Big Changes Coming to Google for SEO

So, there are plenty of changes coming to the search engine optimization world, Google will be releasing an update to Penguin. This one is called *drum roll* Penguin 2.0! Shocker. BUT, it is important for you to know what this means so your site does not get hit, or if you're an SEO consulting company, then your clients' sites. Google promises that this update will be a real trouble-maker.

A big deal with this change is the update's ability to shake down all the SEO on the internet and crack down on any spammy and poor quality links. What this means is that you will have to check your site's links by performing an audit. Even if you think your links are good, do not assume, do an audit on your site's backlinks and links. Avoid links that are attached to SEO inspired sites, like backlink farm sites, and things of the like. Also try to avoid links with contrived anchor text, or anchor text that has been beaten to death.

What you will want to do is to build a list of all the backlinks you have for your site on the internet, you can do this by using SEO SpyGlass. Next, look to see what links you have that are still active and what links you have that are dead, remove the dead ones. Third, look for any questionable links that are tied to your site, ditch them ASAP; check for the domain IP, domain age, Google page rank, Alexa rank, and external links. Fourth, look for links with suspicious anchor text because this kind of goes along with the notion of questionable backlinks and using overly optimized keywords/anchor text. Fifth, look for any poor backlinks to your site with your own eye, maybe the SpyGlass missed something. And lastly, Talk to webmasters about removing the bad links.

This blog will hopefully help you avoid poor rankings due to poor back links but there is more you can do, for a complete run down, do a Google search of the new update and see for yourself. We will make it through this update!

Don't Rush to Change Keywords

If you do search engine optimization, you know about keywords. Keywords are your backbone for search engine optimization. They are what get you noticed by the world on the internet. Keywords are the things that people type into the search engines and why your material on the internet and your website become relevant to the people using those keywords. The only problem is that many people are eager to change the keywords and try to be innovative.

The thing about keywords is that they have to establish themselves in reference to your website. So, for example, you use "Dentist in Chicagoland" as a keyword for your dentist office, this keyword has to become associated with your website, according to the search engines. If you change your keywords too often, then the search engines don't like it and your rankings will suffer.

Keywords can stick around for a few months or even longer so you don't really have to worry about them having a short expiration date, they aren't like milk. Think of them more like juice.

If you do not know how to choose a keyword, well there is a science to that. Keywords are often 2-3 words long. one word phrases are called short-tail keywords and they make up less than 30% of searches on the web. Phrases longer than 3 words are called long-tail keywords and make up gets fewer uses with each additional word. The longer and more precise the keywords are, the sooner you will get increased traffic. It is easier to optimize a site and rank for a unique phrase with little competition. The longer and more precise your keyword is, the fewer visitors you will get, but the more targeted your traffic is. The narrower the search term you target, the greater part of visitors convert to actual customers.

When choosing keywords, you want to make a list of keywords to choose from. They must pertain to what you offer or sell. To help you, you can use the Google Keyword Planner tool. You can use more general keywords or more specific like "Chicago Instrument Shop". What makes it more specific is the addition of "Chicago".

How do you pick the best keywords? Good question. You will need to calculate the Keyword Efficiency Index, or KEI. This index show you how good a keyword is for bringing traffic to your site. You will want keywords with high KEI. There are three components to KEI and they are: relevance ( how closely your keyword is related to what you offer to your customers. You can rank the relevance in terms of excellent, good, or poor). Another component of KEI is the search volume (this is how many queries are made for a keyword per month). The third component is competition (how many websites try to rank for this keyword- generally, all sites that have the same keyword as you are your online competition. The fewer websites that are optimized for the same keyword, the better KEI).

As a Chicago marketing company, we do all sorts of internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, blogs, web design, and more. We know all about keywords and how they work and how to use them to someone's advantage.

Updating Your Keywords

Successful search engine optimization is about having keywords. Keywords are what connect your website to what people search on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

While finding the perfect keyword is important to the success of your search engine optimization it is more important to understand why you use the keywords you choose. An SEO consultant agency or internet marketing agency will know the importance of why certain keywords win over other keywords. One reason is because you want keywords that have lower competition while having higher amounts of searches. More importantly, an internet marketing firm will know that the keywords will speak to the company's target markets.

