Search Engine Optimization

Keyword research is a simple process, yet many people overcomplicate it and take a lot more time than necessary to find the right keywords to target on their websites. Here are 13 tips that will help to streamline the keyword research process.

1. Stop relying on your own logic

One of the most common keyword research problems is people’s tendency to rely on their own logic and guess at keywords rather than explore all of the data that’s available.

2. Notice the difference between spoken and written word

Rather than targeting the same descriptive terms as your competitors, think of the keywords your customers use when they talk to you.

3. Explore keywords related to specific seasons

If appropriate for your industry, consider exploring keywords related to specific seasons.

4. Explore acronyms

Look for commonly used acronyms in your industry to access unexplored data that your competitors are probably ignoring.

5. Give searchers what they are looking for

Rather than putting your objectives first, give searchers the valuable content they are looking for when they search for particular keywords.

6. Determine what your customers really want

Most people focus on the keywords themselves, but it’s best to look at the big picture by determining not just what keywords users are searching for, but what the intent is behind those keywords.

7. Focus on less competitive keywords

Unless you have a huge marketing budget, you’re probably not going to be able to rank for highly competitive keywords, like “credit cards,” “mortgage” or “auto insurance.” Instead, focus on less competitive keywords, such as keywords related to your geographic location.

8. Continue performing keyword research

In online marketing, change is inevitable. Even after your site’s launch, you’ll have to perform keyword research periodically to ensure that your content keeps up with current trends in your industry.

9. Use social media data

Social media and SEO are becoming intertwined, so it’s vital to take social media data into consideration when performing keyword research for your site. Use sites like Social Mention and Topsy to monitor the use of keywords in social media and determine which ones are the most popular.

10. Avoid industry jargon

The goal of keyword research is to generate traffic from visitors who are interested in your products and services. But just because they’re interested in your offerings doesn’t mean they understand all of your industry’s terminology! Don’t go overboard with industry jargon and technical terms because your target audience may not understand them.

11. Don’t copy your competitors

Don’t target the same keywords your competitors are using – there’s a good chance that they aren’t even using the best ones! Dig around to find the high traffic, low competition keywords your competitors are likely to overlook.

12. Use Google’s auto-suggest feature

In the past, it was necessary to use keyword research tools to find keywords to target. Nowadays, you can just type words into Google’s search bar to find keywords that people are searching for.

13. Check the page rank, backlinks, and domain age of competing pages

Google page rank and the quality and quantity of backlinks are some factors that indicate how important a website is. Furthermore, the higher a site’s domain age, the more authoritative it is considered to be. If all of the pages that rank on the first page of results for a target keyword have a high page rank, tons of high quality links, and a high domain age, you may want to look for less competitive keywords to target.

Building a business blog is simple, but building a successful business blog that brings you a steady flow of leads is another story altogether. Whether you’re a small business owner running your own company blog or an in-house employee helping to manage your employer’s blog, these tips may help to take your business blog from unknown to internet famous.

Participate in Communities Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out

Explore different social media networks, forums, and blogs to determine where your target audience gathers. Create accounts at all of those sites and start participating. Be a good community member for a while without trying to hawk your wares. Eventually, people will be eager to visit your site and learn more about you because of your valuable contributions to the community.

Make Your Blog’s Content SEO-Friendly

There are more than three billion searches performed each day on Google, so it’d be silly not to get a sliver of that traffic to come to your site by optimizing your blog posts for the search engines. Contrary to popular belief, SEO doesn’t affect the quality or creativity of your content. When done right, SEO is virtually unnoticeable. With simple on-page SEO tactics and link-building techniques, you’ll be able to boost traffic levels and get your content in front of more people.

Target Audiences That Are More Likely to Share Your Content

People who are extremely active in social media and/or who have blogs of their own are generally more inclined to share content, so create content that they’ll be eager to spread. By targeting groups of people who are likely to share your content, you’ll be able to expand your audience and reach.

Sign up for Major Social Networks

If you’re not already a member of major social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, sign up now. Fill out your profiles completely, follow the who’s who in your industry, share your content on a regular basis, and ask thought-provoking questions that engage your followers. If you consistently share relevant, high quality content and interact with people in a positive way, you’ll build trust and credibility.

