AMP-Accelerated Mobile Pages Why You Should Be Using It RIGHT MEOW!

If you are not use AMP- or accelerated mobile pages... you need to start, like RIGHT MEOW! Ok, so maybe you have heard of AMP, and maybe you have not. Basically it is an effort spearheaded mainly by Google to give mobile users a better faster web. Let's take a look at what the official site has to say,"For many, reading on the mobile web is a slow, clunky and frustrating experience - but it doesn’t have to be that way. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an open source initiative that embodies the vision that publishers can create mobile optimized content once and have it load instantly everywhere." Faster loading pages and posts means you will be happier right? If you as a consumer of content are happier with faster load times, wouldn't your subscribers or readers be as well? We already know that page load times are a ranking factor in Google's Algorithm. Google is also showing AMP results for search terms that have frequent news updates, try Googling "UFC" or "Lebron James" And these results Pop Up: As you can see Google is displaying AMP results at the top of the SERPS, so in certain, but not every news related search, Google is favoring the faster loading AMP results. Is AMP not showing up for your industry yet? Well, that does not mean you should not prepare for it. It's similar to the semantic web. Just because it is not a massive ranking factor, does not mean that you should not use JSON-LD or other schema to define and build your brand. In fact the early adopters like in most new tech developments are the ones that get the biggest push or results particularly as it relates to Google, and ranking higher in their search results. So whether you are publishing your own content or using a content marketing agency to do it, make sure that your website is ready for AMP RIGHT MEOW!

via GIPHY Here is a link to some AMP plugins for wordpress.  

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How Is Google’s Panda Penalty Affecting Sites Right Now?

Panda is one of the most important ranking algorithms that Google uses to make sure low quality sites especially due to low quality (thin content) or -spammy content can’t continue to manipulate the SERPS. When a panda penalty hits, the offending site gets its rankings adjusted downwards (to put it lightly). That’s because such sites with their low quality content don’t help Google in achieving their goal of providing users with the most helpful search results or the great experience they expect.   When the first panda update was introduced into Google’s ranking algorithm, there was a lot of chaos because rankings of many sites took a dive over quality issues while others containing scraped content were unfairly rewarded. Sites hit by the update had to work on improving the quality of their pages, but they also had to wait for the next panda update to recover their rankings. The updates in 2011 were almost monthly, but the last update of panda 4.2 in mid-July 2015 came after a long wait from the previous one of panda 4.1 in September 2014. Having to wait even for a month after being hit with a panda penalty is a long time in the world of SEO. Panda demands today still challenge many SEOs and their clients, especially if they can’t clearly tell most of the myths from facts about this important spam-fighting ranking signal. But the good news is that now after any panda penalty hits a site, quality issues can be resolved and rankings recovered much faster.  

No more panda update announcements

Panda is now part of Google’s core algorithm, along with Rank Brain meaning it is affecting sites constantly. Previously Google had to announce every panda update and its affect would begin to take place almost immediately. Any sites deemed to be of low quality would have their rankings drop after every update. But now what is happening is a more gradual process through which the panda algorithm assesses the quality of each page on a site, and then adjusts the overall site ranking accordingly. So the earlier you start to figure out which pages on your site need to improve in terms of quality, then go ahead to address the issues, the earlier you can expect to go up the SERPs. You will have to monitor the data on your analytics more closely to identify where most your efforts should be going to address all possible site quality problems.  

Panda penalty demotes rather than devaluing

  Google fights spam using panda and also penguin, both which are now part of its main algorithm and therefore more updates would be expected in future for these ranking signals. But each of these signals still has its own specific way of affecting sites. When Panda detects any spam on your site pages, the site is demoted and drops rankings until the problem is resolved. Penguin on the other hand devalues spam, especially spammy links, and reportedly deals with it on a page by page, not site wide basis, so that it doesn’t count or unfairly improve or penalize the domain in the case of negative SEO tactics. Google still insists the guidelines they gave when announcing the first panda update still remains relevant. Taking a more holistic approach towards improving the quality of a site would be the best thing to do going forward in order to gain rankings that can last over the long-term. The means continuous efforts in evaluating and analyzing content quality beyond the obvious issues like spelling errors, duplicate content and keyword stuffing. A useful analytics tool should help you understand the true meaning of bounce rates, low traffic and similar data tracked for each page. That should give you the best idea on how to improve quality and keep your website panda-friendly.    

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Rank Brain And Machine Learning Have Been Here For A While.. Now What?

Google has said on numerous occasions that they use over 200 ranking signals, but lately there’s a lot of talk about RankBrain. It is the third most important ranking signal after links and content, but there is a lot of speculation on what it’s all about and how Google uses it for ranking. The fact that RankBrain determines rankings based on machine learning and to a certain extent that’s considered to be Artificial Intelligence (AI) either fascinates or intimidates. But it’s just a single component of the Google’s ranking system which depends on more than 200 rankings signals.   All of the ranking signals Google uses could be based on machine learning, although that may not happen any time soon. The reason why the entire Google core algorithm cannot be based on machine learning is that it would become difficult or almost impossible to do any debugging. It wouldn’t be easy to debug machine learning or AI decisions as there would be too many layers of neural networks. Gary Illyes has stated so in numerous articles. So let's focus on RankBrain and what it means for SEO.