In addition to knowing why it is important to know the right keywords to choose for your search engine optimization marketing but it also what are your next set of keywords? The tricky thing about keywords is that after a while, they become less effective. If you know anything about marketing , then you know that consumers change their minds all. the. time. It is frustrating. Consequently, while certain keywords will work for a while, you will have to change them after a few months because people are no longer searching for those words as much as they used to.

Keywords are a cornerstone to successful and search engine optimization . Do it right and you're golden. The only trick is this, you won't always do it right.

Why You Should Do Social Media Marketing

Why do social media marketing for your business? Is it even worth it? It is definitely something to look into if you want to grow your small business or if you want to build brand loyalty with your consumers. Here's the thing though, you want to grow your small business and you want to build brand loyalty with consumers. Social media has done a lot in the business world and done things that we did not even know were possible.

One way social media has impacted marketing, especially internet marketing is that it has enabled quick interaction between consumers and businesses. For example, Coca-Cola has a twitter account for Doc Pemberton, inventor of Coke, and when people tweet at him, he will respond and interact; of course their other twitters will do the same, but it is just cool to see. Other brand's twitter accounts interact. The reason this is so great is because it makes consumers feel like they are noticed by their favorite brands and can actually have their voice be heard. Being able to talk with a company is like talking to a friend; you are much more loyal and genuine with a friend than you are with a stranger.

A second way social media marketing has impacted internet marketing is by enabling companies to announce news much faster than they were able to in the past. For example, say a company want to announce a new promo opportunity or something like a logo change, they can do it via social media in a few minutes; in the past, they would have to rely more on traditional media and public relations to do this work.

A third way that social media has impacted marketing is by allowing companies to go places that they were not able to go before. I don't mean that they can establish offices in geographic locations that they couldn't before but rather get involved in things they couldn't before, or at least with as much ease. For example, MLB was able to post pictures on Instagram during the home run derby when in the days prior to social media, they couldn't post their own pictures of the home run derby as the derby was going on; not that there were rules against it, but uploading pictures to the computer and then to the internet took a lot longer than simply hitting a single button on Instagram.

Overall, social media has had a huge impact on marketing and has so many benefits to it; if your business is not in on the social media buzz, you can be missing sales and exposure.

Valuable Internal Optimization Tips

As a Chicago Marketing Company we stress the value of Search Engine Optimization. If you want web traffic from search engines there are certain areas of your website that must be optimized.

Title Tags – Title tags are shown up as the title in search results and on browser windows. Our Chicago Marketing team has found that title tags are the most important place to insert your keywords on your website. A strong title tag should contain between 65-70 characters or less. It is important to choose keywords for your title tags that correspond with the content on the page.

H1 Tags – Search engines have been attracted to h1 tags for years. Our Chicago Marketing Company has found that some websites don’t even utilize H1 tags! Many search engine optimization experts have found that H1 tags are one of the most important factors of internal optimization. You are only hurting your website by not including H1 tags.

URL – The key to any web page is it’s URL. Within your website you will have different pages designated to separate web URL’s. Our web designers in Chicago always name particular page’s slug according to what the page and content is about. Example: http://www.integraphix.com/services/chicago_internet_marketing entails information regarding our Chicago Internet Marketing services.

Image Tags – Our creative agency has found that images are often ignored when it comes to search engine optimization. It is very important that all of your images on your website are saved according to your keywords to help increase web traffic. Make sure that all of your images on your website are given logical and readable names. An image saved as “logo.jpg”says nothing to search engines. Saving an image as “Chicago-web-design-company-logo.jpg” will help your website for search engine optimization purposes. Uploading images to your website saved as keywords will definitely help increase your rankings and ultimately increase your web traffic.

Content – When creating web content for your website, it is very important to include a variety of keywords. As a Chicago Marketing Company, we recommend you use at least 4-5 keywords on each of your pages. If your site is legitimate and you are targeting the right audience, your keywords should fall into the copy naturally. It is important to understand that the more content you put on your site, the better off you are in terms of search engine optimization.

Without a solid foundation of internal optimization on your website, you cannot grasp the full potential of search engine optimization. For a FREE Marketing Analysis of your website, contact Integraphix: 847-537-0067. Our Chicago Marketing Company consists of our creative team specialists that have the knowledge and experience on  how to increase interest with search engines.

