While you are waiting for results, here are some basic SEO tips that you can follow which should help you cut down your time waiting.

Make certain to select a keyword theme for each page of your website.

Many sites that we have evaluated and reviewed do not have enough diversity within the pages or the subordinate pages to obtain the wide range of keywords that they would like to achieve. So identify a group of keywords for every page that you publish, a group of keywords that fit well into your SEO plan.

If the website you are building and promoting does not have enough content to tip the scales of the search engines to your favor as “The Resource” for the keywords you are approaching, or if your site does not contain enough significant or important internal links, how will you possibly be able to surpass your competitors that are using large amounts of content and links?

So, plan each page with plenty of content and key words with internal links throughout your website. Make certain that you do not stuff your site with too many keywords as you will want to make the site readable and interesting for your human visitors as well.

Identify the keyword theme to each page using the Meta tag keywords. Since Google and some of the other major search engines do not utilize the keyword Meta tag, we have made it useful by indentifying the “keyword theme” to each of our pages.

Internal links from pages and to other pages using the keyword that you want the target page to rank for.

This is probably one of the most difficult aspects of search engine optimization to keep track of. For our projects we have literally drawn out a diagram or flow chart of the pages within the site that we are marketing and labeled each with the keyword theme for each page. Once we have identified the pages and the keyword themes for each page, it is much easier to take the keyword phrases throughout your website and link those phrases to the page that matches that theme.

This tactic is very similar to that of Wikipedia. You are simply identifying the “resource page” for the designated keyword by consistently using keyword-rich anchor text throughout your website.  By doing this you will also be able to achieve double indexing in some cases for your website.

We believe that this step for onsite optimization is critical to outperforming your online competition. If you are working with a SEO company, than it is imperative that you bring this approach to their attention and that they explain to you their internal linking strategy.

Optimize the page for many variations of the keyword that you are targeting.

If you are going to optimize a page for a certain keyword, you might as well go for as many variations or extrapolations of that keyword that you can. So, using an example here, let’s go with the keyword “SEO Company”. Variations that you might want to use would be, “SEO Company’s”, “SEO Companies”, “Internet Marketing Company”, “Internet Marketing Companies” and “Search Engine Optimization Company”. You can see from the example that I have used, I have pluralized the keyword, misspelled the keyword and even brought in a synonymous keyword phrase.

By following these three steps you should be able to really shore up your website so that as Google or any other indexing robots devour your website, you will obtain an advantage over your online competitors that have not followed these same simple techniques. Any worthwhile SEO campaign takes a great amount of time and dedication, so as you are working on link building strategies and submitting your site to different directories, make certain to work these strategies and you will start to see a major difference in the way your site is ranked in the search engines.

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You might be surprised to learn that Matt Cutts, who works for the Search Quality group at Google has most recently come out with comments about meta tags or more specifically “keyword” meta tags and stated “Google does not use keyword meta tags” in their rankings. For the longest time many SEO professionals pounded the desk suggesting that keyword meta tags were critical for any SEO campaign.

According to most SEO Companies, Google has for many years completely ignored this tag which has made the use of this meta tag completely pointless. I know as a Denver SEO company, we have definitely utilized the keyword meta tag and we will continue to do so. It is not that we believe that this meta tag would help us in the rankings, rather we have used it to define the theme of each page that we publish. So, although Google has stated that they do not utilize the keyword meta tag, we have still found much use for it.

Usually when speaking to anyone with any knowledge of SEO, they will go over a list of important factors to complete when working on a SEO campaign. One of the first things we hear many SEO companies speak about or write about is the importance of keywords in the keyword meta tag. This might be a warning to those that are looking for the experienced professionals who actually know SEO and focus not only on “onsite Optimization” but “offsite optimization” or link building as well. I have included the Matt Cutts Video in this post about Google’s complete lack of interest in the keyword meta tag, you can read more about their disinterest in the keyword meta tag here on their very own Webmaster Tools blog.

So why would Google disregard the keywords meta tag anyway? It started several years ago when the meta tag was actually abused by many website owners. If Google strictly followed the keywords in the meta tags, than it would be easy to mislead or misdirect the search engines. Google has probably one of the most elaborate and complex algorithms for their search results which has made them a market leader in search. So it is going to take much more than meta tag to throw them off course.

