Is SEO Going to be Costlier in Coming Years?

 

Search engine dramas have left us with lots of "Ifs and Buts". Caffeine update followed by algorithm change is only to start with.  A lot more is still waiting for webmasters and eventually the website owners to discover.

It is time to think ahead of time. What is there in store for this SEO as a blooming service industry?

Quick questions that came to my mind:

I was just wondering whether SEO industry would retain its position and importance in coming days, or will people take it for granted?  With "N" number of SEO professionals (majority from Asian countries) available at cheaper cost, will the industry loose its value and craze?  It seems anyone with the slightest bit of SEO knowledge can give you decent results.

Has it become the playground of unscrupulous freelancers and spammers forcing Google to come up with updates one after another?

What does the situation indicate?

Will SEO be the cheapest service in coming days? Does investing in it become a kid's game?

Or,

SEO is going to be costlier with days.  Where is the tomorrow's catch line?

What is the future of SEO, as it seems today?  We need to consider it from both SEO professionals and business owner's point of view.

1. Think from SEO professional's point of view:

• Will corporate ever treat SEO as an established technology field?  Is it going to be a serious affair?
• Will online giants recognize and include SEO job as a full-fledged operation? Will they allocate a separate budget for like other advertisement expense?
• Should cheap and low quality SEO-service providers reign in the market and neutralize the over-all good effect?

Finally, will the professionals perish for their pay packages?  Since, number of providers (do not ask me about their honesty) are rising, there is a chance, website owners will say "Yes" to cheap proposals.

The bottom line is – how safe a good and ethical SEO consultant's standpoint is in terms of job satisfaction and value.

Lesson:

Do not get pessimistic! Google is watching everything.  No search engine will allow people to garbage web and show them to public. After all, all are here to do business and at some point, we have to be ethical to our customers.

2. Think from Business point of view:

For them, the days are yet to be tougher. If you are already tempted with unsolicited mails, cold calls and willing to go for their low cost SEO options, here are few simple questions for you:

• Are you still expecting someone to arrange pool of in-bound links for your site to rank good?
• Do you still believe that paid inclusions, traditional link building activities (though quick and easy options) will survive gracefully (say for another 5 years), so you can rest in peace?
• What is the viability of SEO techniques that your business is following currently?
• Is this going to be so affordable that any one can do away with SEO for his website and the results will simply follow thereafter?
• Do you move on gut feelings?

Lesson:

Businesses who think, SEO has almost become a layman's job and who better than Asians can do it in bulk, will regret very soon.  Cheap SEO services are not going to stay long.  Moreover, this will not add any value to your website ranking or traffic generation. Forget about conversions or building long-term reputation.

You may ask why? Is there any definite reasons or, the judgement is on speculation basis?

Here are the possible citations:

• Stereo type job like – traditional link building, directory submission, article syndication and other automated link generation processes are loosing importance to search engines
• Content farms are no more going to boost you PR value or brings you huge traffic
• Nothing artificial and duplicity in terms of information will get value from users
• Customer and viewer ratings will be prioritized, so your site to get on to top SERPs
• Keyword competition, PR allocation, traffic visits are going to be stringent

Forecasting solution:

• Real marketing knowledge need to be applied along with SEO expertise.
• Off-line marketing concepts should be integrated with latest SEO knowledge. Managing and tracking consumer behaviour will gain importance.
• Local SEO service will earn more credit and demands, which need comprehensive knowledge on local market situation.

Conclusion:

The final effect would be much like this:

• Cheap SEO service consultants will perish a lot. In fact, bringing perfection to this competition level will not be possible for them. They cannot afford high-end technical and marketing solutions at lower costs.
• SEO as an industry is going to earn a distinguished place in IT service domain. It will earn much recognition and respect.
• Skilled and talented SEO professionals will have more power and market demand. Their job is secure, but challenging.
• Number of service providers will reduce as search engines are getting stricter. Because, quality comes with price
• Big time players having good infrastructure, resources, advanced technical support will survive. Cheap providers will fade away gradually.

As it seems, future of SEO was never predictable and will not be ever. However, with all these fine tunings, we can hope – SEO will upscale its grade very soon. Are you ready for it?

