Rosana L

What Is A Paid Link and Do They Still Work?

August 15, 2012 by Rosana L

A couple of days ago I read and article in SEJ (25 Ways to Get Penalized in 2012) where the author mentions a series of techniques or practices that can get your website in trouble, in a post-penguin post-panda world.

It particularly caught my attention point #2 Paid links that pass PageRank, where the author says:

Buying links for advertising purposes is find, but be sure they’re denoted as sponsor links and use “nofollow” attributes appropriately. Purchasing links for the sole purpose of passing PageRank violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Read more at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/25-ways-to-get-penalized-in-2012/47245/

My original response was

For the last 5+ years I’ve heard paid links are bad. Buying site-wide links are black hat, Google doesn’t like them and so forth. So I have refrained myself from doing it.

The truth is in many markets, Top 1st Positions in Google are dominated by people who do just that, buying links in forums, and other sites.

The difference in number of backlinks with comparable sites is as much as 10:1…. With one site providing 20K links alone: sitewide links.

Same with some SEO companies … paid links…

So unfortunately for those of us who have followed “The Rules”, competition is just unfair, being the “good guys” sometimes doesn’t pay off…

In my opinion: Do paid links work? I say yes

Which generated some comments from fellow internet marketers, and got me thinking….

I believe it is a matter of concepts (basically Google the omnipotent’s concept of a paid link):

Do Paid Links Still Work?

What Google says about Sponsored / Advertising links: Should have NOFOLLOW attribute. I must say that it is completely legitimate for website to have sponsor / advertising links in other websites, Why not?

The issue is when these sponsor links don’t follow “Google’s rules”… and they do not have the rel=nofollow attribute…. Does that put them into “paid links” “black hat SEO” area?

Should they count towards your “positive” backlinks, should they be “neutral”, or given a “negative” connotation, should Google penalize your website because of that?

If paying $50 / month gets me 20K+ links to my website… from a related site / forum where my target market hangs-out… Who is to say that is a “Black-Hat” technique? Why should the owners of the publisher website follow “Google’s Rules”? (Ok. I guess the answer is: if Google drives more than 60% of the search traffic, and you want a piece of that cake, you better abide by their rules, correct?)

Now, things will be different if I purchase a paid link in a crappy, unrelated, garbage, regurgitated, directory or website, where it is pretty obvious to anyone, even a spider to realize the business transaction.

But….

Isn’t Yahoo Directory, BOTW and other directories paid links?

I think the problem is when an article is published in an authority SEO site where they tag certain technique as Black Hat / White Hat / Grey Hat … whatever you want to call it, many, many people tend to think in Black and White:

Paid Links Are Bad. Do Not Purchase Links!

And so when a business venture comes along and someone offers the website owner an opportunity to reach a wider audience by sponsoring a site, they, in looking to be a “good guy” and follow “Google’s Rules”, let the opportunity pass and the offer goes to his competitor who doesn’t hesitate and just takes it, leaving the first guy to bite the dust so to speak.

And just like the paid link practice, there are many other ones that we will be discussing in the future, where we will try to help small business owners looking to get some business from the online world, make the decisions that will most benefit their business by using the information they read online but always, always using their own criteria to decide whether to pursue it or not.

And in the case of paid links: If you are analyzing a sponsor /advertising / paid link opportunity, I would say ask yourself the following questions:

Does this website look like a legitimate business?
Will exposing my company to its visitors increase my reach and my branding?
Is this a place where my target market hangs out, and having my advertising here will bring in traffic and business to my website?

It shouldn’t come by surprise my suggestion that if most of these answers are yes, the potential paid link has a higher value and the publisher website should be a good candidate for you.

If on the other hand, most of these answers are no, then the smarter thing to do would be to not do business with the publisher website.

Whether your answer is yes or no, you could see potential benefits in the terms of referral traffic and sales / conversions, and don’t be surprised if you also see an effect in your website rankings (whether is up or down).

Remember that with Google’s latest algorithm changes, you are influenced by who links to you, either if you have control over it or not. But that is a whole subject to a new future blog post.

