How to Benefit from the Google Apps Referral Program

By SEOWEBMOUNT,

When Google has an idea they believe in, there’s little they won’t do to back its success. Their latest giant surge relates to the very popular Google Apps for Business suite, currently used by over 5 million members.

Effective immediately, Google will give folks who refer new subscribers a $15 referral bonus. If you’re in the business of referring clients or customers to excellent software solutions, Google wants to help make it worth your while. A rare burst of generosity is definitely something to capitalize on. Keep reading to find out how you can participate.

Google Apps for Business: Good Investment or Gimmick?

If you’re not familiar with the Google Apps for Business suite of offerings, here is a list of the key components involved in this cloud-based productivity bundle:

• Gmail – The most well-known segment of all the featured apps, Gmail incorporates Google’s search functionality in the email interface, plus up to 30 GB of storage. Offline support, custom email addresses, and many other features are included.
• Calendar – A handy little tool that facilitates easy scheduling and meeting management. Calendar lets folks set meeting reminders, share specific calendars, and structure a very organized and productive work day, every day.
• Drive – Google’s solution to cloud storage. Drive makes it easy to store and share files of all kinds. Because it’s cloud-based, documents are accessible on any device, anywhere you go.
• Docs – Google’s answer to apps like Microsoft Word. Docs enable the creation of documents. A key feature is the ability to collaborate with your team anywhere in the world, in real-time.
• Sheets – Create spreadsheets Google-style with click-to-edit charts that allow real-time comments and discussions.
• Slides – A tool that helps users develop beautiful and insightful presentations, in a quick and easy format. Slides lets you embed videos, create image-rich files, and collaborate on presentations with remote team members.
• Vault – Archive your Gmail emails so they may be searchable and discoverable in all Google business apps.

Businesses pay $5/month per user, or $50 a year. Add Vault for just $10 per month, with no limit to the number of users.

The trick with Google Apps for Business is consistency; if you commit one team member or division to using the services, it’s best if the entire company comply. There can be compatibility issues with docs from other software programs, and the main features of Google Business is the ability to share and collaborate in the cloud. These Google Apps can unify virtual teams, simplify document creation and storage, and create a consistent platform for teams to share information and communication.

The Incentive Program: How to Participate

Called the Google Apps Referral Program, the new enticement incorporates the most incentivizing offering of all: cold hard cash. Google states that many of their current Apps customers were referred by clients, networks, and friends, so in their words, this program is slated to “help continue the momentum.”

Built for existing Google Apps customers to share the service with friends, family, colleagues and clients, the referral program requires that participants provide their name (or business entity), email address, valid taxpayer ID, and related bank account info. In return, you can set up direct deposits for any qualifying referrals.

Once your account is set up with the referral program, you’ll receive a unique referral link to share with your network. You can use this in email blasts, on landing pages, or through any means of communication shares.

As referrals sign-up for Google Apps, you’ll earn $15. The fine print states that a maximum of 100 referrals per company will be paid out, but there is no limit to the number of companies you can successfully refer. If you’re aces at networking, this could be a significant windfall. Bear in mind that customers must remain paying for at least 120 days. This helps keep customers honest about the referrals, but it does naturally delay payment. Typical for a referral program, but important to note.

But wait, there’s more! Google will also supply coupons to encourage your network to sign-up and participate. Coupons gift your referrals $10 off per user for the first year of usage. Google also promises more coupons if your business referrals continue to increase.

Please note this program is currently only available in the US and Canada. For more information, visit the Google Enterprise Blog post that explains the details of the referral program.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/28/benefit-google-apps-referral-program/

Important Social Media Tools Need Now for site Analysis

News By SEOWEBMOUNT,

The social media space is as jammed as an LA freeway. From design and creativity tools to ad technologies and analytics, there’s a whole lot to consider, and a crowded field of tools vying for your attention. This infographic above was produced last year by research firm Gartner Group, and it does an outstanding job of showcasing how chaotic this world really is.

So what’s a marketer to do? To blast through all the clutter, a little research is a must. If you’re on the hunt for tools and services that truly help you get a leg up in social media, but don’t have time to take them all for a test drive, feast your eyes on the list below. These apps and teams have solved significant social challenges, and the tools are truly useful to your overall strategies.

Sysomos: Truly Powerful Social Monitoring

The heart of social media lies firmly in audience engagement. Yet monitoring the myriad of blogs, social networks, social media tools, and community forums is a meticulous and laborious task indeed. That’s where Sysomos comes in.

Sysomos aids small to medium companies in their quest to document all the details of their brand’s social presence. Features include comprehensive data collection (with excellent spam filtering), meticulous data analysis, and hyper-smart data processing. What makes Sysomos stand out is their intelligent algorithms that help make sense of the robust information. This is a tool that will help you fully understand your target market, giving you the power to craft social media campaigns that blast your brand into the stratosphere.

Sprout Social: Superior Feed and Team Management

For most of us, the biggest problem when adopting a new tech tool is the associated learning curve. Sprout Social is a welcome exception. The interface on this feature rich management tool possesses an outstanding intuitive, visual design. Considering the long list of functionalities, this is an impressive feat indeed. 

