WELCOME TO LOGICGATEONE CORP.

Want to draw participants to an event? Or attract potential customers by launching a new product? Thinking about rebranding your company? We'll take that to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube and even Pinterest.

Today, something like a product launch is not just a carefully-planned marketing event where you would expect lots of freebies, drinks, photos and sharp dresses. And it's not just about inviting major media personnel to cover it either -- the Internet way is done quite differently. On the web, you have to be able to draw EVERYONE's attention, and, we can't stress this strongly enough, be extra creative.

For instance, introduce promo deals as an incentive for users who will follow/like/re-tweet/repost/mention your brand. This is one surefire way to increase brand visibility. (In fact, every time you use the word FREE you just have to sit back and watch it skyrocket.) Plus, each user that mentions you or your brand becomes an ambassador for everyone can read and comment on it.

It's a given that the higher the count of connections your account has, the higher the conversion rate is (more possibility of clients target market). But of course it's not enough that you have numerous connections, it's more important to have the right ones.

Making a positive stir by creating something that draws attention to your content and encourage others to share it is great but you have to handle it smartly. But that's not to say be sensational in a way that will make you infamous (we're not really a fan of the bad-publicity-is-still-publicity routine). LGO has ample experience and established accounts in place to start a wildfire of influence and let it take its natural course.

LGO (Logicgateone Corp.) is a local and international provider of quality website designs, online and print graphic presentations, software development and top SEO outsourcing company based in Subic Bay, Philippines.

At LGO, everything we do is customized to every client we work, which requires thorough consultation to ensure that we are on the same page and we understand your expected results. We usually advise clients to sign up for this complete SEO package but if you really need help on certain avenues of SEO, we have detailed each of them for you. We could easily promote your brand online. We know how this thing works.

At LGO, everything we do is customized to every client we work, which requires thorough consultation to ensure that we are on the same page and we understand your expected results about SEO, Web Design, Web Programs and even Social Media Marketing.

LogicGateOne Corp. based in Subic Bay,Philippines supports IROG (Isabelita Rosueta Organization) a non- profit organization that aims to uplift families and buid a better society through charity projects such as scholarship grants,educational activities,livelihood programs and other community-oriented projects.

LogicGateOne Corp- More than SERPS.

Everyone keeps on hearing about this mysterious SEO that is supposed to be the lifeline of businesses on the web. What's it all about? Is this something that could magically transform your vid production into viral status overnight or maybe a black hat technique to keep your name on the first page of Google search results?

Marketing, that's what the fuss is all about. SEO is closely related to what businesses do irl as advertising and marketing, only it lives online. This is one of the strong factors behind websites ranking first on online searches -- a most coveted spot on the web. Say, you have this cozy restaurant in Cebu. Everything's cool, you even get a steady stream of customers every day from word-of-mouth advertisement of local patrons. However, having a presence on the web will propel this popularity into another level. Every time someone type "Cebu restaurant" or "good restaurant in Cebu" on a search engine, you will be there on the first page, among the top results.

The kicker is, All businesses want to be on the top results but search engines would want to have only the relevant websites on their search results. You could imagine just how this became a cat-and-mouse game that makes the whole thing progressively complex every day. (Search engines claim to tweak their search algorithm multiple times in a day!)

To increase your website's ranking and exposure in search results you have to obtain an understanding of how search engines work (or at least have an educated guess). Also, identify what search phrases people type in search engines. There are hundreds of various signals search engines claim to incorporate in their search and ranking codes -- most of which cannot, if at all known, be easily influenced.

Our SEO services are more of a one-way promotion, that is, we only keep in mind that we need to push a certain thing to the top of online search results for its keyword. Ergo, if there are bad publicity associated with your brand showing up as well, that's another story. To help manage that negative online rep you're getting, we have Online Reputation Management for that.

At LGO, everything we do is customized to every client we work with, which requires thorough consultation to ensure that we are on the same page and we understand your expected results. We usually advise clients to sign up for a complete SEO package, but if you really need help only in certain facets of SEO, we have detailed each of them for you.

From editing its written content, increasing inbound links, editing HTML codes to make it easier for search engines to index the website and testing keywords, LGO employs its tried-and-tested strategies in getting you to the top.

MORE THAN KEYWORDS.

Fancy layouts, logo and web design are nice and stuff, if you only need to draw attention. But, you need serious creativity in words to hold that attention.

We can make press releases and cover letters while sleeping so, no, resume and feature articles are not unfamiliar to us. We even do technical write-ups and ebooks on just about anything. Or, you can have us rewrite those favorite pieces that unfortunately have been used before. (Don't worry, copyscape won't even notice.)

As much as we are detail-oriented, we also take deadlines seriously. And what we produce is relevant text content that is consistent and actually makes sense.

Sure just about anyone can write something -- but, not anyone can do it properly. So why take that risk when you can let the experts (ehem, us) handle all the nitty-gritty in grammar, spelling and overall composition quality. With our all-star team of experienced writers who can work on anything you might need (except those discussing about illegal stuff), LGO can give your website more personality or just update that blog.

Before something comes out, there has to be that someone who does some sort of quality control who will easily spot that something that for an outside would be a glaring error. LGO is aware that writers can sometimes get so used to reading the same block of text over and over that there is a very good chance of them missing the mistake. That's not a problem in our writing team anymore as we have dedicated editors who will stop at nothing to look for those errors.

MORE THAN DESIGN.

LGO is seriously good when it comes to technical stuff but we're also about creative juices. We provide presentations, either virtual or physical, media kit, videos, themes, business cards and even infographics, which are growing popular. Viral marketing ideas can also be arranged.

You can avail of our services individually or we can arrange a whole package depending on your needs. Consult us (Free!) using the form on the right.

MORE THAN CODE.

it's easier than ever to buy software or computer programs online the hard part is looking for the right one, perfect for your needs and group besides, you don't really have to provide personal details and banking information to the web, where it could be exposed by God knows who we like to personalize everything, from __ to __ why should we buy commercialized software for our operations

LGO offers custom-made

MORE THAN TECH HELP.

Anything amiss with a computer unit is enough to ruin anyone's day so we can totally relate to how this translates in the business scale. LGO can be your resident IT personnel who is only one call away (no, really).

If something malfunctions, just give us a ring. And while we're at it, we could teach you some tips to take care of your devices, too.

MORE THAN A WEBSITE.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

In the off chance that you don't have a website yet (I know, shucks), it's never too late to have one. Just get the web’s hosting and the domain registration and we'll handle the whole shebang. We'll build your website from the ground up (all the codes and xml). Need a database for client login? Easy. Need it to load decently fast despite all the heavy graphics and fancy whatnots you want to include in your homepage? No problem.

And because we understand how SEO works wonders in the popularity of a website, we'll throw in that extra on your HTML coding. For personalized web design and layout, check out our Graphic Design service.

BLOG SETUP (BLOGGER, WORDPRESS, SQUIDOO, TUMBLR)

We know the blogosphere like the back of our hands so you could be assure that we know our way in properly setting up accounts and stuff. We can register you with an account in major Web 2.0 sites like Tumblr, Squidoo, Blogger and Wordpress. If you want customized themes or design and layout unique to your company, we can bundle this with our Graphic Design and Content Writing services to complete the package. (We can also get you started with some relevant suggestions on who to connect with on your accounts -- for free!)

MORE THAN POSITIVE REP.

Web Reputation Management (Online Identity Management / Personal Branding)

An owner understands that his business’ public image means everything -- you could lose partners, employees, and customers with a negative one. Just look at companies which neglected their reputation for some time. Can't find one? Precisely!

And even if you're not a multinational corporation or a large-scale manufacturer of soda, you can still have a business so an overview of reputation management is in order. It might not be a mainstream yet but this sector is gaining attention as people and businesses shift the venue of interaction to the online world.

Your reputation in the real world is not enough.

If it's true that your real world reputation will eventually translate into the online world, then it follows that having a stellar rep IRL will fix its online counterpart, right? Not quite. You could do everything right with your business in the real world but without being aware of social media and the risks online, you're a sitting duck.

MORE THAN ADS.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE PLACE TO BE?

People are constantly hooked up with their smartphones and their tablets are always within arm's reach so it makes it even more profitable for businesses to connect to them through the web. We're not only talking about advertisements here, we're talking complete marketing strategy that doesn't smell like one.

