The central purpose of the Penguin update, which was launched in late April, is to put a deep freeze on web spam in Google’s search results. The Penguin update is proposed to fight web spammers who use shady techniques to rank websites. However, research shows how useless and horribly designed the update actually is. Countless amounts of Google users have declared that Google Penguin by all measures “is the worse Google update that has happened yet.” Lately, many have discovered that it seems like while Google is targeting “black hat” SEOs, the “white hat” SEOs are being affected as well.

According to Glenn Gave at G-Squared Interactive, the Penguin update “lacks natural links.” The Google Penguin update has 5 types of link issues harming some affected websites, including paid text links using exact match anchor text, comment spam, guest posts on questionable sites, articles marketing sites, and links from dangerous sites. So where do you go from here? How do you avoid the being targeted by Google? Here are some helpful tips to move forward and dodge the twists and turns that Google is doing in the SEO industry:

• Stop building exact match anchor links- Google is going to eventually catch on to what you’re doing and penalize you for exact match anchor links. Your links should never be an exact match to the anchor text. Instead, focus on links that mention your brand.
• Make link building constantly unpredictable- you want to make your link count grow by a different number each month. If you link count is growing by the same number each month, Google will notice this consistent pattern.
• Differentiate the quality of the sites you are buying links from- Your target should be for pages that are big, small, popular, unpopular, no page rank, high range rank, etc.
• Purchase blogs- the blog will then be yours and you won’t run into the result of being punished for buying paid links.
• Search for broken links- you will be surprised with how many broken links out there are free.

Don’t always rely on Google. It may be a very powerful search engine, but there are ways to optimize outside of Google to keep your website looking fresh. Explore the SEO life beyond Google to gain more online visibility:

1. Post helpful, shareable content through social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. You want to create and publish content that viewers can socialize over.
2. Blog more often. Connect with businesses and contribute your ideas and opinions by posting blog posts.
3. Interact daily on relevant businesses Facebook pages.
4. Purchase social ads on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedln so that you can grab the attention of your targeted demographic.
5. YouTube serves as an excellent source that brings in traffic. Create videos often to educate viewers. Videos will create one-on-one engagement with you audience.

Always keep in mind that not all your SEO eggs should be placed in Google’s basket.

This article was written by Jennifer Rodino – New Memeber to My Search Marketing Team !!!

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There are many reasons why marketers are going with the social media route. First, social media really has the potential to snowball from small campaigns. Second, social media is one of the most cost effective ways to market your business online. Third, there is a huge audience in the social media sites and it would be foolish not to take advantage of the user base that is available.

But what’s shocking is that when you run the numbers, search still produces better results than social media in terms of return on investment. The marketers that are having success with search are making a bigger impact on their bottom line than marketers that are using social media as an advertising/marketing platform.

There are several factors for this. While social media is more budget friendly to start with, it requires more commitment in terms of how much time you invest. Social media is very active and you need to constantly monitor and develop campaigns to keep up.

On the other hand, search marketing requires a bigger investment up front. It does require a big commitment to start a campaign but after you’ve got it going, you pretty much have a regular revenue stream set up. It’s also easy to manage whether you are running pay per click campaigns or getting traffic through organic search. It is very affordable to ramp up a winning campaign.

Another reason why search may be producing better results is that it is easier to target your audience. You can target your audience through keywords. There are various filters you can use to really hone in on your most important prospect such as day parting, negative keywords, and more. This allows advertisers to really optimize campaigns and make it as profitable as possible.

Probably the biggest reason search performs better is because there is an intent to buy from the user. People on sites such as Facebook are not on the site with the intent to make a purchase whereas a person searching Google may be typing in the model of a product to compare prices and look at reviews.

If you were hesitant about using search before, then there’s some news that may want you to start a campaign. Studies are also showing that the click costs have decreased over the last few years. This may be because more marketers prefer social marketing over other methods.

In contrast, the costs of advertising on sites such as Facebook have gone up with the increasing demands. The rise of other marketing methods such as mobile marketing can be another contributing factor to lowering costs of search. Keep in mind that everything may vary from industry to industry and the overall changes in costs are a generalization.

As you can see, search marketing is still effective and is still one of the most profitable marketing strategies for online businesses. This doesn’t mean that businesses should solely focus on it as social marketing and other advertising/marketing channels are still profitable. It just means that you shouldn’t jump on the social bandwagon without putting in a decent effort in using search.