Sprout Social offers the ability for marketers to monitor mentions, feeds, shares, and all the various social signals. It also provides a single publishing platform to send blasts out to all the various sites. But what Sprout Social really does best is aggregation and team management. From one beautiful UI, you can access nearly every single feed you own and operate. Additionally, Sprout lets managers create teams and related assignments, granting the power to review posts before a team member shares it with the world.

SocialFlow: Because Timing is Everything

If you haven’t yet discovered the exact days and times that your audience is most likely to interact with your content, you absolutely need SocialFlow. This well designed tool has a built-in and optimized algorithm that connects to Facebook and Twitter feeds. SocialFlow analyses three critical factors regarding your social campaigns:

1. Messages – It determines which of your relevant messages are most likely to actually connect with your demographic.
2. Audience – SocialFlow can indicate which segment of your audience is currently online, giving you valuable insight into real-time posting.
3. Timing – Finally, the tool will help you determine the right time to send each and every blast.

Tweepi: Master the World of Twitter

For many social media experts, Twitter is the toughest platform to excel on. Consequently, there are dozens of Twitter-centric tools to help conquer the many challenges. If great Twitter management is your goal, it doesn’t get much better than Tweepi. Tweepi helps users take on tasks that are otherwise very time consuming, like flushing unfollowers, cleaning up inactive lists, reciprocating other followers, and keeping tabs on intriguing new tweets. With memberships for as little as $7.49 a month, Tweepi’s affordable to boot. If Twitter is a mainstay for your campaigns, then Tweepi will an invaluable tool for you.

Everypost: The Free, Must-Have App

If your marketing budget doesn’t hold a dime for additional tools, then Everypost should be your new favorite app. Free to use and download, Everypost helps social experts to post updates across various networks from the convenience of a phone or tablet. In addition to connectivity of platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+, Everypost lets you email your sends to your mailing list as well. There are other fun features, like a tweet tool that automatically shortens posts to 140 characters or less.

Crowdbooster: Know Your Audience

While Crowdbooster doesn’t cover every social platform, it gives you essential insight into the worlds of Facebook and Twitter. Since these are the two most popular social sites, this may be just the tool to solve your analytics issues.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/19/social-media-tools-need-now/

Top 10 Statistics on Social Media Marketing

By Seowebmount,

There is main Statistics on the benefits of social media marketing are everywhere.

It only takes a little research to get a clear picture on how social media marketing can help your
organization be more successful. There are compelling reasons why every organization should incorporate social media into their business plans. One of these reasons is the fact that our society is becoming increasingly geared toward technology. Below, I’m going to lay out 10 social
media facts and statistics to help you understand its importance. 

Please read carefully these point:

1. Seventy-six percent of marketers believe they know what their consumers want when it comes to interaction and social media content. However, only 34 percent of these people have actually taken the time to ask.

2. Fifty-nine percent of marketers believe consumers on social media platforms provide insights on buying decisions, while 58 percent believe the same consumers provide insights on customer service. What this says is there is a disconnection between what marketers think consumers want and what consumers actually value. In reality, 83 percent of consumers place priority on deals and promotions, while 70 percent places an emphasis on some sort of rewards program.

3. When it comes to sharing useful content from businesses, they are more likely to share 79 percent of the time through e-mails, 53 percent of the time through LinkedIn, 39 percent of the time through Twitter, and 18 percent of the time through Facebook.

4. Seventy percent of marketers agree that measuring their social media efforts is difficult, but they still acknowledge the effort they put into social media is important.

5. Social media traffic is measured by 79 percent of marketers, compared to 68 percent of marketers who track engagement metrics on social networks. Only about 26 percent ever took the time to measure the relationship of social media activity to leads and subsequent sales.

6. In 2011, about 47 percent of marketers said they feel good about their social measurement. Four percent described their efforts as being very effective. Forty-seven percent are struggling with how to effectively measure their social marketing and are still learning the ropes.

7. Statistics show that women vastly outnumber men on Pinterest; women make up 80 percent of Pinterest users. The same can be said of Facebook and Twitter, where women also
represent the larger share of total users. On Facebook, approximately 58 percent of users are women and on Twitter, 52 percent of users are women. When it comes to LinkedIn, men outnumber women, making up 73 percent of LinkedIn users. On Google+, men also make up the lion’s share at 71 percent of the total users. It is also worth knowing that half of the people using Google+ are less than 25 years of age.

8. Despite growing trends, the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) is still confusing to many organizations. Sixteen percent of companies in the U.S. say they have a social CRM in place. Twenty-one percent say they plan to implement it soon. A smaller chunk (17 percent) has no clue what a CRM system is or how to implement it.

9. Eighty-six percent of companies worldwide have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. Half of all the companies in the world make use of YouTube and LinkedIn. Pinterest and Google+ attract
just over a quarter of the world’s companies.

