SiteSell Blog

Ouch! Page Dropped By Google!

Traffic Generation

There are many reasons why a page could be dropped from Google. The key for you is to figure out why and whether you should do anything about it. Let's start with these general possibilities...

• Pages have duplicate content. This could be from using an article from an article directory, without reworking and adding lots of original content to the page. Or it could be from affiliate products, where the same wording about the products is found on dozens of other affiliates' pages.

• A site has copied another site's content. That duplicate content may affect the latter's rankings.

• Google doesn't trust the links into the site. They may come from spammy neighborhoods, link farms, or from sites known to sell links.

• Google doesn't trust the links out from the site. These links are going to sites unrelated to the content of the page or site.

• Pages are orphans (pages that have lost all links in to them), or are very far from the home page, with just one link to them, likely from the next higher level. If Google has to do a really deep crawl to find a page, it is more likely to get dropped (if it ever lists it, that is).

Beware of Article Spinning: Why Put Your Business At Risk?

Traffic Generation

Article spinning is an artificial way to obtain additional inbound links to your site. It does not reflect a "keep it real and add value" philosophy.

What Is Article Spinning?

Article spinning is basically creating several to dozens (some people create hundreds) of slightly different versions of one article. Those articles are then posted to several dozens (or hundreds) of article marketing sites, with the goal of receiving a link back to the author's site from each article, and the hope that the article will be published on several other sites... 

Trick or Treat?

Traffic Generation

Many Webmasters, experienced and otherwise, fall into the trap of excessively adjusting or tweaking their Web pages in order to improve search engine (SE) rankings.

The term "Search Engine Optimization" ("SEO") includes both keyword tweaking on a Web page ("on-page criteria") and orchestrating certain off-page criteria, such as inbound links to a website, all with the goal of manipulating search engine rankings.

SEOers are kidding themselves if they think their tricks are anywhere near what search engines really want. SEs are getting better and better at recognizing reality.

So jump one big step ahead of SEOers. Don't fake it. Simply keep it real... 

The Mobile Search - Facebook Page Connection for Local Businesses

Traffic Generation

What is the single most important thing you need to understand about mobile usage and search? And by mobile, we mean smart phones (iPhone, Android, others that build that type of capability into their phones).

It's all about how and why folks use their phones.

Mobile is about "short and sweet and now." Or as Seth Godin said, it's about "where to eat, who's near me, what's the weather, get me a cab right now -- is all about me and now and here."

Websites are still about traffic-building through search engines, because those folks are sitting down, searching for stuff, ready to invest more time in that type of research.

Meanwhile, social marketing is an adjunct to traffic-building and PREselling, not a replacement...

"The Buck Stops Here" for Content Duplication

Traffic Generation

As a general rule of thumb...

Do not reproduce third party articles on your site. Google may hold you responsible for duplicating material. Remember the lines of responsibility -- you are held directly responsible for what is on your site.

You are less liable to get in trouble if others ask to reprint one of your articles on their site and you allow it. But...

Reach for the Top With Universal Search

Traffic Generation

With Google's "Universal Search," the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) blend together results from Web page search, blog search, news search, image search, video search, book search and local search.

Each of these special searches are known as doing "vertical search." However, not many people actually used these special searches so Google now blends them into its general, "front door" results to give the best search experience possible.

Expect (over time) a progressive extension, using more of a certain vertical when a search seems to be asking for it (ex., local) and more of another one when a search is asking for something else (ex., "pictures of something").

Article Marketing Do's and Don'ts

Traffic Generation

If you're going to create great content, it belongs on your site. If you want to submit one or a few good articles on the best article sites as part of a diversified inbound links program, go ahead. It can't hurt if you stick to quality articles on quality locations.

But... if you get sucked into doing hundreds of them, you're heading down a dangerous path, not to mention losing valuable content-building and monetizing time. The power of diversification (in your link-building program) lies in...

Tweeting For Free Targeted Web Traffic

Traffic Generation

What role does tweeting play in driving free targeted web traffic to your Web site? Google shows tweets in the SE results, according to this blog post.

Being found for a tweet at Google is kind of like being found for a blog post, except the effect is even more short-lived. The odds are that if you do manage to get a tweet into the Top 10 for a search result, it's not likely to be long-lived and it's more likely to be a long tail search.

So we're not talking about a huge difference to your free targeted web traffic. But there are a few things you might as well do to get it right. And getting it right can also contribute to a more important aspect of traffic generation... your site reputation. A link to your site from the "home page" of your Twitter account is worth something if you Twitter.

How To Increase Free Web Traffic For Your E-Business

Traffic Generation

How do you increase free web traffic for your e-business? The answer is simple... work with the Search Engines (SEs), not against them.

It starts with building keyword focused content pages, with content that "wows" your visitor and is optimized for SEs. Keep on building those pages, lots of them. Enlist the "help" of your visitors, with Content 2.0.

You efforts will pay off if you follow the process. You'll start to rank well for a few pages at one SE, and then more and more pages will rank well at more SEs.

As your content grows, your traffic will grow, and the SEs will begin to notice your site's "off-page criteria"... traffic grows more and more.

It's important not to lose sight of the process...

How Your Visitors Help You Grow Your Free Web Traffic

Traffic Generation

You've got several content pages... traffic is growing steadily. Adding Content 2.0 (C2) allows your visitors to submit content - content that becomes a page on your site. That's unique on the Net.

And it's easy to implement C2 on your site. You choose a topic that you know your visitors would love to write about, you create invitations for them. Now a few visitors find your invitations, and they see how easily they can have their ideas and opinions available on the Web.

These few visitors will soon be telling their friends, who will also submit content, and tell their friends. And so on, and so on.

Content 2.0 is "Web 2.0 for small business sites." It's like a combination of Wikipedia, Facebook and Flickr, except users cannot continuously overwrite each other's content, they don't create "Profiles" and gossip, and they do much more than just upload photos. Take the best of Web 2.0, eliminate the worst, and you have Content 2.0...