Cowboy Internet Marketers: Beware Of The Mighty Penguin!

Here is this week's third and final article on SEO: Internet marketing is much like any profession in the world today, in that you have people that do their job, enjoy their job and do the job well. On the other hand there are what can only be described as "cowboys", who fill customers with false hope and rinse them for substantial amounts of money, whilst delivering what amounts to nothing.

As an SEO myself, I know just how damaging this is to the industry. Meeting potential clients who have had bad past experiences with SEO companies, makes it incredibly hard to swing their opinion and restore their faith in the services that the good SEOs can offer. When done properly, SEO can provide results of astronomic proportions.

Many SEOs are Google-fearing, losing sleep over the next algorithm update, anticipating rankings drops and other penalties from the big G. But, if you're playing by the book and listening to discussions within the search community and Matt Cutts himself, there's almost always a way of avoiding being stung. If you play by the book and steer well away from dated black hat tactics, you should sleep relatively easily. Google's after the cowboys, so you should count this as a blessing.

But this raises the question of why so many businesses still divulge in outdated, spammy, nasty SEO techniques? I've seen examples of supposedly reputable agencies still buying links from farms, taking part in reciprocal link programs and all sorts of ridiculously outdated methods, even after the Penguin update. In extreme examples, I've seen people buying links from sites that were actually de-indexed in the Penguin update. The mind boggles!

Do the cowboys think that they need to show the fruits of their labours by presenting hundreds of links to the client each month, regardless of how irrelevant, spammy and cheap they are? Does this make the report look good? No, because their sites are suffering as a result of this activity.

So, I can only see Penguin as a benefit to the industry, as with each update these cheap, horrible SEO agencies will either vanish off the face of the planet, or actually start playing ball and providing a real service. SEO is no longer a quick win service, and it's about time that people begin to realise that it takes time and skill to achieve the desired results.

On the other hand, there are the agencies out there that prey upon businesses that have very little, if any, knowledge about SEO. They promise the earth - number one rankings in a month etc. and when they don't deliver, the client no longer uses their services and the agency moves on to the next victim. This again is so damaging to the industry, but happens oh so frequently.

For us, the good guys, we can keep ahead of the game by striving to build up long-term relationships with our clients by delivering real, tangible results, and allow word of mouth to do the marketing for us and let the cowboys dig themselves a deeper hole.


About The Author: This post was written by Guy Farnworth, an online marketing executive for a boardroom and reception office furniture company in the UK.

Did you like this article? Please let Guy and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Other SEO articles published this week:
How To Hire A Good SEO Company
Negative SEO: What Startups Should Know About It


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post, have a wonderful weekend!

Negative SEO: What Startups Should Know About It

As promised, here is this week's second of the three articles on SEO: Negative SEO is a strategy used by a competitor to decrease the search engine ranking of a rival site. Some examples are security breaches that cause your site to appear spammy, directing bad links at you in an effort to make it look like you're purchasing links, and making spammy comments on other websites with links back to you. These are just some of the black hat SEO practices that are frowned upon, yet are still being done.

The following are some important things that you should know about negative SEO in order to combat it.


Know the Signs

Your competitors might be trying to wreak havoc on your site by targeting you with negative SEO. This can be easily done in a matter of weeks, after which you may find you have a de-indexed site if they were successful. Tools such as Google Webmaster Tools enable you to monitor if you have negative SEO activities by checking your inbound links to see if you have an increase of spammy looking sites pointing at you. Receiving a huge volume of traffic from low quality sites over a short period of time is a sign of negative SEO activity.

If your organic search traffic decreases, your website might have been de-indexed. If the total amount of traffic going to your website drops, it can also mean negative SEO activity. Checking when the links were generated should give an idea as to whether or not there has been any negative SEO activity. If these are unusual and recently dated, then you might be the victim of an attack. Negative SEO attacks also normally have a noticeable pattern to them.


Protecting Your Site from Negative SEO

It is best to have preventive measures implemented to counter any negative SEO attacks. Make sure that your link profile has a professional look to it. Since Google checks your traffic pattern and history, you will have no problem if your site originally has high-quality links. It will not be easy to damage your site with a short-term attack plan. New sites are more prone to being attacked because most of them initially have low-quality links. Although negative SEO is still possible, implementing good SEO can deter these attacks.

