My Panda Smackdown
June 30, 2011
Welcome to the Google Places SEO Citations blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.
See the bottom of this post to get the contest codes to win valuable prizes.
This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are here.
My Panda Smackdown
Back in the end of February and in early March of this year Google rolled out a major algorithm update that became known as Panda. This caused a major sift in the rankings for a very large number of websites. The update was Google’s effort to finally do something about duplicate content. This really hit article and E-commerce sites very hard.
As it turned out my blog got caught up in this update. It dropped out of sight in the rankings which really bummed me out. But I had a difficult time determining if this drop in rankings was from Panda or some other unrelated issues. After a lot of though and effort I concluded that the blog likely got caught up in the Panda update.
It was then that I had to file for a reconsideration with Google. This is the process that it uses to take a look at ranking problems. The very first thing that Google asks is who is your SEO company. Well, that answer is I am that company. I went on to explain that I play by the book and encourage others to do so as well.
Finally, after almost three months I noticed that the blog was ranking well again. So I visited webmaster tools where I had a message from Google. It just stated that the problem was looked into and indicated that all is likely well. They never admitted they made a mistake. They simply provided a link for info if the problem still existed.
Here is what I believe happened. I use a template for each blog post that includes a welcoming and closing statement. I also end each blog post title by entering the blogs name. I also use a template for each post description that changes only slightly with each post. This is very convenient for me but the algo was it as duplicate content.
So that which I used to make the blog a less time consuming event got me in trouble. And I am not alone here as thousands of other sites have been effected. Now, things are changing even more.
The Panda algorithm is being updated every 30 – 45 days. It is now using analytic’s to determine how well your site will rank. Bounce rate and time on site on are playing a huge role in how well you will eventually rank. Google is using information gleaned from it’s Chrome browser, Android phones, and its toolbar to determine ranking. It is indeed a brave new world.
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The Panda Express Keeps Rolling
June 29, 2011
Welcome to the Google Places SEO Citations blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.
See the bottom of this post to get the contest codes to win valuable prizes.
This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are here.
The Panda Express Keeps Rolling
I have been wanting to write about the Google Panda Update for sometime now so here it goes. Panda represented a major algorithm update from Google that begin to appear in late February and early March of 2011. Initially this update focused on content directory sites and issues of duplicate content. Many sites took a hit including my blog, more on this later.
This played havoc with many E-commerce websites that got their product descriptions from the manufacturer. Imagine that your site offered 5,000 products that rely on the manufacturers product information. Well , this information might also be appearing on hundreds of other websites as well. So what do you do? Well, the solution for many was to rewrite this information. This of course can be difficult with the bulk of the information is product specific and can’t be changed.
Now, it appears that Google is updating this algorithm every 30 – 45 days. These updates are based on analytical information gleaned from a variety of sources. Google uses many sources that include its toolbar, android devices, and it’s chrome browser. It now takes into consideration things like bounce rate and time on site.
This approach now requires quality content more than ever. And that creates a huge problem for almost any competitive market. In my field of SEO where there are hundreds of thousands of competitors. It is extremely difficult to separate yourself of others while still saying basically the same things.
I recently rewrote my home page to reflect the reality that SEO is a competition. I have never been to another SEO site that discussed it as a competition, but we all know that this is true. You are competing with every other website that is targeting your markets. Because I do not sell SEO packages I can talk about why a custom approach is the only way to assure success. But if you sell blue widgets it is going to be difficult to create content that is unique.
But you are not alone here as everyone is in the same boat. Google has preached quality content from the get go but served up crappy sites all day long. I used to laugh about the quality issues and I have discussed this at length on many forum. I pointed that quality is not the king of SEO, but that is changing.
This is why you need to be using Google Analytics and be studying this information on a regular basis. I have always recommend that you review this information every 30 days. This information will show user pattern where you can easily see what pages are working and what pages are not. My friends this changes everything!
What say you?
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Sometimes People Are Stupid And They Think I am
June 28, 2011
Welcome to the Google Places SEO Citations blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.
See the bottom of this post to get the contest codes to win valuable prizes.
This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are her
Sometimes People Are Stupid And They Think I am
Today, I received an email inquiry about the cost of my services. This person claimed to be located here in Tucson. When I checked out their email inquiry I noticed that they did not provide a phone number. This is always a dead giveaway that the inquiry is just a shopper or is simply not serious.
