All brands are fair in SEO

The heavyweights of SEO have spoken: Big brands cannot do whatever they want.

The good news about what Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester’s proclamation is that this has been true in the history of search engine optimization. Google has been fair when it comes to treating brands, when it comes to penalizing duplicitous websites. In fact, in the standpoint of Google, all brands are fair in SEO.

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However, for small brands, especially for startup companies, it is understandable if they feel a bit daunted when they vie with bigger brands on the Web for the first time. Bigger brands have been leveraging power, money, and established audience and customers since time immemorial, and launching an online campaign against theirs is no easy endeavor.

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But the renowned SEO expert and AudienceBloom founder Jayson DeMers has some pointers for some startup companies out there to jumpstart their online advertising. The gist: he wants them to focus on branding.

 
Spending too much on time and money on keyword research is bad, and focusing more on the visuals is essential in getting would-be followers and consumers to their site. Getting a nice Web design, having a good logo, and writing good content are a good start. In addition, instead of competing with popular keywords that have already been dominated by big brands, shooting for long-tail keywords—the longer, more specific keywords that are less common, individually, but add up to account for the majority of search-driven traffic—is cheaper and better. Getting local is quite effective, too, since most big brands focus on national scale-advertising.

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However, the most important element is persistence, since everyone knows that SEO is a time and-algorithm-driven method.

Are you a small brand owner who seeks more effectual small-scale SEO methods? TopSEOs website contains many helpful and efficient search optimization methodologies that may help any business owner to conduct an effective online advertising.

'The Art of Cyber War': NATO creates the first book on cyber warfare

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The Art of War was written by the Chinese in the second century B.C. to compile the military strategies that govern wars. In the modern times, however, some of these rules have gone obsolete as military attacks become digital. The massive cyberattacks launched by computer servers in China to various large organizations in the US—including the White House, Chamber of Commerce, and international private companies—have inspired the creation of the first book on cyber war, The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare.




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Sunday Morning Herald reports that the 282-page handbook is the brainchild of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). It contains rules on cyber warfare and discusses “the practice of international law to the world of electronic warfare in an effort to show how hospitals, civilians, and neutral nations can be protected in an information-age fight.” The book's main idea is that “war doesn't stop being war just because it happens online.” A cyberattack launched by one nation against another nation is still considered an attack in traditional warfare. And just as hostile armies are not allowed to fight in neutral country's territory, so is launching an attack from a neutral country's computer network prohibited.




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The traditional law allows nations to strike if they see enemies on the borders, but how can this be dealt with in the virtual realm where hacks happen in just a matter of seconds? The traditional law also prohibits armies to attack civilian objects, but what if a military cyberattack erases civilian's data, like voter registration records? These are some issues in the book that leave readers room for open discussions.


Marco Roscini, a professor of international law, predicts that the Tallinn manual will become an important reference especially to military lawyers. NATO CCDCOE, however, says that the handbook is not an official document but an expression of opinions of a group of independent experts.  


TopSEOs is a recognized authority in online marketing strategies. Follow this Facebook to get timely updates on the organization and the IT industry overall.

Code of ethics for Internet marketing vendors

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Internet ethics are defined as values that generally focus on the proper use of online resources. These serve as a guide for online vendors that sell products and services in a virtual environment.

For an emerging business, “the temptation to cut corners or compromise one's values is pervasive,” writes Dan Crawford, a senior fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, in his article, How to Navigate Your Way Out of No Man's Land With Ethics, published on the Santa Clara University website. Internet ethics serve as a “backbone” that helps online companies decide and act on what’s right. The rules set may change over time as values and Internet usage change, but the existence of a guideline provides direction.


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TopSEOs.com, an independent authority on vendors who supply Internet marketing products and services, has created its own EthicsViolations code of ethics to guide companies and individuals in using the Internet for marketing purposes. The following are cited in its code of ethics:

• Do not intentionally charge customers for non-delivered services or products.
• Do not intentionally set false expectations for services or products.
• Do not provide customers with inaccurate or false information.
• Do not demean, threaten, incite violence, or be hateful to another individual, service provider, competitor, client, or any other entity.
• Do not make false allegations of competitors.

TopSEOs notes that a continuous pattern of complaints against any entity deemed breaching any of the codes above will result in blacklisting. The agency has also warned that customers of Internet marketing services should be cautious when dealing with companies that have been identified as ethics violators.


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Are you a victim of unethical services from an Internet marketing service provider? File a violation report here.

The disparity between highly ranked and reputable

In the high-stakes battle for visibility on Internet search pages, it is easy for companies to lose sight of the ultimate goal -- to gain relevance in the minds of their targeted audience. Picking the wrong kind of Search Engine Optimization method may net the company a top spot in page rankings but may come at the cost of the company’s reputation.

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TopSEOs.com maintains that online reputation is a factor that can be hard to build up and is easy to lose, which is why it allows companies to freely choose from the best service providers for their online marketing campaigns.