Think of it like this: If you are starting up a marketing business, you need to create a website. Since it's new though, no one knows about it, and one great way of getting people to know about your site is getting other websites to link to you in order to not only get in front of their audiences, but to also bump up your search rankings. If one of your competitors sees that you're new and they want to sabotage you, they can undertake a negative SEO campaign to potentially ground you before you even take off because your site does not have a high quality track record for search engines to look back on and determine that it is not in fact you building the low quality links.


Google's Position on Negative SEO

Until the recent algorithm updates, it was supposedly not possible to actually harm another website with negative SEO. Unfortunately, Google decided that they will now penalize sites that appear to be building low quality links. This is a change from the past, when they simply discounted the value of the links. What this means is that, in the past, building low quality links was simply a waste of time and money, and now, it's more than that. It's a tactic that hurts your website if you decide to build low quality links pointing at you, and it's a tactic that hurts your competitors if you decide to point low quality links at them.

Given this change, what do you think people in highly competitor industries might be doing already?


About The Author: Eric Pratum manages Inbound and Agile - a marketing, leadership, and growth website that specializes in inbound marketing, and exponential acquisition.

Did you find this article helpful? Have you been the victim of negative SEO? Please let Eric and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Other SEO articles published this week:
How To Hire A Good SEO Company


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until the third and final article on SEO on Friday, enjoy the rest of the week!

How To Hire A Good SEO Company

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This week, I will be publishing three articles on Search Engine Optimisation.

Today's article by our guest author, Carl Glasmyre will provide information on how to hire a good SEO company. On Wednesday, there will be an article by Eric Pratum explaining what negative SEO is and how to protect your site from it and finally on Friday, there will be an article by Guy Farnworth explaining why bad SEO companies should be fearful of the Penguin update.

I hope you enjoy reading these three articles and as with all my blog posts, don't forget to share and leave me and our guest authors your valued comments within the comments section. Remember, your feedback is very important which not only shows that you found these posts helpful, but also helps to determine future blog posts on Derek's Home and Business Blog.

Thank you and without further delay, here's the first of the three articles on SEO...


How To Hire A Good SEO Company

There are many SEO companies out there. Some are good. And some...are very bad. With the wrong company, not only can you waste thousands of dollars, but you also can do some serious harm to your domain name. How bad? How about getting banished from Google? Yes, THAT bad. With that in mind, here are some great tips to make sure your SEO hire is a good one.


#1: Check out the Company's Google Ranking

Would you hire a plumber if you saw his faucets leaking and the toilet upstairs pouring water through the ceiling? I'm thinking probably not. On the same note, are you going to hire an SEO company whose homepage does not show up in the first two pages of a major search engine? If the company cannot get its own site high in the rankings, why is it going to be effective for your website?

You always should go to the rankings to see what the real story is. An SEO company can talk all day long. But in the end, where it ranks really tells the tale.


#2: Collect a Lot of SEO Proposals

You should meet with at least three SEO firms and tell them what you want them to do. Get a proposal in writing from all of these companies. Look at everything closely on paper so you can compare them. You can see what exactly you are being charged for and what features each company offers for the price.

This means you are going to have to spend some time, and do some homework. But trust me: It's worth it.


#3: Review the Proposals for White Hat SEO

You want to be sure that your SEO company is doing things that are 100 percent legit in the eyes of Google. You should keep an eye out for good things such as keyword phrase generation, development and optimization of content, and the evaluation of the server and domain, incoming links, headlines and text links. If you cannot see what the company is going to be doing in detail, ask why. If you do not get straight answers, I advise that you continue shopping.


#4: Look at the Timeline

Effective SEO usually takes several months to really take effect. If you are talking to an SEO company that states "we'll have you ranked in a week," tell the salesperson to take a hike. Legitimate companies don't make those sort of promises, because these timelines cannot be met doing things on the up-and-up as Google demands. You do not want your domain or your SEO firm to ever cross Google. They make the rules.


