How do I get back into Google’s good graces?

Black Hat Google Map Listing Practices

Some Link building “services” may do far more harm than good.

Link building for SEO (search engine optimization) has become one of the most critical elements for ranking high in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Many offshore companies are offering cheap link building services for the purpose of boosting web site rankings. Here is an excerpt from one SPAM promotion for offshore link building:

“We are working in India. Would you be interested in using our Link Building Services? We will be happy to deliver one way links for any theme and numbers. We can deliver over 40,000 links to your website.”

First off, offshore companies are not bad resources to use. Many great talents work around the globe, but this offer may lead one to believe that effective link building may be as simple as building them in mass for cheap. Many offshore link building firms will build links and do it in the thousands at what appears to be a very low cost, however, all links are not equal and these mass linking strategies are dangerous.

Google imposes severe penalties for “link spamming” and provides better ranking to websites that create links that contain valuable information for users. Not surprisingly, Google wants quality content for its users and quality content comes from well written and interesting articles that attract links and traffic as opposed to automated link quantity boosting methods. Offshore companies offering large quantities of links (in the thousands or hundreds)are selling links that are not useful, and thus will either have little positive impact on your SERP’s (search engine ranking position), More importantly, mass link building strategies, if implemented, put your web site in danger of being listed in Google’s infamous supplemental index (blacklisted).

It can be difficult for someone new to web site optimization to discern good link building strategy from bad at first glance. Here is a three step example of an effective content promotion strategy that may attract quality inbound links to your site:

Step 1: Write an article about a subject. Here is an example:

http://blog.befoundmarketing.com/google-maps-now-including-paid-listings-as-organic-listing-diminish/

It is important to make this article useful and interesting as possible so that your links will attract traffic to it to also make it valuable in Google’s eyes. In this case, the article discusses a new Google service that is currently being test marketed.

Step 2: Promote it in the social media portals like Digg for example. I just took the article above and put it in Digg as follows:

http://digg.com/d31871u

Now, it is found in Digg’s engine and there is a nice link that will possibly be used and shared because it is current news about Google’s new paid local map placement service that was released in 2 test markets. Then, distribute this article to other social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and Squidoo.

That is one genuine link building strategy. Note the Digg link above. A counter of views appears in the Digg strip at the top of the page in a gray boxed area on the left. Note the number of views. What does that mean? It means that the article was promoted properly with links that are useful to the community and the content was interesting enough to attract traffic. If it is interesting enough, it may even be good enough to attract links from people who find the article to be interesting.

Google measures traffic to your website and links and other sources. That element is one of the biggest factors in ranking a page in its index. In fact, traffic is the most commonly ignored factor in gaining SERP’s and it is likely one of the most critical. Be advised; a link is no longer a link. Good linking strategies are the best way to promote your website and bad linking strategies are the quickest way to bury your web site. Buyer Beware.

Yep, there are no longer 10 organic results on Google’s Chrome browser – at least today, October 26^th. Here is a screenshot:

Recently, Google announced that it’s new paid Local Map Ads product will be occupying up to for slots in the sponsored link section just below the Pay Per Click links. The map organic listings were reduced from 10 to 7. This begs the question: is Chrome giving a view into the future of organic listings?

Google was undaunted in making the immediate reduction in map listings (from 10-7), and the map listings have always been organically ranked using a different formula than the traditional top 10 organic links. Is it possible, if not likely that the top 10 tradition is going away? If Chrome’s search results are an indicator, this change appears likely

Recently, one of our colleagues received an email from an offshore company promoting link building services. Here is an excerpt from the email (SPAM):

“We are based in India. Would you be interested in outsourcing Link Building Services to us? We will be happy to deliver one way thematic links for any theme and numbers. We have delivered over 40,000 links to various retail and agency clients spread over different verticals.

OUR USP:

• Links from Unique IPs
• Regular Caching sites
• Less Outbound Links

We have our quality department checking each and every link as per the quality parameters.

We would pick the exact anchor text and will be happy to provide a choice of using as many anchors as you want. Besides all our links pass thorough the quality parameters set for link building ensuring only high quality link building for a website.
Do let me know if you are interested and we would be happy to discuss this further.”

First off, I have no problem with hiring offshore talent – there are some great talents around the globe, but this may lead one to believe that effective link building may be as simple as matching anchor text to target keywords and loading them in “different verticals”.