View full post on Search Engine Journal

Microsoft Adding NFC Support to Windows Phone 7

 

Microsoft is adding support for NFC (near field communication) to its Windows Phone mobile operating system, according to a report citing unnamed sources over on Bloomberg Businessweek. NFC technology, which allows for short range wireless communication between two devices for the purpose of data exchange, is a key component to the upcoming mobile payment and mobile wallet systems now reportedly under development at Google, RIM and Apple as well as the new carrier-led initiative Isis, a coalition of three of the four major cellular providers here in the U.S.

Support for NFC technology in Windows Phone 7 will be released via an update to Microsoft's mobile operating system, sources told Bloomberg reporters. Those updates may arrive sometime this year.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

Amazon Preempts Google Music With Cloud Player Streaming For Android

 

It would appear that Amazon is becoming Google's best frenemy. The company launched its well designed Android app store last week and yesterday surprised a lot of people by introducing Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.

No, it apparently doesn't work on Apple devices.

 

Beating Google Music to market it offers music storage and streaming via PC and Android devices. There's 5 GB of free storage (more if you buy music from Amazon) and inexpensive storage plans beyond that, starting at $20. As with iTunes users can upload and store their music collection. It also allows hosting of documents, photos and video.

 

Cnet reported last week that Google was finally internally testing its very long-awaited music service. The launch has apparently been delayed as Google negotiates rights issues with music labels. There's speculation that at Google's forthcoming developer conference, in May, Google will finally introduce its music service.

 

A year ago it briefly previewed streaming music for Android in an on-stage demo that was so low-key and went by so fast that it went unnoticed by many people.

 

Music has been something of an Achilles Heel for Android devices vs. the iPhone. So Amazon's Cloud Player and storage service — and presumably Google Music when it launches — will level the playing field. However Apple is thought to be working on iTunes streaming, following its purchase of LaLa in late 2009.

 

Officially Google will welcome any service that makes Android a more competitive and useful platform. However Amazon has effectively preempted Google Music with the launch of Cloud Player. As a consequence Google Music will need to be better or more usable in some way (more free storage would be one way) to get the same attention it would have in the absence of Amazon's launch.

 

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

10 Tips to Improve Your SEO Using Twitter

 

Google and Bing are constantly working on integrating the social and search results. Social media becoming the voice of the people cannot be ignored or neglected.

Twitter is  the most popular micro blogging platform as of today .Twitter is a large network and  has the potential to supplement your SEO activities .  If the tweets from your account are focused and topical then it surely helps you to establish your online reputation and build a brand online. But, on the contrary, vague tweets do not have any SEO benefit and it is just a sheer waste of time and energy.

Below are some tips that you may consider while tweeting which will help in your SEO campaign.

1. Brand Name

Your brand name or username should reflect your site name or offered services as this is what will be mentioned and displayed as your network, re-tweeted your posts. The more re-tweets your post's get, the higher its significance.

2. Profile / Bio

As a point of reference, put your website link on your profile page. The bio content is the information part of your Twitter. Maximize it and make it relevant to your website, and the link that you display on your twitter profile, point it to a relevant page that will help with your conversions, rather than just pointing it back to your websites home page.

3. Links

Since Google is now displaying  tweets in SERPs, despite nofollow, putting your links on your posts will aid your link building activities or has the potential of giving a wider web presence. Also, accompany your links with effective keywords. You can post your links several times or in interval in order to maximize possible keywords and contents, and exposure.

4. Hash Tags

Hash Tags is a Twitter feature that works like a Meta data for your tweets. These are posts with "#" symbol like "#web" and "#development". Hash Tags help organize tweets and determine the trending information in Twitter.

5. Mentions

If you to mention users in Twitter you need to put a "@" symbol before their usernames. It is like a retweet effect and the more your account is retweeted, the higher your relevance. It is like voting policy. Hence, whenever you tweet, or Re-Tweet other users ensure to use the @symbol before their username.

