ACRBO Feb Magazine 2013

WHAT’S INSIDE Computers, Networking, Websites, Advertising, Marketing & Sales

ISSUE 014 | Feb 2013

ACRBO MAG

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete”…Jack Welch The Owen Lea Foundation….

Let’s Make A Difference!

Association of Computer Repair Business Owners…Now over 3,900 members!

Association of Computer Repair Business Owners

CONTENTS 7

MSP Marketing Through Newsletters

9

Warranty Your Services

14

Password Security

16

Local Search How To Get Found

20

How To Deal With Windows Recovery Malware

23

Small Business Debt Collection Letter Writing

24

Keywords That Make Money

28

SEO Expert Ali Husayni

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Are you a writer? Do you enjoy writing down your experiences?

Would you like to be able to contribute each month regarding your business model and give tips to other business owners?

If so feel free to contribute to the magazine. Credit is given to all writers in the form of links to your website or any other way you would like.

Share your experiences!

Welcome to the latest edition of the Association Magazine. I'd like to welcome our new contributors this month.

The content we obtain for the magazine is supposed to be unique. With that said it was pointed out that a couple articles were not. We are doing our best to rectify that but unfortunately sometimes things just happen.

We look forward to bringing you more articles this coming year that can help you grow your business.

Dan ACRBO Keep your valuable feedback coming. I try to reply to every email, I appreciate your input as it helps to make the ACRBO magazine possible.

Write to me at: dan@acrbo.com

ACRBO Magazine Fredericksburg Virginia

Advertising enquires: Send an email to dan@acrbo.com Contribute articles: If you would like to be a contributing author for the magazine then send an email to dan@acrbo.com and let us know what you would like to write about.

Copyright 2012 ACRBO. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated or converted into machinereadable form or language without the written consent of the publisher. Articles express the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher ACRBO Magazine Director: ACRBO dan@acrbo.com Contributors Various experts in their fields The instructions and advice in the Magazine is for entertainment purposes only. The creators, producers, contributors and distributors of the ACRBO Mag disclaim any liability for loss or lack of results from following the advice expressed herein

Should I pay for SEO?

Are newsletter important?

You will get various answers to this question and most of those that say no will typically say things such as: “You don’t need to pay for SEO you can do it yourself”…The problem is typically those same people do not spell out exactly what you have to do. SEO is not a quick fix and an “oh that is all I have to do” type of thing.

Absolutely they are. You will find they are very tedious to do, time consuming and a bit of a pain.

If you are serious about SEO and don’t want to do it either because you don’t know how or don’t have the time then yes pay an expert to do it properly and you never have to worry about it.

Dan ACRBO

How’s that for wanting to do them. In all seriousness they are important because you want your customer to remember you. You want them passing your information along to others and you want to keep them informed of things you are doing with your business.

TOP EMAILS

TOP EMAILS

ACRBO inbox

So it’s really a matter of are you doing to do them or get someone else to do it for you.

Dan ACRBO

Have a question? If so email it do dan@acrbo.com and we will be glad to answer it.

It can be business related pertaiing to marketing, setting up your business, growth of your business or anything you can think of.

MSP Marketing Through Newsletters: Best Practices If you ask any IT business owner as to how effective is newsletter marketing you will certainly get the affirmative response that Yes it works. It has been researched that dollar for dollar, newsletter marketing is the most effective form of marketing in terms of cost and ROI to the tune of $57 for every $1 invested.

Newsletter marketing can be done electronically or through print. Both approaches are important ideally a combination of both works best. However, if I had to pick one, I would definitely pick print.

Printed newsletters are far more superior and effective for the following reasons: 1- Print newsletters are attention grabbers: they are mailed, handled, and opened through physical actions and as such they are more attention grabbing than email newsletters. You can’t delete or send them to a “spam folder” and they won’t look like all the other electronic junk that we all get.

2- Stick ability: they are physical artifacts and even if they’re not read on the spot, they tend to “stick” around your propsects’ desks; and therefore, have a greater impact in terms of top of mind awareness and effectiveness.

3- Refer ability: many times, printed newsletters are shared and passed around the office from person to person; or if your prospect finds some useful tips that he can use elsewhere, he will carry the newsletter with him.