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Here are some of the current statistics that show how important search marketing is in the current business climate. According to mobilemarketingwatch.com, the projected search engine marketing investments in 2011 were supposed to be around 19 billion dollars. Although marketingcharts.com estimated that amount actually reached closer to 42 billion by the end of 2011 for businesses worldwide. This is a grand leap from just a few years ago. Most companies have made this shift in their spending dramatically. They are trying to keep up with the newest trends that their customers and clients appear to be in favor of globally. It is always the goal of marketing to better service, communicate, and sell their products to the consumers, so it is necessary for the companies that use marketing to change with the times accordingly.

According to Forbes.com, the projected marketing budgets will be over 77 billion dollars just for interactive advertising. This is as much or more than those same companies spend on television advertisements currently. These statistics show a staggering change in the mode of how companies are aiming their marketing budgets to reach the public. Search marketing is the most cost effective way to catch up with the consumer and also meet their needs as a company marketing products to them. Essentially all modern businesses are having to keep up with the trends that are making search engine marketing the primary mode of reaching consumers. This is not just a passing fad, the changes in how the public interacts with the companies that market products and services has altered the landscape of business permanently. It is something that is already clear to all progressive industries and now it is necessary to evolve or be left behind.

The lessons of the past are still applicable to the trends in the future, but the way businesses interact with the public is swiftly changing. The traditional modes of advertising are still being used, but are not as wide reaching as the modern methods of the information age consumers. The new world has created a new variety of customer for all companies, so the old ways of advertising are becoming out dated. If anything is true about the information age, it is that the consumer has become in control of how they will be influenced by the marketing that is directed their way. Search marketing is one of the primary trends that has changed the face of the advertising world. Search engine marketing will continue to be the dominant force that is shaping how companies will be reaching the public in the future. Over time, the search engine may become the most important vehicle for directing and marketing products to consumers globally. This is the future of marketing.

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I will also be attending a Great Happy Hour Networking event Sponsored by BMIElite and CrushAds.  Seems like these guys have been throwing some nice events, not just ones where you can’t even hear yourself talk or think, the kind were business gets done !

The Lead King Party is on February 28th at the Mario Barth at the Mirage – King INK – Tattoo Studio, Fashion and Bar Room.

This is going to be interesting.

Just go to LeadKingParty.Com and Signup to get your Name on the List !

I’ll See You There !

Darin Carter

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I’m in the air right now as I write this blog post and so glad that this flight has wifi !!!

If your going to be at ASW and you run into me, don’t hesitate to stop and say hello, you never know what may come out of a simple conversation !

Ok, back to looking at my Adwords Account and all the Money i’m making AND spending !!!

CYA in Vegas !!!

Darin

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So this morning I was doing a few searches and I noticed a very weird looking ad, had to double take for a second …

Am I seeing that correctly … Google has a Advertiser that is paying for a PPC ad, and directly has the option for the Searcher to GIVE UP their Email Address and Zip Code !

Looks like a new Ad Type in the Testing Phase if you ask me … hummm … wonder how FreeFly’s was lucky enough to get this very attractive ad !

Well would be interested in seeing what comes out of this, and how google is compensated for getting them a email address and zip code !

Have you seen similar ads or even a different type of ad unit floating around google search ?

*** UPDATE ***

So this is very interesting, after doing some more searching and browsing the web and logging into my google account now this is what I see

Since i’m logged into my google account now they are forcing my email into the submission box and making it super easy for me to Subscribe to Coupons.Com Newsletter !!!

So my next question is … What about the Privacy of the Users Data ?

When you click on the little Privacy Link you see the message above, however is this really the case, or is google also keeping a nice little record of all those email addresses for their own “Future Potential” use, and a way to gauge how many people are actually putting in their information using this format ?

This is email address submission at it’s finest!  Wonder what other search terms will show me similar results ???

Arron Wall wrote back in September about 2 other new types of ad units, you can read about those on SEOBook.Com

Leave your comment below!

Darin Carter

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There are a lot of people who think that the pay per click option is very costly and does not give the desired results. But that is not the case.

