Google released the Penguin Update on April 24th which is aimed to combat "spammy" web pages. If your site is over optimized it may be affected by this update. The update addresses website content & back links:

Content: Each individual page must be Unique and Duplicate Content across your pages should be avoided at all costs. Keyword stuffing & keyword cloaking will result in penalties and lower rankings. When you look at (read) any page in your site, does it sound 'natural' or is the same information repeated with slight variation? Is ALL of the content on your page about one specific topic or "keyword phrase" ? As an example we always tell clients to make their blogs very focused on one subject/topic because each blog entry is a single page in the eyes of search engines - each blog has its own url. This is why properly structured blogs rank so well and generally very quickly. By making each individual page in your site about one topic/subject/keyword phrase you are not only making it easy for a site visitor to know what the page is about, you are making it easy for SEARCH ENGINES to know what the page is about and you will be ranked accordingly. The goal has been and will always be: Readable, Quality, Focused Content.

Backlinks: Anchor Text vs. Link Source : The penguin update appears to be assigning more "Quality" to the Link Source as opposed to the Anchor Text and for good reason. It has always been relatively easy to manipulate the anchor text of a link, which until now has always been an important factor in Ranking Results(SERP). With todays technology it is easier to determine the "Quality" and "Relevance" of a site that a link originates from. It is more difficult to manipulate the source of al link so more WEIGHT is being given to Link Source vs Anchor Text. Many Link Building companies will continue to come with creative ways to get around this latest update and will often get results - until the next update. You can take the rollercoaster route OR you can simply go after Quality Link Sources , ideally within your niche. One of the best places to find these links is your top ranking competitors. If your competitor has better ranking for a given keyword, chances are they have more QUALITY links than you do. Reverse engineering competitors linking strategies has been a tried and true technique for years and this will not change any time soon.

How can you tell if your site took a "hit" ? By looking at your "Search" traffic between April 15 and April 30th. If there is a drop of more than 20%, chances are good that your site needs to be adjusted. If you are an SEO client, we are already evaluating your site through analytics and webmasters to see if any adjustments need to be made. Over the past 30 days we have also been updating the following for all SEO clients : Page Titles, Meta Description, Meta Tags. This was done in anticipation of the Penguin Update. If you have any questions or concerns about your website and the recent Google update please contact us.

Mark Baker from Shuhari Martial Arts explains how his new website is working better for him and keeps bringing new customers to his Karate Dojo. Learn More about Shuhari Martial Arts at www.shuharimartialarts.com

 

 

Shuhari's new website comes up in the first page of google with several related keywords in the necessary areas or interest. This not only brings more customers but also got the attention from ABC7 News and they contacted the dojo to do a story about Self Defense showcasing Mark Baker and Shuhari.  Check the video bellow... ABC7 reporters searched "Self Defense Sarasota" on Google and Shuhari came up several times on the first page, check the results by clicking on this link.

Here's a good example of Google maps helping you on your internet marketing campaign. If you search for SEO Sarasota (Search engine optimization Sarasota) which is one of the services we provide in one of the areas we provide it locally you'll find us on the map at the very beginning of the first page of Google.

You can make your business come up locally on the first page of google or bing very easily using maps.

Many people don't know that you can actually add your business into google's map or bing's map systems. This is a very easy, FREE way to put your business on the first page of google if someone is searching LOCALLY. Adding your business into GOOGLE's MAP or BING'S MAP can help your company's website come up on the first page with selected keywords when people is searching in your area or using the city or state that you are located in the search string.


How to create a Google Map entry for your business?
You just need a GOOGLE ACCOUNT... If you have a gmail or use any of the google or youtube services you already have one.
Login with your google account or create one here (https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount)
After login go to Google maps (http://maps.google.com/) and click on the Put your business on Google Maps or go directly here (http://www.google.com/local/add/)
Follow all the steps in google's map entry creation.
Remember to use KEYWORD ORIENTED descriptions, names and information. This will help your google map entry come up with those keywords in the search. Also remember you need to be RELEVANT, you need to have those keywords also on your website, blog entries and other profiles you might have.
At the end of the process google will ask you to verify your business, you can do it thru a postcard to your address (takes time) or the easy way, by phone (We recommend this one).


How to create a Bing Map entry for your business?
The process is the same, but you have to create a live.com msn.com or hotmail.com account (click here to create one: https://signup.live.com/)
Then login to it and go to this address to put your business into the BING MAP (https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx)
Follow the steps, using KEYWORD ORIENTED content.
And verify your business thru their process (they only have the postcard option here).

