To say "SEO has changed a lot” would be the understatement of the decade. Just take a look at how Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates shook the world of SEO professionals. Marketers and SEO agencies worldwide halted their link-building and keyword-obsessed ways, and swapped it for a long overdue focus on quality content.
But does that mean an SEO’s job is just to pump out high-quality, keyword-optimized content? Far from it. In fact, SEO has changed so much in the past several years that many marketers aren’t sure what’s outdated, what’s important, what will actually move the needle, and what’s simply a wasted effort. This blog post, an excerpt from our new ebook, 17 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind in 2013, will point out seven of the most common myths and assumptions about how SEO works, and debunk them for you so you’re not wasting a single moment on things that simply don’t matter for SEO moving forward. Ready to throw some of your false SEO beliefs out the window? Let’s get started.

Myth #1: We Must Rank Number One

Studies of clickthrough rates and user behavior have shown that searchers favor the top search results -- particularly the top three listings. However, it’s also been shown that on subsequent pages, being listed toward the top of the page shows similar click behavior.
Now with search results also being appended with author profiles and rich snippets, clickthrough rates are proving to be higher on those listings even if they don't appear among the top results. The takeaway here is that relevant information and user-friendly listings are more valuable than just rank alone. So, no, you don't need to rank in first place anymore to see success.

Myth #2: Keywords Need to Be an Exact Match

Keywords do not need to be repeated verbatim throughout a piece of content. In titles in particular, it's far more important to use keywords in the way it makes most sense. Write a stellar headline (somewhere around 4-9 words) that focuses on clearly explaining what that particular piece of content is about. Nothing is more of a buzz kill than reading a headline
that’s awkwardly framed around one keyword phrase or, worse, one that forcibly repeats a keyword phrase. Keep in mind that this rule applies to both headlines and content on the page, too.
And in terms of the "ideal keyword density" for a given page, there is also no magic number. This myth is like a pesky little fly that keeps coming back no matter how many times you swat it. So for everyone who still clings to this one, there is no ideal number of times you should repeat a keyword on a given page. You should, however, make sure your keyword(s) are included in your page title. After all, how else will people know what your page is about? The keyword (or a variation of it) should also be included in a headline on the page, ideally also within the URL, and at least once within the content. Again, the goal is to make your content clear and to meet the expectations of the searcher; that’s why they clicked through to your page, so don’t assault them with over-optimized content.

Myth #3: Social Media & SEO Aren't Related at All

The intersection of SEO and social media is referred to as “social search.” And yes, social search is very much a real thing. An increasingly formal relationship between search and social has been evolving for years, and Google has been working hard to prove this with Google+ and Google Authorship. It’s a natural extension of what has always been true: Content that’s relevant and can be trusted as authoritative will continue to drive both your search and social media marketing.
In social search, content that has a social connection to you in some way is prioritized, which could mean someone you are linked to via Facebook, Twitter, or any other major social network. Alternately, some forms of social search prioritize content that has been shared by social media influencers, even if those experts aren’t directly tied to you. The lesson, folks, is to make sure you have a social media strategy and think of it as part of your search engine optimization efforts -- the two should not be working as silos. If you're looking to learn more about social search, this blog post has a crystal clear explanation of how social media influences SEO.

Myth #4: The H1 Is the Most Important On-Page Element

Think of the content structure on your web page as an outline. It’s a tiered approach to presenting information to a user -- and to search engines. What title tag that headline/thesis is wrapped in has little to no influence on your overall SEO. In fact, that title tag (whether H1, H2, H3 …) is only used for styling purposes. The H1 (heading 1) tag is simply part of your CSS (cascading style sheet), which a designer puts together to reference what font styling and size will be applied to a particular piece of content.
This used to be something that was more important. Now, however, search engines are much smarter than that, and unfortunately, people spammed this to death. So it really doesn't matter what header tag you use as long as you present your most important concepts up front, or closer to the top of the page. Remember, you are optimizing your page for users first and foremost, which means you should want to tell them ASAP what your page is about through a clear headline.

