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Google Real Time Search Impact On Small Businesses
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Google Real Time Search Impact On Small Businesses
Google recently introduced us to Real Time Search and this has
been met with a lot of questions. What Tweets will show up in
real time? How will this affect businesses who are, and those who
are not, engaging in social media? How will it affect PPC? Where
will the searches show up? The biggest question is what impact
will this have on small business? Small business owners are
met with limited resources and adding any additional hours into
their day is nearly impossible. But can a small business ignore
real time search?
What is Real Time Search? As per Google
“… new features that bring your search results to life with a
dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now,
immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates
from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as
well as headlines from news and blog posts published just
seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest
results to show the freshest information right on the search
results page.”
In other words, your tweets from Twitter and new blog articles
will be appear as “Latest Results.” The latest results are
featured in 2 ways.
a. On the search results page below the “News Results” (if
there are news results). This appears for very hot topics that
are getting a lot of activity.
b. The “Show Options” menu: click on “Latest” under All Results
and the live search results will appear.
What Does This Mean for Small Businesses?
1. Customer Experience.
Consumers are much more savvy and they are going online for more
information. A quick Google search will provide them possibly
more information about your company than you might have thought.
A business cannot control what a person tweets about. As we see
in the example below, tweets are posted when they mention a
topic, business name, a name, etc.
See: http://www.sitepronews.com/images2/googlerealtime.jpg
Image Courtesy of: Lifehacker.com
(http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/12/is-google-real-time-search-any-good/)
Most tweets, blog entries and company mentions will show up
under “Latest” and not on the main search results page. However,
if a consumer wants to see more information about you, they have
the option at their fingertips.
2. Reputation Management.
Not every business is on Twitter or has a blog, nor do they
necessarily belong. However, ignoring your “Latest” news can
present a problem. If a consumer is singing your praises, or
worse a bad comment is written and you do not respond, you are
adding fuel to the fire. That customer has been given a chance
to continuously go on and on about your company/brand whereas
the praise singer just got deflated with no feedback from you.
Failing to monitor your reputation online could result in some
missed opportunities or a poor company image that leads to
reduced sales.
3. Spam.
Yes there will be spam because spammers are going to jump
on this like ants at a summer picnic. While Google will make
every attempt to try and control spam, the current algorithm for
posting in real time makes that nearly impossible. How will this
affect a small business? Spammers could very well keyword stuff
tweets to get ahead and push your company lower on the tweets
area. This is going to happen. There is no control right now, but
the key is to try and stay ahead of them.
4. Search Engine Optimization.
Will real time search improve page rank? This remains to be
seen. Will keyword laden tweets that are tweeted over and over
from different accounts and push a company to the top of a
searched term make a difference? Will this be seen as spam?
Keyword laden tweets will give great results for a specific
term, especially for those difficult to rank terms, and even
if your company is atop of tweets for a short time, you may reap
some rewards.
Real time search is not just the posting of tweets. It also
posts company mentions from blog articles. So if your company
has a blog, you may want to check out your “Latest” results.
In small business branding we have to consider social media
marketing as an extension of your brand in the same way that we
do traditional advertising. For some businesses, it is a time of
uncertainty. As stated earlier, not every business needs to be
on Twitter. A “crickets” account is worse than no account at
all. But can you still just ignore the social media community?
The good news here is that, if you are able to squeeze in an
extra hour as a small business owner, you can go and see what
terms are popular in your industry, see what is being said
about you, and see if you need to move full steam ahead in 2010.
Most smal businesses will need to do so because social media
marketing has just started to make a big impact and getting in
now will make a world of a difference in a year or so.
(0 Comments)
Is Load-Speed the Ultimate Google Ranking Factor?
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Is Load-Speed the Ultimate Google Ranking Factor?
Last week’s post about load speeds
(http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/
using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html)on Google’s Official
Webmaster Central Blog finally confirmed the rumors which have
abounded across the SEO sector for months – that Google now
factors a site’s load-speed when assessing its search ranking.
And while this announcement, which comes as no surprise to those
with their finger on the Google pulse, has drawn a few favorable
responses from blog commenters, the overwhelming majority of
readers have expressed concerns and doubts about the soundness
of Google’s approach. At the forefront of these were questions
primarily regarding the exact magnitude of any negative ranking
impact carried by slow page loading speeds. Alongside these came
a large number of complaints about the fact that Google’s own
Analytics script is a known load-time decelerator, and about the
almost glacially slow rendering times of AdSense code.
When read together, many comments give one the impression that
webmasters are becoming apprehensive to the point of stampeding,
as is usually the case when Google does something new. Indeed,
the overall consensus seems to be that load-speeds are about to
become the ultimate criterion for search ranking performance, and
that this will cause major ranking damage to the average website.
One commenter even went so far as to announce that he/she will
remove all Analytics and AdSense scripts because their slow
performance will now obviously ruin his/her website’s
performance.
But are these worries actually valid, or are they just the latest
manifestation of unfounded Google-noia to hit the SEO sector?