Rank Brain- Rise Of The Machines

It's important to remember that Panda and Penguin are also based on machine learning systems. Google is using machine learning to come up with new signals or to aggregate signals. That helps them to keep improving the search results they deliver to users. RankBrain uses historical signals to do its re-ranking of results from Google’s core algorithm. This type of ranking filter started applying in October 2015 and now contributes to all Google search rankings. Machine learning allows Google ranking signals like RankBrain to keep improving the overall ranking system over time. The improvements happen more gradually with machine learning than they do with human controlled ranking processes. When humans apply changes to the algorithm, the changes take place all at once and sites are affected in a big way. So as ranking signals based on machine learning systems become smarter and smarter, there will be less of unwanted surprises and the best SEO strategies will get rewarded almost on real-time basis.   RankBrain plays an important role within Google’s search ranking mechanism as it quickly learns from historical data and refines the search results especially for search queries. For complex search queries using long-tail keywords, Google confirmed that tests performed showed that RankBrain does better than its own engineers. It is therefore expected to be more helpful to experienced searchers that tend to look for more specific answers using long search queries. Machine learning in that case helps the search algorithm to best understand context, semantic relationships and even need for personalized search results. Check out our new JSON LD Tool to help build your semantic profile.   RankBrain as an advanced ranking signal based on machine learning makes it possible for Google to deliver a great experience for searchers. The search results they get largely depend on the meanings of their search queries rather than the exact words they entered. So SEO Agencies will be forced to pay little attention to keywords, but to focus on making sure content is as helpful to users as possible. Understanding the user intent will be critical in order to make the content great for them. With the Google’s core algorithm expected to become more dependent on machine learning and artificial intelligence going into the future, it would soon become almost impossible to game search rankings if that isn’t already the case. At some point, Google may just achieve the goal of a search algorithm that quickly learns form search queries, and automatically updates itself to improve on the accuracy of search results without human intervention.  

Rank Brain And Machine Learning Have Been Here For A While.. Now What? was originally seen on MasterMind Digital

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Entrepreneurship Define By Peter Thiel

Keep Grinding. Keep Hustling. If you have the vision, pursue it.

Entrepreneurship Define By Peter Thiel See more on: MasterMind

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Recent Google Patent Gives Clues On How Social Signals Might Affect Rankings

Google has on many occasions downplayed the importance of social interactions as far as their ranking signals are concerned. But there are still many reasons to believe that soon or later Google may increasingly take social signals into account. One of the strongest indications has to be their recent patent US 2016/02466789 A1, which goes by the title “Searching Content of Prominent Users in Social Media”. A patent doesn’t of course mean the technology will definitely be implemented, but it does provide the necessary clues we need to know what would be considered if the implementation is ever done. So even if Gary Illyes and other folks at Google say they don’t use social signals for ranking, don’t think they totally don’t or aren’t considering doing that.   With the new patent that Google has been granted, we clearly see the possibilities as far as taking into account social as a ranking signal is concerned. The patent covers the methods, systems and apparatus that Google may use to do so. If they eventually decide to use the technology behind it all, it means searchers will be more likely to see results based on what their prominent social connections often recommend. If such prominent social users recommend certain resources, they may start to determine rankings. But it depends on which resources they reference in social sites and whether searchers are attracted to them or not. If a searcher ignores any recommended resources, Google may devalue such resources and therefore they may not impact on rankings.   At this point it may not be easy to fully understand how social signals will work. But when a search is being done, the prominent social users connected to the person doing the search are those whose followers meet a certain threshold. From the Google patent content, user social graphs will be used. Each social graph may include direct connections or even higher degree connections. So this may not just be limited to single social networks but also multiple social networks. The focus will also not be limited to traditional social sites but also pretty much anything social including chat, email, blog posts, reviews and so on.   Frequency of social interactions will also count in determining the degree of separation in the social graph, and how it will be used to augment search results. Google will not only look at what a searcher’s social graph members are sharing or engaging with, but also any content they may have created themselves. For instance, a searcher’s social connections may have created written or video reviews of restaurants or other services and products. If such social users and their reviews are taken into account when returning results for search queries, a searcher is likely to find the search results more useful.   Considering that there are many other ranking signals used, we cannot always expect conclusive answers from anyone in Google regarding what exactly happens with each ranking factor. That’s why they could tell you social signals don’t count, when they actually mean it isn’t a direct ranking signal yet. Remember RankBrain is the third most important ranking factor after links and content. Since RankBrain functions based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities, it’s easy to see why at some point not even Google engineers will be able to say the exact contributions of different ranking signals. At least as far as query interpretations and similar aspects of Google search rankings are concerned. The engineers will still know more than we do, but they will certainly not know everything because RankBrain teaches itself without using detailed programming inputs from humans.   Since Google has been granted a patent that allows us to get an idea of what they might be doing, it helps to refine our SEO strategies without dismissing the idea of social signal impacting on rankings. We have to create great content that friends of our prospective clients can engage with as well. It is easy to see why establishing a strong social media presence is necessary.    

