So please look the presentation and if you have any questions you can ask me here in a comment or ping me on Twitter @SEOAware.

SEOmoz

I have worked as an associate for SEOmoz for the last two months. I haven’t been there long, but already I am in a bit of shock because I am not use to being treated with this much kindness and support.

The staff at SEOmoz is full of a unique group of people. They are unique because each and every person I have interacted with seems to be focused on being kind and supportive of each other. It isn’t like one or two people are kind; they all are!

The company itself is just different. I feel like I am in a “happy universe” full of people that don’t look for the negative and are always looking for the positive in everything. The other amazing part is everyone that works at SEOmoz has some amazing skill and tons of knowledge. Whatever you may need is there or any question you need answered is possible.

So to sum it up, SEOmoz is full of super smart, super uplifting and amazingly supportive people. I am in awe when I watch their interactions with each other. I feel extremely blessed to be a part of SEOmoz and hope I don’t mess it up I have to give a shout out to Keri Morgret, who I work with daily…she is funny, entertaining, very smart and very helpful. It is amazing to work with her.

Thanks to SEOmoz for giving me a great working experience.

CopyPress

I have been doing some writing and other duties for CopyPress and the culture at CopyPress is very unique. It is full of very smart people and the Dave Snyder – who is a ball of energy and humor. Dave has been very kind and supportive of me and he is building something simply amazing (just look, watch and see). I am honored to be a part of the team.

Both Dave and Nicole Jones are amazing people and I send them a huge thank you for allowing me to be involved!

Authority Labs…

So the guys at Authority Labs taught me to play Craps in Vegas and they have always been a fun group to be around. I had no idea I would work with them one day, but I am glad it happened. Their team has created a tool SEO’s must have and their business is doing well. It is fun to work with them because they are so darn relaxed, and goofy.

Imagine working with like goofy brothers that you don’t fight with; this kind of describes what they are like. The guys at AL are like people you would want your family to have dinner with and enjoy a peaceful evening. They actually care about people and are fun to hang with at conferences, so if you see them go up and say hello (oh, and their t-shirts are super soft so snag one). Brian LaFrance, I owe you a special thank you!

So thank you to the AL fellows, you rock. Thank you for always being so cool to me and my husband…as you all talk about man-like activities that I have no interest in.

I Am Blessed

I have felt extremely blessed the last 4 months because I have been given opportunities to work with the amazing people I described above. All of them offer my industry fantastic tools that can be used and all of them run businesses that offer a happy and supportive place to work, 24/7.

Now when people ask me if I have any advice on which job to take I will tell them to choose a place that offers the same support and kindness that these three companies offer. Being able to work with people you enjoy and that make your day better is far more important than any amount of money.

Namely, if competitors have already been doing a great job at SEO for a very long time.  SEO client prospects don’t like to be told that there are no guarantees and sometimes it makes them question the investment.  While it’s true that it’s impossible to guarantee SEO results within a specific timeframe, that doesn’t mean that SEO isn’t worth your time or resources.  If you are doing a good job, SEO work will certainly improve website visibility and traffic over time, there is just no guarantee of what exactly that means for your website.

Guaranteed SEO Results Don’t Exist Because:

The search algorithms are always changing…

The Google search algorithm includes over 200 ranking signals and they are continuously being tweaked and altered.  While Google has become more transparent in recent years regarding how it interprets data and ranks websites, the algorithms themselves remain top secret.  It involves a lot of trial and error to find out what works and what doesn’t.  As the algorithms are tweaked, it means that something that worked two weeks ago may not be working as well now and the ranking position of a site could be affected.

 Search is Personalized

As part of its ongoing efforts to provide users with the most relevant search results, Google has been putting more emphasis on personalizing search.  This means that factors such as location and previous search history are factors when websites are ranked.  If someone is logged into their Google account they will see different results than if they are not logged in.  If someone is an active Google+ user and has lots of connections, the content that those connections share will also factor into the search results which is why it’s important for website owners to create content and be active in social media to improve their social signals.

Every Situation is Unique

Every website is different and is entering into SEO with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. What works for one site might not work for another site, or it might not work as quickly.  Maybe one site got a high ranking quickly due to its domain age and trust while it took another site years to do the same.  You can’t compare one site to the next when it comes to SEO.

