Search Engine Optimization Techniques For 2014

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION IN 2014


Search Engine Optimization or (SEO), we all need it so you should take this opportunity to learn it. Search engine optimization techniques are used to rank your website higher on Google and other major search engines. We use SEO techniques to bring in more organic traffic and to rank for keywords. Web development has to include SEO, right? In 2013, Google handed down algorithm updates that changed the landscape of SEO forever. The biggest adjustments were focused on links, which is one of the biggest ranking factors. In the same year, thin content was weeded out making the demand for high quality content even more important. Knowing what we know now, how do we plan to use search engine optimization in 2014?


Writing Quality Lengthy Content

Content has always been important in terms of SEO and ranking. There hasn't always been a need to write lengthy content. A high quality article with a few hundred words and a good link could rank high in early 2013. Now, content needs to have both quality and length. I ran my own personal experiment in late 2013 with content over 1,000 words and content below 1,000 words. I never published any articles below 700 words. Keep in mind, all of the content was associated, within the same subject. I equally used keywords in all 10 articles. I gave each article 6 months to perform, this gave them plenty of time in searches. I used the same valued links on all 10 articles.

Every article with lengthy high quality content performed better. This including higher rankings and high traffic. Without a doubt, my content with 1,000 words or more performed better then my articles below 1,000. All 5 articles below 1,000 were aimed around 800 words. You wouldn't think 200 words would make a difference but it did. The 5 articles above 1,000 words ranged from 1,050-1,350 words. There's no possible way to run a test like this and get 100% validation due to outside forces I have no control over, but I believe I reached 80% to say the least.

Writing quality content is and will remain one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. Don't get lazy on your content, on yourself. Don't publish content to keep your blog updated. Don't throw in filler content to get to 1,000 words. You don't need every article to be 1,000 words, this is impossible. However, you do want to write as many words as you can without making your article boring. You still need to apply your keywords to each article, including your title, headings, descriptions and Metadata. Be unique with your content and make it useful to others. If you're just starting out with a website or blog, content is going to help you rank and develop your website. If I had to say a cut-off, you should strive for 500-600 words to be safe, but never below 400.


Link Building Techniques

Link building has been a longtime search engine optimization technique and it's a very important one to say the least. As for SEO, link building techniques have seen some big changes over the years, none more then 2013. If you were a link builder in 2013, you either saw a bonus or you were fired. Google came down hard on links in 2013 and these algorithms have changed the landscape of link building forever. Very few webmasters saw their ranks stay steady. Many crumbled under the new linking laws, never to be heard of again. Others were more fortunate while some even saw increased rankings. It was a busy year for SEOs and link builders in 2013 and their importance in 2014 will only increase.

Most SEOs know that Google wants natural link building. Does this mean that I have to quit finding link partners? Absolutely not. Getting a high valued link is one of the quickest SEO techniques to increase your rankings. In fact, your encouraged to find linking partners. However, there's a few rules you need to follow. We'll say you have a blog about baking. You've been writing on your blog for a year and Google has rewarded you with a PR2. Even with the valued PR, you're still not ranking your keywords on page one. You decide that a little more link juice will put you over the top. You find a website that has a PR6 and you're in luck, their selling links! You check your bank account and you have enough money to buy one! Problem solved, right? In a few weeks, you're sure to get first page rankings.

After a few weeks past, you see your rankings drop. Why? Come to find out, that PR6 website is a link building website that has no association to baking. Get the point? If you're going to build links, what ever technique you may use, you have to keep them associated. If you have a SEO website, you don't want to be linking to websites that are not associated to search engine optimization. This no longer works. 2013 changed link building techniques forever. Link building is still very important. You also have to keep an eye on who is linking to you now. Don't go on in 2014 without checking your links.

Over the years, I've found that writing quality online content is the easiest way to build links. Make your content useful to others. Again, don't write about anything and everything. If you write high quality articles or post, others will link to it naturally. Everyone is an expert at something. It doesn't matter if you're writing about the weather or art, make sure your content is useful. When the time comes to build links, make sure their website and content is associated to yours. This also gives you the opportunity to meet new people, perhaps generating new business depending on what you do.



Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing? What are you talking about? Social media marketing or SMM is becoming an important search engine optimization technique. We saw this in 2013 as SMM is now a ranking factor in the search engine equation. I've been saying I for years, SEO and SMM play hand in hand. Why would SMM play more of a role in search engine optimization? SMM ranks trends, what's hot and what's not. Everyone uses some type of social platform. It could be Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube or LinkedIn. The point, social media channels are still growing. All the major social media platforms have search engines. With more and more authority figures moving toward social media, it's likely to see an increased value in 2014 and beyond.