6. Be a Help to Others

Re-tweeting, other relevant posts especially those that are of the same niche with yours will help you build your brand and promote your services. Posting everything coming from your site may somehow looks like a spam. Also, as you retweet, you have been a help to others too, by giving your followers a good choice of links to view.

7. Tweet Interval

Do not post bulk of tweets at once as this will annoy your followers, clogging up their stream, but instead spread your tweets out over the day with a decent interval, I would suggest of about an hour or two interval is good.

8. Blog Site

Promoting a blog site like your corporate one is a good option too. Blog sites can provide more information to your visitors and is the best place to interact with them, help them, know their thoughts, allow them to share your articles and contribute contents via comments, and also giving them the option to Re-Tweet your articles.

9. Twitter Button

Twitter button is now a requirement to many websites. It is a great aid to share pages easier.

10. Build your online brand

An effective Twitter account does not just help in your SEO, but will build your online brand, and increase visibility of your company and brand, by building new connections.

Last but not the least, determine a purpose for your Twitter presence. Do you want to focus on customer support or share information about your products and services or would you like to engage with your potential customers or would just like to converse with people from your own industry, etc. Only when you have a purpose you will get a direction and only then it is possible to monitor and measure the success, else it becomes a vehicle without a driver and no destination.

Optimizing your twitter account is optimizing your search engine visibility too. By managing it well, you will have a higher chance to create a bigger network, connect more to people and gain the exposure you need.

View full post on Search Engine Journal

SEO And Recent Google Algorithm Changes: What Now? – 4press

 

So, what steps to take in order to save your biz after the drastic change in Google algorithm that kicked in Feb., 2011? These changes have affected different sites differently – some have jumped to the top, others – plummeted to the bottom of the Web sea. If you are one of those SEOs whose resource has been hit hard, the last thing you should be doing right now is complaining or resenting.

Instead, take a close look at the changes as they have affected your competition. Take notes and prepare an action plan. One thing I see across niches is that Web 1 domains got a great boost from this change and Web 2 (e.g. Ezinearticles.com) have been slapped hard. But it is only a general tendency and there are exceptions. These exceptions deserve a very close look.

Let me give you a deeper insight into the whole thing. But first, the general tendency should not be taken lightly. If you do not have your own domain but instead, relied on Web 2 properties, then it is now time to diversify into Web 1. Ok.

On-Site Variables

Why have many Ezine Articles lost top rankings? The new changes, also referred to as "Panda update", have particularly targeted shallow content sites. This update uses more sophisticated on-site factors that allow it to sort good "intense" quality content from superficial, off-hand posts. You can easily guess what indicators I am talking about.

Take a look at About.com posts – this Web 2 has gained in rankings after the change. Such factors as the length of the post, use of paragraphs and lists, images, etc. are all weighing in now. How many times has the post been re-tweeted and "liked" on Facebook are of paramount importance today. Are there any comments, trackbacks, etc.? What sites are linked to in the post and how are anchors used? Just take a close look and you will see what "new good" content has that "new bad" content doesn't. It is not rocket science at all!

After applying this "Panda thing" to each and every post on, say, Ezinearticles.com, the Google algo then took a notice of how many "bad" articles are hosted on this domain (they have also probably used a list of topics or "bad" keywords that helped them quickly determine that the site is a "spam dump"). As you might guess, it turned out too many and the whole domain got slapped!

So, if you post a press release from now on, you should make sure you create a "good" post pushing the right buttons and hosting it on the right Web 2. Got it? Keep an eye on my next posts. I will show in more detail how to choose the Web 2 domains that are still in Google's good graces.

Off-Site Variables

Now, let's talk about the off-site factors – the backlinks. It is not the quantity but the quality that matters. I have seen sites ranking on top from just one single anchor. The point is this. If you drop a link on Ezinearticles.com now, you won't get much "juice" from it because, as I said above, the whole domain was slapped by "Panda". The same will apply to any blog site which produces lots of "bad" posts. Its weight has been devalued and you won't get far by placing a link there. And the bad news is that Page Rank is not a good indicator of the "quality" of the site.

