We are offering a special, buy 1 of Terry's books and recieve his new book for free! Just $12.94 (when using Discount Code Tee) at www.Making36Percent.com and you get both books for the price of one.
To learn more about his books, review today's newseltter posting: Christmas Gift Ideas from the Conservative Options Strategy Website.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Terrys Tips Newsletter Posts
Adding content is critical! For Terry's Tips, we took their weekly newsletter which they were sending to their entire newsletter list every Monday and posted it to the website with an archive tool. We are now adding 1000 new words to the home page every week and adding articles to the archive. Within a week, this content is indexed by Google and appears in the search engines. And we are providing a great service for first time visitors. They get a tone of what Terry's Tips is all about and a snapshot into what the service being offered.
If you can, create a strategy that includes adding new content about your services, products or industry every week! Daily is best. Weekly is good. Monthly is a minimum.
And each of Terry's newsletters focuses on "trading stock options" which is one of their number one sought after keywords.
If you can, create a strategy that includes adding new content about your services, products or industry every week! Daily is best. Weekly is good. Monthly is a minimum.
And each of Terry's newsletters focuses on "trading stock options" which is one of their number one sought after keywords.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Google's 2009 Search Engine Results Page Change - Behavior search
This year at Pubcon by Webmaster World 2009 in Las Vegas (a trade show for everything happening in search and search engine optimization) there was a buzz about the changes in how Google is going to display search engine results pages (SERPs). Google's vision is that search will become more personalized by the user's location and previous searches.
In other words, your particular search results will be tailored to your pattern of search and your geographic location (called behavior based search). Google will begin to give personalized Organic search page results as well as more targeted Pay Per Click ads on a world wide basis.
This has been available now if you log into your Google account and perform your searches. A good example is the keyword "delta". For stock options trading website Terry's Tips, the keyword delta means "The ratio comparing the change in the price of the underlying asset to the corresponding change in the price of a derivative". Nonsense to most of us but easily understood by Terry. However, to someone in New Orleans, "delta" probably refers to "landforms where the mouth of a river flows into an ocean."
Google will now be changing the results to suit the particular user based upon their location and what other things they search for on a regular basis.
Since Terry of Terry's Tips performs most of his searches about the stock options market and trading, Google will deliver websites about options investing. While a searcher in New Orleans will get websites about rivers flowing into the ocean.
The problem for SEO folks such as us is that we can no longer do a search on Google and get the same results as when our clients do the same search. Reporting on where a site ranks in the search engines will now become subjective and very difficult to report progress to our customers.
For the customer, it will be very difficult to gauge the effectiveness of organic search engine optimization efforts performed by themselves or by their SEO firm.
Next time: What does this mean for your search engine optimization efforts today and in 2009?
In other words, your particular search results will be tailored to your pattern of search and your geographic location (called behavior based search). Google will begin to give personalized Organic search page results as well as more targeted Pay Per Click ads on a world wide basis.
This has been available now if you log into your Google account and perform your searches. A good example is the keyword "delta". For stock options trading website Terry's Tips, the keyword delta means "The ratio comparing the change in the price of the underlying asset to the corresponding change in the price of a derivative". Nonsense to most of us but easily understood by Terry. However, to someone in New Orleans, "delta" probably refers to "landforms where the mouth of a river flows into an ocean."
Google will now be changing the results to suit the particular user based upon their location and what other things they search for on a regular basis.
Since Terry of Terry's Tips performs most of his searches about the stock options market and trading, Google will deliver websites about options investing. While a searcher in New Orleans will get websites about rivers flowing into the ocean.
The problem for SEO folks such as us is that we can no longer do a search on Google and get the same results as when our clients do the same search. Reporting on where a site ranks in the search engines will now become subjective and very difficult to report progress to our customers.
For the customer, it will be very difficult to gauge the effectiveness of organic search engine optimization efforts performed by themselves or by their SEO firm.
Next time: What does this mean for your search engine optimization efforts today and in 2009?
Monday, October 6, 2008
Google to change inbound link policy
Links on websites that point back to your website are one of tools that Google uses to find new websites and rank the importance of web pages. Google also uses the "anchor text" that is placed in the link to tell Google the topic of a particular web page.
For example, TerrysTips.com. When someone wants to place a link on their website or blog or forum to Terry's Tips, Google will look at that link and attribute credit to Terry's Tips for the link. How much value is much debated. http://www.terrystips.com/ is one way to link. A better way for Terry's Tips is to link stock options trading strategies at Terry's Tips. This way, Google knows that the owner of the website believes that the Terry's Tips home page is about "stock options trading strategies".