Link to Your Own Posts and Those of Others

Continue giving the gift of traffic to older posts on your blog by linking to them in your newer posts. In addition, link to other bloggers’ content in your blog posts to attract their attention and build relationships with them. They may even link to your content in the future if they like what they see.

Write Guest Articles

Write articles for other sites with links back to your site, so you can build your brand and reputation in your industry. You can also accept guest contributions on your own site to attract more traffic and build relationships with other content creators.

Participate in Q&A Sites

Participate in Q&A sites like Quora and Yahoo! Answers by answering questions that are relevant to your industry. Include a link back to your site in your answers. As long as you provide helpful, in-depth answers to people’s questions and provide a relevant link, no one is likely to accuse you of spamming or link dropping.

The web is becoming increasingly social, so it’s essential to build a social media presence in order to boost your business’s credibility. Benefits of building a strong social media presence include improving the way visitors feel about your website and reducing the amount of risk they sense when doing business with you.

Anyone can start a blog or website and do business online. That’s why it’s more important than ever before to build credibility and trust. Now that search and social are becoming intertwined, it’s especially important to get involved in social media. Here are some tips for boosting your business’s credibility factor through social media marketing.

Increase Your Social Authority

Increase your social authority by posting social media updates several times a day and interacting with other users on a regular basis. The more social authority you have, the more other users will trust you and the higher your site will appear in search engine results.

Network with Power Users in Relevant Niches

When using a social networking site like Twitter, network with power users in relevant niches. In social media, it’s not just about how many people you know – it’s about who you know. Engaging with power users helps to boost your credibility as an authority in your niche.

Encourage Sharing

Encourage social media users to share your content by including sharing options on your website and asking readers to share your content if they like it or find it useful. The more your content is shared, the more credible your site will appear in the eyes of users.

Be Personal

Contrary to popular belief, acting “business-like” in social media won’t boost your credibility. Businesses that have embraced social media in a personal way, such as Starbucks and Dell, have had the most success with the medium. Customers want to do business with companies that show they are real human beings. So, don’t be afraid to mix personal information and business information in your social media updates – let your customers can get to know the real you.

Be Picky about the Content You Share via Social Media

Reciprocity is important in social media, but don’t feel the need to share mediocre content just because that particular content creator always shares your stuff. Build your reputation as a social media user who consistently shares high quality content. Otherwise, people will start ignoring you.

In addition, don’t just promote your own content on social media sites. Become a respected voice in your industry by sharing the best content from other content producers in your industry. That way, people will come to see you as a trusted source of industry information.

Don’t Be Pushy

There’s nothing that’ll hurt your credibility more than using pushy sales tactics. People use social media to socialize, not buy products or services. Let your followers get to know you first before running promotions.

Establishing credibility via social media marketing takes time. You have to do all of the above for a long-term period in order to establish credibility and achieve worthwhile results. Just like in the offline, traditional business world, you can’t expect people to instantly trust your business. Building trust and credibility is a gradual process, but it’s well worth it in the long run.

2011 was a difficult year for the SEO world. From the Google Panda update to the removal of keyword referral data in Google analytics, the changes in search have made it all the more difficult to rank well for target search terms. But the New Year is upon us, and many SEO pros are gearing up for what is to come. Here are 5 SEO predictions for 2012.

1. Search and social will become inseparable

Google and other major search engines have continued to hint at the fact that social media plays an important role in search engine rankings. In 2012, it will become clear that no company can hide from the social web. Not only do social signals come into play in ranking algorithms, social media is becoming the primary method for users to discover and share new content online.

2. SEO will move towards content marketing and inbound marketing

SEO is becoming something broad and all-inclusive that incorporates content marketing, blogging, social media marketing, and web analytics. SEO companies will likely start focusing less and less on traditional SEO tactics, like link-building, site architecture, and keyword research to prioritize audience building and outreach. Increasing audience interaction with your content is critical because it enforces your brand’s authority, both in the eyes of search engines and users. The search engines continue to weed out sites with low quality content, so you also have to make sure that your content is engaging, informative, and useful. Keyword-stuffed articles you paid $5 for on a bidding site aren’t going to cut it anymore.

