Myth 1: My keyword has to be on the landing page

Myth 2: Adding a privacy policy will increase my quality score

Myth 3: My site is in Flash, so I can never have a good quality score

Myth 4: My page is all images. The new load time guidelines are lowering my quality score

Myth 5: Adding an ‘about us’ page will increase my quality score

Myth 6: Google hates affiliates

Myth 7: Microsites and dedicated landing pages no longer work

Myth 8: If my site doesn’t have a high Pagerank, I can’t get a good quality score

Myth 9: If I only have manufacturer descriptions, I will never have a good landing page quality score

Here is an interesting read on the topic:

http://www.mikesquarter.com/escape-google-sandbox-146/

Interesting to say the least!

This is great news for trying to actually pick keywords for natural search.

Ryan Pitylak is active in the SEO community.

Myth 1: You should submit your URLs to search engines.

Comment: Your site should be found through links from other sites. Submitting them to search engines does nothing because your site will only gain popularity if other sites link to you.

Myth 2: You need a Google Sitemap.

Comment: A well designed site should have a good linking structure, and the search engine should properly follow the linking structure without problem. In this case, you would not need a sitemap.

Myth 3: You need to update your site frequently.

Comment: This has a lot to do with the type of site you have. However, most content is inherently static and doesn’t require that you update it too frequently.

Myth 4: PPC ads will help/hurt rankings.

Comment: I believe these have been purposefully made separate so that there is no confusion about how it impacts results. I would argue that Google should consider giving people better rankings if they’re willing to pay for keywords, but I sure 100 other people could argue why that’s against the social good. I just believe that the ability to pay for keywords is an indicator of a keyword’s success for the company, and therefore, should be an indicator that the site is relevant to the topic.

Myth 5: Your site will be banned if you ignore Google’s guidelines.

Comment: I’ve never personally known of anyone who this has happened to. However, I don’t hang out in the black hat SEO community, and I don’t know what happens there. My assumption is that people in that community bend the rules so much that they do get into trouble. However, unless your doing things that are just plain bad, you’ll be fine.

Myth 6: Your site will be banned if you buy links.

Comment: Ha ha. That’s all I have to say about that. Advertising is advertising. You can penalize a company for buying ads on another website.

Myth 7: H1 (or any header tags) must be used for high rankings.

Comment: I believe this has some value, but it must be part of a bigger content on-site picture.

Myth 8: Words in your meta keyword tag have to be used on the page.

Comment: I don’t believe your keyword tags have much to do with rankings.

Myth 9: SEO copy must be 250 words in length.

Comment: Why not 200? Why not 300? Who picked 250? That’s funny.

Myth 10: You need to optimize for the long tail.

Comment: Love the long tail. Stick those keywords in your description tags, but don’t really worry about them too much. Don’t stick them in your H tags, don’t put them in your alt tags, etc. You should work hard for the top keywords. Remember…Focus.

Ryan Pitylak is a search engine optimization guru.

I ran a local Austin website for a long time, so I learned how to promote a local website.  The main strategy is to ensure that you have enough local content developed so that you can be shown in the results for long-tail local keywords.  You want to create a lot of content about each keyword that’s relevant to your area, and ideally you’d create a page specifically designed to target that keyword.  And, don’t forget, you need links from local businesses in your area.

If you have a national business with local services, your strategy will vary, but only slightly.  You’re essentially doing all of the same things that you would do for a local website, but each page on your site that is linked to a specific location should be treated as an individual site from a content and linking perspective; the advice for these areas can be found above.  The extra component to consider is proper interlinking within the site, as it can be hard to make all of those pages show up highly in the search results.

Marketing Pilgrim highlights the different lead generation channels that people use to generate leads.  SEO, Email, and PPC topped the list as the most profitable channels.

Email marketing to in-house lists is an extremely valuable tool for businesses that is often overlooked.  SEO and PPC are typically considered, but some companies find SEO overwhelming.  Consider hiring a marketing expert to help you with your company’s internet marketing needs.

