Calgary SEO- The First step...........

Hi, Allan Fine here again and here is the next article on Calgary Seo.
I really hope you find it helpful for your business and educational.

 

Basic SEO 101

What is SEO?

SEO = Search Engine Optimization, ie getting your site ranked higher so more people show up at your doorstep. In theory we’re interested in all search engines. In practice SEO = Google.

What's the difference between SEO and SEM?

While some people use SEO and SEM interchangeably, SEO (search engine optimization) is actually a part of SEM (search engine marketing).

SEO refers to the process of using on and off page factors (typically free) to get your web pages 

ranked for your chosen keywords in order to get more search engine traffic to your sites. SEM takes it a step farther to include using paid search engine listings and paid inclusion to get more traffic to your websites.

What's the difference between paid and organic search listings?

Organic search engine listings are the main results users see when they do a Google search. The websites appearing in the organic listings appear because those sites are most relevant to the user’s keywords. Indeed, most of these sites appear in the top of the search engine results because the webmasters of these sites have used SEO tactics to ensure top rankings.

 

The paid (or “sponsored”) listings usually appear on the top, bottom and to the right of the regular organic listings. Usually these are pay per click (PPC) ads, which means the website owner only pays when someone clicks on his ad (as opposed to paying for impressions).

This isn’t an either/or game. Just because you do SEO doesn’t mean you can’t/shouldn’t use PPC and vice versa. Now for me, PPC isn't something I really use anymore. I much prefer investing my money in natural SEO and SEM.

As for me, these are long-term solutions to Internet marketing. Where as PPC is only a short-term solution because when you stop paying for PPC, you don't get anymore results.

With that in mind, though, I think PPC can be extremely valuable as a short-term solution, or to shore up key phrases that you don't rank well on all.

SEO is not free traffic, it takes time and/or money to get good organic rankings but in the long run it’s usually cheaper than PPC.

What's on-page SEO?

• On-page SEO refers to the things you do on your own site to enhance it’s ranking in the search 
• engines. This includes but is not limited to:
• Creating content around specific keywords.
• Formatting/designing your site so that the most important keywords are emphasized and appear near the top of the page.
• Including the chosen keywords in meta tags.
• Including the keywords in the navigation menu and other links.
• Using your keywords in other parts of your site, such as the title of the page, the file name, etc.
• Using related keywords on the site (see the question on LSI for more information).

What's off-page SEO?

Off page SEO refers to those things you do outside of your own web pages to enhance their rankings in the search engines. This is a glorified way of saying, “get links” and did I mention, “more links”.

How quickly will I see results?

If you target long tail keywords you can see results pretty quickly but always remember SEO is a long term strategy not a set and forget thing.

If you’re after more competitive keywords prepare to commit to it for at least three months of consistent effort.
In my next article I''l be talking about some Advanced SEO coming up.Stay tuned....

Till then........Keep on Connecting on the internet.

Allan Fine

http://www.executiveedge1.com/calgary-seo.html

403-246-7386

 

 

 

Calgary SEO Tips

As you know, I'm always trying to provide great information for you and my clients.  Calgary SEO is one of the hottest topics around nowadays especially with Google Penguin and panda update with everyone scrambling around with what to do?

My goal is to educate you as much as possible and to help you as much possible.

As well, I found a super cool new video interface to create stunning videos for myself And my clients. I created a cool new short video for this page. Do me a favor let me know if it's any good or not. I really would appreciate your feedback.

So here's some information you should know.

* What is SEO?

* What's the difference between SEO and SEM?

* What's the difference between paid and organic search listings? What's on-page SEO?

* What's off-page SEO?

* How quickly will I see results?

* Should I rank my own content or articles on other sites? What other factors affect rankings besides

* backlinks? Does domain age help?

* Why would I want to 301 redirect an aged domain? What is rel="canonical"?

* What's the truth about duplicate content? What is a doorway page/cloaking?

* What are meta tags?

* What is the "freshness" factor?

* What is a C-class IP and why should I care? What is LSI?

* Should I build links for human beings or the search engines? What is an XML Sitemap?