Before I get around to addressing the question, I must admit
that I knew this was coming some time ago. Consequently I was
able to line up a few experiments on two sites from my own stable
in an effort to gauge any real-term ranking impact once Google
started to implement its changes.
What did I personally find?
Despite the fact that both websites are rich in graphics and
content, both have not been updated regularly since late last
year, and neither is what you might call a fast loader, I found
absolutely no detrimental ranking effects for either site during
the past couple of months. In fact, the slower of the two
websites (average load-time 5.3 secs) actually experienced
noticeable SERP improvements in the past week or so, which makes
me wonder if there’s not more to all this than simple load-speeds.
That, however, is another story.
Of course mine is only a limited sample, and a far from
conclusive one. It is, however, one of many indicators one can
find if one looks around. And with that in mind, let’s return to
the question at hand. Are webmasters’ fears justified or
ill-founded?
As usual, and as I’ve touched on already, each and every time
Google does something new, it invariably precipitates a spate
of trepidation and panic among the world’s webmaster and SEO
crowds. Perfect cases in point include the implementation of
the ‘Nofollow’ attribute, and the announcement that buying and
selling links for PR was no longer ok, both of which together
sparked major outcries throughout the online communities. And
from what I’ve seen, the initial knee-jerk reaction that the
Site-Speed announcement will certainly spell the end of the
Internet as we know it is no different.
But seriously, although load-speeds are now a ranking factor,
at least for English-language searches on Google.com, let’s not
forget that it’s still just a single one of over two-hundred
signals Google uses to assess a site’s rankings. And let’s also
remember that Google is first and foremost about delivering
relevant results, just as it always has been.
After all, what use is serving results from the fastest sites on
the web, if those sites don’t actually contain the information
the user is looking for?
In an interview (http://videos.webpronews.com/2010/04/01/
google-talks-quality-caffeine-spam-buzz-and-push/)less than two
weeks ago, Matt Cutts himself said: “People shouldn’t stress out
too much about Site-Speed, and the reason is that we’re always
going to care first and foremost about quality. How good is a
page for users?”
Addressing Site-Speed’s function in assessing SERPs, he also
said: “Don’t think it’s going to be the largest of the
two-hundred factors.”
These statements are more indicators…
As part of my daily involvement in Google’s Webmaster Help
Forum (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en),
I’ve had an opportunity to keep track of developments during the
past five months or so since the Site-Speed topic was first
raised. There, a number of highly enlightening discussions with
the forum’s other Top Contributors and Google staff, along with
the general speculations of a great many visitors, have provided
quite a clear picture of Site-Speed’s role in the overall scheme
of things. It is a role which, as is usually the case, focuses
on a better user experience.
Let’s face it, it’s no great secret that the average visitor’s
attention span is five seconds or less, and that long loading
times do tend to make users hit the back button. And that’s
exactly where Site-Speed comes in. It was never designed to be
the ultimate Google ranking factor; it merely provides a little
extra fine-tuning by casting the deciding vote in cases where
information of identical or similar quality is available on
multiple websites and needs to be ranked with a better user
experience in mind.
As a last word about load-times I would have to say that there
are a large number of reasons to make sure your web pages load
in a sensible amount of time. These should, however, be focused
on your visitors, not orbiting around your Google-noia.
Google Places (Formerly Local Business Center)
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Google Places (Formerly Local Business Center)
In the early 1990s, when I was first online, very few businesses
had a website. Gradually companies started coming online, but
most of them were those that served a national or global market.
While many local directories also came online, it was rare to
see a strictly local company with a website. There were some
exceptions, like those with professional practices such as
dentists, doctors and lawyers. In fact, professional practice
websites were some of my earliest SEO clients, although they
weren’t in my local area. But even in the mid-2000s, the
typical hair salon, plumber or chiropractor were very rare to
find online.
About 10 years ago I remember looking for a chiropractor in my
area online and could only find one with a website, and it
wasn’t even one in my town. Much to my dismay, I ended up using
the old-fashioned telephone book to make sure that I found all
the nearby chiropractors.
Things are different today. While there are still a surprising
number of small local businesses without websites, they are
easily online thanks to Google’s local search results. Did you
know that, according to Google, one in every five searches is
related to location in some way? It’s no wonder that Google has
put a lot of effort into enhancing their local search listings.
This week I learned through Search Engine Land
(http://searchengineland.com/
google-local-business-center-becomes-google-places-40307) that
Google had changed this feature’s name (http://sites.google.com/
a/pressatgoogle.com/googleplaces/press-release) from Google
Local Business Center to the simpler Google Places. In addition,
they’ve added even more cool things you can do with your Google
Page, once you’ve claimed your listing. For instance, if you’re
located in certain cities, you can purchase an enhanced listing,
which they now call “tags,” for $25 per month.
And if you operate a hotel, restaurant or local store, you can
even apply to have Google photographers come and do a free photo
shoot (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/faq.html)
of the interior of your business!