Basically, there is no way to guarantee how quickly SEO results will occur.  Understandably this can be frustrating, but SEO isn’t a quick fix marketing solution.  SEO works over the long term and the best that you can do is remain white hat and see a gradual increase in visitors over an extended period of time.

About the Author:

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a B2B SEO agency.   For more information please call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com. 

Here are 3 reasons why rank is the wrong metric to pay attention to when measuring SEO success:

Search is Personalized

As the search engines continue to get more and more advanced and have access to more user data, they are using this information to customize search results for each user.  Search results have become personalized based on criteria such as search history, social signals, search preferences, location, and whether or not a searcher is logged in to a Google or Facebook account.  This typically benefits the searcher but also means that the rank of your content will be different from one searcher to the next.

Rankings Fluctuate

New content is continually being added to the web and the search engine spiders are always crawling and indexing both old and new material.  Since the web itself is constantly changing, what ranks for a specific keyword or keyword phrase is also continually changing.  In addition, the search engines are always tweaking their algorithms to ensure that the most relevant results are being displayed.  Some algorithm updates are huge (like Panda and Penguin) and a legitimate change in rank may be noticed, but some minor changes could only mean the difference between ranking in the third position and the fourth position on any given day.  It’s also important to keep in mind that the search engines favor “fresh” content.  If you take a break from writing in your blog, you could see a slight decline.  Or, on the other hand, if you have recently received some press it could give you a boost for a short period of time.  There are so many factors that are completely out of your control when it comes to how the search engines rank web pages.

Ranking for the Wrong Terms Means Nothing

One thing that should be understood is that rankings can never be guaranteed because so many factors are out of our control.  However, there are still plenty of shady SEO firms out there that make promises regarding rank and maybe they will be able to get your site to the number one position in Google, but it’s probably not going to be for a search term that you’d actually want to go after.  Anyone can get a site to rank for a search term that nobody is actually searching for, because there is zero competition.  A number one ranking is only valuable if it’s for a term that people are actually searching for.

About the Author:

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a full service SEO company.  For more information please call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com. 

Here are some ways to improve your SERP presence:

Add a Blog to Your Site

Every page of a website has the opportunity to rank for specific keyword search phrases.  The more pages of the website that you have, the greater the opportunity that one of your pages will appear.  A great way to ensure that pages are continually added to your site and the search spiders come back to index fresh content, is to incorporate a blog into the architecture of the site.  A blog is a great place to target long tail keywords that might not have a huge search volume, but that can drive traffic to the site.  It’s likely that you weren’t able to target every relevant keyword on the main pages of your site, so the blog is a good place to use them.

Create off-Site Content

For SEO purposes, it’s important to create content in other places across the web other than your own website.  One of the most important ranking factors is the trust of a website.  If you’re able to get a guest post, article, infographic, etc. posted on a trusted industry site, it may appear more prominently than if it was posted on your own site.  It takes time to build relationships with other site owners and be given this opportunity, but it’s well worth the effort.

Create and Optimize Social Profiles

Due to their immense popularity, social networking sites are trusted by Google.  Therefore, profiles on social networks appear prominently for branded search terms.  Creating a profile on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn ensures that you control the top search items that appear when someone searches for your business or brand.  Of course, you only want to create a social profile if you are able to keep it active.  Fill out each profile completely with information about your business and a link back to your business website.

ClaimLocal Business Profiles

Even if you don’t cater to a local audience only, it’s still a smart idea to claim local business profiles and fill them out completely.  It’s an additional listing that will appear when someone is looking for more information about your business.  Start with the local profiles that are offered by the search engines: Google+ Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo! Local.  These are all free, easy sources of traffic and links.  Additional sites to submit information to are MerchantCircle, Yelp, Local.com, and YP.com.  You never know what the first touchpoint that a potential customer or client will find you will be.  Claim your listings to ensure that all of the information is accurate and up to date.

About the Author:

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a search engine marketing firm that offers SEO training.  For more information call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.

I have taken a part-time associate position with SEOmoz and will be helping out with reviewing and editing for YouMoz. I am very excited to work with Moz because, well, it is Moz. More importantly, they are great people as a whole. I have always had a deep respect for Rand and I have never known a Mozzer I didn’t like, a lot. So, if you are considering writing for YouMoz I will be around!