Your social network will be an important search engine optimization technique. You need to make sure your social channels are active, useful and updated. Will we see this change in 2014? It's very likely. It may take longer but I'm quite sure that SMM will play a much larger role in the near future. Remember, all of these social platforms are relatively young. They've only been around for a few years and they just recently became part of the search engine equation. As they become more needing and valued, you're going to want to make sure you're are adding to your social authority and value.

Just like it always does, most search engine optimization techniques will stay the same or similar. Something is likely to come along and change during the new year, but SEO is alive and well. If you haven't took the time to learn SEO or your wet behind the ears, learn as much as you can. Every successful website and online business has to have SEO. As more and more content is published, everyday that passes, it gets tougher to rank your keywords. There's plenty of trusted content and videos on SEO and search engine optimization techniques. Read, watch and learn.

Richard Hale is CEO and founder of Hale Associations, providing freelance web development services such as SEO, SEM, SMM, SMO, and PPC.

Hale SMM & Marketing Services

HALE SMM & MARKETING SERVICES

Social Media Marketing 101

 

 

 

I wanted to take the time to talk about Hale SMM & Marketing and the different services that we can provide you or your business. I've been an SEO and SMM for nearly 7 years now. SMM or "Social Media Marketing," is a great way to market your products or services. Social Media Marketing has a ton of great benefits. At Hale SMM & Marketing, we use multiple social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more. As you'll see, Social Media Marketing can take your business to the next level.

 

What are the benefits of SMM? Social Media Marketing allows you to grow your network and community. Since social exposure does play a role in SEO, it's important to have active social channels. Marketing on Facebook and all the larger social platforms gives you an opportunity to interact with fans and potential customers. People want to know that your company or business cares about them. Customer service is crucial to any business. That aspect can be equally true when it comes to interaction on your social platforms.

 

Social Media Marketing is important to Web Development. On Facebook, customers are able to like, share and comment on your page. On Twitter, your post can be chosen as a favorite or retweeted. On Google+, fans are able to include you in circles, comment and share This interaction is important. Not only that, each post you make can create links that point back to your website or where needed. On Pinterest, this linking system can give value to your links, which is also important per SEO.

 

How often do I need to post? All of your social accounts should be promoted and marketed daily. For some, this may be difficult, especially if you have 10 social platforms to promote every day. At Hale SMM & Marketing, we promote your social channels daily. Not only that, we promote and post multiple times a day. Each link should include a useful URL pointing back to your services, products or useful information.

 

Is SMM expensive? Hale SMM & Marketing can usually handle multiple social accounts for around $100 a week. If you're looking for SEO, SMM is included in all SEO packages. All our services are freelance services. Professional companies can charge more or less. Your total cost for SMM services depends on your budget and how many social accounts have to be managed. The more accounts you have, the higher the cost.

 

What if I don't have social accounts? Hale SMM & Marketing can build all your social platforms for you. Again, the total cost depends on the amount of social platforms being built. The benefits of SMM services outweighs your cost or initial investment. Studies have shown that social marketing and customer service can work hand in hand. You just need to make sure that you're being active daily and interacting with customers.

 

Make sure that your social accounts are "useful." There has to be value to your social media accounts. If your social accounts offer no value to fans or customers, they won't develop correctly. This can be reviews of your products, useful content about your services or some type of free prize for interaction. Use your imagination, you have to draw interest with useful techniques. You should care about growing all your social networks. Hale SMM & Marketing can develop and maintain all your social accounts. If you're interested in our services or you have any questions, please be sure to leave us a comment. Thanks for your continued support and I hope this article was beneficial to you.

 

 

Richard Hale

304-752-3433

304-601-6608

haleassociations@gmail.com  

 

 

 



Best SEO Techniques And Tips For 2014

Best SEO Techniques And Tips For 2014

 

 

 

In this article, we're going to explore some of the best SEO techniques and tips for 2014. SEO is always changing and 2013 saw some big changes in SEO with Google's algorithms. I don't know which search engine that you're trying to get on, but Google controls 67% of the world's searches. All of the SEO techniques and tips that I'll be using in this article will correspond with Google search engines.