Myth #5: Microsites and Other Domains I Own That Link or Redirect Back to My Site Will Help My SEO

The chances of this doing much for you are slim to none. It’s like voting for yourself a thousand times in an election: It will still only count as one vote. Search engines are smart enough to know who a particular domain's registrant is, and they'll see that it’s the same person as your primary domain. And if you're reading this and thinking, "But what If i just change my registration information?" then you are clearly thinking like a spammer. Don’t be that person.
Furthermore, there isn't much value in spreading your SEO thin, which is what you'll end up doing by setting up domain after domain ... after domain ... and optimizing each separately rather than putting all that love into your primary domain. Why not just add that content to your primary domain, or build a tool as an add-on to your website?

Myth #6: More Links Is Better Than More Content

This myth is one that often comes along with the question, “Which should I invest in -- link building or content creation?” Yes, inbound links are an important part of your website’s authority (even with the changing link landscape); however, if you have budget to invest in your website, I would say, “Hire someone to write for you” in a heartbeat. All too often, when businesses hire someone to do link building, they focus on the quantity rather than the quality of those links. But linking is not a numbers game anymore. Instead, it's more important to focus on attracting relevant and diverse sources that link to relevant pages on your website. And when you invest in content, which can take the form of web pages, blog articles, lead generation offers, and guest articles on other sites -- these are all content assets that will enable you to generate more inbound links over time.
That being said, if you're among the group of people who think that as long as you have a good blog or some good content, then your SEO is secure -- I wouldn’t go that far. Don’t get me wrong, good content will take you a long way, but it can’t be the only tool in your SEO tool kit. Years ago, when HubSpot first started teaching people about search engine optimization, one rule was essential: Above all else, create high-quality, useful content. But now you need to ask yourself more of the following: Are you writing with a purpose? Who is your target audience? Have you analyzed your traffic sources and top performing posts? What keywords are you targeting? If all of these sound foreign to you, then you’re missing the mark,
and content alone will only get you so far.

Myth #7: SEO Is Not a Usability Issue

This one truly grinds my gears. SEO has evolved from simply getting found, to improving how users engage with your content. In fact, SEO, which technically stands for search engine optimization, is so much more than just optimizing for search engines. First and foremost, you need to optimize for users so they actually click through your search listings to your website. And once they click through, they should stay there.
To keep visitors on your site, ensure that you’re publishing content that’s both personalized and relevant to your target audience. You should also make an effort to create a website that's intuitive and easy to browse through (accessible by search crawlers and users). Don’t make visitors look for what they need. Display clear calls-to-action, and you’ll be much more capable of converting those users. That’s what SEO is really all about -- search experience optimization.
Curious to know what other common myths might be negatively influencing your SEO strategy? Download our ebook for the full list of commonly believed SEO myths so you can base your SEO strategy on fact -- not fiction.

Source : http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33926/7-Common-SEO-Myths-to-Throw-Out-the-Window-Immediately.aspx

One of the main marketing strategies that can help online retailers build a successful Internet business is search engine optimization (SEO), the process of tailoring your website to the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites based on “signals” that the site emits.

However, search engine algorithms continue to change with time as the Web evolves (Panda Updates, anyone?), so online retailers need to evolve with the engines. We must make sure we keep up to date with best practices to claim the best possible rankings for relevant keywords.
If you want your website to rank well in 2012, here are 6 components of SEO that online retailers should know about when optimizing their e-commerce website to rank well in top search engines:

1. Keywords. Keyword research is the first step to a successful SEO strategy. Those successful with SEO understand what people are searching for in a search engine. These are the keywords they use to drive targeted traffic to their products. Start brainstorming potential keywords, and see how the competition looks by using Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you notice that some keywords are too competitive in your niche, go with long-tail keywords (between two and five words) which will be easier for you to rank. The longer the keyword, the less competition you will have for that phrase in the engines.

