SEO Changes

Search engine optimization “best practices” have changed dramatically since 2010. That’s when Google started to make radical changes to the way it ranks websites. Old practices such as gaining as many links as possible and using very specific keyword ratios not only became largely irrelevant, but actually raised red flags in Google’s ranking algorithms. Today, the key is to write quality content which naturally contains your keyword phrases and semantically similar phrases. We’d like to focus on several of the most important ways to do it.

Semantic Keywords

Every blog post should be written around a single root keyword phrase. For example, the root keyword phrase for this article is “SEO blog tips”. We’ve now mentioned the phrase two times in this text, but in such a naturally flowing manner that you may not have noticed. Go ahead, look for it. You will find it in the last sentence of the first paragraph and in the second sentence of this paragraph.

One keyword, however, is really no longer enough. You need to weave semantically similar keywords in the text of the posts as well. A few examples for SEO blog tips might be:

• Search engine optimization
• Blog tips
• Best blog practices
• Blog SEO
• SEO tips
• Increase blog traffic

In reality, the list is endless. What you are shooting for, though, are phrases related to the post’s specific theme. Google will review the different phrases and then note the theme of the page. You will then end up ranking for many of these phrases, as well as many other keywords you never even thought about. This will increase your traffic and is really the key to blog SEO practices.

Meta Tags

Meta tags traditionally have been very important when it comes to search engine optimization. This is no longer the case. Google has admitted it doesn’t consider the meta description or meta keyword code on websites. It does look at the meta title tag, but one look at the search rankings for your keyword will tell you it doesn’t place much emphasis on that tag.

That’s why we suggest three things.

1. Include your main keyword at the start of your meta title followed by a phrase that is not keyword-centric. For example, “Blog Rankings – How To Get The Most Traffic From Your Blog Posts.”
2. Start the meta description with a question incorporating your main keyword phrase. For this article, we will go with something such as, “Looking for SEO blog tips? Find out why your blog posts may not be ranking by clicking here.” 
3. Ignore the meta keywords tool. Don’t bother entering anything.

That is it. Yes, meta tags have become fairly simple these days.

Post Organization

As a general rule, you should avoid rambling when writing a post. A far better approach is to start by specifying a problem your audience faces, whether they know it or not. The remainder of the post should then detail the steps needed to resolve that problem. If one of those steps involves buying something from your business, so much the better.

Consider this post. Following the introductory paragraph, we move immediately to the issues of why blog posts are important from a ranking perspective, and why getting posts ranked on Google is more difficult these days. We then spend the rest of the blog post covering the steps that can help overcome the difficulties while offering our services at the end of the post. This is a formula that can, and should, be used for just about any blog post intended to convey information and produce sales.

Post Length

500 words? Read the vast majority of blog posts and they all seem to come in at around 500 words. It is rather amazing when you think about it. In reality, every blog post is going to require a different word count to really cover its subject.

A blog post about the temperature of the sun is going to be pretty short because, frankly, there isn’t all that much to write about.

A blog post discussing the number of ranking algorithm changes made by Google in the last eight years will probably require 2,000 words or more to cover all of the changes in any detail.

Despite all this, we still see the majority of post lengths coming in at 500 words, regardless of topic. This is simply a mistake and it is our view at Prestige Writing that it may not be long before Google starts filtering posts of this length out of the top 10 in its rankings.

A blog post should be as long as it needs to be. Having said this, Google clearly favors longer posts when it ranks pages for a keyword phrase. Posts with 2,500 to 3,000 words usually rank much higher than those with fewer words. These posts also tend to be shared more by people on Twitter and other social media accounts, which certainly helps with the ranking process as well.

As an example, this post comes in at 969 total words – which works just fine for our purposes.

Social Media

Do you need to build links to your new blog post? Sure, in a perfect world. Custom and practice these days, however, is to punch out the post to social media where people can share the content naturally. Without this signal, the posts simply are not going to rank – so make sure you get out there and share your content.

