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Panda Update | One Year After The Google Bomb! [Infographic]

February 27, 2012 by 49 Comments

It has been a year now since the infamous Google Panda update was covertly rolled out.

Now is probably a good time to do a bit of analysis on whether it has achieved what it set out to do.

Panda Update on Google

How has Panda altered the way people approach search engine optimization?

Did it succeed with what Google set out to achieve?

First of all…

What exactly is the Google Panda Update?

The Panda Update could be described as a clip-on rather than a change in the Google algorithm. The algorithm itself is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world and it is amended and updated more than 500 times a year.

The Panda Update is run periodically to improve the quality of a searcher’s experience by providing search results that are as relevant as possible. It does this by penalising sites that appear to have thin or low value content.

The Update has been run ten times that we are aware of – the most recent one on January 18th of this year!

Who was the Panda Update targeting?

There had been a major build-up of poor quality content over the last few years. A huge number of Internet marketing programs were and still are being sold to new online marketers. The potential to make a ton of money by teaching people how to manipulate search engine results in order to make sales of products, businesses or services is just too attractive to resist for some people.

And the organic results were free!

A couple of years ago you could research a keyword, write an article, create a press release, make a video, post on a Web 2.0 site and publish a blog with almost identical content and you would end up with 5 or more positions in the search results on Page One for the keyword!

Wow!
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Filed Under: google, high profile enterprises, new zealand, panda update, search engine optimization, search engine optimization techniques, SEO, top google spots Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Social Media Benefits Of Telling Tall Tales!

January 25, 2012 by 22 Comments

What are some of your most cherished childhood memories?

…your most loved activities as a child you have grown up with and continued to love as an adult?

Most of the activities and pleasures we love as children change as we mature and become immersed in adulthood and all the trappings of maturity – career, travel, marriage and families of our own to start the cycle over again.

There does however seem to be one aspect of our childhood that never loses it’s appeal – and that is storytelling.

Tall tales bring social media benefits

 

Just think about it for a minute, at any given time you are either listening to a story being told, you are regaling one to a friend or audience, you are reading someone a story or reading one yourself.

Some smart educators and trainers use storytelling to teach new programmes, managers use them in resolving conflicts, addressing issues and facing challenges and many games are based around stories often in an outrageous form with hyperbole gaining the highest points!

Even your best kept secrets destined only for the most private ears – are stories!

Our existence is one big story made up of thousands of tales that weave together the fabric of our lives, chapters that inspire, sadden, excite, rejuvenate, sparkle, enthuse, bring a delightful end to a long day, evoke buried memories and bring joy and laughter into our lives.

Stories can also frighten, agitate, cause discomfort, scare to death, unnerve, disappoint and make you sad.

You will at some time have come across brilliant raconteurs who can recount their anecdotes and experiences with a talent that leaves you feeling the pain or pleasure of their tale, as if it were your own!

You are probably wondering how this relates to the title of this article: ‘The Social Media Benefits Of Telling Tall Tales’ but before I get to this point I want to indulge you just a little bit more.
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Filed Under: high profile enterprises, inbound marketing, social media, social media for businesses, social media management, twitter, twitter techniques, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lists on Twitter – Experienced Marketers Use This Small Trick To Get Big Results!

January 8, 2012 by 26 Comments

I am a lists person, I love making lists – some would say it was an obsession…

It’s  a common trait that a fellow Aries will instantly recognize.  So I can’t wait to share with you my new favourite list for 2012 – it’s Lists on Twitter – and it has become the crème de la crème of my social media tools.

There are so many reasons why I love this – it keeps all my favourite Twitter users in one place, gives me easy access, saves time, cuts out out all the noise on Twitter I don’t want and it gets me to where I want to be – instantly.

Using lists on Twitter to save time

Lists on Twitter is the most incredibly helpful tool in many ways and once you start using it – you will wonder how you ever got on without it.

As we all know Twitter is a microblogging service and it has become a social media phenomenon with more than 250 million users.

Twitter is changing the way we communicate!  It has rocketed into the mainstream and has vastly modernized the way customers view products and brands, so there is no need to reiterate here the power of this social media giant.

