GuanaCast 094 - Links Patrocinados

GuanaCast 094 - Links Patrocinados: "Tudo sobre Links Patrocinados do Google ou PPC, discutido pela equipe da MestreSEO e Gustavo Guanabara. Saiba como criar uma campanha de links patrocinados e tirar o melhor proveito dos recursos oferecidos pelo Google."

GuanaCast 095 - Software Público

GuanaCast 095 - Software Público: "Saiba o que é Software Público e como entrar nesse mundo."

Why You ‘Should’ Bother with Page Rank

Why You ‘Should’ Bother with Page Rank: "

For the moment…..

I always love a controversial post, and most of mine rarely make sense, or inspire people to talk about topics that I haven’t even discussed in my post…

Page Rank may not always be a great representative of how powerful or trusted a website is, but it does provide an enormous of information. This info may or may not be noticeable at first, but it does supply us with interesting data, as long as we are prepared to look a little deeper.

On the average I think it is hard to make an overall judgement that Page Rank is inaccurate, in fact overall Page Rank does represent higher level sites with more power, trust, links and brand coverage. Maybe a naïve conclusion, but that consensus makes sense to me.

Back to what Page Rank can actually do for you though. Well as previously said it does provide insight into the trust and power of a website (although sometimes very wrong). I see that as a good point though. **????** WHAAAA!!

Basically if you provide me with a website that has a PR8, it gives me incentive to check out everything else about it. Let’s take a look at the back links, what about referrals and social media campaigns, mentions, content and any other mediums you can think of.

A high PR (Page Rank) site will inspire investigation, and depending what you uncover depends on how you can react to it.

If the information you receive is dubious, and you discover a single link from one source (ridiculously powerful) then is there anything you can do about it?

How about investigating the power of the site you have found that the one you are investigating; links too. Is there anything there you could use?

What about the Bloggers, inexperienced SEO’s and many more who have rough understandings of Page Rank? This is still like the holy grail of how good your website is. Many use visitor rates and Alex rankings, however PR is still predominantly used to encourage people to guest blog and obtain links.

If you ask me then, for the time being PR is important, and although PR updates have been, well pretty much dormant over the past couple of years, with maybe one or two eruptions, it still represents a powerful proportion of what people are still looking at, with regards to the power of a site.

We need to change this and I agree with many points on this previous post by Modi: Why You Shouldn’t Bother about PageRank

However at the moment Page Rank still needs some attention, it isn’t quite so easily dismissed!

Mark works as head of SEO for a French Ski Resorts Tour Operator. You can follow him @MarcusSEO

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Google’s New Social Networking Feature

Google’s New Social Networking Feature: "

Google is about to launch their newest attempt to better social networking by introducing the +1 button to search results. This new feature will allow users to vote for a particular page they take an interest in by clicking the +1 button and sharing it with their network of friends. This addition to Google is much like the popular Like button that has already taken Facebook by storm.

When searching for a favorite vacation destination on Google, all somebody would have to do is click on the +1 button to the right of the link result and it would then be instantaneously shared with their network of friends and others across the web. Also, when a user performs a specific Google search, they will see every site that their friends and others +1’d beside the particular link results that might be of personal interest to them.

In order to be able to use the +1 button and see it in the search results, you will need a Google public profile. This will help users see who recommended a certain restaurant, clothing store, etc. A person’s +1 will be created in a new tab on your Google profile. The user has the option to keep their +1 tab private and just manage them for personal use, or they can share it with everyone they want to.

Social networking has become a huge factor in many successful businesses around the world. Facebook with its Like button and Twitter with its Tweet button have changed the way people are introduced to new information about millions of companies they might be interested in. Now Google’s +1 button will more easily help users to find new companies and see who in their network of friends as well as many other people have visited and +1’d their website of interest.

By having these new social networking features, businesses are able to get more traffic to their site without any expense incurred! The more +1 button clicks by a company’s link in a search result, the more likely they are to have a large amount of visitors to their website each day. Statistics have shown that the correlation between Facebook and Twitter shares (Like button, Tweet , comments) all go hand-and-hand with website rankings and linking root domains. Now with Google launching its +1 button, and soon with the ability to embed +1 on actual website content, the possibilities for companies to grow are virtually endless. Google’s +1 button is still being worked on, but if anyone is interested in learning more about this new social networking feature they can visit Google’s +1 page.

Noell works for Search-Placement Marketing located in South Florida. She enjoys writing about topics such as SEO, social media, and internet marketing. Search-Placement Marketing is an internet marketing firm specializing in SEO, Paid Search, and Social Media Marketing.

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Social Media as Marketing Method

Social Media as Marketing Method: "

With Facebook steadily inching towards the one billion member mark; Twitter gloating over its 5 million members and other social networking sites trying hard to match pace with the big daddies of social networking, it can be safely said that the rise and growth of these social networking platforms have been portentous. Apart from creating the idealistic environment; albeit a virtual one for communicating with people from all over the world, these social networking sites also hold the promise of untapped business billions.

