Twitter On Google Search Results Pages

August 31st, 2010 by admin 2 comments »

If you are not using Twitter for your business yet, here is another reason to start. Last week Google made web search results timelier by launching Google Realtime Search – www.Google.com/Realtime.

Google has created a one-stop shop for Twitter search results


Google Realtime Search, which is separate from Google’s main search engine, is a great place for people to look for current conversations and topics happening online across the globe. It displays messages from Twitter and Google’s own version of Twitter called Google Buzz in the form of a continuously updating news feed. Realtime also shows some results from Facebook and MySpace.

Google Realtime is similar to bing.com/social. Yahoo also offers something similar when users search news results for a specific topic.

With Google showing realtime Tweets, you now have one more way to be found online. Greater content equals greater visibility, which equals greater traffic. What are you waiting for? Just be sure, however, that your Twitter content is keyword rich. Not sure what keywords to use? Your SEO consultant can help.

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Adding Keywords to iWeb

August 14th, 2010 by admin No comments »

While iWeb makes it easy to create a stunning website, it does not make it easy to add the necessary keywords so that searchers can actually find it. Unfortunately, iWeb itself lacks a user friendly way to add targeted, keyword rich title tags, meta tags, and alternate image text all of which are crucial to being found. In order to do so you need to alter the site’s HTML coding which requires true web development skills. But don’t be discouraged!

Now Adding Keywords to iWeb is easy


There is a program you can download that makes it easy for you to add those tags without touching the underlying HTML coding. And best of all . . . it is FREE.

You can quickly and easily optimize your iWeb site for the search engines with iWeb SEO Tool – 1.9. This free download from RAGE Software allows you to customize title tags, meta tags and alternative image text, as well as add the extremely informative – and free- Google Analytics – all without adding HTML snippets.

How to Add Keywords to your iWeb Site


Once you have downloaded iWeb SEO Tool, when you sign into your iWeb site, iWeb SEO askes where your iWeb pages are. It then opens a user friendly interface where you simply type in your title and description tags and alternate image text. That’s it. Save and upload your revised web pages and you are good to go. You can even create a meta tag directing how often the search engines should crawl your site for new content.

If you want to easily add keywords to your iWeb website, download the free iWeb SEO Tool. There is even a step-by-step video tutorial to help you.

While these tags are very important to your ability to be found online, there is much more that can be done to enhance your Internet visibility. You may want to rely on the expertise of an SEO company for keyword research and analysis as well as strategic placement of keywords in your page copy among other things.

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Posted in SEO - Search Engine Optimization

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What are Google Tags? How do Google Tags work?

August 2nd, 2010 by admin No comments »

Google Tags are a new way to help you enhance your web visibility. This post will explain exactly what Google Tags are and how they work.

What are Google Tags?


Google Tags are a new paid advertising feature for Google Places accounts. They are a way to enhance your local business listing on Google.com and Google Maps. A Google Tag is literally a yellow tag that highlights specific information about your business, such as a video, a coupon, or a weekly special and most importantly makes your business stand out! An example of what a Google Tag looks like is below:

See How Google Tags Make a Business Stand Out

See How Google Tags Make a Business Stand Out

How do Google Tags work


For a flat monthly fee of $25 you can select a type of Google Tag you would like to use to highlight your business. You can choose from:

· Photos
· Videos
· Coupons
· Menus
· Website
· Reservations
· Custom Messages

The type of tag you can select depends upon the information you already have included in your business listing. For example, if you want to highlight a photo, then you need to have uploaded photos to your listing. You can only select one tag at a time. However, you can change or remove a tag whenever you like which is great if you want to announce special discounts or limited time offers. You can even keep track of how well your Google Tags are working in your Google Places dashboard.

As more and more people are searching on the go, you may be happy to know that Google Tags will appear on mobile web searches.

