Content is King in the online world, or is it?

If your website has duplicate content, then you are losing the war to competitors as well as missing out on generating greater customer growth and revenue.

Search engine optimization has evolved over many years and will continue to do so in the years to come.

Before the introduction to a plethora of search engine algorithms and their multi-dimensional complexities, it was quite easy to stake your businesses claim to the front page of all major search engines for your respective industry.

There are many advanced SEO techniques that an average person wouldn’t see or ever comprehend when viewing a webpage that can be considered illegal or deceptive SEO.

From shady link building schemes to paid links to keyword stuffing to link stuffing to plagiarizing a competitor’s original content, there were and still are today many ways, some honest while many are deceitful, to arrive at the front page of all major search engines.

In today’s post, we hope to address the Content is King mentality of those businesses operating in gray-hat SEO, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

Today’s focus is publishing duplicate content in an effort to rank higher on the first page search engine results of all major search engines.

Ever wonder how individuals are able to have their image placed next to their Google search engine results as shown below? Welcome to the new future of search engine optimization: Google Authorship.

Google Authorship has been the talk of the town for individuals and businesses wanting to rank higher and more consistent in Google search.

Google Authorship, also known as Google Rank, is the new future of search engine optimization allowing authors to increase their search rankings click-through rates (CTR).

Another upside is Google Authorship allows for ownership of content, limiting the opportunity for online piracy. Click here for more on Google Authorship.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been overwhelmed with the number of emails from individuals and businesses trying to implement Google Authorship for their website(s).

Today’s post will be a quick and easy how-to guide to help you successfully setup your Google Authorship account. in hopes of having your image placed next to your authoritative online works.

Ready, well then here we go…

How effective are billboard advertisements in comparison to premium domain names?

Well, that’s a loaded question based on who you ask, where they live, and their perspective on life as well as their habits as a consumer.

From global to national to regional to local search engine marketing, Kickstart Commerce has a plethora of experience in helping customers to find the best media combinations or medium whereby their marketing and advertising spend will achieve the greatest return on investment (ROI).

And what a challenge this is due to the nature of each customer we partner with attaining various business nuances to take into consideration.

In today’s post, we’ll attempt to uncover the advantages and disadvantages of both billboards and premium domain names.

Performing some daily reading over various blogs, I saw Brian Cray’s post, Time On Site & Bounce Rate: Get the real numbers in Google Analytics, and had to share it with the Kickstart Commerce Community. 

I know many of you utilize the free web analytics tool, Google Web Analytics, provided by Google to monitor web traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, traffic sources, and more.

Brian’s post is God-sent as it will help you to find the *REAL* Time On Site and Bounce Rate of your website.

For those not using Google Web Analytics or some other web analytics to measure the effectiveness of your website, then you are throwing away opportunity and opportunity to understand what your website does very well and what does not do very well.

If you and your business have ever encountered unethical business practices as it relates search engine marketing or search engine optimization, please know that it is your right to report such companies to the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Not another business or person should have to suffer due to such unethical business practices.  The FTC will and can handle complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on “File a Complaint Online,” call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

Have you or anyone you known ever encountered unethical business practices that cost your business in time and money?

Why do premium domain names cost so much?  What is the difference between a premium domain name versus a domain name?

Domain names are quite powerful entities in the world of the internet.  In fact, they can make or break a business when an owner allows the domain name to expire.

If the owners fail to pay the domain name renewal fees, then the domains become the property of the domain registrar.

You may know this or have already experienced this costly lesson.

Nevertheless, expired domain names become available to the general public once again if no one purchases the domains in a public auction.

Expired domain names sometimes become the property of domain investors, known as domainers, or sometimes trademarked expired domain names end up in the hands of unethical cybersquatters.

However, no matter who owns a given domain name, there is a different class of domain names on the market known as premium domain names.

Typically, premium domain names were registered in the early to late 1990s.  Some of these domains are actively developed.  Others are parked, and a small percentage simply doesn’t resolve to a web page.

In most cases, many of these valuable domains are redirected while others are parked in hopes that someone would come along and want to purchase the domain name for their business.

Most business owners are busy with the day-to-day tasks of ensuring their customers are properly serviced and satisfied, employees are showing up and performing at an optimal level and payroll and bills are paid to name just a few.

And should the business garner most of its sales online, then all eyes are glued on ensuring the website is functional at all times and without show stopping glitches that could harm sales.

In today’s post, I will cover the common pitfalls of untidy code and how it greatly harms search engine rankings as well as potentially harms online sales.