Keeping Up With SEO News – 11 Great Sources

Howdy ho, my SEO friends! Peeps want to know how those of us who are part of Search Engine Academy keep up with SEO news. I’d like to share my resources with you.

SEO changes every day, it seems. It can be challenging to keep up with what’s going on. I usually spend about an hour to two hours each day, combing the blogs and reading about what’s new, hot and happening. All’s you have to do is go dark or get off the grid for about a day, and the next thing you know, SEO processes and strategies you’ve been doing are suddenly black hat SEO or just obsolete, ugh!

So here’s my trusted, preferred sources that keep me up to date on SEO:

  • Google Analytics Blog – here’s where you can learn all about the newest features and benefits of Google Analytics. They do a great job of explaining changes and updates, and how to best use them.
  • Google Webmaster Central Blog – everything that your Google Webmaster Tools touches upon can be found here. Updates, discussions and new features are posted.
  • Google’s Chief Anti-Spam Engineer Matt Cutts – I really like this one. Matt humanizes himself to us by talking about his 30 day challenges he likes to implement in his life, as well as all things anti-spam that are being addressed by Google.
  • Search Engine Guide – lots of good stuff about brand building, local SEO, PPC, link building, keywords and more.
  • Search Engine Journal – lots of guest writers share their knowledge and information about ranking, Facebook, Google manual penalties, digital marketing strategies and so much more.
  • Search Engine Land – my favorite, and probably most every other SEOer’s on the planet. I absolutely trust Danny Sullivan and the guest bloggers who happily give away valuable information, processes and strategies to boost my SEO knowledge on link building, blogging, keyword research and content marketing.
  • Search Engine RoundtableBarry Schwartz is a great, great SEO guy. I depend upon Barry to be the one of the first, if not the first SEOer to break news about Google updates. He’s busy combing webmaster forums and keeps his ear to the ground better than any other SEO writer I follow.
  • Search Engine Watch – these guys are great. The guest writers are experts in link building, local SEO, mobile SEO, PPC and so much more SEO news and happenings.
  • SEO By The Sea – if you want to keep up with Google patent filings, Bill Slawski is the man. He’s staked out his niche in reporting and analyzing Google patents, as well as basic SEO functions that are timeless. Bill writes in a very easy to understand style.
  • SEOMoz – I love this site for their famous “Whiteboard Friday” feature, as well as the interesting news and content about the ups and downs of clients, enterprise SEO, being an in-house SEOer vs. freelance, as well as great posts on content management.
  • Webmaster World – from YouTube to code to social to hardware and more, subscribe to these guys and get a well-rounded perspective on things that support your SEO efforts.

So there you have it! What are your favorite SEO blogs or writers that aren’t mentioned here? Let me know in your comments.

Until next time, keep it between the ditches!

Best to you,

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

Google Webmaster Tools: Checking out Blocked URLs Warning

This Search Engine Optimization Utility can Sometimes be Read Incorrectly

Intended audience for this post: Beginning users of Google Webmaster Tools

Main Takeaways:

  • Google Webmaster Tools can sometimes give warnings that can be ignored
  • You sometimes have to be patient and do a little digging to figure out whether a warning is really valid

Webmaster tools is the versatile tool in your kitI think anyone who follows this blog much will realize how valuable Google Webmaster Tools is in the world of search marketing.  It’s a veritable Swiss Army Knife of useful tools and information.  Any professional SEO, and many webmasters wearing SEO hats from time to time, will visit Webmaster Tools regularly to assess the health of their site by looking at the number of pages Google is crawling, whether Google is reporting any problems, inventorying links, checking search interactions, and so much more.

Additionally, a quick check of Webmaster Tools from time to time can reveal some serious trouble spots before they cause major damage.  I remember once instance where I made a change to a robots.txt file to block Chinese search engine Baidu from needlessly hammering our customer’s site.  I put a line in the wrong order through carelessness and inadvertently blocked Googlebot from the entire site.  Fortunately my able assistant Eliathah did a health check on the set the next day by checking Webmaster Tools and was alerted to the problem.  In fact, when Googlebot is blocked from a site, Google considers it such an unusual event they put a warning message top and center on your GWT dashboard.

Google gives out other warnings and error messages on the primary dashboard of Webmaster Tools, and it makes sense to pay attention to all of them.  But that doesn’t mean all of them require a panic-mode reaction and response.