The following article Recent Google Patent Gives Clues On How Social Signals Might Affect Rankings is available on www.mastermindseo.org

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SEMRUSH Launches Open Beta-SEO Ideas

We love SEMRUSH.  We use it for looking for guest post opportunities for our content marketing division. We use it for looking at how our competitors are getting traffic, looking at low hanging opportunities for existing content pieces. For on boarding new clients we love the "low hanging fruit" options as the new client often has some form of content marketing-blogging going on. So all we need to do is structure additional content to support it in an SEO Friendly way. SEMRUSH's New Open Beta- SEO Ideas- is going to be a big hit around our offices as well. I'll let them tell you about it, "SEO Ideas offers a complete and structured list of things you can do to improve the search engine optimization for select pages of your website.Full of helpful tips, SEO Ideas doesn’t just tell you what to do, it also lets you know why doing so is a good idea." For client reports and planning our digital strategies when we take a new client, showing them this is what you need to do, and here is why you need to do it as historically had quite a bit of push back. We tell them to do paid social if it makes sense, content marketing, guest blogging and influencer round ups etc. With a third party validation tool like this, it will help tell the story of what their competition is doing well, how you can duplicate it and why you need to. Looking forward to exploring this new tool even more!    

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Samsung Needs Reputation Management For Note 7 Fiasco… STAT!

Who needs reputation management more than Samsung at this moment in time?  Some say, Hillary Clinton. Some say Donald Trump. As if Samsung did not need anymore help swaying people to go back to Apple after lighting someone's crotch on fire.... Yes, Samsung is sending incomprehensible emails to its victims.. oh I mean remorseful buyers. If you are reading this post on a Note 7, this message will self destruct in... Listen, your brand might not be in as bad of shape as Samsung is currently, but all issues are treated seriously here at MasterMind. From arrest reports to slanderous media mentions, we can help restore your good image.    

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SEO News- Partnership Between Yext And Uber Bring Localized ROI Tracking To SEO

This new partnership is huge for many reasons. These two companies are first and foremost massively tech. They innovate and lead their markets respectively.  Yext described the partnership perfectly here, "Drive your customers directly from your website to your doorstep — and engage them in the Uber app with a targeted brand experience while they’re en route with Ride Share and Trip Branding". So when someone lands on a Yext managed property they can request a ride. You first however have to enable a get a "Ride With Uber" link and shared it across your location pages, those being local directories and citations, which Yext manages for you for a monthly fee. This is a really nice partnership from two companies who service the same person, but do not compete. So because you can share that "Ride With Uber Link" on your website, you can certainly track MUCH EASIER actual ROI and sales-foot traffic into brick and mortar stores and shops. This is a huge win for local seo marketers and agencies who continually have to fight for proof that people landing on website pages, can convert into actual foot traffic. Stay tune for more info as we will be tracking this unique partnership. We will see if anyone else tries to play the "Me Too Game".    

The following article SEO News- Partnership Between Yext And Uber Bring Localized ROI Tracking To SEO is republished from www.mastermindseo.org

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SEO News From TMZ??? Actor Jon Voit Says Google Is Sabotaging Trump’s Campaign

A TMZ camera guy caught Jon Voit (a super famous actor, Mission Impossible etc and Angelina Jolie's dad) at an airport and asked him what he thought about Google being in favor of Hillary Clinton winning the election. Mr. Voit went onto suggest that Google was suppressing negative headlines about Hillary Clinton after the recent debate.  Is Google using the "right to be forgotten" on Hillary Clinton's negative headlines? Is it possible that the world's most popular search engine actually "wants" someone to win, or is this the case of mainstream media, which is controlled mainly by leftist leaning individuals, doing what they do and backing their horse in the race? Image source:http://www.tmz.com/2016/09/29/jon-voight-google-trump-conspiracy/

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Four Cornerstones to Building a Brand for Business Stability and Profitable Growth – Part 2

Hard Work:

I am turning a corner in my life. One of my mentors recently said to me that while my previous attempt to just grind hard and get it done work well in the last 20 years, turning past that 40 year mark makes that old philosophy physically impossible. Not only will it kill me, it just doesn’t create the balance that I am looking for in my life. So what does hard work mean to you? What should it mean? Are you falling into the trap that our American culture and lifestyle has embodied? Are you the next John Wayne cowboy, who will do it on your own? Is so, and you build a brand that makes massive riches and yet you have no one to share it with or nothing left when your gone. What value have you left to this world? What value have you left to those you will eventually leave behind? So let’s tackle this concept of Hard Work.

Hard Work means Consistency.

Recently, while attending a summit, I was part of a conversation where those involved were expressing how many hours per day they work. Phrases like “Ya, gotta do whatever it takes.” “Working 20 hour grind.” I am sure they are quoting some of the top Guru’s out there but they are only pulling what they wanted to hear. Not the conversation in context. (check out this article to go deeper Steve’s article). The point is they were wearing the long hours and sleepless nights as a badge of honor. I would suggest that it isn’t a badge of honor. Working a few long days is to be expected but to say that 12 – 18 hour work day is a lifestyle is unhealthy and not sustainable. It will have a negative impact on the wholeness of your life. Another story that I found comical, an argument between a night owl and an early bird. Night owls boasting how productive it is to start working at 9pm and going to 5am. Early birds started in how fresh they are in the morning. Getting up a specific time every morning. Why can’t they both be right? I am personally an early bird. I find that I am more productive in the morning. Love every minute of those early morning hours when no one else is up and I can hear the birds starting to awake. The sunrises are spectacular and offer a brand new day to accomplish what you set out to do. My wife, however, is a night owl. I am always amazed at the energy she has that starts at about 9pm and will often run well past Midnight. Her creativity just blossoms in those hours. I have no idea how she does it but it is obvious that we are on completely different schedules. Both fresh and creative at different times. There is no wrong answer here, except to attempt to be something that you are not. To attempt to become like someone else would be your greatest fail.