Social Media is an effective way to market, much like the word of mouth, as it would come from someone that user trust rather than from the company itself, which would just sound too, um, scripted. This is where everybody interacts with everyone and builds networks -- a place where every interaction gives a personal vibe. Needless to say, it's the perfect venue to reach more people and provide a more individual experience in customer service to each one. Coupled with quality content, your presence in social networks will surely gain organic following.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAN DO FOR YOU?

Want to draw participants to an event? Or attract potential customers by launching a new product? Thinking about rebranding your company? We'll take that to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Pinterest.

Today, something like a product launch is not just a carefully-planned marketing event where you would expect lots of freebies, drinks, photos, and sharp dresses. And it's not just about inviting major media personnel to cover it either -- the Internet way is done quite differently. On the web, you have to be able to draw EVERYONE's attention, and, we can't stress this strongly enough, be extra creative.

For instance, introduce promo deals as an incentive for users who will follow/like/re-tweet/repost/mention your brand. This is one surefire way to increase brand visibility. (In fact, every time you use the word FREE you just have to sit back and watch it skyrocket). Plus, each user that mentions you or your brand becomes an ambassador, for everyone can read and comment on it.

It's a given that the higher the count of connections your account has, the higher the conversion rate is (more possibility of clients target market). But of course it's not enough that you have numerous connections, it's more important to have the right ones.

Making a positive stir by creating something that draws attention to your content and encourage others to share it is great but you have to handle it smartly. But that's not to say be sensational in a way that will make you infamous (we're not really a fan of the bad-publicity-is-still-publicity routine). LGO has ample experience and established accounts in place to start a wildfire of influence and let it take its natural course.

Since LGO specializes in SEO campaigns, this one's a no-brainer for us. We could easily promote your brand online. We know how this thing works.

Even as we know that SEO is not all about the links, we acknowledge that it is a big deal. It used to be a great thing to have a website linked to yours, through something called reciprocal links. Well, search engines have caught on and have now rendered those reciprocal links practically useless in getting higher ranking. For search engines, mutual links seem too fishy and most likely meant there's some sort of connivance.

Search engines have grown so smart when it comes to link analysis that they could figure out how pages or websites are linked amongst each other. Even more reason to remember that the value of link building does not lie on the quantity but on the link's reputation and topic. Why so? Well, a website about the same field as yours will count more than those that are not related at all. For example, you have a website about a restaurant, so it will make more sense to link to food blogs and directories and whatnots instead of linking to DIY construction projects, right?

Bookmarking is an important part of quality link building. It's the perfect way to save the links without having to store the bulky webpages themselves to access it easily next time (kinda like how you would bookmark pages of a physical book to mark where you left off). Online (or offline) bookmarking tools enables you to edit descriptions, like filenames, or add tags to make them easy to search (a strong factor for this to be added in SEO strategies). You can also share it to others and add comments or ratings to other's bookmarks.

However, there's no standard way or structure in putting tags to bookmarks which is double-edged: you can use any keyword or phrases you want but then it's hard to access other bookmarks that are tagged unconventionally. All the same, in the eyes of an optimizer, a webpage submitted and tagged multiple times increases its chance of being found by search engine (and provides you with those precious backlinks).

And last time we checked, forum sigs still count, as do blog commenting. (Yeah, we know stuff like that.)

The heart and soul of any SEO campaign. This is where we put the most effort and time, in crafting proper articles, not spewing out rehash versions of the most viewed 'for dummies' or '101's that have been spun for countless times. LGO knows more than anyone how strict search engines (Google, et al) get these days when it comes to original content and spammy ones, you could easily get booted out of the top results if you get flagged for even just one lame article.

Ever since the Panda update of 2011, webmasters have scrambled to cope with the duplicate content plague as Google announced it will penalize websites sporting content that's not unique or have excessive number of keywords -- so stuffed with keywords that the article doesn't even make sense anymore.

Bookmarking is an important part of quality link building. It's the perfect way to save the links without having to store the bulky webpages themselves to access it easily next time (kinda like how you would bookmark pages of a physical book to mark where you left off). Online (or offline) bookmarking tools enables you to edit descriptions, like filenames, or add tags to make them easy to search (a strong factor for this to be added in SEO strategies). You can also share it to others and add comments or ratings to other's bookmarks.

For original quality pieces that does not necessarily required optimization, see our Articles service in Content Writing section.

No one would pass up the opportunity to utilize Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, and other social sites in doing SEO campaigns, especially now that Google can flag a website for containing spam or penalize it for an attempt to game the system.

But, we would hate to spam the social networks so we really make it a point to create sensible content first that will go along with the proper links and keywords. Yup, LGO SEO services coupled with quality website design, photography stock photos in Philippines stands by the ethical side of the virtual population.

For the complete brand recognition campaign (and in case you need more convincing about the value of social media), go to Brand Awareness page.

For starters, optimizing your code makes it easier for search engines to find you. Clean codes are strong foundation for your website; everything is useless if the search engine can't even find your pages or load the website properly.

Logic Gate One Corp. a top SEO outsourcing company can standardize your coding so spiders will not get confused or ignore it and make sure your website is a browser-compatible to the big four (Firefox, Chrome, Explorer, Opera) and the others. We're also careful in rewriting URL into permalink that is readable (just to avoid different URLs pointing to the same webpage, because this could be seen as duplicate content).

Like hackers, there are black hat and white hat SEO. White hats follow legit guidelines and prioritize the benefit of the users -- no tricking the algorithm. Logic Gate One Corp. is the home of white-hat SEO strategies. Logic Gate One can take care of things under the hood like HTML codes and site structure of the so-called quality website design, add relevant keywords on your sites metadata (could help you choose the best domain name, too). Let us help you with:

• error-free HTML code

 • site architecture

• sitemapsyntax

• robots meta tag

• load speed

• robots.txt syntax

• 301 redirects

• title tags

• invalid URLs

• unpaired or broken tags

• whitespace (yeah, that's an issue, too)

And whatever you do, please double check your code for typographical errors especially on titles, header, and descriptions. There's no Autocorrect for spiders.

Our clients receive a periodic report on each SEO campaign they sign up for and you could also get one when you register with us. We like to keep you updated on things because they change quite fast online. Also, seeing the progress in reports will help you decide on what further courses to take on your campaign.

Don't worry about getting a jargon-filled report that is full of technical stuff you are not expected to understand. We are very well aware that not everyone speaks binary so we try our best to translate them into English. Plus, we'll be throwing in some infographics, charts or graphs once in a while to make it easier for you to visualize what is going on.

What to expect? A compilation and analysis of search engine stats to help you understand your website's standing and improve it. LGO's data collection method ensures accurate and fresh data on the following:

• keyword analysis and monitoring

• webpage speed

• SERP

• search history

• comparisons with competitors

• search volume trends

And whatever you do, please double check your code for typographical errors especially on titles, header and descriptions. There's no Autocorrect for spiders.

PRESS RELEASES

Traditional press releases require that you follow a certain format and distribute it to members of the media, with the publishing to be left at their discretion. Talking about the quality website design’s version of a press release, well, it works quite differently, but towards the same purpose of gaining favorable attention from the media or in this case, from everyone on the web.

We can make press releases and cover letters while sleeping so, no, resume and feature articles are not unfamiliar to us. We even do technical write-ups and ebooks on just about anything as one of our local and affordable web services in Subic Bay, Philippines. Or, you can have us rewrite those favorite pieces that unfortunately have been used before. (Don't worry, Copyscape won't even notice.)

Let's talk about how you want to communicate to the market with our best website designers and developers. Consult us now.

ARTICLES

Contrary to popular belief, writing is not for everyone. It takes someone with a real knack for it in order to produce a clean and engaging piece. We have many of them in our team. Our writers are have been through a series of writing tests to prove their ability, versatility, and knowledge sets in several stages of screening.

Carefully crafted and backed with intensive research, the articles we write are both reader- and search engine-friendly.

LGO's writing team can work on pretty much any topic under the sun in the form of:

• news  • Q & A

• fillers  • DIY

• feature stories  • encyclopedia articles

• evergreens  • opinion and analysis

We would have loved to say that "in LGO, we churn out 20 original articles per minute due to a stellar team of writers". But that would be false advertisement ... and just plain dumb. We never pride in sacrificing quality over quantity. (Sorry, not a spam factory where you can order articles at the rate of one dollar a pop.) But if you need urgent pieces, we can get it to you as soon as humanly possible.

If you need optimized articles, check out Content Writing/Config under our SEO/Config services.

Oh, and by the way, we also accept requests for rewrite.

Your website will be the single, most authoritative site about you online, making it imperative for you to attract visitors and impress them enough to encourage return visits.

