Category Archive: SEO

1. 10 Free SEO Tools to Improve Your Website Ranking

   November 6, 2018 11:46 pm 2 Comments

   

   Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the most utilized of the many different types of digital marketing initiatives. Defined as the practice of increasing organic website traffic, SEO is also the least expensive content marketing option there is.

   SEO is a long and exhaustive process, however. Its application requires patience and dedication, as well as an array of tools helpful for the research of keywords, and the gathering and processing of data, among other things.

   Check out some of the best of them in our list below:

   #1- Google Search Console

   Google Search Console is a free web service by Google that gives webmasters the ability to monitor and maintain their sites’ performance and indexing status. It also determines the following:

   • Queries used that lead end users to their website
   • The comparative performance of the many different queries that lead end users to their website
   • Sites that link to their website
   • The compatibility of their website to mobile devices

   #2 – Google Keyword Planner

   Another free tool from the search giant, Google Keyword Planner assists in keyword research for any and every niche in the market. The tool also does the following:

   • Find information for new and existing keywords
   • Provide invaluable historical statistical and traffic forecast data
   • Provides estimations in clicks and conversions, even serving as a guide in maneuvering the tricky maze of bids and budgets for campaigns

   #3 – Google Analytics

   Google Analytics is every webmaster’s one-stop-shop for every performance they need. It provides insight into a website’s key performances online, which are helpful for marketers looking for vital indicators that will be useful in improving a website’s overall ranking.

   It comes with a conveniently customizable dashboard that could display up-to-date and real-time statistics. Some of the data made available in this free web service include the following:

   • Number of active users
   • Type of users (New vs Returning)
   • Demographics (Age and Gender)
   • Geographical Location
   • User Behavior
   • Technology utilized
   • Users Flow
   • Conversions
   • Network Referrals
   • Content
   • Traffic Sources

   #4 – Moz Keyword Explorer

   Designed by Moz, the Moz Keyword Explorer or KWE is arguably the leading authority in all things SEO related.

   Information could be easily obtained by feeding any of the following onto the search bar: keyword, root domain, subdomain, and exact page. The tool allows SEO enthusiasts to “leverage the largest, most accurate search keyword database to discover and prioritize the best keywords” for their websites.

   Like many other SEO tools, the KWE also has features that could only be unlocked by availing the paid subscription, though the features that do come with the free account are already pretty useful by themselves.

   According to moz.com, the top five unique features of the Moz Keyword Explorer are:

   • KWE takes you all the way through the keyword research process.
   • Metrics essential to the SEO process.
   • KWE’s volume score is the first volume estimation metric that goes beyond what AdWords reports.
   • Keyword suggestions inside KWE come from almost all the sources Moz saw SEOs access manually in their research processes.
   • Import and export functionality are strongly supported.

   #5 – Buzzsumo

   Buzzsumo, on the other hand, is a tool that focuses on content. Any digital marketer worth their salt would know that content is the bread-and-butter of SEO.

   Paid traffic can only take you so far, and at the end of the day, it’s riveting and attention-catching content that wins the game.

   Buzzsumo identifies which type of content would work well with a specific niche, by providing collated information about the top existing players and contributors in a particular topic and field of interest.

   #6 – Spyfu

   Spyfu, originally known as Googspy, is a keyword and search analytics tool. Much like Google’s Keyword Planner and Moz’ Keyword Explorer, Spyfu allows valuable insight to a number of metrics in relation to keywords, search volume, click-through-rate, cost-per-click and ranking difficulty among many others.

   Its most attractive feature is its ability to not just provide a business keyword data of its own campaign, but of its competitors as well.

   #7 – Ubersuggest

   Recently acquired by digital marketing and SEO expert Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is yet another precious keyword research tool that promises to show every bit of available information for free.

   According to neilpatel.com, the website in which Ubersuggest has been relaunched as a part of, these are the three advantages to using Ubersuggest:

   • Keyword Suggestions. Volume, competition, seasonal trends and even negative keyword and filtering have been made available completely for free.
   • Keyword Difficulty. Shows how hard/expensive certain keywords would be, with emphasis on competitiveness of keywords and phrases.
   • Competitive Intelligence. Displays data determining who ranks for what keywords.

   #8 – Siteliner

   Siteliner is a software that diagnoses a website, and looks for issues and errors that might contribute to its online performance in terms of search engine ranking. It pinpoints duplicate content, broken links, page power, and generates a detailed report about the site.

