Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Some Hard Facts About Online Reputation

I am continually frustrated by how much misinformation there is out there regarding SEO. In many cases, the information is blatantly wrong and in other cases it is just being misapplied.

Most business owners and executives are not savy SEO experts. They all know that this “SEO thing” is important to their business so most are open to learning more.

In an effort to improve our knowledge I thought I would review some common misconceptions.

1. You must have Meta Keywords to boost your organic rankings. This is not true, Meta Keywords no longer have any real value in boosting your rankings. Google doesn’t even consider them in their ranking algorithm that includes well over 100 different factors.  Take Away: If someone is speaking to you about the value of meta keywords, this a red flag that they really do not know what they are talking about.
2. Google Page Rank directly impacts your site’s keyword rankings. There is evidence that Page Rank is positively correlated with rankings on Google.com. However, the degree of correlation is not overwhelming. Page Rank should simply be viewed as a benchmark indicator of Google’s view of the importance of your site.  I regularly see sites with lower Page Rank that rank higher than competing sites with a higher PR.  Take Away: Don’t get hung up on PR. It’s a nice number to look at occasionally but focus your efforts on converting your site visitors to customers.
3. “Our SEO is endorsed / approved by Google.“ Google clearly states that they do not endorse any SEO companies. Companies can be Google Certified in certain Google products, such as Adwords or Analytics. However, these certifications are NOT for SEO.  Take Away: In Google’s words “Beware of SEO’s that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. Read more from Google on SEO.
4. Guaranteed Rankings. There really is no such thing as guaranteed search engine rankings when you’re dealing with natural search results.  Google states on their on site that “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” Read more from Google. Take Away: Any company or individual that promises ‘Guaranteed Rankings’ should treated with extreme caution.
5. SEO is a one-time activity you complete and are then done with. How many times have you heard someone say “We actually just finished SEO’ing our site”?  SEO is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that must be actively managed.  Do you think your competitors are going to do a little work and then stop?  As competition online becomes more heated, it is essential that companies engage in an ongoing SEO program.  Take Away: If you’re serious about promoting your business online, then SEO should be a standard component of your marketing plan.
6. Spending money on Google Adwords boosts your natural results. It is understandable to believe that spending money on paid ads with Google will somehow affect your organic / natural rankings. However, it is not true. Google has stated repeatedly that paid ads have no bearing on organic search result, yet this myth continues to live on. Running paid ads in conjunction with an SEO program can certainly be a good thing. It can give you increased visibility which can lead to higher click through rates, more natural inbound links. etc. Take Away: Incorporate a PPC campaign as part your overall online marketing strategy but don’t expect it to have any impact on your SEO efforts.

SEO can be a very confusing subject to the average business person. However, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it. My advice is to do some research and find a reputable SEO company to partner with…get a basic understanding of their approach to SEO, talk with their clients, and verify results they have achieved.

Another change to Place pages is an increased emphasis on the call to action for users to leave a review. A big red button at the top of the page now urges users to “Write a review.” In fact, this is one of the core features of the new page design. This change means that now more than ever, it’s important to claim and optimize your business Google Place page, ensure consistency across local listings, and request happy customers to leave reviews specifically on your Google Place page.

So What?

Overall, these changes emphasize the importance of including Google in your reputation and reviews strategy. However, it’s still important to have a comprehensive reputation management strategy that focuses on search engines, social media channels, and third-party directory and review sites. For local search engine optimization and reputation management, the overall strategy for reviews doesn’t change based on these updates. It’s still critical to monitor your reputation across the web, acquire lots of reviews on various sites, and engage in reputation management.

On February 23rd, Google released a search algorithm update dubbed “Farmer” (aka Panda) that affected some 11.8 percent of Google search queries in the United States.  This latest update was tagged “Farmer” because it impacted sites that specialize in junk content.  These ‘content farms’ flood the Internet with a never ending stream of low quality content. I’m sure you’ve stumbled across a few of these sites laden with useless content and tons of ads.

Specifically, Google identified and penalized the rankings of sites that copy or “scrape” the content of other sites; sites that have low-quality content; sites that have a high ratio of ads to content; and sites that lack brand trust. To put it simply, Google is penalizing sites that don’t provide much value to the user.

So what does this mean to you and your site?