Many link building firms will build links and do it in the thousands for cheap. However, all links are not equal. Here is a good article to learn more about effective link building that discusses a number of specific techniques that are useful:

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml

Note the various strategies for building quality backlinks. But also notice that the techniques are typically designed to get interesting or attention getting content out to the public. This is important because some offshore companies offering “quantities” of links are selling links that are not very useful and thus will either have little positive impact on your SERP’s (search engine ranking positions) and possible get a website into Google’s infamous supplemental index (blacklisted).

Like any other service, you can go cheap or hire good talent. Link building is no different with the one exception that it’s much harder to discern good link building from bad – at first glance. But, if you delve into the philosophy (to be defined more clearly later in this post) of Google, you will discover that Google appreciates backlinks that are used – aka, that drive traffic.

Here is a three step example of an effective backlink that may attract many more backlinks:

Step 1:

I just wrote an article about Google Maps and the new product that Google is launching (breaking news – quite valuable). Here is the post:

http://blog.befoundmarketing.com/google-maps-now-including-paid-listings-as-organic-listing-diminish/

Now, it is important to make this article useful and gather links and traffic to it to also make it valuable in Google’s eyes. So, here is one technique.

Step 2:

Promote it in social media engines like Digg for example. I just took the article above and put it in Digg as follows:

http://digg.com/d31871u

Now, it is found in Digg’s engine and there is a nice backlink (high page rank) that is likely to be used and shared because it is interesting news about Google’s new local map product that was released in 2 test markets.

Step 3:

Compound the social media link effect by bookmarking and tweeting.

In Twitter, I just used one of my ID’s to Tweet my Digg submission. Twitter, is the fastest way to drive traffic with social media and really add to the validation of my social media posts and bookmarks.

That is one technique. Note the Digg link above. If you go back to it, you will note that it has a counter of “views” at the top of the page in a gray boxed area on the left. I did this technique while I was writing an email. It took 10 minutes. As of this moment, there have been 18 views of this Digg post that I submitted only 10 minutes ago. By the time you check the number of views, it will be higher.

What does that mean? It means that my article was promoted properly with links that are USEFUL to the community and the content was good enough to grab traffic. Google sees the traffic and the usefulness. In return, I have a good reason for people to link to my interesting blog post (helps me get quality backlinks for free). I can link to my blog post from all the social media and bookmarking sites and expose this piece to others and get immediate traffic to my website within minutes. Of course, I did have to write the blog post at some point.

This is why 100 links can help you far more than 10,000 links. In fact, 10,000 links can destroy a web site.

All the reasons above are reasons for the following:

1. We employ professional writers who know how to write optimized content that captures an audience while loading the targeted keyword densities.

2. We employ professional article and directory submission professionals that follow specific marching orders

3. We employ social media techniques.

4. We research links, link building strategies, and social media about 25% of every week.

I’ve spent a lot of futile time and money chasing down link building methods in mass. Needless to say, if you are true to the philosophy of, “add value and promote effectively“, then you may build many links that are highly valuable that also generate traffic. Traffic being the most commonly ignored factor in gaining SERP’s that may likely be one of the most critical.

Being around in the Google Maps Marketing and Optimization business, you often here people say,  “those map listings won’t be free forever – they’re too valuable”.  Google now officially agrees.

In recent weeks it was announced that Google will be adding paid local results above the local map displayed to the left of the organic results. As you may notice, the famous but short lived 10-pack has now become the Lucky 7. Reducing but not eliminating local map results, Google has made room for up to 4 sponsored local map results that will reside in the sponsored link box within the shaded yellow area just below the Pay Per Click (Adwords) links. Here is a preview of how the page will look:

These ads will be sold at a flat rate monthly fee reported to range from $20 to $200 per month. It’s unclear at this point exactly what the pricing parameters are; however, this price point should be appealing to the local brick and mortar business that wants to compete against the Pay Per Click link buyers.

It appears that Google’s new local listing format will include a total of 11 slots – 4 paid and 7 organic. Organic listings are furnished free of charge by Google, however, with competition escalating for these limited positions, many firms are implementing specific optimization strategies to affect map rankings. More are likely coming into the fray.

