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  1. Blackhat Versus Whitehat SEO: Slow & Steady Wins the Race

    Turtle and HareDo you remember the Aesop’s fable about the turtle and the hare? Remember how the turtle steadily plodded toward the finish line, while the hare raced along looking for easiest ways to get ahead, and then rested on his laurels once he thought he had attained the prize? Then, seemingly out of nowhere, there was the turtle at the finish line. This story reminds me of how some choose to approach SEO. Consider Black Hat (the hare) and White Hat SEO (the turtle) practices. If it is your job to provide SEO for your company, then understanding White Hat and Black Hat search engine optimization is a must.

    According to Dante Monteverde of Spiderbait.com and guest writer for Website Magazine, an awareness of Black Hat SEO is important because it allows you to:

    1. Ensure that you are not unintentionally using techniques that can result in penalization and purging from search engines
    2. Be able to recognize when/if any of your competitors are using Black Hat SEO

    There is also a form of SEO known as Grey Hat. This combines White Hat and Black Hat practices in a way that attempts to make black look white.  Grey Hat techniques could also be referred to techniques that are frowned upon by search engines but have little or no risk of penalties. However, not everyone who claims to be black/white/greyhat may be telling the whole truth. In fact, Miracle Group.com says, in many cases "Using Grey or Black Hat is the same; it’s just that Grey Hat is a safer term."

    White Hat SEO is achieved by optimizing content on websites with key search phrases, properly using Meta tags, directory submission, sitemaps and obtaining links to increase your website’s page rank. These steps can be easy to do, but they require planning, persistence and patience to do them correctly. In fact, it is a job that lasts as long as you want the website to be a success.

    Black Hat SEO is nothing new. In fact, it has a long and not so colorful reputation. It is sometimes called spamdexing as a result of its affect on SEO. While there are a variety of tactics employed in Black Hat SEO, here are 6 which are fairly prevalent, along with a comparison to their White Hat counterpart.

    Practice White Hat SEO Black Hat SEO
      Non-aggressive + low risk= Mediocre, yet long term, results Aggressive + High risk= Good short term results
    Key Words Choose a solid keyword phrase or long tail words that cue the search engine of your themes. Inserting a long list of keywords into your Meta tags or within the webpage. Search engines are aware of this tactic and will penalize for this action. Also, using key words that are chosen only for traffic and not content relevance.
    Cloaking Avoid cloaking by showing the same content to everyone. An example of allowable hidden content is by hiding a Flash only version of a website from search engines an instead show the text-only version. Hidden content or cloaking is done by showing different content to different users based on the user agent. This typically gives the reader little or no useful information. It is used to attempt to deceive the search engines. While it may work temporarily, once the cloaking is detected by search engine directories like the Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project, there are negative consequences that could cost you in time and money.
    Link Bait When done properly, this can improve visits to your site. So, be sure that you use unique, helpful stories and articles that webmasters can use to make an informed decision as to whether or not to link to a site. Link bait Black Hat style is when stories are created that contain false information in order to bring people to your site under false impressions.
    Paid Links Writing articles to post on other websites which bring awareness of your site is invaluable. You may do this by paying someone to review your article or service or perhaps paying them to review your website and then provide a link to you in their directory. They key here is the place you are getting a link from is being paid for a service, not just a link. Paying someone to put a link to your website from their website for the express purpose of boosting pagerank. Listing your site is automated and there is no review or other related service. This is most risky when you use 3rd party link brokering services who are careless in where they get the links for you.

    A Grey Hat version of this tactic would be buying an advertisement on a website that isn’t actually marked as being a "sponsored" link.