Even though Google has stated that they ignore keywords, we will continue to use this meta tag as previously described. It gives us direction for each page that we produce and keeps our entire campaign organized so we find it very useful even if Google does not. However, when you are talking to that next search engine optimization sales representative or SEO Company that goes through their thorough process of search engine optimization, you might ask,”How important is the meta tag keywords for a SEO campaign?” You might just be talking with one of those that is not in the know and this would be a good way to find out!

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Can alt text really help your SEO campaign?

Often times as I read through all of the resources online for internet marketing, I read about the importance of “on-site” optimization. We have discussed it ourselves in the past (onsite optimization). Something I don’t think we had discussed was the importance of keyword use in the alt text or title tags. Granted many have disagreed with the importance of alt text or title text in the SEO community. It is important to understand that there is not a SEO professional that I have met who knows the algorithms intimately. So while there are many opinions that using alt text or title tags does not provide a benefit to your search engine campaign, I would respectfully disagree as I will prove with an example.

We should probably begin with the explanation of “alt text“. The entire purpose of alt text was to give a description of the image if the image could not be loaded properly as well as a resource for the handicapped (especially the blind) so that as their “text reading” program described and read the page, they would be provided with a description of the image. The attribute can be applied to many different forms of media including video, but is primarily used for images.

So, why bother with alt text on images? As previously stated, alt text will provide screen readers and text readers with a description of the image, this also applies for the spiders that index the content of your website. By labeling images and media with alt text you are giving the search engines a description of media that they could not otherwise relate to your media. Surely by now you know that Google or any other search engine for that matter cannot see or comprehend what your image is without some kind of description from you the webmaster. So, they (the search engines) actually need you to tell them what an image represents. This is an awesome opportunity for you to influence the position in the search engines.

In the case of a project that we managed for a pet related business, we took the opportunity to label all pictures of the dogs with the name and breed of the dog. We resubmitted the sitemap to all the major search engines as well as created links to the pages as usual. Over the next several weeks we started to see a huge increase in the amount of traffic that we were obtaining for this account. The images were actually bringing in traffic themselves as they had been indexed and those searchers that were looking for images of the dogs that we had described were visiting our customer’s site after they had located the images!

Over the next several weeks, we noticed yet another increase in traffic as other sites were linking to our images and the pages containing the images from their sites. This brought in another wave of traffic. This project realized over 100% increase in organic traffic by simply utilizing alt text and title tags throughout the pages of our customer’s website.

I am not suggesting that alt text on all of the images of your site will increase traffic by 100%. At the end of the day, most of us are not in the pet industry or any industry for that matter where customers are looking for pictures of our product or services regularly. For example, if I labeled everyone of the images on our site with the keywords “Denver SEO“, it is very unlikely that I will obtain that many visitors from the images of my site; however, if I could get one of my images to show up in the organic rankings then perhaps my listing would stick out among all of my competitors as I would be one of the only results that had an image next to my title.

In conclusion, there is absolutely no way that completing alt text could hurt your campaign. Sure it is an additional step while completing your onsite optimization, but the time invested seems like it would be worthwhile considering that it is a small investment. I do want to emphasize that I do not believe that alt text will make or break your search engine optimization campaign, but I do believe it is worthwhile to add this element to your site. Making your site more useful to your users is what we all want to accomplish, so make certain that you are not keyword stuffing the tags and using legitimate short descriptions as this could definitely help your rankings for long tail keywords as well. At the end of the day, if nothing else, alt text will at least make your site more accessible to the search engines and those that access your site with screen readers, etc. If you are working with a seo company you would definitely want to check your images and make sure that they have been optimized with alt text or title tags.

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Press Releases are a very important way to distinguish or differentiate your company in the public’s view of your company. Most companies already understand this strategy and in one way or another they have used press releases to make special announcements or they have responded to some event. Today, with the internet press releases can be used in a myriad of ways that will assist in your search engine optimization efforts.

