PRUnderground

By Alex Miranda

OK you have your WordPress site up and running. After doing all your research, going to WordCamps, WordPress meetups, and talking to SEO experts you installed the proper plugins. It is now time to publish your first blog post. Wait a  minute…..Why am I not getting loads of traffic to my website?

It may be because you have not modified the update services on your WordPress writing settings. You see, every time you publish a blog post, WordPress  automatically notifies popular Update Services by sending a ping.

By Alex Miranda:

Why are Google and WordPress so much in love? Why is it the perfect platform for anyone who wants to learn search engine optimization? This week Alex Miranda, the Editor-in Chief of the  social media press release company, PR Underground spoke at the Hudson Valley WordPress Meetup group. The topic of discussion was WordPress SEO Basics to Advanced. Let’s take a look at why WordPress sites rank easily on the first page of Google.

In the past year, Google has came out with many updates and programs that have changed SEO forever. Among them are Google Freshness, Query Deserve Freshness and The Google Authorship program. These updates are a match made in heaven for WordPress users.

Let’s take a look at why Google loves WordPress:

Google Freshness Update:

• Age of Content – Part of your freshness score is the age of content on your website. Google scores frequently updated content differently from content that does not change.
• Adding New Pages – Websites that add new pages at a higher rate may earn a higher freshness score than sites that add content less frequently.
• Changes to Important Content – Content above the fold is considered important.

WordPress Solution:

• Ease of Use - If you know how to use email or a word program, chances are you will have no problem updating your content.
• Speed – You can change content on any part of your site on the fly. You can even do it via your mobile phone with the WordPress App.
• Creating Pages & Posts- Creating a page is extremely simple. Every time you create a page or post, WordPress creates a permalink for that page.

This works perfect with the Google Freshness Update. Because it is so easy to create new pages and update your content. Google is constantly indexing new pages and you always have fresh content. Thank you Google for this update. <3

Query Deserve Freshness:

• The Query Deserves Freshness algorithm favors fresh content over old content.
• QDF will rank hot trending queries ahead of all other search queries.
• News sites and blogs benefit most from this algorithm.

WordPress Solution:

• Adding Fresh Content – Adding content is so easy that it’s addictive. Google loves fresh content and WordPress once again makes it easy to add.
• Plugins – There are many SEO plugins that will allow you to monitor your keywords and add proper title tags and meta descriptions. There are even plugins that will find keywords in your content for you. Three that come to mind are; All in One SEO, Rank Reporter and Scribe SEO.
• Blogging – This is a major reason why we love you Google. WordPress is all about blogging and more!!!

It is almost as if Google’s Matt Cutts said, “Hey boss let’s reward all those who use WordPress to blog”

Google Authorship Program:

• Distinguish and validate your content in search results.
• There are a couple of steps which you have to take for this to happen.

WordPress Solution:

• Coding: On WordPress all you have to do is add this line of code, <a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/yourpost” rel=”author”>Your Name</a> at the top of your release and it automatically creates your structure data in the correct format.
• Plugins – Even easier is adding the Allow REL= and HTML in Author Bios plugin. Then all you have to do is add the aforementioned line of code in your user bio and wait for Google to Authenticate. It’s that easy my friends!!

So you see my friends. It really looks like Google loves WordPress and has rewarded it’s users. This is huge for SEO beginners. There are many other factors I could point out. I think I will wait a bit and do some testing to see if I could beat my 5 minute time of ranking on top of Google with any keyword.

About Alex Miranda:

Alex Miranda has been doing SEO since 1998. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the social media press release distribution company PR Underground. PR Underground has been in the forefront of social media press releases since 2007. Alex in known for his $20, 5 minutes on top of Google strategy.

He is also the Chief SEO strategist at Marknet Group Inc a web design and online business strategy company located in Brewster, NY. Alex has helped many clients big and small achieve #1 rankings on Google. Whether it is on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or blogging, he makes sure the word gets out about the latest SEO news. At Market he is also known for hisFREE 15 minute website review. As Chief SEO strategist, Alex is always finding innovative ways to help his clients achieve greater online visibility.

