SEO Tools: Looking Back to Move Forward!

Sometimes, especially with SEO tools, you’ve got to go back to move forward. I recently stumbled accross this old video of myself and my good friend Matt Da Cruz from 3 years ago discussing the future of some of the sickest SEO tools ever released for public consumption.

This was the precursor to some of the features we had planned for the WP Ultimate Theme and features that they were building into their suite of tools for  Domain Web Studio.

When reminiscing back to 2011, I get excited for two reasons (1) I still had my dreadlocks which I later cut in 2012 (big mistake after 21 years of committment) and (2) the sinister advanced SEO brain storm sessions with Matt plotting market-domination over some highly-caffeinated coffee hit truly unchartered depths.

For the record, we could spend the next 10 years building out the tip of the iceberg for some of the automated tools we discussed, but I digress.

Looking back in hindsight reminds me that it’s a good idea to evaluate and assess your old strategies, progress and lessons learned along the way (essentially knowing where you have been, to define where you’re going).

While many of the proposed modules we discussed on the video then have changed (such is life), other ideas have evolved and taken their place in existing features in either their software or ours.

Speaking of modules, we have some great updates underway for SEO Ultimate’s Opengraph Integrator module and are looking forward to updating other SEO Ultimate features for the sake of enhanced usability… But what about our WP Ultimate theme?

Update on The WP Ultimate Theme Release

In all truthfulness, you’ll never have a second chance to make a first impression, which is why we’ve been so stringent about not releasing our beta version of WP Ultimate Theme until each feature is checked, double checked and triple checked under a diverse array of use-case scenarios.

To whet your beak in anticipation of the release, we’ve provided a few sneak-peak screen caps below for you to peruse.

WP Ultimate SEO Design Theme

The Layout settings feature allows fixed, fluid or responsive layout options and customizable sidebar and/or content width.

WPU Screen Cap

The Typography and Style Settings allow granularly CSS / Design control w/ color picker and straight-forward controls.

WPU Screen Cap 3

The Ad Manager Module allows you to add HTML scripts or upload banners with ease and ads can also be used as short codes.

WPU Screen Cap 4

The Short Code Generator Module allows you to create and use your own short codes (maps, contact forms, HTML or text) or, you can select from our built-in short codes from content boxes to columns (it’s in there).

In closing, affiliates and small business owners seeking a visually stunning SEO equalizer will soon have some new SEO and Design tools to play with.

However, in the meantime, we are currently stress-testing and refining the last batch of newly integrated features in the front-end (e.g. Twitter Bootstrap, Google Fonts, Slider Revolution, a Timed Lightbox Feature, Content Columns, Font Awesome, the quick silo builder and an ever-increasing library of shortcodes).

Once Beta Testers are Done, It’s a Wrap

Our beta testers are now in their final review, so, once all bugs are crushed, we’ll broadcast the announcement to those of you reading this blog via the proper social channels and you’ll be able to download your copy and put it to the test. As always, we look forward to your feedback and suggestions on how we can make our tools the best they can be.

The jury on price point is still hung as we have poured our heart, soul and most coveted tactics and tools into this framework, but we’ll be sure to entice early adopters with a special promotion coupon code for the launch before settling at the final single user license fee and extended / unlimited site user license rates.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience during the scope-creep cycles we’re emerging from. We truly look forward to building a dynamic community and providing useful resources that you can deploy powered by our battle-tested SEO strategies and tools to generate more revenue for your business.

If you haven’t already, feel free to download SEO Ultimate our All-In-One WordPress SEO Plugin and take a peak at the video tutorial explaining how to use its various features. Thanks again and stay tuned for more SEO goodies.

Have questions or have something to say? Speak up! Share your thoughts below.

Are Internal Links More Important than Backlinks?

Do internal links pass more referential integrity for the topic of your pages and where they fit in to your website’s architecture to search engines than links from other websites? Let’s investigate in today’s post.

SEO and Internal Linking

Why Internal Links Matter More than Backlinks

To start with a mental image and analogy, think of internal links like veins in your website analogous SEO circulatory system.  Their role and function are equally as important to the health of your website as the veins are to your body.

The Value of Link Weight

Think of each page as an island in itself, the page essentially has 3 attributes and/or characteristics (1) the links to it from other pages (2) the content or topic of the page and (3) the links leaving the page.

Based on those three characteristics each page serves a very specific function in the website. That function is either  (1) to rank as a champion page  / preferred landing page or (2) to serve as a hub page / supporting page (to create enough topical relevance) to rank preferred landing pages.

Continue reading >>> Why Internal Links are More Important than Backlinks Here!

Duplicate Content, What is it and How to Avoid it!

You’ve heard of duplicate content, but how do you know if you are creating it or how to stop it from penalizing your website? If you have a WordPress site, then it’s a simple fix, but for the sake of elaboration, let’s delve deeper into how search engines work and reveal what duplicate content really is.

Block segment analysis dictates the value of weight / ranking  factors a web page is given for a set portion of the page. For example, text in the header and footer of a document are treated differently than the text in the body section of a page.

