Pimp My Keywords

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 56

Ready for another cool - and useful - search engine optimization tool? How about a bunch of them?

Let's go back to www.seobook.com for a host of tools you should be considering.

Once there, take a close look at:

• SEO Toolbar - an excellent toolbar with on-the-fly SEO information including Page Rank, inbound link counts, and more. A must for any SEO project.
• Keyword Suggestion Tool - Not bad, but not as good as WordTracker or Keyword Discovery. Still, no complaints for a free tool.
• Competitive Research SEO Tool - Very cool tool offering a ton of information on search results in Google.
• Ranking Checker - Checks website rankings.

Note: These tools work with Firefox only.

My only complaint with SEO Book is the constant and annoying pop-up dialog box. Get past the sales pitch and you'll be fine.

Why Purple Trout?

Why hire Purple Trout?

• We practice honest and ethical search engine optimization techniques. In the industry, we are a "white hat" SEO firm.
• We help educate you on the SEO process - even before you become a client. Answers are always free.
• We conduct 2-3 rounds of extensive keyword research for our clients to help them determine and select the best possible keywords.
• We re-evaluate keywords every 90 days, as searching habits change.
• We write strong Page Titles - the kind Google likes - and other meta tag code.
• We write keyword-rich content.
• We tag every thing Google allows us to tag (photos, graphics, videos, PDFs, etc.).
• We write keyword-rich articles for our clients to use in their online marketing and link building efforts.
• We supply our clients with strong link building efforts, securing one-way links from directories and websites pointing back to our clients' website. By the way, we don't buy links; trade links or send out thousands of SPAM e-mails begging unknown webmasters for links.
• We participate in bookmarking websites on behalf of our clients' websites such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and others.
• We create Google Analytics accounts for our clients and track Analytics reports each week.
• We create weekly Ranking Analysis reports every Monday and share that information with our clients.
• We create weekly Linking Analysis reports every Thursday and share that information with our clients.
• Our Pay Per Click program is extremely effective and "hands-on" as we are earning high CTR (Click Through Rate) performance levels for our clients. Note: CTR is determined by how many times your ad appears in Google (an impression) and how many clicks the ad gains.
• We create XML Sitemaps for our clients and track Google and other bots as they crawl our clients' websites.
• We submit our clients to Google Maps. 
• We offer a free monthly SEO Newsletter (even our competition subscribes!).
• We offer a free monthly SEO Webinar (yes, sometimes, we let our competition attend).
• ...and much more...

What we do works.

Want to learn more? Ask for a FREE Search Engine Optimization Analysis of your company's website.

New SEO Services Coming Soon

Over the next couple of months, Purple Trout, LLC will be introducing some new search engine marketing services to its clients and prospects.

Nope, we are not re-inventing the wheel here, nor do we have "top secret" information from Google so that we can make Top 10 ranking promises.

However, everything we offer will continue to involve search, search engines and search results.

We're excited. Our team is excited and some of our test clients are excited as well.

Stay tuned!

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 55

Over the next few months, I'll share with you some of the best - and FREE - SEO tools on the Internet.

If you know of some tools you like, let me know and I'll post them here (and give you credit as well).

One of the best, SEO tool websites - hands down - is SEO Book. Great website with several useful SEO tools. You can find them at www.seobook.com.

Webinar: Diving Into Paid Search

Purple Trout, LLC, a Search Engine Marketing company located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is offering a free, online webinar focusing on the basics of Pay Per Click campaigns in Google and other search engines.

The webinar – “Diving Into Paid Search” – will be held on Thursday, May 21, 2009.

Steve Phillips, President of Purple Trout, LLC, and Ilona Vijnik, Project Director, will provide an overview of PPC; how to set up a campaign; budgeting, and how to manage and maintain your Pay Per Click campaigns.

The webinar will take place from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. EST. Admission is free.

To register, visit www.purpletrout.com/seminar.html.

For more information, please contact Steve Phillips at (513) 885-5000 or steve@purpletrout.com

About Purple Trout, LLC:

Purple Trout, LLC is a Search Engine Marketing company located in Cincinnati, Ohio, specializing in honest and ethical SEM techniques to obtain higher rankings for company websites in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. For more information, visit www.purpletrout.com

 

Google Updates Search Engine: Don't Freak Out

Yes, Google recently updated its search engine, but don't push the panic button.

If you haven't heard the news, don't freak out.

It will be OK.

Here's the scoop:

According to Google, the first new change users will notice is a small blue "show options" link in the light blue bar above the first page of their search results. By clicking the link, searchers can choose to separately view results that are videos, reviews, forums, etc. Or, they can sort the results by time. For example, choosing to review results published within the last 24 hours, the past week or the past year.

One of the options is called "Wonder Wheel" which offers a visual representation of suggestions.

So far, so good.

The second change in Google is called "rich snippets" which is information Google scraped from the Web (note: Yahoo already has this feature).

Third, Google will introduce data-scraping tool called "Google Squared" which will be available later this month. Here, Google will present info in square tables rather than in a list of search results, so users can quickly compare information on products or research topics.

"Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find web pages about your topics. Instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet," according to Google in a company blog post.

Google also introduced a new application for the Android phone operating system called "Sky Map" which allows users to hold their phone up to the night sky and get an annotated image of the constellations.

See? The sky isn't falling after all.

Keep working on all the correct and important SEO elements, such as content and search and don't let an SEO "guru" blame your poor rankings on this update.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 54

One of the more common search engine optimization questions I hear is "how long will it take until my website is ranked in the Top 10 in Google?"

Honestly, no one knows.

There are many factors involved and it all comes down to hard work and time. This includes targeted keywords, writing fresh content, creating strong Page Titles and other meta tag codes, link building, etc.

Do not believe anyone who says "I can get you there in 10 days" as no one make such a claim.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 53

Since local search is becoming more important, you want to make sure you take the time to submit your website to Google Maps.

Here's the best part: It's free and it's also easy.

Once you've set up an account with Google (www.google.com), go to the Local Business Center link and select "Add New Listing". Then, complete the necessary information about your business (address, hours, telephone number, etc.).

You will then have the option to receive a confirmation PIN number via mail (at your mailing address) to confirm the information or having Google call you via telephone.

Once confirmed, Google may take up to four (4) weeks to confirm the information.

Simple!

A Google Killer? Probably Not...

OK, so it's probably not going to be a Google killer, but here's a search engine for you to check out:

http://www.cuil.com/

It's been around for almost a year. The search results are long, but they've improved the images.

Google: 5 Digital Marketing Trends (Part V)

Mark Marinacci, Team Manager-Retail with Google (Chicago), recently offered five digital marketing trends while speaking to the Columbus chapter of the American Marketing Association.

"As a result of the recession and new digital tools, people's behaviors have changed forever," said Marinacci. "Searches for terms containing 'bargain' and 'price comparison' significantly higher.

"Yet, online business is the only channel continuing to grow," he added.

Trend 5 - Bet on data. It beats Opinion. The Google Sales Pitch

Use the Website Optimizer and test variations. Google did this with Picasa, a photo sharing tool. Interns suggestion beats the executives suggestion based on performance in tests.

Use Google Analytics, which enables optimization.

Apply science to what others consider solely an art.