As many of you know I left Search Engine Journal in November and recently I stepped back in as temporary editor until they could find a new editor and set up their advisory board. I will be there for awhile longer.

In December I started working with CopyPressed as an associate editor and I write for the site as well. Dave Snyder is a man I respect and trust and I am thrilled to be a part of CopyPress.

In November I also started writing and editing for Authority Labs. You may notice a theme here, but the guys at AL are good people; I trust them as well and am honored to be involved with their company.

Trust is really an important part of any job for me.

[Obviously I am looking for really good writers that live and breathe this industry for the sites I work with; contact me:)]

A Career Path Change

I still have some clients, but they are a select few. What I found at Search Engine Journal (SEJ) is that I love the community part of this industry. I enjoy it greatly and have enjoyed meeting so many intelligent and wonderful people in the past 14 months. I am good at the community aspect of the job and also the editing aspect and as you can see above I am now working with three companies doing what I enjoy.

I also have been a blogger/writer for a long time and I know what it takes to write for someone, so I appreciate writers. I think that is why the large group of writers I worked with at SEJ and I got along so well. I appreciated them and I supported them (and I still will if they need anything). I definitely know what it takes to run a large blog with a large community, so at this point my future is heading in the editing/community management direction.

Let Me Say Thank You

There are many, many people out there that have supported me and been great friends in the past few years.  I don’t have to call them out by name, because they know who they are. Just an FYI, I am a loyal person and I don’t forget support I have been given. Thank you for supporting me.

I also need to thank those people I don’t speak with all the time, but have supported me anyway. Those are the people that keep me going day after day, the industry folk and my Twitter followers. They keep me on a good path all the time. I appreciate that and that support is not disregarded, but cherished.

Lastly, thank you to everyone that supported me during my time at SEJ. I will never forget it.

So there it is…

There is my news for the day. I thank everyone that has been extra supportive in the past month or two. I needed it and I appreciate it. I am around on Twitter @SEOAware. Contact me anytime and I am hoping for a happy and productive 2013 for everyone in this industry. God bless! and –> #SaveTheTigers #SaveBigCats

If you want your website content to rank in the search engines, create content that:

Focuses on Target Audience Members

Even though you want content to rank in the search engines, you really shouldn’t be thinking about the search engines as your top priority.  Writing for the search engines typically means stuffing keywords which will always backfire.  It creates a bad user experience and raises a red flag to the search engines.  The goal should always be to write content that your target audience members will want to read.  Look for opportunities to add keywords naturally but don’t force it.

Is Original

The content that you create is what can separate your business from the rest.  If you are saying the same thing as 10 other websites of course you will find it hard to compete.  Use your content as an avenue to stand out.  The more information that you share, the greater the chances are that someone will want to do business with you.  It’s no longer advisable to be secretive about your business or how you operate.  The companies that are transparent about their practices through their content are the ones that get the business.

Is Fresh

The websites that are “living and breathing” entities and are updated often are the ones that thrive today.  A website should be an ongoing project, once it launches don’t think that the work is done.  Adding fresh content to a website keeps both users and the search engines coming back again and again.  Incorporating a blog into your website and updating it often is a great way to ensure that your website stays “fresh”.  Each blog post is an additional page of your site that can appear in a search result.

Over time, a business will evolve which means that the business website should evolve along with it.  The website should always be an accurate portrayal of a business at any given point.  If you eliminate or add a product or service, that should be reflected on the website.  It’s important to ensure that visitors have a good experience by providing the most up to date information.

About the Author:

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a Boston SEO firm.  For more information please call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.

Pros to Going Local with Your SEO Agency

Going local with your SEO agency simply means finding an agency that is located in your area. This doesn’t have anything to do with local SEO (every agency no matter where it is located should help you with local SEO), but rather just the location of the agency. A few pros to be close by include:

• Local business advantages. Using a local SEO agency is the way to go if you are doing business locally on your website. Having a local agency that knows your business and is familiar with the area will enable them to give you the best possible service they can. They know the market you are trying to reach, and will therefore be able to optimize your online results accordingly.
• Communication. Using a local SEO agency also allows you to have face-to-face meetings with them when the need arises. Having this type of meeting allows you to build good customer relations with your SEO agency; therefore allowing them to do the best possible job for you and your business. It’s much easier to be held accountable and hold someone accountable when they know you can pop by anytime as opposed to sending an email that can easily be ignored.

