SEO – Life & Health Care: A Tucson SEO Update
November 24, 2009
I haven’t been blogging much this month and I thought that it was time for an update. I really try to avoid bringing my personal life into the blog. It was developed to provide small business SEO solutions and not a glimpse into my personal life. However, today I am relenting. The love of my life has been hospitalized with a life threatening disease. That in and of itself is a very traumatic event!
When you realize that we are a small business that can not afford health insurance this makes the situation that much more difficult. Yes, we live in the greatest country in the world that does not provide health insurance for its citizens. My life partner, Geri, has delayed treatment like millions of others in this country that lack health insurance. Hopefully, she didn’t wait too long.
My love, Geri was hospitalized last night. Today, she is receiving loads of tests and treatments which is a good thing. How these tests and treatments will get paid for will be dealt with another day. I’m sad, I’m scared, and I’m crying. I must deal with my pain and anguish now, so I can provide her with support later today.
I am a 55 dude that has been twice married. However, I did not truly understand love until I was almost 50. Geri and I have been together for 8 years. It was 6 years ago that I nearly died from a prolonged illness. Geri stood with me then and now it is my turn to provide support.
It really sucks when your loved one is stricken by illness and you don’t know what the outcome will be. Geri is my soul mate, my lover, and my best friend that I love so dearly. Her presence in my life has made me a better person. She accepts me for you I am and she makes no effort to change me. She is a woman that doesn’t bitch or complain. Yea, I’m lucky and I know it.
I am a political junkie and I have followed the health care debate almost daily. Inevitably someone will make a comment about how many people are dying for lack of health care in this country. I always cringe when I hear this because it isn’t an abstract concept for us!
That’s our story… For now!
Our Arizona Services:
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix
Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson
Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services
Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Nationally we offer the following services:
Detailed Website Review – Audit
Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix
Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services
Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training
If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Is Google Putting Your Family Or Home Based Business At Risk?
November 1, 2009
If you are a small home based business you may have never heard of Google’s Place Pages. Google Place Pages are part of Google Maps or what Google calls the Local Business Center (LBC.) Recent changes to these pages may be putting you and your family unnecessarily at risk.
Google’s LBC is more commonly known as the Google Maps. It allows local businesses to place a free listing in its maps. These maps are often included with Google’s searches that are local in nature. You don’t even need to have a website to list your business with local maps listings.
However, these listing may place you and your family at risk. When you click on a business that is listed in Google’s maps you are taken to what is called a Place Page. These pages provide more detailed information about a company. These pages also include such things as reviews, direction to your business, and more. Recently, Google has begun including a street view of your businesses location. This is great for a retail location. However, if you run your business from your home it may be placing you and your family at risk if you are using your homes address.
Do you really want a picture of your home in your business listing? That picture will show whatever was in front of your home when a Google van took a picture. That may include your kids, toys, or your personal vehicles. The problem is Google does not seem to offer a business opt out of street views of businesses. I have scoured the Help Forum to no avail. My inquiries have gone unanswered.
Here’s is how I know that you may be at risk if you are using your home address in Local maps. Our business is a home based and when I first listed the business with Google I used my exact home address. When you first sign up with Google’s Local Business Center it sends you a post card. That post card has your pin number for your account verification. That is why I originally used my home address. Then I basically overlooked changing the address.
Then, a few months later I had a business appointment with what turned out to be a very strange man. Since I work out of my home I usually meet clients at a local coffee shop (not Starbucks.) At this meeting I was glad that I was using this coffee shop. This guy really was a very scary character. He is the kind that I would not have ever invited to my home or would want to business with.
During the conversation I mentioned that I meet at coffee shops for safety reasons. The very scary man informed me that he knew where I lived because my address was listed in Google maps. Quickly, I was making a mental note to change my address. I thought that I would never want these man just showing up at my front door. That’s when he told me that he drove to my house. He said “I pulled up in front of your house, and then I decided that it was not a good idea, I left and called instead.” Yea, I thought.
