I am often asked the question “How long before I am on the first page of Google?”

Of course, the answer is always: “It depends.”

Lots of variables go into the equation for getting onto the first page of Google for a chosen keyword. If you are doing all the one page search engine optimization correctly, then you have the chosen keyword in the title, the meta description, in heading tags and appropriately sprinkled throughout the page. But that is as far as you can go on page.

Since you have tweaked your site, they will get the most out of the first pass from the search engines, and for many search engines, that is all they need; one or two looks at your site and into the index it goes. Ranking well in the lesser search engines is great, but will it bring you traffic?

So now we are talking about Google, and this self proclaimed Google expert says that it is a moving target at best, a roller coaster ride at its finest, and the edge of a flat earth in darkest of times.

Google likes to list sites others like. They recently introduced the +1 icon so you can give your vote to them directly. Another way they count votes is by number of back links you have into your site.

Of course, not all back links are created equally either! The cream of the crop are one way, on topic, from authority sites with only a couple on the page, directly targeted to the pages with the appropriate information. How do you get those?

And what ones are not cream? Is posting to infinite article directories and getting links from huge directories really help? What about all those links from comments on other people’s posts? Or forum links, or the links in your email signature?

Well, some of those can be quite effective, others are just a waste of time and bytes of disk storage and wasted bandwidth.

We deliver on topic, one way links from trusted sites with unique content that is not written by a machine. We help you get the cream of the votes. Contact Ask a Friend today so we can move your website to the top of Google.

The Internet Guru Owen Walcher has decided to Travel to Mexico on Vacation – for life! Here he is after a wonderful massage by his lovely mate, Cat Morgan.

Internet Guru Owen Walcher

Why is Owen Walcher an Internet Guru?

by: Internet Guru Owen Walcher
What is a guru, and how do I come to be called an Internet Guru and SEO Expert?
Indeed, a guru is one who is an expert in their field. Looking back at the origin of words, we see that a Guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others (teacher).In sanskrit gu means darkness & ru means light.

So, I bring things from darkness into the light. Or I enlighten you about the Internet. And I know about all aspects of the Internet, not just one aspect like so many self proclaimed experts. And it is with this breadth and depth of knowledge that I can offer services to get you onto the first page of Google results, often for less that you are paying for a yellow pages advertisement.

Are you Looking for an SEO Expert?

Anyone can tweak your website until it is so over optimized the search engines see when you fix the word then to than. Yet most web masters fail at the most basic of website tuning tasks; that of page titles and page file names. I can fix the titles, but if your webmaster does not understand SEO, the will not use SEO friendly file names. So a quick check on how much your web master knows: look at the file names of your site. Are they keyword rich, and separated by dashes, NOT under_scores. If you have a background in programming, you know that search engines treat words_with_underscores as variable names, and do not parse the words within, where as words-with-dashes are easily understood by even the most simple search engines as strings of words.

I am often asked to show proof that my online promotional techniques work.  I saw, the “proof is in the pudding.” Check out the results of a recent customer, Jennifer Raisanen CPA, who recently started an accounting and tax prep business in Glenwood Springs Colorado.

I created the website for Jennifer (two sites, actually) in late November of 2010.  she had just relocated to Glenwood Springs and needed an online presence.  but building a website is not enough these days, and you are sure to find out if you don’t know that already.  you have to get people to link to your site, which the search engines count as votes toward your placement in their results.  The more “votes” you have, the better your placement.  I help you get those votes.

Here we see the results for the search “glenwood springs accountant” as of March 24.

Google Results for "glenwood springs accountant"

As can be seen in the image (click it to get a bigger view), not only is Jennifer in the local listings, but she is also holding the top 3 positions in Google for the main search term.

Now let’s search for the term “glenwood springs CPA“, and wow! Not only is she in the local listings

Yeah, a local listing and the top two places in Google, but look down the page:

Not only spots 1,2, and 4 point to her website, but placements 6 and 7 also are articles with links back to her.  She literally dominates the first page of Google!

Let’s look at one more keyword for her, one that is very competitive, and just now being promoted.  It is searching for the terms “glenwood springs tax accountant” or someone to do your taxes!

