The Dot Report

You may be aware of SEO spammers using Gmail, but this does not represent the entire population. Some use various other addresses as well. But before we move further, we need to understand very clearly two things. What does it mean when we say “SEO spammers.” And who are they?

SEO spammers are not always those who build links for the purpose of spamming blogs and forums. They are also people who pay attention to other kinds of submissions like Web directories. To do this, these spammers make use of various websites other than Gmail.

Spamming is not just about links. It also involves content. Most spammers use content from other websites and republish it to additional websites. There are many who can very easily create fake Gmail accounts with genuine phone numbers, even when Google tries its best to delete all spam Gmail accounts as soon as possible. But do all of them use Gmail to do their spamming?

SEO spamming with Gmail most probably reached its highest numbers during the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. Most of the forum spammers, who were all over the Web, were using Gmail as well as various other domains for emailing. An immediate outcome of this activity was spam email addresses that were false. This kind of spamming affected legitimate and original blog and forum operators who mostly operated their own email services since too many spam or bounce-back messages will lead to blacklisting of a domain.

The perception that SEO spammers use only Gmail is not accurate. Those who do are motivated by market forces. Gmail is attractive to users who have faith in its phone-verified account concept. But at times, spammers have found ways to pass these verifications as well.

Finally, Web spamming has been prevalent for some time. And new practices are always arising. Every time there is a new spamming practice on the Web, it has reached its zenith before it’s been replaced by another.

If we go by Google’s all-new updates, it is very important for you to renew your site regularly. Not just to give it a new look, but also to make it stand out as an industry leader. This is crucial, as your efforts will surely be appreciated by Google and will enhance your rankings as well.

However, things might turn out to be bit challenging if your site belongs to a so-called “boring” industry. The best way to deal with that isssue is by developing a consistent and solid content strategy that will work in the long run. Although it may not yield immediate results, that approach assures you of long-term, sustainable results.

Following are some vital steps required to develop a content strategy for the “boring” industries. Research on key topics will help you produce the content required to target the right buyers.

[arrowlist]

• The first thing that needs to be done is to know more about your particular industry. That includes identifying potential online shopper groups, who your primary competitors are, and what works for the industry big shots. A competitive analysis alone will throw light on the strategies used by other companies to stay in front of the race.
• The next and a very important step is to identify the specific target audiences who are most likely to be your customers. You can start to pinpoint these groups with the help of the basic industry research recommended above. Once your target audience is identified, it becomes possible for you to develop the content that’s going to be appreciated by them.
• Before you create the content strategy, you should also check out opportunities for sharing your content with others. Sites with the same target audience can help you with this task.
• Finally, create your content based on your identified audiences and their particular needs. After you get feedback on the content, you also need to repeat and test to hone your message and build a strong following. And, hence, a powerful brand!

[/arrowlist]

Your main aim should always be to create a content strategy that will help you build a loyal following and customer base. That perspective will yield great results for you in the long term.

While growing your business you are bound to come across a few hiccups along the way, whether you had a disgruntled employee, a customer who felt that he got less than a hundred percent service or even had an article about yourself that painted you in a manner that wasn’t good for business. Typically a negative review will get into Google over time and when someone does a search for your business the results will show up at ranks 3 and below, people are going to notice these websites. Let’s face it, bad news spreads fast and once those reviews start showing, you can bet people are going to be clicking them to see what they’re getting themselves into. A typical situation is a disgruntled employee who posts a negative review.

The good news is that typically a review like this isn’t all that tough to get rid off, it will take you a little while, but you can get rid of them in about six month. This may seem like a long while, but you’re better off starting now and getting them off naturally versus creating a quick hack job that gets deleted and you’re back to square one.

We’re going to break this process into an easy to follow five step process:

Step 1: Create a few articles – these will be about your business, you will need to get them to look different from each other, they could have the same theme, but they need to look different. A great way to speed up the process is to get a spinner program, you can download one of these: Multi Spinner or Spinner Chief. Both have trial versions and you can use either of the products. Keep in mind that you want to mention your business name and domain in the articles that you are creating a few times.

Step 2: Throwing the spins at Google – What we want to do is create a few quality pages that will go up above your negative press. So we want to have about 9 articles that cover page #1 for your brand name. There are a few places that are ideal for the process here, LinkedId.com, FaceBook, YouTube, DailyMotion, Twitter, Squidoo, Gather.com, Pinterest.com, Hubpages, Blogger.com to name a few. Ensure that you maintain a file of the login details for safekeeping.

Step 3: Wait – Now it is going to take a while to get these pages into Google, expect the process to take about a week or ten days give or take. Search for your key term and look over the first ten pages, you can always go to Google’s advanced search and opt for 100 results per page – you will need to turn off Instant predictions from your search options for this to work.

Step 4: Indexing and linking – Once you find your pages indexed into Google, you can push ahead with the process by submitting the links you created at Step 2 at forums, in blog posts, on social media sites, be creative. Go to websites that are about your business domain and mention what you do, and put in a link to one of the posts you created from Step 2.

Step 5: Final touches – With regular link building, you will have the first ten results for your domain key term. Once you reach your goal, you can edit out the pages you’ve created so that they reflect your brand image.

The typical time to manage a campaign like this is anywhere between, two to six months. Regular effort on link building and strongly branded pages will get you your pages on page #1.

Keep coming back to IMA for more strategies on Internet Marketing!