What do you think? Have you purchased links and seen good or bad results? What would your recommend a friend?

How To Make a Membership Website in Less Than 1 Day?

December 5, 2011 by Rosana L

Time and time again we’ve had customer requesting us to create a membership website, where they can have recurring income by supplying information and/or products in a monthly basis, which is both user-friendly and inexpensive.

One of the fastest ways to get a membership website started, not to mention inexpensive, is by using WordPress and a Membership Plugin, such as Wishlist Member.

Why Using WordPress (WP) as Your Content Management System (CMS)?

If you are looking to have a self-managed website in a matter of minutes, WordPress is your best choice.

Either if you are using a One-Click Install from within your hosting account (such as Hostgator) or the famous 5-minute install procedure, you will end up with a website in less than you think.

Why Using Wishlist Member as Your Prefered WP Membership Plugin?

Because of the amount of flexibility and power wishlist member provides, and the very low price, nothing will beat it.

Why would I need or want a Membership Website?

Watch this video as an introduction to the business model of a membership website.

Google Boost vs Google Adwords: Which One Fits Your Business Needs?

June 22, 2011 by Rosana L

Google Boost vs Google Adwords – Which One Fits Your Business?

If you are a small business owner looking to get more traffic to your website, you have probably thought about using Google’s paid options: Google Adwords and Google Boost. While most business owners have heard about the Adwords program, and have a very decent idea of what it is about, but the Boost Program was released only a couple of years ago, so it is still fairly new to most.

The fact that our business is mostly geared towards helping small business owners succeed with their online efforts, no matter the level of expertise in the different aspects of internet marketing they might have, got me thinking:

Which advertising program is more beneficial to small business owners: Adwords or Boost?

In order to illustrate the differences between them, we first need to know….

You Should Know Google Boost is…

That little marker you sometimes see in a Map, in Google searches.
Geared towards local search. Searches which trigger local places listings and map listings (Geo-targeted Searches).
Tied to your Google Places listing. It will use your listing information to determine location and other contact info.
1. The Headline is your Google Places Business Name
2. Line One if your Google Places Address and Phone Number
3. Line Two is Google’s generated description extracted from info in your Google Local Listing.
4. Display url can be your website or your Google Places URL.
5. On the Right side, and average star rating, number of reviews, and if you have any Google Local Listing Coupons
6. On the left side, a blue map pin or marker denotes a paid listing
Displayed in Google Search and Google Maps. Again for geo-targeted searches.
Easy to setup. Just provide a monthly budget and other ad info and you are ready to roll.
A Category-Based way to advertise. You select a category you want to appear for, Google determines the keywords that are going to trigger your ad.
Available for US advertisers only. Although it is planned to be available in the rest of the World, as of right now it is only available for advertisers with Google Places listings with an US location.
Limited to the areas your Google Places listing qualifies you for. Your ad will ONLY show up in the areas surrounding your address in Google Places listing, determined by Google.
Comes with a FREE Google Voice number. Used for your Google Boost ad only.
NOT cheap. with ease comes pay. a Google Boost Category bid will cost you up to 3 times per click, compared to a Geo-targeted Google Adwords campaign.

How does Google Adwords compare to Google Boost?

Adwords is controlled by the User (You), not Google. In the following ways:
1. Locations: You can setup campaigns in places outside your Google Places Listing area. Result: More reach for your business.
2. Days and Times: Your campaigns can run only during business days and hours, if you choose it that way.
3. Keyword bidding: You can choose to bid or not in certain keywords, increase bids for some and lower it for other ones.
4. Multiple Ads: You can have different Ad Copy for different Ad Groups.
Adwords Provides Advanced Reporting. You can know which keywords / ads / areas / bids / landing pages are working or not.
Cheaper Cost Per Clicks (CPC). Again you are in control, should you decide your campaign is not working or not, you can just change your CPCs and the changes will be live within 15minutes.

Just How Much Difference there is in Cost, Between Adwords and Boost?

