Search Engine Optimization

SEO Moz released another version of the Search Engine Ranking factors which is avaliable for free here. The number of interviewed participans has increased from 12 to 35 “spanning a wide range of specializations, geographies and even hat color ” – as Rand Fishkin put it.

The list of factors is geared exlusively towards Google, since all of the participants focus their SEO effors on this engine.

Here is some interesting insight:

Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2005:

1. Title Tag (4.57)
2. Anchor Text of Links (4.46)
3. Keyword Use in Document Text  (4.38)
4. Accessibility of Document (4.3)
5. Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages (4.15)
6. Primary Subject Matter of Site – (4.00)
7. External Links to Linking Pages (3.92)
8. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.77)
9. Global Link Popularity of Site (3.69)
10. Keyword Spamming (3.69)

Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2007:

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag (4.9)
2. Global Link Popularity of Site (4.5)
3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link (4.4)
4. Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure (4.1)
5. Age of Site (4)
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site (3.9)
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.9)
8. Keyword Use in Body Text (3.9)
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site (3.7)
10. Topical Relationship of Linking Page (3.6)

The top factors have not changed much, as Title Tag, anchor text and link popularity contunite to be key elements in rankings.

Search Engine Ranking Factors 2

Other Resources

Other SEOs have followed SEO Moz’s example and developed Ranking Factors relevant to their specialities. The links below are a must read for ALL who are serious about learning search engine optimization:

• Link Value Factors
• Local Ranking Factors Volume 1
• Local Ranking Factors Volume 2

With competitive online market place, no solution can fit all. You may be selling physical goods, hunting for business leads or waiting for customers to pick up a phone.

If you have one or more physical locations (office, store, warehouse) and require a face to face contact with your customers – we have a perfect search marketing strategy.

Local search engine optimization is a form of search marketing adopted by SEO Expertâ„¢ to promote websites on leading search engines in specific Canadian and American cities. Local SEO is based on solid research data into your target market. It identifies customers who need to find a company located in a specific city and positions your website in their tracks. Since your company satisfies their need for a product or service in a convenient location – you gain more business.

How local search engine optimization strategy works:

Users indicate cities of their interest with keywords they use on search engines. For example: “Toronto dentist”, “Arizona car dealership” or “Ottawa mortgage broker”. Local SEO indentifies potential customers that search your type of products/services in a specific city, and positions your website on their way. It is their intention to find a business that can be accessed locally. They take the initiative, get to a search engine, and use keywords to look for what they want. You simply provide your products/services at the right time, at the right place, for people with the right mindset and close more sales.

Local SEO is a perfect fit for professionals or companies that offer specialized services (lawyers, dentists, brokers, etc.) or businesses that offer goods and services in multiple cities throughout Canada or US, and want to effectively market themselves in digitized world. This strategy is not limited to one city. We have the capability to target all of North America. Learn more how SEO Expertâ„¢ local search engine optimization strategy can benefit your business.

Your SEO Results are Guaranteed

Your budget is not unlimited. Spend it wisely. SEO Expertâ„¢ will get you search engine visibility and safeguard your position against algorithmic changes, competition and spam. You ranking will not be left unattended.

During campaign stages feel free to talk with any our experts, suggest strategies or change the campaign all together. We’ll answer all your questions, in the language you understand.

Our search engine optimization services are available to any business. Fees begin at $3000. You can engage in short term search engine optimization campaign or shoot for long term, where we will capture spots for each competitive keyword in your industry.

SEO Expertâ„¢ is a leading search engine optimization company. We hold most competitive search engine spots in our industry (check rankings). Our team worked for a broad range of companies, including: Monster.ca, Better Business Bureau Quebec and DNBI.

If you’re serious about search engine optimization, get in touch with SEO Expert™. Call us at 514 – 397 – 9512 or write us an email.

Envision flow of new customers 365 days a year, four seasons in a row. Imagine your website as an aggressive sales machine that attracts visitors, converts them into customers and produces measureable profits for your company. If you’re an individual professional, private company or a large corporation, SEO Expert™ can help you achieve these goals and go beyond.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a unique marketing strategy that helps your company attract qualified visitors through search engines and turn them into new customers or into qualified leads. SEO Expertâ„¢ satisfies mathematical algorithms of Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and makes this strategy possible.