They’ve also added “QR code,” (http://www.google.com/help/maps/
favoriteplaces/business/barcode.html) which you can have printed
on business cards or anywhere else. The code enables those with
QR readers in their phones or other devices to go directly to
your website.
More useful to the average business owner, however, is the new
ability to post messages to your Place Page. This is great if
you have an event coming up or just any special thing you want
to tell people about. It can be up to 160 characters and it will
show for 30 days unless you delete it sooner. You can post URLs
that will become clickable links, but you can’t use HTML code
(I tried!). For our Place Page, I added the date to our upcoming
SEO Class with a link to the class page. I think it’s a nice
touch.
If you claimed your company’s local listing a long time ago and
haven’t checked it out in a while, you should definitely log on
and revisit your page. And if you’ve never claimed your Place
Page, there’s no better time than the present!
Here’s how to find your Place Page in Google: Head over to
Google Maps and search for your company by name. When you find
it, click the “more info” link. That should take you straight
to your Place Page. If you haven’t claimed your Place Page yet,
click the link that says “Business Owner” and then click the
“Edit my business information” button on the next page. Now
you can fill in all the information on the form.
You might be concerned at this point that someone else could go
in and change your information or edit it incorrectly… but
don’t worry. Once you’ve filled out the form, nothing will go
live until you verify that you are the true owner of the Place
Page. They do this by sending you a postcard via snail mail that
has a verification code on it that you have to go back later to
enter.
Be sure to do a thorough job filling out the description field
for your website. This is where you want to add your main
keyword phrases where they make sense to do so. Don’t try to
add keywords to your company name, however. The spammers and
scammers have already killed that little trick and it will only
get you in trouble with Google rather than helping.
You can and should add the maximum 5 categories to your listing
because what you choose there can help your site show up when
people are searching using similar words. Note that you don’t
have to stick with the categories Google recommends; you can
make up your own. I suggest doing some Google Maps searches
using the types of phrases you’d want to show up for, and seeing
what some of the sites that are currently showing up are doing.
I also highly recommend that you add photos and videos to your
Place Page if you have them. Be sure that one of the pictures is
your company logo! You can take a look at what we’ve done with
our High Rankings Place Page (http://m1e.net/
c?31787615-FC26SnDI.spIY%405246283-.xm9iPwsHrLMQ) if you’d like
some ideas.
One place we’re lacking at our site is reviews. We’ve been
meaning to solicit some from clients, class attendees, forum
users and newsletter subscribers, but haven’t gotten around to
it. Come to think of it, while I have your attention and while
you’re visiting our Place Page anyway, please feel free to
write a review! Under “Photos & Video,” you’ll see a section
for reviews and a link to write one of your own.
Even if your company is national in scope and doesn’t do much
local business, I strongly suggest claiming and enhancing your
Google Place Page. These local listings are showing in more and
varied ways in the Google search results, well beyond just
Google Maps. I expect them to gain even more prominence, given
all the effort Google has been putting into them lately.
The Google Duplicate Content Penalty: the Truth
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Google Duplicate Content Penalty: the Truth
The truth of the Google duplicate content penalty is quite
simply that there is none! If that confuses you, then you
have been reading too many misinformed forums or blogs where
people get stuck on some popular term that they have no idea
what it means, and then profess to be experts.
The only experts on the Google duplicate content penalty,
and the only people who are qualified to define it, are
Google, and in Google’s own words “There is no such thing as
a duplicate content penalty”. This comes directly from
Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.
That should be the end of this article, at precisely 96
words excluding title as I define my word count. But it is
not. Why? Because even though this blog is operated by
Google, and even though much the same has been stated by
Matt Cutts, Google’s main software engineer, and other
Google experts, people still argue and complain about the
Google ‘duplicate content penalty’.
So here is the truth: you might ask who am I to know the
truth, but I read all the Google blogs and their official
statements, and in applying what I learn, I achieve excellent
results for my web pages on Google search engine listings:
and those of Yahoo, MSN and Bing. So I am coming from a
sound base that my results can prove.
As a professional article writer whose customers trust to
get them the best results from the articles I write, I have
to be very aware of the policies and the way the algorithms
work of each of the major search engines, and so I am as
qualified as anybody to comment on myths such as this.
The Truth of the Google Duplicate Content Penalty
There is no duplicate content penalty. Google’s major search
engine function is to offer a customer the best possible
results for a search, based upon the search term (keywords)
that the customer has used in the Google search box.
Google’s customers are not:
1. You, who use it to get your web pages listed.
2. Adwords advertisers that use Adwords to advertise their
products.
3. Corporations or individuals that use it to have their
web pages listed.
4. Internet marketers who recommend others to use Google
for advertising or searching.
Google’s customers are those seeking information,
whether that is to solve a problem, where to purchase a
product at the cheapest price, find a sports result or to
get directions to a specific location. Everybody that uses
Google uses a search term to find some information that they
need. That search term is what you and I refer to as a
keyword.
