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On-Page SEO VS Off-Page SEO: Which Matters More?

6/15/2020

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by R.A. Rowell; SEO Content Specialist
Search Engine Optimization SEOImage © Pixabay, Public Domain


When working on search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, it's important to consider not only your on-page content. Search engines don't only look at the content on your pages. They also consider off-page backlinks and mentions. The difference between these search ranking factors are grouped into on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

Content and metadata - such as keyword phrases in page text, title tags, and meta descriptions - on your website are what are known as "on-page SEO." Also included in on-page SEO are any links to internal pages and the anchor text used on them.

Links coming to your website from other places, as well as mentions of your website, are part of what is known as "off-page SEO." In fact, off-page SEO counts far more towards your search engine ranking than what is actually on your own pages.


There are many examples of sites that don't necessarily have the best search optimized content. Yet, some websites rank well in search results due to excellent off-page SEO. These rankings become based on lots of well-optimized back-links on other higher-ranked websites.

Many people think that off-page SEO is out of their control and that on-page SEO is all you can really do. However, there are cases where you can easily do something about it. Off-page optimization is quite a broad topic that can span dozens of articles. So, for now, let’s get you started with some quick and easy ways to optimize both your on-page SEO and off-page SEO.



On-Page SEO Needs Search Optimized Page Titles

First and foremost, your website's page titles should be concise as possible. Keyword stuffing is a big no-no, yet people still do it. It's harder today to get away with it and rank well in search. That's because  Google and Bing in particular are constantly working on fighting keyword stuffing. Other search engines are adjusting their own algorithms, as well.

In any case, you want the keywords most relevant to the page's content in the first two or three words of the page's title. Oftentimes, you don't even really need your own organization's name upfront. You'll likely rank highly for your site’s name anyhow on account of your domain name, plus the fact that your name should certainly be included on every page of your site.


What's the Best Home Page Title for SEO?


Of course, the most important page title on your website is that of your home page. Firstly, the worst possible thing for any website – and it happens far too often - is to have “Home” or “Home Page” then your site name as your page titles. That doesn't help the search engines at all, so that’s the first thing you want to avoid.

So, your home page title needs to say what you do and what you need to be found for by searchers. These terms need to beright up front for search engines to work for you. It’s a simple change that can work wonders, especially if no one has optimized well for certain keyword phrases related to your blog or business.

Say you’re a Used Car Dealer in Walla Walla, Washington. You’d want your home page title to be something like "Used Car Dealer in Walla Walla, Washington, Bob's Autos" or something to that effect. Especially with local search, using a location if you happen to be dealing with a particular geographical area is huge for showing up in the top few results of a given search.

But, if you aren't a local business, it becomes very important to identify the niche you can most easily reach online. You can do some simple keyword research with a free tool such as Ubersuggest, which will give you some ideas for terms you may want to use.

The highest volume search terms are typically the hardest to compete for, so if you can, find keyword phrases that most other similar sites to your haven't used. Just make sure that it's still super relevant and that you actually then include the terms from your home page title in the page's content.




How Often Should I Use My Keywords in My Home Page Copy?

Once you've decided on one or two keyword phrases to focus on with your home page title, mention them at least a couple of times on your home page. However, you do not want them so blatantly featured that it's downright obvious that you're just trying to rank for it.

There doesn't seem to be a "magic number" of times that you need to mention your keywords. But, mentioning your most important keyword phrases in at least a few instances on your home page is a good idea. While there isn't a magic number, SEO experts suggest you shouldn't use any one keyword phrase in more than one to three percent of your page copy.

In your home page copy, you want to have a couple of paragraphs to introduce the site to both visitors and search engines, but nothing too lengthy. Remember, you always need to write for your visitors first and the search engines second. Your website copy needs to read naturally, and search engine algorithms are continuously getting better at understanding when keywords are being unnaturally used.



Internal Links Are Vital For Good On-Page SEO

One very important SEO tip to keep in mind is to make sure to not use "Click Here" when linking to an internal page. Years ago, people felt it was necessary to say Click Here as a call to action. Today, you will see Call to Action images using this phrase, but the actual link will not include those words.

Here's why it's important to focus your link's text. Say that you have a lot of used Dodge mini-vans. You want that link to say "Find great deals on Dodge Mini-Vans here!” That way, you let search engine spiders that crawl your website to know that the page is relevant for "Dodge" and "mini-vans." But, it also includes the word "deals" which is often used when people are searching for great deals.

Ideally, you'd only want the text link to say "Dodge Mini-Van Deals" but having a call-to-action on the link makes visitors far more likely to actually follow it. You could just put the link on the "deals on Dodge Mini-Vans"  and bold that part, but in either case, it still includes the keywords.

Also, it's important to limit the number of internal links you use on any given page outside of your navigation. Only link to the most relevant pages, and make sure you let the search engines know what those links are about.


Now that we've covered some off-page SEO basics, let's look into ways you can identify good off-page SEO.


Off-Page SEO Needs Good and Relevant Backlink Anchor Text

Having hyperlink text tell search engines what the page it's linking to is about, is even more important in off-page SEO. If you use a tool like Google Webmaster Tools or other free tools out there that tell you about the domains that link to your site, take a look at a few of your off-site links. See how they link to your website and what text they use on the hyperlink itself.

It may be that many of those backlinks will either just have your homepage URL or say "Website". Yes, the link is nice to have, but for search engine optimization purposes it's more useless than it first appears. Technically, these are good links to have if you're getting a lot of click-throughs from them. But, those links are not doing as much work as they could be. After all, you want the search engines to give your site credit for certain keywords, not just your own name, your URL, or "website."


Say you're have a lumber company – we’ll call it "Dad's Building Supply." Many current links to Dad’s website probably use the text of the company name, instead of simply the site URL. At least search engines will recognize that this site is relevant for the words "building" and "supply," which are perfectly good keywords people will use in search.  

Unfortunately, many of those links could well simply say "WEBSITE" or "CLICK HERE." These links won’t help you one bit as far as keyword strategies are concerned. In many cases, it can be difficult to get websites  to change how they link to things. However, there are plenty of ways to gain new link “juice” with minimal effort.


