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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.

We encourage you to get involved in our blog community - so share your opinions and experiences by leaving comments on our posts.

If you're looking for help with promoting your website - check out our range of affordable search engine marketing services.

Monday, May 26

Do You Report Your Competitors to Google?

One of the hot topics in the blog community at the moment raises an interesting question about search engine competition and the practice of grey or blackhat SEO techniques in order to boost your rankings. Website owners have been divided over the question:

Do you report your competitors to Google if they're using spam or blackhat SEO techniques?

There's no doubt that as a small business owner, you always have to compete. Whether it's online or offline, there is always going to be other businesses looking to grab their share of the marketplace.

Unfortunately, with the online world, this competition is not always fair. Some competitors may be using questionable SEO techniques to "cheat" their way to better rankings and get ahead without being caught by Google. In this case, your only defense is to report these competitors to Google and hope they take action.

There have been a couple of polls in recent weeks which have given completely different answers - so we decided to run our own. Let us know what you think by answering the poll below:

In the end, it all comes down to personal preference. Some people may argue that we should all be treated on a fair playing ground - so reporting spam is ok, while others say to focus on improving your own website, and let Google deal with people who try and game the system.

I'm not going to give my personal opinion here, but i'd love to hear what you all think. Answer the poll above and let us know what you would do via our blog comments!

Labels: SEO

Tuesday, August 28

3 Tips to Writing Great Website Copy

Writing great copy is imperative to your online success, and whilst it doesn't always come naturally, you can learn to write compelling, persuasive and clever (but not too clever) copy. Writing for online success differs greatly from offline business writing as not only are you writing to promote your business, advertise your products and persuade customers to purchase, you're also writing for search engines! However, don't despair! Here are 3 simple tips to writing great website copy.

1. Write For Your Audience
Marketing is all about targeting. Making sure that your target audience identify with your business is imperative. Write website, blog, promotional and advertising copy with your audience in mind. Consider the age, gender, race and religion of your target market; you will never convert searchers into customers if you insult them, use jargon or acronyms they will not understand or simply confuse them.

2. Clever, But Not Too Clever!
There's such a thing as being too clever. It may be fun to think of quirky and subtle marketing copy with a clever twist, however be careful that you're not being so subtle, and clever, that no one actually comprehends what you're trying to say! Get an objective review of your copy before it's posted online - if your mother, brother or the sales guy down the hall doesn't understand your meaning, then it's unlikely that your audience will. While I understand that some websites deal with specialist subjects, products and services, it's a good idea to write for the 'layman' - you never know who might come to your website looking to buy!

3. Write For the Search Engines
There's a fine line between writing for customers and writing for SEO (search engine optimization). You need to appeal to customers on an emotional level, writing convincing copy that will induce them to purchase, and you need to write copy that will tell a search engine exactly what your webpage is about. Writing for search engines is a precise, almost analytical process. Search engines rely on keywords and search phrases to compile their results and choosing the correct keywords and phrases for each of your webpages is very important. Great online copy is about being able to merge SEO into compelling copy for your users.

Great copywriting will take practice and research - think about what great copy inspires you to visit a website or make a purchase, and try adapting these practices into your own website copywriting. Most importantly... review your work! Read and re-read what you've written; get others to read and review your work - while it may take some time and effort, it will save you a lot of time and effort down the track!

Labels: Copywriting, SEO, Website Design

Tuesday, January 9

Google Index and Backlink Update Rumors

GooMurmurs on several forum threads suggest that Google is updating its Backlink count and index at the moment.

According to a string on DigitalForum, several website owners have seen significant drops in their backlinks, while others have lost web pages from the Google index.

While nothing has yet been officially announced regarding the update (I am sure Matt Cutts will post something in due course if it is official), evidence suggests something is happening in the Google data centers.

While many skeptics suggest that watching Google's Backlink count is a waste of time, as the search giant only appears to count a subset of a website's total backlinks and then only updates its published counts sporadically, it's hard to ignore these Backlink count movements.

It's even harder to ignore when it's a well known fact that relevant backlinks are critical to your ranking success in Google. What's worse is when webmasters start seeing their pages disappear from the index also - that's a double whammy.

Anyway, if you've noticed changes in your Google Backlink counts or have had some of your pages removed from the Google Index, share it with our other readers, as your probably not alone.

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Labels: Backlinks, Google, SEO

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