Search Engine Optimization

Google has been getting a lot of flack lately in the SEO community for purportedly favoring big brands in its search results and kicking small businesses to the proverbial curb. According to critics, Google has managed to divert attention away from its questionable business strategies by publicizing projects like its self-driven cars and Google Plus, neither of which generates revenue for the Internet giant. Meanwhile, Google’s revenues have increased by billions of dollars this year and revenues from Google’s AdSense partner network have plummeted. What has Google done in order to grow so much, so fast, and why is its AdSense partner network suffering the consequences?

The Death of Organic Search Engine Rankings

Aaron Wall, a renowned SEO consultant and the founder of SEOBook, mentioned in a recent blog post that when he searched for the query “HD monitor” on Google, he could only see paid ads and links to Google pages above the fold. Based on his observations and Google’s sudden revenue growth, many critics suspect that Google is strategically directing search engine traffic to sites from which they can profit. This seemingly minor change has the potential to hurt many small business owners and affiliate marketers, who depend on high organic search engine rankings to generate traffic and sales. Google’s Matt Cutts even called independent affiliate marketers, “an unnecessary step in the sales funnel.”

Google is likely keeping the prime real estate in the SERPs for itself in order to boost profits. By becoming the largest affiliate, Google can quickly displace thousands of affiliate marketers and small businesses that rely on affiliate marketing income to survive. It’s a scary prospect, but Google will ultimately pay the price by killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

The Future of Online Marketing

People are bombarded with advertising and marketing messages on a daily basis, so they recognize ads quickly and tend to tune them out. Therefore, a good number of Google users are likely to head straight to the organic results when they perform searches. And if people continue searching for information on Google and realize that there is nothing but ads above the fold, they will probably begin to feel distrustful of Google’s search results and start using a different search engine. People use search engines to find relevant information, not ads.

Ultimately, it’s up to consumers to decide which search engine they’ll use, and if Google keeps this up, it’s likely that many people will seek an alternative. The world is ready for a new search engine, and Google’s making it easier for a competitor to take over the market by putting its own profits first.

Businesses that rely on the web for leads, sales, and profits can minimize their dependence on Google by building other sales funnels into their sites. From display advertising to social media marketing to email marketing, there are a variety of other effective online marketing strategies that you can implement. Other things that business owners can do to decrease Google’s power and influence in the online world is use a different search engine, avoid clicking on Google’s paid ads, and try other PPC ad networks besides AdWords.

In today’s economic climate, an increasing number of business owners have slimmer marketing budgets to work with. Furthermore, print advertising is on its death bed, so many are turning to the web to promote their products and services. Here are 8 solid tips for generating more leads online with a limited budget.

1. Make videos

Major search engines love video, and it’s a lot easier to get videos to rank well because there’s less competition. Create engaging videos and a YouTube channel with links back to your website to generate more targeted traffic to your site.

2. Build your list

In internet marketing circles, the power of having a “list” is well known. Email marketing is an extremely effective online marketing technique because people who subscribe to your emails are more likely to become your customers over time. To maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, consistently provide immense value in your emails so that your subscribers look forward to getting emails from you.

3. Submit your website to directories

Make sure that your site is listed in all relevant business directories. Not only will listing your site in business directories help you build valuable backlinks to your site that improve its rankings, it’ll also enable you to drive targeted traffic to your website.

4. Create a targeted landing page

When you launch an online advertising campaign, don’t drive ad traffic to your home page – create a targeted landing page that reminds people why they clicked on your ad in the first place. Your landing page should deliver on the promise of your ad and have similar messaging and branding. You can perform split testing to maximize the conversion rates of your landing page.

5. Get active in social media

Social media activity correlates with higher search engine rankings, so make sure you build a presence on the social web. Social media also enables you to interact with your customers and send them promotional offers and discounts. You can also position your social media sites as a go-to resource for information in your industry by consistently sharing relevant, high quality content and news.

6. Share documents and slide shows

If you create white papers, reports, and power point presentations to promote your business, share them on sites like Scribd and SlideShare to ensure that they rank well in the search engines. Provide links to your site at the end of your reports and presentations, so people who engage with your content are led back to your website.

7. Update your site with high quality content

The search engines love websites that are fresh and up-to-date, so make sure you provide your site visitors with a steady flow of high quality content. Types of content that you can add to your site include videos, podcasts, and blog posts. If you don’t have time to create content on a regular basis, hire an online content specialist to help you.

8. Write SEO-friendly press releases

Write and distribute SEO-friendly press releases that are optimized for your target keywords. Press releases will drive targeted traffic to your website and improve your search engine visibility.

Building quality backlinks that point to your website is one of the top contributors to high search engine rankings. Links not only raise your rankings – they also bring you increased traffic and help to build your brand. What many online marketers don’t realize is that email marketing is an extremely effective technique for building links.

Link building is difficult and time-consuming because it requires you to build relationships with people who are inclined to link to your content. Email marketing simplifies link building since the people who sign up for your email list are obviously interested in your content and therefore more likely to link to it. The links you get from your email subscribers probably won’t be from major websites, but they’ll provide you with steady links over time that will gradually improve your rankings.

Some ways your email subscribers can share links to your content include through websites, blogs, forums, social networks, comment sections of blogs and websites, and social news sites. If you run a B2B business, you’ll probably have less potential linkers on your email subscriber list than a B2C business because to be able to link to your content, email subscribers must have the ability to publish to the web. Here are some tips for getting those email subscribers to link to your content.

Create Helpful, Informative Content

Create helpful, informative, and thorough content that your email subscribers will want to pass along to others. The more valuable your content, the more likely people are to share it with their community.

Share Embeddable Content

Share embeddable content, such as badges, infographics, and tools, with your email subscriber list. The benefit of sharing embeddable content is that you can control its anchor text and the page of your site that it points to, which is great for SEO.

Do Email Outreach

Take a look at the domain names of the emails on your list. Ignore emails with the domains of email providers, like Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, and Hotmail.com. Take note of the other domains. Do email outreach, contacting the websites with the highest domain authority. Since people from those sites are already subscribed to your email list, it’ll probably be a lot easier for you to obtain links from them.

Engage with Your Email Subscribers in Social Media

Using their email addresses, find your email subscribers’ blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, and LinkedIn accounts, so you can engage with them further. It might take a while, but eventually, you’ll get links from those people because they’ll have a positive image of your brand and feel like they “know” you.

Give Something Away in Exchange for a Link

Send out an email to your subscribers, letting them know that they’ll receive a gift if they link to you. Items that cost next to nothing to give away include reports and ebooks. Alternatively, you could ask people to review your report or ebook (and link to it) in exchange for a free copy.

Ask People to Share/Spread Your Content

Make sure you add social media share buttons to your content, so people are more likely to share it/spread it. Better yet, explicitly ask your readers to share your content. Oftentimes, a strong call to action can make all the difference. Make it easier for people to link to your content by providing them with the URL you’d like them to link to along with the call to action.