4- Value: with valuable articles and tips, a printed newsletter provides great reading material and adds value to your company and services.

How do you plan and implement your newsletter marketing strategy?

 Most important: make sure you carefully pick your list of audience. Include existing clients and future prospects.  Verify the address information to avoid wasting postage and mailing materials.  Implement a process to update your mailing list whenever you acquire new clients or prospects.  Make sure you have good and valuable content that’s relevant to your audience.  Regularly mail your newsletter, at least once a month.  Set a mail-out date and work your schedule backwards.  Set aside time for formatting, printing, additional mailer printing (coupons/promotions etc.), envelope stuffing, and postage.

So why is it that despite all its benefits, the majority of IT business owners do not use this excellent marketing tool?

At the simplest level, this comes down to time! When you’re running around all day long between taking calls, managing issues, employees, receivables, collections, email, legal and administrative matters, let’s face it, you don’t have much time left for marketing, much less for writing newsletters!

Managed Newsletters Services was created to fill this need by providing professionally written, edited and vetted newsletters for IT providers to market their businesses. Managed Newsletters provides the most content at the most reasonable price and gives you full authority to edit, change, and use the content in any way that suits your business.

To get more information and get a free trial please go to http://managednewsletters.com

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This month’s winner will receive the eBook “Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned”.

We will randomly choose a winner and email the winner.

Just send an email to dan@acrbo.com and in the Subject line put: WinBook Last Month’s winner is Benjamin Whatley of ByteSmart.biz

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Warranty You’re Services If you have a business then it’s expected that you are going to offer a warranty on services provided.

Now what you have to do is come up with a warranty on the different services you provide.

Here

are

a

few

examples:

Virus/Malware removal – Typically on the service you will offer either 30 days warranty or even 24 hours it’s really up to you. Problem with this service is you have no control over the customer leaving and going home then going back to the same exact sites that got them infected in the first place. I prefer a 30 day for this service and go with the assumption that “most” people will not just do the same thing over and over.

Hardware upgrades – For this if you put in a new hard drive on a customer’s computer the drive itself typically comes with a 1 year manufacturer warranty. So you can offer that exact warranty.

No if you have to reload the operating system at the same time you will need to specify the hardware warranty and then how the OS is completely different. If you don’t do this you might have the customer come back in 3 months’ time and say they are having a problem with their OS but it has nothing to do with what you originally did for them.

Obviously you want to always make the customer happy but you need documentation otherwise you will have people expecting things for nothing based on your lack of documentation.

Visit www.PodNutz.com

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Have a story to share with others about your computer business that might help them in the future. Submit it and we will publish it in next month’s issues right in this location.

Send to dan@acrbo.com

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In business time is one commodity that you do not ever have enough of. There will always be enough projects, meetings, loose ends, appointments and more, but never enough time.

How to make time for things that you never found time for before.

How to not stress out at the end of each day because you did not finish what you started.

Start Today “Time Is Precious”…www.TimeIsPrecious.info

Inside this article we are going to examine what needs to be implemented to be successful online. This system is really easy and one that people don't bother about too much. By telling you what to search for online, this is going to be a smart way for you to master how to set up a small online business.

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PASSWORD SECURITY Changing your password regularly is a security best practice. I know this is easier said than done, but this is one of those areas where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I could hear the frustration in Walt's voice over the phone. "I'm looking at my website right now and instead of a home-page, I've got a black page that says I've been hacked." After restoring website from a clean backup, I turned my focus to determining how the hacker got in. As it turned out, Walt was using his favorite password for his website - the same password that he had used on many accounts for years. He knew that he should update his password, but he hadn't done so because until that morning it didn't seem all that important. With cybercrime on the rise, let's take a quick look at one of the most common ways that passwords are compromised and what 3 things you can do to keep your login information safe.

Brute Force Methods Brute force, sometimes known as an exhaustive key search, is a method that consists of trying enough password combinations until the right one is found.

There are plenty of software programs available on the Internet that make it relatively easy for a kid with too much time on his hands to try and brute force his way into your online accounts.