It does not only function as your online portfolio but also as your virtual brochure which introduces you to the Internet users, showcases your credentials, and presents your services. After all, your website is the perfect place to put your sales pitch in. Every word or image you use should serve to that purpose.

Good thing, LGO, an SEO outsourcing company, knows just how to create a compelling and authentic content on your corporate website to connect effectively with readers and convert them to customers.

Consult us today and we'll sit down with your marketing team to get to know the business more and how we can best present your brand to the public.

Need help in editing that important press release, news article, technical paper, and tons of other paperwork? We got you covered.

LGO, a top SEO outsourcing company, is capable of getting your copy print-ready and audience-friendly. Plus, we have the much-needed team of grammar Nazis and spelling police to go over every word.

Of course we can't promise to be soft and kind to your materials, but at least we'll get the tough job done. Even if that means you'll lose some of those words in the process. (For example, is everything written really relevant to the material as a whole? You know, most readers just scan over a body of text looking for stuff that they think are important and skipping over what they think are just fillers.) In line with that, we'll need to know your perspective or the company's culture to be able to edit your materials accordingly.

Most importantly, we recognize the value of confidentiality in every piece of written work that we handle. We don't retain copy of your submitted pieces nor do we disclose them in any way.

Generic Comments

Post-ready comments that could pass as legit regardless of article topic? We got them. LGO could make you variations of evergreen comments that could fit any article posts.

Forum Posts

Joining discussion forums is a great way for quality link building but unless you have something really good to say, you will stand out as a spammer and will be promptly banned from the board faster than you can say "link whore". This is especially true in niche forums where the moderators are strict in accepting registrations and monitoring posts. LGO has a well-rounded team capable of writing sensible posts and natural conversations even in niche discussions so you can safely participate in the convo and leave your links in every post (via sigs).

EBOOK

We do eBook writing on a number of subjects (except of course illegal stuff in the lines of Bomb-making for Dummies) including recipe books (just because they are very in-demand).

Anything you can think of can be a topic for an eBook, from DIY, recipe compilations, How-To's, what-is-this-new-technology-about, previews, pamphlets, media kits, and short stories, novels or poetry. (How-to's and compilations of stuff that requires an extensive amount of research are something that we specialize in.)

LGO offers best SEO services in the Philippines and has writers experienced and skilled enough to handle both technical and copywriting while still knowing creative writing. We know how to engage readers and keep them glued to the pages. Let us know what we can do for you.

TECHNICAL WRITING

LGO's technical writers are all capable of translating complicated procedures, concepts, and jargons into a more comprehensible form (basically, we could translate stuff in English) for a general audience. But that's not to say we can't handle the usual technical documentation meant for expert readers. We totally can.

We have a highly-capable team of writers, all of whom are subject-matter experts (e.g. electronics, medicine, technology, manufacturing, etc.). This makes us confident in offering technical writing services on a wide range of specialized topics.

We're still undecided whether we will try our hand at term papers and book reports just because, you know, assignments should be done by students. But otherwise, we do all kinds of technical writing:

-  Reports

-  proposals

-  case studies

-  consumer guide and instruction manuals

-  documentation

-  specifications

-  marketing communication (B2B)

-  FAQs

-  troubleshooting or repair guides

-  learning materials

-  terms and conditions

-  disclaimers

-  white papers

Trade secrets are safe with us. NDAs are standard procedure for LGO.

Digital marketing is a mega-trend that is rapidly exposing Early Adopters and Laggards. Where do you stand in that ambivalent crowd?

Here is short history of business technology:

· In the late 1980s you had to have a fax machine (and fax number on your business card) in order to be seen as a credible business

· In the late 1990s, no legitimate company would be caught dead without a website (in fact, any company without a website was probably dying as a result)

· In the late 2000s (and more so every day), any business without a proactive plan to manage social media was falling behind its competition

· In the 2010s, if you still have a fax machine (and fax number on your business card), you may be in more trouble than you thought

Increasing your web presence and social media footprint has never been more urgent. Whether you are only launching a business or striving to make an existing one more accessible and appealing to customers, now is the time to dump the fax machine, jump on SEO, and avoid extinction.

With respect to a viable web presence, where would you plot your company on this adoption curve? The latest adopters in this familiar model have traditionally been labeled “Laggards,” but in the world of SEO and social media, latecomers are plain old Dinosaurs because of the extinction-level event that is created by their inattention.

fun

fən/ noun

1.  enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure.

day

dā/ adjective

1.  carried out during the day as opposed to the evening or at night.

Fun Day refers to an event organized by the company at which employees and their members participate in some activities, usually in an informal setting.

These events aim to facilitate bonding between employees enhance relationships between co-workers with the theme: "remembering childhood memories, making LGO/CBSI alive with youthful camaraderie through larong lahi."

It's more FUN at LGO/CBSI!

If you are one of those business people or, perhaps, individuals who have had years of track record in their line of work but without having gotten around to putting up a website, what are the steps one must take in order to make sure one finds excellent help, if not the best qualified quality website designer? Here are the simple steps to follow:

1. Know what a website can do to your business or line of work

A website is nothing more than a shop display window where a tailor or an artist displays his or her wares. And if you are a construction company or a shipbuilder, it would be an entire building complex where you can exhibit all your people, materials and resources needed to do an entire project for any client.

A website, however, brings your window to your clients anywhere they may be. There is practically no time, place and cultural constraint, unless there is no Internet connection.

Hence, a website is one of the cheapest and fastest ways of finding clients for your products and services. It is also the most effective as it can clearly exhibit all aspects of your work: scope, details, prices and other design and service requirements. Do you compose music for online games? YouTube, Vimeo and other online video servers can be your best partners for promoting your wares; but without a website to bring them to your showroom of various samples (plus HD visual input and unique add-ons) you could be left behind by the competition.

2. Designing a website is like building a house

Just as a showroom or display window need to have walls, ceilings and floors to contain any products, a website needs to have the proper structure to house your wares as well. If a writer tries to sell books online, he or she will have a library practically or at least a table upon which to allow a visitor to touch the book and taste its contents, if possible. We cannot simply show a book nowadays to people; we must try to convince them to buy it (unless we are talking of a bestseller, which is more an exception than a rule).

This is what Amazon does – show you a colourful photo of the book cover; but, in general, there is no access to the book’s content, whether list of chapters or foreword. LogicGateOne can do better than that! What’s a whole chapter or two to tease readers to buy? Bookstores do this now and you can, too, online – as easily as swiping on a tablet.

3. Get as much info as to the technical side of the project

Unless you are a techie as well, designing a website can be a challenging task to comprehend. So, how does one measure a designer’s capability? Easy -- look at some of their actual work in the past and any ongoing projects they have. They can outline the technical requirements (LogicGateOne does this on their website).

Or you may already have the person in your company who can do the evaluation of the designer’s abilities. Collaborating with good website designers in the Philippines on specific requirements you may have will make the process a lot easier for everyone concerned.

4. Seek LGO’s advice on which servers can best suit your needs

As we said, YouTube and Facebook may be the only things you are aware of as an Internet user. LGO can provide an overview as to which Web 2.0 sites can best suit your needs.

Do these steps with a couple or so web designers and decide which one satisfies you. Happy hunting!

We all know how press releases are done with respect to the traditional print media. But nowadays with Internet publishing and web social media, the game has totally changed. And the coverage has all but incorporated the whole globe – at least where there is Internet access.

So, if you are a digital book publisher or a visual arts dealer, coming up with a press release can help you reach as many dedicated clients as you can get through LGO’s expert assistance.

First of all, you need to have the best writers to help you craft your press release in order to target the right customers. Logicgateone has a wide array of writers in many areas and industry lines who are available to consult with you with regards to your specific requirements. As long as you can furnish the basic information regarding your personal experiences, your products or services, LGO will take care of structuring the press release according to your specifications and LGO will also go about the task of reaching as many interested clients for you as possible through their marketing and SEO skills.

Gaining positive exposure online is what it is all about. Logicgateone has the experience to help its clients attain a high level of success in bringing in business and maintaining a foothold on their target market.

Writing articles for blogs, newsletters, journals and promotional campaigns is essential to many business firms and political, social and research organizations. Although many today have had academic training in composition, it takes a lot of experience and exposure to various forms of publications in order for a person to gain a comprehensive and high degree of proficiency in article-writing that is needed by LGO to serve its many clients.

