Author Archive

Yes, Meta Tags ARE Important!

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

meta tagsAs an internet marketing company that specializes in offsite optimization, we are often confronted with clients that are struggling with their onsite SEO. Onsite SEO, meta tags in particular, have such an impact on what we do offsite, that we now offer website audits to our clients as part of our service offerings to help them with their onsite SEO. We also include the creation of meta tags for our content development service.

We keep hearing from the "experts" that meta tags are not important. Try telling that to our clients who temporarily lost their rankings because they were messing with their meta tags!  We have seen time and time again where changes to just the title tag can change your rankings.  We have seen dramatic rankings increase when we go in and optimize our clients’ pages.   We’ve even written a few articles on optimizing web pages and what to look for so clients can troubleshoot their site themselves. It’s that important.
 
Title tags continue to be the most important meta tag to consider. Each page should have its own title tag. Include one complete instance of your keyword phrase in your title tag. Why? Well, two reasons. First, this is important to all three major search engines. Second, this is what normally shows up in the listings displayed on search engine results. 
 
Even alt tags are important, yet often overlooked by those creating web pages. A good alt tag is very important and easy to include in your website. In this article in particular, a test revealed that an image link with an optimized anchor text is more valuable than a text link with an anchor text that is not optimized very well.
 
While there are programs out there that will help you generate meta tags for your sites, we feel its best you do this manually to make sure you are fully optimizing all components.
 
Remember, search engine optimization is about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like nominal improvements, but when combined with other onsite optimization tactics, they could have a notable impact on your site’s performance in organic search results. And doesn’t everyone want that?

 

 

Search Engine Optimization Spam

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

All of us receive spam every day. Some trying to make us better lovers, some promising we will get rich and others that will keep us from going bald. And all of us in the SEO industry have been pitched SEO services via spam. Normally I just laugh and delete, after all we are an SEO link building company. But the one below was just too amazing not to publish.

Of course we removed all the confidential information. But it is important to note that the spam (notice I just can’t call it an email) we received actually did list their clients’ domains below. I find it very hard to believe that these clients allowed them to spam the world using them as references.

I know it is tempting to just skip reading the rest of this post, but if you have 2 minutes, you just have to read this one. I am not sure if they were trying to sound unique, intelligent or what, but it is a real hoot. Again, we did not change a word, only protected the innocent (sort of). Enjoy…

==================================
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 11:31 AM
To: info@verticalmeasures.com
Subject: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Dear Sir/Madam,
COMPANY X is the name to reckon with for radiated and productive marketing techniques, possessing successful years of exposure with client gratification. We have the expertise and infrastructure carrying most advanced technology required for development and management of a large scale search program.
 
Our in-house SEO experts have achieved glorious search results for various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN for our clients.
 
We use white hat techniques for the web promotion and marketing strategy so to maximize the return of investment for our clients.
 
Have a look at few of our clients along with their achieved rankings:
 
1. XXXXXpro.com
Keywords                                                   Google Ranking
SEO Philadelphia                                              5
Search engine optimization expert                       5
Web site marketing specialist                             9
Website optimization expert                               1                                     
 
2. XXXXXRoom.com
Keywords                                                    Google Ranking
Clean Room Janitorial Cleaning Service                 1
Cleanroom cleaning services                                1
Cleanroom cleaning contractor                             1 
 
3. XXXXXCustoms.com
Keyword                                                    Google Ranking
Custom Knife                                                     7
 
4. XXXXXMarketing.org
Keyword                                                   Google Ranking
Seminar Marketing                                             1
 
Kindly let us know if there is any disconnect to this regards.

Do let us know your SEO requirements and we would come up with action plan accordingly.
 
Looking forward towards a fruitful business relationship.
 
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Business development manager
======================================
 
If you have any other great examples, feel free to paste them into the comments below.

Enhanced Link Building Services: Link Building Just Got a Whole Lot Better

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

enhanced link building servicesThere was some big news recently in the world of link building services: did you hear about it? If you missed it, here it is: We’ve recently unveiled an extensive menu of new and enhanced services this year that moves our services to the front of the line for customized link building  and specialized content development for clients. Yes, really.

New services being offered include local search marketing that focuses on customized, branded listings based on a company’s location. This may include local set-up, maintenance and creation of tailored articles of local interest that are search engine optimized and focused on mobile device users. 
 
We’ve also enhanced their contextual link building, press release marketing, article marketing service, and social media marketing services. Each of these now offers a menu of standard and advanced options that can be tailored to a company’s needs. The social media marketing program in particular is unique in its ability to keep up with the changing social media landscape. 
 
Why all the changes? Well, we’ve always offered excellent link building and website marketing services, but now we’re taking these services to a new level. By enhancing our existing services and adding services such as link bait development, video marketing and local search, we have even more to offer our clients. And who doesn’t want more choices?
 
So what exactly does this mean for link building clients? Simply better link building options to choose from for clients who want even better results from their link building efforts and more options to customize their internet marketing. Link building just got a whole lot better. Good stuff.

20 Press Release Ideas For Your Business

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

press releases Most SEO professionals understand the importance of creating a variety of outlets for their online marketing efforts. Press releases can be great marketing tools, and can be one of the more effective ways of getting information out there for clients and creating powerful link juice, but coming up with great press release ideas can be confounding.