3. Google’s focus on paid search will back fire

Organic search engine results still get approximately 80% of all clicks, but that percentage is dropping, thanks to Google’s aggressive paid search ad displays that take up the first six positions. Nowadays, when you search for products, you’re bombarded with star ratings, reviews, prices, and product photos above the fold. While this is pushing more and more businesses to rely on paid search ads for traffic, Google’s strategy may end up backfiring in 2012 because people will become frustrated with being served so many paid ads and will start ignoring them in favor of organic results.

4. Brands that want greater search engine visibility will be forced to join Google+

It’s already happening. Google is encouraging more brands to join the Google+ network by making Google+ circles and +1s visible in their results. As more people join Google+, it will become easier for Google to link search and social signals. The downside of giving Google so much control is that they’ll obtain even more data about our online behaviors, which will make them an even more dominant force online than they already are.

5. Mobile search will become increasingly important

Optimizing your site for the mobile web isn’t just something to consider – it’s critical. Traffic levels to mobile websites are already significant, and they will continue to rise in 2012. Brands that do not have a mobile website and that don’t optimize their web presence for mobile users will suffer. Brands also have to manage content delivery effectively across various types of mobile devices, including smart phones, tablets, and game consoles, in order to maximize the value of mobile users.

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.

Creating and distributing linkbait is a popular link-building technique. When done correctly, linkbait can build your authority, attract relevant links, and boost your online visibility. Although creating linkbait can boost your online presence, it can also damage your brand if you aren’t careful. Outlined here are some of the most common linkbait mistakes and how to fix them.

Creating Linkbait without a Promotional Plan

Don’t wait till after you’re done creating linkbait to come up with a promotional plan because without a solid strategy in place, there’s a good chance your linkbait will fall flat quickly. Prior to creating linkbait, approach some influential figures in your industry to see what they think about your concept. If people dig the idea and you’re able to secure around five promising links, start working on your linkbait.

Using Misleading Headlines

One common mistake that people make when creating headlines for their linkbait is that they create catchy headlines just to grab people’s attention, but the headlines are only loosely related to the topic at hand. Don’t mislead your audience because if your linkbait doesn’t deliver on the promise made in your headline, people will be disappointed and won’t share it. It’s possible to write a compelling headline without lying.

Being Controversial Just for the Sake of Being Controversial

You can’t deny the fact that controversial content makes good linkbait, but there’s a thin line between compelling, controversial content and empty rants. If you want to create a controversial piece that helps you build your brand, reputation, and authority, you need to make sure your argument is valuable and thought-provoking. Otherwise, your linkbait attempt could end up hurting your brand rather than helping it.

Not Understanding the Social Media Landscape

In order for linkbait to spread, it has to do well in social media. So, unless you’re deeply familiar with the social networks where you plan to share your content, consult with an expert. The preferences and behaviors of social media audiences vary widely from one social network to the next. For example, some types of linkbait may do exceptionally well on Twitter, yet fail miserably on Digg. Study the type of content that does well with your audience and then determine which social media networks your audience use the most, so you can create linkbait that’s right on the mark.

Using Unreliable Hosting

Make sure that your website’s hosting service is reliable, so your server doesn’t crash if your linkbait is successful and your site receives tons of traffic. Remember: all of the effort you put into creating and promoting your linkbait will go down the drain if your server crashes. A good hosting service is well worth the investment.

Creating Irrelevant Linkbait

Whenever you create linkbait, make sure that it’s relevant to your industry and your audience’s needs and interests. A silly video about cats may spread like wildfire and attract a slew of links, but it won’t help you grow your online presence if it isn’t relevant to your business.

JCPenney, one of America’s biggest retailers, consistently ranked number one on Google for all keywords related to the range of products it sells, including dresses, area rugs, and bedding. For several months, JCPenney’s suspiciously high rankings went unnoticed, till just recently, that is.

With the investigative help of an SEO professional, the New York Times discovered that JCPenney was buying links in order to boost its rankings. The links had keyword-rich anchor text and were mostly found on topically irrelevant, low authority sites. For example, a link to JCPenney’s site with the anchor text, “black dresses,” was found on a website about engineering.

