SEO: Good vs Bad

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is a popular form of search engine marketing. Its main objective is to improve site ranking in various search engines. Almost everything on the Internet has grown around the idea of ​​search engine optimization. However, it is important to note that there are two distinct methodologies at work when it comes to optimization.

According to many SEO consultants, its methods can be subdivided into two different groups. The categories are best known as “white hat SEO” (which aims to improve the overall quality of web sites, and increase site ranking through approved methods), or “black hat SEO” (often uses methods like cloaking, spamdexing to move up).

Those in the field of white hat accuse those who use black hat methods of not only giving a bad name to the art of SEO, but also of trying to manipulate and undermine the ranking of search engines. The black hatters defend themselves by saying that all SEO really ends up being an attempt to manipulate the rankings, so the individual methods used to increase rankings is irrelevant.

So what are the methods used by both the sides?

White Hat Methods:

These methods involve taking into account the typical guidelines that search engine representatives like Google’s Matt Cutts have published, as to what is and what is not acceptable. Experts of White Hat SEO usually advise to create more user-friendly content, and focus less on the search engines.

The white hatter often needs to pay more attention, because if you have made critical errors in either the design or development of your web pages, not paying enough attention can “poison” your site or blog, which will reflect negatively in search engines. Here are some examples of White Hat SEO tactics, which are acceptable in search engines:

• Optimize tags, titles and other parts of the source code.

• Use Word Tracker or a similar database to find popular keywords and phrases.

• Monitoring of various search engines to ensure that URL is indexed.

• Increase the amount of exclusive content on the site.

• Writing quality content for site visitors instead of search engines

Black Hat Methods:

“Black Hat SEO” methods are used to improve the ranking by any means necessary. The search engines, not only because of its deceptive nature, frown upon most of these methods but their ability to provide quality content to site visitors also gets hindered. Search engines often penalize sites that use black hat methods when discovered, to reduce or eliminate these sites ranking on search results pages. Search engine algorithms usually apply these penalties automatically, because the Internet is too large to do it manually.

Therefore, you have to take into account the enormous risk taken by those using unethical SEO practices. A common black hat method is known as Spamdexing.(Spamming + indexing). Spamdexing is one of the multiple methods used to manipulate the importance of resources indexed by internet search engines.

Some of the techniques that Google and other search engines use to measure the relevance of a page include determining the keywords that exist on this web page. These search engines analyze words that are either on the website or words on external or internal links pointing to that website. The creators of web pages can deliberately and abusively, include dozens or hundreds of “keywords”, only to position it better in search results. This is basically what spamdexing is. Another example of spamdexing is link farms.

A link farm (link farm) is a set of websites that are linked to each other in order to improve its ranking in search engines.With the creation of these farms pursued artificially the web page rankings get inflated as a result. Unfortunately, it is often confused with white hat optimization techniques that do not involve deception.Spamming keywords include links to web sites, blogs and forums with the intention of publicizing a website more than it deserves, which is unsatisfactory for those searches.

Conclusion

An easy way to distinguish between Good and Bad Seo is the amount of time necessary to achieve the desired results.If you do not know the right techniques and tools, White Hat SEO uses methods that produce results slowly over time and only after a good deal of effort has been put into the site. Black Hat SEO offers quick and easy results, but accomplished through deceptive practices. This will often lead to penalty.

If you are looking for an ethical SEO company that will take great care of your website and achieve great results, the right way, then contact Boost One Seo today.

5 SEO TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The advent of the web has not only helped to corporate globalization, it has also opened the doors to small businesses in different areas to compete legitimately with the largest companies in its field. Indeed, a good SEO optimization for small business can propel it to the top in the organic search results of Google, at least locally.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” is the set of techniques used to optimize and promote a website in order to increase the targeted traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. These three major search engines drain alone over 90% of Internet traffic. If they cannot find your website, you miss the opportunity to reach a wider audience and get more targeted visitors. White Hat SEO can be complex, requires a thorough understanding of search engine algorithms, and updates such as Google Panda and Google Penguin, you can still get a good position in a few simple SEO tips.

5 SEO Tips

If you want to increase your traffic and make your small business a success, follow these five SEO tips.

1. Choose the right keywords

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important SEO tips. If you do not choose your keywords wisely based on what your target search is, all your efforts will go to waste. What words or phrases do your potential customers use when searching for your products or services? What problems can your product or service solve? Make a list of these terms and use keyword tools such as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to determine the keywords for which you have the greatest chance to achieve the best positioning.

2. Create unique and relevant content

Content is King! This well-known saying of SEO professionals has never been truer. Offer valuable and unique content to your readers. Include your keywords in your content in low density. More than two keywords in a paragraph of 100 words make your readers confused and create over-optimized content, which can lead search engines to penalize your site. If you are lacking inspiration, content creation is a great way to attract traffic as quality content on the required subject helps in maintaining the interest of the readers. You must also never forget to cite your sources!

3. Provide a simple and clear navigation

Structure and simple navigation on your site will help search engine spiders index your pages faster to promote a good ranking. The best way to create a clean and simple structure for the website for your small business is to use a user-friendly CMS for both your visitors and the search engines such as WordPress. Most web-hosting providers allow you to install WordPress with a few clicks on your server.

4. Optimize your titles and texts

The titles of your pages are very important for the SEO of your site, because they provide search engines with accurate information on the subject. Be sure to include your main keywords in the titles of your pages. Your main keywords are the ones to which you want to get the best positioning. Use <h1>, <h2><h3> for your subtitles and bring up your keywords in bold. These techniques are intended to highlight your keywords so that search engines accurately identify the topic of your content and rank it at the highest level.

5. Share your content on social networks

Social networks can generate heavy traffic to your website. It is not necessary to create a profile on all existing social networks, focus on the popular and most useful points for your company on mediums such as the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest, especially if you have beautiful photos to share. Share your content on your profile and encourage your visitors to engage and share your content by inserting social media buttons on your pages.

Conclusion

The world of SEO is sometimes like a jungle in constant motion. The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert to climb to the top of the results on Google, Yahoo, or Bing! SEO is all about common sense and perseverance. You can begin by applying these five simple and effective SEO tips. Improve your online visibility, increase your conversion rate and get your piece of the internet pie!

HOW TO CREATE A GREAT DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Set Goals and Objectives

As in any other form of media, working with a clear and specific methodology is essential especially, when planning a campaign at the digital level. The first step is to set goals and conduct research aimed at understanding the competition, industry and consumer trends. While conducting this research, you should define your objectives and collect information about the client/brand, target audience and the related market.

To follow through with any campaign, you need to answer two questions:

1) What is the goal?

and

2) What is the desired action? Do you want to increase sales, launch a new product, need feedback from your customers or want to generate some rewards for their loyalty?

Team Work

You must develop a global benchmark category and identify opportunities in new digital media formats, and new social trends, relating to new consumer channels. For this first step, it is essential to have a multi-talented team to investigate these opportunities from the perspective of your consumer and two-way communication.

A Strategy

The next step is to propose a strategy and plan where you want to go with your digital marketing campaign.After analyzing the information obtained in the research process, you are in a deductive process. It must define the path to the solution, developing an action plan that defines the elements of digital communication. This strategy should contain elements of Seo, Advertising, PPC, and Social Media aiming at a comprehensive online strategy.

From planning to development, it’s important to define the creative concept. It is crucial that creativity reflects alignment of the various elements.

The Campaign

Once the strategy and creativity is defined, you are in the production process of campaign development, which is the process of producing various pieces that make up the creative strategy. To achieve a good final product, it is essential to have an integrated team capable of graphic design, multimedia and programming to manage the relationship with the client. Importantly, unlike an offline campaign, the production process in the online world has stages of animation and programming while providing an innovative experience to the consumers.

After launching the campaign, it is crucial to track analytics. At this point, the digital domain that has been setup will allow monitoring in real time which will allow you to instantly correct any deviation or weak point. Tracking tools like Google Analytics collect and analyze results so that you can constantly improve your campaign.

Visibility

Visibility is critical in any campaign. A lesson you must learn is that no matter how good your products/services are, if a good analysis and advertising campaign is not made, you will potentially lose a massive quantity of buyers and/or visitors and your sales will never achieve the targets you set. Visibility can come from many sources such as advertising, natural search, social media, content marketing, e-mail marketing and many more venues. Having an idea of what services to use to present your product is crucial for the campaign.

Measuring Results

When measuring the success or failure of a digital campaign, it is essential to understand what you are measuring. Many feel that having a million hits is a success. It is a success, if the goal is purely branding and distribution, for example, launching a new product.

However, it is important to measure the investment versus the results, the final ROI. If you have a campaign that aims to promote direct sales via online medium, you should measure the sales generated, not the number of unique hits that are obtained. An online campaign must raise measurable objectives.

What are the main elements that influence the effectiveness of an online campaign?Multiple factors influence the effectiveness of a digital campaign. Among them, the most important are:

• The quality of the creative banner design
• The number of times the campaign is seen
• The context of site where the banner is located

Several studies indicate that firm’s brand recognition grows when it’s shown more than 10 times to the same person. This is important especially for new brands in the market. It is also important that campaigns have the company logo on the banner being displayed.

The last recommendation is to quantify the success of your campaign. Presently, there are many methods that allow us to measure results, and the most common is to use tracking codes like Google Analytics or Histats. No matter how great your campaign is, it is always a good practice to measure the traffic, the achievement of objectives such as sales, number of visits, conversion rate, most successful keywords, sites linking to yours, etc. One of the tools that we recommend using is Google Analytics, because it is the most famous and complete tool. In addition, Google Analytics is useful for all types of projects from marketing campaigns, mobile apps, Webapps, to monitoring games and other things.

For more information and assistance, feel free to fill our free marketing analysis form and have our experts put together your winning strategy.