   #9 – Screaming Frog

   The Screaming Frog is an “SEO spider tool” that crawls websites, collecting and analyzing data. Indispensable for beginners and experts alike, it ultimately filters out SEO issues that they might be rectified and improved.

   #10 – Semrush

   Semrush provides a suite of tools for keyword research and competitor analysis. It gives users access to various metrics with emphasis on SEO, PPC, and traffic forecasts. Unlike Google Analytics though, Semrush is focused not just on tracking the progress of a webmaster’s own site, but more on overcoming its competitors.

   Takeaways

   Of course, there are more tools out there that might prove useful when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. The key would be to look for the following traits: proven track record, UI that is easily usable and navigable, and accurate metrics and measurement tools.

   The sheer number of things that require constant meticulous surveillance might seem daunting at first, but remember- knowledge is power. An age-old adage that certainly holds true even in the world of digital marketing.

2. Is Guest Blogging Bad For Your Site?

   April 29, 2014 1:37 pm Leave a Comment

   

   There’s nothing more interesting for us working in the digital marketing space than getting a heap of assurance about what we‘re doing, to be specific guest blogging. Is it a good thing for business or is guest blogging bad for your site?

   Earlier this year, Matt Cutts stirred the entire web with his odd decree that guest blogging is dead, done, decaying. The online community was resentful, of course. Who wouldn’t be when it’s Google’s head of search who’s giving the talk, albeit a mere personal blog post?

   To give you a sense of Matt Cutts’ controversial statement, “stick a fork on it, guest blogging is done,” he decried that guest blogging is fast turning into a zombie, just kidding! He decried that many low-quality blogs are latching on guest blogging to get free links for the purpose of getting higher ranking over search engines.

   Instantly, many fought back with rants using social media and tweets that a mistake has been committed. Sure the declaration bugged and divided the hell out of search engine marketers, until finally compelling Matt to issue some clarifications.

   This time around, he clarified the type of guest blogging that’s the subject of his critical post – the ones aimed at earning links to get higher spot in search engines. In other words, for search engine optimization purposes.

   As if really needing to get his reputation back, Matt offered a counter, with an elaboration on the good reasons guest blogging become a sound practice.His examples include what it can offer highly-opinionated bloggers: exposure, increased reach and popularity in any niche community.

   Matt differentiated high-quality multi-author blogs with low-quality or spam sites. He said he favored the former, whose likes include BoingBoing, which can be pretty compelling, useful and relevant. The latter type, he said, are only existing because they need guest blogging for SEO purposes.

    

   Benefits of Guest Blogging

   

    

   Blogging as a guest on another site or guest blogging has some obvious advantages to get found. If you’re serious about building your reputation online, this practice shouldn’t be left out among your arsenal of digital marketing tactics.

   While some of the cool reasons why to guest blog were already cited by Matt Cutts, in this section, I will try to elaborate on some and add a few more reasons to convince your boss about spending quality time writing blogs for another site.

    

   Building Your Network

    

   Like meeting new people from attending a networking conference or charity ball, guest blogging functions in pretty similar fashion, albeit getting your acquaintance or new audience from a different blog page.

   With guest blogging, you get to introduced with new audience since your bio and social links are attached. Meanwhile, the publications or blogs you write for will obviously get to share some traffic when you promote your post to your own constituents.

   What happens after this is more important – connecting and building relationships with a new audience.

    

   Increasing Your Credibility and Authority

    

   When people Google your name and find you on various third party sites or blogs, you create a reputation of being trustworthy or an authority in your field. Perceptions that you are credible because of your multiple writing gigs help a lot in drawing more invitations from other publications and blogs for you to write for.

   A bonus benefit that comes along is that you get branded as an expert in your chosen topic or endeavor. There’s a big opportunity that awaits you – being an expert of a specific topic to various audiences.

    

   Giving You New Traffic

    

   Consider this a bonus you derive out of guest blogging. Every time your work gets published somewhere, you receive a little link back to your website, and that bring along new traffic.

    

   The Disadvantages of Guest Blogging

   Time-Consuming

    

   Writing great, quality content is not done in a haste. Often, the amount of time required to produce engaging content takes time only because you need to do your homework, particularly research. There will also be a great need to edit and proofread your work.

   And if the publication requires that you submit your own artwork or images, it will be another aspect to consider. So you will have to weigh the amount of time you consumed with the benefits you and your organization will benefit before pursuing any guest blogging gigs.