If Google detects several web pages offering exactly the
same content, its algorithms will select that which best
offers the information required and list that. It might also
list one or two other pages offering exactly the same content
if there are good reasons for it doing so (e.g. more links to
other relevant websites, more other relevant pages on the
domain, and so on).
So, not all duplicate content pages will be refused a
listing. If these duplicates are articles, then the
algorithms that the spiders carry on their backs will take
the links from these articles into consideration, the
authority of the directory on which it is published, and
other factors, before deciding which should be listed. It
is wrong to believe that this decision has a chronological
factor, but, if you include a link in your article Resource
section to your web page that contains the same article,
then your page is liable to be listed above the others,
partially because of a greater number of links back to it
from the other copies, and partially because your entire
site is liable to be more relevant than these others to
information being sought by Google’s customer.
This is not because yours was created first, but because it
better meets Google’s criterion for authoritative
back-links. However, if the rest of your website is not
equally authoritative, your page might be listed behind
another with the same content or even not listed at all.
All of this is designed by Google so that its customer is
offered the most relevant range of results to the keywords
they used. That is what Google is for, and is its ultimate
objective. Google will not penalize any individual or any
website for publishing what you refer to as ‘duplicate
content’, and it will take your version into consideration
for publication just as any other version.
What counts in the long run is which version Google’s
algorithms believe to be most likely to offer the best
possible information to the person seeking it, and if that
means not publishing a whole host of duplicate information,
then that is only fair, isn’t it? If you used Google to find
some information, you wouldn’t want to find page after page
saying exactly the same thing, would you?
No, and neither does Google. A Google listing comes from its
indexing of billions of web pages that contain the keywords
used by the searcher: both in relation to the entire phrase
and to the individual words used in the search term. If you
want your copy to be different, make some minor changes and
perhaps change the form of the keywords, but most
importantly, change the title and the introductory paragraph
to which the crawlers will take special notice.
You then have a better chance of your version being listed
along with some of the others, but remember: the next time
you use the term ‘duplicate content’ you are using a term
that does not exist in Google’s vocabulary for any reason
than to deny its existence. The Google Duplicate Content
Penalty does not exist: the truth!
How to Hard-Wire Your Site to Google
Until Bing turns into David and slays Goliath, the only search
engine game in town is Google. While the other search engines
can’t be ignored or forgotten, when it comes to online search,
Google will deliver the majority of your quality organic
traffic. For webmasters and especially for online marketers,
having your website virtually hard-wired to Google is a
marketing Must-Do.
We are strictly talking about white hat stuff here. If you’re
seeking the opposite color, look elsewhere. As a full-time
search engine marketer, I have learned a few things over the 10
years or so I have been working on the web. One of the most
significant factors running constantly in the background has
been Google. And, the underlying fact is that the more I
intertwined my sites and content with Google, the more success
I achieved. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the
two, making it a little more than ironic that the original name
for Google was BackRub.
But this is not exactly rocket science territory here. Google is
the biggest entity on the web, especially if you go the free
organic traffic route. There are tons of ways to market online
which don’t involve Google at all, but for the purposes of this
piece, I will be discussing ways any webmaster or marketer can
better connect their site and content with Google. Plus, I’ll
(if it’s not already obvious) also give you some reasons why
this is a smart marketing strategy on your part.
The first technique you must perfect is how to get your new
content into Google’s Index within minutes, if not seconds.
These days with social media sites this can be easily achieved.
It may be as fast as your latest Tweet or Google Buzz
(http://www.google.com/buzz). Google News (http://news.google.com/)
is another easy way to instantly get your content into Google.
Press releases are another immediate way to connect your content
with Google. So too is something as simple as making a video and
posting it on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) which is Google
Owned.
(Note – Google has recently revamped the YouTube system and
provided many ways webmasters can view the linking data and
stats; great source of information for webmasters and marketers.)
Actually Google will index any new site or content fairly
quickly these days so you don’t have to worry about it. One
method I like best is using a free blog from Blogger/Blogspot
(http://www.blogger.com/) [which is also Google owned] and
placing links there to be indexed within minutes. To keep track
of what content Google is indexing, I usually set up Google
Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) for all my main sites and
my main keywords. Whenever a page is indexed in Google related
to my sites or keywords, Google sends me an email. Many savvy
webmasters use these alerts to find and build link partners
since these indexed pages will be thematically related to yours.
Using Google Alerts will make it seem like you’re totally welded
to Google and Google’s indexing system, every second of the day.
Needless to say, keywords rule the web and Google. You must
attach your content to keywords people are using to find stuff
on the web and build top 10 rankings for those keywords in the
search engines, especially Google. Now if you’re new at this,
Google gives you some valuable keyword tools you can use to see
how many searches are made each month for a keyword phrase and
also gives you some idea of the keyword competition you will be
facing. I like using http://google.com/sktool and also
http://labs.google.com/sets. Besides, you must start your Google
courtship off on the right foundation.
Next, you must realize Google is not really a search engine but
a business. The main goal of this business is to supply quality
content to web users so that these users will use Google over
and over again, allowing Google to attach ads and make a profit.
