Welcome to another round of, “Google’s Greatest Hits !!”. No it’s not a collection of rock songs but just a frank discussion of where you went wrong on the big search engine of life. Yeah, I know a lot of  you are way into tablets, social media and mobile phone babble but Google still matters. Getting listed in their directories is still a big deal and it is only going to get bigger. Just this week Google announced that it was going to expand billions of dollars into satellites so it can deliver content to remote areas.

So you may as well play ball with this online juggernaut because it is showing no signs of slowing down. There are other things happening to Youtube as well and more people are depending on it to get their messages across. This is something that is not going to slow down so you may as well give them what they are looking for.

SEMANTICS, GOOGLE AND YOU….
What is the big thing Google is looking for lately? They are looking for websites that are not over optimized but come off more like the way people talk. They are leaning towards sites that have more of a conversational feel to them. This type of information needs to be delivered in a way that looks natural and not something that seems planted, with no heart, and cookie cutter content. They want to see people interact in a more natural setting.

This new Hummingbird change is looking at the way information gets processed and delivered. If anything it is more precise now than its previous incarnations. So if someone is looking to get a brand new Samsung Flat Screen 70” HDTV from Brighton, Michigan the search engine can spit out an answer and in most cases a price. This differs from way back when the results would conjure up some generic sellers of the brand. This is going to be bad news for sites that have really nothing to say other than offering a phone number and a street address. The search engine giant is looking for quality content. Same as always.

So why the name Hummingbird? This name for this algorithm came up to symbolize what the program does – it flies in and out and retrieves what it needs. And in the game of semantics you should be thinking about where to stick that information. This can go into a web video, a tweet, a social media post, (these are now visible on Google ya know…. ) a press release, a blog post, and on a web page.

Look, this is a loaded subject but it might be new to you. Below is a collection on some thoughts I had on previous changes….

A lot of people are freaking out over the NEW Google Penguin 2.1 update. Some companies have lost their rankings. Others are in serious danger of losing their rankings. I skipped the pretty graphics in this report and will get right to the point.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE LATEST CHANGE?
Google is looking at sites that have low quality linking and throwing them off the SERPS, (search engine result pages). So if you have a lot of directories linking back to your sites with no traffic Google is basically saying that those links are not worth anything. Google is looking for links where there are people attached to them. They want real people and not crawler bots.

·         Forum spam: This includes comments in forums with exact match anchor text links.

·         Forum bio spam: Biographies of forum users containing exact match anchor text links.

·         "Do follow" blogs: Blogs that don't add nofollow to the links posted. "Let's face it,"

·         "Being listed on do-follow resource sites can absolutely send Google a signal that you are trying to game links."

·         Blogroll spam: Watch for blogroll links gone wrong. "Some may be fine,". "If you are unsure which ones are bad versus good, ask for help from a seasoned SEO."

·         Spammy directories: If you've used spammy directories in the past, and still have links out there, "nuke them, have them nofollowed, or disavow them."

·         Blog comment signature spam: Google seems to be targeting these links even when they're not followed.

·         Another area of concern happens when your site contains too much of the

·         Javascript menus, (which crawlers cannot read)

·         Flash movies embedded in your pages

·         Complex ASP forms in your site

·         Extensive JPGS WITH NO TEXT

·         Too many form scrips on your pages

·         INDUSTRY SITES – Canned sites handed out by big companies, (Remax, Primerica, MLM sites, ---- anything that is handed to an agent as a sales too basically)

** Google is still big on originality of content. So if you are using any kind of pre-written industry approved press releases, (ones that you did not write) or websites that were given by your parent company that look and perform like the next agent down the street or in a different town you are in danger.

SOLUTION:

The best way to link to your existing sites in this case would be to create extensive word content with keywords and appropriate links embedded in them that link back to your own sites. This will support your existing websties and also lock them down and keep them in place on the Google SERPS.

Keep in mind with the recent Social Media changes Google is looking for three things.

* USE OF GOOGLE MEDIA, ( Youtube, Blogger, Google+)
* LINKS WHERE PEOPLE GATHER, ( Facebook, viral press releases, viral articles)

This is where a lot of companies will not go because it is too much work to put together. This is where a lot of companies will eventually lose marketshare to their competitors.