 

 

I've been a SEO, SEM, and SMM for 6 years now, going on 7. Each new year brings up more questions about SEO as the importance of search engine optimization continues to rise. Without using SEO, it's impossible to rank for keywords, build high quality links, and become a successful webmaster. Yes, some use very little SEO and they can get decent traffic. However, if you're looking to get massive traffic in 2014, you need to know as much search engine optimization as possible.

 

 

One of the best SEO techniques and tips for 2014 is the same SEO technique that's been important for years. The number one SEO tip for 2014 is quality content. In the SEO community, there's always a big debate about the value of content. If you can beg to disagree, please be sure to do so. In the past 6 years, I've built content for hundreds of websites. High quality content has always been important to SEO and it will be again in 2014. Don't worry about building 2,000 word pages of content, more then anything, you want your content to be useful to the reader. Adding anything to your articles that will be helpful to your readers is recommended. This could include pictures, graphs, charts, polls, Q&A, or a helpful link to another article. Going into 2014, it's going to be very important that your readers find your website useful.

 

Another important SEO technique that will be very important in 2014 is link building. Google hit link builders hard in 2013 and don't be surprised if there's a few updates or new algorithms based on links. The days of link farms and unassociated link value is over. Google wants to see natural link building and that's what you should abide by in 2014. With all the changes in 2013, link analytics is very important. You need a good link building tool for 2014. You're also going to have to pay close attention to who is linking to your website, probably more then ever going into 2014. SEOs saw a huge rise in link building jobs and recovery efforts due to bad links. In 2014, link building may be more important then any other SEO technique out there. As for now though, it's again the second most important SEO technique for 2014.

 

The third best SEO technique and tip for the new year will be images and videos. Images do rank pretty quick, but a good SEO optimized video can climb the ranks fairly easy. As more and more technology allows us to make more videos, it's a great way to rank high going into 2014. YouTube has been very popular for many years, as well as Pinterest and Instagram. Each one of these websites continue to grow and gain popularity. I've also ran my own personal test for ranking videos and I can confirm that a few minutes of video can rank higher then 1,500 words of quality content. A lot of different SEOs and webmasters are beginning to take advantage of this fact and have been doing so for the past year. As more and more people try to rank videos, it's going to get tougher to rank them. Even so, the roads are still less traveled and a decent quality 3 minute video can rank first page. We all know images can rank, their great to optimize on Ecommerce website. But as Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram continues to grow, more and more people are trying to rank their images. Images are great because you can optimize them to your needs, the same can be said for videos.

 

User experience is another big SEO technique and tip that you're going to want to use in 2014. Your bounce rate now effects your rankings. If users are not staying on your website long, your ranks are going to suffer. In 2014, don't be surprised if more importance is given to user experience. You need to make sure that your articles are well designed, you're not over using ads, and that you have a great interior link structure. Anything that you can use to add value to the user, ad it. Don't be afraid to ask your users what would make your website better. This new value on user experience can seriously bring your ranks and traffic down. I found that out on my main website a few months ago when I had a 81% bounce rate. At all cost, you should try to get this below 50%. Make your website user friendly and easy to navigate.

 

I appreciate you all taking the time to read my article, share, and comment. If you're looking for freelance SEO services, please be sure to fill out the contact form on the right. I'll be sure to respond as soon as I can. I can also be found on Elance. Once again, thanks for reading and I wish you all success.

Freelance SEO Services Richard Hale

 

FREELANCE SEO SERVICES

 

 

 

If you or your company is in need for freelance SEO services, we can help. My name is Richard Hale and I've been an SEO for six years. I've helped hundreds of people by providing quality SEO services. If you are struggling to make sales, obtain website traffic, rank for keywords, or generate quality links, I can help you achieve your goals. Richard is a white hat SEO specialist with years of experience providing freelance search engine optimization services.

 

There's dozens of factors that can influence your SERP value and SEO score. Content, design, Metadata, link structure, domain age, social platforms, tags, titles, and other SEO factors must be correctly evaluated and monitored. The process of SEO takes time, anyone that tells you differently is incorrect. You can't get to the top of Google overnight, it will take time.

 

My first plan of action is evaluating your website, scoring your SEO, and evaluating all possible factors that influence your SERP value. Based on the results of the evaluation, we'll determine a plan of development for your website. With careful planning and using proper SEO techniques, I can rank your website on the first page of Google for specific keywords.

 

If you feel that you're in need for my freelance SEO services, please be sure to contact me. I'm currently taking on new clients so it's a great time to schedule SEO services. You can contact me through email or by calling 1-304-752-3433. I provide freelance SEO services globally and web development services also. We include SMM work with our SEO services, so be sure to ask about it. If you're looking for useful tips and suggestions, be sure to look through our blog.

