With the rise of Google’s Panda, manual article spinning doesn’t quite have the effect it once had. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that manual spinning of original articles does not have value.

In this article you’ll find useful information on how to manually spin articles along with what you should and should not be doing. In truth, this is more of a best practices article on spinning than one about working around the Panda updates. As is always true, quality is the key in all respects. If you have quality content that people want to read most of the SEO work will be done for you naturally.

Post Panda Spinning 101

The days of using most spinning software is over. Time to face facts folks. Taking a 500 word article and using {word|replacemnet word 1|replacement word 2} as a strategy is long gone…as it should be. We want unique content on the web. As it is now, there’s a disproportionate amount of redundant/spun content online. There’s a serious lack of original content. So, it doesn’t matter if you have a great 1000 word article and have successfully spun it to pass copyscape or you’ve reached that magical 30%+ originality marker. You need fresh content, not regurgitated copy.

My advice always has been to purchase original content. If you can’t write your own articles or just don’t want to then there are a number of great services out there that will write effective content for you. Paying someone to write something current or relevant in your field is a good way of ensuring the content is fresh and unique and there’s always the Google check you can do of various bits of the article to ensure it’s originality. My opinion is that you never start out with less than a 1000 to 1500 word, unique article. Get that, and you are well on your way.

Once you have your article, it’s time for your spinning of that article. You can do this yourself, or again pay for someone to write it for you. What I typically do is take a proofed, unique 1500 word article and give it to other writers to use a reference for creating “spun” new articles. I typically write the spun articles myself. I use the original article and essentially write a piece focusing on a couple of aspects of that article. I’ll quote parts of the original article and I’ll reference it by linking to it but the article I write will be unique. My supporting articles are typically 500 to 1000 words and again, are usually just critics on the original article.

So, never use spinning software, always use fresh content that is more than 1000 words and create new articles based off the original article. Got it?

Just how many articles should you create from the first one? Well, that depends on the original article’s content and length but I tend to create around 5 articles from the main one.

I have my spun articles, now what?

For our purposes, let’s say I have a total of 6 new articles total. One main article and 5 supporting articles. My main article typically gets posted on my money/client site. I’ll typically also syndicate the article across the wires. The supporting articles I will use to submit to the open networks of free press release networks and to my own network of supporting sites. Some of the supporting articles will reference the other supporting articles but they all typically reference the main article both by linked keywords within the articles and in the author and reference section of the websites.

You’re probably asking “Can I use software to auto submit my supporting/spun articles?” Sure! Absolutely you can. That’s where you use the spinning method {word|word 2|word 3} but not for content, only to change out the links and keywords you are referencing that point to the other supporting articles.

Wait a second…6 articles are better than 1000 spun articles?

Absolutely! Spinning is effectively dead. Google has gotten wise and has a very sophisticated process of detecting spun content. Besides, it’s much better to syndicate articles than spin them and in essence you are creating a few highly relevant and targeted “spun” articles. So, even if you don’t have a 1000 spun articles you have 5 greatly unique and relevant articles that are great gateway points to bringing visitors into your site. Yes, this is a visitor-centric strategy and not a SERP manipulation SEO tactic.

Is 5 supporting/spun articles enough?

The more the merrier. The minimum number of supporting articles I spin for a main article is 5 but most times that number is much higher. It’s actually very easy for me to write articles, I’m lucky. I can create 10 supporting, relevant, compeling and unique articles in under an hour. My magic number of articles I create for my main article is usually around 20 and then I distribute those to the free network of press releases and articles but I’ll also pimp those on Twitter and to the various blogs and forums I sometimes pay to advertise on.

The result is a network of great, quality content that naturally support my website’s content and I never have to worry about Google’s Panda or getting content back from automated programs or outsourced partners that is unreadable, broken English garbage. Yes, this is a much more involved and manual (often much more costly process) but it’s the way that works the best and it’s completely Panda approved.

Good luck and I hope this article has helped with your link building efforts. Got any feedback? Feel free to shoot me a note or reply below. Cheers!!