Say that “Dad’s Building Supply” has some key customers that link to your website from their website. Make sure that they at least put your company name in any hyperlink text, at the very least. You want to make sure they don’t only use your logo to link to you – as many have tended to do in the past when mentioning partners. If they do use images, be sure that the image's anchor text has the desired keywords - which works much the same way as the hyperlink text.

Better yet, it can't hurt to ask if you could have them say something like "Building materials supplied by Dad's Building Supply in Somewhere, USA" on their Suppliers page. That helps you most for "building materials" while also having "Somewhere, USA" in there, which is fantastic for local search optimization. It's very possible to take links you already have and make them actually work better for you. Also, believe it or not, even if no one ever clicks on that link, the search engines will still find it relevant and give you credit for it.



Make Sure Off-Page Links Are Relevant to Your Website

The most important thing to consider, however, is to not just stick hyperlinks wherever you can put them. You want to make sure that you seek out links on sites similar to yours or in related industries. It's OK if someone outside of your industry is offering to link to you on occasion, especially if it's some partnership or sponsorship opportunity.  But, be sure about the quality of those organization's websites before you bother accepting those links. You want to build links naturally.

Sometimes, some SEO specialists will ask you to hunt down every possible link you can get, and this is not always the soundest strategy. Most search engines, especially Google, frown on building lots of irrelevant links and can penalize your site quite harshly depending on the severity of the offense. This is why many off-page links have become tagged with the "nofollow" term. This means that search engines will still follow the links, but not pass on "link juice" to your site.


Keeping such penalties in mind, it’s extremely important to find out who links to you without the "nofollow" tags. If there is someone to contact at those websites, it can't hurt to politely ask them to alter the hyperlink text slightly. Or, if they're highly irrelevant, ask for the link to be removed.

What some SEO experts may call "link pruning" is a relatively simple way to increase your SEO without much work on your part. It's essentially addition by subtraction. You won’t always get responses, but even if just a few make the changes, those newly optimized links (or even removed links on poor quality websites) can go a long way toward helping your own search rankings.

While SEO is not always quality over quantity when it comes to links, having 1,000 links with "Website" and 100 links with "your keywords here" is quite different. You most certainly want to have more of the latter.



“No-Follow” Tagged Links VS "Dofollow" Links

Now that we know about the "nofollow" links, we know where to focus our link building efforts. Does this mean that it’s not worth seeking out links in directories that use "nofollow" tags? Believe it or not, it's perfectly fine to use directories. That's even true if the hyperlinks that point to you are direct links without "nofollow" tags.  However, your only real benefit is potentially getting new visitors from the directory's own audience. There isn't a direct SEO benefit, even if they do help you get found on occasion.

So, while links with "nofollow" tags still count as links to your site, they don’t give you the SEO boost outside of new potential visitors from the linking website. That being said, if the hyperlinks can give you the ability to gain keyword traction, the relevancy still helps your efforts on a strategic level. Just having your business name mentioned, and not a generic “Website” or URL link, can help the reach of your name. While mentions aren't nearly as quantifiable from a technical SEO standpoint, they do seem to help over time organically as people stumble across these mentions.


There's a great free tool to check if a page has nofollow tags on their links: No-Follow Finder from Get Rank. This can help you determine whether it's worth pursuing somewhere you don't already have a link. If they do, and they categorize their listings well enough, a free listing, even with less than perfect hyperlink text, is OK to get. But ideally, you want websites that let you use hyperlink text in your company description without "nofollow" tags being attached. 

In 2020, those sites who offer 'dofollow' backlinks have become few and far between, but they do still exist. Your best bet are working with the websites of vendors and clients you already deal with and trust. They will likely be more relevant to your business anyway and are easier to find. While it's important to not simply reciprocate links on a regular basis - as this is against Google's Terms of Service - it's not explicitly forbidden to do so if the links make sense and are done naturally over time.


Are Online Directories That Charge for "DoFollow" Links Worth the Investment for Off-Page SEO?

There are some online directories charge you to have their links changed to “dofollow” links. Some even will allow you to put your own optimized hyperlinks in your profile. It's up to you whether  you decide to pay them or not.

My personal advice is to go just with what's free first. However, if you're also convinced that said listing will get you a lot of click-through traffic that sticks around and converts, and it does so, a tiny investment may be worth it in the long term. However, do some research about these sites first. Find out if these directories are just taking people's money with the promise of new traffic, but not really delivering on that promise.



On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO Are Equally Important

In any case, on-page SEO is important. But, unless you have the outside links that tell the search engines to give you authority on given keywords, it’s likely you won't get found enough for search to work for you. Your off-page and on-page content optimization efforts must be in sync. 
Just focusing on a strategy to rank for high traffic keywords with on-page content alone is rarely going to be enough. Even if you could rank with on-page SEO alone, having the links helps authority with the search engines and makes you more trusted.


The more good and valuable links that you have out on the web, the more likely it is you’ll get far more quality traffic. While on-page SEO can work well for your search rankings in some niches, the former plan is a smarter route and long-term should be the way to go.

If you need copywriting for SEO and/or SEO editing for your blog or website, see what the Denver branding agency Brand Shamans and their SEO Consultants can do for you today!


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Optimization For User Experience (UX) VS For Search Engines: Here's Why Both Are Important for SEO

2/7/2020

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by  R.A. Rowell; SEO Professional

Seo-blocks

In recent years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has experienced a slow, but steady transition from focusing on simply optimizing websites for search engines to the actual user experience. It's a good trend, honestly, because search engine rankings are certainly not everything. What good is a search engine ranking if people click through to your site and don't bother to read your content?

Of course, you're not only looking to get visitors to read content. You're hopefully looking to convert some into subscribers. This is why it's so important to have the very best searcher experience possible.


Understand How Your Audience Finds Your Website

The best way to know how to get visitors to your sites is by understanding the many different ways that potential readers and subscribers will find your website. These days, you have social media accounting for a great deal of website referral traffic. This is why it has become so paramount to have a Facebook fan page and a Twitter profile (at the very least) to get your message out there. 

