More than a month ago now Google released a new search algorithm that changed the SEO world, as of April 11, 2011 it will affect the entire English speaking community. When the first stage of the algorithm was released many sites saw dramatic changes, while others that followed strict guidelines seemed to not be affected. If your SEO efforts are no longer showing any results after the recent algorithm change, then it is likely that your SEO Company is not following the rules.

There are many evolutionary changes being made, such as user feedback that contributes to the algorithm by incorporating data about the sites that users block. This feature may evolve outside of the search engine with the Google Chrome extension that allows users to block sites directly from their browser. Think of both the extension and the search engine feature as having an adverse effect to the Google +1 button; however they do work in many different ways. Keep in mind that Google does collect data from the Personal Block List extension and incorporating the data into the algorithm is very likely because they’ve already compared the data to the sites users have blocked on their search engine.

You may be asking yourself what this might mean for you if you’ve lost traffic recently. This means you simply need to re-evaluate your SEO method and see where you might not be following the rules. Don’t be scared of the change, I say embrace it and take the time to learn something new! If you don’t have the time to learn something new, hire a professional! Here are some articles you may find helpful in researching the changes, and re-evaluating your SEO strategy.

Finding more high-quality sites in search

High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback

Hide sites to find more of what you want

Webmaster Guidelines

A lot of businesses are now taking advantage of the social media market, but does it really provide an advantage for your company? That depends on what you are offering.

“According to Adweek, there is bad news for brands who are rushing to social media sites. Young people don’t want to be friends with you! According to a new report from Forrester Research, just 6% of 12-17-year-olds who use the web want to be friends with a brand on Facebook.

Among Web-connected 18-24-year-olds, that figure doubles, which means that only 12% of 18-24-year-old think is ok to friend a brand. Even scarier for brands: Young people don’t want brands’ friendship, and they think brands should go away.”

“Young consumers are basically telling brands, when I interact with you I want you to listen to me and interact with you. I don’t want to interact (friend) a brand that just engages in a one-way conversation with me.” Social Media Optimization

It’s pretty agreeable that the vast majority of people do not want to be branded, but to simply choose the brand of preference. If you are offering a service, social media is absolutely for you because the product is based on customer interaction. When the customer interacts with your company on a social media network they are sharing the great experience they had, and not endorsing a product.  We’re not sales people, but we sure love to tell stories about our life experiences. If you’re selling a product it’s best to stick to SEM or standard marketing techniques to keep the power of choice in the consumers hands. Recently PepsiCo found out the hard way by dropping standard advertising all together, spending at least 50 per cent of its American branding budget on social media.

“Beverage Digest reported last month that the company’s flagship brand, Pepsi, had fallen to third place behind Coke and Diet Coke. Pepsi – known for its Refresh Everything goodwill campaign and a bevy of social media efforts – had ranked second for decades in that sales category. Some considered the slip an indictment of the brand’s embrace of social media and de-emphasis of traditional broadcast advertising – exemplified by its withdrawal from the Super Bowl last year.” Clickz.com

Find more information on Businessdailyafrica.com about PepsiCo and social media marketing.

The bottom line is, if you’re offering a product, social media could be a gamble for you; if it’s a service social media can do wonders for you! If you’re not sure, don’t be scared to talk to us, we’ll help you reach the most accurate demographic.

In the recent past I have run into many encounters where I will offer my SEM services and they will respond to me with questions about my “SEO” services. I personally don’t do SEO, but I do SEM and web design (You can see my site here). For all my SEO needs I go to Cyber Stampede! This lack of understanding the two terms generally causes a lot of frustration on both sides which is unnecessary; this article will hopefully clear up some of that confusion.

To most people SEO and SEM are synonymous or they feel the terms are interchangeable, this is not the case. The key to understanding the difference is knowing the difference between paid and organic listings. Paid listings are seen at the top and right hand side of the main results (3 on top, 5 on the right), the main results are everything else. SEO pertains to organic listings which are the most important because these results are based solely on relevancy as where paid listings (SEM) can shoot to the top with a fat wallet. Sometimes this is not the case, ads that are placed that have high relevancy will sometimes appear in a higher ranked spot because of their relevancy to the keywords they are targeting. If this sounds unfair to those who want to pay their way to the top; in all fairness advertisers want to show the most relevant ads to gain the highest revenue.