Here’s a recent example.  We had a client with a new website and one of our novice techs was disconcerted to log into Webmaster Tools and see a notice for a whole bunch of warnings, as illustrated in the next screenshot. In fact, this shows 7 times more warnings than there are pages in this brand new site. So here’s how I’d recommend following up on warnings, using this particular warning as an example.

 

screenshot of webmaster tools warning

First click on the warning text, which will take you to a page that shows you what Google calls “Examples” of the types of warning that they are reporting. Note the description. This one says that the URLs have been blocked by your robots.txt (see screenshot).

 

Webmaster tools screenshot

Also note especially the date in the “Detected” column. This will give you some context. What was going on around that date? In this case, is it safe to assume that the site was still in preview? Could it have been that the robots.txt was blocking these URL’s because the site hadn’t been published yet?

Think through anything that was going on that might have generated that warning, and then ask yourself if that situation is the same now.

So let’s say that you think this particular warning is no longer valid. There’s a way to test that, especially if the warning has to do with possible blocking going on by your robots.txt. As this next screenshot shows, click on “Health” and then “Blocked URL’s.” It will tell you how many URLs are being blocked in the table at the top. More importantly it will allow you to test a particular URL and see if it’s currently being blocked.

Another webmaster tools screenshot

 

In the next screen shot I’ve illustrated how to use the “Test URL” function in the “Blocked URLs” section of GWT. First I selected one of the URLs that Google reported I’ve done is selected one of the URLs Google displayed (seen my second screenshot above) and I’ve pasted it into the URLs field (1). Now I can click on the “Test” button (2) and I will see the results of my test below it (3). In this case it indicates that the URL is “Allowed,” which means that we’re okay to ignore these warnings.

Last screenshot of Google Webmaster tools

The bottom line on this is to remember that Google warnings were valid at the time they were detected, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you still have an issue. Take a bit of time to check it out, and you’ll save time in the long run by avoiding correcting problems that are no longer problems.  (Thanks to Horizon Web Marketing for this demonstration example and screenshots.)

Google Webmaster Tools are just one of the many utilities that we cover in our Search Engine Workshops SEO Master class.  To see our schedule of upcoming classes, click here.

 

 

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Website Development – Let the Buyer be Aware

Are you considering building or redesigning a website for your business?  Is SEO part of the process?

This morning I was doing some preliminary website reviews for the students in my upcoming workshop and my head started to explode. Nearly every one of them was missing multiple factors that are critical to search engine optimization and should have been addressed when the website was designed.

Unfortunately most people don’t understand how critical the design of a website is as it relates to being found by the search engines.  It’s of no value to have a pretty website if no one can find it or use it.  Search Engine Optimization, the process of optimizing websites so they are found on Google, is critical to the success of any website and shouldn’t be an afterthought.

My colleague and fellow instructor, Sue Cooper, wrote a post that I had to revisit:  Web Development – you get what you pay for.  I think it’s become too easy for anyone to call themselves a web designer.  With all of the tools and workshops available almost anyone can learn how to build a website and position themselves as a designer.  What’s missing is a working knowledge of how to do search engine optimization among both business owners and web designers.

Not only that, it’s getting easier and easier to build a website yourself.  I did a search on “how to build a website” and got over 700,000 results in exactly .37 seconds.  Many people are drawn to the “simplicity” and “low cost” that are perceived to come along with a do it yourself website.  A search on “web design agency” yielded over 100,000,000 choices.  Holy buckets – how does one even know where to begin?

Top 6 SEO Website Design Mistakes:

  1. Poorly structured navigation – category structure is either missing or too complicated for a visitor to easily find what they are looking for.
  2. Over use of images – pictures are nice and add an aspect of visual interest, but without content the search engines won’t wind the page.
  3. Use of flash to display important content like menus and service listings – search engines can’t read flash, all of that great content gone to waste.
  4. Unoptimized page content – missing keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, heading tags, and sometimes even body copy.
  5.  No Analytics or Web Master tools installed – if you cant’ measure it, how do you know if it’s working?
  6. Duplicate content, particularly in title tags and meta descriptions – each page should have it’s own unique content.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Web Designers who make these mistakes are doing it intentionally, I truly believe that they don’t know that they should be taking SEO into consideration.  SEO has also changed a lot over the past few years, so websites that might have been ok a few years ago have fallen behind and it’s time for an update.