A master of WordPress SEO, Alex is the assistant organizer of The Hudson Valley WordPress Meetup group. He has spoken at numerous events. in 2010 Alex was the featured SEO speaker at WordCamp NYC. If you have any questions about WordPress SEO, he is the man to contact.

Feel free to call him directly at  845-259-9396  or give him a shoutout at amiranda@prunderground.com

By Alex Miranda
Once again Google came up with another update. If you have not heard of it yet, you will soon. It is called the “Search, plus your world” update. This Google update really gets personal. However, in order to use it, you must be signed in to Google Plus. It seems that Google is really going after Facebook by having everyone sign up for a Google Plus account. Why not, after all they are the worlds biggest search engine.

By Alex Miranda
How do some of my clients get over 300 re-tweets and tons of page views on their release? They are using trending keywords to attract readers.

Google recently came up with the Google Freshness algorithm update. This update affects 35% of Google search queries. It means Google will rank fresh content higher on the search engines. A component of this update is a litte known formula known as Query Deserve Freshness. QDF will rank hot trending keywords ahead of all other search queries. It is a great way to publish content and beat your competition.

Your website is one of your best sales channels or not!  I have been involved in hundreds of web projects and a lot of those websites are revenue generating machines.  Over the years, I have compiled my list of do’s and dont’s to increase sales through your website.  Here are my top five for 2012:

1. The Primary Action Belongs on the Home Page – Ask yourself “what is the primary action I want the visitor to take?”  The primary action must generate sales so be clear on what leads to sales.  If you sell a service visitors can’t buy on your site but they buy in response to your monthly email, the primary action should be getting them to subscribe to your fabulous emails. The design, copy and structure must drive them to take the primary action.

2. Write copy that Influences your Target Market to Buy – If you understand why people buy, you can communicate why you are the right choice.  Testimonials, displaying results and addressing their pain points will generate sales because you will connect with your target market.  The visitor should read your copy and think, “I must work with [insert you] because [the results they desire] or [insert pain you will alleviate].   Your design, copy, images and layout must work together to trigger those emotions in your visitor.  This assumes you researched your market and selling a viable product/service at a marketable price. I recommend asking your customers why they buy from you and using that language in your copy.  But that is another topic!

3. E Commerce Sites = Great Pictures – You must have great pictures if you sell products.  Enough said!

4. Optimize for Search Engines In A Human Way – You need visitors to make sales; therefore, search engine results must be a goal.  Don’t sacrifice search engine results for a cool design that is not search engine friendly.  Use proper on-site search engine optimization techniques and use Google Analytics.  Create a blog because it’s great for search engines.  Insert search terms in your copy without sacrificing the appeal to your target market.  See #2 above.

5. Keep Improving Your Website – From day one, I keep a list of specific results I need to increase sales.   For example, 100 email subscribers a month, 50% conversion rate, 40% repeat visitors to my blog, show up on the first page of Google for xyz search term.  Check your on-site goals regularly and begin testing different variables to improve your website.  Minor changes can increase sales. Here are some simple changes that lead to an increase in sales:
- Test different blog titles
– Change your opt-in offer
– Reword your packages
– Change your photos
– Update your title tags for the search engines

Don’t let your site get old and irrelevant. Always test and look for ways to make your website a better sales channel.

What are your favorite ways to increase sales through your website?

About Gina Nieves:

Gina Nieves is an expert at getting increased sales through websites. Since founding MarkNet, she has overseen the design of 500 websites and $30 million in sales. She increases clients’ sales by focusing on design that gets results, search engine marketing, Social Media Press Releases and crafting high converting sales pages. A WordPress expert, her company has built large scale WordPress sites that have been featured worldwide.

Gina is a sought after speaker for conferences, workshops, webinars and with WordCamp. Her most recent presentation “$20, 5 Minutes, First Page of Google” at Transform Your Business! in LA received rave reviews. She is preparing to teach her techniques in an upcoming virtual class. For more details contact info@marketnetgroup.com.

