Right now, the dust has settled a bit on Google’s latest ‘farmer’ update – thus, this is the right time to let you know how you can take advantage of it as an article marketer. No doubts, some people out there are saying that this latest development means the end for article marketing – well, we’ve been hearing that for decades now. The truth is that article marketing has come to stay.

Let’s begin by saying that the essence of the ‘farmer’ update was to provide searchers with sites that feature high quality content when they are looking for something on the web. Yes, this is exactly the intention; Google is of the opinion that those who carry out searches through their search engine (primary users, not webmasters) are worth rewarding with enhanced user experience. Well, you don’t blame them for that – a good number of webpages are merely spammy, crappy, and are focused solely on money making and do not care about featuring quality and valuable information.

That’s the issue, a lot of people are tired of being provided with craps when they surf the web for information. Just imagine for  a moment what would happen to a restaurant that serves low quality meal, it will go out of business of course, in just a little while. If searchers keep on clicking on the back button each time Google displays its search result, that speaks volume.

Thus, if your webpages or articles feature high quality information, and if such pieces of information have been submitted effectively to reach out a wider audience, you are bound to get the reward of your labor more than those who did not get it right with their contents. So, if you are complaining about the latest algorithm change as an article marketer, it implies that you don’t have quality content or articles to offer.

Back to latest Google algorithm topic; Google states that, just approximately 12 percent of the search terms are affected by this latest development in its algorithm. Therefore, it can be deduced that the change has got more to do with some topics than any other thing.

Obviously, some search terms are more likely to attract detestable content or website compared to other search terms. It really keeps the webmasters wondering what these search terms may be and keeps them on their toes.

One imporatnt feature that gives value to your website in the eyes of Google as well as other search engines, is the inbound links. Also, inbound links enable more people to find your site and your offerings. Inbound links are as good as another vote of confidence given to your website.

Now, is it that the job is complete as soon as the link has been set up?

One of the most challenging aspects of SEO efforts is to get links to point to your website. However, the effort of link-building does not end with setting up a link. On the other hand, setting up links should be just a stepping stone to the major task, which is long-term link building.

Do you embark on links follow-up?

This is worth discussing for a while. Perhaps someone got your link request, and took all the effort to respond. Or, maybe they got to know about you via referral, and researched you further, probably bought an item from you and considered it fit to link to you. Whatever be the chain of activities that brought the decision, the person deemed it fit to link to your website and devoted time to do so.

Do you just feel good about it, and that’s all?

Please don’t stop at that! The person who took all the effort to link to you should also be rewarded, at least with a bit of your attention and time. So, what do you do? In addition to thanking them for the link; also, handle this as a rare opportunity that it really is by establishing a firm relationship with them. This can open amazing business opportunities that you can’t imagine!

Here are top questions to ask when a site links to your site:

1. Is their site popular, and to what extent?
   A site that links to your site would benefit you more if such a site is popular. Verify the popularity of the site by checking the amount of inbound links that such site gets. This is a good way to access how popular a site is.
2. Which of the links is providing you with quality traffic?
   The best way to find out is to investigate Google Analytics. Getting traffic from sites could be attributed to different reasons; for instance, it could be that your target audience is the same with those sites; so their visitors are keen at your offerings. Also, it could be that sites that bring you traffic provide your site with good reviews and talk nicely about your offerings. Another reason is that such sites generate voluminous traffic themselves, and may have also placed your link in strategic area on their websites.
3. The traffic from the linking sites, do they translate to sales?
   If all the traffics you generate from sites that link to your site do not translate to sale, at least some of them, the traffic would be of no benefit to you. Setting up Google Analytics would help you find out if the links bring you traffic, and if the traffic converts to sale. If you find out the answer, that you get sale via the traffic, don’t delay a moment longer to thank them and build a more solid relationship with them.

Following the launching of the new user interface – Google Instant – just about two weeks ago, a large number of people across the search engine spectrum have come out with different speculations about it.

The game is simply known as localization and personalization. The major concern is that it will not be possible again to predict search queries; and that it is most likely for users to start redefining their search terms massively. The misconceptions about Google Instant also include a likely negative impact on the website visibility, particularly for smaller businesses. The most prominent fear being that Google Instant could positively or negatively affect the overall impression rates for certain keywords; well, if you embark on a deeper reasoning, you will discover that this is not likely to be.

Industry experts are of the opinion that Google Instant may eventually change SEO with the passage of time. Here are some of their submissions:

• For a query, the search results will not be altered; however, overtime, people are most likely to learn searching in a different way. For those who really desire to succeed in the SEO industry, it is very important to expect and embrace change. To buttress the importance of this; Matt Cutts has this to say in his blog; “SEO authorities take note, adapt and also thrive favourably when there is change”. Players in the industry also attested to this fact.

