Sunday, October 31, 2010

SEO Will Remain Alive As long As There Are Search Engines

Whenever there is some new technology or update emerging on the search engine scenario , the first thing people start posting on their blogs is – “So, Is SEO Dead With The Advent Of ….”


The Online marketing scene keeps on changing at a very fast pace and every year we have new trends emerging unlike the traditional form of marketing where more than the trend it was the strategies which had to be kept on changing.The emerging online marketing trends are due to the technological changes and the improvements in the internet services which have reached even to the remote and not so developed places .

As the year end approaches we keep on hearing that one form of marketing is a passé and some new form of marketing shall rule the roost in the forthcoming year. We have heard statements like Banner Ads. Are Dead, Email is Dead, SEO is Dead in the past years but inspite of all these claims we still see that these banner ads., email and SEO are still very much alive along with the fast emerging trends like social media.

I want to focus on SEO being very much alive inspite of all the developments and enhancements in the web world.

Let me give you a small example of a project we undertook in the year 2000. We were supposed to register the domain, develop the site, host the site and submit it to the search engines (yes we called it search engine submissions in 2000 rather than SEO ) The cost of the domain was Rs.3,000/- The hosting was approx. Rs.15,000/ - Rs. 20,000/- The development charges of a simple static site of 10 pages with a flash banner was Rs. 30,000/- but when we were talking about search engines to the client and explaining to him what a search engine was and of course the demo of search was given on www.altavista.com as that was the supreme uno search engine which everyone wanted a presence on in early 2000. The charges quoted for search engine submissions were Rs. 10,000/-

But now the scenario after 10 years is completely reversed as far as the cost of domain, hosting, development and SEO are concerned. Now SEO is the most sort after and a premium service and nobody thinks of having a website without optimizing it. So, this shows that though many times false alarms are raised by people that SEO is dead , SEO keeps on living infact keeps on evolving and growing with time and in fact become richer as a service when search engines enhance their search algorithms and keep adding more search options.

It is simple logic that SEO is search engine optimization so this service keeps on evolving and improving according to the evolution and improvements on the search engines.

Apart from the developments on the search engines on the other side the users are also more specific with their searches , more net savvy and are looking for more and more options . With these changes in the search behavior the competition among the search engines also gets an impetus leading to quality output from the search engines.

Hence the changes may cause some upheaval on the search scene and may give an impression of SEO no longer having its existence but the truth is that it just changes the approach to SEO and the modifications add more life to SEO rather than making it lifeless.

One more thing that needs to be kept in mind before making such ultimate statements like ‘SEO IS DEAD’ is that the search engines get their true identity because of organic search and if organic search is demeaned or given less importance to, the search engines will become advertising platforms or paid directories where there are no categories.

Organic search makes the web developer and SEO think about the nuances of the website and make the website more complete with the metatags giving an identity to the website and the other SEO aspects like content, alt text, headings, anchor text , clean code add to the quality and identity of the website reducing clutter on the web too. For paid listings you need not bother about these nuances of the site and yet get a ranking due to the purchasing power the company has.

Moreover, the search industry has given livelihood to so many people involved in SEO and also hopes to the SMEs and SMBs to target the global market competing with the giants of the same industry on the search engines. As search engines do not rank sites on the basis of balance sheets but on the basis of the site being up to the mark according to the search engine algorithms. This offers an equality of opportunities to all once you get a lead due to organic search which may have even gone to the top shot of that industry , how you deal and go ahead with the finalization of the deal depends on your expertise and knowledge which is fair enough.


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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Google And Place Search : The Latest Update On Local Search Listings On Google.

Google announced Place Search yesterday : A faster easier way to find local information.  Google surely seems to be giving importance to local search and this move in fact gives me an impression that Google is trying its best to balance organic search results, local search results and paid listings on the Google results page .


If you search for ‘SEO Ahmedabad’ The results appear as below: 


This results page shown above shows a balance between organic, local and paid listings. But the search for all queries having a local intent does not display the similar layout.

For e.g if you search for ‘Malls in Delhi’ it still shows the 7 pack as local search along with the map on the RHS and the paid listing pushed below and the organic listings after the 7 pack local search listing.


Google's Place Search is rolling out now and will be available globally in more than 40 languages in the next few days.

People surely want a global as well as local presence for their business and the importance and attention given by Google to both the results is surely a welcome step.
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Friday, October 22, 2010

SEO Is About Is Content , Intent And Links. - The Right Approach To Create A Genuine Online Presence Of Your Business

 Every business small or big cannot think of ignoring the online presence of their company, products and services. When we talk of online presence the first thing that comes to our mind is the website, then its visibility on the web mainly via search engines and social media sites. Yes, online visibility is important and is the lifeline of every marketing campaign and reaching out to the people online is all the more important just like oxygen is to life.

