SEO 101

Recently, a couple of clients received emails, seemingly from Google, saying that their billing info needed to be updated. This kind of email is called “phishing” because the perpetrator is phishing for your personal/financial information. This email is currently targeting clients that have campaigns with Google AdWords, but whether you have an AdWords account or not any emails asking you for sensitive information should be suspect.

Here is an image of the email being sent out (although different variations could be circulating):

When using Firefox, if the link in the email is clicked, a message will pop up like the one below:

This warning came up in the Firefox browser, but these kinds of warnings might not popup every time. So if you have received an email like this or any other kind asking for you to follow a link and enter in personal and/or financial information DO NOT click on the link. Instead, open up a new browser window and type in the URL that you usually use to login. If you suspect that you have received an email scam please notify the company that your account is with as well as the Federal Trade Commission. However, if you recently recieved a similair email and filled out credit card information, call your credit card company immediately and make sure that you have not been victimized by this scam.

If you would like more information about “Phishing” or how to report a scam, the following link will take you to the government site dedicated to online fraud:

http://www.onguardonline.gov/phishing.html

Recently, a couple of clients received emails, seemingly from Google, saying that their billing info needed to be updated. This kind of email is called “phishing” because the perpetrator is phishing for your personal/financial information. This email is currently targeting clients that have campaigns with Google AdWords, but whether you have an AdWords account or not any emails asking you for sensitive information should be suspect.

Here is an image of the email being sent out (although different variations could be circulating):

When using Firefox, if the link in the email is clicked, a message will pop up like the one below:

This warning came up in the Firefox browser, but these kinds of warnings might not popup every time. So if you have received an email like this or any other kind asking for you to follow a link and enter in personal and/or financial information DO NOT click on the link. Instead, open up a new browser window and type in the URL that you usually use to login. If you suspect that you have received an email scam please notify the company that your account is with as well as the Federal Trade Commission. However, if you recently recieved a similair email and filled out credit card information, call your credit card company immediately and make sure that you have not been victimized by this scam.

If you would like more information about “Phishing” or how to report a scam, the following link will take you to the government site dedicated to online fraud:

http://www.onguardonline.gov/phishing.html

As soon as I finished optimizing my client’s web site, I was excited and nervous to test my optimizing skills with Google’s Content Analysis. As I click on the Content Analysis button, the program didn’t find any duplicate tags, too long of title tags, too short of title tags, etc.

To check for any content issues with your site (title problems, meta description problems, non-indexable content), login to Webmaster Tools and upload an xml sitemap file so that the tool can spider through the site and make sure to verify the site. After all is uploaded and verified, click onto your site in the dashboard. When you do, you’ll see an overview of your site. Click on the Diagnostics tab on the left hand navigation, and then click on Content Analysis. It should tell you whether it detected any issues with your site or not. It didn’t detect any content issues with my site. =)

I get the feeling that Content Analysis is a tool to detect those who take it to the extreme and make extra long titles and extra long descriptions. An example of this would be:

<title>Skilled California Criminal Defense Attorney | Los Angeles Lawyer Specializing in Felony and Misdemeanor | Abogado, Criminalista, Defensa Criminal – XXXXXXXX X. XXXXXXXXX, Esquire.</title>

The title above is too long like a run-on sentence.

<meta name=“description” content=“Click here to view our site />

The meta description above is too short and doesn’t tell the spiders or viewer anything.

As long as you make your meta tags and title tags descriptive enough but concise, you are on the right track. Also, if you need examples of good title tags and meta tags, visit some of my client’s website. One is a personal injury lawyer in West Palm Beach and another is a Houston accident injury lawyer so even if your site isn’t law-related, you’ll get the gist of what Google’s Content Analysis is looking for. Good luck!

If you’ve ever had to use the reinclusion request for Google ( hopefully you haven’t) to remove a ban or a penalty on your site , you’ve probably hesitated a great deal before actually doing it. This was because the request had you pretty much acknowledge that you had violated Google’s rules in some way, which meant that you used spamming  or some other Black hat tactic to get rankings for your site.

This  upset  optimizers/ webmasters who had done nothing of the sort but had seen their site lose rankings on Google due to an accidental penalty on their site from Gogle’s end. However in order to get their site back on the listings they had no option but to  to admit to  violating  Google’s guidelines and submit a reinclusion form.

In response to a number of complaints from webmasters, Google has now changed the format and tone of their request form. You no longer have to admit to any wrongdoing but only state that you are not violating and will not violate  the guidelines set by Google.

This is a welcome change for optimizers and webmasters. You can go into Google webmaster Tools and click on request Reconsideration and follow the steps provided.

If you’ve ever had to use the reinclusion request for Google ( hopefully you haven’t) to remove a ban or a penalty on your site , you’ve probably hesitated a great deal before actually doing it. This was because the request had you pretty much acknowledge that you had violated Google’s rules in some way, which meant that you used spamming  or some other Black hat tactic to get rankings for your site.