By seeing what sort of people regularly follow your blog on Facebook and Twitter, you get more of an idea of what sort of content they are looking for. Knowing your audience is a key part of any SEO strategy. Ranking on the first page of Google search results for some high search volume keywords is great, but not if those aren’t the keywords that your target audience uses to find solutions to their problems.


The Importance of Having Your Own Domain for SEO and Brand Authority

Back when I started in SEO around 2010, many people, even small businesses, commonly used free Wordpress blogs. While it's okay to have your blog on a free platform, especially now in 2020, it's far better to put it on your own domain. Many web-hosts allow people to install Wordpress for free on their own websites, and it’s easy enough to import an existing free WordPress site - if you already had one.

There’s also Weebly who offers free to extremely reasonably priced web hosting with one of the best do-it-yourself website builders out there.  Wix and Squarespace also have free options which you can later upgrade. While you can certainly get organic traffic with a free website - thanks to the authority of the wordpress, weebly, wixsite, etc. domains -  it’s not often going to get you to rank for the same quality of keywords you really want to optimize for in the long run.

Having your own domain not only helps your authority with search engines, but it also makes you look better to users. If you have a company blog that’s not on your own domain, it might make people wonder why you couldn’t integrate it into your existing domain. 

In 2020, offering the best user experience means having your own domain, because literally anyone with an internet connection and an email account can create a free website! Showing that you’re willing to at least in a domain name is always a good idea.


What is Relevant Content for Both Your Users and Search Engines?

In the old days, all you had to do was post content regularly – at the very least once per week - around the keywords you wanted to be found for in search. But, it’s not just about writing and sharing content that people want. You want to make sure that your incoming search traffic – and social media traffic – is really getting what they’re looking for.

So, what do you post to your blog? You need to make your site more relevant in the eyes (or rather, to the spiders) of search engines. But you also need to make it more relevant in the eyes of those who may end up clicking on your website link in the search engine results pages.

The first part is easy: Do you answer their questions and/or do you fulfill their needs? Here's the part that isn't quite so easy: how do you make them feel? It's a proven fact that if you make people feel better by easing their concerns or solving a nagging problem that they may have, they're a lot more likely to remember you for that. Emotional value is everything for human beings. Since 99% of your readers will likely be human beings, that’s who you have to write for.


Keyword Strategies are Important, But They Are Only the Beginning

Obviously, keyword strategies are still incredibly important. But, you have to constantly build content on your website not only surrounding these keywords, but establishing a presence of authority and trust around them. You need to become a trustworthy personality who is knowledgeable about your site’s subjects. This is known as becoming a "thought leader."

You may not think of yourself as a thought leader in your chosen field, but you may be surprised how much you can be once you start answering the questions that you may get every day on your blog. It may sound simple, but if there's a need, and you fulfill that need, you might just find that a blog post a day keeps the searchers coming your way. Even if you can't blog every day, it's important to at least remain consistent, and keep an open dialogue with your audience.

Yes, it’s important to have a keyword strategy to fall back on. After all, that’s what helps you write a catchy title tag and meta description that’s also keyword-rich. But, when you get people to click through from Google, social media, or elsewhere, you want them to read all the way through AND get people to want to read more.


Being Consistent with Your Content is Key, But It's OK to Switch Things Up

While it’s important to be consistent in the type of content that you post to your website, if your strategy isn’t working, be sure to switch things up. You don’t want to look like a robot – even when things are working, switch things up for variety. People love surprises. 

Even a successful website will introduce a guest blogger or take a very new direction for a day or two just to offer some new perspective. Recycling old content by taking a completely different angle does this well. It’s fine to repurpose and recycle content, and people will appreciate your innovativeness often without really realizing it.

The purpose of any website is to provide information, advice and assistance to those people who are interested in what you have to share. Every site should strive to eventually build a community. You want people from all walks of life and many different fields and industries who can share common interests and experiences around your content. 

Building community around your content, both on social media and in comments, makes it clear to searchers and social media surfers that you are doing your best to offer a great user experience. Content creation doesn't always have to be cut and dry, and most of the time, you simply can't be. You've got to be there for people. It's the only way to win the minds (and hopefully the hearts) of your potential fans. 

So, while throwing bait for the search engine spiders to crawl is great, in the end it’s all about serving up a great user experience. Google especially likes content that’s shared often on social media. But, most importantly, search engines most appreciate sites that don’t create quick bounces from search queries. Keep people on your website by providing a great user experience and you will be rewarded!

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How to Use Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Web Pages as a Sales Tool

5/23/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Social Sales Expert
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Many websites have a Frequently Asked Question page, also known as an FAQ page. This page usually lists questions that clients or customers ask on a regular basis. What makes FAQ pages so useful is that you can direct potential or current customers to these pages to save yourself or your staff valuable time. If you’re sending people to your FAQ page, why not use it to your advantage as a sales tool?

How Can an FAQ Page Create Sales?

It turns out most FAQ pages are not sales-oriented. A lot of people don’t think of them in this way. They just think in terms of questions and answers. But, you should take them to the next level. As one of the more frequented pages on your site, you want to not only answer people’s questions, but get people more interested in what you have to offer.

Don't just give straight answers. You also want to offer solutions. Is there something special or unique about a product or service that you offer related to that question? You'll want to talk about that. This can boost consumer confidence. Also, by adding easy to follow links, it's easy to learn more about your products and services that are directly related to the question being asked.

While you want to keep any sort of sales pitch short and sweet, this is a good place to put them. After all, your website is a sales tool and not using your FAQ to get more leads and sales is a missed opportunity.

Should I Write Articles or Blog Posts About Frequently Asked Questions?


FAQ articles and blog posts are a great idea. You can go more in depth on certain questions. However, you want to be somewhat less sales-oriented in a blog post.

Blog posts should be more educational in nature. But, if you have something you can offer for free, in exchange for an email address, this is fine to include at the end.

