Two years ago, Google released their first search engine optimization starter guide to the public. Last week, on April 1, they relaunched the guide with some updated tips and tricks. We get questions from our clients alot as to how we know what we know, and where we learn the SEO techniques that allow their sites to rank and bring qualified traffic to their websites. Well, we follow the industry news, we attend industry events – AND we also listen to the small tidbits of information that the search engines will tell us. This here guide – HUGE tidbit of information that is crucial for us, and for anyone who is in need of SEO, or is rebuilding their website and NEEDS to understand what their agency is trying to tell them.

So what did our friends at Google spill the beans on with this release? Well besides adding a glossary, and updating the content for better readability and understanding, they also added Mobile tips to the guide.

Mobile usage is not going away. In fact, it’s only rapidly increasing. For years we waited to see if this year would be “the year of mobile” and it has finally come! Here is a quick recap of what’s in the Google SEO Starter Guide.
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1. Verify your mobile site by adding a Mobile Sitemap and submitting it to Google Webmaster Tools, just like you would a XML sitemap.
2. Some mobile sites make it impossible for anything but a mobile phone to access the site, so make sure to add “Googlebot-Mobile” as a user agent so they can crawl the mobile site.

When Google launched their brand new search engine enhancement Google Instant two weeks ago it sent the whole world of SEO/SEM into a frenzy. Every search marketer was asking questions, and nobody had any answers. (I can picture the nightmares already) But don’t worry search marketers you can slip on your onesies and sleep uninterrupted, because EIM has some answers for you.

What does Google Instant mean for SEO?

1. There is no change to the organic ranking algorithm

Although user experience is significantly affected,  Google search results will be ranked the same as always. (Don’t worry first pagers, your ranking will stay the same)

2. It’s very important to rank above the fold for general terms

There’s been a lot of talk that Google Instant is the death of SEO, but contrary to that rumor it has caused SEO to be even more important than ever. Before instant 68% of people didn’t go past the first page, now that instant is implemented it pushes all of the results down and to get to results on the bottom of the page you have to scroll down.  This means that more than likely the results above the above the fold will receive a significantly larger amount of traffic then the results below, which means you want to optimize to not only be on the first page, but in the top 5.

3. Optimize for both Short-Tail and Long-Tail Keywords

Now that instant’s auto suggest plays a larger factor then it used to, it is important to optimize for those more generic terms so you show up for the early rounds of auto suggest.
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The team at Google Analytics provides weekly videos, answering questions from users around the world. This week’s post was 36 minutes long ?!?! and knowing how valuable your time is, we thought we’d watch the video for you and report back on the latest news. You’re welcome.

• What is the best way to track social media referrals? Through an advanced, custom segment in Google Analytics. Re-writing your URLs to track these referrals can actually hinder your data, not help it. Also use custom alerts to proactively know right away when major increases from social media channels occur.


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5 quick fixes for making sure your new & improved website can be found by Google.

What is the top assumption our clients make when building a new website, you ask? Well of course, a new website means more traffic, more sales, and a promotion for the marketing director. Right? Um…we’ll just come out and say it: no. Just because you have launched a new website does not mean the search engines know it’s out there (yes I know, we think Google knows everything, but they don’t…yet…).

Here are 5 fixes you can do fairly quickly and cheaply to ensure your site can be found by the search engines.
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1. Place a 301 permanent redirect on either the www or the non-www version of your site. A 301 is a permanent way of redirecting one url to another. Search engines automatically see the non-www and the www as two competing websites.
2. Use the Google Keyword Tool to determine what people are searching on that is relevant to your site, and add that phrase to the beginning of your homepage title tag, as well as the rest of your homepage meta tags. A developer should be able to add these in for you and you can see your title and description meta tags when doing a Google search for your name (it is typically the listing that pops up). An example title tag might be: “interactive agency chicago | envisionit media.”
3. Make sure that same phrase is in your homepage content, sprinkled in a couple times if you can make it fit without seeming obvious.
4. The motherload: claim your listing in Google & Bing Webmaster Tools asap to alert Google the site exists and needs indexing. That includes the addition of an xml sitemap, which is just a guide for search engine spiders to navigate throughout your site.