Tag Archives: Algorithm Update

Vol. 62: Three New ESEO Team Members; Google Penalizes Pages with Intrusive Mobile Interstitials

This entry was posted on January 18, 2017 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: 3 New Hires

As the Eminent SEO client base expands, our team does as well. Over the last month, we have added three new members to the Eminent SEO team, and we’re looking to hire more!

Meet the three newest members of our team:

Trista Sobeck – Content Writer

Trista is the newest writer here at Eminent SEO. We already have her working on website pages, blog posts, eBooks, newsletter, social media posts, marketing emails and more for our premium clients. Trista has a Creative Writing degree and comes to us with a background in writing for everything from small boutique agencies to Fortune 500 companies.

Welcome to the team, Trista!

Trista Sobeck Content Writer - Eminent SEO

Holly Salars – Outreach Coordinator

Holly, our new outreach coordinator, is performing administrative duties for Eminent SEO, in addition to publishing blog posts for clients and building business relationships on their behalf. Holly has a background in several industries, such as health care, hospitality, food and beverage, construction, child care, addiction rehabilitation and more.

Welcome aboard, Holly!

Holly Salars - Outreach Coordinator - Eminent SEO

Theresa Nacho Montiel – Senior Graphic Designer

Theresa is the new Senior Graphic Designer at Eminent SEO who produces strategic and original imagery for website designs, blog posts, social media posts, eBooks and more. Theresa has more than 10 years of experience with Adobe programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and she believes that design is more than pretty pictures: It’s a business solution.

Welcome, welcome, welcome!
More About Theresa

Theresa Nacho Montiel Senior Graphic Designer - Eminent SEO

What’s New in SEO: Google Targets Intrusive Mobile Interstitials

Have you ever clicked a link on social media or in Google Search and you were served a full-page pop-up that you had to click out of to see the desired content? If you hate when that happens, you’re not alone.

Just last week, two high-ranking members of Google confirmed their company began targeting websites that use so-called intrusive mobile interstitials before serving the content that actually shows up in the search engine results. Basically, Google has started penalizing pages that are interrupted by an interstitial right out of mobile search. A penalty will either put the page out of Google’s radar or push it way down in the mobile search results.

Google officials, however, said that the penalty does not apply to pages the user could click through to after landing on a certain page from search. In other words, if you open a website from Google Search and an intrusive interstitial only pops up after clicking to another page on that website, then the site won’t suffer any penalties.

Here are some other instances where certain interstitials won’t warrant a Google penalty for a website:

When the interstitial is for legal obligations, such as to verify the user’s age or warn them about cookies
If the interstitial pops up ahead of non-indexible content that is behind a paywall
When a pop-up banner only covers a small portion of the screen and is easily dismissible

But Who Uses Intrusive Interstitials?

An obvious example that comes to mind of a website with intrusive interstitials is Forbes.com. Whether you’re going to the homepage or you’re clicking on a specific Forbes article from social media or search, you’re immediately served a “Quote of the Day” full page before arriving at your desired reading content. This is true whether visiting Forbes from your mobile device or desktop.

While the Forbes interstitial is fairly benign and it still takes you to your desired page after 5 seconds (unless you manually click out of it), it’s still quite frustrating if you’re trying to pull up an article quickly. The “Quote of the Day” page isn’t an ad by itself, but as you can see, they sneak an ad in there while you’re waiting for the article to appear, which is more prominent on mobile.

The Forbes site has been doing this for several years, but its web content team might want to put an end to it, based on Google’s recent targeting of this practice. Then again, Forbes is a news website and may not care all that much about organic search engine rankings, so it’s anybody’s guess as to whether they’ll kill off the “Quote of the Day” interstitials.

For those of you who do care about your organic rankings, the lesson here is to get rid of intrusive mobile interstitials that cover most, or all, of certain pages on your website. You’re especially going to want to do this if the pages in question show up high in Google mobile search. To read more about Google’s new penalty rollout, check out Search Engine Land’s report.

December Social Media Roundup

We had a busy, but rewarding holiday season here at Eminent SEO. How were your holidays? As the month progressed, we again saw strong engagement on our Instagram account. See the best of our social media shares from last month:

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 2, 2016 at 4:16pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 5, 2016 at 5:15pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 9, 2016 at 4:25pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 15, 2016 at 12:46pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 18, 2016 at 6:50am PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 23, 2016 at 6:22am PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 24, 2016 at 8:41am PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Dec 26, 2016 at 8:46am PST

December Blog Roundup

On the Eminent SEO blog in December, we covered a pair of social media-related topics. One dealt with social media directly – copywriting for social media – while the other has very close ties – GIF images. So if you want to upgrade your social game, read through the following blog posts very carefully. Below is an overview of those two posts.

Why Well-Written Social Media Copy Makes a Difference

While the average social media manager doesn’t have to be a writer, per se, it is still imperative to write strongly on any social platform. Learn why strong social media copy makes a difference, and get a few tips on how to write specifically for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

GIF Images Are Clever Tools in the Right Marketer’s Hands

Animated GIFs are the life of any social media thread, and they aren’t going away anytime soon. Are you familiar with the five different types of GIFs? You’ll learn all about that plus the legal considerations of sharing GIFs when you read this insightful blog post.

Quality over Quantity Marketing

Now more than ever, Eminent SEO is a firm believer in (and practitioner of) quality over quantity when it comes to digital marketing solutions. That’s why we refer to ourselves as a boutique marketing agency.

It’s easy to see that one great blog post can do more for a website and a brand than several mediocre posts. Likewise, one viral social media share can pay more dividends than dozens of run-of-the-mill social posts. This is why when we look over a client’s objectives for the month, we don’t think in terms of, for example, how many blog posts they need, but instead we ask, “How can we produce remarkable content that knocks it out of the park for them?”

In short, we focus on quality over quantity because readers now demand it, and because that’s what it takes to excel in today’s SEO environment. Anything less would be uncivilized.

To learn more about our unique approach to marketing and how we can help your business, call us today at 800.871.4130.

Happy New Year!

Team Eminent SEO

Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.

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This entry was posted in Newsletter, Technology, Workplace and tagged Algorithm Update, Mobile.

Vol. 61: Eminent to Help Spread Holiday Cheer; Google Retires Knowledge Graph Snippet Overlays

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This entry was posted on December 15, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: Help Us Help Out Families in Need This Holiday Season!

Eminent SEO is excited to support Operation Santa Single Style this holiday season, which will provide gifts to single-parent families in need in Arizona. We’re always eager to do our part and give back to the local community, especially during the holidays when so many are struggling to put food on the table while having enough to buy their children presents.

Operation Santa Single Style would appreciate YOUR support this year, as well. Please visit the group’s online registry if you’d like to pick out a toy for a child in need or make a monetary donation.

If you live in Arizona and want to know where to drop off your gift donation, please email danielle@eminentseo.com. You can also email the same address to ask where to ship the gift, if you live out of state.

Thank you for your consideration of supporting a family in need this winter. If you’d like to learn more about Operation Santa Single Style, please visit the group’s Facebook page. Happy Holidays!

What’s New in SEO: Google Kicks Knowledge Graph Snippet Overlays to the Curb

Beginning in January 2014, when a user conducted a Google search, the results page would feature gray text off to the right of the URLs of many entries. If you hovered over that text, a small pop-up would emerge that would tell you about the overall website or the company behind the page you would potentially visit.

Well, say goodbye to that feature. Search Engine Land confirmed with Google in November that Knowledge Graph snippet overlays, as they’re called, have been retired.

Why? Low usage, apparently.

So, the feature failed to last even three years in the search engine results pages. While it appeared like it could be helpful for users, it seemed to provide little-to-no benefit to publishers. The snippet overlays contained up to three links, but none would lead directly to the company’s website. One might go to the business’s Google+ page, but that’s about it. For the few users who did take advantage of the snippet overlays, the links ended up being distractions to the page Google featured in the search results.

Don’t worry, though: Google still places a major emphasis on its regular Knowledge Graph, which you might see in line or off to the right of your desktop search results, depending on the query. This indispensable feature likely played a part in the demise of snippet overlays, for which we say, “R.I.P. We hardly knew ye.”

Doctor Strange Google Knowledge Graph Cards

A Knowledge Graph appears in the right half of this Google search results page.