Since this is a NEW advertising medium, Google Tags are a great way to get a jump on the competition. Keep in mind though, that Google Tags will only enhance your visibility if your listing is actually visible. If your business listing is not showing for keyword phrases that relate to your products or services, you may want to consult with an SEO company that can make that happen.

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Posted in local search

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Google Video Editor Makes Creating Videos For Your Internet Marketing Campaigns Easy – and More Professional

June 23rd, 2010 by admin No comments »

Videos help you capture the attention of online prospects. With YouTube you can create and upload videos to the Internet yourself without incurring the cost of a videographer. And now Google’s new YouTube Video Editor – also free – makes it easy to edit those videos to give them a more professional look and feel – no software or major techie knowledge needed.

With Google’s new video editor on YouTube, you can:

• Trim the beginning or ending of your video
• Merge multiple videos into one video
• “Splice” and remove a section of the video to another spot in the clip by dragging the same video into the timeline twice and trimming the beginning of one and ending of another
• Replace the existing soundtrack with one of tens of thousands of songs from YouTube’s Audio Swap library
• Edit and render 1080p – full high definition
• Publish new videos with one click

To reap true Internet Marketing benefits, don’t forget to optimize the video and embed it on your website – a great free way to increase your web presence!

Take a look at how Google’s new video editor works

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Posted in Internet Marketing

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Bing Yahoo Searches Now One In The Same? A Microsoft AOL Deal? What do these partnerships mean for your SEO?

June 18th, 2010 by admin No comments »

It appears Microsoft is doing its best to give Google a run for its money.  Last year it launched its revised search engine Bing, which currently accounts for about 12% of searches.  Now it is going full force with the partnership it forged with Yahoo last summer.  The two companies are working together to replace Yahoo’s search engine with Bing creating a single Bing Yahoo Search Engine.  They are also transferring tens of thousands of current Yahoo advertisers to Microsoft’s search-advertising platform.  It is anticipated that Bing will be handling all of the searches on Yahoo by the end of the year drawing in another 18% of searches. This will give Microsoft about a 30% share of U.S. Internet searches – still far from Google’s 64% – and reduce the number of top search engines from 3 to 2.

To further enhance its search engine presence, Microsoft is in talks with AOL to replace Google with Bing as the search engine on the company’s Internet portal bringing an additional 2% of searches.  Google and AOL’s current deal expires in December.

What do the single Bing Yahoo search engine and the Microsoft AOL deal mean for your website’s SEO?

  1. While many website owners have mainly focused on getting high rankings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL can no longer be ignored.  You need to create a web presence on all four.
  2. If you enjoy higher rankings on Yahoo than Bing, you now need to find a way to improve your Bing rankings so you don’t take a hit when Yahoo replaces its search engine with Bing.
  3. If you have higher rankings on Bing than Yahoo, you may reap a nice benefit from this partnership.
  4. You may want to consider Pay Per Click advertising on Yahoo or Bing as their search share grows.

What can you do to prepare for the new Bing Yahoo Search Engine?

  1. First, ascertain your Bing and Yahoo rankings for your most important keywords.
  2. If your Bing rankings are lower than your Yahoo rankings you can try to match Bing’s algorithm.  There are quite a few tools and resources available to help you optimize for Bing, including the white paper Bing – New Features Relevant for Webmasters.
  3. Most importantly, just focus on SEO best practices – target the right keywords, maintain an SEO friendly site, create fresh content and build links.

If these changes seem daunting, your SEO professional can help you through them.  The world of SEO is constantly changing and it’s our job to stay on top of it all.

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Posted in SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Can a small website rank well for competitive search terms? Yes, it can!

April 6th, 2010 by admin No comments »

Take a look at the search results page below.

Google Search Results Page for "baseball's greatest hitters"

The term “baseball’s greatest hitters” returned about 752,000 results. Included in the top listings are:

• baseball-almanac.com with a Google Page Rank of 4;
• amazon.com with a Google Page Rank of 9; and
• www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com which has not yet received a Google Page Rank.

