Free Tools For Your Online Business

Internet marketing is simply exploding on the web and along with that explosion is access to many free products that will help you to succeed online. These tools save time, which in the end translates to making more money…and, isn’t that why we’ve entered this online marketing world in the first place? I’ve included a list of valuable tools that I have used to help you with your online marketing and the best thing about it is they are free!

* Google Alerts

You can do so many things with this tool,not he least of which is the ability to “see” who is publishing your material, if anyone is talking about you and which sites have picked up your Ezine articles. If you are targeting certain keywords, you can set it up to show you when something has been posted on a website regarding the keywords you are targeting. Navigate to google.com/alerts and enter the keywords you want to track.

* Google Analytics

Another great tool provided by Google. With this tool, you can track the kind of activity your site is receiving such as…who is visiting, where they are from, how long they stayed on your site and the best part…which keywords they used to find you. It is very easy to install…just follow the prompts and paste the code exactly where they tell you to on your website.

* Google Adwords

Here’s Google again If you are not already tracking certain keywords for your blog or website, then you should begin doing so. Great search engine optimization requires finding the best keywords and long tail keywords. There is a lot involved with SEO, but learning how to find the right keywords is a must if you want to experience serious success.

* CamStudio

There is no question about it…the popularity of video on the Internet has exploded. CamStudio gives you the ability to learn and apply your video making skills before you move on to a paid program such as Camtasia. Obviously with Camtasia you are going to get more features, but CamStudio is a great starting place, and a good place to practice your video skills. Eventually, you will probably move up to a paid program, but you can’t beat free for starters!

* FTP

FTP stands for file transport protocol. Simply put, it is what you use to transfer your files from your computer to your host/server. My own personal choice…the that I use is Filezilla. It is open source and free to use, but there are many more available such as Smart FTP. Just do a seach on FTP choices and study your options.

* RSS reader

We all have favorite blogs that we like to return to and read the content, but trying to keep up as to when these blogs are updated can be a daunting task at best. An RSS reader will notify you of any new posts on your favorite blogs. Additionally, it will save you valuable time navigating to these blogs only to find out they have nothing new to offer yet. Google Reader is a good one and its free to use. Having access to RSS on your blog or website is equally important to your readers. You want them to have the ability to receive your blog posts when they are new. This tool will save you time and also save your readers time.

* Traffic Virus 2.0

Traffic Virus 1.0 was one of the web’s first traffic generating pieces of software designed to launch your own viral advertising campaign. The newer 2.0 version is now available and the best part about it is it remains free…even though it has been improved upon with better features. You can’t beat that deal!

This is just a partial list of the free tools that I have taken advantage of to keep my own Internet marketing business running smoothly. As you can see, there is no shortage of free programs and material out there to get your business up and running on the web in no time. It’s up to you to take action.

For more free tools, just Google “free Internet marketing tools”…you might be surprised at what’s out there!

Do You Want the Top Spot on Google?

Every website is battling for the top spot in Google’s search results page, and to do that you have to optimize your website for Google. Optimization requires continually improving your site’s content. Even though Yahoo and Bing simply search the tag structures in HTML, Google uses a trickier, and somewhat clandestine, method to determine top spot.

Google looks for websites that continually provide fresh and relevant content. Since Google has such strict guidelines for top spot, it requires web page owners to continually work on keeping their page’s content fresh and relevant to hold a top spot in the list.

* Keywords and Phrases

Google looks for phrases and keywords as it is assessing a site. It evaluates a site’s content, and looks for phrases that match a particular search term. If say, a visitor is looking for ‘boat repair’ Google will display pages where that keyword shows up several of times in the body of the page. So when you are optimizing your web page, you should concentrate on phrases rather than single words. Now that you know Google is looking for a particular phrase you do not want to go crazy with that phrase on a page either, because this is know as keyword stuffing. Be careful with keyword phrases–if Google sees too many of them, they will lower your page in the search engine rankings.

* The Title Tag

The title tag is important and is unique to each page in a website. The tag can be found on the browser’s title bar. It is also used by Googlebot to see what the page contents are going to be. Google then looks at the page contents and evaluates if the two match, and this helps determine page relevance. Since Google looks at each page in a domain, many sites dynamically generate page titles with an introduction text appended to the company name.

* Anchor Text

When you add link tags to your page, this is anchor text. Take care to be precise in your anchor test by using relevant phrases for prominent links on your page. Google is looking for specific link information, so the more specific that you can be the better. If you focus on your site’s keyword terms and make sure that these are always in line with your content, you will make Google’s assessment of your site easy. Google is generous with its link limits saying that no more than 100 links should ever appear on a web page.

* Header Tags

Header tags are HTML page elements coded “”, and they provide a bold heading on the page. The headers tell Google what the purpose of the page is, and the title tag tells it the purpose of the website. You should have a header tag on each page.

* Quality Content

The last thing that Google is looking for is unique content. Google’s customers are your website visitors, and when Google returns a search list, they want their customers to be happy. So you are helping Google as it is helping your. New content and keyword phrases help you get to the top of Google’s search list. So if you have bad content – either plagiarized, badly written or irrelevant content – Google is not interested in you. Make sure to follow Google guidelines, or Google will blacklist your domain and not link to it at all.