In order to illustrate this, let’s use some actual customers bids, from Google Boost Ad Creator:

Category: House Cleaning. Max Exposure: $910/mo. Est Clicks: 140-235. Est CPC: $6.50- $3.87
Category: Internet Marketing Service. Max Exposure: $1830/mo. Est Clicks: 140-235. Est CPC: $13.07- $7.79
Category: Day Care Center. Max Exposure: $400/mo. Est Clicks: 130-215. Est CPC: $3.08- $1.86
Category: Video Production Service. Max Exposure: $600/mo. Est Clicks: 100-165. Est CPC: $6.00- $3.64

Should You Do Google Boost or Google Adwords?

You are a perfect candidate for Google Boost if the following describes your needs:

Simple Setup, Simple Reporting, Restricted Campaign Options, Low Control, High Cost.

You are a perfect candidate for Google Adwords if the following describes your needs:

Medium to Advanced Setup, Advanced Reporting, Enhanced Campaign Options, High Control, Low – Medium – High Cost.

What if I don’t know anything about Adwords?

In my opinion, you can get better results by using Google Adwords for advertising, and having a consultant managing your PPC Campaign. The cost can be the same or less, and there is the sense of control that every business owner longs for.

Most PPC Management companies have very high minimums, and some won’t even take small budget accounts, but we do. We could manage your account on a monthly basis, or one time or periodic campagin optimizations, whatever fits your needs.

Let us know if we can help.

Google Panda – 3 Months Later

June 9, 2011 by Rosana L

Google Panda – 3 Months Later

Google Panda was a significant algorithm change done by Google on February 2011. According to Google, the main goal of this update was to identify low quality sites that may not provide the best experience for users.
The main target was sites known as “Content Farms”, or sites that publish user-submitted content, (done mostly for link building reasons), and don’t have the appropriate quality control, therefore publishing low quality content.

Since its launching, we’ve been monitoring high traffic sites to see how this change might affected them in terms of visits and page views.

Social Media Sites

As expected with the “Social Media Boom”, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin haven’t been struck in any way by this update, on the contrary, they have experimented increases on the number of page views during the last three months. For example, Facebook almost increase in 30% its number of page views.

Aligned with the increasing popularity of social networking sites, Yelp, the most visited user reviews site, has grown 22% in the last three months. This boost confirms that everyday consumers pay more attention to reviews and they are starting to play an important role during customers purchase decision process.

Article Directories

Article sites and content sharing sites, such as Associated Content, Ezine Articles, Buzzle or Hubpages have experienced a notable decrease in traffic. We analyzed 10 of the most visited sites in this category and the results revealed that in terms of page views, there had been an average fall of 25%.

Hence, if you rely mainly in article sites to get traffic to your website, it’s definitely the right time to start considering other sources of traffic or other marketing strategies to keep your website alive and to keep visitors coming.

Certainly, we can’t asseverate that all articles in all niches have been affected by the Google Panda update. Your business may be in a specific niche with a low or medium level of competition where your articles are still ranking and getting traffic. If so, you are in luck at least for now.

Conversely, we would like to make a particular comment about E-How since at the beginning this site wasn’t affected by the update and this fact generated a lot of controversy. As we can see in the Alexa graphic below, E-How finally got caught and there’s an important decrease in pageviews starting on April 2011.

Blog Publishing Sites

We also included in our analysis, blog sites such as, blogspot, wordpress and typepad and unlike Article Directories, they have increased in the amount of visitors and pageviews.

So, if you thought that blog marketing was an old-fashion strategy, you may be wrong. We believe that Google might be favoring blogs with good and fresh content that provide a high-quality users experience and they’re probably getting the traffic that content sharing sites lost.

So, here comes the obvious question: Has article marketing as an SEO strategy lost its efficacy?

Although Article Marketing has without a doubt lost some of its shine, we believe that it can still be an effective tool in some niches, when it’s done right.

But, what does “done right” entail?
Below we outline what we consider are the three most important points you need to consider in your article marketing plan.

1. Relevant and high quality content with perfect grammar: Google will see your article with “better eyes” and you may have the possibility that someone re-publish it, which will mean more links to your website.

