chose to pursue?)

The bottom line is that you don’t need to cheat them to beat them.

English: White hat seo symbolizes good ethic techniques in search engine marketing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reason that I point out the previous case is to remind all of you that if you really want to start working the web to win then you have to stop looking for the easy out. Instead of trying to cheat your way to the top, simply make a long term commitment to produce quality content on a regular basis. Sure, it can take a few months to see the results, but it is worth it. As an added inducement when the search engines alter their algorithms you won’t be whipped around and forced to start from scratch. Plus, you will never run the risk of being either delisted or blackballed by the search engines. Remember, the good guys always wear the white hats.

If you want to learn even more SEO tactics, Carl Weiss and Hector Cisneros have just published their Working the Web to Win book on Amazon.com. Along with detailed online marketing tactics the book covers everything you need to know in order to start generating online success. The e-book version is just $4.95. If you want to learn how to start working the web to win, this is a sure bet.

Working the Web to Win in the 21st Century

by Carl Weiss

Before the 1990’s businesses were relegated to using print, TV and radio to advertise their wares. Then along came the Internet in the latter half of the 90’s and suddenly businesses had a whole new lease on life, along with a new set of skills to hone. Because when it comes to promoting products and services online, there is no such thing as one size fits all. Far from it.

Before the turn of the century webvertising was a bit simpler, due to the fact that it all came down to two things: a website and a search engine. Back then, there weren’t any such things as blogs and social networks. Video was something that was worse than useless, due to bandwidth considerations. Web designers back then had to selectively choose images due to the slow loading speeds that dial-ups provided. Too many images could cause a site to load like molasses, or even freeze the screen solid.

Then came the development of broadband and suddenly it was a whole new ballgame. With that ballgame came an entirely new set of rules. Instead of relying almost exclusively on text, many sites began experimenting with podcasts and video. With the advent of YouTube, where anyone can post and host videos galore, multimedia went from being an anomaly to being practically a requirement.

Search engines as well began to capitalize on the multimedia nature of the Internet, with many of them adapting their search algorithms to take into considerations all the latest online offerings. Several, most notably Google, went one step farther by developing their own brand of blog, social network and video portal. This meant that website owners and optimizers had their hands full feeding all these additional mouths. As a result, many sites that previously dominated the search engines were relegated to its backwaters. It also meant that SEO was no longer SOP (standard operating procedure.) Whether you choose to administer your web presence yourself or outsource the task, there are a number of factors you need to take into consideration if you hope to succeed.

1. Geo-Targeting – One of the things that has changed in a big way is the ability to geographically target online ads. Unlike in the early days of the web where global advertising coverage was the norm, today online ads can be directed to targeted regionally, state-wide or locally for both pay-per-click and organic search.

2. What is SEO Today? – When I hear people conversion about search engine optimization, I ask them to define the term SEO. Before the turn of the century everything a search engine needed to determine who ranked best resided exclusively on the website. Today, only twenty five percent of the criteria used for ranking purposes is contained on-site. The remainder consists of everything from blogs and social networks to videos and podcasts.

The other thing that has changed in a big way is the acumen of search engine spiders. Not only

can the spiders read, they can understand how well your website, blogs and social posts are constructed. They are also programmed to look at how often you post as well as how much engagement this content generates. The only things they can’t understand are your images and videos. This is why it is so important to make sure your alt tags are filled in and the text and tags used to wrap your videos is complete.

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3. Blogging for Business – Blogs are without a doubt one of the least understood of all web assets. Most people treat them as a bastard stepchild of the web, not realizing that blogs can not only achieve search engine ranking on their own, but you can also sell products directly on your blog. Add to this the fact that well-written blogs can be far more engaging than websites since they change more often than your site. (The average website is updated quarterly, whereas the average blog is updated weekly.) I have known clients who literally generated more traffic and sales from their blog than they did on their site, even when their site had page-1 ranking on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

4. How Social is your Business? – There is a big difference between having a social presence and feeding your social presence. If you hope to turn Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and other social networks into a way to promote your business you need to understand a couple of things. In the first place, social nets are all about telling as opposed to selling. This means that for every attempt to display ad copy on your nets you need to deploy at least twenty pieces of information that would be of interest to your followers. And by “information” I don’t mean ad copy. The second factor is that social nets are all about your followers, not you. If you provide them with useful information and prove that you are an authority in your area of expertise they will inevitably buy from you when they are ready. However, if you rarely feed your nets or if you bombard your followers with ad copy then don’t complain that social networking doesn’t work.

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...

