Is SEO BUG-FREE and Happy in 2017?

It has been several years since my last post here. Google killed guest blogging and knocked down traffic to some of my favorite pest control blog sites in the process. So I abandoned my writings that were destined to fall to the back pages of the index where no human eyes would find them. Is there value for writing just for the bots? Is there hope for human connection when rankings will not be had? Alas… is SEO dead?

SEO in 2017

Oddly, I found myself explaining SEO to developer yesterday. And it was refreshing to realize how alive and well the need for SEO still is. Sure the tactics and practices have adjusted but the SEO foundation and work remain largely the same. Perhaps this is even more so the reason for me leaving this site destitute for so long. The excitement and newness was gone. It had become very mundane. Plus with the lack of readers, believers, and other practitioners to cheer me on, the blogging ceased. But I will tell you this, there is still much you may learn from this blog and the posts of the SEO past. Knowing where we came from will help you understand where we are today.

The 6 Keys to SEO that will remain

1 – Content – As the saying goes “Content is King”. While this may still be arguable, it is still relevant. The words, the images, the videos, are the content that makes your website worthy of human eyes. Not to say that all content worthy of being seeing will be seen. I do say, that once seen the content will carry it forward to be seen more or fizzle and die out to be rarely seen again. Content is what people come to consume. If not worthy of consumption, if not easily digestible then content should rot.

2 – Mark-up –  Most markup is hidden from humans. Markup is the code that speaks to bots so they can process, define, format, and present. I include in this meta tags, headers, titles, and most of all Schema (or the next iteration of structured data). In fact, Schema.org markup may already be on its way out. I’d suggest looking into JSON mark up. The internet of things is only made possible by a structured universal language to identify those things, that language is primarily for computer eyes only and is called markup.

3 – User Experience – Humans still need to connect with humans. When it comes to webpages the experience for users most be pleasant so that users will return and bring more users. This includes users of all device sizes, browser types, and sensory shapes. As human expectations change so will user experience. Search bots now make snap judgements based on site speeds, layout of rendered pages, and placement of useful elements on the page. Does your website protect users with its terms of service? Are users secure and computer connecting safe from viruses? Your site will be judged and ranked accordingly.

4 – Keywords – Keywords are the bases for intent. Connecting complimentary intents means pairing a music buyer with a music seller. If the immediate intent is to hire a pest control service then a user won’t likely order a pizza if sent to Papa John’s instead of Bulwark Exterminating. Therefore, understanding and expressing what your website page intends to do (provide pest control in Austin) will help a search engine provide the right results for its users who live in Austin that want to “get rid of scorpions”. Bridging that gap is understand what searches want when they enter a keyword phrase in relation to the keywords targeted by a web page.

5 – Links – Well you can’t just trust any old website on the internet these days. Links are like votes. And popular votes count on the internet. Hence, links will always be a factor in which site to trust and which to not trust. Links today are more loosely defined as mere mentions will cause connections. A phone number can easily be an identifiable link to a specific company. The content surrounding those links builds relevance. If you search for Thomas Ballantyne you will find Bulwark Exterminating in the results and few hyperlinks to Bulwark actually carry the anchor text of “Thomas Ballantyne”. So links and anchor text still matter and will always matter.

6 – Search Engines – Needless to say, that search engine optimization is wholly reliant on search engines existing and being used. But search engines will never go away. Search Engines have grounded their roots in human psyche as follows; to find and learn, to ask and be entertained, to express needs with desires of being filled, to hunt and gather information, and to conquer life. The search engine provides. The Search Engine engages and drives human activity.  Forever more will there be a bot that will search, find, and organize the information world for human consumption. And with that bot, there will be those that seek to provide content for consumption.

3 of My Latest Tips and Secrets of 2017 SEO

1 – History – One of the biggest secrets I have is that history counts. The longer you stay online, the more history you gain. The longer you carry a keyword ranking the better chance you have to keep that ranking going forward. If you have a bad history, it will hurt you. So be consistent with who you say you are and who you really are. Your History makes your Reputation. Reputation is trust. Trust is currency. It is your currency to buy visitors and to gain customers.