The search engine marketing workshops offered at the Search Engine Academy equip business owners with the knowledge needed to choose a direction for designing or redesigning a website.  If you’re a Web Designer, the knowledge will enable you to create a great experience for your clients.

What may seem like a simple and affordable solution, may end up costing you more than you bargained for in the long run. A website designed with SEO in mind is a website that is designed for success.

Check out the upcoming courses and make sure your website is everything you want it to be.

Until next time.

Cheers!

 

 

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

Are You Starting Your Own New Internet Marketing Business – Where Can You Get Started

More and more people are turning to the internet for all
their needs, and businesses are following suit. We live
in a society where, if your business does not have a
presence on the internet you are going to be losing out
on a lot of potential fresh, new, business opportunities.

This opens up a great avenue for those looking to start
their own internet marketing business.

Owning your own online business has a lot of advantages,
and very few drawbacks, if you do it in the right order.
Unlike a conventional businesses, starting an online one
can be done fairly easily and without much overhead.
One of the best businesses you can start up is an internet
marketing company.

Where are the best places to get started?

Training For A Internet Marketing Business is not as
difficult as you might think. When people hear the word
“marketing” they assume it is some elaborate process which
requires a great deal of knowledge, and while that is not
totally inaccurate, that does not mean it is impossible
either.

Marketing on the internet shares some  of the qualities
with conventional marketing, but it also uses a lot of
unique methods. If you want to be successful you need to
learn these methods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While it can be somewhat time consuming, if you approach
it in the wrong order, they are pretty straight forward
so all you need is the dedication to continue (and maybe
some money depending on what resources you use).

If you want to start Training For A Internet Marketing
Business then the first thing you need to do is find a
place to start. There are a lot of guides and training
courses out there that give you the ins and outs of
internet marketing, but to properly use that you need
to build a solid foundation.

I like to say that the sooner you build your SEO and
Social Media skills “comfort level,” the better.

There are a lot of beginner courses out there that can
help you do this. With so many courses out there it can
be difficult knowing which to use. Some are fantastic
and will get you going on your business right quick,
but others are not quite up to par and you might find
yourself wasting excess time. What you want to look for
in determining the quality of the training course is
how easily you understand it.

Many places will give samples of their course for you
to read over. You should look into it and see whether
or not it makes sense to you. Sometimes these courses
can be too complicated or tend to skip over critical
steps leaving you confused. You want a training course
that will walk you through, step by step.

Here at the Search Engine Academy, we have found one
of the very fastest ways to ramp up a students skills,
is with a personalized, hands-on workshop where you
can work one on one with an experienced professional
and you learn “by doing.”

Beyond that you will want a training that is fairly
comprehensive and is made by someone who knows what
they are talking about. The best way to find this out
is simply by looking at consumer reviews.

See what your peers thought, did they understand it
and more importantly did what they learn really help
them?

Lastly, when looking for Training For A Internet
Marketing Business, you need to worry about money. The
benefit of an online business is that it can be started
for next to nothing, so if money is tight you need to
look for a quality training course that you can afford.

On the other hand, you want training that will also fully
equip you with the right skills to make an impact on those
early client Web sites.

  • One thing that you can consider exploring is how long the
    training company has been teaching.
  • What kind of track record do their graduates have?
  • When was their most recent updates to their course material?
    (Everything on the Internet changes often)
  • Do they include any ongoing support after class such as a
    Mentoring program.Ideally any ongoing mentoring should be included in the cost of tuition rather than some huge expensive upsell.

For a complete list of hands-on Workshops being conducted globally around the world, please see our dates and locations pages.

 

 

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Google AdWords: Profit from Pay Per Click – Part 3 (Market Discovery)

You’re ready to jump into the pay per click arena and set up your first AdWords campaign or are you?

It’s tempting to click on the Create Your First Campaign button, assign it a name, select all of the settings, and write your headline and ad copy. But before you do, it’s important to do some keyword research and discovery work so you can set up an effective campaign and launch your first test ads.

You’ve come up with a great idea for a product or service, and you’re positive there’s a market for it.  But before you start spending money, spend some time to make sure your assumptions are correct.