Although not listed in the local search (yet, we did not include tax accountant as a keyword when setting up the listing), you can see she still has the first 4 places in Google for her keywords.

Can I guarantee you the same results?  Absolutely not! But I do know that my online promotion and marketing techniques work in all industries and all locations.  It is just a matter of how many votes you need on your website to get it to rank on the first page of Google. Hire the Internet Guru and get top results in Google for your keywords.

According to Internet Guru Owen Walcher, Internet Marketing is a lot more than simple Search Engine Optimization, common referred to as SEO.

What is SEO, really? For most, it means coming up first in Search Engines. That is all fine, and having a first page listing on google is worth a lot. But how much more is it worth if you dominate the entire first page of Google results? And can that be lumped into SEO, or is there more to Internet Marketing?

More and more traffic comes to websites vis Social Networks, so you need to have a social network marketing strategy. The biggest advantage to this form of online marketing is that is it viral in nature and based on personal recommendations, so the good word about your business moves fast.  How far it moves depends on the footprint of your network (such as size of your email marketing list), and how fast it moves depends on how excited folks are about your product.

At the end of the day, the best long term approach to creating a sustainable web site is to build quality back links, which is definitely an SEO practice, referred to as off-site optimization. If you are looking to build your brand, business, or online presence, then the SEO and Internet Marketing Services offered by Ask A Friend Publishing will do the trick, at a fraction of the price the big boys want to charge you. No spamming here!

Make sure you follow the right steps in building your online business.  Step one is to have a solid performing, search engine optimized web site.  It always surprises me how many websites are just not tuned to perform well in the search engines. Shame on your web masters, who are telling you everything is OK because your analytics tells you that your traffic is growing – no doubt! but is it growing as fast as the Internet, or your competition? Do you own the entire first page of google results for your primary keywords? What about your competitors keywords?

It is time to step out of the box, and talk to someone who wants to help you grow your business, because we are serial entrepreneurs ourselves, having built and sold many businesses – it is what we do for fun! and profit, of course.

Contact Internet Marketing Expert Owen Walcher about SEO and Online Marketing Services today.

Just like Google matters for search, it also matters for Social Networking.  According to a recent study published by Janrain, Google still hold the market share for Social Media Logins across the web running thier application.

Across the 300,000 websites using Janrain Engage, Google remains the most popular provider. Facebook has improved its position by 3% compared to three months ago, and Twitter’s overall share has improved from 5% to 7% of overall login preference. Yahoo! has held constant at 14% share.

An analysis of various industry verticals tells a different story.  Yahoo! was the prevailing provider among news media companies three months ago, comprising 34% of social logins on sampled sites.  During the past quarter, Facebook’s share in this segment has grown at the expense of Yahoo!, Google and AOL.  Despite the moderate decrease this quarter among the 25 sites sampled, news media sites remain one of Yahoo!’s highest-performing verticals in terms of social login preference.  Keep an eye on Twitter, as it improved from 4% to 6% share in this vertical over the last quarter.

Read entire article here.

When talking with businesses about their websites, I often hear folks brag about their great placement on Yahoo or Bing, but rarely does anyone brag about being on the first page or first listing of Google.

When I ask them why they are not on Google, they generally look down and say [insert your favorite excuse here] and ask if there is anything I can do about that. If you look a the little picture [...] Continue Reading…

If you are a local brick and mortar business in the Roaring Fork Valley, I can get you first page listings on google for your main keywords, guaranteed, or you do not have to pay me.

Many people make this claim, and most often they do this through purchase of sponsorship advertisements at the top of the Google search results.  This is NOT what I am talking about. I am talking about getting you first [...] Continue Reading…

For Immediate Release

September 24, 2010

Owen Walcher informally announced at Rotary today that he is moving the operations side of Ask A Friend Publishing to the Roaring Fork Valley. Asked what the business does, Owen replied “Ask a Friend moves businesses into the 21st century business model by growing the social networking side of Customer Relationship Management.

If you want to know how Facebook and Twitter can help your business, then you understand the need to [...] Continue Reading…