* What's the sandbox? What is robots.txt for? What's a spamblog? What's an autoblog?

* What's an "authority" site?

* What are "supplemental" results?

Keyword Research

* What makes a good keyword?

* How many people are searching for my keyword? What is the "true" competition for a keyword? What

* are long tail keywords?

These are the questions I'll be answering in my next post coming up.Stay tuned....

Till then........Keep on Connecting on Linkedin

Allan Fine

http://www.executiveedge1.com/calgary-seo.html

403-246-7386

Reputation Management- What you absolutely must know!

IIIIIII'm back,

Hope you had a great summer so far, I sure did.
We went camping in BC and it was fun. My wife ( she's great),
did all the work researching and finding the places for us to go to on the Internet.

With that in mind let me tell you one of her to the pipeline about the next hotness in Internet marketing and SEO.
Reputation management, or my case Calgary Reputation management.

Like you I also shop on the Internet on a regular basis and sometimes when doing my research, If I find negative things written about the company or product. I won't even buy it or contact them. Sometimes.
Yikkkkkes!

Do you know what people are writing about your company, trust me they are reviewing you on Google places, Yelp, posting about your company. Who is in control, them or you?

So here it comes as promised with a series of articles about reputation management and what you can do for your company.
Enjoy!

 

 

Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE

3 Ways to Protect Your Online Reputation.

When it comes to business marketing, one of the most important things to consider is your online reputation.  Remember that 90 percent of all consumers search the Internet to look for products and services; therefore, what those consumers find online about your business will determine whether or not they choose you over the competitors.  There are so many forums in which both happy and disgruntled customers can air their emotions about your business – including social networking sites, review sites, and blogs, among others – and it is your responsibility to manage what is being said about your business.  How do you do that?  Here are three ways to protect your online reputation:

Good business practices.  Think of it this way: when you are doing things the “right” way, and acting as an upstanding business entity, it will be harder for people to say bad things about you online.  Stock your website with relevant and useful content, participate in social forums in a positive and progressive way, and exhibit good customer service practices in order to stay on peoples’ good sides.

Respond to negative reviews.  Of course, you can’t please everyone.  It is inevitable that you will eventually face a bad review or two (or more).  Rather than dwell on the negatives, it is best that you learn how to respond appropriately, so that you can actually turn a bad review into a positive testament of your business practices.  (Yes, it IS possible.)  First of all, don’t ever ignore negative reviews; doing that is as bad as agreeing with what is being said.  When you do respond, keep all emotion out of it; instead, console the customer on having had a bad experience and offer a viable solution.  For example, if a customer posts a review complaining about the service in your salon, offer a coupon and ask the customer to come back in and see you personally, for a better experience.

Monitor your online reputation.  While you can’t remove things like bad reviews and negative social media gossip circulating about your business, you can take steps to counter negative occurrences as soon as they happen (and before they get out of hand).  Make use of monitoring tools like Hootsuite, Google Alerts, and Socialmention to identify trends in what people are saying about your business online, and then develop strategies to diffuse any negativity that springs up around your business name.

Online reputation management is a complex process, but it is also tantamount to your business success.  To make the most of your online reputation, you may want to enlist the help of qualified and competent professionals like us, The Executive Edge.  We can be reached by phone, at  403–246–7386 , or at support@executiveedge1.com.

Thank you for your time,
Get bad reviews and posting dealt with.

We look forward hearing from you.
Allan Fine
The Executive Edge
403-246-7386

Top Reasons Your Business Needs To Be 'LinkedIn'(and How to get tons of free leads!))

Top Reasons Your Business Needs To Be on 'LinkedIn'

If you own a small to medium sized business and your organization doesn't have a profile on LinkedIn, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to get noticed.

Not only does LinkedIn have over 100 million users, but the social network also:

*Gets Over 4 Million Hits Per Day

* Ranks 12th Globally And 10th For the U.S. On Alexa

*Has 1,000 New Professional Groups Created Every Day

*Gets 1 New Member Every Second

*Contains More Than 1 Million Company Profile Pages

*Has Executive Profiles From All Fortune 500 Companies

*And Much More

The bottom line is that LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world and it is only getting bigger. Just by putting your profile on LinkedIn, you have access to millions of professionals, all over the world. Never before have professionals been so accessible in one place.