JCPenney claimed that they had no idea what their SEO firm was up to. They immediately fired the firm and took down the links after news of their less-than-ethical SEO campaign went public, but Google’s Matt Cutts took disciplinary action immediately. JCPenney’s website was subsequently buried and can no longer be found on the first page of Google when you search for product-related keywords it ranked #1 for just last week.

What is the lesson here? Most people would say, “Don’t buy links because you could get banned from the search engines.” Nevertheless, many SEO professionals continue to buy links and engage in other “black hat” SEO tactics in secret, despite the fact that their clients’ websites could disappear from Google at the blink of an eye if they were to get caught. Most of these SEO firms probably don’t care because they think they’ll get away with it. After all, like JCPenney, they only buy links from small, lesser known sites. Who would ever find out about it, unless you’re the subject of a New York Times article?

Why Buying Links Is a Bad Idea

While engaging in black hat SEO and buying links is not illegal, it is clearly against Google’s policies. And for a business that generates the majority of its leads and sales via the internet, getting de-indexed from Google is a significant blow.

Nonetheless, websites in several industries have resorted to buying links simply because it’s difficult to attract links organically in their niches. For example, a website in the Payday loan industry will inevitably have more difficulty attracting natural links than a website about makeup. There are plenty of bloggers and webmasters that publish content about makeup, so they voluntarily link to great content about makeup… but payday loans? It’s not exactly a popular niche among the linkerati. Therefore, buying links has become the elephant in the room in the SEO industry. Tons of people are doing it, but few people will talk about it in public. But if you want to avoid Google’s wrath, do yourself a favor and play by the rules. Buying links is risky business and could get your site banned by Google.

So, you’re probably wondering how else you can build links. Here are a few ethical alternatives that work:

• Experiment with viral marketing. For example, Blendtec sells blenders, which is something people normally don’t talk about in social media, but Blendtec managed to attract tons of links via social media through viral video marketing.
• Ask for links or exchange links. Publish excellent content and then kindly ask other webmasters in your industry for a link or link exchange. If you publish helpful, informative content that would be beneficial to a webmaster’s readers, he may consider linking to your site, as long as you aren’t a direct competitor.
• Buy links from a reputable directory. Google doesn’t look down on all paid links. In fact, buying a link from reputable sites like the Yahoo! Directory is acceptable in Google’s eyes. Why? Yahoo! Directory has a strong editorial policy, so even if you pay their fee and submit your site, there’s no guarantee that they’ll link to it.

The backlinks that Google values most are on relevant websites that receive significant traffic, so keep that in mind when you’re asking around for links. And remember: don’t approach a webmaster you don’t know with a link request out of the blue. Connect with the webmaster via social media, email, or telephone and build rapport with him first. He’s more likely to be receptive to your link request if you make the effort to get to know him before asking for favors.

Social bookmarking refers to posting links to your website content on websites that store, organize, and manage bookmarks, such as Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Propeller.    Some claim that social bookmarking helps you achieve high search engine rankings in a short amount of time, but is it really worth it?

To put it simply, yes.  Social bookmarking is worthwhile because it increases the number of backlinks to your website.  Link building is one of the most important SEO techniques out there, and for keywords with moderate to low competition, social bookmarking can quickly improve your website’s search engine rankings.  To ensure that your social bookmarking efforts actually complement your link building strategy, use only social bookmarking sites with the dofollow attribute.

Another benefit of social bookmarking is that it widens your audience.  Social bookmarking allows you to publicize your website’s content in order to attract more readers.  If your content is well received, you could get more bookmarks from other users, and ultimately, more links.  If your website or article gets bookmarked many times and reaches the top page of a bookmarking website, it could bring hordes of traffic to your website.

Generally speaking, the traffic that you get from social bookmarking websites isn’t high quality.  Users of social bookmarking sites usually click on the links, take a quick look at the content, and then leave.  But their bookmarks make a difference because they give your website more authority in other people’s eyes and help you build a larger following.  The more people there are who know about your site, the more likely you are to receive visits to your website from potential customers.