Why Your Company Needs a Blog

Yes, we have decided that we are going to 'blog' about 'blogging' today.  If you constantly find yourself putting off starting up a blog for your company, you should get started as soon as possible.  There are about a million good reasons why a company should have a blog and as a Chicago SEO company, we cannot stress a blog's importance enough.  If you have been putting it off, here's why you should get started today:

1- A blog is essential to boost your SEO: As a Chicago SEO company, we constantly tell our customers how effective a blog is for boosting their website's SEO rankings.  Search engine crawlers love, love, love fresh, brand new content being added to a website on a constant basis.  Sticking a blog right on your website will give you the ability to add that fresh content every time you post something new.  Postings give you a chance to utilize keywords and show search engines that you are actively using and updating your website.  When we do web design for a client we typically create a built in blog right on the client's website.  We suggest having multiple blogs if you can keep up with it.  The more blogs your company has that link back to your company's website, the better off you are in the world of search engine optimization. A blog, whether your blog is through blogger or you are using a blog on your website, gives you a great place to add links back to your website, which is also a great way (if not the best way) to boost SEO rankings.

2- A blog is a great place to show that you are the expert in your industry: Refine your list of potential blog topics and stick to talking about topics related to your company's industry.  Say you own a coffee shop, then topics that you should blog about should all surround the industry you belong to.  Keeping it relevant will help search engine's crawlers identify who your business is and what you do and will give you a chance to become the expert in your industry.  Your blog gives you a special place to show what you know and impress potential customers.  

3- A blog is a great way to interact with potential and current customers: A blog is a great place to spearhead conversations with your potential and current customers.  Your blog will keep your customers informed and has the ability to help you reel in potential customers.  Just like your social media profiles, blogging is another great way to bring the social aspect to your business.

4- Your blog will help you build your brand: Blogging is a simple way of helping you establish your brand.  Blogging gives you the ability to make your brand more personal and drive more traffic to your company's website, which in turn helps you build your brand.  Perhaps lots of people begin reading your company blog, then great!  Put on your sales hat and lead those blog readers back to your company's website.  That gives your company all the more potential to get that brand exposure you have been craving.

5- Blogging will help keep yourself and your customers in the loop:  Since your company blog should take on topics related to your industry, it can serve as a learning tool not only for your readers and customers, but also for yourself.  A great way to stay current with the latest industry trends is to blog about it.  Your blog could also serve as a vehicle for communicating the latest company news almost like a company newsletter.

Looking for tips on creating a company blog?  We'd be happy to discuss blogging with you.  Feel free to comment below or contact us.

Tips for Writing Better Content: The Before, During and After Phases

As an SEO firm in Chicago we’re always talking SEO and we’re always talking about the importance of content.  When it comes to search engine optimization, we’re always saying, “Content is king” and we mean it.  When it comes to creating an SEO strategy there is no better way to boost rankings then to put out great content.  If you’re not working with an SEO company and are trying to do search engine optimization yourself then you need to be prepared to put on your writer hat.  If you’re not the best writer then take note of our tips for writing better content:

Before you begin writing do the following:

1- Identify your goal beforehand: What is the goal of the content you are producing?  Identifying what you are looking for from your reader will help you be able to write better content.  Decide what is you want to say and what is you want your reader to know.  What are you looking to accomplish with your content?  Have your goal in mind beforehand and your content will instantly be more successful.

2- Consider your reader: Get in the mindset of your target audience and readers.  Consider what they know about your content’s topic and what they don’t know.  Break things down that may be confusing for them so you don’t lose them.  Explain things in a way that you are on their level rather than being above them.  Think about what they may want to know about your topic and how you can help them learn your topic better, after all you are writing for search engines AND readers.

3- What’s the hook?: Every and any piece of content you put out should have a hook, which is how you draw readers in. Your hook may be a news hook, an attack hook, a humor hook or an ego hook, but whatever kind of hook you choose needs to draw readers into your content. Your hook should be woven throughout your content or writing piece.  

While you are writing:

1- Create an outline:  In order to write better content (especially if you’re not a writer) consider making an outline first.  An outline will help you weed out material you need not include and will help you better organize your content and your thoughts.  Even seasoned writers will outline content from time to time.  Outlining should become your first step in the writing process.  Once you have a great outline, writing the rest of your content will become a breeze since you’ve outlined the points you need to hit with your content.  Just go down your outline and begin writing, the organization will be there.