2. Meta tags. Meta tags still play a vital role in SEO. If you type any keyword into a search engine, you’ll see how that keyword is reflected in the title for that page. Google looks at your page title as a signal of relevance for that keyword. The same holds true for the description of that page. (Don’t worry about the keyword title tag—Google has publicly said that it doesn’t pay attention to that tag, since it has been abused by webmasters and all those trying to rank for certain keywords.)

3. Content. It’s true, content is king. Search engines have stated that creating quality content is the best way to not only rank for keywords, but also create positive user experiences. It will also go a long way with making sure you’re educating your consumer, and being an authority in your niche will leads to boosts in sales.

4. Backlinks. If content is king, then backlinks are queen. Remember, it’s not about which site has the most links, but who has the most quality links pointing back to their website. Build backlinks by submitting monthly or bi-monthly press releases on any exciting company, and contacting popular blogs in your niche to see how you can work together to get a backlink from their website. Create the best possible product site you can, so people talking about the products you sell will link back. Try creating graphics or newsworthy content that will influence bloggers and news websites to link that content.

5. Social media. The algorithms have truly changed since social media first emerged. Many content websites are community-oriented—Digg began allowing users to vote which stories make the front page, and YouTube factors views and user ratings into their front page rankings. Therefore, e-commerce stores must establish a strong social media presence on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. These social media sites send search engines signals of influence and authority.

6. Product images. If you think images don’t play a role, think again. When many consumers search for products in the search engines, not only are they looking at the “Web” results, but they’re also looking at the “images” results. If you have quality images of that product on your site—and the files’ names contain relevant keywords—these images will rank well in search engines. This avenue will drive a lot of traffic to your site, as potential customers will click on that image to find your store.

In addition to optimizing these six areas of your site, analyze your competitors and see what they are doing in terms of on-page optimization, off-page optimization (competitive link analysis) and social media. While you may be doing a lot of the same things they are, it’s incredibly important to think outside the box to get a leg up over the competition.

Source : 6 ways to increase your Google search ranking
Social Media

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Imagine this: In a blink of an eye your website vanishes from Google. Trying every variation of your domain name in the search box — but nothing. You, my friend, have been de-indexed from Google.

That’s a tragic place to be in. All your hard work gone up in smoke, you are effectively invisible to everyone in the world now. This is exactly the spot that iAcquire found themselves in May 2012 when they were caught up in the Dun and Bradstreet link buying scandal. JC Penny, Forbes, and Overstock also found themselves in a similar position (being penalized for link buying, but not necessarily flushed from Google’s index).
Never mind whether or not you agree with Google’s rules, and the punishment meted out, Google’s rules are the ones everyone has to play by. These rules, and the penalties, should not really surprise anyone. And no one should need to have described how crucial search is to a business’ success online either. Although social recommendations are catching up, search remains the number one way to drive traffic a website. All this is common knowledge, I only reiterate to hammer home how crucial it is to have a healthy relationship with search engines.
Now that we’re focused on the horror of “de-indexing”, unnatural link acquisition isn’t the only way to get banned by Google. There are actually quite a few more. If you are new to SEO, let this be a warning. If you are a seasoned SEO, let this be a reminder—or a crib sheet you can forward to anyone who is suggesting you do WHATEVER it takes to rank them. Here’s a list of absolute “don’ts” where ranking is concerned.

1. Cloaking

The cloaking process works like this: You show search engines one thing and your visitors something else. The most obvious example would be a site promoting kayaking in the search results, but sending the searcher to a pornographic page. Or one selling Viagra. Or some shady off-shore tax scheme.
Cloaking is accomplished by delivering content based upon the IP address or the User-Agent HTTP. If a search spider is detected, then a server-side script delivers the kayak version of the page. If a user is detected, then the pornographic content is served.
This practice is deceptive—and flat-out forbidden by Google.

2. Duplicate Content

Black hat SEOs will try to boost page views by creating multiple pages of the same content. This is a pretty straightforward tactic, but is equally condemned by Google. Spammy sites and repeat offenders will more than likely get canned from Google—or at least dropped to the bottom of the barrel in search rankings.
Here’s the thing: You can inadvertently create duplicate content on your website through category, tag, and archive pages. This won’t get you banned from Google, but it could get you penalized.
And what about people stealing your content? Notify Google.