* Optimize Your Website for Google and Make it Readable

By complying with the guidelines that Google has set out for page ranking, you can set your page up to show up at the top of the search list. By continually adding new content, Google will mark your page as a good one to return to its customer. However, you must always make sure that you site is aesthetically pleasing and readable by a human, because the point of why you optimize your website for Google, is to attract new visitors to your page to increase your company’s market share.

Link Building: When Will Backlinks Show Up In Google

Many times website owners who are new to link building simply don’t know what to expect when it comes to the timeframe for registering backlinks.

Here’s a common question I get:

“I’ve just started marketing my brand new website, and I know I have backlinks coming into my site, yet when I do a check for incoming links, nothing shows up. Am I doing something wrong?”

Probably not–A backlink check will tell you how many incoming links are registered with a particular search engine, but it will not tell you how many backlinks you actually have.

Why is that? Well, it usually takes search engines months to re-evaluate incoming links, so if you do a backlink check today, there are likely links that are going into your site that haven’t yet been calculated in.

It would be nice if we could build links and then immediately have them show up in a backlink check, but that’s just not the way the internet works.

As you’re building links to your site, here are some ways to keep track of your progress and build links effectively over time:

- How To Do A Backlink Check

It’s incredibly easy to do a backlink check for your site. In Google, just type this into the search box (replacing the ‘yourwebsite.com’ part with your URL):

* link:http://www.yourwebsite.com/

The results of that search will bring up a list of sites that are linking to your website address. In the upper right hand corner of Google you’ll be able to see a total count of your registered backlinks.

An even better tool is Yahoo Site Explorer https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com which provides a list of your registered backlinks and much more detailed information. Both of these backlink checking tools are free, so you can try each one out (or do both).

- Why Are Backlinks Not Showing Up For My Site?

Let’s suppose you know that you’ve build links to your site, but nothing is showing up when you do a backlink check (frustrating, I know!).

There are some logical reasons why backlinks may not be showing up:

1) Perhaps your website is brand new and has not yet been indexed by Google

When you launch a new site it does not automatically appear in Google–it usually takes several months for Google to realize that the site is there and to index and categorize it.

Until your site is indexed, it will not show up in any search engine searches and no backlinks will be registered. You can even do a search for your exact site name or URL and nothing will show up–that is how you know that your site has not been indexed yet.

If this is your situation, don’t fret! This waiting period is something that all website owners go through, and Google (and the other search engines) will eventually index your site.

It can take anywhere from 3-5 months for a new website to be indexed.

I remember the last time I was launching a new site it took about 5 months for the site to be indexed in Google. On that 5th month, all of the backlinks that I had been building over the preceding months finally showed up–whew!

2) Not enough time has elapsed since building the links

Even if your site is already indexed, it usually takes search engines several months (3-4) to recalculate the backlinks. So, if you have been doing article submissions for the past 2 months and you know for a fact that you have quite a few incoming links, those links will not show up in a backlink check for another month or two.

This doesn’t mean the links aren’t there–they are! The search engine just hasn’t registered them yet.

As you can see, one necessary component of any link building campaign is PATIENCE. There will be a time delay from when you build the link to when you see the fruit of your labor in Google.

Keep in mind, this time delay does not impact your marketing campaign–whether the links have started to show up or not, you should continue to market your website and submit articles. Immediate results are not the goal–you should be going for a long lasting impact on your search engine ranking for your keywords, rather than a brief shot of traffic that fades away after a day or so.

When you’re link building, you need to market your site consistently–develop an article submission schedule for yourself and stick to it, submitting articles each and every month.

You will be rewarded in the long run with an increased search engine ranking for your major keywords, which can of course build traffic dramatically for the long-term.

How to use the Google Trends Website

The Google Trends Website was made public in 1996 but many marketers on the Internet don’t know about it. Some know but don’t understand it and so don’t get the benefits out of it that are possible.

The Google Trends website is a service offered by Google to users that want to get some fantastic data about keyword searches in the Google search engine. For example if you wanted to know how popular Levi jeans were over the past 6 years you could type in “Levi Jeans” and get data that would show you the search trend for Levi Jeans. It will not only give you the search trend but you can begin to focus the searches on country, city or even by language.

For anyone looking for a Niche to market and make money Google Trends is something they should not do without.