You will be able to measure each click, track conversion process and calculate number of new customers that search engines bring. You will be able to measure success with granular precision and calculate your monthly ROI to the last penny.

Search Engine Optimization Process

Every keyword, every link and every title on your website contributes to search engine rankings. Our knowledge and expertise of how to manage every detail on various websites gives you the ability to capture best search engine spots for the most competitive keywords in your industry.

Once you outline your goals, we start the first phrase – keyword research. Keyword research indentifies language potential customers use on search engines. Together with your team, we research keywords with highest search volume and highest revenue possibility. This stage sets the tone for the overall SEO campaign, since your website will show on search engines for the keywords that you eventually select. Once you review final keyword spreadsheet and give us green light, we move to the next stage.

SEO development stage takes care of search engine visibility issues by adjusting elements such as: title tags, code, meta tags, page names, filenames and links. SEO development ensures your website has targeted keywords in all possible and acceptable locations. This lets search engines see clear subject classification of the website and makes it easier to attain best search engine listings.

Once your website is cleaned and adjusted, our copywriters write new content with emphasis on selected keywords. New content gets integrated in form of new pages and promoted to the best spots on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and other search engines.

Our final search engine optimization efforts produce real, accountable results that capture high search engine listings, drive customers to your website and above all – increase your profitability.

Ask some of the clients who did not believe in the results we would bring.

Local search engine optimization is a technique used by search engine marketing expert to effectively bring new customers to your business from various geographic regions.

Think of your customers. Where do they live? In Canada? In US? In what cities?

Local Search Engin Optimization recognizes that your customers can come from all across Canada(or US). It recognizes your business scale (one city, multiple cities or national/international operations) and caters your search engine presence to it.

For example – a user who searched with “Montreal dentist” on Google is looking for a dentist in Montreal city. User who searched with “Toronto mortgage broker” on Yahoo is looking for a mortgage broker in Toronto city. By identifying keywords that indicate interest in your company and specify a city, we can drive more customers to your office, store, warehouse and raise amount of sales / contracts you make.

Local search engine marketing is ideal for professionals who operate in one city or for companies that have multiple locations across Canada and US. This service is rather targeted at businesses that require seeing customers face to face before successful sale can happen. Find out more how local search engine optimization can benefit your business and produce positive ROI.

If location is irrelevant to your business explore our search engine optimization services. SEO Expertâ„¢ will help you attain high search spots for keywords that indicate product names, services, descriptions and more. Get in touch with us to achieve your goals.

Results Take Time and Expertise

Search engine marketing takes time to produce results. The average time frame is between 1 and 4 months, depending on your industry. Once SEO Expert™ achieves your search engine marketing goals and gets you high spots on leading search properties, we keep you there. Search is dynamic and listings fluctuate with algorithm changes and competition. Once attained, search positions must be guarded. For this purpose, we constantly add new content to your website, maintain link enhancement efforts, and keep directory submission going. SEO Expert™ will also couch you and your team on some steps you can take to maintain high search engine visibility. You won’t be left alone.

Web analytics will help you measure ROI, new visitors and search positions. Our search engine marketing experts will also update you on the status of the campaign. Michael Wilson and Silvo Frank, our founders, will personally answer any questions you have.

Search engine optimization expert has broad, on hand search engine marketing expertise in: B2B, Financial, Business to Consumer, Industrial, Travel, Entertainment, Real Estate, Retail and Health industries. We hold top search engine spots in our own field (check our rankings) and can achieve results that produce real profits for your company.

We look forward to working with you.

Give us a call at 514 – 397 – 9512 and speak to a real person. Prefer email? Fill out this form.

If your objectives are to get best search engine spots on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines, to increase number of sales and ultimately create an independent revenue source for your company – search expert can help. SEO Expert™ is a professional search engine marketing company that promotes websites on leading search engines, develops search friendly designs, creates search visible content and above all – helps you attract new customers interested in your products and services.

