By Brenda Ross

Search Engine Optimizer

The newest Google slayer in Search Engine Land is called Cuil (pronounced Cool). Cuil boasts that it is the World’s Biggest Search Engine because it “has indexed 120 billion Web pages - three times more than any other search engine.” So one would think that means better search results than Google - right? Well, it all depends on how you define better.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft together control 90% of the U.S. search market and they don’t reveal the size of their indexes. Even though Cuil’s co-founder and president Anna Patterson once worked for Google, she still can’t confirm the size of Google’s indexing. But if Cuil’s numbers are correct, users should expect comparable - if not better - search results, right?

Based on the online chatter following Cuil’s July 28th unveiling, online users appear to be underwhelmed. Cuil promised users a “richer” display of results and organizing features that include tabs for subject clarification, images, and search refining suggestions. But while Cuil undeniably delivers on the pizzaz - the substance of the searches is another thing. And so far the internet hordes seem somewhat underwhelmed.

I  have tried this search disaster and determined that they have one thing in mind. Building it to sell. It has no accurate results that compare to google, Live, Yahoo.
Cuilsuxs
http://blogs.wsj.com

I thought the layout for cuil.com was innovative. The search results, however, were inferior enough in my 10 minutes of play with it that I’ll have to be somehow convinced to ever return again.
Co-founder David Gardner
http://www.fool.com

Cuil blows. No. It blows chunks. It sucks rocks. You get the picture. I entered 10 searches that work on Google. All 10 of them barfed up piles of poop of  absolutely no interest or relevance. Then I redid them in Yahoo. Yahoo didn’t find things if you had a misspelled word. Google showed you an option. Cuil didn’t find them when spelled correctly. I can’t imagine what these people were thinking when they thought it was time to “go live”.
John Toradze
Newsvine

Cuil is one of the biggest Internet hoaxes. The search results are terrible. The images displayed with the search results are often completely irrelevant. It is the worst performing search engine I’ve ever used.
fletc3her
Newsvine

On the positive side, based on sheer beauty, Cuil is pretty cool. Love the black background and I like the way the results are displayed. Pretty - but dumb sometimes.

When I “Cuiled” the words “United States of America” my query returned this message: “No results were found for united states of america.” But when I entered USA, Cuil returned “USA Today” (#1),  “USA.gov: The U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal”, “To Love and Die”, “USAJOBS - The Federal Government’s Official Jobs Site” as the top 4 results above the fold. Tabbed results included “USA Today”, “United States of America” (so it does exist), “USA Map” and more. Cuil has its work cut out for it.

The makers of Cuil claim it is an old Irish word for knowledge. Another definition uses cuil to describe different kinds of flies. But an online Irish language dictionary begs to differ. It defines cúil as “rear.” That ain’t cool.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Writer

The last couple of years have been an exciting time in the world of SEO. Many businesses are now starting to realize the importance of website optimization, and they are implementing basic SEO techniques on their website. I’m all for SEO increasing in popularity, but I’ve started to see an ugly side of it- websites that are over-optimized. Nothing sends chills down my spine like seeing a site that’s gone overboard with the SEO. We get it- you read a few posts about optimization and you thought you’d incorporate it into your site. That’s great, but you really chill out with the SEO. Here are some signs your website might be too optimized.

• Ridiculously Long Title Tags- Just because you can squeeze 65 characters into your title tags doesn’t mean you should. I know there are many SEOs who go on and on about the importance of taking advantage of this precious real estate. But a title tag that says “Flower Shop in Houston |Houston Flower Shop | Buying Flowers in Houston |Bridal flowers ” looks a little ridiculous. Stick with just one, maybe two, key phrases per title. Any more than that looks spammy, and it doesn’t enhance the usability of your site.
• Even Longer URLs- Hand in hand with long titles are even longer urls. If you think a long title looks like spam, a url with 20 keywords stuffed in it might as well be waving the red flag at the search engines to let them know they’re spammers. Yes, you want tocreate keyword rich, descriptive urls. But you can easily do this in fewer than 5 words. Personally, I prefer url extensions to have 3 to 5 words in them. Any more than that looks messy and unprofessional.
• Humans Can’t Understand Your Content- One of the most common misconceptions is that anyone can write SEO content. Sure, writing SEO copy isn’t rocket science, but you still have to be a talented writer. You have professional copywriters create your brochures, sales letters, and other marketing material; so, why not have a professional SEO writer handle your SEO content? I can’t tell you how nauseating it is to read poorly written, keyword stuffed content on these over-optimized sites. Here’s a tip- read your content aloud to hear how it sounds. If it doesn’t flow naturally, you need to ditch it. Don’t sacrifice quality content for SEO purposes.