The header is given more weight than the footer and typically the body text is given more value than both (since that is where the page has the ability to distinguish itself from borrowed elements, i.e. navigation, etc.).

The reason for this is simple, page composition dictates that proximity and distinction (the more unique one document is from another) by distinguishing your content, the better. Search engines can easily discern duplication (through shingle analysis, singular value decomposition (SVD), etc.) in areas such as navigation, sidebars/blogrolls with the same links and footers all using the same text. This has the tendency of diffuse a pages ranking potential.

Click Here to Read the Complete Post – “Block Segmentation, Duplicate Content, SEO and IR” or simply click the image above. As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged!

Is Your SEO Strategy Proactive or Reactive?

Before you jump in to any  SEO technique, you’ll need to understand two things (1) it’s immediate and extended purpose and (2) it’s history. Like everything, there are cycles, and if you come on too strong at the wrong time (i.e. hit the turbo button when you should have taken a deferred and metered pace), then the outcome is almost predicable – you hit a wall.

Ready, Fire, Aim!

Do yourself a favor and its time to go back before you move forward. Here is a post from the past written over 4 years ago, that still rings true today. Aside from the fact that the turtle with a jet pack is just plain snazzy, there are some worthwhile gems to extract.

Topics covered:

  • The Ping Phase
  • The Gap
  • Link Insurance
  • The Authority Ranking and more…

Click Here to read “SEO and the Cycles of Optimization“… After you’ve read it, let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

WordPress SEO Tips to Avoid Search Engine Penalties

It’s no secret that WordPress is one of the most popular, easy-to-implement content management systems online. But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean that the out-of-the-box WordPress settings are ideal for optimal on page SEO. In fact, there’s nothing farther from the truth.

SEO Ultimate Indexing Tips

How to Block Bots for Optimal SEO

In this post, we cover simple solutions to prevent redundant pages (pages with duplicate or minimal content) from getting indexed from the roving tarsus of search engine spiders.

Search engines use a bag of words model to deduce market-focus (what each page is about) and topicality and relevancy are often lost when boilerplate templates, category pages, tags or archives pages are left wide-open for spiders to crawl.

By eliminating digital stragglers (thin pages), you’ll bolster your websites relevancy by having a higher percentage of unique indexed content.

Continue reading “WordPress SEO Tips to Avoid Search Engine Penalties” »

SEO Ultimate WordPress Plugin Surpasses 1 Million Downloads

Today our team rejoiced as SEO Ultimate (the Swiss-army-knife of SEO Plugins) surpassed the 1 Million download benchmark from WordPress.org.

SEO Ultimate Reaches 1,000,000 Downloads

As critical milestones go, this represents a crucial turning point for our firm as we move away from the SEO service model into an SEO software business model allowing us to provide access and training to our most coveted WordPress tactics and tools.

The latest addition to the SDS family (scheduled to unveil later this year in mid February) is our SEO Design Framework for WordPress dubbed WP Ultimate. Continue reading “SEO Ultimate WordPress Plugin Surpasses 1 Million Downloads” »

SEO Ultimate 7.6.1 Introduces Autolink Link Dampening Feature

SEO Ultimate, (the All-In-One WordPress SEO plugin created by SEO Design Solutions) was recently updated to version 7.6.1 and introduced an exciting new feature for the Deeplink Juggernaut module that allows you to dampen the amount of internal links either globally or on a keyword by keyword basis.

SEO Ultimate 7.6.1 Introduces Autolink Dampening Feature

Why You Should Cap Internal Links!

Without going into wild-eyed speculation about Google Penguin and Panda algorithms and / or how other search engines determine what is considered “natural” or “unnatural”, the correlation between excessive link quantities and spam (for either inbound links from other websites or even internal links within websites) is a sensitive, yet serious issue for SEO.

As SEO’s, we do know that if you push it too far with either excessive inbound or internal links that your hard earned SERP (search engine result page) position could potentially trigger a penalty and recede (either partially or entirely from the index). Continue reading “SEO Ultimate 7.6.1 Introduces Autolink Link Dampening Feature” »

The Official SEO Ultimate WordPress Plugin Tutorial

It’s that time again to kick off the new year and what better way to do so than (1) a new update to - “The Real All-In-One SEO Plugin for WordPressSEO Ultimate and (2) to  introduce (our long-awaited) comprehensive video tutorial covering each SEO Module in detail for our plugin.

Click to Watch the Long-Awaited SEO Ultimate Video Tutorial (Opt-In Required)

For the record, SEO Ultimate was NOT designed for the public; it was originally designed as an in-house SEO tool deployed specifically to provide unparalleled on page SEO setup for WordPress. By consolidating these features into modules (that we could simply toggle on or off and configure at will) allowed us to virtually dominate hundreds of markets for our clients (without having to painstakingly customize the code time and time again). Continue reading “The Official SEO Ultimate WordPress Plugin Tutorial” »

The Last Keyword Tool: SEO Tactics Revealed!

Keywords are the cornerstone of any online conversation. Metrics such as user engagement, conversion and search engine optimization all rely on critical keywords and their convergence to convey relevancy and intent to your audience. The question is, how do you know which keywords are worth using and which are better to ignore?