How Search Engine Marketing Expert Services Work For You

Search experts adjust your website elements for an easy scan by search engines. We analyze site components and find ones that negatively and positively affect your search engine visibility. This analysis allows our experts to understand whether it’s the design, code, links or other factors that need correction.

After initial analysis search expert moves to next sequential stages:

Keyword Research – used to identify primary direction of your overall marketing effort. Keyword research discovers language and words your customers use across variety of search engines. It is critical to research key phrases that have high search volume and deliver high number of new customers, as this stage lays the groundwork for all other stages. This is the phrase that will affect your search marketing ROI, and we will teach you and your team how to effectively participate in it.

Website Architecture Optimization – data revealed through keyword research shapes all supplemental stages, including architecture optimization. This stage enables you to have clean code and information structure friendly to search engine bots.

Content Enhancement – Content enhancement improves visibility of your written text, by plugging keywords identified with keyword research. Special writers, called search engine writers, create new persuasive copies abundant with targeted keywords. New pages get promoted on leading search engines and channel qualified traffic to your website as a result.

Link Enhancement – A link from a website, to another website is counted as a vote. Our experts ensure that your website has plenty of quality links from third party websites and niche directories. This tells search engines that your website is an important industry player and propels it to high search engine listings.

SEO Expert™ optimization services adhere to one simple principle. “What will it take to get your website to best spots on leading search engines?” The final results however, are measured not in rankings, but in dollar revenues that our search engine marketing campaigns bring.

Search expert techniques have proven over and again their effectives. Just ask some of our astounded clients. Results await you.

As you read every word of this article, you will begin to understand the power of search engine optimization and real, measurable results that professional search engine optimization company brings. You will discover strategies that will allow your company to get new customers from different cities, provinces and states. You will learn how to spot real, professional search engine optimization company and how to make an informed decision before investing your money in SEO.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the alchemy of getting your website to best spots on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and other search engines. Once you gain best listings, search engines will send visitors interested in your products and services. Since visitors take the effort to get to a search engine, type in a keyword and click on your website, instead of your competitors – they are very much interested in what you have to offer. This is an effective technique for businesses and site owners who want to gain more sales, leads and revenues from their websites.

Just check our delighted clients, who hired us as their search engine optimization company. The results got their phones ringing!

Search Engine Optimization Company That Gets You Results

Once you outline your objectives, revenue goals and desired keywords our SEO company starts the search engine optimization process. Since your visitors must be interested in your products / services, SEO Expertâ„¢ starts with keyword research. Keyword research is the science of language and analysis of real data that your potential customers use on search engines. Whenever users search on search engines, they input keywords to describe the product or service of their interest. Keyword research looks at how many people searched with a specific keyword(the more the better) and how closely that keyword relates to your final objectives(increase customer base, revenues). The goal is to find key phrases that indicate high level of interest in your company and have highest search volume.

Once keywords are identified, you have a clear idea on how your website will appear on leading search engines. At this point it’s hard to tell exact spots that you will attain, but as always, results are guaranteed. After keyword research, your website undergoes a series of changes, additions and adjustments. The point is to include targeted keywords on your website in order to get best search engine spots on Google, Yahoo and other search engines. SEO Expert™ will tweak your page names, filenames, internal links, code, metadata, tags and written content. You will see small changes to your main content and addition of new pages to the website in order to get more customers from search engines.

You will also see dramatic increase in outside links that point to your website. Links are necessary for high search engine rankings, because leading search engine look at links as votes. You benefit from outside links with high search engine visibility and increase in pre-sold customer flow. Your company will also benefit from traffic that is attracted from third party, related websites.

• During SEO stages we can fully maintain design of your website or create a new one.
• Search engine optimization results take 1 to 3 months, depending on your industry, competition and initial state of the website.

Local has become an essential part of search engine optimization, for both SEO providers and small businesses that operate in one city.