2- Just write!:  If you find yourself constantly editing your thoughts as you write, stop immediately!  The writing and editing process are two entirely different parts of the content-creating process. As a rule, write first and edit later.  Get as much down as you can and leave all of your thoughts on the page until you get to the editing process. If you created your outline like we mentioned in tip #1, then you have probably already been able to weed out the useless, cluttered information and have organized your thoughts, so don’t be so critical of your writing.  Keep what you have and re-read it later.

3- Make it easy to read: Content built for web is different than any other type of content.  People reading online are typically scanning, rather than doing any type of deep reading, so you want your online content to convey your message quickly and concisely.  You want your reader to be able to scan your content and be able to take away the crux of your message very quickly. 

4- Be engaging: If you want people to read your content, then you must be engaging.  Make them want to read what you put out.  One of the best ways to be engaging as a writer is to use your own voice.  You have to give readers a little bit of you. Write like your content matters to you, as it should.  If you want people to care about what you write, you have to care about what you write, so let your personality shine through in your writing. 

After you are finished writing:

1- Edit time: Now is the time to begin the editing process.  Do a thorough re-read and see if any sentences should be omitted or altered.  While outlining helps you get your thoughts organized, editing should help you double check that your writing is organized the way you want it to be.  Spell check, spell check and spell check again! 

2- Read it out loud: Read your writing out loud and see how it sounds to you.  If parts of your writing sound off, make a note of it and go back to it and figure out the issue.  It could be awkward phrasing or perhaps there is a better word you could be using to describing something.  Either way, reading out loud is another form of editing that every writer should utilize. 

3- Have a co-worker or friend read your content: If you want to make sure your content is sounding its best, consider having a co-worker or friend read your writing to proofread it and let you know what they think.  Be open to questions, comments, criticisms and opinions as all four will only make you a better writer.  

Questions or comments on writing better content for search engine optimization purposes?  Feel free to comment below or contact us.  

Social Bookmarking and SEO

When it comes to search engine optimization there are a million little external things you can be doing to improve your website's rankings.  Submitting to local directories, backlinking, blogging, using social media regularly, and social bookmarking all aid in helping your website to rank highly for your chosen keywords.  If you have yet to dive into social bookmarking as one of your external SEO tactics our SEO specialists suggest you give it a chance, and here's why:

Social bookmarking provides fast indexing

Social bookmarking is one of the quickest ways to get your website found and indexed by search engines.  Search engine crawlers quite regularly index the popular social bookmarking sites, which will boost your chances of being indexed by the search engines.  Social bookmarking gives you and your website the changes to be found a lot faster, which is a good draw. Social bookmarking allows you to put your keywords to good use only helping your SEO rankings.

Social bookmarking gives you the opportunity to drive some serious traffic

If you are putting out great, relevant content you can expect some great web traffic from social bookmarking.  If you're looking to drive some serious traffic to your website just remember that quality content really does go a long way.  The more social bookmarking sites you submit to the more opportunities you have to draw traffic back to your website.  Attracting your target audience has never been easier.

Social bookmarking makes online branding easy

Social bookmarking gives you a great space to create more links back to your website, but also make your business more personable.  Social bookmarking sites can become great personalized spaces for you and your business allowing you to get some brand recognition.

What Social Bookmarking Sites Should You Use?

Just like the ones displayed up above in the picture, there are a plethora of social bookmarking sites that you can utilize to help you start your social bookmarking and improve your rankings.  As an SEO Firm in Chicago we suggest using as many as you can keep up with.  A few of the main social bookmarking sites that we suggest using for search engine optimization purposes include Digg, Reddit, Fark, Blinklist, Stumbleupon, and Del.icio.us.  We rely on a mix of those when doing search engine optimization for clients.  Some social bookmarking sites give you the option to do a trial, so test a few out if you can and see how they work before committing to using one.

Comments or questions on doing social bookmarking to help improve your search engine rankings, feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.

Social Media’s Role on SEO

The new year is vastly approaching and you want to drive more traffic to your website.  Makes perfect sense to us!  As a team of web designers and SEO specialists, we cannot stress the importance of SEO enough when it comes to getting more traffic to your website.  We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: social media greatly affects SEO rankings, but what is social media’s role in it all?  Here’s a few ways that social media can and will affect your SEO rankings:

Social media site content speaks to the search engines

Okay, well sort of!  Social media content, when updated regularly and when well written, lets search engines know that your business is an active online participant.  If and when social media engagement becomes a ranking factor for your website, you will surely benefit if you spend time on social media sites.  If you haven’t immersed yourself or your business in social media, now is the time to do it.  Don’t have the time?  Set up a consultation with a social media company or a marketing company well-versed in speaking social media. 

