Longer Search Queries Mean Longer Result Snippets

Sometimes we ask questions to Google and typing them into the search box. Instead of using the search phrase “hong kong restaurant” other people use “where can i find a good restaurant in hong kong”? The thought is the same but the difference is that the second search query is longer than the first one.

Results may be similar but as we try these phrases on, Google takes a not-so-new spin on displaying search results.

A shorter search query such as “hong kong restaurant” displays a shorter snippet. A snippet is the piece of text that appears below the linked text that appears within search results.

Continue reading Longer Search Queries Mean Longer Result Snippets

Secretary’s Day Flowers: Capturing Audience At The Right Time

Secretary’s Day (also known as Administrative Professional’s Day) is celebrated to honor and recognize the work of secretaries, administrative assistants and receptionists. This year Secretary’s Day will be on the 22nd of April.

Probably in the search engine usage patterns, there will be a surge in secretary’s day related terms. This is the same as when people tend to search for “gifts” or “christmas” related keywords during the last months of the year. In the case of secretaries, bosses might be looking for gift ideas, such as flowers, chocolates or cards. It’s also an opportunity for sellers of these items to attract buyers through search engine marketing.

Continue reading Secretary’s Day Flowers: Capturing Audience At The Right Time

Google’s Take on URL Keywords

One of the reasons I made the changes to this blog is to make URLs keyword-rich and optimize search engines.

Good timing to answer a question on whether optimizing keywords on URLs is something we should focus. Google’s Matt Cutts gets interviewed about it. His thoughts on the matter can be viewed on the following video:

Google Displays Duplicate Results

I recently revamped the look and feel of this blog and one of the changes I did was to convert the URL structure from the trivial numeric assignment to keyword-rich URLs (talking about walk the talk).

To implement such change, old URLs like www.seo-hongkong.com/blog/?p=951 will now be redirected to www.seo-hongkong.com/blog/free-seo-seminar-in-hong-kong-951.html. But I didn’t expect the two to show up when I entered the phrase “free seminar hong kong”.

Importance of Optimizing for Long Tail Keywords

When I ask clients what keywords they want to rank for, most if not all would ask for favorable rankings of very generic keywords. Keywords that are almost impossible to rank on the first page, let alone achieve top rankings.

fashion
perfume
investment

But that’s how clients typically think, ranking their best bet keywords at the best possible way, and nobody should blame them. One of our tasks should be to open their eyes to the reality that it’s not the way the SEO game is to be played. The web gets crowded by the day and that could mean, more and more pages are competing for the words fashion, perfume and investment.

Continue reading Importance of Optimizing for Long Tail Keywords