About Marknet Group Inc:

MarkNet Group is a full-service Website Design and Internet Marketing company in Putnam County, New York. Since 1998 we have impressed our customers with our integrity and commitment to their success. Our team’s experience in Internet Strategy Consulting, Graphic Design, Web Programming, and Search Engine Optimization enables us to deliver our customers’ needs with efficiency and effectiveness.

PRUnderground plans to start off the new year with a newly revamped website designed to make the jobs of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Public Relations (PR) firms, as well as DIY’ers, easier. With numerous added functionalities organized in a more cohesive manner, the site hopes to answer the requests of its many B2B clients.

Traditional press releases are targeted at gaining actual press coverage, while the social media press release targets the readers directly and through the online avenues they interact with on a daily basis (i.e. Social Media). The social media press release is also designed to drive traffic to the client’s website and/ or social media profiles, which in turn improves the SEO of said sites and profiles. Naturally, this social media press release has attracted SEO and PR professionals seeking to submit releases on their client’s behalf.

Google’s new Panda update has forever changed how SEO companies get results. Gone are the days of ranking with proper title tags, meta description and content. SEO now involves social media engagement and branding. PRUndergrounds SEO releases helps your clients accomplish this.

“We started realizing that many of our clients were actually coming to us on behalf of their own clients, and they were making suggestions about what our site should offer for them. We answered them by integrating their requests into our new site,” says Alex Miranda of PRUnderground.

Some of the site’s new features include:

• Unlimited newsrooms with one account – SEO companies can create as many newsrooms as they want for multiple clients
• Unlimited press releases with one account – They can send out as many press releases as they want
• Ability to create, save and edit all releases even after they are published
• Save all information for each company so that they do not have to add the info over and over again
• Receive member only incentives
• Order History

Already capitalizing on PRUnderground’s existing results-driven presence online, PR and SEO professionals will continue to have their client’s releases show up on the first page of Google within 5 minutes for less than $20. “[PRUnderground] social media press releases are so cutting edge that I recommend them to anyone who wants to rank on top of Google,” states Inna Shamis, a PR guru. Miranda goes on to add, “PRUnderground is constantly seeking to be on the forefront of Social & SEO-Driven PR. We are a syndicated Google news source and our clients are able to target hard to find keywords, as well as rank higher in search engines just by choosing to release through us. Now we are just making it easier for the professionals to manage and submit their clients’ releases.”

For more information about submitting a press release or to be added to the mailing list so you can be notified of when the new design launches, please visit www.PRUnderground.com

PRUnderground, founded in 2008, is a social media press release distribution site offering clients a way to make the first page of Google within 5 minutes and for under $20.PRUnderground is known for its cutting edge and affordable services.  More information can be obtained from the website at http://www.prunderground.com

Bookmark on Delicious

Digg this post

Recommend on Facebook

Share on Linkedin

Share on netvibes

Share with Stumblers

Share on technorati

Tweet about it

Buzz it up

Print for later

Tell a friend

The Internet has overtaken television as the largest advertising market in the world. Television commercials often include references to product websites or Facebook and Twitter pages. Print ads include references to social networks, as well as QR Codes which direct viewers to mobile websites on their smartphones. Social Media Marketing – while yet an infant in the general world of marketing – has made its mark on the world, and it’s here to stay.

Social Media Marketing allows for the exchange of user-generated content; in essence it allows businesses to become more personal, and to interact with their customers as people rather than companies.

Rodney Washington, Editor in Chief at Stitches ‘n Dishes, and Social Media Marketing expert, recently discussed ten simple tips to assist mobile food entrepreneurs in launching their Social Media Marketing strategies on Facebook and Twitter, including identifying customers, growing a fan base, and constructing Facebook and Twitter updates that include a call to action.

“Today if you want to be taken seriously marketing your business online you can’t do it without some type of involvement with social media. As a matter of fact, many small businesses are using Facebook and Twitter as an alternative to setting up a website or blog,” said Washington.

