In early May this year, Google announced several new algorithm updates and named this update “Penguin”.  The previous Panda update in February of 2011 aimed to cut down on what Google deemed “low-quality” websites by placing higher authority to those sites with active social media, limited advertisements, and limited duplicate content.  Search engines has been fighting spammers since the beginning, so the Penguin update is their latest effort to clean up the search results and speed up their spidering capabilities.

Penguin directly effects pages with considerable duplicate content.  Most of this duplicate content isn’t intentional, but definitely preventable.  It focused on database-driven websites like Magento, WordPress, etc… and other ecommerce platforms that often have many different ways of delivering a website for viewers.

In reality, there needs to be only one version of any particular website and web page.  For instance, if www.testsite.com has a Contact page.  It should only be available by typing in http://www.testsite.com/contact.  Here are other ways it can be viewed:

• http://www.testsite.com/contact/
• http://www.testsite.com/index.php/contact
• http://testsite.com/contact
• http://testsite.com/contact/
• http://testsite.com/index.php/contact
• https://www.testsite.com/contact
• https://www.testsite.com/contact/
• https://www.testsite.com/index.php/contact

Every single one of these pages should have a canonical tag in the meta code that at least tells search engines that there is one true version of this page and it should be http://www.testsite.com/contact.  There are many technical ways to make sure this type of problem doesn’t effect your ecommerce website, but I can’t stress how important it is to only have one version of each page.

Lately, we’ve had several ecommerce clients come to us for upgrades and sometimes redesigns for their ecommerce website.  We’ve started by choosing two basic ecommerce systems to use based on the size of the store and the budget.  After much research, I’ve narrowed the platforms we recommend to two that are able to be built SEO-friendly from the ground up.  This saves clients thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars in maintenance, updates, and lost sales due to low rankings over the years.

Even if you have a basic WordPress website, you should make sure your webmaster is aware and concerned about duplicate content, proper URL naming, sitemap updating on a regular basis, and keeping in touch with both Google and Yahoo/Bing Webmaster Tools to make sure they are complying with each search engines’ best practices for SEO.

If you have more questions, please email or call Allyson Seitzler at (504) 324-2281 for more information on how Webtyde can help you.

We would like to thanks all our old and wonderful clients who have been with us throughout the years. Our new clients make everyday here exciting to come to work. Your successes are our success. Many thanks to our clients, partners, the City of New Orleans, our expanding projects and partners in the Netherlands, and everyone who has believed in us and our services.

This makes quite a bit of sense.  On November 3, 2011, Official Google Blog writer Amit Singal says in his blog titled Giving You Fresher, More Recent Search Results, “Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh. Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.”  I think this as a great analogy for the thinking behind the creation of the Freshness Update.

Fresh content is something that I have always considered important for our campaigns at Webtyde.  As part of our services that are included in each of our SEO Campaigns and SEO Monthly Management, we update a website and its files monthly and make various changes in code and copy.  We  recommend clients post one blog posting per week, with one posting per month minimum.  Due to this official announcement, we are now more aggressively updating our clients’ websites to take advantage of the new Freshness Update and recommending clients post as many blogs as they can with relevant content.

If you are updating your website and/or blog yourself, I recommend updating as often as you can with new and relevant information.  Never copy someone else’s content without giving them due credit and/or a link to the original work.  Try to create useful information for your viewers.  Blogs don’t always have to be essay or novel length.  They can be quick thoughts form your industry experience, tips, recipes, videos, instructional or informative photos, a opinion about a new product or service, an announcement about your company or products/services, or just a friendly well wishing for a wonderful holiday or event.

The ultimate way to decide if your content is relevant is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself, “Would I get something out of this information on this website?”  This will help guide you to properly updating and refreshing your website and blogs for Google’s new Freshness Update algorithm.

This information was very important for link reporting since Yahoo Site Explorer was not only used for webmaster communication with Yahoo, it also was use to determine a relatively accurate number of inbound links to any particular website on the Web.

For many years, Google has given inaccurate inbound linking statistics deliberately. Yahoo Explorer was one of the tools the Search Engine Optimization industry relied on for a rough look into how many links were coming into a particular site. This is a sad day indeed.

Other link reporting options will be implemented, but we will have to start gathering new trending data from new sources which will definitely skew 2011 results for yearly reporting.

Webtyde will notify all clients of our new tracking methods in your monthly SE Performance Reports. As always, let Allyson know if you have questions.

I found this quick video for you that are new to SEO or want to understand it better.  As always, please contact me if you have any questions about Internet marketing.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Allyson Seitzler leads Webtyde and their clients to success by providing ethical and effective Internet marketing campaigns. The New Orleans-based SEO and Internet marketing company has innovated payment plans to provide affordable Internet marketing and search engine optimization to companies that would normally be unable to afford these services. Many Louisiana and national businesses have seen incredible results equating to high return on their investments.

Everyone at Webtyde Internet Marketing is dedicated to educating and empowering all our clients by utilizing cutting edge search engine optimization technologies.