So how can it be done? How do you compliment your Denver SEO campaign with press releases? The press release campaign online is very different than your standard press release through traditional print media sources. If I working on a press release in Denver, I would probably distribute the PR to all of the local papers of course and then issue a second wave of press releases to my local publications and neighborhood publications. None of these are really going to assist with my search engine optimization in Denver, although by making mention of my website inside the press release I would probably receive some “direct traffic” from the release. Direct traffic in this case would be short lived and not give a permanent back link into my website. So, to answer my questions in the beginning here, I would distribute my press releases online to services on the web that enable you to link the content in the press release to your website. By adding one or two useful links in the article to your website or URL’s within your website, you will be assisting your Google PageRank and overall linking strategy which will affect your keyword position in the leading search engines.

Using distribution services is important because these sources of news usually already have a high page rank. So when they release the press release, usually the article will start to show in the top of the search engines for the keyword that you targeted throughout the article. So for example, if we released a press release on “Denver Internet Marketing” and we submitted the release with this keyword to the major online PR services, our article might likely show up for this search term through the PR sites. If someone searches for this term online and finds the article before they find our site, it is likely that they will click on our site within the article or perhaps one of the hyperlinked key phrases inside the article. The nicest part of this press release is that it does not get thrown in the trash with the daily paper, it remains online pointing at our site for as long as the press release service keeps it up!

These online PR services can cost anything from $1 up to $315.00 and they all seem to offer different programs. What I mean is that some are enhanced for SEO purposes while some of the better performing services like prweb.com and prnewswire.com are a little more traditional with their services. Remember to follow Google’s guidelines when creating your press release, you will want to establish a release that has useful content and that is not stuffed with keywords. So a couple of examples of releases that might work for your business would be the announcement of a new location, a new service or product that your company is releasing or perhaps you are speaking at a tradeshow or industry event.

Preparing your release is important as you will want to target the keywords in your press release, but you will also want to make the release useful and readable. Making the release readable and useful is priority number one; however, if you can include your keyword phrase in the title or headline and utilize the keyword or phrase in the first paragraph with a link back to your web site, this will assist in the optimization of the release. You do not want to force the key phrase in to your press release; it should be an organic process (Some tips to avoid keyword stuffing).

Many companies pass the opportunity of using PR as they believe it is too expensive and does not deliver enough benefit to their marketing campaign. If they are simply looking at the short term, they are correct. If they are focusing on optimizing their site and obtaining an excellent online presence than a press release online is one of the cheapest and most ethical ways to obtain solid back links to their site. One of the biggest “pros” that an online press release can achieve for your company is that it will establish another link to your company’s website from a credible source. So for those customers that have found you online and now want to review what “others” are saying about you, this press release might come into play as they are researching your company and assist them in their buying process.

Cade Lee is a search engine optimization professional in Denver, Colorado. Working at Iniquitous, Inc. as a professional SEO, Cade actually assists companies in obtaining a larger web presence through social networking, article marketing and video marketing.

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It is almost impossible to not throw yourself into the design of your new website. When we were designing our brand-new website, we made some of the very same mistakes that we see clients make on an ongoing basis. We included aspects or features to the website that we really liked, and we forgot for a moment that our demographic or audience is business owners and business professionals. For us we are going to have to go back to the drawing board and redesign a completely brand-new website that focuses strictly on professionals, and their pain or needs for Internet marketing versus making it more fun and personal for us. I think it’s very easy to forget who you are designing a website for.

The same goes for search engine optimization, it is so often that we see customers suggest key phrases and keywords that definitely apply to their business; however, “John Q. Public” will probably not use the key phrases and keywords originally selected by the business owner. For example let’s take my industry, I am a professional search engine optimization expert in Denver, and I think that probably one of the most used search terms for customers that are looking for our services would be “Denver SEO“. When we talk with customers about how they found us online, we find that they very rarely come to us using that exact search term. For us the search term Denver SEO makes the most sense as we are in the business, and search engine optimization is most often referred to as “SEO”, so would that make the most sense that companies and marketing professionals in the Denver area would type in “Denver SEO”?