One of the most important ranking factors in local SEO in the location of the business to the perceived centroid of the city. This is true for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as only business located at the heart of downtown show up in as ten box, 3 box and one box. The factor is beneficial to businesses with office at the center of the city, but very problematic for small biz owners, like carpenters, roofers and cleaners, who do not have an office, and travel to client’s location for work.

Location to the Centroid of the City

Is there a way around this? How can a 100% legit business, which does not have an office downtown show up in the ten box?

One of the ways around this was to rent a UPS PO BOX somewhere at the center of city. The technique is apparently on decline, as Google has become more aware of it. Another, black method, is to claim listing of other business owners, but this is not something you should use.

Another technique is to arrange “address rent” with a legit business owner downtown. Find a small private shop at the heart of centroid, and rent the address from the owner as your own. The trick is to make sure that the address is not already listed and claimed on Google maps.

This technique works, but it is partially deceiving to both the bots and visitors, since that’s not a real location, and if one of the customers ever decides to travel there – he will be in for a surprise. Also keep in mind that you will have to change the address on the website, along with 3rd party data providers like Yelp, Yellow Pages etc, which can get tricky. Some data providers offer very good customer service, and are willing to merge / delete listings, provided you show verification and enough facts. Others do not reply to requests, which can get problematic, since different data a providers will have citations with different locations.

Citations from Data Providers

Citations are the links in local SEO. The more there are, and the more authoritative the sources – the higher you will rank in local search results. Some less competitive markets do not even require classic links to rank well for local, while competitive giants like hotels definitely need citations + domain power.

We detailed Canadian citations in the previous article.

Business Category

This seems to another IMPORTNANT factor in local SEO. Categorization of the business in the wrong category can result in disaster, so make sure to make the right choice. If you’re a limo company, select “limousines”. If you’re a lawyer, select “lawyers”. Number of SEOs state that multiple categorization helps, but don’t take the risk if you’re not sure about the category. One is sufficient to let Google know what you’re about.

Local SEO has become an important segment of search engine optimization and in fact sprang a mini industry in the SEO sector, with companies focusing solely on local results, such as 10 box, 3 box and authoritative 1 box (explanations below). Effective, less resource demanding, and less time consuming, local SEO has become an essential part of our industry.

Boxes

The 10 box, 3 box and 1 authoritative box, all describe the way Google displays local search results. Here are the visual examples.

10 Box

3 Box

1 Box or Authoritative Box

Obviously the one box is the best one to have for a competitive search term, however it is hard to get, as it shows mostly for direct company names, and very authoritative domains.

A list of Site Objects to Optimize:

• Claim Your Local Business Listing. The process is a pain in the butt, but here’s the guide we wrote a while ago.
• Have local business address in the city you’re targeting
• Include City / Province in the titles tag, preferably index and contact
• Have inbound links from relevant site with local anchor text (“toronto limo”) etc.
• Have an address as close to the center of the city as possible
• Include targeted keywords in the business description
• Have as many links as possible.
• Include photos, videos and additional information in the Google Local Business Center
• Get some positive ratings on third party sites (trip advisor, etc)
• Associate your listing in the proper category
• Include full address on the contact us page, and also on the footer of other pages (footer not required)
• Have inbound links from local sites and directories
• Have targeted keywords in the business title
• Have a local area code phone number
• Get citations from major data providers (list below)
• Have quality inbound links to the site to improve trust (like regular SEO)
• Get customer reviews directly on Google maps and from data providers such as City Search and Yahoo Local. The more reviews the better, regardless negative or positive (a bigger factor for hotels and other industries with many customer reviews)

Local Citations (Canada Only)

Local citations have become equivalent to links in regular search engine optimization, as the more citations a local business has the more prominent it is the eyes of Google. Here’s a list of directories you must be in if you want to be a leader in the local results.

• YellowPages.ca
• 411.ca
• ShopinCanada.com
• CityDirect.info
• Canpages.ca
• ZipLocal.com
• WebLocal.ca
• FoundLocally.com
• BBB.org Canada
• Hotfrog Canada
• iBegin.com
• WCities
• Toronto Life
• Where.Ca
• Frommers.com
• Zip Local
• Yelp
• Restaurant.ca

Resources

The Guide to Canadian Citations for Local Search | The Canadian Guide to Local SEO Citations | Local vs Traditional SEO: Why Citation Is the New Link | Local Search Ranking Factors | Google & Yahoo Local SEO Best Practices

As you know Microsoft is the new number two search engine, while Yahoo is out of the game.

