Penguin 2.0 is Coming – Are You Ready?

May 15, 2013 By

You may have heard mumblings of a new Google algorithm update being implemented soon – and it has now been confirmed by Matt Cutts from Google who said “we [...] expect to roll out Penguin 2.0 (next generation of Penguin) sometime in the next few weeks.” According to Cutts himself, Penguin 2.0 is due to be significant in size, and is likely to be one of the most talked about Google algorithm updates this year. So what does this mean for you? And what exactly is expected of Penguin 2.0?

Matt Cutts himself confirmed the latest Penguin update will roll out soon

What is Penguin 2.0?

Technically, the latest instalment of Penguin is the fourth confirmed update, which is why some websites are calling it “Penguin 4”; however the internal team at Google are calling it Penguin 2.0 due to the sheer size of the update compared to the ones that have preceded it. For the sake of simplicity we will also call it Penguin 2.0.

In short, the new update will go deeper and will have more of an impact than Penguin 1.0. Google have progressed the data they were working with, so could now hit websites who, for example, build links from adult websites or other “bad neighbourhoods” or who ‘over-optimise’ their anchor text.

What does Penguin 2.0 mean for you?

We know that Google still places a lot of importance on backlinks to your website, so it is important to continue to attract and build these links. However, once this update rolls out you may want to look at cleaning up the older links that may be harming your site. As such, it is possible to get a better understanding of your current link profile by using tools such as LinkRisk so you’ll know exactly what action to take; you wouldn’t want to remove links that actually help your website to rank in Google.

Once you have removed high risk links you should look at replacing these with newer links. Even though there will always be a certain element of risk with link building as algorithm updates are constantly updating what they deem as ‘bad’, the majority of them still hold a lot of importance. Google sometimes changes their mind on the value it places on certain links, but to get your website ranking for the key phrases that are important to you, these volume links can still provide you with an SEO benefit.

When you consider that many of your competitors will still be building links to retain their own visibility in the search engines, it makes it even more vital to remain competitive in your link building activities. It is important to be aware of these new algorithm updates though as you may want to amend your practices slightly to focus on a different method of link building, for example, securing guest posts on a site within your niche that has a high domain authority. Another idea is widening the set of keywords you use to include more brand terms, as well as commonly linked phrases that would be in a natural link profile such as “click here” or other similar words.

We’d be happy to speak to you more about how we can help you to remain competitive even after Penguin 2.0. You can contact us here.

Filed Under: Industry News, Link Building, SEO Tagged With: , , ,

Manual Link Building Proud to Headline Sponsor US Search Awards

May 7, 2013 By

We’re proud to announce that we will be joint headline sponsors at this year’s US Search Awards, which take place in Las Vegas on Wednesday 23rd October 2013. 

Manual Link Building will join Majestic SEO as headline sponsors for the awards, which is the inaugural event to be held in the US following the success of the UK and European Search Awards.

Taking place at Las Vegas’ famous Treasure Island hotel and casino, the awards will feature 22 different categories designed to recognise the hard-work by organisations, agencies and individuals in the US search and digital marketing industry.

Entries for all award categories opened this week by using the form on the US Search Awards website

The event, which is being run by Don’t Panic Projects will be judged by some high-profile industry experts, including Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, US brand ambassador for Majestic SEO Mel Carson (both pictured right), SEMPO chairman Chris Boggs, MD of Latitude Richard Gregory, as well as co-founder of SEO Chicks Julie Joyce.

The deadline for entries is Friday 19th July, while the award shortlists will be announced on Friday 6th September.

For more information on the even visit www.ussearchawards.com
Filed Under: Industry News Tagged With: ,

Six Ways to Create Compelling Content from Customer Surveys

April 2, 2013 By

Creating content for your website and SEO campaigns is hard work. We should know – our clients are constantly taking advantage of our SEO copywriting service for that very reason! It’s all well and good starting off your blog or link-building campaign when enthusiasm is high and you’re bursting with ideas. But as the weeks, months and years pass by, coming up with new ideas for content becomes increasingly challenging.

If you are running short of ideas, one solution is to conduct a customer survey. You can use the results of a survey to come up with many types of original content, and here are some of the best.