Tips for Maximizing Your Social Bookmarking Efforts

Make sure you insert a link to your sales page or product page in your content.  While it’s essential to write great content in order to promote your website on social bookmarking sites, if your ultimate goal is to get more customers and sales, you should casually link back to your sales page in your article, as well.  Don’t submit content to social bookmarking sites that is a blatant sales pitch, but don’t create good content just for the sake of creating good content, either.  Your content should serve a higher purpose.  If you include a link back to your sales page or product page, potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer will click through.

To make your social bookmarks easier to find and to help them rank better for target keywords, make sure that you add relevant keywords and keyword phrases to the bookmarks in the form of tags.  Some social bookmarking sites allow you to include an unlimited number of tags.

You can make it even easier for people to share your content on social bookmarking sites by adding share buttons to your content.  If you use a blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger on your website, you can upload a plug-in that adds share graphics to your website.  All that your readers have to do is click on an icon in order to bookmark your article or blog post on a social bookmarking site.

Just be cautious about bookmarking your content excessively on social bookmarking sites.  Spamming bookmarking sites could lead your site to get penalized by the search engines, which would defeat the whole purpose of your bookmarking campaign!

New SEO companies are born about as often as you blink and many of these companies make grandiose claims, so how on earth can you figure out which ones are trustworthy? In order to wade through all the lies and find an SEO company that knows its onions, you have to know what to interview several companies to see what they’re all about. The following are 8 questions to ask when you’re shopping around for an SEO company.

1. Do you have references?

Don’t hire an SEO company unless they can provide you with references. It is very helpful to speak with a company’s previous clients to determine whether or not their service is indeed reliable and efficient. Be wary of SEO companies that are reluctant to provide you with the contact information of their previous clients or that don’t have any previous clients to speak of.

2. Ask the SEO company you want to hire exactly what SEO techniques they plan to use.

Choose an SEO company that can explain to you exactly what they are going to do and why. You shouldn’t trust an SEO company that’s secretive about their SEO process or that isn’t able to explain their process to you in plain English. Beware of jargon.

3. What are your pricing options?

Pricing is a good indicator of whether or not an SEO company is worth your time. Good SEO companies are typically expensive, and they’re picky about which clients they take on. If an SEO company’s pricing model sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. You may as well flush money down the toilet if you’re going to buy a package that costs, say, $39.95 per month.

4. What kind of off-site SEO techniques do you use?

If an SEO company doesn’t mention a word about off-site SEO techniques, run in the other direction. Off-site SEO is an essential component of any and every SEO campaign. A good SEO company will implement ethical SEO tactics and understand which social media sites and directories are worth your time.

5. Have you worked with businesses that are similar to mine?

Find out if an SEO company has worked with businesses that are similar to yours. An SEO company that has had success with similar websites will be better able to replicate that success with your site.

6. How long will it take to see results?

It may take months for you to see results, so be suspicious of any SEO company that guarantees you overnight success.

7. Do you use any black hat SEO techniques?

Beware of SEO companies that use questionable tactics. Black hat techniques may bring you temporary results but they could get you banned from the search engines in the long run. Only hire SEO companies that use ethical, white hat techniques.

8. Do you have a portfolio of your work?

Any experienced SEO company that’s worth its salt will be able to show you a portfolio of its work. Don’t hire an SEO company that doesn’t have a portfolio because they probably don’t have enough experience to live up to their guarantees!

SEO Expertâ„¢ Vancouver SEO Search Engine Optimization Company

Search engine optimization is what delivers the results to your company and ensures that you are getting motivated customers and expanding your revenue flow. The level of Vancouver search engine optimization you need depends on the competitiveness of your industry, complexity of your website and complexity of your products and services.

Does this sound familiar… you get a consultant – they walk in and claim to have all the solutions to your problems. There’s one problem. They don’t you, your team, your problems, business model and most importantly your customers. Should you listen? The answer is no.

Vancouver Search Engine Optimization – The Critical Steps

You cannot have successful Vancouver search engine marketing campaign(or any marketing) without strategic planning. You cannot have successful planning without successful keyword research. There’s a reason it’s called keyword research. Some companies believe that marketing is about being creative and making stuff up – that’s what ad agencies are for. Successful companies know that marketing is about something that is our there that represents the truth. The purpose of keyword research is to find out important facts about your targeted customers and their search behaviours.