 

 

Richard Hale

haleassociations@gmail.com 

Should I Hire An SEO For My Website?

 

DO I NEED SEO SERVICES?

 

 

Should I hire an SEO for my website or blog? How do I know if I need an SEO or not? Who can I trust for SEO services? Should I choose a freelance SEO over a professional? If you're asking these questions, you can find the answer here. Yes, you may ask, "don't you offer freelance SEO services?" Yes, we do. In fact, we want you to hire us! In all honesty though, search engine optimization is crucial to a website. There's thousands of professional SEO companies and tens of thousands that claim to be SEOs. With so many options, it can be tough to know if you need an SEO, plus choosing the right SEO can be difficult to.

 

We've been providing freelance SEO services for six years. During that span, we've seen about everything. If one thing is true, every website needs some aspect of SEO, some more then others. Experience, knowledge, results, price, and many more elements will influence your choice for an SEO. With so many options, it can be tough determining if you need an SEO and which SEO you'll ultimately choose.

 

First, if you don't know SEO, you need to learn SEO. Just knowing a little about SEO will help you. SEO is not rocket science, every webmaster should know different aspects of SEO and how it can help their website. However, using the wrong SEO techniques can hurt your website, so the line is drawn. Using white hat SEO techniques is crucial, never use other methods that will hurt your website.

 

If you don't know by now, SEO is crucial to a website's success and failure. It doesn't matter is you're selling products or wanting readers, you need traffic, so you need SEO. Building a solid platform using correct SEO techniques can bring in website traffic for years to come. We all know, a website or blog can't thrive without traffic. If you're struggling for traffic, you need SEO. Every website, blog, or webpage needs traffic to succeed. If you don't create traffic, your website is pointless.

 

Most men and women that seek an SEO have an ecommerce website. The purpose of their website is to sell products. Another field that needs SEO is those selling their services. This is how they make money off their website. If your not selling products or services, you need SEO. If you're expectations are set too high, an SEO may not be the case. Every website should strive to rank for keywords and have first page ranks for specific keyword phrases. You know what you're need is, it could be to make $5,000 a month or to bring in 5 more clients a week.

 

How do I know if I need SEO though? It's simple, if you've tried everything that you can via SEO, you probably need to hire one, right? If haven't, you have two options. You can either hire an SEO or learn SEO yourself. There's thousands of legit information online about SEO, a few months of studying can make you qualified at the least. If it can't be done by yourself or another, I'd suggest an SEO. Find an SEO that knows what their talking about and most SEOs have blogs or websites just like ours. The purpose is to show you that we know what we're talking about.

 

Should I hire a professional SEO or a freelance SEO? Once again, this depends on you. You get what you pay for with SEO, right? Well, no. SEO has become so crucial that you can find quality SEO services for around $8 an hour. Professional SEO services can cost $50 an hour or more. If you're interested in hiring an SEO, make sure you talk to them in person. A simple phone call can explain it all. A qualified SEO can look at your website and immediately begin evaluating your website and asking legitimate questions. You have access to Google, Google your SEO! A qualified SEO can evaluate your website and make a POA in no time. A qualified SEO can give you results in a few weeks.

 

At Hale Associations, we provide freelance SEO services. Compared to other SEOs, our price is much lower. We also guarantee results. Every website has different SEO needs. When I personally evaluate a website, I'm looking for the keyword ranks, page ranks, links, link structure, domain age, traffic, metadata, indexed content, social platforms, and about 3 dozen more things. All these aspects influence your SERP value, both on-site and off-site. We have some of the best SEO software and SEO tools, but it's still a lot of information to process.

 

Your competition is another big aspect of SEO, especially if you're in a competitive niche. If you are, there's tens of thousands of websites offering the same products or services. It can be difficult to rank high for highly competitive keywords. If you're not getting the results you want and you've done everything in your power via SEO, you should look to hire an SEO. If you haven't, take the time to learn SEO techniques, apply them to your website, and monitor the results. Some of you probably have budgets and very little money. Learn SEO, there's plenty of online resources. At the least, it will help you down the road.

 

If you're in need of freelance SEO services, we're here for you. If you want a great price, results, and a guarantee, we provide them at Hale Associations. If you don't have the funds or you want to learn SEO, be sure to look through our blog. We have dozens of great articles on SEO and web development. If you have any questions, please take the time to leave a comment and we'll be glad to answer. You're always more then welcome to email us or give us a call. We appreciate all your support and thanks again.

