Well of course Google has to ignore everything I have been saying for ages now, plus the rest of the authorities in the SEO industry... and go create their own version of Facebook Likes. Google is known for hiring the most talented and smartest people on the planet, so how come they are reinventing the wheel?!
Reinventing the Wheel
The answer to the question is easy, POLITICS! Facebook is the second largest website in the world, according to Alexa.com. It is the largest social networking site out there with 600 million users according to MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40929239/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/). So why in the world would Google not use Facebook's data stream, find out how many Likes a website or product has, and mix that into their algorithm? Did you really have to go out of your way and great the +1 Button?
It's all about money!
The problem with Google is that they think the market is just a pie, a fixed pie that can't grow, so they have to fight over their market share. Obviously Google hates Bing for being so successful and to this date grabbing 13% of market share. This means losing some advertisers who choose to go with Bing rather than Google's AdWords program. Why did I mention Bing? Well, it is because Facebook announced that they will be using Bing as their primary search engine, and Google is hurt and heart broken over this.
Reason number two is that Google and Facebook are both advertising platforms. As a company, you may choose to advertise on either one of these website or both if you have a bigger budget. Here is where Google loses to Facebook: For you to use Facebook, you have to be logged in. So Facebook knows pretty much everything about you since you are on that website 23 hours per day. They know what your interests are, where you live, who your friends are, what your friends like, what you like, the history of your likes, your behavior, who your family members are (if you have specified them), etc. and the list goes on. Facebook pretty much knows EVERYTHING about you. They probably know you more than you know yourself through the data they collect from your account on a daily basis.
On the other hand, you don't have to be logged into Google to run a search, I mean that would just be too hard to do if Google worked like that. So they don't really have too much data to play with. Well yes they do track your account if you are logged in, and sure they do install cookies on your computer but they don't have nearly as much data on you as Facebook does...
So what?
Well, this means as advertisers, you can narrow down your target market and literally pin point the people you want your ads to appear for. This means $$ because you don't waste your money advertising to people that are not likely to buy from you. So it all makes sense or Google to be jealous and hate Facebook, I guess I would too.
This is why Google goes way out of their way to create the +1 Button for people to do the same thing they do on Facebook. Google, I love you guys, but I am telling you, this would be a big fail, like most other projects you start! Like the commenting feature you guys release couple of years ago. This would be a fail and you will have to drop it like the SUPER EXCITING Google Wave project you guys had.... why did you discontinue that?! I was looking forward to a revolutionary product to be the next generation email service.... oh yes, that's right... we do have something like that and it is called Facebook!
Dear Google, please just stick with what you do best. Stop trying to be like Microsoft and think you can do everything yourself. I learned this the hard way as a kid that I can't do it all by myslef and I have to use other people's resources to be better at what I do best. Just get the data stream from Facebook, combine it and cross check it with twitter and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. and add that in to your algorithm to rank the most valuable sites.
Likes vs. Links
It would be a genius idea to use Facebook likes as a factor to rank websites because black hat SEO companies out there are buying links and doing every little dirty trick out there to get more links. But, if Google was looking for Likes, it is very hard to get Facebook likes. It is at least 10 times harder for obvious reasons.
+1? Really?
I am just dying to know who actually came up with the name... +1? Really?! This is the most creative idea the genius team of Google could come up with? What does it even mean? So if it was three people that liked the site, it would be +3? So your +1 Button would be +3? I am not sure how this could work or if this would make any sense. If I called my friend and wanted her to like my site, how odd would I sound if I said "Hey, can you +1 my site?" At least Like makes sense because I am liking the site or the page but +1, I am not sure...
My Disclaimer
Don't get me wrong, I am huge Google lover... After all, Google defined my career and I have it all because of Google but it is like having a friend who is great 99% of the times and 1% he makes the most ridiculous mistakes. And as a great friend, I have to call them out on it because I want the best for them!
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
KLOUT
So there is a new buzz going around about KLOUT. Have you heard of KLOUT? Well, if you haven't, I'll tell you that I find it very useful and awesome! Here is why... I think at the end of the day, it is always nice to have some sort of metrics or tool to measure your work; for example, money is used to measure one's success, etc. Sometimes people use someone's net worth to figure out how successful they are. Is money everything? No, absolutely not. Is it a very accurate measure, no. BUT it is not a bad tool to be able to put things on a scale.
Now, back to KLOUT. This is a website, using an algorithm to measure how you are doing on Twitter. If you are active in the social media world, you know how important it is to be on Twitter, as well as other website, like Facebook Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Mixx, etc.
