It is never a good idea to use questionable techniques in order to get your website higher in the search engines. If you have a website, at some point you will get phone calls and/or emails from companies who promise to “get you to the top of the Google Search Engines in just one month.” I will guarantee that they are going to use “Black Hat” techniques (techniques to trick Google temporarily). You’ll see temporary results, pay them a high fee, and then they will be nowhere to be found when Google black lists your website for cheating. Be wary of companies that promise too much!

One of these methods is called keyword stuffing, which skews search engine results by overusing keywords on the page. Web techs will put repeated keywords toward the bottom of the page where most visitors won’t see them or they’ll use text that is the same color as the background so it’s invisible on the website, but found by Google when they search the HTML code. (Some search engine spiders can identify and ignore text that matches the page’s background color.)

Web techs also include irrelevant keywords to trick search engines – such as “Monument Dog Groomer” when they are actually in Colorado Springs. It’s rude to do to the searcher, and they often leave the site once they realize it has little or nothing to do with their search terms.

A web tech might create a web page that includes information on a current hot topic. Then when a searcher gets to it, it immediately redirects them to the real website which has nothing to do with the original search term. With several pages that each focus on a current hot topic, the webmaster can get a lot of traffic to a particular Web site.  It’s dirty business.

Selling and farming links — A link farm is a collection of Web pages that all interlink with one another in order to increase each page’s rank. When search engines detect a link selling scheme or link farm, they flag every site involved. Sometimes the search engine will simply demote every page’s rank. In other cases, it might ban all the sites from its indexes.

Cheating the system might result in a temporary increase in visitors, but since people normally don’t like to be fooled, the benefits are questionable at best. Who wants to return to a site that isn’t what it claims to be? Plus, most search engines penalize Web pages that use black hat techniques, which means the web tech trades a short success for a long-term failure.

The post “Black Hat” SEO Techniques appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Keywords aren’t the only important factor search engines take into account when generating your site’s ranking. Just because a site uses keywords well doesn’t mean it’s one of the best resources on the Web. To determine the quality of a Web page, most automated search engines use link analysis.

When doing link analysis, search engines will look to see how many other Web pages link to your website.

If other websites are linking to your website, it must contain great information, right?  Well, that’s what search engines are assuming.

Now, it can’t be just any ol’ website linking to yours. If the site linking to your site are ranked high in Google’s system, they boost your page’s rank more than lesser-ranked pages.

So, how do you get sites to link to your page? That can be a time consuming and tricky task, but will be well worth your time once the links are in place.  Making sure your page is a destination people want to link to is the first and most important step.  The second step is finding the sites to which you most want to align yourself.

You may also want to offer link exchanges with other sites that cover material related to your content. Simply email the company and ask that your request be forwarded to their webmaster for consideration.

You don’t want to trade links with just anyone because many search engines look to see how relevant the links to and from your page are to the information within your page. Too many irrelevant links and the search engine will think you’re trying to cheat the system.

The post SEO Ranking and Link Analysis appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Choosing the best keywords is the first step in creating successful SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your website or blog.  This takes a bit of logic and research, but it will be well worth your time.

Begin with a list of around 20 keywords and key phrases that you feel describe your business.  Be logical by imagining that you are typing words into a search engine, such as Google Search, looking for a business such as your own.  

A common mistake people make is to be too broad in search terms.  Be specific.

If I am selling Italian furniture in Monument and I don’t have an online store in order to ship anything, it is more important to be found by people in the surrounding cities than to be found by people all over the world, right?

Likewise, if I am selling small- marble-angel-statues online, I do need to be found all over the world, but not by people looking for statues that are not marble and/or not angels.  

Be specific and know your audience.  Broad keyword terms will have high search rates, but your competition will be so tough that you will never be found because of the sheer volume of other websites with those keywords.  

The best practice in the new SEO of today is to narrow your list down to no more than 3 or 4 keywords and key phrases.  

In order to best do this, go to “Google AdWords”, select “Tools” in the menu option and then “Keyword Planner”. Enter your list of keywords into the search box along with your site information, then click “Search”.  

