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SEO Myths That Can Bury Your Site – Part 1

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Bigfoot

Bigfoot Going To Catch Some Waves

To many, SEO is a mystery that is part science and part black magic.  And while I have [mostly] tamed this beast a while ago (I have been doing local seo work over 10 years now); I have noticed that each client needs a certain amount of education.  This only makes sense since not everyone lives and breathes this stuff as much as my team.  This post will hopefully dispel some SEO myths that should be put to bed.  Plus, anytime I can educate current or prospective clients about the realities of this industry it simply helps set expectations.  So, if your SEO pitches any of this bullshit in a proposal run, don’t walk, away.

Meta Keywords – This tag came into existence in 1996 and within the next few years stopped being supported by most of the major crawlers.  Effectively, this has been dead since the late nineties.  So, please let this one go.  It doesn’t help with ranking and is just clutter in your code.  Delete it.  Even Google says to forget it on their blog.

Keyword Density – Another bit of non-sense.  Yes, there was a time when you could shove your keyword into a sentence and if your page was the same size as your competition and had it 10 times and the other guy had it 5 times you would win.  This is oversimplified, but you get the idea.  Do you really think that something as complex as Google’s Algorythm would use such simplistic logic.  If you are trying to become #1 for Widgets the following just won’t work anymore as it isn’t how they determine relevancy and rankings.

“Wow, I just found the best WIDGETS.  These WIDGETS are so amazing I just didn’t think that WIDGETS could be discovered so easily.  I hope you love WIDGETS too!”

Submitting To Search Engines – This is up there with the Keyword Metatag in popularity.  This has evolved from submitting for free, to paying for submission (Yahoo Directory), to submitting your sitemap.  All of it is bunk and has been for years.  The search engines like to discover your site, naturally, via links.  At best submitting your site does nothing; at worst it hurts your results.  Don’t do it.

PPC Helps Organic – I have spent thousands testing this and have never seen any positive bumps in rankings.  If a keyword generates money for your business than you should invest in it.  Organic or PPC-it doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is what it costs to get the traffic.  For ex.  if you sell a widget for $50 and sell 1 out of ever 100 visitors you have a 1% conversion and each conversion is worth $50 (assuming every sale is 100% profit).  That means if you can spend .49 or less per click you are making money.  So, by all means, spend money on PPC.  It will only bring you more traffic and more sales.

SEO Is Static – SEO isn’t a thing its a process.  So, you don’t do it once and never do it again; you have to continue doing it daily. Otherwise, your top 3 rankings will become top 10 when your competition picks up the slack and surges ahead of you.  Plus, once behind its harder to catch up and recover the momentum you have lost.

No One Can Hurt You – I call Bullshit on this one.  There are more than a few ways to sabotage a competitor.  So there is always the chance someone will do this to your sites.  I don’t think it is common but it does happen.  We don’t utilize these type of tactics since they are -more than- pathetic.  If you can’t get up without pushing someone else out of business you don’t deserve the ranking.  Which is why we won’t go into more detail on how to employ this tactic here. Karma is a bi$&#.  (The author of this post must apologize to Karma for calling her a bi$&#.  Karma you know we have something special.)

Well, if you liked these SEO Myths Part 2 is just around the corner. Just give me a few days to put it together.

Local SEO Tip-Using Your Webcam To Get A Leg Up On Competition

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This was a post I had written that was published on a fellow SEO Consultant’s site.  However, I think you guys would enjoy it as well.  Keep in mind that this tip won’t apply to everyone. However, if you have a business who can creatively use this method to benefit the local community as well as your business then by all means do so.  So here it is:

There is a great quote by Jerry Rice that says:

“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”

That quote perfectly summarizes today’s tip. I have been involved in SEO since 2000 and the longer you look at local SEO results the more you see that you don’t beat competition by a mile you simply nudge them out by a nose. So doing what they won’t do or what they don’t know how to do is the only way to guarantee the results you want for your, or your client’s, site.

So, with that in mind know that todays tip won’t be as useful for everyone. If you are in a very small town it may not make as much sense as the guy with a business in a big city. However, it can be used by you and it will help your results. Even it if it just a nudge in the right direction.

Fire up Google Maps and search for the city where your business is located. Google Maps-Washington DC It should look like the image on the left.

Next to traffic on the top right you will see the “More” Menu. If you click it will bring up several options.

Select Webcams.

If your city is like most of the ones I deal with you will see some results from Webcams.Travel. These webcams are often referenced as citations, so by setting up your own webcam you can get a highly valued citation with about 5 minutes of work.

The steps involved are all fairly simple:

  1. Signup with Webcams.Travel
  2. Add Your Webcam– Your Webcam should have some value to tourism. So, if your in a bigger city you can simply show the street that your business is on. Just point the webcam out your window and that adds some value. If you are in a very small town the value is negligible but it still exists. Even if people use your webcam to see if the grass is growing it is providing some value.
  3. Keep your business credentials consistent. Your webcam’s name should be your ‘business name’ + ‘name of street’ or ‘name of view’. The address should be your business address, etc.
  4. Use your camera to get a default image of your webcam’s view. In a pinch you can take a screenshot from google street view if you don’t have a camera handy.
  5. Use MeBeam to broadcast your webcam. The same rules apply-make the name of the room as the name of your business.
  6. Copy-Paste your MeBeam URL into Webcams.Travel to complete your listing.

That is all there is to it. Your webcam will get approved in about a day and I suggest to my clients to simply use a spare computer with a webcam attached. So far everyone has had the equipment lying around that they were happy to put it to use.

Very simple geo-targeted local seo citation, that provides value to those who see it while helping your business. A win-win.

Does Call Tracking Really Hurt my Ranking?

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There has been quite a bit of discussion as to whether call tracking really does hurt a business’s local search results. Though this is not a cut and dry issue, from what I have seen it does hurt results for any of my local seo clients that have tried it.

Local search is still in its infancy and companies like Google are working hard to come up with valid and effective ways to rate the credibility of business listings found online. At this time, one of the most important factors is still consistency. Since matching a business’s name, phone number and address is one of the most important indicators of consistency, having multiple phone numbers for the same business confuses the search bots and leads to a lower ranking. Though this is not a perfect system and is likely to improve in the future, for now it’s the only one we have.

There are some things businesses can do to track their advertising success without resorting to call tracking. Though it has been temporarily discontinued (pending improvement one would think), Google previously offered a widget for websites that would connect a customer through the businesses Google voice number. This allowed businesses to determine from where the call originated. This isn’t a cure all since it only works for online advertising and probably only more advanced computer users will utilize the feature.

Another technique that many businesses are using that has proven effective is the use of coupons with special tracking codes. Each advertising source will have a coupon for a service with its own unique code that can easily be tracked. This approach has the added benefit of adding a way to attract customers. At the present time, if you really need to track customer origin, this is a good option.

Many marketing companies still insist that they can offer call tracking without affecting local search but, as of right now, I have never seen it work. As local search matures this will change. Also, Google and the other major search providers are constantly improving search algorithms and coming up with new ways to determine popularity and validity.