Market Discovery

Before you dive into keyword research, take a few minutes to validate your basic assumptions about the size of your opportunity. Start the process at www.google.com and enter one of the keywords you think someone searching for your business or organization would use. Google personalizes results base on individual search behavior, so it’s a good idea to turn off personalization settings in your search profile to get a better idea of what the landscape looks like.

You’re looking for three things:

  •  Is anyone advertising for your keywords? – Make sure there are at least three relevant (and real) competitive ads. If there are no paid ads, chances are great that no one has found a way to make this keyword profitable in a ppc campaign.
  • Are there related organic results for your product or service? – Let’s say you sell paper tablets. If you do a search on the word tablet; the search results are dominated by Nooks, Kindles, iPads, and other electronic devices. You quickly know that “tablet” would not be a good keyword for you to include in a campaign and you won’t waste any time or money on something that would bring you no results.
  • What sort of keyword does Google think it is? – Are the results local listings, reference sites (like Wikapedia), or shopping results? Google keeps track of the type of content that people most often interact with for a search term and serve it up first.

I’m still hoping to go on a Caribbean vacation someday, so I’ll use this as an opportunity to do a little research and dreaming. I turned off the personal settings in Google and searched on “affordable Caribbean vacations.” It’s a good example of a keyword that would be worth doing further research if I owned a travel agency instead of spending my time reading about search engine optimization.

Search Engine Results Page - Keyword Validation

 

Now that you’ve validated your basic assumptions, it’s time to start your keyword research using the free Google keyword tool within your AdWords account.  You’ll access the tool from the drop down menu under “Tools and Analysis.”

AdWords Menu_Keyword Tool

First we’re going to use the tool to identify search terms you may want to bid on. Enter one of more keyword phrases into the “word or phrase” box and click search.  You’ll want to start with general or broad keywords to get an initial take on the landscape.

AdWords Keyword Box_Keyword Research

 

Google displays a list of the top keywords that include the keywords you entered.  They’re sorted by relevance and include useful information about trends for each term.  For now let’s focus on creating a list of keywords.  Go through the list with one question in mind, “Would a person searching on this term be a potential customer?”  and make a “yes” or potential keyword list and a “no” or negative keyword list. How to use “negative keywords” will be discussed in a later post.

An example of a negative keyword from my Caribbean vacation research is the phrase “Cruises Royal Caribbean.”  If my company doesn’t sell Royal Caribbean cruise packages, the answer to the question – “Would a person searching on this term be a potential customer?” is no and I’d jot the term down on my negative keyword list

Google Adwords Broad Match Results_Keyword Research

One thing to keep in mind is that the results in this example are broad match and useful for understanding the size of the entire market. There are strategies behind when to use an exact-match or a broad-match which will be reviewed in a future post.

In addition to the keyword research tool within your AdWords account there are other good resources such as Google Trends, Google Insights for Search, and don’t forget about Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  You may also want to check out Google Trends to understand general and seasonal trends for a keyword and to identify fads.

AdWords is a great tool for running quick and inexpensive tests to determine how to make the most of your pay per click campaign. Whether your internet marketing strategy is intended to generate leads or to sell products directly from your website, you can use AdWords to answer the following questions:

  1. Is there enough search interest in my products?
  2. How should I structure my AdWords campaign?
  3. Does my website have content that is relevant and engaging?
  4. Is my website easy to navigate?
  5. Can AdWords be profitable for me?

Up next – Establishing Keyword Buckets and jumping in with both feet!

What is your favorite tool for conducting keyword research?  Share tips and advice on what works and what doesn’t.

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

If You Need Web Traffic – Internet Marketing Provides A Realm Of Endless Possibilites

The internet itself is a realm of endless possibility, anyone can go out and start up their
own web based business and be successful. Thousands upon thousands of people have
already done this, and there is nothing stopping you from experiencing that same success.

The only thing that can often stop you is, well, you.

The single greatest pitfall potential business owners face is they simply give up.  They do
not see any returns and think it does not work, so they lose hope and abandon it. But if
you stick it out, you can join the statistics of successful internet business owners.

But to do that you Need Web Traffic to easily to your site.

Learning how to drive traffic is the most important aspect of owning an online business.
The more traffic you get, the better odds you have of selling your product and making money.

It’s like they always say, even if you make the best business in the world, if nobody knows it
exists then you still will not make any money.

Internet Marketing provides a realm with no limits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some methods you can use to get people to visit your website that I
will share with you.

