President Obama has announced that he plans to take swift and decisive action to curtail the predatory activities of credit card companies. This means not allowing these companies to jack up interest rates without warning or charge ridiculous late fees that push their borrowers into default. This is good news for many Americans, but it also brings with it a responsibility.

Hey, CKMG’s not all about making money. We hope for opportunities to better the community too. That’s why when we heard that one of our long-term writers was starting a baseball team that any local 5^th or 6^th grader in the Burbank area could join, regardless of experience or skill level, we wanted to get in on the ground floor.

And what does that mean for SEO strategies?

You might be hearing in recent news about Google’s plan to change its ranking criteria and how it assigns first page listings in an attempt to combat web pages using blackhat SEO techniques to manipulate search rankings.

Traditional factors that have shown to influence search engine rankings include content, links, meta information and tags, and domain registration age, to name a few.

Google’s new focus will be based on freshness of a site’s information – meaning that a search query will show the latest and most recently information regarding those keywords.  The Wall Street Journal reported the example of searching for a celebrity, and the search results would show the sites reporting the most recent news about that person, before listing the celebrity’s official website.

So how does this effect SEO strategies?

Clearly the focus continues to be on the user experience and providing the most relevant content – however it doesn’t change the strategy at large. Content is still king, however it is definitely taking new forms, leveraging blogs and social media platforms. The goal is getting your site in front of real people in real time, and providing them with real information.

Link building is still very purposeful, and Google hasn’t commented on the “link velocity” factor. This concept refers to the speed at which new organic links form to a site. These link bursts have been a red flag and a way to identify a spammer trying to manipulate search results. However, in the age of more a live web then a static web, these links are also a sign of freshness, with the impact of social bookmarking, links, buttons, social networks, and real-time networks, i.e. Twitter and Facebook.

While Google’s emphasis on freshness has it’s challenges, continuing to focus your SEO strategy on unique, daily content targeted towards real people will definitely serve you well.

Crafting a Strong Call to Action

In order to see the highest conversions for your landing page, your call to actions must embody the Three C's: clear, customized and convincing. No matter what the content on your page says, you won't convert well until a user is inspired to act. Composing an effective call to action requires you to observe a number of guidelines. Your user must be able to locate the call to action and it must be clear what they're supposed to do. The call to action should be customized to the target audience and appeal to their sensibilities. And finally, you must use language that convinces users that buying your product or subscribing to your offer/service is the right thing to do.

Making Your Call to Action Clear

Get to the point. A reader may simply be looking over your landing page without really reading all of the content. Your call to action should be separated from the rest of the copy and jump out at the reader. They shouldn't have to weed through images and text to find a button they can click or a form they can fill out. I'm not suggesting you dumb down your content to direct users to where they can take action. Your readers are intelligent, but they're also generally busy. By setting apart your call to action from other on-page elements, you're doing your readers a favor by saving them time and mental overload. Studies have shown that ads containing links that say "Click Here" are more effective than those that don't. Don’t be afraid to tell your viewers what they need to do, they won't mind. Give it to them straight. Metaphors and flowery language can be in your copy, that's what it's there for.

Customizing Your Call to Action

Is your reader learning about your product for the first time? Is he comparing your product offering to a long list from other providers? Does he have his wallet out, ready to buy? Get into the mind of your consumer, how did he find your page? Depending on your user's intentions, your call to action will have to vary to see the best conversions. Find out what the viewer is looking for and how you can assist in them getting it.

Convincing Users to Take Action

Explain why your user should do what you want him/her to do. Use your powers of persuasion to identify what the reader needs and why clicking that call to action will benefit them. "Order now for a free gift!" is a great strategy. Special offers like time limits on the offer or price can convince people to order now as opposed to bookmarking the page. Use action verbs and urgent language to help viewers visualize themselves taking action.

The new Star Trek movie is out and reviews are highly positive. Everyone wants to tune in to see the next—really the first—adventure for the Kirk, Spock and McCoy crew. What is it that has made Star Trek so appealing for the last 40+ years?