On the other hand if you have a new website, embedding a google map inside your website will help you bring Google to your website faster for indexing. But remember, your website has to be search engine friendly, you should have a blog, use tags, and have a nice organized keyword oriented copy inside your site. Without that you will not be RELEVANT for google or bing and the MAPS could just not come up on the search.

For more information about SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) tips, click here.
For more information on Search Engine Friendly affordable Joomla Websites, click here.

Here's a great video showing how Social media is changing everything and why you should be doing it. Incredible numbers that show how marketing changed in the past years and why it is so important to be part of this change.

del.icio.us is a web-based bookmarking site. Delicious users save their bookmarks on the website so they can access them from any browser. A website that has many bookmarking it is generally popular and will get more traffic. You can use del.icio.us bookmarks to help improve your SEO campaign. The public social component of del.icio.us makes it a great tool to make your website stand out form your competition. 

Here's a video explaining how to use del.icio.us and why is it SOCIAL:

 

You can also use Social Bookmarking as a great online collaboration toll. Since your bookmarks are public delicous allow you to easily share important or useful links with coworkers, customers and partners. 

We recommended before using linkedin in your SEO campaign in this article: http://www.destiny-soft.com/improve-your-seo-campaign-tip-1-linkedin-profiles.

Here you have a great video about Linkeding and how to use it to not only help your web presence but also make your business grow thru online networking.

 

If not done properly you could be missing out on very valuable keywords. If you do not take your time you could put keywords on pages that don't belong or target keyword in your pay per click campaign that do nothing but produce clicks and burn through your marketing and advertising budget. When conducting keyword research there are some things you should be looking out for.

What Niche do you want to be In? You will have to find out what type of group you want to be visible to and get inside their shoes in order to figure out what types of keywords will fit best on your website. Really find out and isolate what type of products you are servicing and find all the niche keywords and phrases that revolve around that niche. Don't always worry about targeting all the high volume keywords because they receive the most traffic. Long tail keyword phrases often times convert the best when it comes to SEO and PPC. The long tail phrases are usually conducted by web users who know exactly what they are looking for.

Budget: Budget meaning how much of a marketing budget do you have to go after competitive keywords? If you are a one person company starting out you will need to bring some heavy ammo to go after the same keywords that your competition that might have been around for 5-10 years and is established is going after. It is important to not only target the very competitive keywords but also the keywords that have medium amounts of traffic and also low. You have to remember that SEO is long term and you won't be visible over night, but SEO could bring better results and it creates an asset over your website (because it could keep building up without having to spend money per every click)

Competition: Take a long hard look at your competition to see what it is that they are targeting. It is always important to take a look at what your competitors are targeting for keywords on their website when you starting conducting your keyword research. You know what they say; the best offense is a good defense. It is always important to know what types of keywords your competition is going after so you can gauge just how much of an effort you will need to put out there in order get into the same area.

Here at Destiny Technologies we include KEYWORD RESEARCH in all our SEO packages, Contact us if you have any questions about this.

 

Original Blog Post: addme.com

Microsoft, home of the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine (they actually call it : Decision Engine). So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing.

Bing, of course, stands for But It's Not Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. Something that spread online without benefit of a lot of yelling and shouting. Something that changes the game in a fundamental way. The internet works best when you build a network, not when you buy a brand. In fact, I can't think of one successful online brand that was built with cash.

Comment: We predict Bing will take some market share so we need to be prepared for that and we are working on it. Bing is a new search engine and your OLD SEO campaign may not work for it. Our engineers are constantly evolving and working with new technologies and Bing is one of them now. If you need SEO that works today and will work tomorrow, contact us!
If you really want to know what the NEXT GOOGLE is ready this Blog entry about WAVE, the new product coming from Google.

Original Blog entry: sethgodin

# 1 - Drive Traffic:
You can use Twitter to let know your followers you have a new blog entry on your website, or you have a new products line and always include a link to your website or the article you are relating to.

# 2 - Develop Brand Loyalty:
One of the many ways of building BRAND LOYALTY is to release good, related and useful information to your own customers.

# 3 - Improve your Exposure (Buzz):
In Twitter you will be able to interact with thousands of potential customers.

# 4 - Networking using Twitter:
This system allow you to interact with people and it could help you know you clientele or your potential customers a lot better.

# 5 - Real Time Research:
Find out what people is doing, buying, searching, etc. You can decide what content people will enjoy the most by using the search function.

Want to learn more?  Contact us!