The best advice here is to take a close look at your competition. If they were unscathed by the recent changes, take a look at their backlinks. What sites are they coming from? In what particular form (a blog post, a directory listing, etc.)? How do they use the anchor text? What else are they doing that might be giving them an advantage (e.g. periodic updates, blog posts, etc.). As a general rule, your backlinks must be well diversified so build a list of the strategies your most successful competing sites are using and start implementing them.

In a nutshell, plan carefully WHERE you will be dropping your link and HOW you will be dropping it. Test different strategies at the keyword level to see what works best.

View full post on SEO – Google News

FlipBoard versus Zipe: Two FREE iPad Apps to Read Social Updates the Magazine-Style

 

One of the best ways to take advantage of my husband's iPad has been using it to keep track of social media updates. I don't always have time for that while I am working, so reading what my friends share using iPad while on the go has been a great way-out for me.

The two interesting applications I've been successfully using are FlipBoard and Zipe. They both create the magazine out of your social updates and offer you a neat way to go through them.

FlipBoard

FlipBoard is a popular free application that can create a beautiful magazine out of one's social media updates (Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader). It aggregates the linked page summary, grabs its images and other media and compiles a magazine-like overview of your friends' social updates. It captures both tweeted links and raw "unlinked" updates.

Zite

Zite is a newcomer. It is also sometimes criticized for bad performance but it's a normal thing with newly emerged tools and apps.

The most interesting part about the app (and also what it is being distinguished from a more established competitor) is that Zite is advertised to "personalize" your news. It will be tracking the news you are reading and liking and offer you more "of the kind": the sources you prefer, whether you like longer articles or shorter ones, or whether you prefer news or opinion content. You can help the app by thumbing article up or down inside the app (as well as share them on Twitter, Facebook or sharing via email).

To Sum up…

	FlipBoard	Zite
Sources	Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, Flickr, Instagram	Twitter and Google Reader
Story ranking	None	Ranks updates based on your preferences and browsing behavior

In closing, both the apps do look and feel appealing. They both give your social media updates the "second life" and let you get better involved into your social media friends' activities. However the two apps are hardlycompetitors.

Zite and Flipboard can not be actually compared. They can only be used for different purposes. Zite is best fordiscovery whereas Flipboard is best for keeping up with your social media contacts' news. I am currently using both and don't see myself switching to one!

View full post on Search Engine Journal

FlipBoard versus Zipe: Two FREE iPad Apps to Read Social Updates the Magazine-Style

FlipBoard

FlipBoard is a popular free application that can create a beautiful magazine out of one's social media updates (Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader). It aggregates the linked page summary, grabs its images and other media and compiles a magazine-like overview of your friends' social updates. It captures both tweeted links and raw "unlinked" updates.

Zite

Zite is a newcomer. It is also sometimes criticized for bad performance but it's a normal thing with newly emerged tools and apps.

The most interesting part about the app (and also what it is being distinguished from a more established competitor) is that Zite is advertised to "personalize" your news. It will be tracking the news you are reading and liking and offer you more "of the kind": the sources you prefer, whether you like longer articles or shorter ones, or whether you prefer news or opinion content. You can help the app by thumbing article up or down inside the app (as well as share them on Twitter, Facebook or sharing via email).

In closing, both the apps do look and feel appealing. They both give your social media updates the "second life" and let you get better involved into your social media friends' activities. However the two apps are hardlycompetitors.

Zite and Flipboard can not be actually compared. They can only be used for different purposes. Zite is best fordiscovery whereas Flipboard is best for keeping up with your social media contacts' news. I am currently using both and don't see myself switching to one!

View full post on Search Engine Journal

Sulia Joins Forces with Twitter to Give Publishers More Relevant Twitter Streams

Sulia a startup dedicated to helping people find relevant content and users on Twitter, has just announced that it is working with Twitter in order to deliver "premium streams" of Twitter content. Distribution partners so far include Flipboard, The Washington Post, TweetDeck, and the Wall Street Journal.

Despite all the recent hoopla about the Twitter ecosystem becoming unfriendly to third party developers and startups, as Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson points out Sulia may be just "the kind of partner Twitter doesn't want to kill."