The fact is that most of these companies or individuals that are searching for search engine optimization and Denver do not use the keyword “Denver SEO”. When I look at the analytics for our project, most of the searchers that do come to our website are finding us through the search term “Denver SEO”, yet when I speak with customers that have found our website online and called us they have usually used a different key term or keyword phrase. Perhaps “Denver SEO” is so popular because it is our competitors that use this term, or maybe it is industry professionals that are involved in internet marketing. My point here is that the customers that are calling usually type in something much different like “Denver Interent Marketing Companies“. So although we are getting much traffic from obtaining a first page ranking for the keyword “Denver SEO”, we also have to consider other extrapolations of that keyword such as “Denver Seo company, Denver Seo firm, Denver Seo professional, Denver search engine Optimization Company, search engine optimization Denver, etc.”

The extrapolations or longer keyword phrases are usually much easier to obtain a page-one ranking than a one-word or two word key phrase. Using these variations of search terms in setting up your website will help you to avoid stuffing your pages with the same keywords and give you the ability to produce more content that is actually “useful”. Ultimately at the end of the day you are not producing the website for yourself or for Google, you are producing the website for the end-user. By developing content that is useful and has relevant keywords sprinkled throughout the content piece, you will obtain a lower bounce rate and a higher conversion rate from the website.

The video that I’ve included in this post is a short example of how to use keywords and keyword phrases throughout your blogging campaign that will complement your search engine optimization campaign.

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Most of the sites we have worked on that have been built by “website designers” are not effectively producing leads for that business. We have seen some of the most beautiful websites but without traffic and without new customers what good are they? Your online business should be another source of income and customers. If you trust the right people to work with your website designer than you might have a shot of obtaining both.

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. Website designers are very useful if their services are used in the correct capacity. Most web designers do not have a clue how to build a website that is developed to convert traffic or drive floods of traffic to the site; most developers that I have talked with would agree. Usually web designers are focused on aesthetics, navigation, look and feel and not placement in the search engines.

So why do you have a website?

Most business owners that I speak with have a website so that they can develop more online business. When I say this, what I mean is they are looking for more prospects or customers online. They definitely want to see some type of return from their website as most of them have spent a small fortune on developing the site to begin with. So if that is the case for you, it is probably best to make certain that the web designer you are working with owns a successful online business and knows also how to run it. They should be able to show you some successful online campaigns that they have led and give you references for their work. Simply showing you websites that they have built is not enough. I know that you want a “pretty” site
but I am certain it is more important that you are able to develop new customers from your site, right? It only stands to reason that your website designer should have the same experience that would deliver the results you are looking to achieve yourself!

Your website is your business online!

Sure it is nice to have a charming storefront, one that customers constantly compliment. Does it bring in cash flow? Is your office, store, garage or retail space built for sales?

These are the same types of questions that you should be asking yourself about your website. Your website is not there to win awards or compliments, you are building this website to make money and build customer relationships. Even if you have the lowest prices online and are providing more services than your nearest competitor, it is the website that attracts more traffic that wins more prospects and customers. Being the best at marketing your product and services is really all that matters at the end of the day. Stop reading this right now, hop on Google and check it out. Use a search term that a customer would use to find your business. If you don’t know what they would type in, go to Google’s free adwords keyword tool and locate a search term related to your business or service. (To locate Google’s free keyword tool simply search for “adwords keyword tool” in Google)

Now, after you have located a popular search term for your business, search it! Open the first “organic” result that you see (by organic, I do not mean any of the “sponsored links” or local listings next to the map), what do you think of your competition’s website? Is it the prettiest site you have seen? Is it the “coolest” site you have ever been too? If I was to place a wager on it, my guess is that it is none of the above. Probably a very average looking site at best, yet all of your prospective customers are coming here first.

Marketing online is not like you’re off-line marketing

On every website project I have ever been a part of it seems that somebody always has a problem with a font that we have chosen or an image that we had used. While branding is extremely important and the look and feel of your website is important as well, it is important to remember that all of the communication tools and techniques that you use in the real world are very different than what works online. Whatever type of marketing you are doing in the real world may be a complete and utter failure online. This is why it is so critical to work with an online marketing agency or consultant who has experience with successful websites. When I state successful, I mean websites that have a proven track record of traffic and generating leads. Usually these types of individuals know what works best for traffic conversion and online marketing. For example, online marketing absolutely requires you to know how to get your site ranked extremely high in search engines like Google and Yahoo so that you organically show up on the first page for customers that are searching for your product or services.