However, there has been much abuse of this kind of linking. Link pages that just have a series of links are common these days and have been a bit effective with getting good rankings. And pages that have hundreds or thousands of links (called "link farms") have spread around the web and have been ignored out of hand by Google for years.
Google has recently hinted that they are adjusting the way they follow and give credit for inbound links. No longer will a list of links on a page give much or any credit to a site. Google wants to see links within the body of a web page that gives the web visitor more information on a topic but will clearly be related to the page that the visitor is currently reading.
So "relevant" links are now even more important than ever. Google has stressed relevant since the beginning of time (OK, well not exactly...there was actually a time before Google). "Black hat" search engine optimization folks have been abusing inbound links for years and Google is finally putting their foot down.
Cheers.
For example, TerrysTips.com. When someone wants to place a link on their website or blog or forum to Terry's Tips, Google will look at that link and attribute credit to Terry's Tips for the link. How much value is much debated. http://www.terrystips.com/ is one way to link. A better way for Terry's Tips is to link stock options trading strategies at Terry's Tips. This way, Google knows that the owner of the website believes that the Terry's Tips home page is about "stock options trading strategies".
However, there has been much abuse of this kind of linking. Link pages that just have a series of links are common these days and have been a bit effective with getting good rankings. And pages that have hundreds or thousands of links (called "link farms") have spread around the web and have been ignored out of hand by Google for years.
Google has recently hinted that they are adjusting the way they follow and give credit for inbound links. No longer will a list of links on a page give much or any credit to a site. Google wants to see links within the body of a web page that gives the web visitor more information on a topic but will clearly be related to the page that the visitor is currently reading.
So "relevant" links are now even more important than ever. Google has stressed relevant since the beginning of time (OK, well not exactly...there was actually a time before Google). "Black hat" search engine optimization folks have been abusing inbound links for years and Google is finally putting their foot down.
Cheers.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Use Analytics to measure SEO effectiveness
Google Analytics is a free program which was based on the $500 per month Urchin Live web statistics program. None of our customers could afford this program. But when Google purchased Urchin, they offered their premium service to the world...for free.
While it does take some time to properly set up analytics, with basic HTML skills you could do it yourself. If not, it will take your web people about an hour to set it up right.
What analytics provides you as the site owner is insight into how web surfers are finding your site, what pages they are looking at, how long they spend on the site, what countries they are from, what screen resolution they are using, what internet speed they are using, what internet browser they are using, etc.
The question becomes how can you use Analytics to direct your SEO efforts. Today, we did exactly that for a real estate company. Using their analytics, we discovered that 2 out of their 6 top level navigation points accounted for less than 1/10th of 1% of all of their traffic. What they thought was their primary place to rpovide information to web visitors turned out to be the least visited. And after Property Search (which accounted for over 60% of the traffic), mortgage information was next most popular. And amazingly, all the mortgage information was buried in the 2nd level.
So we are using this information to move the mortgage information pages to the 1st level of navigation and burying the 2 very unused sections of the website. We will then optimize heavily for popular regional mortgage information keywords to capture additional traffic.
While it does take some time to properly set up analytics, with basic HTML skills you could do it yourself. If not, it will take your web people about an hour to set it up right.
What analytics provides you as the site owner is insight into how web surfers are finding your site, what pages they are looking at, how long they spend on the site, what countries they are from, what screen resolution they are using, what internet speed they are using, what internet browser they are using, etc.
The question becomes how can you use Analytics to direct your SEO efforts. Today, we did exactly that for a real estate company. Using their analytics, we discovered that 2 out of their 6 top level navigation points accounted for less than 1/10th of 1% of all of their traffic. What they thought was their primary place to rpovide information to web visitors turned out to be the least visited. And after Property Search (which accounted for over 60% of the traffic), mortgage information was next most popular. And amazingly, all the mortgage information was buried in the 2nd level.
So we are using this information to move the mortgage information pages to the 1st level of navigation and burying the 2 very unused sections of the website. We will then optimize heavily for popular regional mortgage information keywords to capture additional traffic.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Beware SEO firms that gaurantee
I got yet another call from a client today that went something like this "A web design firm just called me and told me that my website is not optimized for search engines. They said they could guarantee me #1 listings in Google for $99. I would like to do the work with you but can you offer me that deal?".
After I have had a chance to calm down, I remind myself and my customer that NO ONE can guarantee listings in Google (without Pay per click that is and then usually not for $99!). No one can buy listings in Google, no one can guarantee. Have I made that clear? No one can guarantee placements. Anyone or any firm that guarantees ranking positions should be avoided like the plague.
