Review Defender

Google Penguin Update for Local SEO

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:45:55 +0000

This latest Google update, which appeared at the end of April, 2012, seems to have created quite a lot of confusion. In what can only be described as a ‘haphazard’ update, SEO’s everywhere, are doing their best to come to grips with possible rule changes that may be applied. Due to the confusion, there is many contradicting conclusions in relation to these very rules, and no one seems to be able completely agree on any one particular set of factors.

Basically, SEO ‘experts’ are basing their opinions on minimal data, rumor, and hearsay. There simply doesn’t seem to be enough information available to form a definite conclusion. Having said this, I am going to present some of our data and conclusions in an effort to try and clear up some of the confusion. The conclusions presented, run parallel to and in conjunction with informed opinions of several other major SEO testers I work regularly with, and who also operate with large-scale data from tens of thousands of sites.

Link Profiles

All sites/pages that lost rankings from the Penguin update, had at least 50% of anchor texts using ‘exact match’ main-term phrases. There were also plenty of comparative sites that weren’t getting hit due to a high concentration of exact-match anchors, but his can tend to happen; they just haven’t been caught yet. This only goes to demonstrate how ineffective Google really is at detecting such data algorithmically. It can be a case of ‘chance’ as to whether you’ll be actually discovered. The over-riding factor here is, that hardly any negatively hit sites with a diverse anchor text profile, could be found. The more diverse the profile, the less likely it was to be hit by Penguin. In the case where a site’s page had less than 1/3 of its anchors from that page’s key term, there was no obvious ranking drops at all.

Taking all this into consideration, it is apparent that anchor text profile remains one of the key factors of this update. A lot of damage was cause during Panda 3.3 for the very same reason, however, the ‘tolerances’ have changed considerably. It could be that Google has turned up the ’sensitivity dial’ somewhat for this update, as many sites that escaped Panda 3.3 were also caught by this.

This is also most likely one of the many reasons that so many good-quality ‘white-hat’ sites are being hit. If you don’t have many links, and are are using precise/fixed anchor texts for your article/press release strategy, then you may find your percentages are going to fail. It is therefore proof that sticking to ‘white-hat’ methods offers no guarantee against the

It certainly goes to show how sticking to ‘white-hat’ methods is absolutely no guarantee against the unpredictability of Google’s changes.

Content

Making sense from Google’s perspective, we saw some evidence that ‘power-links’ from highly relevant ‘themed’ sites, now had slightly increased ranking effects. Due to the fact that anchor texts are so easily manipulated, it is a possibility that Google has widened the gap in ranking-power between links from non-relevant sites, compared to links from tightly-themed sites. By trying to classify a site into a theme, Google is attempting to assign a different ranking value based on site topic.

I am NOT saying that ‘non-relevant’ links don’t work, or aren’t required, it just seems that Google has either turned down the ranking-effect of links from sites that it determines to be non-topic relevant, or has turned up the power of closely topic-themed links.

We certainly haven’t come across any evidence supporting there being a penalty or negative-ranking where links are achieved from non-relevant sources. This is possibly due to the fact that this would be impossible to implement, as it would virtually hit everyone. This would include the major corporate sites that Google only ever seem to pay any attention to, being their main AdWords revenue stream.

The bottom line here is, there just isn’t enough topic-relevant sites available to provide us with the IP spread, diversity, and volume required in our link-building. There is just no way to compete commercially with the quantity of links available from on-topic sites. These other links are needed to keep your glass full!

I firmly believe that content relevance is one of the biggest misconceptions to come out of the Penguin update. Matt Cutts’ example on the Google blog has lead some people to believe they can’t have links from non-relevant content. (Always bear in mind that they will take every possible chance to misinform SEO’s and create confusion). Out of hndreds of sites tat we are optimizing none of these have been affected by Panda, and only a few by Penguin. The few that were dropped with Penguin, were the very sites that we were pushing the envelope with straight after the Panda update, in order to investigate and test the threshold/limits. As soon as Penguin hit and ‘moved the bar’, they got slapped a bit. These are some of the indicators of the 50% threshold as discussed above.

