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May Newsletter: More Google Changes: Penguin & the Knowledge Graph

May 24th, 2012 No comments

Ah, Google – never a dull moment with you, is there?

Our friends at Google have made two significant changes in the past month that may — or may not — affect marketers. Here’s more about what they are, when they hit, and how they may impact

you.

The Penguin Update

On April 24, Google rolled out an algorithmic update named “Penguin.” It targets websites using “black hat” search engine optimization tactics designed to sp@m the search engines. While this can mean a host of things, including keyword stuffing, most of our industry’s attention about Penguin has been on sites with unnatural link profiles. That can mean a majority of the site’s inbound links are low quality or irrelevant, or too many links have the same keywords in the link’s text (anchor text).

Were you hit? Check your analytics and see if you had a drop in website traffic driven by Google’s organic results around April 24. If you don’t see a drop – and especially if you know you haven’t engaged in black hat tactics – you don’t have anything to worry about. In fact, Penguin is supposed to only impact around 3% of English language sites. If you were hit, get rid of as many poor quality links or repetitive anchor text as you can.

Sidenote: Google’s “Panda” update, which rolled out in February 2011, had two “refreshes” on April 17 and 27, so some sites may have been affected by that as well. Panda targets sites with poor quality content.

The Knowledge Graph

Starting May 16, Google launched the Knowledge Graph. It’s their attempt to understand searchers’ intent by figuring out the relationship between different objects and presenting key information concisely. How does it work? Run a search for a famous person, place or thing, and you may see a “panel” on the right with pertinent information about that person, place or thing. Try “Moses,” “Hawaii,” or “Braves” to see it in action.

Is this new feature handy for searchers? Sure thing! Could it be a problem for marketers? Possibly. First, we have yet to see any pay-per-click ads on the search results pages where knowledge graph panels appear. There may not be a whole lot of advertisers for the keyword “Moses,” but surely sellers of Hawaiian vacations and Braves paraphernalia would want their ads to appear on the

right side of the organic results rather than the new panel.

Second, by serving up so much information directly on the results page, searchers may have fewer reasons to click through to one of the websites listed in the organic results. If that’s your website, and you make revenue from visitors, that’s going to hurt. It may necessitate targeting more “long tail” keywords that are less likely to display the knowledge graph panel, such as “Hawaiian vacations” or “Braves hats.”

We’ll continue to keep an eye on Google’s changes and advise our subscribers how to respond. Stay tuned!

About Us

Prominent Placement, Inc. is an award-winning, full-service search engine marketing (SEM) firm, delivering ROI that traditional marketing channels can’t touch, with a level of service that raises the bar. Since 2001, Prominent Placement has managed the entire SEM process for clients across the U.S., driving leads and revenue while empowering businesses to focus on what they do best. Prominent Placement’s customized solutions are backed by hard numbers, giving decision makers the confidence they need to make smarter decisions.

For more information, visit our website or call 888.SEM.MKTR (888.736.6587). If you’d like to learn how Prominent Placement can drive more leads for your business, contact Christine Verska at x713 or christine@prominentplacement.com.

About Embark

Embark is a small business Internet marketing firm based in Atlanta and run by the same team as Prominent Placement. We offer affordable search engine marketing solutions that will help your small business or startup generate brand awareness, attract new customers, and grow revenue. Our experienced team will manage your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, so you can focus on growing your business.

For more information on how to boost online visibility, leads and sales on a limited budget, visit http://www.EmbarkSEM.com, or contact Christine Verska at christine@prominentplacement.com or 404.373.9727 x713.

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Previous Issues

Apr: B2B Versus B2C: 6 Ways Search Marketing is Different

Mar: Facebook Premium Ads: Have They Gone Too Far?

Feb: What Are You Missing With Paid Search?

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We Are Hiring a Project Manager!

March 8th, 2012 No comments

We are seeking a new team member with experience as

a Project Manager. We’re looking for candidates located in Atlanta. They will become part of a team that rewards performance, encourages growth, values relationships with our families and

community, and offers a competitive compensation package. (Not to mention, cheap viagra we were named one of Atlanta’s Best Places to Work in 2011!)

Interested candidates should review the job description and application instructions here:  Atlanta Search Marketing Jobs.

Please help us spread the word!

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We Are Hiring an SEO Manager!

March 1st, 2012 No comments

We are seeking a new team member with deep experience in Search Engine Optimization. We’re looking for candidates located in Atlanta. They will become part of a team that rewards performance, encourages growth, values relationships with our famil

ies and community, and offers a competitive compensation package.

(Not to mention, we were named one of Atlanta’s Best Places to Work in 2011!)

Interested candidates should review the job description and application instructions here: Atlanta SEO Jobs

Please

help us spread the word!

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How Will the Loss of Spelling Standards Affect Search?

February 20th, 2012 No comments

It’s a happy day at my house each month when the latest issue of Wired magazine arrives. That said, and considering how particular I am about grammar, typos and such, I was dismayed to read the article “Simon’s Simple Hydroponics Plans Giant Ebook e/2012/01/st_essay_autocorrect/”

target=”_blank”>Proper Spelling? Its Tyme to Let Luce!”