You will receive your list of keywords in a spreadsheet format showing the “Average Monthly Searches” that has requested of Google, along with whether the competition for that search is “High” or “Low”.  The trick is to find high-volume, low competition keywords and key phrases.g

The post Finding Strong SEO Keywords for your Website/Blog appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

In an ideal internet world, a website should go to the top of every search engine’s ranking based on keywords and content alone, right? If you put “hair salons in Monument, Colorado” into your Google search, you should get a list of just hair salons in Monument, Colorado.

And yet people will put keywords into the back end of their website to encompass surrounding areas, such as, a hair salon in Colorado Springs putting “Monument Hair Salon” as a key phrase. This is frustrating for the person searching for hair salons in Monument. Even if someone clicks on that website, they will leave when they see it’s not in Monument.

So what Google did is to require that you have actual content in your website that matches up to the keywords you put in the backend of your website. Bad SEO techniques may trick your way to the top of the search engine ranking, but then get you black-listed for good. It’s just not worth it.

Hire an SEO person or company who is honest and precise in their SEO coding. The best way to know your SEO person is good is that they will NOT:

– Claim you can be at the top of a Google Search immediately.

– Claim they know Tricks and Tips to “beat or trick the system”.

An honest and talented SEO person or company will let you know:

– The importance of “legitimate chosen keywords” and “keywords placed in content”.

– It takes a month or more for Google to recognize your site and respect it as a “truthful-google-rules- abiding site” and put you higher in search engine ranking.

– You, as a new website, will be below the other “truthful-google rules- abiding sites”, until you show more traffic to your site, more relevant information, and more activity on your website.

This is only fair that you not bump the sites that have been around for years until you’ve proven yourself, right?  So now your job is to Prove Yourself!  

The post SEO, You Can’t Trick Google appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

It’s really tough getting your website noticed on the Web. Even if you have a beautiful, informative site about a popular subject with awesome photos and entertaining interaction, you could have a problem attracting visitors.  One of the most reliable ways to improve traffic is to achieve a high ranking on search engines such as Google.

While most search engine companies try to keep their processes a secret, their criteria is fairly simple if you follow the “white hat” rules very carefully. Search engines are successful only if they provide the user a list of websites related to their search terms.

If your site is the best resource for a particular subject on the Web, it benefits search engines to list the site on or near the first page of search results. You just have to find a way to show search engines that your site belongs higher and higher on the list. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in — it’s a collection of techniques you can use to improve your website ranking.

Your web pages should include useful information, exciting photographs and helpful links guiding visitors to other resources.

Many so-called SEO experts claim they know the latest tips and tricks to push your website to the first page of Google.  Beware! You may spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars and end up with temporary results, or even worse, if they use “black hat” techniques, your website could get banned from indexing at all!

Sources:  http://goo.gl/HNl7Vw

The post What is SEO? appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Google My Business has made it easier than ever to put your business information big, bold, and easy to find by your customers.  Having a photo of your business and all the information right there on the search page allows them to contact you or find your store easily without having to search any further.

Here are step by step instructions on how to set your business up on Google My Business for FREE.

To add or claim your business:

First, Google your business name and see if anything shows up on the right of the Google search page.  If it does, look for the “Are you the business owner” link and click it.  If you don’t see a link, then you must add your business by going to google.com/business and click on the “Get on Google” button.  Then sign into your Google account or click create a Google account if you don’t already have one.

You will then see a map where you can search for your business in the search box.  Google often adds businesses information by collecting information online.  Don’t be surprised if your business if on Google even though you didn’t put it on there.  If your business does not show up, click on the magnifying glass and follow the instructions on how to add your business.

Once you enter the most current and accurate information for your business, you will need to verify it.  This will verify that you are the business owner.  Before verifying, be sure the name of your business, address and category are correct.  Once you send for the verification code, it is best not to make any more changes to your listing after clicking “verify” and until you receive the code otherwise you may need to send for another code.  You can make more changes after verification.  You can ask for Google to give you the code by them calling your business phone or mailing it to your business address.

And that’s it!  As manager of your own Google account, you can make updates to your listing as often as needed.  Whoever said, “You can’t get anything for free”, obviously doesn’t know Google the way we do!

The post Google My Business appeared first on Websites by Robyn.