Moving Forward

I could now argue that you may want to start looking for somewhat relevant topic sites as opposed to your more expensive link-building expenses from a quality private blog network, and sites that don’t have as wide an overall keyword/topic distribution in order for Google to find them easier and ‘classify’ them according to theme. I anticipate private networks popping up in the not to distant future, which are topically themed for a smaller quantity of power-links to be added into your mix.

This also presents the argument of point for themed manually-built asset-quality 2.0’s and buffer sites. This also implies, building your own mini private networks of web assets. Incorporating volumes of links into these, in addition to using a large variety of themed keywords to pass the juice onto your key pages, you will be able to make the most of all sides of this update. Ideally, you should utilize a different outbound anchor on every buffer site you build, so you don’t risk over-optimization with your key pages.

The ongoing message here is to keep coping with things that I recommended in my last update on dealing with Google penalties and ranking drops. Keep building, or start building, high diverse links, adding fresh content and start expanding your web estate incrementally. Do not contact Google. I won’t reiterate further, as my last few posts have already covered these areas in detail.

Penguin - A animal that lives in a Chilly Climate

It must be understood that Penguin is purely algorithmic in nature. There was no increase in GWT Notices, and Matt Cutts is instructing people not to file ‘Reconsideration Requests’. This means, there is no manual penalty that can be removed. It is a fundamental change to Google’s rank ordering algorithm. However, the good news is that any corrective changes you achieve should reflect in a short space of time in the results.

Some SEO’s are assuming that Penguin is all about content and not linking. If this is the case, then why are we seeing Amazon, and other big corporate sites ranking everywhere with a great deal of obscure exact-match domains featuring no content? This is due to the fact that these big sites don’t build back-links like IM’ers do. So, what little linking they do have, is very natural and their ranking comes mainly from their overall authority and on-page content, page titles and headers.

As the obscure sites we’ve seen have either no or very little SEO, they haven’t been hit by any of the algorithm changes. This means, because they’re doing nothing ‘wrong’, they don’t suffer any of the manual penalties either. They’re now ‘left’ there at the top because most of the sites that have been building back-links over the years, have been doing so in accordance with the old mas keyword-linking rules. These rules have been misunderstood for a long time, so their link-profiles are usually terrible. It can often be a case of ‘last man standing’.

Another example is, why are so many 2.0’s (and we have thousands of these), out-ranking ‘proper’ sites at the moment? A lot of these are constructed on reasonable article-quality content, however, are small in comparison to a proper site, and the link profiles in their thousands, are predominantly from off-topic content and linking.

They do, however, have a large varied inbound anchor text profiles, so they pass the Google algorithmic filters and subsequently end up out-ranking the larger, and better sites simply due to the fact that they have the right link-profile and are sitting on high authority domains.

A Degree from The University Of Diversity

Diversity is usually the key, as it creates a natural looking randomness, together with the disorder that is required. We always aim for 100% variety in our link-profile, even though we never achieve it, however, having this goal means you will never end up with large percentages of the same anchors. We’ve all heard people talk about their ‘diverse’ anchor profiles, and how they use highly varied terms. The truth is, they’ve usually used 5 different terms for the page, with most of the links to 1 or 2 of those terms, and perhaps added a few ‘click here’ generic terms in there somewhere, and maybe even a few URL/brand anchors if they’re really stretching it.

When I am discussing anchor diversity, I mean starting with 3 to 5 keywords, and dressing that up to 10 to 15 good LSI/long-tail terms. Each of those is then multiplied by 100 by adding 50 varying prefix modifiers, and 50 different suffix modifiers. We now have 1000 to 1500 different anchors with a central ‘keyword mass’ themed towards our required terms. I then add 100 to 200 various generic terms, as well as the bare URLS, and company/brand names. That all mixes together and used randomly. That is the essence of a mixed anchor profile. I will stress here that when we build links at Local Site Submit we are mixing anchor text and using a wide range of sources to get links.

Final Conclusions

A very worrying factor of this update, is that it renders negative SEO even easier. As Google appears to be working with narrower tolerances on anchor-text profiles, it makes it very easy for an unethical person to blast your site with main-term anchors from content-less sources, which will push your percentages into the red. This is one of the main areas I am hoping that Google will address in the very near future.

