Does paid advertising have any SEO Value?

The SEO  benefits of paid advertising are huge! 

 

Paid advertising is not usually associated with SEO, and this is a very big mistake, especially since the introduction of the Google Humming Bird Algorithm where SEMANTIC FOOTPRINTS and TRUST FACTORS now form the core of the primary SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) which need to be considered when doing any form of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

To understand these issues better, we need to come to grips with what is meant by SEO and there are so many different versions of this story, so to ensure the we stay on the same page and that  YOU clearly understand my point of view I will once again quote my definition of SEO.

In my opinion SEO or Search Engine Optimisation has three distinct objectives

1) to ensure that search engines index your online content.

2) to ensure that your online content appears within the SERP's  when people are searching for your products, services and related company / organization information.

3) to ensure that your intended target market audience select the link to your  on line content, then follow through by performing at least one CTA (Call To Action)  within the page that they selected from the SERP;s

If any one of these fails your SEO has failed.   Now that we understand the purpose, aims and objectives of any good SEO strategy lets see how PAID ADVERTISING IMPACTS ON THESE ISSUES

When a spider takes its data from the page in question the information about the advert in question is also included within the page as part of the #IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation.  So you as the owner of the page need to negotiate with the advertiser and ensure that the advert is suitable and relevant to your intended target market audience.  This is basically saying that you are in control of the quality of the advert and must thus ensure that the advert meets your qualifications,  other wise do not display the advert within your page.

When you place paid advertising within your page, from display networks like Google adsense and many others you specify your target audience, and have access to many filters and tools that would ensure that your adverting is in some way related to your target audience.  If you have done your #IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation right, and documented this clearly within the target market research phase then setting these related filters within your adsense campaigns will be relatively easy. If you make it easy for the search engines to identify your desired target audience, then the ad display network will also be able to calculate and predict your intended target audience, and thus have much better quality adds.

It is our considered opinion that this improved quality of the in-page advertising filters through to the quality of your page and impacts on many other #SEOVI (Search engine Optimisation Value Indicators) from page rank and domain rank through author, publisher and many other SEOVI specifically your semantic foot print and the associated trust factors.  These Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators (SEOVI) are the variables that Google as well as other search engines use within their very complicated multi stage algorithms that match a search query to a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

+Rand Fishkin  of +Moz posted this  #whiteboardfriday  where he talks about the issues associated with paid advertising and explains many of the related issues.

World SEO Education: What Is Off-Page SEO? Off-Page SEO Techniques

 This post below is a good entry level post on off page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which I would like to expand on.

World SEO Education: What Is Off-Page SEO? Off-Page SEO Techniques : Today my topic of discussion is: Off Page Optimization. I would like to entertain my readers with every minute aspects of SEO and their techniques so that they become self-independent in managing their website traffic and quality.

SEO or Search Engine optimisation is a tricky business with many mis-informed  people proclaiming that SEO is dead, because they do not have a clear understanding of the term SEO and what it means.

SEO or search engine optimisation is the collective work of your entire staff in their attempts to ensure that your pages are found by your intended target market when they use any search engine to find your information.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is divided into 2 (two) major sectors. The first is in- page  SEO and the second is off page SEO  

IN-PAGE SEO

In-page SEO has two components which are each aimed at different target markets, and have very different purposes, but both are used collectively when doing any off page SEO. It is essential that any SEO practitioner explain this to you in terms that you understand, other wise you will not be very successful in your off page SEO.

The first component of in-page SEO is the stuff contained within the head section of your page, which is written specifically for the Search Engines. This section of your page is not visible to the end user, and contains all the META TAGS and related information including but not limited to

• Page description
• page title
• Keywords list
• author and contributors
• categories and    geographical info
• language and script info  

 The second component of in-page SEO is the body section of the page, which is written specifically for the viewer or end-user of your page. This section contains all the text, images, videos and other visual stuff which the end user will see onscreen when the page is loaded in a browser.  

The body section of the page is used by search engines to determine the aboutness of a page, and the text used here is what the search  Engines  will index in their databases to match to the queries that searchers use when looking for your information. 

Search engines try to match the aboutness of your page to the aboutness of a search query using a wide variety of variables, most of which are contained in the Off-page SEO of your pages.