World Wide Web: The Final Frontier

Star Trek at its heart is about pioneering. In fact it was initially conceived by Gene Roddenberry as a “space western.” That line from the opening: “To boldly go where no man has gone before,” while not necessarily grammatically or politically correct, epitomizes what the series wants to show us, the benefits of exploration, of learning more about things that we don’t understand.

Internet Pioneering

Those of us in the SEO field are pioneers as well. The Internet itself has only really been around as a commercial enterprise for less than twenty years, and virtual empires have already risen and fallen. New technologies and concepts for the Internet and SEO are popping up all the time; today it’s the power and reach of social networks, tomorrow it might be something else.

Warp Speed Ahead

That’s what makes this field so exciting. There are always new avenues to explore, new concepts to try. The good ones will be rewarded with prosperity while the bad ones will quickly wither on the vine and die, allowing us to move forward, and to virtually go where none of us have ever gone before.

I really had no idea what I was in for last night when I arrived to a seminar titled "Make Real Money on the Internet". 

It was amazing. One minute this guy is throwing the 'Mo’Money' gang sign, while jumping around on stage, and the next minute he is ripping content off Amazon and posting a blog through their affiliate program to promote a camera. This man showed the audience, the average Joe web user, how to throw up "affiliate" web pages in less then 10 minutes. So now you can make "real money" on the internet by creating a bunch of fluff web pages to lure unsuspecting potential consumers to “click through” and make a few bucks from a search query. I found myself sitting in an MLM pitch for an Affiliate Program. Frighteningly brilliant.

As I am sitting there watching the audience become totally mesmerized by this guy and I was stuck: on one hand – this concept is fabulous – anyone can start making residual income with free tools like a blog, and already written content, and a few links. The payout is real and you don’t need to know anything to get started – and his personal software affiliate program only cost $200 - basically a legitimate scam.

On the other hand, I was disturbed. The internet is being inundated with garbage! With so much clutter, it’s even harder for people to find what they are looking for, and even more so for the business to reach and connect with the interested consumer!

This means more work for the businesses who are actually trying to provide real content, and an authentic service or product, and who have an honest desire to provide the consumer with a positive experience. Optimization and effective eMarketing strategies become mandatory for a business to survive, as they are now competing for search query ranking against these “affiliate” web pages. eMarketing campaigns have to be even more targeted and carefully executed to fend off the risk of getting black listed.

It’s interesting to watch the evolution of the terms “Affiliate” and “SEO”. And as “Black hat” versus “White hat” become harder to differentiate, it will be even more interesting to watch the level of consumer/web-user savvy. Sure…everyone wants to make Mo’ Money…

So the latest news is that Manny Ramirez, who some argue is the catalyst for the Los Angeles Dodgers recent success, is being suspended for 50 days, nearly a third of the season, for a positive performance-enhancing drug test. It seems like this comes at the worst possible time for the Dodgers, who had been riding an impressive streak of home victories. What’s the lesson in all this?

Who wants to be associated with Swine Flu? Swine Flu is bad, right? Well, yes, Swine Flu is bad, but the coverage it’s getting is phenomenal. The Swine Flu story is spreading throughout the nation faster than Swine Flu itself. People are buying face masks, avoiding confined spaces, and thinking about keeping their kids out of school.

The Secret of Swine Flu

Here’s the big secret: This strain of Swine Flu isn’t even as big a health concern as the regular influenza we see every flu season. It’s estimated that 36,000 Americans die from seasonal flu every year. So far Swine flu has killed one. Can you imagine if people on the Internet believed that the product you were promoting was 36,000 times more potent than it really is?

The hockey playoffs are upon us, which means it’s time to ask: What does playoff hockey have to do with SEO? At first glance, the answer may seem to be: “Nothing. Hockey is a sport played on ice and SEO is a way to get web traffic.” But upon more careful consideration, there are some similarities.

A great way to get traffic to your site and make sure that your pages rank high with search engines is by conducting a good link building strategy.

What is Link Building?

Link building is one of the best ways to make your site more visible. There are many ways to start your link building campaign. You can build links through blogs, partnerships with other sites or by submitting your link to directories. But there must be value to the actual pages you're linking to. Linking to an unoptimized page may see short-term results, but will not help your site reach its true potential.