‘search engine optimization’

Google has changed the SEO landscape considerably with Panda, the +1 Button, Social Search, and now the author rank algorithm. Web marketing companies and publishers need to make changes in their online marketing strategies or have their sites end up on pages five or six in the search results.

With the authorship mark-up announced, a tag can be added through semantic HTML to allow for searching of works by the same author in a particular website. In addition, the tag allows for directing to an author’s bio page which should be at the same website. With another tag, a link can be made to a profile at an external page or all pages displaying the author’s work.

Benefits For The Reader

The authorship mark-up enables users to locate articles written by a specific author. If an author has thus written informative and high quality articles, the recognition will be valuable. Users will not have to utilize the find option to locate works by a particular author at a website. In addition, the author rank system makes it easier to find articles written by a particular author in the organic search results of Google. The author’s page will include a list of articles or content pages created by the author and some biographical information. The days of the faceless content writer seem to be over.

Why The Authorship Mark-Up?

Google intends to deliver the most relevant and highest quality content in response to user searches. What makes it a bit tricky is that the author page must be located at the same website where the content is delivered. The user will have to rely on organic searches to locate works by the same author at other websites.

Implications For Freelance Authors

The author ranking system will benefit freelance authors who write quality articles. An author will think twice before spinning out superficial content for the sake of search engine marketing. Once the author’s name is connected to an article or press release, the author will rethink the content. As such freelance authors may in future decline projects where the focus is on articles about similar or rather similar keywords for the same site.

Authors writing for numerous sites may have an initial disadvantage because they write on a wide variety of topics and may find it difficult to develop a reputation of being an expert on a topic. Whereas an author may not have minded writing about a particular topic in the past because there was no name attached to the content, the reputation of the author may become more valuable and as such many freelancers may decline previously accepted projects to protect their reputations.

Authorship Mark-up And Author Rank

Google Authors by jimboot

The authorship mark-up is a tool to be used, simplifying the process of identifying and locating work of a particular author at a website. The author rank is a content metric to help measure the quality of articles and importance of a web page based on the reputation of the author. With author ranking then Google will be able to identify high quality articles and content pages and thus ensure more relevant search results. Google is also planning the implementation of trust metrics such as the Google +1 button and user feedback which will help to ensure accurate results. Users will appreciate other features such as Google Preview showing parts of a work and perhaps an image of the author as well as a short bio on the author.

Implications For Search

It would be naïve to think that the author ranking metric will not influence search results. Users may be influenced by the images of authors and the trust indicators. With a positive image and thus trust associated with an author, the user is more likely to click on the result. SEO companies and publishers will thus have to ensure that their content writers develop solid reputations in specific areas of writing and carefully select the topics to be written about. By taking pro-active steps in the matching of author and topic, they can thus ensure higher click-through rates based on the reputation of the author.

Authors will have to create Google profiles to which the authorship mark-ups can link. It will give them more control over their content in the sense that their content will be protected against scrapers. Ownership of the works will thus be easier to substantiate.

Reputable authors will rank higher with the author rank system ensuring better search placement for well written content. With the authorship mark-up tools webmasters will be able to also link to other web pages and the author bio ensuring that authors will play an all important role in placement of web pages in search results at the end of the day. Multiple profiles can be linked by using a mark-up such as rel=”me” to ensure linking between various profiles.

With the system in place, the content created by high ranking authors may even be indexed before there are links created to the content. If a webmaster therefore uses a reputable author with an excellent ranking, it could mean quick indexing and with this improved traffic. The focus in content generation will thus also need to be on improvement of author rank.

Search engine marketing through content generation in future may heavily rely on top quality content of high ranking authors. Even if an author is relatively unknown at the start of the author tag usage, the scene can change quickly as some freelancers write numerous articles for one site during the course of a month. The author could develop a reputation for writing excellence on the topic within a relatively short period, which will ultimately benefit the website owner.