Here are some of the specific jobs that Logicgateone can do for its clients:

• News

• Fillers

• Feature stories

• Evergreens

• Q & A 

• DIY

• Feature stories

• Encyclopedia articles

• Opinion and analysis

How fast can LGO deliver articles? Unfortunately, for LGO the question is not how fast but how good the articles are. You can go to those who can produce cheap articles in a minute; but LGO only delivers top-quality articles that take equally valuable time to produce.

Communication is all about interconnection. More so in this Internet Age. And it is not merely connecting to so many other people but also to your own data and other sources of information derived from various sites.

Imagine doing a research work on a certain subject and browsing through numerous books and materials in the low-tech method. You will need to put bookmarks on each material so that you will have an easier time looking up topics you are working on from the various sources you have.

Online bookmarking of relevant links does this in a very similar way. Links are virtual streets which allow us to move from one webpage to another and back again and out again to another street, and so on and so forth. It seems like a labyrinth; but search engines utilize sophisticated link analysis to determine how pages are related to one another and in what ways.

Through this complex mechanism of links, search engines are not merely capable of analyzing the popularity of a website and page based on the quantity and popularity of pages linking to them, but also metrics like trust, spam, and authority. Reliable websites tend to link to other trusted sites, while spam-filled sites obtain very few links from trusted sources.

Knowing this, users can be confident that trusted sites are authoritative sources of information. And the more trusted friends or partners you have, the more secure is your own life and career, as we know in real life. Likewise, the more popular you are in the sense of having many trusted link partners, the better chances you have to gain success in your business and social dealings online as well as in real life.

Some tips on gaining this kind of this confidence online are the following*:

Local/Topic-Specific Popularity

The concept of "local" popularity, first pioneered by the Teoma search engine, suggests that links from sites within a topic-specific community matter more than links from general or off-topic sites. For example, if your website sells dog houses, earning links from the Society of Dog Breeders matters much more than earning links from an off-topic, roller-skating site.

Anchor Text

One of the strongest signals the engines use in rankings is anchor text. If dozens of links point to a page with the right keywords, that page has a very good probability of ranking well for the targeted phrase in that anchor text. You can see examples of this in action with searches like "click here", where many results rank solely due to the anchor text of inbound links.

Trust Rank

It's no surprise that the Internet contains massive amounts of spam. Some estimate as much as 60% of the web's pages are spam. In order to weed out this irrelevant content, search engines use systems for measuring trust, many of which are based on the link graph. Earning links from highly trusted domain can result in a significant boost to this scoring metric.

Universities, government websites and non-profit organizations represent examples of high-trust domains.

Link Neighborhood

Spam links often go both ways. A website that links to spam is likely spam itself, and in turn often has many spam sites linking back to it. By looking at the totality of these links in aggregate, search engines can understand the "link neighborhood" your website exists in. Thus, it is wise to choose those sites you link to carefully and be equally selective with the sites you attempt to earn links from.

Freshness

Link signals tend to decay over time. Sites that were once popular often go stale, and eventually fail to earn new links. Thus, it is important not only to earn links to your website, but also to continue to earn additional links over time. Commonly referred to as "FreshRank," search engines use the freshness signals of links to judge current popularity and relevance.

Social Sharing

The last few years have seen an explosion in the amount of content shared through social services such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Although search engines treat socially shared links differently than other types of links, they notice them nonetheless. There is much debate among search professionals as to how exactly search engines factor social link signals into their algorithm, but there is no denying the rising importance of social channels.

*Source:

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

Undertaking Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in the Philippines has become a truly exciting experience especially with the presence of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google +, YouTube and Pinterest. Unfortunately, together with this exploding social cyber-structure available to almost anyone worldwide, comes the distracting phenomenon of spamming. And even these social networks are not free from this unwanted intrusion.

Logicgateone endeavours to create sensible web content as a policy, along with proper links and keywords. So, if you have a brand to promote, here are some steps from Logicgateone on how they can create an effective brand awareness online for you:

1.  Reach people through their smartphones and tablets; so that wherever they are, you can create awareness of your brand and its features.

2.  LGO creates a marketing strategy that does not look like plain advertising. How? Through the word-of-mouth method where people share their experiences in using your brand within their trusted social circle without you bringing it to them directly.

3.  Provide a more personal interaction and experience among people who have the same interests and passions in life. We know how this goes: Birds in the same flock use the same brand!

4.  Promote effective customer service through the social interaction among social networks participants. When people know how and where they can call for help in their needs regarding your brand, they feel more confident patronizing your brand.

5.  Quality of content in any brand awareness campaign matters as much as the quality of the brand itself. If you are confident about your brand’s quality, LGO will help you enhance that quality through content that allows people to virtually sample your product online.

6.  Produce product visibility through creating awareness and interest in the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others. LGO can show you how.

7.  Make the right connections in the social networks. Having so many connections or links is not enough; finding the right ones is what LGO can do for you.

Ideally, a web project will require 15-20% of the time on client communication and project management, while the 80-85% goes to strategy, design, copywriting, coding, search engine optimization (SEO), and quality assurance (QA). Unfortunately, many web project budgets get lost when client communication and project management creeps into the 30-40% range, squeezing out other tasks from the main picture.
Unending website projects or those that incur bloated price tags up to 10 times the size of the original estimate are some of the horror stories. Here are a few tips on how to assure your project succeeds:

1) "Absent-Minded-Professor" Syndrome

Missed meetings, unanswered emails, or uncompleted tasks lead web design agencies to spend more time reminding clients instead of doing your website. Do not get too busy such that you get overwhelmed and become unresponsive to your agency.

Solution:Before committing to a website redesign project, be clear on what your web company needs from you to do the project, how much time you can dedicate, and how responsive you need to be to prevent bottlenecks. Set your schedule to spend twice more time than they expect!

2) Being Wishy-washy

Changing direction often makes your web company to spend redoing work or re-communicating plans to the development group. If you are starting up or you are growing rapidly, your marketing needs may change daily, making it hard to undergo a design, message, or site restructuring.
Solution:Be decisive to avoid costly redesign and redevelopment work.

3) Lack of Direction or Team Alignment

Letting a web company settle issues with business partners or marketing employees as to the direction of a website (or company!) reduces production and design time. Work on these issues outside of your project meeting time and come to the table with a clear direction.

Solution: Before the project begins, engage your agency in a strategy phase first to clear up the direction, business goals, ideal customer, buyer personas, messaging, content, and site architecture!

4) Inviting Too Many Cooks into the Kitchen

Involving relatives and other people at every step of a website process can overwhelm with conflicting views. Asking for validation can come after site launching and when you have the data!

Solution: Keep a small and focused website project group and use your budget well. Assign a point-person to avoid sending inconsistent messages to your web design team.

5) Getting Stuck on Content

Entrepreneurs often think they can do everything themselves! Be realistic about how much time you and your team can commit to work on content without professional help.

Solution: Start working on the content early -- calendar your regular writing work. Ask your web company to provide a professional writer to keep things moving when needed.

6) Perfectionism

A useful website need not be perfect. Updating content is quite easy, especially under a web-based content management system. Launch first and keep improving instead of waiting for months working on an unfinished website.

Solution: Try a phased strategy to your project - Launch the “minimum viable website” you need to serve your prospects and customers, collect data on how they use your site, and then provide new features and content in time.

7) Paying Invoices Late, or Not at All

Don’t believe the rumor that web agencies are like bounty hunters chasing clients down or withholding the release of websites prior to payment. Web projects can be costly, and cash flow can be a big hurdle for small or rapidly growing businesses.

Solution: Pay promptly as stated in the contract, or set a payment plan so your web design company will be there for you in the future!

Achieving website project success requires both parties (client and web design firm) to understand each other well. Like a marriage, the relationship must have the same vision of success and abide by the same rules of communication.

The desire to serve with commitment is vital on both the web design company and the client.  Living happily ever after must nurture that desire!
Original article was published from HubSpot.

In the off chance that you don't have a website yet (I know, shucks), it's never too late to have one. Just get the web hosting and the domain registration and we'll handle the whole shebang. LogicGateOne Corp. will build your website from the ground up. And because we understand how SEO works wonders in the popularity of a website, we'll  throw in that extra on your HTML coding.

But often, when we mention grammar, the grammar guardians will always mean correctgrammar. Someone might ask: Is there a different kind of grammar?

I believe there are as many grammars (or ways of writing in any language) as there are people. For example, Americans love to add the word “thingy” to every word they cannot recall or for any thing they do not know how to call – such as the pointed “thingy” that the pope wears during high mass or the green “thingy” you add to soy sauce to make a dip for sashimi.

