5 Outdated SEO Strategies

Since search engine optimization began there have been many changes in the approaches people use to rank well. Over time it has become more and more difficult to rank well quickly. Since the search engines are constantly making new rules, each of the following strategies (or lack thereof) listed below are now outdated.
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1. Putting text that is the same color as the background

In the past this was commonly used as a way to add keywords to a website without writing them into the content. In the beginning this may have worked well for some, but the search engines quickly caught on. Google has posted information warning users against doing this at goo.gl/MTlIs. Any content that the average viewer cannot see but can be seen by the search engines is bad for your site. Overall, it is best to try to optimize for the viewers and avoid making it obvious that you are trying to rank well.

It is important to try to use the proper coding when adding image captions and JavaScript descriptions. Putting image information in as "alt text" is extremely important. Previously some people might have put this text behind the image itself and this may have appeared as deceptive to search engines. Adding alt text makes the page more search engine friendly while still allowing the image to be read by screen readers and Google Images. If JavaScript is being used on a page it is important to put the words that are in your Java into <noscript> coding. This will help the search engines read what your JavaScript says and is much more effective than putting text behind the image that cannot be seen. This will also be helpful for users that do not have plug-ins or who have slow connections.

2. Blog commenting to get back links

Blog commenting is not as effective as it used to be for getting backlinks. Since it was an easy way to quickly get a link to your site, many people were using this tactic. Bloggers, as well as search engines, have made blog commenting more difficult to do and less effective. Many more bloggers moderate their comments now than they used to making it difficult to get your link to show up on their blog. Most blogs also do not have "do-follow" links enabled. This means that your website will get very little boost from a link on the blog. In addition, even blogs that still give "do-follow" links have been spammed with hundreds of comments. After the Google Penguin update, links from pages with more than 99 outbound links are generally devalued. As a result, even "do-follow" blogs are of little value from a link perspective.

If you are going to utilize blog commenting for your SEO strategy it is important to make sure that the blogs you are commenting on have a high page rank and are somewhat relevant to your site. If you are using spammy tactics, like commenting on hundreds of blogs that are not related it your site, it is obvious to search engines and you may be penalized.

3. Repeating words over and over on a page (Keyword Stuffing)

Obviously, having the keywords that you are trying to rank for on your site is important. However, many people do this excessively. It is important to not overuse your targeted keywords on your website because it can look like you are spamming. Make sure the you are writing content that makes sense and incorporates your keywords a reasonable amount of the time. Generally it is best to use a targeted keyword about 2% - 4% of the time within your content. However this percent varies based on the market and how often your competitors are using this term on their sites. In order to gain additional relevance for a term, you can use synonyms for the term. Google uses a technique called Latent Symantec Indexing to determine which words are related to other words. Here's a trick. Type in your key phrase into Google. Now look at the bottom of the page and see what "other similar searches" or "suggestions" it has for you. If any are different various of your term, you could use those in your site as well and it will increase your website's relevance for both your targeted key phrase and the similar phrase.

4. Not tracking bounce rate

Tracking your website's bounce rate is extremely important. Search engines track bounce rates, as well as traffic to your site, to determine how relevant and useful your site is. They even give you a rank boost if they like what they see. It is important to have a low bounce rate because this means users are viewing more of your content. Writing better content and targeting more relevant words for SEO can help improve your bounce rate and thus increase your rankings.

5. Duplicate Content

Duplicate is the practice of using the same content over and over on the web and was often used to get relevance or backlinks for a website quickly. However, search engines do not look very highly upon repeated content. Google and other search engines want to provide a wide variety of results to viewers with the goal of delivering what is being searched for. Because of the search engine's desire for variety, multiple pages with the same content will are not likely to show up high in search engine rankings. The reason for this is that search engines will perform one of three functions when they see a piece of duplicate content. First, they may de-index all content except for the content it perceives as having the highest authority. Secondly, it may penalize or devalue all of the duplicate content. Lastly, it may do nothing. There are many factors that go into determining how the search engines will react to duplicate content. In short, just stay away from duplicate content. Original content is far better for your website's search engine health.

