Google Maps and Google Places are (2) free applications provided by Google. The first service – “Google Maps” is a mapping application which combines satellite/aircraft /street –level mapping. Google overlays locations onto their Maps through their proprietary offering “Google Places” , which is a business listing service. Continue reading →
Google Maps & Google Places Optimization
April 23rd, 2012 — Insights
The Intersection of Social Media & SEO
April 6th, 2012 — Social Search
At present, social networking activity does not directly affect search results – a surge of Facebook Likes, Google +1′s, or Twitter links will not boost your site to the top of the first page of search results. However, they do increase click-through rate, which in turn increases potential social shares. These are indirect benefits which ultimately result in a better search ranking for your site. As such, social media should be an important part of your site’s SEO strategy. To illustrate the point, let us take a closer look at two of the many ways in which SEO & social media strategies integrate.
Preserving SEO Value During Site Re-design
March 28th, 2012 — SEO
Website re-design is important in an effort to keep improving site navigation, and overall customer experience. If you feel change is in order, beware that redesigning your website can have consequences for your website’s SEO value and rankings unless you prepare accordingly.
Remember, your old site’s rankings which are derived from a variety of factors, notably the on-site content (principally the text used), and the links which have been built to your traditional web pages. If you redesign the site, you must do all you can to preserve the SEO value of the old site, and transfer it to the new. Continue reading →
Pillars of Local Search
February 27th, 2012 — General
Companies with national reach, but without a localized presence will ultimately find it challenging to earn prominent rankings on local search queries because they lack a physical presence with local clients generating a local reputation.
Within the search results, it’s always a David –vs- Goliath fight, and Goliath often wins. However, with respect to geo-based search, ex: “San Diego Rental Homes” — David (Local) has a very clear advantage over Goliath (National).
Search –vs– Social: Where is the ROI?
February 16th, 2012 — Industry News
With the Holiday shopping season receding into memory, even with the record-breaking online sales numbers and success, the cold economic landscape of 2012 beckons. While online spending will continue to rise, and many economic pundits predicting a firmer, broader recovery in a presidential election year – the big question is where maximum ROI will be found online?
Optimizing for Panda
February 3rd, 2012 — Insights
Google’s website content filtering – a.k.a: “Panda” is far from a slothful, bamboo-munching, cuddly character, as many webmasters can attest to.
Whether Panda is an algorithm change or a ranking filter is irrelevant if you have been hit by the beast; what really matters is how you prepare your site to help ensure that Panda recognizes your site’s content and services as relevant and timely.
Panda updates are pushed manually by Google (which precludes it from being an algorithm change and more akin to a SERP filter). What this means is that irrespective of your current SERPs, determined by the algorithm, your website is being re-assessed as each Panda update is pushed. If you do get hit by Panda, you are effectively being tagged as sub-standard and won’t be scored again until the next Panda update is rolled out.
What does SOPA mean for your Website?
January 16th, 2012 — Industry News
SOPA stands for “Stop Online Piracy Act” and is a piece of Federal Legislation which has polarized the Internet community in recent months. So, just what is going on?
SOPA is a sister bill (a bill with proposed legislation which has not yet become law) to the Protect IP Act (PRO IP), which itself aims to hold hosting companies accountable for the content on sites. For instance, if a website deals in counterfeit goods, or is selling pirated movies or music, then the hosting company could be held liable, and not just the website owners operating the business.
SEO – 2011 Year in Review
January 3rd, 2012 — General
As Father Time marches forward… here’s a summary of the key developments across the SEO Industry in 2011.
Google started the year dominating search, and no surprise, Google still dominates search now; although Bing was able to capture modest market share gains. According to comScore, there were 17.8 billion searches in November 2011, of which 11.7 billion were run on Google, and Yahoo! + Bing accounted for 5.4 billion collectively. Continue reading →
RankPay’s Website Optimization Tips
December 19th, 2011 — General
At RankPay, we spend a lot of time reviewing trends and tracking how SEO activities influence and sustain prominent rankings in Google, Bing and Yahoo! on behalf of our customers. However, we also spend dedicated time each day understanding how to optimize our own site. Continue reading →
Secure Search Impact within Google Analytics
December 7th, 2011 — Insights
Keyword research is the fundamental foundation for any SEO campaign; knowing which keywords generate visits to your site, and more importantly, which keywords convert into customers should be a never-ending pursuit.
At RankPay, our primary keyword analysis tool is Google Analytics… it has an incredibly robust feature set, provides great insight into site visitors including what search term was used to find our site, and hundreds of other reporting outputs that allows us to effectively measure every variable tied to site conversion — traffic sources, volume, avg time spent, bounce rates, time of day effectiveness, landing page UI positives/negatives, and literally every other component that impacts conversion.
