Follow Us
Facebook Twitter Linkedin
    Hyperdog Media Logo
    Contact Us

    Denver SEO

    Diversify and Conquer the Ever-Changing SERPs

    by

    Google is constantly changing their Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), and recently caused a stir by removing ads from the right side. For years, organic positions have been changing: Traditional “organic text listings” have been shrinking, but ads have always had their place. And ads have increasingly dominated above the fold. With 4 ads on top, and no ads on the side, it’s a big visual change for desktop search, but there are opportunities. Ad Domination When Google makes a change, we all know by now that the change has been tested thoroughly – and will help them expand on their already 74.5 billion revenue. For some queries, it feels like ads are the new page 1. There might be local, images, news, and perhaps some organic. What we see above the fold in these cases feels like an interstitial; something that we need to click past. With organic position 4 sometimes now falling on page 2, it’s another reason why traffic can decrease when rankings stay the same. Brand Domination The last several years have seen bigger brands dominate both organic and ppc. Big brands get authority links more easily, and have bigger budgets on the ppc side as well. Google is not the level playing field it once seemed for small business, but is increasingly becoming a way to search for “things to buy from top brands”. On the organic side, Google’s updates have penalized the cheap link building of smaller businesses – while favoring brands in separate efforts. Now PPC will be feeling a crunch: Fewer spots near the top is likely o increase bid prices, while removing some bargain positions with traffic at ad position 5. Opportunities Look closely at the search results your best prospects are seeing. Trust Google’s ever-changing algorithm is making the right decisions – eventually – and use it to your advantage; both organically and in your ad campaign. Diversify Check the SERPs for your favorite target keywords and ask yourself: “What content are prospects looking for with this query?” Luckily, Google has already measured for you! There are a variety of research tools to discover what content is getting clicked, linked, liked, shared, visited, etc. But Google is also figuring this out or you- and really has the final say. Consider the types of content Google has chosen for your query: – Images – News – In-depth Articles – Direct Answers – Apps And are images above organic text listings? That’s Google telling what is most important to people conducting this query! What content you see should be taken into account with your SEO Strategy. Great opportunities abound with image search for most sites. On the PPC side, bargains tend to match Google’s latest innovations. Inexpensive clicks are best found in the newest kinds of ads: Product Listing Ads, remarketing, video ads, etc. Smart advertisers implement these before the competition arrives. And by diversifying among different types of advertising, marketers can measure, compare and choose the most efficient. And are you using all of the features of PPC? <a href=”https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/02/23/google-kills-right-hand-side-ads-what-does-this-mean-for-sem/”>Larry Kim pointed out</a> that, since the change, “now all ads can use call-out extensions, sitelink extensions, location extensions, etc.” That’s a huge opportunity to raise CTR in any position, especially if you implement before the ads next to yours.   2.  Piggyback Organic opportunities abound for those watching the SERPS. What sites are at the top of the results? Identify each organic slot as competitor or potential link partner. Those wikipedia pages at the top of many queries can become your next source of great referral traffic. And something Google increasingly references as it scrapes and answers related queries. In the world of PPC, there are also opportunities to piggyback. See apps in the mobile results? Consider in-app advertising. Any site listed in Google’s top results is worth investigating as a potential advertising opportunity, as well. Consider Google your “advertising research engine” for the best sites. As more ads and different kinds of ads are introduced, Google still gives opportunities to nimble marketers. Use Google’s SERPs to research both the content and advertising landscape of your best prospects. And then implement before your competitors. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Google, The Internet Police Force, Aims At Mobile