As times change so do SEO strategy's. When considering how to rank well in the search engines, think about how to make the viewer of your content happy. Next, think about the different ways you can spread the word about the content. For example, you could put out a press release or post to social media sites. Promote yourself in natural ways. Do not use spammy tools or short cuts or eventually you will get caught by the search engines. When that happens, you may never recover.

Do you need help with your SEO?  Contact Foremost Media Today.  Foremost Media Inc is a privately held company concentrating on all aspects of application and internet development and marketing from website design and visibility optimization to social media marketing.
Posted By Jon Ballard

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10 Ways To Improve Your Pinterest For Business Account

1.  Set Up A Business Page
If your page is not already a business page it is important to change it to one. It does not appear any differently to the consumers but you will get several benefits including:

• The ability to add more detailed information about your company. 
• The option to group your business into a category which will make it appear in more searches. 
• Access to analytics data based on traffic to your site and specific pin data (make sure you verify your site through Pinterest to get this data). 
• It will help increase your SEO rankings by making the page look more credible.

2.  Use Targeted SEO Tactics In Your ProfileUse targeted SEO keywords in your business description section on profile. This will help you appear in more search engine queries for these key phrases. Search engines see Pinterest as a credible site so you Pinterest page may rank more easily than your website in some cases.

3.  Add The "Pin It" Button To Your Site
Add “pin it” buttons to your website next to all relevant images (ex. Products, tutorials, and pictures in blog posts). This will:

• Make it easy for website visitors to quickly share your content
• Help create more links back to your site

4.  Add a Pinterest thumbnail

Add a Pinterest thumbnail, as well as other social media thumbnails, to the header or footer or you website. This will allow your website visitors to easily find you on Pinterest.

5.  Add a link to Pinterest on your other social media sitesAdd a link to Pinterest on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages. This will help draw more of your current fans to your Pinterest page. Add links to other social media sites on your Pinterest profile as well. 6. If at all possible use the same profile image on all social media sites in order to maintain consistency and help consumers recognize your brand.

7.   Be Social
Use this URL: http://pinterest.com/source/yoursite.com/ to view what others are posting from your website and comment, like, follow them, or thank them. Doing this:

• Encourages consumers to repin your pins.
• Shows consumers you are genuine.
• Helps build consumer relationships.

8.  Pin Others Photos
Make sure you pin relevant things from sites other than your own. Find companies or people on Pinterest that are related to your business and repin some of their posts. This will help increase your number of followers and ensure that you are not bombarding your followers with sales pitches.

9. Tips to follow for pinning: 

• Pin once or twice each day (this can include repins)
• Saturday mornings are best time to post. The best time to post for weekdays is between 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. or after 8:00 p.m. If you want to schedule your pins you can at http://www.pingraphy.com/.
• Use hash tags for your business related keywords (ex. #recipes or #hairstyles) after relevant pins. This will help your pins be seen more often and will increase the chance they show up in related searches.
• Add prices to gifts and products by typing price in caption. This will ensure your pins show up in the gift section. It will also add price to the image which increases the likelihood it will be clicked on.
• Add your URL to caption. This will automatically link the image to your site and increases the click-through-rate. 

10. Ideas for getting more Pinetrest followers:

• Link your Pinterest account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You currently cannot link to a business Facebook account but you can temporarily link it to a personal Facebook page if you wish. Once connected you can follow some friends that may be interested in your business. Hopefully they will follow you back. After you’re done with this you can unlink the accounts if you want.
• Add in email addresses of those who you think would be interested in following your Pinterest page.
• Post on other social media accounts and let your fans know that you are now on Pinterest. You can even ask them to follow you or check your page out. This will help encourage fans to look at your page and hopefully follow you.
• Share some of your popular pins on other social media sites.
• Have a contest encouraging followers to pin things from your website and have a free give away.

