The Pittsburgh Post Gazette featured one of my clients, Heather Abraham, in a wonderful story in today's edition. 

The story, written by PG reporter Virginia Kopas Joe, discusses my client's colorful childhood as the daughter of one of Jeannette's most famous bookies - "Big Al" Abraham. My client has captured those years in her cleverly-written book, "The Bookie's Daughter," which is available through SagisBooks. It encompasses the first 19 years of
her life, when she and her sister were forced to live a life of crime and excess – where gambling, police raids, trials, public scorn, IRA gun runners and midnight runs for illegal goods – were considered routine. 

Jeannette, Pa., a small town once known for its glass industry and fine restaurants. Those familiar with the region will recognize many of the places mentioned in the book, some of which are still in existence today. The author also makes frequent “trips” to the neighboring town of Pittsburgh, Pa., where she and her father spent much of their time on merchandise runs for both his legal and illegal businesses. 

“The Bookie’s Daughter” is a top-ranked seller in Amazon’s Biographies and Memoirs of Criminals section, peaking at number one in early December. The book
is available in both a soft-cover edition and a Kindle version. Artwork for the
book cover was designed by local Jeanette historian, John Howard. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

This is Ms. Abraham’s first published work. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and 
a Master degree in Religious Studies, and is the founder and editor of the 
eMagazine, Religion Nerd. She currently is working on her second novel. Originally from Jeannette, Pa., Ms. Abraham now resides in Atlanta with her husband, Teo, and their three beloved dogs.

Just when you think you’ve finally figured it out, and your website is ranking high on the list of Google search results, something happens to change your search status.

While it can be frustrating to see your website go from number one or two on the first page of Google search results – to being buried at the bottom of the third or fourth page of results – don’t get discouraged. A few simple changes can help your website earn top rankings again.

First and foremost, it should be noted that Google has changed how it finds and ranks website content. Google’s web crawlers used to find new website content simply through the use of Meta tags inserted into the HTML code of a website. It took very little time or effort to insert these key words into a website during the design phase, which pretty much guaranteed that Google and other search engines would be able to find your website. The better the Meta tags, the higher the website generally ranked in search results.

Fast forward to today, and Google has changed the rules, which has caused frustration for more than a few website owners.

While Google search engines are still able to read Meta tags and find websites which use them, they no longer base search result rankings on Meta tags alone. Google crawlers now spend time looking for original content instead of just the same old generic Meta tag keywords inserted into the HTML code. The claim by Google is that this helps them to reduce the kind of abuse that was beginning to run rampant by those who wished to have their website at the top of the search results for absolutely everything. Some programmers were inserting Meta tag keywords that had nothing to do with the actual website content in order to boost their search ratings. Google finds this practice abhorrent and punishes websites that “cram” irrelevant Meta tags into their code by refusing to rank them.

Google now makes it hard for those who would abuse Meta tag keywords to get their websites noticed. Its web crawlers may still take Meta tags into consideration, but they also search each page of a website content that is relevant to those Meta tags. Tags that do not match keywords placed within the actual content of the pages are ignored for search-result ranking purposes.

So what is the best way to get your website consistently noticed and ranked high in the search results?

Some companies on the market today will do their best to convince you that using fancy – and often expensive – tools such as Google AdWords is the way to go. While it is true that subscribing to Google AdWords will rank your website consistently at the very top of a search results page, it also is true that it will cost you money each month to earn that ranking. It also is worth noting that the result will be displayed as a “Sponsored Ad,” which is a polite way of saying “hey, I paid Google to rank my website here but that doesn’t mean it’s a great website. It just means I could afford to pay to put it here!”

Earning a solid ranking for your website shouldn’t cost any business owner an arm and a leg in advertising fees, or in fees for companies who promise only they can increase traffic to your website. Making a small investment in a quality content writer is a much better option. Original content – such as that found on a blog – is an optimal way to improve your website’s search ranking. Blogs allow original content to easily be inserted into the text. They keep readers coming back to your website to see new information about topics or services relevant to your business or service.

However, it should be noted that only original content is picked up by Google’s web crawlers, so if you choose to incorporate a blog into your website, consider using a professional content writer to provide the blog posts. Outside of a blog, quality content writers also can liven up the written content on a website to help distinguish it from every other website of a similar topic. Originality is the key in today’s world of search engine ranking.

Interested in learning more about improving your website ranking? Call the professionals at The Write Reflection today to discuss your options.