    by

    Google is quickly becoming the self-appointed internet police force. To be fair, it sure is nice to have Google warn us when a website may be compromised and spreading malware. Google recently gave some false positives, but otherwise does a good job of keeping the internet a safe and happy place. Now Google is going a step further and is targeting mobile experience. With dramatic increases in mobile search over the last several years (and decreasing desktop search), Google is on a mission to identify mobile-friendly design and usability. Google is again changing the face of the web by mandating these features for sites that wish to rank highly in search results. Text vs Images In the early days of the web, browsers did not support multiple typefaces / fonts. Designers used jpg and gif images to create buttons for their menus and navigation, but search engines couldn’t read the words – missing an important signal about the URLs being linked to. A compromise had to be made, and for designers it felt less than ideal. The advent of web fonts have breathed life back into web design, but it was a difficult transition for many. Site Speed Slow website loading times are repulsive to Google in a couple of different ways: Not only are Googlebot’s crawlers tied up, but user experience suffers as well. Google can see bounce rates increase and knows they didn’t deliver the “right result” in those ten blue links. Ads Above the Fold Google’s own advertising system helped create a world of sites filled with ads. Users developed ad blindness and ad blockers, but usability still suffered. Having ads at the top of the page became a signal of poor quality to Google, and they rolled out an algorithm update specifically targeting these designs. Moving the ads meant a reduction in revenue for many sites, but changes were made to preserve the sweet flow of Google traffic. Mobile Google’s latest improvement for the web is happening in mobile. Last fall, they started testing labeling which results were mobile friendly, showing tags next to sites on mobile devices. Google has announced a big change is coming in April for their mobile search results: sites will be severely penalized for a lack of mobile usability. Labels will be given to mobile friendly sites, too. It’s likely that many sites will see a drop in ranking when this goes into effect. Google and Bing both understand mobile is their most important battleground for marketshare, and Google assures us the change means “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” For businesses, it will be vital that all pages pass Google’s Mobile friendly test, check Mobile Error Reports in Webmaster Tools and watch for common mistakes on mobile. Not sure of next steps for your site? Time to start testing – or maybe a redesign from that “good place”. Need a good interactive agency or website design firm? We’ve worked with agencies and designers. And we partner with the best! Talk to us about your needs, and we’ll introduce you to the right match. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Summary of Search: Who is Syndicating Who? What to know about syndicating your blog.

    by

    SUMMARY OF SEARCH Google released a new Panda 4.1 update this month and unique, relevant content and overall site quality has never been more vital. Syndication actually plays a large part in what Google sees as duplicate content. Done correctly, syndication can mean new visitors, brand exposure, social shares, and links to your site (which are seen as “Votes” by Google). When implemented poorly, another site may look to Google like the authoritative source for your content – and your site is seen as a spammy “scraper” site. Why does it matter? Google prefers to show a piece of content only once in the top ten results. When Google finds the same content in two places on the internet, it will typically show the most authoritative site in the higher position, and other sites on page 2 or 3 (or 20). But a site with more authority doesn’t necessarily deserve credit for all content it posts. Canonical tag A few years ago, Google helped create the “canonical tag” to provide authors a chance to specify the original source for articles that could be syndicated, scraped, or otherwise end up all over the web. It’s a tag that can be placed on other websites, but point back to yours. This could work well, but many larger sites either 1. cannot (will not) accept a canonical tag pointing back to your website – or 2. They insert their own canonical tag pointing to their own site! What does Google do when two canonical tags are encountered for the same content? Revert back to looking at authority, and the smaller site loses out. If using business2community.com or LinkedIn to syndicate your content, your own site/blog is likely to lose the authority test! Syndication used to be much easier. In the “old days”, the deal was that if you gave my site unique content, I gave you a link. In 2013, you could still get the link but it might be nofollow. In 2014, the deal is that you probably do not even get the canonical tag. What to do? Syndicating your content can provide amazing exposure for your business. Don’t walk away from syndication, but certainly use it in a way that will not harm your own rankings. 1. Ask about policies with the canonical tag Some sites, such as business2community.com and linkedin.com do indeed want to place a canonical tag pointing to their own URL as the one true source of the content. 2. Post unique summaries on syndication sites Everyone wants unique content, so give it to ’em. Just, do it in summarized form. Post the long, full version of your article on your own website, with a summary or intro on the syndication websites. Both locations should have canonical tags and unique content. In this case, linkedin.com might have a canonical tag pointing to it’s own page but it will be the only place that unique content is located. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Doing the Pigeon (Update)

    by

    Last month, Google rolled out one of their largest local search updates in quite some time. Since Google didn’t name the update, Search Engine Land named this one the Google Pigeon Update. It’s seemingly unrelated to Google’s Pigeon Rank, an April Fools joke from back when Google did good and funny things. This update does not penalize sites, but does change how local results are shown: – Fewer queries are generating a map listing / “local pack” – More traditional SEO signals are used, such as title tags and quality inbound links. Some interesting things are happening with this update: – When a query includes the word “yelp”, those listings on yelp.com are back at the top. This fixes a recent bug. – Web design and SEO companies are getting shown in local queries again! If you depend on local traffic, hopefully your results weren’t negatively impacted by the update. The best approach for local visibility includes these tasks: – make sure to update and creat local directory listings on authority sites such as yelp. – Use the highest quality photo on your Google+ business profile, and get more reviews. You might make it into the Carousel listings at the top of Google for some queries. – Make sure your business Name, Address and Phone(NAP) are consistent on your site, google+ business page, and local directories. – Be sure your city/state is in site’s title tags And now for something good, and funny: PSST! Need a Free Link? We’d like to help you promote your own business, hoping more work for you brings more work our way! Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!  Their site also provides an excellent backlink. You may even get human visitors, website projects and new partners. Now THAT’s business development link building!

