There is a lot of talk lately after Penguin came out, as well as several updates to the Penguin algorythm on what exactly is affecting a site to make it drop off for a single keyword.  I have written a little about my experiences with Penguin, but often get requests from new customers to look into why they are no longer ranking #1 for X keyword.  Each case is slightly different but have a common thread.

I have developed a little test to check to see if they might have been hit by penguin because of on page  over-optimization issues.  I get the question a lot that goes something like “What is over optimization? Does this mean we can’t put the keyword on the page?”  And my answer is usually something like “If the keyword is on the page more often than it needs to be to get the customer to A) Figure out where they are, B) Find what they are looking for, or C) figure out where to go next, than it is probably over optimized.”

The following test probably does not work 100% of the time, but works for me often enough that I use it right out of the gate to see if the shoe fits.  If so, i don’t research much further.

Here is how the process goes:

Real world experience…but this will probably be fixed by the time you read this, so you won’t be able to see it for yourself because I’m going to fix this right away…so I’m going to include screen shots.

Initial Information you need to get started:

1) Domain Name: Example: www.ekpass.com
2) Keyword that got nuked by Penguin: Example: “Heavy Equipment Operator Training”

Steps to Check

1. Use Safari browser if possible (highlights in colors nicely later on but not critical).
2. Do a quick search on Google to see if the website shows up in the top 100 listings when you search on the keyword.  (I usually never see the listing in the top 100, but did see it once in the 80′s)
3. Now, perform a search on google exactly like this:
   1. http://www.google.com
   2. Type in your keyword with -asdf at the end Example “Heavy Equipment Operator Training -asdf” (without the quotes).  This can be any negative term…i just randomly chose “asdf”. I usually use “yomamma” because it cracks me up….sad life I know.  Any negative term will work though.
   3. You should now see your listing in the top 2 pages or so.  I never see it back at the #1 spot, but most often at the bottom of page 1 or top of page 2.  If you do see this, this is a strong indication that you have been hit by the Penguin update.
   4. Now comes the real test… roll over the listing until you see the link for “cached”.  (click image below for full size)
      
      This is where Google will show you highlighted where it saw the keyword on the page…but wait…there’s more!
   5. Now click on the “cached” link on the top right side of the flyout window and then on the “text Only” link at the top right of the next screen.  Here is the next screen.
      (click image below for full size)
   6.   Now you will see a screen that highlights what Google really sees.  See image below from my Safari browser.
      

      You will want to click on this to see full sized version

      Se all that color..that is why I suspect they got hit by Penguin.   Looks like keyword stuffing to me eh?  Fix this, and on the next pass (usually in a month or two) the algorithm won’t match and you should be back in business.   Remember, this isn’t a penalty, just an algorithm match so as soon as you don’t match it, you should rank for your keyword again.

Like I said earlier, this probably won’t work all the time, but it’s a quick check to see if it is totally obvious that there is some on-page optimization issues that got them in trouble for Penguin.

Hope this helps….and leave me a comment if you have any other things that might help us all out.

What Just Happened?

Let’s get a few things straight right from the beginning –  I know there has been some panic ad angst with the sight of so many websites dropping like flies with this latest algorithm change, however SEO isn’t dead.  Google has built a system which rewards you for getting backlinks, and then slaps your hand when you don’t do it the way they want you to (oh please).  They think we’re going to buy into their hippie-esque “natural linking” notions…(laugh)!  As long as they reward sites by having backlinks…we’ll get backlinks.

Backlinks, anchor text, and blog networks still work as well (if not better) as they always have.  Not only that, “low quality” links continue to work as well.  We just need to be more careful about how we use each of these.  The thing that has been shown to have changed the most is the strong shift towards social signals.  These social signals have taken a prominent roll and won’t go away anytime soon.

Panda

First of all, there are two separate changes we need to take into account.  Panda and Penguin.  Each update was very different in nature.  Panda was a penalty change targeted at penallizing websites that had a lot of advertising in them, as well as pages that were considered “low value” or poorly written content.

The basic focus of the Panda update included:

• content “quality” of your site
• thin, affiliate, or squeeze pages
• website load times
• bounce rates
• authentic contact information (real addresses, phone numbers, and emails)
• the presence of “terms and conditions” and “Policy” pages present on websites.