This was an almost mess in your pants moment for me. This guy was huge, disheveled, and he appeared to be a ticking time bomb to me. He claimed to have the next greatest idea that would put Google out of business and he wanted to run his business proposal by me. I had time on my hands and that it wouldn’t hurt to give this guy an hour of my time. I thought what if… Well, his proposal had already been duplicated thousands of times over and his was being poorly executed.
He thought so much of his great idea that he had me sign a non-disclosure agreement. Eventually he showed me his website and did his presentation. Then he tries to close me. He was looking for financial partners. I went to great lengths to explain why I thought that his business model would not work. I further explained that even if he could make it work that the site would need to be professionally built and he would need huge amounts of money to promote it.
What he was trying to accomplish was to be a cross between Craigslist and YouTube. However, his business model was built upon selling classifieds ads which are free all over the internet. I very carefully explained that I wanted nothing to do with his business concept. I further explained that I thought that he would likely fail. I thought the guy was going to pounce on me and perhaps do great bodily harm to me. Yes, the guy was that scary. He informed me that I was the only person who ever told him no. This guy was huge and I could understand why someone would want to shine him on.
Now, I had to be as gracious as possible because this guy knows where I live. The first thing that I did upon arriving home was to change my business address in Google’s Local Business Center. I made up a number but used the same street address. I hoped and prayed that this guy would not go off someday and come looking for me.
I got a second reality check when I recently checked my Local Business Center listing a few days ago. That’s when I discovered Google was now placing a street view picture of the address that I supplied with our LBC listing on our place page. It was not a very big deal for me as it was not my residence that Google was showing because I changed my address, but it could have been. It truly can be a crazy world out there on the internet we must be careful, especially if you have a home based business and a family.
If you are a home based business do you really want a picture of your home in your Google local listing? Depending when Google took a photo of your home it may also include you, your family members, or your personal vehicles. I have not been able to find out where or how to remove this picture. In fact, I can’t get any answers from Google about its local maps. They offer a help forum but this has been of very little help. If I find a solution I will let you all know. I have made an inquiry today, but none of my other inquiries have been answered by A Google employee. That inquiry was made three days ago. I held off posting then until I gave Google an opportunity to respond but they have not.
There is a lot of frustration with the lack of customer support with Google in general and more specifically in the Local Business Center department. I have been trying to get an answer for why a clients listing was flagged for several weeks now. Google is Beta testing a new ad program associated with its Local Maps and doesn’t seem to be offering any customer support at this time. Those of us who are regularly involved with Local SEO and Local Maps have never been thrilled with the support, or the lack thereof, that Google offers.
I would suggest that you seriously consider changing your address if you have been using your home address. Do you really want photo of your home appearing in your business listing? I know I have one really huge reason not to have my home appearing! I can only hope that others notice this and start asking Google to change this and allow home based businesses to opt out pf having pictures of their homes appearing in its local maps. Now, you will need to check your businesses place page to see if your home is appearing on this page. I checked some listing of other home based businesses that I know off. About two thirds of the listing that I checked has a street view photo in their listing. While yours may not have a street view now, it likely will in the near future.
I am asking my visitors, those who actually read these posts, to please Stumble or to give this post a Digg. This story needs heard and to be shared.
Our Arizona Services:
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix
Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson
Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services
Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Nationally we offer the following services:
Detailed Website Review – Audit
Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix
Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services
Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training
If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Do Follow Comment – Keyword Luv – Scratch My Back Marketing
September 27, 2009
Comments Turned Off
Did You Come Hear Looking For
Quality Do Follow Backlinks Resources?
No Comments Links Provided For This Post
Finally, after several long drawn out months we have completed the upgrade to this blog. We have added all of the following plugins Do Follow, Comment and Keyword Luv. We have added all of these plugins to make our blog a friendly place to comment.