The owners of baseballsgreatesthitters.com came to Write On Point to help improve their website visibility. Even though their domain name is the search term “baseball’s greatest hitters” they were not ranking well for it. We optimized the site – strictly on page SEO, no linking strategies or pay per click campaigns – conducting keyword research and analysis and providing SEO copyediting. In a month’s time they were in the top 5 for “baseball’s greatest hitters” and enjoy high rankings for such competitive search terms as “baseball’s top hitters” (in the top 20 out of over 1,800,000 on Google, 1 out of 7,800,00 on Yahoo and 9 out of 3,400,000 on Bing) and “steroids and hall of fame records” among many others.

www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com is a young site, with no backlinks and no press. Yet it ranks in top spots for competitive terms with the likes of Amazon, ESPN, Fox News, Reuters, PBS and Wikipedia. Imagine what could happen if www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com started Linking, Internet Marketing and Public Relations campaigns.

Effective SEO can make a huge impact – it does not matter whether your site is large or small. If you take the time to do keyword research and analysis and incorporate those keywords into the appropriate places – and stay on top of them – your small, unknown website could also compete with the big guys. There are many books on SEO on the market; however, the rules are always in a state of flux. We suggest, in order to achieve the best results, that you rely on the expertise of an SEO professional who works in this field on a daily basis. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there who say they do SEO. Don’t get taken for a ride. Make sure to ask for samples of their work and references. SEO may seem like a costly investment, but can you afford not to be found?

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Posted in SEO - Search Engine Optimization

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Different Search Results On Different Computers

February 26th, 2010 by admin No comments »

If you are like our clients, you are always checking out your rankings on Google. Somewhere along the way, you may have noticed that your rankings are different on different computers. Unfortunately, a typically great feature of Google may be letting you think your rankings are much higher than they actually are.

Why are rankings different on different computers?

Every computer that is connected to the Internet is assigned a unique number called an Internet protocol (IP) address. Google uses this IP address to provide you with the most relevant results possible through its Personalized Search. This feature enables Google to customize search results based on the last 180 days of your search activity, i.e. the searches you have done, results you have clicked, and URLs you have typed into the address bar. Google may also use information about your location to customize your search. All of this affects what websites you will see on your search results pages and their order. So if you frequently visit your website on the same computer, the ranking you see may be drastically different from your actual ranking.

There are ways, however, that you can opt out of personalized search to find your true ranking:

1. To do so through Google itself, visit http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54048 for step-by-step directions.
2. Turn on Private Browsing in your browser.
3. Remove any Google cookies from your computer.
4. Disable personalized search in Firefox and Internet Explorer with this plug-in from yoast.com: http://yoast.com/tools/seo/disable-personalized-search-plugin
5. Use Google Chrome’s incognito browsing mode: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95464

So while it is imperative that you stay on top of your current search engine rankings, you must avoid personalized search while doing so or you will end up seeing different rankings on different computers and that will not provide useful insight for your SEO campaign.

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Posted in Search Engine Rankings

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Add a business to Google Maps to increase your web visibility in your town and beyond – if you use SEO

February 17th, 2010 by admin No comments »

As discussed in the last post, creating local business center listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing is a fabulous way to gain web visibility for your brick and mortar business – if those listings are created correctly by using the search terms real people are using in the right places.

Google Maps and SEO. The most important place to include those search terms is your business category. Google Maps provides great leeway here. Rather than limiting you to pre-selected categories, you can create your own. Be sure your category reflects the search terms real people are using for your industry, service or product. Google allows you to have up to five categories, so cover all of your bases. Below are some FAQ’s from our clients, which demonstrate why utilizing effective SEO techniques in your Google Maps listing is so important for web visibility.