Quality Content

At Prestige Writing, we specialize in providing quality blogging content for our clients. If your blog posts are not getting ranked, contact us today for a free consultation.Related: qpLFW, coxy, rtUb, sBNbCw, wJk, oMCU, lRZTz, FdSi, HIS, qDevpq, FsuiXT, PGMp, RPNBE, tmGrY, oQOE,

Personalize?

What does personalization of content mean? It simply refers to the “speaker” in the content. If you look at a site like Fidelity.com, there is no personalization whatsoever. Fidelity is a financial brokerage site, so the content is written with the “speaker” being the business itself.

Contrast this with a site like SmartPassiveIncome.com. This is the primary site of Pat Flynn, a very popular blogger who provides business tips to his readers. Personalization is the approach throughout the site. Everything is about Pat, because his goal is to connect personally with his readers. This is a classic form of content personalization.

Appropriate?

When launching a site, your content should either be personalized heavily or not at all. The approach you take depends on the type of site you are running and the tone you are trying to convey. The nature of your business will typically provide you with the answer.

Let’s return to our Fidelity example. As a brokerage, the company wants to convey an impression of sophistication, security and stability to its target audience. SEC regulations aside, the company wants you to believe your money is safe and will grow. In such a situation, it is best to convey a highly professional, corporate tone through the content.

Now consider a different business from the same financial niche. Barry Waxler is one of our clients and a financial planner in San Diego. He works with high-end clients and handles most of the work himself. Much like Pat Flynn in the example above, Mr. Waxler is the “brand” and personalizing the content to reflect this fact, and connect with his readers, is a smart strategic approach.

As you can see, whether to personalize is a decision focused more on an elective choice on your part, not the niche your business is in. In fact, a business niche where personalization is classically not used can often be a great place to employ the tactic because it allows you to stand out from the competition.

Willing to Commit?

Starting a business may require time and money, but it doesn’t always require the ultimate sacrifice. What is that sacrifice? Exposing yourself to the public as the face behind the business.

Consider Google. You probably know Larry Page is one of the founders. Can you picture what he looks like in your mind? If Google is portrayed positively or negatively in a media piece, few think of Page, much less picture him. This is because Google is not a personalized entity in any way.

Now consider the ramifications of personalizing your online business. Your face will be front and center. If we return to SmartPassiveIncome.com, people do not post positive or negative reviews of the site. Instead, they do so for Pat Flynn, the person. He is the brand and reaps the benefits and bears the scars personally.

So the simple question you must ask yourself is, “Am I willing to be exposed as the face of my business and receive negative feedback?” Don’t feel bad if you shy away from such exposure. Most people do. If you are reticent to expose yourself, though, you need to ask yourself just how committed to the business you really are.

Selling The Site

Okay, you are ready to go with personalization. Before you make the commitment, there is just one other issue to consider – what is your exit strategy for the site?

The exit strategy is the method you plan to use to leave the business. The common strategies include:

• Run it forever and leave it to your heirs,
• Sell the site to a third party for an obscene amount of money, or
• Take the business public and make millions when investors buy the stock.

If you decide to personalize the content, you may run into problems with a few of these exit strategies.

Consider a site like ThinkTraffic.com. This was the primary site of Corbett Bar, an extremely popular online blogger who provided his readers with a host of tips on making money online. The site was completely personalized, which is to say the brand was Corbett himself and not the website.

Would you ever buy such a website if you had the money and were looking for an acquisition? Probably not. The problem is that the people who are on the mailing list for ThinkTraffic.com and who visit the site frequently would most likely abandon the site once Corbett was no longer the content creator.

Corbett may have realized this is an issue. He recently redirected all of his ThinkTraffic.com content to Sparkline, where he is one of a number of online gurus. Although the new site is still packed with personalized content, the fact there are numerous content creators means one can leave without it being the end of the world for the business.