    

   Get Easily Abused

    

   Guest blogging, like writing, has started great and positive reason. However, as marketers and SEO practitioners get hungry for inbound links and traffic from the community, the practice get abused and exploited, as in other marketing tactics that preceded these efforts.

   Guest blogging for the sole purpose of manipulating their search results, after marketers found the loopholes to exploit, are perfect way to get penalized by Google.

    

   Write Quality Guest Blog, No Matter What

    

   There’s no denying what your brand or your organization can achieve by guest blogging – exposure, credibility, added traffic, and new audience, among many opportunities. And if you’re doing that, you’ll prove Matt Cutts wrong.

   Guest blogging is not dead. And while there may be some serious disadvantages like being time-consuming and the vulnerability of the practice to be exploited, this SEO practice is absolutely an important effort to increase your reach and grow your social media exposure.

   If ever people complain about guest blogging as either illegal or crappy, these flaws only exist because of the very ones who are greedy to manipulate search results. So look at it this way, you’re only screwed if you screw the hell out of guest blogging.

   What’s nice is that there are very few golden rules or SEO tips to keep in your heart: focus on quality and resist the temptation to be writing crappy posts. https://www.bigoutsource.com/blog/is-guest-blogging-bad-for-your-site/Adhere to quality standards and do ethical blogging to win new audience and loyal followers in the long run, until they pay attention to your brand and your business.

   When you regard your writing or blogging with high regard, you benefit out of the incredible value you offer to your readers and the publications you are writing for.

   So to our question if guest blogging is bad for your site, the answer really depends upon you. The side you choose in employing guest blogging as an authentic way to reach people will determine the consequences for your site.

    

3. 10 Tips on How to Hire an Effective SEO Agency in the Philippines

   December 11, 2013 3:45 pm 1 Comment

   

   Optimizing brands for search engines can be very tough and costly because there are just too many websites and blogs competing for the same or similar keywords. While attempting to do it themselves can be pretty helpful initially, however it is by hiring an SEO expert where businesses can reap strong return on investment in the long run. One of the best options available is by outsourcing to offshore agencies like SEO Philippines based marketing agencies.

   When you outsource, you pick out a company to hire either locally or remotely to other companies based in other countries. An outsourcing firm which offers a range of services from search engine optimization (SEO) to other digital marketing works, will then perform the tasks in behalf of their clients.

   Outsourcing is said to be a very reliable and dependable business strategy that comes with tons of benefits, such as saving on cost, boosting productivity, and improving efficiency. There’s also a strong sign showing an uptrend in the sector. Apparently it seems, the growth in this industry is not bent on retiring anytime in the next couple of years. Following this, SEO companies are also growing in numbers.

   With many a great number of companies now considering outsourcing SEO – who can help them fulfill their business objectives – looking for the best ones can be very difficult and challenging. In fact, the selection of the best and right SEO company must pass through careful and meticulous scrutiny.

   Obviously there are pretty big advantages to hiring the right SEO agency. And among these business owners, a critical question concerns affordability and productivity. While international companies might typically appear better, outsourcing SEO in the Philippines can pretty offer some advantages.

    

   Benefits of Hiring the Right SEO Company

    

   Choosing the right SEO company can help get your company reach the top of the search page results for your keywords. It’s important to be visible right on the first page since most searchers do not usually go beyond the first page. Bigger traffic and more profits pour in once your preferred keywords are immediately seen in the first few pages of the search engine.

   In more ways than one, here are some particular benefits of finding your right SEO Philippines based agency. Especially with the right ones, they’ll of course, ensure that your business enjoys the following advantages:

    

   Targeted traffic

   When embarking on an SEO campaign, it should be pointed out that it’s going to end up useless when your target market is not reached. Even if you amass hundred visitors everyday if they are not your intended audience, how can you expect them to spend and purchase available products or services from your site?

    

   Well-Made Website

   The services commonly offered by SEO companies is setting up websites to be search engine friendly. These aspects are pretty much a major concern for SEO experts because search engines view web design layout and the aspects of usability.

    

   Cost Effective

   It’s a known fact that promoting your brand or business through advertising in mainstream radio or television channels can be pretty helpful but very very expensive. With the use of SEO best practices, you can reach more, perhaps in millions, and influence them to shop online using your website.