    Doorway/Landing Pages A doorway or landing page written with useful and unique content designed to rank well for a specific keywords is a great way to improve page rank. As stated by Website Magazine’s Dante Monteverde, " Just because you might be sending paid traffic to your landing pages, there is nothing wrong with having the search engines index those same pages in order to achieve organic search engine rankings as well." Having a doorway/landing page is not necessarily a problem; but how it works is important. Oftentimes, a doorway page is created in order to rank well for a specific keyword and then funnel traffic to your site. Search engines have learned to recognize these pages and will not promote sites with high keyword density. This practice is often intentionally combined with cloaking. It should be noted that the content is usually written for search engines and not for the reader.
    301 Redirects Allowing users to get content that they are actually looking for. If you have changed your domain name and want your site guests to be able to locate your previous content, a 301 redirect page is the way to go. Using content that is not related to your site but gets good traffic and then redirecting that to your site may improve ranking for a short time but will ultimately be ineffective. In fact, the redirects are usually turned away, no links are received and the page is devalued

    There are many ways to improve your website’s ranking but one needs to be very careful when opting for Black Hat SEO practices. Implementing White Hat SEO is the best way to ensure that your website climbs to the top without risk of any penalties in ranking. As the turtle of the fable learned, "Slow and steady wins the race!" If you need help with using SEO to improve your website, be sure to talk to the Page Progressive design team!

     

  2. MailChimp: A Great Newsletter System Worth Checking Out

    If you are looking for a tool to create E-newsletters, or improve your internet marketing campaign, check out MailChimp. With MailChimp, you will find an assortment of features that allow you to increase the productivity of your business and stay in contact with the people you care about most. In fact, here at Page Progressive, we use it and love all that MailChimp can do. Recently, MailChimp has added several new tools. Check out these new features, along with some of those that have been around a while, and decide if MailChimp is right for you.

    MailChimp

    Time Warp

    Time Warp is a free service for up to 500 subscribers. It allows you to set up e-mail campaigns based on a recipient’s time zone. Just pick the time of day you want your message/campaign to begin, and it will start at the same local time in every time zone on earth. This feature is possible due to a MailChimp geolocation service which allows them to find the location and time zone of your subscribers, and then send a targeted campaign to all subscribers within a 150 mile radius around any point on the globe. In addition, Time Warp allows you to check your MailChimp account to see how many members of your list are in each time zone and see if their e-mail has been delivered or check how your campaign is doing by hovering over each time zone.

    The Delivery Doctor

    The Delivery Doctor analyzes your e-mail, running a plethora of tests, and then lets you know why you are being blocked, along what you need to do to fix it. Some of the tests ran are: subject lines, email content, and images. The results and any recommendations will be e-mailed to you. However, keep in mind that this diagnosis option is only available to users on the paid plans.

    E-mail

    Email through MailChimp allows you to decide what language you want to use (or let MailChimp do it for you based on the subscriber location) and then with one click, your e-mail will be sent in their language.

    Additional Free Features

    MailChimp has a variety of features that are free to their subscribers that can help you build a profitable business. You won’t want to overlook these great business enhancing choices.

    • Free email marketing guides on step by step instructions, start up tips, solutions to common problems and many others.
    • Free HTML Email templates-MailChimp has 4 basic templates to help you get going.
    • ChimpCharts allow marketers to track sales, set goals based on industry, study metrics an more to measure and deliver more effective campaigns.
    • Monkey Wrench Newsletter-free letter with the latest in tips, tricks, news, email marketing stats and even prizes.

  3. 6 Ways to Use SEM to Build Your Business

    There is much more to having a successful business than merely having a website. This is because online business is fed by search traffic. This has resulted in a whole industry focus on improving a website’s visibility or Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Originally in 2001, Search Engine Marketing was defined by Danny Sullivan as “The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities.” Today, however, not everyone is in complete agreement as to exactly what SEM is and often uses the term as a synonym for paid search (PPC or Pay-per-click). Now, a commonly accepted definition as stated on Wikipedia is “A combination of search engine optimization and the use of paid and contextual advertising in order to bring a website’s articles or product pages to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs).

    Line Graph

    In 2008, the US spent $13.5 billion in search engine marketing; however, according to Street Insider, global industry analysts are predicting that the world market for SEM is going to reach US $50.68 billion by 2015. It is thought that this increase will be driven by factors such as:

    • an increasing demand for cost effective advertising and marketing strategies
    • raising popularity of organic and paid search
    • the growth of the mobile Internet market

    The report goes on to say that the US remains the largest market, likely due to the “high usage of web search and the continued evolution of search engine technologies in the nation.”SEM is composed of 2 basic factors which must be employed in order to be effective. The first of these are listings. These listings can then be divided into two groups: editorial and paid. In editorial searches, also called “organic” or “natural,” the listings appear without being paid for and are provided by search engines. In paid searches, also known as CPC (cost per click) or PPC (pay per click), the premise is simple, you pay to be listed; the ad is usually displayed alongside the editorial content and should not influence the editorial coverage.