November Social Media Roundup

Our Instagram account continued to grow in November! And on Twitter, we increasingly lent our voice and expertise to some of the latest topics in our industry. See the best of our November social shares below. Click on any of the photos to see the accompanying caption and more info about the image. We also invite you to keep up with our latest social stuff by following us on Instagram and Twitter.

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 4, 2016 at 6:25am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 4, 2016 at 2:55pm PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 11, 2016 at 4:19pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 13, 2016 at 1:42pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 16, 2016 at 1:51pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 20, 2016 at 9:10am PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 26, 2016 at 3:12pm PST

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 28, 2016 at 8:32pm PST

November Blog Roundup

In November, we revisited one of the hallmarks of SEO best practices: anchor text optimization. We then gave our take on some recent tech news: the impending death of the mobile video app Vine. If you missed any of our November blog posts, get caught up here:

Is Keyword-Rich Anchor Text No Longer Necessary?

Considering Google’s “Penguin” series of algorithm updates and all of the ranking factors the search engine now has, you might think that optimizing your anchor text is no longer crucial. Well, you’d be wrong. Find out the continued importance of anchor text optimization.

What Killed the Vine App – Or Is There Still Some Hope Left for It?

In late October, Twitter announced that it would be shutting down the once-popular Vine app. Although there are a few investors rumored to be interested in buying Vine, the video-sharing service’s best days appear to be behind it. Let’s look at what led to Vine’s apparent demise.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled: New-Look Website to Come

As a final note, we’re excited to share that we have made progress on the behind-the-scenes reconstruction of EminentSEO.com! In the coming months, we will roll out a new-look website that will feature sleeker navigation, new visuals and a more descriptive, yet clearer picture of the many services we offer.

The time for a refresh is now! As you’re waiting for the debut of our website redesign, keep enjoying our blog posts, online newsletters, Max swag and more. Thank you for supporting Eminent SEO.

Until next time, see ya online!

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Newsletter and tagged Algorithm Update, Holiday.

Vol. 60: Two New Eminent Team Members; Google Tests Mobile-First Indexing

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This entry was posted on November 14, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: Two New Team Members

Over the last couple of months, Eminent SEO has added two new valuable members to its team. Let’s introduce you to them now:

Danielle Knox – Creative Director

Our new Creative Director, Danielle, plans projects, oversees the creative process for clients, and gives guidance to the creative team here at Eminent SEO. As our lead creative strategist, Danielle follows the latest trends in design, advertising and marketing, is a company brand advocate, helps attract clients, and hires creative staff. Danielle comes to us with more than 17 years of graphic design experience. Welcome to the team, Danielle!

Ashton Stradling – Creative Producer

Ashton is getting his feet wet in the digital marketing industry after graduating from Highland High School in the spring. Ashton manages social media accounts for clients, optimizes web content, creates videos, designs images, and assists with administrative tasks. Welcome, Ash 10!

What’s New in SEO: Mobile-First Indexing Underway

In an early November blog post, Google announced it is testing out mobile-first indexing for its search engine. Indexing, if you’re wondering, has to do with which pages of a website Google can evaluate and rank in search. It’s easy to “noindex” a webpage, and there are strategic reasons for doing so, but for the most part, a majority of individual webpages are indexed by Google and other search engines.

Google’s new announcement acknowledges that search users are now using their phones more often than their desktop and laptop PCs. This entire time, Google has always evaluated the desktop version of a webpage and then determined the page’s ranking from there. This is true even if you entered a search on a mobile device and received a list of results. What you saw was a list of mobile results based on the desktop strength of each page.

But now, the algorithm is in the process of changing, based on users’ habits.

“We’ll continue to carefully experiment over the coming months on a small scale and we’ll ramp up this change when we’re confident that we have a great user experience,” Google Product Manager Doantam Phan wrote in the blog post.

Although mobile-first indexing is still in the experimental phase, you should expect it to be the standard before long. If your website is already responsive, the good news is you don’t have to do anything (other than make sure the site provides a great user experience).

If you have a mobile site that is different than your desktop version, then unfortunately you’re going to have to take a few steps to adjust to Google’s plan to prioritize mobile first. See the aforementioned Google blog post for some tips on how to not get left behind.

For more understanding on the importance of responsive design, see this blog post we published earlier this year.

October Social Media Roundup

Our Instagram shares were more colorful than ever in October. We recently started doing an Instagram-first approach to shooting and creating photos for social media, and we’ve seen a boost in engagement since. The best part is the images share well to Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, too.

Below is a quick look at some of our best and brightest social shares from last month. If you’d like to see the caption or learn more about any of the following photos, just click on the likes or comments icon on the bottom of the image that piques your interest.

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 1, 2016 at 9:40am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:02am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 6, 2016 at 3:57pm PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 9, 2016 at 7:56am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 12, 2016 at 3:52pm PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 18, 2016 at 7:06am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 20, 2016 at 7:03pm PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Oct 28, 2016 at 6:51am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Nov 1, 2016 at 2:44pm PDT

October Blog Roundup

What’s the latest insight on marketing and search engines from the experts at Eminent SEO? Check out our October blog posts to build your skills and knowledge so you can stay ahead of the competition. Subscribe to our blog, if you have not done so already, to see the posts the day they go live.

So Many Changes to AMP Content In Google Mobile Search: Let’s Recap

Accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) debuted earlier this year, and there’s been a whirlwind of changes in the last couple of months. This platform is now open to everyday businesses and websites, so get caught up on all of the recent developments here.

Gatorade’s Example: Can a Company Be Health-Conscious and Sales-Focused at the Same Time?

Gatorade recently kicked off an ad campaign with a message that seemingly would stunt sales of the company’s signature product. If your business has a product with a perceived drawback, learn how you can leverage that weakness into a marketing opportunity.

Email Marketing Is Far from Dead: Here’s Why

Email seems like a boring, outdated channel for marketing, right? Not so fast. Studies show how ubiquitous email usage is, plus how it usually provides a much higher ROI than other channels. Learn how to build a targeted, results-driven email campaign here.

Featured Service: Email Marketing

As seen in one of our blog posts above, email has reestablished itself as the marketing channel of choice for businesses to build contacts, nurture leads and delight prospective and existing customers.

But now, we know better than to blast every email message we create to our entire contact list. The key is to segment your contacts according to where they are in the buyer’s journey, and then tailor your messages to those individual audiences. Research says that email marketing has an ROI of $8 for every $1 spent.

At Eminent SEO, our email marketing services include:

Email Marketing Tool Set-up and Form Integration
Custom Email Design Templates
High-quality Email Marketing Content
Contact List Organization by Buyer Type
Segmented Email Campaigns
Monthly or Weekly Newsletter Blasts
Gated Website Content to Build Your Contact List

If you’re not already, start taking advantage of targeted email campaigns today! Call Eminent SEO at 800.871.4130 for expert help with email content, contact list segmentation and much more.

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Newsletter, Workplace and tagged Algorithm Update, Development, Mobile.

Is Keyword-Rich Anchor Text No Longer Necessary?

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This entry was posted on November 7, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Ask any SEO specialist about anchor text, and you may unwittingly spark a lively debate. It’s often a source of both angst and confusion.

With the Google Penguin series of algorithm updates, knowing anchor text best practices is even more important. Here, let’s look into all about anchor text, its role in SEO, and how to make it work for you.

Anchor Text Defined

Anchor text is simply any text that is clickable on a webpage that links to another place on the web. For example, in the phrase, “Eminent SEO can help improve your email marketing strategy,” the anchor text (“Eminent SEO”) links back to our website.

If this link were featured on another website, then you have an example of a process called “link building,” and it’s good for SEO. However, the phrasing can either help your search engine rankings or harm it. The difference is in how you approach your own website’s anchor text, as well as that on other sites that link to yours.

Different Types of Anchor Text

Say we’re trying to rank for the keyword “marketing strategy.” There are several types of anchor text that other websites might use to link to ours:

Exact Match

An exact match only anchors the exact keyword we’re looking for:

Example: Eminent SEO can help you hone your email campaign, an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Partial Match

A partial match (also known as a phrase match) anchors the keyword in a phrase:

Example: Eminent SEO can help you hone your email campaign, an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Branded

Branded anchor text would link back to our company, Eminent SEO:

Example: Eminent SEO can help you hone your email campaign, an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Naked URLs

A naked URL has no unique anchor text, just a web address:

Example: Eminentseo.com can help you hone your email campaign, an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Generic

Generic anchor text provides instructions, but does not include any branding or keywords.