    

   Highly-Trained and Experienced SEO Experts

   Filipinos are among the most tech-savvy people in the world today and it’s no wonder that the Philippines has emerged as an IT outsourcing hub in recent years. That there are tons of highly-trained and specialized technologist in the country, including SEO experts, can be explained by the serious focus on teaching English and technology by local academic curriculum from elementary to college. When combined, these factors make outsourcing SEO in the Philippines quite a very compelling option.

    

   Using SEO Best Practices

   The best ones will be able to explain to you the techniques they adopt when implementing SEO tactics. The right ones shun black hat SEO techniques and focus on ethical search marketing practices. The expert SEO workers are not only qualified but they are fully trained to avoid the illegal practices of short cuts and spamming that may only yield temporary spikes in search results.

   But the end of illegal SEO practices are nothing but shame and penalties from Google. By outsourcing SEO in the Philippines, rest assured that the right ones will provide you with quality analytics, strategy and implementation.

    

   Tips When Hiring SEO Company in the Philippines

    

   After understanding what benefits SEO can give your business, the next step is learning the ropes of selecting and hiring the best SEO company:

   

    

    

   Avoid SEO company reviews. Such top lists will never give you the best partner in your SEO efforts so don’t rely on them unless the reviewer giving out the list is an authority and credible. Be wary of these elaborate marketing tactics because they are simply designed to make you trust a company overnight. Don’t worry, you can still use the top lists for your independent research.

    

   Learn about SEO practices. It’s important that you have an inkling about the practices of SEO, particularly the good and bad way to make your keywords rank. By learning some crucial information, you can then inquire and ask your prospective SEO companies about their approaches and how legible their techniques in yielding positive results. You can also attempt to ask for specifics of their services, so you are not caught by surprise when billing

    

    Know the sources of back links. As a customer, it’s your right to know where the back links that the SEO company provides you are coming from. These links your provider get for you should be those from reputable sources. Using farm links is one typical black hat SEO techniques that for love of instant success some run-of-the-mill SEO agencies are resorting to, but there’s a boomerang effect in the long run, dragging their clients’ reputation down due to penalties of Google. Keep in mind that it’s the quality over quantity that matters in back links.

    

   Keywords. Ask the service provider of the keywords they gun for and ask how they rank for those. The SEO company should be able to rank in their chosen keywords because that’s a pretty good benchmark to see if they’re doing their homework or good at delivery outsourced SEO services.

    

   Page rank of SEO agency. Around 4 or 5 is fine and if they’re lower than that, these agencies are not worth giving your attention and of course money. If even their company they can’t make to rank, how much more their client’s.

    

   Talk with company representative. After conducting your research of your chosen shot list, start talking with a company representative from each SEO company in your list. An intimate and face-to-face meeting can give you ample opportunities to assess the company, their background, their approaches and sources of back links. You can also inquire if their using SEO best practices to make keywords rank.

    

   Ask for reference. Once you visit the SEO agency or talk with them online, gather a list of references or a list of clients who are outsourcing SEO services to your shortlisted search marketing agencies. This is another method that you can use in assessing the reputation, performance, techniques of the SEO company and the results of the outsourced SEO services.

    

   Expertise in handling niche accounts. You might be a business that belong to a niche market and it’s important that you ask your prospective provider their experience in handling niche-related projects. The SEO company should be able to give you a confident answer about your inquiries.

    

   Tricky Guarantees. While you and your SEO provider should be able to discuss the keywords that you’re going to use, but quickly spot when your prospective SEO provider is over-promising. The best first step always include a healthy assessment of your situation and to never believe any promise of giving you the number one spot when it comes to SEO.

    

   Updates. Be very sure about how much your service provider knows about trends and updates in using SEO best practices. There is just too many relevant updates in search marketing and social media marketing that it’s becoming very challenging to cope. But outsourcing to an SEO company based in the Philippines can give you something that’s ahead of others.

    

   These ten are but few of the the hiring tips when looking for SEO Philippines based agencies. Apply what’s applicable to your search for the right outsourcing partner and be one of the most profitable in terms of sales and income from new leads that your optimized keywords achieve.

    

    

4. How Google’s Hummingbird Will Redefine the Future of SEO

   October 4, 2013 11:02 am 1 Comment

   

   “Hummingbird” may have been a type of a very small nectar-feeding bird that’s able to fly and hover backwards. Its name was derived from the humming sounds it produced due to the rapid vibrations of its wings. But Google may have found even deeper qualities in the species to name its latest algorithm to this colorfully iridescent-plumaged bird.