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In today’s online marketplace, building trust with potential customers is a necessity. Consumers are already wary of getting scammed online, and anything on your website that gives them reason to distrust you will scare them away permanently. For this reason, it’s essential you take the steps necessary to earn your visitor’s trust. These guidelines will help you get on the right track to building a website that instills trust and authority.

1. Provide Information- Instead of filling your website with gimmicky copy, have a section that provides them with quality information about your products and other relevant information. Personally, I feel the best way to do this is to create an articles section for you website. This section can contain articles that give customers insight into your products, while establishing you as an authority for industry information. Avoid filling these articles with pitches for your company. Instead, present them in a straight forward, fact focused manner.
2. Be Easy to Contact- A sure fire sign that a website is run by an untrustworthy group is if it lacks contact information. Spammy websites rarely provide visitors with a way to get in contact with a human representative. Ease your visitor’s concerns by making it easy for them to get in touch with someone from your company. Human contact builds trust, and it can help create a loyal customer base.
3. Participate in Blogs and Forums- Creating a company blog, commenting on other blogs, guest blogging, and answering questions on forums will all build trust and your authority. You should make creating content for these sites a part of your daily regimen. This will position your brand as a leading authority in your industry, and potential customers will have an easier time trusting you.
4. Tell Visitors About Yourself- Having a simple “About Us” section on your website can do wonders for creating trust with your visitors. Just telling the visitors a little about yourself and the history of your company makes a personal connection with them, and it makes them more likely to be at ease when purchasing your products.
5. Use Testimonials- When visitors see testimonials from prior customers gushing over their experience with your company, they feel like they’ve found a trustworthy company. For this reason, you should acquire testimonials from some of your clients to display on your site. Displaying them prominently proves to any unsure visitor that your company is in fact everything you claim it is.

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Author: April Hall

Copywriter

Turn on the news, and you’ll soon learn that the American economy is struggling mightily. Home values are plummeting, unemployment is skyrocketing, energy prices are through the roof and the government is building a deficit faster than clocks can keep up with it. Is it any wonder that businesses are struggling to keep their profits up and are having to cut operating expenses in order to simply stay afloat? When the economy is in such bad shape, what’s an SEO marketing company to do in order to encourage their clients to keep ordering services and trusting their marketing firm to target new clients?

Short of begging clients to stay, there are many steps you SEO marketers can take to demonstrate their value to their account holders who may be wary of continuing to pay these types of advertising expenses. The most important thing you can do to reassure your clients is to provide on time, high quality customer service that they will not be able to find with a bargain basement SEO company. You want your clients to feel as if they may be paying more for your services, but it is well worth it for the quality of the investment return.

Other measures you can take to hold and grow your client base, even when the economy is faltering, include:

• Offering long-standing clients special package deals. Sometimes a business will need to sacrifice a few dollars along the way in order to increase their earnings later on. If you have some clients that have been loyal customers for quite some time, offering them a great deal or a special package may encourage them to tell other businesses about your SEO marketing services.
• Experimenting with new services. You may never have tried to offer your clients blogging services before; but many SEO marketers do offer this services. To keep your customers from looking elsewhere for more extensive marketing services, try to branch out and offer some innovating social media and social networking packages. It might take a bit of training for your employees, but learning new skills is never a waste of time.
• Increase your own advertising budget. Your businesses likely has the same temptation that your clients have: when times are tough, the first reflex is to cut down on operating expenses, which may mean reducing advertising. Resist the urge to drastically reduce your advertising! You have to keep your SEO marketing firm’s name out there in order to reach new clients and improve your brand. Instead of reducing advertising, search for innovative ways to more closely target potential customers.