Example: Eminent SEO can help you hone your email campaign, an essential part of your marketing strategy. Click here to go to their website.

How Anchor Text Influences Search Rankings

Search engines such as Google use anchor text as a factor in determining a page’s topic and how it should rank. In other words, using the anchor text “marketing strategy” should indicate to Google that the page on the other end of the link is a good fit for that search engine query.

In theory, the more times we score a backlink with the anchor “marketing strategy,” the higher we should rank for that query. But SEO is rarely that simple.

The Problem with Early Anchor Text

When Google’s search algorithm was less refined, the search engine relied heavily on anchor text, perhaps too much so. Around 2008, the company explained that it thought anchors provided more accurate descriptions of websites than the sites themselves. While the practice was sound in theory, it proved to be too easy to manipulate.

SEO specialists could easily cheat the system back then and tie certain adjectival phrases to a specific group or individual. Fair or not, two of the more famous “Google bombs” prior to 2010 were the association of the search phrase “miserable failure” to George W. Bush and “worst band in the world” to Creed.

Google’s Crackdown on Some Keyword-Rich Anchor Text

As a result, the search engine giant began to crack down on the way people could use anchor text for search engine optimization. The largest shift came in 2012, when the first Google Penguin algorithm update released. Its aim? Punishing low-quality and manipulative practices for link building.

Anchor text was one of Penguin’s primary targets, and companies who pursued exact match anchors aggressively saw their Google rankings plunge overnight. The Penguin update was a sort of Black Tuesday for SEO practitioners, who then had to come up with another way to put their websites at the top page of web results.

Companies, too, became twitchy about anchor text, some believing that only branded anchor text was allowed – and that all others would be punished by Google.

How Does Google Punish Anchor Text?

Does Google punish everything but branded anchor text? In a word: no. But there’s a right way and wrong way to include anchor text.

Over-optimization of anchor text, for example, is frowned upon. Search engines such as Google and Bing want backlinking to occur naturally. In other words, links should only be in your content if they make sense or if they lead to relevant content. If you have too many links, or if your links look contrived, the Penguin filter could demote the page.

While this sounds harsh, in reality, the original Google Penguin update only affected some 3 percent of websites. If own your content contains links in less than 50 percent of the copy, chances are you will not be affected by Penguin.

What About Link Quality?

Penguin also punishes links that don’t lead to authoritative websites. This discourages rank inflation. Quality backlinking to reliable information ensures your page is relevant. Don’t use anchor text just to grab a keyword. It looks unnatural to Google and will hurt your ranking.

Exact and Partial Anchor Text Still Wields Influence

So, does Penguin punish exact and partial keyword anchor text? A study by Ahrefs sought to find the answer. The study involved analyzing 51 keywords in competitive niches from finance to health, both exact matches and partial matches. Ahrefs found that both exact and partial keyword anchor text continue to have some influence on the top spots in Google searches.

The key here is density. For exact keyword matches, aim for it to be in no more than 1 to 2 percent of all anchor text. Partial matches are more forgiving: 30 percent of anchors containing a keyword phrase are safe from Google penalties.

Anchor Text Best Practices

The (not-so) final word on anchor text: It continues to influence the top spots in Google searches, especially in competitive niches. But … it’s not as heavily weighted as it used to be since Google now has more than 200 ranking factors.

Don’t be afraid to use keyword-rich anchor text in your own web content, though. If done well, it will help your search engine rankings. Observe some basic best practices:

Make Your Links Relevant

We talked a little bit about the importance of link relevancy in SEO, but it’s more easily understood with an example.

Say you own an aromatherapy store, and you love to blog about it. Ever eager to share your passion with others, you spend a little time each day reading about the newest in aromatherapy. You find an article about a study linking aromatherapy to increased levels of mood-boosting serotonin in the brain.

When you write a blog about this later, you could link back to the study in a couple of different ways:

“To read the study, click here.”

OR:

“A study outlines the effect of aromatherapy on the brain.”

SEO best practices dictate the second phrase (“effect of aromatherapy on the brain”) is more effective, because it is relevant to the topic at hand. Remember, search engines are interested in producing results that are beneficial to the user.

Vary Your Keywords

Google is wary of keywords and anchor text that appear over and over again. If your site’s backlinks all contain the same keyword-rich anchor text, it’s usually a sign those links weren’t acquired naturally.

Shoot for a variety of keyword anchor text, and don’t use the same one each time. This is where the statistics for partial match and exact match keywords come in. In general, try to earn only a few exact keyword matches. Partial keyword phrases are more forgiving, but variation helps in each phrase or term.

And when you’re linking internally or externally, don’t make your anchor phrases too long. Best practice dictates that they should be eight words or fewer for maximum benefit.

For example, if your aromatherapy store is the only store in Atlanta selling sustainable, ethically sourced essential oils, you might want others to link to your website with the keyword phrase “sustainable essential oils in Atlanta.” However, you want the keywords to be varied so you can avoid Google penalties. Similar phrases like these might help:

“Here’s a great site for sustainable essential oils.”

OR:

“Buy quality sustainable oils in Atlanta.”

Each anchor phrase carries pieces of the original keyword, yet they’re varied enough to pass the Google algorithm’s muster.

Bottom Line: Don’t Disregard the Power of Anchor Text

Although dwindling to a degree, anchor text continues to carry weight for current search engine algorithms. Early over-reliance on anchor text has led to a crackdown on the way we use anchor text for SEO purposes. Your mission is to keep earning relevant backlinks with varied keywords, which will help your site earn a place near the top of Google’s rankings.

Search engine optimization is essential for the success of your website. Eminent SEO can help optimize your content (including external links) as well as review your backlink profile. Just call 800.871.4130 if your company needs help with better content and earning stronger backlinks.

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This entry was posted in Search Engine Optimization and tagged Algorithm Update, Link Building, SEO.

So Many Changes to AMP Content In Google Mobile Search: Let’s Recap

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This entry was posted on October 20, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Accelerated mobile pages – called AMPs – are one of Google’s newest projects. Google’s techies created the platform to help web publishers provide content to users that loads quickly across mobile devices.

Presently, the platform maintains a large focus on news stories. In a blog post that preceded the AMP launch, Google explained the project’s original intent: Rich content, such as video animations and graphics, should work alongside smart ads and load instantly.

With the open-source AMP platform, Google hopes to consistently deliver the best experience for its mobile search users. Our culture has been trained to look for instant gratification, and Google knows that we need lightning fast, accurate information.

How AMP Content in Google Mobile Search Works

AMP content officially debuted in Google mobile search in February 2016. These articles were easy to distinguish from other formats: They appear in a “carousel” layout, allowing users to swipe horizontally between the best results. Each entry also features a lightning bolt icon and the acronym “AMP.” Users have already enjoyed the fast results, prompting more research into the platform’s possibilities.

The AMP framework coincides with existing HTML coding but allows publishers to create lightweight webpages – pages that are simpler and faster because they use fewer parts. The entire project is essentially just a set of specifications, both requirements and restrictions, powered by JavaScript (although publishers cannot write their own JavaScript). CSS3 is used for customized styling, and every page is cached on Google’s servers, working like a content delivery network.

So how much faster are AMPs? With advanced coding, the median load time is a mere 0.7 seconds, according to SearchEngineLand.com. That’s incredibly quick, especially when you compare it to all other pages on the web with non-AMP coding – which average 22 seconds.

How AMP Content Is Moving Across Industries

Although similar, AMPs are quite different from traditional webpages. If website happens to offer different versions of a particular page (such as desktop, mobile and AMP versions) for different devices, your mobile search engine will always prefer the AMP material. This could be the future of instantaneous search results, and the platform’s reach is widening.

In the beginning, AMP specifically catered to news stories. It’s already transitioning, though, opening up to new companies and industries daily. Take eBay, for example. The online auction site has deployed an AMP-powered shopping experience for mobile users since June 30. It has more than 8 million queries, known as “browse nodes,” already available or in production. AMP results can be a vital part of almost any company’s marketing strategy.

