Do You Have An Amazing Ranking Story To Share?
January 26, 2010
That’s right Tucson SEO Solutions is doing some bragging today. The sites Local Internet Marketing page ranks # 1 in Google for Local Internet Marketing Services. That’s out of 573 Million web pages. What this means in reality is this. Over a half billion web pages include these four words that are currently indexed by Google.
Is that amazing or what. It trips me out (hippie speak here.) This page has ranked steadily in this position for about 5 months now. I have been able to consistently out rank websites that have been around even longer than Google! The crazy thing about all of this is that in some cases my competition has 10’s of thousands of more backlinks than I do.
So how did I accomplish this fete? Well, I simply applied myself and I began applying the principles enshrined in Scratch My Back Marketing. What I mean is that I use Web 2.0 social media sites and I add valuable and useful comments and content. In turn these sites provide useful Do Follow anchor text backlinks. It really was that simple and once I had chosen this keyword phrase for targeting it only took about six weeks to get to the top and to stay there.
That is why I cringe every time I read where someone is explaining that link building is difficult because I know that it isn’t. But none of this happens in a vacuum. It requires a well thought-out and executed plan along with lots of keyboard time.
Do you have an amazing ranking story to share?
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
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:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
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.
Slow Loading Pages – Are They Costing You Business?
January 1, 2010
Does your website load quickly? Many a potential customer will never reach your website because of slow loading pages. We have all experienced this. You do your Google search and you see a promising website. You then click onto that link and wait and wait some more. Then you simply give up and try another site.
A slow loading website will drive potential visitors away long before your website ever opens. You have about two seconds to accomplish this. I call it the Google effect. Web surfers are so used to Google providing search results instantly. They then expect this quickness from all websites all the time.
The problem isn’t limited to small business websites that may have been home built. They actually often load very quickly because they don’t have many people visiting at the same time or they are loaded with a lot of graphics. Retail e-commerce sites are notoriously slow loading for a variety of reasons. There are literally Billions of dollars lost annually due to slow loading pages. This problem may require a bit of website redesign to resolve.
A general rule of thumb is that you have about two seconds maybe three for your site to open. If it takes any longer your potential visitors leave quickly to try another option. The more web savvy your visitor the quicker they leave. Imagine if your website is slow loading for a cable connection, and then imagine how slow the process is for DSL, dial-up service, or for someone using a notebook and using a Wi-Fi connection.
Update: 04/25/2009 – When I wrote this story when I knew that I had very slow loading pages. My website developed at the time swore it was WordPress that was the problem. My current developer said the old web host, 1 and 1 was the problem as they have really slow servers. I switched to Host Gator and the difference was amazing almost like a night and day difference.
The moral of this story is, don’t loose your visitor before they actually see your website.
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
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:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
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.
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.
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, leave a useful comments! 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.
Backlink Building RoboForm Style – Be Your Own Service
October 26, 2009
First off if you have never heard of RoboForm then let me explain. RoboForm is a password management system that stores your login information. It stores this information for later retrieval. If you do a lot of searching on the internet or use a lot of social media sites, then it is a must have tool. I visit hundreds of such sites monthly so I purchased the pro version for about $30.00 US. The company offers a trail version so that you can try it without buying.
I visit so many sites that it would be impossible to manage without a tool like this. There are many other similar products. The point here is if you are going to become a serious link builder you have to be able to manage a lot of information. RoboForm is a good choice for these needs.
Almost daily I sign up to join a site that doesn’t require me to login in to begin using it. In this case, the program will not pick up the login information. I have to remember to log out and log back in to record this information and I often forget. The only way that I might ever return is if I get an update email from this site. This occurs almost daily, the problem is that by then I may not remember what login that I originally used. The moral here is yours tools are only as good as how you use them.
So what does RoboForm have to do with backlink building or a backlink service? Well, I use RoboForm as a link finding tool or a service of sorts. I am currently going through my logins, all 800 plus, one at a time. I have collected over a hundred links by revisiting these sites in the last three days. It is impossible to remember all of the sites where I have registered and that’s were RoboForm is so helpful.
I am being my own on link building service so this requires an accurate database. While going through the database I end up dumping about 20% of these sites. I do research on a daily basis, as I have mentioned, and I join dozens of sites that turn out not to be very useful. Usually, I end up with at least one generic link to the home page, but these sites mostly offer little reason to return so they are deleted. This allows me to multi-task which is something that I love to do. I build more links, I keep my accounts active, and I also get rid of the dead wood.
Usually, when I am doing a database purge each site will usually offer at least one opportunity to acquire an additional link. Occasionally, as happened a few days ago, I visited a site and it produced an RSS feed and four other links for a total of 24 links. My point here is that we often have very useful information at our fingertips that we are overlooking.
One of those areas that I recently wrote about was Google’s Webmaster Tools. It contains all the sites that are linking to yours. Where you can get one link it is a good bet that you can return and acquire more. Remember, you will be gladly accepted back if you are adding quality comments and content.
Are you leaving quality comments?
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 commenter’s 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 Backlinks Building Services 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.
SEO Is Like Shampoo!
August 16, 2009
As I have said many times over I believe that analogies are a very good tool when making a point about search engine optimization. If you know anything about SEO you may be scratching your heads a bit. If you are visiting in search of small business SEO solutions you may also be scratching your head as well and wondering “What is he thinking? ”
Let’s take a look at what we know about search engine optimization. SEO is initially about developing keyword phrases. As the internet has grown it is now extremely difficult to acquire first page ranking on Google for one or two keyword searches. We are not saying it can’t be done, that would be a foolish statement, but it is very difficult except for very narrow niches. Of course it all depends on how competitive your market is.
