2 blog posts in one day! No we haven’t gone mad… yet. We just thought that you all should see this news as soon as possible.

In the last few hours Google has changed their algorithm that pulls in review numbers. Previously when you searched for a hotel, let’s say in Chattanooga TN, you were shown a count of reviews box to the right of each search result that numbered in the hundreds or even thousands for 1st page GP results. This was because Google pulled the reviews from a number of different sources to build the cumulative count of reviews. However, now Google shows an extremely low number. Why?

The review number for this hotel is now, just 15. Previously for the Chattanoogan this figure was in excess of  200 reviews ( Tripadvisor + hotels.com + yahoo etc. etc.). This change may have a close correlation with the gaining traction of Google +1. Google wants its active members to get involved and have the main say behind review results.

So what is the impact hotel and other industry local SEO effort? The number of Google Places reviews (and their quality) will likely have a huge say in future SERP rankings. For instance my search above ranks the hotels almost perfectly in review number order – 32, 15, 4 & 5.

So what’s your follow up question to that? Hands up please… That’s right… How do we get more Google reviews? Thats something that agencies and clients need to think about and resolve before Google leaves them behind.

There’s really no easy answer to this question and, if you ask 10 different SEO professionals, you’re likely to get 11 different answers.
I’ll define it the easiest way and the way I always define it for our clients: SEM involves PPC and SEO doesn’t.

In a sense, SEM and SEO are one in the same. With SEM, you pull out all of the stops to get your site(s) ranking, including paying for instant results by using ads of somes ort, be it AdWords, banner advertisements or other PPC campaigns. With SEO, you’re not paying for placement for your keywords, therefore it takes some time to achieve the results you want.

Naturally, the next question is, “which is better?”. As with everything, there’s pros and cons to each. With SEM, you can get nearly instantaneous results which ofcourse means, instant traffic. You decide which spot you want to appear in foryour chosen keyword. And, with that decision comes a, sometimes, hefty price. The advantage is you get to choose to be first or second or third place (how often do youget THAT choice in life?) The downside is once your money runs out, you vanishfrom the search results.

Although SEO does take time along with an investment of resources (time, money,etc.), the results can, literally, last for years. While you don’t necessarily get tochoose your exact position within the search engines, there’s ways to make certain you get pretty close to your chosen spot (#1, presumably!). The only true downside to SEO, in my estimation, is the time it takes to see results (traffic to your website).
Some may think that SEM exists without SEO. In fact, SEO is a crucial portion of SEM; I consider SEO a subset of SEM.

Whether or not you choose SEO or SEM approaches for traffic generation yourwebsite, you must be mindful of your reader. Design a site for your reader and your visitors will stick. Design your site for the search engines and your visitors won’t stick. And, non-sticky visitors = loss of revenue. Choose wisely. And use lots of duct tape, err… design your site for your visitor for maximum stickiness!

Just when you least expect it, Google comes out with a new, different kind of math.  A math truly for the masses.

Not to worry.  It’s not going to require night classes to catch up.  There’s nothing particularly difficult about it.  But, it does requires three things:

• Planning
• Implementation
• Customer interaction

In short, Google’s come out with a response to Facebook’s ever-so-popular “Like” button.  Google calls their flavor, “+1”.  And, it has many in the SEO world thinking it’s going to impact search engine positioning and results.

The way it works

When a user is signed in with their Google profile, they’ll search the web just like normal, but when results appear in their query, they’ll see a “+1 button” next to the results.  In short, by clicking the +1, they’ll be able to cast their vote for that site.  Aside from impeachment, it’s just like real-life: the more votes, the better.

If you remember, in October 2010, a shift in search engine positioning happened as it related to local results.  Google began combining your website’s optimization effectiveness along with Google Places optimization effectiveness, to position your website in local search result listings.  In other words, if your site and your Google Places listing were both properly and effectively optimized, your positioning within local search results were improved.  With +1, I see this as much of the same thing: Google  will combine this factor, along with its countless other factors, to figure out just how great you are and where to place your site within its results.

What this means for your business

Although this feature is experimental right now and, as Google states with every beta “product” they debut, they can and may remove this function at any given time.  However, now is the time to seize the day.

The possibilities are really endless.   Now is the time to leverage your assets (your customers) and build your reputation online.  Through QR code implementation, you could have your customers +1 you all the way to the top.

It’s always been said that word of keyboard mouth, is the best form of advertising.  And, it looks like Google has found a way to bring that to the table to do what it does best: provide the best user experience on the web.  Period.

How to implement

If you haven’t developed a social media plan already, I’d certainly recommend that you do so.  Choosing the best digital firm can help you combine your offline marketing strategies together with the best online marketing strategies to create a greater ROI for your business.

Carpe Diem!