Achieving rankings in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN representing 95% plus of the market) takes consistent effort and vigilance. Most companies do not have the resources in house in terms of expertise to be able to do this. And to get good rankings in the search engines for the right keywords takes effort and/or monetary resources. Figuring out how much to spend, how much effort to make, always depends on the Return on Investment. If a new customer is worth $100 per year to you as a business, what can you afford to spend to acquire that new customer? $50, $75, $100? It will depend on your renewal rates and how aggressive you want to be.
Any firm or SEO person worth hiring will review your own particular ROI situation and put together a plan accordingly.
Many firms have no way of measuring ROI. Tune in next time to figure out how to measure ROI for your company.
After I have had a chance to calm down, I remind myself and my customer that NO ONE can guarantee listings in Google (without Pay per click that is and then usually not for $99!). No one can buy listings in Google, no one can guarantee. Have I made that clear? No one can guarantee placements. Anyone or any firm that guarantees ranking positions should be avoided like the plague.
Achieving rankings in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN representing 95% plus of the market) takes consistent effort and vigilance. Most companies do not have the resources in house in terms of expertise to be able to do this. And to get good rankings in the search engines for the right keywords takes effort and/or monetary resources. Figuring out how much to spend, how much effort to make, always depends on the Return on Investment. If a new customer is worth $100 per year to you as a business, what can you afford to spend to acquire that new customer? $50, $75, $100? It will depend on your renewal rates and how aggressive you want to be.
Any firm or SEO person worth hiring will review your own particular ROI situation and put together a plan accordingly.
Many firms have no way of measuring ROI. Tune in next time to figure out how to measure ROI for your company.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Stock Options Trading stuck at #21
Oh, woe is me. Can't get Terry's Tips to budge from position number 21 on Google for the keyword phrase "stock options trading". I am starting to get frustrated...
Andrew Allen
Andrew Allen
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Stock Options Success #8 for "stock options trading" in Google
Our little friend has turned up again. Stock Options Success is now #8 in Google, for "stock options trading".
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Why do you need Search Engine Optimization?
Why do you need Search Engine Optimization?
I am so convinced about the efficacy of doing search engine optimization for almost any kind of website, that I rarely sit down and ask myself this very question. And well, I haven't asked myself this question...but I did get this question from a prospective client the other day and it has been eating away at me ever since.
I know i shouldn't be emotional about something as seemingly innocuous as getting good rankings in the search engines, but with my need to understand how search engines work, my desire to figure out how they can be used effectively by small and medium businesses (large corporations have whole teams on this kind of thing and still don't get it right) and my seemingly insatiable competitive spirit, I can't help but being a bit passionate about SEO.
Anyway, as I stared down this prospect, I thought to myself, yes, why indeed care about search engine optimization for your business?
While all the craze about the Internet, the web, and the information revolution, is that search engine optimization has become as necessary as having a fax machine, using the telephone, and taking credit cards. It is not only a necessary function for any small or medium sized business, it can and will be a critical and probably dominant marketing sector of this century. I don't exaggerate. Over time, search engines will replace the yellow pages, directory assistance, and most other hard copy forms of information distribution. Why print this information when you can make 2 taps on your iPhone and get the information (or even your 1 cent freebie phone from your local cellular company).
Essentially, search engine optimization is a combination of building your website with the search engines in mind and keeping them happy with new keyword rich content. Building the code so that it can be used effectively by search robots, organizing the navigation, naming the pages, writing the content, optimizing the images, adding some "webmaster" tools like XML site maps, doing some basic submissions, getting backlinks, getting listed in directories, the list goes on...
The bottom line is that for whatever your business niche is; whether it is selling to an international or national audience or selling a product/service/software that is not geographically dependent; or you are just focused on serving your geographic area (for service, retail, or local businesses); your market can be expanded with search engine optimization and if you aren't doing it, your competitors certainly will.
Every day, I find business segments in the search engines that are under-served. Our work with Able Paint and Glass recently demonstrates this. In just a few weeks, we are starting to dominate their local search engine traffic for their website http://www.ablevt.com/. We simply organized the pages, optimized the code on each page, and did some basic submissions and linking. 44 #1 positions for their top keywords on the Big 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN).
Once we add hyperlocal blogging to the mix, we plan on increasing all of these numbers!!
In the end, much like paying your website hosting bill, your yellow page advertising, and your local chamber of commerce dues, paying for ongoing search engine optimization with fresh optimized content and keeping up with the every changing world of search engines systems will be more than necessary.
And ultimately, in my opinion, ongoing dedication to SEO will provide a very lucrative return on investment for your business. If there isn't a return, I would never recommend it!
I am so convinced about the efficacy of doing search engine optimization for almost any kind of website, that I rarely sit down and ask myself this very question. And well, I haven't asked myself this question...but I did get this question from a prospective client the other day and it has been eating away at me ever since.