So, what about your site? You need to seriously consider your exit strategy. If your goal is to take the business public, then personalization is a poor strategy. If your intention is just to run the business for as long as possible, personalizing the content is a wise move.

Difficult Decision

In some cases, the personalization decision can be a difficult one. Consider PrestigeWriting.com. When Phil and I started this site, we had this very discussion. Phil was more for the corporate content approach while I was more about the personalization of the content. Ultimately, we decided on a personalization-light strategy.

So far, it seems to be working.

Naturally, we asked where such a deal was available. The answer was “At Elance, of course.”

We had heard horror stories before, about copy from Elance or similar freelancer sites. But this time, we decided to see for ourselves just what the deal was. So we signed up for an account and posted a job: a few 1000-word articles on a subject which would require a decent amount of research. We offered to pay $15-$20 per article, and specified that we only wanted native American English writers. We also decided in advance that we were only going to consider writers who had received a rating of at least 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.We received several dozen applications within a few hours. Our next step was to check out the “writers” who applied. Right away, we were able to discard several applicants, who weren’t American. We also discarded another five, who didn’t submit any writing samples (which we had requested in our posting.)

Then, we looked at the portfolios or writing samples of the remaining applicants – and we were horrified. There wasn’t a single person whose writing would meet our standards. There were spelling errors, grammatical errors, sentence fragments, careless factual mistakes, and that was in their portfolios – the writing they chose to show as the best examples of their work.

Somewhat daunted, we plunged ahead, and chose the “best” of the bunch, someone with a rating of 4.9 stars out of 5 and lots of great recommendations on the site. Elance only allows you to communicate with your writer on their in-house message system, so we were unable to speak with our writer personally to explain the project; we did the best we could by leaving directions and samples in their inbox, and then held our breath.

A week later, we had our articles. We were disappointed but not surprised to see that the writer’s portfolio was a good representation of their work; the article’s structure and organization was mediocre, there were grammatical and spelling errors, serious factual errors, and a few sentences that didn’t really make sense at all.

Out of curiosity, we decided to edit the articles ourselves to see how long it would take to turn the copy into something we would use on one of our own sites. And as we suspected, we had to spend almost as much time editing the pieces as we would have spent writing them ourselves.

It’s certainly possible that we just happened to choose the wrong writer. But we doubt it. In our opinion, we got what we paid for – mediocre writing at a below-market price.

You may already have had the same experience with freelance sites. If not, we pass along the experience as a cautionary tale. Are we biased? Of course we are. Take this story with however many grains of salt you’d like.

But in a strange way, we’re glad we gave this experiment a try.

It made us feel more confident than ever about the service and quality that we offer our clients.

As you browse a website, you may notice a link at the bottom of the page to the “terms of use.” Have you ever clicked that link and read the terms? If you are like the vast majority of people, the answer is no, and courts are starting to recognize that fact.

Contract?

The terms of use of a website are supposed to act as a contract between you and the site. How can a contract exist if visitors rarely read the terms, much less agree to them? Judges are now ruling it can’t. Zappos.com learned this painful lesson recently.

In January of 2012, Zappos reported a database security breach affecting up to 24 million customers. A class action lawsuit was filed against the company, and counsel for Zappos argued the lawsuit should be dismissed, with the dispute instead being sent to arbitration pursuant to language in the terms of use for the site.

Zappos used the “link at the bottom of the page” approach in its arguments. The suing lawyers argued the terms were not binding on the visitors to Zappos because there was no evidence the visitors ever read or agreed to the terms.

The court agreed and ruled the Zappos terms invalid. In ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones noted on the last page of the decision,

“…[T]he advent of the Internet has not changed the basic requirements of a contract, and there is no agreement where there is no acceptance, no meeting of the minds, and no manifestation of assent. A party cannot assent to terms of which it has no knowledge or constructive notice, and a highly inconspicuous hyperlink buried among a sea of links does not provide such notice.”