Google Dance… free lessons, coming to a studio near you

Have you ever opened up your homepage (Google, I presume?), typed in your keyword and have your
heart sink to your feet? If not, you’re one of the very few who’s never experienced this hot, new dance
craze called The Google Dance.

When you’re acquiring links from various sources, your rankings will jump around all over the place for
a few days. Depending on the quantity of link building you are doing, your rankings may even fluctuate
for a couple of weeks or even a month. And this, my fellow #1 SERP-seekers, is what we affectionately
call The Google Dance.

(What, did you really think those crazy teens created a dance to pay homage to the King Of The
Internet? )

Although the length of time varies for the dance, there is one thing that’s just about guaranteed: if
you’re doing any kind of link building, the Google Dance is inevitable. And, here’s why- when your site
has an influx of links coming in with your anchor word hyperlinked, Google has to figure out how to
rank you in your rightful place. I mean, after all, if 1,000 people (read: websites), say that your site is
the bomb for “green widgets”, obviously Google’s algorithm is going to be tripped to say, “hey wait a
minute. 1,000 people have said http://www.yoursite.com/ is great for ‘green widgets’. Let’s take a look
and see where we’ll put them in the SERP’s for ‘green widgets’ “. And then begins the dancing.

We’ve had clients email or call in a state of near-panic wondering why their site dropped off the face of the
earth. I always tell them, “it’s because of our recent link building. Be patient. I promise your rankings
will come back up and, better than before.” Initially, this may not set their mind at ease, however, when
what I’ve said bears out to be true, they’re most satisfied with the results of their patience.

So, the moral of the story is this: when it comes to Google and link building, the two of you will tango.
There’s no way to predict how long your dance will last. Just ride it out and you’ll be glad your dance
card was filled by the King of the Prom, The Google Algorithm.

You can talk to most SEO professionals and while their philosophies may differ on SEO, there’s few basic principles that most can agree on, but one is this: on-page SEO is important for your site.  Now, I’m not going to go as far as saying that I think it’s the most important thing for ranking your site, but it’s certainly important.

In basic terms proper on-page SEO is simply making sure the hierarchy of your site is clear, concise and directed at what you hope to accomplish.  For example, if you want to rank for the term web marketing, your site would consist of content and words that are relevant to web marketing, not kitchen utensils.  Sound pretty straightforward, right?  Well, it is.  Sort of.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced with companies is trying to convince them that when it comes to on-page SEO, more is not always better.  As a matter of fact, most of the time it makes things worse.  When I conduct an on-page SEO audit, the first thing I focus on is copy on the site.  Most of the time I find that companies have over-optimized for their keywords.  In other words, they’ve broken one of the cardinal rules of Google which is “do not keyword stuff”.   They’ve tried to fit every possible keyword that they’d like to rank for, in every single paragraph of every single page of their site.  Ok, that’s a bit exaggerative.  Perhaps not every paragraph, but certainly every page.  BIG NO-NO.

For most companies, optimizing one keyword per page is pretty impossible to do for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, they generally have a million keywords and only a four page website.  Ok, maybe not a four page website and a million keywords, but suffice it to say that the number of keywords that most would like to rank for far outweigh the number of pages of content on their site.  And, the second and perhaps the most frustrating thing from an SEO perspective is that their SEO is an after-thought.  They’ve spent thousands of dollars along with countless man hours on designing a site and, at the last minute, they’ve decided they’d like to throw in a bit of SEO, making it impossible to go back and optimize one keyword per page.

In those cases where it’s impossible to optimize one keyword per page, I advise to pick one main keyword, and two other related keywords that would naturally occur in the course of “conversation” and utilize those within the copy.  And, not as many times as you can, but rather in a natural way.  The general rule of thumb I like to follow for content on a page is that the main keyword should appear three times: once in the opening copy of the page, once in the middle and once in closing.  The other two “secondary keywords” should appear no more than two times each, positioning the keywords in the same manner.  In the SEO world, we call this “keyword density”.  If you’re writing average length paragraphs, the rule above should put you at 2-4% keyword density which, in my opinion, is ideal.

In addition to properly crafted copy for on-page SEO, I also recommend utilizing available tags such as the title, h1, h2, and, particularly, those nifty little alt tags for images.  Many put a great deal of emphasis on meta keyword tags and, frankly, Google doesn’t even utilize that particular tag as a key ranking factor and the reason is this: keyword stuffing.  Companies and individuals alike were placing every possible keyword within that tag, helping their site rank for things it shouldn’t even rank for.  Google got wise and changed their algorithm and now that tag is virtually useless.  I do still include it, simply to complete the package, but I don’t put any value in it.

When it comes to on-page SEO, you can do it right and you can do it really wrong.  And, if you really want to do it right, I recommend consulting with a premier SEO company and knocking it out of the park.  As I like to say, go big or go home.