In short the head section is written for search engines to allow them an opportunity to categorize and define your page, and the body section is written for your viewers , giving them a visual interpretation of your information. Search engines use the visual interpretation and the information in the head section to compile a profile of your page which they will match to a users search through a SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) and display what the search engine perceives to be the closest match of the the search request and all indexed pages in the SERP's (Search Engine Results pages)
 

OFF-PAGE SEO 

Off-page SEO is all the collective marketing of your page by your entire staff, and other sources that are beyond your control and includes but is not limited to the following

•  Internal links with in your web site
• All your social media efforts to get visitors to your web site
• Your blogs and user forums
• Your online marketing with paid adds
• Your link building strategies
• the registration of your web site with search engines and related platforms
• your public relations marketing and related online strategies
• What others have to say about your pages in their respective online platforms which include but is not limited to
• their web sites
• their blogs
• their social media platforms
• peer review sites
• product / services review sites
• news papers online pages
• radio stations online pages
•  your customers discussing your products in their social media post

 The first and most important aspect of SEO is the least understood, and least used component of in-page SEO which is the meta tags in the <head> section of your page. The META TAGS within the head section of your page are used by search engines to evaluate the content of your page and establish a context for the information within the body section of the page. Most end users do not even know that there is a <head> section of your page, and  many people ignore this with some SEO PRACTITIONERS even saying SEO is DEAD, because they have heard that the KEYWORD META TAG is not used in page rank scores.

When doing your off page SEO you need to use the information that your in-page SEO technical team used when  creating the <head> section of your page as well as the <body> section content in meaningful and constructive ways.  This is actualy a lot simpler than it sounds, and you can get the desired information from a number of sources, with the easiest being to use your browsers functionality to see the page source, and copying the contents of the head section to a text document for you to read and understand at your leisure.  

Another good source of this information is your SEO team who will be able to also give you a brief on the aims, objectives, purpose and intent of the page, which will help you in the copy writing of your off page SEO and all related social media posts. When doing any off page SEO be sure to  include the full URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web address of the page you are marketing, to ensure that search engines give the correct page the SEOV (Search Engine Optimisation Value) that is accrued by your off page SEO efforts.

Remember FUFISM  - (Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media) and ensure that all the role players who are involved in your SEO work together as a unified team with a single goal in mind. That goal should be to increase the return on investment in your web site through the acquisition of targeted visitors to your web site who are qualified through your use of properly targeted SEO which will ensure that your pages are found by your intended target market group and not by the wrong target market groups.

To ensure that your team gets the best results from your off page SEO  you will need to employ the FUFISM philosophy  The FUFISM philosophy is really quite simple and easy to manage, as all your team will be on the same page, and share many marketing insights that would otherwise be kept as departmental secrets . Once you employ the FUFISM philosophy there will be no infighting between departments to see who gets the lions share of the marketing budget and many research areas will  be handled differently, as the information gathered will be shared across departments and not duplicated unnecessarily as they would be when departments are competing against each other for a share of the marketing budget.

The Power of Google Plus is growing, are you prepared?

There have been many rumors that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is dead, some have even hinted that it is buried. I think that those who started these rumors are FaceBook Marketers who have had some success and achieved some business without using any other platform besides FaceBook.

In my opinion these marketers have just been lucky, and their success has gone to their heads. Those in the online marketing industry know the truth, your products and services will not be found easily online unless they are well placed in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

At the end of the day there are only three ways that your online information will be found by your intended target market

1. They will type your address directly into the address bar of their browser because they were exposed to your marketing in other media such as  amongst others
• TV advertising
• Radio advertising
• Newspaper and other print media advertising
• billboards, flyers and other direct marketing 
2. They will click on a link found in
• your online marketing 
• referral from a social media platform such as G+ or Facebook
•  a web page referencing your work as an authority on your subject matter
• a web site that has a link exchange program with your web site or blog
• your paid advertising link in some body elses pages
3. They will use a search engine to find your online information and click on your listing in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

Currently (Jan 2013) Google is the biggest search engine and has the lions share of all search querries, so you will need to be listed in the organic SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) that Google provides to ensure that you get the best exposure within these SERP's

Now the trick is to understand how Google plus influences the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)  provided within the organic search results pages. This is where the power of G+ or Google Plus starts to shine and push any pages associated with your G+ profile closer to the top of the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) due to a host of different social signals that are associated with your G+ profile and the posts that you have made within all your associated G+ pages and related communities.

During my research I came across this post by Mark Traphagen on Wind mill Marketings web site

This post was very well written and extremely helpful in understanding the true power of Google Plus


At the end of the day G+ is Googles own Social media networking platform, and they have full unrestricted access to all data on the Google Plus platform, which gives them quite a bit of leverage to use the data in ways that enhance your search experience. Another point to take into consideration is that they (Google Search Engineers) know the structure of the data as well as the data layout which makes their use of this information simpler and more user friendly.