   And it’s perhaps for its being “precise and fast”. The latest search algorithm code-named after the tropical American bird, Hummingbird is just one along the improvements in Knowledge Graph facility that Google announced recently.

   For Google, “Hummingbird” then becomes its most massive shift since like 12 years ago. The switch was already flipped since August, following the 2009 update Caffeine, whose integral specialty was about speed and the integration of social media results into search.

    

   How Hummingbird Work?

   Unless, of course, you are still in the caves, and haven’t tried Google yet. There’s little reason not to swoon and appreciate how useful to everyone’s life this engine. It may even be your favorite of all the leviathan search engines simply because it brings faster and better results.

   Yet the experience that Google brings to your searching life is not difficult to understand, even by second graders. Because originally, what Google does is match keywords in your search query to the same words on web pages.

   Then came Hummingbird, its latest, that’s able to understand phrases in a query. After finding a match to that meaning, it then displays web pages more accurately. So, perhaps Google is right. With Hummingbird, the revamped search should “return with better results.”

   Like Google, we will avoid being too technical in explaining these things. We’re better off using some piece of analogy in defining or explaining how Hummingbird works. Danny Sullivan, founding editor of Search Engine Land, perfectly put it this way:

    

   “Think of a car built in the 1950s. It might have a great engine, but it might also be an engine that lacks things like fuel injection or be unable to use unleaded fuel. When Google switched to Hummingbird, it’s as if it dropped the old engine out of a car and put in a new one. It also did this so quickly that no one really noticed the switch.”

    

   With the latest algorithm refresh, it also has deliberately focused on ranking sites for better relevance by using its Knowledge Graph. Says Amit Singhal, Google’ senior VP of search, it is an encyclopedia of sort that pools 570 million concepts and relationships.

    

   What Search Activities Does Hummingbird Help?

   It remains debatable whether or not the rise of mobile revolutionized the way people search for online information. But the new Hummingbird suggests that there’s been a massive shift in that direction that Google seems bent on addressing with the algorithm refresh.

   Hence, Hummingbird suggests Google’s keen eyes on conversational search. Isn’t it that when people talk through their Google Now app on their Android-powered mobile devices, would one way or another want to engage in a conversation?

   Say if you are looking for the nearest pharmaceutical store to buy an anti-histamine to my home, the pre-Hummingbird algorithm would simply find matches for words “buy”, “pharmaceutical store” and “anti-histamine”.

   Through Hummingbird, the meaning behind the words mattered most. And if you’ve shared with Google your location, Hummingbird might have a fuller grasp of the actual location of your home. It might also understand that “anti-histamine” is a particular type of drug being sold by certain pharmaceutical stores. By parsing the meaning of the phrases, Google is able to find pages with matching phrases, not just words.

   Sullivan added what Google says about the finer magic of Hummingbird: “paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.”

    

   Is Hummingbird Laying the Groundwork for the Future of Search?

   There’s no one more reliable to speak about this than Google. And Singhal, who is also a software engineer, talked about how Google evolved its technology since founding fifteen years ago.

   As the world entered this new era, Singhal added, search is proving to be an effective catalyst for helping bring content findable. Then today, the rise in mobile phone adoption has catapulted the increase in searching on the go – or people searching whatever they want, whenever they may be.

   It has relentlessly explored what common and complex questions people are facing and how Google can help by creating its search technology even better. And it’s safe to say that Hummingbird is doing its job well: answering questions, allowing for conversation to appear more natural, and anticipating what uses want to know.

    

   So ultimately, What Does Hummingbird Means For Search Marketing?

   Google has this ultimate wish to deliver better and faster search: reinventing itself to make “natural conversation” between people and search technology seamlessly possible in ways that are simple and more intuitive.

   Though it remains to be seen if Hummingbird will reinvent the way people perform search, it seems the deep impact of Hummingbird for search businesses and advertising agencies may be positive.

   Search engine expert and author of Google Semantic Search, David Amerland has arguably the best explanation how the move to Hummingbird will benefit practitioners of search engine optimization and online marketing.

   Semantic web has, for a very long time, been discussed by experts and practitioners of SEO and marketing. With Hummingbird expanding the capability of Google in this direction, the doors opened for companies and webmasters turned considerably wide.

   Amerland emphatically suggests: “The comparison element that has been integrated suggests that semantic mark-up may begin to confer an advantage now when it comes to helping index information in products and services.”

