Google's New SERP Guidlines
SUMMARY:
Google recently announced it's changes to their Ranking Algorithm used to rank pages on the World Wide Web and sweeping was the word of the day. The biggest change that affects many people engaging in Internet Marketing and depending on their positions on the front page of Google is the lowering in rank of html comment based back links. This is a huge blow to those who have depended on automated tools to generate those links in blogs and forums around the web. Now those links are next to worthless, unless, they are links to or from relevant content.
Google recently announced it's changes to their Ranking Algorithm used to rank pages on the World Wide Web and sweeping was the word of the day. The biggest change that affects many people engaging in Internet Marketing and depending on their positions on the front page of Google is the lowering in rank of html comment based back links. This is a huge blow to those who have depended on automated tools to generate those links in blogs and forums around the web. Now those links are next to worthless, unless, they are links to or from relevant content.
Now it appears that Title, and of all things, proper code structure are the big ranking factors. Listed in order here are the references to each factor and it's importance in ranking.
Key
--------------------------------
parent tag > child tag
tag.attribute
(tag incarnation).attribute
Rank Placement
---- -----------------------------
01 title
02 samp
03 acronym
04 linking to relevant pages
05 a.href
06 p
07 pre
08 inside a textarea
09 kbd
10 caption
11 small
12 code
13 strong
14 sub
15 u
16 center
17 cite
18 big
19 font
20 bdo
21 em
22 legend
23 button
24 table > thead > tr > td
25 abbr
26 address
27 blockquote
28 caption
29 div
30 span
31 del
32 ul > li
33 strike
34 ins
35 sup
36 dfn
37 body
38 tt
39 table > tr > td
40 dt
41 h1
42 i
43 s
44 h3
45 a
46 img.alt
47 select > option
48 object > param.name
49 object > param.value
50 input.value
51 (meta:keywords).content
52 (meta:description).content
53 (meta:author).content
54 URL
55 b
56 HTML comments
You can see that the url and its importance have slipped to the bottom as well so simply placing your keywords in the URL will not add significant weight to your site. Many automated tools that accelerate the move to the top of the rankings used the vanity url as a requirement for a valid "niche" to market to. Alt tags on images has also slipped and that was one that only the less than lazy made use of. Block Quotes, and h1 headers dropped which will render many Wordpress plugins invalid. The changes are broad indeed and seem to target the Internet Marketer squarely in the chest.
I predict huge new waves of wonder software to hit the market soon as many tools have died or lost thier relevance. I for one will stick primarily to the same method I have always used. Good SEO mixed with Good relevant content and quality item of commercial value to my taget audience.
`bradleyscott
RESOURCES:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html#uds-search-results
http://labs.hopon.info
KEYWORDS:
Google, SERP, SEO, algorithm, rank factors
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
http://2zaphodbeeblebrox.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/take-5-minutes-to-read-this-and-start-writing-ad-copy/
What Is This Thread About And What Will You Get Out Of It
Let me tell you upfront. I am not the know it all when it comes to marketing.
It is my hobby though and I read all kinds of work until I know it inside out.
That includes direct mailing advertisements from the 1920’s. I picked up a
thing or two and I would like for you to get a taste of it. I can’t write it all down
Because that would be the size of a book but I would like for you to read this
anyway. In the end you will be able to captivate your prospect through your
Headline and funnel them straight in to your sales copy. You will then take their
minds and make them imagine themselves with your product. After they are
done reading your copy, it will either feel like they already own it or like they
need to get it and the came up with it all by them selves. If you read nothing else
read the part where I talk about headlines and then take a look at this thread title.
Prospect Research Like A Private Eye
You want to become your prospect. You want to know their inside out.
You want to know exactly what goes on in their minds on a day to day basis.
To do this, you need to research at least the following.
We call this a demographic profile or a demographic.
My standard demographic consist of the following details:
* Gender
* Age
* Education
* Annual income
* Monthly spending budget
* Family, husband/wife, kids, own property
* Their problems, do research on dedicated forums
Essentially you become the prospect
Headlines And Thread Titles Are The Aorta Of Your Copy
What are these good for? Just make them descriptive and slap them on right?