These software programs start with a dictionary - a long list of words like you would expect to find in the dictionary. This list contains lots of names, because people frequently use someone's name as a password. Birthdays and phone number are also popular passwords and the "dictionary" would include thousands of combinations of names, numbers, and misspellings. Substitute spellings where the numeral 1 is used in place of the character L are included in this list.

Password Safety Best Practices Longer passwords are better than shorter passwords. As you would expect, an 8 character password is much harder to crack than a 4 character password. This is because the resources required for a brute-force attack grow exponentially with increasing password length, not linearly. As a result, doubling the password length does not simply double the number of possible combinations, but rather squares them. This means than an 8 character password is 16 times harder to crack than a 4 character password. Make sure your passwords are at least 8 characters in length.

Using as many types of characters as possible greatly strengthens your password and makes it much more difficult for your login credentials to be cracked. This means you should use upper case and lower case letters as well as numbers in all of your passwords. Using symbols like exclamation point (!), period (.), dollar sign ($), dash (-), etc., although not always allowed, greatly increase the security of your password. To see the difference that it makes in how long it would take for a bruteforce password cracker to guess your password check out this table showing how long it would take for various lengths of passwords and characters.

Changing your password regularly is a security best practice. I know this is easier said than done, but this is one of those areas where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Walt's situation is unfortunately not uncommon. Walt was lucky.

He discovered the problem within just a few hours of when it happened and had access to a clean backup of his website. I was able to restore his website by the time he opened his doors for business in the morning. Most people in Walt's situation aren't that lucky. With cybercrime on the rise for the foreseeable future, it pays to be careful.

ACRBO marketplace Linux For The Rest Of Us - Do you want to stay ahead of the computer curve so that you don't feel left in the dust?

- Do you want to expand your knowledge so that YOU are that technician who people go to for advice?

PC Dice Contact: dan@cmonova.com A great gift for that tech you know. Or even better take them on site with you and amaze your customers.

- Do you want to learn an operating system so powerful and fun you'll wonder how you lived without it?

Your Ad here Contact dan@acrbo.com Let Us Know > Want to see your ad here?

Drop us an email.

Local Search, How To Get Your Local Business Found On The Internet A couple of years ago Google put the nails in the coffin of the Yellow Pages by creating free business websites for every business in the country. Now you can simply go to Google and type the name of the product or service you want to find and up it comes with phone number and a lot of relevant information.

Google Vs The Yellow Pages People seldom use the Yellow Pages these days.

Now, Google is where people go to find providers for the services they want. This turned out to be a boon to those businesses who came out on top of those searches. For example, if I enter Dentist Louisville and Google also tells me that 8100 people every month enter that search. Is your practice in the top 3 or 4 results?

Searching on Google also reveals that the top 3 or 4 Google maps results get over 80% of the phone calls from that search. So if you are not there you are not getting any of those leads. How can you get there?

Getting Reviews Next you want to encourage your clients or customers to give you good reviews. Don't over do this, 3 or 4 reviews per month is a good number, more than that and they might get filtered and you will lose them. Whatever you do, do not post fake reviews, this is against the law.

Getting Referrals And becoming Relevant Those are the on page optimizations that you need to do. As with regular SEO there is also off page things to do. Instead of link building you want to build what are called referrals. You should start this process by making listings in other online directories such as Bing, Yahoo, Foursquare, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Superpages among others.

When you create the listings you will be entering similar information as you did when you optimized your Google listing. An important point in doing this is to be certain that the business name, address, and phone number is entered in exactly the same way as in your Google listing. Google uses this information to correlate the listings.

You want to get as many referrals as possible and an easy way to do this, after you set up the basic ones listed above yourself is to use a service like UBL.org. They have several levels of service and price points that go all the way from providing basic listings to premium services where they will actually claim your listings for you. This is tedious work and you really should investigate UBL if you are doing this yourself.

Optimising Your Google Listing There are a couple of factors involved in getting to the top of Google. The first thing to do is get your listing optimized. Many companies haven't even bothered to claim their listing let along optimising them. So claiming your listing is the first step. You simply need a Gmail account to allow you to claim your business listing.

