Research Reveals Leveraging Guest Reviews Enhances SEO

Do you know that your hotel can leverage guest reviews to help with search engine optimization? The first step towards enhancing SEO is to build fresh, positive reviews wherever possible, including on Google+, Yelp and TripAdvisor. Recent research shows that on a 10 point scale, Google+ ranked 9.5 as being the preferred social site for posting and reading reviews, with Yelp a close second with a rank of 8.95. By encouraging guests to leave positive reviews on as many social sites as possible, a hotel is building a cache of comments that will not only improve their opportunities to rank well on search engines but are likely to turn lookers into bookers.
 
Lodging Interactive, a full-service digital marketing and social media engagement agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, is assisting hotels by proactively pushing guests to leave positive reviews on the hotel’s own website and other social media channels. The company also manages the hotel’s reputation on those sites and review sites (such as Google+, Yelp and TripAdvisor), and responds to guest reviews on behalf of the hotel.  
 
According to the 2013 Bright Local Consumer Review Survey, reviews are an important signal which potential customers use when deciding which local business to contact and do business with. Results show:
73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more
65% of consumers more likely to use a business which has positive online reviews
79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
 
Many hoteliers are already leveraging guest reviews with Lodging Interactive’s proprietary Guest Review System which enables properties to collect their own guest reviews on their hotel websites. Hotel managers receive real-time alerts advising when pending guest reviews are submitted by guests. This eliminates delays in addressing concerns and turns potential problems into new opportunities. The Guest Review System also puts a stop to fake reviews posted by competitors or dishonest guests looking for refunds, helping hotels to maintain their reputations. More importantly, directing guests to the hotel's website to post comments and reviews keeps them from being redirected to an OTA where they may never come back to book direct. Removing OTA's from the equation and taking ownership of the guest-communication process also keeps more revenues in owners' pockets. 

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To SEO or not to SEO, That is The Question

Before real estate agents jump into the search engine optimization (SEO) game in the hopes of raising their online profile, they should have a handle on the time, effort and resources that are necessary to do it right, and what the “ROI,” or return on investment, will be.

That’s according to Jeb Griffin, director, product strategy and development, for franchise giant Re/Max LLC.

“Is it worthwhile to engage in SEO, or is it better to just go out and buy leads? I think it’s different for each agent, but I think it’s something each agent has to explore,” he says.

At the very least, agents should be have a presence on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and ActiveRain.

“If you want to engage consumers on your website, that’s taking it to the next level,” Griffin says. “That’s where you potentially need to spend some time writing blogs; you potentially need to spend some time and effort learning SEO, and all those scary terms out there like metadata and descriptions and keywords — but it’s doable for agents.”

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Idea on Writing Best-Quality Content for SEO

Search has changed a lot since Google launched a major change in its search engine in 2013 called Hummingbird. So how’s a broker or agent supposed to compete with the giant listing portals on SEO? By writing about local places and events — neighborhoods, buildings, complexes, holidays and festivals — that will bring consumers to your blog, says Market Leader’s Nikesh Parekh, executive vice president, product and strategy for SaaS and performance marketing.

“I think the challenge is both SEO and blogging is either expensive or time-intensive,” Parakh says. “So I think if you don’t have time and you have money, you may be better off to buy leads. But just make sure your profiles are updated on LinkedIn, ActiveRain, Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com and anyplace else consumers are searching for people. But if you have the time and/or the money, and are interested in having a differentiative presence from every other real estate agent that shows up in a directory, it (producing local content) is a worthwhile investment of time.”

For more information please visit video : http://youtu.be/EAzcNkFUNX8

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Five Steps to Building a Great SEO Strategy

Search engine optimization has been a hot topic for content marketers in recent years. Google, the undeniable leader of Web indexing, is constantly changing its algorithms for what content rises to the top of search results, and attempts to cheat the system render your webpage all but invisible. These fluctuating best practices have made SEO a considerable challenge for businesses of all sizes.

Small businesses are in an especially difficult position when it comes to SEO due to their typically limited resources. However, there are a few basic tried-and-true methods that can help you adapt to the ever-shifting landscape. Here are five steps you can follow to create an effective SEO strategy.

Take advantage of analytics tools

If you want to make the search engines happy, a good first step is using the free tools they provide for website administrators. Eric Covino, president and founder of digital marketing agency Creative Signals, advised signing up for Google Analytics and Google and Bing's webmaster tools to help you understand the ins and outs of your site traffic.

"These products can help you will help you understand how your traffic is getting to you and what it is doing once it arrives," Covino said. "The insights given to you by Google Analytics help you create a great user experience, which can lead to more and more people talking about your site, sharing your content, and linking to you — all of which help with your search engine rankings. Webmaster tools give you insight into how a search engine interacts with your site. This will help you identify and fix key technical issues, which also helps your SEO."