Watch the video above (which is an insightful view into the mind of Sue “The Architect” Bell from Themezoom / Network Empire) as she reveals dozens of useful SEO strategies for harvesting lucrative keywords and how to integrate them into your semantic website architecture using The Last Keyword Tool.

Enjoy!

Google Disavow Links Tool: Declassified!

In case you haven’t heard, Google has released a new disavow links tool allowing you to disavow (deny the existence of) any questionable backlinks.Google Link Disavow Tool

While the first thought that comes to mind is mission impossible – “if you are caught, the government will disavow your existence”. Now, it seems that webmasters have the ability to do this with their links (if their mission fails). Continue reading “Google Disavow Links Tool: Declassified!” »

The Google EMD Update: Don’t Let Bad Search Happen to You!

If you’re a webmaster and have been impacted (penalized, lost traffic or have been caught in an algorithmic filter) from Google, the conclusion is obvious that Google isn’t trying to win a popularity contests with their user base lately.

First, it was the dawn of the web shattering Panda update (a content classifier designed to remove low quality web pages, websites that copied from other websites or weak internal pages with minimal value) from their index,  second, the backlink witch hunt / Penguin update (designed to demote websites from ranking highly which have off-topic or inbound links from low quality websites) and now the EMD update (the exact match domain update) which demotes websites which have exact match domains from easily ranking for their core keywords. Continue reading “The Google EMD Update: Don’t Let Bad Search Happen to You!” »

SEO Overhauled: It’s not about links, it’s about promotions!

Rather than overreact to rankings alone and scream the sky is falling, for the past 15 months we have been quietly testing new strategies that can withstand the likes of Panda (a quality control classifier) and Penguin (a thematic link sniffing filter) that demotes websites with excessive inbound anchor text  i.e. “unnatural” link signals.

SEO Overhauled

It's Not About Links, It's About Promotions

Keep in mind suspicious or contrived link signals could imply a wide variety of possibilities, such as:

  • Unnatural link velocity (building or losing links too fast).
  • Excessive anchor text, i.e. a high percentage of the same or similar anchor-text.
  • Links from mixed-fruit / atypical websites that lack genuine/natural signals such as (1) supporting / thematic inbound links (2) traffic and engagement or (3) social signals (which is why many generic link networks failed to get past Penguin).

Continue reading “SEO Overhauled: It’s not about links, it’s about promotions!” »

Google’s Greatest Fear

With millions of business owners, webmasters and affiliates spending thousands of dollars on SEO and countless hours spent optimizing their websites (only to have Gogle organic search results shaken up or completely whisked away due to vaccilating shifts from new algorithm changes) is genuinely creating feelings of anger, frustration and disdain.

Google Greatest Fear

Google’s greatest fear is you not using or needing to use Google...

As if running a business wasn’t hard enough, business owners are now forced to deal with the rise and fall of search engine results (knowing that at any time aside from ruthless competitors targeting their most coveted positions that a new algorithm change could come along and potentially sweep all their progress under the rug) without warning.

The only solution is to either (1) conform or (2) diversify your traffic sources to become less dependent on any one source of visitors, however, most are either unwilling or unaware of their options, so they continue to run on the treadmill in hope of stability.

Continue reading “Google’s Greatest Fear” »

SEO Video: Qualifying Keywords Through Competitor Research

Searching for quick competitor research methods to determine if a keyword is a worthy target for an SEO campaign? Watch this video and learn how to use your competitors to qualify which phrases are worthwhile using SEM Rush and other useful SEO tools.

Stay tuned for more SEO tips and tactics from SEO Design Solutions and the upcoming release of our new WP Ultimate Theme and WP Silo Builder plugin.

Full-Bodied SEO: Looking Past Keywords

Just like degusting a fine wine to appreciate its full-bodied flavor, don’t omit the chronology that it’s the process of the grapes aging combined with a semblance of subordinate processes that merge a plethora of complex layers into simplified notes to cultivate a delectable, yet exquisite fine wine. In parallel, SEO is quite similar.

Like a fine wine, authority occurs over time

While most blindly assume that SEO is about keywords (which is partially true), real SEO is involves grasping the underlying metrics and logic that search engines use to determine which websites are authoritative and which others are not. Continue reading “Full-Bodied SEO: Looking Past Keywords” »

Website Silo Architecture: SEO Siloing Simplified

To draw on a visual analogy, most websites are like the image of mixed fruit below (which makes it difficult for a search engine to determine the topicality or relevance of the website (or more importantly the page) when trying to determine what to rank that page for or why.

Mixed Fruit

Most Websites Are Structured Like The Image Above

Website silo architecture is the process of implementing a structure whereby each topic is housed in it’s own mini-site within the site and the internal linking pushes ranking factor back up to the primary / topic page otherwise dubbed the “silo landing page”.

While SEO is simpler than most so called “experts” imply, it’s like the difference between a short order cook and a chef, they both cook food and often use the same ingredients, but it’s how they use them that matters. Continue reading “Website Silo Architecture: SEO Siloing Simplified” »

3 SEO Tools to Crush Your Competition

Our friends at Themezoom/Network Empire have an exclusive, limited-time offer allowing you to access exclusive tools like the Krakken, The Last Keyword Tool and Domain Web Studio (DWS) at a significant savings off normally published prices.