This  upset  optimizers/ webmasters who had done nothing of the sort but had seen their site lose rankings on Google due to an accidental penalty on their site from Gogle’s end. However in order to get their site back on the listings they had no option but to  to admit to  violating  Google’s guidelines and submit a reinclusion form.

In response to a number of complaints from webmasters, Google has now changed the format and tone of their request form. You no longer have to admit to any wrongdoing but only state that you are not violating and will not violate  the guidelines set by Google.

This is a welcome change for optimizers and webmasters. You can go into Google webmaster Tools and click on request Reconsideration and follow the steps provided.

I recently came across an article on the internet about an SEO software program called IBP 10. I couldn’t find much about it on the internet when searching in Google except for the pages written by the company. Their pages don’t really talk about what the program does specifically, other than that it helps you get your websites to the top 10 in the major search engines. This software claims to get you inbound links from important and relative sites. They claim:

“Fact: Only the right kind of links will help your search engine rankings. The wrong links can have a negative effect on your search engine positions. IBP helps you get the right links.”

They talk a lot about how important inbound links are to a website and that it is one of the most important aspects of SEO because, if there are a lot of links from relative sites to your site, then your site must be really important. Also, it is important to have your anchor text be keywords used in your site. This is all common SEO knowledge and I’m not quite sure how this software would help anyone that knows SEO. I’m also now sure how this software helps get you inbound links since this is what seems to be the most difficult part of SEO.

IBP claims it will help you optimize your pages and get great inbound links that search engines like. Below is a snippet from a page on optimization. “IBP offers many powerful tools that help you to get top 10 rankings on Google and other major search engines. For example:

1. IBP’s Keyword analysis researchIBP’s keyword tools help you to find the best keywords for search engine optimization and pay per click advertising quickly and easily. You’ll get high rankings, targeted visitors on search engines and you’ll pay as little as possible for your AdWords ads.
2. IBP’s Top 10 Web Page OptimizerIBP’s Top 10 Web Page Optimizer is the proven way to optimize your web pages for high rankings on Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN and other major search engines.
3. IBP’s additional search engine optimization toolsIBP includes many more tools that help you to optimize your web pages: a Website Optimization Editor, a HTML editor, a search engine spider simulator and much more. IBP makes it as easy as possible to get the highest possible search engine rankings.
4. Free Search Engine Optimization eBookIf you want to succeed with search engines then you must do the right things in the right order. The free search engine optimization ebook includes checklists and step-by-step instructions on how to get high rankings for your website.”

This software may be more useful to those who don’t know anything about SEO. If it would help optimizers who work in the field of SEO, then I’d like more indepth information on how this will help those who know a lot about SEO and what it actually does.

I recently started working on a struggling client. Their pages were not showing up in the PR bar. I looked at their optimization and noticed that several things were incorrect:

1. All their Title Tags were the same.

2. Most of the Description Tags were the same.

3. They didn’t have any ALT or Title Tags on their images.

4. Their Keyword Tags did not have all the keywords used in the content.

5. They didn’t have their keywords bolded or used as internal links within their site.

6. Their Disclaimer wasn’t optimized for each page.

Not only did I make these changes for the client, but I also did a couple new things that I haven’t tried before. I used the re=”no follow” tag in the privacy policy links on every page to help make the other links on the page carry more weight and I put the <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow” /> in the error page. I always put it in the privacy policy page, but I tried it in the error page as well since it doesn’t hold any important information for viewers and the browsers don’t need to cache it.

The client is a sophisticated Cosmetic Surgeon in Newport Beach, California. He serves the Newport Beach, Orange County, Irvine, and Huntington Beach areas. His breast surgery site has a lot of valuable information for women who are interested in breast augmentation and who are looking for an experienced breast surgeon. This site needs to be optimized so potential clients will be able to find him and his information. I believe these changes will increase his search engine results.

I recently started working on a struggling client. Their pages were not showing up in the PR bar. I looked at their optimization and noticed that several things were incorrect:

1. All their Title Tags were the same.

2. Most of the Description Tags were the same.

3. They didn’t have any ALT or Title Tags on their images.

4. Their Keyword Tags did not have all the keywords used in the content.

5. They didn’t have their keywords bolded or used as internal links within their site.

6. Their Disclaimer wasn’t optimized for each page.

Not only did I make these changes for the client, but I also did a couple new things that I haven’t tried before. I used the re=”no follow” tag in the privacy policy links on every page to help make the other links on the page carry more weight and I put the <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow” /> in the error page. I always put it in the privacy policy page, but I tried it in the error page as well since it doesn’t hold any important information for viewers and the browsers don’t need to cache it.

The client is a sophisticated Cosmetic Surgeon in Newport Beach, California. He serves the Newport Beach, Orange County, Irvine, and Huntington Beach areas. His breast surgery site has a lot of valuable information for women who are interested in breast augmentation and who are looking for an experienced breast surgeon. This site needs to be optimized so potential clients will be able to find him and his information. I believe these changes will increase his search engine results.