“People do business with people, not businesses.” Today, people are using the Internet to find out everything they can; and not just about the companies, products or services that interest them, but about the people with whom they are considering [...]
Dr. Seuss was a wise man. Oftentimes we find ourselves working so hard to look and sound just like everyone else when maybe what we ought to do is uncover what makes us stand out. Finding your company’s ‘unique value [...]
Matt Cutts, the Principle Engineer at Google, has stated many times in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) conferences that Google respects and has no issue with “white hat” SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics, but now has finally dedicated a short video [...]
Social media is a powerful way to reach out to your targeted audience groups. Small businesses, in particular, have turned to it because of its “huge consumer adoption, ease-of-use and low barrier entry,” with 70% using Facebook for marketing and [...]
“True” co-citation is a narrowly-defined process that you can use to draw unique readers and potential customers to your organization’s website. As long as you can develop connections between your organization and other high-quality sources (who also are involved in quality inter-connected networks) of online content, you’ll boost your page rankings and ultimately increase your site traffic and customer / lead base.
The concept of SEO co-citation is not new. Not too long ago, inbound links and anchor text were driving indicators for KW term authority. Once Google wised up to the fact that many webmasters were creating or latching onto entire networks of “bogus” blogs, and genre-centric sites, for the explicit purpose of inflating their inbound link counts, it changed its algorithms to place far more emphasis on the quality of a given site’s inbound links.
In fact, link quantity is now important mainly as it pertains to link quality.
Taking it further – In the realm of true co-citation, (as engines like Google are getting smarter) the need for an actual link even becomes less important. In fact, Google has become so smart that co-citation may even help sites rank for terms they are not specifically optimizing for.
With the recent launch of its new Business Photos service, Google has created yet another useful tool that small business owners can use to drive sales by bolstering their geographic and demographic exposure. This deceptively simple concept is already paying dividends for the early-adopting small business owners who have taken the initiative and signed up to use it.
In this economy, your operation needs every competitive advantage that it can get. Even if your business is doing fine currently, Business Photos may enable you to unlock key areas of hidden potential. If you’re interested in positioning your storefront, or practice, out in front of the fast-changing landscape for bricks-and-mortar businesses, take a moment to learn more about this exciting new tool.
If you haven’t yet come across it, take a moment to check out Google’s mesmerizing, informative new “How Search Works” infographic. Since the success of your business’s Web presence depends heavily on its ability to play nicely with Google’s algorithms, you’ll want to review the core concepts of its search functions anyway.
You might also draw inspiration from the medium that Google uses to convey the simple concepts at the core of “How Search Works.” Unlike many of the infographics that you’ve come across in your web travels, “How Search Works” leverages “parallax scrolling” to engage and inform its viewers.
Small business owners are continually looking for ways to cut costs and maximize profits. If you’re spending a huge chunk of your marketing budget on traditional advertising such as print ads, media spots and mailers, you may want to consider blogging as a very cost-effective way of increasing business. After the costs of hosting fees and a designer to set up your blog, you’ll not only have a “free” (your time has a value) marketing method for your business, but could also generate extra money in your budget in the form of savings.
Frequent quality blogging will increase your search engine rankings so that potential customers can find you easily, and it also may be leveraged to establish you as an expert in your field. To achieve high rankings and leave readers with a great impression of your business, every blog post should include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies targeted toward both your human audience (those who actually BUY from you) and the search engine indexing robots.
Joe DeMicco is currently the President & CEO of AIMG - an advertising and marketing agency offering both online and offline solutions to businesses across all industries, including communications, industrial manufacturing and design, technology, pharmaceutical, automotive, publishing, protective services, and industrial and consumer goods distribution and sales.
March 20th, 2013 