   The book author also emphasizes that SEO success will hinged on the importance of not neglecting content and sharing them through social networks through identified key influencers, though it “requires time and commitment to building a relationship with influencers and sharing with them content that is of real value to their network.”

   Defiantly, he declared quick SEO is now already a thing of the past.

   Other observers of note like Christy Belden, VP of Leap Interactive’s marketing and media division, agrees that SEO of Hummingbird-way is steering in the right direction. She said it makes a lot of sense to release the update when “more users (are) searching via mobile and voice.”

   For Archology SEO executive, Jenny Halasz, the recent Google Hummingbird update means agencies will have to deal less and less about keywords and “more about the intention behind it.” Noting that not having keywords provided will prove even more challenging for them to discover customer needs and intentions, but there are workarounds to explore.

   The focus of SEO “should be less about keywords data and more about customer engagement,” Halasz was quoted in an article by Amy Gesenhues of Search Engine Land, an industry blog.

   At any rate, Google just seems more interested now in treating users to find more precise results. Just what Ken Young, a writer at The NextWeb, summed up what the latest algorithm delivers relative to search experiences: answers, converse, and anticipate.

   Partly so and the recent Google move is about beefing up what’s already there towards building a more semantic web. At least for the moment, it’s worthwhile to see where this flight will lead us in our journey to get there.

    

   References:

   Forbes: Google Just Revamped Search to Handle Your Long Questions

   Search Engine Land: FAQ: All About The New Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm

   The Next Web: Google unveils search updates for mobile, new Page Rank algorithm, and Knowledge Graph comparisons

   Search Engine Land: Hummingbird Takes Flight: SEOs Give Insight On Google’s New Algorithm

    

    

5. What Encrypted Keyword Data Means for Online Marketing, SEO

   September 27, 2013 5:11 pm 1 Comment

   

    

   The bomb has been dropped. Google is encrypting 100% of all keyword searches.

   It seems, Google is no longer happier with just keeping private the searches made by users who are signed in. That’s old cat, until this!

   Apparently this means that when you search to look for sites to visit – whether signed in or not with Google account – site owners are now handicapped to see what search terms you used to click and made you enter their site.

   Search Engine Watch and Hubspot are among the firsts to break the news about Google’s turning a cold stare toward the idea of giving away valuable keyword data. And what exactly these mean, especially for web marketing? What future awaits marketers? And is it really over for search engine marketing?

    

   Where it All Began?

   The rise of “not provided” data draws momentum around nearly two years ago when Google announced it was embarking on massive changes to secure search. It was the beginning of an era that obliterated passing on of keyword data to site owners, all because Google switched all searches over to encrypted searches using HTTPs.

   By encrypting keyword searches, Google makes it impossible to track users by their keyword searches because they no longer pass the keyword data through to websites they visited. This ends the ability to categorize or segment users by keywords within their web analytics tools.

   And before examining further the impact of Google’s switch toward encrypting all search activity, let’s realize this latest dance step was confirmed by Google. Search Engine Land has the scoop below:

    

   “We added SSL encryption for our signed-in search users in 2011, as well as searches from the Chrome omnibox earlier this year. We’re now working to bring this extra protection to more users who are not signed in.”

    

   When initially launched in May 2010, Google had its encrypted search on a separate URL. The following year, Google intensified the move by redirecting all US users who were signed into their Google accounts to the encrypted version at an HTTPS address of Google.com. The crucial step finally gave birth to the “(not provided)” row in the keywords data that you can find in Google Analytics, and other similar web traffic graders.

   Google’s side is plausible. It’s hard not to get convinced why it’s doubling security and safety measures for its users, especially when taken in light of the NSA web spying controversies. The move, more or less, allay fears that the search giant is allegedly giving away search data access to the National Security Agency. Google vehemently denied the accusations.

   Another speculation was chimed in after the recent Google release. Troops of marketers and advertisers are reportedly getting the axe. A move seen as too drastic a measure against businesses which derive bulk of their revenues through providing intelligent analytics and keyword targeting to customers.

   Encrypting keywords by Google are seen spelling more doom than boom for online marketing.

   Now that Google has done the inevitable yet feared move, marketers are bracing for darker days ahead. The solution must come quick on how to make turn around strategies or dwindle down financially. With the restriction to keyword data for searchers performed by users who aren’t even signed in, marketer lose insights.

   Without keyword insights, the higher the difficulty levels for marketers to figure out which keywords to target. How are users finding their websites? How to make content strategies to work? All these combined, the price gets higher to achieve greater search engine visibility.