    Google Moves Against Guest Blogging – March 2014

    by

    Google made two more moves against guest blogging in the last month: 1. Google penalizes a site connecting content marketers and webmasters Content marketing is all about getting your information out to interested webmasters. Google recently penalized a site that simply connects those with content to those with websites. The content varied in form: guest posts, infographics, eBooks, etc. What was the issue exactly?! Having a meeting place to connect great content with great websites SHOULD be win-win. It’s a much better option than spam email hawking content or seeking links from any webmaster that will listen. So, is it wrong to try to connect authors and publishers? Is the editorial value of a link lessened where it was easier to connect to the webmaster? 2. Google penalizes an entire website based upon one guest post it considered off-topic Doc Sheldon, a longtime SEO copywriter, was penalized based on a single guest post he hosted. The posting was about social media to Hispanic audiences, but aroused the interest of Google. And not in a good way. Social media marketing is closely aligned with SEO, and the penalty feels arbitrary – if not confusing. Is Google spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt? Only one thing is clear: Webmasters and business owners are being held accountable 100% for the content on their own website. So what to do? Create a content generating, curating, sharing machine. Sharing content can be a minefield these days, but a safe way forward is: 1. Post full versions of your content to your site, but also Google+, LinkedIn, and promote your content at other relevant places around the web. 2. Tag your content with rich snippets, Facebook open graph, and Twitter cards to increase it’s “sharability” and categorization. Get a free link for your business: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    February 2014 Summary of Search:
    Do as I say, not as I do

    by

    “Do as I say, not as I do” Sometimes Google does things it warns others not to do:1. Don’t be top heavyGoogle just updated it’s “Top heavy” algorithm. For sites that show many ads at the top, or make users scroll to see content, penalties can apply. 2. Don’t scrape content from other websitesMatt Cutts of Google is actively seeking reports of what would be considered “scraper sites”. One SEO responded with a screenshot of Google scraping wikipedia. 🙂http://www.seroundtable.com/google-scraper-site-report-18184.html In other news, Google will now start showing restaurant menus for those keyword searches. But the restaurant brands do not know exactly where Google is scraping this data from, and how to update it.Read the whole scoop here: http://searchengineland.com/now-official-google-adds-restaurant-menus-search-results-185708 3. Links on user generated content sites that pass pagerankFor most sites, Google insists that links created by site visitors are “nofollow”. But Google+ allows links that are curiously “dofollow”. Other sites could indeed be penalized by this. 4. Sell LinksAlmost $17 billion of Google’s almost $17 billion in revenue from last quarter was from “selling links”. But of course, they aren’t “dofollow”. A couple more items have garnered Google’s attention:1. Rich snippets should be used for good, not evilGoogle has been levying a manual penalty against sites using rich snippets in a spammy fashion.http://www.link-assistant.com/news/rich-snippets-penalty.html 2. Don’t try to insert too many keywords with your business listingThere used to be an distinct advantage in having your keywords in your business name. Now Google wants to make sure the business name you use in your business listing matches you business name.– Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.– In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.– Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.– Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are “Starbucks Downtown” or “Joe’s Pizza Delivery”. Examples that would not be accepted would be “#1 Seattle Plumbing”, “Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery”, or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas”.See more: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en So what to do?Create a content generating, curating, sharing machine.1. Post full versions of your content to your site, but also Google+, linkedin, and promote your content at other relevant places around the web.2. Tag your content with rich snippets, facebook open graph, twitter cards to increase it’s “sharability” and categorization. PSST! Need a Free Link?We’d like to help you promote your own business, hoping more work for you brings more work our way! Join our newsletter for our suggestion this month: It’s a site with a pagerank of 9!