3 SEO Tools

Whether you are an agency (who has clients), an affiliate (looking to leverage your assets for maximum ROI) or a small business owner (trying to carve you own slice of  a market), these tools represent the pinnacle of market research, SEO implementation and syndication, allowing you to create an unfair advantage over your competition. Continue reading “3 SEO Tools to Crush Your Competition” »

SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 7.2.1 Released

SEO Ultimate (the free WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions) has seen 4 new releases in the last few weeks. Here’s the scoop on the latest features:

Take WordPress and Rankings to a Higher Level with SEO Ultimate.

Global Link Mask Admin Interface

The Link Mask Generator module, which first came out almost exactly a year ago, has been overhauled with a brand new administration interface that lets you create link masks that apply globally across your entire WordPress-powered website. Continue reading “SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 7.2.1 Released” »

Coming Soon: The WP Ultimate Theme Framework for WordPress

After one year of toiling away in the labs, we are preparing for the launch of The WP Ultimate Theme (a powerful, flexible and dynamic premium SEO framework for WordPress) designed to work in tandem with SEO Ultimate (our WordPress SEO plugin).

The WP Ultimate Theme: So Powerful, It Should Have Its Own Cape!

Our objective is simple, to provide users with fine-grained control over multiple on page settings (such as nearly instantaneous site architecture injection, custom navigation options, multiple layout and theme choices, breadcrumbs, internal links, widgets, typography controls and more) for the optimal WordPress SEO framework.

Rather than spill the beans now, I will be posting sneak previews of the features as well as preparing some unique use-case examples of how to leverage the power of WP and SEO Ultimate in tandem.

If you know us by now, you know that SEO Design Solutions is not about shallow or flimsy SEO tactics or tools; everything we do is cutting-edge and is founded on years of battle tested tactics that dominate search engines and produce real-world results by their very design.

WP Ultimate is no different – there simply isn’t anything like it as a WordPress framework (more on that later) and this is not to knock the competition.

Stay tuned for videos, strategies and more from our upcoming product launch (which will change the way you think about SEO Themes for WordPress once and for all).

The countdown for the launch is scheduled for  1-2-2012

Until the next post…

Infographic: How Profitable is Google?

Here are a few tantalizing tidbits of trivia for visual types who enjoy contrast and comparison courtesy of BusinessMba.org called Google: Behind the Numbers.

Aside from the glaring monetization prowess of “The Digital Juggernaut” known as Google, just remember “your clicks equate to revenue”.

Let’s take a peek behind the numbers from Google’s 2010 profits to answer any questions about how profitable search as a viable business model is.

Google Behind The Numbers
From: BusinessMBA.org Continue reading “Infographic: How Profitable is Google?” »

Where Is The SEO Backlink Sweet Spot?

Is there such a thing in SEO as the off-page inbound link sweet spot? Meaning, finding the tipping-point for inbound links per URL, per keyword…

Where is the SEO Backlink Tipping Point?

Based on our heuristic testing, absolutely!  Just like wine, links get stronger with age – if they are supported by (a) sufficient internal links within the site linking out or (b) have deep links from other websites augmenting them.

If properly augmented, then those pages become hub pages (pages with trust and ranking factor) which can rank additional spokes (pages) on the wheel via links. Continue reading “Where Is The SEO Backlink Sweet Spot?” »

Gain Access to Michael Campbell’s Dynamic Media Vault!

It’s rare that I endorse anything or anyone, but there has been someone from the affiliate marketing space who has always delivered mind-shattering, truthful, no-frills advice on internet marketing time and time again. That person is Michael Campbell and today’s topic is his exclusive Dynamic Media Vault!

Michael Campbell's Vault

Gain Access to the Vault!

For a brief history lesson, Michael Campbell is a man who has been silently slaying markets online since 1988 and is either innovating evergreen methods (from revenge of the mininet) which now applies to social media and web 2.0 properties (whereas previously it applied to how to create your own network of sites to dominate search engines) or raking in 6 to 7 figures yearly from their application.

In either case, the information provided inside “The Vault” is nothing less than battle tested methods and strategies that you can use to monetize websites, CPA offers and conversion tactics, such as his free report / whitepaper on 9 proven templates, their ideal ad and content placement and which positions earned the highest click through rates using heat maps and statistical test data conducted over a 6 month sample set for the data. Continue reading “Gain Access to Michael Campbell’s Dynamic Media Vault!” »

Should You Obfuscate Your Backlinks?

Aside from enjoying using the word “obfuscate” in a sentence, the meaning is clear for SEO when considering link building. Obfuscating links for the purpose of optimization simply means adding variety and switching things up (with your links) to avoid a pattern.

Should You Obfuscate Your Links?

In this context, the pattern is anchor text obviousness (linking to a page with the same anchor text with minimal variation). Failure to add variety to inbound or internal anchor text (links) can lead to over optimization as a result of link velocity and how people link from the web. Link Building, Anchor Text Diversity, Obfscate Inbound Links, Obfuscate Internal Links

Which Links Pass the Most Weight in Search Engines?