    The second factor in SEM is the type of activities utilized. There are 3 main forms of SEM activities that should be used by business owners: SEO, link building and Paid Search. Using SEO is the equivalent of good PR; good SEO, like good PR, doesn’t necessarily guarantee good search engine coverage, but it can increase the odds if done correctly. In addition to SEO, you should use paid search, CPC or PPC which allows you to “pull in” your potential customer at the exact time they are seeking your products and services regardless of any declines in the marketplace. So, what can you do to make sure that your website is SEM optimized to bring you the full potential? After all, just knowing what SEM is is not enough. You need to be doing it.

    Consequently, be sure these 6 jobs are on your “to do” list.

    1. Be familiar with SEO practices. This is the single most important thing you can do.
    2. Use tools such as Website Grader to asses where your site is or where your website isn’t optimized for SEM. If you don’t know where the problems are, then it is difficult to correct them.
    3. Make quick changes first! These would include concerns like metatags, keywords in title tags, etc. Once the “little things” are accurate begin working on any big changes/corrections.
    4. Use SEM optimized CMS software and plug-ins like WordPress or ImpressCMS. These are the preferred choices at Page Progressive and we have been very pleased with the various features each of them affords.
    5. Test PPC and landing page strategies. You may want to keep lists of which keywords and advertisements bring the most traffic, as well as what happens when the guests arrive. You can also use Google Analytics to help you track what guests do.
    6. Remember, inbound links are critical to point traffic to your site.  If writing articles and posting them to a blog or site such as E-zine, or Hubpages does not appeal to you, then hire someone else to do it. It will be money well-spent.

    SEM, like many aspects of business, is something that must be maintained. But it can be a bit of a trial and error process as you determine what will work best for you, so don’t get discouraged. After all, SEM has the ability to improve your business and should not be overlooked or deemed unnecessary. If you are interested in implementing SEM, but don’t know have the time to do it yourself, talk to the professionals here at Page Progressive, we’ll be glad to help. Our designers and writers will be glad to give your website a makeover so that you can begin seeing more traffic to your site with positive results being the outcome.

  4. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media to Promote Your Business

    Reasons to Use Social Media for Business, Part 1

    As few as 3 years ago, the use of social media sites and their relevance to business was unheard of. Today, however, savvy businesses are approaching their advertising and marketing resources with a bend toward social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Buzz and others. In fact, according to the observations by the Center for Marketing Research, the Inc. 500 companies are outperforming Fortune companies largely due to the use of social media. In addition, Facebook recently topped Google as the most visited website on the internet. If you are not using a social media website, then you are missing out on a large customer base-and who wants to do that?

    Social Media

    If you still aren’t convinced of the value of social media websites, consider these recent five facts:

      1. There are more than 350 million active users on Facebook with 1.6 million active pages.
      2. 50% of active Facebook users log in on a daily basis, spend a minimum of 55 minutes per day and are posting 700 items per second
      3. Digg has 1 million users
      4. Twitter has over 18 million users posting an average of 600 tweets per second
      5. There are 55 Google Buzz comments per second

              To put these numbers into perspective, consider these comparisons. According to a February 2010 report:

              • Google has 34,000 searches per second; 2 million per minute; 121 million per hour, 3 billion per day and 88 billion per month.
              • Yahoo has 3,200 searches per second; 194 per million; 12 million per hour; 280 million per day and 8.4 billion per month
              • Bing has 927 searches a second; 56,000 per minute; 3 million per hour; 80 million per day and 2.4 billion per month
              • Twitter reports 50 million tweets daily and Facebook shows 60 million per day.

              In addition to these numbers, it should also be noted that in January 2010, Facebook passed Yahoo to be second only to Google. Then, during the week of March 7-13, 2010 visits to Facebook increased by 185% and Google by only 9% over the same week of 2009.   