Google is a mystery to so many people because it is so vital to a business’s success.  People need to know what it takes to have a business website rank high and be visible to potential clients.  It is absolutely essential to have an authoritative Internet presence in today’s highly competitive markets, especially with national SEO and International SEO campaigns.  I spend hours each week reading through daily industry emails detailing what changes the major search engine players have made so I can keep our clients ranking high.

Since Google doesn’t disclose a majority of their algorithms, SEOs are forced to constantly research to make each of our client’s websites attractive to search engines.  This makes Google a mystery to us, and an important mystery at that.  That is why Google itself is so interesting to me: it’s powerful, mysterious, and everywhere.

Campus

On April 18th, I received a phone call from a gentleman who claimed to be from Google wondering if I got the email invitation to come visit the Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA to attend a meeting regarding a program I joined earlier this year.  My first thought was that this was some sales ploy that had nothing to do with Google.  I was wrong.  We went back and forth the following week via email and the phone.  Nine days after the original call, I was on a flight to San Francisco to go meet with Google.

The program I joined in February is Google Engage.  It’s where SEO companies learn more about Google Adwords, pass proficiency exams, and get coupons for our clients to try Adwords.  I thought it would be great for my clients who were interested in boosting their holiday exposure and help newer SEO campaigns while their ranking emerged.

Allyson Seitzler - at Google Engage

I was in a group of 25 people, hand picked from the over 4,000 Google Engage members in the United States.  On Tuesday, April 26th, we were picked up from our San Mateo Marriott hotel by a limo bus with a big screen TV in it.  We headed to the campus around 11am and got signed into Google.  The 1900 building was located within a complex of four large buildings with two or three stories each.  There was a cafeteria where we ate prior to the official meeting that was free for all workers.  It had everything from flank steak with delicious au jus sauce, to San Francisco Bay oysters, to organic pizza, and a full salad bar.  They had unlimited free beverages from sodas to Naked fruit drinks.  We met in a small auditorium with a huge LED screen and “Ninja Bags” that was filled with a bunch of cool Google schwag.

We were introduced to many product managers from the various departments to greet us, ask us questions, and show us new features that are yet to be announced.  In order to enter the premises, we not only had do sign an NDA, we had to be escorted to any different buildings by an employee of Google.  Makes sense.  They had cameras monitoring everything over the entire complex.

The meeting lasted about four hours and we received some excellent tips and a stack of coupons for our clients.  It was a great experience and then the stretch limo bus took us back to our Palo Alto Sheraton directly across from the entrance to Stanford University.  They know how to take care of their guests.

The next morning before my flight left at around noon to head back to New Orleans, I got up early and took a walk to the headquarters of the other giant in the Internet Marketing arsenal: Facebook.

The Facebook headquarters was less impressive by far, but interesting nonetheless.  I walked up and entered the main lobby area which read “HACK” on the front glass doors.  I asked the receptionist if I could have a business card and he irritatedly replied with a curt “no”.  I asked if they had any other buildings around I could go see and he said he was not able to disclose that information. Party pooper.

Overall, the trip was amazing.  Airfare, transportation, and hotels were provided by Google.  I was even able to get up to Fisherman’s Wharf and meet my brother for a dinner.  I was raised in South San Jose and grew up playing sports all around the Bay Area.  It’s turned into a more amazing place  than I ever could have imagined.  Within 30 miles of where I grew up now is home of headquarters for Google, Facebook, Apple, Adobe, Hewlett Packard, and countless other technology companies that not only help your small businesses succeed, but build a better quality of life for everyone.

The last four months have been extraordinary for Webtyde and our clients.  We have added several new clients from across the United States and have already started showing their companies amazing results.  Many of our cherished existing clients have renewed and expanded their Internet Marketing campaigns to include Social Media Management (SMM) and Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.

Many of you know that Google released a major update a couple months ago, dubbed the “Panda” update, which knocked such major players as JC Pennys and About.com off the top due to having low quality content.  ALL of our clients moved up as consistently as they have been and none of them were affected by these major algorithm changes in the giant search engine.

We have partnered with several companies in New Orleans, LA and San Diego, CA to bring clients several quality options from our long standing relationships with our trusted partner companies. Many of our partners have seen steady growth as well. Webtyde only partners with other ethical companies that insist on remaining absolutely up-to-date on their industry information so they can bring their clients top-of-the-line service that amazing results for your investment.

Some companies include:

Mirliton Media, LLC – eCommerce/custom website design and development, software development
John Barousse Design, Inc. – Custom graphic design for print and web
FSC Interactive – Social Media Management and large PPC campaigns
Squarefour Digital Media – Custom website and CMS design and development
Knudr.com – Strategic Consulting and Social Media Marketing, specializing in higher education
Atlas Local – Local SEO management for larger campaigns

Webtyde specializes in organic SEO.  Our past results speak for themselves. Our clients speak for us.  We happily supply examples of results and references in every proposal and urge people to contact our referrals to hear what they themselves have to say about their results we’ve brought them and how it was to work with Allyson Seitzler and Webtyde.

Webtyde Internet Marketing is an ethical and knowledgeable New Orleans SEO and Internet Marketing company that offers the best services from across the nation to help your company become very visible online.

Call me today to get more information on how we can help your company become visible online.

Best,

Allyson Seitzler
+1 (504) 324-2281