Link weight and link-flow are the most critical on page elements after you (1) map out which keywords you’re targeting (2) mirror the relevance hierarchy through the site architecture through the respective pillars (landing pages) and supporting articles and (3) initiate the citation process via internal linking and off page inbound links.

On Page Link-Flow and Link Weight

Which Links Pass the Most Link-Flow and Link Weight?

However, before you initiate any type of off page SEO (building inbound links); make sure that you aren’t building your internal links by relying on minimal navigational links alone.

If you fail to map out your on page elements, it’s the equivalent of trying to fill a leaky bucket full of water to no avail. No matter how much water you pour into it, the bigger the puddle on the floor. In essence, the container becomes null (regardless of the volume being poured into it). Continue reading “Which Links Pass the Most Weight in Search Engines?” »

Is SEO a Moving Target?

Is SEO a moving target or are you simply shooting blanks in the dark? It’s no surprise that for those of you trying to get your site ranked that you’ve discovered that SEO is “subject to change” and often on a daily or weekly basis.

SEO-Moving-Target

Ready, Aim, Fire!

From Florida updates to Panda maulings, despite the ups and downs, certain metrics remain intact.

As a webmaster, these evergreen metrics are the focal point to remain relevant amidst the rise and fall of questionable flavor of the month SEO methodologies before they get leaked, peak and go the way of overused and abused SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and other dated practices from our fabled list of 10 SEO techniques to avoid. Continue reading “Is SEO a Moving Target?” »

The Three P’s of SEO Conquest!

Rome was not built in a day, nor was a dominant search engine ranking for a competitive keyword either. Feats of valor and substance require the proper tact and follow through, which lead to the next point.

Roman Warrior

Rome was not built in a day

In order to conquer competitors and reach the top 10 results, you need to understand the 3 P’s of SEO conquest and live by their credo.

The 3P’s of SEO are:

  • Planning
  • Persistence
  • Patience

As rudimentary as these 3 words appear, once you understand that everything can be reduced to its essence, and the essence of a strong SEO campaign is founded upon these three principles. Continue reading “The Three P’s of SEO Conquest!” »

Create Content With Purpose!

Today’s topic is creating content with purpose (adding fresh content on your website) which serves a dual purpose for SEO and user engagement. Both are equally important and necessary in the grand scheme of the evolution of your website.

tactful content creation

Create Content With Purpose

The first short-term purpose is to generate a surge of present-tense traffic. Even if your new page or post generates 25 new visitors to your website in one day, reaching 100, 200 or 500 visitors per day is scalable by the introduction and syndication of new and / or relevant content. Continue reading “Create Content With Purpose!” »

How to Get Dropped Rankings Back!

Today’s topic covers 10 time-tested tips to recover from rankings that have dropped in search engines. Dealing with vacillations in the SERPs (search engine result pages) resulting in page churn or displaced rankings is extremely frustrating.

Dropped Rankings in Search Engines

How to Get Dropped Search Engine Rankings Back

One day you have traffic, visitors and conversions from your most cherished ranking, then for reasons unbeknownst to you, your legacy position is a memory and your ranking is bouncing about, rolled off the page or no where in sight.

The natural reaction; what the %#%$@ do I do now? While your first reaction is panic (in fear of an SEO penalty), the reason for the usurping could potentially be derived from a variety of equally substantial causes, such as: Continue reading “How to Get Dropped Rankings Back!” »

SEO Tips to Create Stronger Trust & Domain Authority

Theoretically, websites do not get stronger by themselves, they need help. While aging a website is a factor for prolonged growth in rankings, today’s SEO tip shared below works by virtue of on-site evolution in tandem with elevated digital trust and authority (the real purpose of SEO).

create stronger websites

Create Stronger Websites and Rankings

The undeniable value of adding topical theme-relevant content is imperative for long-term positioning. Why, you might ask? Because as your website grows, your opportunity to raise your website’s SEO ceiling (the range of competitive keywords you can rank for by default/virtue of your websites trust, age and theme) shift and evolve concurrently. Continue reading “SEO Tips to Create Stronger Trust & Domain Authority” »

SEO Ultimate: Mass Meta Title and Description Editor

Your website page titles are one of the first things both search engines and human visitors see in the search engine result pages. However, if you miss your mark or are slightly off-kilter with your titles, chances are that you can leave money on the table and miss the traffic band that a few mere tweaks could rectify.

Are you leaving money on the table from lackluster titles?

Using “exact match shingles”, i.e. “dialing in variations of keyword clusters in titles” can align your landing pages to resonate with phrases with high search volume vs. randomly having keywords appear in broad match form. Luckily for you, we have a free solution. Continue reading “SEO Ultimate: Mass Meta Title and Description Editor” »

Organic SEO Tips to Grow Traffic, Sales and Rankings

There is nothing I love more than researching a market, unearthing lucrative keyword verticals and building out a site.