              With these numbers in mind, utilizing the selling power of social media in business marketing is a must. After all, using social media sites is cost effective (usually free) and the ability to build one’s customer base is exponential. However, there is more to social media than merely setting up an account. To be effective, businesses need to combine SEO practices and customer interaction options in order to build trust and respect with their audience. This social media interaction has been shown to increase retail and e-commerce significantly. Many companies have recognized the correlation between social media and sales. According to a February 2010 Marketing Sherpa poll of 2,300 communication experts, "79% of experts of retail/e-commerce plan to increase their social media interaction in 2010" Simply put, if you are looking for a cost effective and efficient was to promote your business, social media is the way to go. 

              Uses of Social Media to Businesses

              Because search engines are now using "Real Time" search results as well as crawling social media sites, business owners can promote their services in a variety of ways. Also some sites, like Facebook, allow you to target your advertising based on gender, relationship status, age, location, etc… so you are able to focus your efforts on those who are most likely to be interested in your services. Consider including any (or all) of the following as part of your business social media page.

              • Post questions that encourage fan response
              • Post a poll to garner customer feedback
              • Integrate apps like games or quizzes to encourage guests to spend more time on your page
              • Repost information from other  users that is relevant and interesting
              • Promote your business through promos only available on your page (free shipping for fans only, exclusive product discounts, specials, etc…)

              Social media is likely here to stay. Regardless of whether you are a small business owner or President Obama, choosing to use the tools available on sites like Facebook or Twitter, can be a big business benefit.  Why not use it to your advantage and promote your business where you will be seen by the largest customer base available? You can do it yourself or hire the professionals at Page Progressive to do it for you. The sooner you do, the quicker your business can increase. Contact us today!

            • Tips to Test and Measure Your Site’s SEO

              If you’ve been following our last few posts, you now have spent a fair amount of time making your site search engine optimized. And, chances are, you are already seeing a bit more web traffic. However, your website SEO is not complete, nor will it ever be 100%. This is due to step four of the SEO process.

            • 4 Areas of SEO Content Optimization that You Don’t Want to Miss!

              Last post we discussed keyword research. Now that you have your keyword list and have tested them for effectiveness, now you are ready for step 3 of improving your website’s SEO.

              3. Implement Content Optimization and Submission

              Perhaps the most important aspect of improving your site’s SEO, content optimization and submission can also be quite time consuming and somewhat frustrating. There are 4 primary parts of optimizing your website for SEO (This list of 4 is certainly not exhaustive, but they are the key ones to focus on):

              1. using keywords in your title tags
              2. using keywords in the H1 tag
              3. using keywords throughout the body copy
              4. using keyword phrases as anchor text of links on other sites that point back to your website’s pages

              Keywords in Title Tags

              Title tags should tell both users and the search engine what a page is about. You will want to have a well written title that is both brief and descriptive for each page of your website so that they show up in the search results of search engines and can increase clicks from targeted searchers. Do not write title tags that have vague titles like "homepage" or "page 3." Titles that are stuffed with keywords and are longer than 60 characters will look spammy and also won’t help, so keep it concise 😉

              Keywords in H1 Tags

              Using keywords in your heading tags is also very important. There are six sizes of heading tags (H1 to H6) and they work as clues for readers to know what information is to follow. These assorted title tags should be used sparingly, generally no more than one H1 tag to a page. Also, be sure that the H1 tag represents the thesis of the page and is as close to the main targeted phrase as possible.  Title tag faux pas are inconsistency in tag size, putting all the information in a title and using heading tags for styling text rather than content structure.

              Keywords in Content 

              As you write the content for each of your site’s pages, it is important to incorporate your keywords throughout the body copy. You should use bold and italics whenever possible, without being overdone, as well as have a list (numbers, bullets, check boxes, etc.) that includes your keywords. Keep in mind that according to Jon Wuebbon, author of Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web, key phrase use should make up 3-8% of an article or page, but at the same time, don’t get too concerned with the numbers when it comes to keyword density. Just make sure you are aware of the key phrases you are going after and  that your text reads logically and doesn’t sound like you are stuffing in as many key phrases as you can. As you create your web page content, be sure that it is easy to read, has a unique approach, focuses on the subject, showcases your services or products and is written with people, not search engines in mind. You should not have duplicated material – even if it is original work – on your site. In addition, your webpage(s) should not have poorly written material with grammatical errors, extensive misspellings (intentional misspellings not withstanding) or excessive amounts of writing on a wide range of topics without using paragraphs, headings or subheadings.