* How to use the Google Trends website Practically?

a) PPC Marketing

If you are primarily a PPC marketer Google Trends is going to help you in your geo-targeting. I was involved in a niche that was hot in the United States but it gradually tapered off in the USA but got real hot in the Japanese market and so you set up your Adwords campaigns to target Japan. Thank you Google for saving me money on advertising and making me money by knowing where the buyers were.

b) Spying on Competition

To the right of the trends graph there are a list of links that show you articles that are ranked high for the keyword that you chose. Look over those articles, get some ideas, spin it and submit it. Have you seen our page about Online Article Marketing?

c) Hot Trends for Bloggers

Google Hot Trends is a separate service and URL. When you are blogging you are in need of content and if you want to have something relevant to your crowd that is timely with world events or something else you can use Google Hot Trends to see what is real relevant. Not long ago Tiger Woods went through his hardship with his family and the reporters. If you type Tiger Woods into the Google Trends website you will see the spike that was created over the bad press. I would not use Hot Trends to determine a niche because it is only reporting the hot things that are very current and as we know, news is changing all the time.

d) Keyword Analysis

The Google Trends website should be a part of your keyword research in conjunction with a program like Traffic Travis (download Traffic Travis for FREE) and the Google external keyword tool. Google trends will save you money from choosing keywords or a niche that is no longer active in a particular country that you may be targeting.

Another cool part of the keyword analysis that I should mention is something I saw in a webinar. The Google Trends website was used to compare “table tennis” and “ping pong”. Which do you think is more popular? Which country would you think either is more popular? Curious? Well I am not going to tell you. Go to the Google Trends website and check it out for yourself. While you are there play with it and see if you should alter some of the marketing that you are doing.

Remember that this is only Google traffic and does not account for the traffic on other search engines like Ask, Yahoo and Bing. Clearly Google dominates as a search engine and gives a good picture of what is most likely taking place in the other search engines.

How to Increase Google Page Rank

Visit any internet marketing forum and you are bound to find at least a few discussions on Google page rank. But what exactly is Google Page Rank and what do you need to do to increase it?

First of all Page Rank is a value that Google assigns to a web page based on the importance of the page. It is determined by the number of incoming links to that web page and few other factors including the page rank of the page giving the link to you.

There has been discussion recently asked to the importance of page rank. However one thing to consider is this, if Google thinks page rank is important than page rank is important.

Remember Google gets over 65% of all the search traffic on the Internet every day. If you were to take 10 websites that were all optimized for the same keywords, typically you would find that the page with the highest page rank would rank higher in the search engine results than the other pages.

* So what are the best ways to increase your Google Page Rank?

1. One of the first things you should do is aim to increase the numnber of backlinks that you have pointing to your website. This fact alone can increase your link popularity and ultimately increase your page rank. Combined with that is the fact that the more back links you have pointing back your website for more potential traffic you will get from it.

2. As well as increasing the quantity of links to your website you should also try to get your links on high quality web pages. This means getting your link on pages that are ranked as high or higher than yours. When you do this some of their page rank can be transferred to you which ultimately helps increase the page rank of your site.

There are lots of ways to increase your page rank, but the most common methods are posting in discussion forums that have a high page rank, article marketing, submitting your site to directories, commenting on blogs and distributing press releases.

You should also try to get some deep links in addition to the links to your home page. Deep linking means linking to internal pages on your website as opposed to always linking to your homepage.

There are many other methods that you can use to improve your page rank, but any time you spend on getting links is well spent!

It is worth noting that the page rank displayed on the Google toolbar is not up to date. Although Google is always internally updating the page rank of web pages, the toolbar page rank is only updated every few months.

You should also be aware that just because a web page has a low page rank it doesn’t mean that getting a link on that page isn’t worthwhile. The page rank could increase on the next toolbar update.

Finally, it is worth remembering that a good Google Page Rank on its own is not necessarily going to mean lots of traffic. You also want to ensure that you have chosen good keyword phrases and have optimized your website.

3 Important Questions to Ask Google Analytics

With dozens of free web analytics tools available in the market, Google Analytics stands out because it provides data like no other tool does. Just add a few lines of JavaScript code to your website’s footer and you have access to a vast amount of metrics you can slice and dice.

This data is useful to develop and implement fresh website marketing strategies and understanding the behavior online of your web visitors.

But before diving into Google Analytics, prepare a list of the most important questions you want answered from this tool:

1. What do you want visitors to do on your website?

Every website has a purpose. It may be to provide information, build a brand or sell products online. Set your goals for the website and build it accordingly.

The Goals category of Google Analytics helps you to understand the number of goals achieved in a day, week or month. All you need to do is set your goal URL in the analytics settings and watch the data pour in. The funnel visualization sub category provides this type data:

* How many visitors completed my goals?

* How many visitors abandoned the goals to move onto other URL?

* Which internal pages did visitors came from to the goal webpage?

2. What is the Visitor doing on the Website?

Analysis of this data enables you to track the visitor’s action on the website. You can find out whether the visitor completed the goal you set. Accordingly you can make the changes which will reinforce goal completion. The content category in the left sidebar of Google Analytics provides important data:

a) Top Content: It contains a list of the content viewed by the visitor, arranged in descending order. This lets you know the most popular pages of the website and how to leverage them.

b) Top Landing Pages: These are the pages visitors land on, before going ahead and browsing the website. You can view the browsing path for each webpage and find a pattern.

c) Top Exit Pages: It contains a list of web pages which failed to generate interest among the visitors and lead them to exit the website. Revamp the exit pages with these details and aim to convert them into your top content pages.

d) Site Overlay: The Site Overlay opens a new web page which contains a small progress bar over every link. This bar shows the percentage of the number of clicks on that link. As the number of clicks on a link increase, the percentage of the progress bar increases.