Twitter really got it together! And, now, for those of you who are not paying attention, Twitter will infiltrate your life, just like Myspace did, just like Facebook did. Get ready!

Viral marketing is taking an interesting twist these days. It’s exciting to see companies “murking,” as described by New York Times Magazine writer Rob Walker, which is a form of stealth advertising by a company.

This ad was great because they took a common fear and tied it into their product. Are you afraid of cellphone signals frying your brain? Well, they can pop pop-corn (so goes the ad). What does that mean for the consumer? Well, obviously, you should buy a blue-tooth headset. Sometimes the brand of the advertiser is less overt. For example, you could just have a person using a bluetooth headset toward the end of the ad in a less obvious way, and it would still get the message across.

Viral marketing is taking a serious twist, and it’s going to continue to be very interesting. We’ll see more companies perform more fun and exciting stunts to get the attention of the consumer, and ultimately, the consumer not necessarily know what is advertising and what isn’t advertising. Isn’t that the end goal of the ad agency anyway? The goal is to make more people consume the brand. Well, if the messaging is seeping into your body from every angle, it’s hard not to consume the brand….

Ryan Pitylak performs many services, among which are Viral Marketing Services

Ways To Increase Your Adwords Quality Score - A Mini Case Study

This is an incredible analysis on how to deal with low quality scores.  A great read for any PPC expert!

Unfortunately, the push-to-market often resulted in very poor planning and many business models failed to include realistic and profitable business objectives. When the year 2000 ended, many of the above mentioned companies closed their doors. After this black period, the surviving and the new opened companies realized that the web-based strategies and techniques must be taken into consideration just like any other classic marketing tools. The basic questions regarding marketing must still be answered, some of them are:

• Are the business models realistic?
• Who are the customers?
• Which mix marketing strategies are efficient?
• What is the competition doing?

Besides these traditional issues, the internet marketing world had other things to offer:

• Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) – considered by many to be the most cost-effective method for attracting visitors to a website by getting that website listed on top search engines and directories. This method asked many crucial questions, such as: How can this be accomplished in an efficient way? On-site or off-site optimization? Which keywords are most efficient?
• Pay Per Click Advertising ( PPC ) – the quickest and easiest method to create instant online presence. All PPC campaigns can be created and launched within 2 weeks and the costs are determined by the keyword search volume and the keyword market value. The most important question regarding this method is: How to ensure that owners get the most return on their investment?
• E-Mail Marketing – a custom newsletter design which is combined with a very powerful e-mail management system that sends engaging e-mail, promotions, newsletters, which will stand out above the rest, is one marketing method. Questions raised by this method are: What is a drip campaign? What is an auto-responder?
• Advanced Web Statistics – this method brings more information besides the basic question of how many hits the site receives. These statistics allow owners to measure vital information in a very easy matter, some of the info includes: Where are the visitors coming from? How long do they stay on the website? Which pages are the most popular among visitors? Which of the pages cause visitors to exit the website? The most important issue regarding this method is diagnosing the problem areas and determining the results of a campaign.

In the future, websites will be more personalized, as they will cater to consumers and niche markets. Internet marketing through audio newsletters will probably become a more accessible tool for targeted audiences. Other predictions made by experts regarding the future of Internet Marketing are:

• 50% of experts affirm that anonymous, free, music file sharing on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks will still be easy to perform a decade from now
• 59 % of experts agreed with a prediction that more and more business and government surveillance will occur as computing devices proliferate and become embedded in appliances, phones, clothes and cars
• 56% of experts agreed that as telecommuting and home-schooling expand, the boundary between leisure and work will reduce and family dynamics will change due to this reason
• 57% of experts agreed that virtual classes will become more widespread in formal education and that students might, at least occasionally, be grouped with others who share their interests and skills, rather than by age

All things considered, Internet Marketing is one of the most important aspects of the Internet world and many people are considering that this domain will have a very long future, along with the Internet. All website owners will have to take into consideration at least one Internet Marketing technique.

Ryan Pitylak helps business owners and marketing professionals understand how to market more effectively online.