In a nutshell negative SEO is the practice of using spam methods directed at a competitors site in an effort to drive their rankings down or get them de-indexed. In my opinion this has to be the lamest, most sneaky and unethical practice a professional SEO could deal in. The good folks over at SEOMOZ have put out a video on the myths and realities of negative SEO and some precautions you can take. Enjoy.
Author Archive for Mike
Posted by: Mike
April 28, 2012
I was doing some research for a client this afternoon when I noticed an interesting change in the Google SERP. In the screen print below I was doing a search for “antique repair raleigh nc”.
Normally you might expect to see a 7 pack box at the top of the results page and a map with the place markers, however in this case the results are a bit different.
In this result there is one organic listing right at the top followed by a kind of large version of the 7 pack which takes up much of the page.
For businesses that have reviews they are also showing a snippet of a review, any rating they might have and a link to their place page. Also the map appears on the right hand side above the paid advertising and scrolls up and down with the page.
At the very bottom of the SERP are 5 more organic listings, including the one at the very top makes for just 6 organic spots instead of the normal 10 you would expect to see.
I suspect this is just a test they are running and that the results will return to what we have been used to lately. Google is constantly trying to improve it’s user experience and this is an interesting look into the direction that they are considering.
Google SERP testing
Posted by: Mike
October 28, 2010
I had an opportunity to visit the Syracuse First Chapter of BNI this morning while I’m in my hometown this week. I wanted to thank them for making my wife and I feel welcome at their meeting especially Tim Kissane of Kissane Water Conditioning, Ron Russell of Heartwood Millwork and Dr. Margie Miller DC.
Even though we were dog tired after the long drive in from Raleigh yesterday I was glad we got up early to visit, they have a really great group of local business people and a fun but professional meeting.
Posted by: Mike
October 7, 2010
According to a study done by Comscore web users now spend more of their time on Facebook than on Google sites including YouTube. This study just continues to reinforce the need to get your local business on Facebook with a fan page. The simple fact of the matter is that your business needs to be in the places where all the people are hanging out online. Here is what social media watchdog Mashable had to say:
“We already know that Facebook is the web’s biggest time sink. If you look at the average amount of time (according to Nielsen) users spend on the social network, Facebook is a clear winner over sites such as Google or Yahoo. Now, according to comScore, Facebook is also first when it comes to the total amount of time users are spending on the site.” Read the rest…
Posted by: Mike
September 19, 2010
It’s really important that your site have the right keywords in it’s meta keywords tags, use the wrong keywords and you’ll be on page 4 forever. This is a pet peeve of mine with so called “SEO firms” that charge incredible prices to do a job the wrong way. Let me give you an example of the kind of stuff I see all the time…
Lets say that you are a house painter in Raleigh and you’ve had a website created, but you can’t make it off page 4 of the results. When I look at the meta descriptions in the code of your website I see this in the meta keywords tag:
<meta name=”keywords” content=”house painter”, “raleigh”, “cary”, “apex”, “nc”, “quality”, “professional”, “house painting”, “painting”, “painter”, “house”, “interior”, “exterior”
You might look at that and say, “Hey Mike, that looks fine to me whats the problem?”
You have to think like a search engine to understand why those are not the proper keywords to put in the tags for a house painter in Raleigh. Think about it for a minute… what do the single keywords “quality” or “professional” or “NC” or ‘exterior” or “painting” have to do with House Painting in Raleigh? That’s right, nothing.
Proper search engine optimization (SEO) must start with the right keywords, if you are not using the right keywords your website will have trouble making it to the first page of the search engines.
The more appropriate keywords to use in the example above would be: “house painting raleigh nc”, “house painting cary nc”, “raleigh nc painter”, “raleigh nc house painting”, “residential painter raleigh”.
These keywords are far more focused and relevant to a website for a Raleigh House Painter and help the search engine spiders more easily determine what your site is about.
It’s these little SEO mistakes that are costing you money and causing your website to languish unseen in the search engines on page 4, 5, 6, 7….
That’s why it’s important to work with someone that knows what they are doing, because the little things count big.
Posted by: Mike
August 5, 2010
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