              Keywords in Anchor Text

              Using keywords and phrases as anchor text on other sites is a great way to direct people to your webpage. Submit articles that contain anchor text links back to your site on sites such as Ezinearticles.com, Buzzle.com, Ehow.com and others. Be sure the text is descriptive yet short and is easily spotted. When using anchor text, do not use long text (e.g. whole sentences), overloaded keyword articles, unneeded links that detract from a site’s usefulness or use generic terms like "page" or "click here".

              Ezine Screenshot

                  Once you have implemented content optimization and submission as part of improving your site’s SEO, you are nearly "finished." As you will find in step four, found in our next post, there is no such thing as being completely finished with SEO, but knowing the steps to bettering your site’s SEO is one of the best things you can do to increase business.

                • How to Seal the Deal with Internet Marketing

                  Most successful businesses, regardless of their
                  product, number of employees or physical location, all have at least one
                  commonality. No, it’s not necessarily winning personalities or state of
                  the art facilities; rather, it is profitable internet marketing. Also
                  known as web marketing, online marketing, I-marketing, or E-marketing,
                  internet marketing strategies use website optimization to increase the
                  number of consumer visits to a website. Online marketing offers you the
                  opportunity to measure statistics easily and inexpensively using tools
                  such as Google Analytics.

                  Types
                  of Internet Marketing

                  While
                  effective internet marketing does not require an MBA or a degree in
                  advertising, having a general understanding of the types of internet
                  marketing strategies will be a definite asset. The main forms of web
                  marketing are link building, search engine optimization (SEO) and
                  sponsored (Such as Pay-per-click) advertising.

                  Tips for
                  Effective Internet Marketing Optimization

                  In order to run a
                  successful business, making the
                  most of online marketing strategy is a necessity. If you are new to
                  internet marketing strategies, or merely wish to increase and improve your
                  current website, consider implementing the following techniques:

                  • Don’t
                    procrastinate! If you are considering
                    online marketing, there is no time like the present.
                  • If you
                    don’t have time to focus on internet
                    marketing, you may want to outsource the work. After all, it’s better to
                    invest your money in having someone to manage your online marketing,
                    than to lose the money you could make by overlooking its potential.
                  • Use social
                    media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to promote your
                    product or services.
                  • Put
                    information on your site that begs people to check it out. For example,
                    try using polls, contests, give aways, etc. to get people to come to
                    your page.
                  • Promote your
                    product by using e-mail marketing in conjunction with online marketing.
                  • Be
                    focused. Choose 1-2 main
                    goals, marketing groups or services and put all your energy there. For
                    example, there are a TON of social media services out there. Pick one
                    that you are interested in and become comfortable with that one before
                    trying another.
                  • If
                    you have an ecommerce site, have the ability
                    to track customer orders, maintain order history, and offer related or
                    suggested items based on their purchases. This is an online marketing
                    strategy that is effectively employed by sites such as Overstock, Amazon
                    and E-Bay.
                  • Consider
                    upgrading your online marketing site to be optimized for the mobile
                    customer.
                  • Become n expert in your field. Publish articles online about your expertise on sites that you feel will see a decent amount of traffic.

                  Sealing the Deal with
                  Internet Marketing

                  Beginning your venture in internet
                  marketing
                  means you will be increasing the success potential of your business. Of
                  course, you don’t have to take these steps alone. Companies like Page
                  Progressive                   are there to help you seal the deal through the use
                  effective search engine optimization, link building through social
                  media, press releases, article syndication, blogging, and directories,
                  as well as pay-per-click/sponsored advertising.

                  When using these strategies along with your website, an increase in site traffic
                  and revenue is sure to be sooner rather than later. An effective, well-designed and easy to use website is a must if you wish to be successful
                  in today’s business world.