It is part of what we have been calling Scratch My Back Marketing.” The idea here is that you scratch our backs with use comments of at least 150 characters in length. We then scratch your back with useful Do Follow Anchor Text links. If you are a blog owner with an RSS feed enabled you will get an extra link.
We now are using the Scratch My Back Marketing plugin. It is an anti spam plugin. It has been developed to halt what is commonly known as drive by comments such as “nice post” or “thanks for the link.” I have been wanting this plugin for about six month and now. It is here for Beta testing. It will soon be available on WordPress.
Whose back are you scratching?
We at Tucson SEO Solutions are officially requesting that you join the conversation here. That is, if you found that this post was at all interesting, useful, or perhaps you are just looking for a useful link. Then, I would like to entice you to comment by providing you with useful backlinks as part of what I call “Scratch My Back Marketing.”
We are now using the Scratch My Back Marketing plugin. This anti spam plugin simply requires that your comment be at least 150 characters in length or it is automatically rejected. It’s that simple. We are now forcing commenters to do what we were requesting for months on this blog! The blog also uses Keyword and Comment Luv. Please note that if you only include keyword your comment may be used put you will not obtain a link!
The Scratch My Back Marketing requires you to scratch this blog by leaving a useful comment. We then will provide you with an anchor text Do Follow Link. It’s all about win/win marketing. I am willing to exchange page rank for the bump that a fresh comment provides.
Are you ready to exchange comments for links?
This is the part where I move link juice around the site and hope that someone might actually want to learn more about our local small business solutions and venture further.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Tucson Search Engine Optimization Phoenix SEO
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions
Ethical Link Building Training Affordable Website Designing Tucson
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
No Comments Links Provided For This Post
Is It Time To Bo Do Follow… Again?
September 6, 2009
I recently wrote about appreciating your blog readers and suggest that it is safe to be a Do Follow blog again. That made for some very interesting conversation both on and off the blog. We all know that all blogs get spam and it is especially bad for those blogs that provide Do Follow links.
I explained that much of the problem was not so much from individuals leaving comments but it was bots that were the problem. There are many lazy link builders around and they are not going away anytime soon. There are also many paid link builders from low wage counties cluttering our blogs with useless comments. This problem now has and answer. When you leave a comment here you now must leave a comment of that is at least 150 words in length or it gets rejected automatically. I am calling this plugin the Scratch My Back Marketing plugin.
For the last six months or so I have ended each post stating that you must leave a 20 word comment to be considered for a link. This was ignored everyday by link builders who visited the blog. So now, we have forced the issue. No longer will I have to waste my time deleting short comments that I like to call drive by comments.
I also use the spam filter Akismet and found that it was always full of spam. So much so that I dumped it all. I knew from experience there were useful comments in there but it wasn’t worth it to me to preview hundreds of spam comments everyday to find a few good comments. I know that I am not alone here. I am talking about 350 spam comments a day!
So after reading several posts about the spam filter plugin, Bad Behavior I had it installed. Then I took at look at the number of spam comments per day prior to using Bad Behavior. The spam comments on a good day were 113 on the worst day it went as high as 497. That’s a lot of spam.
The day before I installed Bad Behavior the blog had 444 spam comments. That dropped down to 16 the following day. I can easily deal with this amount of spam comfortably, in fact I now pull 3 or 4 comments out of the spam filter each day. Those 3 to 4 comments were being lost each and everyday. That is potentially 100 fewer comments per month!
Over the last two months the spam has been as low as 5 and as high as 32. Now, those are numbers that I can live with. This isn’t a perfect solution but it’s a reasonably good one. We have also included a 20 word comment requirement to obtain a link from this blog. We have managed to become Do Follow without the Do Follow spam problem.
Well, I then upgraded my plugins and Bad Behavior would no longer work with the newer version of the Redirection plugin. So I switched to using the Tan Tan Noodles plugin. This plugin turned out to be even better than the Bad Behavior plugin. It has absolutely removed all the auto bot spam. The only spam that ends up in Akismet now are from blogger’s on our black list. If you have a WordPress blog you can blacklist email addresses in the Discussions area under settings.