Not only is the AMP platform opening up to new industries, but other search engines are beginning to subscribe as well. Just last month, Microsoft announced that Bing has joined the open-source effort, and that it plans to treat AMP content similar to how Google indexes and features it. This means that the platform has spread well beyond Google, and that the potential reach of AMP content is only going to continue to grow.

Google Is Pushing for AMP Growth

AMPs are a game-changer, especially considering that most internet searches are now done on a mobile device more often than on desktop and laptop computers. Always at the forefront of change, Google has been working hard to increase traffic to AMP pages.

The links to AMPs look identical to others, aside from the lightning bolt logo and “AMP” label tucked along the bottom. The carousel also remains, although it’s currently unclear whether Google has plans to remove it entirely and fully combine AMP results.

In recent news, Google has started integrating AMP content into the organic mobile search results, in addition to still offering the “Top stories” carousel of AMP-only content. The AMP logo is clearly visible now in the organic search results, right where the “Mobile-friendly” label used to be – ahead of the meta description for a particular entry.

AMP Results Now Outweigh Indexed App Content

In 2013, Google began indexing content from apps, and it generally only shows up to users who already have that particular app installed. What this means is that if you conduct a search and Google finds that you already have an app that has your answer, then you would see that content show up in your mobile search results. And if you click on that result, the search engine will take you straight to your app, rather than a webpage.

While Google is still indexing app content, its mobile search engine is now favoring AMP material over “app deep links.” Google’s head of global products partnerships, Adam Greenberg, made this revelation at the SMX East conference in New York last month.

This update shows how deeply committed Google is to the AMP platform for now and the near future. The change might leave some app developers frustrated, but nonetheless, publishers need to adjust their focus to AMPs – rather than worrying about getting app content to rank in mobile search.

Will AMP Content Help Your Website Rank Better?

As of now, Google has no plans to make AMP material a ranking factor for websites. In other words, offering AMP content won’t necessarily give your entire website’s search rankings a boost.

However, Google almost always gives AMP content page one treatment when someone uses conducts a search via mobile. So producing AMP content may be a way to boost awareness of your website, especially if you’re having trouble cracking that first page organically.

Although it may seem a bit exclusive at the moment, the goal of the AMP project is to produce efficient and fast internet content. Richard Gingras, head of news and social products for Google, told the Nieman Journalism Lab that the AMP launch is a step forward for the technological ecosystem, with a shift toward better content performance.

Why the Search Engine Change Matters

Interestingly, AMPs are hosted on their own servers when visited from a Google search. This means using the AMP platform is a bit of a give and take. You’ll receive special treatment in the form of high search results and mass availability. However, the links point to Google, or whichever search engine someone used to find your AMP content.

This a significant change from the way Google has worked in the past. Previously, the web giant was simply an index that directed visitors to other sites. Now, AMPs can keep visitors exclusively on Google properties. Companies will need to ask themselves if they’re ready for higher visibility with little to no significant increase in actual traffic.

AMPs Are Like Instant Articles – Only Better

The AMP platform is comparable to Facebook’s Instant Articles, which gives content publishers the option to embed data onto the social network. When publishers utilize Instant Articles, followers can consume content without having to leave Facebook’s app.

Many are viewing the AMP project as a vast improvement over Instant Articles, since AMPs provide more opportunities to lead users to your full website.

What About Ads in AMP Content?

JavaScript is generally forbidden by AMP restrictions, but there are still ways for publishers to post ads, if they’re smart. There’s an analytics tag built into AMP content, which allows creators to send information to certain providers, such as Chartbeat, Adobe and Parse.ly. They’ve been pre-screened by Google, and the data is handled by one JavaScript file (instead of one for every analytic provider). Because this speeds up the process greatly, ads can be used in a similar way.

The AMP project vets analytic information by special criteria, including performance, privacy and security. Publishers can choose to use the AMP tag, similar to the traditional tag. Sections of JavaScript can be placed on the website, although it won’t include access to the same amount of data.

Taking Advantage of the AMP Platform

AMPs are well on their way to changing the internet (or, at least, mobile search), so why not take advantage of this platform? Some WordPress plugins are already available to help you craft a concise and functional website. WordPress’s AMP Plugin, for example, automatically translates your posts’ content to these fast-loading pages, and you don’t have to enter special settings for it to work. The software automatically inserts tags, so it’s fantastic for those with little HTML knowledge.

If your team includes a web designer (or if you have some coding background yourself), it’s easy to design a custom AMP page from scratch. The project’s homepage (see screenshot below) includes a huge selection of resources too, which will help you learn how to create the content on your own. You’ll also find a technical section to learn more about how AMP works, plus code samples, source code and documentation courtesy of GitHub.

The AMP platform in continuously growing and changing, and it’s in the news almost weekly. At Eminent SEO, we’ve been following the AMP developments closely. It might seem like a lot to take in, but we can help. If you want to understand more about Accelerated Mobile Pages, what they can do for your business, and how to optimize them, trust our expertise to guide you. Call 800.871.4130 for help with building AMP pages today!

Team Eminent SEO

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Vol. 59: Eminent SEO’s 7th Anniversary; Google Penguin 4.0 Rolls Out, Makes Minimal Impact

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This entry was posted on October 14, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: It’s Our 7th Anniversary

Go shorty, it’s our birthday …

Eminent SEO was formed in October 2009 as a three-person team, but we have consistently grown since then and we are celebrating seven years in business this month! In the past year, we stretched our legs and moved into a bigger office in Mesa, Arizona, and we’ve added key new members to our team as well as a diverse lineup of new clients.

Thank you to all of our followers, clients and partners for helping us grow over the past seven years! Here’s to many more years of serving you!

More Eminent SEO News: We’ve Added a New Help Desk Feature

Already a client of Eminent SEO? Now you can reach us any time you want with our new online help desk feature!

Now, instead of trying to track down individual tasks or figure out which person in our office to email, you can just send us your questions or requests through this new online portal that branches off our website. In most cases, we will respond to your submission within one business day.

Click on the screenshot below if you’d like to be taken to our help desk right now:

What’s New in SEO: Google Penguin 4.0 Is Here

According to many reports, the Google Penguin 4.0 update began rolling out on Sept. 23. According to Search Engine Roundtable, not many websites saw a huge difference in their search rankings that first weekend. In fact, nearly 600 people responded to a poll on Search Engine Roundtable and 73 percent of them said they saw no changes in rankings around the time the Penguin 4.0 rollout began.

According to Search Engine Land, these are the attributes of the Google Penguin 4.0 update:

The Penguin filter is now supposed to run in real time with the Google search algorithm, rather than updating and taking effect periodically.
Penguin now is more page-focused instead of site-focused. So now, if you have a page that is flagged for having too many poor or spammy backlinks, it shouldn’t pull your entire website down in the search rankings.
Since Penguin is now supposed to run in real time, you won’t see a Penguin 5.0, 6.0, etc. Google won’t have to confirm future Penguin updates from here on out. Penguin will just run consistently now.
Penguin 4.0 is potentially still rolling out. Each major update like this is usually a multi-day process. Just don’t expect Google to confirm when the rollout is complete: SEO reporters usually have to pull teeth to find out answers such as that.

Google Says ‘I Release You’ to Websites with a Penguin Penalty

Search Engine Land also reported Google started releasing websites with a Penguin 3.0 penalty the week after Penguin 4.0 began rolling out.

Google authority Gary Illyes made it sound as if Google would remove the penalties in a matter of days:

@atmoore81 it’s happening as we speak. or tweet. it will take a few more days to finish that part

— Gary Illyes (@methode) September 28, 2016

Penguin 3.0 rolled out in October 2014. That means some websites have waited nearly two years for their Penguin penalty to be removed.

As a reminder, the Penguin filter targets websites that have received a high volume of unnatural, low-quality and/or spammy backlinks. In the past, SEO specialists would try to boost the search rankings of a website by focusing on the sheer volume of backlinks it boasted. Now, thanks to Penguin, the name of the game is high-quality backlinks.

If you need some tips on how to review your backlink profile and adjust your site so it doesn’t get hit by Penguin, read this post we wrote back in January after many SEOs speculated that Penguin 4.0 was underway (which, as you can now see, was not the case).

September Social Media Roundup

If you missed our social posts in September, get caught up here. We were particularly active on Instagram last month, sharing motivational business quotes and eye-catching photos. If you haven’t followed us yet on Instagram, check out our profile. For the best of all of our September social media shares, see below.