10. More than 80 percent of small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) plan to increase their use of social media in 2014. This is not surprising, considering that 87 percent of SMBs say that
social media has helped them in varying degrees over the past year. Of those using social media marketing, social media accounts for 32 percent of SMB marketing activities.

It is no longer enough for businesses to simply be found on social networks. The trends favor businesses that optimize their content across various social media sites, thus combining social marketing with traditional PR and marketing.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/18/top-10-statistics-social-media-marketing/

Forget Facebook: Four Rules of LinkedIn Etiquette

By Seowebmount

When it comes to etiquette, Facebook is fairly lax. Sure, Facebook experts admonish against drunk postings, spoiling a television season finale and badmouthing someone who, through a maze of networked friends, is bound to see the post. Infractions such as these can result in bad feelings and the fateful “unfriending.”

For LinkedIn users, however, etiquette is paramount.

The reason, of course, is that unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is a professional network. Just as your behavior in the workplace would be tightened up compared to, say, an evening out with friends, so should your LinkedIn profile. While some professionals have used Facebook for business purposes, Facebook’s emphasis on the personal and with sharing to the extreme can prove professionally disastrous.

This distinction between LinkedIn and Facebook is complicated somewhat by the fact that LinkedIn has continually added features that make it similar to its competitors. In May 2013, for example, LinkedIn added a feature that enables individuals and businesses to post photos and other media through status updates.

Don’t let the similarities fool you, though. No matter what tools and features LinkedIn and Facebook share, LinkedIn has its own code of behavior that is essential to follow. Whether you are new to LinkedIn or an established professional, consider the following tips for good LinkedIn etiquette.

1. Choose your profile photo carefully

Visuals make a strong and immediate impression. For that reason, profile pictures should be strictly professional, or, as LinkedIn career expert Nicole Williams puts it, “No dog, no husband, no baby!” Hiring a professional photographer to take a head shot might be worth the investment; your photo should show you looking groomed and alert against a neutral background.

Williams also advises against misrepresenting your appearance. An older professional who posts an outdated photo will turn off interviewers if they are expecting to meet a person 20 years younger. Remember that prospective employers will want to meet you in person; if you look significantly different than your profile photo, you will come across as disingenuous and untrustworthy.

2. Be selective in your status updates

If you spend one minute thinking about your Facebook posts, you should spend at least 10 times that amount for your LinkedIn posts. As you consider adding an update, ask yourself, “Does this present me in a good light? Does this give my connections confidence in my ability?” Your connections don’t want to know if you’re halfway through your sales report (unnecessary), nor should they know that your co-worker was just fired (gossiping).

Forbes recommends keeping your status fresh every few days, and using status updates as a way to show that you’re active and engaged. Announce your upcoming presentation at a business conference or your completion of an MBA program; avoid the temptation to make superfluous updates.

Furthermore, when possible, don’t make it all about you. Use a status update as an opportunity to congratulate a co-worker or tout the achievements of one of your connections.

3. Make the right connections

Unlike a Facebook ‘friend,’ a LinkedIn ‘connection’ should be someone you want in your professional network, period.

“Don’t accept every invitation to join someone’s network of contacts,” cautions Eric Taub of the New York Times.

More isn’t necessarily better; you want to connect with people you know and trust who can introduce you to others you may wish to meet. If you do receive an invitation to connect from a stranger, marketing professional Jasmine Sandler suggests that you schedule a phone call with that person and find out whether there’s a reason to create a professional relationship.

At the same time, having a large number of professional connections can be helpful, particularly if you are job-searching. Making connections with faculty and fellow students from your MBA program, for example, can potentially hook you into a vast network of related professionals. LinkedIn’s blog post ‘3 easy ways to strengthen your LinkedIn network’ has some helpful pointers for reaching out to a professional contact you haven’t interacted with in a long time. One suggestion is to touch base with your contact and acknowledge that even though you haven’t spoken in awhile, you’re interested in finding out more about something you saw recently on her profile. You should let your contact know what you’ve been doing in your professional life as well.

4. Be personably professional

Obviously, LinkedIn is not the place for vacation photos, whining and drama, nor is it the place to sing the praises of your children (unless they are professional connections). Being professional, however, does not mean being impersonal. For example, when you request a connection with someone on LinkedIn, don’t use the default message; send a personalized one, making specific mention of the professional relationship you have to one another. If you want to make a connection with someone you don’t know, USA Today’s Andrea Kay recommends asking for an introduction through a mutual colleague, as one might do in the real world.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/14/forget-facebook-four-rules-linkedin-etiquette/

Google to Encrypt Search Worldwide

By Seowebmount

Google is delving into encrypting Web searches globally, beginning in China, a country known not only for its censorship of the Internet but the tracking of what its citizens are viewing online.

The search engine firm told The Washington Post the move is the beginning of a worldwide effort to offer its users more privacy while impeding government and law enforcement surveillance and foiling the efforts of hackers. Once implemented, the new measures will make it much more difficult for spies of any kind to view e-mails, search queries and video chats.