3. Where is the Visitor coming from?

This is one of the most important data elements you can work on to get insights into the visitor. The ‘Traffic Sources’ category displays the websites and keywords which send traffic to your website. This category can be segregated into:

a) Direct Traffic: This contains the number of visitors who came to the website by entering its URL into their web browser. Direct traffic is also used to determine the popularity of the website.

b) Referring Sites: Referring websites are the ones which link back to a website using some content and a link. The visitors get referenced from the source website and land on the target website using the link provided. Referring websites can be used to judge the success of social media marketing techniques.

c) Search Engines: It contains a list of the search engines which send traffic to the website. Google Analytics also lists keywords which were clicked upon by the visitors. A high percentage of visits from search engines indicate a successful search engine optimization strategy.

The answers to the above questions coupled with custom reports and segmentation provide rewarding insights. These metrics can be used to model the website around the desired goal and achieve higher conversions.

The Google Gadget that Makes Selling Online a Snap

If one or all of the following applies to you, please raise your hand – “I want to sell something on the Net”, “I have no technical or coding skills”, or “I don’t want to be bothered with a merchant account”.

Do I have your attention now? How about if I told you that there’s a quick and easy solution to your online selling problems? Well, thanks to Google, your prayers have been answered. Google Labs is a testing ground for new services thought up by the geniuses who work there. One of their latest concoctions is called “Google Checkout Store Gadget”. Its basic function allows you to copy and paste some code onto any webpage or blog, and become an instant merchant selling your own products.

Let’s take a look at the “man behind the curtain” to see how it all works. The very first step is to open a Google Checkout Merchant account, which is easy to do by going to http://checkout.google.com/signup Fill out all of the required information, and you’ll also need to input a bank account where your hard earned sales funds will be sent to. Google Checkout will process all incoming orders for you. The orders will appear under the “orders tab”. On another note, make sure to uncheck the box that says, “my company will only post digitally signed carts”, then hit the save button. Also, make sure to write down your “Merchant ID” number as you’ll need it later on.

The next step is done using a Google Docs Spreadsheet which will track all your inventory. Google provides a template that can be copied which can be found here, http://tinyurl.com/yhebl4y . Take out the “dummy” product information and replace it with your own. There are separate columns for each item, even for shipping information. Each product can have its own separate shipping charge if need be. Keep in mind when filling it out that it can be viewed by the general public, so don’t include any private information in it.

After you’ve entered all your items, hit “share” in the upper right hand corner, and publish as a “web page”. Also, check the box that says “Automatically Re-Publish when changes are made.”

Google makes it easy to set up your online store by using http://storegadget.googlelabs.com . It takes you through the process step-by-step, and when finished you click on “start publishing” and select where you’d like to embed the code, for example your website, Blogger, etc. Copy the code and paste it where you want the gadget to appear. There are no coding skills necessary, and anyone can do it. Really, it’s that simple.

If adding to a Blogger Blog, go under “edit layout”, add a “gadget”, then click “add your own”, and paste the gadget code. Now you’re selling items from your Blog that quickly.

So what’s all of this going to cost? There is a small transaction fee charged by Google Checkout for any monthly sales as follows:

* Under 3,000.00 2.9% plus .30 per transaction

* 3,000.00 to 9,999.99 2.5% plus .30 per transaction

* 10,000 to 99,999.99 2.2% plus .30 per transaction

If you’ve been putting off getting up a store front because you thought it was too difficult or technically complicated, Google really has simplified the process. With “store gadgets” even a child can sell online.

For more information see these resources:

* http://googlecheckout.blogpsot.com Checkout Blog

* http://tinyurl.com/ybd8ksk Google Checkout Store Gadget Forum

* http://tinyurl.com/n2c2dy Google Docs blog

“5 Tips on How To Use Google Sidewiki Efficiently”

Google launched Sidewiki on 23rd Sep 2009 as a part of its toolbar. Google Sidewiki appears as a sidebar in the browser and allows visitors to comment on any webpage. Its main aim was to collect useful information on any webpage from people around the world and therefore lead to better user experience.

For example, a person searching for a local restaurant can see its review in the sidebar by the previous diners.

Google Sidewiki comprises of an algorithm which pulls out the most useful and valuable comments from its database. This ensures that a visitor will see the most relevant comments on a webpage. Listed below are 5 steps for using Google Sidewiki efficiently.

1. Get Started With Google Sidewiki

Sidewiki is available in the options tab of the Google toolbar. Simply download the Google toolbar and select the option to integrate Sidewiki using the checkbox. It appears as a blue sidebar in the browser which slides open when you click on it. Google Sidewiki works perfectly well in Firefox. Although, Google’s own browser, Chrome seems to be having some issues in integrating Sidewiki.

2. Add Comments on Useful Webpages

Adding comments in Google Sidewiki is extremely easy. You need to log in to your Google account and click on the “Make an Entry” link which appears at the bottom of the sidebar. Enter your comments and publish. It is advised to add something which ads more value to the content. If your comment is relevant to the topic, then it can be placed on the first page of Sidewiki for that web page, unless you are the website owner.

