White Hat, Black Hat and Gray Hat SEO

Various techniques are used for search engine optimization, or SEO. One way to group these techniques is with hat terminology: white hat SEO, black hat SEO, and gray hat SEO. White hat SEO is considered ethical SEO, while black hat SEO is considered unethical SEO. Gray hat SEO walks the line between the white and black hats of search engine optimization. 

White Hat SEO

White hat SEO is ethical SEO. It's SEO techniques that search engines accept. White hat SEO techniques are beneficial for site visitors as well as for search engines. The goal of white hat SEO is to improve search engine result positions via methods that won't cause search engines to penalize the site. Successful white hat SEO is slower than black hat SEO and is an on going process.

Examples of white hat SEO techniques

Content

·   Researching relevant keywords, both short ail and long tail keywords.

·   Including keywords naturally in page titles, headings, link anchor text, other page content, and alt tags.

·  Studying analytics reports and fine-tuning the content to further optimize it for targeted keywords and to help direct traffic to relevant pages.

·      Adding fresh content regularly.

Coding

·    Using correct HTML markup (for example, heading tags) so that search engines can identify headings and other types of content correctly.

·    Making sure that all the code is valid (or at least won't stop search engine bots).

·     Creating site maps so that every page is linked to and search engine bots can crawl every page.

·  Using CSS to separate content from markup and thus increase keyword density by having less markup to crawl.

Linking

·     Creating quality content that other people will want to link to.

·      Asking to have directories and other relevant websites link to the site.

·     Optimizing pages for social media in the hopes of attracting social media links.

·      Arranging for link exchanges with relevant sites (considered by some to be gray hat SEO).

Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO is the use of techniques that are unacceptable to search engines to boost a page's position in search results. These techniques are intended to trick search engines into giving pages higher positions in search results, and they have no benefit to site visitors. The goal is to improve search engine result positions no matter what it takes to do it.

Black hat SEO techniques are used for two reasons:

·      They work — until search engines find out about them and they don't work.

·   Some people don't understand that black hat SEO techniques can get their sites penalized by or banned from search engines.

Even if search engines can't detect the black hat SEO techniques, competitors of sites that employ black hat SEO techniques can spot them and do report them to search engines.

Examples of black hat SEO techniques

Content

Keyword stuffing

·      Overusing keywords in comment tags, alt tags, and meta tags.

·    Placing keywords in hidden text (hidden from people, that is) by making their font color the same color as the page background.

·      Overusing keywords in visible text, to the point where their repetition is apparent to readers.

Deceptive content

·      Doorway or gateway pages: Pages that are stuffed with keywords but that only search engines see because people are redirected to the page with the real content.

·    Cloaking: displaying different content to search engines than to people by identifying visitors via IP or via other methods.

Linking

·     Link farms: Pages with unrelated links solely for the purpose of creating more links to target pages.

·     Spamming forums, blogs, and other social media sites with links (search engines might not penalize sites for this, but it's considered unethical).

Gray Hat SEO

Gray hat SEO is SEO techniques that take more risks than white hat SEO techniques but aren't likely to get your site banned from search engines (although a search engine penality could result). They're questionable SEO techniques but not in the same category as black hat SEO techniques. However, what's considered gray hat SEO today might be black hat SEO next year.

Examples of gray hat SEO techniques

Content

·    Having a keyword density that's high enough to sound unnatural but not at the level of black hat keyword stuffing.

·      Publishing duplicate content at different sites.

Linking

·     Link building where relevance is less important.

·     Planned three-way linking.

·     Using paid links.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/9gl3r4l

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21 Social Media Marketing Statistics

Sick of hearing that social media is just a buzzword? Are you looking for hard statistics so that you can prove to your boss that social media is worth the investment? Looking for some pick up lines at the next social media meetup?

Hey, did you know that Facebook-connected shoppers are 9 times more likely to share content with friends? Mind if I buy you a drink?

21 Social Media Statistics That May Shock You

1.    Online adults aged 25-54 are 23% more likely than the average U.S. Internet user to follow a brand via social networking. Think about your audience and see where they are most likely to follow your brand.

2.    Failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers. Customers are turning to social media outlets to unleash their frustration or questions. Make sure you are actively engaged on your social networks.

3.  49% of the top 20% of B2B marketers in generating leads through social media integrate online video with social media, compared to the industry average of 32%. Video Marketing is a powerful tool that personalizes your brand and increases conversions. 

4.    Social technologies could potentially contribute $900B to $1.3T in annual value across four industry sectors.  It’s no longer a buzzword; social media is changing how brands interact with their customers. 

5.    People are most likely to engage with branded content on social media that contains pictures (44%), status updates (40%) and videos (37%). Lujurehas a great post about how to increase engagement on your fan page. 

