Well as many of you already know Google has yet again changed the landscape of the SERPs.  They have been working on changing the way things are weighted and deciding what will get what value whether it be for national keywords or local search.  They have made more changes in the last 6 months than they have in the last 6 years.  I was reading a local search news article the other day and they sent out 700,000 warning letter in the first two months of 2012.  That is more letters than they sent collectively between 2010 and 2011.  They are after people that have Elevate local listings in an unnatural way. They basically accused 700,000 of cheating and it was likely just to stur the pot and see what happens. Many turned themselves in and other have been denying it and others yet were wrongfully blamed and were pretty stunned by the letter.

The word is that they are working a new update that will be even tougher that could be released soon. One of the big things that it will be doing is penalizing people that have over optimized their sites. The ones that jibber jabber that is designed just to look good to search engines but is far from sounding or looking natural. The days of keyword stuffing my finally be over. Their end goal is to give people with authority higher rank and sites with more authority higher rank. They has even been talk about authority authorship. This would combine the author and the rank of the site to give a end value. This would mean that a poorly ranked author or site would not rank well compared to a author or site with value. If you can get the two combined it could be huge. This is already being tracked by google but has not been completely picked up yet. Only time will tell.

How would you like to get guaranteed seo results?  Well I have a surprise for you.  I recently ran across a company that will do exactly that.  They guarantee a pop in your rank or it cost you nothing.  They take no upfront money and you only pay after you get results.  It is nice to see a company stand behind their product in this day and age.  So often SEO services will take your money and promise the moon.  Then talk about how it will take 90 days to see any results but will gladly continue to take your cash.  If you are lucky you might see some movement but they are going to give you any guarantees.  They might let you out if the contract after 90 days if you are not happy with the performance but typically will sign you up for a long term contract with no promises.  Do not fall for these type of SEO services anymore and stick with the one that guarantees results.

One of the ways to increase your web presence is to work on your social media optimization.  Most search engine marketing experts are learning the importance of a great social presences.  You can no longer rely on links and “juice” but you need to have strong content and interaction with your readers.  What better way than to interact with them on one of the many social platforms.

I used to work for a traditional search engine marketing firm that slow morphed into a full service social media company.  I am sure media will move to almost exclusive interactive marketing until it will likely morph yet again.  Our company now not only helps people with creating all of their social assest but we also help them manage them so that they can have constant conversations with their clients.  We have found that sales increase with an increase in interaction.  This has been proof to us that it is very important to remain in contact with your clients.

I have been looking for some of the best affiliate networks out there that I can align myself with.  I am looking to quit my day job and think that an affiliate job might be a great option for me.  I am pretty computer savvy and certainly have the work ethic to make things happen without having constant supervision.  My cousin recommended Blue Global Media because they have a Payday affiliate program and they have been super popular lately.  Blue Global Media has a number of other financial products but the payday program is by far the most popular.  I think it has a lot to do with the tough times that many people are experiencing today.  We used to be able to borrow from our house but must people are under water on their house and have very little other options.  Many have gotten into a hole that will be tough to get out of.  The payday loan programs are able to help people until things hopefully turn around.  It looks very promising.

I was looking for a good data storage systems since my wife has grown her photography business quickly and we are running out of room on our computers.  She is pretty obsessive about having multiple back up solutions just in case.  One of her friends had a fire in their house and lost her computer and her back up hard drive.  So she basically lost everything since she did not have a second backup in a different location or in the cloud.  This was a huge eye opener for my wife.

Now she has gone a little overkill in my eyes but if it gives her peace of mind then I will support her as long as it does not get to expensive.  She will now have a cloud option, a location with data backup, a backup of her files and a back up stored in a fire proof safe.  I think she is pretty covered but I still see her eyeing data storage solutions anytime we are are at the computer store.