Combine the author rank with the muscle of the Google +1 button to recommend sites and you have powerful tools for better search results placement on a specific topic. Professional web marketing techniques become all the more relevant for top ranking. Contact us to help your site reach top ranking and sustain its search engine placement.

Marie Grey & Associates is South Africa’s top Professional Speakers Bureau. With more than twenty years’ experience in the industry they have a proven track record of successful bookings and organisation of speaker engagements ranging from conference to inspirational, comedian, sport, and futuristic speaking events.

The company is a formidable player in the public speaking industry. With a professional image and a reputation for excellence, Marie Grey & Associates select their marketing vehicles and partners with care. Since the company has teamed up with iLead Online to manage their online marketing campaigns they have moved from offline media advertising to web marketing only.

Their online success can be contributed to a number of factors including, but not limited to:

• Well designed and professional website.
• Ongoing search engine optimization.
• Flexibility in marketing approach.
• Usage of web statistics and reports for the purpose of identifying keywords, customer preferences, search behaviour, as well as strong and weak points in the marketing strategy.
• Informative and sticky content.
• Client feedback options.
• Several means to contact them.
• News and events section for freshness.
• Careful selection of content.
• Comprehensive information about services.
• Sitemap for additional navigation and for search bots.
• Facebook presence.
• YouTube presence.
• Pay Per Click advertising.
• Affiliate marketing.
• Effective online marketing mix.

iLead Online regularly provides Marie Grey & Associates with progress reports. As such the client stays updated and any changes that need to be made to ensure even better rankings can be discussed. With the iLead Online pro-active approach to search engine marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, and usage of the social media to promote client sites, we can thus identify potential opportunities and pitfalls rather than having to react to changes in search engine algorithms and Internet usage behaviour.

Company Experience With iLead Online

Marie Grey & Associates originally decided to use iLead Online when they conducted an organic search for web marketing companies. Upon reviewing the iLead Online website they found the site to be professional and decided, based on the information provided by iLead Online, to make use of our services. We have since then built a strong working relationship with the company and regard them as one of our top clients.

Marie Grey, founder of the company, has commented that they have experienced a solid increase in speaker bookings since making use of iLead Online as their SEO and web marketing company, and that the ROI rate for web marketing investment is excellent. She furthermore feels that Pay Per Click also provides a good return on investment regarding web marketing spending and will certainly recommend such as an additional channel for online promotion. On the question of whether she will recommend iLead Online as SEO company Marie answered “Absolutely, and I have done so already”.

Marie Grey & Associates has two websites for which monitoring is in place:

www.mariegreyspeakers.com

www.motivational-speakers-sa.co.za

Solid Return On Investment

Both websites perform excellent with an average of 2.85 pages visited per visitor, indicating that the average visitor lands at the website, and clicks on two more pages before making a booking, using the contact details or leaving. With the new Google Panda Algorithm in place, the time spent and pages visited before exiting a website becomes all important. As such the Marie Grey & Associates websites perform well. The average time spent at the .com website is almost three minutes which is superb ensuring no quick exists. With Google’s Panda it becomes essential to have sticky content ensuring that the visitor doesn’t leave within the first minute as such will lead to a drop in rankings at the end of the day if not addressed.

The website marketing techniques work as proven by the average total of new visitors to the site being almost 75%. As such the site traffic is growing month-by-month and brand awareness and new customers are on the increase. More than 82% of all traffic generated to the site comes from organic searches where users type in a keyword phrase and conducts a search relevant to the content of the particular website.

The low bounce rate of the site, the increase in bookings experienced by Marie Grey & Associates, and the time that users spend at the site indicate that the keywords selected and the content generated have been well aligned, and are effective as well as relevant to the user requirements. Just fewer than 8% traffic comes from referring sites which include links, directories and affiliate sites while direct hits account for 11.78% indicating the users already familiar with the web address and returning.