Think about it. In the past, you used to have to travel all over creation to attend seminars and meet-and-greets with the top VIPs in your industry. Go to dozens of networking events, just to get the same amount of contacts you can in 1 week on Linkedin. Of course people still do this as it is a great way to network and get noticed, but with LinkedIn, you no longer have to do that.

With a LinkedIn profile, you can display your skills and experience, you have access to professionals without having to go through gate-keepers and you can also gain insider

knowledge within your specialty. Where on earth can you get all of that information and access but the biggest professional social network on Earth? Nowhere. That is why we are insane for LinkedIn and you should be, too.

What Can LinkedIn Do For Your Business?

Just in case you are still on the fence about LinkedIn, let's look at a few more points you should consider. It is completely understandable to be hesitant about getting involved with yet

another social network. Facebook marketing can be exhausting, Twitter marketing can give you a headache and now someone is asking you to get on another social network?

If time is tight, it is understandable to resist the LinkedIn revolution.

But hang on. Whether you provide services or sell products, you are always interested in more exposure, leads, customers and sales, right?

Well, what if you were told that there was a shortcut to finding great projects and clients?

Well, what if you were told that there was a shortcut to finding great projects and clients?

What if you were told how easy it is to rise to the top of your field?

And what if you were told that you have the opportunity to meet the ideal candidate for a rock-solid joint venture that makes you tons of money?

Would you be interested then? Especially if you found out the method was free?

You get all this with LinkedIn. This isn't just another social network. It is your key to more exposure, higher rankings and more sales, partnerships and networked professionals. And

you are going to learn how to rise to the top quickly using expert techniques that have been gleaned through years of intense study.

In my next post I'll talk about how to get those FREE leads...

Till then........Keep on Connecting on Linkedin

Allan Fine

http://www.executiveedge1.com/linkedin-training.html

403-246-7386

Google Penguin and panda update recovery 101 !!

Don't run for cover, Just listen up.

Like the previous updates from Google, such as the Panda, the latest Penguin update Has many webmasters and website owners scrambling from the destruction. When Google massively changes its algorithm. You have to react and react quickly. Here are some great tips and great information to help you recover. If your search engine rankings have dropped.

As a Calgary marketing company, our job is to help our clients and our potential clients ( that's you) with great information on SEO and Internet marketing.

I love organic search results, and organic search traffic from Google and other major search engines constitutes around 50% of all Internet traffic.
About eight years ago. I stopped spending tons of money on Google ad words and other pay per click and now I rely almost entirely on natural search engine traffic. So losing valuable visitors and customers as a result of a penalty arising from The Google Penguin and panda update and webspammy SEO techniques can be devastating for any startup, business, blogger or Internet entreprenuer.

This article discusses the steps needful to revert from Google SEO penalties and act re-appearing in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This great information will tell you exactly what to do moving forward.

first off, do you have this done properly:

Got clean sitemaps?

Still have duplicate content issues?

Have you integrated social sharing features across your site?

Got the best practices of SEO covered (remember, we like SEO…)

Do you have a webmaster account activated at the all of the search engines?

How’s your robots.txt file doing? Blocking the right stuff?

   
1.Perform a full website and SEO audit on your site.

Google doesn't channelise the intricacies of their algorithms. It's happened before that sites soul disappeared as a ensue of bugs on Google's indorse of things. So no one can archer you incisively why your website or diary dropped out of the rankings - tho', if you meshed in fastening structure journal rings then that is a fair overt soul.

It's grave to fulfill a athlete website SEO scrutinize with a accent on any and all voltage SEO problems that strength head to penalties.

What does an SEO audit involve?