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The capacity to lead a business’ website to high rankings on search results is not the only criteria for an exemplary online marketing campaign. When the site’s claim to the top of rankings was made at the cost of the site content’s quality, the company’s reputation may quickly suffer as the content turns away all the potential clients which could have found an important resource for their queries related to the brand, product, or service.

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Despite the fast pace of the digital age, for businesses that aim to build reputation, the long route is still the preferable one. Letting consumers find the website is only just the beginning of any e-Marketing campaign, and convincing them to stay and return should be among the main goals of any company that wishes to succeed in this endeavor.

www.topseos.com provides more information about e-Marketing.

Content marketing: Where non-profit and commercial agree

There isn’t more direct market research than that issuing straight from the horse’s mouth. Customer feedback may be highly individualized but commercial brands have learned to use it to their advantage. Brands with high frequency of engagement with their consumers periodically move about their strategies, not merely working on their Web visibility but also personal recall.

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Content marketing is centered on a call to attention, something that not only businesses could employ to their advantage. Come to website interface, there’s already a huge difference. Businesses devote more time bringing sheen to their brands, while non-profits depend on striking humanitarian chords with potential donors and volunteers.

This doesn’t mean that the latter should rest on its softer nature to capture audiences. Studies show that non-profits need to have game, otherwise those advocacies will languish under the dull glare of disinterest.

More strategic content marketing for non-profits recommends gathering feedback. In other words, doing market research the way businesses do, with a truculent avoidance of using the word “market.” Website content should also be thought-provocative to elicit responses. Above all, there has to be a mechanism for collating user feedback.

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Volunteerism may be all and well but it peters out when a cause fails to grow in intensity or reach critical mass. Non-profits that have employed the wise tenets of content marketing have successfully engaged donors and introduced a cycle of organizational maintenance based on voluntary participation.

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TopSEOS.com evaluates and ranks various stakeholders in the search engine marketing industry. For more updates, visit this Facebook page.

Search Engine Journal: 7 Content Marketing Tips from the Best in Social Business

Getting your content noticed is one of the goals of SEO.  In this article, Erin Nelson delivers seven tips for improving your contents' marketing potential.  Read on for more info:



“Content marketing is not a new phenomenon. Yet, in the context of social media marketing and engagement, it has conjoined elements of communication in ways that (to most) came unforeseen. Here, experienced content marketers share bits of their creation, production, optimization, and distribution experience to help light the way.” 

The best content marketers in our current social business landscape are a little bit like the first kid to have a lemonade stand on that busy street corner. It was easy to doubt the “lemonade entrepreneur’s” initial investment in the cost of production, and the time it would take to make a sale, but in the end weren’t we amazed at how that kid’s money always went further than the other kids who blew their allowances on idle purchases?

In a similar fashion, great marketers today have tapped into this same type of potential, but on the street corners within social media and other online markets (mobile too). They have accepted the fact that the investment in the production of high-quality content is worth the cost – for their business, clients and customers – and in return they have received much higher (and lucrative) engagement than if they would have stayed put on the curb.

These content marketers have propelled the essential elements of a strong content marketing strategy, acknowledging that audiences want to follow a narrative, be exposed to the history of a company, be incorporated in the story of a brand, and to receive information of utility that can be used in their personal and business lives. In short, great content marketers understand people want value.

Below are some content marketing “best practice” tips from a few of the best, some that have stood out in my study and implementation of SEO and content marketing through various interview series I have run. From quality, to strategy, to optimization, to engagement, these marketers get the value in managing a content marketing strategy – and can help you be more like that loaded, entrepreneurial lemonade kid.

1. “Content is the engine that drives the whole machine. Content is the catalyst, or even the glue, that brings people together and binds us there. It is the stories we tell that allow us to begin relationships the have the potential to deliver real value to both parties.” – Michael Brenner, SAP Business Innovation and Business2Community (Full interview.)

Michael says it simply: stories spark initial interest and allow us formulate lasting relationships because of the value provided on either end. Don’t just create content. Produce material that reveals something about your motivations and desires. The more genuine your content, the more value in your response – and thus – more potential you have for your target audience to respond and follow you all the way through your buying cycle.

2. “Be transparent (but not confessional), positive (but not giddy), human (but not frivolous), supportive (but not pondering), and most of all, patient (but not lazy). The primary advantage of content marketing, whether the technique is used for a corporate or personal brand, is trust. By providing informative, entertaining or engaging content that doesn’t overtly push a sale, the marketer establishes herself as a trust source. And trust is a marketer’s most precious asset.” – Joe Chernov, Kinvey (Full interview.)

There are two takeaways from Joe’s advice. One, be trustworthy. Two, earn trust by walking the fine line between providing valuable information to your readers and compromising your professional integrity (by overdoing it). Balance is a key element in establishing the kind of content marketing strategy that it takes to inspire enough trust to produce a transaction.

