White Hat Search Engine Optimization – You’ve got to love a company that simply never quits and always evolves. Google just reconfigured their search algorithm with a nice touch for all us white hat workers, and we are seeing our clients jump up 20 and 30 spots in days.? With their newest configurations, this means for all us sparkly white webmaster using SEO and SEM techniques that you can barely even call techniques, our world just became that much stronger. Google is constantly evolving to become a better search, matching the user with a better and more qualified search result, “the source” of the information.? What does this mean for the average business manager, or owner/entrepreneur managing their online presence? Well here it is in a nutshell.

If you are not prepared to pay attention to your online presence, updates to your website, add content to your blog(s), maintain and update your social media accounts and proliferate content across all of your digital media distribution channels that make sense, and that humans care to read and pay attention to, then you may want to consider either hiring someone who will guide your vision for doing business over the next 25 years.? Google is the portal to what has become known as the Web 2.0 experience and is evolving with the industry into the Web 3.0 source for everything that is what we consider the ubiquitous experience we call the internet.? Sometimes people need to read it, but here is your reminder, “The Phone Book is Dead”!? I don’t know of anyone that has even looked in a phone book in the last three years.? Geo-Location is the wave of the future.? It’s a quick Google maps search to find your closest match. Or if youre on your cell phone (i.e. handheld device) itll locate the nearest service for you.? So when we see our clients Google Business Profiles in the Google Maps section jumping 20 positions over a weekend, we take notice.?? Google Places and Geo-Location are the next stepping stones for the new generation of applications which are quickly evolving on platforms like Microsoft Windows Mobile 7/8, Google Android & Apple iPhone.? If Geo-Location is a new concept for you, feel free to check out the following article from PC World.

PC World: Geolocation 101: How it works

If you are ready to move yourself ahead then you need to adopt a strategy or hire a company with a proven track record.? Remember, strategies take time, brains and experience to accomplish.? The best business strategies were discovered after many failures so be prepared to fail a few times if youre trying out a new business for the first time.? For those of you that are more interested in running your business and adding to your bottom line, then handling your own SEM campaign may not be the best idea. Fortunately for you, we’ve got plans with proven strategies that put you back in the driver’s seat with a co-pilot who knows the terrain. Our Website Promotional Plans are just what a Small Business needs to advance in the right direction without wasting time or excessive funds to get there.? For more information on these plans you can visit our site under the SEM Promotional Plans.

Now, if you’re already working with a company, you may want to compare and ask the simple question, “for my search phrase, and based on my current position, when do you think you can get our company to a page 1 status on Google and Bing”?? If your “SEO Expert” cannot give you a definitive answer, you may be wasting your money.? However if the reply is between month No. 3 and month No. 5 then you may be dealing with a real group.? Anyone that tells you they can have you up on Google’s organics within 1 month for a new website that is just going online for the first time is just taking your money, so minimize what you pay upfront for that.? In fact, in general, SEO experts charging large up-front fees don’t place much faith in their skills, otherwise they would be charging you across the month more evenly, so beware of those as well.

While the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page’s) can look like a jungle to figure out, it’s really not as hard as you think.? When you search for a phrase, take notice of the number of results that appear, like, 350,000 results found, or 5,240,000 results found, or 60,000,000 results found.? The higher the number, the more competitive the arena, so be prepared to be spending more time and resources to be found, i.e. more money too.? Generally local and small business are competing under 2,000,000 results for small towns, maybe under 500,000 results, but speaking with a true SEO / SEM Expert, should be able to guide you along to a search phrase that works for your business and not overwhelmingly competitive.

Remember, you want to be at the top, so this is part of your strategy to get there. Now of course we cannot lay down our full strategy and blueprints here, but this is at least a starting point. Oh yeah, and take a look at the competitors page ranks, If the competitors are 6’s and 7’s and you’re a 0 or 1, don’t believe the hype or “SEO expert” telling you, “we can get you to the top“, he’s most likely full of it with a comment like that. Your site will need much more value and that doesn’t happen overnight by any means.

Good luck to all of you out there and remember The Web Squad.? The next time youre thinking SEO / SEM, we are a better value for your hard earned dollar than your next online experiment.? Work with the experts and get results that work.

P.S.

For the rest of the SEO Black Hatters that were using manipulative techniques that weren’t necessarily bad,? but just thought they were smarter than Google, we just watched Google completely obliterate many of your auto blog networks from the web, de-indexing and dropping thousands of blogs in a single day.? Ouch, that hurts, but works great for us.

White Hat Search Engine Optimization

Thanks again Google for recognizing true content and hard work that honest business owners are willing to put forth.

Read more about the changes that Google just put into production in the month of February, 2012.

SiteReference.com: Google Takes Down a Popular Blog Network

Author:? Corey Thomas

Web Squad, Director/Founder

Co-Author: Robert Butler

Web Squad, SEM/Head Technician