2. Target long tail keywords: Although their search volume can be low, they can be much less competitive and you’ll have more chances to rank on the search engines and get some traffic.

3. Quality before Quantity: Focus your efforts in high quality sites. We believe that mass distribution to sites with doubtful quality may harm your site and your credibility instead of helping it. We recommend submitting your article only to sites with high traffic volume and good reputation.

That’s it for today’s post. Hope you find this information relevant and more important helpful for your online business. We are going to continue monitoring these sites and we’ll keep you updated of any new finding.

We’d love to hear what you think or about your own experience.

Have your articles been affected by Google Panda? Have you seen a decrease in their traffic?

Google Plus One for Websites

June 1, 2011 by Rosana L

Google Plus One for Websites

Since its introduction last March, Google +1 has stirred up lots of conversations around the globe. Its impact in the world of search engines and organic and paid results is still somewhat unknown. Maybe you just heard about Plus One, but are not sure what you should do with it.

Let’s start the some common questions about Google +1

What is Google +1?

+1 is Google’s version of Facebook’s like button, applied to Search Engine Result Pages. It was conceived as an easy way for users to get and give suggestions or recommendations in the search results pages.

The +1 buttons appears next to your headline on search ads and organic results. Personalized annotation (derived from +1) appear beneath your Display URL.

In Google’s words a +1 tells your friends:

“This is something you should checkout”.

Who can see My +1’s?

By default your +1’s are “public to the world”, but that doesn’t mean everybody will see your +1’s. Only your Social Connections will see them –if Google consider they will benefit from it-, as explained by Google, your Social Connections include people in your Gmail Chat List, people in your Google Contacts, people You follow in Google Reader and Google Buzz, and occasionally you might see +1’s from people you don’t know.

In order for an user to see the +1 button, they must be signed-in on Google.com.

You can choose whether or not to display your +1’s in your Google Profile.

How can Google +1 Help My Website?

Just like the like button, +1 gives your content a peer recommendation and endorsement from your social media circle and the world in general.

How is +1 different from the like?

The main difference is +1 votes will show up on Google’s SERPS, plus you can +1 webpages (and Adwords Ads) directly from the SERPS, this can potentially influence clicks directly from search pages.

Will +1 affect my Organic Search Engine Rankings?

Yes. Google consider +1 a “Ranking Signal”. In Google’s own Words:

+1’s (whatever their source — organic search, ads, or +1 buttons on publisher sites) is a signal that affects organic search ranking (link)

How Can My Website Benefit from +1

We predict that adding the ability to +1 your pages can and will benefit your website’s traffic directly from Google’s SERPS and hopefully the conversion rate of your pages as well.

How does +1 affect my Adwords ads?

The premise is “anything that can make your ads standout –especially for free- will help your click thru rate”. If we add the power of endorsement from people in your network, +1 can potentially increase both your CTR –and your spending- and potentially the conversion rate for those visitors, as the trust factor can increase as well.

Currently, in order to have a fully integrated Google Plus One experience, I had to join the Experiment, otherwise none of my test search queries in Google triggered the +1 in the Adwords Ad section here are my results for the query: Google SEO

Zooming In to Matt Cutts website:

After I +1’d, it looks like this

Do I pay if someone +1 my Adwords ad?

No, you will only pay when someone actively click on your ads.

Can I add +1 to My Website?

As of today, June 1^st, Google enabled the Google Plus One for websites.

Read this for an easy way to add +1 to your website, or if you are an experienced developer who wants to customize plus one.

For the standard +1 button, copy and paste this code

<!– Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag –>

<!– Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render –>

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

After finding out about Google’s New Ranking Signal:

Are you planing to implement plusone in your website? If so, When are you planning on implementing it? What do you think about Google Plus One?

We think Google +1 can potentially affect ranking, traffic and conversion in the mid to long term, and we would love to hear your thoughts.

Google Wallet – The Future of Mobile eCommerce?