    Spam-Fighting Always Continues – December 2013 Summary of Search

    by

    Spam-Fighting Always Continues Google’s Matt Cutts promised a month free of major updates, but added that “spam-fighting always continues.” Indeed, there were some complaints from webmasters around the 17th and 19th that could have been Google taking out another link network. This month, Google made an example out of Rap Genius. The site was offering traffic for blog links. To participate, you had to link to their Justin Bieber page. And somehow feel good about yourself. Oh, and send them the link. Rap Genius would then tweet your link to their followers, sending traffic to your blog. Google caught wind of the link scheme, and severely punished Rap Genius in the rankings. The moral is that Google will always, usually, catch you! So how do you invest in search engine traffic for the long term? 1. Create Content Google wants compelling content: images, blog posts, videos, podcasts, surveys and more. Good content is long (1000 words plus for articles) and holds your visitor’s attention. Google does not want visitors leaving the site quickly (but will probably forgive if it’s an ad click!). 2. Tag Your Content Search engines are getting better at understanding what we humans create on the internet. But communication directly with “search engine bots” has never been easier. These technologies could be better implemented on almost every website: – Internal linking structures – Sitemap.xml – Title tags – Meta descriptions – Rich snippets   – Authorship 3. Get the Word Out Content outreach and marketing has never been more important. Content today is where websites were in 1998: Many build, and then are disappointed at the results. Good content competes against a dizzying array of distractions in an always-connected world, and must be actively marketed – even AGGRESSIVELY marketed – to make an impression. Content must be spread via social media (especially Google+), and marketed specifically for links. These are “earned links” and outreach for the purpose of links wonderful way to promote your content. As a bonus, this promotion of content will also promote rankings! Get a free link for your business: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Summary of Search, October 2013

    by

    (Not provided) Google recently started encrypting all searches, and is now showing “(Not provided)” in Google Analytics for most organic traffic. Some referral traffic will show up from Google.com, and is also organic traffic (But analytics cannot tell if the browser is being ultra-secure). There is no easy solution, but at the next Boulder SEO MeetUp we will be leading a presentation and discussion of alternatives.   Penguin Update Around October 4th, there was an update to Google’s search algorithms. It’s being called Penguin 2.1 (or sometimes Penguin 5) and is a major update. The Penguin updates penalize “over-optimization” and “web spam”, both on websites and looking at website links.   What is “over-optimization?” Using keywords too much in title tags and content Links with anchor-text (the blue underline) focused around too few phrases Anything with your site’s link profile that does not show a narural amount of diversity (duplicate pages titles, inbound links only from press release sites, etc).   What is “Web Spam”? Link networks / schemes Links from de-indexed and banned websites, including old directories, blogs & article sites.   While the impact is supposed to be 1% of English queries, the effect is very large considering the number of Google keyword searches!   The approach we recommend is: 1. Protect Authority link building is the only protection against both negative SEO and Penguin penalties in general. Authority links are gained primarily from great content, promotion and involvement. One authority link can beat hundreds of spammy links in the algorithm of “the new Google”.   2. Defend Find and remove as many unnatural links as you can manually before disavowing the rest. Watch for “Negative SEO” campaigns where an unscrupulous competitor might be creating links to your site just to penalize you!   3. Build Over the long term, these strategies will also help protect from Google penalties, and are, of course, great marketing initiatives: Great content: Copy writing has gone through an evolution and cheap content is not going to cut it. Could it ever though? Promotion & Outreach for Social Media Marketing & Inbound Links: Since the web’s inception, much content has been posted with little regard to promotion. Social, link building, and other outreach initiatives are vital to maximize dollars spent on premium content. Brand Name Searches: Google knows big brands are searched. Their “buzz” is a signal of authority, although not yet on par with link building. User Engagement: Once a visitor is onsite, engage them. Keep their interest and involvement. Good design and excellent content have never been so important. Google has been watching this for some time. Multi-tiered approaches: Spread marketing dollars broadly across many initiatives. It creates a variety of signals to Google that you are legit.   Bing While Google+ is trying to understand social connections & influence from it’s own network, Bing is leveraging Klout. Bing has announced deeper integration with Klout and more control regarding how profiles show up.   Get a free link for your business: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business! .