The more links back to your website the better

The more sites that link back to your website, the better your SEO rankings will be, so this means all those social media sites you have created and began using are great links back to your website.  Because social media sites point back to your website, it will help create better SEO rankings for your website.  As an SEO firm, we always tell clients to picture their website in the center of a spider’s web and that it’s their job to create extensions from that web that will bring people straight to their website.  That is exactly what creating and using social media sites will do for you.  Perhaps someone didn’t find your website yet, but they did find your social media page.  Great.  Now bring them to your website and sell them on your services and products.  That’s what it is all about!

Be an active participant

Don’t expect to receive any kind of rankings boost just because you finally set up that Twitter account last week.  You have to be an active participant and yes, the search engines know who is an active participant and who’s not.  This means that if set up your social media accounts a year ago, but have never used them, they will not do you any good.  Try to set aside time out of your day each day to post some relevant content for potential customers to read and for search engines to grab on to.  Being an active social media participant means that you are posting great, original content, reposting other people’s great content, and interacting with potential customers.  If you find that you just do not have the time consider speaking with a social media firm or a marketing company.

Social media sites provide an opportunity for optimization

Social media sites are a great place for optimization tactics to take place.  Utilize social media sites as a way to get friends, fans and followers back to your website.  Social media profiles can be optimized for search similar to internally optimizing a website, so tag your images, write a great about us or company bio and utilize those keywords. 

The ability of sharing content greatly affects rankings

Encourage friends, fans and followers to share your content.  Sharing content is a great way to give your search engine rankings a boost.  Use strong calls to action in all of your posts and encourage readers to share your content through social networks.

Comment or questions are always welcome, feel free to comment below or contact us.

What to Expect When You Begin the SEO Process

You’ve began the process of search engine optimization in hopes that it will boost your search engine rankings and get you and your website in front of a larger audience.  What is to be reasonably expected when you begin the SEO process?  Here are a few things to expect when beginning the SEO process:

Rankings won’t happen over night

Often times people will post a blog or two, insert a few links and expect immediate results, but unfortunately SEO doesn’t work like that.  SEO results take time to appear.  Most SEO resources will tell you don’t expect to see any results until the 3 to 6 month mark and for the most part, that is somewhat accurate. 

As a Chicago SEO Firm, our search engine optimization specialists say that there are a lot of variables that will cause a website to rank or not rank highly for chosen keywords.  One variable would be the chosen keyword’s competition association.  If the words you have chosen are highly competitive words (meaning lots of people are using the same keyword) it will be a lot harder for you to rank on it.  It doesn’t mean you should discard the keyword, it just means it may take awhile for you to begin ranking on it.  The other variable that could really affect your ranking results is your industry competition.  If you are in an industry where lots of people are optimizing, then you should expect your own ranking results to take a little more time. 

It’s a time consuming process

Search engine optimization can be a very time consuming process for people and as an SEO firm, we completely understand.  Backlinking, blogging, social media postings, directory and article submissions, and all the other little external optimizing your doing can take up some serious time.  That is why there are lots of SEO companies out there.  If you’re going to pursue doing search engine optimization or really just internet marketing yourself, make sure you put aside enough time out of your day to be able to do it.  Doing the bare minimum isn’t going to get you those results you’re looking for.  If you find yourself with no time to do it (like so many people out there) consider looking for an SEO firm to do the work for you.  Typically, an SEO firm will charge you a set fee per month to perform SEO work.  That set fee will usually include a whole bunch of services determined necessary by both the client and SEO firm.  Working with an SEO company is a great way to get a professional's view on how to get the most out of your website.  An SEO company will help you map out a strategy that will get you rankings.

Stay on top of frequent algorithm changes

Every so often you can expect algorithm changes. In fact, SEOmoz reports that “Google will change its search algorithm up to 500-600 times.”  While most updates made are rather minor, it can still greatly effect your results.  Stay on top of the latest algorithm changes and do your SEO research as frequently as possible.  Another benefit to work with an SEO company is that their search engine optimization specialists stay up to date on the changes knowing exactly when they need to tweak your SEO plans to make sure you are getting the most of your chosen SEO package. 

Have comment or questions regarding beginning the SEO process?  Feel free to comment or contact us.