The Lesson

Are website terms of use binding on you? Not if you have to access them via a link buried at the bottom of a site, and you are not asked to check a box agreeing to them.

Stop

The first thing you need to do when planning your wedding is…stop! You should not purchase, reserve or place a deposit on anything wedding-related until you have a budget in place. The last thing you want to do on a whim is drop 80 percent of your budget on a reception hall with a stunning view looking out over the ocean. While the view will be amazing, you are going to be wearing flip flops and eating McDonalds, since you only have a little bit of money left. Slow down, plan and then spend your budget carefully.

Wedding Debt

A wedding is a special ceremony. Unfortunately, it can also be the expense that keeps on giving for years. While the event represents one of the most magical days in the life of a couple, there is a school of thought suggesting restraint is the best policy when it comes to putting together a budget.

The question is simple. Do you really want to put yourself or your parents into serious debt by spending a huge amount of money on an event that will be a one-day affair? Step back and think about the parties paying for the wedding. The Great Recession did significant damage to the financial status of nearly everyone. While your parents might say “yes” to paying for the wedding, it is your duty to evaluate whether they are really in a position to do so or if they will go into heavy debt late in their life to pay for it.

This is not to suggest you should not hold a formal wedding and reception. It is to suggest that you should show a bit of restraint. Do you really need the $3,500 gold leaf trimmed thank-you stationary? Probably not.

Budget Breakdown

When putting together your wedding budget, start with the total amount you have to spend on the wedding. Make sure the total reflects confirmed contributions, not “potential” money. This typically involves negotiations with parents and, these days, a good bit of your own savings as well. Whatever the final figure, you then need to break the budget down into categories of expected expenses. For reference purposes, the breakdown of expenses for a traditional wedding is as follows:

• Reception food, drinks and site – 42 percent
• Wedding rings – 8 percent
• Professional photography – 8 percent
• Flowers – 6 percent
• Rehearsal dinner – 6 percent
• Wedding dress – 5 percent
• Videography – 5 percent
• Reception music – 4 percent
• Groom’s tux – 3 percent
• Hair and makeup for bridal party – 2 percent
• Stationary – 2 percent
• Ceremony music – 2 percent
• Wedding ceremony facility – 2 percent
• Wedding Cake – 2 percent
• Transportation – 2 percent
• Wedding Favors – 1 percent

These figures represent a basic budget for a wedding. The numbers are not set in stone, so don’t be a slave to them when setting your budget. It is far more important to simply have a plan you are comfortable with when spending your precious money.

Tipping

Many weddings go over budget because unanticipated small costs add up quickly. One element many couples fail to take into account involves tipping. Who gets tipped at a wedding? Well, everyone! Certain vendors may include the gratuity in their contract, but most will not. Here’s who you should be tipping and how much:

• Wedding Planner – 15 percent of their fee.
• Bartenders – 10 percent of the total liquor cost.
• Waiters – $20 each
• Chef – $100
• Catering Manager – $200
• Hairstylist – 15 percent of their fee.
• Makeup Artist – 15 percent of their fee.
• Photographer – $100
• Limo Drivers – 15 percent of their fee.
• Musicians – 15 percent of their fee.

What about good versus bad service? This is a tricky question with wedding vendors because newlyweds usually are not in a position to evaluate the services – since you don’t interact personally with most of the people working at your wedding. Unless a vendor or individual has just been a nightmare, you should go ahead and tip them.

Budget Buffer

Sticking to a budget is incredibly important, but most of us have problems doing so. This is particularly true with weddings since there is an emotional element involved in the purchasing decisions. To avoid budget-crushing decisions, you should consider building in a buffer for the budget. Figure out the total you have to spend and then put 10 percent of that amount in a “reserve” category. Do everything possible to avoid spending this money. If you are forced to do so on something you simply cannot resist, then at least the money has already been accounted for in your budget.