Most website designers and businesses do not know SEO or search engine optimization. If a business owner does know and understand how to optimize their own website; they usually do not have the time to implement all of the tactics and techniques used by a search engine optimization professional to make the campaign successful. It is imperative for any online business to have both an optimized presence as well as a strong marketing campaign online! This means that not only should the site be optimized for search engine optimization but there must be a campaign put in place for search engine marketing.

If you are looking to market online, only work with Internet marketing firms that know website and online marketing

I know it’s a simple statement but probably 97% of web design companies do not know how to create websites that actually market your products and services. Often times when we are talking with prospective customers about search engine optimization they refer to their experience with the larger corporations that have handled their pay per click campaigns and even their “search engine optimization campaigns”. You absolutely must work with people that know how to create “high traffic” websites that can “convert”. A sales representative from one of the larger advertising directories doesn’t usually have knowledge of SEO. Usually he/she can regurgitate whatever pitch their sales manager gave them that morning and sure it sounds good, but will the team behind him/her be able to deliver the product that you were promised? Usually they cannot deliver the results that were originally promised or they are able to show minimal results compared to a firm or company that is dedicated to internet marketing. Internet marketing takes a great deal of time and cannot happen overnight. You’ll need to work with a team that can make it possible for you to have an online revenue stream. These people must have real world experience as well as online experience that can combine your website into a practical functioning marketing machine for your business! The best combination would be a search engine optimization professional that has sales and marketing experience or a marketing company that has proven search engine optimization experience.

If you are attempting to perform search engine optimization or search engine marketing without a professional, that would be very similar to representing yourself in court if you are not a lawyer or building your own house if you are not a general contractor. Granted, I’m certain that you could learn any one of these trades but it is probably best if you focused on the strengths you have in your business rather than trying to focus all of your time and energy on staying up to date with Internet marketing. The most successful businesses and business leaders have developed a team of experts and surrounded themselves with experience.

Lastly, MEASURE THE RESULTS!

It doesn’t matter whether or not you are advertising in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, local trade magazines, or a bulletin board near your office! You will always, always want to measure the success of any marketing campaign to validate its effect on business. It is never a surprise for us to see a prospective client that has absolutely no idea about the amount of traffic they get on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. Usually they do not know where they get the traffic from, how long visitors are on their website, or what keywords brought them to their site to begin with. You should always pay attention to your key performance indicators for your online strategy and if your web developer has not shown you how to monitor the results of your website, you might want to consider working with a different developer.

At the end of the day, a website developer is absolutely needed to help you with your website; however, they are usually best at working with code, graphics and overall look and feel. An internet marketing professional is what will help you take your online business to the next level. Either a professional search engine marketing firm or agency will help you establish a marketing plan for your site so that you can start to see results from your presence online.

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If you’re reading this article, you obviously understand there is quite a buzz around SEO and internet marketing.  Not only is it becoming a must to be on the first page of Google, you also need to have a presence on all major social networking sites, article and video repositories and directories listings.  Here are some helpful tips on how to avoid getting delisted by search engines so all of your hard work doesn’t go to waste!

Watch your Keyword Density

Your keywords on your web page are very important.  It lets the search engine know what your content is about and what you are trying to target with each page.  Each search engine has keyword density in their algorithm for ranking sites, however, their equation for density differs from one to another meaning their lenience of density allowed before a penalty varies.

If you know anything about SEO, you understand that at least 75% of searchers are using Google – I would think this is a pretty good place to start.  I have heard many SEO’s give the 3-5% rule for keyword density.  In my personal experience, I’ve gotten away with 7% and had great results.  The idea here is to watch you keyword density throughout your web page and never exceed 9%!  If you go over this mark, you are risking a negative reaction from the search engines.  I would say stick between 3-6% here and you should be fine.

Keep your Content Original

If you are running your own SEO campaign, you have and will be investing a ton of time.  Do not take the short cut and use someone else’s content on your web pages – it doesn’t make sense!  Search Engines love original content and in the SEO world, content is king!  It is what separates your page from the next before you even begin to create backlinks.  That being said, why would you want to be on a level playing field from the start with the same content?  Make sure you let the search engines know what separates your page from the competition.  Follow the keyword density rule above and write as much as possible!