To understand this a bit better you may need to understand the term FUFISM

what is the value of Social Signals in SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation has come a long way since it first became a necessity in getting your information listed near the top of SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) In the beginning it was purely in-page SEO, and that was fine.

but things have changed drastically see video at bottom of page

Along came the advent of Facebook and the social media revolution which changed the way that we as people communicate in ways that are still being investigated and documented. Many other social media platforms jumped up and started having an influence on information sharing and information flow between people at alarming speeds. People were suddenly sharing a whole lot of stuff online that did not make sense to businesses as it was purely of a social nature with people discussing things like

• where they would be spending the week end
• what we will be eating for lunch
• who is having an affair with my cousin
• what colour dress should be worn to a party
• what music is pleasant and what is crappy to listen to
• their personal love life
• their personal thoughts and social affairs
• whats going on at the office when the boss is out
• what movies to watch
• where I waste my spare time

This information was indexed in search engines and because of the size of the base web site that the social media platforms operated, and the size of the user base of these social platforms, results suddenly started appearing at the top of SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) for many keywords and keyword phrases, which carried very little value to the person making the search request. 

Soon the marketing world stepped into the social media arena and started direct online marketing within the social media with alarming  results. These results were at first confusing to many within the search industry, especially those involved in SEO for web sites. The major search engines picked this up and started adding the value of social signals to their algorithms with strange results as they were very experimental.

As the search industry came to grips with the impact of the social media on search patterns things started to settle down and an understanding of how social signals should be interpreted by search engines began to emerge. At Info4u we realised that these changes required an integrated approach to all online marketing, as most SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) use a large variety of issues from different locations to determine the value of any specific page before placing it in any SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

Info4u thus coined the acronym FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media  to describe the our approach to all online marketing, as the Search Industry now requires a lot more information from you to place your online information anywhere near the top of its SERP's.

This short video by slingshot (www.slingshotseo.com) found at http://www.business2community.com  discusses some of the related issues focusing on social media issues around social signals and SEO

what is the value of colour in terms of SEO

The value of colour in terms of SEOV (Search Engine Optimisation Value) is underestimated because it is not seen as a ranking factor for search engines within the marketing world.

This is a big mistake, and is caused by the misunderstanding of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) in general marketing terms. In the past SEO technical staff were the only ones involved in SEO. This has changed drastically over the last year  where SM (social Media) has become the newest buzz word and is now considered to be a prime factor in the SEO industry.

Read this article on the issue of colour and its value to your web site also read the comments which are insightful as well.

You really do need to consider your target market with their social values and  cultural values as well as group preferences when considering colours for your web site or a section of your web site. Once this has been evaluated by the marketing team you need to do a small test run on a subsection of your pages and get user feed back.

Look carefully at what they have to say, as all the search engines have done this and are currently using user appreciation and user functionality as part of their SEOV (Search Engine Optimisation Value) system, where individual pages get scored for a variety of factors which are all entered into the SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) which determine your pages SERP's (Search Engine Results Page Positions)

If the SE's (Search Engines) like your colour scheme and think you pages are user friendly you will do a lot better in the SERP's. Remember things like readability and site aesthetics are determined by your colour scheme. So take your time on this one and do a few small tests on some sub domains to see the results before rushing off and making any changes to your colour scheme

Google basics explained - on video

This short video gives a very brief explanation of the basics of Google's methods to index sites and what variables are most important for ranking high in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages' / positions).

three things that are most important for search engine are
1) how to craw the web most efficiently
2) index the pages, and sort according to some criteria
3) Rank all pages then serve the pages to searchers according to their needs

To ensure that your pages are indexed in search engines you need to ensure that  search engines find your pages through links from other sites, and that your pages have internal links so that all your pages can be found by any search engine that locates any one of your pages.

Once your pages are indexed by search engines they perform quite a few mathematical tricks useing a host of variables such as but not limited to the list below to give some kind of score to your page. Then the search engine will store this value along with a number of pre calculated variables that will be used to evaluate an end users search query and return a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in their indexing system.
1) the specific words within your pages, and how they are used, where they are in relation to each other and other data on your page.
2) all inbound links form other websites including the anchor, text where the link is on the page, words near to the link, and words on the landing page which the link refers to.
3) all out bound links, including anchor text, words near the link, words on the landing page of the link, and the context of the link related to other onpage data.
4) all internal links linking to the specific page as well as all internal links linking to other pages within your site taking the page content and many related issues into account.