   Could this spell an era when Google is no longer the good samaritan that it used to be is yet to be seen.

    

   The Un-Evil Google Does Want To Monetize Now?

   Search advertising is Google’s bread and butter. We have to keep in mind that everything Google does come with a price. From buying promising and flourishing startups to perfecting its search algorithms, albeit offered initially without a charge, are strategies to keep it profitable in the long-term. And the new era suggests Google badly need to focus on increasing its revenue stream.

   So we are warning you to forget any attempt now to prevent Google from embarking on this. That won’t stop it! Gradually restricting free keyword data is a well-designed tactic by Google as a deliberate move to increase its search monopoly in a number of ways.

   Social Media Today tossed around some interesting insights about the recent decision that includes increasing revenue streams via compelling marketers and advertisers to increase their PPC budgets in exchange for keyword data.

   Increased demand also means there will be higher PPC prices and lower click-through rates for you, just what Google intended in the first place.

   It is also not remote that Google might soon offer subscription rates for marketers to access keyword data or specific data to your site. This might be what you’ll finally decide to spend your marketing budget for instead of PPC, after all.

   Then Google might also soon offer Google consultancy services to make good use of those treasure trove of data. In the end, it’s all but win-win for Google, gaining a much wider berth in the search monopoly.

    

   Now, What?

   There is a natural tendency among marketers to seek information and market demographics. The richer the data mined by marketers, the easier and faster it often takes to formulate strategies and maximize resources and propel growth.

   On the other side of it, it allows businesses new ways to conduct their own keyword research that is less dependent on Google’s tools. Such may include identifying which user persona your present or future customers belong to.

   To be sure which steps to take, one option is to seek the advice or help of experts which can provide services to suit your requirements. Remember that the future is not only getting more competitive, it’s also not getting any easier.

   For all that it’s worth, the news of Google encrypting all keyword data must pose a challenge that’s greater than ever in an era when every bit of data is regarded as gems. However, there is still some ways to determine metrics and use search data. Here are some that Hubspot recommends:

    

   1. Some analysts are suggesting correlating online marketing optimization tasks performed by your business and come up with content based on spikes or plummets in organic search. This may not provide you with those exact keywords, but this method is going to help.
   2. You can use other search engines like Bing (18% market share) and Yahoo (11% market share) to provide you with keyword data. The remaining percentage over Google’s 67% market share can at least provide some signs or hints about keywords that are most useful to your business.
   3. Wordstream’s suggestion is for businesses to use their existing Google AdWords by connecting to their Google Analytics account. They can obtain relevant data for keyword research along the way from this process.
   4. Don’t discount rank, which can come handy in determining results of search engine optimization and content creation.

    

   References:

   Google to Encrypt ALL Keyword Searches: Say Goodbye to Keyword Data

   Goodbye, Keyword Data: Google Moves Entirely to Secure Search

   Why Google Is Encrypting Keyword Searches, Why You Shouldn’t Care, and What You Need to Do Right Now

    

    

6. 10 Small Business SEO Tips You Won’t Want to Miss

   August 8, 2013 3:09 pm Leave a Comment

   

    

   Some predicted that the future is digital. It’s fixed, it’s destined. Small businesses, no less, should expect that the future web will be as overcrowded and hyper-competitive. Enter small business SEO or search engine optimization, which by the way is a very important part of small business marketing. If content is king, SEO is the speaker of the house, each with its own roles to carry in order to make your brand found online.

   In layman’s explanation of things around SEO, the general idea is that if you aren’t found on the Web, chances are you won’t be able to attract customers to visit your page. When you have no visitors, you’ll surely not have new customers. Without conversion, there will be no new sales and no new business for you. Think of your brand with no traffic, no visitors, and no transactions and am sure you’ll arrive at the same conclusion which is the same as ours here at Big Outsource: you’re never going anywhere up by rejecting SEO for your small business.

   Then of course, we understand you are a busy, busy business person, so here, we’ve lined up our list of small business SEO tips as your reference. The tips are presented in easy-to-follow sections. Tackle these tips one at a time at your convenience, bookmark or share, it’s all yours. For the meantime, let’s hop right into it.

    

   Implementing Google Analytics

   Everything about what happens on your small business website should always be first in our list of SEO tips. That means learning to track. Tracking here extends to knowing what your visitors are doing on your web pages and there are a lot of useful and freely-available tools to use online.