After claiming your listing you want to go into it and flesh it out as much as you can. Add all the pictures that it allows and all the videos. Fill in all the categories that you can. Decide what it is you do and begin to fill in the categories with this information. The idea is you want everything filled in so you can have the biggest footprint as possible. Google will probably require that you verify your listing by mail. They will send you a post card with a verification code you have to enter. Make sure you do this or your listing will not go live.

Decide what it is you do and begin to fill in the categories with this information. The idea is you want everything filled in so you can have the biggest footprint as possible.

The Industry Site: www.TechNibble.com Who Is Technibble For? Technibble is a free resource for Computer Technicians and Computer Business Owners.

Technibble helps computer technicians with information and how-to-articles published a few times a week and has a strong community of Computer Technicians to help one another.

Technibble helps you by covering topics such as: - How to start a Computer Business - Advertising, how to get clients and keep them - Business and legal issues - Streamline your computer repair work - Technician related product reviews and discounts - New opportunities to look out for - Stories from “the trenches� from your fellow Computer Techs Technibble also has a large database of Computer Repair tools and adds a new on to its database every week.

Be sure to check out the Archives, Computer Repair Tools section and the Computer Technician forum. .

www.Technibble.com

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How do you deal with the Windows Recovery malware?

How SHOULD you deal with Windows Recovery? I'll get to that in a moment. But first, there are several important steps you should NOT take in dealing with this type of infection:   

Don't run Disk Cleanup, Ccleaner, or any utility program that deletes Temp files Don't run ComboFix Don't buy any program that claims to remove this infection

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As with most widespread malware, a search for "Windows Recovery virus" in your favorite search engine will return many links with supposed cures for this infection. These links range from completely worthless to incomplete or outdated, to some that actually offer a complete and accurate, if time-consuming, solution.

.

Using the techniques taught in the Virus Remediation Training workshop and some of the tools provided with the course, this infection can be stopped in less than 5 minutes. Complete removal of the malware and restoration of all files and shortcuts can usually be accomplished in less than 30 minutes.

But, it could get worse...

So, did any of these DON'Ts surprise you? Do you ever think about what NOT to do when attacking a virus or other malware infection? Most of the time our tendency is to jump into action and start "fixing." Sometimes it's just as important to know what NOT TO DO as it is to know what TO DO.

On some systems infected by this malware, a Rootkit is also installed. These infections typically are not detected by anti-malware programs, even otherwise good ones such as VIPRE and MalwareBytes. Removing these rootkits can present a challenge for the most seasoned veterans of malware repair.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

The rogue security program known as Windows Recovery has become one of the most widespread examples of this threat category in recent history. It is also more difficult to remove than most programs of this type. There are many variations on the actual name used for it, but the symptoms are virtually identical in all variants.

The first symptom is a large pop-up, usually at Windows startup time. Unlike many programs in this category, it does not warn the user of a virus infection; instead, it claims to have found errors on the hard drive, saying "Error fix is required." At that point, of course, it asks the user for a credit card to download a program that will allegedly fix the errors on the hard drive.

The window contains no "Ignore" or "Cancel" option, and clicking the red X in the top right corner of the window will not close it. There is also no entry in the Taskbar, so closing the window from there is not an option either.

The program usually disables Task Manager, removing another possible way of closing this window. If the user ignores the pop-up and attempts to run their usual programs, that's when they encounter the more ominous symptoms of this malware.

At that point it appears that all programs have been lost on the hard drive, and all icons may have disappeared from the desktop. They may not be able to see any of their data files, either. That's when panic sets in.

Most of the common rootkits since early 2010 fall into the category of TDL3 Rootkits, also known as TDSS Rootkits. Another name they have been given is Alureon. And recently TDL4 Rootkits have begun to appear in the wild. In any case, it is easy to identify such an infection based on its symptoms.

The average user will notice no obvious symptoms of a TDL3 rootkit infection. But once you know the characteristics of these infections, you can easily confirm the presence of such a rootkit:  



Results of a Google search are redirected to unrelated sites Trying to run Windows Updates manually fails, most commonly with a generic error message “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” or the specific Microsoft Update Error number 0x80072EFF Trying to install Service Pack 3 on a Windows XP system fails with a "system file in use" error

The Virus Remediation Training workshop includes detailed procedures and tools for removing rootkit infections, as well as traditional viruses, spyware, and rogue security programs such as Windows Recovery.