3. Claim Your Position At The Top Of All Comments

If you want to place your own comment at the top, you need to verify ownership of the website by using Google Webmasters Tool. If verified, as the page owner your entry is placed at the top entry for that page. The top slot can be used to leave a note for anyone who is yet to comment.

4. Share Your Comments With Everyone

Each comment in Google Sidewiki has the option of being shared on Twitter, Facebook or emailed to any user. This enables everyone to read the Sidewiki entries without using the Google Toolbar. This option is very useful if your web page has received some great comments from visitors. Sharing these comments will pull readers from others streams like Twitter and Facebook onto your website.

5. Flush Out Negative Comments By Blocking Sidewiki

Google Sidewiki does not provide an option for blocking or deleting negative comments on a webpage. Many users have expressed their displeasure with Google for not providing an option for this purpose. If your web page is inundated with negative or irrelevant comments which are harming your website, you can block Google Sidewiki. This can be done by switching from normal http:// to secure https:// pages.

Google Sidewiki is not the first of its kind. One of the first commenting add-on, Third Voice was launched way back in 1999. AddATweet and Kutano are plug-ins which can be installed on your browser and let you tweet comments on a webpage.

Despite many competitors, Google Sidewiki has risen to become the most popular commenting tool of its time. Start your week by experimenting with this comment tool.

On Google Docs

Google Docs has been around for some time now but until recently I’d never managed to find a use for it in my life and my lack of experience with the service means I’ve not felt confident enough to recommend it to readers. We are currently going through the process of getting another shop up and running in Newton Abbot which has necessitated several people working on the same few spreadsheets (costing exercises, proposed time sheets and so on) from several different locations. Google Docs has worked out perfectly for this task.

To get started, set up a free Google Account (if you don’t already have one) at http://docs.google.com. From there you will now be able to create an online Document, Spreadsheet or Presentation. As well as then giving you access to these documents from wherever you are in the world, you also have the added advantage that you can choose to share them with any number of different people. Those that you trust to make their own changes can then also edit the document, even at the same time as another user.

There are three primary types of file that you can work with:

A) Word Processed Documents

* Either create a document from scratch or upload an existing Word, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or plain text file. Files can also be saved back in to these formats for distribution in more conventional formats.

* Files are created using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Those familiar with Word should have no problems using this and similar formatting and insert tools are provided.

* Each document can have a maximum size of 500kb plus up to 2mb per embedded image.

B) Spreadsheets

* Documents can be created from scratch or imported from Excel, OpenOffice, CSV or a plain text file. In the same way as with documents, work created in the Spreadsheet can also be saved back in to those formats.

* The layout and navigation is very similar to Word and the previously mentioned formatting and formula editing tools are provided.

* The spreadsheets you can create can be up to 256 columns, 200,000 cells or 100 sheets; whichever is reached first.

C) Presentations

* Work can be imported and exported in PowerPoint format along with the facility to save as a PDF file.

* A familiar looking WYSIWYG editor is provided to allow you to easily format your slides as well as inserting images and videos. Those used to using Word or PowerPoint shouldn’t have any issues.

* Presentations can be a maximum of 2mb in size when uploaded.

I have been massively impressed with how fully featured the Google Docs applications actually are, even though nothing needs to be installed or downloaded. The sharing functionality which is incredible and really helps Google Docs to shine; it’s quite surreal to be working on the same document as someone else and seeing the changes they are making in real time. A revision history helps keep track of amendments that have been done on a document as well as rolling it back if necessary.

Since all the work you create is saved online there are potential issues with regards to privacy and security however I don’t believe that most would have any real cause for concern. Members of MI5 may want to consider sticking to conventional offline storage methods for the time being, although that having been said, it is much harder to leave an online document on the train.

How to get Started With Google Analytics

* Set up a Google account

If you do not already have a Google account you will need to set up an account to continue -click on the link “Sign-up Now” and complete the requested information.

Once your have established an account, login. Click on the “Sign Up” button and you are on your way. It is important to note before proceeding that you must be the owner of the website that you are wishing to track or have the permission of the website owner.

Blog sites such as WordPress often will have resources that will allow you to place code on your particular Blog page(s).

* Setup Google Analytics

You will be directed to a couple of input forms that will ultimately provide you the coding to produce tracking data for your website.

- General Information – On this page you will be asked to submit your website’s URL, a name to serve as a domain identifier and finally your country and time zone. (You can elect to identify your locality based on your physical location or your target audience/primary user location.)

- Contact Information – This will simply request your name and your physical location.

- Accept User Agreement – Naturally, Google will request that you approve their Terms of Service. If they are acceptable to you check the box and click on “Create New Account”.

- Add Tracking – Finally, Google Analytics will produce a Javascript code for your domain. This should be added to each page of your website at the very end of your page coding between and .

* Tracking your website

Once you have inserted the information onto each page, you will return to the Google Analytics page. Click on the link for the website you are wishing to review. This will bring you to the main “dashboard” and provide a wide range of general information including – daily usage, bounce rate, new visits, geographic locality of users, most viewed pages, etc.

