How Is Writing An Article Different From Writing A Press Release?

Articles and press releases, along with the blog content are the three main ways in which the inlinks to the websites can be developed using the content. Interestingly, all three of these are written in different ways. However, it is the articles and the press releases which are submitted into the other resources and have to adhere to the stipulated guidelines of these resources. There is a distinctive approach adopted by seo services providers for writing an article and a press release. Here are the key differences between these two:
1. Though both the articles and the press releases are required to be informative in nature, the style of writing varies for the two. The press releases are basically announcements of some news or events about the company or its offerings. The articles, on the other hand, are informative and are not in the nature of announcements.
2. It is quite common for the press release to have words such as ‘the company’ or the name of the person. Even the quotes from the person can also be incorporated in the press release. However, the seo service provider does not get the articles written in this way since these can get rejected in the article directory. So, this leeway in writing with style variation is given by the press release.
3. Contact details are provided in the press release but not in the article. This is the difference in the format between the press release and an article. You can view the published sample of a press release here and note that full contact details are provided at the end of it.
4. A press release is written from the focal point of the company or the business but the article has to remain neutral. Articles are not written with the company focus, otherwise these have the danger of being labelled as promotional and hence getting rejected by the article directories. A press release makes an allowance for the use of the company name but it shall not be used in such a way that tells reader to take its services. Rather, it shall be in the nature of announcements.

Pros and Cons of the New Feature of Google− Blocking the Websites

Google has introduced a new feature for its search engine result pages. For the people who are left aghast at the useless information coming at the top of the result pages, can now have the option of blocking the irrelevant sites from appearing in their SERPs.

This feature is, supposedly, in line with the basic principle of upholding the supremacy of user experience for the websites and featuring those websites higher on the SERPs which are liked by them. So, Google is giving the option of filtering the results of searches in hands of the users. The use of +1 button to like the website and now the feature of blocking the website for filtering out the unwanted stuff from search results are two tools for the users which can determine the attractiveness or usefulness of the website for the users.

But, stop there! There is another and an altogether different aspect to it as well. There is a good likelihood that the website which is being blocked by a number of users will have its ranking go down. Though it is not certain yet that the SERPs will be allowed to be affected by blocking the sites, it is certainly a feature which will cause a hue and cry. Precisely how many blocks will it take to dethrone the site ranking is not yet known. That is a grey area. Another grey area is that what weight will be attached to this feature vis-à-vis the ethical SEO work. Suppose a company uses the SEO services to get good ranks, will a few blocks erode all the good work?

Imagine a scenario that in the highly networked age of internet, I get the people from my networks to block the site from their SERPs. If the ranking is to go down, then I will make my competitors face the music. I might embark on witch hunting and keep on blocking other sites in the similar way. Well, looking at the other side of the coin, even I might get the same treatment. So, in the ultimately analysis, the focus turns from creative digital marketing or SEO work to the negative marketing.

Considering the many grey areas and the potentially harmful situations which it can lead to, I do not think that the SERPs will be allowed to be affected with this feature, even as, at a more individual level, this feature is useful to the users.

Using Social Media And PPC To Improve The Rankings

I deviated from the traditional way of marketing the website using the classic SEO approach while doing a number of activities to see what all results I would get. I have worked for a number of SEO services companies in Australia, UK and US, doing all sort of stuff primary aimed at developing links, site authority and getting top SERPs position. Now, this is something which many other companies are already doing and I wanted to change the approach. It might be that this methodology might be known to many of you who are already doing the SEO with a creative mind.
With own website, I decided to base my whole structural edifice on content from the very beginning and then marketing it to the readers who frequently visit some of the key web resources. So, the aim was not to go whole hog the traditional way of SEO services providers, mindlessly embarking on manual submissions. But, the first step was to define what audiences you want to target, just as a true marketing professional does. Second step was to define what all web resources I need to develop in order to do the needful. This obviously meant creating profiles on some key resources. Third step was to define what all activities would need to be done in order that captivate the visitors to the resource.
Even while the thought was to develop the links from these resources, it was never the first intention to promote the site. On the contrary, the aim was to promote the web resources on which the profiles were created. This did take a lot of my time but I could see the results for real. Also, I wanted to try out my hand at the PPC along with the social media activity. With only one-and-a-half month of activity I was able to jack up my rankings from nowhere to 67th position on some high competition keywords (having 8-9 digit competition).
This provided vital inputs that the use of social media resources, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Social Bookmarking resources and the Articles directories were able to produce results with minimal use of the PPC ad campaigns. These produced the business leads and the efforts were combined with the thoughtful email marketing activity to successfully gain a few projects.
All these efforts were completed single handedly and in relaxed time framework. The essence of the whole activity was the content- superior quality and thought-stimulating content.
This experimental effort has been instrumental in developing a low-cost price budget (under $500 per month) for the companies who can not spend huge sums of money for long term projects.