• This is the opinion of Jonathan Allen of Search Engine Watch; ‘the significance of Google Instant to promoters/marketers can be equated with the importance of Universal Search update… just as it once happened when lost real estate for the search results of organic search engines offered new opportunities to the experienced marketers. This is what is probably going to happen now’.

• Provided people continue to use search engines such as Google to search for information on the internet, there is need to apply ‘optimization techniques’ to such information. A content that is properly rounded in its development and optimization is very likely to benefit from Google Instant. Also, the manner in which web visitors look for and locate essential information for the products and services on the web would be impacted. Well structured SEO will not find it difficult adapting to any changes which Google Instant would trigger in the behaviour of searchers.

Therefore, of course, Google Instant is likely to demand a certain measure of adaptation; however, as pointed out previously, it’s not going to be the cause for an entire industry meltdown. Rather, it will be a motivational force to go back to the basic factors that are responsible for the high ranking of great websites. Thus, which of the top factors made websites rank consistently on the topmost positions on Google result page? The answer is simple; unique, relevant and captivating search engine-friendly articles. This fact has not been changed by the introduction of Google Instant; it may have only altered the techniques people employ in achieving it. Besides optimization and standard keyword, it may also be necessary that companies:

• Focus on the phrases or terms that are displayed around their major keywords when instant searches are carried out.
• Construct page titles in such a way as to attract users’ attention.

Indeed, Google Instant is something that surely requires the commitment of experts across the SEO industry.

One of the most excellent tracking and analytics software tool around today, is the Google Analytics. Majority of the leading sites now employ Google Analytics in tracking down their visitors. If you check through the sites that rank high on Google, virtually all of them have the Google Analytics set up. Do not underestimate the utility of this valuable tool, just because the software is obtained and used at no cost. If it is correctly used, Google Analytics can offer you what it takes to transform your website from the ‘usual’ to an ‘unusual’.

The number of reports you gain access to with Google Analytics is quite astonishing. It can be used to optimize your website performance and hence your sales and profits.

How to Set Up Google Analytics

If you look ahead to receive the most desirable website statistics, then it is compulsory to correctly set up Google Analytics. You may follow the below given procedure:

• Sign up for Google Analytics if you haven’t done that yet
• You will be prompted to include your website.  Do that and subsequently paste the provided tracking script on your site pages one after another.
• Next, click on Analytics Settings; have the website profile edited and establish goals for your website. Ensure that you add the thank you page – this is where your visitors are taken to following their completion of your online product purchase form; this step is very crucial and makes a better level of reporting detail available.

Now that tracking code is in place on each page of your website and you have set up your conversion goals, just commence with the analysis of your website in order to enhance its performance.

Essential Analytics Reports

The reports outlined here are very essential in understanding the source of your traffic and the manner in which they interact with your website.

• The Top Traffic Sources:
  you can access this report at Traffic Sources and it will give you information on where your traffic is coming from. The tool generally shows you referring sites, search engines, paid ads and others. When you know the exact source of your traffic, this will help you determine where to target your resources so that you can achieve maximum leverage.

• Keywords:
  to access this report, go to Traffic Sources, then to keywords. This will display keywords that web visitors are searching for – on Google and other search engines to get to your website. Having a solid knowledge about the keywords that are generating your website conversions will help you refocus your SEO to such result-oriented keywords.

• Search Engines:
  the search engines report reveals the search engines that are driving traffic to your site. If your website optimization is Google-based, it very possible that most of your traffic comes from Google. The search engine reports help you know which search engine to focus your SEO efforts on.

• Top Content: you can access this report from the Content Menu; it will reveal the most widely sought after pages of your website.

There are other numerous Google Analytics Reports as well, that are quite valuable and helpful.

10 Effective Strategies

A business website is capable of pulling huge traffic and is potentially capable of creating clientele from the attracted traffic; however,without appropriate Ezine subscription procedure, the odds of generating customers from internet traffic is low.

It is difficult for a website to attract customers without providing resources that would benefit a targeted audience. And even with the availability of sufficient information, those who visit a particular website do not usually buy the product or service being advertised.

People do not often patronize a product or service without being familiar with the provider of the offerings. To this effect, it is important that you give a reason for visitors to keep being interested in your business.
The most effective way to achieve this is by giving a free Ezine-periodic publication, disseminated via e-mail and often in newsletter form, video, ebook and various helpful resources that may be needed by your target audience.

Top 10 Tips

• Tip 1:
  Having the right visitors is very important.

To convert online traffic to actual customers, you need the right visitors. These are visitors that need your product or service.