The key to getting and keeping Google’s attention is fulfilling
your part of this “quality equation” with superior content which
surfers want and find helpful. Make this your religion and the
SEO gods, including Google, will smile kindly upon your site.
Now like any religion there are some strict rules you have to
follow. In a recent WebProNews video interview, Matt Cutts said
Google has (200) signals it uses to rank content on the web.
Most webmasters refer to these as ranking factors, but in truth,
they are really signals that your site gives off… provide the
wrong signals and it could spell lower rankings. So if you want
to keep your site in Google’s good graces, you have to follow
some simple SEO on-page rules, such as placing your main keyword
in the Title, in the Heading, in the Body and in the URL. Make
sure your site is easily navigated by your visitors and
especially by the search engine spiders. Keep your linking
structure simple, with no links more than three clicks away from
your index or homepage. In my opinion, getting quality related
one-way backlinks is the most important way to get top rankings
in Google.
In recent years, Google has gone out of its way to help
webmasters understand all these simple SEO basics. And as far as
I am concerned, one resource every webmaster should be using is
Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/). This
is a whole suite of tools and information webmasters can use in
correlation with Google. Recently, in Webmaster Tools Google has
made available Click-Thru data on its search engine results so
that you can find out how many impressions you’re getting for a
certain keyword and your click-thru or conversion rate. Some
webmasters are questioning the accuracy of these numbers, but it
will give you some indication of how well your site and content
is doing in Google.
Perhaps, another just as valuable program is Google Analytics
(http://www.google.com/analytics/), where you’re really giving
Google access to all your site’s information. You can use
Analytics to measure different links/content on your site to
see how well it performs. More importantly you can use it to
fine-tune your conversion rates in order to make more sales. I
also use it to test-out different graphics, different salescopy,
different site layouts… and so on. But a word of caution,
don’t just use Analytics. As an online marketer you want many
sources of information, so regularly study your own traffic logs
and raw site data. Even with Google and probably especially with
Google, you should always cross-reference any data with other
sources on your site and on the web. Lets not get too carried
away with this Google worship thing.
I use both Google Adsense (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and
Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com/) with most of my
sites. As an online marketer, I know I can get 10 times more
from an affiliate link than from Adsense… but over the years
I have found having both types of links on sites doesn’t
significantly reduce sales. To explain further, I have tested
my pages with and without Adsense, and it doesn’t affect my
affiliate sales even though I know I am losing some sales to
Adsense. Overall, using Adsense adds to the competitiveness of
my pages. If someone is looking for the lowest price and finds
it in a Google ad, they come away happy and will probably visit
my site again or sign-up to my newsletter. Besides, Adsense is a
very quick way to monetize pages which I don’t have ready
affiliate programs for on my sites. In addition, Adsense and
Adwords give you valuable feedback on your content’s performance.
There are several other Google programs which I use to further
connect with Google such as Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/),
Google Knol (http://knol.google.com/) and iGoogle
(http://www.google.com/ig). One must-have program is Google
Accounts (https://www.google.com/accounts/), which basically
connects me with all my different programs within Google. I have
found managing all your Google programs is much easier from this
one location. I also like using Google Profiles
(http://www.google.com/profiles) and Google Buzz
(http://www.google.com/buzz) to get my content quickly into
Google and onto the web. As you have probably guessed already,
Google does have a lot of programs which webmasters can use to
improve their content’s performance. In the process, by using
and intertwining your content with all of the Google programs
highlighted here, you’re really connecting with Google en masse.
While many marketing experts will say it is foolhardy to marry
all your content to just one search engine, I have found over
the years that hard-wiring your site to Google really makes
your content readily accessible in the most dominant presence on
the web. Doing so not only gives your content the attention it
deserves, but it can also help further your own goals. Actively
positioning your site and content firmly within Google’s many
different facets can prove beneficial for any webmaster or
online marketer. Just get that pre-nup agreement in writing
first!
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 6, 2010
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
If you have a brick and mortar store, and rely on walk-in
traffic for your survival, you may be wondering
what the Internet can do for your business. Believe
it or not, a lot – and you don’t even need a website.
In the “old days”, the bulk of businesses relied on
the Yellow Pages to get the phone ringing. The majority
of marketing dollars were spent getting listed in this
ten pound paperweight. With the popularity of the Net,
less people let “their fingers do the walking” when they
need something, and more are letting their mouse do
the talking.
Online search has gone mainstream when it comes to
searching for local businesses. Google states that
73% of searches are done for local content. Another
study by BIA/Kelsey and Constat report that 97% of
consumers use online resources when doing research
for products/services in their local area. See
http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp
Google has always understood the power of local search,
and years ago launched its Local Business Center where
any business can get a listing for free. Recently,
they’ve done a major overhaul and have re-launched with a
new name of “Google Places”, showcasing a host of new features.
http://google.com/places . The name change was done
to tie in with Google’s Place Pages which were launched
over a year ago and include over 50 million places
worldwide. http://tinyurl.com/yc56vx9
If you want customers to be able to find you, and haven’t
listed your offline store here yet, you need to get with
the program. You are missing out on the opportunity to
reach millions of Google users, including Google Map users,
Google’s 800 Voice Directory Search and even Google Earth.