Spending for social network advertising ballooned to $2 billion in 2008 and is pegged to exceed $3.8 billion in 2011; these figures are enough to elucidate to most business owners why they need to include social network marketing in their PR strategy. If you are all set to market your business and its offerings on social networking sites, here are some important pieces of information that will prove useful along the way.

Why choose social network advertising for your business?

No information on social network marketing and its efficacy will be complete without highlighting the distinctive advantages of using the medium over traditional forms of advertising. Among the several reasons for the immense popularity of advertising on social networks are:

• Long lasting and wide reaching appeal: Not only is it possible to reach consumers from every corner of the globe through social networking but also the impact of any efforts will yield long standing results.


• Allows you to communicate with your clients: The medium offers a rare opportunity to the marketer, the business owner to communicate with his/her clients and be a part of the marketing equation.


• Traceable performance: Another extraordinary feature of advertising on social networking platforms is the ability to trace the efficacy of your marketing dollars and the precise impact of your advertisements.


• Cashes in on a primal human need: Unlike other forms of marketing media such as TV or Radio where an advertisement is often perceived as a vexing interlude, when on a social networking site, people actually want to socialize and communicate and that is precisely what you get them to do when marketing on these platforms.

Different forms of social network advertising

Contrary to popular belief, social network advertising is an umbrella term that covers a variety of marketing strategies, each designed to yield unique effects.

Direct Advertising: This is by far the most controversial form of advertising used on social networks; it entails using information about a person in your network to draw people to your advertorial message. For instance, the Facebook Beacon project which will send out a feed such as Mike just bought XYZ. So, the natural inclination would be for people in the group to check out the very item that somebody they know recently purchased. However, this form of advertising is seen as an exploitation of personal relationships and is frowned upon as it compromises privacy.

Direct paid advertising: This is a traditional form of marketing on social networking sites which involves the display of relevant banner ads; for instance, on Facebook, the advertisement is seen on the left side of the profile page while MySpace displays it as a brick on top. These advertisements are not just randomly displayed; the sites use an algorithm which helps you to effectively use demographic information on your profile page.

Indirect advertising: This approach is ideal for rapport building and creating brand awareness. An innovative technique, it involves the formation of groups and the development of informative pages that are designed with the sole purpose of offering something worthwhile to the audience. Several facets of this strategy have been used across the myriad of social networking sites in the past few years such as contests, free tool giveaways, content marketing and more. While a lot of people assume that this is a taxing approach that does not yield quick results, the fact is that the amount of rapport generated makes this an efficient marketing strategy that will serve you for years.

Community building is another powerful (and most effective in the long run) method to build brand awareness and customer base through social media. Basically, it is about building network of social media (power) users who vote for and share your content whenever you need that. Such tools and promising start-ups like WorkForFavor are aimed at scaling and organizing this process for brands.

What really form of social network marketing will work best for you?

There are seven distinctive advertising methods that can be identified when working with social networks these include:

• Corporate profiles with fans and logos


• Banner ads


• Corporate profiles without fans or logos


• Sponsored contests


• Newsletters


• Give widget


• Get widget

It is imperative to understand that there are no generic marketing solutions in the world of social network advertising and the strategy that you employ will have to directly depend on your marketing goals. That being said, while some forms of advertising produce fantastic results when used for specific purposes others may prove more effective when used with a different goal in mind.

• For instance, while sponsored content does get people talking about your products and brand, it may not get you the expected sales and will not be suitable if you are looking for viral recommendations


• On the other hand, a corporate profile with fans can yield grand results as every user who becomes a fan is actually endorsing your brand and products.


• If your goal is customer engagement, few approaches will give you the stupendous results that you can get from widgets


• The most powerful and potent form of advertising online is to use content marketing; for instance, marketing a natural supplement on a site that offers information on healthy living.


• If encouraging purchase is the end goal of the campaign, newsletter links and banner ads will work just fine.

Tips on marketing yourself on social networking sites

Unlike other forms of advertising where it can take months or even years to see the results of your marketing initiatives, social network advertising is extremely powerful and often provides results in a matter of weeks. So, it is crucial to use the most suitable advertising strategy. So, here are a few popular techniques that can be used to market your company and its offerings online.

Brand management: For brand building, social media management can work to your advantage. This includes content marketing where you offer valuable information on your site and through your articles, diverting existing and potential clients to your page. Other techniques include maintaining a blog, using microblogging services like Twitter to let people know what’s new. All of these efforts are aimed at helping you to build a loyal fan following and augmenting the number of followers in your list.

You may need to begin by following others interested in you niche before you can get them to join your list. This approach is suitable for engaging the customers and for getting sustainable marketing results; however, it will prove futile if your sole intention is an increase in next month ROI. This technique can help you to build credibility for your business. So, the next time a person known to one of your followers wants to buy a product in your niche, you can be certain that your company will get a recommendation.

This form of social network advertising harnesses the power of word of mouth marketing. However, it calls for immense patience and persistence; fortunately, if you are not up to the task, you can always enlist the help of an expert to get it done for you.