So, who decides what correct grammar is or should be? Shakespeare? The English professors at Oxford or Harvard? My retired English professor-friend? Or the latest book on grammar from Amazon?

Grammar has rules or laws. But who made them in the first place?

Imagine the first human who ever spoke. Did he have a teacher? I suppose he had. Did his teacher teach him grammar? If by grammar we mean proper construction of words to form intelligible sentences that carry sensible or meaningful words, he must have for he had the best teacher of all time and eternity!

Reading the Bible (or any classic work) is one of the best ways to learn grammar. In fact, it has been the best way for centuries since many of the translators, particularly of the old King James Version published in 1611, were linguistic scholars who were contemporaries of Shakespeare (who may have been one of the translators) and were proficient in English as well as in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. And remember, the last four hundred years gave us many excellent writers and leaders who grew up reading God speak in King James’ English: Twain, Dickens, Verne, Steinbeck, Lincoln, Darwin, and Livingstone, among others!

That reminds me of a country – Japan or China, I cannot recall – where some adults are taught to speak English by listening, singing and studying the popular songs of the Beatles. Not a bad idea actually as the Four Fab did speak Her Majesty’s English. Until, of course, they learned from the Americans and picked up some of the bad grammar. “One and one and one is three.” Here come them ol’ grammar cops come together with their batons flying in the air!

But we all know King James English is passé – not bad grammar, only outrageous conjugations. But if so, why do people still enjoy watching Shakespearean plays? I would venture to say it is not the grammar they are after but the sense of style and flair words are spoken. It is the passion in words, not the words themselves that matter. Rap music is popular because of that very reason. So is rock music and almost every kind of music, including grammar-less, sometimes senseless dance music. The beat in the spoken words energizes the heart to heights of rapturous flight!

But someone would say, “That is spoken language!” What about serious, written language we read online? Oh yeah? Did anyone ever really hear Shakespeare or his characters speak? We used the Bible and Shakespeare to prove that the written word can and do possess life and passion and truth.

We must write then to enhance life and all that is possible in it. The “thou”, “doth not” and “be still” may have given way to “yo”, “da’n’t” and “hush”; but the essence and purpose of grammar remain: clear and understandable sentences.

In the end, it is the message, news or story that matters. As long as the majority of people get the meaning, the grammar matters less. Good grammar may lift us high to fits of ecstasy as that balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet does to any hopeless romantic; but love is intoxicating enough without grammar getting into the picture. The words, spun masterfully by the bard, and flowing effortlessly from lovers entranced by each other’s beauty and each other’s surplus of words is the pinnacle of what human potential is all about.

Words can make us fall into endless love. And, conversely, love can make us fall endlessly into words and words and words. In short, we can fall in love with words and with perfect grammar. The dangers of Babel’s pride remains alive and confusion can arise from any writer who loses the fundamental goal of language.

So who really needs good grammar? If we could write like a poet every time we post a blog or a tweet, we would all be writers aware of the power of language and of the human potential for which we were destined. Meaning would flood our lives and no tweet would ever be wasted on the fly. Adam, the first language user for many of us, did clearly understand his destiny until the serpent twisted it with the use of “seductive” language. The grammar was good as well; but the purpose was evil.

There it is: While grammar is essential; it is the ultimate intention we use it for that matters. No matter how good or perfect our language may be if people are deceived or made to suffer, the truly wise among us would rather choose to use five “well-spoken words” — even in poor grammar – as long as we lead people along the right path.

Grammar is the basic technical requirement for good, acceptable language. But “well-spoken words”, though they violate grammar rules, will never violate any law. Grammar must pay homage to the higher, intangible standards of life, love and, well, language as well.

Article adapted from Search Engine Journal.

ABOUT LGO

LGO offers prompt and excellent writing services such as web-content building, link building, project feasibility and development studies, online marketing campaigns and press releases.

For more information, please contact LGO’s friendly representatives at this email address – webmasters@logicgateone.com

You begin by getting in touch with the firms, beginning with the top-listed one, since it seems obvious that the one at the top must know what it is doing. But as you get down to the other firms at the top, you realize they are saying the same things, or as one reader commented on a previous article I wrote, “SEO is definitely the biggest scam of all. How can every would-be Internet Marketer on the planet promise every client to put him or her onto the top page of Google natural search?” The clear answer is that some can deliver while others cannot.

If so, how then do you determine which SEO company to choose?

·Firstly, let us remove a few misconceptions regarding SEO firms. A fancy or sleek website does not necessarily make a good SEO firm. If you need an SEO firm that can likewise undertake design of your new website, of course, you might need to consider how good their own website appears. But if your priority is to hire an excellent SEO firm, some of the best ones have only mediocre or above-average websites.

·The highest-ranking SEO firm in your geographic location is not logically the firm you need to hire. 

·The “SEO firm” you should hire need not be one most people will consider hiring. Size does not always matter. Often and, remember, not all the time, less is more. The SEO firm suited for your needs may only have a couple of workers down in a basement office. Or, perhaps, one that has 500 employees on hand. Either of the two could very well be the right SEO firm for you. You just need to find out which.

·“All SEO outfits are con artists.” Of course, this claim is totally wrong because it is only 95% correct. Be very careful about the SEO firm you choose. So many individuals hire a firm only to regret after a couple of years, wondering if they just wasted their money for nothing.

Finally, the main point – how do you go about choosing the right SEO firm?

·List down the things you require from an SEO firm. Do you require reputation management, link removal, a one-time SEO audit, link-building, ongoing SEO, PPC management, content marketing, retargeting, or any of the other 20 services usually offered by SEO firms? If unsure which of those you need, begin by assessing the task that needs to be done. Do you need to increase sales by 20% across a period of one year, or leads by 50% for the next six months? Is your objective enhanced rankings, or do you just aim for the boss to know that an SEO company is doing its job for him and then you can cross off this nuisance of an item from your to-do list? Set a goal by which you will gage the success of your relationship with your SEO firm, and make that objective the focus of your interaction with it. Without that kind of success measurement of the SEO tasks, you are bound to lag behind your competitiors who do.

·Make manifold consultations, but keep it confidential. Once you have decided what you require, meet with an SEO firm -- face-to-face or via phone or email -- that seems convincingly capable and inquire how it can assist you determine what you must do. Many SEO firms are willing to provide a free consultation, knowing that by doing so they could convince you and get your business. By doing so, you will also find out if you can work well with the firm and the people. Through the consultation, which may require several days if the SEO firm has to conduct a research on your website and industry, you should receive a proposal with the necessary services and the price. Then, unless you are in a hurry and will go for the first firm you meet, do the same thing with one or two other firms for comparison. But do not tell an SEO firm you are shopping around or talking to other firms; this sorts of dampens their interest for your business and end up becoming less competitive. This applies particularly to some of the best SEO firms over which clients are eager to work with rather than those SEO firms striving to work with a client.

·Obtain case studies and references. The number one issue you want addressed by an SEO firm is: “Will you help me finish my job?” You need an SEO firm that has had the experience in helping other clients face the same problems you encounter. If you operate a self-storage company and you deal with an SEO firm that has done work with 10 other self-storage firms with great results, you have enough basis to be confident about working with that SEO firm. If your business is rather unique and you require a generalist SEO firm rather than one that is highly-specialized, obtain case studies and references from SEO firms that have done work for clients with comparable business parameters and parallel tasks as yours.

·Allow the firm to narrate stories. An excellent SEO firm operates strategically and is also highly creative, telling meaningful stories. These stories permit you to get a more precise picture of what the SEO firm truly is. Case studies and references are like browsing through someone’s LinkedIn profile. You should do that before getting an employee; but you would never get someone based solely on their LinkedIn profile. You would do well to listen to their stories about their background, track-record, achievements and mistakes. This is one reason why video interviews from companies like are making points. Ask the SEO firm how they were established, what their best-client story was, what their worst-client encounter was and how they managed it, and how they have developed over the years. Although you might have decided to hire them after following the first three tips, listening further to their stories may abruptly turn your opinion into the opposite direction.
Establishing clear goals, getting a variety of bids, examining pointers to the future, and listening to stories – these are steps to take to assure you will choose the right SEO firm. Will there be exceptions? Certainly. We are so busy doing the work that creates results for our customers, and even though we know we should present case studies, somehow they are not the highest priority. And I know of some companies that I would not hire myself or endorse to anyone else, even though they have very appealing case studies. In both cases, hearing narratives of firm’s experiences is the best way to appreciate the reality behind the firm.

