Category: Search Engine Optimization

March update

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date March 29, 2017

Hi Everyone,
It’s spring, which means it’s already been a full quarter since the year started! As always there is a lot of new digital marketing information to catch up on and hopefully implement into your strategy as we enter the next three months.

If you follow me on social media (Facebook / Twitter / Linkedin) you may have already seen some of the following articles, but I have also compiled some here so you may easily read through. Each month I sift through a variety of articles with topics you will find useful as you build an online marketing strategy for your business.

Enjoy and relax while you learn with the content I’ve shared, and if you have anything you want to discuss, drop me a line.
Andy Commons – Internet Marketing Consultant
Andy@andycommons.com
www.andycommons.com
406-962-5683

Search Engine Optimization
Google gives SEO tips on how to handle day-long site closures
Need to turn off your website for a period of time, but worry your Google rankings will drop? Here are some tips from Google’s John Mueller on how to handle it.

Blogs
Will my organic rankings suffer if I don’t have a blog?
A blog can be a major investment, but the SEO benefits can make it worth the effort. Columnist Stephanie LeVonne makes the case for why blogging works to improve search visibility.

The Best Words and Themes to Generate Featured Snippets
Featured snippets have proven to be a valuable source of organic traffic and increased click through rates. This post explores the effects of query modifiers, CPC, search volume, and query length on featured snippets.

Social Media
Follow These Simple Steps To A Massive Social Following
By following a few simple rules, any business can begin building or expanding their current social media presence.

Online Marketing Pay Per Click Search Engine Optimization Social Media

Internet Marketing 101 presentation

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date May 7, 2014

A few times each year I have the pleasure of speaking on the fascinating world of Internet Marketing.

Recently, I was invited to speak again at a group of young professionals, many of whom work in the non-profit area. The audience was attentive and asked great questions! (I’ll mention a few below).

I promised them I’d share some slides with them… and if you are a reader of this blog, or perhaps got my latest newsletter, you of course are welcome to review the slides as well.

Here is the link to my 2014 Internet Marketing presentation!

But if you haven’t clicked yet, hang on. I wanted to share a few of the questions (and answers) that were asked, and point out a few other resources on this site you may want to take advantage of.

Question 1

One student asked a great question about incoming links. They had someone who took a differing view from their blog post and then linked to it from their own site. The result was even more ‘haters’ coming over to bash their blog post and leave nasty comments. They asked if they should take down the blog post, or somehow block that incoming traffic. I said No, and here’s why: Just like there is no bad PR, in my humble opinion, there is no bad traffic or links… except for totally spammy links, which is a different story. In that case, I think the inbound link is doing more harm than good in terms of better search engine rankings. But in the student’s case, not only are the inbound links valuable, the student is getting people that disagree with them to take notice and engage. Now it might be hard or uncomfortable to engage with those who don’t agree with you, but it’s a good opportunity to at least try to reason with them to get them understand your side of the issue. You may not win them over, but how you treat them will say a lot about you and your blog. Do it well and you might gain some new fans.

Having said that, if the comments on your blog are downright nasty or hateful, then you have every right to remove that comment from your blog. It’s YOUR blog, and you can control the narrative. But just know that if you start removing everything that doesn’t agree with you, then you are not really engaging them, and they will likely take notice of all the deletes.

Question 2

We discussed directory listings and how important they can be. On my homepage, I offer a free tool that will let you check your listings. PLEASE use my free Listing Checker found here. If you go directly to Yext and run their tool, you’ve just given a sales rep your company name, address and phone. You WILL get a sales call from someone. My tool however doesn’t send anyone (not even me) your info. So you can check out your rankings, and then if you are interested in learning more, you have to reach out to me.

Question 3

Finally, someone asked if posting content to a Google Plus business page is worth the effort. I can only say that I use a tool such as Hootsuite to automate posting to Google + at the same time I post to Facebook and LinkedIn. So it’s no more work, and there are rumors that a link from a Google + page is helpful in Search Rankings. So I say, why not!