And all of this exposure won’t cost you a dime. It’s totally
free.
Now that I have your attention, let’s go over the steps
for inclusion. As with all things Google, you’ll need
to sign into Google Places with your Google Account.
Up to 100 single locations can be added but, if
you have more than ten to list you’ll need to use
their “Bulk Upload Tool”.
There is a verification process that must be done
to prove you’re the owner of the business being listed.
The choice is yours, it’s by phone or mail. Once
this is done, your listing goes live.
Now in case you’re thinking all that’s included in
a listing is an address and phone number, hold onto
your hat. Here are some of the listing options.
1) Show the geographic area you service.
2) Photos: Upload your own, up to ten images per
listing, in JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. A professional
photo shoot can also be requested for your business.
3) Place Page Posts: You can post real time updates
here, up to 160 characters, announcing special sales,
events, and new products. One post appears at a time.
4) Custom QR Codes: For use with smart phones to
take users to your mobile website.
5) Advertise: They do have a “Tags Program” in
select cities for $25.00 a month where your business
will be highlighted on Google.com and Google Maps.
6) List your operating hours. Biz description
and even reviews.
7) Post Videos: Up to five videos can be posted,
but you’ll need to publish them to YouTube first,
then include the URL’s on your Place Page.
Payment Types Taken
9) Coupons: Create online coupons to give people
incentive to visit your site. There’s a separate
“coupon tab” that appears on your listing page.
10) Privacy: If you work from home and have no
storefront you can choose to make your address
private in your listing.
At this point you should be realizing how important
being listed in Google Places is to your business.
If you’d like to see what your listing looks like
to a searcher, log into Google Places and click on
“see your listing on Google Maps”.
Now remember, search results are based on relevance
and “geographic distance”, so you can’t buy your
way to the top of the list as with pay-per-click
advertising. As previously mentioned, the “tags
program”, if available in your area, can be utilized
for having your business show up highlighted for
$25.00 a month.
If you’re interested in paying for your links to show
up on the Google Maps search results page, if related
to the search terms and location searched, that can
be done using Google’s Adwords program with what’s
called “Local Targeted Ads”. http://google.com/adwords
By the way, Google also includes a “Reporting Dashboard”
that will tell you how people find you, and what keywords
they used to search. It’s powerful stuff that can also
be used in your local search engine optimization work.
Do yourself a favor – if you’re not listed with “Google
Places”, do it today. It’s targeted, free traffic. Now
where else can you say that when it comes to marketing
on the Internet. People are looking for your business
online and with Google Places you can make it easier
for them to find you. Website or not – it simply doesn’t
matter – but getting people in the door does, and Google is
there to help.
Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:26 PM
Monday, July 26, 2010
Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business
The people at Google are truly amazing! They are evolving
their search engine into something that can be an incredibly
powerful tool for business. There are a zillion things that
Google can do for different parts of your business and in
this post, I will highlight the top 10 Google search tools
that will help your supply chain.
Since Google is just a click away, I think it’s a very
useful for everyone involved in the supply chain to be aware
of how much easier it can make their lives. Everybody from
traffic managers, to purchasing people, to accounting people
and customer service will likely need to reference what
Google can do during the course of the week. There are a
lot of people who don’t even know all of Google’s
capabilities. So without further ado, here is your:
Top 10 Google Search Tools That Will Help Your Supply Chain
1. Package Tracking – You can track packages by typing the
tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly
into the search box. Some of the LTL and motor carriers also
allow for you to plug in their pro numbers as well. Google
will return results that include quick links to easily track
the status of your shipment.
Example of what to search for: “1Z9999W9999999999″
2. Time – This is huge when dealing with vendors or
customers overseas or across the country. To see the time
in many cities around the world, type in “time” and the name
of the city.
Example of what to search for: “time London”
3. Currency Conversion – This is cool! To use Google’s
built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion
you’d like done into the Google search box and they’ll
provide your answer directly on the results page.
Example of what to search for: “150 GBP in USD”
4. Unit Conversion – Countries use different metrics for
measuring. This tool is extremely useful. You can use
Google to convert between many different units of
measurement of height, weight, and volume among many others.
Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and
Google will do the rest.
Example of what to search for: “10.5 cm in inches”
5. Calculator – Since Google is right on your desk top you
don’t have to go searching for your calculator. Plus it
uses Excel style equations so it’s really easy for business
people who think in Excel. To use Google’s built-in
calculator function; simply enter the calculation you’d
like done into the search box.
Example of what to search for: “5*9+(sqrt 10)3=”
6. Weather – Weather plays a big role in transportation so
this is great for getting a snapshot of the world’s weather.
To see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities, type
“weather” followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or
city and country.
Example of what to search for: “weather San Francisco, CA”
7. Maps – Want to see the mileage between a shipper and a
consignee or try to figure out where your vendor is located?