Facebook

1.   Facebook-connected shoppers are 9 times more likely to share content with friends. Give your Facebook Connected users ample ways of sharing your content or product. 

2.    Users who log into third-party sites with Facebook Connect spend an average of 50% more time on those sites and view twice as many pages.  When people login with their Facebook account, there is a sense of trust that they are giving you. Use it wisely and give them a good conversion path to follow. 

3.    20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw on the site.  A combined effort of social media campaigns along with ads can yield great results. 

4.    Facebook links posted from 1pm to 4pm EST result in the highest average click throughs. Consider using an image or video with each post to drive engagement. 

Twitter

1.  Tweets with one or two hashtags receive 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.  Make sure you are utilizing relevant and trending hashtags in your tweets. 

2.    U.S. consumers who use Twitter follow an average of 8.5 retail companies on the site. Figure out what your followers want from you and keep them engaged.

3.    Tweets containing less than 100 characters received 17% higher engagement than longer Tweets. Even with just 140 characters, shorter relevant content performs best.

4.    Twitter posts from 1-3pm EST Monday through Thursday get the highest average click throughs.  Try using tools like Buffer or Timely to auto schedule your posts.

Pinterest

1.  Pinterest generates over 4x as much revenue per click (attributable to first touch) as Twitter and 27% more revenue per click than Facebook.  Now that anyone can join Pinterest, there are no more excuses 57% of Pinterest users interact with food-related content, the #1 category of content. Bonobos sells men’s clothing, but has a pinboard of ShitNinjasEat. Lesson is to get creative with your Pinterest presence.

2.    Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often, and on more items than any of the other top 5 social media sites. Airbnb does a great job of posting great photos to inspire new travel destinations.
3.  The average order on Shopify by customers referred by Pinterest is $80, compared to $40 for Facebook. Consider pinning items currently on sale or seasonal pieces to drive engagement and conversions.

Google+

1.   Google+ pages appear in search results for 30% of brand term searches for brands with G+ pages, up from 5% in February 2012. 

2.   It’s no secret that search is becoming more social. Make sure your brand has a presence on Google+.

3.  The most commonly circled brands on Google+ are in the electronics industry, followed by beverages, internet services, and apparel. If your brand falls into any of the above categories then increase your Google+ activity. 

4.    40% of marketers use Google+, 70% want to learn more about it and 67% plan on increasing Google+ activities. Google+ will remain an integral part of social media and organic search. 

5.   The leading occupation among Google+ users is student, with 20%.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/c6olbye

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What is SEO? Top 10 Reason for SEO

Now you have probably been asleep for the past few years if you haven't heard of SEO but hearing about something and knowing what it means are two different things! So just What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a technique that enables websites to be found when people type in certain keywords and phrases into the search box on a browser.  Say, for instance that you searched recently for restaurants in North London, those sites that came up on page one would most likely have had some SEO work to get them to the top positions and will continue to need SEO to help them to retain these rankings. An SEO company works to get their clients on to the top pages for the keywords that people will use to search for their products or services.

Search engines are not human - they are text driven.  They cannot be impressed by cool logos and impressive graphics they can only handle text - which is why the content on a website will always be the most important element.  They will need to crawl, index and process this text before they can deliver search results - effectively what you see on page when you search for something. 

The SEO process will involve the creation of backlinks - these are links pointing from elsewhere on the web to your domain.  The higher the variety of domains these are pointing from the better.  As time goes by in an SEO campaign the number of backlinks and referral URLs should increase steadily and it is this increasing number of backlinks that tells the search engines your site is popular and encourages them to rank your site more highly in the search engine results pages.

Top 10 Reasons for SEO

1) If you don’t invest in SEO there is no point having a website. Nobody will be able to find the site unless it is indexed and ranking well for the keywords and phrases that relate to the products and services you are offering. 85% of people use the internet to search for the products and services they need and so it presents a huge potential market that any business cannot afford to ignore.

2) SEO can help you to reach your sales targets. By improving your online presence you can attract more visitors to your website and if the website is good enough and your product or service is competitive then there is no reason why you can’t convert a healthy percentage of these visitors.

3) SEO helps you to interact more effectively with your customers. By using social media to keep customers up to date on the latest news from within the business together with product launches and anything else they might find useful, businesses can interact with their client base and potential customers to gain a better understanding of what they are looking for.

4) SEO can help to build up brand awareness. Optimising your website and being active on social channels can help to increase awareness about your brand. As well as ranking for your company or brand name you can make people realise your business exists by appearing for lots of different search keywords and sending out regular posts and status updates on blogs and social networks.

5) SEO can give you valuable insight. By using statistics generated through analytics tools it is possible to see where traffic is coming from, what keywords are being used to find your site and what pages visitors are looking at. This data can then be manipulated to improve marketing campaigns and if necessary shift the marketing focus from one product or area to another.