Certainly anyone who employed an SEO who relied on dubious shortcuts took a hit. Unfortunately that includes legitimate well intentioned business people who were simply trying to market their services on the Internet like everyone else. They trusted search engine optimization companies that relied on dubious tactics, or off-shore optimizers with a poor command of the English language who simple scraped and assembled content for other websites.

However, if you have been following good SEO practices, then it is highly unlikely that you were negatively affected.  In fact, you may notice slight improvements in your search engine rankings due to the drop in rankings for sites that were penalized.

Google Counters Bad SEO Tactics

Google actually makes hundreds of changes to its search results ranking algorithm each year in an effort to stay a step ahead of black-hat optimizers who use dubious tactics in an effort to “game” the system rather than produce useful content. We knew this change was coming… we just didn’t know when.  The same thing happened a few years ago with ‘link farms’.

There are no short cuts. There never have been…

Gaming the system has never worked for any length of time. Trying to circumvent Google’s algorithm is short-sighted and ultimately builds your web presence on a house of cards that collapses the moment Google makes a change.

There are certain things that work, and will always work. A professional SEO company knows that Google is happy to reward optimizers that play by the rules and consider that the end game is to serve up the most accurate, meaningful and varied results to the person searching for information.

What’s the upside?

Well if you are just a person searching for something on Google, your chances of finding good quality results just increased. If you are a business who employed a skilled “white hat” Search Engine Optimization company then a lot of the noise on the Internet just cleared out of your way to the top of the results.

In it’s effort to continually provide better search results, Google is once again changing way search results are displayed for Local searches.  An example of a local search would be ‘plumber greenville sc’.

Previously, Google Places listings (formerly Google Maps) were display in an abbreviated version next to a Google Map.  This week, we are starting to see search results for local business in a new display.  The Google Map can now be found in the upper right corner of a search result page (see image below).

In addition, Google is now displaying much more information, such as images, on each local listing and the format is very similar to the organic results that are shown below the top seven Google Place results.  The Local search algorithm is also changing and it is evident that two key factors are the physical location of your business, as well as having a strong website that is optimized for local search results.

Previously, you would see businesses listed in the Google Map results that may not even have a website. We are seeing that many of those businesses are no longer listed in the top results. In addition, they will now find it almost impossible to maintain a listing without a well developed and locally optimized website.  This is good news if you have been engaged in local search engine optimization.

From an SEO perspective, we’re seeing businesses that previously had a high organic ranking on page 1 may now be pushed to page 2.  The new page one results for local searches are showing the Top 7 Google Places along with the top 6 organic results.  So if you were previously listed in position 7-10 on the first page, it is possible that you may now find yourself on page 2 if you are not optimizing for local search results.

Good, clean web design is one of the most important factors for site usability.  Every design aspect of your website should be understandable and clear to the visitor. Our attention spans are extremely sort when we’re searching  and  a good design doesn’t require visitors to think too much about navigating a site.

Here are a few simple guidelines:

• Navigation links should be clearly visible and easily understood.
• The most important information must be above the fold (the fold is the bottom of the site that is visible on your pc screen).
• There should be clear Calls To Action on every page.  What is it that you want the visitor to do next?  What if they are not sure- where should they go to get more info?  Tell your visitors what they should do next – don’t make them think about it.
• Provide multiple avenues for visitors to get information. Some people just want the highlights or a product compared to others that want to read reviews or technical specifications.
• Your visitors should be able to quickly find all the information they are looking for.

By following these guidelines, your visitors can immediately find their way around your website.  You are essentially putting them in control of the experience with a well-defined course that you have defined.

Website usability is all about giving the right information to the visitor at the right time.  The “right time” is different for each person and a good web design addresses your visitors varying needs and buying processes.

Remember, visitors will enter your site on different pages if you’re doing effective search engine optimization and they should always be able to tell what to do next (or more importantly, what you want them to do next).

With a new web design, you can improve your search engine rankings drastically or you can lose all of it. The biggest risk is losing the value of your inbound links which usually point to specific pages. To make sure this doesn’t happen, be sure to include an effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) design plan as part of your overall redesign process.

SEO shouldn’t start after the website is finished. It should begin with the initial development/design of a website.  Don’t treat SEO as an after thought.

Listed below are the basic components of a SEO design plan.

