What are Virtual business solutions anyway?...

Do you sometimes feel any of the following?

• Do you think your business is running you instead of you running the business?
• Do you sometimes wonder if someone could help you with all the tedious work that keeps you running off the track?
• But do you budge because you think the thing will cost you a fortune?

Well this is what Lawrence from Sunnyvale had to say about it:

“I felt it was only the Wall Street journal executives who are capable of availing a service like this, but finally, I came across the concept of virtual business assistants. I was a bit skeptical to start, but I can advice everyone to give the idea a thought”.

The situation of Lawrence is not very different—There are countless small things that we spend our time on everyday, some of them are:

• Reading your own documents
• Find the papers on which you made notes
• Tracking your expenses
• Remembering who you were supposed to call
• Paying the bills
• Planning a business or personal tour
• Backups of important documents

Well, now you can just email or call someone and say “can you please do this?”

It is not about the free time, it is what you do with the free time that counts. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have your stuff taken care off by someone else while you do the real business?

Time-sourcing is the order of the day; why not take advantage of it when it is available?

We have recently started the services, and the response has been better than good, is your business ready to go virtual?

Google tweaks—affects your SEO/SEM efforts...

Google is already making sweeping changes to its algorithm in an effort to make the user search experience better. Now, they have introduced a new search parameter that will be taken into account when it decides which site is better one to be promoted up the order—the page load speed.

It makes perfect sense that Google acknowledges the fact that user experience is time and again hampered by sites that have many features and takes ample time to load at the first place. I personally don’t like sites which take forever to load, I want my information and I want it quickly. Many webmasters  wondering why the their sites bounce rates are so high might want to rethink their site structures and take care of the site loading time in the future (now they have another incentive for doing so!!)

If you’re wondering how you can quantify the “magic-speed” factor, then here is the link to the tool that Google has put up for install:

The Page speed Tool

The tool clearly tells us about how well our site is performing when compared to other sites.

Another important factor that will play important role in your SEO campaign is ‘Personalized search’. It necessarily means that all the user generated content that Google is collecting all this while will now be used to rank the pages that show up in the search engine.

It will be interesting to see how much change they make to the site rank depending on these factors. Also, it is important to note that very big sites have got lot of data to load, e.g. Amazon, do you think Google will lower the page rank for Amazon user by user?

Browsers tools for SEO...

There are many browser plugins (esp. for Mozilla) to help SEO analysts. The browsers’ becoming more intelligent has lead to browsers highlighting lots of data that is useful when using many of the SEO tools. SEO tools can be used for variety of analysis, depending on the features one is looking for.

Some of the features that an SEO analyst should be looking for in SEO browser based tools are:

• Meta data report
• Analysis of robot.txt
• Lists of all the internal links
• List of all the external links
• Number of words
• Number of images in the site
• JavaScript elements
• Information about the cookies
• Source code View
• Link checker

There are varieties of tools that will serve the above purposes, but the top three tools that would be worth looking into are:

http://whois.domaintools.com/

http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/se-spider.html

http://www.seo-browser.com/

All the above three tools have different strengths, using only one of them might not serve the purpose entirely. For e.g. one might be better for server and Registrar info, one might be better for purpose of analyzing the code, and something like SEObrowser tool might be better for giving the site a quick health check.

Link building in SEO is evolving...

It used to be different earlier, I would say for the good. Link building a.k.a link acquisition used to be a mechanical labor process, in which we would start the process by searching for directories, get the relevant links, start emailing the relevant sites, and then start begging or buying the links. As I got more experienced, I found that many Blogs/sites have got a wide area network which link to each other not because they think it will better the SEO of their websites, but because they had genuine reasons for doing so.

Moreover, with the Google search algorithms (yes, there isn’t really a reason to believe the other ones!) getting intelligent day by day, it makes sense to buy/get “white hat” kind of links for the site for achieving greater legitimate and relevant traffic for one’s site. And with Web social media changing and now back-links being available for just about anyone who has got a point—Yeah, I am talking about the power of Digg, Reddit, and Stumble, which give powerful back-links to just about anybody with good content.