China was a logical place for Google to start its encryption efforts. The country’s censorship system, known as China’s Great Firewall, targets politically-sensitive content such as ‘Dalai Lama’ or ‘Tiananmen Square.’ With Google’s encryption in place, such searches will now appear as rows of indecipherable numbers and letters.

It is likely that Google encryption will next make its way to Vietnam and Saudia Arabia, which are also famous for their censorship of Internet searches. Such countries, of course, will have the option of blocking Google search rather than lose control of what their people are searching for.

“The revelations of this past summer underscored our need to strengthen our networks,” a Google spokeswoman said in an e-mail to the Post, referring to the revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

“Among the many improvements we’ve made in recent months is to encrypt Google Search by default around the world,” spokeswoman Niki Christoff said. “This builds on our work over the past few years to increase the number of our services that are encrypted by default and encourage the industry to adopt stronger security standards.”

Google offered encrypted search as an option for some users in 2010 and made it the default setting for all users in the U.S. in 2012. The company also enabled HTTPS-only — a communications protocol for secure communication over a computer network — by default for all Gmail users three years ago.

But concerns over government surveillance, which reached an all-time high last year as documents made public by Snowden shone a light on the spying practices of the NSA, convinced Google to also extend its encryption to services other than search and Gmail.

It was reported last October that the NSA was able to furtively access the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers across the globe. The NSA’s penetration of the networks means the agency was able to see “who sent or received e-mails and when, to content such as text, audio and video,” according to a Washington Post report.

The surveillance program, codenamed, MUSCULAR, was operated in co-operation with GCHQ, the British Intelligence agency.

Google, since then, has encrypted traffic between its data centers. A move followed by Yahoo and Microsoft.

Google has also beefed up security for its Cloud Storage as a free service to its users. Any new files added to Google’s cloud storage service are now automatically encrypted before being written to disk. Older files stored in Google’s cloud are gradually being encrypted and re-written to disk and users also have the option of encrypting their own data before writing it to cloud storage.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/13/google-encrypt-search-worldwide/

3 Steps to Removing a Google Site Penalty

News by Seowebmount,

So you pushed the limits in terms of link building – you built links to your site that weren’t exactly squeaky clean or natural. Perhaps you used some blog networks, perhaps some low quality directory submissions, or even forum profiles. Who could blame you? Truth is, it worked for a while – but then one day you got a not-so-pleasant message from Google Webmaster Tools – the dreaded “unnatural links to your site” warning.

You cringe, perhaps feel a little guilty, and hope that the impact isn’t too bad. But as the weeks roll by you watch your rankings rapidly diminishing – those top three rankings fall off of page one. Next you start seeing the impact trickling through to your financials – it’s all headed downwards. The reality of losing your Google-derived traffic starts setting in. You realize that you have to get the penalty lifted, as a matter of business survival – but how?

In this post, we’ll look at the basic 3-step process we follow at Penalty Pros to get unnatural link-based manual penalties lifted. We’ve had the benefit of removing over 200 manual penalties, and have learned a thing or two along the way. Please keep in mind that the recommendations below are based on our observations of what works and what doesn’t, and that some of this advice may be contrary to what you read elsewhere, or even Google’s official recommendations.

Step 1: Manual Link Analysis

The first step in dealing with a link-based penalty is analyzing your incoming links to assess which are acceptable and which are problematic.

Data Sources – Which Should I Use?

There’s a fair amount of debate regarding what data sources you should use. Some say that you should use as many data sources as possible (for example Majestic, Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs, etc.), while others say that the Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) Data is sufficient. In our experience, having tried all the major data sources, we’ve found that the GWT data is generally sufficient, and at worst, should be combined with one additional data source (we recommend Majestic SEO).

Less Is More – for the purposes of getting a penalty lifted, we’ve seen no value in using every possible data source. Using multiple data sources just adds to the time investment required and yields no better returns in terms of lifting a penalty. To get started, you only need to focus on the downloadable links within Google Webmaster Tools. We recommend downloading both the “Latest Links” and “More Sample Links” CSVs in GWT, combining them and removing duplicates.

To be clear, we’re only referring to the impact on getting a penalty removed – not on having a squeaky clean link profile. If you want to audit every single link in an effort to eradicate ANY questionable links, there is definitely value in using every available data source.

Defining Unnatural Links

Once you’ve downloaded, combined and de-duplicated your links list, the hard work begins. You’ll need to manually comb through each and every link to assess its “naturalness”. This is painstaking, time intensive work, but it is absolutely essential that you take a manual approach to this. Please DO NOT utilize automated link analysis tools for this job. While the likes of LinkDetox, LinkDelete, DeleteBacklink, etc. do a great job of removing links (which we will come to later), their analysis is algorithmic and automated, and will never be anywhere near as accurate as manually auditing your links. The human touch is absolutely essential here.

You do not want to end up removing good links and leaving bad links by mistake. Take the time to do manual analysis.