Posted By Jon Ballard

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Essential Tip for SEO with HTTP Request Codes

HTTP, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. Day to day activity on the Internet extensively uses HTTP request codes, telling the user-client (ie. your browser) how to react to the information being sent. Usually this happens behind closed doors, but occasionally something goes wrong, door opens, and your confronted by the dreaded 404 - "Page Not Found".

Understanding what the codes mean is essential to moving forward with your website. HTTP request codes can be easily broken into 5 categories, based on the first digit of the error code.

Informational - 1XX
Successful - 2XX
Redirection - 3XX
Client Error - 4XX
Server Error - 5XX

Informational (1XX) and Successful (2XX) function behind the closed doors. They are simply saying everything is in working order, continue with what you are doing.

Server Error (5XX) codes are the opposite. This collection indicates something bad is happening with your server. If you receive these, contact your host provider immediately.

Redirection (3XX) and Client Error (4XX) is where the magic of SEO comes into play. Websites are always evolving, and reorganizing, causing links to break. This is detrimental to the health of your site's SEO if not handled properly.

Pages that no longer exist are handled differently, depending on the CMS (Content Management System), or lack thereof, your site is using. The common HTTP Request Codes assigned to these pages are:

302 - A status code of 302 tells a client that the resource they asked for has temporarily moved to a new location. While allowing the redirect, it blocks all SEO power that any links pointing to the old page would provide to the new page once redirected.

404 - The most common code displayed, 404 tells the user agent that the requested resource could not be found but may be available again in the future. This will throw an error page, as well as stopping the flow of link power. In addition, the search engines will eventually remove the page from the search index, albeit slower than the 410.

410 - A 410 indicates that the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged. Upon receiving a 410 status code, the client should not request the resource again in the future. Clients such as search engines will likely remove the resource from their indices, stopping the flow of link power.

With all of these choices, it should be easy to figure which code fits the scenario best, but when you are talking search rankings, you need to follow all of the angles.


Google has indicated that the 410 is treated as "more permanent" than a 404 and that it would be slightly better than a 404, but primarily in the sense that it will remove a 410 from the index faster than a 404. However, 301 is the ONLY redirect in existence that passes external link juice to a redirected page. As a result, while a 410 may make the Google servers slightly happier, because we indicate the page is gone instead of just an error, any of the links attached to the missing pages will not pass their link power to the site.

Using 301 on any page that was previously linked to is the only way to keep all of the link juice flowing to your site. While it may not be the code that best suits the situation, it will help keep your rankings high, and your old links actively bringing people to your site.

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Tips for a successful email marketing campaign

Email marketing is becoming more and more popular as the price of direct mail continues to climb. With the proper planning a email marketing blast can motivate your customers to make a purchase or persuade new customers to use your product or services.

1. Get a plan Stan- Behind every great email marketing campaign is a plan. A plan gets you where you want to go, sets objectives for your campaign andmaps out ways to meet the objectives. Much like a map, with out a good plan you will have know way to know how to get were you want to go.

2. Target your market- Before you can blast out your emailer you need to define your target market. The more targeted the email the better your results. Once you determine who you are going to reach, you can then tailor your email marketing message to that customers needs. Always remember the more specific the email peices is to your target markets needs the better the results of your blast will be. Breaking your email mailing list into market segments and then tayloring the message for them is much more effective then blasting your entire list a general message.

3. Make it good looking - Your email marketing peice should be atractive and easy to read in all the different mail clients.

4. Give a call to action.

5. Follow Up

Need help creating your email marketing campaign?  Give us a call today- 608-758-4841

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Credit Card Processing- How Does It Work Online?

One of the questions we often receive from clients is how online shopping carts handle credit card processing.  The main E-Commerce platform that we use can be setup two ways when it comes to processing credit card payments.

1. Authorization only: This state means that the credit card of the customer has been verified, but payment has not been processed yet. The capture button must be clicked in order for payment to be collected.  Until you click the Capture button in the admin section, the payment will remain as Pending and no funds will be transferred to your merchant account.  This method is usually only used when manually processing orders or if you have problems with cancellations.
   