The Viral marketing has already “shifted” in many ways. Now it gives a greater platform for naïve bloggers to market the blogs without any external effort, and gives companies like us a chance to analyze and take advantage of the Social media marketing. We sometimes even suggest the clients not to buy links and instead rely on deeper tactics such as content embedding and long tailing for “longer” results.

With more and more user data available to search engines like Google, one wonders how the algorithms are going to adopt to give the users some “real time” links and suggestions instead of just relying on some calculations based on back-links. The algorithms are definitely accounting for the potential “misses”, which will be improved as the days go by.

Few more things that are changing the way link building is viewed are:

• The power of twitter, it is amazing how Google is philotweeting
• Freshness of the links gaining more importance
• User generated data
• The unimportance of paid linking

As the market evolves, we have to hope that we still are able to bear the fruit in a forest where every tree is fighting for resources.

Client is everything—but what should the clients...

We should not try to be smart, smartness will only last to get the project—the results one will deliver will speak volumes, and then clients can decide about whether to continue with the services or not. So client always has a choice. But it happens many times that clients do not seem to be all that willing to give a chance to the service provider. Most of the times, it is because the clients are misinformed about what is SEO or what can be done with SEO. They forget to realize that there are only 10 top results displayed on the Google search results page, and not everybody can fit in there.

But isn’t that what SEO is all about? Why should I even go for SEO?

At present, the kind of algorithm Google search uses is based on calculations, and calculations are always taken advantage of. That is why Google clearly says that one should not worry about search optimization techniques, and instead worry about quality content and site structure. But there are companies who have already made it big in the market and they promote other sites solely based on their reputation (not the clients product). And if you are ready to spend lot of money, you too would get such ranks, but how many of the “traffic” will convert into customers? You never really can get such answers, can you?

So what is my point?

Instead of deciding your online marketing strategy based on a single factor called as page rank, it makes sense that the clients should instead define their goals, their needs for the business and sit with the service providers and talk about achieving those goals instead of demanding and then not benefitting.

But clients come first, isn’t it?

I never disagreed with that, I am just saying that we can create a better playing field for the clients and the SEO services by understanding the “catches” in each other’s fields and then do make the most of what is available.

So what exactly should the client ask from the SEO services company? To be continued…

SEO tools for beginners...

If you are just starting out in SEO field, you will wonder about what kinds of tools you should use for various purposes. You want to search the page rank of a site, you open Google and start searching, then you want to analyze the keywords for a page and you start searching again. Web is filled with numerous tools for various purposes; these choices might overwhelm a beginner—I know how it feels.

So we decided to put together a list of SEO tools for the essential tasks that you may come across at various stages.

Here is the assorted list:

For checking Domain stats

Check domain age

For checking HTTP Headers

HTTP path Tool

For checking back-links

Backlinks of a website

Backlink Analysis tool

Google Page rank check, Adwords Keyword tool

Tool for Advanced Google searches
Google Page-rank Checker
Google Data center wise PageRank by Google data center
Google Adsense Keywords Search Tool

Google Keywords Analysis tools

Keyword Density Tool
Keyword Density Tool
Keyword Density checking Tool
Keyword Suggestion

Link Popularity/ Site Link Analyzer checking tools

Tool for checking the depth of the links
Tool for checking link Popularity
Tool for checking Link Popularity
Link Price Calculation Tool

There are more tools coming your way, please check back in.

Page-Rank or Search engine Ranking?...

Last week I had a discussion with my SEO team lead about one of the most controversial things in SEO business—Ah, the page-rank. I still remember the time when I had been interviewed by few SEO companies, “So how soon can you get me a Google page-rank of 1”, was the question raised with a sense of pride by one of the managers. I didn’t care to tell him that it works the other way (higher the number the better), I instead told him I cannot promise and that such things should not be on top of the “agenda” when working for a client. Result—everything that I had piled up till then (in the interview) crashed without a noise, as if I had attached a rank to my face but couldn’t live up to their expectation when I did not say what they expected to hear. You see the point?