5. Do You YouTube? – YouTube is another area that most businesses do not really get. Look at it this way; If your local TV station told you they were giving away space for free TV spots and that they were looking for programming to fill air time, you would probably bust a gut to provide them with as much video content as they would accept. Then why is it that the world’s largest superstation is not on every business owner’s radar in a big way? Not only does YouTube stream more video than all the other TV stations on the planet combined (4 billion videos per day), but they provide free hosting and broadcast, plus they are owned by the world’s most popular search engine (Google).

YouTube is much more than just a video portal. It is a search engine, it is a social network and it is a free web TV station that can place your videos on page 1 of Google. How cool is that? Yet most businesses are not taking advantage of this free marketing powerhouse. By taking advantage of it, I don’t mean having one or two videos on YouTube. What I am talking about is having dozens or even hundreds of videos on YouTube. Better yet, why not start a channel that focuses on your business? Don’t think that’s practical? Think again. We have shown all kinds of businesses from chiropractors to plumbers how 2-minute microcasts can be used to generate a following and turn their owners into rock stars. Shooting 2-4 short videos each and every month isn’t all that complicated or costly. All it takes is a little imagination to turn the world’s largest superstation into a business asset that’s hard to beat.

6. Reputation Management – In years past it was all too easy for companies that produced slipshod workmanship and poor customer service to remain below the radar to consumers. As a result it was very difficult to judge a business’ reputation until after the fact, by which time it was too late. With the advent of online reputation management all that has changed. Today the emperor wears no clothes and it is simple for the public to find out how your customers perceive the quality of your company. Whether they use Google Local, Yahoo, Angie’s List or any of the hundreds of sites dedicated to broadcasting reviews good and bad about a business, this is generally the first place that consumers go to check out a company with whom they have never done business.

That being said, many businesses have no system of encouraging satisfied customers to post positive reviews. What this means is that for the vast majority of businesses, all there is to be found are negative reviews. I don’t care how capable and courteous you are, as they say you can’t please everyone all the time. So it’s a foregone conclusion that sooner or later you will rub someone the wrong way. That someone (or even a wily competitor) can sully your reputation at the click of a mouse if you aren’t actively encouraging your best customers to submit positive reviews all the public will find are complaints.

One of the things we use to promote our business as well as those of our clients is to ask your best customers if they wouldn’t mind telling the public what they think of your services on video. By shooting a 2-3 minute interview and then cutting this down to 60-90 seconds not only will you have a powerful endorsement of your business, but while they are there you can then have them submit a positive review on Google+ that will go a long way toward helping you prove once and for all that you are the man or woman for the job.

7. Who You Gonna Call? - Obviously creating and distributing everything from daily social posts to weekly blogs and monthly videos takes time. And time is something of which no business owner or manager has enough. So outsourcing some or all of the above mentioned tasks is the path of least resistance for many businesses. That being said, you need to be very careful who you allow to promote your business online. While there are a number of legitimate digital marketing agencies, there are also thousands of shortcut artists that can do more harm than good.

In past blogs, we have written about Black Hat tactics that can put your website

between a rock and a hard place. It isn’t at all unusual for a search engine to delist or even black ball anyone caught using black hat techniques. While it would take more than a blog to cover them all, the biggest red flag to watch out for is anyone who claims they can get your site listed organically with Google or any other major search engine within 30 days or less. Depending upon the competition involved with any keyword or phrase it can take anywhere from four to six months or more to produce enough compelling content to leverage page 1 on any of the major search engines. However, the results can be well worth the effort.

In short, with the exception of pay-per-click advertising (which takes an entire skill set of its own to employ successfully), there is no shortcut to online success. The only way of leveraging the Internet in the 21^st century is to take the long view. Just like your business, working the web to win takes time. But it’s time well spent.

When he isn't surfing the web, Carl is Working the Web to Win, which is both a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida and a weekly online radio show on BlogTalkRadio.

Does Internet Ranking Really Matter Any More?

By Carl Weiss

Having been in the business of working the web for the past 19 years, I can still remember a time when search engine ranking was the be-all end-all of internet marketing. Before the year 2000 it was possible to generate a page one ranking on a number of search engines with names such as Lycos, Alta Vista, LookSmart, Infoseek, Hot Bot, Excite and more in as little as 24-hours. Better still was the fact that everything you needed to make the grade online before the turn of the century resided on your website. No blogging, social networking or video required.