2. Authorize and Capture: If you are using a payment gateway, such as Authorize.net or PayPal Website Payments Pro, this setting will authorize the card number and automatically transfer the funds into your payment gateway/merchant account.  Once an order is placed and the funds are transferred into your account, you will need to void or force a refund in order to cancel the order and transfer money back to the customers card.  This will usually take a few days to process.

Foremost Media can help your company with all your eCommerece website development needs.  Learn more about our services here.

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Common SEO Questions and Answers

Here is a common questions we receive from new clients regarding SEO and launching their websites: 

QUESTION: In your experience, how long does it take before a new site starts showing up in Google and the other search engines? I realize it probably varies, but I’m just curious about what kind of average to expect.

ANSWER:  Regarding your question, there are a couple answers.  Search engines work by sending out small programs called "spiderbots" to "take pictures" of websites.  In order to take a picture of a site, they need to be able to find it.  This is called being "indexed".  In order for this to happen, it is important that your site be submitted to the search engines.  This is relatively easy to do.  The search engines may also "find" your site if another "indexed" site has a link from their site to your site.  Now, once a site is "indexed" it becomes POSSIBLE for you to rank for keywords in the search engines.  However, it does not guarantee that you will.  To get "indexed" can take anywhere from a week to a couple of months.  

Whether you rank for keywords in the search engines is a different story. It is entirely dependent on a number of SEO factors and is not possible to give you a time frame for these because of the complexity of the factors as well as the volatility of the web as a whole . It's very important to start working on your Search Engine Optimization while your site is being built. There are many on-site factors that should be addressed as the site is built to give your site a leg up on the competition. After site launch you should include some on-going SEO services to keep your site moving in the right direction.

QUESTION: My understanding is that Google puts new sites into a sandbox for a certain amount of time to ensure the site is stable before even listing it among search results. If that’s the case, how long do you usually see a site in the sandbox? 

ANSWER: The "sandbox" is a theoretical SEO concept. The sandbox concept suggests that domain name age determines Google's trust of the domain name. It suggests that a lack of trust during the (first 3 months usually) when a domain is new causes an automatic suspension (or holding pattern) of rankings. In my experience, the "sandbox" is partial myth. I say partial because indeed the age of the domain is an SEO factor. Also, Google keeps an eye on how fast SEO factors are "throttled" and if you go too fast, you will find yourself in a sandbox-like situation. Those things being said, there is no real sandbox, just those factors. However, it is possible to overcome domain age to quickly rank if the other factors are optimized. Though, since they can't be done too quickly, it still takes time anyway. So, either way you cut it, for the purposes of your question I would say 3 months. I hope that helps. It's nice to talk to someone who knows a little something about it! Let me know if I can ever do anything for you.

Foremost Media has a team of dedicated search engine marketing professionals that can help you come up with and implement a online marketing plan for your website. Whether your site is brand new or has been around for a while and just needs some help, contact us today to get started!

Learn more about our SEO services

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Cutting Spam With Greylisting

One of the spam filtration tactics the majority of hosting companies use including Foremost Media is greylisting.

What that means is that each time a given mailbox on our email servers receives an email from an unknown contact (ip), that mail is rejected with a "try again later"-message (This happens at the machine level and is transparent to the end user- in other words our mail server asks the sending mail server to resend the message). This means that all mail gets delayed for a matter of seconds until the senders email server automatically tries to deliver it again. Most legit mail servers are set up for this and try again in a few seconds- where most spamming software will not try again later.

Why use Greylisting?

Greylisting is a very effective method of spam blocking that comes at a minimal price in terms of performance. Most of the actual processing that needs to be done for Greylisting takes place on the sender's server. It has been shown to block upwards of 95% of incoming spam simply because so many spammers don't use a standard mail server which will do automatic retries.

Can I turn off Greylisting?

While logged into your web admin panel there is a check box to enable/disable greylisting. If checked, this will allow users to selectively turn off Greylisting (useful if you have an account that receives time sensitive mail)

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