SEO Optimization Specialist

If you were ever in doubt about how much page one search results were worth, this recent data should make it quite obvious.  According to first quarter earning results from Google, paid search results earns them over $37.5 million dollars PER DAY!  Those are the sponsored ads you see above the organic results when you do a search using Google’s search engine.

Now lets’ put into perspective how much natural / organic page one results are worth.  A survey done by iProspect showed that 60.5% of Google, MSN and Yahoo users clicked on organic (natural/unpaid) results instead of paid results in a test query.  Additional studies show similar results, being that 60%-70% of users trusted non-paid results as opposed to only 30%-40% trusting paid results.

The bad news that is related directly to the above information is that spam and other black hat SEO techniques will still thrive in this type of cutthroat environment where it is worth so much to be listed higher in the search engine ranks.  This also brings into question all the recent Google penalties that seem to be designed to squash the competition.  Google keeps saying it is not fair for paid links to effect the search results but their own $40 million dollar a day business does exactly that, by allowing you to buy top spot regardless of the quality or relevance of your website.

Google updates URL’s for adwords, here is the official announcement:

We’d like to give you advance notice of an update to our display URL policy, which will take effect on April 1st. While the majority of advertisers will not be affected at all, action will be required from those who are. Please take a few minutes to read this post thoroughly, as the information below should help you determine whether you will be affected by this change.

In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st.

In line with our existing policy, we will continue to require that your ad’s display URL match its destination URL (the URL of your landing page).

For example, if your destination URL is www.google.com, your display URL must also be www.google.com. The following would not be acceptable display URLs for an ad for www.google.com:

www.google.co.uk - because this URL leads to a different site
www.gogle.com - even though this URL simply redirects to www.google.com it is still not acceptable
www.gooogle.com - because this URL leads to a page showing content identical to www.google.com

Good news for those of us that like a fair playing field.

I just saw the announcement of this really attractive real estate directory.

Unfortunately the title does ring true for most new directories I see starting up every month.  Folks are using a free template, a free scripts, a free/common category dump and no imagination as far as additional content or value for customers nor users.  To make matters worse it seems the new trend is not to start one of these crappy directories at a time but 5 or even 10 at a time.  Here is a sample post, the directories all appear to be using free templates, and the exact same category dump, there is also no additional content and the they use the non-google friendly terms ‘partners’ and ’sponsors’ on the home pages.

Hi folks,

Im launching today 15 new directories, and ALL are accepting free links!

I would be REALLY grateful if you could post a link on your site, or blog or anywhere really for my sites - I am to accept/deny all links within 3 days.

Thanks and happy submitting

***IF YOU VALUE MY SERVICE PLEASE POST BELOW TO LET ME KNOW***

http://www.1RA.ORG
http://www.2i2.org
http://www.g7x.net
http://www.o1w.net
http://www.w17w.com
http://www.w6o.net
http://www.w8f.net
http://www.01us.com
http://www.3bbc.com
http://www.3gym.com
http://www.7z0.net
http://www.m6u.net
http://www.o1g.net
http://www.o6d.net
http://www.z0a.net

Thanks
 

Recently I was pleased to find out one of the websites I have been spending considerable SEO time on has risen to some great ranking spots in Google search results.  I started SEO’ing for a semi-popular keyphrase for the first few months, then after getting to the second page I started working on a more popular term.  I am now on the front page for both those terms so I began a third one about 2 months ago and have been steadly rising for that one too.

Now I have decided to step back and do some internal link building to inner category pages to try and leverage some less common keywords that the main page will likely not be able to compete for.  The point I am getting at is that quality SEO work is not just about optimizing, keyword research and ranking for major terms but it is important to have a good overall SEO strategy that encompasses the entire site.  By doing this you can bring in lots of great qualified traffic.  So don’t just concentrate on your home pages, spread the SEO love throughout your site.

Check out this great, new Canadian Link Directory.