    Summary of Search, September 2013

    by

    Google announced that it rewrote pretty much it’s entire algorithm last month in that “unnamed update.” It’s the biggest change since 2001. Seventy percent of the Search Engine Results Pages were affected! Compare that to Penguin, in which something like 3 percent of SERPs were affected. The new Google algorithm is code-named “Hummingbird.” Many of the basics are the same: 1. Content should be accessible / easy to navigate for search engines. 2. Keywords should be properly tagged, with special boost to those using: a. Semantic markup b. Rich snippets c. Google authorship 3. Authoritative links According to one expert, “Quick SEO” is firmly in the past. We couldn’t agree more: Google has been strongly advocating this direction for some time. And the Panda/Penguin updates began steering the industry more than 2 years ago. Panda & Penguin aren’t going away: They are parts of the new algorithm and are likely to get additional updates in the future. Across our clients, we saw very little change. Certain keywords had light movement up or down on August 20, but not by much. If you follow Google’s rules, you don’t get hit.   WHAT’S NEW IN HUMMINGBIRD? 1. Mobile/Voice/Location queries Google expanded it’s ability to deal with mobile/voice & location based queries like: “What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s?” They also have more comparisons showing via the “knowledge graph” for queries like: “space needle versus empire state building” 2. “Entity search” In keyword based queries of yesteryear (and even “yestermonth”), google sometimes couldn’t figure out queries like “windows replacement” and “windows 7 replacement”: Is it a PC user or a homeowner asking? Google is using a database of facts about specific, unique entities (people, places, businesses, events, etc) to figure out how to return the best results. Think about the broad keywords you are targeting, and consider how you can “talk around” these topics. 3. Hashtag search The only posts that will show up on Google searches are those that were shared publicly, or shared with you (if you’re a Google+ user). Clicking on one of the Google+ posts leads you to Google+ where the search is reproduced. There are also links at the bottom of the sidebar to perform the hashtag search over at twitter or facebook, but these are bumped below the fold in less than 2 seconds – as new Google+ posts fill the sidebar.   MOVING FORWARD: 1. Create content around your “entities” Engaging, shareable, linkable content is now more important than ever. Do you have every kind of content about your subject? Consider videos, images, lists, podcasts, infographics, and articles regarding the entities you want to be found for. These are likely your broad keywords, but don’t go too broad. 2. Tag content with semantic markup & rich snippets Google is smart, indeed. But semantic markup & rich snippets make it easy for Google to understand the correct answers for their users questions. Rich snippets have grown in importance, and are now “must have” for search engine visibility. While Google is still working out the kinks in authorship for brands, it’s becoming increasingly important that authorship be implemented. 3. Content Marketing Link Building & Social Media Marketing Having great content was never enough, and it still isn’t. There are more ways than ever to get the word out. Some will even help you win authority links.   Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!

    Summary of Search, August 2013

    by

    Summary of Search Is Google backward compatible? The previous advice from Google, given in their 2008 Starter Guide for SEO, is now “out the window.” Google previously recommended that the underlined text of a link (aka “anchortext”) contained keywords, but now finds that somewhat spammy. The new Google direction is all about authority link building, not keyword-focused link building. It’s nice to occasionally say: “There was only one major update this month in Google.” It’s an as-yet unnamed update that changed the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) in a way similar to Penguin 1.0. Google did, however, roll-out out an exciting new feature with this update: Special placement in search results for “high-quality, in-depth content” that is properly tagged. See their example:   How do you take advantage of this special placement? Try this: Tag everything to make it easy for google to figure out: Use schema.org “article” markup: http://schema.org/Article Provide authorship markup: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3280182 Include pagination markup, if applicable (rel=next and rel=prev) Create a Google Plus page, linked to your website: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1708844 Provide information about your organization’s logo: (organization markup) http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/05/using-schemaorg-markup-for-organization.html Create compelling in-depth content (so easy, right?) Lengthy – Google has given no numbers, specifically, but we recommend text content of 1000-3000 words in length. Engaging – Google is likely looking at many metrics, including time on page, as signals of engagement. Popular – Content that is popular has inbound links, shares, likes, plus-ones, etc. And it probably has links to it from the site’s homepage or other important pages on the site. See more about the announcement at: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2013/08/discover-great-in-depth-articles-on.html Google is communicating about penalties much better than in the past, too: They have added a feature to Webmaster Tools which will alert webmasters if a manual penalty has been levied. Recent interviews have revealed that disavowed links are not stored. This means that old disavowed links must be included in every new batch submitted. Disavowing some links appears to be a normal part of modern SEO. Multiple reconsideration requests are okay, and are considered independently of past requests every time. Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox?  Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!