2 – Build it right from the start– Let’s say you have a niche that hasn’t broken into the online world yet. (Still happens, as I found out when building a house. Try finding a Phoenix Framer). Being first to break out online gets you results and fast, just for being first. But you are the only runner, so being first in a race of one doesn’t mean you ran a good race. However, if you start racing now and really work at being a top racer, when others join you will have the history and experience to compete. Plus, it can be a distance race. Bulwark in Austin has over 400 online reviews in Google alone, that puts some distance between us and someone starting now. Build your website right from the start and you get distance and not just first place in a one man race.

3 – Visible Reputation Trumps Ranking – 5 little gold stars can take more traffic than the top ranked on the page. A bad reputation on the first page can lose your site traffic when people search for your company by name. And when it comes down to it, people won’t buy if they can’t trust you. Visible reputation can go into how your site simply looks even if you did rank #1 for SEO.

 

Well it feels good to blog again. SEO is alive and well. Your views, shares, and comments are appreciated and help drive more posts and more conversations.

Google and Wikipedia sitting in a tree..

K – I –  S S – I – N – G

 

So Google is now displaying a little drop down screen shot of the Wikipedia page associated with a website. The information is Universal and site wide, so this tab is included on deeper pages.

Why is this Interesting to me?

I find this very telling of how heavily google is now leaning towards entities in the search results.

Movember #SEOstache – What I Gave & What I learned.

One week into Movember.. less than cool stare.

Well the Movember Mustache is about to come to an end.

What I gave for Movember:

I gave my face. While this may not seem costly to most, I felt very out of place for the past month. I have never grown a beard before. And this is the first mustache I have ever worn. Needless to say, I was more than a little self conscious because of this. I consider this a costly investment.

I gave my voice. Speaking up about why I was not shaving proved much easier. Curious looks and my own discomfort made it easy to speak up and explain why I wore a beard/mustache. Most people had never heard of “No Shave November.” or “Movember”. Speaking up was easy. It was refreshing to share my voice and tell people that simple awareness to issues like prostate cancer can help.

I gave my wallet. Not only did I ask for others to donate, but I gave money myself. Every little bit helps. There is little time left to donate: http://mobro.co/pestcontrol

What I learned this Movember:

How I looked most of the month.

Facial hair is itchy! Having never grown out my facial hair, I had never experienced the itchiness. And after the itch came the tingle. Yes, I could feel the hairs tickle and tingle my skin with a simple smile to a cool breeze. And having discussions with other men about these new found sensations, I also learned that it itches every time you grow it back out.

Prostate cancer will hit 1 out 6 men. ( cancer stats ) Prostate Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in American men. 1 out of 36 men will die of prostate cancer.

There are a lot of good people in the world. It was inspiring to be part of the Manta Team which raised about $3000. I was especially impressed with Mike Halvorsen who got Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester on board. Their team “Search for the Cure” raised over $14,000. That is inspiring. Good work men.

My SEOstache

Well I wore a beard for most of the month, but I didn’t want to miss out entirely on the mustache experience, so I busted out the straight mustache for the last few days of the month… wearing it as I type this right now.

Yes… I have a hard time taking myself serious seeing my own mustache. I got a few good laughs, a couple of “I can’t take you serious.” comments, a “Is that real?” comment, and “you would be so cool in the 70’s”. My wife even said that I should have done this in October so that I could’ve used it in my Halloween costume. Although the nickname “Mario”, from Mario Brothers, seems to stick the most.

Movember Mustaches at Internet Summit in Raleigh

It was also cool to run into some great MoBro’s in Raleigh during the Internet Summit. It’s an instant connection. A brotherhood. Good people doing a good thing.

Monica Wright showing off Google+ #movember mustache

I even had the chance to show off my SEOstache in a Google+ hangout with Search Engine Land‘s Danny Sullivan and Monica Wright. Very cool that Google+ had an option to add your own #movember mustache. It actually moved around with your face while you were on screen. Captured this screen shot from my iPhone as the meeting was coming to a close.

… So long dear #SEOstache.

Related articles

• A Tachetastic Movember (distilled.net)
• Movember 2011 in Bristol (bristolculture.wordpress.com)
• Canada’s ‘Mo Bros’ raise more than $32M for Movember (ctv.ca)

Bing has done a better job. – Eric Schmidt

“Bing has done a better job. – Eric Schmidt”

In classic Danny Sullivan style, at SMX in Seattle Danny hands Stefan Weitz a photo of Eric Schmidt with the caption “Bing has done a better job.” The humor from a search guy knowing that some day soon… like today, people will be search for this quote and low and behold, it will be found in the search results.