#5: Watch out for Bold Promises

Again, legitimate SEO companies do not make outlandish promises. They are not going to tell you your site can rank in a few days. They are not going to seriously undercharge or overcharge you. A good SEO company is not going to make promises to you without really digging into your website. Basically, if the company is making promises as soon as the salesperson walks in the door, it's not for real.

You do not want to risk your site's rank on Google by dealing with any SEO company that has any chance of being shady. So, you want to find an SEO company that has a realistic game plan and timeline that fits your budget.

In summary, you really need to take care when you are hiring contractors to do any work for you in the technical world. There are a lot of bad players out there that you will need to weed out of the mix. Good luck!


About The Author: Carl Glasmyre is an aspiring writer. He loves blogging about anything and everything that crosses his mind. He's constantly striving to strengthen his writing skills and is continuously grateful that the Internet allows him to share his thoughts with the world.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Carl and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
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Until the next article on Wednesday, have a fabulous week!

How You Can Get Started With Accepting Guest Posts On Your Website

Increasing traffic to a site is an activity that many site owners are spending a great deal of time in learning. One of the main reasons why increasing the traffic on the site is so important today is because it is tied to popularity and money. Fortunately, there are many different sites online that can provide the business owner with the information that is needed. From information on search engine optimization techniques to social networks, there is a huge amount of information that a site owner can search through to find out what will work and what will not.

For those who are operating their own blogs, there are many ways to increase the views on the site. People who are well versed in posting good information on their own site are normally very skilled in keeping people engaged because they know and understand what their audience is looking for. However, in addition to the audience reading the information that the blogger has acquired over time, the blogger can also solicit the expertise of others. By soliciting the expertise of other bloggers, the site owner can also increase the traffic to their site. Soliciting blogs from others involves guests blogging.


Benefits of Soliciting Guest Bloggers

Even if the individual operates a small blog that has only a few hundred monthly visitors, they can benefit from offering space on their site for a guest blogger. Some of the benefits to having a guest blogger include:

Acquiring unique and quality content. Some bloggers will interview the guest blogger before their post their information. In fact, some of the blog site owners may choose to approve the titles that they will write about. If the titles that the guest blogger provides are acceptable, the information can be posted on their site. Most site owners will be looking for unique and quality content, which is always needed if the blogger is going to keep the readers' engaged.

Reduces the time-spent writing. Keeping a site filled with good quality content is not always easy because it does take both time and effort. If the site is going to be successful, it is important for the owner of the site to plan out what they are going to write about. This involves keeping a listening ear out for the things that most readers like. Also, based on the site, the blogger can provide useful information about several related topics (i.e. how to fix a credit report). Therefore, by soliciting multiple guest bloggers, the site owner can also reduce the time that is normally spent in writing articles. If the site owner makes the right plans, guests bloggers can help to fill in the gaps on certain days of the week or month.


Getting Started and Useful Tips

Getting started does not have to be a difficult task, if the site owner has the right information. Listed below are some tips that can be used.


1. Post a Guest Blogger Page.

Posting a guests blogger page is a win-win situation for both the blog site owner and guest blogger. By posting a guest blogger page, the site owner can explain what they are looking for and what guests blogging will mean to them. For example, potential bloggers will know that they will be receiving free publicity from the site. In addition to free publicity, the bloggers will also have a link added that will lead the readers back to their site. The guests blogger page should also indicate the timeframes for these guests appearance (i.e. dates when the articles will be published).


2. Post a Get Interviewed page.

To make it easy for the guest bloggers to respond to the Guest Blogger Page, the site owner should create a list of standard questions. Even though this can be changed out on a regular basis (weekly, monthly or yearly), these questions will give the guests blogger a head start and they will know what the site owner is looking for. This means they will not have to spend a lot of time researching nor contacting the site owners about their preferences or requirements.


3. Utilize social networking forums to get the word out.

Twitter, Facebook and other social network are great tools when reaching a specific target audience. Therefore, the site owner can reach a large target audience with one message. Prior to making any type of announcements regarding this need, the site owner should check the rules of the forums before they do any type of solicit.

Another great option for soliciting guests bloggers is to contact them via private requests. These can be bloggers where there are previous relationships formed (community associations) or new bloggers that the audience may be specifically impressed by.