English: a chart to describe the search engine market (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Back then while Google was part of the scheme of things, they were a small part, not having yet become the 800 lb gorilla in the room that they are today. In 2000 Yahoo was the big kid on the block commanding more than 40% of the search market. (Today that figure is down to around 12%.) While many of the lesser known search engines didn’t exactly dominate the Internet, a number of them could boast significant traffic. What this meant was that no single entity had a stranglehold on the market.

Fast forward to 2014 with Google controlling 80% of search and the rules have changed. Now instead of taking 24-48 hours to produce a page one organic search, it isn’t unusual for it to take 3-6 months to get on page one. And getting there is no longer an injection of on-site SEO. It’s now a process involving daily social network feeds, weekly blogs and monthly videos all of which need to be as organized and optimized as your website. What this also means is that there is no longer any quick fix that will enable you to generate prime search engine results. Add to this the fact that no sooner do you get a bead on what Google wants when they up and change the rules. The result of this is that one day you are on page one and the next you find yourself on page twenty one. Sound familiar?

Who Keeps Changing the Channel?

Love it or hate it, the Internet is a game. Play it well and you will be rewarded. Play it poorly and you might as well not play at all. The problem is that in this game the rules not only keep changing, they aren’t even posted. That can make it hard to determine a winning strategy. While Google posts information including videos that purport to tell us mere mortals what they want in terms of content, their explanations are more than a little vague. The reason they (and all other search engine operators) do this is to keep anyone from being able dominate search.

If you read about any of Google’s recent updates that sported adorable names like Panda and Penguin and Hummingbird then you know that their aftermath was anything but cute and fluffy. That’s because when it comes to updates, the search engines aren’t simply trying to improve their search algorithms, they are also out to shake out the rug to eliminate anyone who is trying to cheat the system in order to beat the system.

Got Game?

In 2000 it was common for professional optimizers to game the system by using black hat techniques such as link farms and keyword stuffing to make their client’s sites seem more valuable to the search engine spiders. Of course back then the spiders weren’t all that savvy and it was relatively simple to trick them. Today the spiders are much smarter, being able not only to read text but to understand its meaning. This means that they can determine how well your posts and blogs are constructed. They can even figure out if you are plagiarizing other written material (which is why auto-blogging can be so dangerous to your ranking). Worst still, once the spiders determine that your site is not playing by the rules, not only are they ready, willing and able to relegate your site to the backwaters of the web, but they can also blacklist your site so that you will find it nearly impossible to climb back out of the hole you have dug.

Being a professional digital marketing consultant I have known clients that have come to us seeking help once they realized that their site had become blacklisted. While we were able to help some of them rectify the situation, we literally had to tell others that they were going to have to start from scratch. So what I tell everyone who asks my advice is that you need to be very careful with whom you allow to promote your business online. If anyone comes to you and states that they can generate a page one organic result on Google in days or weeks, run do not walk to the nearest exit. These black hatters are going to do more harm than good in the long run, which is the only thing that matters online nowadays.

If you want to make the Internet part of your business marketing scheme, then you need to do the work. Or, you need to decide how much of the work you would care to do then farm out the remainder. Either way, if you want to create a rock solid pate one presence on the search engines you are going to have to take the long view and commit to creating content, content and more content every day of the week, 52 weeks of the year.

There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Search Engine

Not that there aren’t a few shortcuts to getting onto page one that do not ruffle Google’s feathers. Here are a few that you can take to the bank:

1. Press Releases – Online press releases are an excellent way to get your business featured on page one of Google in a hurry. Just don’t expect to stay on page one for more than a few days. When it comes to search, old news isn’t considered good news.

2. Optimized Blogs – Particularly if you use Blogger (owned by Google) to write article optimized blogs at least once per week, it is quite possible that your blog could find its way to page one in as little as 24 hours. Like press releases, expect this position to quickly erode.

3. Video SEO – Have you ever done a Google search only to find a thumbnail image that led to a YouTube video? This is another example of cross-platform SEO in action. Since Google owns YouTube, a properly optimized video can sometimes wind up on page one of the world’s most popular search engine.

Not only are blogs and videos a great way to jump onto page one of Google, but they can also generate

Image via CrunchBase

a following of their own. In fact, there are some enterprising people who make a comfortable living by publishing either blogs or YouTube videos. Even if your videos don’t generate millions of hits per month, having hundreds or even several thousand motivated followers hanging on your every word can be a great way to generate results online. I can tell you from personal experience that we have had several clients generate more conversions from their blogs than they did from their page one search engine listings. The reason is that on the search engines you are one of the herd. On your blog you are the star.