Recently, I launched an initiative that will be completed soon which will ultimately see Zexzoo.com ranking for very competitive keywords in nightlife and entertainment. Zexzoo.com is truly poised to be a strong competitor to sites like Yelp and even Google itself. It’s got no where to go but up and my decision to leave the company was an extremely difficult one.

What’s Next?

Through working with Rackwise.com and ISA-Inc.net I have maintained some great relationships. I was asked by a long time client and friend to come on as IS3′s new Vice President of Online Marketing. IS3 is a software company out of Boca Raton that specializes in product and services that help users protect their data from computer spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, etc. just to name a few. IS3 also provides industry leading support to assist in the diagnosing of computer problems and act as a direct liaison to helping customers get their PCs and laptops fixed.

This is a very new experience for me and truly a step up in responsibility. I’m very excited about this new opportunity to expand my skill set and to take IS3′s products and services to the next level. The road map is very aggressive and IS3 will be growing leaps and bounds in the near future with aims at becoming a household name in the computer protection industry like a Norton or AVG.

SEO and internet marketing have been good to me and I will have ample opportunity to flex my SEO muscles at IS3 with some truly competitive keyword phrases. If I were our competition I would be extremely worried right now. It’s sad that I no longer have the band width to take on new clients and opportunities to help others with their internet marketing and SEO but it’s always been my intent to create my own company and the time I spent at Zexzoo and the relationships and work I did with investors along with the responsibilities of my new position will hopefully ensure my success if one day I decide to invest in my own software company or agency.

While I can no longer accept new clients I do have a few very qualified and skilled internet marketing and SEO peers that I can refer for those who need assistance with promoting their business or brand online. Feel free to contact me for referrals.

I won’t be doing as much SEO (not that I did much anyway) on this site anymore so unfortunately i’ll likely not receive the weekly “Do you need assistance with SEO or development work” emails anymore but I think that will be a good thing.

Cheers

So, what’s the real benefit?

What are the benefits of purchasing an existing domain over a brand spanking new one from hosting companies like NameCheap of HostGator? History and authority. Two main factors Google looks at when ranking a website is how long the website has been around and the back links to it from other sites. The longer a website is around, the more potential it has for having other sites reference the site and link back to it…in theory, anyway. That’s why I typically look for an existing domain that is about to expire, has already expired or is for sell. If the site is indexed in Google, then oftentimes it is a better canvas from which to start than a blank one.

Where can I find a domain to buy?

Places like Ebay, Sedo and Flippa are known quantities for finding quality domains at decent prices. While the prices can escalate quickly when bidding on a top quality domain, there are oftentimes lots of domains for sell that offer very good value.

So, what do you look for when buying a domain?

The short list is:

• Age of the site
• How many links from other sites point to the domain
• What kind of traffic does the site get?
• Page Rank of the website

The above are just a sampling of what to look for but it is a fair amount of the overall value of a domain. Some of the items above may not matter much or represent a very small portion of the value of the domain, while others may be the very thing that can immediately make a huge impact to you as far as rankings go. The best way to know for sure is to ask an SEO consultant, but most times you can’t go wrong with buying an existing keyword rich domain. Be sure though, to check out the site’s history to make sure the previous owner hasn’t abused the domain in anyway (i.e. posting porn pics on the website).

If you haven’t located a good domain then you can always register a new one. It’s relatively straight forward to do. Pick whatever your main keyword phrase is and register a domain with that keyword phrase in it. This won’t apply to all businesses, however, but if you can…do it. A keyword rich domain is a very BIG step in the right direction towards ranking well for that keyword. So, if you’re main product that you sell are “red widgets”, then it would be a good idea to register or find an existing domain with the keywords “red widgets” in it. An example or two you ask? Certainly: “redwigets.com”, “bestredwidgets”, “redwidgetsco.com”, “red-widgets.com” are all really good examples. The key, of course, if finding a domain that isn’t already owned or being squatted on by someone else.

Good luck and feel free to leave some comments if you have anything to add.