 



What's The Difference Between Writing And SEO Writing?

SEO WRITING AND GENERAL WRITING

 

 

 

What's the difference between writing and SEO writing? What's SEO writing? A SEO would laugh at this question, but to the common Joe, this is an important question. I'm talking about the difference between SEO writing and general writing. For starters, there's a big difference and if you don't know what SEO stands for, it represents search engine optimization. SEO is a process that is used to increase your SERP value for your website. Correctly using SEO techniques can rank your website or blog high on search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

 

Now that you know what SEO represents, let's discuss SEO writing. SEO writing is a writing style that focuses on writing content for SEO purposes. One important aspect of SEO is keyword research. Another important aspect of SEO is keyword ranking. SEOs will research a group of keywords that are appropriate to your niche or content subject. The purpose of ranking for a keyword is to rank high in search engines for a specific keyword phrase. If it's done right, you're website can rank on the first page for your specific keyword groups.

 

Keyword research is very important to SEO writing because without it, there's no SEO writing. Your content will serve no purpose other then reader friendly information. In order to write in the style of SEO writing, a writer must know the correct keywords to place within the content. Any other type of writing is considered to be general writing in this aspect. Writing about the proper subject without using keywords is not SEO writing, it's niche writing.

 

SEO writing can be very beneficial to a website when done properly. Using your keyword properly in the content is also important. It's advised that your keyword density should be around 4-5% for best results. You also should make sure to use your keywords in your title, descriptions, tags, and paragraphs. Don't over use your keywords in the article, never use more then 3-4. It's always best to start your sentence with a keyword when possible. Use your best keywords first and follow with less relative keywords.

 

Anything other then SEO writing will be deemed as general writing in this article. General writing doesn't involve keyword research or aspects of SEO. If you're writing an article to a friend, it's general writing. The main concept that's misunderstood is the fact that SEO writing is not when you write about the subject manner, this again is niche writing. Most of us know what general writing is, many are confused when it's defined "SEO writing."

 

 

Hale Associations provides freelance SEO services, SMM services, Web Development services, Web Design services, Online Marketing services, and much more. Our blog is designed to help others find correct information on the subject manner. We appreciate all your support and time. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our freelance services, please feel free to contact us.

How To Add METADATA To Websites And Blogs

 

ADDING METADATA FOR SEO

 

 

METADATA is an important aspect of SEO because it tells the search engines exactly what your website or blog is about. In hence, if not done correctly, you're missing an important aspect of SEO. Metadata can be added to your website in a variety of different ways. Many webmasters or SEOs choose to add metadata through code. In your HTML code, you can add meta titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords, and more meta information.

 

Since a large percentage of people use Wordpress, I'll use it for the next example. Wordpress has a great CMS where you're able to add content and metadata. We recently had a client that failed to add metadata to their young website and at no surprise, it wasn't doing well with ranks and traffic. Completing your metadata alone won't help your website or blog unless it's done correctly.

 

The META title in Wordpress should be exactly what your article is about. You should always include your keyword in the META title. You'll see this option in Wordpress below your content section. All your Metadata is in the SEO section. Your META description gives a longer defined section where you need to define what the article contains. Once again, be sure to use your keywords. The description should contain two or three keywords. If possible, start your META title and META description with keywords.

 

You'll also see a section to include META keywords. This area should include your major keywords. If you're not niche writing, be sure to include the most relative keywords for the specific article. The tags area is on the right side, this is where you can add less relative keywords. If you haven't researched your keywords, do so.

You can also add METADATA to products and images in Wordpress. Remember, bots can't see your pictures or products. If you have an E-Commerce website, this is crucial! Make sure you write an accurate description on the ALT IMG description. This way, the bots will be able to find the product or picture. This gives it the opportunity to appear in searches.

 

Since we use Blogger, I'll give you some information on how to apply METADATA to your blog in Blogger. In Blogger, you can add your META description through the settings section on the left navigation bar. In the basic setting, you'll see at the top of the page areas where a title can be added and a description. Make sure you accurately fill this out including your keywords. You can also add METADATA to your HTML code in the <head> section of the code.

Hale Associations offers a variety of different freelance SEO services. We also provide web development, business planning, social media marketing, and branding. If interested in our services, be sure to contact us by email or by phone. We gladly work with budgets and offer flex pay payments.