Traffic is sent via search engines through an average of 405 keywords which indicates that the Marie Grey & Associates website is well optimized and rank well for several keywords. Another important consideration when analysing the performance of a website with search engines is the target audience response. Most of the users of the website come from South Africa, which is rather important since the company’s target market is mainly South Africans.  The South African users visit more than three pages on average per visit to the website and with a low bounce rate; it becomes apparent that they find what they are looking for.

Complete Online Marketing Mix

iLead Online follows a complete online marketing mix to ensure maximum exposure, relevant and targeted traffic and an increase in business generation for Marie Grey & Associates. Some of the techniques used include that of:

• Monthly addition of new informative articles to the website written by professional copywriters;
• Strategic link building and additional Google exposure by way of the iLead network of sites;
• Regular sitemap updating and submission to Google; and more.

Marie Grey & Associates is a top performing company and iLead Online takes pride in the development of their online presence. From the information provided it is clear that the SEO and online marketing techniques used by iLead Online provide the desired ROI for client companies. Contact us today to help your company gain a competitive edge in the online world.

Google Panda is the name of the new algorithm used by Google to index pages and also to ban and move pages down the search results. Dewaldt Huysamen of iLead Online recently compiled a report named “SEO Update On Google’s Top Secret Google Panda’s Algo Change” based on the findings of Michael Campbell who gave 19 pointers on how to ensure that your website remains in the top search results even with the new Google Panda lurking in the woods.

Search engine optimization is a fine and dynamic art. Just as human search and Internet usage behaviour changes over time as they adapt to new additions to the online environment, search engines, including the likes of Google, change their algorithms to ensure the most relevant search results for the user. Google attempts to give the user value for their search time through the implementation of the Google Panda Algorithm.

Why The Need For Google Panda?

It never takes long for SEOs to catch up with new algorithms and unfortunately the spammers and black hat SEOs are even faster. They are the opportunists of the online world, taking what is meant to be good for everyone and turning it into a tool that gives them an unfair advantage. Make no mistake – advantage is what you should strive for, but not when it involves unethical behaviour that can cause the search engine to change its algorithm into a rather angry Google Panda that becomes aggressive to keep the status quo. Since the spammers and the black hatters will always be around, the average website owner has to do some work to prevent being categorised in the same category as the unscrupulous black hatters.

What Is Important According To Google Panda?

The normal SEO stays in place. Keyword density must be checked, spelling and grammar should be up to standard and useful sticky content must be provided. The article directories and article farms were hit exceptionally hard because the feeling is that the content at these sites is not worth the search. Still good for building incoming links, these article directories unfortunately are also filled with user generated content with loads of ads, making it difficult to read the content. Problem is that users leave the sites and have to redo their searches.

Duplicate content and no meat are two more reasons for citing the above as below standard sources of information. With Google being the number one search engine and also an excellent income generator for AdSense entrepreneurs, article directories have become big business. Three blocks of ads can be placed with every article and since the user may find the content to be useless, the ads become all the more attractive, leading to clicks and of course, money in the bank for the AdSense generator.

In effect then, Google is also guilty in creating the culture of serving up junk and had to do something to level the playing field again and taking out the junk. Google Panda is their answer to this problem.

How To Stay On The Friendly Side Of Google Panda

The main focus should be to retain visitors at your site. This doesn’t mean getting the users to your site and then trapping them. Indeed, such behaviour will make Google Panda your enemy. The answer lies in good quality content. You have heard it all before, but now the content must be super relevant and of exceptional value. Google Panda basically works on the principle of checking how long a visitor stays at a site before returning to the search page to find a more relevant match for their query. Without getting bogged down in detail – Google checks user behaviour. It may come as a surprise, but your every move on the search engine is closely monitored. No need to switch off the computer as the tracking is done simply to enhance the search engine and to ensure that you will find relevant pages when typing in a search.