I know i shouldn't be emotional about something as seemingly innocuous as getting good rankings in the search engines, but with my need to understand how search engines work, my desire to figure out how they can be used effectively by small and medium businesses (large corporations have whole teams on this kind of thing and still don't get it right) and my seemingly insatiable competitive spirit, I can't help but being a bit passionate about SEO.
Anyway, as I stared down this prospect, I thought to myself, yes, why indeed care about search engine optimization for your business?
While all the craze about the Internet, the web, and the information revolution, is that search engine optimization has become as necessary as having a fax machine, using the telephone, and taking credit cards. It is not only a necessary function for any small or medium sized business, it can and will be a critical and probably dominant marketing sector of this century. I don't exaggerate. Over time, search engines will replace the yellow pages, directory assistance, and most other hard copy forms of information distribution. Why print this information when you can make 2 taps on your iPhone and get the information (or even your 1 cent freebie phone from your local cellular company).
Essentially, search engine optimization is a combination of building your website with the search engines in mind and keeping them happy with new keyword rich content. Building the code so that it can be used effectively by search robots, organizing the navigation, naming the pages, writing the content, optimizing the images, adding some "webmaster" tools like XML site maps, doing some basic submissions, getting backlinks, getting listed in directories, the list goes on...
The bottom line is that for whatever your business niche is; whether it is selling to an international or national audience or selling a product/service/software that is not geographically dependent; or you are just focused on serving your geographic area (for service, retail, or local businesses); your market can be expanded with search engine optimization and if you aren't doing it, your competitors certainly will.
Every day, I find business segments in the search engines that are under-served. Our work with Able Paint and Glass recently demonstrates this. In just a few weeks, we are starting to dominate their local search engine traffic for their website http://www.ablevt.com/. We simply organized the pages, optimized the code on each page, and did some basic submissions and linking. 44 #1 positions for their top keywords on the Big 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN).
Once we add hyperlocal blogging to the mix, we plan on increasing all of these numbers!!
In the end, much like paying your website hosting bill, your yellow page advertising, and your local chamber of commerce dues, paying for ongoing search engine optimization with fresh optimized content and keeping up with the every changing world of search engines systems will be more than necessary.
And ultimately, in my opinion, ongoing dedication to SEO will provide a very lucrative return on investment for your business. If there isn't a return, I would never recommend it!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Stock Options Trading Google Dance - Terry's Tips challenge update
How bizarre. As you may know, I have been challenged to get http://www.terrystips.com/ into the top 10 of Google for the keyword phrase "stock options trading". What you may not know is that we also have another website called http://www.stockoptionsuccess.com/ which promotes a similar product line but offers a 50% affiliate share with all White Paper purchases through the ClickBank network.
Over labor day weekend, the Terry's Tips Clickbank site http://www.stockoptionsuccess.com/ shot up to #5 on Google for our keyword phrase "stock options trading"!! I have been slowly upgrading the content on the Stock Option Success website but on a scale by no means comparable to the 1000 words a week I am adding to the home page of Terry's Tips (through our new newsletter tool). And that website is certainly no more optimized, has fewer inbound links by far, and only a PageRank of 3 opposed to Terry's 4 (down from a 5 a couple of months ago).
So why did this happen?
No idea.
What prompted me to write this blog entry is that by this afternoon, this miraculous result has disappeared! http://www.stockoptionsuccess.com/ now resides 1 place below Terry's Tips for "stock options trading" at position #23.
Barring site maintenance work or upgrades at Google that would show this as a temporary anomaly of some kind, I am not entirely sure what to conclude.
But it does reinforce the theory that search engine optimization is not a one-time effort. Constant vigilance and training is needed to keep your site in and ahead of the game relative to your competition.
Happy surfing.
Over labor day weekend, the Terry's Tips Clickbank site http://www.stockoptionsuccess.com/ shot up to #5 on Google for our keyword phrase "stock options trading"!! I have been slowly upgrading the content on the Stock Option Success website but on a scale by no means comparable to the 1000 words a week I am adding to the home page of Terry's Tips (through our new newsletter tool). And that website is certainly no more optimized, has fewer inbound links by far, and only a PageRank of 3 opposed to Terry's 4 (down from a 5 a couple of months ago).
So why did this happen?
No idea.
What prompted me to write this blog entry is that by this afternoon, this miraculous result has disappeared! http://www.stockoptionsuccess.com/ now resides 1 place below Terry's Tips for "stock options trading" at position #23.
Barring site maintenance work or upgrades at Google that would show this as a temporary anomaly of some kind, I am not entirely sure what to conclude.
But it does reinforce the theory that search engine optimization is not a one-time effort. Constant vigilance and training is needed to keep your site in and ahead of the game relative to your competition.
Happy surfing.
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