Cons to Going With a Local SEO Agency

For some companies, the cons outweigh the pros in terms of hiring an agency. A few of these cons include:

• Getting the Best Results – Going with a local SEO agency may not always be the best way to go for your business. Just because you are doing business locally doesn’t mean you will get the best results from a local SEO agency. First and foremost, you must make sure that they are a competent company. This being said, you may not find a local company that will give you the results you are looking for. Do your research, and find the best SEO agency for you, not necessarily based on location.
• Communication. Communication is a must when looking for an SEO agency. You should expect prompt responses to your e-mails and voicemails. Even if you choose an agency that is not local, with today’s technology, it is possible for them to respond within a day or so, therefore, it is not imperative they be local to give you good customer service.

Whichever SEO agency you choose, local or not, it is a challenging process. It is important to choose the right agency for you in order to get your site ranked in the first page of search engines. Look for an SEO agency that charges a fair price and one that is truly interested in your site. This means they should ask you plenty of questions, and keep the communication strong. Remember, you must continuously pay attention to your website’s SEO in order to stay in top rankings in search engines.

Amanda DiSilvestro gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice ranging from keyword density to recovering from algorithm updates. She writes for HigherVisibility, a nationally recognized SEO consulting firm that offers national and local SEO services to a wide range of companies across the country.

Photo Credit: searchenginejournal.com

My Latest Posts on Copypressed

• 3 Tools to Use for Content Creation Ideas
• Building a Content Team
• Content Creation Basics

Let me also say that if you read this and decide that attacking me is a good idea or try to place judgments your comment will never be acknowledge or published.

My Child

My youngest son is now 9. Since kindergarten I was told my kid was incredibly smart and irritatingly lazy. This calm and lovely child didn’t do so well in school. This surprised me because I knew he had an amazing capacity for memory and adult conversation. I also knew he had a temper and an intenseness I had only seen once before (in myself as a child).

My oldest son is 11 ½ years older than his younger brother. So when my 2 year old would play a video game with his 14 year old brother and could remember the location of his favorite “20 extras” (out of 30) in the settings without being able to read I knew he was amazing. However this didn’t transfer into school. Teachers didn’t understand why he was agitated, why he refused to do work he didn’t like or why he argued points that most kids would never consider.

In second grade his teacher kept telling me he was so smart, but just wasn’t interested in working; she kept saying he needed to focus better. His birthday is in July and because many parents held kids back (for all the reasons parents do today) he was often more than a year younger than most, but he was able to understand and memorize the work…he just didn’t want to do it.

Last Summer

I had surgery last Summer and I rested a lot. I was able to watch him more closely and realized that his focus was not there. I contacted a respected Psychologist and asked her for some help. She tested him for all learning disabilities, IQ and ADHD. The good news was his IQ was extremely high (I don’t even tell people because I think they will not believe me), but he had severe ADHD (attentiveness being the problem, not hyperactivity).

I had my son tested in a machine that scientists at Harvard (I believe) created. My son can focus for 2-3 seconds max and then you lose him. I paid an arm and a pinky toe, but I made sure the diagnosis was correct.

Both my degrees are in the psych field so I thought I could handle this. Guess what? Severe ADHD is not easy.

Guilt

When you finally realize that your child’s behavior has been completely normal for someone with a high IQ and ADHD you aren’t really relieved. There is a tremendous amount of guilt. I punished this child because the teachers recommended it…kids have to learn to do their work. This is true, unless they just can’t. Kids don’t need to question the whys of everything and argue with teachers and adults they say…respect and all. I understood the recommendations of educators. I just didn’t understand him. His mind runs circles around many adults I know. (He is now learning how to question, when to question and how to not offend.)

I told the psychiatrist that I felt awful that I didn’t see the attention issue sooner and he said that I shouldn’t because most people don’t get it until their kids are doing horribly in college (remember this for later). He said severe cases are picked up in elementary school around the age we caught it. I still felt awful.

Last year from I would say August through October I was extremely depressed because I felt like a horrible parent. I, more than anyone, should have known because I had a degree in psych, right? Well, here is what I know now. If you don’t get educated on just ADHD you won’t get it. If you can’t observe it un-medicated and medicated you won’t get it. I have learned so much this year.