Author Anne Trubek asserts that “Consistent spelling was a great way to ensure clarity in the print era. But with new technologies, the way that we write

and read is changing, and so must spelling.” Trubek gives examples of how even the idea that there are correct and incorrect ways to spell words is fairly recent in civilization’s history. And she points out what a mess the English language is, even with all our rules. Read more…

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Radio Interview on Search Marketing

January 23rd, 2012 No comments
Lee Kantor (Atlanta Business RadioX), Dawn Ely (Corporate Conversations Host & President of Palladium Chief Legal Officers) & Christian Griffith (VP Digital Strategy, Freebairn & Co.)
Lee Kantor (Atlanta Business RadioX), Dawn Ely (Corporate Conversations Host & President of Palladium Chief Legal Officers) & Stacy Williams (Prominent Placement))

Lee Kantor (Atlanta Business RadioX), Dawn Ely (Corporate Conversations Host & President of Palladium Chief Legal Officers) & Stacy Williams (Prominent Placement))

If you weren’t able to tune in to hear the livestream of “Corporate Conversations” last Tuesday, here’s an audio clip of just my portion of the show, and here’s a longer clip including the first half with Christian Griffith of Freebairn & Company.

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Hear Me Speak Twice This Week

January 17th, 2012 No comments

Because once just isn’t enough! :)

Tuesday, January 17, 10:00 – 11:00 am (audio available anywhere)

Tune in to Guitar Scale Mastery

et=”_blank”>Corporate Conversations

to hear Christian Griffith of Freebairn & Company and me talk about the growth of digital marketing with host Dawn Ely. If you can’t stream us live, a podcast will be available for on demand listening.

Thursday, January 19, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm (Atlanta)

Join the Independent Counselors SIG of the Georgia PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) for “Marketing your IC Business in 2012.” I’ll be on a panel along with Lynne Andrews of Marketing Expectations, Nora DePalma of O’Reilly-DePalma, and Greg Euston of McGraw Euston Associates. Dan Curran of Curran Public Relations will moderate.

The event will be held at The Ravinia Club and lunch is included. Fees range from $20-$45, depending on

membership status and how early you register. More info.

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December Newsletter: Google Hides Your Data… Unless You Pay

December 20th, 2011 3 comments

While the world is moving toward more transparency and more data availability, Google recently backtracked on this front. In a move unnoticed by most, Google is now blocking organic keyword data from being captured for searchers who are logged into

Google or searching on Google’s secure (https) site. This means that when marketers look at their web analytics, keywords used by these searchers are not displayed, but are lumped together under “(not provided).”


Why should you care? Because taking away this data makes it harder for marketers to measure the performance of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. When we know which keywords drive traffic – and more importantly, conversions – we can invest more of our time and effort into those keywords rather than less valuable ones. We can ensure that landing pages are directly relevant to the keyword that brought the searcher to that page. In general, we can continue to hone our efforts and maximize our results.
Read more…

Much Needed Assistance with Rich Snippets

December 19th, 2011 No comments

According to Google, “… rich snippets provide you with the ability to help Google highlight aspects of your page. Whether your site contains information about products, recipes, events or apps, a few simple additions to your markup can result in mo

re engagement with your content — and potentially more traffic to your site.” Most of us are familiar with rich snippets and know they can increase click through rates for search results.

We know rich snippets are important, but implementation can be daunting and confusing. I’m not going to attempt to discuss the technical aspects of rich snippets or go into a how-to lesson — I’ll leave that to the experts. Google Webmaster Tools recently published a series of instructional videos about rich snippets. Video topics include a general introduction, types of rich snippets, product searches and troubleshooting, among others.

Not sure if you have rich snippets? Google also has a rich snippet testing tool that allows you to see if a web page contains a rich snippet markup, and, if so, preview the search result for that page.

Does your site contain rich snippets? Use the tool and find out (it’s painless, I promise). Yes? Good for you! No? Try them out and see whether rich snippets have an impact on your click-through-rates.

Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Online Newsroom

December 16th, 2011 4 comments

viagra pillsnew-year-odometer-on-black-confetti-post-cards.jpg” alt=”" width=”210″ height=”210″ />As millions of us are furiously jotting down ideas for our personal New Year’s Resolutions, here’s one resolution corporate communicators and marketers ought to include: adding an online newsroom to their websites. Consider this fact for a moment: less than half of all businesses even have an online newsroom. The intent to develop one is pending, however. And 2012 is almost here. But for now, this means that the majority of PR folks, corporate communicators, and marketers lack any sort of online newsroom presence. Talk about an untapped market! Given the recent Freshness updates – where preference is heavily tilted towards breaking news, such as the upcoming Presidential primaries or Occupy Wall Street, and frequently updated customer reviews on new products, like Amazon’s Kindle Fire – it’s clear that Google is increasingly relying on a website’s online newsroom as the primary source of trending, newsworthy, and up-to-date content. Read more…

How Google’s New Verbatim Search Works

December 1st, 2011 4 comments

After performing a search, Google offers a new option to narrow down search results. Under “More search tools”, you can now select “Verbatim” to limit traffic to just what you literally searched. Google has a short explanation discount viagragle.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=1734130″>here which suggests that the tool eliminates spelling corrections, personalized search based on your search history, synonyms, similar terms, and words with the same stem. Basically, you just get what you’re looking for without Google’s search suggestions.

The buzz is that Verbatim search is Google’s substitute for the phased out “+”operator. Previously, this could be utilized to make sure that a specific word in a specific form appeared in the search results. Google’s intentions might be to now utilize “+” to perform some function related to Google+. Only time will tell! Read more…

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