In case you missed it: you can pinch and zoom on photos AND videos on Insta now {on iOS, Android is coming in the following weeks}. Aw yeah! #youknowyouwantto #goaheadpinchme #zoominrightnow #wedareyou #LOLz #instagramnews #wedosocialmedia #socialmedianews #knowyourstuff #zoombabyzoom #marketingtips #usinginstagram #nowyouknow #gratuitousstarwarsreference #wearegeeksafterall #starwarspic #starwarsfans #starwarshumor

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 1, 2016 at 7:55pm PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 5, 2016 at 9:54am PDT

So, unless you want to be a robot, it’s okay to take some risks, fail sometimes even. Just fail forward quickly. https://t.co/BnrlG9JrT6

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) September 5, 2016

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 16, 2016 at 6:59pm PDT

You were born with all of the answers already inside of you. You have an intuition for a reason, use it. #instict https://t.co/sYhsegmCHV

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) September 19, 2016

Do you gots the skillz to pay the billz? We do. It’s Monday morning, get at it. #thismessagewasbroughttoyouby #ourmorningcoffee #eminentseo #skillztopaythebillz #mondaymotivation💪 #emojisinhashtagsaretotallyfine #itsathingiswear #lookitupkids #skillstopaythebills #getyours

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 19, 2016 at 6:03am PDT

Sometimes we all have to take a break from work to watch our sister get married. Thank goodness we can count on our team to hold it down when we have to leave the fort for a while. Hi from the ATL where 3 members of team Eminent SEO are showing their love and support for family. We miss you guys but we sure do like how green it is in Georgia! #hifromatlanta #itssogreenhere #cocacolacenter #arizonagoestogeorgia #thanksforholdingdownthefort #wemissyouguys #goteamgo #weloveourteam #cokebottleart #wetookthecoketour #thecokemoviemadeuscry

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 23, 2016 at 11:32am PDT

Shimon Peres, Nobel winner and giant of Israeli politics, dies at 93. Shimon Peres was one of Israel’s defining political figures and a Nobel peace prize laureate. He had twice served as prime minister of Israel and later as the country’s ninth president. RIP #shimonperes #nobelpeaceprizewinner #peaceleader #ripshimonperes

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Sep 28, 2016 at 8:31am PDT

Always. Our motto. https://t.co/x5C07RQAXy

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) October 1, 2016

September Blog Roundup

In September, our blog was highly focused on SEO topics, such as keyword research and organic search results. Google frequently updates and changes its search engine algorithm, so it’s important to stay up on best SEO practices if you want your website to rank well. You can head over to our whole blog by clicking here, or you can see an overview of our September posts by reading below.

Your Guide to Keyword Research in 2016 Going into the New Year

Google’s search algorithm is much smarter about keyword usage than it used to be. You no longer have to keyword stuff a page and use the exact phrase verbatim every time. Modern keyword research is all about who is searching these terms and what their intentions are once a search engine delivers their results. Here’s how to approach keyword research heading into 2017.

It’s Indisputable: Organic Search Results Are Better than Paid Spots

Did you know that organic search results deliver better, more consistent results than paid online ads, social media, email, etc.? Therefore, it’s a must that you use your website to try to aim for some page 1 results on Google and other search engines. Here’s how to approach and develop your team’s organic search results strategy.

How to Survive in the Current Organic Search Results Landscape

This post builds on the previous entry in giving you advice on how to compete in the organic search rankings world. Additionally, we particularly focused on how to shoot for high rankings in the face of all of the changes Google has made to the layout of its search engine results pages in the past year. So, enhance your organic search strategy by reading here.

Featured Service: Pay Per Click Management

Although we’re adamant about the power of high organic search rankings, as you just read, the reality is it can take a long time to achieve them. In the interim, it helps to try your hand at pay per click advertising as a way to draw users to your website.

Pay per click (PPC) is a short-term strategy that can hold you over until you start seeing your website’s organic search rankings rising. If you do decide to dip your toes into this form of online marketing, you need to be strategic about which keywords you target, lest you can blow through your marketing budget. It also helps to run several individual PPC campaigns, targeting a few different keywords that are relevant to the offer you’re promoting.

If you enlist Eminent SEO to manage your pay per click advertising, we can set you up with several different campaigns, not only targeting multiple keywords, but on different channels as well, such as Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Once your campaigns are up and running, Eminent SEO can deeply analyze which ones are returning a high ROI and which ones we either need to address or abandon.

If there is a particular campaign that is paying dividends, we usually recommend pulling money from a struggling campaign and redirecting it toward “the winner.” And once we see your organic search rankings rising to prominence, that’s the time when we can draw down your PPC advertising and redirect more budget toward your organic search marketing and other areas.

Click to learn more about our Pay Per Click Management Services, or call us today at 800.871.4130 to get help on running strategic, ROI-driven PPC campaigns.

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Newsletter, Paid Marketing and tagged Algorithm Update.

How to Survive in the Current Organic Search Results Landscape

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This entry was posted on September 29, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Internet search is a field in constant motion, with Google constantly shifting and updating the landscape to provide a more sophisticated product. One significant recent amendment to the search goliath is its update to local listings and how these appear to users on the results pages. These changes, while seemingly minute, have powerful implications when it comes to how your business is represented.

Last year, Google rolled out a new local search format worldwide. The verdict is still out on whether it will be better for businesses or for consumers – or neither. It’s all so confusing! No need to fret: Here are a few changes we can be sure of:

Organic Still Crushes

The SEO firm Nifty recently performed five different search studies of both desktop and mobile platforms with the new local listing setup implemented by Google. Across all studies, organic search results performed the best, receiving nearly 50 percent of all click throughs. Compare this to average click-through rates of 25 and 24 percent for paid ads and local packs, respectively.

If you caught our previous post, it should come as no surprise that it pays off for businesses to aim for high organic rankings rather than placing too much focus on paid search engine spots and other channels, such as social media.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

Organic results remain the No. 1 way search users are likely to click through to your website. It makes sense, because when someone searches, “I’m looking for [service] in [location],” a keyword search matching the words they type seems to fulfill their search query much better than paid ads or local results, which are essentially suggestions from Google.

Nifty took the results of its study and implemented an SEO strategy that “moved away from a laser focus on maps and really focused on growing organic traffic for phrases that show map results and phrases that don’t.” Overall, the company claims to have had great increases of traffic across all clients since the shift.

Decrease in the Local Pack

Google’s local pack in the search results used to feature seven entries. Now, it’s down to three, although the resource is more visual than it used to be.

What does this mean? For starters, featuring fewer local businesses means that your business could receive less visibility. A keyword search for “plumbers in San Francisco” will yield paid advertisements, local listings and organic search results. Of the local results, your business may show up, or it may not.

The factors contributing to when and how your business show up include the internet provider of a given user and his or her relative location. For example, two people could search the exact same keywords next door to one another and receive two completely different sets of local results in their SERP (search engine results page).

Some have speculated that the new layout is simply a way to streamline the user experience, while others have argued that it’s foreshadowing a larger Google plan to monetize local packs. Searching for different keywords will yield an even wider variety of local listings.

How to Adjust to the New Organic Search Results Landscape

So, how can you keep your business and your website relevant given all the changes to Google’s search layout? Here are a couple of good places to start:

Fill Out Your Google My Business Page Properly

Even though a link to your Google My Business page is no longer available for searchers, you can still claim your Google My Business listing if you haven’t yet.

Be sure to fill out the important details on your GMB page:

Add a unique, properly formatted description that includes links.
Choose the correct categories for your business.
Upload as many hi-resolution photos as possible.
Add a local phone number to your listing.

Earn Positive Reviews Within Google Maps

Even though they’re no longer called Google+ Reviews, the reviews on your Google My Business page are still used for local pack snippets. Users generally leave reviews by finding your location in Google Maps and then clicking on “Write a review.”

Your business card will not only include your overall review rating, but your negative reviews as well. This is especially crucial for businesses in the hospitality industry to pay attention to. Why? Because Google has added an option to filter searches to include only businesses above a certain rating, such as four stars or higher.

Pay Attention to Opening and Closing Hours

Since each local listing’s snippet now includes the business’s working hours, make sure to include correct opening hours on your Google My Business page.