GEO Results – Local Back Link Questions

So I was actually having this dicussion with a SEO guy yesterday about Google bridging the gap between linking websites and GEO regions.  Granted, and IP located in Russia is easy to spy. But what about on a local level.  Does Google now consider local IPs a factor? Seems harsh for all the websites hosted on Godaddy.

The other question we discussed was how websites linking to each other will affect local rankings. He stated that this was too large of a gap to say that this website is relevant to Charlotte, NC so the sites he links to may have Charlotte ties. He believed it was too large of a gap.  I argue, “if they can tag a website with a location or metro city then why not ear mark outbound links with that location?”

Finally is the question of Google Analytics.  Google Analytics already provides regional/GEO data.  You can already see where your visitors are coming from in a location sense.  Now… We all know that Google doesn’t use anayltics to influence search rankings, but who’s to say they have not developed another indicator to determine a websites GEO influence based on a website’s visitors?  Further, it’s not hard to imagine that Bulwark Exterminating is going to have more searches and hire visits from the regions that we service. So does your visitor’s location play into Google’s GEO results? And if so, how are SEOs going to work with ranking factor?

BTW… Bing is also implementing GEO filters, just not blending the results quit like Google…. yet. So these questions would apply to them as well.

Bing + Yahoo = 1..2…Punch!

As many other marketers, watching the internet unfold and the movie reel movie rapidly into the future, the latest Bing and Yahoo merger has been one of this year’s highlights. From either side of the coin, this merger is intriguing. Google can take a short breath and breathe a gleeful sigh of victory, HA!… But wait this tag team just might knock some wind out of Google’s sail!

THE POWER OF BING/YAHOO ADVERTISING

Well… as many others would agree,  the results from advertising in Bing are good, just wish there was more! So results are good. But what I really look forward to from this new conglomerate is the customer service. Honestly, I have always been impressed with the level of customer service that Yahoo has provided me. And just yesterday my Yahoo account rep called to verify that my account was merging well with Bing.  And since I had him on the phone, I had to ask a him a few quick questions about where he was headed after the merger…

“I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I am really looking forward to how well Bing and Yahoo are going to work together. Bing is a software company. They do go things with software. Yahoo get’s to keep doing what we do well, working with customers. All premium accounts would be maintained by Yahoo. Yahoo employee’s will be the customer service side. ….It was important for us to maintain that relationship.”

I was honestly relieved and excited to hear this, Yahoo has been the most customer friendly search engine I have dealt with.

THE SEARCH RESULTS

I must say that Bing’s search results are impressive, so impressive that they seem to almost mirror Google’s search results.  The fact that Bing has cut out the cluttered MSN page and provided a search page is going over well.  The calming graphics are nice…. probably increases time on page… almost like slow music at a grocery store to keep you there just a little bit longer.  So I give the search results an A…. Minus the maps.

Local search seems to be the bane of the search engines and the marketers a like.  Both are experience this sudden growing pain together.  Bing will continue to maintain their local maps and local business listings, and Yahoo will continue to maintain their local maps and listings.  My yahoo rep did promise me that Yahoo was investing heavily in their local maps.  Yahoo is also introducing an applet in the search results for local areas.

“Well if you’d like some feedback on the local stuff, you know where to find me.”

Don’t mind me I am just a pest control guy that focuses on the little things all day long. =)

Bing Local Maps – Congrats!

I am starting the New Year off right by actually saying something nice! (yes, I know I am always nice… 😉

Bing has actually impressed me today with their new feature… “Ask your friends to recommend …pest control.” See image below…

Props to the Bing!

So the new feature is pure genius! It adds a personalized flavor to your search and helps the users get recommendations from friends. Overall it encourages further online conversation… which is what the internet is all about!

Sneaky?… just a little. The function actually post the Bing url on twitter, facebook, or in your email.  Smart though it titles your email for you and gives the results.  I love it because if you lived in Vegas and emailed this list to your friends asking for recommendations… Bulwark pest control would definitely win!  And of course the consumer would win… which is what the SERP should want.

So hats off to Bing on this one!

… of course they may want to remove that spam guy in position #5, A Executive Pest Control Insurance??? P.O. BOX???

Still, Bing is moving in the right direction.