1. Press Releases

A press release is the simplest and most obvious type of content that you can create using the results of your survey. The best press releases point out something interesting or previously unknown, so try to frame your survey in such a way that it generates more interesting results, and this can help to boost the amount of publicity you receive.

2. Videos

Take advantage of video content as well as written content. For example, you could interview the CEO to get his or her opinion of the results, which will show customers that their opinions really do count as well as making for an interesting feature. You can then post the video on your website as well as to video sharing sites like YouTube.

3. Case Studies 

If you find some particularly interesting results, you may want to ask some of the participants of the survey if they would like to feature in a case study. You can then interview them further using the information they provided in the survey to flesh out a really compelling case study that could help to bring your services to life and win you more clients.

4. Guest Posts

Guest posting is a fantastic way to improve your brand visibility and build links pointing back to your website. Blogs and websites are always looking for unique content, and you will be able to provide them with exactly that using the results of your survey. After all, you have unique information that is not available elsewhere, along with real-life facts and figures, which is perfect material for guest posting.

Write a few different articles based on various results from your survey and find homes for them on a variety of leading industry blogs, and you can generate some powerful links this way.

5. Infographics

Infographics remain a popular form of content, so use the results from your survey to create one of your own. Pick out the most interesting points and hire a designer to illustrate them, and you could find that this proves to be an excellent source of link bait.

6. White Papers

If you manage to generate some interest from your other forms of content, it is a good idea to make a detailed white paper available. Anyone who is interested can then download this white paper from your website, or read it on a document sharing site like Scribd, and get full access to the in-depth results along with graphs and illustrations.

Think Up Your Own Survey

If you are lacking ideas for your web content, a survey is a surefire way to generate interesting content ideas for weeks or months to come. And remember, the above is only the start. You can also use the survey results to create an email autoresponder series, social media posts, presentations that you can post to SlideShare, podcasts, webinars and more. So think up your own survey today and get inspired to produce some compelling content!

Filed Under: Copywriting, Link Building, SEO Tagged With: ,

Why You Need to Vary Your Anchor Text When Link Building

March 4, 2013 By

Google PenguinIn recent times it’s become clear that targeting just one or two keyword anchors is a sure-fire way to get your website penalised. Part of Google’s Penguin update, this algorithm change meant that paying particular attention was going to be paid to how natural your backlink profile appeared.

Although this did initially cause some problems for certain sites, it’s hard to disagree that this update was anything but good for the longevity of SEO. Any natural-looking profile (i.e. one that has had no ‘link building’ work done on it) would have mainly brand anchors, links that are just to ‘www.yoursite.com’ , or maybe even on a ‘click here’ thrown in for good measure.

What is a natural anchor-text blend?

The thing is, even though every SEO ‘expert’ will tell you that you need to have a natural looking link profile, it seems that nobody REALLY knows what the ideal percentages are to make this happen.

It’s fair to say however that while most sites will already have a small proportion of naturally-acquired branded links, if they have done any SEO work then their anchor-text phrases are potentially outweighing what would appear in a natural profile. It’s in these situations where sites have seen drops in their rankings, and maybe even required a programme of link removal to help them recover.

It varies by industry

One of the best places to start; if you are looking to make your backlink profile appear more natural then you should check what your competitors are doing. If you have seen any drop in rankings yet one of your main competitors is still sitting pretty for similar target keywords, then running a backlink checker on them using one of the many tools available will allow you to analyse what kind of activity they have been doing to remain so successful.

As with many factors in SEO, all industries are different and you’re likely to see a different percentage of targeted anchors being effective in finance sectors than those in the travel industry for example.

It varies by type of page you want to rank

There have been numerous studies into anchor-text distribution, but one on SEO Moz relatively recently suggested that it can vary depending on what type of page on the site is undergoing link building work.

While overall a fairly successful blend was around 1/3rd targeted anchors (SEO keywords in exact match and phrases) and 2/3rds natural (i.e. brand and everything else ) on a large business site, it also found that for category pages this was only around one-quarter targeted anchors compared to three-quarters natural terms. Furthermore, product pages had significantly higher anchor-text to be effective, with an almost half-half split working here.