Being too heavy handed on the sales pitch on an article or blog post tends to turn people off. But, an FAQ page can usually get away with more direct sales pitches since people who look at them tend to be closer to buying than blog readers. That's why soft sells are better on articles and blogs. Many of those visitors tend to still be learning more on a subject and not yet ready to choose a solution, never mind ready to buy.

But, if you have low cost products or services that can work to answer a question, you can include them at the end of articles and blog posts. You just shouldn't be hard selling. That's what a dedicated FAQ page is for. But the blog posts can build website SEO and capture visits that your FAQ page may not. Just keep in mind to have more specific questions on the posts so that you have unique content.

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Need help rewriting or creating a FAQ page that gets search traffic and more sales for your business? Contact the Brand Shamans Content Writing and Editing team today!


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Never Underestimate the Power of Media

5/22/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
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Never underestimate the power of media. Many people will focus on the negative aspects of media, but there are many positive ones, too. Media is responsible for reflecting the values of a society. To some extent, it can even create values, some good, and, of course, some not so good.

Media today comes in many forms, from the “old school” of books, newspapers and radio, to the “new school” of internet, magazines, movies, and television. Most of these media forms have existed for quite some time and still are constantly evolving to keep a place in mainstream media. Each of these types of media still have their power over us.

It’s long been said that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” While that saying has become cliche, it’s true. The media can wage wars with ideas. We all know how powerful ideas are. There are many great ideas that media can spread. Some of them are values that we hold dear.

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What Power Does Media Have Over Our Values?

Media has a great deal of power in creating values, maintaining them, and even changing existing values altogether. As values form the core of human societies, the media is responsible for maintaining traditional values or even displacing them and replacing them with new values. Even in just the past decade, society’s values have been affected by the media. Some people would argue that mainstream media has abused its power. Perhaps, in some ways it has. But in other ways, it’s done a lot of good.

Media has helped ideas spread all over the world. With the invention of social media, these ideas spread even more quickly. There have been people who even suggest that social media will eventually displace traditional media, but that’s unlikely to happen completely. The free flow of ideas allows people even in obscure, less-developed countries to information that they couldn’t have dreamed of learning just a few years ago. That is a good thing about media.


Is the Media Good or Bad for Our Values?

One of the “bad” things about media that people often harp on about is the perpetuation of celebrity culture all over the world. Celebrity culture has always existed, but it’s certainly a far greater part of our lives today. Also, mainstream media can spin news in just about any way that it wants. News, in fact, is today more entertainment; a lot of it puts celebrity news on par with real world news.

But for all the bad things that media can do, there’s another good flip side. Hypocrites and liars are eventually exposed. That happens even more quickly with the help of social media. People can be who they are, and with free speech and free press, can say what they think and do what they feel is right.

So is the media good or bad for our world’s values? Actually, it’s both.


Has Media “Americanized” the World Too Much?

It’s true that the United States of America has long been looked at as a forerunner in the world. Whatever America does, many other cultures try to adopt. For example, fast food and blue jeans were invented in America, and are now familiar concepts world-wide. As nations develop, they take many cues from American culture and add them to their own as they enter the modern world. But is Americanization a good thing or a bad thing?

The main argument against Americanization is that traditional values are lost through it. But, that’s not necessarily the case. Culture and values change over time regardless of influences. Yes, media can play a powerful influence, but all it does is really speed up how quickly things change. No one forced anyone to adopt American ideas and values. It’s just that these things are new to many people, so they’re happy to explore them. While the effects may be negative, it’s not because of media itself; it’s people making their own choices.


Is It True that Media Reflects What Society Craves?

For all the bad things we can say about media, the biggest knock against mainstream media is how it often gives into sinful temptations such as greed and lust. But media didn’t create these cravings. They’ve always been a part of the human psyche. Is it bad that media manipulates these things to make money? Sure. But it’s not media’s fault that these are things people want.

Sure, magazines and newspapers are happy to cover scandals that probably shouldn’t be considered news. But, they make money, and many magazines and newspapers are in business to make a profit. No, they aren’t obligated to be righteous and moral, not if people are buying their work.


Should Media Have a Moral Obligation to Upholding the Values of Society?

Yes, media can make or break a lot of things, whether it be people, events, or ideas. This is both good and bad, as what’s made or broken likely should’ve been reversed in some cases. Human beings are imperfect creatures and a free media is bound to spread good with the bad. But media itself is a great thing. It’s all about what you do with it.

Should media be tied to a moral obligation to upholding the values of society? What values should be upheld? Who makes these decisions? The whole point of a free society is to lift the obligation of the media to do just that. If there are too many rules governing media, then what good is it but a propaganda machine? We’ve seen this happen too often in the past, and even America has used media in this way.

But, in the social media age, the commitment to truth and transparency in traditional media is stronger than ever. Yes, there are rules that both traditional and social media has to follow in order to prevent tragedies, such as limiting hate speech and other inflammatory messages.  But no matter what rules you might make, media is so free and accessible to everyday people that no matter what, it will be used even if the rules have to be broken to do so.

Media is an incredible force of change. Some has been good, and some has been bad. But as with any human endeavor, it’s our own personal choice of how we both create it and consume it. Media is not the cause of any ills in our society; it’s simply bringing them out into the open. Just as with all the good ideas media brings us on a daily basis, that’s good, too.

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Should Web Writers Produce More Questions or Answers?

11/20/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
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Sometimes, I’ll have an idea that is very difficult to express. When I finish writing my first draft, I feel like readers may finish the piece with more questions than answers. Typically, it’s considered the job of a web writer to provide answers to one's queries. But sometimes, I find myself causing people to ask themselves even more questions. In the realm of web writing, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

As someone who developed his skills in the realm of offline writing, it's probably not surprising that previously I was typically more into writing persuasive essays rather than articles. Of course, I wrote some research papers, including quite a number in my college years. But even then, I often left people asking themselves questions.

I don't think it's fair to always give people straightforward answers, especially when there can be multiple “right” answers. Yes, purely informational articles are fine. Depending on the situation, you may want to be concise and straight to the point without leaving any realistic chance of confusion. Of course, you can never be 100 percent sure that someone won't misunderstand. But the skill of being as clear and precise as possible is extremely important to have. Still, if the topic has some grey areas, don’t try to answer every possible question. It’s OK to leave the reader with some questions.