Have you ever worked with an SEO company? What steps did you take to ascertain you hired the right one?

We all reminisce of the time when SEO was much simpler. From its traditional content-driven goal, SEO has gradually evolved into an integrated content-SEO structure where content is no longer a separate aspect in the process. 

Whereas a different set of people handled the content and another took care of the optimization process through the use of properly placed keywords here and there, today the two separate tasks have become essentially one.

Eventually, content reigned supreme over the SEO process. “Over-optimized” content and questionable tactics used in link-building, lost out in the battle for respect and credibility among users. People realized that great content should be recognized and accorded “valuable shares and trustworthy inbound links”.

Content SEO Technicalities
Today, content optimization has grown more technical. Having merged the SEO and content silos to produce high-quality, search-friendly content, we need to look at how both users and machines access content.

Whether people use a smartphone, a tablet, and or a PC desktop, a good user experience has become an effective yardstick in search engine optimization, together with semantic markup that allows search engines to understand the meaning of your content more readily.

It is true that search results can be deemed better now than several years back and the search experience is much more advanced; however, the content-SEO convergence has become much more technical.

What Is High-Quality Content?
Setting aside varying opinions on the meaning of the term “quality content”, we come up with  this general definition: original, purposeful, and correctly-optimized information or media that people and search engines are driven to read, view, and share.

Qualitative content is fresh and informative. It is useful, interesting, and engaging. It incorporates valuable keywords naturally based on SEO best practices. It is an article you start by scanning but end up reading to the end – the kind of blog post you bookmark and return to over and over again. If it is designed for a particular persona, then you really have a winner.

Why Create Quality Content?
Engaging content improves online visibility. When web pages are properly optimized, search engine bots are able to find and read them more easily, improving your chances of having them rank your pages. The higher up you are in the results pages, the more organic traffic you will attract, and the more leads you will generate. More leads result into more sales and business.

Then, there is the indirect advantage of having a quality-content/SEO strategy in place. Increased traffic, a lower bounce rate, and a higher click-through rate indicate to Google that readers like your material, which they see as a vote of confidence and trust. In fact, these could be useful ranking factors. The search engine also considers page views, return visits, time on site, and other metrics.

User engagement is vital, no matter how you view it. You cannot generate leads through search unless you provide search engines what they need. You will never convert traffic (regardless of how you funnel it) if you are not publishing material that really appeals to prospects and gets them visiting, sharing, and purchasing, which inevitably also affects search engine optimization.

Proper Link-Building
Effective link-building is another essential reason to make high-quality content the groundwork of your digital strategy. Businesses, marketers, and bloggers search for solid, interesting information that reinforces the foundation of their own materials. Those links not only push targeted web traffic, but also move on link juice (authority) that can improve rankings.

Moreover, there are the links that are built when people share your posts, images, and videos on social media. Each time your quality content is shared, links are made that point to your website pages and transmit their popularity to search engines. Generally, the more backlinks you have, the more dependable you become. Social signals are a factor in Google’s algorithm.

Even the outbound links in your social media profiles count. A well-written profile that compels readers to visit your website can only enhance your SEO strategy. However, nobody will click the links if your profile content is drab and uninteresting. Furthermore, Google and other search engines may overlook pages that are not sufficiently descriptive and/or optimized.

Keep on top with quality content & SEO
Understanding the mechanics of search and the goals of the search engines provides the leading edge in SEO. Yesterday’s SEO was simplistic; whereas today, it has so many resources, tactics  and tools it can utilize to help users keep on top of their game.

Remember, the constant in SEO is the experience — and that experience arises from the quality of content a brand creates and how it delivers that content.

DARPA's 3-year research program, dubbed as Memex, has been operating now for 6 months in coordination with 17 contractors and 8 partners. Carnegie Mellon was given a USD 3.6 million contract this year to partner with DARPA in the Memex project. And according to a research professor in its Robotics Institute, there is a huge potential in the program.

The term "Memex", which refers to Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay about a collective memory for humanity, is now going to be known as a tool for bypassing typical search processes in order to pinpoint users who create or spread illegal content in the deep web.

The mainstream webpages we can access through traditional methods compose what we call the Surface Web. Because of certain factors like ranking and advertising, results from leading search engines only account for around 10% of the Web. And according to some estimates, the Deep Web actually comprises 90% of the online world, with most of its content only accessible through Tor. The goal of Memex is to search through this Deep Web for signs of illegal activity.

The problem with the darknet is that the webpages in there are too fleeting -- content disappears even before authorities can check them. What Memex would do to solve this is to log the content and its source, then trace any personal information of the poster and map locations. This way, it will be easier to track online patterns that will aid law enforcement in uncovering illegal activities such as in the case of Silk Road.

Evidently, this won't be just useful in the field of law enforcement but can be also repurposed to be of use in the business sector and other fields like journalism.

DARPA program manager Chris White said in a post, "We're envisioning a new paradigm for search that would tailor indexed content, search results and interface tools to individual users and specific subject areas, and not the other way around. By inventing better methods for interacting with and sharing information, we want to improve search for everybody and individualize access to information."

Rumors have been flying that Google+ is going to be discontinued due to its lackluster performance, but its recent launch of new features may be hinting at a mere shift of gears.

Now, it's really difficult to gauge the situation because Google is not very fond of sharing user numbers. However, estimates put its total users to 2 billion, with a mere 9% having public content. What's more, only 6 million of those have posted this year -- apparently, most of those user profiles are just created due to Google requiring one before you can sign up for YouTube or Gmail. Sure the place is nice but it's also practically a ghost town. The only advantage, it seems, is in the presumed SEO value that you can get from having your content on it.

"If the public activity on Google+ really is this small, surely it can't have much value to Google, and they must be planning to shut it down or dismember it, right?" said Eric Enge of Stone Temple.

Many naysayers are already foretelling that launching Streams, Photos and Collections features is Google's last ditch effort before shutting down altogether. On the flip side, if it's really dying, perhaps it is counterintuitive that new features are added to it?

While it is still unclear just how Google will use Streams and Photos, the Collections feature would be one similar to Pinterest. It will basically be a group of content based on a certain subject or interest that any other user can opt to follow. Unlike Pinterest though, Plus' Collections are not limited to images but can be anything from text updates to videos. Also, any collection by a user can be set to be public, private or shared with a certain group of connections.According to the tech giant, Collections came about because of observed user behavior -- getting connected around a shared interest.

Although it is not certain that launching those features would significantly engage users more, there are lessons to be taken away from this. First off, you should be all-present in all major social media platforms and not just focusing on one. So just in case Plus really would dismantle, you won't have to scramble to start over again on a different platform.

Also, make sure your content works well on the various platforms your target audience is on. Make different kinds of content and customize it for each one.

Lastly, don't rely on social media to safeguard your data for you. It would be a good thing to have your own website, or at least your own server where you can store every single file, without having to worry about social media scares.

In April, Google Maps released Plus Codes — or Open Location Codes (OLC) — to identify hard-to-find locations across the globe.

Starting today, Plus Codes can now be searched both on Google Maps and Google so that users can find places that are difficult to locate due to poor data accuracy or coverage or place that do not have a specific street address.

These codes become extremely helpful in places with high population density but poor data accuracy or coverage, or those that lack a specific addressing system altogether. Kathmandu, Nepal, has a population of around one million people, but most roads have no names, and houses have no street numbers. Being able to precisely navigate without local knowledge is difficult. Plus codes will now let you easily specify your destination.

- Google Maps Blog

To find a Plus Code, visit http://plus.codes and share your location. The site automatically pinpoints where you are and provides a code similar to the following 7MV7P8R9+W2 code for Kathmandu (the abbreviated P8R9+W2 code will show if you’re already in Kathmandu):

Contributor and link building expert Eric Ward discusses why manual link building will stand the test of time, despite popular predictions to the contrary.

I recently read an article titled, “SEO Practices That Will Become Obsolete By The End Of 2016” on (what is normally) a highly respected site. The author is someone I read and respect, but he made the claim that in 2016, manual link building will become obsolete. He has since edited the article and changed “Manual Link Building” to “Bulk Link Building.”

This seemingly minor edit (which I greatly welcome and appreciate) is actually at the crux of a much larger movement that seems to be permeating the SEO community. That movement is based on the belief that doing anything one at a time, or “manually,” is a waste of time, because the sheer mass of the web and link graph makes it impossible to impact it without resorting to automated or mass tactics.

Wrong. Manual link building will never be obsolete.

I agree that there are many more ways to build links today than there were when the web first caught fire. And I also agree that it is technically possible to conduct mass outreach.