You can receive more detailed information by clicking on various menu items. Detailed information will include specifics like what browser your visitors were using, by what means they accessed your page (directly, search engines, etc.), what keywords were used when accessing via a search. Google Analytics offers an area for users to establish goals to focus on specific areas of interest and particular campaigns.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool which offers the user such a wide range of in depth data the greatest risk is becoming overwhelmed by the amount of information received.

Google 360 Street View

For the good of mankind Google need to let the rest of us know exactly what they do to come up with such fantastic and innovative ideas. For now I will have to be content with the constant stream of material they provide me with for these articles. The most recent offering that has me climbing the walls in excitement being “Google Street View”.

I can practically imagine the meeting in which an employee stood up and proclaimed “let’s drive specially modified cars down every street in the entire world and create a three dimensional virtual representation that anybody can then browse at home for free”. In any other company you would undoubtedly be ridiculed but at Google this idea was taken on board and followed through so over a period of two years practically every major city in the developed world has been captured.

By now most computer users will have used Google Maps which has a birds-eye view of almost every square-inch of the planet. “Street View” enhances this is giving you a street level 360 view of your chosen location so can take a look around as if you were actually there.

This world was created by the vehicles photographing their surroundings at 30 to 60 foot intervals along each piece of road they are driving on, the result allows you to view the world 360 degrees horizontally and 270 degrees vertically. Additional freedom to explore is given by simply clicking the direction in which you wish to move down the street or even take a corner when you reach a junction.

The UK maps only came online very recently so the coverage is fairly limited, there isn’t any coverage of my local area in the South West. Cities added in the United Kingdom currently include London, Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Bradford, Scunthorpe, Bristol, Norwich, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool, Southampton, Belfast, Cardiff, Swansea, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.

Number plates and faces have been removed to give users the opportunity to remove any views that are deemed inappropriate, however ‘Street View’ has given the campaigners involved with the ever present privacy debate yet more ammunition. The watchdog organisation “Privacy International” based here in the UK has issued a formal complaint to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) requesting the service be switched off pending a full investigation. These concerns have been sparked by 200 complaints by the pubic who believe their likeness is verifiable despite the facial recognition software blurring their faces.

It seems odd to me that these two hundred individuals didn’t simply click the ‘report an image’ button to have their image removed permanently but instead choose to locate the address for Privacy International to compose a strongly worded letter of protest. For the sake of the other 60,954,800 people in the UK who haven’t felt the need to complain I hope that the service remains online as provided the privacy of the individual continues to be respected via face blurring and manual image removal tools I don’t see there being any real cause for concern.

To get started simply visit http://maps.google.com or alternative the feature is also accessible directly from the fantastic Google Earth which can be downloaded for free from http://earth.google.com

Milestone Tracking with Google Analytics

Web analytics is a valuable tool for website performance monitoring and measurement. Website owners and administrators prefer to use Google Analytics, in particular, because of its easy-to-use features that simplify website tracking, analysis, reporting, and corrective activities.

Google Analytics has a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it popular among expert and non-expert website operators. A wide range of features — advanced segmentation, e-commerce tracking, analysis tools, and APIs – provide accurate data gathering and reporting.

Why are tools such as Google Analytics important for website performance tracking? In the old days, website owners have no accurate means to gather data and assess the successes or failures of their websites. Google Analytics tracker scripts which are embedded into website pages gather relevant data for each accessed page. This data is interpreted and presented to website owners in varying perspectives, trends or patterns. The resulting data aid website owners in assessing whether traffic generation strategies, marketing campaigns, or whatever business goal they have set, are effectively achieved or not.

* Intelligent Data Mining and Analysis

Google Analytics is popular with website owners because it is easy to deploy and is able to gather accurate statistics on website performance. It can generate accurate reports and present it in a way that is understandable to technical and non-technical users.

Depending on the goals of the business, there are several features in Google Analytics that are useful for goals or performance tracking. Here are a few of them:

1. Customized segmentation: Website owners can use segmentation to focus on monitoring website data relevant only to the site’s business goals.

2. API packs for data manipulation and tracking: The Data Export API allows client applications development that can be integrated into Google Analytics data transformations, while the Tracking API allows for customization of the way the tracker script gathers data.

3. Analytic tools: The core strength of Google Analytics comes from the use of statistical methods making use of multiple dimensions, filtering and pivot tables, among others, to mine relevant data.

* Performance Monitoring Flexibility

Google Analytics provides customization of data variables useful in aligning monitoring activities with business goals, which are then sent as reports to website owners in aid of decision-making. The bottom line is that only needed data are presented in custom reporting, giving the convenience of browsing only useful data instead of a multitude of unnecessary information.

* Performance monitoring is made flexible and can be deployed in any of the following scenarios:

1. E-commerce monitoring: It is possible to correlate e-commerce transactions with targeted keywords and marketing campaigns, and measure customer engagement with the site, as well as identify new sources of revenue.

2. Multi-channel tracking: It allows tracking not only traditional channel access but also other sources such as mobile phones applications and websites.