You can write press releases about your company, your products, your employees, your customers, community activities, even your marketing efforts! Below is a list of possible press release ideas that should help generate some great content:
  • Earning recognition of the company, product or executives by a publication
  • Announcing that you’re available to speak on particular subjects of interest
  • Issuing a statement of position regarding a local, regional or national issue
  • Announcing the results of research or surveys you have conducted
  • Making public statements on future business trends or conditions
  • Announcing a public appearance on television, radio or in person
  • Announcing that you’ve reached a major milestone
  • Restructuring your business or its business model
  • Forming a new strategic partnership or alliance
  • Establishing a unique vendor agreement 
Any of the above ideas can serve as great topics for a press release. Has your company or an individual recently earned an accolade? Does your company predict a future business trend that could help promote the business or one of your products? How about a company restructuring during tough economic times that will result in your business being meaner and leaner? Press releases not only give exposure to your business but if worded correctly, could position your company as a subject matter expert.
 
Need some more ideas? Try one of the ones below:
  • Introducing a unique strategy/approach
  • Setting up a customer advisory group
  • Obtaining a new, significant customer
  • Expanding or renovating the business
  • Participating in a philanthropic event
  • Announcing free information available
  • Sponsoring a workshop or seminar
  • Celebrating an anniversary
  • Announcing a partnership
Workshops, anniversaries and partnerships are great ways to highlight what your company has to offer, how long it’s been in business, or what steps you’re taking to strengthen your business. 
 
Did you know that a good press release can attract thousands of visitors to your website, while simultaneously creating a much higher search engine rank by creating inbound links to your site? This is the key to press release marketing:  the fact that thousands of websites will become your partners in promotion. You can’t ask for much better exposure than that. If you look at press releases from a marketing perspective, you can really appreciate how they can drive traffic to your website, serve as sales tools (and great content) for bloggers, and so much more.
 
Coming up with the idea of press releases is the most challenging part. After that, leave the actual writing and distribution to press release marketing professionals, who will make sure the content is SEO friendly, and then watch the quality traffic increase to your website!
 
One word of caution; a press release should be news, do not confuse it with an article!
 
This post written by Vertical Measures’ team member – Patty Adams

Ten (More) Links You Can Get Right Now

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Back in March 2008, we posted a great little article called "10 Good Links You Can Get in the Next 50 Minutes".  By popular demand, we have researched additional resources for garnering great link juice for your website, and came up with the highly creative title, "Ten (More) Links You Can Get Right Now."  Personally, I voted for “Ten Links Strikes Back,” but that’s a whole different story.  As you know, it is imperative to keep up on your link building efforts, and we understand how difficult it can be trying to generate new and different links that will register well with the search engines. We hope you’ll find these ten resources as useful as we did.

Two social networking sites you should join right now. – Facebook and LinkedIn are the social networks in vogue at the moment, especially in the business world.  There are plenty of ways to get noticed and to make connections with other people on both sites, without much spam or the overwhelmingly adolescent element that plagues MySpace.  Both networks allow links back to one’s site in the profile, which provide quite a bit of authority based on the popularity of both domains.

One voting site you should be submitting content to. – About a year ago, Digg would have been the uncontested champion in this category, but since that time it has been inundated with spam (and disrespectful users) and they’re starting to ban accounts frequently.  Therefore, Mixx is the new site of choice here, and since they also allow links in profiles, creating one is a great opportunity for any link builder.

Two local sites you should be in now. – Google Local is the obvious choice here and, for the most part, their submission process is straightforward.  Go to https://www.google.com/local/add/ and claim your listing before someone else does!  Another excellent local search site is http://www.localsearch.com.  At the moment they don’t have a form for listing submissions, but their contact people respond promptly and are willing to add listings to their index.

A free Wiki Site to use. – While most Wiki sites aren’t particularly SEO friendly, http://www.mywikibiz.com allows registered users to add a Wikipedia-type page about oneself, a business, or pretty much any entity.  Their site is fairly popular and they want lots of content, so go give them some!

A niche site to create a page on. – YouBundle:  It’s neither a Wiki nor a bookmarking site, yet it allows you to create your own content, complete with links.  However, you have to be careful; they only want quality pages that are topically encompassing and (mostly) objective.  I think a couple of my bundles may have already been deleted, but whatever, they’ll never know who I really am!  Wait, which user name did I sign up with again? …

A directory to be in. – Many people are wary of directories these days, but they’re not quite as bad as some make them out to be, especially if you choose the right ones.  Family Friendly Sites is of excellent quality and they have an option for a one-time review fee, which makes them very affordable.  Don’t allow fear of overcrowded categories stop you since most of them are actually very clean; submit your site right now!

Blog commenting you can do right now. – While it’s tempting to try and find a single really great blog post to share, blog commenting has become so essential to certain SEO campaigns that a single post won’t make much difference overall.  So, why settle for one comment?  Go to:  http://linkbuildingbible.com/dofollowdiver/ and search for your keywords.  Their tool finds only DoFollow blogs to comment on, so make them good ones!

This post! – So you’re reading this blog and you’ve gotten this far.  Maybe you like the content and maybe you don’t, but you almost certainly have some kind of an opinion that is valid.  If you think it out and expand on it a little bit, you can come up with something useful to say.  Just make 3 respectful and informative comments on our site and your comment links will become DoFollow; do comment away; we certainly don’t mind.

So there you have it; 10 more links you can get right now.  Even if you did no other link building for a site, these options are a great way to give the search engines many great ways to find your domain and index your pages.

 

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