Hard Work means keeping your life in Balance.

My past method of operating either business or project has been to dive in, over my head and spend all energy and waking hours to complete that project. Boy, what a dumb idea that was. You see, with all of life, relationships, business, or what every your involved with, there is no growth without attention. And lack of attention creates a slow decay. Keeping a balanced life, physically, mentally, and spiritual is important to allow you to be more creative and better equipped to handle the current situation. Edison would often walk away from a challenge in order to have more clarity. This practice works in many areas of life where we find ourselves struggling. So look at what is currently on your schedule and make the decision to balance all that hard work. By balancing yourself it will increase your effectiveness and allow you to build that strong Profitable Brand. This leads us to the next concept of hard work.

Hard Work means prioritizing and focusing on the controllable things.

Let’s first look at prioritizing of your time. Setting goals and creating your daily action list. Vinnie Fisher says “One of the biggest obstacles all business owners face is how to use their time and energy.” If you don’t plan out your day, week, month or year, time will plan it for you. It is amazing how time just disappears. If you are not wrestling it into submission it will control you. The demand to put out fires and solve issues will be ever present, distracting you from the best use of your time. Hard work will often start with working hard on managing your time. Alibaba create a monster of a business, the brand is quickly becoming more of a common name but their first 5 years was a planned loss. They knew they were not going to make anything during those years but their recent IPO has been one of the biggest in history. Their priority as a brand was to make it a huge company. Something the world had not seen up to this point. Only way to successfully build this type of brand is to have that unrelenting focus on the top priorities and the best use of time. The second part is creating an ability to work on the things that are controllable. So many thing in life will enter our field of view and demand attention and yet there is nothing that we can do to control those part of the process of building a brand. People will hate, doubters will be out in droves, and supporters will come and go. The list of things that are outside of our control is virtually endless. Our focus needs to be on what can we control and then choose to focus on those things that are controllable. Don Wilson is another example of someone that has had to prioritize and focus on things that are controllable. With his life and story over the last three years there have been some crazy, uncontrollable circumstances but his persistence and focus on what he could control created a powerhouse of a company called GearBubble. Reported that they were able to do 7 figures in sales within the first 3 months. This site gives normal individuals the ability to create a second income to help with a few bills while others have created a brand by selling products on GearBubble’s Platform.

2 things you need to do while working hard to building your brand.

• You must learn to prioritize your goals and your activity. Stephen R. Covey is most likely, the best know author on setting prioritize and goals, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
• You must learn to let go of the things you just cannot control.

The following article Four Cornerstones to Building a Brand for Business Stability and Profitable Growth – Part 2 is courtesy of www.mastermindseo.org

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Stop Freaking Out About Penguin Update On 9-23-16, Happened Weeks Before

 SEOs have waited for the Penguin 4.0 Update officially announced on September 23 for almost 2 years. That’s indeed a long time especially for the victims of Penguin 3.0 back in October 17, 2014. But what many SEOs or webmasters may not have been aware of, is the fact that the penguin update algorithm currently being rolled out started shaking things up in a big way as early as September 3, 2016. That’s about 3 weeks before the day Google made the official announcement, which means penguin now as part of Google’s core algorithm has already been rolling out. So the current penguin update partly explains the increased volatility of SERPs experts have noted for the better part of September.  

What is the impact of penguin 4.0 update?

  As penguin rolls out, the impact on site rankings may delay for some days or weeks, depending on the niche you are in. Sites that Google crawls more often may have already noticed the impact on their rankings, but sites not crawled frequently may have to wait for some extra days or weeks. But the way the current penguin 4.0 update will impact on site rankings will be different from the way past updates did. The update is unique primarily due to the following reasons:  

• It is now part of Google’s core algorithm
• It will take place on real time basis
• It is now more granular

  The above points outlined Google’s own announcement on the release of penguin 4.0 update. So what exactly do they mean, considering we already have a variety of interpretations out there?  

Penguin as part of Google’s core algorithm

 

via GIPHY From now on penguin will be processed within Google’s core search algorithm on a real time basis. The current update announcement is the last because penguin will be constantly running. No more penguin update notifications will come from Google in future because penguin is now real time. If and when spam signals are detected, penguin will immediately adjust the rankings of the affected site. On a page by page basis.  

Penguin will run real time

  Previously, Google had been taking months or years developing then announcing penguin updates on dates they chose to. But now that will not be happening because penguin is going real time, so it will always be working to ensure spammy sites and sites obtaining their links from them get penalized on real time basis. That also means if you get spammy links removed will also be rewarded as soon as Google crawls your site pages for indexing. No more waiting after making efforts to deal with any kind of spam associated with your site, be it links or content.   Previously when penguin filter penalized sites for spammy links or content, they had to wait until next time Google rolled out another penguin update. They would only hope to rank high on the SERPs once again after the refresh of a penguin update, that’s if they had done enough to do away with any type of spam that got them penalized in the first place. At least now with penguin running real time, it is possible to clean up spam and get sites ranking again without the long wait. But it’s important to realize that site rankings now may also be quickly dropping as soon as significant spam signals are detected. So a constant review of content and links would even be more important than ever before.  