One great example of leaving the reader with more questions than answers is when discussing philosophies of how and why to write. Sure, I can explain what works and doesn’t work for me. But as I’ve found over the years, you can take lots of advice as a writer, but you have to find your own way. You have to ask the right questions of yourself, and that’s why I always pose so many in my writing articles.

Sure, sometimes you’re going to have writing guidelines, especially for work-for-hire assignments. In those cases, clients pay you to write the content they want. But when you have your own website, or have permission to express yourself freely as an op-ed or guest blogger, it’s OK to ask more questions than give answers. This translates to any sort of writing. You need to keep your own voice and keep readers involved by making them think.

The purely informational approach is best when discussing topics that have step-by-step guides or otherwise specific directions. Then, there’s taking the position of trying to persuade your audience to consider one or more perspective. The last option is to have the reader question his or her own opinions on particular topics. Preferably, I prefer the last option the most in my writing work.

This is why I like to alternate between writing articles and more casual, conversational "bloggy" pieces. While they don't seem to go together, in reality, it is my belief that you have to write both in order to truly grow as a writer. Also, you can compose brilliant informational pieces until your fingers fall off or your brain conks out, but rarely get interactions.

I've sadly found that the "infoplease" types of pieces can often lead to "hit-and-run" traffic that doesn’t really engage. It’s hard to make money this way. I’ve found you need more conversational pieces in order to truly be viewed as a thought leader in your particular topic or field. Otherwise, you just offer free information that people will glance over and move on with their lives.

You want to plant seeds of interest and motivate people to come back and be challenged again. This is the sort of audience that will in the long run become your greatest fans and advocators. You want them to ask questions, even if you don’t have all the answers. After all, asking questions is the first step to true wisdom.

Before you begin writing any piece, ask yourself:

If you could write about anything, what would it be and why?

Then, ask yourself:

If I think no one will care about what I want to write, how can I make them care?

If that second question involves asking the reader to ask even more questions, that’s fine. Just be clear in sharing what you know and make readers think. So, should web writers produce more questions or answers? In my opinion, you’ll always produce plenty of both, and it all evens out in the end.

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Canon CanoScan 4507B002 LiDE110 Color Image Scanner Review

11/10/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
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When EBay decided to make it hard for trading card sellers to use stock photos for their listings, it became apparent that I needed a scanner. I had one awhile ago, a big, bulky Epson scanner that scanned with great quality, but had its own software and had its own power cord! I had to leave it upstairs and plug my laptop into it because it was too big and bulky to keep at my computer downstairs. So I gave that one away and purchased this little USB Canon scanner.

I've always been a fan of Canon products, and the CanoScan LiDE110 is fantastic. Not only does it not have its own power cord, but it's plug and play! The only real complaint I have about it is that the software that it comes with is lousy. Fortunately, good old Windows Fax and Scan is fine for the photo quality scans I need for listing items on EBay and Listia, and Paint is good enough for my sketches. Best of all, this scanner literally sits right atop my computer and is extremely light and portable with fairly good scan quality even on the lower settings. It's all that I need.

I'd give this product a 9/10, mostly because I wish it came with better software. At the time, it was only $49 on Amazon. At that price, you could never find a better quality stand-alone scanner for a better price! Unfortunately, the price on this model has skyrocketed to around $90-100. Still, it's a great product, even at that price point. There is a less expensive model, the LiDE120, which is actually the #2 selling Document Scanner on Amazon (as of this writing) in between two $400 scanners!

If you want super high quality photo scans, this might not be your product. But if you're just someone who needs a simple scanner like I do for casual projects and listing photos, this is an amazing value.


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Are Ghost Writers for Your Blog a Good Idea?

10/15/2014

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Typewriter

When you're looking to create content for your website, there are many ways to go. Many website owners don't want to write everything themselves. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having a group blog or having regular guest bloggers. However, the most important thing about blogging is to be personal and consistent with your brand.

In the past, many SEO and branding experts said it was imperative that you or your direct partners be the primary writers for your blog. But, the one major reason that actually keeps many bloggers from writing on a regular basis is not being sure what to write or how to write it for their intended audience. Enter the ghostwriters. Many websites have consistent ghostwriters who write most or all of the content for a website owner. What are the benefits and drawbacks to having ghost writers for your blog?



Ghostwriters and SEO


As you know, ghostwriters are nothing new. It's a pretty old profession. They're also nothing new for SEO. In fact, getting someone to get your ideas and messages across that is a great writer and also good at creating content relevant to both your audience and the search engine algorithms is fantastic. It's just very important that you find someone that can both write and can make you look good at the same time.

However, the last thing you want to happen is someone who's really only blogging for you for the sake of getting exposure for themselves. While it's okay to have a guest post or two every once in a while, it's good to keep the blog subjects in house as much as possible. Even if you have to go outside to get it written, you want as many ideas as possible to come from you or someone within your organization. 

Also, if you do hire a ghostwriter to write blog posts for you, it’s best to find content writers that know something about your industry or niche. While it’s not a requirement, having someone writing articles that has expert topics related to your website will help you get better content in the end. While a long-time professional writer or expert copywriter can write something that sounds good, experience with your related topics will be better for building authority with your audience.



How Often Should You Use Ghost Writers?


Where do you draw the line between writing everything in your own words versus hiring an outside freelance writer to write for you? There are plenty of people out there happy to write two or three articles a week for you, for a price. While many of these people are often perfectly good writers and have good reputations, you need to keep in mind that you don't want to put the future of your blog or business necessarily in the hands of content creators. 

There is a compromise you can make if you want your blog posts with your own name on them to still somewhat come from you. You can hire ghostwriters who take your raw ideas and polish them up into a finished piece. A web content writer who can take your general thoughts and make them SEO-friendly, readable, and relevant to your audience can be a great asset.