About The Author: Gurwinder Singh Bhinder is a Blogger and writes for Pro Technology Blog - a blog based on Technology and Blogger Tips. He enjoys writing about Technology, Blogging tips, SEO and WordPress.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Gurwinder and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Coming next week on Derek's Home and Business Blog: Three articles on Search Engine Optimisation. On Monday, there will be an article by Carl Glasmyre which will provide information on how to hire a good SEO company. On Wednesday, there will be an article by Eric Pratum explaining what negative SEO is and how to protect your site from it and finally on Friday, there will be an article by Guy Farnworth explaining why bad SEO companies should be fearful of the Penguin update.

Related articles:
A Guide To Guest Blogging For SEO In 2012


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776

Until my next post on Monday when the first of the three articles on SEO is published, have a fabulous weekend!

Clever Ways For Small Business Owners To Save Money

Starting a small business, no matter how minuscule or inflated your budget, is a frightening prospect. As the nation continues to struggle, it's more important than ever for home-grown entrepreneurs to press on, and create a new definition of the "American Dream."

If you're considering starting your own small business, or are the current proprietor of little coffee shop or bookstore, it's more important than ever to find a few clever ways to save a little money. Here are a few ideas to help you climb back into the black:


Watch the Marketing Material Budget

Many new business owners fall into the trap of spending a small fortune, and a large chunk of their time, determining their business logo, purchasing embossed letterhead or printing up thousands of flashy business cards. Although this is one of the more enjoyable aspects of starting this exciting new journey, it can also be a massive waste of your time and precious resources, especially if the materials become obsolete as your business expands and evolves. Instead, work with a tech-savvy friend or family member to create a simple logo and print up business cards with your home computer to save money.


Use Creative Advertising Techniques

It's simple to outsource your advertising needs to a reputable PR firm, but this is probably an extraneous expense your limited budget cannot afford. Instead of going the traditional route, find some clever, and cheap, ways to advertise your business. For instance, nothing creates a positive buzz than word-of-mouth, so ask your friends and family members to encourage potential clients to patronize your establishment. Purchase inexpensive domain names, such as those abandoned by another company, and save money by designing the web page yourself.


Ditch the Paper

Several small business owners waste thousands each year on the storage and printing costs associated with simply using paper to retain documents. Instead, consider performing all necessary transactions, and storing any integral documents, electronically. Not only does this minimize your carbon footprint, it can potentially save you a large chunk of money that can either be put away or reinvested into your company.


Go Shopping for a New Bank

Recent regulatory changes have many banks scrambling to make up for lost revenue by tacking on unnecessary, and many times hidden, fees onto even the most basic services. If this is your dilemma, don't hesitate to shop around for a new bank. Ask candidates upfront if they offer discounted services for small business owners and when in doubt, look to online-only direct bank, as these institutions generally have lower operating costs and pass the savings onto their clients.


Watch Employee Spending

As your business expands, you'll inevitably need more employees. If there is travelling or other employer-purchased needs, you might even provide your employees with company credit cards or spending accounts. The days pass, and as you become more entrenched in the day-to-day operations of the business, you neglect to watch your employees' spending habits closely; that is- until you get the bill. Avoid unnecessary overages by keeping a watchful eye on your employee's spending habits. Ask for a receipt after each purchase or transaction, and make it clear that an unnecessary spending will come directly from his or her paycheck.


Become a DIY Expert

It's unavoidable that you'll encounter bumps in the road or come up against issue that you or your employees cannot tackle. Instead of calling your trusted outside IT professional or even hiring a plumber to fix a leaky sink in your restaurant's kitchen; don't hesitate to tackle these issues yourself. Not only will you save money, you'll also learn a valuable new skill along the way. Just make sure the task isn't too far beyond your area of expertise or you could wind up doing more harm than good.

Finally, not only is it critical to hire a merchant services company to accept transaction payment, it's also in many cases an important decision that some small business owners either gloss over or don't perform their due diligence by seeking the best rates and establishment possible.


About The Author: Larissa Sampson is both an IT specialist and small business entrepreneur. She advises reading the WorldPay blog for more information on small business frugality.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Larissa and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
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Until my next post on Friday, enjoy the rest of the week!