What should you do next?

If you are concerned about the performance of your website and are worried about your anchor text being over-optimised, then Manual Link Building can run an audit of your site to help determine whether you need to clean up your backlink profile.

If we find that this is required, we offer services such as link removal – to get rid of the offending links, to branded link building to help neutralise your site’s profile and help it appear more natural to those all-important search engines.

Contact us here for more information on how we can help you.

Filed Under: Link Building, SEO Tagged With: , , ,

The Basic Factors of a Successful, Scalable Blogger Outreach Campaign

February 12, 2013 By

Blogger Outreach

When considering how to tackle a large blogger outreach campaign you need to simplify the process and break it down into short, yet vital stages. This ensures you establish a platform on which to move forward for further success.

With scalable blogger outreach you should keep three core elements in mind – the content, prospecting and the outreach itself. Get all of these integral components right and you will be networking with a variety of websites in your niche or industry that could benefit your website for months, perhaps years into the future.

Content

Of course, blogger outreach wouldn’t work without creating content. With this form of link building now considered a mainstream tactic, bloggers are becoming savvier when it comes to the type of content that they accept for their websites. With this in mind, you’ll need to ensure your writers are getting the basics right – spelling and grammar are important – though you’ll also want to generate an appeal for both your customers and a wider potential audience.

You’ll want to generate some interesting content that contains relevant information not only for your customers, but for visitors to the type of sites that you are going to be targeting. Gone are the days when you can just add a piece of uninformative content with a link back to your own site and expect it to boost your rankings.

Content doesn’t necessarily need to be self-promotional – in fact you may develop a stronger relationship with a blogger if you provide something interesting and tangible from your industry that is also going to benefit their users. And, it doesn’t necessarily need to be in a word format – videos and image-based information can also achieve the desired effect.

Prospecting

Once you are happy with your content you’ll then need to find somewhere to place it – this is where having a good marketing knowledge can pay dividends. You’ll ideally want to find a relevant audience for your content, and in SEO link building terms this means looking for other prospective sites which you believe would be beneficial to build a relationship with.

There are a number of outreach tools that can help you with this process, though it’s also beneficial to use Google search. Build a list of sites by searching for keywords that relate to your industry – add in variants such as ‘guest post’ to your search query and use tools such as SEO Moz if you are looking for sites that achieve certain link statistics such as domain authority and number of external links.

Outreach

Once you’ve shortlisted the sites you’re interested in appearing on, it’s time to tackle the blogger outreach. There are many different theories in the best way to approach a blogger when it comes to outreach, though it’s fair to say that every situation will require a different tactic.

Put simply, contact your link prospects in whatever way you deem appropriate, whether that be through building a relationship across social media, or going in head-first with a telephone call or email. Whilst emails are considered the most scalable technique, phone calls are good if you want to be more personable and have a guaranteed answer in a quick turnaround time.

Generating a Buzz

Once you’ve successfully secured a guest post on the site you want, why stop there? Generate some buzz about the post through social media – for example; promote it on Google+ and Twitter. Even old-school tactics such as social bookmarking the post will help to pass some extra authority to it, which in turn will pass through to your own site.

Guest blogging can be highly successful, yet it’s a very time-consuming SEO tactic. Manual Link Building can run your blogger outreach campaign, including the creation of interesting & relevant content, as well as the prospecting and outreach to sites within your niche. We can also boost the performance of your guest posts with a variety of social media, including Google Plus One votes, Twitter retweets and Facebook likes. For more information contact us here.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Link Building, SEO, Social Bookmarking, Web Content Creation Tagged With: , , , ,

Link Building – Giving Google What It Wants

February 1, 2013 By

Today I gave a presentation at the #searchme event to an audience of non-SEO’s

Below is my presentation – Enjoy :)

The talk when down well and there was lots of positive feedback from the audience – I just hope they fully understood it!!

Feel free to give some social love :)

Filed Under: SEO

Google Knowledge Graph Just The Start of Changes On The Horizon

January 24, 2013 By

Google may already have market dominance when it comes to search, but Amit Singhal, Head of Google’s core ranking team, has revealed the search engine is just in its infancy.