Copyright  2013 by Ken Dwight, “The Virus Doctor™,” Houston, Texas. All rights reserved.

Ken is a Computer Consultant, Speaker, and Trainer, and creator of the Virus Remediation Training workshop for computer support technicians. For reprint rights, information about upcoming workshops, or to inquire about booking Ken for your next Conference, Convention, or Company Meeting, contact us at www.thevirusdoc.com or phone (281) 537-0252.

Small Business Debt Collection Letter Writing Writing a debt collection letter is one of the most important skills of any small business owner. Do you have what it takes to get the money you've earned?

Debt collection letters--an overview "Debt collection letter" in the singular may be an oxymoron, since unfortunately, one is rarely enough. You should have a series of letters to send to deadbeat clients, each one becoming a little more insistent. Here are some ideas for a fiveletter series.

1. Don't make your first letter look like a collection letter at all.

Make it a friendly note. You're more likely to get money from someone who thinks of you as a partner than a dun.

2. If that first letter doesn't get a response--and usually it won't-send another the next week that's more urgent and directly asks for the money. Express your concern that you have not been able to contact the client. Ask if he or she is all right, and if he or she is having any trouble paying.

3. The next week, if you still have not gotten a response, send a letter referring to the payment terms in the agreement you and the client originally made (you did have some kind of written agreement, even if it was just on the back of your invoice, right?). Mention the effect this nonpayment is having on your cash flow, and that your business's cash flow is just as important as theirs.

4. Still no response by the next week? State plainly that you are asking for the money for the final time before referring it to collections. Include a copy of the entire agreement between you and the client.

5. If you still have not heard back from the client, and are confident that you do not simply have a problem with their contact information, call a collection agency—in fact, you may have wanted to have gotten a collection agency from step one (more on that below).

More Tips for Successful Debt Collections Tip: Don't wait to start asking for your money.

If it's been a week since the payment deadline passed, it's been a week too long. Send out that first "reminder" letter today.

Don't hesitate to send these letters as little as a week apart from each other. The longer your bill goes unpaid, the less likely it is you will ever see that money again.

Tip: If you've been sending email, try sending paper.

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For whatever reason, there are people who take a paper letter more seriously. There's also the real chance that your emails really are not getting through reliably, or are ending up at the bottom of an overflowing Inbox.

If you do send email, make sure it's digitally signed. A digital signature proves that you sent the email to the specific recipient. In fact, you might want to make sure all your emails to clients and prospects are digitally signed, to have solid documentation of everything you said, and everything they owe.

Unlike with regular emails, the date, time, "to" and "from" fields can't be forged, so the email has legal standing, even more than certified mail. While webbased email programs cannot send digitally signed email, there are third-party services that will let you send hundreds of digitally signed emails from a desktop email program for only a few dollars a month.

Tip: Follow up your debt collection letter with a telephone call.

As any collection agency will tell you, telephone calls are useful if your debtor has ignored the collection letters. But with caller ID, Caller Blocking and voice mail - if people don't want to take your calls it is hard to reach them. This technique could be especially effective in the case of someone with whom you know will answer their own phone.

Of course, your writing skills won't go to waste: you need to make sure you have scripted what you want to say. You should take the same attitude and touch on the same points as your letter. Whatever you do, don't let yourself get sidetracked, and don't be embarrassed.

They're the ones who are putting you out.

Don't know your deadbeat's telephone number? Try looking up the "Whois" record of the business's website, which usually has the owner's telephone number.

Does all this sound like too much work?

If you'd rather be writing proposals than collection letters, there are small business collection agencies that will take on debts for as little as $20 each. After all, your client had enough sense to go to you rather than doing your specialty themselves. Shouldn't you have as much sense when it comes to your debt collection letters?

Rajkamta –For more visit www.start-ownbiz.com

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How Do I Find Keywords That Will Make Money Online?

You may have heard the old axiom:

Competition also plays a significant role in your website's ability to rank for a particular keyword.