6) SEO is a small price to pay. Compared to more traditional marketing methods such as advertising in a magazine, promoting a new product on a billboard or running a television advertisement, SEO represents a minimal cost and yet can return fantastic results to get websites ranking for not just local searches but UK wide and internationally if the product or service is to be sold overseas.

7) SEO presents a much more viable option when compared to paid search listings. Many businesses simply do not have the budget to spend several pounds per click to get people to visit their website and in any case it has been proven that around 90% of people click on natural listing compared to only 10% on paid listings.

8) SEO can help you stay ahead of the competition. Unless you work in a very specific market niche you will find that you have close competitors who also offer the same products or service as your business. If they are optimizing their site for search and you aren’t you could quite simply get left behind.

9) SEO can add value to your business and in particular your online business. If you sell products or services online then the value of the traffic your site receives will in effect be an asset to your business.

10) With SEO the sky’s the limit – there is no limit the amount of traffic you can receive when implementing organic SEO. Unlike pay per click where the amount of visitors you can receive will be limited by your budget, with organic SEO there is no upper limit and over time you will see a positive return on investment.

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What is Content Duplication and Content Syndication?

Duplicate content is when you have large blocks of text that are identical between several different URLs. This can happen when you offer a printer-friendly page allowing your visitors to print a specific page without the extra advertisements and navigation. In this case, the main page and the printer-friendly version are considered duplicate content.

Even a mobile-friendly website in addition to your other website can be considered duplicate content. If you have a number of short pages on your website, you may have duplicate content. A travel website might also have duplicate content when describing the various amenities offered at different hotels in different cities. If you write articles that are syndicated, you’ll have duplicate content for each site where the content is syndicated.

Content syndication is a method by which writings find their way around the ether of the Internet. Specifically, one article that a person writes could appear, with the writer's permission, on many websites. The key word there is permission, which the writer is supposed to give before a website reprints his or her article. In many cases today, because it is so easy to cut and paste electronically, articles appear in syndication without the requisite author permission.

A content syndication agreement usually involves some form of compensation to the original author. This can be as little as acknowledging the author's name. It could include the author's name and website address. The agreement might even include monetary compensation.

A content syndication agreement can be for one article or for many. It can also be an ongoing agreement under which the author or authors agree to provide periodical writings that the website(s) will then publish on a daily or otherwise regular basis. With the explosion of web publishing tools in the past few years, it has become easier and easier for people to publish their writings on the web. Be they articles or reports or blogs or travelogues, these writings are prime candidates for content syndication to certain interested parties.

Syndicating your content is a tricky game. On the one hand, getting more exposure for you, your brand, or your company is a good thing. On the other hand, having another site outrank you for your own content is not a good thing. In this post, I’ll take a look at some of the pros and cons and offer some tips about how you can make syndication work for you.

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Content syndication is different from web-scraping: content syndication is when you allow your content to be placed on another site. In some cases, the site will approach you asking to use your work; in other cases, you will approach them. In either case, both parties consent to the action. However, from a search engine perspective, it’s almost identical to web scraping because the engines see the same content in two places and have to look for signals that tell them who is the source or owner.

If you are thinking about content syndication, there are few things you do and don’t want to do. The first thing is you don’t want to give permission for someone to take all of your new content; instead, you want to give them access to a limited number of pieces. Try to come up with an arrangement that works for everyone like no more than 2 posts a month, or only posts from some select categories. If you have multiple syndication partners, this can be tricky.

If you can only get one link, go for the deep link to the original post. It may seem counter-intuitive but it’s key if you want the search engines to credit you properly. I have seen some people try and use the rel canonical tag, but I’m less than convinced that it’s fool proof when crossing domains. IMHO it’s not worth the dice roll. If you can negotiate they only re-publish a snippet/section and not the entire post, that can also work to you advantage, because it means they have to link back to the original post.

There are some instances when you want to let someone republish your post in its entirety and aren’t concerned about the link back to your post. For example, maybe you have an issue/rant/viewpoint that you want to get in front of a larger audience where it can do more good/damage. In that case, damn the search engines, full speed syndication ahead. Sometimes you know what type of post publishers like to syndicate, and you can create those posts with a few well-placed links to your projects, client’s projects, or friend’s projects. In the end you’ll end up with a higher powered link in exchange for giving up ownership of the content in the eyes of a search engine. Working on an ORM project? Get a pieced picked up with the client name in the post, point a few targeted anchor text links, and viola! One more SERP position will be under your control.

So what are the takeaways from this post:

§  Never let anyone republish 100% of your content

§  Try to get a link back to your main site and individual post in every article

§  Give permission to syndicate only a snippet of the post

§  Sometimes getting visibility is more important than getting credit

§  Sometimes getting a link from a higher powered site is more important than getting credit

§  Syndicated content can be powerful tool for ORM projects

Source:http://tinyurl.com/5ulsgxd

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