REMEMBER: There is a PR number system, (page rank) for every media element that you create. PR 1, thru - PR10. This creates value among your overall SEO and online presence.

THE BIG TAKEAWAY
Google wants its sites to be connected to places where there are people and web traffic. Google is doing some things in the news recently by selling its own online customer reviews and coming up with new ways to generate advertising revenue. It has followed in the footsteps of Facebook and has completely done away with things that do not work such as its social media platform – ORKUT.

GOING SOCIAL
Another thing that companies need to be aware of is that Google wants people to start to market to other people. They are looking for websites that allow downloadable content that can be shared with other people on the web.

Keep in mind that Google has always  been selective over who gets onto it. Only 14% of all websties can get onto Google. Yahoo and Bing, (are very closely aligned) tend to think very similar.

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF SITES – WITH LINKS – Then the NEXT STEP would be to throw a “BIG NET” over your sites with content media, (articles, PDFS, press releases) that your online audience and searchers can share and distribute among their peers and this will continue to build your brand.

I recommend that you STOP everything you are doing at this very moment and switch gears and create content that will support your many websites.

THE NEW KNOWLEDGE BASE PROGRAM

We have created something called, “Knowledge Base” which is an aggressive program that is content based. It will create the following:

1.      Downloadable PDF content

2.      Viral Press Releases, (that get picked up in CBS Money Watch)

3.      Full Articles, (to be picked up in printed trade magazines)

4.      Viral Articles (to be picked up in online consumer websites)

5.      Media Bait (that other authority sites will want to link to)

6.      Online Question and Answer Sites

7.      Online Media Buying to Increase Twitter, and Facebook Followers

8.      Marketing to the Influent With Paid Impression Media

9.      Paid Viral Video

10.  Media Based On Keyword Intelligence

11.  Social Interaction Thru Online Surveys

12.  Consumer Reports On Mobile Devices

13.  Mobile Websites

14.  Online APPS

15.  Ebooks

16.  Whitepapers

17.  E-Learning – Ongoing Webinars

18.  Digital Magazine

19.  Website – FREE-SOURCES – Engage Online Consumers

20.  Customer Stories – Sharing Experiences

This is not an SEO program. It is designed to create a fence around your existing SEO framework. However, the effects will carry some SEO weight to it and will offer online visibility and give Google some “MEAT” to index and enhance your online presence
and brand. 

This is taking things to the next step by accomplishing two major goals:

·         The experience becomes more social

·         Customers are marketing to one another

** We have writers and PR people in place to execute these goals.

Contact: Ted Cantu
Direct:  248-277-6141

Google Hummingbird SEO, Google Penguin SEO, and What You Need To Know To Make Your Metro Detroit Business Thrive.

May 2014  -- HOT METRO FINDS

“A VISUAL ASSAULT: REM Dissected Scene By Scene

The bottom video was shot in 1989 and is the closest thing I could find to what the original show opener was like in 1987. This was a departure for REM as much as it was for the audience. Just when you thought you knew the band they changed on you in a new and exciting way. It would take some time to recognize them once again. In the case of, “Document” the album had to grow on me. I noticed this sort of thing happening with the Smiths too.

There was one sequence in the video, not shown in this edition, when the words – “Want” and “Need” come on screen. The words flipped interchangeably and morphed into a strobe that said, “Need Weed” and I remember the crowd going a bit wild over that. This was Ann Arbor after all. There is some talk about the set list being accurate. I do not believe, “Orange Crush” or “Pop Song 89” was performed in 1987. Those songs were released after REM went to Warner Brothers. “Document” was the last album created under the I.R.S. Records label.

There is another version of, “The One I Love” done on the live tour. Stipe starts out with a slow intro and for a minute I thought the whole song would be done slow. It then kicks into the tempo we all know. The stage was also bathed in an eerie red light. How this song got perceived as a love song I’ll never know. It was about a sick love obsession.

Over the years I hear the young kids go, “Oh who cares about that stuff, REM was long before my time.” Trust me, you wish you were there. This show was nothing but historic.

REM: AND THE BIRTH OF ALTERNATIVE RADIO --- ANN ARBOR, MI 1987

Read about it here....