That's because Sulia offers an important service built on top of Twitter that seems to be beneficial to all parties involved – users, publishers, and Twitter.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

Major Publisher Investment Advances Inkling as the Future of Digital Textbooks

 

Digital textbooks are at a tipping point, a recent study suggested, on a trajectory to overtake print textbooks in the coming decade. Even though they are a small part of the market now – just 3% – digital textbooks are on track to surpass 25% by 2015.

No matter where you set the target date for that tipping point, digital textbooks certainly just received a strong shove in that direction with a major investment announcement from the iPad textbook maker Inkling. The startup has raised an undisclosed round of funding, with participation from some of its initial investors including Sequoia Capital.

More significantly, this financing involves significant minority investments from the two biggest educational content companies in the world, McGraw-Hill and Pearson.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

Dimbler – Social Media Sharing on Steroids

 

If you're a blogger, you should be well aware of the power of social media. Sharing your content among multiple social platforms can help you get as many eyeballs as possible on your content. The only problem is that trying to manually do this on a regular basis can be extremely time-consuming. If you wish there was a way to easily spread the word about your content, you're going to love Dimbler.

What the Heck is Dimbler?

Dimbler is a social sharing platform that allows you to create a trusted network of friends and consolidate them into one group. This makes it much easier to do reciprocal voting and content sharing on Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and Facebook. The capabilities of Dimbler eliminate the need for secret Facebook groups or constantly bugging people through instant messaging. Of course, you weren't doing that anyways, right? 

All jokes aside, unless you are a celebrity or happen to get a good retweet from a celebrity, you are only going to get so much action from natural retweets. The same goes for StumbleUpon, Digg and Facebook. You need a better way to share! This is where Dimbler can help. Dimbler is by far the cleanest and most user friendly of any site of this kind I have used.

View full post on Search Engine Journal

Sprint Fully Integrates Google Voice

 

Google Voice has long felt like it could become a real competitor to the major phone carriers. With its mobile phone apps and recent ability to port existing phone numbers to the service, the VOIP service has been moving closer to being a viable alternative. But today Google announces that it's found a partner, not a competitor among the major carriers.

The company has just announced that Google Voice will be fully integrated with Sprint. This means that all Sprint phones and all Sprint users will be able to tap into Google Voice's features without needing a special app.

Sprint customers will be able to use their existing mobile phone number as their Google Voice number without going through the hassle of porting the number. Existing Google Voice users will similarly be able to choose to replace their Sprint numbers with their Google Voice numbers.

Google Voice will also replace Sprint's voicemail service, enabling customers to receive the (often hilariously inaccurate) transcribed voicemail messages online, via email or text.

Today's partnership may be good news for Sprint users. But it's also good news for Sprint. The company also unveiled the new Nexus S 4G today, and all of this helps give the carrier some ammo as it makes its case to customers that it's a viable alternative to Verizon and the soon-to-be-merged AT&T/T-Mobile. If nothing else, Sprint is sure looking like the carrier of choice for Google

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

What is Agile Commerce? The Future, That's What

 

Thanks to the proliferation of Web and mobile technologies, commerce is evolving from a multi-channel effort for businesses to a more holistic one that takes place across multiple devices or consumer touchpoints. Emerging in the place of traditional multi-channel commerce? Agile commerce.

Such is the key takeaway from a recent report by Forrester, which outlines precisely how consumer behavior is changing in response to things like widespread broadband penetration, smart phones and social media.

According to the report, 58% of online adults in the U.S. like to research products online before purchasing them. Of course, a growing number of those adults own smart phones and tablet computers and are active on social networking sites, which they often use to solicit advice an input on buying decisions.

To adapt, businesses must realign themselves to adopt practices of agile commerce, that is, commerce that takes place across a wide range of devices, screens and other interfaces. This adaptation may require a literal organizational change (think smaller, integrated teams), but at the very least, calls for a shift in a company's philosophy.

For one, the relationship between businesses and customers should be thought of across touchpoints rather than channels, says the report. Now that companies have a boat load of rich analytics about their customers, they should utilize that data and make doing so a core component of the business. Web analytics, business intelligence, CRM and data warehouses all come into play here.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb