SEO (34)

Monday, 05 February 2018 11:09

SEO is the Key

SEO is the key to a higher rank. Not only that, it will also generate more website traffic. If your website will utilize search engine optimization techniques, search engines like Google will put your website in a higher rank and more people will see it.

So when a customer types into Google a keyword that is related to your business, your website will be in the page results in a higher rank —  more chances of customer to see it.

Here are a few tips for SEO:

Keywords

Search the terms and phrases that are most searched and are related to your business. Use these terms when writing your content, such as blogs or product descriptions. There are different software found on the internet for you to use and research what are the most searched phrases which will fit your business the most.

Then, do not only put the keywords in your blogs or descriptions, make sure they are also on the title. Put the keywords on the header and URL, too. It will help the search engine know what the page is about, giving it a higher rank.

Competition

It’s not all about you and your business, it is also about your competition. Do research, so sit down in front of your computer and use “private browsing”. If you are using Chrome, it is ‘Incognito’, in Internet explorer it’s ‘InPrivate’ and ‘Private’ for Safari and FireFox.

Now that you are using private browsing, type in something about your business and see the top 10 results. Check their content, look at what you are missing in your website and create better content!

Write Good Content

Do not just make something up and put the keywords. Come up with something interesting, something that people will check in Google, then write it with the keywords.

Don’t also forget to make your website user-friendly. So when your site ranks up and people will check it, they will not have a hard item to navigate it and check out more what’s on your website.

Want to have good content and a user-friendly website? You got us. Here at The Northern Office, our web designers will know what design that fits your business. We will not only give you a good website, but also content. If you have existing content, we can re-write them for you and utilize SEO techniques.

Contact us. Partner up with us and see your business flourish.

 

One of the most key processes in search engine optimization (SEO) is link building. For most link building is abandoned because the task itself eats up a lot of time, patience and can cause endless frustration.

Is there an alternative way to build links? Perhaps the question should be, “what is the proper way to do it?”

Early tactics of link building revolved on a “more links=higher rankings” strategy. Though still there's still some truth in that today the number factor is now linked with a variety of other influencers.  But the numbers game seems to blind a lot of people and they either fall for "black hat" SEO company spiel or go ahead and make things bad for themselves.  

Here are some of those worst link building strategies that are being practiced:

Directory submission – adding your website to generic directories.

Online page creation – composed of photos and text content relevant to your industry, filled with keywords.

Forum link generation – including your site link on signatures when you post in forums

Link exchange programs –purchasing links and publishing them in random link exchange platforms Website owners often find it appealing to get backlinks that are easy to grab.

But it is all about having a concise concept and approach.

There is a quality link building strategy that works.  It may take a little more time and effort but if your organized and have the tenacity to see it through you will be blessed with lots of link loveliness!

Create Relations, not just numerous backlinks

Instead of focusing on how to score tons of backlinks, reach out to fellow site owners or bloggers, interact, and share topics which kindle similar interests. Remember to address them properly in a personal and sincere manner. Invite them to contribute to your blog and eventually get asked in return. In forums and social media platforms, genuinely participate in discussions instead of posting messages with no relation to the topic just for the sake of promoting your link.

Fresh and Appealing Content

Engage readers with fresh and appealing content; content generation drives any modern strategy of SEO. Learn what is current and now, and know what your audience wants. If you have to make events, giveaways or promos to be recommended, do it to leave good and memorable impressions. Also, you can share valuable information like instructional blog entries or studies about problems commonly occurring in your site’s niche. Given that the number of link building strategies will continue to change and multiply, the limitations you will face depend on your own capabilities. By building relations as top priority, this serves as your best investment to the constantly changing world of SEO strategies. Need help in SEO strategies like link building, social media and website content creation?

Philippines’ marketing consultancy firm,

The Northern Office acts as a support system for different companies worldwide, providing a complete range of marketing consultancy services that ensures lead generation and continuous conversion. Talk to us at (045) 499-1082 or e-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Why-Google-Rank-Matters-to-Your-Busines

The internet has been considered as the new marketplace at present. More than being an effective channel for current events and information, the internet has also served as a gateway that connects customers to business people and vice versa. With more than 2.5 billion internet users worldwide, there is always a great opportunity for any marketer to become successful online. The only problem is, how he can do it and who will help him to achieve a truthful online success.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO) and any online marketing effort points on the same direction- Page Rank. Google Page Rank is greatly affected by the rate of traffic that your website creates. Page Rank (PR) is not a sole effort of the website but even your social media accounts contribute to web traffic and this is often coined as off-page optimization.

Easy Influx of Money

The internet is the fastest source of information.  If you are a buyer who needs a certain product, getting the help of the internet is the best solution you can have to find links of the potential companies that can offer you the product you want. If your website is not seen right on the first page, there is also a lower chance for you to get your products and services promoted to your target market.

Profit always depends on the rate of your new and returning customers.

Trustworthiness and Customer Loyalty

Web users usually have this common connotation that websites found on top of search results are more likely to be trusted than those on the lower pages. Well, this makes sense when it comes to Google/ Yahoo Trust Rank.  This method is applied by search engines to determine the trust level of a particular site that they want to rank higher on their pages.

Customers find it easier to trust your products and services if they will see you on the top page knowing that Google or Yahoo did not bring you on the top spot for nothing.

More Links and Site Connection

Sites with higher page rank are often considered as authority sites.  More people will click and visit your site and this creates a good opportunity to get more sponsors and add extra monetary value on your company.

And most importantly, if you have a higher PR, it will only take few minutes before your content gets indexed by Google.  Meaning, any update on your site will be easily seen on search engine results page and this will lead to more search clicks and link visits.  

Do you want your website to get the no. 1 spot in Google? We have mastered the right formula to make it happen!  The Northern Office can help you arrive at a tailor-fitted internet marketing plan. Call us today at +63 (045) 499-1082 or e-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Via Google Webmaster Help Youtube Channel

Google’s go-to-guy when it comes to SEO matters, Matt Cutts was asked if it’s okay for him to create a new article by putting together a series of thoughts through various sources but cited properly.  The answer was very straightforward, no; it is not a good practice.

Dubbed by Yahoo as the art of “stitching,” this technique was frown upon not just by search engines but by many. Since what it does just copy a lot of personal thoughts and ideas by others without the other have to think about it.

Remember that having well written original content will add more value to a site than having a copy & pasted one.  But if the gathered data and information are necessary to an article, what you can do is present them in a new light and simplify them.

Don't know what to do with your site's information? Use them and turn them into a beautiful article, a great infographic, or an informative press release.

The Northern Office-Innovative Marketing is known for having great online marketing tips in order to reach the highest potential of these info.  For inquiries call us at (632) 499-1082 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

 
Video Credit: Portent

Josh Patrice just released a webinar, providing tips and information to small business owners when it comes to their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) problems and needs.

He reiterated the importance of  fully utilizing the social community to successfully establish an online presence of a company and spread brand awareness.

It can be concluded that the SEO works does not simply stop on optimizing a site.

It is a combination of good content marketing and customer engagement on different social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, etc.

If you don't have a clue on where to start when it comes to SEO, call us at at (632) 499-1082  or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for a free consultation.  

The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing offers good content marketing, website design, and social media strategy to our clients. TNO also provide sales support, multimedia marketing services, and monthly reports for small business owners. 

SEO Mistakes that Could Kill Your Site Ranking

Site ranking is the position of a website in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing during a keyword query. Every company aims to be on the top spot or at least on the first page of a search engine results page (SERP) whenever an online visitor searches for something that is relevant to the company’s products or services.

This is because numerous studies show that the web audience usually check out only those who are on the first page of the SERP and that they, more often than not, click only the first link on it. Reaching the top spot or at least rank on the first page of the SERP is not an easy task.

Listed below are some of the most common mistakes that many SEO practitioners commit that affect the site rankings of their clients. Take your time in reading each of the items and find out if you are committing the same mistakes. In that way, you can start correcting those errors and eventually improve your site ranking.

Website Stability

This problem is mainly because of a problematic host or a poor server or worse, both. Try to minimize your site’s downtime as much as possible. And whenever it occurs, make sure to fix the problem right away so that you can get your site up and running again in no time. This is so you can avoid getting penalized by search engines not to mention, losing potential profit.

Poor Site Speed

It is a must for a website to get all its pages to load quickly to encourage online visitors to continue browsing the site and even come back for more in the future. In the web world, a lot of online browsers are impatient. And if loading takes a lot of time, no matter how interested they are about the offer, they’ll most likely click out and check out some other site. This will surely hurt a site's ranking since Google included site speed when ranking sites. The logic behind Google’s move is that they will also lose profit if a web user switches to another search engine just because Google provided him sites that take forever to load.

Problematic Linking Habits

Authority is crucial for every website. If you provide internal links to every post that you make, it will show the audience that you are credible in your field because you have tackled several concepts that are related in what you do or offer. However, make sure that you do this in moderation. Putting too much internal links on every post can be annoying which can lead to a bad user experience. And when a user did not enjoy browsing your site, chances are that individual will no longer come back to your site next time. Keep your site user friendly!

Keyword Abuse

Anything excessive as they say is not good. Keyword abuse is not an exemption to that fact. Since the web audience is getting smarter as time goes by, many of them can now easily tell if a website is there to provide useful information to visitors or it is there to woo search engines. Avoid doing this since Google has a way of finding out the guilty ones and they could de-rank your site once you are caught exploiting your keywords.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is an entire page of content that shows up in more than one location in a website or multiple sites. Search engines will then get confused on which link to index and include on the SERP if the same content is found in different locations. If you want your site’s ranking to continuously climb to the top, make sure you do not have this SEO problem.

Out of Date Site Maps

The site map is like the table of contents of a website. The problem about many websites is that once they have set up their site maps, they forget about updating them (site maps) whenever they made changes on their sites. The impact of that is newly added important pages may not be found easily by your viewers. And if viewers are already having a hard time locating that page in your website, Google will most likely miss those new additions as well resulting to indexing failure.

If you are still unsure if your website is suffering from the SEO mistakes mentioned in this article, our best suggestion to you is to communicate with your marketing department so they can check on this matter right away.

Are you looking for professionals who can check the SEO status of your website? Get in touch with us now!

We, at The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing, can help you on that matter and even on other marketing efforts that you need. You can give us a ring at (045) 499-1082 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. 

Grey Hat SEO – A Darker Shade of White or A Lighter Shade of Black?

In the world of SEO, there are three kinds of techniques that practitioners use in order to woo search engine giants such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. These techniques – white hat, black hat and grey hat - are what keep the SEO globe spinning.

You can find our info graphic that presents an overview about these SEO practices in our previous post entitled Why Good SEO Pays Off. In this write up, we are going to focus on the most controversial of all three SEO techniques, the Grey Hat.

It is controversial in the sense that not all SEO practitioners agree that such technique exists and that its practices are accepted.

is GREY HAT? Simply speaking, Grey Hat is the fine line that separates White Hat and Black Hat. What makes Grey Hat appealing to businesses is that it is legal (at least for the time being) just like White Hat and it provides positive result quite fast (but not as fast) just like Black Hat.    

   Samples of GREY HAT Techniques

  • Automated Social Media – There are available software in the market that are designed to automatically invite thousands of social media users to follow an account or to produce thousands of likes in just a short period of time.
  • Expired and Old Domain Buys – Another practice that Grey Hat people take advantage of is buying authoritative old and expired domains that are highly related to a client’s niche. The reason behind this technique is that by buying an old or expired domain that has high authority, a webmaster can add backlink(s) to the site that he wants to perform well in rankings.
  • Article Spinning – Since plagiarism is a big no-no in the SEO world (in any kind of world for that matter actually), what Grey Hat practitioners do is they spin articles. With an original content on hand, they will use an article spinner software or a skilled writer to “re-write” or “re-word” the original write up to produce another article that is not exactly new but plagiarism free. It is like presenting an old idea in a new kind of way. This practice is considered a grey hat technique since you basically create a duplicate content without trying to make it look like it.
  • Paid Social Bookmarking and Reviews – Another Grey Hat practice that not a lot of SEO experts are happy about but many still practice is paying social bookmarking sites and other authority sites to write reviews about a business entity.
  • Google Washing aka Google Bombing – This grey hat technique is about manipulating search engines to artificially raise the ranking of a website using a collective effort. One common Google bomb practice is to create a huge number of backlinks using a certain key phrase that is not necessarily related to the target website.
  • Use of Microsites – Microsites are small sites that grey hat marketers put up for their clients that backlinks to the original site of their clients. Basically, a microsite acts as a traffic generator for the original site. Some microsites are as small as just having one web page each and in that single page, one outbound link points back to the target website. The trick here is that even if a microsite contains only a few web pages (or even just one!), if it has been in the web for a really long time, search engines like Google may deem that site as a high authority site. So any company who gets a backlink from that microsite will benefit because Google thinks that, that company site is linked to an authoritative site.

The BIG Argument The existence of grey hat is not acknowledged by everybody in the SEO world. However, there is no denying that this SEO technique is being recognized by a number of SEO practitioners and even applying them in their SEO efforts for their clients.

There are online marketers who would argue and say that they do bend some SEO rules for their clients making sure that they do not cross the line and obtaining the positive results that they are targeting.  

Should You Use GREY HAT? Well, as the old one liner goes, “Enter at your own risk.” The decision to use grey hat SEO techniques greatly depends on how willing is the company or the client to risk its online credibility to increase its web ranking. One friendly reminder though, if ever you have decided to wear this hat for your SEO efforts, you have to keep yourself updated about the new SEO trends and rules that search engines set to make sure that you are not crossing any boundary any time.

This is so you can avoid seeing all your hard work go down the drain just because your website got penalized for an SEO technique that was legal yesterday and banned starting today. In the end, what really matters is that the SEO efforts for a client, no matter what SEO hat was used in the process, are done in accordance to the rules set by search engines to avoid getting penalized and of course, improve the client’s ranking.

Are you looking for professionals who can SEO your website? Get in touch with us!

We, at The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing, has assisted numerous clients both from the Philippines and around the world SEO their websites. You can give us a ring at (045) 499-1082 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information about our services. 

Can You Use Wikipedia in SEO?

Whenever this question is asked by a client, an SEO expert will most likely answer a BIG yes. Although not all SEO professionals will agree that Wikipedia can be used in SEO, there are a lot of experts who do agree and think that integrating Wikipedia in their SEO plans for their clients is effective, when done in the right way of course.

So, How Can One Qualify for a Wikipedia Page? If one is going to research about how to create a Wikipedia page, he will find out that Wikipedia has created a very high standard that every topic or entity has to meet in order for it to gain a Wiki page. The main qualification that needs to be met in order for a topic or an entity to be approved of a Wikipedia page is its “notability”.

This simply means that a topic has already been covered significantly by various trustworthy sources making that topic worthy of a page. In addition to that, another Wikipedia qualification is that the page should not be created by any party who has a conflict of interest such as an individual who wants a page about himself or any representative of a company who is tasked to write about his company.

This is because the main goal of Wikipedia is to produce high quality information that is neutral in tone and in no way biased or sounding like a discreet advertisement.

It’s Okay if You Do Not Qualify for a Wikipedia Page as of the Moment Since not all entities can right away qualify for a page, the best way to penetrate Wikipedia is to edit existing pages that are related to the client’s nature of business.

When editing existing pages, just make sure that only new and verifiable factual information related to the topic at hand is being provided because including unnecessary information that may be deemed by Wikipedia editors as inappropriate and promotional in form will most likely be deleted once discovered.

So Where Does SEO Come In? It is all about the links. After contributing significant amount of new information to already existing Wikipedia pages, there are two routes that an SEO expert can choose from to boost his client’s Wikipedia presence.

One is to participate in the Talk page of the community where his client’s area of expertise belongs. He can post his client’s link in the forum and let other Wikipedians decide if the link is worth adding on the reference section of the Wikipedia page or not.

The other route is that the SEO expert will do the referencing on his own in the hopes of getting organic hits from Wikipedia readers while bearing in mind not to abuse reference linking to avoid getting tagged as spams. Successfully including a link on the reference section of a Wikipedia page is an effective tool to drive interested readers to learn more about the client (or his products/services for that matter).

In closing, using Wikipedia can either make or break a client’s reputation since Wikipedia was created mainly and solely for information dissemination purpose and not for marketing or promotion. That is why it is important to understand first how Wikipedia works in order to fully use its capability as an effective SEO tool.

Do you have further questions about SEO?

The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing is an innovative marketing company that provides SEO services to all interested clients and not only that! TNO also offers free consultation and assistance when it comes to Content Marketing, Creation and Distribution for SME’s. You can email us your inquiries such as your extra questions about SEO at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or give us a call at (045) 499-1082 and we will definitely get back to you ASAP.   

Learning SEO

Last week, we talked about writing an effective content. It was mentioned that a good, targeted content will make your website worthwhile reading. Today, we will continue with our course by discussing another key role in effective marketing—SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Simply speaking, SEO is a method of increasing the ranking of your website in a search engine and in turn, increasing the number of people viewing your website content. When a person searches for particular word on Google or Bing, a list of web results appears that may be related to the word or phrase you searched for.

However, not all websites will be seen; only those with proper SEO will rank better than the others. Of course, the higher the rank of the website is, the more chances that it will be noticed. With proper SEO techniques, you can also draw a lot of traffic into your website. Here are some tips on how you can accomplish that.

1. Research for appropriate keywords This is the most important of all the points that will be given. Finding appropriate keywords requires more than just thinking—it involves research. There are several sites that can help you find effective keywords needed in optimizing your website.

Some of these sites are Google Keyword Tool, WordTracker and WordStream. Always keep your customer in mind. As we mentioned in the past posts in this blog, view the world through your readers’ eyes.  Ask questions like: What are the keywords they would commonly use? Have I put enough keywords? Is there a better keyword than this?

2. Check what a crawler sees in your site Google has “spiders” crawling on the web. These spiders follow links from one page to another and index everything they find on the way. The spiders look for words and expressions on the page and assign them to particular keywords.

When a person searches for a keyword, the words indexed by the spiders will appear in the search engine results. If you optimize the website effectively, it would be easier for the spiders to classify your pages correctly.

If you don’t, the spiders will just crawl and index ineffective words not actually sought by people. It should also be noted that  JavaScript and password-protected sites are not seen by the spiders so better not put TOO MUCH of those.

3.  Check your websites’ efficiency It would be irritating for the customer’s part if he clicks the site and finds out that it has errors (302, 400, 404, 500 HTTP status codes).  Why not try using Screaming Frog and OpenSiteExplorer to identify problems in pages.   Also, it would be better if you make content easily accessible.  Content that can only be accessible after logging in won’t drive traffic to your website.

4.  Aim for more Click Throughs Your aim should transcend beyond getting an increased ranking; your aim has to be getting potential customers enter your site. Even if your website has high ranking, that would be worthless if the potential customer won’t click it.

You can achieve this by testing your title tag. Page titles will usually appear as part of the search results. Make sure that the title tag is concise, descriptive and has accurate keywords. With proper SEO knowledge, you no longer have to spend much just so you can have your business noticed.

As one writer says, “Every business with a website has the potential to get found by more customers online through search engine optimization.” Keep visiting us to learn more ways about managing your business. For the next blog, we’ll have the final part of this blog update so don’t miss it.

The Northern Office is an innovative marketing company that provides free consultation and assistance when it comes to Content Marketing, Creation and Distibution for SME’s. If you want to know more about content marketing and other marketing services, feel free to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (045) 499-1082. Posted by John Joe Morgan

Friday, 12 April 2013 14:33

Why Good SEO Pays Off

SEO techniques are classified into the following categories: White hat, Gray Hat & Black Hat.

In this article, we’ll be explaining how each one uses a particular factor in the process of search engine optimization and what results do they give to your website.  You will also be able to understand how each of the techniques work and why a good SEO technique is still best for your website. Let us start by defining the three.

SEO techniques are represented by colors – not that they wear real colored hats but the colors determine the purity of your site based on search engines’ SEO terms and conditions.

White Hat – White hat is a SEO technique that follows Google’s SEO standards and uses ethical and professional methods to optimize a website to improve ranking in search results. White hat generally aims to create a well coded website and achieve long term results.

Grey Hat – Grey hat is a mixture of both white hat and black hat SEO. It does adhere with search engines’ SEO rules but slightly bends them to get faster results and has lesser chance of being penalized.

Black Hat – Most SEO experts regard this as an illegal approach of optimizing websites. Black hat SEO uses manipulative methods that results to extremely quick but short term results. Plus, some websites with Black Hat SEO’s are being penalized by being banned from search engines. Now that you have a slight idea of what these techniques are, take a look at this infographic to differentiate each technique’s quality and methods involved.

good seo

You now probably have an idea what each technique can provide your website.  The big question is why choose good SEO when you could actually go for other methods with faster results? While some companies resort to shady methods of SEO in order to rank, white SEO is still considered the most and only advisable way of generating traffic.

White SEO is guaranteed 100% safe from risks and other damages that unlawful methods can do to your website.

White hat SEO may probably take a long time before achieving results, but you’d be surprised with how the hard work  and time is worth your investment.

Learn how you can get a healthy SEO ranking.

Need help with your SEO? Tell us how we can provide assistance. Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call at (632) 499-1082 for a free consultation. For years, The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing Support has been providing professional and legal SEO services for different companies across the globe and in the Philippines. TNO has been creating, developing and managing effectively ranking websites that complies with search engines’ SEO standards. For more information on TNO’s services, visit www.tno.im 

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