KLOUT basically measure how many people follow you and how much influence you have on them. This is based on numbers, your followers and tweets, retweets, etc. If you want to know in details how they calculate your score, go to http://klout.com/kscore
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Now, back to KLOUT. This is a website, using an algorithm to measure how you are doing on Twitter. If you are active in the social media world, you know how important it is to be on Twitter, as well as other website, like Facebook Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Mixx, etc.
KLOUT basically measure how many people follow you and how much influence you have on them. This is based on numbers, your followers and tweets, retweets, etc. If you want to know in details how they calculate your score, go to http://klout.com/kscore
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Reputation Management
We have been getting more and more inquiries and request for Reputation Management. It seems like there are two industries that need Reputation Management more than anyone else; first one is the Finance industry. Given the crash in 2008 and the aftermath effects of it, it seems very normal. This doesn't necessarily mean that these companies did anything bad. It could be just as simple as the bank taking a home back because the owner refused to pay the mortgage and the owner now goes on the web and fills the internet with negative reviews and press about the bank.
The second industry is of course Hollywood. The entertainment industry is huge and it seems like with all these PR firms, etc, these stars get used to messing things up and having others clean up after them; which is fine I think because it creates more jobs for the country, so why not?!
Reputation Management
So what does Reputation Management mean in terms of what we do at IT Chair, Inc.? Well, it basically in simple terms means that if you Googled Mr. X's name and a lot of bad stuff showed up about him, we would go in, clean up these articles, reviews and posts as much as possible. And also, we would create a possibly tens and hundreds of mini-sites and pages, make them rank really high in Google for the keywords "Mr. X" and push the bad links to page let's say 10 of Google. No one really goes to page 10 so it is almost as if these websites and bad articles don't even exist.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
The second industry is of course Hollywood. The entertainment industry is huge and it seems like with all these PR firms, etc, these stars get used to messing things up and having others clean up after them; which is fine I think because it creates more jobs for the country, so why not?!
Reputation Management
So what does Reputation Management mean in terms of what we do at IT Chair, Inc.? Well, it basically in simple terms means that if you Googled Mr. X's name and a lot of bad stuff showed up about him, we would go in, clean up these articles, reviews and posts as much as possible. And also, we would create a possibly tens and hundreds of mini-sites and pages, make them rank really high in Google for the keywords "Mr. X" and push the bad links to page let's say 10 of Google. No one really goes to page 10 so it is almost as if these websites and bad articles don't even exist.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Speed is nothing new...
I get this question all the time. Yes, the faster your page loads, the better it will be. This is one factor that Google looks at when assigning a ranking score to your site. This is nothing new, we have always loved speed. After all, isn't this why the more fortunate of us pays a lot of money for faster cars? We can't wait 15 minutes for our food to cook, so we buy microwaves. We have always loved speed. So it just all makes sense to favor faster pages over slower ones, doesn't it?
How to do it
See, this is where it gets all technical. First of all, make sure you have very minimal code. Don't clutter your page with code that you don't need. Less images, less flash, less object, etc. Less is more basically holds true here too.
Also, choose your server wisely. There are servers out there that are connected. They will find out the IP address of the visitor and would connect to the closest server for the pages to load faster. So do your research and find out a good reliable, fast server. Don't just simply go for the cheapest one.
In SEO, there is no speeding ticket so TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT! =)
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
How to do it
See, this is where it gets all technical. First of all, make sure you have very minimal code. Don't clutter your page with code that you don't need. Less images, less flash, less object, etc. Less is more basically holds true here too.
Also, choose your server wisely. There are servers out there that are connected. They will find out the IP address of the visitor and would connect to the closest server for the pages to load faster. So do your research and find out a good reliable, fast server. Don't just simply go for the cheapest one.
In SEO, there is no speeding ticket so TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT! =)
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Facebook vs. Google?! Unbelievable...
Now I am hearing business owners even considering advertising on Facebook rather that on search engines... What is your conversion rate going to look like?
Facebook's purpose
Facebook is a social networking website. When I go on facebook, it is not look for ads and shop. I go on there to catch up with my friends and maybe even try to spend a few minutes e-socializing. The whole point of Internet Marketing and SEO is to avoid traditional advertising techniques that never work.
Traditional Advertising
TV, Radio, Newspapers, and all the other traditional advertising methods have EXTREMELY low conversion rates. First of all, they are not very targeted, secondly they don't work because they are mostly at the wrong time and in the wrong place, when we don't really want to come across them.