Do not allow a search engine to disregard your content because it is a duplicate of someone else’s page. 

Don’t Hide your Content

As much as we don’t want to say it, the search engines (google bots) are actually pretty smart.  They know the difference between visible and invisible content.  Search engines will discredit a web page if they feel you are trying to trick them with text that cannot be read.  Make sure the text on your page is a completely different font and do not hide it behind images.  Make sure you tag your images with keywords but do not make the text invisible.  If you are smart you will have content on your Home page that leads to more content in the site.  

Tip: Publish articles to your home page with “Read More” buttons and your home page will get credit for all of the content on your home page including important keywords and links.

Be Cautious of Your Affiliate Links… too many = negative ranking

Be cautious of adding hundreds of affiliate links along with product descriptions.  If you have too many affiliate links on your website, Google will drop you down the listings.”

I hope this article has helped you understand exactly not what to do to a web page.  An SEO Campaign involves blood, sweat and tears which we don’t want to go to waste by getting delisted.  Search Engines do not like keyword stuffing, duplicate or invisible content and too many outside links.

Nick Hantge is a SEO Professional with Iniquitous, a Denver SEO Firm. Nick Specializes in organic search engine optimization, traffic analysis and conversion as well as SEO coaching in Denver (303) 999-7963.

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There are many resources online showing individuals how to optimize their websites; all of them have value of some sort. The thing that we see over and over again is that many individuals are simply confused with all the information that is available. If we break down search engine optimization to its most basic form, it’s very similar to visiting the library and using the computer to search for books within the library. The library’s search engine is simply going to find the book that best matches either the keywords or title that you input into this search engine. Well how does the library’s search engine know which book best fits your search? Just logically speaking probably about 90% of the search based on the title of the book. Wouldn’t it then stand to reason that Google also places much emphasis on the title of the document?

The basics of your website and WebPages are the very first place to start any good SEO campaign. Start with a title tag and make sure that it has more than just your companies name and phone number, include the relevant keywords that you have researched through Google’s adwords tool or through www.keywordspy.com. Never overload the title tag because Google is only ever going to read 100 characters of the title tag to begin with so it does not make much sense to extend way beyond that. The same thing goes for the H1 tag; make use of the headlines of your page. You do want to make certain that your headlines are attractive and does catch the attention of your customer; we also want to include keywords inside the H1 tag to attract the search engines as well. The metadata should also be addressed in your campaign, many search engine optimization experts have claimed that meta-data no longer matters; however, in the search engine optimization campaigns that we manage we definitely see an impact from metadata especially inside the descriptions. Our theory on this is that if the metadata has zero effect on our campaign it’s at least gives us a theme for each page that we develop and helps keeps us organized.

I’ve seen about 1 million different advertisements for submitting your website to 1000’s of different search engines, or creating back links overnight and I can honestly tell you that while they might have some positive effect on your search engine optimization campaign nothing will replace useful content and good website optimization. Trying to fool the search engines by using tricks such as mirror sites, or duplicate content is simply a waste of time. Granted you may get a bump in the ratings for a short period of time by going around the “system” but in the long run is that really what you want? If you are attempting to develop a website that will maintain its rankings for the “long run”, and it is wise to develop content that will convert your Internet traffic as well as serve the search engines well.

In previous articles we have discussed “black hat SEO” and what to avoid when optimizing your website, as you are developing your website or optimizing make certain that you pay attention to what could hurt you. Search engines are extremely intelligent and you must provide content that is useful and original. As time goes on this is proving to be more and more difficult which requires creativity and thought.

When you’re working on your search engine optimization campaign make sure that you set aside enough time to really be creative with it, remember that organically showing up in the rankings does not cost you or your company anything but time so make sure that you do not skimp on the time you invest in this campaign. The more time you spend developing content that is useful with keywords for the search engines, the more likely it is that you will show up at the top of the searches for the demographic and target audience you want to reach.