Right, sort of. There are a couple of things you need to take into consideration.
Let me start with the amount of words in a headline. Now this is not an exact science.
Rule of thumb is that the most effective headlines are between 6 and 12 words long.
But that fact will not magically make your headline effective.
Really, what is the purpose of a headline? To answer that question you need
to understand that on average 5 times as many people read the headline as
read the body copy. The headline makes the prospect read the bodycopy in the first place.
So, it needs to make the reader WANT to click on it and read the copy. The only
way that will happen is when you make a promise in it. A promise is not a claim.
A promise is a benefit and the product needs to deliver on that promise.
Also, your prospect want to understand what you say immediately.
That means, keep your headline simple. Don't be a smartass or a funny man.
Lame jokes and intricate playing with words will not give you results.
People are always interested in something new. Be it a completely new solution
to a problem or a new version of some software.
The First Paragraph Saves Your Life
Well, not really. But it will be the first thing your prospect reads and it
will make or break the effectiveness of your copy.
You see, readership will almost not drop after the first 50-500 words.
This means that the first or first two paragraphs need to get your prospect
hungry. Wet your prospects lips and make them wonder how to get the benefit
you promise.
10 Words Are Worth A 1000 Pictures
Wait, what? Yes, if you do not use images in the right way you will harm
you copy rather than enforce it.
How does that work? Well, if you use an image in your copy, it will be the
first thing the prospect sees, therefore if you use a picture that doesn't
suggest a story or doesn't complement the words of your copy,
the prospect might ignore the copy all together because he cannot understand
the image and becomes irritated.
Also if you use a image, always use captions with them. Make sure the caption
is miniature advertisement for your product. Twice as many people will read
the image caption as do bodycopy.
What I am trying to say is this, if not 200% sure about image, don't use it.
Don't make the mistake of using an image because you think you have to.
Closing The Sale
After you sold the prospect, the final thing for you to do is to close him.
You'll need one or multiple call for actions, a BIG red button that says
buy me now. The important thing is that you make it obvious you want them
to undertake an action, whether it is to click the button or to download
a freebie I don't care. Just make sure you clearly tell them what to do!
If you decide to offer a bonus or a freebie make sure that you don't use
the word 'free' in your copy. Anywhere. This makes the bonus or freebie
look cheap. Instead use 'at free of cost to you' and state the retail
price of it.
All I can say is, close close close.
General Rules Of Thumb
I would like to end this with some general pointers you can take and run with.
First off, fear motivates. Fear of losing something, fear of missing out or
even actual psychological fears. As long as you offer the prospect a real
sure fire, step by step plan to remove that fear or the cause of the fear,
it will motivate the prospect suffering from that fear, to undertake action.
If you fail to present an actionable plan the fear will paralyze the prospect
and you will sell nothing.
Everybody knows you really need social proof, whether it is in the form of
testimonials and/or smartly embedded in your body text. Sometimes however
I see copies that make use of negative social proof. Let me give an example:
"80 percent of the people still uses polluting fuels, don't be one of them!".
Now this seems like a sentence that makes perfect sense and it does. Unless
you want to convince your reader not to use those fuels. How so you ask?
If you tell them 80% of the people are doing it, your reader will not give
it a second though because he is already doing the same as the majority of
the population. Now if you still want to use that 80% in your copy, simply
invert it. "1 in 5 people these days are using environmental friendly fuels, join us!"
You see what I did there? I took the 80% negative social proof and converted
it to 20% or 1 in 5 positive social proof. Just so you know, I am not making
this stuff up, there has been extensive research done on this subject I am just
too lazy to look it up right now to show you. Just Google it.
Less is more, unless we're talking about my bank account of course [Wink]
Don't present your prospect with too many options, it will confuse them and
render them indecisive. So what is too much? Depends on the gravity of the
consequences of the choice. If we are talking about $100k worth of a decision
3 options may already be too much. The less risk to the decision the more options
you can give them. Generally no more than 6 though. Unless you sell icecream.