So when it comes to putting search engine ranking into its proper perspective what you have to do is ask yourself one question, “Are you ready to do what it takes to play this game to win?”

When it comes to playing to win, Carl Weiss co-wrote the book on the subject. He is also co-host of the weekly web radio show of the same name as well as the YouTube series.

Putting the Plus in Google+

By Hector Cisneros

If you are using, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter for your business but not using Google+, then

Google Appliance as shown at RSA Expo 2008 in ...

you’re missing one of the biggest boats in the social networking ocean. In fact, Google Brand pages are tied into Google Search, Google Local and Google Maps all of which contain the magic word "Google". In addition, since Google now controls 81% of search, you should be thinking Google if you want to put a big plus in both your social networking and search optimization.

Google+ officially originally launched on June 28, 2011without brand pages and later added them so that businesses could create their own unique presence on Google's social network. Google has continued to improve its social network and its Brand page by further integrating its other Google properties and applets in to the Google+ fold. Specifically they have added more robust and complete navigation system, a more complete and integrated profile, updated tabs functionality and more in-depth drop down capabilities within any functions. Google+ always had an edge on the competition for ease of use, now it also has greater depth and power as well.

Add Up all the Features

Google+ has also updated its format several times since its inception. Its newest format moves the main navigation menu to the left side as a drop down element. New elements that have been added include "What's Hot "and" Communities functions. What's Hot shows you trending posts that are unique and getting lots of play on Google+. Communities is Google's version of Groups. Both of these functions are robust yet they are easy to use and are fully integrated with all other Google apps and properties.

Here are some of my favorite feature and elements in Google+ Brand pages:

First and foremost is the ease of use and high integration of Google applets and properties.
Adding blog posts, YouTube videos and pictures are a snap.
If you properly setup Google's plus 1 system on your website and other social nets, you will make it easy for others to connect and recommend you.
You will also receive additional information on how visitors are using your Brand pages.
Google's "Ripples" provide post statistics showing how people in your circles are utilizing your post. Its graphic display is unique and intuitive to understand. It shows how items have been shared.

Do You Hangout?

Looking for an easy way to create useful video content? Hangouts is a built-in teleconferencing facility that

you can even use to create conferences or broadcast webinars. By enabling Hangouts on air, you can also simultaneously create a YouTube video of your event. What could be simpler? When you consider that visual content has the highest clickthrough rate of any content, this is a G+ facility that con't be beat. It also has the highest share rate. Google Hangouts provides relatively high end functionality at zero cost to your businesses. What's not to like?

Leveraging Brand Pages for Search

Since G+ is part of the Google family, there are search engine optimization benefits from linking your website and other relevant internet properties to your Google+. Make sure all your Google properties include relevant keywords. Also, make sure the "about tab" contains targeted keywords as well. Include + links to your blogs, website, landing pages, directories, and other social sites.

If you are looking to maximize your exposure, also make sure all your Google properties, (especially Google local and Google maps) are complete and verified. Make sure all your websites and social properties have Google +1 badges and share badges so that people can easily plus and share you when they visit.

Make sure you have a fully filled out profile. All sections need useful content.

Provide value added service by providing deep information posst on your products and services. Provide

educational and support hangouts for your products and services. Provide interesting, fun and entertaining posts targeted at specific segments of your circles. Provide posts on a regular basis, (daily if possible). Use Hootsuite or other aggregation software to schedule posts and provide RSS feeds from your favorite content sites including your blogs.

Share the wealth by cross promoting content on your Google Brand pages to your other social sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pintrest. Don't forget to utilize to power of YouTube with your Brand pages.

Typical Client Content Posting

· Here is a typical posting schedule I use for some of my clients Brand pages.

* Cross promote posts of useful content to the top 5 social nets.
* Daily forwards/share/retweets of content.
* Weekly or monthly promos for your products or services. (This needs tobe a soft sell of an outstanding offer.)
* Weekly or monthly Hangouts providing useful information for your targeted audience.
* Weekly blog posts cross promoted to all social nets.
* Weekly YouTube video post cross promoted across all social nets.
* Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly email newsletter linked to your blog, vlogs and/orYouTube videos.

Create in-house policies for new clients to connect with you on their social nets. Whenever possible encourage clients to post positive reviews on Google Local or any social or review site to which they are connected.

While many pundits still consider Google+ a big zero, when you factor in all the features and benefits of using Google's business-friendly social network, all I can say is the for my money the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing) and he is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com. He is an active Boy Scout Leader, enjoys family time, loves the outdoors, reading and the creative process of designing effective internet marketing solutions for his clients.