So the next question is, of course, how do you define/identify bad backlinks that need to be removed? While there’s no hard and fast rule for making this assessment, having performed extensive penalty removals we’ve observed that Google’s main criteria is anchor text (even more so than link source).

It seems that commercial anchor text (or unnatural anchor text ratios) is what triggers their system, and this is what the manual team is really focusing on. We’ve noticed links on otherwise perfect sites getting flagged, purely because of over-optimized anchor text. By the same logic, we’ve seen links from very questionable sites fly under the radar because their anchor text was less questionable. This is only our observation, but based on 200+ penalty removals, it does suggest that anchor text is the key focus of the manual team.

That said, you want to pay particular attention to any links derived from the following typical spam link sources:

• Blog networks
• Low quality, irrelevant directories
• Article farms/directories
• Forum profiles and signatures
• Low quality blog comments
• Low quality or scaled up guest posting
• Low quality press release sites
• Social bookmarking sites
• Any site that has “SEO” or “links” in its URL or title

The bottom line is that Google doesn’t want you to be able to influence your incoming links, and any link that suggests it has been manually created for the purposes of manipulating their algorithms can be a problem. When assessing links, ask yourself, “is this link plausibly deniable?”. If not, it most likely has to go.

A Note About “nofollows”

Tip – while Google should ignore “nofollow” links, we’ve observed this not to be the case (i.e., nofollows have been pointed out in denied reconsideration requests). Perhaps it was incompetency on the part of the manual reviewer, but it is always wise to disavow questionable nofollow links as well.

Step 2: Bad Link Removal, Editing And Disavow

Once you’ve manually assessed all of your incoming links and identified the problem links, you’ll need to make an effort to get problem links removed. Google wants to see some effort in this regard, and so you need to put some work into getting bad links removed. A simple spreadsheet documenting your removal efforts will do. We suggest the following process:

1. Collect webmaster email addresses or contact form URLs for all problem links – you can find email addresses on the relevant sites, or use who.is to scrape contact details, or use a service like Rmoov to semi-automate this process.
2. Create a generic request email and mail merge the data to send out requests. Submit the balance of contact forms manually.
3. Send a follow up to all sites that fail to respond.
4. Document all results in a spreadsheet for submission along with your reconsideration request.

A few things to keep in mind when contacting webmasters:

• Your request is a corporate communication. Do not be rude to webmasters or threaten them when requesting link removal or anchor text editing. This can cause a major PR problem.
• Check your referring data in Google Analytics before requesting link removals, because you could be killing a profitable traffic source. In such cases, ask the webmaster to edit the anchor text of the link to something more natural. If the link is still undeniably commercial, add it to your disavow list (more on this shortly).
• The truth is most websites will not respond (why should they care?), and some will even be so cheeky as to request payment for link removal. Document all failed requests and mark them for addition to the disavow file.

Once you’ve completed the link removal outreach phase, you will need to prepare and submit a disavow file of all links that could not be removed. The disavow tool allows you to tell Google to effectively ignore certain links or domains. For more information on the tool, see Google’s official help page here. Be very careful when creating the disavow file – you don’t want to end up disavowing good links by mistake. It goes without saying, do NOT use any automated tool to prepare a disavow file – manual preparation is essential.

Once you’ve prepared the disavow file, you’ll need to submit it to Google via Google Webmaster Tools. You can find the function here. Please note that you DO NOT need to add comments to your disavow file. Google has recently stated that the disavow process is completely automatic, and they do not look at comments. Don’t waste your time.

When submitting your file, be sure to double check the data on the confirmation screen to ensure that there are no errors with the disavow file.

Step 3: Submitting the Reconsideration Request

The third and final step in removing the manual penalty is to submit a reconsideration request to Google, highlighting what you’ve done to resolve the issue, and request penalty removal. The function can be found in Google Webmaster Tools under “Search Traffic” -> “Manual Actions”.

Writing a quality, sincere reconsideration request is absolutely essential. You do not want to rush this part.

Constructing the Winning Request

While there is no golden rule for writing successful reconsideration requests, we have observed that the following are essential elements to include:

1 – Admit Guilt

It’s important to admit that the website was involved in manipulative link building (whether by your instruction or someone else’s) and state that this has now been stopped. Google wants to see that you have “come clean” and had a change of mind-set when it comes to SEO. Obviously, if you are a victim of negative SEO or an agency that promised white-hat and delivered black-hat, you need to explain this.

2 – Name & Shame

This one’s a contentious point. If your SEO or SEO agency is responsible for the problematic links, Google wants to know about it. Some speculate that the entire link removal and disavow process is a data collection exercise for Google (most likely true). Regardless, Google wants names – hand them over.

3 – Show Evidence

Now’s the time to showcase all the hard work you did to remove bad links. Share your spreadsheet on Google Drive (be sure to enable open access) and reference it in the reconsideration request. Provide as much detail about your efforts as possible. The more the better.

4 – Share Your Disavow

Even though you’ve already submitted your disavow file in GWT, it’s still wise to upload it to Google Drive and reference it in your recon request. We’ve seen many cases where the manual team ignore the disavow file (whether by human or technical error). Play it safe and include a reference in your recon request.