Don't be an asshole. Sorry, I don't mean it like that, but I do actually.
When you want to let people know who you are don't talk about yourself in the
first person. If you talk about how much success you've had and about all your
incredible accomplishments you will come off as less likable.
Instead write a biography in the third person or let yourself being introduced
by someone else. A biography in the third person is also highly copy and paste-able
for anyone that wants to write about you. Just so you know.
You know what; I am going to keep this thread up until it has 2000 views.
After that I will close it because I don't want this knowledge to become widely
spread. So better save this to your HDD right know!
See what I did there? I applied the principle of scarcity. I am using your
fear of being too late to read something valuable. This is done very often in
saleletters and landing pages by limiting the amount of copies sold or limiting
the timeframe in which the offer is available. To use it seems a marketing scheme
and it is, but it still works. Did you save this yet?
Let me tell you. You will not gain anything from this thread BUT if you don't read
it, it will cost you at least $20,000 every year by not implementing the techniques
I describe and thus losing out on sales!
You see, people prefer not losing anything, over gaining something. What I am trying
to say is that people are much more afraid of losing something they already have than
they are interested in gaining something. This is called loss aversion, Google that shit.
You may have read some other threads and they have somewhat good stuff in them and they
will explain some details on marketing. They are somewhat useful but nothing
like this one. This one features 2000 words of raw information and applicable techniques
that you can implement straight away.
I am talking to you about headlines, first paragraph, the favorable length of your copy,
using images in your copy, making people click that buy button, using fear to motivate
your prospect, how to reverse negative social proof to your benefit, how to introduce
yourself and not look like an asshole, the principle of scarcity, loss aversion, how many
option you should offer your prospect and I could keep going on, but let me ask you this:
Do you like my thread better than the above mentioned? That is because I used perceptual
contrast to make my thread look better than those others. You see, I am sure those other
threads cover some the same things I am talking about, however, I presented them with far
less detail than I did mine. I simply told you that those other threads have some good stuff
in them and then I went on about all the things I cover and I named most of them.
This made my thread look more favorable because I supplied so much more details when I
described it. Perceptual Contrast, Google away ladies!
You know what, I am about done, and this post is waaaay to long. Or is it?
As the most of us know, long copies sell. When you look at vendor pages, they go on and on and on.
Does that really work, well yes, you are still reading this after 1500 words no?
All kidding aside, if you know how to write and sell, yes longer copies sell more.
Why is that? Because a great copy writer can sell a product in every line he writes.
Every word has been thought of. The whole copy is a very meticulous planned strategic plan to sell.
I like the saying, the more you tell, the more you sell. I am not sure who said it first though.
You just need to know how to tell a story...
Ok that is it for now, I don't have a call for action other than to say, think about all this
Let me tell you upfront. I am not the know it all when it comes to marketing.
It is my hobby though and I read all kinds of work until I know it inside out.
That includes direct mailing advertisements from the 1920’s. I picked up a
thing or two and I would like for you to get a taste of it. I can’t write it all down
Because that would be the size of a book but I would like for you to read this
anyway. In the end you will be able to captivate your prospect through your
Headline and funnel them straight in to your sales copy. You will then take their
minds and make them imagine themselves with your product. After they are
done reading your copy, it will either feel like they already own it or like they
need to get it and the came up with it all by them selves. If you read nothing else
read the part where I talk about headlines and then take a look at this thread title.
Prospect Research Like A Private Eye
You want to become your prospect. You want to know their inside out.
You want to know exactly what goes on in their minds on a day to day basis.
To do this, you need to research at least the following.
We call this a demographic profile or a demographic.
My standard demographic consist of the following details:
* Gender
* Age
* Education
* Annual income
* Monthly spending budget
* Family, husband/wife, kids, own property
* Their problems, do research on dedicated forums
Essentially you become the prospect
Headlines And Thread Titles Are The Aorta Of Your Copy
What are these good for? Just make them descriptive and slap them on right?
Right, sort of. There are a couple of things you need to take into consideration.