To get to know your way around Twitter and leverage it’s power for your business is not only smart, but to be quite honest – imperative! There is no doubt about it, Twitter is here to stay.  By implementing great Twitter techniques like Lists you can really start to recognize and measure Twitter’s impact and value.

Let’s talk about Twitter lists – you will see how easy this feature is to use.

Twitter gives you the capacity to create up to 20 lists and to follow as many lists as you want that others have created. As an example, you could put your friends in one list, your closest collaborators in another, your social media favourites in another, your gardening friends in one, your best bloggers in another and so on…

The Lists feature enables you to compile a list featuring all your favourite Twitter users. The really cool thing is once you have got your lists established it will provide you with a huge amount of information right at your fingertips for you to read and share.  Just by creating lists you have freed up the time you would have spent hunting around for valuable information from blogs and publications online.

It’s this easy:
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Filed Under: high profile enterprises, new zealand, social media, social media for businesses, social media management, twitter, twitter business use, twitter techniques Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The War Against Blog Comment Spam And How To Gain The Upper Hand

January 2, 2012 by 43 Comments

Blog comment spam… What exactly is it?

How do you know whether you have become an easy target?

How do you stay ahead of the comment spammers?

Spam in blogsI decided to put this guide together for two reasons which I will outline below but first let’s look at what blog comment spam is and why it has become such a major issue.

Blog comment spam is sometimes called spamdexing, comment spam, spam in blogs and a number of other variations on the same theme.

The reason why it exists is purely because of the value of links in SEO. One of the most important aspects of gaining good results in the search engine results pages is having a large number of back-links pointing at your website. These are seen as votes for your site by Google and the other search engines and are therefore counted as a powerful factor when allocating positions.

So, obviously the more links you can get the better your site will do (I have used an over-simplification here to avoid a full search engine optimisation explanation – you can read a fairly comprehensive explanation here)

Unfortunately when it comes to working online many people prefer to find ways to circumvent the safeguards which have been put in place to protect the integrity of the search results. By using “black hat techniques” many marketers break most of the compliance regulations in order to avoid the large amount of manual work and the patience required in implementation of “white hat SEO” techniques.

By sending massive amounts of automated spam out across the web with the attitude that some of it will “stick” these cowboys become the nuisance that we all have all grown to seriously dislike…

Google made a major change way back in 2005 to address this issue. By adding a nofollow attribute to links from comments and trackbacks the theory was that this would discourage automated blog comment spam as there would no longer be any SEO benefit from the comments. Google’s post is here:  Preventing Comment Spam.

Unfortunately there are millions of blogs which do not have the nofollow attribute (we voluntarily set our comments as dofollow in order to reward real comments but understand that we need to be more vigilant about spam because of this decision).

Blog spam software launches millions of comments per day at the web and the main problem is with the number of blogs where the owner auto-approves any comment. It is not unusual to find a blog of very low quality which has thousands of spam junk comments per post… Uggh!

Fortunately Google seeks out websites which have a disproportionate number of these low quality comment based links and penalises or even bans the websites which are using these techniques. Frustratingly though, it can take a while for them to identify some of the perpetrators and so ethically SEO’d websites can be relegated below the cowboys for periods of time.

The two reasons why I have created this guide?
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Filed Under: comment spam, high profile enterprises, search engine optimization, search engine optimization techniques, SEO, seo nz Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Tactical Twitter Techniques To Drive Engagement With Influencers

October 28, 2011 by 47 Comments

Who are the influencers in your industry niche?

How do you find them on Twitter?

How do you begin to engage with them on Twitter?

There are a number of techniques which can be highly effective in finding and beginning conversations with the influential Twitter users who you would like to build a relationship with.

Twitter for social media But first of all there is an extremely important point to be aware of…

Stop pitching!

Yes, if you want to be taken at all seriously in social media circles then you MUST stop the hard sell!

It is the first thing that will turn off the engagement tap for any users – not just influential ones. You have heard a thousand times that social media is where you build relationships, give value, join conversations… and I am telling you this is 100% the reality!

There has been a very powerful shift away from the pitch and it probably has a lot to do with consumers drowning in advertising messages, some overt and some covert. People hate being sold to and they particularly hate being sold to in a social or community space.