Targeting campaigns: This marketing technique takes a significant amount of effort as you will need to find leads based on the information offered in tweets and the keywords used by them. For instance, if somebody tweets a message saying that they are looking for a landscaper Alexandria , VA. You can get in touch with them offering information about your landscaping firm. However, you need to be extremely careful with this approach as overdoing it will most certainly be seen as spamming and will destroy the credibility that you have built. The advantage of this technique is that you get immediate results which are reflected in your sales figures.

Viral content: While the concept is thrilling, few campaigns ever go viral and even when they do people talk more about the campaign than the brand pr product associated with it, so it is imperative to ensure that your company is well connected with the effort. Viral marketing entails the creation of videos, contests, novel sites and competition just to garner attention. Popular examples of the viral phenomenon include: The Viralogy Scavenger Hunt, T-Mobile Plaza Dance etc. While these campaigns can get you mammoth results, they are extremely expensive and it can be tough to find a firm to handle such a project.

Influencing campaign: You can also enlist the help of influencers such as popular bloggers, experts in your niche, tweeters and video makers to endorse your products. This again helps you to build credibility as others recommend your products and brand. In order to make this strategy work, you will need to identify the influencers in your niche and than offer something to their fans that is of value; for example, free units, first dibs etc. On the other hand, some influencer will be happy to accept cash for recommendations.

As you can see there are several ways in which you can social networking marketing to your advantage. However, to build a truly powerful campaign, you will need to understand your marketing goals and devise a strategy that can help you to meet them.

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4 SEO Myths – Believing Them Will Get You Nowhere

4 SEO Myths – Believing Them Will Get You Nowhere: "

If you want to make money online, you have to be visible on the search engines. And if you want to be visible on the search engines, you have to have a solid SEO strategy. However, with so much SEO information floating around out there, there is bound to be plenty of misinformation.

Whether you have a traditional blog, or you’re focusing on e-commerce SEO, you need to be aware of these 4 SEO myths – so that you can ignore them. Otherwise, you’ll be held back by the misinformation.

1. “You have to register your site with the search engines to get noticed.” You usually hear this myth from people who are offering to register your site – for a fee. However, there is no need to register your website with the search engines. Their spiders are savvy enough to find you. Registering your site is pointless – and a waste of money.


2. “You can be #1 for all of your keywords.” This myth tends to come from dishonest SEO firms. SEO is incredibly complex. In fact, Google uses more than 200 factors to determine where to rank your website – and, unless you’re a Google employee, you don’t know what most of them are.The truth is, no one can guarantee you a #1 ranking, because there are too many variables that go into ranking you. If someone tells you that they can guarantee a particular ranking for you (for a word worth ranking for anyway) they’re lying.


3. “SEO only takes a few months to master.” When you start an SEO strategy, you need to be in it for the long-haul. That’s because SEO is never done. No matter how successful your SEO strategy is, your work will never be finished. Even if you’re satisfied with your ranking after a few months, there will always be thousands of websites that are trying to overtake you. If you let up, they will pass you by.


4. “Trading links is a great way to boost your ranking.” Swapping links with even the highest of PR websites doesn’t do you any good. After all, the goal is to have more inbound links than outbound links. When you trade links, you wind up breaking even – instead of getting ahead.

Truly successful SEO strategies focus on quality link building, instead of trading. To the search engines, links are like votes. The more quality ones that you have, the more popular you look.

Kirsty LaVier is editor for Shopping Cart Reviews, featured information and reviews on over 200 Shopping Carts.

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SEO Metrics – Retain Your Clients with This Simple Metric

SEO Metrics – Retain Your Clients with This Simple Metric: "

SEO sales is hard, right? Search Engine Marketing is a competitive industry with lots of window dressing and false promises. When you win those precious clients you want to do everything possible to keep them happy and paying customers as long as possible.

Long term customer relationships, of course, start with setting realistic expectations and delivering what you promised. But you can’t stop at just doing the work, you have to make sure you effectively communicate progress and manage customer expectations.

To help manage expectations, we gather lots of data and provide full transparency of every link we build or content that we write. We provide monthly reports and access to a reporting dashboard that shows our clients how their rankings and organic traffic are improving.

Recently I had a client call and say that they weren’t sure if SEO was working for them. She said that all of her top organic keywords included her company name. This client did a lot of offline print and direct mail advertising that resulted in lots of people searching for their name.

My favorite tool for addressing this type of question is a trendline graph showing non-branded organic traffic. Let me explain how we get this. First, we take monthly non-paid keyword traffic from Google Analytics. We typically see some pattern that people use when searching for their company name. We then exclude any traffic from those terms. If you then look at the trendline by month you can see how much “category term” traffic has improved over time.

If you log the monthly “category traffic” number in a spreadsheet you can graph and use that as a metric to show progress. We have built software to automate this process and you can see the exact graph we use with our clients in this post.

In the client example above, once we removed her branded traffic it was very clear that the number of non-branded or category term visits has grown over time. I’ve included the graph we shared with her. She was excited to see the progress and is still a client today.

Chad Hill is the CEO of HubShout, an seo software and seo reseller, who works with web agencies to deliver online marketing services to their clients.

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