Proof
On your way to work, school, or anywhere you want to go to, you see a ton of billboards. They are as big as they can big, with bright colors and the perfectly crafted marketing messages. I am sure even today, you have seen a lot of them. Do you remember any of the though?! Mostly likely not. Why not? Because we are used to subconsciously blocking advertising. This is what they are.... Ads ads ads.... everywhere. We are tried of seeing ads. Now we are used to having everything on demand, even our music and movies are on demand. I get them, when I want them.
Facebook ads are just like any other ad. They try to be as targeted as they can be, and based on demographics, etc. but one thing they can never do is to show up when you want them to. The main reason is because it is the wrong place. You don't login to your facebook account looking forward to reading the ads do you? Just like you don't start watching TV, counting the minutes for the movie to go by just so you can see the commercials.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Facebook's purpose
Facebook is a social networking website. When I go on facebook, it is not look for ads and shop. I go on there to catch up with my friends and maybe even try to spend a few minutes e-socializing. The whole point of Internet Marketing and SEO is to avoid traditional advertising techniques that never work.
Traditional Advertising
TV, Radio, Newspapers, and all the other traditional advertising methods have EXTREMELY low conversion rates. First of all, they are not very targeted, secondly they don't work because they are mostly at the wrong time and in the wrong place, when we don't really want to come across them.
Proof
On your way to work, school, or anywhere you want to go to, you see a ton of billboards. They are as big as they can big, with bright colors and the perfectly crafted marketing messages. I am sure even today, you have seen a lot of them. Do you remember any of the though?! Mostly likely not. Why not? Because we are used to subconsciously blocking advertising. This is what they are.... Ads ads ads.... everywhere. We are tried of seeing ads. Now we are used to having everything on demand, even our music and movies are on demand. I get them, when I want them.
Facebook ads are just like any other ad. They try to be as targeted as they can be, and based on demographics, etc. but one thing they can never do is to show up when you want them to. The main reason is because it is the wrong place. You don't login to your facebook account looking forward to reading the ads do you? Just like you don't start watching TV, counting the minutes for the movie to go by just so you can see the commercials.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Google vs. Groupon? Not a chance!
I honestly can't even believe people are comparing these too. You know where this is coming from? Mostly business owners who want their sales to double over night. I have been hearing more and more about this over the past few months. For some odd reason, some people think that Groupon will take over and this is where shoppers would conduct their searches and buy.
Well, why not?
Here is the issue, as a business owner I care about sales, my customers, and my business. For me to be successful, I need maximum results with minimum effort. Just like buying and selling, pay lowest price possible and charge highest possible that my customers can afford. A big part of my success strategy is to spend as little time and money in my marketing campaigns but get a lot more result.
So what's your point?
My point is that every business wants repeat customers. We don't want to just do all this work for a customer to shop from us one time and never see them again. A repeat customer is when I don't have to convince them to buy from me; I have already done that once and now it is all downhill from here on. The problem with Groupon users is that they are bargain hunters. So next time around, they will do the same search and look to see if there are other places that can undercut you.
Infidelity...
Groupon users were never meant to be loyal customers. They are just simply shoppers that will buy from whoever that is willing to cut them a better deal. I don't know about other business owners, but I rather deal with clients that know price is not the only thing that matters in a service or product.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Well, why not?
Here is the issue, as a business owner I care about sales, my customers, and my business. For me to be successful, I need maximum results with minimum effort. Just like buying and selling, pay lowest price possible and charge highest possible that my customers can afford. A big part of my success strategy is to spend as little time and money in my marketing campaigns but get a lot more result.
So what's your point?
My point is that every business wants repeat customers. We don't want to just do all this work for a customer to shop from us one time and never see them again. A repeat customer is when I don't have to convince them to buy from me; I have already done that once and now it is all downhill from here on. The problem with Groupon users is that they are bargain hunters. So next time around, they will do the same search and look to see if there are other places that can undercut you.
Infidelity...
Groupon users were never meant to be loyal customers. They are just simply shoppers that will buy from whoever that is willing to cut them a better deal. I don't know about other business owners, but I rather deal with clients that know price is not the only thing that matters in a service or product.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Google's Algorithm and the Future
For a long time now, Google has been looking at inbound links as a way to give rankings to a website. It is based on a lot of factors but it is almost as if the main factor is how many inbound links you have. Sure, the quality of them do matter but quantity is not something they ignore either?