Hiring somebody to write an article for you as a blog contributor when you're really stuck is fine. But, if you’re hiring a freelancer as a ghostwriter, and you want to keep the writing style of your articles consistent, you’ll want to find one writer that you trust. Yes, outside bloggers known in your industry can provide some credibility. But, you need to put your names on it, too. It needs to be someone within the blog ownership itself that blogs the most, even if that person has someone ghostwriting for them.


So, it's not a bad idea to have a ghostwriter working for you. But, if you need one consistently, you want it to be someone consistent. Just make sure that your own voice is heard and that your content is useful and searchable. There are ghostwriters that are excellent at this. But still, nothing is better than just putting your own thoughts out there and letting someone tweak it for you.


Need a ghostwriter for your blog or website? See how the Brand Shamans can help you createcustom content for your website or blog!

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Are Online Directory Listings Still Worth It for SEO?

10/14/2014

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Online directory listings have long been a big part of SEO due to being strong backlinks, but are they still?

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For many years, SEO experts would tell you that the Yahoo! Web Directory was one of the best backlinks you can possibly have for your business. For a $299 a year, it was yours. Well, that will be no longer. Yahoo! announced in late September 2014 that the very directory that founded the company’s very existence will be closing after 20 years. Search Engine Land had a great piece about the Yahoo! Directory's closing.

For years, a backlink from Yahoo for $299 a year was worth the investment. It was something you could write off as a business expense on your tax return. It could also get a stray click-through or two here and there. Also, because of the fact that the directory had existed since 1994, it continued to be a fairly valuable link depending on the category that you chose - especially if you were in a particular niche. There was a time that it may have well been worth the money if you could afford to have it as a part of your SEO budget. Those times have now ended.

Is the Alive Web Directory Worth It for SEO?

There are still other directories out there, of course. For example, there is the Alive Web Directory. They have several listing options, most of which are far less expensive on a per-year basis. However, they also have an option that costs $299.95 for a permanent featured listing, which can get you visibility with 5 additional deep links. Another option is $209.95 for a permanent regular listing that will get somewhat less visibility (be listed under the Featured Listings) with only 3 additional deep links.

Alive Web Directory also has several more listing options. For example, you can get a permanent featured listing without the additional deep links for $224.95 and a regular permanent listing for only $149.95. I would suggest, however, that those additional deep links could help depending on the situation and what you're trying to get those particular links to rank for. In any case, it cost a lot less than Yahoo Web Directory did. It will be interesting to see how the pricing structure changes now that the “king” of directories is gone.

Best of the Web and SEO

Another option is Best of the Web. This one is a little more familiar to me than Alive Web Directory, as I've personally used it to post free business listings for past employers on their local directory side. It costs a one-time fee of $149.95 to submit your site for the directory, and $199.95 to submit for their directory plus a local listing. They also now have a lifetime listing for a one-time fee of $299.95. This directory gets a lot more traffic, as far as I know, than either the Yahoo or Alive Web Directory because their directory listings have popped up all over Google and Bing.

The only thing that is a bit scary about Best of the Web (BOTW) is that the submission fee is non-refundable. If for whatever reason the moderator doesn't feel that your site is worthy of being listed (unusual, but possible) that money is gone. Just keep that in mind. But, most likely as long as your site looks good and is useful to visitors, you should be fine. It’s obviously to cut down on spam submissions and deter people whose sites aren’t top quality which would waste the time of their editors.

Overall Benefits of Online Directories for SEO

If you’re going to use directories, you definitely want to first go for the permanent listings rather than the yearly recurring listings. The permanent directory listings are far less expensive now than they were, but of course, even Alive Web Directory and Best of the Web aren't ever going to have the same SEO value as Yahoo!

Of course, there are many other more niche-related directories out there. Some are even free. Whenever you are submitting your website link to an online directory, be sure they are reputable directories that you think people would actually use. There are plenty of spammy ones out there happy to take your money with little return value.

If a directory doesn’t look like a site you would use yourself to find something, then don’t think about getting a listing there. The click-throughs from any directories are gravy. But the backlinks themselves from more trusted directories, no matter how many clicks you get from there, can provide you with authority in the search engines for those categories.


Of course, there are a lot of places where you can get a free link just by sending an email or submitting to a free directory. While these are often “no-follow” links that don’t really provide direct engine optimization value, they’re still worth at least submitting in order to get your website more mentions, which can help you indirectly.

The major issue with online directories is the question of how much longer they will actually remain relevant in the eyes of search engine relevance. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, they do give a sense of permanence to your brand related to certain keywords that the search engines still appreciate. If you have a blog, then it’s perhaps better to focus on being listed on authority sites in your niches than to bother investing in a directory listing. But if you have the budget to do so, it’s something to consider, especially if that listing is found among other highly relevant links to your niche or field.

If there are any online directories you are currently listed in, or are thinking of being listed in, feel free to contact our online marketing experts about them. We can check them out and can let you know our thoughts on how useful those directories are for your SEO efforts and if they’re worth your hard-earned money.

A better option for you and your website may be a sponsored guest post. With a quality article written about a topic you're passionate about and quality backlinks for much less than the cost of a directory listing, you can reap far greater SEO benefits than a basic directory listing. If you're interested, contact the SEO experts at Brand Shamans today!

Photo credit: Pixabay, Public Domain

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Writing 500 Words a Day: Much Easier Than You Think

10/13/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
Hardbound Journal
Photo credit: Morguefile.com free photo
One of the most important things to do as a writer is to write. That sounds so ridiculously obvious, but the truth is, on some days, you’re simply not going to feel like writing, at all. But because writing is a skill, it is something that you must constantly use in order to keep strong and healthy, like muscles.

Therefore, it's important to have a daily goal of writing a certain number of words. Believe it or not, just writing 500 words a day is actually a great exercise. Many writers will agree that 1,000 or 2,000 words a day is a better practice. While that's not a bad notion, an absolute minimum of writing 500 words a day is a must!


The best part is about setting this sort of goal is that these 500 words don’t even have to necessarily be good. Obviously, if you can write 500 words about a topic you feel passionately about and is worthy of being published, then you should absolutely do so.

