Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged search engines
Duplicate Content Is Not A SEO Crime
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
“Duplicate content” refers to the same article being published on multiple pages online. This term is usually associated with how the various search engines perceive an article that is published on many sites online.
There is some misunderstanding about how search engines regard identical content. Many people, including some webmasters, will tell you that duplication of your copy or content on various websites will hurt your SEO, not improve it.
And while this may have been true at one time, in 2010 it’s a myth.
Google does NOT punish an author, copywriter or website for having an article published on more than one website. This is because the whole goal of article marketing is to have your article republished or cited on as many sites as possible.
Search engines don’t regard it as being a bad thing to have a piece of content published on multiple sites, though they will most likely only show a couple instances of the article in their search results.
Most online publishers or article directories are ok with duplicate content as well, provided that you are the exclusive copyright holder of the copy. That’s because the entire purpose of these directories is to provide free reprint articles for news aggregators, website owners and ezine editors. When an article is published on a directory, the end GOAL is usually that the article be republished on other websites.
This is not to say that there are not a few directories that prefer to be the first website to publish your content. Check the editorial guidelines at the article submission site to see if the site has such a rule.
It should also be noted that when talking about identical content on the web, you mean the same copy on DIFFERENT websites. Submitting duplicate content to the SAME publisher is still a no-no. This is a different scenario than the one above, because no publisher wants to receive duplicate feature stories or articles. Your articles may discuss the same topic or topics repeatedly, but publishers want authors to submit articles that are fresh – completely new to their site.
Get The Balance Right
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Which is more important for content, the ability to communicate directly with visitors… or the search engine rankings it creates?
On the one extreme, imagine a website (or blog post, etc.) that is complete nonsense gibberish. Maybe envision something written in Chinese characters, assuming that’s a language you don’t understand. Now let’s say these random bits of code or symbols somehow rank quite well with the search engines, the very first organic result in fact.
What have you accomplished as a business or organization in this case?
Sure, loads of people may stumble upon your website, but once they get there what do you think will happen? Do you think they will “convert” to customers?
On the other end of the spectrum, imagine a block of written text that is so eloquent, so persuasive… that once a visitor reads it, they instantly want to become a customer, or donor, volunteer, etc.
However, because of the way it is written, it actually has zero SEO value. As such, it is invisible to the search engines, and no one who doesn’t already know your website exists will ever find it.
What has your business accomplished here? This example is marginally better than the first one; at least you could tell folks about your site!
Now yes, both scenarios are on the extremes, and unlikely. But they illustrate an important point. A typical business should NEVER just design or write solely for SEO, because the whole purpose of (most) sites is NOT to simply get visitors, but to have them DO something once they are there.
And the reverse is also true, you should never completely forget about SEO, either. This means following some basic guidelines in your web design and structure, and making sure to include the right keywords within your content, among other things.
Get the balance between SEO and readability/functionality correct, and you have a website that can help you accomplish your organization’s goals now, and in the future.
Purchasing Content: More Effective Than Web Advertising?
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
You have probably heard many sources online, including Hat Trick Associates, talk about the future of the Internet and how vital web content has become to the search engines and your SEO efforts of your website. Ideally, you want new content on your site every single time the Google crawler or one of the other large engines index your website. So a common question we hear from clients is, what is more effective for growing my website and doing more business in the future: Using my online marketing budget on advertising, or using those same resources to create more fresh content?
The answer may surprise you! Here are more vital web content-related statistics:
- More than 8 out of 10 Internet users look on search engines first to find information on the products or services they want to buy
- Up to 86% of searchers will ignore paid listings, or other advertising they know has been purchased as opposed to organic results
- On the flip side, 64% of the top natural (organic) listings will get click thrus
The reasons are fairly simple – people typically want to feel as if they have “discovered” the solution to their problem – the product, service or brand that they need – on their own. Which is why natural search results convert 35% higher than Pay Per Click campaigns! That’s a significant difference.
That doesn’t mean that web advertising should have no place in your marketing mix. But how many folks spend thousands upon thousands of their marketing dollars on Pay Per Click or Pay Per Impression campaigns, and then spend very little, or even nothing whatsoever, on their ongoing content? The answer is: many more than who actually should! And that is certainly a business mistake.