This is great! Type in the name or U.S. zip code of a
location and the word “map” and Google will return a map of
that location. Clicking on the map will take you to a larger
version on Google Maps.
Example of what to search for: “Seattle map”
8. Area Code – This can be helpful in situations ranging
from trying to find where a phone call is coming from to
finding out what part of the country you are calling. To
see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area
code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google
search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search
button.
Example of what to search for: “212″
9. Stock Quotes – Wanna see how a freight carrier or a
vendor is doing in the market? Just type the ticker symbol
into the search box. On the results page, you can click the
link to see more data from Google Finance as well.
Example of what to search for: “MSFT”
10. Earthquakes – I have heard carriers make up some crack
pot reasons why they missed the delivery. In case you are
given the old earthquake excuse, you can use Google to see
if the story checks out. To see information about recent
earthquakes in a specific area type “earthquake” followed by
the city and state or U.S. zip code.
Example of what to search for: “earthquake 90210″
*When entering keyword or phrase into Google’s search engine
with these tools, do not use quotation marks.
Why You Should Create Controversial Content
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Last week, like every other week, I wrote an article. This time I decided to syndicate it, something I should be doing twice a week, but only get to about 4 times a month, and that’s if I’m feeling up to it.
This was one of the biggest traffic draws from a single article that I have had in years. It is still producing a steady stream of traffic, sales and subscribers as I’m writing this.
It’s been 2 years since I’ve gotten that much of an appreciative response, or that amount of attention, period, for an article I wrote that wasn’t widely syndicated. In fact, it only appeared in one major publication.
So what’s all the hub-bub, bub?
As you may have guessed, there was a controversy surrounding the article. First, there were several typos. Normally I’d edit the article so relentlessly that by the time the article was perfect, it would be a month since I wrote it and it wouldn’t fit into my article marketing campaign for that week.
Since I’d been kicking my own butt to get content out on schedule, even when it isn’t perfect, I took my own medicine and just sent it out the way it was. And boy were the grammar, typing and spelling police mad!
Two people wrote me that they passed my article around at their meetings as an example of what not to do. Does it count as a backfire when one of the people who sees it Googles you and becomes a client?
(Just had to get in that little dig. Forgive me.)
What else was so bad about the article?
I called my readers “punks” – in the title.
This was a calculated risk – I’d run another version of the article, a blog post, and from sharing on StumbleUpon alone it got over 3000 visitors. In this new version, the article then went on to tell my readers to basically get off their over-thinking butts and do something, then gave them two examples of things to do.
There was, of course, a vocal minority of outraged responses about this too. But, curiously, other, louder, people who read the article – people I haven’t ever met or spoken to – came along and defended it.
In the end, my slang-ridden, typo-laden, in-your-face article brought me more profitable traffic and attention than any other article I’ve written this year. It was written in a moment of passion I had at seeing a friend almost lose her house, and a peer almost lose his business, mostly as a result of inaction.
And seeing this reaction led me to go back and look at my other articles. I write all my own stuff – it’s far more profitable for those of us who are at least halfway decent at writing to write an okay article injected with personality than it is to pay someone else to write generic content.
(I still hire writers for certain things though. But I concentrate on the ones with voice and depth, and pay them more for unique, engaging writing – I don’t simply outsource to the lowest bidder. I say if you’re going to hire a writer, get someone better than you.)
If you have the ability to generate controversy with your content, do it. Not convinced? Here are seven reasons why you should consider it.
1- It’s Effectíve
Nothing gets more attention than controversy. That’s why reality shows are popular. It’s why we read the journalist who we think is making an absolutely backwards prediction about something we care about. That’s why people gossip and debate.
Why merely participate when you can be the topic of discussion?
2- Negative Attention is Sometimes even Better than Positive Attention
Nothing spreads faster than outrage. Wide exposure for a controversial view is much better than no exposure for towing the conventional wisdom line.
3- Display Your Skill at Dealing with Diverging Viewpoints
Let people see the smooth way you react to the rude comments from people who take your words personally that WILL follow. I’ve gained lifelong friends, fans and customers from them witnessing what they call poise under pressure – and I call common courtesy.
You don’t have to respond from the same type of energy that’s being directed at you. Why let someone else having a bad day ruin your day?
4- It Vets Your Buyers
For example, if you want more clients that will take your advice to heart, get off their butts, and stop making excuses, try making a video that takes a hard line and tells people to get off their butts and stop making excuses!
Yeah, you’ll get reamed for it – by people who make excuses. They will be offended and won’t ever sign up to your newsletter.
Awesome. Because the people who needed a coach who believes in swift kicks in the butt will take your advice and hungrily seek more of it.
5- It’s Fun to Do
What’s more fun than seeing something controversial? Being controversial or doing something controversial. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you can take it, boy is that a fun ride!
6- It’s Entertaining To Experience
When people are entertained, they buy more. You probably haven’t ever noticed the music playing in the background at the grocery store. It’s there because studies show that people browse longer and thus, buy more, when they’re being entertained.