Will prospects then find me with Google Maps if they type in my business category and the town I am located in? Generally, Google will include businesses in the town the person is searching for before extending a wider radius. For example, if you are a pizza shop in Anytown USA and the searcher types in “pizza anytown usa” chances are you will be one of the businesses Google displays. Your visibility and ranking, however, hinges on many things, such as: (1) how many local listings Google is displaying; (2) whether the searcher is searching on Google web (which limits the number of listings to one, three or seven) or Google Maps (which will show ten listings per page); (3) the number of businesses with the same category in your town; and (4) how well you optimized all aspects of your Google Maps listing.

Is it possible for prospects to find me if they type in my Google Maps business category and a neighboring town? This also depends upon various factors, such as the number of displayed listings, the amount of competitors, and how well you incorporated SEO into your Google Maps listing. Google displays some of the local business listings we have optimized for our clients when a searcher types in their business category and towns as far away as 50 miles from their brick and mortar location.

When you add a business to Google Maps, remember: the better optimized your Google Maps listing is, the better your web visibility. Google Maps and SEO are a combination you should not, and your business cannot, ignore.

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Posted in local search

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How does local search work?

January 29th, 2010 by admin No comments »

While our last post advised not to rely solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic, it did stress that we believe in its importance for our clients. We feel the same for Yahoo Local and Bing Local. Local search is a fabulous way to gain web visibility for brick and mortar businesses.

So, how does local search work? Google, Yahoo and Bing all offer a local search function. Type in a search term and a locale in the search box and you will usually see a map with several businesses listed next to it. For example, type in “cleaners Miami”. On each of the three search engines you will see a map of Miami at the top of the search results page with local cleaners listed next to it. These local listings are completely separate from the natural listings below them or the pay per click listings above or beside them. These listings provide addresses, phone numbers, links to websites, hours, information about services and products, photos, videos and more. They are a great way to get your business in front of prospects in addition to your website. And best of all . . . they are free.

How do you get a local listing? First you need to set up accounts with the search engines. Once that is done, you can create your listings. While it is possible to do this yourself, you may want to rely on an SEO professional to do this for you. Just like your website needs to incorporate the appropriate search terms in the right places to rank well, so does your local business listing. Local listings can be very competitive. Your SEO professional can help give you the edge you need to be at the top of the pack.

Today’s tip: Local search, when done correctly, is an important Internet marketing tool that should not be overlooked.

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Posted in local search

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What happened to Google’s local search results? How does their absence impact your site’s SEO?

December 27th, 2009 by admin No comments »

It appears that Google’s local search results for some categories – including Internet Marketing, Marketing, Advertising, SEO and Web Design – have completely disappeared globally. As a SEO/Internet Marketing company, we not only utilize and rely on traffic from Google’s local search, but also stress its importance to our clients. It is a little difficult to do either now that the search results for our categories are no longer there. Go ahead, try it. Type in Advertising Agency New York City or Marketing Los Angeles or Web Design Chicago. You will not see any local listings. Type in Florist Dallas or Dentist Boston and you will. The question is will they disappear also?

Where did Google’s local search results go? We have Googled this question and found two forums that address it:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=18b0412b6336989c&hl=en&fid=18b0412b6336989c000478bb9964569a

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=19f4b0936485546a&hl=en&fid=19f4b0936485546a000478b7db1a7347

A Google employee suggested that the local search results for terms such as Marketing and Web Design are not showing up because there is not enough local intent. This answer makes no sense because until a month or so ago, local listings for these categories did show up and they are categories you can select when you create your Google Local Business Center listing. Until these listings disappeared, local listings even showed up if you typed in SEO Warwick New York, which includes a self-created category and a small town.

The lesson. Relying solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic is not wise. While we don’t understand what is really happening with these local listings or when this issue will be resolved, we do still believe in the importance of Local Business Center Listings for our clients. However, you cannot rely solely on them. You need to optimize your site with your locale also in case the local listings for your industry disappear as well.

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Posted in SEO - Search Engine Optimization

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