5 – Explain Your Future Strategy

As mentioned earlier, Google wants to see that you’ve had a change of mind-set when it comes to SEO. Briefly discuss your future plans to invest in a content marketing based strategy, or if you’ve decided to give up on SEO, mention that. Make it clear that you are not going to be a “repeat offender”.

Once you’re done, re-read your request and make sure that there are no spelling or grammar issues, and check that it flows well. You want to make it as easy as possible for the reader to give their stamp of approval. Once done, hit the submit button. It generally takes Google 2-3 weeks to respond.

It’s Unlikely You’ll Succeed First Time Round – Don’t Beat Yourself Up About It.

As a non-specialist, it’s unlikely you’ll succeed first time round. The most common reason for this lies in the analysis phase. Most webmasters are simply too conservative when it comes to identifying problem links and believe that a link is “good” when it is not. Don’t despair though – it just takes a little perseverance.

If unsuccessful, you will need to repeat the above process with remaining links, and ensure that you have identified all problem links. Fortunately Google does provide 2-3 examples of problem links when denying a reconsideration request. Use this data to guide your efforts and identify remaining problem links.

Some points to note regarding repeat reconsideration requests:

• Google will not process a reconsideration request for 2-3 weeks after declining the original. Use this time wisely.
• Update your link list with the latest links to ensure that you have the full picture. Links change over the time from your first analysis to the second recon.
• When updating the disavow, keep in mind that your latest disavow file replaces all previous versions, so make sure that you’re creating a comprehensive file. You do not want to “re-avow” old links when disavowing new ones!

Success!

If successful, you can expect to see a shift in rankings and impressions within 2 weeks post penalty removal. The extent of this improvement will be dependent on how many good links you still have. While every site is different, and there are no guarantees, we’ve seen sites skyrocket past their pre-penalty rankings and an average increase of 800% in impressions at Penalty Pros.

Wrapping Up

Removing your Google penalty is hard work – there’s no way around that – but it is well worth it. While some SEOs will argue that you should rather ignore the penalty and focus on building new links, our experience has been that even partial-match penalties still cause a substantial suppressive effect site-wide. If you’re looking to succeed in the SERPS you can’t move forward without first resolving your manual penalties.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/10/3-steps-removing-google-site-penalty/

The Facebook Algorithm Change and Its Impact

By Seowebmount

Ask a business owner or marketer about the recent Facebook algorithm changes, and you’re likely to be met with a glare. The social networking site switched the way updates are seen with the aim of putting more high-quality content in newsfeeds and knocking out posts based on memes aimed at building cheap traffic. It was hard to argue with the theory, but in implementation it’s been borderline disastrous for many sites.

That’s because it’s not just the viral and meme sites that Facebook was targeting that have suffered. Businesses say they have seen their Facebook views plunge from what they were before the changes were put in place. Many have complained vocally, but Facebook doesn’t seem inclined to make any further tweaks.

Here’s a more in-depth look at the changes that were implemented and exactly what impact they are having on businesses.

What Facebook Changed

Every social or search site is constantly updating its algorithm to reflect the evolving nature of its audience. So when Facebook announced in December that it was making modifications, it was hardly a surprise. The social media site outlined the changes in a blog post, but they boiled down to:

• More relevant articles in newsfeeds: Facebook wants what shows up in your newsfeed toclosely mirror your tastes. So, for example, if you have clicked on a lot of articles about a certain sporting team, content about that team is more likely to come up in your feed.
• Higher-quality articles: Facebook says surveys have indicated that people like to see articles with news or intellectual value in their newsfeeds, versus cheap photo memes on trending topics posted just to grab traffic. That also means fewer memes popping up in a newsfeed.
• Related content: After clicking on an article in a newsfeed, several other related articlesnow appear below it on your newsfeed, giving more information on the topic that you’ve just read about.
• Bumping up older content: People often comment on a status and then don’t follow the conversation any further because they forget about it. Facebook is now bumping up previous posts to the top of newsfeeds to give people a chance to reengage with a status after others have posted on it.

Why the changes? Everything boils down to engagement. Facebook doesn’t want people getting turned off by the memes from sites like Upworthy that keep showing up in their feeds just because they’re trending; the site wants content people engage with so that it can sell that engagement to advertisers.

Plus, Facebook takes its high-value concept very seriously. It wants to be seen by advertisers as a site that provides people with what they want, not a place where spammers go to play. That kills any sort of prestige that might attract advertising.

Declines in Organic Reach

Since the changes were implemented late last year, there’s been a backlash among businesses who say that their organic reach has taken a hit. Organic reach is basically the views that your content got without you advertising it. It includes people who saw your Facebook post from your page, as well as those who saw it on others’ pages (i.e., one of their friends commented on your status so it showed up in their newsfeed), plus viral views. Organic reach is separate from paid reach, which includes everyone who saw your content stemming from an ad.