Penguin is now affecting page by page basis- granular

  Penguin will now be devaluing spam by adjusting rankings based on spam signals. Individual pages of a site will be penalized rather than the entire site. Previously penguin updates penalized the entire site equally for any page linked to spammy content or sources of links. Interpretations on what Google actually meant by stating penguin will be “more granular” have been varied, leading to assumptions that if only certain pages are penalized then the rest of the site is almost completely safe. But that couldn’t be further from the truth because Google has clarified to some experts that it doesn’t mean only pages are affected. Of course if more pages on a site are caught for spam them definitely site rankings could be noticeably affected.   Have do you tell if penguin update affected your site?   It may be more difficult to tell how or if a site has been affected as a result of the latest penguin update. This time the penguin effect will be more at the page level rather than sitewide, plus changes will also be taking place on a real time basis. Different spam scores for different pages on a site at times could level out in a way that doesn’t necessarily contribute to a drop in rankings of the site, but if most of the pages are spammy then a drop must be noticed.   So there will still be need to make use of the disavow file, if within the next few weeks you can’t tell exactly how penguin has impacted on your site rankings. But you still have to remember the fact that penguin is just one of the more than 200 signals that Google uses to determine rankings. So you have to make sure you don’t overlook the impact other important search ranking factors could have on your site rankings.  

Focus on content quality

  Creating great content to earn high quality links will continue to be even more important. Links remain as the most important ranking factor, but now with penguin going live it means you must get the right links from the right places (it was always about that). Great content (who are we kidding- you gotta promote the living day lights out of it as well) will earn you the most natural links as a result of the value other web users and publishers perceive in it. You need to have on your site the kind of content everyone is willing to recommend to others, and that’s how the content pages will end up getting linked backed from authority sites.   Creativity in your content strategy will also earn you quality guest posting opportunities, so you can end up earning quality links in a variety of ways and avoid spam. If you publish important data based on research more often, journalist from top news sites, authority publications, blogs and others will become major sources of your links. So focusing on quality content can go a long way towards avoiding penguin penalization and continuously improving rankings.

Stop Freaking Out About Penguin Update On 9-23-16, Happened Weeks Before was first published on MasterMind Service

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Six Sigma SEO And Delivering An Over The Top Experience For Corporate Brands To Local Businesses

Brands must be more aggressive and creative in the way they use digital marketing strategies because competition in the online business environment is ever getting tougher. It takes more efforts and continuous refining of strategy to avoid drowning. SEO is one of the most important digital marketing processes that most businesses are struggling with. That is happening because SEO is a long-term strategy, meaning nothing you do for it works overnight, while at the same time the rules and guidelines that marketers must adhere to are frequently redefined by the ever changing Google search algorithms. Many businesses are barely surviving because they can’t beat competition in terms of rankings on Google search and conversions.  The Six Sigma is all about defining, measuring, detailed analysis, improving and controlling or managing of processes. The philosophy has been successfully applied across sectors to perfect processes in terms of quality, performance and efficiency. Whether it’s in manufacturing or transactions, products or services, it has been proven to eliminate deviations from desired results. DMAIC is the methodology followed in Six Sigma, meaning to Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. It can be applied in SEO to define the most important ranking factors, links and content serving as good examples. We can easily measure the data we collect for the ranking factors, and then analyze it to identify any gaps that must be corrected for improvement and better control of the entire SEO process. MasterMind Content Marketers can help you to start applying the Six Sigma to your content as one of the most important Google ranking factors.  

Las Vegas based?

   

The article Six Sigma SEO And Delivering An Over The Top Experience For Corporate Brands To Local Businesses is available on http://www.mastermindseo.org

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Penguin Now Part Of Google’s Core Algorithm Plus Rank Brain

If you are an SEO, then you have probably heard the forums and skype groups blowing up about how Penguin is now part of the core algorithm.  So let's see what that actually means to your campaigns for you and for your clients.

Penguin Has Real Time Updates

If you have seen websites that  have been the victim of "negative spam", then you know how tough it was with the old way that Penguin rolled out. Old way was you had to disavow and wait sometimes months, which is like years in Digital Marketing for the update to kick in and hopefully pull you out of the penalty box.

Page Rank Is Not Dead

Page Rank is a distraction? Well, Jimmy Kelley an SEO expert has stated numerous times that is the case.  With results like Jimmy gets, which I have personally seen, it is kind of hard to argue that Jimmy is wrong. Google's official stance on Page Rank is that it still exists and is part of their 200 unique signals or "clues".  Page Rank whether it is a distraction (as it is not updated on a toolbar level anymore) Google still uses that phrase. SEO's commonly use other Metrics like Domain Authority and Trust Flow as metrics to help them determine ranking factors and link value.

Google States Penguin is now more granular?