Organic SEO

Crash Course in Organic SEO

Sure, there are a million and one ways to accomplish the same task, but despite the fundamental differences in approach there is a sequence that is repeatable, evergreen and transcends topical search engine algorithm revisions and works time and time again regardless of the topic, market or competitors.

All techie SEO jargon and nomenclature aside, I will attempt to keep this as straightforward as possible to ensure that there is something for everybody from newbie to SEO expert.

These are the annals of tried and true methods I have used over the past 14 years to conquer competitive verticals time and time again.  So, I hope you appreciate them as they represent years of testing and over the years, these methods have made millions for us and our clients, and it can do the same for you. Continue reading “Organic SEO Tips to Grow Traffic, Sales and Rankings” »

3 Painful Keyword Research Pitfalls to Avoid!

The primary reason why people use search engines is to find answers.  Therefore, your websites success depends on whether or not you fully understand the questions people are searching for (the cause behind the cause) and to which degree your landing pages answer those questions or solve their problems.

pain-killer

He is "NOT"searching for "exercise equipment"...

This is known as finding the pain (as the image clearly illustrates above) and serving up the perfect pain killer is a prime directive for conversion.

In fact, this feedback/cycle of problem/solution, seek and satiate the query / modality is hard-wired into the human psyche and represents the springboard for landing pages and high conversions – if the context of why they are searching is present and if those pages deliver the proper solution to the prospect at the right time in the sales cycle.

If proper timing, relevance and value converge (from users finding their solution), the end result is a predictable / natural conclusion, i.e. a sale, opt in or predictive action. This is where search engine optimization, (much like a game of chess) gets interesting. Many often make the mistake of targeting one keyword vs. targeting multiple keywords and devouring the online conversation through including tactful modifiers, synonyms or commercially laden suggestive phrases in tandem with primary keywords. Continue reading “3 Painful Keyword Research Pitfalls to Avoid!” »

It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It!

Increase Reader ResponseBefore you start crying about how your website is getting traffic but few fail to act,  consider that word choice is imperative to coral passerby’s to take action.

How to Use "Action Words" to Increase Organic Traffic & Reader Response.

Put simply, if your pages lack verve when a visitor arrives (regardless of WHAT keyword they used to get there), then you are only asking your audience to jump ship and:

1) skim, leave the page and go back to search engines to find a more appealing offer.

2) find a website with a more appealing visual flow or design that pulls their emotional purse strings or -

3) find a more informative or interactive website that implements a clearer, or ironically more simplistic message and call to action for them to engage.

The good news, there is a solution; read this post for insights to what you could be doing wrong…

In closing on this brief intro, keep one thing in mind about the current climate of online marketing, it’s not always what you say, it’s how you say it that either converts or is simply ignored by users.

With advertisements, false positives and blatantly manufactured problems and solutions (i.e., three foods you should never eat…  Mom from Illinois used this trick to whiten teeth…  3 things your car insurance company doesn’t want you to know) impacting the masses at a mind numbing pace, your on page copy needs more than SEO to survive, it needs easy to interpret benefits laced with action-words to get users to “take action”.

This post from the past summarizes it well, so I encourage you to read >>> “How to Use Action Words to Increase Traffic and Reader Response” <<<.

SEO & Natural Language Discrimination By Semantic Analysis

As smart as Google is, their search engine uses an algorithm based on natural language and the relationships or connectivity of semantic occurrences (otherwise known as shingles, i.e. groups of words or phrases) to ascertain context.

Semantic Connectivity

These semblances, e.g. relationships are the fabric of relevance and intent and represent the convergence of allowing search engines work for you by theming your website’s topic to reinforce a topic and in turn develop website authority as a by product.

You here people talking about theming a website, but what is a theme? A theme is a cluster of words (keywords and phrases) which have overlapping continuity that reinforces topical relevance. In other words (a masterful collection of organized content which drives home a specific subject or series of subjects).

While this makes perfect sense from a logical perspective for consumers,  it also makes sense from the viewpoint of  search engines (which strive to understand and rate context) to provide the most relevant result for a query. Continue reading “SEO & Natural Language Discrimination By Semantic Analysis” »

How to Double Up on Traffic and Conversions

Where you rank matters! And whether or not your listing is above the fold in natural search results or on page two or beyond impacts the click through rate. The only thing better than one result in the top 10 in Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines is two search results in the top 10.

How to Double Traffic and Conversions

This post from the past, amply dubbed >>> SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion <<< is one method you can implement to replace competitors with a double listing (on the same page) from your website. Continue reading “How to Double Up on Traffic and Conversions” »

Moving Past the Google Panda Update!

In an Ode to Google Panda – “the most recent” update, overhaul, tweak, change, revision or any other verb you elect to describe this document classifier phenomenon, the fact remains the same that after 14 years of watching search engines, “change is imminent in search engines”, regardless of what or how you name it.

Warning Google Changes Algorithm - Run for Your Life!

Let’s face it, change is nothing new (when it comes to Google) and to insist the sky is falling is often nothing more than the tell tale signs of an algorithm change seeking normalization as it unfolds before our eyes.