Keep Earning Reviews Elsewhere

Business reviews have a direct impact on local search rankings, so you need to spend some time acquiring them. And these are not only Google reviews, but also reviews on your Yelp page and other local directory pages.

Optimize Your Storefront

At the end of the day, your spot on a search engine results page is your storefront. Getting people to see your storefront was already tough, but Google continues to keep raising the stakes.

You want to do everything in your power to get users to walk through your door. Are you getting seen? How does it look when users see you? Get started on finding out the answers to those two questions.

If you’re looking for some help on optimizing your website for search engines as well as filling out your Google My Business page properly, give Eminent SEO a try. We have several new marketing packages available to help your company rise to prominence on many fronts. Just call us today to learn more about our new offerings: 800.871.4130.

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Optimization and tagged Algorithm Update.

Vol. 58: Big Changes in Store for Eminent; Google Mobile-Friendly Label Removed

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This entry was posted on September 19, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: Many Big Changes Coming

Many big changes have happened – and are about to happen – around the offices of Eminent SEO. For starters, we’ve recently added two more members to our staff: Ashton Stradling and Danielle Knox. We’ll tell you even more about these exciting additions in next month’s newsletter, but for now let’s get to a few other happenings.

Also worth keeping an eye on is a website revamp in the works. We have plenty of new professional photos of our team to work with – as alluded to in last month’s newsletter – so look forward to a site that will blow you away visually and user experience-wise.

In other recent news, we’ve recently closed a deal with a new premium client, and we’re offering new service packages to all current and prospective clients. If you want to learn more about these customizable offerings, just give us a call any time.

And in more general news, we’re prepping for the holidays around here. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner, and we’re getting ready to kill it for our clients when it comes to holiday online traffic!

What’s New in SEO: Google Mobile-Friendly Label Is Retired

As we pointed out in a blog post on responsive design earlier this year, Google explicitly identifies mobile-friendly webpages when you conduct a search via smartphone.

Well, that is no longer the case, according to Search Engine Land. As of the end of August, the “Mobile-friendly” label in Google Search is M.I.A. The company gave about a week’s notice before the change, but now it is official.

To see an example, in the aforementioned blog post from January, we showed a screenshot of mobile search for “Flower Store Phoenix.” The results at the top of the organic list were all designated “Mobile-friendly,” as you’ll see in the screenshot in that post.

If we search the same term now, here’s what we see:

Wait, does that mean we have no idea if the result we click leads to a mobile-friendly site?

Don’t worry about it too intensely: Google is on record saying that 85 percent of all pages in the mobile search results are now deemed mobile-friendly. That number is only going to increase over time.

Just because the label has disappeared doesn’t mean websites aren’t still being judged by their mobile friendliness. Having a mobile-friendly site certainly remains a ranking signal in mobile search, according to Search Engine Land.

If you’re not sure if your website, or any other one you plan on visiting, is optimized for mobile devices, try Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test or even ResponsiveTest.net.

August Social Media Roundup

As part of our social media outreach in August, we were particularly vigilant about using Twitter to share many of the outstanding SEO- and tech-related articles we’ve recently come across – from all over the web. In fact, if you read everything we shared on that platform last month, then you’re halfway to becoming an SEO guru. If you haven’t followed us on Twitter yet, please give our timeline a look. Additionally, below you’ll find a recap of our most memorable social media shares in August from our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts.

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 11, 2016 at 6:21am PDT

A lot of companies still don’t see the value in using Instagram as a marketing channel for their brand. But, when you consider that there are over 200 MILLION users and the links and comments are THAT high on average, well it’s pretty clear: Instagram IS indeed a great brand building tool. When you look at Google Analytics you can see it also does refer website traffic when done properly. The proof is in the data. #FoodForThoughtFriday #InstagramForBusiness #YesItWorks #SocialMediaMarketing #InstagramStats #FollowForFollow #TheMostPopularHashtag #WeLoveStats #MarketingTips #SocialStrategy #BrandMarketing #InstagramForMarkers #EminentSEO

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 12, 2016 at 10:07am PDT

Late Afternoon Crash? NOPE! Killing them softly! #GoHardOrGoHome #Rockstar #BossFridge pic.twitter.com/yvViHf7DFh

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) August 12, 2016

So true. Using the wrong metrics for measuring is the new norm it seems. Wake up biz owners, “likes” don’t = $$$. https://t.co/pbytK69Y3d

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) August 13, 2016

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” — Alan Cohen // You know, he’s a smart man. It’s good to hustle and no one over here is gonna hate on you if you’re working today, but if you’ve been working all week and need a break, here’s your FREE PASS to take today off to rest. Even God took the 7th day off, am I right? #smartman #alancohen #itssunday #justrest #theworkwillstillbetheretomorrow #trustme #evengodtookadayoff #getsomerestin #workhardresthard #restingisimportant #virtueinwork #virtueinrest #dontforgettorest

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 14, 2016 at 10:24am PDT

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 21, 2016 at 6:25pm PDT

@EminentSEO would LOVE to acquire some former @Moz staff. We are 7 years & growing, Mesa AZ. Reach out #hiremoz https://t.co/mgP6T3LtKc

— Jenny Stradling (@dayofjen) August 18, 2016

Did you know that in the digital marketing space there are thousands of different terms and acronyms that the pro’s use? To help you keep up, we’ve got our own #SEOSlang database on eminentseo.com. Here is the “SEO Slang” term of the day. #alexaranking #trafficranking #websiteperformance #marketingstrategy #seo #seotips #marketingdefinition #goodtoknowinseo #seoterms #digitalmarketing #EminentSEO

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 24, 2016 at 2:26pm PDT

Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures. #WhereInTheWorldIsMax #TheMountainsAreGoodForTheSoul #BeCurious #TakeAdventures #BeBlessed #MountainDesign #MaxTheMonster #MaxSwag #EminentSEO #DesignInspiration #GraphicDesigners #BrandMarketers

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Aug 30, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT

August Blog Roundup

We’ve got website tips here! Have you migrated your site to a secure domain? In other words, does it start with “https” now? If you’ve done so, make sure it’s not causing you SEO errors. Also, if you’re looking to draw better qualified traffic and convert your visitors into customers, our latest blog posts will give you a leg up in the race. Subscribe to our blog if you haven’t done so already, and check out recaps of our latest blog posts immediately below.

Words Will Sometimes Hurt You: How to Use the Right Words on Your Website to Drive Conversions

I’ve got the power! Did you know that there are certain groups of “power words” marketers rely on to drive engagement and conversions? The effectiveness of many of these terms was discovered well before the internet era, but now they’re essential when it comes to website marketing. If you don’t know which terms we’re talking about, get caught up here.

Keep Your Domain Game Strong: Setting Up Your HTTPS Address Improperly Can Cause SEO Issues

Roughly 34 percent of all results shown in Google Search now have an HTTPS prefix. This means many websites have been upgraded to a secure domain, and we’re only going to see more of them do so. While that will be increasingly important in the SEO race going forward, be sure not to make the transition sloppily. Avoid these missteps when migrating your website to HTTPS.

Featured Service: Website Development

Not only can Eminent SEO help you register a new domain and work with you on the design of a new website, but we can also take control of the technical and user-experience aspects of your new web property.

Perhaps you need to integrate a shopping cart or a specific web app into the site. Let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll take the reins of the project! We can take your new website from the mock-up stage to a “dev site” to the official launch. Afterward, we have webmaster retainer services to make sure the site is functioning properly and so you can request any fixes or changes at any time.

In total, our Website Development capabilities include services such as:

Custom Website Code Development
Custom WordPress CMS Development (Including Plugins)
Online Shopping Cart Development
Custom Web App Development
Ongoing Webmaster Retainer

Click to learn more about our Website Development services, or call us at 800.871.4130 any time to hear about the new custom service packages we’re offering to interested clients.

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Newsletter, Search Engine Optimization and tagged Algorithm Update.

Vol. 56: New Eminent Mission Statement; Google Kills 2 Former Ranking Factors

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This entry was posted on July 14, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO Owners Chris Weatherall and Jenny Stradling

Eminent SEO News: New Brand Mission Statement

As we look to refresh some of our processes and collateral, we have developed a new mission statement that more accurately portrays our objectives and commitment to clients going forward.