When done properly, it would generate a lot of traffic to your  website and help you in creating awareness of your products and  services. When you use a pay per click service, you would be placing ads  in websites that see a lot of traffic and are in some way related to your products and services. You would have to pay these websites money based on the number of clicks that are generated by visitors and users.

For a pay per click campaign to be successful, you need to do proper research regarding which websites to place your ads in. It is also necessary to keep a track of the websites in which you have placed the ads so that you would know from where you are getting the traffic.

If a particular website is not being effective and is not generating much traffic for you, then you need to take your ads out of that website and place it in another website that has the potential to generate more clicks.

If you have decided on going for a pay per click campaign, you need to have a proper strategy to make it successful. You can always take the help of professional marketing companies that would be able to place your ads in all the right places so that you would be able to generate a steady stream of traffic to your website. Using the right keywords and having the proper landing pages would help you in your quest for more visitors. Once a visitor clicks on your ad and lands on your website, it would be your responsibility to ensure that you keep him interested.

Darin Carter

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This raises a GREAT question, is Google being fair with their own internal sites?

HubPages has seen a negative impact from this change, but
so far YouTube has not (Search Metrics Winners). One presumes Google
isn’t treating its own affiliated sites differently than any other site,
but YouTube’s open publishing environment makes low-quality content as
prevalent as on any other moderated open publishing platform. Google
shows over 13 million indexed videos on YouTube for lose weight (known
spammy area) and over 10 million for forex (another spammy area). Apparently, Google’s Panda update has been punitive only to platforms other than Google’s

Currently Google Owns 65% Share of Searches online

Before I go further on this subject … I would like to see what my readers think?

Is Google playing Fair ???

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Darin Carter

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There are a number of things you should do to ensure your landing page will not only get you leads, but quality leads too. These include:

Informative and Persuasive Sales Content
The content of your landing page should be persuasive for it to be effective. However, you should not blatantly advertise your product or service. Effective content means that it should give enough information about your product in a way that does not seem biased. Keep the following in mind:

a) The content should be relevant to the demographics you are targeting. For example, if you are targeting young people, use the language that they are used to. For example, you can decide to take an informal approach in your sales letter. Also, make sure your content is not too long that it passes out as a boring narrative.

b) Give facts about your product or services. Identify and address some of the questions that are likely to be raised by your customer about your product. This can be about the ingredients of the product, the changes they are likely to experience when they use the product and so on.

c) Ensure the prose is formatted in an attractive and eye-catching manner. For the headline, use a striking color such as red. Also, make it bold and use and center it on the page. The body of the content should also be formatted in an easy-to-read way. You can achieve this by using bullets or breaking the prose into numbered points. Use subheadings throughout your prose to make the content easy to read.

d) Ensure you have some testimonials on your landing page. Most visitors look at what other users are saying about your product or service before they can commit themselves to it. Get testimonials from your past and present customers and put them on the page. You can either have them written or recorded in sound.

Use Images, Sound and Video
In search engine marketing, just like in offline marketing, people believe what they see and hear. Convincing your prospects about your product without having images, videos or recorded sounds that explain about what you are offering is nearly impossible.

a) Get eye-catching graphics that are relevant to the niche you are promoting. It is very important for your landing page to have an impact on the visitors who will be directed to it through referrals or your pay per click ads. Get a good graphic designer to come up with striking graphics that will also load fast on the page.

b) Sound is another thing you should incorporate in your landing page to increase its effectiveness. Having recorded voice explain what you are promoting is likely to increase the number of leads you get to sign up. Moreover, you can also make the sound file downloadable so that users can still listen to it when they are offline.

Make sure the sound file is not too long that it will bore the leads. Just give them enough information about what you offer and leave them wanting to know more. They will thus have to sign up in your list.

c) Videos are very effective search engine marketing techniques and significantly improve the effectiveness of landing pages. Studies have shown that having videos expounding more on your offer is likely to increase the leads who sign up by up to 80%. Make sure the video is made in a professional manner and the sound is clear.

Easy Navigation on the Page
The main objective of having a landing page is to get the visitor sign up in your list or buy the product you are offering. Therefore, you should make it easy for the user to navigate quickly and flawlessly to the information he is searching for.
a) If you are looking to capture the user’s email and other information, have the boxes to be filled easily seen and at the very top or very bottom of the page. Let the filling boxes be easy to find and noticeable.

b) Avoid distractions on the landing page. For example, do not advertise two products or services on the same landing page, unless you are selling them together as a package or they complement each other. On the same note, do not put any links that will move the visitor outside the landing page. You want him to be focused on what you are promoting on the landing page and hence everything that you put there should lead him to either signing up in your list or program, or buying whatever you are promoting.