So again, please enjoy my 2014 Internet Marketing presentation!

And if you know others who might benefit from this, please feel free to share this blog post.

Thanks.

Wishing you all the best and online marketing success….

-Andy

PS. If you are not on my newsletter list, please sign up. You won’t get too many emails, but when I do send one, they just might have a golden nugget you can use in your business.

Search Engine Optimization

Google’s new algorithm, Hummingbird.

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date October 25, 2013

Google recently announced a big update to their search engine ranking algorithm. Unlike the hundreds of small updates of the past, this is being touted as a brand new algorithm called “Hummingbird“. We haven’t seen such a big change to how Google works since 2001.

While the new version still tries to show search results based on the keywords entered into the search bar, Hummingbird is based on something called Semantic Search. It tries to figure out the intent of the search, and dish up search results that best fit what the use was really searching for.

Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land has a good FAQ that goes into the details, if you really want to dig deep.

But essentially, what it means to you, the website owner, is that you need to consider what phrases people are actually searching and be sure your content best matches that intention.

The example Danny gives in his FAQ is that today, especially with mobile searches, someone might ask their phone, “What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s to my home?”. While in the past Google would have only heard “Buy iPhone 5s”, now it can take the entire phrase into account.

The full sentence tells us a lot more about what the person wants. They actually want to visit a physical store (not shop online), and Google will now adjust the search results accordingly.

This is another nail in the coffin for the old school spammy link building techniques such as buying hundreds of links, sending out dozens of copies of a slightly modified article to other websites, or heaven forbid, creating fake profiles on forums with a link back to your site.

Instead, you should be creating engaging content that people want to share with others.

In addition, there is a lot of indication that the larger number of Likes, Tweets, Pins and Shares your content gets, the better off your entire site will be in the rankings.

If you want higher rankings for your website, and you want to discuss your situation with a seasoned Search Engine Optimization specialist, give me a call or drop me an email.

Also, be sure to like my Facebook Page for almost daily tips right in your newsfeed.

Best wishes on your online marketing adventures.
-Andy Commons
www.andycommons.com

Online Marketing Search Engine Optimization

Welcome Montana Public Radio Listeners

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date January 10, 2013

I’m proud to have become a sponsor of Montana Public Radio this year. Each day, I spend a little time catching up on the local and national news, plus enjoy many of their other programs.

Besides giving back to Public Radio, I’m also offering a discount on my Website SEO Audit package. For a limited time, if you mention MTPR, I’ll take 20% off my very comprehensive Search Engine Audit service.

Normally $500… yours for $400 when you mention MTPR.

You’ll get:

A detailed review of SEO Factors and how your site stacks up
Insights to the keywords you want to be ranking for
Analysis of your competition
A plan to help you compete for online visitors
A one hour phone call to go over the reports

Call or email me today to discuss how to get started.

Andy Commons
andy@andycommons.com
406-962-5683

Search Engine Optimization

Google launches Disavow Links Tool, but should you care?

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date October 18, 2012
1 Comment on Google launches Disavow Links Tool, but should you care?

A few days ago at Pubcon, Matt Cutts of Google announced the “new and improved Disavow Link tool”. (A good write-up of the Google announcement at PubCon by Lisa Barone).

So what is this tool? Bascically it’s a way to tell Google which links pointing at your site are low quality junk that you don’t really want held against you. (In case say, a competitor purchased bad links for your site to try to hurt your rankings). Yeah, that’s it.

But do you need to worry? Well, if you didn’t see a big drop in your rankings, or in your search traffic over the past couple of years for your site, you’re probably fine.

But, If your site has a large number of spamming inbound links, you may want to check with the person doing your SEO about running this tool on your site to clean up some of your past indiscretions. Again, for most people this won’t be a problem. Just keep up the good fight of

a. adding good quality content to your site (via a blog or adding pages)
b. getting a guest blog opportunity on a relevant site which includes a link back to you
c. encouraging others to link to your content via social networking and social bookmarking tools.

