Ah, you have spent hours upon hours trying to appease the Google gods and suddenly… voila… there is another real contender in the search arena. Did you know that Bing is now offering big time incentive for those willing to make the switch from Google? Awarding searchers points for their activity on the Bing site, the company is offering up some pretty substantial prizes for those with enough points to purchase entries into drawings. The impact that this will have on the search industry is not yet clear, but what is apparent is that Bing is in it to win it and not likely to disappear anytime soon, which means that, as a content creator, you want to be sure that you are appealing to their crawlers as well.
If you think that your efforts to appeal to Google are automatically going to make you a shining star on Bing, think again. There is a website dedicated to showing the drastic difference in search results between the two search giants. Don’t believe it? You can check it out right here.
Back Links Lose Their Influence One of the biggest reasons that there is this discrepancy in results is because Bing doesn’t put so much weight on the back links on other websites. It doesn’t mean that you should stop your efforts to obtain these links, but simply that, when trying to build you Bing standings, you will need to put more effort elsewhere. There is some good news about this Bing trend – it prevents the boost in standings for those using immoral link buying practices. That is certainly a silver lining for those working hard to build their online presences honestly.
Content is Still King There is some debate on this point, but many have come to agree that Bing weighs On-Page SEO even more highly than Google does. That means that you need to have excellent content, a wealth of relevant keywords, and clean HTML coding. The good news here is that, if you are having success on Google, then you have likely already been making these efforts. Just keep it up!
New Sites Rejoice Page Rank is generally something that takes time to build up. So, new websites automatically get pushed to the back of the search engine standings lineup. However, with Bing, there is evidence that Page Rank is of less importance and that might just mean that your new website stands a chance of reaching page one in the near future.
It took a long time for this service to be given the green light, but the good news for businesses internet-wide is that Google is now providing the opportunity to make a better first impression with Google Review Extensions. Why does Google want to give businesses the right to publish reviews as part of their Adwords snippets? The reasoning is simple – Google serves the search user and reviews give that user more information about the products or services he is seeking.
Sometimes, it’s the little details that make a big difference, and SEO is no exception. A solid URL, for instance, may seem like an afterthought. In fact, it can be a critical part of your SEO efforts. If you have “messy” URLs, it’s time to clean up your act.
Dealing with Negative Comments and Reviews on Social Media
by Mindy on May 9, 2014 in Content, SEO, Social Media, User Generated Content | No comments yet
It can be so discouraging to receive negative comments about your business, your writing, or some other endeavor. After all, this is your passion in live, it is what you have dedicated tireless hours, and very likely, copious amount of your hard-earned capital to. So, when someone attacks it, it can be very difficult to take the personal element out of it. You must remember that generally negative statements are made by those that don’t know you and are only unhappy with some small piece of what you do. It is not a personal attack and with a little forethought, you can smooth it over and come out looking even better on the other end. Just think about how happy you are when you experience excellent customer service.
Move the Comment Down the Feed Before you do anything else, it is a good idea to generate a lot of new content on that particular social media channel to push the negativity from the forefront of your page. Social media platforms replace old content with new as soon as it is created, so get busy. Once you have lessened the threat and the number of potential customers likely to see the negativity, you can react to the attacker. If the comment is not on your page, but on someone else’s, then consider requesting that they remove it in a personal message. If it holds a true potential of damaging your reputation or that of your company, then there is the option on some platforms to report it as defamation.
Respond with Grace Don’t retaliate or spout out with anger. It will serve you much better to take the higher road. Remember, every company makes mistakes and if you were caught in one, the best thing that you can do is admit fault, apologize, and showcase your willingness to work with unhappy customers. If the complaint is related to a product that you manufacture or a service that you provide, you might consider smoothing the problem over by correcting the reported problem or offering a discount to the individual in question. If it is a more generic attack, then consider the source of the anger that fueled the comment and how you might politely diffuse it, while upholding your image.
Baseless Negativity If you know for the fact that there is no truth in the comment or it is clearly some sort of misunderstanding, don’t be afraid to say so publicly. However, do so with tact. Don’t attack the other person, just simply state facts laced with humility.