Practical Points

Google Panda considers the following in addition to the other 200 SEO factors to be important:

• Feedback from users – still considered in a way, but may change in future.
• Bounce rate – how long a visitor stays at a particular web page before hitting the back button and doing another search.
• The number of ads displayed on a page – if there are too many ads, and especially ads not meeting the standard such as blinking ones and ads loading slowly, the Google Panda algorithm kicks in.
• Auto generated content – if the website contains too many pages of auto or syndicated content it can lead to a lower rank.
• Spelling and grammar should be correct as incorrect usage of language can be an indication of article spinning and also of low quality content.
• Design of the page – loading time is the keyword here.
• Outgoing links – pages with too many links out will be penalized.
• Duplicate content – even on your own pages will lead to penalization.
• Getting a top ten result for a keyword phrase spread over several pages is considered scaly.

What You Can Do To Stay On The Best Side Of Google Panda

Apart from changing your website to ensure that you stay within the Google Panda boundaries as indicated above, you should ensure that the visitor stays longer than the average 57 seconds at your site. You want to ensure that the visitor’s attention will be grabbed for at least 60 seconds and as such will benefit from using the following techniques:

• Avoid the usage of clipart and unprofessional graphics. You want to build confidence which will not be the case when using outdated blinking clipart and animation.
• Use colours wisely. You want to improve readability and as such should stay clear of a light font colour on dark backgrounds. Keep in mind that people get tired easily when having to read blurry content which is exactly what happens when you have a light font on a dark background.
• Keep outgoing links to a minimum – you want the user to stay with you for just a bit longer.
• Use Verdana instead of Arial or Helvetica fonts which were meant for bus stop signs rather than for computer readability.
• Avoid heavy navigation which will confuse the user and tempt them to hit the back button. It can also lead to slow loading times – which can be detrimental if you want a low bounce rate.
• Use narrow column widths such as 60 characters and keep the font at 12 points to ensure maximum readability.
• Create super quality and attention grabbing content which will ensure positive feedback.
• Structure pages well to ensure that any auto content will be separated and not indexed.
• Check high bounce rate pages and change the content. Even one page with a high bounce rate can affect your site’s ranking.
• Don’t ignore the importance of the legal pages such as Privacy Statement, Terms & Conditions, and Disclaimers. Group them together under the About Us section.
• Ensure that your site only features high quality ads.
• Use photos instead of clipart and only include such when adding value to the story.
• Add sticky content. This means a video where relevant to keep visitors at your site for longer.

Review your website for the above factors. If you need help in getting into Google Panda’s good books or should we say, the best side of the Panda tree, get in contact with us at iLead Online to ensure that your website does more than meet the requirements – it should flourish in the Google Panda world.

Jungle Gym World was established in 2007 by André Ferreira and has since then grown from being a small player in the playground equipment industry to a formidable competitor receiving orders from Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana and even from Hong Kong and nationally. The company is now employer to more than 47 workers. Online marketing is credited for the growth of the company to have become one of the largest steel gym manufacturers and suppliers in the country the past five years.

Jungle Gym World has grown into a formidable competitor in jungle gym equipment over the years using three marketing channels:

• Online marketing which includes a complete marketing mix of Search Engine Optimization (noted by the owner André, as one of the most important reasons for their online success), Pay Per Click advertising, banner ads, article writing and content generation, as well as traffic monitoring.
• Online affiliate marketing where leads are gained from iLead affiliate pages.
• Passive advertising in the printed Yellow Pages.

From the above it becomes clear that Jungle Gym World has increased its exposure and brand awareness by means of the Internet rather than using offline media which is more expensive and can only reach a limited number of people. One of the most important reasons noted for the company’s tremendous success is their ongoing Internet based advertising.

Their website receives on average between 6000 and 7000 visits a month, and all are highly relevant. Getting so many people, who are interested specifically in playground equipment to your website, means that your online marketing methods must work. iLead Online has proven that SEO is essential in increasing search engine visibility and should be the first step in online marketing.

According to André, around 99% of their clients come from the Internet. With thousands of suppliers on the Internet in specifically outdoor play equipment, the company had to ensure that its site would be noticed and more important would result in online sales. Because of this marketing strategy, the company could be more focussed on production of top quality products because iLead has taken the responsibility to ensure a regular stream of visitors, leads, and content for increasing sales conversions.