Penalties have a timeframe associated with them and will eventually be removed.  Usually within 90 days.  These penalties from Panda had to do with your site…not necessarily with the linking, but, to make matters more complicated, it also took place in a way that had never been seen before.  This time, Panda first began with an automated detection process which spotted websites that matched certain criteria.  Then they sent out automated notices to kick off this witch hunt.

Google couldn’t tell who was really doing this so they used this scare tactic to try to get people to raise their hands (ignorantly thinking they would be safe if they ratted out to Google who was doing their SEO.

After notices were sent out as a result of the automatic detection, an army of Google drones (actual people) stepped in to manually review sites…most of which were slapped with huge penalties even though they willingly cooperated.  It turns out Google penalized both the site owners who raised their hands as well as targeting SEO firms who were ratted out.  Everyone turned into carnage who respond to these letters.  Those who ignored them….for the most part escaped injury.

While Panda was targeted at improving the quality of the web, however the penguin update neither improved the quality of the web, or improved search results.  In fact..it made results much worse.  Ranking blank 404 error pages at the top of the SERPS for very popular keywords.

Panda was a penalty update, Penguin was an algorithm update.  Penalties have a time associated with them where algorithm effects you only when you match that criteria.

Penguin

This penguin update was entirely different.  The penguin update was an algorithm change targeted specifically at SEO and Web Service companies.  Along with this update we saw the demise of some of the largest blog networks out there.  There were 5 major blog networks that were affected.  The interesting part about this attack is that it was a single round of attacks that were apparently achieved by placing “moles” pretending to be marketers into each of these blog networks and then nuking any blog that reported a link that was reported.

Algorithm changes only effect you if you match that algorithm.  Once you don’t match it anymore, you are immediately not affected.  There is no timeframe like there is with a penalty.

There is no algorithm that was used to detect these blog networks.  This is demonstrated by other very large and medium sized private blog networks (which shall remain anonymous) that were not affected at all.  These  networks that are being shared by a relatively small group of marketers were unscathed because they were not actively soliciting new members and you couldn’t just buy into the network.  So, Google couldn’t find and get into these networks. This shows us that blog networks are still an extremely viable method of linking.  All networks are going to have to change to a referral based or strictly private membership model to survive future witch hunts.

Another reason this penguin update was interesting was due to the fact that Google has targeted sites that are “over-optimized”.  For now, it seems that having the keywords in the title tag, meta tags, alt tags, named images, first and last sentences of the body, bolded, italic, or underlined keywords, H1-H4 tags etc etc… are now signals of over-optimization.

Here a few of the major things Google has targeted with the penguin update and some thoughts on what to do moving forward.

 First Target: Anchor Text Ratios

Anchor text has traditionally been a primary focus for creating a “popular” site.  Each link back to your website has been seen as a vote for your popularity.  These links can appear many different places, each carrying their own link values based on the PR (and other factors) of the site the links originate from.

Definition: Anchor text is the text used for people to look at with a link connected to it.  Here is an example where the word “example” the anchor text and the URL is where you go when you click “example”

A link on a website with high PR has provided more “link juice” or passed on more power to your website.  While this is still valid, the number of percentage or ratio of a particular anchor text is now taken into heavy consideration. If you were trying to rank for the keyword “work boots”, you would get links from other websites, articles, blogs, or forums using the key phrase “work boots” as the anchor text.  The problem is…this isn’t natural.  Not all people state things the same ways, and Google knows it, but just hasn’t been able to determine this with a high amount of accuracy until the technology and math behind  the Panda update. (or they have a subscription to SEO MOZ).

With some research done by the good folks over at MicrositeMasters.com they found that every site that got detected and was affected by the Penguin update had their “money keyword” in over 60% of it’s incoming links.  This is not surprising because human nature is too random for this to happen in real life.  This has greatly affected websites that have a single theme and are targeted on either a single or very few number of keywords. Sites that haven’t been affected are typically websites that have a broad base and many topics that they discuss including e-commerce where they market many products.