Chad Formica is a search engine expert in Denver that specializes in Denver SEO Coaching and local Denver SEO

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Optimizing yoru Google Profile could prove to be easier than any other "Social Networking" site

By: Cade Lee

Your Google Profile never really had any use until now. When I say that what I mean is that there has never really been any practical use for it. I guess most of us used the profile to update our photos for Google Talk but that was definitely the extent of it until this week. Around October of last year, Google started indexing profiles by allowing their robots to start crawling through the profiles. Since then not much has happened until the past few weeks. I have started to see these profiles show at the bottom of the pages when I search for various names.

The minute that I started seeing the different profiles show at the bottom of the search engines, I had to log into my Google account and figure out the process for getting my profile on the 1^st page of Google. Now, it’s important to note that profile shows at the bottom of the 1^st page of Google, but the first page is the first page to me. So, anyway to start with your Google profile start here. Once you have landed on Google’s profile page, if you are already logged into your Google account you will automatically be brought to the profile page that you will need to complete. If you are not logged in you will be asked to login and then you will be brought to the profile page. As with any directory submission or social networking profile, it’s important to fill out as much of the profile as possible. I have found that the “Bio” section of any profile is one of the best places that you can place some of the keywords that are important for your profession or business. So as with any content you will want to make certain to place your keywords within the bio here. In my bio or “about me” section I was able to utilize anchor text and back link to those sites that I have been optimizing for my own personal SEO campaigns.

Another key feature to Google’s profile is it allows you to input related URL’s for your profile along with Anchor Text or “Link Name”. I was able to put my linked in page, Facebook page, Twitter profile as well as my blog and website and there was still room for my URL’s if I wanted. As a side note, all the links created through the Google Profile are “dofollow” links which I have never really cared about. I have always figured a link is a link even if the bots cannot follow it. I wasn’t expecting the profile to be as SEO friendly as it is. You can view my profile here.

After completing the profile I searched my name immediately and seriously, seconds after completing my profile, I was placed on the first page of Google for the search term, “Cade Lee Denver” and “Cade Lee “. Granted my name is a little different than John Smith, but you will notice under the search “Cade Lee” there is a martial arts expert (or something like that) with my same name. So there is someone else in the world with the name Cade Lee after all.

After seeing such quick results I wondered, “What would happen if a company opened a Gmail account using appropriate keywords in the e-mail address, and then worked the profile for ranking?” So I did it. I opened a Google account for denver-seo-firm@gmail.com. I completed the profile as previously described, and no, it did not make it to the first page immediately (in the profile section) for the search term “Denver SEO Firm“. I am proud to say that within the first 7 days of completing the profile, the profile has made the first 100 with no other efforts made. I believe the first profile made the 1^st page immediately because it was an older account and Google had probably already indexed the profile.

I will be following up on this article in the near future as the next step is going to be building backlinks to these profiles and watching the effect of this in the rankings, I will be using the denver-seo-firm@gmail.com profile to see if we can obtain rankings for “Denver SEO” (very competitive search term in our local market). I will amend this post with what I find!

Lastly, Google does have a verification process for your profile as discussed by Chris Crum of Webpronews.com on April 23, 2009. For more information on getting your Google Profile Verified, read more here. Note that I have not gone through the verfication process with any of the profiles mentioned above.

Cade Lee is a search engine optimization professional in Denver, Colorado. He is a SEO/ SEM coach and speaker specializing in optimization for local and long tail keywords.

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Many firms who aren’t used to doing business online discover suddenly that they need help. They turn to the cheapest search engine optimization firm or service they can find in hopes that the professional can boost their rankings, get the pranksters and bad guys to quit saying bad things about them in the forums, and hopefully save their online reputations. It rarely works.

The reason this doesn’t work too well is because good white hat optimization isn’t a band aid. It’s preventive medicine. And if you eat it right in the proper doses you’ll never have to worry about your reputation – well, not too much any way.

Search Engine reputation management has become a big deal these days. In essence, it’s nothing more than building a brand online within the engines used for the purpose of managing a person’s or brand’s public perception. But you should be doing that any way. And if you do it all the time then when you really need it it won’t be so much of a chore. Your natural immune system will kick in and ward off the evil viruses before they do too much damage. Are you using SEO as a band aid?

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