Important Factors For Online Success

Jungle Gym World has not focussed one only one aspect of online marketing, but several. With only the minimum effort required from Jungle Gym World, iLead Online has ensured ongoing success by using:

• Search engine optimization.
• Article writing by experienced copywriters to ensure credible content that is useful to readers and search engine friendly.
• Incoming link building.
• Blog creation for marketing in the social media environment and reaching more Internet users.
• Pay Per Click advertising management for direct sales leads.
• Creation of landing pages.
• Constant website visitor traffic monitoring.
• Banner ad creation and placing thereof at iLead Online affiliate pages.

Five new pages are added to the article base monthly ensuring that content increases and more visibility are gained regarding organic search engines. Proof is in the stats.

Link Popularity

Link popularity shows the number of websites and search engines linking to a website. The more relevant incoming links from a major search engine and directories, the more doors to a website, and also better ranking.

The Jungle Gym World website has 346 incoming links from Yahoo! which is a major search engine for their co.za domain and 872 for their .com domain. Other search engines sending links to Jungle Gym World are that of Google, Ananzi and Bing. The focus on major search engines has proven to be effective. Google has sent 3617 visits in February 2011 as part of organic searches and 150 referral visits. The website shows only 36% bounce rate, which is excellent. This means that 74% of the visitors explore other web pages on the site before exiting by placing an order.

Visitor Stats

Demographics of the users play an important role in the return on investment when it comes to marketing. Marketing to users which fall outside the scope of your business is indeed money lost. It is never possible to not also receive international visitors if your market is only one country, but you want the majority of visitors to come from within the preferred geographical boundaries. Jungle Gym World has an excellent return on investment because the majority of visits to their website originate from within South Africa and more specifically Gauteng with visits from Pretoria, Sandton and Johannesburg being the most. The site also receives visits from Cape Town and then neighbouring countries, accounting for the successful expansion of its market into neighbouring countries.

Origin Of Traffic

The site receives 64.67% from its traffic from search engines and 3.35% from referring sites while direct hits account for only 31.98%. The site ranks top for several of the main keywords, ensuring that whenever an Internet user searches for playground equipment related terms that Jungle Gym World comes up in the top five results and in many instances is at position 1 to 3. The ROI is all important, and according to André, without the online marketing efforts of iLead and thus the Internet based activity, Jungle Gym World would not exist.

So successful is the company that it is now one of the largest and best known play equipment manufacturers in Southern Africa with regular requests from the USA and important manufacturing countries in Asia. Becoming a major player in the educational and outdoor equipment industry by making use of the Internet as main marketing vehicle and thus also the most cost-effective, is possible if you follow the route that Jungle Gym World did. It is perhaps one of the most inspiring stories on the web and with a longstanding relationship with iLead Online; Jungle Gym World is growing day by day.

So successful is Jungle Gym World that André has been asked on occasion to address a Google and related conferences on the topic of their online success. According to owner, André, a website can be compared to a bottle of water in the desert. The resource is there, but it must be found and for that a map is needed. Online marketing including SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing, link building, and content generation creates the paths to the resource. If done right, Internet marketing, as done through iLead Online, guarantees an excellent return on your marketing investment. Contact us at iLead Online to help you gain the same success through online marketing.

Integrated Technical Services known, as ITS Africa, is a well-known industrial and commercial cleaning equipment supplier in South Africa with a large customer base. The company is also a distributor of the famous Kärcher products.

The ITS client base includes the likes of large mining companies and projects such as the Gautrain cleaning contract. The company operates in an extremely competitive environment also when it comes to carwash and carpet cleaning equipment. Competition on high level also means that competitors invest a lot in marketing, especially online marketing. This in turn leads to extreme keyword and ranking competition. Getting to the first five search result ranks for one of the main keywords is a rather impressive feat and more so to stay at the position or to improve the position.