Here’s a deeper look at the tool by David Naylor.

Oh, speaking of rankings. Remember my post called “Movies without Shaq in them“? I just checked my rankings for that phrase while not logged in, and that post now ranks in 5th position on page 1 of Google. Kinda fun.

-Andy

Search Engine Optimization

Movies without Shaq in them

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date September 26, 2012

How did some guy in Montana rank for Movies without Shaq in them? That’s called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Can I help you rank for something?

So this is really a little experiment. Someone just created a spoof of Google, that is poking fun at the NFL Replacement Refs. So if you visit http://replacementgoogle.com/ and you enter a search phrase, you’ll get sent to the real google with a seeming random different search, such as “Movies without Shaq in them”.

Seeing this, I thought… Hmmm, can I get on page 1 of Google for that Shaq Movies phrase? You tell me. Did I?

Want to help? Link to this blog post.

And if you want me to help you review your website for how it can rank better in the search engines, drop me a line at andy@andycommons.com.

I have clients all over the world.

Search Engine Optimization

A great post on Link Building

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date April 25, 2012

In all my years of doing SEO, I’ve seen link building articles come and go.
And while this one may someday be dated as well, I’m very impressed with the ideas here. Most of them are the kind that will stand the test of time.

I’m often telling my clients how important link building is to their rankings.

Yes, it’s lots of work. It would fall under the “work on your business, not in your business” list.

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

As for me, I think my favorites are:
– Blogging with keyword rich links to other pages of your site.
– Research the links of your competitors and see if you can get them for your site too
– Get listed in Business Directories (I tend to favor Best of the web)
– Fixing broken links on your site. (just good to do anyway)

So, give this a read, and let me know if you can find one or two that you’ll take on in the next week. Just leave it in a comment here on this post.

Oh, and to walk the talk, here’s a link to my Missoula SEO page. 🙂

Online Marketing Search Engine Optimization

Using Video can give you an edge both with customers and search engines

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date June 3, 2011

An article I saw today (http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/web-video-business/) talks about how creating and publishing a video can really help promote your business.

It makes a lot of great points. It’s so true that if you have a well tagged youtube video, it can also show up on the first page of Google search results now that Google is blending in video with regular results. And since many people would rather watch a video than read, what better way to leap frog your competition.

I recommend you read the mashable article, and consider how adding a simple video to your site could help you both attract more visitors, and even convert them to sales.

Tags SEO, video, youtube

Online Marketing Random Thoughts Search Engine Optimization

SEO is no pun anymore. How Article Headlines are no longer funny thanks to SEO – in Missoula MT :-0

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date May 13, 2011

In this article for the Atlantic, David Wheeler talks about how SEO is affecting headlines. (go read it. I’ll wait right here). 🙂

I enjoyed the article, but had to grin when I went back to read the headline of the article itself. It’s a mix of both humorous and Keyword rich.

But, this actually makes the case for building a good online following and not just relying on Google. People who use online media site on a regular basis don’t need to find them via a search. They come to the home page and see what’s being offered (much like the catchy headlines in the paper or magazines). They get to enjoy the headline all the same. I will say that sometimes the puns can be so esoteric they leave me working too hard to figure out if I’m even interested in the content. When this happens, you do risk the chance of turning off your readers. Also, SEO is not all about the headline. It’s important, yes. But, if the keywords are in the title tag and article body, it should still come up. And once it’s well liked and shared a bunch (linked to for real, by real people), even more so.

Perhaps headline writers of the future will just have to up their game and figure out how to write a headline that is both keyword rich AND entertaining. Thoughts? Leave me a comment… and be sure to submit this to your favorite bookmarking site, post it to facebook, tweet a link, and stumble it. (But only if you really want to).

-Andy