Next up – how is your online image?

Pay attention to how you look! What is your image like? Is it really cool to use the image of you with the wrestling mask on?… or your dog?… or an image you pinched off Google?…

Use a really good image! Not a posed photographer’s studio shot, but a warm, interesting human photo of you!

The most powerful short message about yourself is your bio!
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Filed Under: social media, social media for businesses, twitter, twitter business use Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Great Geographic Divide – Google Splits New Zealand And Australia!

October 16, 2011 by 17 Comments

This could rattle a few cages out there!

I am about to give away a little secret which many local SEO exponents would probably rather I didn’t…

But here goes!

When you type in your business keyword into Google you are only seeing what someone in your immediate location will see. This can be as precise as your town or city.

So, you were given those amazing global search volume figures for your keyword but after a search engine optimization campaign you were left wondering where the thousands of new customers were…

I have a bit of bad news for you!

If you are based in New Zealand, you are more than likely only ranking in New Zealand. And if you are in Auckland you are possibly only showing front page in Auckland results. Even the websites you have visited have an impact on what shows up on your front page Google results…

but that is for a separate post!

If you are based in Australia, you are more than likely not showing anywhere else in the world… just Google Australia!

Why?

Geographic modifiers are a major influencer in search. If you are based in a particular country then it is way more likely that you will be trusted by people in your own market, culture, ethnicity than some one who is across the ocean.
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Filed Under: high profile enterprises, new zealand, search engine optimization, search engine optimization techniques, SEO, seo techniques, top google spots, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Dad Cooks Dinner – Social Media Disaster Follows!

September 28, 2011 by 22 Comments

Watching a brand being slaughtered on social media before your eyes can be a strangely compelling thing!

Is it schadenfreude?

Or is it more to do with gaining an understanding of how relentless and punishing Twitter and blogging can be if you get a campaign horribly wrong!

Whichever it was I noticed a particularly acidic Tweet tonight which was aimed directly at a US sauce in a jar company called Ragu.

I probably would have thought nothing of it except for the fact that the Tweet was from a really big US social media name Jason Falls. Jason owns a super high profile social media blog and consultancy called socialmediaexplorer so we are  talking serious influence here.

So I took a look at the link which took me to a post by a blogger named  CC Chapman. He had posted a blog titled “Ragu Hates Dads” – a self-admitted rant, this post really took it to Ragu in a big way on a number of issues.

Remember this is Twitter so this stuff is happening really fast!

CC Chapman would have to be typing frantically to get the post out so quickly!

What was Ragu’s social media faux-pas?

Well, it was more an entire advertising campaign miscalculation. The video which is the main focus of the campaign is below:


Apart from the obvious sexual stereotyping the video is pretty innocuous. Blokes are mainly useless in the kitchen – OK with waffles or grills, and when their wives are relieved of their cooking duties they drink cocktails or wine or sometimes even interact with the kids…

Who wrote this stuff? Ugghhh!
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Filed Under: high profile enterprises, social media, social media for businesses, social media management, twitter, twitter business use, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Is Your Business Website Struggling Without Search Engine Optimization?

September 18, 2011 by 37 Comments

Let’s first of all clarify what SEO services are all about – here is a definition from Wikipedia“

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.  SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.”

SEO Search Engine OptimisationThis sounds like a foreign language if you have never ventured into the world of online marketing. If you are a business owner who is considering having a website built – read on…

You have thrown the idea around about getting a website for some time now and you’re a bit skeptical and possibly a little nervous about it.  However, you are reluctantly coming to the realisation that you need to have a website.  So you ask around and see what it will cost you.   Anything from $3,000 – $10,000 (and often more) is what you hear.  That’s a lot of money to invest!

Here’s what usually happens.

You contact a website development company and immediately enter a strange world where people speak a different language.  After much discussion with the website developer and a lot of “techie” talk that makes you feel uncomfortable and completely out of your depth, you take the plunge and commission your website and hope like hell that the developer knows what he or she is doing.  The $7,500 you have just spent seems ludicrous and irrational, but you tell yourself “I have to have it – all my competitors have – and it will really grow my sales!”.
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Filed Under: feature, high profile enterprises, more web traffic, new zealand, search engine optimization, search engine optimization techniques, SEO, seo nz, seo techniques, top google spots Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

On Search Engine Optimization, Rogue Web Designers And Integrity

August 27, 2011 by 18 Comments

Following on from my recent post called “Guess What! Google Hates Your New Business Website And Will Never Rank It!” there have been some further developments to the story.