As our country struggles together to dig our way out of this economic mess, let’s remember that the economy is always going to have ebbs and flows. Improving your business practices can help you create a strong, vibrant SEO firm that is able to withstand these times and come out even stronger when the economy eventually improves.

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Author: April Hall

Copywriter

The goal of every search engine marketing company is to attract new viewers to their clients’ websites. All sorts of SEO strategies are employed, from targeting popular keywords, to implementing long tail keywords, to using social media sites as a means of page promotion. There is so much opportunity to attract the millions of internet searchers everyday that most SEO companies view those potential viewers as the “holy grail” of internet marketing.

Now, it’s no secret that increasing your page views is quite an accomplishment. Every good SEO marketer will tell you that there is almost nothing more excited (during the workday, at least) than having a meeting with a client during which you can show them the latest Google Analytics Report that documents a sharp increase in page views. Seeing their face shine with the recognition of hundreds of new potential customers makes all the mundane keyword research and social media submissions somehow worthwhile, doesn’t it?

(By the way, if you are new to SEO and have not learned how to use Google Analytics Interface, take a look at the video below. Your search engine marketing will never be the same!)

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But what about the companies whose websites don’t have an over-abundance of new, unique page views; but who have a loyal client base of returning viewers? Is it worth neglecting the needs of these long-time visitors while we chase the dream of new ones? Are these two groups mutually exclusive? No! With a bit of creativity and a large measure of work, search engine marketing companies can cultivate relationships with new page viewers while rewarding loyal customers at the same time.

• Keep your content informative. Don’t just create website content that hits the right number, and the right type, of keywords; tell your readers something new and different about what your company is up to. Do you have a new product coming out? Incorporate that information into a new page–never forgetting to do a bit of keyword research beforehand.
• Update your content regularly. Not only will new SEO content help to drive up your site on the search engine results pages, but it will add some interesting information to viewers who regularly come to your website.
• Add a bit of humor and personal flavor, where appropriate. Who likes to read boring, dry page content day after day? A bit of humor added into an otherwise informative page helps to break up your content and make your company seem more personal. A company with a personality is always welcome, whether the readers is a longtime customer or is just browsing through the internet.

So, the next time you are adding some fresh page content to your clients’ sites, take a step back and look at it from the eyes of someone who visits the site frequently. Is it boring? Does it provide new information about the company’s products or services? Remember, you are writing page content not only to new readers, but to viewers who have been loyal page visitors for a while. Reward those longtime customers by providing something worthwhile for them to keep coming back to!

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Author: April Hall

SEO Copywriter

We all know the basic drill of writing a blog entry:

1. Brainstorm a clever, interesting topic
2. Write the entry, using appropriate link strategies and keyword usage
3. Choose your blog entry’s categories
   
4. Create a title that summarizes the entry, perhaps using some common industry keywords

Did you know that this basic blog writing formula could, in fact, be detrimental to the success of your business blog? Can you guess what is missing from this otherwise perfectly appropriate writing process? Keyword Research on your Blog Titles!

I’ve read (and written!) a lot of instructive pages about how to create interesting content that attracts readers through SEO strategies, and then holds them to the page using pertinent content. All of these suggestions are great; but unless your blog entries show up on search engine results pages, you may never find those new readers that are so important to your blog’s readership.

To increase the number of new readers who may stumble upon your blog entries, make sure to use the Google keyword research tool, or another similar tool, to discover how popular your title’s keywords are before you publish your entries. You will probably find that by simply “tweaking” the keywords that you choose for your blogs, you can capture much more “accidental” traffic that comes from making your way up the search engine results page.

Should you use this keyword research tool with every entry? Yes! Do I remember to use this tools every time I write an entry? Umm… No… It isn’t the end of the world to neglect this step, and sometimes your blog entry simply is too unique to have too many popular keywords associate with it. There are also times that the most appropriate keywords for your entry are ones that are too broad to be much help. For example, with this particular entry, I searched for keyword suggestions, and found that “keyword research” was the best choice; however, if I had gone with “keyword research tool”, I may have benefited from more targeted searches.

Driving up readership for your blog is really a matter of balancing SEO strategies with really great content. How have the rest of your found a way to address both of these goals?

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