Then they identified themselves as a Tucson web designer. In their email they said this. “I can’t find any prices or rates on your website – is this just an oversight on your part, or are you priced out of our range? I’m asking this out of due diligence as my clients want to deal locally – If I didn’t have to, your lack of pricing information on your website would automatically turn me off. Send what information you can, please.”
This to me, was not a serious inquiry just from the lack of information that they provided. I already know this from experience. But I had to laugh they are asking for my help while putting me down in the process. I usually ignore these as I figure that they are not a serious lead.
Then there is the part where I don’t like your website for lack of information, but send me information anyways! Is that stupid or what? I sometimes wonder what going through people’s minds when they are doing this kind of stuff?
What also caught my attention here (your going to love this) is that their website also lacked any pricing options. This is of course what he was putting me down for doing. It is indeed stupid to thing that I am going to take an email inquiry seriously that lacks a phone number or a reference to the website that is being acquired about. It is doubly stupid to think that I am going whip out pricing out of the air based on nothing.
It is triply stupid to think that I will not visit their website and not notice that they don’t have pricing listed either. It is really stupid again to put someone down for something that they are not doing and then ask for information. Did he think he was going to intimidate me into providing information on a site that I do not have any idea what it is or is about?
Perhaps, he is just ignorant on how real SEO works. The reality here is that each keyword phrases has its own challenges and requirements for ranking well. That is why It is just plain stupid to buy SEO packages that were not built based on the individual market needs. SEO requires that I do a detailed competitive review to determine who the competition is and what are weaknesses or advantages.
When you clearly understand what your competition has or is doing then, and only then, will you be able to create a winning SEO game plan. Or at least that’s who I do it for my clients and I have a 100% success rate get my clients onto the first page of Google for multiple keyword phrases.
The reality most likely is that this person thinks that they can add SEO services to their website design mix. They contact me because they do not know how to price it and likely don’t know much about it, because if they did they would not have acted so stupidly.
I mean no disrespect to this person and that is why I have not mentioned the company’s name. But from time to time I feel it makes a good blog post to expose the stupidity that I deal with. Stupid is as stupid does. I have gotten hundreds of these over the last few years. This one just wasn’t very cleaver and I needed some to write about, so thanks Kent.
No matter how cleaver they are, I still don’t do packages so they are really just wasting our time. But hea, at least it provided fodder for another blog post. If you are going to shop someone you will want to actually get your act together first. This one was so good that all I could call it is stupid!
What say you?
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If your business is located in the communities of Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, Tempe, Mesa , Chandler, Arizona or beyond and you need Google Places SEO Citations solutions please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024 Now!
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FIVERR.com A Small Business Solution
June 27, 2011
Welcome to the Google Places SEO Citations blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.
See the bottom of this post to get the contest codes to win valuable prizes.
This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are her
fiverr.com A Small Business Solution
Several months ago I came across a website known as fiverr.com. That’s right that’s $5.oo US. And you might be surprised where I discovered it. It wasn’t Tweeted and I didn’t see it on Facebook. No, I discovered this website offline while reading the Wall Street Journal.
Actually, I read the WSJ most every day in the printed form to keep abreast of the business world. I have discovered a treasure trove of useful tech and internet related information this way. I have it home delivered six days a week for about the price of one day at the local gas and go store.
I enjoy relaxing for short periods throughout the day. My preferred option is often to read. But because I love to multi task even when relaxing I don’t read books or novels. I read from sources that are going to provide fresh business information. I seek resources that are going to provide both a person and business advantages.
The Wall Street Journal has paid for itself over and over again. I have gleaned information that has saved me enormous amounts of time. I’m talking huge time savings here. I have discovered resources that directly affected my businesses growth and profitability. In these times it is critical as a small business owner to have and use every resource available.
As an example I discovered Craigslist (before the sex ads) back when it had somewhat a cult following in the WSJ. I have used this site to promote three different businesses for free. I have bought and sold a half dozen vehicles through it, I even bartered for a website and house painting there.
The Wall Street Journal has been good to me. Plus, I really do like to read and I am old school I grew up with a newspaper. I don’t see myself transitioning to a digital reader anytime soon. I read off a computer all day long. So doing that offline doesn’t have much appeal for me.
Now, it’s time to get off that rabbit trail and back to FIVVER.
As I have mentioned here saving both time and money are extremely important. That is why I am bringing the website FIVVER.com to your attention. The site works like this. The members offer up a wide variety of services provided worldwide for only 5 US dollars! Really…
The site requires a no cost membership to use for the purchase services or for selling them. In fact I used the site to order a logo all for a whopping 5 bucks as part of writing this post. I figure d that I’d roll the dice and see what happens. I will then update my experience later.