ITS Africa, as an award-winning cleaning equipment supplier and service provider to large enterprises in South Africa, recognises the importance of a flexible, yet, well planned online marketing strategy. With that in mind the company under leadership has partnered with iLead Online to ensure that it can gain and keep a competitive edge in the online environment. The company recently received the South Africa Distributor of the Year Award from two major suppliers. It is an impressive accomplishment indeed. Part of their distributor success has to do with their marketing and customer relationship building strategies. Both strategies include a solid online presence and user-friendly websites packed with information on the various products and brands.

Online Marketing Strategy And Performance

ITS makes use of Pay Per Click Advertising in addition to affiliate marketing, link building, search engine optimisation and content generation services offered by iLead. Their service package thus consists of a complete marketing mix ensuring that they gain maximum online exposure and visitor traffic to their website. In addition to the above the following areas are also exploited in terms of online marketing:

• Interactive blog allowing for short posts about specific services offered by the company.
• Website banner ads at strategic places.
• Newsfeed on the main page allowing for constant news updates on the latest developments.
• Facebook advertising and business profile development.
• YouTube Channel for video marketing and building of links.
• Opt-in Mailing List for news & specials.
• Newsletter to build credibility and keep clients informed

Links Increase

The ITS Africa website had 135 incoming links in June 2010. Within only a few months iLead succeeded in building an additional 126 links bringing the total incoming links to 261 for February 2011. Ranking is directly influenced by the number of value added and relevant links and as such the incoming links have helped to improve search engine ranking.

Organic Search Results

The website is performing well on the organic search results for most of their main keywords, considering how competitive the market is in terms of their specific keywords. Co-owner of ITS Africa, Wayne Mulder, commented that although the website is not within the first three search results for some of the important keywords that it is on its way there and since search engine marketing is a long term and gradual process, it is worth the investment. Being on the first page is absolutely essential if one hopes to get a major chunk of the visitor traffic, and lying within the first five definitely helps. The goal is to get to position two or three in the near future.

Pay Per Click Advertising

While the website is still climbing the ranks in terms of some main keywords, it is doing exceptionally well on the PPC front with tremendous click through conversions. The combination of organic search with a PPC campaign strategy managed by iLead is delivering the desired visitor and conversion results. Out of 10411 clicks in February 2011 there were 1061 visits. When interviewed about his website success, Wayne answered that PPC is a more controllable tool which is definitely a must have for immediate results. Pay per click offers the benefit of a user already being in the market for the specific product or service and not only browsing for information. With this then, PPC is used to compliment the traffic drive to their website.

Leads

According to Wayne iLead has helped to ensure a constant flow of incoming leads. Not all result in sales, but are still important for brand building and customer mailing list development. Every relevant lead is important and with a definite increase in leads experienced, the company is 100% satisfied with the iLead strategies and professional lead building techniques.

Report Back & Future Trends

With the marketing mix strategy that iLead follows, the client can expect a solid return on investment into online marketing. Additional channels which are still to be exploited fully include that of viral marketing, YouTube, and social media brand development, all planned for the future.

Client Perspective Of iLead

The company provides excellent service and staff is available 24/7 to assist with any queries. One can trust in the professionalism of iLead. Even though iLead has other clients in the same industry, the company gives 100% to each client and upholds the integrity of the relationship. ITS Africa experiences the search engine marketing relationship as one based on trust. iLead is committed to client service and the building of long term relationships. It is this commitment that ensures complete dedication by the search engine specialists and staff. It is a reliable company that delivers on its promises to clients.

In Summary

ITS Africa is one of the leading commercial and industrial cleaning companies in South Africa. The company makes extensive use of online marketing to expand its markets and to ensure brand awareness. iLead works in close relationship with ITS to extend the reach of the company by ensuring well planned search engine optimisation, a flexible approach to Internet marketing, and transparency in its marketing approach. With this approach followed and a professional relationship with the client, iLead continues to develop strategies for optimal visibility, online branding, and the ultimate return on investment for ITS Africa. Contact us to develop an online marketing strategy that will suit your particular advertising needs.