Let me start with the amount of words in a headline. Now this is not an exact science.
Rule of thumb is that the most effective headlines are between 6 and 12 words long.
But that fact will not magically make your headline effective.
Really, what is the purpose of a headline? To answer that question you need
to understand that on average 5 times as many people read the headline as
read the body copy. The headline makes the prospect read the bodycopy in the first place.
So, it needs to make the reader WANT to click on it and read the copy. The only
way that will happen is when you make a promise in it. A promise is not a claim.
A promise is a benefit and the product needs to deliver on that promise.
Also, your prospect want to understand what you say immediately.
That means, keep your headline simple. Don't be a smartass or a funny man.
Lame jokes and intricate playing with words will not give you results.
People are always interested in something new. Be it a completely new solution
to a problem or a new version of some software.
The First Paragraph Saves Your Life
Well, not really. But it will be the first thing your prospect reads and it
will make or break the effectiveness of your copy.
You see, readership will almost not drop after the first 50-500 words.
This means that the first or first two paragraphs need to get your prospect
hungry. Wet your prospects lips and make them wonder how to get the benefit
you promise.
10 Words Are Worth A 1000 Pictures
Wait, what? Yes, if you do not use images in the right way you will harm
you copy rather than enforce it.
How does that work? Well, if you use an image in your copy, it will be the
first thing the prospect sees, therefore if you use a picture that doesn't
suggest a story or doesn't complement the words of your copy,
the prospect might ignore the copy all together because he cannot understand
the image and becomes irritated.
Also if you use a image, always use captions with them. Make sure the caption
is miniature advertisement for your product. Twice as many people will read
the image caption as do bodycopy.
What I am trying to say is this, if not 200% sure about image, don't use it.
Don't make the mistake of using an image because you think you have to.
Closing The Sale
After you sold the prospect, the final thing for you to do is to close him.
You'll need one or multiple call for actions, a BIG red button that says
buy me now. The important thing is that you make it obvious you want them
to undertake an action, whether it is to click the button or to download
a freebie I don't care. Just make sure you clearly tell them what to do!
If you decide to offer a bonus or a freebie make sure that you don't use
the word 'free' in your copy. Anywhere. This makes the bonus or freebie
look cheap. Instead use 'at free of cost to you' and state the retail
price of it.
All I can say is, close close close.
General Rules Of Thumb
I would like to end this with some general pointers you can take and run with.
First off, fear motivates. Fear of losing something, fear of missing out or
even actual psychological fears. As long as you offer the prospect a real
sure fire, step by step plan to remove that fear or the cause of the fear,
it will motivate the prospect suffering from that fear, to undertake action.
If you fail to present an actionable plan the fear will paralyze the prospect
and you will sell nothing.
Everybody knows you really need social proof, whether it is in the form of
testimonials and/or smartly embedded in your body text. Sometimes however
I see copies that make use of negative social proof. Let me give an example:
"80 percent of the people still uses polluting fuels, don't be one of them!".
Now this seems like a sentence that makes perfect sense and it does. Unless
you want to convince your reader not to use those fuels. How so you ask?
If you tell them 80% of the people are doing it, your reader will not give
it a second though because he is already doing the same as the majority of
the population. Now if you still want to use that 80% in your copy, simply
invert it. "1 in 5 people these days are using environmental friendly fuels, join us!"
You see what I did there? I took the 80% negative social proof and converted
it to 20% or 1 in 5 positive social proof. Just so you know, I am not making
this stuff up, there has been extensive research done on this subject I am just
too lazy to look it up right now to show you. Just Google it.
Less is more, unless we're talking about my bank account of course [Wink]
Don't present your prospect with too many options, it will confuse them and
render them indecisive. So what is too much? Depends on the gravity of the
consequences of the choice. If we are talking about $100k worth of a decision
3 options may already be too much. The less risk to the decision the more options
you can give them. Generally no more than 6 though. Unless you sell icecream.
Don't be an asshole. Sorry, I don't mean it like that, but I do actually.