What I am suggesting here is this, when we release the Scratch My Back Marketing Plugin it could be combined with Tan Tan Noodles and Akismet for a killer anti spam approach. It will then be safe to become a Do Follow blog. The reason that most blogs are not Do Follow is because of spam. These three plugins will provide your blog with lots of protection.
Is it time that you you went Do Follow?
Here’s some other valuable resources:
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Our Arizona Services:
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix
Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson
Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services
Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Nationally we offer the following services:
Detailed Website Review – Audit
Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services
Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix
Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services
Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training
If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Comment Policy Update 2009
September 3, 2009
I thought it was time to address the SEO crowd and link builders that visits here often and who leaves comments. I have a very simple policy when it comes to providing links to my competitors. I will not provide a link on this blog that will give you a competitive advantage. This simply would be a foolish business policy for me to provide you with a one way link. However, if you have a blog that does not require me to register I will provide you folks with a link.
Many companies and individuals offers SEO services but they do not have a blog. So I can never acquire a return link if I chose to make a comment on their blog because they don’t have one. This may seem silly to some but this is my bread and butter. If you can not return the favor then I am not interested in providing you with a link.
Our business completes in Tucson, Phoenix, and across the US and Canada. So if you provide SEO services in any of these areas then you are a competitor you will not acquire links from here unless you have a blog. I actually had a direct competitor from Phoenix that started leaving 3 and 4 comments per visit and he visited every few days. The comments were great. However, when I visited his blog he never would approve my comments. That discovery prompted me to delete his comments. I also emailed him to explain my position.
I just thought that it was time to make a formal statement on this subject.
We have created the Scratch My Back Marketing plugin which requires comments to be at least 150 characters in length or about 20 words. Just think of it as a Tweet. If you do not meet this requirement will comment will be rejected!
If you do not properly execute Keyword Luv by using the @ symbol in your anchor text you will not acquire a link and I will use your comment. You simply should know better by now! This is the biggest reason why links are denied here. If all you can do is enter your keywords you will not get a link. I am still amazes that so many people ignore that the site uses this plugin. It’s all about following directions!
No profanity………………! Allowed Even the mildest forms will be deleted.
If you insert links into comments that are self promotion those links will be deleted.
Tucson SEO will not provide links to the following types of sites.
Porno
Gambling
Drugs
New blogs with little or no content (20 posts required with some comments included)
Political sites
One page marketing sites
Foreign language sites
All affiliate marketing sites and blogs that means yours!
If your comment appears to be spammy it will likely be deleted
If you want to be argumentative that will not fly either. Th reality here is this blog is part of my businesses marketing plan. It turns off clients to see arguing on the blog so it is not acceptable behavior. I will gladly let you make your point and I will counter that point. Then the discussion is over. I don’t have the time nor desire for protracted discussions. This isn’t a forum. It’s a blog, and it’s my blog
Finally, for those who like to tell me how to run my blog or business your comments like will never be published.
And that’s that!
We at Tucson SEO Solutions are officially requesting that you join the conversation here. That is, if you found that this post was at all interesting, useful, or perhaps you are just looking for a useful link. Then, I would like to entice you to comment by providing you with useful backlinks as part of what I call “Scratch My Back Marketing.”
The Scratch My Back Marketing requires you to scratch this blog by leaving a useful comment of at least 20 words or more. Your comment should be relevant to the post. My scratch is that you will receive a Do Follow anchor text link (Keyword Luv.) And if you have a blog with an RSS feed enabled you will receive an extra permalink back to your blog via Comment Luv.
It’s all about win/win marketing. I am willing to exchange page rank for the bump that a fresh comment provides.
Are you ready to exchange comments for links?
This is the part where I move link juice around the site and hope that someone might actually want to learn more about our local small business solutions and venture further.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Tucson Search Engine Optimization Phoenix SEO
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions
Ethical Link Building Training Affordable Website Designing Tucson
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