My team lead had to say the following things:

• Page rank is controversial
• Lots of people doing business are promising page rank for websites
• Page rank adds almost no value to your business in the end
• It does NOT help in getting your page to the top in the SERPs
• Google might decide someday to totally do away with the concept of page-rank

Although I understand the emotion behind his words (even he knows that!), we do know that page-rank has its place when it comes to SEO, although its value is over-rated for sure by people who especially do not belong to the industry. Surely, it shouldn’t be one of the factors for rejecting a company for your SEO project.

Here is a bit of demystification:

1)      When lots of sites are competing for the same keywords to get into the SERPs (given that other factors are evened out), the one with higher page rank will get higher priority.

2)      Sites with higher PR are served with “high-value” add sense ads.

3)      Google bot will crawl the website with higher PR more often that the ones with lower PR, as a result more pages of higher PR site will be indexed more.

That is why specialists exist, why don’t you change your question next time around—“How soon can you get me into the first page of SERPs for my keyword?”

Now I have raised another controversy, haven’t I?

What about internal linking of your site?...

Link building strategies change with time depending on the search engines behaviors. Sometime back, if you had asked for some tips on link building activities for your website, he/she would have probably told you to get loads of external links (probably relevant), might have told you about site wide linking and sometimes about directory submissions. These days, one of the biggest things every webmaster/SEO-expert owns something called as “internal-linking” in his magic toolbox.

How important is it?

More than you think. It is one of the best strategies to keep the visitors on your site. Also, it can serve as an important link-baiting activity, since it allows you to attract more page views. It is like lighting two candles with one flame: increasing the usability and increasing the search rankings at the same time.

Adding of links (that are relevant to the user and in context) to the content of a site provides another way you can lead/direct your visitor to some destination page.

Usability studies have shown that users are more likely to click on a link in the text of a page instead of those on a navigation bar—Why? –Because it feels more natural.

People have gone lengths to even say that internal site linking is one of the ways to get Google site links (not necessarily, but one of the important factors to get site links).

So how do you go about it?

Individual choice really, you start perusing the content of the site and find the relevant ways you can link from one text on a page to another page/post on your site/blog. Further, you if you are using Wordpress for your site/blog, you might want to check out plug-ins like Crosslinker and Insights.

Moreover, if you are linking to other posts, it simply means that your site is not a random pieces of information joined together, instead, it means that your content has meaning and that your entire site information is coherent.

Be Careful:

• Avoid out of context link
• Avoid this post kind of links
• Avoid too many links

Google search–Back with a “Bang”...

After some speculations over the last few about whether new search engine launches like Bing will have any affect on the search engine market share of Google, the answer is out—Google is gaining search engine market share again. China’s Baidu is a new entrant in the list and ranks at number 3 with a 7% share. Those who (pleasantly) fear that Google will become a monopoly in search market can breath easy, because that is what it looks like.

Online search market has sprung up 41% since last year with more than 113 billion searches conducted in July. The results show that each person who has access to the Internet, on an average conducted 103.3 searches in a month.

Bing is unable to increase its market share in spite of billions of dollars spent on its marketing. Microsoft has also launched Bing Visual search, which is a more interactive search in which you can search for something and get images for the same. But it remains to be same if it can compete with Google search + Google image search combination.

In the latest release, a Forbes study says that the best way to generate conversions is through SEO. No wonder, when people are using Google, it makes sense to optimize the websites for the same. Don’t you dare CTRL T!!

Hyperlinks in SERP descriptions-Yet another google...

Another Google plane just whiffed over my hair—The ever-changing Google search algorithm is giving sleepless nights to webmasters. But eureka, we searched for “limitations of Google analytics”…and I defied Archimedes principle…I did not jump out of the bath tub, because I wasn’t sleeping in one, but my eyes surely popped out and hit the computer screen.

Have a peek yourself

A hyperlink on limitations has surely crossed another border to provide users with more meaningful glance at the SERPs without entering the page. For a moment, the link appeared to be part of the site links, but there you go! As of now, we do not see if Google intends to have hyperlinks in the description for other sites (since we only see them happening for Wikipedia). Since we all believe –No, we know that Google plays it fair, it means that depending  on how Google decides to induct the hyperlinks in the text description—we might have something to look forward to.

So are they:

• Trying bringing more important links in purview of users?
• Trying to highlight some common important dictionary terms?

More comments are needed….