But, there are days you simply don’t exactly know what you should write. Every writer has days like this. It’s only human to have days in which you simply don’t want to work. But it’s important to have this absolute minimum of 500 words. If you don’t, you’ll find that there are days where you simply write nothing at all. Then when you try to start again, it can be a struggle. You have to  continuously exercise those writing muscles to keep your writing skill in shape.


The best thing to do when you’re really stuck for a writing topic is just to write about whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to make sense or even be anything particularly interesting. It doesn’t have to be anything you will end up necessarily publishing anywhere.

The simple act of making words come together is enough to keep those writing muscles from atrophying. You don’t have to go back and proofread or even spell and grammar check what you wrote necessarily. Something just has to come out on the page in front of you, whether it’s on paper, a computer screen, a tablet or whatever.

Actually, sometimes if you typically write on the computer, try just grabbing a sheet of paper and scribbling down whatever may come to mind. Likewise, if you often work in paper notebooks, try typing something up on your computer or similar device. Heck, even write something on your phone’s memo pad if you have to. Whatever little change of scenery will help, you should make simply to get some words out.


If you’re working on a book project, then you should aim higher than a 500 word minimum. However, it is a good minimum to set for yourself. Five hundred words a day is 15,000 in a month. In three months, you’ll have written the equivalent of a short novel (45,000 plus words). Maybe not all of it will be good. Some of what you write may be nothing. But, the outline for ideas of what to later write about. But it’s progress.

Some days you’ll just write more. If you feel you must set higher minimum word goals for yourself, then by all means do so. Just write at least 500 words a day, and guaranteed, you’ll always find yourself with something to work from!


(Note: This article alone is about 600 words)

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Image Search is Your Friend for SEO

10/8/2014

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
Image search for border collie puppies
Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved
One of the often overlooked ways to be found online through SEO is with the ever-popular image search. Both Google Image Search and Bing Image Search receive massive amounts of daily traffic searching countless kinds of images. With photo-sharing tools like Pinterest, Flickr, and Instagram gaining in use every day, the amount of images on the internet has exploded in recent years.

So, getting your website found through image search is still a very workable way to attract visitors to your site. To do this, having high-quality images on your website is very important. While you can easily get away with having 300-pixel wide pictures on your website and get found through image search, the bigger your pictures, the better. This does not mean your website should become a veritable photo album, but what pictures you do have can be a valuable asset if they look something that's enticing to click on.

The most important thing to do with your online pictures is to make sure search engines know what they are. One way to do this is to give them file names that relate to the keywords that best describe them. For example, if you have a picture of a blue baby blanket (random example, I know) then you would want the file name of that picture to be blue-baby-blanket.jpg or something to that effect.

More importantly, be sure the alt text of that picture on your website reads "Blue Baby Blanket" with perhaps some additional details added after that. The more relevant you make your photo look to the image search engines, the more likely your picture with appear in the top sections of the image search results. (Side note: as of early 2020 'blue baby blanket' receives about 900 monthly searches on Google alone!)


Whatever pictures you have on your website should at least have title tags and alt text that describe them. File names are somewhat less important to many image search engines, but they are still relevant. If you don't have a lot of pictures that will work on your website, it's not a bad idea to post them on a Flickr account. Make sure that they have good captions and descriptions, as pictures on Flickr appear quite often in image search results. Also, don't forget people discover photos through Flickr's own search.


The Power of Pinterest as Its Own Image Search Engine

You can also upload your pictures to Pinterest and have them link back to an appropriate page on your website. While the Pinterest links have "nofollow" tags on them which prevent them from providing "link juice" back to your website, some curious Pinterest users may still click through anyhow, giving you free traffic to your site.


With Pinterest, it's best to add your logo and website address to the photo - it's free advertising! Like with Flickr,make sure your captions and descriptions are optimized for Pinterest's own search. Because Pinterest even recommends similar keywords to you when you search it, you can easily find phrases people are already searching  Also, Pinterest pins get indexed in search engines, so these can be another way for people to discover you.

In any case, image search is still one of the best indirect ways to get found online. Who knows, if a searcher likes your image enough to click through, you could end up making a happy new fan. The additional keyword research will also help you rank better for terms you never would've though of before. Image search really can be your best friend when it comes to SEO!


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Finding Your Audience and Promoting Interaction

10/7/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
Crowd
Photo credit: Pixabay, Public Domain
The most important thing about online marketing is making sure people see you before they see someone else. Sounds basic enough. One of the best ways to keep your name in front of people is to have a page on each of the major social networks. However, while having a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, Pinterest boards, and other social network profiles are fine and dandy, you need to know exactly where your audience and potential readers actually are. They won't necessarily come to you if you’re not focusing on the right places.

The Upside to Being Social Online

One of the primary reasons it's suggested to make accounts on all of the major social networks is that chances are you will dominate page one of Google for your brand (personal or professional) just by having all of them. The flip-side to this is if someone clicks on one of these pages and sees you haven't updated it in forever, you'll get an immediate bounce most of the time. The one that you might get away with not updating weekly is Pinterest, as pins have quite a long shelf life - they can be found and shared easily for years. Even then, you want to have at least something new on each of those social pages at least once a week. Once people find you, you'll have a far better chance of engaging them if your shared content is recent.

The other major tactic is to go to major forums related to your topics that allow for links that actually give credit to your website - those that don't automatically put "nofollow" tags on your links. This can work two-fold. Not only do search-optimized hyperlinks help your rankings in search results, but you may also get a decent stream of traffic from your posts if forum members find it to be helpful content. It’s especially useful if you can answer questions that aren’t getting answered. But keeping up with these forums can be difficult to do on a regular basis unless you really work at it and follow the conversations regularly. Still, it's a very sound way to go if you find that it’s a good place to invite positive interactions around your content.

So Where Are My Best Followers to Be Found?

Both of these tactics are well and good, and as long as you follow best practices, you should see positive results. You want to sell what you know, and not so much your brand. It’s completely possible that your best and most loyal followers may not be on Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn. Those sites might be good for your overall SEO strategy and build your traffic, as long as a good percentage of said traffic actually stays on your website.