The problem is that quality suffers, and I’m not just saying that as an opinion. I see it every day in my own inbox when people send me link requests that seem so perfectly crafted and personalized, yet you can tell they are not. They were sent in bulk, and worse, they are dishonest. Dishonest how? Dishonest because these outreach emails always say things like

“I was reading such and such on your site.”

or

“I noticed you are interested in online marketing and wanted to…”

Lies. All lies, and any of you reading this have probably received similar emails and thought the same thing. What a great way to begin your relationship with me — by lying to me. It’s the modern day version of spam; more sophisticated mail-merge with just enough added personalization to make me feel special.

Except I don’t, and it’s not working. We all delete them. Bragging about a 2.5 percent success rate is laughable.

People Still Need People

Certain aspects of the link-building process have already proven to be pointless and obsolete. But one thing that will never change is human desire to connect with other humans, to share, cultivate, curate and collect useful, valuable and helpful pages, apps, or whatever the digital content is, with each other. If that wasn’t the case, there would be no Twitter, which is tailor-made for link sharing.

Real-Life Example: I conducted an outreach project for a large international hearing aid manufacturer. This is a subject that I care about deeply because my 13-year-old is deaf. The client’s goal was to bring attention to their newly relaunched site and content areas — and yes, their hearing aids, and yes, they make money on them. (I get it.)

One of my recommended strategies was to identify hearing/audiology sites, associations, foundations and others that provided curated outbound hearing loss resources/links. Obviously, one of our hoped-for outcomes was links.

See the image below? That page is from the Colorado Hearing Foundation. The specific page is titled, “Useful Websites for Information on Hearing Loss.” And here’s the truth that “manual linkbuilding is dead” believers are completely missing: Getting a link on that page is not something that can be automated.

I did the research to identify the absolutely most appropriate websites. More importantly, I had to spend extra time to read the “About Us” or “Our Staff” pages so I could find the person/people who make the decisions about what resources are and are not included on those pages. Sometimes that’s not easy, even when doing it manually. Sometimes you might even have to pick up the phone. That’s right, THE PHONE. Don’t pass out.

And the page above did, in fact, link to my client’s site.

Automation will never find the perfect sites. Automation will never find the exact contact that makes the final decisions as to who to link out to. Automation will never fool anyone into thinking the email you are sending them is just for them.

Sure, automation and scrapers can find plenty of email address, like webmaster@, help@, info@, questions@, inquires@, etc. But emails to those addresses are not being received by the decision-makers. Those email addresses are spam holes.

I did the research to identify the absolute most appropriate websites and more importantly, I spent the extra time to find the person/people who make the decisions about what resources are and are not included on those pages.

I often will even make a phone call to the organization to introduce myself and ask for the appropriate contact name. What a shock: actually talking to a human.

And here’s the kicker: When I am able to find the right person and website, and I conduct outreach as I just described, my success rate is close to 100 percent. That won’t happen with bulk outreach. In my case, I’m only contacting a small set of heavily vetted sites that have perfect-match resource lists for the content/site I’m introducing them to. That’s when success can happen.

But the larger point is, why shouldn’t 100 percent success happen? If you’re representing a truly outstanding piece of content, and you’ve taken the time to reach a the exact person who has already demonstrated they are curating content and links in that subject area, a link is the logical, natural outcome of that process.

The End Game Has Not Changed

This is why I laugh when I hear people say that 2.5 percent success rate on email outreach is considered acceptable. What a joke. Automating outreach is just reckless, and frankly, sad.

The internet is always going to be about people connecting with other people, or connecting with content written by people (sorry, Narrative Science). And while I agree there are many link-building strategies, tactics and techniques that need to die a slow and painful death, the process of one person sharing with another person an incredibly useful piece of content that will resonate with that person and result in a link will never go out of style and will never be obsolete.

I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I can assure you that while the methods for identifying the right people have become more challenging, at the end of the day, the end game is still the same: I need to get in touch with the person who will most likely care about what it is I’m sharing or seeking links for.

That cannot be automated, cannot be replicated, cannot be syndicated. It takes a person willing to roll up their sleeves, with the saavy to identify and connect with the appropriate person who will care about what they have to tell them.

Thank you for allowing me a few minutes of your day.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

Where do you host your content? Is it on your own site, or on third-party platforms like Medium and LinkedIn? If you're not yet thinking about the ramifications of using hosted blog platforms for your content versus your own site, now's your chance to start. In this week's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores the boons and pitfalls of using outside websites to distribute and share your content.

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat a little bit about blog platforms, places like Medium, Svbtle — that's Svbtle with a V instead of a U — Tumblr, LinkedIn, places where essentially you've got a hosted blog platform, a hosted content platform. It's someone else's network. You don't have to set up your own website, but at the same time you are contributing content to their site.

This has become really popular, I think. Look, Medium and LinkedIn are really the two big ones where a lot of folks are contributing these days. LinkedIn very B2B focused, Medium very startup, and new media as well as new creative-focused.

So I think, because of the rise of these things, we're seeing a lot of people ask themselves, "Should I create my own content platform? Do I need to build a WordPress hosted subfolder on my website? Or can I just use Medium because it has all these advantages, right?" Well, let me try and answer those questions for you today.

So, what do hosted platforms enable?

Well, it's really simple to sign up and start creating on them. You plug in your name, email, a password. You don't have to set up DNS. You don't have to set up hosting. You can start publishing right away. That's really easy and convenient.

It also means that, for a lot of marketers, they don't have to involve their engineering or their web development teams. That's pretty awesome, too.

There are also built in networks on a lot of these places, Medium in particular, but Svbtle as well. Tumblr quite obviously has a very, very big network. So as a result, you've got this ability to gain followers or subscribers to your content, someone that can say like, "Oh, I want to follow @randfish on Medium." I haven't published on Medium, but for some reason I seem to have thousands of followers there.

So I think this creates this idea like, "Hey, I could reach a lot more people that I wouldn't necessarily be able to reach on my own platform, because it's not like these people are all subscribed to my blog already, but they are signed up for Medium or LinkedIn, which has hundreds of millions of worldwide users."

There's also an SEO benefit here. You inherit domain authority. On Medium and on LinkedIn in particular, these can be really powerful. Medium is a domain authority 80. LinkedIn is a domain authority of 99, which is no surprise. Pretty much every website on the planet links to their LinkedIn page. So you can imagine that these pages have the potential to do really well in Google's rankings, and you don't necessarily have to point a lot of links at them in order for them to rank very well. We've seen this. Medium has been doing quite well in the rankings. LinkedIn articles are doing quite well in their niches.

This is a little different, a subtle but important difference for Svbtle itself, for Tumblr, and for WordPress. These are on subdomains. So it would be, yes, there are lots of people who are using WordPress, although that's very customizable. But you could imagine that if I got randstshirts.wordpress.com or randstshirts.tumblr.com or randstshirt.svbtle.com, that doesn't have the same ranking ability. That subdomain means that Google considers it separately from the main domain. So you're not going to inherit the ranking benefit on those. It's really Medium and LinkedIn where that happens. To be honest, Google+ as well, we've seen them ranking like a Medium or a LinkedIn too.

You also have this benefit of email digests and subscriptions, which can help grow your content's reach. For those of you who aren't subscribed to Medium, they send out a daily digest to all of the folks who are signed up. So if you are someone who is contributing Medium content, you can often expect that your subscribers through Medium may be getting your stuff through an email digest. It may even get broadcast to a much broader group, to people who aren't following you but are following them. If they've "hearted" your content on Medium, they'll see it. So you get all these network effects through email digests and email subscriptions too.

So what's the downside?

This is pretty awesome. To me, these are compelling reasons to potentially consider using these. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's talk about the downside as well. To my mind, these downsides prevent me from wanting to encourage certain types of views. I'll talk about my best advice and my tactical advice for using these in a sec.

Links authority and ranking signals that are accrued. We recognize that you put a post on Medium, a lot of times posts there do very well. They get a lot of traction, a lot of attention. They make it into news feeds. Other sites link to them. Other pages around the web link to them. It's great. Lots of social shares, lots of engagement. That is terrific.

Guess what? Those benefits accrue only to Medium.com. So every time you publish something there and it gets lots of links and ranking signals and engagement and social and all these wonderful things, that helps Medium.com rank better in the future. It doesn't help yoursite.com rank better in the future.