First Target: What to do going forward:

My firm has always taken a paranoid approach to linking and have primarily gotten links from industry related websites and massively changing both the structure and content of the anchor text, the URL and the description that accompanies the link.  For instance..if the “money keyword” was “designer Jeans” we would still keep the keyword in the anchor text, but would mix it up by using phrases to accompany it such as

• “popular designer jeans”
• “new designer jeans styles”
• “designer jeans sale”

and so on.  Even the links behind the anchor text  get mixed up.  If the link we were pointing to was http://thedesignerwherehouse.com (i just made that up) we mix it up like this

• http://thedesignerwherehouse.com
• http://www.thedesignerwherehouse.com
• http://thedesignerwherehouse.com/
• http://www.thedesignerwherehouse.com/
• http://TheDesignerWherehouse.com
• http://www.TheDesignerWherehouse.com/
• etc…

Second Target: Link Placement

It is often been said “a link is a link”, however this does not seem to be as true anymore. It matters more where your links come from. Recent studies from websites that have been affected by Penguin have shown that links coming from blog comments, form profiles, and other spamming type links have been affected. This clearly shows that it matters where the incoming links are coming from. Websites that have been marketing using  paid press releases, unique article content with embedded links, micro-sites (small websites that focus on a single topic or just a couple topics), and social media have been the websites that have escaped the wrath of the penguin.

It appears the industry related links are becoming more and more relevant as those will carry much more weight and relevancy for your SEO efforts.   getting these industry related links require sophisticated software and are much more expensive to obtain. In our work we are focused for many years on industry related  links  for our larger clients. These links can cost anywhere from  $17 and $37 each which is cost prohibitive for most companies. In the past couple of years we’ve grown accustomed to buying links for almost nothing, however this game is coming to a close.

Second Target: What to do going forward:

From this point forward working to have to target an audience that is closer to our industry or topic.   Make sure you get at least 10-15% of your links from industry related sites or “high quality” links. Some companies have resorted to building hundreds of websites called micro-sites that focus on different aspects of the industry they are in to build up their own industry network.   Although this is a fantastic method for building your own private blog network, this requires a tremendous amount of work and is very time-consuming and expensive to create (and maintain), as well  as continuing to produce unique relevant articles on each of the websites.

Some ideas on how to get these 10-15% ”high quality” links could be obtained by using Press releases, doing high quality blog commenting (with actual good comments), guest blogging, buying links from trusted websites (be careful), and creating your own private blog or micro-site networks.

Third Target: On page SEO

What To Do Moving Forward

Google will refine their latest updates (they always do) over time and a lot of the current chaos (and highly ranked blank pages) will go away.  Here are my suggestions for the moment….and are what I’m doing with my own websites as well as those of my clients.

1. Get rid of Google Analytics.  They are using your data like a club to beat you over the head with. Use PIWIK instead.  (just Bing PIWIK) Avoid all Google free tools like the plague.

2. Get rid of Google Webmaster tools.  These are the spikes on the club they are beating you over the head with.  Any time Google offers you free tools…be very very careful.  They always have a hidden agenda that is entirely self serving.

3. Get rid of Adsense.  Evaluate if you are really making enough money to justify having Google know important statistics about your website.  If you have a strictly adsense driven site…than you should probably  keep it, but all other websites should seriously consider removing it.  Google gets too much data about you from this and your site is always under scrutiny due to click fraud (which is still rampant).

4. Include social and share buttons on your site.  These signals are very very important now and you should begin focusing on them a lot more with your SEO efforts.  Focus on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and other social sharing sites.

5. Focus on getting at least 10-15% high quality backlinks.  Whether it’s from PR Web, Private blog networks, guest blogging, natural blog commenting, or buying links from trusted websites….make sure a minimum of 10% of these are from these quality sources.  You can still get 90% medium and low quality backlinks, however i’d be careful about using sites such as fiverr where although it’s cheap and easy, Google knows about this and i’m sure if they haven’t already been targeting, will be targeting these services as well.  You don’t want the next update (targeted at fiverr and similar services) to take you down again!

6. Clean up your site – this is to protect agains both panda and penguin.  Any un-researched statistics or poorly written content that you hired out….it’s time to purge.  I’m not a huge proponent that content is king, but I have seen poorly written content to hurt a site.

7. Diversify your anchor text to obtain good ratios.  If you have any anchor text ratios that are above the 60% ratio (see ways to find this out above) than fix it.  Get a bunch of links to offset this ratio and you will quickly regain your rankings.

8. Use and diversify your naked links.  Get plenty of these out there as well.  This is a natural occurrence..so make sure you get plenty of these out there and mix up the way the link looks.