When an end user submits a search query this is search query is compared with the indexed words and some very  advanced mathematical algorithm is used to determine the end users intent and match this intent with the aboutness of your pages. Once the search engine has determined the best possible matches from its index with a searchers intent the search engine delivers a SERP (Search Engine Results page)

Reasons for social media integration!

I have been a bit busy with the issues around the IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IWPA (ISIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK AUTHORITY) IMP (INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PLAN) AND RELATED PPP (PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS / PROCEDURE)

This issue is very problematic and full of political interference from many levels. There are many thorny issues that need to be discussed honestly in the public domain, which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are deliberately sidestepping. See this blog for details http://iwpappp.blogspot.com/

So lets get back on track and discuss the value of integrating your social media efforts with your other marketing efforts, keeping in mind how your prospective customers first find out about your products or services. If you operate in a closed community then you have no problems, as everybody will be aware of what your products / services are, what they cost and how to contact you for more info or adsvice.


If on the other hand your business relies on the public or a niche market, then you know that your customers / followers / clients first find your web page by using a search of some type. Most used Search system (called a search engine) is Google. others are improving and a list can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines 


Search engines are tricky things to master, and no search engine will volunteer their algorithm that they use to sort out the returned list of possible matches that you need to evaluate and choose from. So what should you as an owner of a web site, social media profile or blog do to ensure that your information is located by your  intended target market ?.


The answer is quite simply apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques when creating your pages and writing your copy. I am sure you are thinking  "I don't know what that is!!!" but you are wrong, because you use many of these techniques already in you basic marketing plan any way.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) starts with defining your target market, and using words that your defined target market are familiar with when writing your copy. If you do this you are over half way there already. The next step is to ensure that your information has some inbound links, that is ensuring that other websites, blogs, social media pages or forums link to your information in some way. In Facebook clicking a like or share button does this automatically for you. So by loose definition, the more likes a post has in face book the more inbound links the post has. placing a link in Facebook to some remote page  (out side of the FaceBook domain) creates an out bound link in face book which is an inbound link at the remote page you referred to.


The search engines use this data and much more information that they collect about your information by using what they commonly call spiders that crawl the web, looking for webpages and collecting all types of data from the page and storing this data for the Search Engine algorithm to use according to the search engine engineers instructions. 

When you type a word or combination of words into the search box and press enter the search engine processes this request according to the instructions in their algorithm and displays a list of probable matches for you to choose from. 

So taking the above info into account and evaluating what needs to be done so people find your information you need to ensure that you have at least 2 but preferably more places where you discuss your business online, and link these together by cross referencing  your various online information portals.

example : you have a website, a facebook profile and a twitter profile.

step 1 is to create a fan page in FB and write about this fan page on your  wall and link to it on your wall.
step 2 write about your fan page on twitter and place a link to your fan page in your tweets


Step 3 write about your twitter profile on your facebook wall and place a link to your twitter profile on your face book wall.


Step 4 write about your face book profile in your website, and link your webiste to your FB profile with a FB badge 

step 5 write about your twitter profile in your website and place a link to your twitter profile with a twitter badge / banner


step 6 write about your fan page in your website and place a link to your fan page using a FB badge.


step 7 write about your web site in your face book pages, and refer back to your twitter posts.


step 8 repeat steps 2 to 7 on a regular basis, and keep adding extra pages to your website. ensure that each new page in your webiste gets a mention in your facebook effrots as well as in your tweets. keep mentioning your tweets and facebook posts in your web site and update regularly (at least once a week - preferably more often)


Step 9 get your friends and others to mention your info in their facebook pages
step 9 get others to retweet your tweets about your FB pages and your web pages.


step 10 regularly go over what you have done and check for errors that may have crept in. adjust and repeat steps 1 to 9. then repeat step 10 as often as is needed.


If you do this then you will have some success. once you have the hang of this you can expand and really improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) in your website and in all your social media where you are allowed to. this will improve your SERP's (Search Engine Results Position / placements)  drastically


The value of integrating your social media profiles with your web site and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts  will become evident as your online business picks up due to the organic listings generated in many search engines by your hard work and thoughtful use of your key words as used by your target audience.


before purchasing a domain name for your website, or when purchasing a new domain name to expand your online branding consult with at least 3 or 4 different SEO specialists and ask for branding advice related to domain name purchases. If the SEO specialist does not ask you to define your target market before discussing further, be weary as he / she still needs to learn a lot. The primary issue when doing SEO is to know the target market and their vocabulary and terminology used within the target market group.


When integrating your different online marketing segments remember to keep you intended target market in focus and write your copy accordingly. this will generate the most value for your efforts.