You might say, "But Rand, I've got a link here, and that link points right back to my site." Yes, wonderful. You now have the equivalent of one link from Medium. Good for you. It's not a bad thing. But this is nowhere near the kind of help that you would get if this piece of content had been hosted on your site to begin with. If this is hosted over here, all these links point in there, and all those ranking benefits accrue to your site and page.

In some ways, from an SEO perspective, especially if you're trying to build up that SEO flywheel of growing domain authority and growing links and being able to rank for more competitive stuff, if you're trying to build that flywheel, you'd almost say, "Hey, you know what, I'd take half the links and ranking signals if it were on my own site. That would still be worth more to me than more on Medium."

Okay. But that being said, there are all the distribution advantages, so maybe we're still at a wash here.

Also on these blogging platforms, these hosted platforms, there's no ownership of or ability to influence the UI and UX. That is a tough one too. So one of the wonderful things about blogging is — and we've seen this over the years many times at Moz. People come to Moz to read the content, they remember Moz, and they have a positive association and they say, "Yeah, you know, Moz made me feel like they were authorities, like they knew what they were talking about. So now I want to go check out Moz Local, their product, or Moz Analytics, or Open Site Explorer, or whatever it is."

That's great. But if you are on Medium or if you are on Svbtle or if you are on WordPress — well, WordPress is more customizable — but if you're on Google+, the experience is, "Oh, I had a really good experience with Medium." That's very, very different. They will not remember who you are and how you made them feel, at least certainly not to the extent that they would if you owned and controlled that UI and UX.

So you're really reducing brandability and any messaging opportunities that you might have had there. That's dramatically, dramatically reduced. I think that's very, very tough for a lot of folks.

Next up — and this speaks to the UI and UX elements — but it's impossible to add or to customize calls to action, which really inhibits using your blog as part of your funnel. Essentially, I can't say, "Hey, you know what I'd like to do? I'd like to add a button right below here, below all my blog posts that says, 'Hey, sign up to try our product for free,' or, 'Get on our new mailing list,' or, 'Subscribe to this particular piece of content.' Or I want to put something in the sidebar, or I'd like to have it in the header. Or I want to have it as a drop over when someone scrolls halfway down the page." You can't do any of those things. That sort of messaging is controlled by the platform. You're not allowed to add custom code here, and thus your ability to impact your funnel with your blog or with your content platform on these sites is severely limited. You can add a link, and yes, people can still follow you on these networks, but that is definitely not the same.

There's also, frustratingly, for a lot of paid marketers and a lot of marketers who know that they can do this, you can't put a retargeting pixel on Svbtle or on Medium. Actually, you may be able to on Svbtle now. I'm not sure if you can. But Medium for sure, LinkedIn for sure, Google+, you can't say, "Hey, all the people who come to my posts on Medium, I'd like to retarget them and remarket to them as they go around the web later, and I'll follow them around the Internet like a lost puppy dog." Well, too bad, not possible. You can't place that pixel. No custom code, that's out.

The last thing, and I think one of the most salient points, is there have been many, many platforms like this over the years. Many people use the example of GeoCities where a lot of people hosted their content and then it went away. In the early days of the web, it was very big, and a few years ago it fell apart.

It's not just that, though. The uncertain future could mean that in some time frame, in the months or years to come, Medium, or Svbtle, or LinkedIn, or Google+ could become more like Facebook, where instead of 100% of the people seeing the content that they subscribe to, maybe they only see 10% or the Facebook averages today, which are under 1%. So this means that you don't really know what might happen to your content in the future in terms of its potential visibility to the audience there. If that's the sole place you're building up your audience, that is a high amount of risk depending on what happens as the platform evolves.

This is true for all social platforms. It's not just true for these hosted blog content platforms. Many folks have talked about how Twitter in the future may not show 100% of the content there. I don't know how real that is or whether it's just a rumor, but it's one of those things to consider and keep in mind.

My best advice:

So my best advice here is, use platforms like these for reaching their audiences. I think it can be great to say, "Hey, 1 out of every 10 or 20 posts I want to put something up on Medium, or I want to test it on Google+, or I want to test it on LinkedIn because I think that those audiences have a lot of affinity with what I'm doing. I want to be able to reach out to them. I want to see how those perform. Maybe I want to contribute there once a month or once a quarter." Great. Wonderful. That can be a fine way to draw distribution there.

I think it's great for building connections. If you know that there are people on those networks who have big, powerful followings and they're very engaged there, I think using those networks like you would use a Twitter or a Facebook or like you already use LinkedIn to try and build up those connections makes total sense.

Amplifying the reach of existing content or messages. If you have a great piece of content or a really exciting message, something exciting you want to share and you've already put some content around that on your own site and now you're trying to find other channels to amplify, well, you might want to think about treating Medium just like you would treat a post on Twitter or a post on Facebook or a post on LinkedIn. You could instead create a whole piece of content around that, sort of like you would with a guest post, and use it to amplify that reach.

I think guest post-style contribution, in general, is a great way to think about these networks. So you might imagine saying, "Hey, I'd love to contribute to YouMoz," which is Moz's own guest blogging platform. That could be wonderful, but you would never make that your home. You wouldn't host all your content there. Likewise you might contribute to Forbes or Business Insider or to The Next Web or any of these sites. But you wouldn't say that's where all my content is going to be placed. It's one chance to get in front of that audience.

Last one, I think it's great to try and use these for SERP domination. So if you say, "Hey, I own one or two of the top listings of the first page of results in Google for this particular keyword, term, or phrase. I want to use Medium and LinkedIn, and I'm going to write two separate pieces targeting similar keywords or those same keywords and see if I can't own 4 slots or 5 slots out of the top 10." That's a great use of these types of platforms, just like it is with guest posting.

Don't try to use these for...

Don't try to use these as your content's primary or, God forbid, only home on the web. Like I said, uncertain future, inability to target, inability of using the funnel, just too many limitations for what I think modern marketers need to do.

I don't think it is wise, either, to put content on there that's what I'd call your money keywords, essentially stuff that is very close to the conversion funnel, where you know people are going to search for these things, and then when they find this content, they're very likely to make their next step a sign-up, a conversion. I would urge you to keep that on your site, because you can't own the experience. I think it's much wiser if you say, "Hey, let's look way up in the funnel when people are just getting associated with us, or when we're trying to bring in press and PR, or we're trying to bring in broad awareness." I think those are better uses.

I think it's also very unwise to make these types of platforms the home of your big content pieces, big content pieces meaning like unique research or giant visuals or interactive content. You probably won't even be able to host interactive content at most of these.

If you have content that you know is very likely to drive known, high-quality links, you've already got your outreach list, you're pretty sure that those people are going to link to you, please put that content on your own site because you'll get the maximum ranking benefits in that fashion. Then you could potentially put another piece of content, repurpose a little bit of the information or whatever it is that you've put together that's wonderful in terms of big content as another piece that you separately broadcast and amplify to these audiences.

What I'm really saying is treat these guys — Medium, Svbtle, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Google+ — treat them like these guys, like you use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and guest hosts in general. It's a place to put a little bit of content to reach a new audience. It's a way to amplify a message you already have. It's not the home of content. I think that's really what I urge for modern marketers today.

All right, everyone. Look forward to the comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

• Build some tools and reach out to websites that might want to link to those tools.
• You can offer data or images.
• Find great content out there that's inaccessible or isn't useful for individuals who might need screen readers. Just recreate the content and follow the guidelines for accessibility and reach out to everybody who links to that site. Now you've got a reason to say, "Look, it's a great web page, but unfortunately a certain percentage of the population can't use it. Why don't you offer, as well as the existing link, one to your accessible version?"
• Broken link replacement.
• Skyscraper content, which is where you just create fantastic content. Brian Dean over at Backlinko has a fantastic guide to that.

1. What you need to do is open Rank Tracker and go to the Keyword Suggestions tab, which is under the Keyword Research module.
2. There you'll need to pick Google AdWords Keyword Planner and enter your keywords.
3. After the tool has kindly supplied you with a whole bunch of new keywords ideas, you need to filter out the ones that you don't want to optimize your testimonial page for.
4. So, hit the funnel icon  , which is in the upper right corner, and click Add filter.
5. Now, set your filter like this: Keyword -> contains -> review. Specify other keywords that you feel like may be in search queries for your testimonial page and hit OK.
6. For now you can move them to a separate group for your convenience. First, you need to send the selected keywords to the Rank Tracking submodule (right-click them and hit Move Selected Keyword(s) To Rank Tracking). After that, right-click them again and hit Move To Keyword Group. The freshly made group can be found in the Keyword Map submodule.