• “a ‘-1′ button in the search result, so I can penalize pages I don’t want to see.”
• “a “search by date” and “search newest” options to be expanded to the main search page.”
• “showing results from inputting multiple domains or links and then having my search results limited to results appearing with those domains in common or as the base of my search.” (This would be an excellent time to implement a Twitter-esque hashtag/slash system like blekko).
• “the ability to see speech input across more Google Web services, starting with Google+.”
• “Incorporate Wayback Machine-like functionality into Google Search.”
• “as a user I would like to see spam-free SERPs. That’s all.” (wouldn’t we all )

My list of Google Features for 2012

and my own recs would be:

• Adding the ability to turn off personal search results without resorting to flushing cache and cookies or logging out of Google
• More intuitive searches that clearly separate textual searches from image, video and audio. (If i’m searching for “pepsi logo” it is fairly obvious that I only want to view pepsi logos. Google should automatically switch to “Image” results.)
• Index text in graphics.(Something Google has been working on for a while now.)
• The ability to search by regular expressions or plain HTML would be really nice.
• A complete revamp of the “Shopping results for…”
• Some way to natively see search results from different geographical regions (aka data centers) in the US
• Image upload search. I’d like to be able to upload a pic and have Google provide results.
• More relationship results. If I input “HP Touchpad” into Google instead of having the first 4 results show up that are HP’s own ads I would like to see links to the TouchPad’s OS, hardware specs, availability, etc.

I’m sure Google has quite the list of items it’s working on for the upcoming year. Rest assured that first and foremost is the continuation to protect authority and minimize if not eliminate spam and duplicate content. With the Panda updates Google has done a tremendous job of increasing the average relevancy and authority of a Google search this year. I’m looking forward to seeing what Google has up its sleeve for 2012.

Not sure what has really happened with Google. I’m assuming they are tinkering around with another panda-esque update. The reality is that ever since I took the Director of Marketing position over at Zexzoo/MyCitySocial I haven’t been doing much of anything as far as SEO is concerned with this site. So, these rankings could be temporary (though I was ranked #2 for weeks prior to today).

What’s likely the cause is the nature of the backlinks i’ve built to steffanhaeberle.com, how I have managed and maintained those backlinks and how I have automated the building of new backlinks to support both steffanhaeberle.com and the core backlinks built months ago. It’s all part of a multi-tiered on-site and off-site SEO strategy that I developed almost a year ago. It’s also why Zexzoo.com ranks so highly for super competitive keyword phrases like “daily deals” and why Rackwise.com continues to dominate the competition with keyword phrases like “data center management” and “data center software”. Not to mention the other sites I have that are self-supportive, automated and rank highly for other competitive keyword phrases that bring in substantial traffic and income to keep me in toys like my new 2012 Audi TT RS racecar.

What’s Your Secret to Successful SEO?

Well, the sauce is secret but it involves a highly optimized, keyword and content rich site combined with a core base of extremely authoritative back links from individual sites and from a network of linked and unlinked web 2.0 sites, new back links to the existing back links, regular news/press releases and an optimized social media campaign that is semi-automated. There you go!

I have no idea if steffanhaeberle.com will stay #1 for “las vegas seo” or if it will continue to climb for other keyword phrases I optimized and promoted it for (like “los angeles seo”) but I hope it will. It’s been fun to see this site continue to do well and rise in rankings though, especially since I haven’t been supporting this site as much as I probably should have.

EDIT (11/4/2011). Ah, looks like the company that used to be #1 is going through a name change because I am now seeing two websites in the top 10 for one company. The new (well, actually it was registered back in 2007) is now #1 so either they are going for the simpler domain name or someone left the company . Either way, it really won’t matter. This website was always a way for me to showcase and it has always done exactly that. It was never intended to be a website for bringing in clients. In fact, I have turned down numerous (far too many to count) requests for client work since February. I am #2 in Google as of today for “las vegas seo” and that is awesome, especially considering the nature of this site, it’s age and the limited amount of resources and time that have been put into it these past few months. Still, I will continue to test out unique SEO methods using this site and another site that is also an SEO “test” website. Though, to be honest I don’t have a lot of hope for my competitors in Las Vegas and LA.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to shoot me an email.