Singhal recently spoke in-depth with The Observer newspaper about its semantic search future, its revolutionary Knowledge Graph and about just how much information Google needs to fulfil a search.

Speaking into his smartphone to provide an example, Singhal asks Google for the height of teen-pop sensation Justin Bieber. Google dutifully replies with the answer – 1.7m tall, through the phone’s speaker.

How Does This Kind of Google Search Work?

Singhal explains that to answer such a question, Google needs to comprehend numerous queries; it needs to understand that Justin Beiber is a person, understand what ‘tallness’ is, determine which metric to use and where to find a trustworthy source for the answer. Rather than listing pages that simply mention words or phrases used in the search query, Google is learning to gather information by recognising the way people really think.

Unfortunately for Google however, the better their search algorithm is, the harder the job gets. As the search engine gets smarter, the more passive the web user becomes which in turns leads to far less detailed search queries being used.

Google currently puts each search through more than 570 million filters, paying attention to 18 billion factual influences. The behind-the-scenes process will only continue to become more complex as the search engine strives to provide even more user-friendly results.

Google Knowledge Graph

In May 2012, Knowledge Graph was launched with the aim of providing more accurate responses to searches. Google’s vision is to reduce any friction points between users, their thoughts and the information they need.

What this means for SEO isn’t certain just yet, but, though as we have seen with Panda, this may yet be another step towards having less of a reliance on keyword searches, and instead a greater focus on developing content that is of high quality and provides tangible information for visitors to our websites.

Filed Under: Industry News, SEO Tagged With: , , ,

Why should you outsource your SEO Services?

December 6, 2012 By

outsource-seo-blogSearch Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is essential to any business or brand’s online marketing strategies. With the internet so saturated with content, it’s integral to optimise your web pages so that they are found, read and indexed by search engines in the most efficient way possible.

What would happen if your content was lost in the sea of information on the World Wide Web? No one would be able to find out what you’re offering, where your place of work is or even your contact number. The higher up the search results you appear, the more customers will visit your website. If SEO is done well, it has the power to boost your sales sky-high. But if it’s done badly, it has the potential to hurt your brand and damage your credibility with potential customers.

SEO has become so advanced, technical and competitive now that it often requires its own dedicated department. Often business owners don’t have the time or resources to implement an effective SEO strategy. It takes skill, experience and expertise to achieve the desired results, and many companies don’t have the people required in-house to conduct SEO strategy successfully.

In many cases, it is a wise investment to outsource your SEO campaign to an SEO firm like us at Manual Link Building.

Read on for three prime benefits of outsourcing your SEO:

1 – It is cost-effective

It can be costly to maintain an in-house SEO specialist, let alone an entire department dedicated to SEO. However, by paying a fixed rate to a good SEO company, you can rest assured knowing that an experienced team are devoted solely to your SEO strategy and you won’t have to pay out for extra manpower or constant training courses.

It also makes it easier to evaluate your return on investment (ROI). The cost of hiring an SEO company will easily be outweighed by the returns as a result of better SEO, and the time you’ve saved and dedicated to another aspect of your business.

2 – Use specialist expertise

SEO is a science, not an art, and it won’t work successfully if you try and do it yourself with only limited knowledge on the subject. External SEO specialists not only have the necessary expertise in their field, but they also work with the latest and most effective marketing tools so that they stay up to date in a constantly evolving industry.

SEO done incorrectly isn’t just ineffective; it could have a damaging effect on your brand.

3 – It will be more efficient

Researching and developing an SEO strategy can take time, extra resources and energy that you’d probably rather focus elsewhere. However, a good SEO firm will comprise experts that work proficiently, accurately and quickly. They have all the necessary skills, expertise and experience required to engage with your target market. Their tools will give you the added confidence that your SEO activities – link-building, content development, coding and reporting – are being performed properly and successfully.

Filed Under: SEO

Google Returns Content to the Throne

November 14, 2012 By

The fifty shades of algorithm changes, data updates, and countless modifications being unleashed upon the internet by Google have made most companies with a web presence sit up and take notice. The key algorithm changes to be aware of are Panda, Penguin, the Top Heavy and Pirate Penalty, as-well as subsequent tweaks and enhancements Google implement on a regular basis.