Mere curiosity can sometimes lead to a strong new connection, but you want to make sure that people that click on your link are more often than not ready and willing to buy into what you have to offer. The social networks are good for traffic generation, but they’re not the only tool. Forums are far more focused and therefore can bring you higher quality traffic.

In any case, whether you’re just starting out with social media and the like, or even if you have been at it for a while, you need to constantly do your homework. It’s extremely important to discover where your potential audience hangs out online. One great idea is to ask your current fans what social networks they frequent the most and in what forums they may participate. You can also search for your top keywords and see if there are forums on topics related to the products and/or services you provide.


Are People Talking About Me?

You may also find if you search for you or your brand that people are talking to or about you. In that case, especially if it's negative commentary, you want to get in there and respond positively and respectfully, even if the person seems unreasonable. This way, at least your side is out there and other people seeing it will at least see your honest effort. It is also a potential link back to your site, even if has "no follow" tags, it's both great PR and people may well still click on it and give you a chance.

Also, whatever sites you join and create a profile on, be sure to listen in for a while. You can introduce yourself, but just don't overdo it. Only post as you feel is necessary or as you feel is honestly helpful and not just trying to sell yourself. If you find that you start creating strong relationships with people on forums or networks, that's a good thing, because you will have good ambassadors online for your work. The more positive comments you receive about you and your work, the better.

Optimizing content and promoting your business is not always just about traditional SEO. Even participating on sites with "no-follow" tags on their links as many popular forums and social networks do still helps send the right signals to the search engines. Also, your posts can show up in search results for keywords relevant to you if you craft them with your keyword strategy in mind.

It's crucial to know where your core audience spends their time, so that you can interact with them in a different atmosphere. In doing so, you can possibly make a few new friends that could make your overall marketing efforts go a long way. Remember, sell what you know, and make yourself a resource for good, strong answers. With a bit of effort and some luck, those same people will likely have more questions of the topics you write about. Then, you can become the go-to source for their answers.
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How Much Does Google Encrypting Search Terms Hurt Optimization?

10/6/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
Picture
Photo credit: Pixabay, Public Domain
Much ado has been made about Google now encrypting all keyword searches except those that come from pay-per-click ads. They were already doing this for signed-in Google users, but now more than ever, you’ll have no idea what keywords Google users are typing to get to your content. Only Yahoo and Bing will continue to provide that data, and they make up only about a quarter of internet search traffic. Also, without the Google Keyword Tool being available for non-Adwords customers, it’s harder to figure out what keywords to use – although the handy Ubersuggest tool has been handy in the aftermath of that change.

But here’s the big thing. Yes, Google wants more people to use AdWords. That’s how they make money, of course. But the big thing that needs to happen is shifting away from keywords. Yes, tags and categories are still important. You’re still going to be able to know what your Google ranking is. Just not what the phrases are. However, this sort of thing simply can longer be your concern anymore. Therefore, the focus needs to be shifted to simply producing the best, most relevant content that you can.

No matter what it is that you write about, content quality has to be the number one priority. It’s still worth tagging photos and checking on popular searches, of course. But now you simply have to ignore what exact phrases are bringing traffic. If you’ve optimized your pages enough in the past, they should keep bringing in the same sort of traffic. It’s just frustrating from an analytical point of view, even though you can still see that they’re coming from Google organic search. It’s just one piece of information you won’t have anymore.

So while there is a big commotion over this change, optimization is still roughly the same. It will just be a bit trickier to know exactly what is working and will take a bit more keyword research. But if you build up enough thought leadership in your given field and are ranking well in Google now, little should change. Going forward you just have to accept that whatever traffic you get will be relatively anonymous. For those that aren’t ranking well, keyword research is still the same – you simply just will be getting traffic without tagged keyword phrases. It’s a bit frustrating, but you can’t let it get you down. Just keep keywords in mind when you’re writing top-notch content and only worry about the eyeballs coming to your page, not the precise keyword phrases.

Of course, you can always use AdWords. That still works.

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Are Brand Mentions the New Inbound Links for SEO?

10/5/2014

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by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media
Picture
There has been a ton of chatter in the content marketing community about the possibility of brand mentions gaining far more power in search engine results than traditional links. The conversation was spurred by the patent filed by Google regarding their “Panda” search algorithm. The part of this patent that stood out is the mention of “implied links” - that is, mentions of a brand not expressly linked.

This means simple mentions on social media or on other pages online are gaining more weight in determining search engine rankings. The idea behind this is so that the most popular sites actually get ranked higher rather than sites with extremely intricate link-building strategies. This doesn’t mean link-building will suddenly become far less important. What it does mean is that Google is apparently refining their algorithm in this way.

It’s obviously too soon to tell, but it’s not a bad idea to make sure your fans and/or customers mention you in a positive light where ever they can. It’s also a good idea to make sure your brand - whether it’s your own name, your website’s name or your company’s name - is mentioned as often as possible in good context. To be fair, this has been a good strategy for a while, but it’s interesting to see that clearly Google is picking up on brand mentions as a new signal for ranking. It could be a very good thing for SEO.

If this patent truly has revealed this future change to the Google algorithm, it should not scare you away from link building. No-follow tagged links are still important and high-quality follow links should still be your bread and butter for building your site’s rankings and SEO. However, keep in mind that simply being mentioned may very suddenly become very important. Those that have picked up on this could suddenly be outranking you. It also makes it more important than ever to use Google Alerts and other social media tools to see how you’re being mentioned.

Overall, this could be a very good change for search results. There are plenty of websites out there that have built their entire online presence around inbound link-building - some with far more quality portfolios than others and Google has taken notice. This could be a really good thing for Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It could also lead to a lot of shameless promotion. We shall see.
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    Lyn Lomasi is founder and owner of the Brand Shamans Content Community. Services include ordained soul therapy and healing ministry, business success coaching, business success services, handcrafted healing jewelry, ethereal and anointing oils, altar and spiritual supplies and services, handcrafted healing beauty products, and more!

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