Eminent SEO’s new mission statement is:

“Eminent SEO seeks to create and promote beautiful brand collateral, expertly optimized websites and well-crafted marketing messages as a means to push the boundaries of internet marketing to help companies, corporations and government agencies be more successful. It’s our mission to deliver ethical, high-quality services while simultaneously working on creating meaningful relationships with our clients, partners, each other and those in the community around us.”

More Eminent SEO News: June Birthdays, Work Anniversaries

We value each of our team members like family, so every birthday is a big deal to us. In June, the Eminent team celebrated a handful of birthdays as well as a work anniversary. The individual milestones we celebrated in June are as follows:

Birthday: Kirstin Douglas

Senior Account Manager Kirstin Douglas celebrated her birthday on Sunday, June 12. The following week, she went on more than a week-long vacation to Disney Land and other parts of California.

Birthday: Chris Weatherall

Eminent SEO President Chris Weatherall’s birthday came on Sunday, June 19. He celebrated by going on a staycation at a high-end hotel in Phoenix. Don’t ask him his age though!

Work Anniversary: Zach Ankeny

Fulfillment Manager Zach Ankeny celebrated his four-year anniversary on Wednesday, June 8. He treated himself to several vacation days throughout the month. Here’s to many more years with us, Zach!

What’s New in SEO: Google Kills Authorship and Top-Level Domains as Ranking Factors

Authorship and keyword-rich top-level domains: If you thought these two factors could help your website rank higher in organic search, Google says it is no longer the case.

Authorship

Google used to use authorship as a rankings bump, but according to Gary Illyes, a startup trends analyst for the tech giant, it’s not even in consideration for a ranking increase or decrease.

“We fixed that problem,” Illyes recently said, as quoted by Search Engine Land.

Authorship is when a webpage is marked up in the source code and attributed to an individual writer. Content from certain writers was once given more weight than material produced by other run-of-the-mill authors. This means that content attributed to popular web authorities like Neil Patel and Rand Fishkin, for example, would have a better chance at a high search ranking, just because of the name behind the material.

Well, that all has gone away, as far as Google is concerned. Search Engine Lands says Google stopped using authorship in August 2014 as a ranking factor for most forms of content. However, in-depth articles still could receive a boost due to name recognition of the author, even as recently as October 2015.

Now, in-depth articles (aka “long reads”) are no longer judged by author authority, leaving a more even playing field in Google Search. Granted, some writers’ names still carry more weight in readers’ minds than others do, but that matters not to Google now.

Top-Level Domains

Some SEO experts have speculated that changing to a keyword-rich top-level domain (aka domain extension) could bring about a rankings boost in Google Search. However, Illyes and John Mueller of Google recently said this tactic won’t specifically help with search rankings, according to Search Engine Land.

If you’re not sure what we mean by a keyword-rich top-level domain, imagine if you’re a locksmith and you change the “.com” of your website to “.locksmith”. There was talk in the SEO world that this strategy could boost someone’s search rankings. Search Engine Land even published an article about a personal injury lawyer who had his website switched from “.com” to “.attorney”. The lawyer claimed his website received a large boost in traffic soon after the switch, although not necessarily due to higher search rankings.

It’s unclear if keyword stuffing a top-level domain was ever a ranking factor on Google, but it certainly isn’t now, according to two corporate authorities. If you’ve been thinking about making such a move, just be aware that it doesn’t directly or instantly help you with SEO.

June Social Media Roundup

With holidays like Father’s Day and Social Media Day popping up in June, we had plenty to celebrate via tweets and posts on social media. Our Instagram account particularly saw some extra traction in June. If you haven’t followed us there yet, please do so now. Then, look directly below for the highlights of our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts and content from last month:

Every artist was first an amateur. -Ralph Waldo Emerson ? Help fill our #EminentSEOArtWall with custom artwork from local artists. If you or an #ArizonaArtist you know is interested in adding their #ArtWork contact hello@eminentseo.com for more information. #ArizonaArt #LocalArtists #RadArt #SupportLocal #LocalArtistSupport #OfficeArt #RalphWaldoEmerson

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 31, 2016 at 1:55pm PDT

Color Combination: Rainy Forest Adventure Red Berry: #751928 | Fern: #7B9476 | Early Morning Walk: #5DD8F7 | Babbling Brook: #5590B0 | Twilight: #27316E #designInspiration #graphicdesigninspiration #designcolor #createdesign #customdesigns #creativeinspiration #jeweltones #colorcombination

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Jun 2, 2016 at 4:31pm PDT

“Of course we must plan & we must thoughtfully target opportunities. But we must move rapidly to tests, trials, experiments & pilot projects.” – Tom Peters In other words, fail forward quickly. #businessadvice #businesstip #tompeters #failforward #wakeupandgetit #startyourdayoffright #innovateordie #thetimehascome #happymondayeveryone

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Jun 6, 2016 at 5:47am PDT

You got this! Positive thoughts ONLY. pic.twitter.com/yjwNvJyAMg

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) June 5, 2016

Clients ask if we buy links. Anytime you buy ads that point to your website you are “buying links”. Technically. https://t.co/XOJt8mJB4w

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) June 7, 2016

We’ve been building & removing links for a long time. We want to answer your questions #AskUsAnything #LetsTalkLinks pic.twitter.com/lgz9Oj6Yfk

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) June 7, 2016

Thanks @stevenrussophx for making this collage of our Super Dads! Each day a team of marketers, designers, writers and creative people come together each day to do something pretty special. We’re so lucky to have such incredible men on our team. Thanks especially to the dads today. Thanks for working hard and leading by example. Your kiddos are blessed to have you. Happy Fathers Day to all of you hard working dads. ??

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on Jun 19, 2016 at 7:37am PDT

@roroster & I in a sneak peek from the @EminentSEO co. photo shoot last week. You can’t tell it’s 117 out, right? pic.twitter.com/vublwlYXfz

— Jenny Stradling SEO (@dayofjen) June 19, 2016

The 3 M’s of #EminentSEO: We Make Websites – We Manage Websites – We Market Websites. https://t.co/19DF3dtNLA pic.twitter.com/nF3pngua75

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) June 30, 2016

June Blog Roundup

On the Eminent SEO blog in June, we took a look at the future of marketing agencies like ours. We also released a plethora of tips on how to create the right social media strategy, and then we helped lead local residents to 4th of July events all over town. See a recap of our June blog posts below, and then click on any of them to dive into the full article.

Social Media Takeover: How the Wrong Social Media Strategy Can Drain Your Marketing Budget

Is your business pouring money into the wrong social media platforms? Learn how to refine your strategy and concentrate your efforts toward what actually works, or else you may drain thousands of dollars from your marketing budget.

7 Elements to Look for in an Evolving Marketing Agency – and How to Avoid Being Left Behind

The internet has drastically changed the game when it comes to marketing, making standalone agencies evolve or die. Clients expect more transparency and they’re quicker on the gun when it comes to letting loose an underperforming marketing agency. So, what does the evolution of the modern marketing agency look like? Here are seven characteristics to keep your eyes on.

4th of July Events Around the Valley: Fun in the Sun

Late in June, we unveiled our first-ever directory of upcoming local events for a specific holiday. Independence Day was on the horizon, so we compiled a list of events worth attending in the greater Phoenix area, aka where our office is. Look forward to more posts like this prior to other major holidays. Cheers!

Featured Service: Landing Page Optimization

Search engine optimization helps users find your website, but landing page optimization (LPO) is what drives them to buy a product or pick up the phone and dial your number.

At Eminent SEO, every page we “SEO” for a client gets treated like a landing page. We implement keywords and enhance the content in a way that educates the user and drives them to action.

Any page on your site can be given the LPO treatment, but we can also create standalone pages (not found anywhere in the site’s menu or navigation) that point to a specific offer you have. In some cases we may create a standalone landing page to split test the results against an existing page on your site with similar content.

If you’re looking for someone who can create targeted, conversion-driven standalone landing pages, look no further than Eminent SEO. Don’t forget we also optimize existing pages on your site as if they are landing pages that will drive visitors to buy or call. Click to learn more about our Landing Page Optimization Services, or just call 800.871.4130 today!

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Marketing Strategy, Newsletter, Search Engine Optimization and tagged Algorithm Update.