With the much needed improvement to Penguin, it now "devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole site".  So what does that actually mean? Google can see patterns in linking right? Ok, so if one of those patterns they pick up is that a website is sending out or being used for mass spam, as in it could have been picked up and put into a spam list to be used in automated linking tools. If they notice that "neighborhood" as spam based the new update devalues that link in particular rather than making the whole site devalued. The new update means that it is page based rather than domain based. Smart right? How is this helpful? If you are the victim of negative SEO, which happens sometimes when you start outranking your competition, then this freshness update on Penguin should help out quite a bit. Regardless of industry news, keep on building great content, promote the crap out of it and do great work.

via GIPHY

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How Do I Get More Traffic To My Website In This Digital Era? Inquiring Business Owners Want To Know

Businesses today are forced to make marketing efforts that help them to remain relevant in this digital era. But surprisingly a significant number of businesses are yet to fully take advantage of some of the best marketing opportunities available. Digital marketing strategies used in some cases haven’t integrated important methods including search engine optimization or what is popularly known as SEO. Many marketers are aware of online paid ads and are using them although not all understand how to optimize their ROI if they are getting any. Myths and bad practices from some incompetent agencies have greatly contributed to a poor perception of SEO. That’s why some business owners and inexperienced in-house marketing teams believe SEO no longer works. That’s despite the availability of some hard facts and data from numerous case studies that have confirmed the value SEO brings to any sound digital marketing strategy. Experts at MasterMind have consistently relied on SEO strategies based on industry best practices, to boost rankings of client sites across a variety of niches.

Why SEO Should Be Integrated Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

When SEO is working for any business as it should, that means being found by potential customers on the first page of Google search results. If you rank between position 1 and 3 for your targeted keyword phrase, you get about 33% of the potential customers. You beat your competitors online by ranking higher above them in search engine results pages or SERPs. Most people searching online rarely bother to go to page 2 of Google search results, so until you get on page 1 don’t expect to get any referral traffic for your site. You therefore need a strategy to get there and that can happen with help from MasterMind Content Marketing SEO experts.

Can I Really Increase Traffic To My Website?

Yes. Yes You Can.   As we are continuously driving further and further into the digital age, your marketing strategy and marketing team should be evolving with the times to ensure you aren’t falling behind your competitors or getting stuck in a marketing rut.   Most marketers have embraced digital marketing as an important avenue, but one essential element that is often overlooked due to lack of understanding is SEO.   Wait…isn’t SEO dead?   No.   Every year when Google releases new updates about algorithms and changes in the search results, web developers around the globe throw their hands up in defeat and declare that SEO is dead, although that just isn’t the case.   SEO has changed since the beginning, keyword stuffing is no more and gaining thousands of backlinks is no longer the key to success. In fact, not having SEO as part of your digital marketing strategy can be detrimental to your online success.   If you are in an especially competitive industry sector it can be difficult to rank for your primary terms with little to no optimisation of your site for SEO.   Whilst other marketing techniques such as paid advertising can be extremely efficient in some cases, they shouldn’t be relied on solely. SEO and PPC go hand in hand; one really shouldn’t be done without the other if you want to get the most out of your digital marketing. Click here to read the rest of the story from the original source      

The blog post How Do I Get More Traffic To My Website In This Digital Era? Inquiring Business Owners Want To Know was originally published to MasterMind Service

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Four Cornerstones to Building a Brand for Business stability and Profitable Growth – Part 1

Cornerstones to Building a Profitable Brand - Part 1

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Patience:

Patience is defined as bearing the provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss or temper, irritation or the like. Or quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence; As an business owner/Entrepreneur you will deal with the craziest highs and the lowest lows. These are just regular mountain top experiences... they are the Himalayas type highs and lows.

Real Life Himalayan Mountain Top Highs and Lows

Talking with one of the business owners I am working with we had a conversation that went something like this on Friday; "Hey, business is going so well the next thing that we will need to do is hire at least 5 new employees, as soon as possible to keep up with all these sales." Cathy. "Let's see how the next couple of weeks go and make sure we can support the growth, while we are scaling." Me. Then this conversation happened on Monday; "We need to figure out how to get more sales. We aren't going to make it and need to lay off everyone." Cathy. "Let's see how the next couple of weeks go and make sure that we can grow our sales on a scalable pace." Me. Can you relate? One day you are going to hire everyone and can't figure out how to get everything fulfilled and the next, you are attempting to figure how to pay the electric bill. Have you built the patience needed to survive the highs and lows?

Mindset of Patience:

As an Entrepreneur and a Business Owner your mindset has to be one of looking at building over a long period of time. If you have a reaction to the day to day operations you will literally drive yourself insane. You won’t be able the handle that emotional roller coaster. No matter how stable you believe you are the emotions will get to you if you don’t start looking at your brand building as a long term investment you won’t be able to handle the emotional roller coaster of the day to day activities. So calm down and look at the building process as years, not days. Be patient with yourself, with your idea, and with your brand. Look at things in terms of chapters and the words on the each page is just one day. The chapter is a year and you always have many chapters within the life of a brand. One final take away, Malcom Gladwell in Outliers proposes many different philosophies but the one that I see that is an under running current from all of those that are great at something is that it didn’t happen overnight. He uses the Chinese Proverb “No one who rises 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.” While Chinese Proverbs can be interrupted many different ways the point that is here is that there was an extend time of working. Malcom refers to the building of the rice paddies fields in how they do take a long time to develop. You cannot raise a bountiful crop of rice in a few months. As the definition implies, a steady perseverance as you navigate the emotional mountain top highs and the lows of the daily activities; even tempered mind set; and diligence to stay the course and follow a consistent path.         