The numbers seem to back up these complaints. For example, data culled by Moz from Edgeranker found that organic reach measured as a percentage of fans who saw a post fell from 26 percent in September 2012 to 7.7 percent in December 2013, when the new algorithm went into effect. That’s a huge dropoff.

Another study done right after the change was implemented found that reach plunged by 44 percent in the week after the switch. Surprisingly, only one page of the hundreds studied by Ignite Social Media saw organic reach rise.

Facebook has argued that while reach has fallen, engagement has actually remained strong. That backs up its argument for relevancy, meaning that it’s essentially trimming the fat. While fewer people may see your status updates, the ones who do see them are also the ones most likely to click or respond. And isn’t that the goal of any social media post? Still, businesses seem unconvinced that this is actually the case and argue they’re missing out on thousands of likes and shares because of the change.

How Businesses Can Increase Reach

Clearly it’s a bold new world of Facebook. Most businesses have spent the past few months kvetching about the change, but it seems unlikely to be abandoned anytime soon. Facebook made a few further tweaks in January 2014 to its policies to devalue text-only posts from businesses after noting that they generate less interaction than text-only posts from friends.

So how can businesses make sure that their posts are still being seen with all the changes? Here are a few ideas that should boost those sagging organic reach numbers:

• Make sure content is 100 percent unique. If lots of businesses are posting about the same subject, your post is much less likely to be seen because Facebook starts thinking you’re piggybacking on a meme. Whenever possible, post about a subject no one else is talking about.
• Try story bumping. Remember how one of those Facebook changes was bumping engaging but older statuses back into the newsfeed? Use this to your advantage. Post content that people are likely to comment on to get your status bumping back up into people’s newsfeeds.
• Include high-quality links. Quality content will always be judged kindly by Facebook. The better your link, the better the chance people will see it.
• Avoid text-only statuses. It’s easy to get lazy on Facebook, posting just a couple of words to give your page the appearance of activity. But asking “How’s everyone doing today?” won’t get you as much of that key engagement as planning out a post with pictures, video or other visual elements. Think of Facebook as a needy lover: The more attention you give it, the happier it is.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/07/facebook-algorithm-change-impact/ 

Link Building is Still Safe in 2014 or Not? I think Yes

By Seowebmount,

There has been plenty of panic floating around the SEO world this year, and it’s mostly involving link building. When Google released its Penguin update that started penalizing sites that participated in manipulative link strategies, fear began to take over. Is link building dead? Is it still safe?

As many SEOs know, link building can be difficult and time-consuming. And Google has made it clear that bad, valueless links will not help you move up in the search rankings – as we all know, building bad links can even harm your efforts.

But did we really ever want Google to reward us for crappy links that cluttered the Internet with meaningless content? Google simply took action and found a way to remove the value of spammy links from its algorithm, meaning the search engine is now reinforcing the value of user-centered links.

If you look at it this way, link building hasn’t died at all. It actually means that good link building is more valuable than ever. If you put in the time and effort to understand and begin practicing good link building tactics, Google will significantly reward you.

Link Building Is Still Important

In July, Matt Cutts confirmed that links are still the best way for Google to discover the relevancy of a site. The simple truth is that, in 2014, link building is still one of the most important factors to improving your ranking and visibility in the search engines.

When considering your budget, it isn’t wise to stop link building altogether. Instead, invest the time and resources into building good links that Google will reward – links that give you more visibility in organic searches. While you may want to get informed on how social media and authorships are starting to influence link building, they are all factors that are simply tied together to ensure Google gives users the most relevant content.

What Makes a Good Link?

If you’re wondering about the best way to build links, start focusing on the best way to build good, quality links. If you don’t invest the time and try to build an easy link that offers no benefit to your visitors, Google won’t reward you for it.

There are some primary characteristics of a good link, and this is what the new link building forecast looks like:

• The link should be valuable to the reader
• The reader should be likely to click on the link
• The link should be on a site that’s at least loosely related to yours
• The link should be on a page that has relevant content to the page you’re linking to

The bottom line is your link should be relevant for the visitor. Google is rewarding focused, user-centered links that are targeting relevant traffic. And isn’t that the main focus of SEO anyway?

What Makes a Bad Link?

It’s important to understand the difference between link scheming and link building. Link scheming is not link building, and it’s these types of bad link practices that will cause Google to penalize you. Here are a few things that Google considers link scheming:

• Selling or buying links merely to pass PageRank
• Linking to a site just so you can get a link back
• Using automated programs to build your site’s links
• Participating in massive guest posting using keyword-rich anchor text
• Buying articles with links that pass Page Rank

There are plenty of other link building tactics that walk the fine line between scheming and building – for instance, if you insert links into articles illogically without relevance. Or if you’re linking to web spammers and unrelated sites, in order to pass Page Rank. These types of practices could still cause a penalty if you’re not careful.

The easiest way to avoid creating a bad link is to stop scheming, and do what SEO has always been about. Target your audience with relevant content, and take their needs into consideration so they want to visit your site.