The biggest fall out from this entire update, is a reminder as to why everyone really needs to diversify their sales channels to ensure their income is protected. Never before, has it been more imperative to build and maintain volumes of micro-sites, 2.0’s, and buffer pages. Channeling the majority of your link-building through these, you will greatly reduce the chances of getting negative feedback, reduced direct-linking, (which is where all penalties arise from), and protect yourself by virtue of sheer scale.

As we try and tweak our programs to adjust to this algo change I cant help to think how easy it would be to crank up SENuke and hit our competitors to get them a penalty and move them off the first page. Of course I would never do this but this does not mean that someone else might. I hope Google realizes that this is not a very good update and has allot of potential issues. I would love to say “If that’s you how you want to play Google then I will just go play with Bing instead”…..but I can only do this if this is where the masses go. So time will tell if people start to leave based on a poor user experience with Google.

Todd Bryson
President
www.LocalSiteSubmit.com

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How to Rank High In Google Places – LocalSiteSubmit.com

admin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:44:34 +0000

Nobody else is creating powerhouse listings like this that will dominate Google and the local directories. Our service will blow away everyone else out there. We HAND SUBMIT to each and every directory. No Shortcuts, no data feeds, no software submissions. This is the only place that hand submits extremely powerful listings so your local business will dominate. Read on………….

Local SEO Made Easy

Local Site Submit should be your first step to internet domination. If you want to dominate Google Maps, then it will help if you have your business listed on multiple directories. Google checks these other listings and verifies that your business is legit. And you get 100 high PR backlinks to your site.

We take all your relevant information, Photos and keywords and post to each site.

We compile all of your pertinent data like services offered, then mix in the proper keywords based on what people are searching for and design a description that will help you get more traffic from searches. We then add photos and a video to your listing. By adding more information to your listing than your competitor will help your business rank higher in local directories and local search engines.

For example when you search Martial arts in Chicago within Merchant Circle our client Victory Martial Arts show first. take a look at this listing and you will see how much data we add to it like a blog post, photos and an ad.

We Make a Video

We make a slideshow video that is uploaded to You Tube. We take photos from your website and other information like phone numbers and area served. We then use this video to upload to the directories. (see an example video)

Sites We submit to

60 Local Search Directories
20 Local Search Sites
Local Maps for Mobile
10 Business Sites
10 Social Networks
10 Video Networks
7 Mobile Maps
Citation Blast
10 Web 2.0 sites

and more……………….

http://www.LocalSiteSubmit.com

Check your online Optimization Score http://www.LocalSearchTool.org

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Local Citations- Do they Still Matter?

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:49:18 +0000

A few weeks ago Google changed the look of Google Places. They changed the layout
and dropped ” More about this place” from the individual business places page. I have
received allot of question if Citations still matter.

Here is my answer:

I have been testing now for about a week and checking various rankings across
many different industries. I have also followed many local SEO’s that
I trust like David Mihm and Mike Bluementhal. I have not seen any ranking changes
based on this new look and feel of Google Places. I believe that this
change is Google’s effort to become more of a player in the
review game. And also to give the IYP’s another slap in the face.

What this means really is that local SEO’s will have to look a
bit harder to find relevant citations. But by doing a quick
phone number search on Google.com for a competitor you can easily
find their citations.

Citations still seem to be a part of the local algorithm. I’m actually
kinda glad they stopped showing them on the page. Citations in the More about
this Place would come and go for no apparent reason. This would leave me
with no real answer to anyone who asked where their citations went.

To read David’s post about this you can go here.
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/july-2011-place-page-update/

So, as I write this it seems that Citations still matter and I don’t
really see this going away in the near future. But if I do see a change
in the algorithm I will try and give you my opinion. It wont be hasty and it
will come to you with concrete evidence of what is working and what is not.

So you Local Marketer’s and Local SEO’s out there shouldn’t change much.
Ranking high on Google places is still about providing accurate and
consistent data across many sources. Its about trust and consumer reviews.
You should still get many reviews from many sources posted to many sites.
And get your citations on the national directories as well as local and niche
specific directories.