3. “Content marketing isn’t just about adding more content; it’s about creating information for a targeted audience that has a particular purpose and an intended outcome…Modern day marketers should focus on understanding their customers, what topics are relevant to guide sales and leverage keyword research into an editorial plan and social media engagement program. Remove any technical barriers to search engines crawling and indexing a site efficiently, and promote content to attract links and shares.” – Lee Odden, Top Rank Marketing (Full interview.)

Great content marketing isn’t just about production: strategy and technical oversight are essential to maximize results. Start with researching and defining your target audience. Learn everything you can about their behaviors, buying patterns and desires. Go to where they are and give them precisely what they want – in a way that makes you stand out through a combination of quality and optimization. Then make sure you have the technical support to back your strategic plan.

4. “You cannot be successful without content and SEO combined. There are those that get to the top of the page with crappy content, but then have nothing in place for conversion and/or maintaining a solid audience. Even if you get to #1, without the right content, you’ll fail anyway.” – Melissa Fach, SEO Aware (Full interview.)

Melissa speaks to one of the hardest truths of content marketing: the production of high-quality content means little if it cannot be found. Research ways to optimize your content to ensure your target audience is exposed to you in the first place. Once they are aware you exist, you will already have a foundation of strong content that can inspire dialogue and convert.

5. “If there isn’t a clear strategy behind it, content is just content. Instead of aiming for vague ‘high quality,’ I would think in terms of relevant, creative and timely content. Once the content is there, it will work in a cycle: SEO will help you get that content in front of the right eyes, and working with good content will make building links easier.” – Gisele Navarro Méndez, Upstream Connections (Full interview.)

While recent Google updates have altered elements of SEO, content marketing and SEO are still in a state of symbioses. Because of such updates, content made solely for the purpose of “SEO” has a short life. Yet, high-quality content that is optimized to maximize visibility within search engines creates a positive cycle where it can be found and shared (and shared and found). The important thing to remember is to strategize how to both optimize content and how to make this content highly “shareable” regardless of its optimization.

6. “Complaining your industry isn’t glamorous tells me two things about you: 1) you don’t fully understand your customers need/pain points/ wants and 2) you are boring. The opportunity to create high-quality content is there, regardless of what industry you serve…. Just because your topic is toilets (or insurance, or telecom, or stained-glass windows), doesn’t mean your topic has to be 100-percent toilet focused. Find those interesting periphery topics, or the topics your customers are passionate about, and create content around them.” – Lisa Barone, Overit (Full interview.)

Lisa puts it best: don’t complain – create. While you are busy whining about the inability to produce compelling stories for your brand, others will quickly take over your niche. As Lisa says, it’s not about the toilets; it’s about the story surrounding their new home and the topics that matter to the potential toilet buyer.

7. “The blog was always the last thing I did during the day – or should I say, night – and the first place where I tried new ideas in digital marketing, studying the results for potential use. It’s the place where I took all the risks, every day. But writing on the blog was only part of the equation. Commenting on other blogs, extending discussions, helping others with research and content via interviews, and writing for other sites with higher visibility…made it all work.” – Valeria Maltoni, The Conversation Agent (Full interview.)

Valeria’s advice comes from her personal initiation to content marketing. While focusing on audience needs is number one, there is something else to be gained from this aspect of content marketing: the opportunity to detect how best to advance your future strategy. Content marketing, in fact, relies on measuring and re-assessing the results of your content. Taking risks (along with engaging in active and visible communities) allows you to hone in on the exact needs of your target readership to better analyze and configure how best to move forward.

Good luck with your lemonade stands out there!

TopSEOs.com: Upholding fair play in the search industry

Amid the atmosphere of fierce competition that exists in the search industry, TopSEOs.com endorses the spirit of fair play among Internet marketing service vendors. It insists that going against this model is detrimental to the development of the industry as a whole.

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Companies in the search industry can set themselves apart from their competition simply by constantly striving to improve on their methods and in meeting the challenging demands of their clients. However, there are times when lackluster companies turn to more drastic measures that demean, threaten, or incite violence on their competitors and their partners in order to push their agenda at the cost of others. Such measures, when allowed to perpetuate, can stifle innovative thinking in the industry because they promote a cut-throat culture instead of creative problem-solving.

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To help prevent this from happening, TopSEOs.com provides unsatisfied clients with a way to report violators of fairness and constant offenders to the industry’s code of ethics through its EthicsViolations service.

Reporting unethical behavior is easy for the users on the site and it merely involves filling out a simple form. However, the search authority takes great pains to verify the validity of the complaints before it lists the reported company as an offender.

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Meanwhile, the service providers that have been listed as offenders must spend time and effort to engage TopSEOs in a dialogue to prove that they have made improvements to their methods and have rectified any behavior which may have breached the ethics code.

Additional information on the EthicsViolations service of TopSEOs.com can be found on the company’s official website.