May 27, 2011 by Rosana L

Today is a new day for the Mobile Shopping World: Today Google announced its mobile payment service, called Google Wallet, which allows users to store credit card info, offers loyalty cards and gift cards.
Using the Google Wallet System, users will only need to tap your phone on the reader (MasterCard’s PayPass Merchants) to send payment ( and loyalty card info if enabled) to the merchant, just like you would do with a credit card.
The Tap-To-Pay system will be enabled anywhere the MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Merchants willing to participate will join Google’s SingleTapTM network, which at the time of this writing is composed by AE Outfitters, Bloomingdales, Subway and Toysrus among others.
I anticipate users will be concerned about security, and this is how Google Addresses this issue: by using a Google Wallet PIN that must be entered before making a purchase. Plus enabled phones incorporate a chip called the “Secure Element”, which is described as a “separate computer, capable of running programs and storing data” allowing only trusted programs to access the info stored on it.
As with any credit card, Google suggests if your phone is lost or stolen, call your banks to cancel your cards.
Currently, Google Wallet is only enabled in Sprint’s Nexus S 4G by Google; and funds can be drawn from Citi’s Mastercard and Google Prepaid Card.
The technology that makes this possible is called Near Field Communication (NFC), in the form of that called “Secure Element” NFC chip in the user’s phone, therefore the reach of this new payment system will depend on the adoption or not of mobile phone manufacturers and its inclusion in future models. Google itself expects that only 50 percent of handhelds will carry NFC chips by 2014.
There is another option for those who want to use the power of NFC technology but do not currently own an NFC-enabled handheld, which is the addition of an NFC sticker, which can be affixed to Android 2.3.x phones, enabling communication with the NFC reader. These stickers however, can only support one credit card, which can be a limitation to some but it is in general good news for those who want to jump in the Google Wallet frenzy right away.
The future of Google Wallet is still unknown, especially with the news that Paypal filed a lawsuit against Google and its mobile payment system.
So I would say most business owners should wait and see how Google Wallet develops, and if it does get off the ground, I would consider premature to worry about this just yet.
I would keep my eye on the possibilities of mobile marketing, as it is just taken off right now: mobile marketing brings lots of possibilities for every company, even the smallest ones.

Top Local SEO Assets Your Small Business Should Care About

April 18, 2011 by Rosana L

One of the biggest shifts in the Search Engine World is happening in 2011. Google has significantly changed they way it presents results, giving the Local Results much more relevancy than ever before.

Not too long ago Google “leaked” the info that at least

20% of all the Searches that they process are related to Local Search

Meaning at least 20% of users are adding location to their searches. This is no surprise to me, an avid internet researcher, but it indicates that the shift is happening.

Every time, more and more people look for Google’s recommendation on local services. This opens opportunities for businesses of all sizes to increase their visibility and therefore their customer base even if they don’t have a website yet.

The most important Local SEO Assets which will bring you the most return on investment are:

Local Search Engine Profiles: Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local
Local Directories: Yelp, Citysearch, Superpages, MerchantCircle, and others.
Paid Local Advertising: Google Adwords, Bing Adcenter.
Location Based Social Networking Websites: Foursquare, Facebook Places (View a comprehensive list http://bdnooz.com/lbsn-location-based-social-networking-links/ )
Local Coupons / Deals: Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com, Yipit.com, Slickdeals.net, Craigslist.org, etc.

Using these web properties will increase your business exposure, and a local marketing strategy that includes them will certainly increase the chances of its success.

The list above shows only a few examples websites per category, but a comprehensive list will definitely be much longer, which can make managing these assets a daunting task, but I am confident that a little organization can and will make it much easier to manage:

Use a separate email address for your Social Presence Profiles: This is a must, especially if you have someone else managing your social profiles: in-house assistant, SEO firm, outsourcer, virtual assistant, intern, etc. I recommend creating a Gmail address for this task. I love the power of Gmail, it allows you to control your emails just as you like them: you can establish as many filters as you need, based on subject, from, etc. to as many emails as you want. The key here is to keep this SEO tasks in a business only email, so you don’t have to give a stranger access to your Google Docs, Email. Analytics, and so forth. You will be in control and not hostage. This is especially important as it relates to Google Places, which -as of right now- can only be associated with one email address.
Keep all local profile information in a spreadsheet: By doing so, you will have everything you need in one place: I would recommend you create a Google Docs spreadsheet, as you could share it with anyone you need to, and it will only be available to you. The key in doing this is consistency: add every single detail you might need to reuse when creating / managing all of your local profiles.