Yahoo Benefits and Losses from this deal:

Benefits:

• YAHOO believes deal will generate incremental $250MM in annual cash flow (17% accretive to our ’09 est)
• It is now in a close relationship with the most powerful name is software market.

Losses:

• No up front payment
• It will share 12% of it’s $ 3 billions in search with Microsoft. As mentioned in the previous article, Yahoo will actually pay Microsoft for taking its search engine?…
• Lack of other deals such as display.
• Yahoo is left at the mercy of the software giant, since it has agreed to pass its search and PPC technology. Microsoft is now in control of the $3 billion market cap. Though Yahoo will getting the upper cut of the profits, it is not nearly the same as owing in house search and PPC platform.

The deal is to extend for 5 years, after which companies will negotiate. Even if Yahoo decides to ditch Microsoft, it will be in no position to compete with either Microsoft or Google. Starting from scratch is no longer an option in search (if they are to compete), so Yahoo has made a big mistake, giving up on search, CHEAPLY.

I understand that Yahoo would have hard time defending its market stake against Google, because it does not have the cash big G does. Microsoft would continue stealing Yahoo talent and poking them until they got some kind of deal… its a tough situation and deal was probably inevitable… but if you’re going to give up technology that makes you $3 billion a year, you better get BOATLOAD of CASH for it…

Instead Microsoft got it, literally, for free…

Microsoft Benefits and Loses:

Loses:

• Microsoft is likely to pay for integration of search between two companies, legal costs, etc.

Benefits:

• Microsoft now commands Yahoo’s search engine market share for virtually nothing.
• It is now in a much better position to compete with Google.
• It saved $43 billion dollars.

Balmer got the better side of the deal, and that’s good for him. Frankly, I would not trust Bartz with a company after this deal… I will gladly take my words back if we see Yahoo flourish long term, instead of being swallowed by Microsoft entirely.

Yahoo is officially out of the search game, passing the ball to Microsoft. Yahoo has signed an agreement under which Bing will power Yahoo search results.

Boatloads of Cash?

A year ago Microsoft offered over $40 billion dollars for the entire company, which was 60% more the actual value of the company. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang opposed the deal and literally served as the barrier. A year later Bartz took the high seat as the CEO, and was determined to put Yahoo on it’s feet. She started restructuring the company and generally brought more discipline onboard… – it was a good thing. Meanwhile Microsoft was still poking, this time not at the whole company but at just search aspect of the business. Companies went back and forth, but never reached an agreement. Bartz then said that they are still open to the deal, if Microsoft will give “boatloads of cash upfront”…

In the end? Microsoft got Yahoo to actually pay them for taking over their search business!!! Under the agreement Yahoo will split the money it makes on its properties with search 88% / 12%. Though there will be an increase in revenue, as Microsoft guarantees for 18 month of the 120 month deal, it ranges in millions and does not get to the gold $1 billion mark.

In the end Microsoft got a huge bargain, while Yahoo is left at the mercy of the software giant.

Search is Core to Yahoo’s Business

Though Bartz repositioned Yahoo as the media company, a destination and a portal where people enjoy “high quality web experiences…yata yata yata newspeak…”, Paid search constitutes a large portion of Yahoo’s revenues, and giving it up, means giving up control of the financial destiny to another company.

Lycos and AOL have outsourced search and saw their traffic drop like a rock. Will Yahoo survive? That’s the big question.

Yahoo started as a web directory, when a web was an unorganized place and where there was no high quality search engine. Then came Google and showed the world it is possible to find a needle in haystack, over and over again in a split second. Yahoo realized it needs a search engine and outsourced the search book, for some time to Google. It then realized that search is a cash cow and entered the game…

Now it’s quitting. Will it survive?