Make sure you use the appropriate keywords and link your website to businesses that will suit the information being conveyed by your website. You can keep track of the traffic you are generating by using Google Analytics (it’s free), this will help you carry out proper analysis of the outcome of your efforts. Know that traffic from referrals have more potential to metamorphose into actual customers.
Content creation, exchanging links with relevant businesses as well as guest blogging are powerful ways to refer traffic to your website.

• Tip 2:
  Let your visitors know what you expect from them.

Look for a way to tell your visitors what to do with the resources you made available for them or else they may not know.
To this effect, your homepage information and direction should be kept simple – don’t create confusion with much information and choices.
Tell your visitors to sign up free for your ezine and don’t forget to tell them if it is an ebook, newsletter etc.

• Tip 3:
  How easy is it for your web visitors to take action?

It is useless if your visitors cannot find the useful information you have for them. The best place to place your subscription section or box is the top left side of your homepage to enable easy visibility. It may also help to place the signup form on each page of your website to achieve increased visibility, regardless of what page generates traffic. Also, make your signup form of an easy and user-friendly nature – no too much of clicks.

• Tip 4:
  What will your visitors benefit from your offer?

Don’t forget to explain what the freebie for your Ezine is, and the value it will add to them. A good number of successful Ezines give some kind of enticement to sign up. Again, you need to clearly state how the resources you are offering could be accessed; is it downloadable or is to be emailed?

• Tip 5:
  Keep your visitors’ mind at ease.

Remember to state outright that the information they are providing will not be transmitted to a third party in any way. Your privacy policy should make this known and they should be able to unsubscribe if they wish.

• Tip 6:
  Let your subscribers know the next step to take.

• Tip 7:
  Tell your subscribers how to white list you.

This will prevent your mail from being sent to junk mail by email programs. Tell them to also white list your entire website.

• Tip 8:
  Ensure that your confirmation email is customized.

You can personalize your confirmation emails and employ same graphics and language used on your website. This will help remind the subscriber about who is sending them the information. Avoid using generic language.

• Tip 9:
  Ensure that you keep up to your promise without delay.

• Tip 10:
  Don’t forget to send a ‘thank you’ mail to your subscribers; make is clear, concise and information rich.

Recent stats indicate the google now accounts for approx 79% of the search engine market in Europe.

If you are an organisation that covers a market the extends beyond various borders its good to
know that you can target your website towards multiple geographic areas using
free tools provided by google via its webmaster tools area.
Now this is only applicable to owners of TLD (Top Level Domains) .com .net .biz

How google determines what region your website targets:

Google uses the following criteria to determine what geographical region a particular
website is targeted towards.

1. The physical location where the website is hosted, if it’s hosted in Dublin on an
   Irish IP Address.
2. The website address of the respective domain.
   If the domain has a defining country code (CC)
   like www.yourwebsitename.ie ( .ie represents Ireland)

Therefore if your website has a .ie domain and is hosted in Ireland it will be determined by google to be an Irish website and it will more than likely feature high on the google.ie results pages.

This is fundamentally important as anyone who is searching on google from Ireland will automatically be redirected to Google.ie, so if your business is targeting this market and is not meeting this criteria that
Google lays down then you are essentially fighting an uphill struggle.

Some Challenges with Geo Targeting

Top Level domains such as .com & .net
These are considered to be geographically neutral
IE: they are not attached to a specific region like a (CC) Country Code domain like yourbusiness.ie

One of the challenges facing the owner of one of these domains is that they are essentially geographically neutral, so they need to be hosted in the same region as to where their target market is located, otherwise its difficult for google to establish where they are targeting.

An example, let’s say (hypothetically) the Irish times news paper created a domain www.irishtimes.com
and a website and it was hosted in the USA. But its main market for the newspaper was located in Ireland.
Google would most likely assume this website was a US website and it would therefore not necessarily feature in searches on google.ie

The solution to this problem:

To address this potential problem Google provides us with a tool to essentially geo target our
domains towards a particular region or country.

When should i use the Google Geo Targeting tool?

Geo targeting would mostly be required by companies who own one of these
Top Level Domains but that want to target a number of specific Geo Graphical areas or countries

How would this be achieved?

This can be achieved using the following methods:

By building individual subfolders on your website:
IE:  www.irishtimes.com/ire/

And then setting the folder in the google webmaster area to ensure it points towards Ireland.

By Creating Sub-domains on your domain
IE: www.uk.irishtimes.com to target a UK market.

And then setting this subfolder in the google webmaster area to ensure it points towards the United Kingdom.

Points to note: To avoid duplicate content penalties, the information of
these sub sites  or (sub-domains), should also be different.

Final summary re Geo Targeting via google webmaster tools:
This is best practised on domains that are termed as geographically
neutral or ( TLD ) top level domains, if you want to target a region in particular
its probably better to get a Country Code domain like techstore.ie

Here is a good introduction to the Google Webmaster area.