The short answer is to always…always appeal first and foremost to your audience. If your service or products is best described with multiple web pages or expanded marketing copy then BY ALL MEANS, make your website a multi-tiered, multi-paged website.

Sometimes a shorter, more concise website is better. If your business is best suited for a one or two paged website, say one that if dedicated to operating hours of your dry cleaner service, then a multi-paged website doesn’t really make sense.

But, what about for SEO?

So, you have a dry cleaners service in some city and you want to get the word out about your specials? Your question is “Is a one page website going to be better than a multi-paged website for capturing the top rankings for my keyword phrases?

Well, that’s a good question. The answer is…yes, a one page website would be fine for your business. Why? Because you are most interested in telling your visitors about your business and a multi-paged, multi-tiered website does NOT do you the best service. You have to ask yourself: “Do I really have enough content for more than one or two pages on my website?. The answer, is typically no…and i’ve worked on too many of these types of website to count.

From a strictly SEO perspective, a one-page website, for two, three, four or even eight keywords will work ABSOLUTLEY FINE for rankings. The key is to always build a website for your customers and NEVER for Google. I always try to condense as much as possible, a client’s website so there are as few clicks as possible between the entry point of website and the information a visitor is searching for.

As few clicks as possible

Let me say that again…ALWAYS build a website with the purpose of offering as FEW CLICKS as possible between the entry point of a website and the potential information a visitor needs. So few websites actually follow this strategy. It’s more UX design and user retention than true SEO but often times, useability and effenciency trump pure SEO.

So, if you think you need 10 pages to describe your company’s product or service, my advice to you is to reassess your website and consolidate your site, if needed. Most of the websites I have worked on have about 50% too much “fluff”, which, while increases the potential for traffic from longer tail keywords, has an overwhelming potential of diluting the value of the core keyword phrases.

If ranking at the top of Google for a few keywords is your ultimate goal, then a simple, consolidated website, with concentrated content is a great starting point.

Got a comment or question? Feel free to leave a comment here or contact me directy through the contact form on this site

Many businesses have no doubt come across the problem of having their names, products or services talked about online in an unflattering manner. There’s the usual list of items someone can try in order to remove negative comments which include responding to the negative comment with a possible resolution, petitioning the site owner to have the comment removed or going so far as the take legal action. What if all those measures fail?

There’s something else you can try, something very easy that works extremely well in practice. If you are dealing with dealing with trying to remove a negative comment from a blog or a forum, try this:

Assuming the website or forum is still open to adding additional comments, create a comment of your own, make sure you reply with an image (like a smiley face or personal signature) that is hosted on one of your servers or a server you have access to. Let a few more comments be posted by others and let some time pass, then change out the image on your server with one that is obviously copyrighted or against Google’s TOS. File a report with Google, telling them there’s an indexed page in their SERPs containing illegal content and Google will de-index the page.

You can report the website using this link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&pli=1

Is this ethical? Absolutely, in the cases where you are trying to suppress negative comments that are malicious, fabricated, inaccurate or deceptive and after you’ve tried all other methods.

This definitely works and combined with other methods (including a few I’ll keep secret for now), you can eliminate just about any negative reference to your business.

Yesterday, I noticed that many of those sites were now showing Page Rank which matched close to what it was just a couple of months ago. It appears that Google has updated the PR again, possibly updating the very algorithm they created. I’ve seen many report that this latest update has not affected every site, which leads me to believe this might be a fix to the algo change they did a few short weeks ago or it could be just one stage, the next coming soon.

This all seems extremely strange of Google. Not like them at all. I don’t think you can exactly call this a rollback because many of my sites and client sites aren’t back to where they were and new sites have gained in PR as expected. So, Google…what gives?

Funny that through all this, it appears that Twitter throughout the day was bouncing from PR 0 to PR 9 and back. Hello, Google…what are you doing? LOL

A couple of my sites are still lower than usual. Hopefully, Google and their PR team gets their acts together. I know many feel Page Rank is passe but every factor at Google should be included when performing SEO for websites. While I have not seen much difference in SERPS from this PR change it is interesting what Google is up to.