Vol. 55: Are You #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan? Plus, Yet Another Google SERP Change

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This entry was posted on June 13, 2016 by Team Eminent SEO.

Eminent SEO News: Team Eminent Goes to the Movies!

Early in May, we took a midday break from work to go see “Captain America: Civil War” on its first day in theaters. Some of us were #TeamCap, and some were #TeamIronMan heading in.

One of us was especially inspired by the release of the new movie that he decided to don the costume of one of the film’s main characters. See if you can spot who that individual is (wink wink):

Divided we fall… But, together we stand strong. #TeamBuilding2016 #EminentSEO #GoesToTheMovies #MesaRiverview #CivilWar #SuchAGoodMovie #WhoseSideAreYouOn #IronmanVSCaptainAmerica #MarvelMovie

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 6, 2016 at 1:20pm PDT

Reviews of the film were largely positive among the Eminent staff, and the entire movie outing at Cinemark in Mesa Riverview was a great team-building experience heading into that weekend.

What’s the best event you’ve attended as an official company outing? Leave your answer in the comment section below this post.

What’s New in SEO: Learn About the Latest Google SERP Change

The Google SERPs (search engine results pages) continue to be a moving target. The tech leader never stands still when it comes to developing new ways to display and deliver search results to its many users and their many devices.

After removing the sidebar pay-per-click (PPC) ads earlier this year and expanding them to as many as four at the top, Google has made yet another change: expansion of the main search results column.

According to TheSEMPost, the main search results column on Google has been expanded significantly from 500 pixels wide to 600.

Why Is This Change a Big Deal?

First, the expansion of the search results column should pull a result or two above the fold, whereas they were only found previously by scrolling to the bottom of the SERP. This is good news in light of all the PPC ads, local packs and carousel news articles that can show up near the top of a results page. If you owned content that showed up just below the fold before, it now could be movin’ on up to the main stage.

Also, this change has got to give you more room to fill out your meta titles and descriptions, right? TheSEMPost claims meta title displays are now able to handle up to 70 characters, and that the meta description limit is increasing by 16-20 characters.

But, let’s look further into this claim. If you search “NBA Finals” from a desktop, for example, the top of the results page will look like this:

That’s one PPC ad at the top followed by a Knowledge Graph that shows the Finals schedule and then three recent news articles before the first organic result.

If you scroll down the SERP, you’ll see more of the organic entries.

You might notice that the first two organic results show way more than two lines of meta description text and the standard 160 characters. From there, all entries appear to be restrained to roughly a line and a half of meta description text.

If you copy the amount of text shown in the meta description (before it gets cut off) and paste that into a word-counting tool, you get a number that’s roughly 160 characters. If you do the same with the longer meta titles on the page, you’ll see a number as high as 70 characters.

What this means for you is you can now officially go a little over 60 characters with your meta titles for a webpage, but it looks like you’re still capped at 160 characters with your meta descriptions – even though another 40 or so characters could logically show up for each entry without spilling over to another line.

So, it appears that you’re going to have to wait a bit longer to be able to have a little more breathing room when writing meta descriptions for individual pages on your website. Although, we all know Google is pulling in rich snippets for metadata anyway.

To learn more about what Google’s expansion of the main search results column means, particularly for local packs and rich snippets, see TheSEMPost’s report on the topic.

May Social Media Roundup

Besides the new “Captain America” flick, we also took in several holidays throughout the month of May, such as May the 4th (Star Wars Day), Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, National Pizza Party Day and more, as celebrated in the office and on social media.

Also worth noting is we stayed ever vigilant about sharing relevant news to our followers on Facebook and Twitter. In fact, if you follow us on those two platforms, you’ll be caught up throughout the month on the most relevant news and latest strategies in SEO, marketing and workplace productivity. For the best of our social media posts from May, see below. And if you haven’t already, stop on by our Facebook page.

It’s the first Monday of a new month and a great time to set your financial intentions! #Monday #Motivation #Beyonce pic.twitter.com/4q0zXtrfnm

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) May 2, 2016

My buddy @JimPeake is chillin with @randfish at #SearchLoveBoston. I am so jealous! Hi from @EminentSEO in Arizona! pic.twitter.com/wMy6C38Clm

— Jenny Stradling SEO (@dayofjen) May 3, 2016

Calm you shall keep and carry on you must! May the fourth be with you! #StarWarsDay https://t.co/n0rGl6HZTc pic.twitter.com/ndN5QcAX0h

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) May 4, 2016

We are already enjoying the sweet details spring brings into our office. These tulips remind us that spring is the time for new growth. Is your business and website ready for the growth a new season can bring? If not, we are here to help you with your website and marketing #springcleaning needs! ? #springisintheair #websitehelp #seasonalmarketing #seo #eseo #maxthemonster #yellowtulips #springflowers

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 4, 2016 at 3:28pm PDT

Happy Mother’s Day from the Eminent SEO team! We are grateful for all the awesome mom’s out https://t.co/yVE003p8tA pic.twitter.com/BekrczEeuG

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) May 8, 2016

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 17, 2016 at 1:57pm PDT

Today is #NationalPizzaPartyDay so our team celebrated with delicious pies! ? #Pizza #PizzaParty #TGIF

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 20, 2016 at 1:45pm PDT

Kevin Spacey’s Top 3 Tips For Better Storytelling. Yes, That Kevin Spacey https://t.co/qTdcdcxDbo

— Eminent SEO (@EminentSEO) May 25, 2016

Our CEO @dayofjen gave us this #inspirationalquote today. When you struggle with standing out, focus on the quality and strive for excellence. #bethebest #domore #bebetter #inspiration #buisnesswoman #ceolife

A photo posted by Eminent SEO (@eminentseo) on May 23, 2016 at 4:48pm PDT

May Blog Roundup

On our company blog in May, we stepped out of our usual box and delivered relevant info on topics such as internet addiction, reducing stress at work, and more. As you look over the highlights of our May blog posts, you’ll see that we slightly deviated from our usual stream of SEO/marketing news and tips. But, we think you’ll find each topic highly relevant to your life as a business professional and internet user. See the latest highlights of our blog below.

Internet Addiction: How Prevalent Is It, and What Are the Consequences?
You can’t really be addicted to the internet, can you? Well, you’d be surprised at how hard it is for some to unplug from the digital world (or maybe it won’t surprise you at all). This post will tell you how to identify internet addiction, the risks that come with it, plus how to treat the problem. Also, see how seriously some countries (China especially) are addressing this emergent issue.

More Big-Box Retailers Bite the Dust: What’s to Blame? (Besides Online Shopping)
Three major big-box retailers with a once-prominent presence here in Arizona recently announced they are closing all of their stores for good. *Pause for tears here.* Take an in-depth look at all of the factors that led to their demise. Was the rise of online shopping really a major influence on these retailers’ exit from the market, or does it go much deeper?

How to Reduce Stress and Boost Productivity in the Workplace
How do you find your “om” amid all of the hustle and chaos at work? How do you keep yourself healthy and your mind clear to be at your creative best? Get a wealth of tips here that will not only help you with reducing stress at work and on your personal time, but you’ll start to see your professional productivity increase as well.

Featured Service: Website Content

Is your site littered with pages that are poorly written, thin, short, outdated, not unique or otherwise in need of an update? If you answered yes to any of those, it’s time to give your website a boost – if you want it to have any shot of ranking in the search engine results. It’s all about the content, baby!

Even well-written content will have trouble ranking if it’s not properly optimized – with headers, keywords, metadata and more. This is where Eminent SEO comes in. We have a team of experienced writers who can not only make sure every webpage and blog post on your site is thorough, well-researched and engaging, but they will optimize each and every piece to give it its best chance to rank in search.

Eminent SEO’s Website Content Services include, but are not limited to:

Fully Optimized Webpage Content
Authoritative, Frequent Blogging
Resource Article Creation and Optimization
Press Release Creation and Distribution
Optimized Weekly or Monthly Newsletter Content
Creative Social Media Content
Other Custom Content Requests

To get started with upgrading the content of your current website – or if you’re in need of high-quality content for your marketing campaigns – get in touch with Eminent SEO today! We’re standing by at 800.871.4130.

Team Eminent SEO

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This entry was posted in Content & Blogging, Newsletter and tagged Algorithm Update, Content Marketing.