9. Use canonical URLS on your site.  If you don’t want to do your entire site, just add this to your index page and most popular landing pages.

10. Add a “Terms & Conditions” and “Policies” page to your website.  Just find one from another site and personalize it to your own.

Now go get your rankings back and reclaim your rightful place at the top of the search engines.

∇∇∇ Now click this G+ button if you got something useful from this article so I can rank!

Google to Refresh its Search Engine Function

21 Mar, 2012By: Jackie Jones

The changes could affect websites that rely on Google’s current page-ranking results, while giving the search engine more ways to appeal to different advertisers, according to industry experts.

“(Google will look more like) how humans understand the world,” Amit Singhal, a top Google search executive, told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview, adding that while many current searches are a matter of “cross(ing) our fingers and hop(ing) there’s’ a Web page out there with the answer,” Google’s process will reflect the “next generation of search.”

Google will not be replacing its current keyword-search system, but instead incorporating the semantic technology into its existing system, aiming to better match users’ searches with more thorough, all-encompassing lists of people, places and things relevant to queries. For example, current searches for the Grand Canyon result in its official government site and its Wikipedia page. Under the new semantic search, browsers who search for the Grand Canyon will see attributes Google knows about the search, including location, current temperatures, etc.

Google would not comment any further on the specific changes, but did tell C|NET that there is “not a specific timeline and the company’s philosophy is to launch things when they’re ready.”

The changes to Google – which holds the majority of the Internet search market with 66 percent market share and more than 75 percent of all search-ad revenue – could have major implications to marketers and advertisers. Brands that don’t shift their search engine optimization strategies could lose out, according to Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of SEO firm WebiMax.

“This major change serves as a call-to-action for marketers to re-evaluate their onsite and brand message,” Wisnefski said. “Google admits this change will be implemented over the next few months, which gives webmasters time to adapt their copy and prevent major damage to their search rankings.”

——-

If you notice here that this has not been implemented yet…but this foreshadowing gives us a heads-up and some time to start implementing this now so when it does happen…we have all of our content already optimized for this change.  Heads up!

Google Gives Search a Refresh

-Wall Street Journal

By AMIR EFRATI

Google Inc. GOOG +1.60% is giving its tried-and-true Web-search formula a makeover as it tries to fix the shortcomings of today’s technology and maintain its dominant market share.

Over the next few months, Google’s search engine will begin spitting out more than a list of blue Web links. It will also present more facts and direct answers to queries at the top of the search-results page.

Google’s Amit Singhal, shown in 2009, sees better matches for queries.

The changes to search are among the biggest in the company’s history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google’s current page-ranking results. At the same time, they could give Google more ways to serve up advertisements.

Google isn’t replacing its current keyword-search system, which determines the importance of a website based on the words it contains, how often other sites link to it, and dozens of other measures. Rather, the company is aiming to provide more relevant results by incorporating technology called “semantic search,” which refers to the process of understanding the actual meaning of words.

Amit Singhal, a top Google search executive, said in a recent interview that the search engine will better match search queries with a database containing hundreds of millions of “entities”—people, places and things—which the company has quietly amassed in the past two years. Semantic search can help associate different words with one another, such as a company (Google) with its founders ( Larry Page and Sergey Brin).

Google search will look more like “how humans understand the world,” Mr. Singhal said, noting that for many searches today, “we cross our fingers and hope there’s a Web page out there with the answer.” Some major changes will show up in the coming months, people familiar with the initiative said, but Mr. Singhal said Google is undergoing a years-long process to enter the “next generation of search.”

Under the shift, people who search for “Lake Tahoe” will see key “attributes” that the search engine knows about the lake, such as its location, altitude, average temperature or salt content. In contrast, those who search for “Lake Tahoe” today would get only links to the lake’s visitor bureau website, its dedicated page on Wikipedia.com, and a link to a relevant map.

To provide answers that aren’t already in Google’s ever-expanding database, the company will blend new semantic-search technology with its current system to better recognize the value of information on websites and figure out which ones to show in search results. It would do so by examining a Web page and identifying information about specific entities referenced on it, rather than only look for keywords.

The coming shift has major implications for Google, which dominates the Internet search market with around 66% market share and more than 75% of all search-ad revenue. The Mountain View, Calif., company has succeeded because of the strength and ease of its keyword-search technology, which in turn fueled Google’s search ads, which appear next to search results. That business now generates the majority of Google’s $37 billion in annual revenue.