The blog post Four Cornerstones to Building a Brand for Business stability and Profitable Growth – Part 1 was originally published to http://mastermindseo.org/

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Why Keyword Research Alone Doesn’t Cut It And How To Tap Into “Trends” And Informational Searches

Most of you reading this are probably fellow SEO's or Content Marketers. This post is for you, but it's also for the business owner who wants to know how to build really solid content on their website and build trust with their potential customers, then convert that trust into sales. This post will show you some great ideas on how to build engaging content that will draw people into your sales funnel. I think most of us knew for a long time that Google's KW planner did not tell the whole picture. There are search phrases out there that Google hasn't picked up on yet, as such we should not rely on it as the sole source of information to find out what phrases we should build content for. We know that Google's Keyword Planner stopped showing exact search results and opted to limit the search data for accounts that were not actively engaged in Adwords campaigns. Basically, "hey stop leeching off of us you cheap #*$$&".  So how do you tap into trending topics and drive more traffic if you don't want to strictly rely on Google's Keyword Planner?

How To Spot Trending Topics And Build Content Pieces Around Them

Well, there are a number of great resources for spotting trends. A great article by fellow digital marketer Ryan Stewart explains how places like Instagram, Snapchat and other social networks drive informational searches based off of something that the user saw online. Ryan's post really is ninja and was an inspiration for me writing this article. An example of how Instagram posts can drive organic searches would be-a type of pre workout that a Instagram user's  favorite fitness person uses, or a specific type of shoe. The user then goes into Google (as most of the time there is no link in Instagram, unless the influencer is doing a "sponsored post" on behalf of a company (or an actual ad in Instagram) and replaces the link on their Instagram profile (which typically goes to their website) with the link that the sponsoring company provided them. Hopefully that company set up Google URL Builder properly so they can track the visits! [caption id="attachment_35658" align="aligncenter" width="820"] Image from https://www.instagram.com/hgtv/[/caption] These posts are often viewed after the fact, as users don't always see the posts right away, and due to the frequency at which influencers post, the link might be replaced already. So the "see the link in my profile" will no longer be valid. It drives me crazy to see that (because I actually have to work to find something I want). So, the user, like me, goes to Google and performs a search that we think will render the right result. We then engage with the top results we find, and keep searching until we find what we are looking for. So, besides Instagram and other social channels (I really love twitter to pull off of the #searches), what other resources are out there? Well a great resource is Google Trends. You can see what people are searching for in a hourly, past 4 hours, past day, past 30, past 90, past 12 months, past 5 years, and so on and so forth.

How To Use Related Topics And Related Queries In Google Trends

If you are a content marketer and you see topics and informational searches that people are starting to search for MORE... ie searches that are on the rise, and may not be quite as competitive YET. Well then, go out and build content around those search queries. Yep, go out and build a nice super informational article on "What Is Hyper Extension" which is a related search term to our original Search in Trends which was "pre workouts".  You can even "inner link your website"!!?? Oh my gosh.. link building?? The relevant link provides a place for them to "buy pre workouts".  Yep. You just solved a persons question about "What is hyperextension", and since they were on your site already, and it was probably a decent length article since it is a medical term and requires more than a 200 words to explain it, the reader probably stayed on your site for a few minutes (INCREASED DWELL TIME!). Which is a great signal to Google that you solved their point of pain, and your content piece can get rewarded with higher user engagement metrics (maybe a social media share) and thus most likely higher Search Placement. Heck you might even sell them something. If not then you should remarket to them (aka retargeting). You can do the same thing with Related Queries, like "chest workouts". Go out and build a massively helpful article with pictures and possibly videos on "the complete guide to chest workouts". Maybe another one, "the complete guide to at home chest workouts" since most of the "how to guides" are centered around gym workouts.  Ok, you get the idea here. You build content with the idea of bringing in informational searches.

BUT I WANT TO SELL STUFF!

Yes, we all do. But instead of just going after "buy now+ product phrases" why not create content which is super helpful, promote it like crazy on social media, ie- influencer social media marketing- drive traffic that way and reach a new audience. Then go out do the same thing to "at home workout gurus". Ask them to share your resource on their blog, social etc. They will most likely at least look at it, some will help you, and some won't that's just the nature out outreach marketing.

Want More Ninja? Check Out Storybase

Storybase is a fantastic platform which acts a bit like Google Trends. You type in a search and it renders a few different areas. Story Base Questions- Story Base Related- You can see I had to change the phrase to "working out", because "pre workouts" did not render enough data. Storybase Phrases- Storybase Audience- Yes it's always a good idea to build a custom audience profile on your campaigns. Know who your market is and figure out how to sell it to them. Rather, figure out how they want to buy. That's the ninja right there.  

via GIPHY

Why Keyword Research Alone Doesn’t Cut It And How To Tap Into “Trends” And Informational Searches is courtesy of MasterMind Blog

This post originally appeared on
http://mastermindseo.org/keyword-research-alone-doesnt-cut-tap-trends-informational-searches/

Need A Content Marketing Strategy? Ok First Understand Analytics And Big Data. Still Need Help? Hire A Content Agency.