When you want to let people know who you are don't talk about yourself in the
first person. If you talk about how much success you've had and about all your
incredible accomplishments you will come off as less likable.
Instead write a biography in the third person or let yourself being introduced
by someone else. A biography in the third person is also highly copy and paste-able
for anyone that wants to write about you. Just so you know.
You know what; I am going to keep this thread up until it has 2000 views.
After that I will close it because I don't want this knowledge to become widely
spread. So better save this to your HDD right know!
See what I did there? I applied the principle of scarcity. I am using your
fear of being too late to read something valuable. This is done very often in
saleletters and landing pages by limiting the amount of copies sold or limiting
the timeframe in which the offer is available. To use it seems a marketing scheme
and it is, but it still works. Did you save this yet?
Let me tell you. You will not gain anything from this thread BUT if you don't read
it, it will cost you at least $20,000 every year by not implementing the techniques
I describe and thus losing out on sales!
You see, people prefer not losing anything, over gaining something. What I am trying
to say is that people are much more afraid of losing something they already have than
they are interested in gaining something. This is called loss aversion, Google that shit.
You may have read some other threads and they have somewhat good stuff in them and they
will explain some details on marketing. They are somewhat useful but nothing
like this one. This one features 2000 words of raw information and applicable techniques
that you can implement straight away.
I am talking to you about headlines, first paragraph, the favorable length of your copy,
using images in your copy, making people click that buy button, using fear to motivate
your prospect, how to reverse negative social proof to your benefit, how to introduce
yourself and not look like an asshole, the principle of scarcity, loss aversion, how many
option you should offer your prospect and I could keep going on, but let me ask you this:
Do you like my thread better than the above mentioned? That is because I used perceptual
contrast to make my thread look better than those others. You see, I am sure those other
threads cover some the same things I am talking about, however, I presented them with far
less detail than I did mine. I simply told you that those other threads have some good stuff
in them and then I went on about all the things I cover and I named most of them.
This made my thread look more favorable because I supplied so much more details when I
described it. Perceptual Contrast, Google away ladies!
You know what, I am about done, and this post is waaaay to long. Or is it?
As the most of us know, long copies sell. When you look at vendor pages, they go on and on and on.
Does that really work, well yes, you are still reading this after 1500 words no?
All kidding aside, if you know how to write and sell, yes longer copies sell more.
Why is that? Because a great copy writer can sell a product in every line he writes.
Every word has been thought of. The whole copy is a very meticulous planned strategic plan to sell.
I like the saying, the more you tell, the more you sell. I am not sure who said it first though.
You just need to know how to tell a story...
Ok that is it for now, I don't have a call for action other than to say, think about all this
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Stop Spinning!
I have to begin this piece by admitting that I have no real basis in fact for what I am about to write. I don't work at the evil G therefore I do not write the rules for the rest to follow. In fact I spend more time on making things work for Yahoo or ~gulp~ (holding down the bile) BING then I do for them. I do believe however in common sense.
Articles can get over spun. They make no more sense and are often just posted for blank, unique, space filling, keyword place holders and that, is precisely the new target of Google. Auto blogging robo-sites are no longer welcome squatters at the top of the peoples search results. An algorithm, once identified and tested completely, is a simple thing to implement even if it is imperfect, singling out the wrong crowd. That is exactly what Google can do to you and I.
So stop spinning the same shit over and over. It is not necessary to blast, uncontrollably, any damn spew with a related keyword to your site! I went looking for a template that has not been used time and time again like some a tired old pair of shorts and came across more ads than information in the first ten sites in the search return. I don't own a TV because I dislike commercials. I don't mind people that do but I don't want to be pandered to every 8.56 minutes for precisely 4.87 minutes to complete each 30 minutes of programming. It's like, if the whole internet was a squeeze page. I would then pitch this pitiful machine out of the window. I won't buy anything from a squeeze page. I will go steal it instead.
Whew! I don't know where that came from but I feel better. Now, in my article spinner I have a ticker at the top that shows me what uniqueness my article has achieved with the synonym replacement ratio I have. What is a good number for this? I don't know but common sense says that 10% at least should be good and I have noticed that if I make it more than about 18%, I can no longer just push a button and make sure that the article still makes sense. So settle for 12%. I like that number. It is what I shoot for.