Here’s what your SEO audit should include at a minimum:

• Webmaster tools: Helps to find unwanted, low PR (PageRank) back links
• On-site SEO: Have you checked your site for duplicate content? Stub pages? Caching? Aggregation? Speed? Performance? Malware? SEO keyword stuffing?
• Off-site SEO: Have you got plenty of niche backlinks from quality resources? Is anyone talking about you in social media? News? Blogs?
• Backlinks: This is the main culprit in the recent Penguin algorithm update. One of the most likely candidates if you have been using unethical SEO services up ’til now
• Google analytics: Can pinpoint drops in search traffic and relate it to any major search algorithm updates. This may provide clues as to the type of SEO problems your blog or site succumbed to

2. After performing a complete SEO audit, it is time to work out what SEO features of your site or blog are the best candidates for improvement. Usually it's going to be on site page optimization and Backlinks.

Spammy backlinks are Number one on Google's hit list

Here are the most likely reasons for a recent drop in the search engine results pages:

• Poor quality backlinks: If you’ve joined a blog ring, or paid for backlinks… well, I trust you’ve learned your lesson
• Lack of fresh content: Adding Content to your site Eight years ago and expecting to remain at the top of search results is not realistic
• Over optimization: If you spend more time working for search engines than human visitors, you are not being productive
• Poor SEO: If you have not implemented any of the major SEO guidelines then its possible that straightforward SEO could fix the problem
• Lack of buzz or social interaction: Google takes into account what other people think of your site or blog. If no-one is interested in your site, is it realistic to think Google will be?

Fixing the above SEO issues can take time and effort, and it can take even longer for your site to reappear in the search results. Fortunately, it is possible to give your site an advantage…

3. Add great new content to many pages of your current site and create new pages.

Add 60 new high quality, well SEO’d articles that are shared and promoted socially and all of a sudden, you have 350 backlinks of which only 98 are spammy. Now less than one third of your backlinks are spammy and, from Google’s perspective, you are most likely a high quality site with a bit of webspam.

Much of Google’s algorithm metrics are relative. This means that if you have 98 spammy backlinks out of a hundred, then 85% of your backlinks are spammy and from Google’s perspective your site is most likely poor quality.

4. Implement Penguin and panda friendly SEO techniques.

SEO is basically a bug in the search system. Google continually adapts to close up loopholes exploited by people attempting to derive greater benefit than the quality of their content warrants.

The SEO Investment

So now the whole new game out there and the rules changed. Now you have to create high quality articles and Backlinks with many different anchor text key phrases. Diversify, diversify, diversify..

5. Partner with only high quality SEO companies & services

Risking your business by trying to cheat Google’s search algorithms is not a sound business model. Instead, work with a reliable SEO consultant or partner to implement best practice SEO, which is designed to make your site as valuable and relevant as possible.

So there you have it, once again if you want the full list and all the information please contact me I be happy to help you , have a great day.

Allan Fine

The Executive Edge

403-246-7386

 

 

 

 

Directories are a great resource of Backlinks, Here is a great resource of directories!

As a Calgary marketing company, I'm always looking to provide great value for my clients and great information to you. Here's another great post on directories. I have compiled a phenomenal list Of Internet directories for you.

Importance of Local Directories

Local business directories are a big factor in your company’s internet presence and online reputation. Local directories comprise of everything from Yelp!, Angie’s List and Judy’s Book to City Square, MojoPages and 100s of other location-based directories. Today, I want to talk about three reasons that you should submit your business to local business directories.  

Branding and Backlinks

Any company that has been around for any amount of time would tell you how important branding is for growth. Branding online is equally as important as traditional; local business directories means as it gives- your business one more place to advertise. Now you’re thinking “OK, that’s great, but outside of directories like Yellow Book and Angie’s List, if people don’t visit these sites how will they see my listing?” That’s where the search engines come in… Search engines want to give the searcher the most valuable information as quickly as possible, so not only will they display websites of the companies that the search engine believes relate to what you are looking for, they will also provide local listings, news, images, videos, and related directories among its results for the search term. This gives you more fishing lines in the water to hook a new customer and it is another opportunity to get your company name in front of the searcher.

New Visitors and Incoming Web Traffic

While many traditional web directories don’t provide much impact on new visitors to your website, local directories such as Angies List, SuperPages, and Yellow Book do still provide valuable referrals for your business. These business listing sites are also more often trusted than other places on the web or directories. Business listings such as these are often considered to be more trustworthy because they allow existing customers to post reviews and testimonials or they have business certifications, or other standards, that must be met before they will post the business as part of their network. In doing so, new visitors acquire more insight on whether or not they can trust a company based on other clients’ testimonies of the company and that can either persuade potential clients towards higher credited companies… or detour the searcher from businesses with unfavorable reviews.