Update 06/26/2011:
I have used about a dozen or so service providers from this site. Unfortunately, only2 off these successfully completed the projects. I did get some logos that I do use and that, in and off itself, made the site worth using. But do go slowly and expect to be disappointed, but for $5.oo its like playing the lotto you might just win!
What say you?
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If your business is located in the communities of Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, Tempe, Mesa , Chandler, Arizona or beyond and you need Google Places SEO Citations solutions please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024 Now!
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When Your Website Goes Down V3
June 21, 2011
Welcome to the Google Places SEO Citations blog at Tucson SEO Solutions.
This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are here.
When Your Website Goes Down V 2.0
You never know what’s around the next internet corner. Today, as in right now I am on hold with my web host, Host Gator. It seems my websites database has gone missing in action. Hopefully, this is something minor and that they can fix it easily. For now I wait and tell this story as it unfolds.
Fortunately, I have a back up database mailed to me on a regular basis. The last back-up was on Sunday, April 30th. Hopefully, this situation will not require the use of this back-up but its nice to know that it is there.
Everything seemed to be working Ok today. I went into the blog and had just updated a draft post and I submitted it for publishing. As usual I check to see if the post published without a problem. That’s when I discovered that I didn’t have a database. All that my website showed was the header and footer with nothing in between.
Nothing will change the direction of your day like finding out your website no longer has any content on display. This is especially true when you consider that the site has over 400 pages of content and perhaps 1700 comments or so.
I am now 20 minutes into this call and nothing has changed yet!
By now, we are 45 minutes into this call. The tech was able to get the posts and pages restored into the sites dashboard. However, only the home page is currently available to the public and some blog posts that where in the archives.
I would eventually be directed to a page where I could ask for the site to be restored for a small $15.00 fee. That is a lot cheaper than my web guy charges. So I directed them to restore the site. I was told that my tables got corrupted. All I know for sure is that I hit the preview page after posting to check the post for mistakes.
This is something I almost never do. When I make a post I then go directly to the blog and see if the post updated correctly. I will stick with this method in the future.
Well, it’s a few hours later and my problem was handled very quickly by the staff at Host Gator. I want to give the staff a big shout for fixing this problem and doing so quickly. The problem was a crashed table in the database and a wrong permission. That’s all over my head but the bottom line is that the site is up and running again!
The version V2.0 part.
I upgraded my website about five weeks after this first story occurred. As you may already know upgrades can often be a problem and this was not the exception. Everything appeared ok until a scheduled post went live. That post took over the sites home page and the blogs home page turned onto a 404 page. Ouch!
This story would eventually have many different twists and turns. I first hired a rookie who talked a good game but only ended up making things worse. Then his solution was basically to start over using a new theme. He told me as it was the site could not be fixed. Well, he was swiftly removed from the project.
I eventually found someone in Ontario, Canada with years of experience. His services were not inexpensive per hour but it didn’t take him long to fix the site. What I appreciated was that he did a diagnostic review before any work was started. He charged $60.00 for this service. And I was glad to pay this sum.
I was also pleased because he does business like I do. We both charge upfront to review the situation and to come up with a game plan and pricing options. I was extremely pleased by the process. It also reaffirmed my own business practice.
Though the process was stressful, mostly due to the initial hiring mishap, I am grateful it’s over..This challenge helped me become a better person and a better business person. It also provided renewed respect from Geri. She commented many times how well I had handled the situations.
I have left much out of this post so that it didn’t become a book, at least now I can post it.
V 3
This adventure starts by discovering that my databases had once again crashed. Unfortunately, I was too tired to address the issue at that time. As it turned out I didn’t begin addressing the issue for another 20 hours or so. In that time the site was crawled, it likely was crawled many times throughout the day by Google bots. And for the first time in over two and a half years the site is not ranking # 1 for the query, Tucson SEO.
It appears that after 8 hours all of our ranking pages have bounced back in the SERP’s. The only exception is the home page which isn’t ranking for anything currently. Another strange oddity is that Google has on two pages displayed similar but incorrect page titles. I checked both Yahoo and Bing and they where using the correct page titles. I have never seen anything like this before.
What say you?
Our Services:
If your business is located in the communities of Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, Tempe, Mesa , Chandler, Arizona or beyond and you need Google Places SEO Citations solutions please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