The first and the most important step of Vancouver search engine optimization, keyword research, builds solid foundation on which rest of the campaign gets executed. Before we touch anything, we must have a deep understanding of your customer search behaviour, language and their perceptions in your industry. Keyword research results in keyword lists that take into account key phrases with different search volumes, different intentions and indicators of interest in your company. This approach provides better customer acquisition approach and a better ability to convert visitors into customers.

With our proven search engine optimization methodology, we can easily implement a strategy that brings results. We will work with you or with your team to establish and hold best search engine spots for keywords that indicate interest in your products and services. Our approach can help you:

• Discover new opportunities for your company
• Develop better online brand awareness through link enhancement services
• Optimize your website for Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines
• Promote you an industry leader on search engine listings
• Develop an online customer flow to your website through search engines

Please review this page for a more detailed look at benefits delivered with our search engine optimization services.

What You Will Receive With SEO Marketing Services

Upon completion of our search engine marketing services you will receive at least 3 first page search engine spots(depending on your package). If you prefer a more tactical implementation explore our local search engine optimization service.

Vancouver SEO process. You and your team will be involved in the process. It may required by one of our representatives to visit our offices and discuss in detail your objectives.

Our Vancouver search engine optimization services are available to any business. Fees begin at $3000.

You can engage in a short term search engine optimization campaign or shoot for long term where we will capture a spot for each competitive keyword in your industry. Throughout our relationship, our team communicate with you and evaluate your suggested courses of action.

Contact us now to discuss your Vancouver search engine marketing goals.

“SEO Expert optimized Better Business Bureau web site in Quebec and since then 80% of all the business listings are on the first page of the search engines. Thank you.”

- Serge M. www.bbb-bec.com

Explore Our Site | View Clients | SEO Services

It is unfortunate that Robert Wrights has resorted to publicly attacking the integrity of others in the SEO industry. Anyone who has the interest (and some free time) can easily look into the way back machine to see how our titles have evolved over time. You’ll find that they have not varied that much and that the only major change was the inclusion of the brand that we have been marketing our services under since day one, which is “SEO Expert” (note: Wrights’s brand is “Mr. Web Guru”). We could easily go down the road of claiming that Wrights’s titles changed and gravitated closer to ours: before June 2006 Wrights’s underpinning focus of his title was “Search Engine Marketing” (no use of the word “Optimization”) while ours was always “Search Engine Optimization”. Moreover, we could take issue that Wrights used our brand as the new lead-off wording in his June’06 title change. But then we would look just as naive if we pursued such positions.

The fact of the matter is that all good SEO’s are aware of the relevant keywords and keyword phrases of virtually every major industry segment (…SEO industry included), and most SEO’s use and advocate the use of these major keywords in titles. What you end up seeing today is original art giving way to more and more generic well researched titles that are tightly focussed around the results of keyword analysis of the target industry or subject matter; this is fundamentally a good thing from a search engine indexation/categorization perspective. The titles in our website and Wrights’s website are just that, very common and generic keywords that serve to properly categorize the companies rather than an attempt to articulate unique and differentiated corporate messaging. The titles of both sites have evolved to their current format because both Michael Wilson and Robert Wrights understand keyword research; both have added the obvious important words and both have removed words of lesser importance. Otherwise, there is nothing clever, unique, nor original going on in any of these titles and for anyone to make a claim on the major key word strings of any industry is questionable thought. Search engines algorithms, particularly Google’s, have evolve immensely over the past 4 or 5 years and the days of achieving significant gains from simple title or tag manipulation are far behind us; today, successful SEO requires hard work and application across the entire website.

Michael Wilson has always been respectful and helpful to his industry peers and customers. He even advanced a schedule update of our titles last week following what appeared to be a cordial conversation with Mr.Wrights. For those who know Michael more personally know an honest hands-on charitable individual who donates an extraordinary amount of time and energy in serving his local home town community of Montreal . Wrights’s public attack on this individual’s character is very unfortunate, slanderous and damaging; his direct correspondences alluding to leveraging relationships with important industry leaders such as Matt Cutts to achieve some end goal are disturbing on many levels and are taken very seriously.

Silvo Frank

CEO

SEO Internet Marketing