3. Benchmarking and Goal comparison: Threshold levels can be tracked from sales to conversions, making it possible to assess the current performance of the website.

Using the same infrastructure the supports the Google search engine, Google Analytics assures integrity of the data gathered, as well as the privacy of visitors to the website. Together with its multiple features and ease of implementation, this is one analytic tool that can really support comprehensive and accurate site performance appraisal.

Google Analytics: Advice

As a freelance SEO consultant I always set my clients up with a Google Analytics account. This enables them to keep track of what progress is being made and adds transparency to the relationship. However, there are usually a fair amount of questions directed my way as how to understand the data, and what exactly they should be looking for or expecting to see. The main aim of using Google Analytics is to keep an eye on traffic. Not only does this mean seeing how many visitors your site is getting, but also seeing where they are coming from both in the geographical sense, and via other sites on the internet. This article goes through a few basic things can help someone who is unfamiliar to Google Analytics:

* The Dashboard

This is the first page that you will see when you enter the report. It is there to give you an overview on what is going on, and typically includes; Visitor Numbers, Site Usage Data, Unique Visitor Numbers, Map Overlay and Page View details. Any of these modules can be removed and if you’d prefer to include something else in the dashboard e.g Keyword data then you can. To add another module to the dashboard, simply view the report in question and click ‘add to dashboard’.

* Visitors Vs Unique

Visitors At the top of the dashboard you should see a large line graph spanning the page. This graph shows you the amount of visitors or ‘hits’ your website has received. The standard display shows data from the previous month, with points for each day. This can be programmed to display whatever time period you prefer. You can also view time periods from the past to help compare past traffic levels against the present figures. This data shows the total number of visits and will include yours. The number you should really focus on however, is the amount of unique visitors. To get a more accurate view, you can block certain IP addresses from the report.

* Traffic Sources

For anyone involved in SEO this is the really interesting bit. It is crucial for any online marketing that you can keep an eye on where the traffic is coming from, and also see what keywords are sending traffic from the search engines. If you are fortunate to spot a dramatic spike in traffic numbers this report will identify where they have come from. With regards to keywords, you can go into quite a lot of detail and find out not only which phrases send you the most traffic, but which ones are actually converting into customers. This is vital if you are engaging in pay per click advertising when each click is costing you money.

* Site Usage

This is the bit that confuses most people. Once you understand what’s being reported you will find this information extremely useful as it lays out a very detailed report on what people are looking at, and for how long. The three most important things you should be checking are; Bounce Rate, Average Page Views and Average Time On Site. If your site is doing well, you should expect to see a low bounce rate, a relatively high average page view and again a relatively high average time on site (over 2-3 mins is good!). For poor performing websites the bounce rate is often very high, i.e people are clicking on the website and ‘bouncing’ straight off.

Google Adwords for Your Internet Based Business: The Upside and Downside

When people need information on any subject today, the first place they will look for it is on the internet. One of the best things to come out of the internet revolution is the search engine and the most popular search engine is Google.

Having the internet and Google has made for a quick and easy method of finding out whatever it is that you want to know. Not only does Google make it very easy to search for information but it also allows for fast growth of an internet based business for anyone who chooses to use Google Adwords as a means of advertising.

If you have never heard of Google Adwords this is a pay-per-click program that was started by Google ten years ago and it can be used to generate traffic to your website and increase the number of sales that you make. The way it works is that an internet business owner will pay Google for the amount of exposure Google gives them on the search engine.

There is an upside as well as a downside to using Google Adwords that you should be aware of before jumping in and using this type of advertising:

1. On the upside Google Adwords reaches an enormous audience. According to fairly recent research approximately 65% of all internet users will resort to Google when searching for information of any kind.

With this type of exposure one would automatically assume that by using Adwords advertising on Google your website would be displayed and bring interested buyers to your website, people who will purchase the products that you have on offer.

The advantage of this is that even if you are running your business on a limited budget you can still get your brand out there at least in the online world. By setting up your adverts and your landing pages correctly you are likely to not only recoup your advertising outlay but make a good profit as well.

One other good thing with using Adwords is that you only pay per click. In other words Google will only charge you when someone clicks on your link so no clicks no charge. Remember though that the position of an ad on the Google search page is dependant on the budget you specify and that is something else to think about. If you set the budget at 1 cent per day don’t expect your ad to be positioned in a prominent place as budgets can go as high as $100 per day and those people are going to get much better exposure.

With Google Adwords you have the flexibility to make alterations according to what you prefer – this is something that you cannot do with other forms of advertising and it only takes about 15 minutes to set up an ad on Google Adwords so it is no big deal to make frequent changes to it if you so desire. You also have the option of a multitude of languages and this allows you to cater for a niche audience.

Here is the downside!

One of the biggest downsides to using Google Adwords is that you will not be able to get any information on how well your competitors are doing. Google has a policy of not sharing this information and this can make it a bit difficult to strategize the best way to advertise effectively.

The other downside is that with Google Adwords you are very limited with the amount of copy space that you can use. You have only seventy characters with which to catch to prospective customers’ attention and this can be very difficult to achieve at times.