Now, if having a presence on the search engines is important then optimizing your site for the search engines will surely be a priority. SEO we all know is search Engine Optimization , hence as the term suggests your website should be according to the search engine norms and algorithms so that it gets ranked to derive the targeted traffic to the site. Firstly though the core services of WebPro Technologies is SEO that is to get organic traffic to your site , I would like to state the fact that SEO is nothing complicated or something which requires the skills of a nuclear scientist. It is neither magic or some kind of guessing game it is purely based on some logical factors on which search engines rank websites for targeted keywords.

But, largely SEO is based on content and links. The success of the rankings for targeted keywords is based on intent (Both intent of the searcher with which he frames the queries and the intent of the website content to rank for the queries selected for the website). Then it depends how artistically your SEO has applied the SEO science on your website.

I am not going to go into the details of what is good SEO here as I want to specify that the online presence of your company is nothing but a reflection of your offline presence. If content is important to rankings and for more visibility then by just getting flowery content which is in hyperbole written by content developers lack the soul in it and does not apply to the image of your business in the real world will not take your business any where as what ever is written or displayed on the website should be a true reflection a mirror image of your business and thus you can put forward the right image and win the faith of the online buyer. The webpage is not a platform to become boisterous of your business image or brag about it .

As I believe the content and links should be natural to get a long term presence on the search engines. Keep adding content according to the progress and development about your company on the website in the form of testimonials, or upgrade the content about the achievements , products, services, client list , etc. I am sure if you work hard to achieve the business targets you surely will have fresh content related to this on a periodic basis available to update the site . Share the effort , experience and the ups and downs your company went through to achieve this on your blog which will help you to connect and interact to like minded people on social media and add valuable content to your site.

If the content is genuine , informative and related to topical, trendy topics it will again add natural inbound links to the site. But, this is not a one time exercise this has to be a regular regime and on a continuous basis to attract more and more links and to rank for more and more keywords. The website is a platform which displays the company’s image, its products, services, mission and the future plans to its customers and potential customers and the voice of your existing customers can become your passport to increased sales.

Hence , content written for a webpage is not an entry for the best essay or the best article writing competition but just the sharing of details and the summary of what your offline business is planning, contemplating , executing and the results achieved due to all this and the intent is to attract maximum targeted visitors and convert these potential customers to regular customers.

Just as in the real world the word of mouth generates maximum business on the web it’s the social word of mouth which will get your more targeted visitors because the maximum positive social word of mouth will come from your existing satisfied customers only.

Work hard in the real world to have more satisfied customers and more acheivements in business which helps your business grow and then update and upgrade your virtual business with the real world facts, figures and experiences thereby being in a win-win situation in the virtual world as well as the real world. As someone has truly said " There Is No substitute For Hard Work"


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Monday, October 18, 2010

My Experience Related To Guest Blogging

A social network diagramImage via Wikipedia We are reading about guest blogging extensively on the web recently. Guest blogging is about getting your post published on another blog or publish a post written by someone else on your blog. Both give an opportunity for networking, adding a freshness of writing style on the blog, reaching out to more communities and making your blog to reach out to other communities as well.


I would like to share my experience regarding guest blogging . Last month I registered on http://myblogguest.com/ hoping to get guest posts for the WebPro Technologies blog . When I registered and went through the user friendly interface and read articles beyond just my field of SEO , Social Media and Web Marketing , the idea of writing for other blogs also fascinated me and I wrote my first article http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-traditional-media-of-marketing-to-the-internet-media-of-marketing/23947/ for a guest post and submitted it to http://myblogguest.com/ .

The first offer received was from Search Engine Journal http://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/bharati-ahuja/ which was something no one can refuse . The interaction with a new blog community has given me immense pleasure in sharing my views on the topics which I am very passionate about and the comments made by the readers surely gave me a varied perspective about the topics written by me.

Being a web marketer reaching out to more and more and networking with the people of the industry and sharing knowledge and information is the lifeline of our company and trust me guest blogging has surely given me this opportunity.

http://myblogguest.com/ a Community of guest bloggers is managed by @seosmarty . You can sign up for free and find out how the community can help you. http://myblogguest.com/ has featured on http://myblogguest.com/forum/featured_on.php .