Currently Google is testing their new paid map listing product in San Diego and San Francisco. Google’s paid map listings are an exciting development that might offer an advantage over traditional Pay Per Click advertising. Only the test subjects in these select markets have a preview to burning questions:

1. What, if any difference will there be in CTR between PPC, paid map listings, and organic map listings?
2. Do the map listings rotate or will it become a bidding strategy to maintain first page paid map listings?
3. What stats will the Google LBC dashboard include?

Following the recent dashboard inclusion in June, it stands to reason that the local map product would continue to evolve. Initially, the map listings will include the following features:

1. Ads shown on Google.com and Google Maps
2. A flat monthly fee based on your location and business category
3. First 30 days free
4. No bid or keyword management
5. Free call-tracking, announcing each forwarded customer call (’This caller brought to you by Google’)
6. Full report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps
7. The option to cancel your ad at any time

As Google unveils this new service, we will begin testing the metrics and reporting them in test cases. As the changes – from the 3 pack to the 10 pack to the 7 pack – all inside of one year continue to shake the foundations of local search, one thing is clear, Google is undaunted in the quest for more revenue as it gains more and more market share, and more changes are likely on the way.

Part of Local Maps SEO marketing success is the knowledge of how to create a complete listing. Google had tutorials on how to create quality listings but they have not published a chart that describes the elements that comprise a complete listing by proportion. Creating a complete listing (Google provide a percentage guideline in the LBC) is one of the many factors in having the best chance of landing a solid map ranking.

The following chart is the proportional breakdown that is practical in determining how to achieve a 100% score.

Completeness of a local map listing will not guarantee ranking success; however it will contribute to your overall map ranking score. For a more thorough analysis of your map ranking and how to affect many more factors that will give you a competitive edge, contact Be Found Marketing at 888-287-7370 for a free consultation.

IN A CASE STUDY, LIMO SEO INCREASED A LIMOUSINE OPERATOR’S BUSINESS BY 147% USING SEO MARKETING METHODS TAILORED TO SUCCEED IN THE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE FIRST PAGE GOOGLE MAP AND ORGANIC RANKINGS.

Limo SEO, a marketing firm specializing in Limo Web Design for 4 years and limo marketing strategies has launched a specialized marketing and SEO service for limousine companies. The service provides market-exclusive search engine and local map optimization for limousine rental companies seeking to dominate local search results.

In a case study, using map optimization and SEO strategies tailored to limo companies, Limo SEO team was able to increase the volume of a limo business by 147% over the prior year. With Google now being the most common method used to find a limo company, the importance of a strong online marketing strategy for limousine companies has never been greater.

“Limousine operators rely more on search marketing to acquire new customers than most other businesses,” says Steve Welkinson, spokesman for Limo SEO. “By focusing on SEO for limousine companies, we provide a unique market advantage for our clients.”

Studies into local business marketing trends reveal that over half of all searches for local businesses are initiated in search engines. An estimated 95 percent of Google users never click past the first page of results, and over 70 percent of them rely on organic rather than paid search results. Higher organic search rankings prove to be cheaper and more effective than any other form of advertising for local businesses online.

The growing importance of search rankings underscores the need for limousine operators to market creatively and aggressively. Limousine companies don’t benefit from a brick and mortar presence like many local businesses – they rely on search marketing and directories as a result. With the significant decline of Yellow Page directory usage and the explosive growth of local business search online, limousine companies are faced with new challenges. “General marketing techniques are not enough to succeed in the highly competitive local limousine industry,” says Welkinson. “Our exclusive clients benefit from our understanding of local markets and our specialized limousine marketing techniques.”

Why Google and Why Us?

More so than most businesses, a limousine web site is now your business’ most critical asset in marketing – bar none. We specialize in online limousine marketing – 90% of our clients are limousine operators who want the best competitive advantage in their market – just like you. We’ve developed specific strategies for limousine companies that maximize return on investment and grow sales in this tenuous economy. If your goal is to maximize your return on investment using this critical asset, or you want to build a new and effective website to match the strategy, we can formulate an online marketing campaign that will outclass your competition – affordably. Unlike most SEO firms that are comfortable with losing occasional clients, we GUARANTEE results. We do this because our success rate with our specialty market, limousine and transportation companies is 100%. You’ve already invested 2 minutes to read this message. Invest 10 minutes allowing us to show you real world examples of other limousine companies we’ve helped and you will immediately understand that your partnership with us may be the most important factor for the growth of your business.