Optimize based on results

Once you have your SEO analytics tools set up, it's important to use the data you gather from them to guide you in your strategies.

"Your ultimate goal is to grow your business through organic search," said Nathan Joynt, marketing SEO manager of e-commerce software solution Volusion. "Focus on your growth metrics and follow the trail upstream to understand what content is ranking well and performing well based on [your analytics data]. This is the content that resonates with your target audience. They like it; Google likes it; you should create more. Content that is not performing well can often be bolstered by further optimization efforts."

Build relationships, not links

Not too long ago, SEO was all about link-building — getting links to your content placed on as many webpages as possible. Inevitably, these efforts can sometimes seem forced and spamlike, which ultimately produces the opposite of the intended outcome. While strategic linking can still help your search ranking, a better strategy is building genuine relationships with key influencers in your industry.

"Good, honest, relevant recommendations of products, services and information to your potential customers from influencers in your marketplace are better than any link you might acquire," Covino said. "Treat it like a typical networking scenario. Rather than emailing hundreds of strangers per day and asking them to link to your website, find key influencers in your market and talk about how you can help each other."

Continue to read and learn about SEO changes

The best SEO strategy is to make sure you're up to date on the latest changes and basing your efforts on that, Joynt said. Follow resources like Google's blogs and Inbound.org, set up news alerts, and even consider bringing in an SEO professional if your budget allows for it.

"Your goal should be the same as the search engines: Provide the best content and the best user experience possible to increase traffic, shares, engagements and conversions," Joynt told Business News Daily. "The deeper your knowledge about the SEO business, the better you can maximize all your optimization efforts."

Don't try to game Google

Increasing your search engine ranking takes a considerable amount of time and effort, but whatever you do, don't try to cheat the system. Sneaky SEO tactics will catch up with you eventually, and your temporary rankings boost will quickly drop when, not if, you get caught. Like a bad credit score, a low search ranking will follow you around for quite some time, and you'll have to work twice as hard to regain credibility in Google's eyes.

"The quality and user experience of Google's search engine is something the company takes very seriously," Covino said. "Taking shortcuts will only hurt you. Stick to high-quality, ethical marketing practices online and you will be more likely to succeed in the long run."

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Ten Top Ecommerce SEO Companies in the UK Announced in May 2014

he May 2014 edition of the rankings of best ecommerce SEO services in the United Kingdom has been revealed by the independent research team at topseos.co.uk. The ratings consist of the ten best ecommerce SEO services in the online marketing industry based on a meticulous investigation of how they supply their solutions. Each month the ratings are revised based on the results of the investigation process which aims to showcase only the best services based on merit. Businesses often turn to topseos.co.uk when searching for services in the United Kingdom which are experienced and well adapted to the latest industry trends and developments.

The 10 top ecommerce SEO firms in the United Kingdom for May 2014 are:

1) Netmark

2) SEO.co.uk

3) TrafficSource UK Ltd

4) SiteVisibility Ltd

5) dotAgency

6) High Impact SEO

7) Creative Steam

8) Bite Digital Ltd

9) Digital Six

10) FusePump

Each month the best ecommerce search engine optimization companies in the UK are put through an in-depth evaluation process in order to determine which companies produce the best services overall. The process involves an in-depth analysis of best performing companies in areas including needs analysis, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, keyword analysis, and reporting methods. Client evaluations of competing ecommerce search engine optimization companies are contacted in order to obtain their unique inputs and suggestions on the companies they have used.

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Google Preparing Biggest Update? Shifts On May 2nd & 7th

I mentioned there was some chatter about a Google update on May 2nd but now we are seeing even more chatter and signs of flux in the Google search results on May 7th. These signs of shifts in rankings, spikes in crawl rates, often, but not always, are early warning signs of a major Google update happening in the near future. Here are flux/volatility charts from MozCast, SERPS.com, SearchMetrics and Algoroo:

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Google Penalties Redirect The Old Domain to The New Domain!

So we know that if you have a penalty on your site and you move your site to a new domain and redirect the URLs to that new domain, the penalty will flow because of the redirects. That is known.
What I did not know is that if you took your site and moved it to a new domain but did not redirect the old domain to the new, that Google may also pass along the penalty without redirecting the URLs.

If the site is basically a copy of the site and all you are doing is moving it to a new domain in order to leave your link or other Google penalty behind, it might back fire on you. Google's John Mueller told me yesterday in a video at 23 minutes and 15 seconds in that it is very possible that the penalty will follow the new domain even without redirects.

John said that if you have a site with a penalty and you take the site and simply move it to a new domain name, even without using the site migration tool or setting up redirects, Google may figure out it was a site move and pass along the penalty.

So the easy answer is not to simply move to a new domain for your site, cause Google may pick up on it and stamp it as a site move automatically and thus pass along your penalty.

 

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