Now Google is taking action to maintain that lead. The Internet giant is trying to stay ahead of Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT -0.20% Bing in Web search, catch up to Apple Inc.’sAAPL +0.13% Siri voice-activated mobile search, and beat back rivals in niches such as product search.

Some semantic-search experts also believe the move will help Google to keep up with Facebook Inc., the social network that also has amassed a database about hundreds of millions of people, places and things but hasn’t offered a robust search service.

Google also hopes the change to semantic search will entice some people to stay longer on the search site, said people briefed on the plans, amid competition with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter Inc. that are claiming more Internet users’ time.

For instance, people who search for a particular novelist like Ernest Hemingway could, under the new system, find a list of the author’s books they could browse through and information pages about other related authors or books, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Presumably Google could suggest books to buy, too.

A Google spokesman declined comment about the potential changes.

Google says it is still tinkering with the new look and function of its search engine, so it’s unclear exactly what this might mean for Google users and website owners. But the move could spur millions of websites to retool their Web page—by changing what’s called a “markup language”—so the search engine could more easily locate them under the new system, said Larry Cornett, a former Web-search executive at Yahoo Inc.YHOO +0.53%

One person briefed on Google’s plans said the shift to semantic search could directly impact the search results for 10% to 20% of all search queries, or tens of billions per month.

It’s also unclear exactly how Google’s search ads—which appear next to search results and are handled by separate teams inside the company—would change in response to the overhaul. But people briefed on the initiative said that if the search engine better understands the meaning or intent behind people’s search queries, Google could find a way to show them more relevant ads.

As people spend more time on Google’s search site looking through its extensive “entity” database, there would also be more pages, or inventory, on which to place ads, said a person with knowledge of the initiative.

Google’s advertising executives have knowledge of the initiative and have considered ways to capitalize on it, said a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Singhal said his team is working independently of any advertising considerations.

Google has previously updated its core Web search technology. Most recently, it began tailoring search results to individual users based on their activity on Google+, the company’s social network, and it is now instantly showing search results before a person has finished typing their search query. Google also can scan thousands of sites and give a “best guess” answer for limited sets of questions, such as, “Who is the chancellor of Germany?”

Google also currently has some other semantic-search elements, such as the ability to assess what the web collectively thinks are the most significant items associated with certain keywords. For example, a search for “30 Rock,” the name of a popular TV series, will bring up a section called “Actor searches for 30 Rock” at the bottom of the search-results page. There, people can find a photo of each actor and a link to execute a new Google search for that name.

But the newest change is expected to go much further, coming as a result of Google’s acquisition in 2010 start-up Metaweb Technologies, which had an index of 12 million entities, such as movies, books, companies and celebrities. By comparison, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has 3.5 million English entries, though they include more detailed information.

Mr. Singhal said Google and the Metaweb team, which then numbered around 50 software engineers, have since expanded the size of the index to more than 200 million entities, partly by developing “extraction algorithms,” or mathematical formulas that can organize data scattered across the Web. It also approached organizations and government agencies to obtain access to databases, including the CIA World Factbook, which houses up-to-date encyclopedic information about countries worldwide.

Write to Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared Mar. 15, 2012, on page B1 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Google Gives Search a Refresh.

——————–

So what this means to us is that we need to re-focus our efforts on associating our articles and content with related terms and mention people, places, and things that are relevant.  As we do this, we will not only follow Google’s trend, but will get a much better targeted audience which will naturally lead to higher conversion rates.

I found a great article written by Laura Betterly…an expert in the PPC world. She manages hundreds of clients and is always on the cutting edge of PPC.

Check out the article here ” Google Compliance and how It’s Changed PPC Management“

The Problem is the client initially only sees this:

This is why it is important to commit to at least 90 days to let this process play out.

Hire a Qualified Team

Initial PPC campaigns are truly an investment in both time and dollars, but the payoff can be excellent with the proper optimization of both keywords and ad copy.  The best way to ensure this is by hiring a team of experts to all work together and compete for the best PPC optimization.  Our team acts as individuals behind the scenes, but all promote the campaigns as a team.  This allows us to see which one of the team members is optimizing the best, and getting the best conversions.  Then we step back and see what they are doing right…and do more of that.   This is also a great way to make sure we are on track with the campaign.