Last but not the least please read about what guest blogging is not before you go ahead with guest blogging. http://myblogguest.com/blog/what-guest-blogging-is-not-getting-it-right/

But guest blogging is definitely about the following:


More, more, more traffic
More, more subscribers
More, more people sharing the post on social media
More and more benefits!

Benefits for guest bloggers:

• - Reach new audience

• - Build your brand

• - Network


Benefits for blog owner:

• - Get free exclusive content

• - Get free targeted traffic

• - Network

• - Get new fresh perspective

Please do share  your guest blogging experience with us and please retweet  to spread the word about guest blogging which puts both the parties concernened in a win-win situation.
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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Weekly Update About The Search Industry - Google , Yahoo, Bing. - A Video

View the following video to update yourself about the weekly developments in the Search Industry by http://www.seroundtable.com/



The topics discussed in the Video are:
•Bing Gets Something Google Can't Get, Facebook Data


•Did Google's Marissa Mayer Get Promoted or Demoted?

•Google Updates Link Reports Before Bing

•Google Improves Parameter Handling For Faceted Navigation Control

•Google Testing Highlighting Search Results On Mouse Over Event?

•Google Testing AdWords At Bottom Again

•Yahoo Looking To Sell Again? This Time, I'm All For It

•Yahoo Was "Down a Bit" Yesterday Afternoon

•Yahoo Closing More Directories, Now UK Directory

•Surprise: Google's Q3 2010 Earnings Up

•Google Maps Penguins - Peguins For Street Views

•SES Chicago 2010 Live Blog Coverage Schedule


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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Google Announces In-Page Analytics - Visual Context For Google Analytics – Better Visualization Than The Site-Overlay.

Google Analytics v2.0Image by vrypan via FlickrToday Google has announced the In-Page Analytics , with In – Page Analytics you can see your Google Analytics data superimposed on your website as you browse. Compared to this there is the site overlay report of Google Analytics which has not worked very well .


In-Page Analytics of Google Analytics is still in beta so many of the functions may not work well. The site overlay also gave a similar overview but the visualization with in-page analytics is comparatively better as you can view the details regarding the clicks on each link of the page. This data is surely going to be helpful in deciding and tweaking the layout and navigation of the page which in turn shall help in increasing the CTR on the links of the page.

The best part is that you can apply filters and analyse the data as per your preference metrics and view and browse the selected preference.

View the video for the detailed information.

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Do I Need To Renew My SEO Contract For An Ongoing SEO Attention For My Site?

We are on the threshold of welcoming 2011 and 2010 has seen some remarkable developments in the search marketing industry with the integration of social media and search reflected in terms of Real Time Search. Anyone who is interested in having a long term search engine presence and valuable online visibility cannot rule out the importance of SEO from their online campaigns.

We offer SEO Packages according to the need and requirement of the client but usually it is the annual plan that we offer, is majority of the time applicable for giving a valuable and qualitative SEO uplift to the SEO inquiries we get . By the end of 6-8 months usually the sites get a good presence on the search engines and by the end of the year the sites start ranking for many of the highly competitive, generic, specific and long term keywords too. When the last annual report is sent to the clients and a final meeting is arranged to explain and demonstrate the stages and achievements of the SEO project , they without fail ask me –

• DO WE NEED TO RENEW THE CONTRACT ?

• IS SEO AN ONGOING PROCESS?

As we all know that the SEO results are achieved gradually and if the norms of the search engines are kept in mind while optimizing the site the rankings do last for a long time in the long run (Well, this is what my experience has taught me) but as we all know that the search engines keep on updating the algorithms and also keep on enhancing the search experience by introducing new technologies , updates and search options as per the changing industry standards and scenario, it is highly essential to keep monitoring , reviewing and tweaking the site to assure or should I say insure the visibility and presence already achieved .

If by the end of the year if your SEO company has been open about the SEO strategies applied by them and has been explaining to you the SEO process stage wise and provided you have been taking a keen interest in it then by the end of the SEO contract I am sure you or your in-house web development staff should be in a position to monitor, tweak and review the site by following the DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) policy .

But, if this is not the case and you don’t want to lose out on the SEO benefits that you have already achieved then it is 100% advisable to renew the SEO contract for monitoring the site from the SEO perspective as SEO is surely an ongoing process as the site needs to be kept in par with the norms and algorithms of the search engines .

Monitoring. Reviewing, Tweaking and constantly working on getting quality inbound links has to be an ongoing activity and only thus you can keep the visibility and presence alive on the search engines in the long run.