Keywords can Kill: Be Careful in their Selection for SEO

You simply can not get the SEO right when the keywords selection is poor. Right keywords selection is the first important brick in building the foundation of SEO. It is simple to do but needs far deeper thought than is usually put in by the SEO services providers. Not surprisingly, therefore, achieving the objectives looks to be a tall order. However, by adopting certain principles, the correct selection of keywords can be made. These are:
1. Relevance to business: This is the first principle to be observed in keywords analysis. Even if a keyword has a very high level of competition, if it is important and directly related to the business, then the same shall be taken into account. The order of priority for the keywords shall be made so that the important ones are not missed out.
2. Number of searches for that keyword: The tools used for finding the keywords provide the metrics of global and local monthly searches for a particular keyword. Naturally, this does not take much of thought if the keywords have a high search volume. However, there is often a decision to be made on whether to take those keywords which have negligible monthly search volumes but are very relevant for business. Some providers prefer to neglect these while some others give greater weight to the relevance factor and consider these positively.
3. Keep future goals of business in mind: This is one factor which is often not considered. If there is some new product or service to be launched in the time period for which the SEO is to be run, then the keywords related to it shall be found out. A miss on this score could mean that their promotion gets delayed by a number of months.
4. Focus on the multilingual keywords: If there are certain products which are to be sold in some areas where people use different languages, you can even opt for the selection of some keywords of that language. This is of particular importance in the promotion of multilingual sites.
5. Long-tail keywords or short-tail ones: For effectiveness of the SEO services, it is suggested that the long-tail keywords shall be used. These are the keywords which are made from more than one word. These become more specific in nature as more words are added. For example- beaded evening tops-is a long-tail keyword. There might be too much of competition in the use of short-tail keywords since these are quite common but there is likely to be less competition with the long-tail keywords. These are more specific in nature and can be used for better targeting of the desired customer base. However, there is a note of caution. These shall not be too long since there would lesser number of people making searches with these keywords.
The underlying idea behind the selection of keywords is that these shall bring the relevant traffic to the site, capable of generating business for the site. Hence, it directly affects the SEO efforts.

Online Reputation Management: a Lot Depends on the Strategy

Internet is open to be used for maligning the reputation of any person, organisation or brand. There is no fool-proof way to ensure that internet is not used for these mischievous acts. The competitors can play the dirty game and start saying all sort of negative things about you through the internet medium which can adversely affect your reputation. There could be some disgruntled customers or even the employees who can take a dig at your reputation. The net surfers are most likely to take the feedback or comments on face value and, without much reasoning or going into the details, might be inclined to believe these. The companies, which care about their image and brand value, take the necessary steps to stem the rot in time. The online reputation management is all about doing all the necessary activities which can stop these malicious and mischievous attacks on the reputation of a person or organisation. The methods of SEO can be used quite effectively for this purpose, which is quite an uphill task and a lot depends on the strategy used for the same. This article discusses some of these strategies, which could be the following:

1. Keep Mum: Sometimes, doing something to prevent the reputation might be feeding the readers with wrong notions. Your actions might, in fact, be proving counter productive. The issues on which it is better to maintain silence are the ones which are not material, or significant enough to be considered worthy of comments. As the time will go by, these trivial issues might be forgotten. However, it is important that the company knows which issues need to be responded back and where response can be avoided. At the same time, the company shall not get complacent about taking some material issues as trivial ones since taking no action then prove to be very costly.
2. Be neutral: The SEO services providers also take up the strategy of neutral marketing of a person or product if there has been an attack on his reputation. This is done by way of not providing positive content but rather being neutral in overall tone and tenor. Here again, it is important to understand what is the nature of attacks. Generally, this strategy is used when the nature of attacks is quite serious and therefore, there is need to push down the negative comments using the SEO methods. Why are positive things not said? If positive things are said, there is a chance that the readers will believe that there must be something negative being said about the person which is prompting a positive response. Therefore, it is better to be neutral in tone and tenor of the language while adopting this strategy
3. Defend: When there are issues which are quite glaring but have arisen due to miscommunication or misunderstanding, then the company or the individual under attack might feel important to defend the same. This defense could be done by posting the clarifications with sound conviction in the very same forums which have been used for attacking.
4. Counter attack: This is a strategy which is not normally used. This is so for two reasons. At first, the identity of the person who has posted the adverse comments or remarks is not clear, so the counter attack can not be done. Secondly, using counter attack might actually mean walking into the trap laid by the other, when the identity of the person or organisation behind the mischievous act is known.

Before using the SEO services for reputation management, the company must thoroughly investigate whether the nature of complaint or the remarks are true and to what extent. If these are true, then it is far better to admit the lapses and assure the readers of the steps being taken to correct these. SEO services providers make use of the internet forums for managing the reputation effectively using the right strategy in coordination with client. In a way, it is SEO providers doing the PR work.