Teams of one do not have the ability to catch themselves if they start to go off track.

With most companies, the buying time is not instant.  Many times the products and services offered require the customer to either research, or shop around to make sure where they want to buy.  For instance, a hot tub company that sells $4,000 hot tubs usually takes about 2-6 weeks and several phone calls to finally make a purchase.  Other companies have a faster buying cycle in which customers fill out a form, or buy a product on their first visit.  With this lag time, it is important to give sufficient time to monitor the campaign for conversions.

The process of pay-per-click is a process of collecting potential buyers.  Typically conversion rates are about 1%-2% for pay-per-click visitors.  This can be increased if you use a process to incentivize them to give you their name and email.  Offering a free e-book on solving their problem, or a new marketing technique or whatever applies to your industry can allow you to collect emails of the visitors so you can do follow-up campaigns and bring them back to your website more often.   This can add additional value to your pay-per-click efforts.

So the bottom line is … stick with it for at least 90 days.  Ride the wave, and you will be surfing your way into great PPC conversions.

Some other changes are apparent with their new emphasis on their own reviews (big surprise).  It only makes sense that they trust their own reviews more than other sites because they can control the authenticity of these reviews easier.  With the rash of outsourced reviewers from countries such as India and the Philippines, Google is beginning to crack down on these bogus reviews in place of those placed from Google users.

You will notice the BIG RED “Write a Review” button to encourage their users to write reviews right from Google Places.   This gives them greater control to manage people who post reviews for a restaurant in New Jersey from their office in Hyderabad, India.

While citation sites may still play a role in authenticating the place of business, it’s clear that external reviews are now gone from Google Places.  This is both good and bad.  Bad for all the companies who have accumulated excellent reviews from their customers (which no longer count towards their popularity), and good for companies who would like to get more reviews.

It has been very difficult for Social Marketing agencies to help companies instruct small business’s  loyal fans on how to write reviews.  They would have a lengthy instruction manual starting with how to sign up for an account on Yelp, or Judy’s Book.  Then end with a convoluted explanation on how to post the correct company name (spelled exactly like this…), address, and Phone number.  Now, it’s plain simple…..”Click the red button when you find us on Google Places”.  This should make it much easier for businesses to obtain more reviews.   This will also start a brand new wave of massive reviewing to rank their places listings.

So whether you are looking for a great restaurant in your area, or marketing for other companies….you can expect more changes to come with Google Places.

It’s no secret that Google and Facebook have a good relationship going on.  Google claims to have indexed over 503 million pages within Facebook, and that was in 2009!  So when  you’re looking at increasing your search engine ranking, particularly on Facebook, look to your Facebook Fan Page.  With some dashes of well placed SEO, you too can get Google to notice your Fan Page.

First, get a good URL.

When your Fan Page reaches 25 members, you can change the URL.  It’s a fairly easy process and we show you how to do it here (add link to other post).  Be sure your URL is easy and something people will remember when they go to search for you.

Create a Default Tab.

This is important because the default tab is what people will see when they first visit…and it’s what search engines will see as well.  Designating which tab you want is fast (go to Settings on you Page then select the tab you want as default).  If you designate your Welcome tab as default, you can put an engaging picture, to draw in fans, AND content hitting your keywords, to draw in search engines.

Another great Default Tab is a landing page, where you can draw in fans with great deals, information, or engaging offers.

Put a Facebook Like Box on your main site.

Again, it’s easy to put in a Like Box on your blog or website.  Facebook will even make the code for you if you supply it with basic information.  Go here to get started.

Fill in the About Box.

You know that blank box under the profile picture?  Be sure you put in your website and a sentence with a keyword or two.  This little area is accessible to search engines and is just one more opportunity to generate relevant content.

Write notes.

Take advantage of the Notes section on your Facebook page.  Content here can be searched for in Facebook, and if you include your key words in short notes, you can draw people to your page who search for those words.  Notes can be blog posts or even just short snippets of information, but take advantage of this place to add content to your page!

As you can see, there are several ways to get Google to take a closer look at your Fan Page.  The more Google crawls it, the more it will be added to your rankings.

While a Facebook Fan Page is not enough by itself to get you onto the first page of Google, it does help and, with a more comprehensive marketing plan in place, can help with SEO as well as help get your company’s information out there for millions of Facebook users.