3. Writing Content with a Machine

As you can probably guess, black hat SEOs are lazy, and this vice is seen most clearly in the tactic of getting machines to create content.
Sometimes this is generated from scratch, but more often than not, this content is created by scraping already existing content, modifying the document, and then re-publishing.
The motto in this example is “I’m not going to waste my time creating content when I can borrow someone else’s and make it mine.” Google will punish this.

4. Add Unrelated Keywords to Your Content

Keywords aren’t what they used to be in the search marketing game, so you don’t see a lot of keyword stuffing anymore. But that doesn’t mean Google won’t punish this practice. You see, some SEOs still recommend this.
Never list keywords that don’t relate to your site, repeat a keyword that does relate to your site dozens of time, and embed brand name (trademarked no less) and competitor name keywords. This may not only get you banned, but it could get you a lawsuit.

5. Joining Link Exchanges and Bad Neighborhoods

Online etiquette says that if someone links to you that you should link back to them. Well, that’s debatable.
Google will judge your external links just as closely as they will evaluate the incoming links to your site — and they will evaluate the quality of those sites sending and getting links from you. Linking out to low-quality sites can damage your reputation and lower your Page Rank. Trade in paid links and you will get banned. Just ask iAcquire.

6. Font Matching

Another old-school black hat tactic is to plaster keywords on a site in the same color as the background, inevitably hiding those keywords.
It’s laughable how easy this is for Google or anyone to spot (the keywords show up in the code as text—as does every other element of a webpage—no matter what color the font). What’s not so funny is the penalty; you could get dumped from Google.

7. Microscopic Font

Another variation of keyword stuffing is to place keywords at the bottom of a webpage in font so small that it’s incomprehensible to the naked eye.
Again, Google can de-index a site for this (no matter the size of the font search spiders still read the same code) for trying to game the system.

8. Stacking Titles

You have to give it to the old school black hat SEOs. They are a creative bunch. Title <title> stacking means nothing more than writing more than one headline for a page—stuffing keywords into those titles. You’ll get no love from Google on this.
If you want to optimize your headlines with keywords, then front-load the headline with those critical words … and take full advantage of all 70 characters.

9. Doorway Pages

This is a tricky one because doorway pages are in the end landing pages optimized for one keyword. The difference between a legitimate keyword optimized landing page and one that Google will pooh-pooh is that the legitimate page provides original content.
For example, bloggers will often create a hub page for a series of articles they did on a particular topic, like “content marketing” or “social media metrics.” They’ll provide an introduction (unique and useful) and then links to those pages in the series.
A spammy doorway page optimized for “content marketing” will not provide original content (and probably employ one of the black hat tactics above) and will not send you to useful content—more likely an ad to buy Viagra from some offshore pornographic studio.
Spammy doorway pages can get you banned. And this is why you need to be careful if you are using landing pages for affiliate links.

10. Point 100 URLs to One URL

Because keyword-rich, exact match domains are still a strong indicator of a site’s content, people want to abuse this by buying every single domain available—plurals, misspellings, adjectives, location, and loaded with keywords. Just think used-clean-cars-sale-city.com.
Next, they point all of these URLs to one domain because, they figure, 100 hits a day to 500 different websites is 50,000 hits a day. Makes sense, right?
That would be super cool if it worked out that way, but it doesn’t What happens is, these sites aren’t indexed except the one—and it may not be your main domain. Busted.

11. Abusing Rich Snippets Markup

Google automatically generates the rich snippets you see on search results these days, but that doesn’t mean they won’t intervene by disabling rich snippets for a certain site if they detect abuse or deception—like marking up invisible content or deceptive content.
Rich snippets can be gamed by creating fake reviews or, like the cloaking tactic, show Google one thing and deliver something completely different to the user (like cheap Viagra through an offshore pornographic site). This destroys user experience and will bring Google’s wrath down on you.