What does this mean for your business?

Firstly, if you or any company acting on your behalf has ever engaged in slightly shady SEO or web content practices, then where you rank in search engines might be affected. This includes everything from thin, stolen or duplicate content, as-well as keyword stuffing, cloaking and unnatural links. Google has cracked down anything which comes under ‘black hat’ SEO practices, which is why content farms came under fire.

Secondly, and most importantly, it has restored content to the throne. Understanding that content is king is now essential to implementing marketing and credible web practices which will actually benefit your business. “Content” sounds like a marketing term, but this is nothing new. As soon as humans learned to express themselves on cave walls we created a means to communicate which transcends the face to face encounter. We have been on a constant journey to share and learn from one another, and since the first Gutenberg press, technology has been a willing partner in that journey. From cave walls to Facebook walls content has been a vehicle for our thoughts.

In the early days of the internet companies hoped they could dethrone content with poor quality web copy, shady SEO tactics, and anything else they could use which would make a website look more prominent in search engines. Google has put a stop to this.

Content is once again king. In practice this means your web copy would benefit from being of a high standard. Your website should have a steady supply of engaging content being published through its blog and social media channels. Not only will this benefit SEO tactics, but it will make you a thought leader in your sector, and give you a valuable inbound marketing tool.

Research by Econsultancy, and online services provider Outbrain, found that 75% of “digital marketers believe businesses are turning into publishers. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of them think that content marketing is set to play an even more important role over the next 12 months and 88% are convinced that it is more effective than advertising as far as sales go.”

People share things they read, watch online, and think others will like as-well.

We all share. How many times did your last blog post get shared? If you even had the time to write one.

Which is what it really comes down to. Time. Most business owners don’t have the time to write content which gets published and shared to any great extent. WordPress is a very versatile platform, but it doesn’t endow the user with the ability to write a bestselling novel.

Employing a company which can provide SEO copywriting services will give you numerous advantages. You will have a constant supply of high quality content, you will be able to adapt more easily to the new Google Dance, and your social media marketing efforts will start to generate much needed results. Ultimately the Google Panda and Penguin updates are designed to enforce the law of King Content. Now is the time to start taking your content marketing strategy seriously.

This guest post has been written by Benjamin Kerry – the owner of Precise English and has more than 10 years of experience in content development and search engine optimisation. He’s also a director of Desk Pop and can help you with anything relating to the online world, especially SEO Copywriting Services. Currently writes for several blogs and would love to write for more!

Connect with author via: Email | Google+ | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Filed Under: SEO

Appliances Online are Recruiting an SEO

October 24, 2012 By

Have you heard of Appliances Online? Distilled wrote a feature on us fairly recently and it seems that a month doesn’t go by when we’re not featured on eConsultancy.

AOL-web-logo-large

 

Anyway, I’ve got a confession to make. I’m the SEO manager at Appliances Online and I’m not very good at SEO.

Don’t get me wrong, we do ok. We measure our monthly traffic in Wembley Stadiums (a single Wembley seats 90,000) and if you believe Greenlight, we’re the second most visible site in our sector.

But who wants to be number two?

We need someone to take our onsite optimisation to the next level and it could be you.

Are you someone who can fix our duplication issues? Can you get our rich snippets to work? How about improving site architecture? And what would you do about our AJAX powered faceted navigation?

We’re hiring an SEO. If you’re interested, email me.

FAQ –

Is this a new role? No. Our previous SEO decided to jump ship and start up his own agency.

What’s the salary? Negotiable. Tell me what you’re worth.

What technical skills do I need? We’ve got an IT department to do the actual coding (they’re also hiring) but you’re going to need to be able to write the technical briefs.

Is there room for progression? Yes. If you want details ask in the interview.

What about link building? Link building skills are a bonus but we’ve got a team who already do things like cake baking competitions (41 LRDs) and environmentally friendly surveys (29 LRDs).

What’s the company like? We’re a great company to work for.

Want to get in touch? You can find us on Twitter and Facebook or just get in touch with me via email.

Filed Under: SEO
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