Roller Coaster of Meds

My son showed symptoms of anxiety as well and ADHD meds tend to increase anxiety so medications were chosen carefully. At first he seemed much happier, but he didn’t sleep for two weeks and then the anxiety attacks started. Cross off med #1 and jump on the coaster. We had meds that made him sick, gave him bathroom issues, made him tired, didn’t allow him to sleep, thirsty, hungry, not hungry, dizzy, turned him into a zombie, sad, angry…the list goes on and on. (This isn’t the case for everyone; we were just unlucky?)

From last August until August of this year my child has been through hell with an up and down roller coaster of meds. So why did we keep trying the meds? Because they worked and once my son felt the “focus”, he should have always had, he wanted it so badly that he didn’t want to quit.

He fit in better with the kids and he had lots of friends and he was happier in some ways. He has lived through hell this past year and we have been right there with him. Exhausted, sick and broken-hearted that he just can’t have it as easy as everyone else. Many nights I wanted to go to bed and just cry, but I was out so quick I didn’t get the chance.

The Doctors

Our psychologist is an outstanding person. We were surely blessed by God with her. The 1st psychiatrist was script happy. He would prescribe and prescribe without much concern for what my son went through. I tried to trust him, but eventually I saw that his concern was testing and not what my son needed so we walked away.

If you are ever in our position please watch these doctors closely. Question their motives and fight hard for your kids, because there are doctors who don’t place your child’s best interest at the top of their priority list.

Finally the Light? If it Sticks…

My son’s psychologist went into the school before it started and sat down with all of his teachers and explained how he felt. She explained the low self-esteem from feeling different and judged, she explained the hell he has been through and she explained to them how he deals with things when he can’t focus. His teachers this year have been outstanding, understanding and helpful.

I have to say that when teachers get it and they have a heart that makes a massive difference and can be just as powerful as medications. My son is in a private school, I won’t say which for his safety of course, but I will say that if you are in a situation like ours you have to make sure your school “gets it”.

My son had a rough Summer this year experimenting with two more meds that made him so sick and tired…they just didn’t work. Our new psychiatrist suggested we try Ritalin. I heard all the horror stories and I thought that if this didn’t work we would just forget the whole thing.

For the first time EVER my son is attending school, completing work and getting A’s on just about everything. He finishes his work before the others a lot. He even had the highest grade in the class for the first vocab test…he is doing amazing and he is happy. It is like a miracle, BUT with the happiness comes abdominal pain he has to deal with daily. It isn’t easy, but we are hoping the physical side effects will improve.

My Year

This past year has been exhausting, heart-breaking, educational, and has bonded me with my son in a massive way. He needs an advocate and he needs someone to understand, that is my job. If you ever end up in the same position I am in I can only say to you that I am sorry. It is going to be rough, it isn’t easy for anyone in the family and challenges will keep coming, but you can make it. You just keep pushing even when you are so tired you think you can’t take another step.

Irony 

Earlier I mentioned to remember what the doc said about people finding out about ADHD in college. So, it is kind of funny, and also not funny, that in August my older son’s college called about his Summer semester to tell me that they think there is a possible learning disability. My oldest has struggled in college. He always thought he had everything straight, remembered dates…he always got it wrong. They paid for testing for him and shock-shock – he has ADHD! He is now on Adderall. He, like my youngest, is in awe of his new capacity to focus.

Now I have two kids that can’t focus!! But they are great kids. They are my children and I will fight for them until the day that I die.

Many people wondered why I pulled back from clients and took the position of editor at Search Engine Journal. The truth is I am emotionally exhausted and I can’t deal with “client drama”. I have enough drama at the moment. The only clients I work with now are “drama free”.

I get up at 6:30 and I don’t stop until midnight or beyond. I work with clients, edit for SEJ, interact with the geeks on Twitter, I take care of my son, I am active in his schooling, I take care of the family stuff and when I have 5 minutes I go kiss a tiger or two. I don’t know what day it is most of the time, but I am sure at some point life will get easier.

At this moment I am thrilled to have what most people take for granted, a child that can go to school, do his work and be so proud of himself for getting a good grade.

If you haven’t heard from me in the last 6 months to a year and don’t know why, please scroll to the top and read again . To my lovely SEO’s, geeks and Twitter friends, if you ever think ADHD might be an issue for your kid please give me a call. You will need someone and I am here if you need me