12. Sending Automated Queries to Google

Remember WebPosition Gold—the software tool that automatically tested a keyword’s organic popularity using Google’s SOAP API?
If you’re new to SEO, then probably not, because back in late 2006 Google changed its webmaster guidelines and killed WPG:

“As of December 5, 2006, we are no longer issuing new API keys for the SOAP Search API. Developers with existing SOAP Search API keys will not be affected.”

Here’s the deal: Google hates automated queries. Why? In their own words:

Sending automated queries consumes resources and includes using any software (such as WebPosition Gold) to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries. In addition to rank checking, other types of automated access to Google without permission are also a violation of our Webmaster Guidelines and Terms of Service.

Violate that and you get penalized. The consequences vary.

13. Building Water-thin Affiliate Sites

Making money selling other people’s products is a viable way to make a living. This is why online affiliate programs are pure gold for people who want a passive income.
But if your website is nothing but a warehouse for other people’s products (Read: You are not creating original content, but, worse, simply scraping product descriptions from the producers) and you’ve adopted a paper-thin template, then Google won’t tolerate you.
Mess with the user experience and you make an enemy of Google.
To get around this professional affiliate, marketers need to invest time and energy in providing useful and relevant content, as well as building sites with safe and secure themes and long-term hosting signals.

14. Scraping Content

Black hat SEO is really short-cut SEO. It’s the lazy man’s way to high rankings. These SEO tactics trade in short-term gains at the expense of long-term success. This is equally true for scarping content, scraping content is not something that the average person will do because most of us are programmed to know that taking something that isn’t ours is wrong.
But there are some fine lines on the Web. I’ve run into people who thought it was okay to copy and paste an article to their website—as longs as they left attribution (without the link). Sometimes they did link, but still grabbed the entire article. Still others publish a portion, but even this can spell trouble with Google.
The bottom line is this: “Are you producing original content?” This is where curators can get in trouble, too, if they aren’t adding value above and beyond the original site holder.

15. Sneaky Redirects

The adjective in the title of this section is a dead giveaway: “Sneaky.” That means there are some legal redirects, the 301 being the most common—sending a visitor to a different URL than the one requested. The most common example is when you are moving a site from mydomain.com to myrockstardomain.com.
So, what differentiates an honest redirect from a sneaky one? Well, when you are trying to be deceptive. You’ll break WNT laws if you use some type of technology like meta refresh or JavaScript to shift the direction a searcher is travelling—in other words, when you toy with the user experience. What happens is the googlebots will index the original URL, but not the redirect.
Of course you can use JavaScript legitimately to redirect people, like in the case of moving users to an internal page once they are logged in, or even, as a hack, to redirect your site after moving it if you don’t have access to the server (not your best choice, though).

16. Duplicate Sites

By now you should know that this is dead ringer for a Google Webmaster Guidelines violation. You should be saying to yourself, “Google rewards those who contribute value to the Web and user experience.” Google punishes lazy webmasters.
People who create duplicate sites are usually trying to outrank the original site. This might be an affiliate who wants to rank above the company he or she is promoting. And because it’s not a unique site with unique content, it gets canned.

17. Interlinking

Some SEOs might argue that this is grey hat: You know … it’s a method that exists in the grey area of SEO tactics — not necessarily black, but not necessarily white. Regardless, Google will punish you if you are guilty of interlinking.
What is interlinking? It’s basically a scheme that takes advantage of the importance of inbound links in search engine ranking by building dozens of sites, and then linking to each other.
This is a tough scheme to detect by either Googlebot or users—unless someone delves into some serious sleuthing or notices that a handful of similar sites dominate the search engines in the search listings. If caught all the sites could get de-indexed.

Conclusion

You might consider yourself a true white hat SEO guru, but falling into using one of these schemes (or some slight variation of them) can ruin anyone’s reputation. If you get a message in your WMT inbox indicating that there are serious problems with your site, the wages of SEO sin can come back to haunt.
If you are reading this, let’s say you do wake up one morning and find yours or your client’s site gone from Google. Sure you can appeal and recover — like iAcquire did, but there has to be some serious boot-licking and website code overhauling going on. What risk it? I hope this has helped.