If you haven’t read it I expressed my dismay – no not dismay, disgust! – about a New Zealand web design company which approached me about the 2,000 plus websites they had developed for NZ businesses.

As a search engine optimization consultant I let them know what I thought about their pretty but useless for SEO  Flash based websites and their claim that for an extra $100 the business could have the top Google result for the keyword of their choice!

Totally dishonest claims and I let them know in a reply to their email.

Anyway I received a follow-up phone call a couple of days ago and I think you will be blown away by the sheer mind-boggling audacity of this company!

“Hi Mike, just checking to see if you had looked at our website designs and to see if you are interested in perhaps purchasing a new website…”

Wow!

I asked whether the caller had received my email reply and was told that the company director had probably got that one.

So I explained what I thought about a business which had built over 2,000 Flash based websites with the promise of being found in the top search results and how I considered this to be dishonest and misleading.

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Filed Under: feature, high profile enterprises, new zealand, search engine optimization techniques, SEO, seo nz, seo techniques, small business internet marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Personality Types You Don’t Want Managing Your Social Media

August 15, 2011 by 17 Comments

It is absolutely essential that your social media business pages are managed by someone who understands your brand, your company philosophies and the goals of the social media campaign.

Too often we see the reins being passed to a junior staff member because they already have a Facebook page or are on Twitter! Or anyone who knows anything at all about Facebook or Twitter.

Prepare for the slow-motion train wreck that will inevitably follow.

Take careful note of the recent celebrity tweets that have landed the tweeter in hot water or the badly handled brand reputation crises that have gone viral and done irreparable damage to the company name.

This is an area that needs professional management…

But just for a bit of fun I have outed the personality types that you want absolutely nowhere near your social media marketing management!

1. The Reactive Type

You know this one! Every communication from another social media user which seems like it is in any way critical is replied with a serious put-down or an insult. Think of the stand-up comic delivering a witty one-liner to a heckler. Except in social media it isn’t humourous at all – it looks like your company is paranoid and has a bit of a nasty streak! And you will alienate not only those that the sarcasm is directed at but most other people who read it as well.

2. The non-listener

Yes, a very familiar beast this one. You know the people you are in the middle of a conversation with who can’t wait for you to finish what you are saying because they have something way more important to share. They are likely to talk over the top of you and glaze over as soon as you reply so they can think of the next momentous comment! Put these ones in charge of your social media pages and they will talk at people all day long but never engage in a real conversation by actually listening.

3. The Drunk Tweeter

Oh dear! It has been a fun night out hasn’t it? “I’m abshowludely fiiine… I might just share some really hilari… hilari… funny things on Twitter…” That’s not the company account you have just logged into is it? This is probably not the best time to make fun of the CEO of the company is it? And you may not think that photo you took on your iPhone at 1am is quite so funny in the cold sober light of day! D’oh!

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Filed Under: Facebook, facebook mistakes, feature, high profile enterprises, new zealand, social media, twitter, twitter business use, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Wake-Up Call for Brick and Mortar Businesses – Social Media Marketing Does Work!

June 19, 2011 by 10 Comments

Brick and mortar businesses need a wake-up call – for their own sake!  Many are taking a long time to figure out that marketing has taken a giant leap into a completely new social arena which has not only transformed the way we live our lives but also the way we conduct our businesses.

And for those of you who think social media is just for the young ones, think again.

Social media for businessesUsers in the category “aged 55 and over” are increasingly connecting with companies through social media.

Agreed, it has taken mature web users a few years to embrace social networking, but they are now becoming the fastest growing segment of users on Facebook and Twitter.  The interesting fact is that they are also developing social media habits that have previously been the domain of younger adults and that is – connecting with brands.   Statistics show that in November 2010, the mature audience (over 50′s) had actually begun to close the gap – and by April 2011 up to nearly half of them were connecting with brands.
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