Search Engine Authority

Lastly and most importantly, local and international directories give you citations to build authority with the search engines like Google. The manner in which Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are displayed, the area for Google Places displays predominantly at the top. While there are other ways to optimize your Google Places listing, one of the biggest factors is through citations. Citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone numbers on other sites. There are many places where you can get citations, however local business directories are the easiest way to build multiple citations quickly.

Have a great day and a great week.
Allan Fine
Calgary marketing company
403-246-7386

The Top 100 Wordpress Plugins (and Why I love them)!

WordPress is a great CMS system, and while I'm not particularly fond of it for website design (  I have my reasons) I do love of blogging though.

As a Calgary marketing company I am always trying to help all my clients and YOU.

I feel that there is so much abundance in Calgary. There is no need to hide information, or not properly share it.

Here is a list of 100 great WordPress plug-ins, if you want the full reports and all the information. Please feel free to contact me. I would love to help you out.

Introduction 1

Allin One SEO 2

Akismet 3

Google XML Sitemap 4

Google Analytics 5

Simple Facebook Connect 6

Contact Form 7

Gravity Forms 8

BackupBuddy 9

Comment Luv 10

Traffic Getting SEQ Plugin by Jeff Johnson 11

CBnet Ping Optimizer 12

Flowplayer 13

WordPress backup 14

Digg Digg 15

Easy WP SEQ 16

Exclude Pages 17

Audio Player 18

AWeber Web Form Plugin 19

DigitaiAccess Pass (DAP) 20

Fast Secure Contact Form 21

Raw HTML 22

Amazon S3 for WordPress 23

Google Analyticator 24

Bulletproof 25

Commentluv Premium 26

HeadSpace2 SEQ 27

AddThis 28

Live Slogging 29

ClickBump SEQ 30

Digi Auto Links 31

wp-Member 32

Disqus Comment System 33

Duplicate Post 34

Easy Video Player 35

MaxBiog Press Affiliate Ninja 36

W3 Total Cache 37

lnfusionWP 38

Jetpack 39

JWplayer 40

Add To Any 41

List Rank Dashboard Widget 42

Conditional Captcha 43

Antispam Bee 44

Auto Blog Buddy 45

Auto Link Juicer 46

Auto Blogged 47

Automatic WordPress Backup 48

WP Autoresponder and Newsletter Plugin 49

Backlinks Rotator 50

Backup creator 51

WP Super Cache 52

cforms II 53

Chennai Central 54

Clean-contact form 55

Facebook  comments for WordPress 56

Date Exclusion SEO 57

Display  Buddy 58

Easy AdSense 59

Editorial  Calendar 60

Efficient  Related  Posts 61

EZPZ One Click  Backup 62

Feedburner 63

Flash video player 64

Follow Widget 65

Free Traffic Getting  SEO 66

Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps 67

XML Google  Maps 68

Hana Flash Player 69

Exploit scanner 70

Like 71

Thank Me Later 72

WP Email Capture 73

Clicky 74

Simple Social 75

SEO Smart Links 76

Sociable 77

Viper's 78

Video Quicktags 79

AdSense Manager  80

Ad Injection 81

Wptouch 82

Redirection 83

pageMash 84

Simple Social- Sharing Widgets and Icons 85

Social Media Widget 86

WP Security 87

Scan WP 88 

Smush.it Newsletter 89

TinyMCE Advanced 90

LinkWithin 91

WordPress Importer 92

SEO Friendly Images 93

Secure WordPress 94

MaxBiogPress 95

Ninja Affiliate 96

FeedWordPress 97

WP Optimize 98

WP-DBManager 99

Really Simple CAPTCHA  100

WP-Polls 101

So there you have it, once again if you want the full list and all the information please contact me I be happy to help you , have a great day.

Allan Fine

The Executive Edge

403-246-7386