Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Google’s New Algorithm

Posted by on Mar 1, 2011 in blog, Featured, Google | 1 comment

This week Google released their new Algorithm. It bascially checks the kind of content you have and decides if it’s legitimate or not. I could go into the really cool details of what it’s looking for but chances are if you actually into that kind of stuff, you wouldn’t be reading this blog. So what does the new algorithm do.

Basically it penalized all of those article sites that supposedly have great content and are certainly not overwhelmed with just keyword rich junk. This means, Hubpages, EzineArticles, AssociatedContent and other “content farms” got penalized. In fact, 10% of the search results are effected. Some say this was a direct attack on Yahoo.

There’s very little to be concerned with if you are putting out original content. Yes, you can still target keywords, but you can’t farm or aggregate content like you could.

Since I’m from the Real Estate world, here’s the interesting effect on the real estate industry.

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9 Free Keyword Suggestions Tools To Help You Nail Your Niche (Basic)

Posted by on Dec 6, 2010 in blog, Featured, Google, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Tools, Twitter, YouTube | 0 comments

As social media and search engine marketers we often take for granted the free tools that we have at our disposal to come up with excellent keywords.  You don’t have to be an SEO guru, because this information is free everyone (at least for the most part) and it’s simply takes time to use.  We’ll cover the 9 ways (in two posts one for basic and one for advanced) to find keywords to use for your product or service.  Whatever niche’ you pick, you should be passionate about it.  No keyword, SEO, backlinkingg, etc will help you dominate and make the living you want unless you are passionate.  The most powerful marketing is one where you are authentically coming from a place of value.

The fact is that hugely successful organizations think passion first, then profits.

  1. Crush It – Gary Vaynerchuk’s book called Crush It is required reading for any do-it-yourself marketer.  Sure, there are several other books out there and yes, his book has little to do with keywords.  However, his book does delve into how to find your niche and how to completely own it.  It’s part of the foundation of our consulting program (not his book but the same principals).  If you are a loss for where to start, this book should help you develop the mindset on owning your niche market.
  2. Google – You experienced folks may think I’m talking about the adwords keyword suggestion tool, and you’d be right (in one second).  I often discover keywords simply by searching.  The suggestions that google gives you are based on their searches so their pretty good.  In addition, you can see the results right way and see how competitive a keyword niche is, but that’s another video and another post.
  3. Google Adwords Suggestion Tool – This is the first real tool.  We’ve linked it here for you, but you simply put your keywords in there and out spits a bunch of suggestions.  Of course, google wants you to use this information to target people searching and you can do that for sure, but if you haven’t nailed down which niche’ you are targeting then this is just research.  A few things to notice are…
    • *  how one letter can effect results
    • *  the competition bar
    • * average cost per click (you have to click on the column to add that piece) – this can tell you not only how expensive it is to market but usually means that the consumers searching this word are more likely making a buying decision.
  4. Twitter – OK, I know what you might be thinking but the new twitter.com has a search bar. Type in you word and see what people are talking about.  This “tool” is more hit or miss but I’ve found some real gems and there’s an opportunity to be timely.  FREE IDEA: Take note of the tweeters about your niche and then message them about your post!
  5. Youtube Ad Keyword Suggestion Tool – Not too many people use this one but it’s every bit as relevant, especially if you are thinking of doing video marketing.  Consumers don’t vary too much from the words they search for.  If you consider for a moment that YouTube visitors want to be entertained or educated, this concept isn’t much different than what someone wants when they search on Google.  They just want information.  The tool works like a very primitive version of the google tool.  The columns are not sortable, but you still get some great data and suggestions.
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