What’s your experience with the latest PR bump from Google? Seeing sites lower or higher and how has it affected your traffic and revenue?

This isn’t necessarily a “How-To” but this article does include some solid points to keep in mind for promoting yourself to get more clients, a better job or to connect with other like minded people in the SEO field.

My particular journey started about a year ago when I took my current website steffanhaeberle.com and decided to do something more with it than have it be just the glorified one page resume that it was. You can check out what it used to look like here http://steffanhaeberle.com/v1. I decided my website would feature a little bit about everything I knew about SEO, print and online marketing, social media, design and development. I let my experience lead the way.

Step 1: Establish A Main Goal

First thing I did was to define exactly what I wanted my site to be and do. Did I want to use it to get more clients? Use it to find a better job? Make more connections? I had to decide exactly who my target audience was and once I established that and the intent of my website I started on designs.

I decided this website would be my resume. I was going to add my resume in pdf format on it, articles which featured useful information for everything from design to SEO, design and development to showcase my skill and I would position my site in Google for targeted keywords to prove my expertise. All sounds easy, right?

Step 2: The Design

It took me three very different and unique design attempts before I settled on this design. In all, I worked on the design for this site for three weeks. I ultimately choose bits and pieces from various sites that I admired and viola, steffanhaeberle.com had its own look.

Step 3: Development

For this site I chose WordPress and PHP. I heavily modified the standard theme and installed and modified the various plug-ins that I knew I needed to complete this site. Total time for development: around 3 weeks.

Step 4: Setup For SEO and Social Media

A few of the plugins I installed included social media network integration. I connected this site to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I added a couple of videos and several images via YouTube and flickr. I relied on my knowledge and experience in SEO to optimize Steffanhaeberle.com so it will appear in search engines on the first page for all my targeted keywords.

Step 5: Testing

I spent many weeks in optimizing and promoting my website so it appears in Google on the first page. I continued to write articles and promote them through social networks and other SEO techniques. I stayed active on Twitter and Facebook and integrated that activity into my site. There was unique, relevant content on this site on a daily basis, which was critical for its success.

Step 6: My Site Is My Resume

After a few months I was getting a lot of targeted traffic and several monthly requests for more information on social media, seo, design and development. I was beginning to pick and chose my clients. If I found a position online that I felt met my criteria, I never emailed a resume but included a short paragraph about my skills and experience and forwarded the link to this website.

Lessons Learned

This site has become a great learning experience and I have learned a lot from promoting and optimizing this site along with several other websites I own, manage and promote. Having your own site is critical to your success. After all, if you can’t do for a client what you can’t or haven’t done for yourself, how is a client going to believe in you? My advice would be to follow my lead. It’s always a good idea to showcase your skills and experience and this site, for me, has been that perfect example. It assisted me in landing the job I wanted and am continually receive requests for new work and consultations.

I continually use my websites to test new SEO techniques and I continually use it to make new contacts and stay connected within the community.

My last bit of advice would be create the opportunities for yourself you seek from others. Sure, you probably will be reaching too highly to start your own rival site to Facebook, but you can learn quite a bit about how Facebook operates and functions if you attempt to replicate at least some of its functionality on your own site. Lastly, if you are looking for design, development or SEO work there is absolutely no better sales tool than your own website. Resumes may not be quite dead yet but websites like mine and sites like LinkedIn are making the resume passe. Today, clients and employers want to see examples, not paper resumes or letters of recommendations.

It’s taken a lot of work from design to development to marketing, advertising and SEO. We have a quality sales team that has put together some truly fantastic deals and i’m sure in time, Zexzoo.com will be a great success.

In time we hope that Zexzoo and the Zexzoo Daily Deals will become a household name. We already are getting a lot of exposure and I have already gotten Zexzoo.com to the top 15 sites for “daily deals” and “daily coupon/s”.

Check us out! Maybe you’ll find some great deals too!