Start Creating Social Links

Links are clearly more important than ever if you learn to build them the right way, but social signals and shares are also becoming important. If content is socialized and spread around the Internet, it can have a large impact on your search engine rankings.

Social signals are beginning to do what traditional link building used to – they confirm that users are finding the content useful and relevant. This connects to link building in a big way, because, after all, you can’t look to build a quick relationship over social media, just like you can’t look to build a quick link. Focus on building long-term relationships with people, and engage with them so they’ll care about the links you’re building and the content you’re sharing.

This will help you surround your links with human interaction. You want to share high quality content that social media users will find useful enough to share and link to.

Find Safe Ways

The best way to invest your time and money into link building is by doing it the right way-the way that will help you move up in the SERPs and draw relevant traffic to your site. While link building is arguably the most difficult part of SEO, don’t be afraid of it.

Find external link building opportunities where the link’s success depends on approval by readers. Focus on human interaction and the social side of link building, and start building quality links that are the most relevant as possible. Link to the pages readers would genuinely be interested in on your site.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/03/03/link-building-still-safe-2014-yes-youre-stupid/

SEO Tips for 2014 — As Told By Abraham Lincoln

By Seaowebmount

Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of the most influential and important individuals in American history. Much of what he said applies to what is happening in our country today. In fact, I would wager that, with a few alterations, much of his insight could be applied to our online marketing efforts. Without further adieu, I present SEO Tips for 2014, As Told By Abraham Lincoln.

The Googleburg Address: “Four score and several months ago, our search engine brought forth on this Internet, a new algorithm, conceived in semantics and dedicated to the proposition that all content is not created equal.”

What Mr. Lincoln was trying to say:

Last year was the year of ‘Content is King,’ and that is certainly going to be the case in 2014 and beyond. Websites with strong content are going to be in a much better position than those that have been relying on low quality links or spammy content to get traffic to their website. While content is certainly the king of the SEO process, not all content is worthy of a crown. As you can see in the Googleburg Address above, not all content is created equal in the eyes of the search engines. The Hummingbird algorithm update has shifted the focus from content at a pure composition level, to one that is focused on the usefulness for the end user. Matching up online content with the intent of the user’s search query is going to be the crown jewel of the content crown moving forward.

“A website divided against itself cannot stand.”

What Mr. Lincoln was trying to say:

The original purpose of search engine optimization has not changed since the first Google search was made. Search engine effectiveness is measured by one thing: how effectively it delivers relevant results to its users. For many SEO professionals, it can become more important to use ranking tactics than it is to provide the correct content to the intended user. Website owners need to refocus their efforts on providing a quality experience for users, rather than dividing themselves and their websites between what search engines want, and what users need. Search engine bots should be treated like any other customer who would want to enjoy a quality Web experience. As Mr. Lincoln would say, “A website divided against itself cannot stand.”

“Be sure to place your links in the right place, then stand firm.”

What Mr. Lincoln was trying to say:

Link farms will come and go as Google updates algorithms and changes what is defined as a “good link.” However, creating a strong internal and external linking structure, and then maintaining that course, is the key to linking success in the future. Begin by having a strong link structure for internal pages. This makes it easier for users to move from page to page on your website, and it is easier to rank with a search bot-friendly design. As far as external links are concerned, it is important to place your links in relevant and authoritative places. Regardless of follow status, a relevant link from a high authority site will be more helpful to a link profile than working with previously penalized farms or spammy link-heavy sites. Even the most trusted link-building processes, such as guest blogging, have become more difficult with changes in the online landscape and underhanded practices. If you have been creating and maintaining a clean link profile, then stay on course. If you have been straying into dangerous waters with your links, right the ship and stick to a better direction for your online marketing.

“The best thing about online marketing is that it comes one day at a time.”

What Mr Lincoln was trying to say:

It is important to remember that all of the changes to your website do not have to occur at the same time. If you try to redesign your website, adopt an effective link strategy, and start creating stellar content all in the same day, it can be overwhelming to fix your online marketing strategy. Make changes to your strategy one step at a time. This allows you to find out what needs to be done as soon as possible to allow growth in the short-term, and you can create long-term goals for sustained growth. The Internet is mostly about instant gratification and immediate results. It is important to remember that effective marketing can be a long process. You need to build up a client base and adopt an effective strategy to maintain and grow that same group.

“Better to remain silent on social media and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

What Mr Lincoln was trying to say:

The world of social media as it relates to online marketing is a double-edged sword. If you have no presence established, it is very difficult to establish a rapport and get customers talking about your business. However, if you do not use social media outlets correctly, it can be worse than having no presence at all. If you over-promote, or annoy your customers with your social media efforts, you may find out that you have lost ground, and are in a worse position than when you started. Social signals are becoming more important for SEO as Google places value on how much users want to share and interact with your content and brand. The emergence of Google Authorship as it relates to Google+ is another way that social media is becoming much more than sharing a link to your organization’s website. It is important to come up with an effective social media strategy before you start tweeting and sharing with reckless abandon.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/02/28/seo-tips-2014-told-abraham-lincoln/