Now you see more TVs at gas stations and in convenience stores. When I used to live in Vegas many of the Strip cabs had TVs on the backs of seats before I ever saw them in regular cars.
Then there’s the classic example of commercials during our favorite TV shows.
7- It Sets You Apart
You know why bigger companies are afraid of controversy?
Me either. If you find out, come tell me. All I know is, I’m not afraid of controversy because I see it as an opportunity. It’s another way to connect, to have something to discuss, and in the case of my last controversial article, to help people.
Even if you aren’t going to make a controversial audio, video, blog post or article, for goodness sakes, do something different.
No one watches boring shows on TV, invites boring people to parties, reads boring books or listens to boring music unless they have to, for study or evaluation.
Try a little controversy and see where it takes you. If that’s too scary, at least risk being extraordinarily passionate. The spotlight can be fun.
Google SideWiki Encourages Public Graffiti
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Google has launched a controversial new tool that allows the public to comment on any web site in a side bar displayed in their browser.
Called Google Sidewiki, the tool is integrated in the latest version of Google Toolbar and works with both Firefox and Internet Explorer but ironically, not yet Google Chrome. To use Sidewiki, download the latest version of the Google Toolbar and set it to enhanced.
When activated, Sidewiki slides across from the left and becomes a browser sidebar, where you can write entries in a vertical column and read the entries of others. To activate Sidewiki, you simply click on the Sidewiki button in your Toolbar menu or the little talk bubble on the left hand side of your screen.
See: http://www.sitepronews.com/images2/sidewiki.jpg
If you’ve got a Google profile, your image will appear next to your Sidewiki entry. You can either highlight a certain part of a web page, click the Sidewiki button and comment about it, or you can make a general comment about the entire web page. If you’ve got Sidewiki installed, you can see comments made on the same web site by other members of the public and you can forward your Sidewiki comments to colleagues, friends and family via direct link, email, Twitter or Facebook.
It appears that persons can read the Sidewiki comments sent via link whether they have Sidewiki installed or not. When you’re logged into Sidewiki, you’ll always see your comments at the top and any others below.
Not only does your Sidewiki entry appear on the original page, but if you have highlighted text, your entry also appears on any webpages that contain the same snippet of text that your comment is about. From the official blog post:
“Under the hood, we have even more technology that will take your entry about the current page and show it next to webpages that contain the same snippet of text. For example, an entry on a speech by President Obama will appear on all webpages that include the same quote. We also bring in relevant posts from blogs and other sources that talk about the current page so that you can discover their insights more easily, right next to the page they refer to.”
Rather than viewing them in the order in which they were written, Sidewiki entries are ranked via an algorithm determined by Google:
“So instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed.”
The technology used to determine ranking involves large-scale graph computing but other factors are at play, as revealed by Danny Sullivan in his post about Sidewiki. These include use of sophisticated language, complex sentences and ideas, user reputation and user history as revealed by your Google profile and comment contributions. Your comments and others can be thumbed up or down using the “useful – yes or no?” tool, or reported as abuse, further contributing to your user reputation and “Profile Rank” as Danny calls it.
Google have also launched an API that allows developers to work freely with the content created in Sidewiki. Where no comments have been made on a web page, Google may show blog results relating to that page.
The potential applications of Sidewiki are interesting and frightening at the same time. For example, I can see how it could be a useful bookmarking tool, allowing you to make notes about a web site you’ve found which you could refer to later. You can even embed YouTube videos in Sidewiki (take a look at the Google home page to see this in action).
It also has fantastic potential as an online collaboration tool, letting you annotate the pages on a site in conjunction with team members in a similar way to tracking changes in a MS Word document and sharing document versions via Google Docs.
BUT, (and it’s a big but), I can see Sidewiki being open to abuse in a similar way to Searchwiki, Google’s comment tool for search engine result pages. Searchwiki has been widely panned in the search industry because it’s Notes feature has been exploited by spammers, overactive PR companies and people with a chip on their shoulder about certain web brands. Unfortunately, I see Sidewiki heading in the same direction. And fast.
Any user controlled element of a search engine is open to some level of abuse. But I don’t see a huge amount of comment filtering going on yet and have already seen evidence of spamming (view the Microsoft home page with Sidewiki installed and you’ll see anti-MS entries like this one).
Yes Google have a usefulness rating system in place, a Report Abuse link and are flagging some comments with the disclaímer “These entries may be less useful” but I doubt their filters will be able to keep up as Sidewiki takes off. There’s also going to be the troll factor which will undoubtedly lead to the system becoming worthless if it’s not carefully controlled. I’ve viewed Sidewiki entries on some major sites this past week and it’s already starting to feel like Toilet Wall Graffiti 2.0.
Sidewiki has program policies but spammers don’t care about those and trolls don’t read them. Besides, one man’s graffiti is another man’s gospel.
Google’s catch phrase for Sidewiki is: “Contribute helpful information to any web page”. To that, I say: Define helpful.
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