Of course these tools will be far more effective if implemented in unison with a private blog or website, but in the absence of a blog website, mobile food entrepreneurs are latching on to some simple techniques to boost business and advertise their products on social network sites.

“In our series of articles, we’re drawing a road map in Social Media Marketing specifically catered (no pun intended) to the mobile food industry. In this article, Rodney’s spelled out some very simple steps a mobile food operator can take to catapult his popularity in social networks,” said Christopher Ford, Co-Founder at Stitches ‘n Dishes.

The article, which can be read on the Stitches ‘n Dishes blog website, discusses how to write & publish Tweets & Facebook wall posts that create interest, encourage text message marketing, locate customers, use photos in posts, and six other tips, including his “bonus tip,” and a “how-to” video tutorial.

The ten tips can be implemented immediately, and will allow the mobile food operator the opportunity to leverage social media to grow a mobile food business.

The full article and video tutorial is published on the Stitches ‘n Dishes blog site, where readers are not only tantalized by high-quality food photography and reviews, but they’re also rewarded with prizes and discounts. Ford recently announced that Stitches ‘n Dishes will give away an Apple iPad 2 WiFi tablet computer in a free drawing on December 31, 2011. Entry details can be found on the blog website.

About Stitches ‘n Dishes:

Stitches ‘n Dishes, the creation of Christopher Ford and Andrew Nicora, and inspired by “Stitch”, an American Staff. Terrier mix / Bichon Frise, provides marketing, advertising and PR services to the mobile foods industry and it provides consumers with a single source for original articles, reviews, food photography, California fairs and events, discounts, contests and giveaways.

Stitches ‘n Dishes is California’s first provider of a platform that stitches a link between food lovers, entertainment venues and mobile food operators, and the first fully dedicated marketing, advertising and development resource available to food vendors in California.

Contact
Christopher Ford, Co-Founder
Stitches ‘n Dishes
chris@stitchesndishes.com
916-612-9954

Rodney Washington
Stitches ‘n Dishes
rodney@stitchesndishes.com
858-413-7526

GroupHelix announces a new opportunity for companies to win a complimentary custom App uniquely built for their business Facebook page.   GroupHelix, www.grouphelix.com  is a web-based all-in-one lead generation and customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

Four total winners will be selected at random for the contest.  Winners will be announced every 2 weeks for the next 2 months.  For information to register, simply go to the GroupHelix Facebook page, www.facebook.com/grouphelix and “Like” the page or www.grouphelix.com/register.

Fortune 100 companies such as Starbucks and General Electric have a similar custom Facebook presence.   Think of it as a mini-app within Facebook that lets users know about their brand and gives them a reason to “Like” a page.  Once they like a page, they get access to certain news, promotions or special offers and that drives leads back to the company website. This is one of the most effective lead-generation tactics that’s being underutilized by businesses.

As an all-in-one digital platform, GroupHelix helps companies control their digital world by attracting new leads to their custom-created website, converting leads into clients, and managing and analyzing customer relationships.  By intertwining the web, social media and mobile technology, GroupHelix offers custom solutions and strategy uniquely fit to the needs of each client.

With a simplistic control panel, clients control their website content with a few clicks, they can change their mobile content in less than 10-seconds, they control how to get their leads online, monitor the competition, manage their marketing and customer relationships and measure engagement with click-of-a-button analytics.

About GroupHelix:

GroupHelix is a product of Duple Meter, LLC based in Chicago’s John Hancock building.  Originally formed in 2008, Duple Meter was created as a technology platform for music schools, organizations and educators.  Duple Meter, LLC later introduced SocialRaise, a platform for non-profits and associations to combine social media with ways to increase organizational revenue.  The methodology at GroupHelix and for all Duple Meter products and services is simple; engagement drives action and results.

For more information or to request a demo visit www.GroupHelix.com.

Contact:

Amy Nedoss
312.330.1798
Amy.Nedoss@GroupHelix.com

We’ve all heard – and experience first-hand on a daily basis – that Facebook is the standard in social networking. With more than half a billion users, Facebook is a common household name and in the top echelon of internet destinations every day. One common misconception, though is, “if you build it, they will come.” After all, don’t we all create fan pages, then immediately begin asking all of our friends to “like” them? We soon learn, it’s not so easy to attract and entice people to click that elusive “like” button, and all too often, we become frustrated in the process. But, converting Facebook fans into customers is really as simple as buying groceries.