                • Link Building: What Websites and Cities Have in Common

                  Every city is different.  Some have multiple
                  opportunities for adventure, others are known for a certain culture,
                  and some are known for particular types of commerce, but they all have
                  one commonality – numerous streets, highways and interstates bringing
                  traffic in and out of them. A well-marketed website has a lot of similarities
                  with a city. The roads leading into and out of the city are comparable
                  to links on a website. And just as having more roads facilitates more
                  traffic for a city, the more links to your website, the greater the
                  traffic as well, resulting in greater revenue for you.

                  Implementing Link Building

                  A web link is a connection from one web
                  site to another, or even another place in the same website. Link building
                  is the process of building a large quantity of incoming links. "Incoming"
                  means that another website links to your website, and not the other
                  way around. Effective link building is best done by using the following
                  approach:

                  1. Set aside a regular block
                    of time to dedicate to link building.                     Although link building is
                    not tremendously complicated, it does take time. In addition, it is
                    critical to consistently review your link building and actively seek
                    more links on a regular basis. Unfortunately, link building is never
                    "done" as there are always more things you can do to build
                    links, so setting up a regular time devoted to link building will enable
                    you to avoid getting complacent with your link building efforts.
                  2. Evaluate link building
                    partners.                      Use tools like the Google Toolbar (with page rank enabled) which identifies what
                    search engines think of a sites quality/reputation. The higher the page
                    ranks (from 0-10) the more a link from that site to yours is worth in
                    boosting your search engine ranking. Just like a positive referral from
                    a previous employer would be more valuable to your resume than a referral
                    from your mom, websites also have varying levels of value.

                    Find potential link building partners
                    by searching for phrases that you would like to rank for. You want to
                    look for reputable sites, such as professional organizations that offer
                    articles and news posts on their site. Then write an article and submit
                    it to them to use. If they approve your article, they will most likely
                    be happy to credit you at the bottom with a link back to your website.

                  1. Use directory services
                    such as the                     DMOZ Open Directory Project and the Yahoo Directory. These sites feed thousands of other
                    directories, so being listed in them will result in building a mountain
                    of incoming links to your site over time.
                  2. Set up a blog. This
                    is one of the best ways to build traffic to your site. It is done by
                    creating a lot of good content that other people would want to link
                    to. A blog is a great way to informally build pages of content to your
                    site over time. Make sure to have your web developer install the blog
                    locally on your site if possible (i.e. website.com/blog), rather
                    than using a free external blog to get maximum results.
                  3. Post articles and press
                    releases.                     A great way to build links is by writing articles and
                    press releases then posting them on numerous article syndication or
                    press release websites.
                  4. Use social media. Social
                    media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn all can be used
                    to build more traffic to your site. Experiment with a few social media
                    sites, find one that you like and dive in. Become an active participant
                    – read posts, answer people’s questions, actively look for opportunities
                    to link to other people and for opportunities to promote your blog or
                    other articles. However, be careful not to come across as only caring
                    about promoting yourself as nothing will turn people off faster than
                    that.
                  5. Be patient!
                    Link building is an ongoing process and it can take time to reap the
                    benefits of your hard work, but rest assured that if you keep at it
                    you will find significant boosting for your site on search engines.
                    And the best part is that most of these things don’t cost you a penny.

                  Forms of Link Building:

                  There are several forms of link
                  building to consider.

                  • Contextual links– These are links that are found within large blocks of content. These types of links have high value to search engines.
                  • Cross linking – When 2 or more websites simply exchange links, but the sites do not have any relevance
                    to one another and is done only for the sake of building links;
                    although this used to be a valid and commonly used link building
                    practice year ago, this is not highly recommended anymore as the links
                    often cancel each other out as far as page rank is concerned.
                  • Deep linking– Deep links are links that go to a subpage within a site rather than the site’s home page. These are very valuable when link building.
                  • External links– External links simply mean they are linking to a website other than your own.
                  • Link bait- Targeting,
                    creating, and formatting content to encourage others to direct links to
                    that specific page. Often this is done with polls, contests, really
                    good content or other materials that other pople find valuable.

                  When you take the time to implement link
                  building, the roads into your city can become numerous. Yes, link building can be time consuming, but link building is one of
                  the keys to high page rankings. The key is to get started, jump in and manage your time wisely!

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