Hello now the above question is a pretty frequent one that appears on many internet marketing forums, not necessarily with those exact words but that's the general drift So today I want to try and answer that with a couple of tips that I hope will make sense and get you started in the right direction.

When launching a marketing campaign for your website, traffic is the name of the game. Traffic is the lifeblood of your website. The success or failure of your online business depends upon how much traffic your website receives. And there is no question that one of the best (if not the best for most of us) sources of free traffic for your website is the search engines.

Search Engine Traffic is Vital Here's just a reminder, basic information I know but many loose sight of, people rely on the search engines for information. People have problems and are seeking answers and solutions. So they turn to the search engines for answers. So if you want your website to show up on the top of the first page of the search results for a particular search term, then you need to develop your website in such a way that when the search engines crawl your site, they will rank it well for the right keywords.

Here's a reality check Let's face it: If your website isn't listed on the top half of the first page of the search results for a particular search term, chances are very high that your website will not be visited. People seldom click through to page 2 or 3 of the search results if they can't find what they are looking for on the first page. They would rather click on the back button and enter a different search term instead.

If a tree falls in a forest, but nobody was there to witness it, did it really fall? Similarly, one could pose the question: If someone does a Google search and your website doesn't show up on the top (or near enough) of page one of the search results for that search term, does your website really "exist"?

Can you see why ranking your website well for particular keywords is of utmost importance?

Research, Research and More research So the question arises as to how do you choose the right keywords that will make money online? There are a number of things you need to take into consideration as you do your keyword research: Here's 3 Simple Tips to Follow

1. Put yourself into the shoes of your website visitors.

If you were serious about spending money online, what keywords would you type into Google? Chances are that if you type in "Mega Vacuum 3000 reviews", you are keener on buying the product than if you type in "which vacuum is the best". The first keyword phrase indicates that you already know what you want to buy, and you are more focused on making a final decision on whether to buy a product. The second keyword phrase, on the other hand, is indicative of someone who isn't sure what to buy yet and is just browsing to get information.

2. Is your choice of keywords actually being searched often enough to drive enough traffic to your website in order generate sales? So it is important to do the keyword research in order to determine how many times per month a particular keyword gets searched. Google, for example, offers a keyword research tool that can provide this information.

3. Competition also plays a significant role in your website's ability to rank for a particular keyword. It might be difficult for your website to rank highly if the top 3 spots in the search result are already dominated by big name corporations in your same niche. It might also be difficult to rank well if there is a lot more competition than if there is less competition. Google also offers information about competition with its keyword research tool.

If you want your online business to thrive, then it is important to optimize your website for the right keywords that will make money online.

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HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? THIS CAN BE YOUR SPOT EACH AND EVERY MONTH IN THE MAGAZINE INTERESTED? CONTACT US

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Interview with SEO Expert Ali Husayni, CEO at MasterGoogle In this interview, Ali Husayni (CEO, MasterGoogle) shares his expertise on the subject of SEO. He talks about the latest developments and the upcoming challenges in the world of SEO. Also the founder of Sinai Marketing Inc, Ali has invested a lot of time and energy into establishing his company’s stellar image in the online marketing industry.

The biggest secret behind Ali’s entrepreneurial success is his capability to turn clients into long-term partners.

Q1. Could you provide us with a description of your general SEO experience?

I was desperate for work when I was graduating from the University back in 2003. A friend of mine came to our home and told me his company was hiring a project manager. I asked him what they did and he said SEO. I asked “What”? And he said a few things that I didn’t understand a word of it. But I said I was interested anyways.

That’s how I got introduced to SEO at Page 1 Solutions LLC. There, I was trained in SEO and Web development and next year started Sinai Marketing, which is now known as Master Google.

Q2. Does PageRank (PR) really matter today?

Of course. PageRank is a generalization of how Google ranks site(s). It’s usually outdated, but it gives a good indication of a site’s strength.

ACRBO 29 Q3. How many target keywords, do you think, a site should focus on?

I answer this in a different way: each web page could be optimized for 3-5 main words and the different synonyms or combination of phrases using these words.

Q4. Recently, Google has made a lot of search algorithmic developments to target ‘link spam’. How can SEOs avoid penalties while building backlinks for their websites or blogs?

This is the million dollar question. The short answer is “stay natural”.