Now about the "Stop Spinning" statement. In my spinner, which I will keep to myself for now, I choose from a list of synonyms and make them available in each spin. If I choose 7 sysnonyms for one and 3 for another and 7 for another and change two words here and three there, I will get a unique article in the first rewrite. On the very first spin I get that 12% uniqueness. On the second I get the same and I probably do on the 7th. If I pull the handle of the spinner like a slot machine, I sometimes get the equivalent of an article written by a person for whom, English is a second language.
So Stop Spinning!
~bradleyscott
I hate to admit it but I have a few squeeze pages out there. dammit.
Everyman's Back Linking Method
Let's make something clear right up front. Sharing information about generating income on line is often associated with some form of squeeze page and a paypal account. IM people just don't share straight talk much. By now you should have learned this much. Oh and everyone is a millionaire.
So we here at the labs want to demystify Internet website marketing and share the true basic passive income generation method that can be used over and over again to create money making streams. From this you should be able to make enough income to re-invest in some true building blocks and genuine methodology training for larger and larger schema. I personally came from an System Engineering background and I like the idea of server farms full of automated seo efforts.
1- Make a blog at any blog site in the top twenty. If fact make 20 blogs. I'll add a list of them at the end of this post. These are known as web 2.0 properties.
2- The blog name needs to be in English, and have the prime keywords related to your niche in its title. Add the keyword of your article to the url of the blog as well. Just do that every time you can. Your free blogs entries should be in the top twenty blogs so that you enjoy the SEO weight they carry. It can be in some other language and culture if you are familiar with it.
3- Now, Go to Some Articles Websites Like www dot ezinearticles dot com or any of the site located at the bottom of this page. Grab three of four articles related to your niche. Read my post on spinning articles before you go charging off.
4- Pick one of the articles Spin it 6 times and make a post, one of each to all 6 of your blogs. this makes each of your new blogs unique in content. Make sure you do a strong link back to your site with an anchor in a related keyword on your main niche site
5. Spin the remaining articles heavily and submit to article submission sites like www dot ezinearticles dot com and link them back to your free blog post, NOT your main site. Do this as many times as you can comfortably submit only unique content. No dupes or your not gonna get any ranking.
6- Now You have to have some visitors (between 100 to 150 only). This is a pretty crucial and the tough part of any campaign. You must be creative here. Consider cashing in on a 100 dollar Google ad credit and buying some penny or nickle placements because you really only need a few hundred visitors.
7- Now spin 100 to 150 Articles and get them ready for your blog. Pump it but make sure they are spun well and use a duplicate content checker.
8- Now Place an 336x280 adsense ad in the top of article (where an image might reside) and another 160x600 skyscraper in the side column of your choice.
The basic method stops here. From now on you can post 5 articles over a day or two. Rinse and repeat. You site will rise slowly and your visitors should grow. Put your site(s) in your signature of your forum membership profiles and post on topic there. Just make any old comment. Do this for site after site until you can't stand it.
From here you can now do your research on monitoring, SEO, backlinking, and ways to take this method to the next level until you find your sweet spot method of rinse and repeat content. You can even learn how to farm the content writing out and post that. Work with this method an love it.
Good luck to you.
~bradleyscott
Top Blogs for posting using this type of method:
* WordPress
* Tumblr
* Live Journal
* Blogger
* TypePad
Top Article Submission sites to start outwith:
* EzineArticles
* GoArticles
* Amazines
* ArticleDashboard
* ArticleBlast
* ArticleAlley
* Buzzle
* iSnare
* TheFreeLibrary
( Keep looking and bookmarking and creating accounts and save all the info into a spreadsheet. I will have a sample spreadsheet posted at the labs . There are some serious money making article spinning machines but the best I have found is free! Learn more about it as a registered user of the lab. Also make sure you have some great link strategies in your articles. More on that here. ) Part Two of this series is available to registered users.
bradleyscott
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