I was just sent a link to read an article on The Huffington Post site about Google.

Google Tries To Bury Low-Quality Content With Major Search Algorithm Changes

Basically in a nutshell it tells us that Google has made a major change in their search algorithm. Search algorithms drive how Google and other search engines organize and deliver relevant search results to your requests. Google optimizes and changes its algorithms hundreds of times a year to increase performance and deliver a better search experience for its users. What this means to you is that the first page results should give better more relevant websites for the things that you are searching for.

We preach a lot to our clients to constantly review, add and modify content to their sites. This is more and more important today as you can see in this article. It may be good for some and not good for other sites that may be very relevant but do not update their content on a regular basis. My suggestion for good site owners is to spend a little time and money to optimize your site and keep the landing pages changing on a regular basis, as well as spend some time online in active high traffic sites and post about your products or services and point to your site as a resource. It is always good to provide good content that is timely.

Article written by thehuffingtonpost.com

A common question we hear in web marketing is “How do I get higher position on Google?”

Before we get to the how, lets take a look at the two primary types of results displayed by the major search engines.

Search engines display two different types of results “organic search results” (what shows up in the main body area) and the paid search results (the ads that show up on the right hand side of Google). To have a positive effect on the organic results and rank your site on a search engine like Google, your website has to be considered one the most relevant sites returned for a search term queried. It is very important to understand relevancy. Search engines look at a number of factors and put weight on each one of them to determine the sites to put on that first page. Some factors are:

How old is the domain?
How many years more years until it expires?
How many sites link to yours?
Do you have a properly formatted site map?
…and many more factors

SEO Keywords
If we think about how a prospective customer might begin a search and what phrases they might use, we can determine a keyword list.

We start by working out a proper keyword set, comparing that keyword set with a competitors set of keywords. Then we run the numbers, we check how relevant the keywords are within users search queries. Basically we see how often people are searching for the keywords. We pick the keywords that drive the most traffic and optimize each page for those. Then we incorporate them into your page titles, body content and in your marketing and PPC. With the right planning we can improve ranking and move more traffic to your site. Generally if we do an organic SEO campaign we can see results within 3 to 4 weeks. That does not always mean that a site shows up on the first page of Google for all of the search terms a client might want, but in time we can significantly improve it.

SEM (search engine marketing)
For SEM, paid listings PPC (Pay Per Click) are a much more unique animal. Like traditional advertising, the highest bidder with the biggest budget gets the prime spots and is seen the most on the first page of a search query. Simply put, if you are willing to pay a higher amount per click than your competitors, you will get the top placement above the other ads and even on the top of the organic results under Sponsored Links. Setting the right price and putting together the right budget helps you get your ad shown for the duration of a day into prime shopping search times. You have to remember that your PPC budget is based on a 30-day duration. So if you run a Google Adword campaign for $100.00 then your daily budget breaks down to only $3.33 a day. If you pay $.40 per click then you will receive up to 8 people a day. So you are basically playing a percentage game.

Next you will now need to watch Bounce Rate in your analytics. This is the rate that your web traffic or users click on your ad or on the description of your site in the search results and “bounce out”. If they come to the page that your directed them to and do not find what they are looking for, or if it is not attractive, or if it does not catch their attention in the first few seconds, they leave. Industry average bounce rate is 40%. Usually our goal is to get you under 30%.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is different from search engine marketing (SEM). So which will search tactics will give better results? Actually, both tactics can work together and with a clear strategy achieve measurable results. Okay, now let’s build a plan. Part two coming soon!