Don’t engage in link-building efforts that could be penalized by Google. After all, Google doesn’t appreciate artificial link-building development for the purpose of increasing a site’s ranks.

The long answer… well… that’s long and requires understanding of what “natural” means to Google. Keep in mind, the definition of “natural” could change as spammers learn new techniques and find new short-cuts.

Q5. What’s the role of social media in an SEO strategy?

Social Media is not a new phenomenon in the internet world.

However, it’s effect on SEO is something very new. Google adopted and then dropped Tweets in the search results. It couldn’t reach an agreement with Facebook to get access to millions of its pages. And finally developed Google Plus after a couple of unsuccessful attempts with Buzz and Orkut. Google tried to integrate G+ with Google search and users were not so sure about the improving search results – so they backed out. Google still has not given up on its fight against Facebook. We’ll see what the end will have.

Facebook and Twitter are also attempting to fight Google in the search market by partnering with Bing. However, Google still remains the search giant and Facebook the social media giant.

There are rumors that Google ranks socially shared pages better if everything else is equal. But Google has denied this and I have not seen solid proof of it.

So, what’s the role of social media in an SEO strategy? It’s hard to tell, but one thing I would suggest your readers is to get socially involved in Google Plus.

Q6. How do you deal with a client who doesn’t want to follow your SEO recommendations?

Our clients normally trust my team and me when it comes to recommendations. However, if we feel our relationship is not benefiting our clients, we will end it.

Q7. Did you ever fail in an SEO project? Please share your experience.

Of course! I’ve failed a few times. One of my two worst experiences was with the first serious Google SEO client I got. He was a cosmetic dentist in LA and I managed to get him ranked on the first page. He was amazed by the results and offered me triple the pay if I could use that to get him to the top. Not knowing enough SEO, I tripled my efforts in link-building and other things and managed to get him severely penalized by Google. He dropped to page 10 and I could never get him back to the first page.

The second bad experience happened when I decided to rank our own site on the first page of Google for the keyword “SEO”. For the first time, I decided to buy links. Amazingly, we got the site to the first page in less than two months… I let you guess the rest.

Know the basics of SEO. Study your prospects. And be careful, because you can only make this decision once for each website Q8. Why is Wikipedia so successful in terms of Google organic rankings?

There is a recent article on this that I shared on my Google Plus page. That answers the question fully. However, the short answer is that Wikipedia has all the needed elements of SEO in place. This includes a vast ocean of content – that is updated regularly, amazing optimization techqniues including keywordrich URL’s as well as beautiful inner linking structure, and millions of naturally built back-links. The combination gives Wikipedia a killer SEO strategy.

Q9. What are the key steps that you would like to follow while optimizing a website for keyword search?

The key steps are: updating meta tags, header tags and making sure there are no spammy optimization techniques on the site – like keyword stuffing, etc.

Q10. What areas of SEO do you like the most?

I like all of it, but its ever-changing dynamic keeps me motivated.

Q11. What tools do you have in your SEO toolkit?

I personally use back-link checkers and Adwords Keyword Selector Tool. But my team hasother tools they use.

Q12. Name a couple of your favorite SEO industry blogs?

SEOMoz and MattCutts.

Q13. What advice would you like to offer someone who’s looking for a good SEO company?

Know the basics of SEO. Study your prospects. And be careful, because you can only make this decision once for each website (if you make the wrong decision, most probably the site will get penalized by Google).

Q14. What are some key features that set MasterGoogle apart from other SEO firms or agencies?

Our clients speak proudly of us. They share their testimonials and phone numbers with anyone who’s interested to enquire about us. We don’t sign any long-term contracts, so we have to earn our clients business each and every month. We study hard and work even harder to deliver the best possible service to our clients.

Q15. How does your company plan to expand in the near future?

Traditionally, we’ve expanded slowly and naturally. I expect the same will happen in future.

[Don’t forget to follow Ali on Google Plus or connect with him on Twitter.]

Thanks you very much Ali for sharing some of the most useful SEO tips with our readers. I really hope that the readers will be able to gather all the best recommendations you gave and use them to optimize their sites for better visibility in search engines like Google.

ACRBO 30