1. Take time to learn SEO first, not later.

2: If you don’t want to use SEO then you can pay for ads. But this method requires
money, and so if you are working under a tight budget this may not be an option.
But if you can afford it, then purchasing ads with search engines like Google or
Yahoo! are a great ways to increase awareness of your site’s existence.
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, after all.

3: Strategically disperse links. If you Need Web Traffic, then back linking is something
you are going to have to do, and likely will have to do a lot. Back linking is where
you have another website carry a link to your site. More often than not this is done
by submitting to search directories that will carry your link. Another good way is by
Blogging. But whatever you do, be sure to find topic specific pages that fit with
your type of business.

3: Viral marketing. I am sure you have heard of this before, viral marketing is where you
get other people to market for you in a natural way. For example, if you have a youtube
video that involves your business and it gets a ton of hits because it is popular, that
is all marketing for your website. It can be difficult to pull off, but when it works
you will have very noticeable results and there is no telling how great an impact it
will have.

4: The importance of Keywords. Like back linking, keywords are of prime importance for
internet marketing. Keywords are the words or phrases people type into google to find
what they are looking for. You want to make sure your website is using keywords properly
so that the search engines can find your website and put it into the results when people
search for that specific keyword. If you are found for a topic that is unrelated to your
audience’s needs, you won’t see any organic traffic. Performing good Keyword research
must not be neglected.

If you Need Web Traffic then following these tips can help you get it. These are by no means
all there is when it comes to internet marketing and there are a lot of finer points you can
learn and master in order to maximize your search visibility as well as your profits.

But once you get the hang of it and get your business going, it is an easy and secure source
of income.

If you need to speed up the learning process, one of the easiest and fastest ways to grow
very competent in your skills, is to “learn by doing.” You can attend attend a hands-on
Workshop where you bring your laptop and actually work one-on-one with a certified
Master Instructor. You’ll get a very thorough training with great attention to detail. And
if  you attend any one of Search Engine Academy schools, you’ll also get a free 6 month
Mentoring Program at no extra charge.

For a listing of 2 Day Basic SEO class, or a 3 Day Advanced SEO class or a 5 Day Complete
SEO Mastery workshop in many communities around the globe, see workshop dates and locations
here
.

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

SEO Training and Internet Marketing – Achieving Your Full Potential

How do you achieve your fullest potential in Internet Marketing
on the Web? First take a look at this SEO Workshop from last
week (over in Asia:)

SEO Master Trainer, Fabian Lim with his Nov. Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabian just completed his 5 Day hands-on SEO Workshop last
week with his largest group of SEO student graduates ever!

Asia Search Engine Academy with Fabian Lim

 

 

 
Student Graduates in November’s Asia Search Engine
 Academy pictured here with Master Instructor Fabian Lim

I predict that many of the students in this photo will be the
“success stories” of tomorrow. Why do I say that? It’s
simple. It’s because I am used to seeing lives transformed
all the time as graduates apply their skills to projects. and
discover a new SEO within themselves.  Why do I emphasize
the success ratio of this class compared to others?

1. Fabian Lim is an excellent Master instructor

2.but even more influential than that, if you could see all of the
photos of these students that I’ve seen, you’d notice something
in their faces. They all appear to have an intense desire to upgrade
their skills. If this class is any measure of Asian community, they
are all hungry to learn. I don’t see this everywhere always.

There is a principle that might be called “the Law of Attraction”
that can help you build momentum and realize a much fuller
potential on both a professional and personal level. This guiding
principle is best defined as “like attracts like” or to put it another
way, positive energy attracts other positive energy and the same
applies to negative energy too.

Knowing this is quite important, but it’s even more important to
realize a way of applying it to your life. For example, if you are in
debt and only think about trying to get out of debt, then it probably
won’t happen. The reason why it won’t occur is that you are still,
ultimately, focusing on the debt itself.

A better way to do it is to focus on having plenty of success. Doing
this will bring about ways to realize more wealth into your life, and
the debt will often just take care of itself.

You are always attracting things into your life. Always. Everything in
your life is the result of your thoughts, beliefs, and habits. Please note
that it isn’t the result of other people, circumstances, or the environment.
Sadly, our culture is quick to place blame, and that can make taking
complete responsibility a scary prospect for quite a few people.