What does this mean?!
Well, here is where Google's algorithm has flaws. Let's say you have website A and I have website B. My website is a lot older and I have been doing SEO on it for a while. This means that I have more inbound links than you do (website A). So basically, even if you have the better website, and almost no matter what, I will have the upper hand (better rankings) unless you literally do everything under the sun to out rank me.
The future
I'd like to think Google is smart and they only hire extremely talented engineers. So based on this assumption, or patter if you will, sooner or later, they will figure out that links are not a goo way to determine which website is better. They will roll out an update in the near future that would consider more popularity and introduce democracy to the Internet Marketing world.
The people shall vote
If you ask me, I would say that facebook likes are probably a way better element to look at when ranking a website rather than links. You can buy links and yes you can buy lots of them, but can you really bribe thousands of people to like your page on facebook? Now, I am not saying facebook likes would be flawless and there is no way to trick the system with that either.... but it is certainly more difficult and this is a more accurate way for people to voice their opinion about which website is better.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
What does this mean?!
Well, here is where Google's algorithm has flaws. Let's say you have website A and I have website B. My website is a lot older and I have been doing SEO on it for a while. This means that I have more inbound links than you do (website A). So basically, even if you have the better website, and almost no matter what, I will have the upper hand (better rankings) unless you literally do everything under the sun to out rank me.
The future
I'd like to think Google is smart and they only hire extremely talented engineers. So based on this assumption, or patter if you will, sooner or later, they will figure out that links are not a goo way to determine which website is better. They will roll out an update in the near future that would consider more popularity and introduce democracy to the Internet Marketing world.
The people shall vote
If you ask me, I would say that facebook likes are probably a way better element to look at when ranking a website rather than links. You can buy links and yes you can buy lots of them, but can you really bribe thousands of people to like your page on facebook? Now, I am not saying facebook likes would be flawless and there is no way to trick the system with that either.... but it is certainly more difficult and this is a more accurate way for people to voice their opinion about which website is better.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Last Thing I need
I have been away from my blogging habits for a long time now. We have been extremely busy at IT Chair. The last thing I need is to get back on blogging again. Time is always the issue... only if we had 36 hours in a day rather than 24 but I am thinking if I write a short post here and there, it would be less time consuming than reading and responding to emails from others asking why I don't blog anymore.
So, for those of you who keep asking what's new in the SEO world and what we have been up to, I must say that for years now, I have been telling my colleagues in the SEO world to stay away from content farming. So many of our competitors (no, don't worry, I won't mention your name) would just spam the World Wide Web and their clients' sites with content. I am not going to lie, I was too, tempted to try it because it worked wonders for a little while there; but if something just doesn't feel right to you, just don't do it. It is a bit scary to see all your clients lose all their rankings at the same time.
I received a call last week, from Sam. He introduced himself, but I was not sure who he was. He mentioned the name of the company and I did recognize the name; one of our competitors. His business has not been doing so well, so he is putting the word out and contacting all the other SEO companies, hoping to sell his business. Yes, SEO is not easy and it is certainly not for everyone. It is not easy to keep up with Google's algorithm and constantly try to reverse-engineer it and discover what you have to do to make your clients rank high.
So here is my introduction to the rebirth of my blogging habits. I promise to try my best to give more tips as I find the time.
Until next time, be well.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
So, for those of you who keep asking what's new in the SEO world and what we have been up to, I must say that for years now, I have been telling my colleagues in the SEO world to stay away from content farming. So many of our competitors (no, don't worry, I won't mention your name) would just spam the World Wide Web and their clients' sites with content. I am not going to lie, I was too, tempted to try it because it worked wonders for a little while there; but if something just doesn't feel right to you, just don't do it. It is a bit scary to see all your clients lose all their rankings at the same time.
I received a call last week, from Sam. He introduced himself, but I was not sure who he was. He mentioned the name of the company and I did recognize the name; one of our competitors. His business has not been doing so well, so he is putting the word out and contacting all the other SEO companies, hoping to sell his business. Yes, SEO is not easy and it is certainly not for everyone. It is not easy to keep up with Google's algorithm and constantly try to reverse-engineer it and discover what you have to do to make your clients rank high.
So here is my introduction to the rebirth of my blogging habits. I promise to try my best to give more tips as I find the time.
Until next time, be well.
Ashkan Sobhe
SEO Los Angeles
Tel. (310) 927-2588
info@itchair.com
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