This is for now. In upcoming blog posts, I will be giving some tips on using Gmail filters and how you can use it in an efficient and secure way to manage your local SEO Assets and your online marketing activities in general.

How to Use the Google “Farmer” Update to Your Advantage

April 16, 2011 by Rosana L

Every time Google makes a significant change in their algorithm, website owners and SEOs freak out, and not without a reason: if you make a living out of your website, and the most significant single source of traffic is Google’s organic search results, then any change they make to their algorithm could potentially impact your rankings, for good or bad.

The most recent update, called “Panda Update” by Google’s team, was targeted towards cleaning up their results, by decreasing the relevancy of pages hosted by content farms, commonly used by SEOs in marketing techniques such as Article Marketing, which works by piggybacking authority from other websites to have your content rank for your targeted search terms, this content usually contains links to your website as well. The content is then usually republished by other webmasters, which increases the number of incoming links to your website. This content is published in your own website or not, depending on your preference.

While this technique is completely legitimate, it’s major pitfall is making Google think its author / owner is the initial republishing website, lets say Ezinearticles.com. See, in Google’s eyes the first website where this content is found is the “owner”, subsequent pages found containing this content are then filtered from search engine result pages for your chosen terms. Therefore if you write an article and get it published in Ezinearticles.com before that it appears in your website, then if and when you decide to publish it in your own website, it will be filtered as a duplicate. In this particular case:

You would be building someone’s website and not your own
In the case EzineArticles its punished by Google, which happened in the Panda update, then you would also lose -if any- rankings that web page had, and be left with nothing.

A quick fix to this hypothetical situation is to publish your content in your website first, and once this page gets indexed, submit it to Ezinearticles for republishing and syndication.

But not only Article Marketing was affected by Google’s Panda Update, online retailers who rely on vendor supplied content, such as data feeds have also suffered. The easy fix? Write unique content for your product’s descriptions. This is easier said than done, especially for online retailers who have hundreds or thousands of items in their catalog, this task could be very daunting.

But what if we asked our own website visitors to help us build unique content? Well, we could do this in a subtle way. Your customers could help you by providing content in the form of:

Comments
Ratings and Reviews
Recommendations
Wish lists
Favorites
Supplying pictures or videos of them using your product
Questions and answers
Suggestions

Be aware that user-generated content will need to be monitored by you or someone in your staff, or maybe this is a task that you could outsource.

In order to make user-generated content and efficient task, you will need to implement automated solutions that will work for you. Think twice, do once is the motto here. Depending on the platform your website was built, you will have different options available to you.

In future posts we will be reviewing some solutions and providing with best practices for their implementations.

Now, go ahead and review your website, analyze where and how you could improve the quality of the content provided, is it useful for your customers? Does it help them with their purchasing decision? When was the last time your content was updated?

Lots of websites have lost rankings due to the “Farmer Update”. Most of them will sit on it and just look for the next SEO trick to implement. Very few will act on it, audit their content and make sure it is unique, useful and updated in a consistent basis, making their website a real resource for their target consumer, gaining relevancy to Google’s eyes and therefore improving their chances of a better ranking in Google Search Engine Results.

This is the ultimate Google SEO “trick” you will have to learn. 🙂

Get Your Business Online

March 12, 2011 by Rosana L

Digital Sources is a Search Engine Marketing Company located in Carlsbad, CA. We’ve been in business for more than 6 years serving local businesses in San Diego County, as well as other businesses outside California.

Our ideal customers want to get their business online, or to be found online, for both local and national results.

Maybe you own a website and is doing nothing for you. Maybe updating your website is very cumbersome so you don’t do it. You are probably not getting a single report on how your website is doing / has done in the last month, quarter, or even a year.