Bona Fide Case Study:

We received permission from one of our limousine company clients (November Limousine in Tampa Florida owned by Mr. Smitty Simpson) to disclose the results of a campaign we’ve been managing since July of 2009. Being that Simpson tracks his own traffic, he graciously allowed us to look at not only his web stats, but also his revenue comparison to 2008. Earlier this year, the November Limousine, a company with 11 limousines in 2 locations, dropped prices across the board by 33%. Despite the price decrease, revenue in August of 2009 was 147% over August of 2008. The rapid acceleration of business volume, according to Simpson, was directly attributed to a massive jump in calls that resulted from direct traffic to his website.

Note that Novemberlimousine.com attracted 2030 visitors to the site in the month of August of 2009. Here is August of 2008 chart:

Note that in August of 2008, the site received a total of 32 unique visits. Simpson attributes his growth purely to efficient map and organic positions that he has achieved using Limo SEO and map optimization services. The campaign is still young and as time goes on, November Limousine websites and locations will continue to see increased traffic and performance as more and more positions hit the first page of Google. Far surpassing the performance of Pay Per Click campaigns, the efficiency stems from knowledge of how to get the best organic positions on Google and Yahoo.

You have nothing to lose. Limo SEO backs it service with 100% money back guarantee – if a valued client does not achieve positions on Google’s first page for competitive search terms, you get your money back.

Being that Limo SEO is a boutique online marketing firm catering to limousine companies around the country, we understand that there are only so many slots on the first page of Google – this is why we limit the size of our company by capping the number of limousine companies we service. If we represent your company, we will provide the most important marketing edge for your company. Conversely, if we represent your competition, we will help them dominate your market. You have a part in that decision of who we represent. If you are ready to grow and flourish in this economy, seize the opportunity to work with the best in the business by calling Limo SEO today.

Limo SEO offers expertise in all phases of Google search marketing. PPC, Organic Map Optimization, and Organic SEO – the three parts of Google’s first page – the art of optimizing the three distinct areas of the page to meet every objective is a subject we constantly study.

Google, Yahoo, Bing and others feature maps now for more search terms than ever before – and it seems to be trending more in that direction. For example, 3 months ago, map listings didn’t appear for keywords like “Los Angeles realtor” or Los Angeles realtors” – today, Google is not only displaying map results for these keywords, but shaking the foundations of traditional organic optimization. As map listings become more ubiquitously present in local search, the effect on overall marketing strategy requires a fundamental shift. A new discipline, local map optimization will reign, if it does not already, as the most critical element to a local SEO strategy.

The following eye chart shows just how critical local map positioning is:

You’ve probably seen this classic image before. The X points represent clicks and the red/yellow areas represent the most intensely viewed areas of the search page. The darker areas of the page represent less viewed areas of the page. Based on this study of the 96% of users who never leave the first page when they search, one thing is for certain, the local map section resides in the hottest (most intensely viewed) portion of the search page.

Local map listings ooze practicality. If a user is searching for a carpet cleaner, plumber, or even a plastic surgeon, they may prefer local results to paid and organic listings. Google has trained us to use local search keywords by giving us better results when we are searching for a local company when we add city state combinations. At this point, it’s likely that most people have searched enough now to know that to obtain local good local results using city/state descriptors. For those who want immediate local contact options, map listings offer them in a uniform fashion unlike any other portion of the page by listing the phone numbers in clean rows along the side of the geographic breakdown of each business. In addition, customer reviews are immediately obtainable with one click – so you can research and contact a company all in one easy step with map listings. Obviously these features are not currently available in the sponsored and traditional organic results.

Although no recent studies have been published about the distribution of clicks on organic, map listings, and sponsored links, the consensus for years has been that 65-70% of all clicks flow to the organic areas of the page. Many users prefer what they consider to be Google’s “genuine” or “natural” results to paid listings. Being that map listings are often the first set of organic listings, it is possible, if not likely, that local maps listings may in fact garner the largest portion of potential clicks. That being said, local map listing optimization may be the most critical piece to your local online marketing campaign.

For an expert consultation in the areas of map optimization, SEO, and paid search optimization, call Be Found Marketing today at 1-888-287-7370.