Follow Search Engine Pay Per Click Rules
Most people will get to your landing page through pay per click ads. Thus, it is important to ensure your page complies with the rules set by search engine companies. Failure to comply with the rules usually leads to a low page score and thus lower rankings by the search engines.

To score high in search engine rankings, you should have the landing page made as part of a mini website. This means you should link it to about 3 to 5 more pages. These pages are usually the “Contact Us,” “About Us’ and “Services” pages. The overall quality score of your landing page will be much higher if it part of a mini website than if it was standing alone.

Search engine marketing is a very effective way of generating leads to your page. When it incorporated with pay per click marketing, you can get significantly leads within a very short time. These two complement each other and are effective ways to leading users to your landing pages.

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The ultimate goal for advertising campaigns is to make money. Any good marketer knows that there is no better way to make money than to advertise in front of a specific, targeted audience of visitors. This is exactly where the internet shines. For example, a billboard is another form of advertisement where an ad is placed in front of thousands of people driving about in their cars each day. A billboard is going to display an ad in front of a large, un-targeted audience. Let’s examine what happens when a fast food ad on a billboard is viewed by three people. One is an average person that eats fast food regularly. The other is a diabetic who is on a strict, healthy diet. The other is a vegetarian who never eats fast food. Do you see what’s going on here? The result of un-targeted advertising is low conversion rates. With the internet, a baseball bat company can advertise on specific, baseball bat niche site where every visitor is interested in baseball bat. Do you see the difference? Having targeted visitors greatly increases the rate at which visitors become buyers, and advertisers make money. Now, it is time to introduce the topic of contextual advertising. Contextual advertisements are excellent for a single reason, they can captivate the reader’s attention and thus increase the click though rate. The click through rate is the percentage of visitors that visited a specific site and clicked an advertisement. So basically PPC campaigns are a great way to not only increase the public’s awareness of a particular product, but also increase sales. In fact, there are a growing number of people out there that make their entire living off of taking a product, creating a pay per click campaign, and reaping the profits. The idea behind this lucrative strategy is simple. If an advertiser gets charged ten cents every time their ad is clicked and makes a fifty dollar sale for every twenty five visitors, then a forty seven dollar profit was just made. With the right product, one could potentially make some serious money. With any pay per click campaign there are two important aspects to understand. The first is choosing the right topic. Hot topics and necessities are always a good choice. The next topic is the conversion rate. Every product will have a different conversion rate. It is important to know this statistic like the back of your hand if you plan on making any money, especially when you are spending money to make it.

Now that we have talked about the advertising end of the spectrum, let’s talk about the search engine marketer’s end. Search engine marketers are most notably known as webmasters, or people who own websites. These people are the ones that have the ability to harness the mass amounts of traffic that flood the web each and every day. The source of all of this targeted, organic traffic is through search engines. They have the option to choose which method to monetize their traffic. One of the most well known forms of monetization is contextual advertising. Many contextual pay per click advertising networks are
great for making money because they have the ability to recognize the main point of a particular page’s content and then serve related ads based upon that content. If you remember from earlier on in the discussion, then you know that targeted advertising is key for making money on both sides of the spectrum. So, webmasters decide on which advertising network to use and create ads for their websites. After all customizations are finished, the ad is inserted into the website’s template and the ads are served to visitors. The publisher then earns a certain percentage of each click. The percentages earned for each click are weighed upon a variety of different factors. Some topics or keywords pay more per click than others. Essentially, the network splits the amount of money earned with the publisher because, quite frankly, the publisher is helping them make more money. Every advertising network is
going to have different rates or percentages shared with the publisher. The anomalous part about it is that not all networks choose to list this “shared” percentage. So publishers never really know what percentage of each click that they are getting. Anyways, publishing targeted ads on a website is a highly effective method of harnessing the power of traffic into a steady stream of income. There have been many principles covered in this article that I hope you found useful. Remember that the basic essentials of successful advertising are volume and targeted visitors.

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