Of course, we have probably all had opportunity to meet people who tend
to be negative or have a difficult time believing in their vision long
enough to ever see anything positive manifest in their life. In these cases,
there is invariably the old excuse of their trouble being blamed on someone
else’s behavior, or perhaps how life has somehow just been unfair. Whatever
the excuse, rarely will these individuals actively take any responsibility.

If someone is going through a difficult period in a relationship or
perhaps their marriage is in trouble, it has always amazed me that some
people will look to friends who have been divorced once or twice to take
their advice on how to save the relationship. It’s always wisdom to seek
counsel of course, but would you not be smarter to go to someone who has
demonstrated a measure of success?

Isn’t the same true for SEO, Internet Marketing and Social Media skills?

You want counsel from someone who can demonstrate a batting average
for success, right? So don’t listen to the voice of your fears, if you expect
to gain any helpful insight or guidance.

Don’t let that fear stop you from moving forward. You need to take
responsibility, but that also means you get to take some credit when
your actions open the gateway for good things to happen to you.

It’s good when you are building your online business to really let a
positive vision materialize before you. If you focus on others rather
than constantly be self-absorbed, remember that law of attraction…
you’ll find that others (most often who are like minded) will be
attracted towards you too. People who have learned how to build other
people up through positive mentoring, will often find new friends in
their life that seem to be positioned there in reciprocating relationships
too.

One of the early lessons I learned while building the Search Engine
Academy network of Associate trainers was this…I discovered that
one of the prime traits to watch for in partners, was to find people
that “care about other people.”

One might naturally think that the first criteria would to find those
that have the technical skills. But what I learned was that I could
teach technical skills to nearly anyone, so long as they were teachable.

However, you cannot teach someone to care about other people. Either you
care about people or you don’t, so I decided to make my benchmark to find
associate SEO trainers who are “others focused,” to know for certain that
they would also care about their students and graduates in a genuine and
ongoing way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is nothing wrong with having money, but it should not be the most
driving force. It nearly seems the byproduct of human nature that the
wealthier some people get, the more greedy they become.

Other false status symbols include things like the desire for power, the
fascination with entertainment. None of these things are really bad or wrong,
but what is needed today is a sense of balance. You can find that right balance
by keeping faith in God at the head of your business and the head of your home
and by caring for the people who are brought your way. Everything else will seem
to fall into place with everything you’ll ever need and more waiting for you as you
follow your vision.

Do you help to get your Internet Marketing skills up to speed  as quick as possible?
Are you hungry for the freshest SEO and Social Media insights?

We have a Search Engine Academy at all of these locations plus one new school now
in Dallas Texas and one in Pennsylvania.

 

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

Search Engine Academy Rolls Out Brand New SEO Training Modules Globally #SEO

For November, we are pleased to announce our newest and freshest upgrades to the SEO Mastery Workshop
live training program around the the globe. I thought it might be appropriate to give you a first hand look
at many of the newest subjects to be included at all of local the Search Engine Academy Workshops.

Here is a quick overview of the entire 5-Day SEO Workshop:

Day 1 – Basic SEO Essentials

  • What is Search Engine Optimization
  • How Search Engines Work
  • Organic Versus Paid Search
  • Anatomy of a Search Results Page
  • Why Apply SEO to Your Web site
  • How to implement SEO
  • The Benefits of Doing SEO
  • Examining a Stress Free System of doing SEO
  • Google Trends
  • Making Your Content Effective
  • The New World of Web Content
  • Google Panda and SEO
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  • Questions and Answers

Day 2 – Basic SEO Essentials

  • Linking Strategies Through External and Internal Linking
  • Key Concepts – Authority, Relevancy and Pagerank
  • A Comparison of Various Links
  • Links and Google Penguin
  • External Linking Strategies
  • Types of Links
  • Understanding Link Diversity
  • Authority Site Links
  • Getting EDU Links
  • Building links externally to you
  • SEO Strategy for Cleaning Up Links
  • Tips for Finding Links
  • Try a Link Discovery Tool
  • Tips for Finding Links
  • The Power of Internal Links
  • Internal Linking Strategies
  • HTML Sitemaps
  • XML Site Maps
  • Directory Style Sitemaps
  • No Follow Attribute
  • Absolute Versus Relative Links
  • How to Stay Out of Trouble with the Search Engines
  • Disavowing Links
  • Getting the Most Out of Your Blog
  • Blogging and SEO
  • Optimizing Your Blog Posts
  • WordPress and SEO
  • Tips For Increasing Your Chances For Popular Posts
  • Understanding the Value of Trackbacks
  • How to set up and use Trackbacks
  • Blog Resources
  • Blog Search Engines
  • Student Website Reviews
  • Questions and Answers