Source : 17 Ways to Get De-indexed by Google

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Every year SEO gets more complicated as Google rolls out updates and changes the rules. This is especially frustrating for small business owners who don't have the time or resources to stay current in, what they believe to be, an esoteric and confusing industry.
Here are seven small business SEO tips to help earn more business through traditional organic search rankings.

1. Onsite SEO is Necessary But Not Sufficient

Yes, optimizing title tags, site structure (keep it flat) and load-speed are important. Many experiments have shown these elements are in the Google algorithm.
Don’t obsess. Hire someone to run an assessment and tune up the site; then move-on. Far too many small businesses get stuck at the starting line.

2. Website Content & Experience Are Critical

We have all read that “content is king,” but what does that really mean?
Your website must have engaging content for the end-user. The importance of this can’t be overstated. It will impact time-on-site, conversion and SEO (engaging content is more likely to be shared and linked to).
It is also critical because it orients the small business webmaster towards offering something of value. Thin content leaves a bad footprint, both onsite and offsite.

3. Use Content Marketing to Earn Backlinks

Most small business owners are savvy enough to know that 70 percent of their search engine rankings are the result of backlinks. Being a pragmatic bunch, they then ask “where can I buy some?”
Don’t buy backlinks - it also leaves a bad footprint.
Small business marketers need to earn links, and content marketing is extremely effective for gaining earned links. The trick is in the trade. Something of value must be offered.
Quality content containing humor, information, controversy, politics or training usually brings backlinks - and is definitely considered acceptable SEO.

4. Know Your Backlink Profile

There has been healthy debate recently about the changing role of anchor text in the Google algorithm. Even if the importance is fading, it is clearly still a factor.
Small businesses should know their backlink profiles. A lack of branded anchors and brand mentions is a clear signal of manipulation, and therefore a rank killer.
Healthy businesses market their brands through press releases and are discussed in forums by name. This all leaves a good footprint.
Co-citation is also a sign of a natural backlink profile. Strong companies are mentioned in the same paragraph as other strong brands.
Articles with a single anchored link to a website with low domain authority sticks out like a sore thumb. Google can spot these insubstantial articles and weighs the links accordingly, or worse. Read about the Penguin update for more.

5. Create Buzz Through Community Building

While the term link bait is perhaps overused, it is considered an acceptable activity by Google. This is because the activity is aimed toward creating a positive end-user experience.
Without a community element, link baiting is hard to distinguish from content marketing. Developing a community (best if done onsite) is perhaps the best link bait of all because the community starts to develop the content in ways no SEO consultant could ever think of.
This is truly organic, extremely natural, and helps SEO. Read up on Latent Semantic Indexing if this concept is confusing.

6. Quality Over Quantity

It is tempting to fall for the email solicitations for large quantities of inexpensive links. But we all know where that got JCPenney.
The SEO industry isn't like the automobile industry, where automation is praised as a gain in efficiency. Automation in SEO is bad because Google says it is. They believe it results in a poorer end-user experience, an argument that has merit.
Small businesses may not like this rule, but they do need to respect it if they want to see increases in rankings.

7. Review the SEO Reports

Small business owners are busy, but that is no excuse for not knowing what the SEO consultant is doing. It's important to digest the monthly reports for a couple of reasons:

• The results should be moving in the right direction. Don’t expect miracles, just monthly progress.
• The monthly reports should demonstrate that the SEO team is executing with a disciplined process. Small business should not foot the bill for experiments. There is enough risk facing small business owners already.

Conclusions

Google is a computer, largely, and needs to be thought of as such. The major elements in the algorithm are fairly well understood.
While it's true that updates are frequent and the rules of the game do shift, the major elements of onsite SEO and backlinks have been the fuel for better rankings for years. Follow these seven small business SEO tips to earn better rankings and build a community around your brand. And ignore the rest as noise.

Source : Small Business SEO Tips