The pricing of the renewal for the SEO contract again may vary from company to company and of course from continent to continent . At WebPro we do not believe in the per month pricing model for the first year of the SEO Contract but for the renewal that is from the second year onwards the per month basis of pricing is ideal as this is again fair for the client and the SEO company . But, of course these kind of agreements are project specific and mutually decided upon keeping in mind the mutual benefit and returns.
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Friday, October 8, 2010

The Very First Video Doodle On The Google Logo - John Lennon’s 70th Birthday

Today Google' logo is graced by  a video . This is a first ever video Doodle and  is powered by YouTube. It can be viewed on the Google home page. The video is about of John Lennon's 1971 classic "Imagine"


Google Instant Live On www.google.co.in (India)

Google Logo bg:Картинка:Google.pngImage via Wikipedia A few weeks ago Google had introduced Google Instant a new way of searching that made search more interactive , quick and easy.Today Google Instant has gone live in India too.


As per the blogpost on Google' blog Google Instant combines three core features -- dynamic results, Autocomplete predictions, and ‘scroll-to-search’ functionality -- to deliver smart, predictive results as you type. 

Picture of arrow keys of a PC keyboardImage via Wikipedia
The main components of Google Instant are :

•Predictions
•Instant Results
•Scroll To Search

Google suggests or predicts what the user might be searching depending on each character the user types in the search query box. The user can select what he is searching for by using the arrow keys and as the user makes the selection the search results keep on changing accordingly.

You can read about What is Google Instant and how does it change the search experience for all concerned i.e mainly the users and SEO on our previous blog post when Google Instant was introduced last month.
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Use Of Infographics And How To Optimize A Web Page Having Only An Infographic.

 Visual presentation of information is a powerful tool. Information graphics, also known as infographics, are a way of presenting information, data, or knowledge with the use of visual tools. Many people are familiar with basic infographics, like weather maps, which have small symbols to indicate areas of low and high pressure, as well as predictions for snow, rain, and sunshine.


Images speak louder than words. One infographic can communicate , help spread an idea and attract attention at a glance. If the graphic was to be represented by words then a certain attention span is required to read and digest the idea but a good colorful info graphic can easily attract attention and convey the message faster. That is the main reason people use slides during workshops and presentations.

Especially when the data is complex and involves jargon and step by step approach a pictoral representation can surely be the best way to convey the idea. Many bloggers have a trend of translating their posts as a graphic for reaching out .

If the blog post has a graphic and textual content there is a possibility of the post being ranked on the search engines under the blog option and also the image option with more viral possibilities and in a way which helps in getting links.

If you have a post where you supposedly have only a graphic to convey the message then in order to get the SEO benefit the titles. Headings, brief explanation, Alt text and preferably hotspots with an image map with important content on the image is very crucial for the SEO of the blog post.


Some Examples Of Infographics On SEO:




Hence in order to have a presence on all the search options it is essential to keep adding fresh content in various forms on the blog like videos, images, text, social media posts, news, discussions, etc. periodically.



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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Why Blogging Is More Important Than Ever Before And How Can Blogging Help You Maintain The Rankings On The Search Engines?

Fresh content , authority inbound links and social media presence are some of the main aspects of retaining your rankings in the search engines. We all know that all this is easier said than done.

For fresh content you need to keep on updating your site with the latest happenings, developments and the future plans of your company and the future trends of the industry. This infact gives a boost to the inbound links too but again planning for good authority links is a full time exercise in itself. Social media again is about engaging with your followers and sharing content and there by integrating the social link graph to your SEO efforts. If you keep on retweeting links from other sites the SEO benefit from the social media presence to your site will be null.

Hence, it is necessary to host the content on your site and tweet that link and thereby get a platform for voicing your opinion too.
All these aspects – fresh content, social media and the focus on getting links individually may require separate set of skills, focus and plan but in fact are inter connected and interrelated and the main emphasis here is on blogging.

As only blogs can offer you the right platform to host fresh content regularly in the most easy and user-friendly way. If the blog content is unique and on some latest topic then it has the tendency to go viral thereby getting you inbound links and blogs being a social media platform itself it offers the option of creating a community and the possibility of interacting with the visitors via comments. Blogs in addition generate SEO friendly links and make it easy to share and tweet content on other social media sites.

Hence if you have a blog you have the chance of getting ranked in the blogs option of the search engines, have a chance of your social media post being displayed on the updates option of the search engines and also there is possibility of getting the inbound links .

In order to maintain the SERPs and improve upon them having a blog and keeping it updated is of utmost important and if you have good quality posts which have a good social media presence in the form of tweets and retweets then the social link graph surely adds a silver lining to the cloud (In this case your blog) .

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