I want to be a ranker! .1

@AnthonyJohns0n: A good place to start when looking at rankings is to audit your website. http://t.co/rRn0310H0b 

Small businesses online community.

Microsoft launches online forum for small businesses

Online community provides perfect place for small business owners to connect, collaborate and share best practice

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Small businesses are increasingly turning to online communities for advice. Photograph: Brian Jackson / Alamy/Alamy

It is becoming increasingly common for small businesses to collaborate online in order to succeed. Online communities, social channels, blog sites, how do you know which one is the right one?

Microsoft may have the perfect solution for you and other busy business owner with limited time or expense to spare.

Microsoft have connected with other small business influencers to create one place for small business owners to connect, share ideas, collaborate and get advice from people who have the experience and know-how. It is free to join and contribute and you are completely in control of how you get involved.

Whether you are looking for advice on winning new business, how to use a pivot in excel, advice on mobile marketing, support with technology, whatever the conversation, Microsoft is committed to getting you the answer and connecting you to the right people.

Join the forum today and check out the groups you can join to connect with likeminded people and access friendly, free advice. Why not introduce yourself and connect with your peers today? It could make a difference to your business. You can join the forum here.

Google Search Spammy Clean up! The pros and serious cons.

Google Search Spammy Clean up! The pros and serious cons.

So here is a take on why Google is clamping down on guest blogging and bad links. This morning I read a post on G+ that in my opinion completely clarifies my thoughts.

” I am not a social media professional but I know like a professional ;)
My Attitude :P    #socialmediaprofessionals ”  

 I have been in the Internet Marketing game since... oh, before you were, you get what I mean! But this post typifies what is wrong with the industry at the moment and thank goodness Google have decided to put a stop to it! 

There could be many reasons Google may have made the changes other than spammy posts and links from weird and wonderful blogs, made by an automated black hat software or third world link builder with no relevance what so ever, or the millions of blog links and forum posts with terrible spellings, awful grammar and well, unreadable content usually created from one article that has been spun 100 times! 

The change has its pros and cons, and the cons sure know how to milk a situation using scare mongering tactics. These unscrupulous so call internet marketing companies, that are selling fear and charging to remove or sell you a list of bad links usually created with a free back link checker, which usually turn out the be good links or links that are ok, like article and press release site that have just lost some juice from the changes.

But the Pros, will prosper in this I assure you, I mean if I was a conspiracy theorist I would say the government may have had a word, Many local SEO companies cannot compete with the price of third world SEO’s and have been put out of business in the US and UK.

Now ok you may be able to get a bargain, but from what I have seen over the past (many years), the third world SEO’s Speak English, but they do not understand it, so when they get their hands on your site you could be in real trouble. 

They can also get away with telling a few porkies to, like yes sir they will be relevant and from your country then you get the weird and wonderful list of everything but relevant and local! Then they could tell you they didn’t understand, they don’t speak very good English!(Client Quote).

 I’m not saying there are no good SEO’s in the third world; I’m just saying is it worth taking a gamble on getting a bad one. They are on the end of a phone thousands of miles away, they put the phone down, what can you do? I can categorically say that in the long run you will lose money or maybe even your site using these companies.

I think Google are trying to get back some standards to their search results, they did it once before way back I think that update was called Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) when directories dominated the top ten of search and the click through rate to get what you wanted was horrendous, so on that occasion it worked very well. We should have faith.

Anthony Johnson

Internet Marketing Cosultant

Startups funding.

@AnthonyJohns0n: #startups If you need funding to test and develop your business idea, you may be able to get help from a government-backed support scheme. Www.search-find.co.uk

Business Startups advice: Use Google Business,get top of search for free.

Business StartUps free advice. 

When opening a new business, make sure to get your Google+ Business page set up for your opening!

How?

The best way is to initiate the process of getting listed with the Google+ business Local Page 2-3 weeks before the your launch, work to get the page as complete and as quickly as possible. That way the timing of the approval process and listing happens to coincide with the doors of the shop opening to customers or your websites launch.

Some  statistics:

• 43% of all Google searches are local or location based
• Over 50% of mobile searches are local or location based

local or location based searches are searches whereby either you entered the location directly into the search parameters (search for "pilates in Coventry") or you were in a location and Google returned search results based on your GPS coordinates (you were in the City of Coventry, Midlands and ran a search for "pilates").

When does your location matter?

Any time a person is trying to find a product or service close to where they are or based on its proximity to a location. For example, an Italian restaurant in a certain town, a hair salon in their neighbourhood, the nearest locksmith, a plumber that services their area...

For location-relevant businesses these types of searches are the most important queries that you can hope to win. These queries aren't you trying to beat out your nationwide or global position for search engine rankings, but are instead highly local-based and often immediate in their conversion from a query to a phone call or physical customer at your location. 

In some industries (such as restaurants) this conversion percentage has been found (for smartphone users) to equal 30% immediate conversions and 60% conversions within an hour, and 80% go on to eventually make a conversion.

30% conversions immediately and 60% conversions within an hour.

These aren't window shoppers, these are people that are immediately converting to become customers of yours.

And guess what they're using to conduct these local searches? Google Map on iOS (Apple) or Google via their Android phone.

And guess where the top results are being pulled from? Your Google+ Local Page information.

The Key Factors to work on are:

Increase the number of people that have you in their circles.

Increase the number of re-shares and +1’s of your Google+ content (content you share).

Increase the number of mentions of your Profile/Page in Google+.

Increase external activity, measured through the amount of +1’s of your site’s content

Link up your profiles to take advantage of Author Rank

Create lots of quality content

Google Places is now Google+ Local

This part may be confusing, but Google used to have a service which is still operational called Google Places. You might have created your business listing in this service, it still exists, you can still edit your existing listings, and in fact you can create new listings. 

But it looks like this is being phased out and merged with Google+ functionality in the form of Google+ Business.

This is not Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is not search engine optimisation. This is not part of your website, nor does it comprise of making the content in your website more accessible or optimised for search engines to spider. This is entirely about giving Google the best information possible about your business in their "yellow pages" directory, keeping the profile updated and active, and enabling Google to match queries with the best results. And when the query is a local or location-based search, Google will use this information before using standard search engine results (which is where your SEO might be a factor).

www.search-find.co.uk

Anthony Johnson

David Kutcher

Matt Cutts on Social Signals and Website ranking.

Matts Cutts says twitter & Facebook signals like how many followers or likes your profile has will have no effect on website rank, so my advice is, don't use Twitter or Facebook  to post links, use it to engage with your audience. Hear what Matt has to say about it in his video bellow.



Anthony Johnson (CIM)

23/01/2014

Guest bloging dead according to Matt Cutts

Google's Matt Cutts made it clear recently that guest blogging for 2014  is dead. If your planning on using guest blogs and posts to increase your back links, you need to seriously reconsider your strategy.

"Offering money to get links that pass Page Rank. That’s a clear violation of Google’s quality guidelines.

Google are looking for original trends, these are formed authentically. There are many other ways you gain good ranking and engage with your audience within a SEO Strategy. Visit me @anthonyjohns0n for free advice via Twitter.

Anthony Johnson

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