All New Search Engine Academy Training Announced
Day 3 – Advanced SEO Workshop

Advanced Keyword Research
Keyword Forensic Analysis
Other Advanced Keyword Research Tips
Semantic Search
Resource Links
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Understanding How To Take Advantage of Themes

 

 

  • Information Architecture
  • What is IA
  • Why Do IA
  • 4 I/A Categories
  • Labeling Systems
  • Global Navigation System
  • Local Navigation Systems
  • Contextual Navigation Links
  • Supplemental Navigation Systems
  • Site Search
  • Examples of Well Developed IA
  • Local SEO
  • Google’s Venice Update
  • Major Data Providers – Who powers whom?
  • How to Submit to Top Data Providers
  • About Universal Business Listing
  • Rating Local Search Factors
  • Business Listing Quality Guidelines
  • More Google Quality Guidelines
  • Google Local
  • Google Local – Photos, Videos and More
  • Video SEO
  • Optimizing Your Videos
  • Video SEO
  • Keywords for Video
  • Create a Video Sitemap
  • Video Distribution
  • Mobile Search and SEO
  • Mobile SEO Strategies
  • Duplicate Content Issues
  • Crawler and Indexing Issues
  • Student Website Reviews
  • Questions and Answers

Advanced Day 4 – Google Day – A Day Dedicated To All Things Google

  • Paid Search
  • Planning Your Paid Search Campaigns
  • Google Adwords
  • Google Display Ads
  • Personalization of Search
  • Google Plus
  • Google Authorship
  • Google Analytics Advanced for SEA
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  • Google Panda and Penguin Rollouts
  • Measuring What’s Important KPI’s
  • Advanced Google Analytics
  • Student Website Reviews
  • Questions and Answers

Day 5 – The Final Day of Advanced SEO

  • Competitive Intelligence for SEO
  • Why do CI for SEO?
  • More Reasons for CI
  • How to Do Competitive Intelligence Analysis for SEO
  • Off page Factors
  • How to Analyze What You Collect
  • Social Media and SEO
  • Social Media Platforms
  • Social Media Guidelines
  • Social Media and SEO
  • Measure Social Media Reach
  • Schema.org and SEO
  • Schema.org and Google
  • Schema.or Resources
  • 5 Schema.org Applications
  • Site Technical Issues
  • Diagnosing Problems
  • URL Canonicalization
  • 301 redirects
  • Crawler and Indexing issues
  • Source code Validation
  • Persuasive Copywriting for the Web
  • Anatomy of A Sales Letter
  • Components for Building Sales Copy by component
  • Examples by Category
  • Student Worksheets and Examples
  • The Power of Article Writing
  • Life After Google Panda Update
  • Guidance on Writing Quality Articles
  • Easy Ways To Find Markets For Your Articles
  • Creative Commons
  • Press Releases and SEO
  • Tips for Press Releases
  • 9 Reasons to Optimize Your Press Releases
  • Tips for Professional SEOs
  • New Customers the smartest Way
  • Build A Genuine Reputation Right Now
  • How To Convert Prospects to Clients by Establishing Credibility
  • Steps for Building Powerful Proposals
  • Building and Defining Your Business in the SEO Industry
  • Questions and Answers
  • Certification Exam

Where are the next SEO Mastery Workshops being conducted?

See a complete list of Search Engine Academy Locations and dates here.

 

 

 

 

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!

Disavow Links Tool from Google – Power and Responsiblity

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” We know that’s Spiderman’s motto but now we can easily apply that to the new Google Webmaster Disavow Links Tool.

Disavow Links? What does that mean? Well if you know a little about Search Engine Optimization you know that the number of links to your website is one of 100s of factors that affect how your website ranks for certain keywords.

In the past, even as late as 2008, it was standard practice in the SEO world to purchase links for your website. To be fair, it was never a great strategy – creating good, solid content was always a better choice and what has always been emphasized here at the Search Engine Academy.