In many cases, many business owners do not actually use Facebook as a means to increase SEO, and ultimately their brand awareness. Most commonly, small businesses believe that they need to create fan pages in order to attain large fan bases, and ultimately sales without actually understanding their fan bases or their behavior. It’s not just about fan count, and it’s important to understand the actual value of a fan. More importantly, it’s vitally important to understand the social network, its interconnections and the interactions amongst fans and the people they influence. Key questions to be keenly aware of are: How many people does your business influence? How many of those people will take action on your content? How many people can these people reach? Summed, the key question is, are you a mover and a shaker? Does your content, and ultimately your business, wield power and influence in a sphere of activity amongst your fans?

A true fan base is grown organically – this doesn’t necessarily mean “slowly”, but in many cases, growing a fan base is a lot like using a crock pot.

Converting fans into customers requires a consistent effort focused on developing an engaging relationship with fans. Creating campaigns that attract customers, rather than fans, offering a special discount or coupon to convert fans or attract new fans, and creating a thank-you campaign to start conversations with new fans or followers are a few techniques mobile food vendors use to convert fans to customers.

Read Christopher’s comprehensive article (here), explaining why a blog is central to the social network, and how Facebook plays a role in improving SEO and search engine placement. “It reads like a roadmap,” said Gabe De Armond, an independent Marketing and Advertising Consultant in Charlottesville, NC. “Chris explains that fan count isn’t as important as turning fans into loyal customers, and he points out the number one mistake most mobile food vendors make. He really hit the nail on the head with this one.”

About Stitches ‘n Dishes:

Stitches ‘n Dishes, the creation of Christopher Ford and Andrew Nicora, and inspired by “Stitch”, an American Staff. Terrier mix / Bichon Frise, provides marketing, advertising and PR services to the mobile foods industry and it provides consumers with a single source for original articles, reviews, food photography, California fairs and events, discounts, contests and giveaways.

Stitches ‘n Dishes is California’s first provider of a platform that stitches a link between food lovers, entertainment venues and mobile food operators, and the first fully dedicated marketing, advertising and development resource available to food vendors in California.

Contact
Christopher Ford, Co-Founder
Stitches ‘n Dishes
chris@stitchesndishes.com
916-612-9954

Rodney Washington
Stitches ‘n Dishes
rodney@stitchesndishes.com
858-413-7526

Many websites are not appearing in Google, not search engine friendly, or simply not using proper SEO techniques. With the high cost of Search Engine Optimization, many businesses cannot afford it. Just having your website audited by an SEO company can cost you well over $500. Marknet Group Inc a leading web design and online business strategy company seeks to change all that with Their FREE search engine optimization website review.

Marknet Group had previously offered this service as a promotion on a UStream web show. It became so popular that they decided to allow anyone to contact them for their review.

“We recognized that with the economy the way it is, many small and medium sized businesses are not taking advantage of the simple things they can do to increase their site visibility on Google,” said Alex Miranda. “We want to reach out and help.”

In 15 minutes we will review your website, tell you why you are not appearing in Google and how you can fix it.  If the answer to any of the questions below is NO then schedule your FREE website review today.

1. Have your already invested in SEO but still not appearing on the first few pages of Google?
2. Are you visible in local search?
3. Do you know how to use Google Webmaster Tools to get more traffic to your website?
4. Do you have Google Analytics installed on your website? Are you using it to track social media?
5. Are you advertising using Google places? Is your ad generating referrals?
6. Have you signed up for the New Google Adwords Express? Are you using the stats to connect with your target market?

So how did you do? If you want to know more, schedule your review today.  We will give you a $100 credit towards Google Adwords Express.

Visit http://marknetgroup.com/services/free-15-minute-seo-website-review to schedule your FREE search engine optimization review.