The crowd “running for their life” from the “evil robot” is a metaphor for harried webmasters impacted by Panda scurrying in an attempt to regain their bearings as the latest Panda Update shredded their online search share. Should you fear updates or changes or plan in advance to insulate your website from such trivial vacillations? Continue reading “Moving Past the Google Panda Update!” »

Rankings, Conversions and SEO Accountability

When top level management is looking for a scapegoat to “pin to the wall” about deviating sales conversions for your website, don’t blame the SEO guy for merely doing his job.

What the F@$k? Who's at Fault Here?

SEO’s purpose is to deliver traffic – if a new visitor bounces because the page lacked congruence, focus or a strong call to action or action words, then call it what it is (a lack of conversion rate optimization). This is the real reason why most landing pages fail.

For those of you itching to jump into the mix, this post from the past amply named >>> Don’t Blame the SEO <<< summarizes the pitfalls of looking in the wrong place for the right solution. Despite wishful thinking, landing page optimization and conversion rate optimization are each respectively their own animal, which must be tamed prior to reaping ROI consistently. Continue reading “Rankings, Conversions and SEO Accountability” »

Don’t Get Jumped In Search Engines

The idea of holding your space (on the first page in search engines for a competitive keyword) takes on new meaning with the graphic representation below.

Despite the visual nature of the image above, the fact remains that if you don’t watch your back, in regard to SEO and search engine positioning, someone will most assuredly take your spot. Continue reading “Don’t Get Jumped In Search Engines” »

There is No Place for SEO Complacency

For every dollar you spend on SEO, there is a competitor spending 10 to 1000 times that amount to neutralize your efforts and own the most coveted top 3 spots for that keyword.

This leads to the next question. Are you serious about SEO? If so, then how serious are you? Do you have what it takes to chip away at competitive keywords inching your way to the top? Continue reading “There is No Place for SEO Complacency” »

Last Call for DWS 2.6 $67 / Month Membership

Newsflash! Domain web Studio – The market-devouring suite of tools from Themezoom is about to raise their price indefinitely for monthly subscriptions. This isn’t some boilerplate, flash in the pan tool, there is nothing like DWS 2.6, period.

DWS 2.6

You may have seen previous updates from us here as SDS about this suite of cutting-edge tools for building theme relevant sites in a cinch. In a few hours, the $67 per month early adapter price for those who enjoyed the beta version is coming to an end. Continue reading “Last Call for DWS 2.6 $67 / Month Membership” »

SEO Ultimate 6.6 Adds Siloed Categories Widget

Let’s hope last week’s major 6.4 and 6.5 launches whetted your appetite for more WordPress SEO features, because SEO Ultimate has been upgraded yet again, this time with a new module that adds 2 SEO widgets to your WordPress widgets page.

The first widget ties in with the newly-added Footer Link function of Deeplink Juggernaut. If you’re using a theme with a widgetized footer, SEO Ultimate’s new “Footer Links” widget will let you move your Deeplink Juggernaut footer links from the wp_footer hook section to your widgetized sidebar-footer. This unassuming widget makes it a cinch to smoothly integrate your Deeplink Juggernaut Footer Links into the theme of your choice. Continue reading “SEO Ultimate 6.6 Adds Siloed Categories Widget” »

SEO Ultimate 6.5 Features Deeplink Juggernaut Upgrades

SEO Ultimate, the powerful WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions, has been upgraded with the latest iteration of SEO Ultimate’s full-featured autolinking module.

SEO Ultimate 6.5

SEO Ultimate Version 6.5 Released

Existing users of Deeplink Juggernaut know that this autolinking module already gives you two ways to throttle its automatic link-building activity. Now that SEO Ultimate 6.4 adds a third option, you now have these link quantity restriction options at your disposal: Continue reading “SEO Ultimate 6.5 Features Deeplink Juggernaut Upgrades” »

SEO Ultimate Version 6.3 Unleashed: On Page SEO Has Evolved!

SEO Ultimate (the All In One SEO Plugin Created from SEO Design Solutions) has unleashed three new power-packed on page SEO features in the past 6 days. Just last week on 6/21/2011 we were ushering in version 6.0 but now, SEO Ultimate version 6.3 is now available for download from WordPress, the main SEO Ultimate landing page or through your WordPress plugin dashboard.

SEO Ultimate Cersion 6.3

SEO Ultimate Version 6.3: On Page SEO Has Evolved!

The latest updates unleashed in SEO Ultimate Version 6.3 represent another notch in the battle for WordPress SEO plugin supremacy. Each revision could be a stand-alone plugin within itself, but don’t take our word for it, allow me to elaborate on the latest stellar and revolutionary enhancements.

Updates to Deeplink Juggernaut

First up, the plugin has been upgraded with a major revamp to Deeplink Juggernaut, the essential toolkit for automatic internal linkbuilding. When upgrading to SEO Ultimate 6.0 or later, you may notice that the “Destination Type” and “Destination” autolink fields have been replaced with a single “Destination” textbox. Continue reading “SEO Ultimate Version 6.3 Unleashed: On Page SEO Has Evolved!” »

Google Updates PageRank on the Heels of Panda 2.2

On the heels of the Panda 2.2 a document classifier (digital quality rater) machine learning algorithm, Google unleashed a long-overdue PageRank update to shake up the web as we know it for SEO’s and webmasters alike.