In order to come up with a data driven content marketing strategy, you need to find out what customers are specifically searching for and how you can position yourself. If you are not looking at SEO and social data, then you can’t easily know what to prioritize in your content in terms of the answers it should provide to potential customers. Fortunately, there are numerous tools available in the market today that you can use to obtain and analyze all the data you need to analyze for insight. Some of the tools are even freely available on online while the data they provide is critical for any meaningful content marketing efforts.

Driving Inbound Traffic With Content Created Using SEO, Social Metrics & Questions

Keyword search tools such as the Moz Keyword Explorer and Google AdWords keyword tool can provide very useful SEO data that gives the best idea of what customers are searching for. A long-tail keyword search provides a great way of understanding even more specific topics or items people are looking for in online searches. Analyzing SEO data from keyword searches makes you understand volume searches, competition and difficulty, the opportunity and potential that lies in targeting different keywords. Most of the stuff people are searching for online is also shared on social media, so you have to use the right tools and deeply take a look at what is happening across different social platforms. Social media engagement data must be analyzed because more referrals are increasingly coming from platforms like Facebook. Google also crawls social media pages and does pick up some signals that can boost your rankings. Taking a look at what people are searching for in community forums relevant to your niche also provides great ideas and data that you can analyze to improve your content strategy. That’s where you see the kind of questions people are asking to get answers from industry thought leaders. The ability, time and efforts needed to get and analyze all the necessary data can be overwhelming, so you should engage a competent Content Marketing Agency like MasterMind to help your business best meet the expectations of your customers.  

The following blog post Need A Content Marketing Strategy? Ok First Understand Analytics And Big Data. Still Need Help? Hire A Content Agency. was first published on www.mastermindseo.org

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Have Multiple Locations You Want To Rank In Google? Optimize Your GMB Properly

A local business that only needs potential customers to find them for specific local locations needs to implement  a proper local SEO strategy. That’s different from an Organic SEO campaign that works for local shoppers and shoppers worldwide. Some local businesses also need to target only a single location while others need to target multiple locations which can a bit tricky for inexperienced marketers. Digital marketing knowledge and experience are critical for crafting and implementing any local SEO strategy to go up in the SERPs. The experts at MasterMind can optimize your local business and allow it to start thriving rather than surviving. Our experts start by creating unique urls for different locations, and then they create and optimize content for each location. Your local keyword phrase is used to optimize the title tag, meta description, H1, and the rest of your content. Branding with the name of your company is a important. Including your phone number (NAP) provides an important local signal and works for conversions too. Local relevance is important and that’s why your local keyword phrase must be included in meta description even though it doesn’t directly boost rankings.

Local SEO Targeting For Multiple Locations

Content must be unique for each location with its url and landing page. You must have an account with Google My Business in order to show up in various Google channels including search, maps and Google+ Here you wouldn’t need to include a keyword or any specific location since you have several locations to target. Include your local phone number and make sure all your business address and contact information on the web is consistent. Engagement on social media makes your business look good in the eyes of Google, so you must have an effective social media strategy driven by creative content. For multiple locations, each must have its own social media page. Facebook Locations makes setting up and managing pages for multiple much easier. Local directories shouldn’t be ignored as they still count, especially if the directory appears for keywords you can’t easily compete for other than appearing inside the directory and getting reviews. Google reviews are also great for visibility since they often show up search results. Content is critical for any local SEO strategy to be effective, so get help with your Content Marketing Strategy at Mastermind and take your local business to the next level.  

The post Have Multiple Locations You Want To Rank In Google? Optimize Your GMB Properly was first published to MasterMind Blog

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Can I Switch Off My SEO For The Holidays And Turn It Back On?

We get this question alot. Well the fact of the matter is you can stop working on SEO at any point you want. Often the value and all the hard work will go away just like when you stop working out and eating right. Ya, we know how that goes...

Seasonal SEO: Is An Holiday-Based Optimization A Good Idea?

A significant number of businesses in certain industries today are adopting some seasonal SEO strategies to a certain extent. Their move is determined by the fact that in certain niches the Christmas season brings in the lion share of their revenue. For instance, the Christmas holiday season for some types of businesses can bring in a lot of sales. So if such businesses are considering establishing a strong online presence, then why not take into account the holiday season as well? Targeting a certain season however means you will be considering a short-term SEO strategy, which can potentially make things tricky because SEO has always been a long-term strategy. Would you sacrifice the long-term benefits of SEO for short-term gains? Do you have the time and budget to do both long-term and short-term SEO? Those are some of the most important questions any business owner must ask themselves. It is also important to understand that there are different types of seasons different types of businesses might want to look at. Seasons like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, summer and winter come every year, while there are also trends and fads that may at some point disappear completely to be of any business value. So you can only consider an SEO strategy for a season that will be back every year, and that offers high sales opportunities. You will have to trade off that with long-term sales to the extent you can afford.

Consider PPC If You Are Looking To Turn The Hose Off And On

Content is at the heart of any SEO strategy and is one of the assets you need to maximize ROI overtime. When you go for a certain season, you must make sure your assets are reusable. In other words, your content must be evergreen for your short-term strategy to be of any value. Also make sure the short-term SEO strategy is secondary to the long-term one. The decisions you will have to make are tough, so working with Content Marketing Team at MasterMind is a great idea if you want to succeed.  

The following article Can I Switch Off My SEO For The Holidays And Turn It Back On? is available on MasterMind

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http://mastermindseo.org/can-switch-off-seo-holidays-turn-back/