   The best of these analytics tools (well compared to Piwik, Adobe SiteCatalyst and WebTrends) remains to be Google Analytics. Simple and easy to implement, Google Analytics is also super free to use.

    

   Implementing Google Webmaster Tools

   Let’s not go any farther and this is another step that you will need to take before actually optimising your website. This has to do with another Google platform for your small business SEO tactical works – the Google Webmaster Tools. Use this tool to gather data about impressions, clicks to page load speed and errors.

   Best of all, Google Webmaster Tools is free (which earns it another awesome point) and easy to use. Its purpose is provide you with data about your website’s visibility on Google.

    

   Optimising a Title Tag

   We’ll start with the most important SEO element – the tags! OK you can debate us on that, but really, it’s what’s more important than your small business website’s URL. The title tag functions as a way for you to tell search engines what your page is about.

   To do it right the first time, we’d advice you to keep your words under 70 characters. Don’t forget to add your city and your state with 1-2 keywords and the name of your business. One great place to start optimising your title tag is your home page, which is regarded as the most important page of your site.

   Place your title tag within thesection of your HTML code. After implementing your optimised title tag on your small business homepage, proceed to the other top landing pages.

    

   Optimising an H1 Tag

   Another important on-page SEO element is the header or H1 tag. Like the title tag, it’s another important way to tell search engines and your users what your website is about.

   Compared to title tags, you can write pretty longer here to include the full name of your small business and the blog post you’re describing. Again, the key to an effective H1 tag is your chosen keyword, so be strategic.

    

   Writing a Meta Description Tag

   Another step to our small business SEO is the meta description tag. For the uninitiated, this on-page element is the small snippet underneath the title of the page that you see when you perform a search on Google or Bing. Such snippet describes what the page is about to the user.

   While some say meta description affect your organic ranking, others claim otherwise. But it can be your best shot in driving audience traffic. How? Call to action. It’s your chance to invite potential customers to try your product or service and get something out of visiting your website.

    

   Placing Internal Links

   A hyperlink within your own content, ‘internal link’ serves as guide for search engine spiders and your users. But which content should be internally linked? There is no simple rule that work for every website.

   You might use as your internal link guide your list of 2-3 terms per page that you’d like to optimise. Some regard that it’s best practice that each piece of content should include at least 2 links to other relevant pages on your website.

    

   Building an SEO Footer

   After of course talking of some heady technical stuffs above, don’t forget the very simple reason why you have to have a footer. It’s useful and helpful at the same time for your small business SEO, especially by coming up with a complete website that incorporates your name, address and phone number (NAP) in every footer of every page of your small business site.

   Make sure your NAP is marked up with Schema code to help Google, Yahoo and Bing understand that these vital contact information is actually associated with a business.

    

   Creating Compelling Content and Engaging Experience

   Having an engaging content for your readers is a must and its importance cannot be overstate. When you have well-crafted, hard-to-resist content, you’ll benefit from conversion and SEO, which is more likely to be shared and linked to.

   Content with many misspelled words, wobbly sentence construction and syntax leave a bad taste and footprint, both onsite and offsite.

    

   Using Content Marketing

   One very important small business SEO tactic is to get as many backlinks as possible. If you’ll ask us where you can buy backlinks, then skip this blog and go somewhere else (just kidding!). But seriously, you should not buy backlinks as they leave a bad footprint.

   Our tip though is for you to use content marketing, which can allow you offer content with value or quality. Over quantity, quality content is considered acceptable SEO because these are content that engage and appeal to your audience and customers.

    

   Focusing on Quality over Quantity

   Automation is a standard practice often utilised and where companies invest their money to be efficient. But that is if you belong to an industry that praises automation, such as the automobile sector. But when you apply automation in SEO, wait for Google to penalise you because it’s definitely bad.

   Automation results in poor quality experience for your users. As a best small business SEO practice, you need to respect this Google policy to see your rankings increase.

    

   Conclusion

   By knowing these SEO tips, you are empowered more than ever before to get your site seen and found by your customers. Always remember, these guidelines in a way gave you SEO prowess so be careful how you use your power and be responsible. The most important thing is to always respect the rules set by Google and what your customers demand from you as you would not like to be fooled with misinformation and poor content.

   The rules of the game in small business SEO do shift and updates are frequent. Always update yourself with what’s new and useful to maximise your site’s full potential in reaching your customers and at the same time earning better rankings.