Google PageRank Update June 27,2011

Google PageRank Update

While this event may not carry significance for non-SEO types, for affiliates, webmasters or internet marketers vested in the process of percolating new sites (to develop more on page authority), spawning PageRank on their new domains invariably augments long-term SEO efforts (by creating a higher degree of referential integrity)  for internal pages to circulate link weight, which in turn can produce rankings. Continue reading “Google Updates PageRank on the Heels of Panda 2.2” »

SEO Ultimate Version 6.0 Released!

SEO Ultimate (created by SEO Design Solutions) is undoubtedly  one of the most expansive, comprehensive and all-inclusive SEO plugins ever created for WordPress. It features pliable modules (like multiple plugins within a plugin) that literally place the pure on page power of a feature-rich, streamlined CMS (content management system) at your fingertips. Quite literally, within a few clicks.

SEO Ultimate 6.0

SEO Ultimate 6.0 FREE WordPress Plugin Released

Aside from vast improvements to the meta description module, the meta description field of the “SEO Settings” post box now indicates search engines use around 140 characters instead of 160, to better reflect current search engine trends.

Improvement: Improved layout of Meta Robot Tags mass-editors. And for the main update under the hood, the Deeplink Juggernaut re-dubbed the Deeplink Juggernaut 2.0 has been REVAMPED in SEO Ultimate 6.0.

For a brief overview of other SEO Ultimate Modules, follow the link.

Google Now Supports rel=”Canonical” Http Headers

Google recently announced a breakthrough for webmasters regarding the use of Canonical Http Headers. While this may not mean much to most, this is going to quell duplicity ( the woes of duplicate content) in large websites with one simple meta command instead of having to resort to drastic measures such as using 301 redirects to minimize or manage content duplication across categories, tags or, content types or folders.

http-headers

Google Supports Rel="Canonical" Http Headers

With this simple command, you can indicate the preferred URL to Google and minimize the suppression or devaluation of multiple pages fighting in the index for the same topic. You can read more at Google Webmaster Central for the official post. You can read about their previous update in 2009 regarding canonical URL support here. Continue reading “Google Now Supports rel=”Canonical” Http Headers” »

Real SEO Tools, Serious Results!

In this video Matt DaCruz from Themezoom Revolution walks you through setting up an SEO-infused semantic silo from scratch in DWS from their recently polished, refined graphic user interface. This sleek, uber powerful tool allows you to map out perfectly structured websites (through a streamlined process perfected over years) using methods that would normally take days into a simple, powerful website architecture in record time.

Before you set out to tackle a market (one keyword or multiple keywords at a time) you need to understand three critical SEO metrics (1) the competition, i.e. barrier to entry (2)  how much it will cost and (3) how to assemble your site architecture and structure your internal and inbound links to reach a profitable ROI. DWS can help with all three. Continue reading “Real SEO Tools, Serious Results!” »

Sneak Peak of The WP Ultimate Theme by SEO Design Solutions™

The initial tests are nearly concluded for The WP Ultimate Theme – an SEO Framework for WordPress developed by SEO Design Solutions (the creators of SEO Ultimate All in One WordPress Plugin).

WP Ultimate Theme

WP Ultimate Theme Sneak Peak

The purpose of the WP Ultimate Theme is simple, to provide more on page SEO options than any theme on the market such as: Continue reading “Sneak Peak of The WP Ultimate Theme by SEO Design Solutions™” »

Stop Building Worthless Links!

While link building is an important for SEO, the million dollar question is, are your building the right type of links for your website? The truth is, not all links are good for your website and not all links are created equal. Depending on (1) your website (2) the keywords (3) your competition and (4) the resources you have available to leverage ultimately increase or decrease the amount of effort required.

Are you building the right type of links?

If you’re going to build links, then BUILD THE RIGHT TYPE OF LINKS and keep in mind that the quality of the link is far more important than quantity. To assign a metric of link strength using a logarithmic scale (like PageRank), a link from a PR 4 is 5 times more powerful than a PR3, a link from a PR 5 is 5 times more powerful than a 4 and so on (moving up or down the scale).

Link Quality Over Quantity

Keep in mind that PageRank is not the only metric for links; there are multiple metrics that are equally as important for link building (which we will discuss briefly in this post). Also, relevance and trust are equally as important to pass along the proper type of citation. Continue reading “Stop Building Worthless Links!” »

SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 5.7 Released!

SEO Ultimate, the free WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions, has been upped to version 5.7. The latest round of upgrades includes these new features and improvements:

SEO Ultimate: WordPress SEO Plugin

  • Meta Description Editor has a new {excerpt::autogen} variable that lets you autogenerate meta descriptions using the first words of your posts. This can be a huge timesaver, especially if your posts’ first content is already primed for SERP clickthroughs.
  • Link Mask Generator has a new options page that lets you change the alias directory from the default of /go/ to a value of your choosing (so you can funnel your links through, for example, the /out/ directory, producing masked URLs like http://www.example.com/out/masked-link/)
  • Continue reading “SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 5.7 Released!” »