Goals

Start with the business goals of the new website. Every website should have goals, otherwise it is pointless to have one. The goals for your website could be any of the following: generate sales or leads, build your online brand and visibility, showcase products or services, or provide useful information to users and clients.

Analysis

Always analyze your website traffic statistics to determine what results are currently being generated. If you’re already ranking well for certain keyword phrases or if you have pages that are performing well, then you certainly need to know that and develop a plan to ensure you maintain those results.

Keywords

Select keyword phrases that have good traffic volume and that accurately describe what you offer. More specific keywords, i.e. long-tail phrases, will bring more visitors that are closer to making a buying decision.

Website Architecture

Design your navigation to be both user and search engine friendly. Think about what you want the user to do and make sure the path is clear. Make use of clear Calls To Action throughout the site. Imagine your website is a storefront (which it really is).  When a customer comes into your store what do they see and what do you tell them?  Very few retailers let a shopper browse the store without offering some assistance, such as ‘we just got our summer line in this week’, and ‘we’re running a buy one / get one free offer this weekend’.  Think of your website the same way to optimize the experience for the visitor.

Content

Content isn’t king – conversation is king, but to start conversation, you need relevant unique content. Search engines and visitors love content. Optimize your content to be seen by as many people as possible.

Links

Use an internal linking structure with keywords to enable website visitors to find exactly what they are looking for on your website.

Inbound links

Maintain the content that is attracting inbound links on your current site. If you can’t keep the content on the redesign, then develop a plan to replace those links.

Identify your inbound links providing the greatest value and develop a plan to contact those sites and get the links changed to your new pages.

SEO planning is very important before and during the design process of any successful web design project. It can make a huge difference in maintaining and building upon existing traffic and conversion rates.

Internet marketing, digital marketing, and interactive advertising revenues are expected to grow to $62.4 billion in the US by 2012 according to a forecast by The Kelsey Group. This represents a 21.3% annual rate when compared to 2007 revenues of $22.5 billion for the US.

Compare this with traditional advertising and marketing, such as the Yellow Pages and you will you notice that they are expected to decrease by 1.4% annually over the same period. It’s not surprising that Yellow Books are now trying to aggressively get in the online game.

Forrester Research is projecting similar growth rates for digital advertising in their projects through 2014.  Forrester claims that interactive budgets will grow at the expense of traditional marketing.  Sixty percent of the respondents said they will grow their digital marketing budgets by shifting funds away from other marketing channels.

Newspaper and magazine advertisements, radio ads, yellow pages, outdoor and telemarketing advertisements are all expected to decline while internet  marketing is expected to grow.

Categories expected to grow the most (Data from the Forrester Research revenue estimates for 2014)

• Search Marketing : $31.6 Billion (15% annual growth)
• Display Advertising: $16.9 Billion (17% annual growth)
• Social Media Marketing: $3.1 Billion (34% annual growth)
• Email Marketing: $2.1 Billion (11% annual growth)
• Mobile Marketing: $1.3 Billion (27% annual growth)

Search marketing will be the major marketing area that companies will be investing in to market their business online.  This will be a combination of SMM (social media marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization) organic search and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising.  Overwhelmingly, companies are moving their advertising funds from traditional marketing to online marketing methods.

Leave a comment below if you require more information regarding the growth of internet marketing.

A recent study of search engine marketers reveals that the top two challenges they currently face are Increased Competition for Natural (Organic) Search Rankings and Increased Competition for Top Paid Search Positions.

In our small web marketing firm in Greenville, we see these exact trends even at the local level. Several years ago it was relatively easy to get top rankings in organic search for local businesses.  It’s still much easier than national campaigns, however it is becoming more and more competitive every day in most local industries. Gone are the days of doing some basic SEO, getting a few links and popping on the first page.

I regularly talk with clients and prospects about the need to get on board with organic search now.  Search engine optimization is not a one and done process.  The companies that are actively involved in SEO are building a huge lead in local search that will in some cases be insurmountable by the competitors that are late to get on board.

On the one hand, it’s a great opportunity for progressive companies to build a dominant presence online…one that will only grow as the use of digital marketing continues to expand.  On the other hand, the businesses that continue to sit on the sidelines and do nothing are going to be left behind.  When they do realize they need to get involved, the price to compete and is going to be much steeper and out of reach for many of them.