That being said you are probably beginning to see where SEO and SEM are similar, but not the same. SEO is actually integral to SEM, but can exist without SEM, in the long run SEM would fail without adequate SEO. Good SEO can save you money, and make you money if it is done right, and will also increase conversion rates (The ratio of customers that visit to the amount that actually make a purchase, or reach the goal point you’ve set). SEO is so important that some SEM ads will actually be rejected because of poor relevancy due to poor or lack of SEO.  As the definition below states ” Personally, I would start with SEO and then move onto SEM.”.  Here is a quick and easily understandable definition I found on another blog:

“SEO is the act of optimizing the HTML and other content of your website for relevant, targeted key phrases in order to attain higher natural listings than competing websites. SEO provides a cheaper long term solution for increased qualified traffic and generates customer inquiries that ultimately convert to sales. Now SEM is broader than SEO. It includes SEO and other areas to improve a sites visibility in search engine results pages, like paid listings and paid inclusions. You can think of SEM as more expensive and quite possibly more targeted, while SEO is free (not counting your time of course) and its purpose is to obtain better free search listings. Personally, I would start with SEO and then move onto SEM.” PageStrength.com

Be sure to come back on Monday!

Most businesses today have the understanding that online importance is important; however it seems that the effort stops at the point they get online. The online presence is there, but with no organized method you’re just a small being in the large world of the internet. Generally most people have way too much faith in technology and expect to do something once and have it succeed amazingly with no effort. When it comes to designing a website with purpose and power there are a few very important factors:

• The obvious first would be design which comes down to visual appeal and user friendliness.
• Frequency of updated material.
• Backlinks (Sites that link to your site) on relevant sites to yours.
• The relevancy of your material to what your demographic is looking for. (Most shoppers do their research online first.) Wall Street Journal
• Most important of all you want the search engines to understand what you have on your site, where to find it, and what to look for.

“More than half the businesses who responded to a Small Business Search Marking Survey by American Express and SEMPO said they needed help with their campaigns, yet only 25 per cent said they would employ anyone to assist with search engine marketing, MediaPost reported.

Almost three-quarters of those questioned said they handled search campaigns internally, despite often having no expertise in the sector.”

Equi Media

We need to remember that no matter how powerful the computer is whether it be a desktop, a Google server, or a super computer its still no human brain. This is what search engine optimization is for — to help the search engine algorithms understand your site better. This will help your site appear more relevant to the keywords you are using to target your audience and get you the most relevant traffic. Relevancy is key in top ranking whether you are talking search engine marketing or optimization (SEM or SEO). Search engine marketing can also help you research your demographic through keyword research tools and trial and error. This will also give you an idea of what the search engine is looking for; this shouldn’t stop at Google, Bing, Yahoo, be sure to include Facebook too. Quality not quantity plays a huge role in top ranking. If you are going to launch a new site a good start is extremely important, not that this means if you were off to a bad start you’ve seen the end of your online presence. Late is better than never, and that’s why Cyber Stampede is here, to help you!

For those who are familiar with the iPhone/iPod game Angry Birds, here is an SEO analogy that relates to the game.

1. You have to play to figure out the rules
   So many webmasters want to know “the best way” to do this or that – but there rarely is a one-size-fits-all answer. Many times, we simply need to play the game and see what happens, building up the real world knowledge of what is right for OUR situation as we go.
2. You succeed best when your site’s unique contributions are recognized
   Too much energy goes into being “like site X”. Once you’ve got the basics of webmastering down, what’s important is making your site’s unique qualities obvious in the marketplace.
3. You can’t recover from a really bad start
   Sometimes you do need to cut your losses and move on. That’s just the reality of the world.
4. Different problems require different specialists
   Running a website is a diverse project, and you simply cannot know everything required to make the right moves in every situation. Knowing when to bring in outside help or develop a new skill in-house is key.
5. Blowing something up isn’t necessarily felt everywhere
   If you want to make a major change in an established web business, you often need to think holistically, and realize that there are many factors to take into consideration. You can’t just fiddle around without having some idea of how your entire web ecosystem will react to that fiddling – and that includes how it will look to Google.
6. Most improvements are incremental
   Great breakthroughs in search traffic are rare. Mostly it’s just putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again. Google even has safeguards that keep a site from exploding onto the scene too fast.
7. Just because you’ve mastered one task doesn’t make you master of all
   It’s a natural pitfall because webmasters do need to have a lot of diverse skill. But sometimes you need a business plan tune-up, or a conversion optimization, or a usability assessment in order to reach the next level.
8. You can never do the same thing exactly the same way
   And that means you can never do the exactly same thing that someone else did, either. Google moves on, each website exists in a unique larger web presence, and repeating the same patterns over and over will eventually smack you into a brick wall.
9. Some goals require more “birds”
   Sometimes you can make successful changes to a website, only to discover that the business can sustain the new level of success. It’s not just Google that needs to focus on “does this scale.” Webmasters who want major success need to look at that question in advance, too.
10. There is more than one way to win
    Even in SEO this is true. There is more than one keyword or set of keywords that can tap into your audience. There is more than one way to get other sites to link to you. There is more than one way to structure a website. There is more than one way to write HTML, CSS, PHP. etc – even to achieve the same end.

Search Engine Round Table

Be Sure to come back Friday for an article on the difference between SEM and SEO.