So what then does SEO have in common with Shampoo? Every shampoo bottle that I have ever used tells you this “rinse and repeat”. I believe you might want to consider repeating the SEO process after lets say 30 and 60 days after implementing it. Everyone one involved with SEO attempts to make an educated guess about what works and what doesn’t work as far as keyword phrases are concerned, but we could easily miss the mark or market. Your analytics program will tell you if you SEO is working.
I like talking about my own mistakes so that others may learn from them. When I launched this website the focus was on the keyword phrase organic search engine optimization in Tucson, because our services are based on organic search results delivered from Tucson. However, the 30, 60 and 90 day review revealed that we were not getting any traffic for that keyword phrase. That’s right we ranked # 1 but we didn’t get any Google traffic.
So we did a little SEO shampooing of our website and removed all references to organic SEO. We rinsed and repeated. Now, in fairness we should have stuck with some mentioning of organic SEO, but at that time we were a bit impatient.
I realized that while many nationally might understand what organic SEO is. I figured the only people likely to be searching for organic SEO were likely not buyers but members of this industry. So I decided to focus on the more realistic searches such as Tucson SEO. Since this was part of our company and domain name we had a built in advantage.
I continued to rinse and repeat every 30 days or so. Recently, we have begun to brand ourselves as providing Holistic SEO (Fall 2008) and we will be adding another page that reflects what we discovered in one of our rinse cycles. We thought Holistic SEO best describes our approach to creating websites that convert visitors into customers.
That was last year results. Our more recent SEO shampoo experience discovered that we were ranking highly for searches related to marketing and link building. I was not specifically targeting these markets. However, I discovered that we were ranking well for un-targeted searches. So I did a little SEO shampooing and we soon soared in four other keyword markets. Most of these changes were minor but may have a major impact on rankings.
Here is a suggestion that you can take to the bank. If your web page is stuck on page two try this. Add an H-1 tag to your page that includes your primary targeted keyword phrase for that page. Then a build a dozen Do Follow anchor text links that include your keyword phrase in the anchor text. Do this on highly crawled sites. Then check your ranking results in about two weeks. Once the pages that include your links get crawled the search engines will discover your page with the H-1 tag. It will get crawled and bingo you win! Don’t believe me… Well just try it and report back.
Have you rinsed and repeated lately?
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, 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.
Are All Your Eggs In One Search Basket?
December 12, 2008
With the economy in turmoil many individuals have awakened recently to discover the sad truth that their 401 K now resembles a 101 K. Especially hard hit were those who had all their assets tied up in their failed company. This scene has been played out in many large and small companies. Those in the financial services industries, companies like Indy Mac and Lehman Bros had all their eggs or most of them tied up in their companies stock. This is a definite example of all your eggs in one basket approach.
We have seen these similar tragedies play out on the cable and evening news almost non stop for weeks on end. But you say that’s not a problem for my web based business; well you might want to think again. As many have learned recently things can change and change rapidly, and having all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea.
So I ask you how much of your internet traffic comes from Google? Now, what will you do if there is a “Florida” style algorithm update and you loose all your Google driven business. Could you adapt quickly enough to survive? If you are not prepared your business might not survive.
So let’s start out by considering what amount of traffic could you loose and survive. For those of you that say none, you truly have all your eggs in one basket and you desperately need to diversify your traffic sources. I personally, am comfortable with not exceeding 40% of my traffic from all the search engines combined. You will have to determine what you are comfortable with, but you really need to be realistic here.
It is common knowledge that the search engines adjust their algorithms over time and sometimes the changes can be dramatic. What if you generated 65% of your website traffic from Google? Let’s also assume that 65% of your websites links came from directories or forums. These are both common link building methods. What then do you suppose might happen if Google flat out stop counting links from either of these sources?
It is possible that if 65% of your links were made invalid that it could cause you to loose all of your traffic from Google in an instant. The traffic might never come back. What would you do? Do you have a plan in place to replace that traffic? These are very serious questions that you must ask. You need to clearly understand where your traffic comes from and how you generated that traffic.
We are fortunate that our Google traffic runs about 20% of our overall traffic for this site. However, we have a client, with a B2B very niche website, that has generated 50-55% of their traffic from the search engines. We are currently implementing changes that we hope will bring that down to around 40%. We recognize that for sites that are very niche or B2B, the challenge of generating non search traffic is much more difficult. This particular company manufactures equipment used in other manufacturing processes. It is non sexy stuff with a very small interest group. This is not the kind of stuff that people casually search for on the internet.
Having said that, we still must strive to get that reliance on the search engines reduced and as quickly as possible. Now, what about your websites? Where are your eggs located? One of the reasons I highlighted this B2B site in this discussion was to simply point out that moving your eggs into other baskets may not be easy as it first appears. Your market may limit the opportunities available to you. Making changes for some will require new marketing directions, but the need is great.
One last thing to cover here is that not all eggs are equal. While this website may only generate about 20% of its traffic from the search engines, it generates 90% of its leads through the SE’s. Since we are a pure organic search company we don’t use banner ads or PPC, if we lost our Google egg we might have to start paying for traffic something that we have never done.
So I ask you, where are your eggs these days?
We 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 links 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. We also use the Top Commenter plugin as well!
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 SEO solutions and venture further.
And to learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions
If your business is located in the US, Canada, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, 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.