Can a Blog Post Rank with Less than 300 words?

Can a Blog Post Rank with Less than 300 words? is a post from: Eric On Search

    

We know currently that Penguin 2.0 is planned to roll out in a few weeks.

One of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is “Which sites will be affected?” and “How much will it affect our industry?”.  My typical response to clients is that they need to build authority naturally and responsibly and that they should have nothing to worry about. The problem lies in the fact that the first iterations of Penguin, while largely successful in rooting out spam, also had some HUGE negative impacts on the real estate industry.

1) Some sites that were well maintained and good got hit with Penguin.

2) Large syndicator sites who have large budgets and purchase large ad buys from media sites gained a huge advantage over the little guy, whilst their data (homes for sale listed on their sites) is CLEARLY an INFERIOR user experience.

and 3) A number of sites were able to get through Penguin unscathed while having a large number of spammy links in their profile DESPITE  a reasonably good effort on the part of Google.

So what will Penguin 2.0 bring to the real estate industry? No one knows, but here is what we are going to do to find out.

I have selected 10 Real Estate websites to monitor PUBLICLY. They are NOT selected because they have spammy link profiles. They are selected because they have varying amounts of different kinds of links in their profile, any or all of which could lead them to be caught up in the revision. What I am going to do is to simply list the sites in an addition to this post, giving a quick summary of their backlinks and let’s watch together to see what happens.

I think that REALTORS as a whole WANT to do things RIGHT. They do not want to intentionally violate the rules (for the most part), but they want to understand what the rules are, so this is a good chance to discuss it.

OK. I will start posting updates on this post with the sites that we can monitor together. Grab some popcorn and let’s watch, k?

is a post from: Eric On Search

    

I am going to post a LOT between now and the end of 2013, but nothing I am going to say compares with how important today’s post is. Period. Do I have your attention? GOOD. Read on.

Life Raft (deployed)

Take a GOOD LONG look at this photo.

This life raft could be the only thing that saves your traffic in the event that you have crossed paths with a rogue wave from Google (such as Penguin). Your main site sinks. It was the flagship of your fleet and you got up every morning and look at it with loving eyes.

You built your business around it. Now your business could go down with it.

And aside from the obvious lessons about NOT doing some aggressive linkbuilding which you KNOW you should not have done long before you call me with the S.O.S, you have some practical concerns now. Your traffic is GONE. And you cannot (or you should not) simply redirect to another domain. (bad idea)

In the past, the choppy waters of internet marketing, Search Engine marketing and particularly SEO could be a little dangerous…but never more so than now. We always knew that over time as Google would evaluate SEO techniques, they would tighten the rules…and that folks would abuse rules. 30 and 60 day penalties became something that people were prepared to risk. Seriously.

2012 was the year that (according to my work on sites for people who put out the distress call to me when their sites went down) that Google started algorithmically SINKING ships. All the way to the bottom of Davy Jones’ locker.

So how to survive? You MUST have a domain that is free from potential penalties and yet has enough age and a few links to where it has some authority. Period. You can either buy it or build it, but the time is NOW (read: before you start taking on water). I cannot tell you when or where that rogue wave will strike, or even if it will.

What I CAN tell you with certainty is that having people pull down links, using the disavow tool and other means of scrambling to bail water out of the boat have not worked. Want a more certain rescue. Inflate your life raft domain and prepare to re-build it into your next search battleship.

Have a question about what is required? Call me. I will be happy to offer you assistance.

Why “Life Raft” domains are now a MUST. is a post from: Eric On Search

    

We talked yesterday about a person who was totally focussed on taking on their competitors by imitating them. We told you that the RIGHT thing to do was to focus on finding innovative ways of connecting with people rather than simply doing what others do.

So how to connect with other innovators.

Step 1: Find them.

Hang out where they hang out. Learn to separate the ones that are doing all of the “talking” online from the ones that PRODUCE. This can be difficult to tell sometimes because some blowhards talk a good game, but really work at discerning it.

Step 2: Do something nice for them

Like what? Well, sending them a compliment can be something nice. A REAL compliment not buttering them up for a favor. Another thing to do is to find something that they need and provide it to them. If they are a small business, oftentimes that is as simple as giving them some positive publicity. That kind of nice this is TABLE STAKES. Not for you being able to ask them for something, but simply to start a relationship.

Step 3: Do something else nice for them

Most people these days are fairly cynical. They will tend to ASSUME that the first effort you make is just to butter them up, even when it is not. So with the second attempt, you will get a much higher response rate. Guys, if you are trying to get a girl to notice you and she does not smile and start a conversation right off the bat, do you stop there? Seriously, do you?

Step 4: Start a conversation

You can then proceed to the second part of the relationship building. Start a conversation. Often times this is as simple as letting them know that you gave them some positive publicity and then asking them how you can better assist them. This along will usually get the ball rolling and get you in the game.

Ok so now you are building relationships with other online small businesses where they can help you and you can help them. It is a good starting point.

Thoughts?

The Pay it Forward Mentality is a post from: Eric On Search

    

Today, some friends and I were discussing a Facebook group that we are a member of where some people were “lurking” and trying to snoop on what a competitor (one of my friends) was doing on their real estate website in an effort to “succeed”. I made the following statement:

“And since he is not innovating, but focusing on copying you, he is destined to follow in your vapor trail forever.” (or something to that effect).

I stand by that statement. If you want to get ahead of everyone else and create online marketing success, you MUST be willing to innovate and test…and not simply copy others.

Let’s first think about this in logical terms. If you do EXACTLY what someone else does, you AT BEST will get what they have. And that is what sells everyone on this stupidity. “I want what he has.”  ( Ummm…no you don’t…you want to beat him, right?) While I will stipulate that imitating someone else CAN get you in the online marketing game, it will NEVER let you win long term.

People say you can imitate someone 100%. I do NOT believe that is possible. Even if you spent ALL of your time imitating someone, the BEST you could do would be a 95% original knock off. And guess what your reward is for all that imitating??

You guessed it. A really good look at the person in front of you’s rear end.

Sooner or later you MUST take the time to understand the principles and to INNOVATE and BUILD in order for you to get the #1 position. You cannot pass by following. You cannot lead by imitating your competition.

So what to do?

I WANT to succeed you say, but what can I do? Well online marketing is all about relationships. You cannot build relationships if you are in perpetual TAKE MODE. A good place to start is in paying it forward to other innovators and EARNING their respect.

We will be going  into some of the specific steps here in the coming days on HOW to find and befriend other fellow innovators, but it starts with LEARNING to give and ACCEPTING that PAYING it FORWARD is a good thing. True relationships are built when you give and then give the other person the opportunity to give back.

It IS a two way street. All good relationships are.

Ummm…Eric…Can’t I Imitate and THEN be a nice guy and build relationships and conquer my competitor?

I have been at the online marketing game for a long time. No. It does not work. If you are asking this question you are already in the WRONG mindset and it will cost you. Seriously. You do not need to imitate. Learn correct principles and BUILD. It will leave your mind and your focus more able to take in new ideas and come up with better online marketing strategies for yourself. Seriously. Stop looking at the BUTT end of the dog in front of you and look at the scenery and figure out how to pull the sled more efficiently or effectively.

Thoughts?

Why Copying others does not work in Online Marketing. Period. is a post from: Eric On Search