Google was aware of this trick for a long time, and in April 2012 it introduced “Penguin” an update to its search algorithm that targeted spammy links that it identified as not being authentic and most likely purchased links.

Many, many websites were hurt by that update, and some perhaps unfairly because they did in other ways earn the right to rank well for their selected keywords. As a result, Google just this week introduced a special way to “disavow” links to your website that might negatively affect your rankings.

At first glance this seems great – “Gee thanks Google for helping us out so we can rank better!” However all is not as it seems – and this is where Spiderman’s motto comes in.

I recently read a couple of terrific blog posts on this subject. Dr. Peter J. Meyers’ blog post on SEOMoz.com discusses who should use the Disavow Tool and focuses mainly on those who were affected by the Penguin update. He also mentions that this tool will help the few websites that have been victims of negative SEO (but stresses that those are quite rare and only in very, very competitive markets).

The big takeaway from Dr. Peter’s article was not to overreact and that truly identifying bad links is extremely difficult.

Another blog post by Eugene Ware of Noble Samurai goes into much more dangerous territory. Ware mentions that by “helping” us with a great new tool, what Google has actually done is crowdsource the detection of link-spam. Since many people will now be telling Google “don’t pay attention to that link – it’s spammy” that will in reality help Google when identifying other websites that are using link-spam.

To give Google some credit, the Disavow Links tool does come with a strong warning that it’s an advanced feature to be used with caution. See the screenshot below.

All of this discussion comes back to the same conclusion and the foundation of the Search Engine Academy: Google and the other search engines want authentic content and authentic (human-generated) links that show the true relevance of your website. That’s the best way to get real, long lasting results.

See below for a quick discussion on the topic from my YouTube video for the Dallas Search Engine Academy.

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The Importance of Finding SEO Pricing to Fit Your Budget

Most people understand that their primary role as an online entrepreneur is to drive as much quality traffic to their website as they can get.  There are many ways to do that and most people will use several methods to get the best result. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those methods.

But before you dive in and hire an SEO company to do your SEO for you, you will want to check out SEO pricing. There are companies online that specialize in doing all the SEO your website needs. The prices for such services will vary depending on several variables.

For one thing, the number of keywords you will be targeting in your SEO campaign will likely be a factor. The more keywords you want to target, the higher the cost will be.

Another aspect is considering your competitive landscape. The more competitive the keywords you use, the higher the cost will be too. SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” method or an apply it once. Good SEO will take ongoing attention to detail. That’s why the more competitive keywords will cost more, they will take more time and attention.

Most SEO companies will sell their services in packages. Usually they will be divided up something like: 1 – 10 keywords, or 11 – 50 keywords, etc. The package you choose will be based mostly on your budget.

Another important element to website SEO is back links. Many times companies will set their pricing structure on the number of back links they are creating.  Back links will gain more importance, and cost more, if the link comes from a highly ranked site relative to your industry.

The truth is for most new, and smaller Internet marketers, SEO campaigns are out of bounds from a financial point of view. But that doesn’t have to mean that you can’t still benefit from search engine optimization.

There are many places online where you can learn to do simple SEO techniques that will allow you to benefit from optimization. You can use these methods for your website, your blog posts and your articles.

Increase Your SEO Expertise.

If you do decide that you have enough of a budget to hire a company to do SEO for you, then you need to carefully check them out. Find out what they will offer, how much it will cost and how much time and attention you can expect to get from them.

It’s also a good idea to find out what other people have to say about the company and their services. This can be a fairly big investment and you want to make sure that you hire a company that knows what they are doing, and can really help you get the results you want.

You also want to make sure that there are no surprises, that you know exactly what you will get and how much it will cost. Having a written contract in place is very important too. That way there can be no misunderstanding; both parties know what is expected of each other and how much it will cost.

When it comes to SEO pricing remember that cost is only half the issue. You want to make sure that you get the service and results that you are really looking for.

One last thing to keep in mind. These days, more and more business owners are investing in building their SEO skills and knowledge. After all, once you’ve been trained and have a good SEO comfort level, there will never be anyone more focused on building your business Web presence than you, the business owner.

For corporate SEO training conducted in-house, feel free to ask any one of our SEO Master Trainers for a free quote on what it would cost you to have a full  SEO workshop conducted in-house for your team.

Learn about in-person, hands-on SEO workshop with one of our expert trainers!