Cutting Costs

How does a couple cut costs on a wedding? Where do you even start? One approach that works pretty well is to simply ask the 25th anniversary question. When considering a wedding expense, ask yourself if the item or service in question is something you will even remember at your 25th wedding anniversary celebration. If you have any doubt, forgo the expense.

• Reception Location

The reception will run you 42 percent of your wedding budget. A good bit of this will be the rental cost of the location where you hold the reception. To save money, consider throwing the reception in a free location such as the backyard of a family member or friend. But be careful; while you might save money on the location rental, you can end up spending the savings on staff to work the wedding. How this equation plays out really depends on what part of the country the wedding is being held in. Regardless, make sure you run the numbers to see if this approach really saves you a significant amount.

• Guests

Every guest is a cost multiplier. This simply means each guests drains a wedding budget in multiple areas. A single guest will get an invitation, need to be seated, eat food, drink alcohol and so on. So every person you trim from the guest list saves you a bundle. While we all would love to have huge weddings, an intimate ceremony is a much better choice from a budgetary point of view.

So, how do you cut guests without offending people? The answer is simple – talk to them. Explain the situation and most will understand. Even if you find it embarrassing, it is still usually a better option than saying nothing and offending friends and family who are cut from the list.

• Packages

Package deals represent a great way to save money on a wedding. Many reception facilities will provide a one-stop solution so you can get on with celebrating and avoid worrying about finding and organizing vendors. While this is incredibly convenient, it also tends to be less expensive, so make sure to investigate whether it is an option at the various reception facilities you are considering.

• Early Wedding

The timing of your wedding can also represent a sublime strategy for saving money. How so? A noon wedding is almost always cheaper than one held late in the afternoon. Why? Alcohol. Guests will not drink as much in the middle of the day, so you end up saving on your bar costs.

• Avoid Saturday Weddings

Saturday is the most popular day for weddings, which also makes it the most expensive day. To cut costs, pick another day. A Sunday wedding is much cheaper and you can save 50 percent or more if you hold the ceremony and reception during the week, with evening weddings being a popular choice.

• The Bar

You can end up spending a fortune on the bar if you are not careful. To save money, stick to beer and wine as the staple offerings. Then add a signature drink such as margaritas or another pre-mixed drink. The men will grumble, but you will save a significant amount of money.

• Buy in Bulk

As with many things, you can get a real deal when purchasing items in bulk for a wedding. Consider wedding favors. If you were to hand out personalized champagne glasses as favors to your guests, you might expect to pay $8 to $10 per glass from a retail store. Buying in bulk from a wedding site such as ours can reduce the cost to as low as $3.00 per glass.  The savings of $5 to $7 per guest is going to add up quickly, which can do wonders for your budget. Never pay the retail price!

Areas Not To Cut

Once you start cutting costs, it can be tempting to take the blade to every part of the budget. Don’t make this mistake. While you may save money, the real impact may be one you end up really regretting. This is true for one service in particular – wedding photos.

A top quality wedding photographer is expensive, but this is one area where you should gladly pay the fee. Two things will survive the wedding day – your marriage and your wedding album. The wedding album is the record of the magical day, the one item you can pull out at any time and reflect upon. Do you really want to go cheap with it? No. You want high quality photos that look great and will last for 50 years.

Most major wedding expenses actually benefit guests. This is the one expense that solely benefits you, the newlyweds. If you are going to splurge anywhere, this is the place to do it.

Going Radical

A wedding is a romantic affair, but it also happens to be a one-time event. That’s why some feel the money involved is better spent elsewhere. If you fall into this category, you have a couple of non-traditional options available to you.

The first is fairly simple. You can grab your parents and head down to the county office to get married before a clerk. The cost is basically your clothes and the fee charged. Is it romantic? Not in the least. Why do it? Instead of spending $20,000 or $30,000 on a wedding, you can use it for a down payment on a home.