I hope this helps,

Todd

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Local Search Ranking Factors 2011 released

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:09:46 +0000

Wanna know how to get good at local seo? Then read this http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
This guy David Mihm does a great study each year. This is great because we take this data and then make tools and services based on what influences local search the most.

This will help you rank better in the blended results plus the pure results. Listen to the experts then copy. Its simple really.

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#1 Local Directory Listing Service! Really?

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 23:01:24 +0000

A customer found this and sent this to us. It says they did a stady and ranked Localsitesubmit.com #1 for best local directory submission service.

I am biased, but I do strive to make this the best service available. Really this service is built for the agency’s that are servicing local businesses. So, you cant fool them. You cant build some BS product that doesn’t work. You know these consultants and marketing companies know what to expect. They knwo what works and what doesn’t. And we have received so much feedback on how to improve the service that we have tweaked the system to accommodate their needs. This is built by Local SEO’s for local SEO’s.

We are striving to provide the secret weapon to local search rankings. We are testing new methods and coming up with new ideas to help push Google Places positioning. So, Top 10 reviews go this right I think. We are #1. And if we are doing something wrong we will fix it. Our staff is dedicated to helping our clients.

Our new online dashboard is a tribute to the needs of our clients. Our programmers our very proud of the work. We hope this makes your job easier and those that submit using local site submit encounter great online success.

Thanks and here is to opening a bottle of Miller Lite and celebrating a #1 review on some random website.

Todd Bryson
President
www.LocalSiteSubmit.com

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New Local Search Tool

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:45:47 +0000

So we are officially rolling out the local search tool checker. This tool will help your business understand how well they are optimized for local search.

In addition the Local Citation Finder will help you discover new citations in order to beat your competition in Google local.

You can check the new tool at http://www.localsearchtool.org

In the next week we are launching the local dashboard where you ca manage your local business from one single page.

Stay tuned…….

Todd

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Local Directory List Now Available

admin — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 01:39:18 +0000

I just published a current list of local directories that can be found on the local site submit blog

This list consists of over 60 local directories you can post your business information and get backlinks and citations for your business. This is the best list I have seen and is current. If you have any additions please let me know.

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Review Defender interviewed by Steve Wiiderman

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:55:34 +0000

Review Defender – A service that helps your business spread your review information to various review websites was recently interviewed by SEO expert Steve Wiiderman. Steve shows up #1 on google for SEO expert. If you are in need of an SEO expert I suggest looking up Steve’s set of tool sets to help you website rank better in SERPS.

Check out the video interview here http://www.seostandards.org/seo-best-practices/get-business-reviews.html

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Top 5 reasons to write a Press Release

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:04:01 +0000

Organic Traffic - With their universal search protocol, Google has started showing press releases in their search results. If your press releases is well put together with a keyword targeted title, it can rank for a few days in Google organic results. The press release can also get traffic from the news feed Google typically includes at the bottom of page.
Link Building – You can use targeted keywords as anchor text within your press release with a link back to your corresponding page. When the press release is distributed the links are embedded in your press release. The pres release will be picked up by distribution partners. Not all the links will be picked up, but some will.
Reputation Management - If someone has criticized your business one way to quickly get the bad review off of Google blog search or Google Search results is to issue multiple press releases. You want to include your business name in the title of the press release. Then you can get external links pointing to this site just like you would when doing normal SEO on your website.
Blogger and Web 2.0 People- Many bloggers subscribe to online press releases and blog directory sites like Digg, Stumble Upon and Technorati. If your press release or blog post interests them they will link to it and possibly blog about it. If you constantly reach out to this audience you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.
Traffic from Additional Media - If your pres release interestes media other then online they will follow up with you and write a story about your business. This strategy will lead to short term boost in traffic and sales

Common press release services include www.Prweb.com, www.PRNewswire.com, www.PR.com , www.Eworldwire.com and www.prlog.org

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Negative Reviews can hurt your business, or does it?

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:24:21 +0000

Negative reviews can hurt your business, however it also proves that it can be a positive thing. Negative reviews are often indicators of what your weaknesses are. And you can improve on thoise if you know the., Its ultimately how you handle the negative review and what you do about. As this video states, negative reviews can be beneficial if handled correctly.