 

Here you have a nice video about TWITTER SEARCH:

First of all, what is a WIKI?, well lets go to the WIKIPEDIA definition of WIKI:

A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simple text editor, within the browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, and for note taking. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIKI

A wiki could be use for collaborative projects, events and more. In business all this is going to be published online so you could use it to promote your events and products by creating a wiki about them and having the members of these events or product collaborate. Remember to create links back to your blog (were you talk about the event) or to your website, were you have information about yout product.

Here is a good video about how wikis work and how you can create one.

 

Destiny.

Google has launched a new keyword tool called Sktool (Search-based Keyword Tool).

Google’s new Search Based Keyword Tool (SKTOOL) allows search marketers to generate keyword ideas based on the content of their Web site and back-end data.  The tool maps similar queries to each other and also maps back to the keywords you’re currently bidding on in your AdWords account.

The tool has a number of applications.  The main application is to expand your keyword list in an organized and thematic way.  However, many of the keywords suggested by the tool should not be bid on by search advertisers; in fact, an advertiser would waste a lot of money if all the suggested keywords were added to a program.  The tool should be used to consider suggestions and pick ones that are relevant to your site.

 

The tool also shows the amount of competition on a given keyword, a suggested bid for that keyword, the average monthly searches for that keyword and the best page of your Web site to land that searcher.

This tool will actually help us in creating a better, more relevant, keyword list for your SEO campaign. We will be able to find the keywords that people are searching for a specific market and apply it to your search engine optimization and social media optimization.
Even thought this tool is in its BETA phase, we think it has a lot of potential.

link: Sktool - Search-based Keyword Tool    

 

Here you have some interesting videos about Social Networking and Social Media...

 

MAKING YOUR SOCIAL PROFILES WORK THE EXTRA MILE FOR YOU:

1 - USE THE SOCIAL NETWORKS:

The best way to make these profiles work for you is by actually using them to communicate with your customers, colleagues and other professionals. If you can don't have much time at least use ONE of the many social networks like FACEBOOK or TWITTER, to start communicating and you will see improvement into the web presence of that specific profile and so forth an increase in links from it to your website which will translate in a better SEO campaign and increase in your ranking online.

We recommend taking one of them to start, it could be facebook for example...

Start by writing a different blog entry there or putting part of a blog entry and say "read more here" with a link to your website... You can also publish more pictures (very easily) and having them link to your website.

This will make your social network profile grow even more and also have real communication, since people will start sending you messages about those entries and you may be able to help someone with a problem and even get a customer using this new way of communication.

2 - INVITE MORE PEOPLE:

The other way you can make those social network profiles grow is by actually inviting as many people as you know to join them... the more friends and followers you have the better that social profile will work for you.

 

 

Here you have another recommendation for improving your SEO CAMPAIGN...

  Profiles:

To be able to create a youtube profile you need a video first.  so if you already have a video you created for the company you can ask the people who did the video for you to send it to you in digital format to upload to youtube. Then you go to www.youtube.com and create your new profile. Upload the video and then in your profile information can put text explaining what you do with a link to your website. Then you can also include this video inside your website with a link to this same youtube profile.

If you do not have a video, we have a good example from a customer who took pictures from a project and then created a video with their own computer just making a slideshow of the project using the pictures. You can do that too, most computers have the ability to do it... and then upload it to youtube.

This will create new inlinks to your website and improve your internet marketing campaign.

Destiny.

 

As part of our SEO campaigns we are always looking for new and different ways to put your name out there...  this is going to be a series of tips you can use to make your WEB PRESENCE grow.

 

Linkedin is a professional's social network. Linkedin is not linked to a company but to a person, so you need to provide some personal/professional  information from you for the main people in your company to be able to do this kind of profile...  It will be named after your personal name and then have information about your company website, etc.  We recommend to include your website address, and a litle blurb of what you do. In the future you can even use this tool to connect with other professionals online.

We recomend doing this for the 3 or 4 key people in your company. Ussually these profiles require this information from yo:

• First name
• Last name
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• City were you live now
• Education
• Business name
• Your place in the company: CEO, manager, etc...
• And  a picture if possible to put in the profile...

Contact us if you need help with your SEO campaign, Internet marketing or any website design services.

Destiny.

 

Internet Marketing

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• Social Media Optimization (SMO).
• Organic Positioning.
• Viral Online marketing.
• Google Adwords: Marketing campaigns just a click away.
• Traffic Analysis and Website Optimization.

As an Internet marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines.

Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

Destinsy Soft can help you with your INTERNET MARKETING CAMPAIGN.