A second option is to hold a formal wedding ceremony, but go with a greatly reduced reception. Ceremony facilities such as churches are not expensive. You can rent one, hold the ceremony and then have the guests move to a restaurant for drinks and finger food. The advantage of this approach is you get the formal marriage ceremony, but without the huge cost of the reception. Depending on where you live in the country, this strategy can be accomplished for a cost of $3,000 to $5,000.

A Successful Day

One of the keys to a successful wedding is fiscal discipline. Put a good bit of time and effort into setting your budget and then stick to it. Doing so will keep you from suffering buyer’s remorse afterwards.

Before getting into a list of the best Las Vegas buffets, there are a few things you should know. Buffet lines can get very, very long – and the better buffets may actually cost you more than a meal at a fine restaurant back home. There are some easy ways to avoid the lines and to lessen the dent in your wallet, though:  the food selection is very often the same for lunch and for dinner – but lunch prices are usually lower. And you’ll have the same experience at a buffet during afternoon or late evening hours, without having to endure the crowds. Finally, if you’re a big gambler and have a higher level player’s card, you can usually use a special line to bypass the crowds completely.  Some properties often have buffet discounts or promotions that are worth checking out, to lower the bill.

On to the list of the best Las Vegas buffets.

• Bellagio: high in quality and variety, this usually is at or near the top of everyone’s list of best buffets in Las Vegas. There are high-end touches you seldom see at buffets, such as Dim Sum,  succulent jumbo shrimp along with a huge raw bar, and wood-fired pizzas made to order. Lucky enough to be there on a Friday or Saturday? Check out the weekend specials of Kobe beef, buffalo and venison.  The desserts are just ordinary, but that’s fine – stick with the dinner here and pick up some gelato later in the evening.
• Wynn Las Vegas:  Steve Wynn has always paid close attention to the quality of his buffets (see Bellagio, above) and when he opened his new home base, the buffet was an immediate attraction. The sushi , homemade pasta and soups are fabulous here, as are the pizzas, curry, prime rib and Mexican food. Try the crème brûlée for dessert. The breakfast buffet is one of the best in Vegas, with great homemade sausages,too.
• Village Buffet, Paris: This buffet has seen better days (we would once have placed it at #1), but it’s still a wonderful change of pace. The feel is country Parisian, and the food is arranged by the region of France from which it comes. We’re a fan of the duck and roasted meats, the coq au vin, scalloped potatoes and poached fish, as well as the made-to-order crepes station; for dessert, we like the bananas foster.
• Village Seafood Buffet, Rio: If you’re a seafood fan, it’s definitely worth the hike to the Rio to sample this sumptuous buffet, divided into American, Italian, Chinese and Mexican stations. The highlights include the seafood gumbo, oysters Rockefeller, cioppino and kung pao scallops, but you may just want to gorge yourself on fabulous, all-you-can-eat sushi and lobster (prepared three different ways). Plenty of meat and chicken for the carnivores, too.
•  Bally’s Sunday Brunch: This would be #1 on most people’s lists of Las Vegas buffets except that you can only experience it for a few hours each week. This brunch has regular breakfast fare, made-to-order; but the real thrill here is the incredible selection of “other” stuff: fresh Maine lobster, oysters, caviar and truffles, every variety of prime meat cooked to order including beef tenderloins and rack of lamb, even ostrich.  There’s unlimited champagne, too (the real stuff, like Perrier Jouet). It’s pricey, at almost $100 per person – but what a splurge!

Rest of the top ten:

• The Buffet, Aria
• Carnival World Buffet, Rio
• Cravings, Mirage
• Feast Buffet, Green Valley Ranch
• Spice Market Buffet, Planet Hollywood

Of course, if you’re anywhere in Vegas, you can be sure there’s one of the less expensive Las Vegas buffets within walking distance. Don’t rule them out; they not be as lavish as the ones we’ve listed, but there are still some great bargains out there waiting to be found!