Even though there are these downsides when using Google Adwords it can still be a very profitable method of promoting your internet based business as it gives plenty of exposure especially with the internet being as overcrowded as it is today.

GoogleApple War: What does it all mean?

For those who have been living in a cave, Google recently bought AdMob, the small but highly innovative mobile advertising company for the extremely inflated price of $750 Million. That is the gross national product of the country of Kiribati, a small country made up of a bunch of atolls. While AdMob hadn’t quite made anywhere around that amount of revenue, Google wanted to gobble it up before someone else did and to have a quick way to access the growing revenue stream available on Mobile Applicatications. Part of this strategy was to be able to access the significant population of IPHONE users. However, recently Apple came out with new developer rules that will prevent ADMob and Google Adsense from being displayed on iPhone applications… and thus a significant issue with ADMob’s revenue stream. However, perhaps things aren’t as they seem…

Let’s make this really clear, Apple is looking to break into the advertising and eventually search market. Google, as the all encompassing leader of search clearly dominates the market. However, they recently also decided to get into mobile market with the Google Android system, which while itself doesn’t make that much money for the company, the offshoots such as the product development, application development, google interfacing and even their own google nexus phone has been a significant success. In fact, according to most reputable reports, the open-source android phones are taking over as the dominant force in the market, pushing out Apple. Apple, ain’t happy about their market share being taken. They saw themselves as dominating the mobile space for a long time to come. Don’t forget also that Apple had actually wanted to buy ADMob, but the $750M price tag was way too high – they bought a competitor with just as much revenue and potential, it seems for a significantly lower price tag of $250M.

While some people might say this is a stab at Google for getting into “their business”, there is much more here than meets the eye. Apple has no reason to actually allow Google Adsense onto their applications – because they don’t make a single dollar from those ads. Since Apple is making their own system, they need to ensure that the only way to run advertising on the system is through them. It’s pretty damn simple – Google already has an extensive database of advertisers, and they would easily overshadow any attempt by Apple to compete with them even on their own platform. This wouldn’t fare very well for Apple, if in a year a report came out that not only was Google Android overtaking Apple iPhone, but that the predominate type of advertising on the IPHONE was actually Google.

What is strange about this mobile advertising war is the investment versus the actual possible revenue being made. Everyone is talking about mobile advertising on applications and application development as if it is the “end-all” of advertising and will take over advertising left and right. However, people ten years ago pushed application advertising and ad-supported applications as the method that would take over interactive advertising. Now it’s almost impossible to find any program that actually does this and the predominate type of advertising is in the browser.

I honestly think that this is a very possible future for mobile also. As mobile devices get bigger, as the web integrates with mobile more and more, there will be a growing seamless interaction between the two mediums. In fact, if you think about it, a great portion of the “internet” users are really “mobile” – laptops are a “mobile” device of sorts, and they have become smaller and smaller, while phone screens have become bigger and bigger. At some point in the near future they will meet in the middle and we will have laptop/netbooks that are nothing but combinations of mobile phones, laptops that do everything. Most people that I know who have android phones and iPhones spend quite a bit of their time, browsing the web using it as a “little computer” of sorts and see all the banner and other type of ads made specifically for the websites.

So, does this war really matter? Perhaps for the short term, but within a few years, I can’t see it will really matter except to corner a very small part of the marketshare. Mobile as separate entity, with its own features (mobile billing, mobile applications) will become part of the entire interactive, internet, web-process. No one actually believes that ADMob was worth $750M, but sees it as one chess piece in a greater strategy that both these companies have to dominate the web. This has little to do with “Mobile”.

Making Money Online With Google Adsense

For most bloggers, Google AdSense is the first and easiest way to start making money online. But reports of how much money you can actually make with it vary widely across the board. While popular bloggers have had a great deal of success with it, smaller blogs often find AdSense to be frustratingly limited. This discrepancy has been perpetuated to the point that many bloggers now believe that to make money with AdSense, you need to have a lot of traffic.

While that’s not exactly wrong; your site’s traffic has a great impact on how much you can earn from it; it’s not the whole truth either. Most importantly, you should not give up on AdSense because of this, because, as famous bloggers themselves have proven: when it works, it works like a charm!

In order to make money with AdSense, you first need to understand how it works. AdSense is a simple ad-publishing tool that can be incorporated into a variety of online mediums and displays ads based on the keywords within the existing text on the page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on an ad published in your data, you are paid some money. Hence it is called PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising. This is usually a figure in cents or pennies, and the exact figure depends most of all on how competitive and profitable your keywords are.

* Types of AdSense

AdSense is available for web content (on blogs and web sites), for search (as when you add a Google search bar to your blog and visitors click on a sponsored search result), for mobile content (for mobile-version web sites and pages), for feeds (so that you can display ads even within your RSS and Atom feeds), and for video, parked domains and mobile applications.

* How to Make Money With AdSense

1. Understand how AdSense Works

In order to make good profit from AdSense, it’s not enough to just sign up and start publishing ads. First you must know its rules – so that you don’t break them – and its payout method – so that you can develop your strategy accordingly. Take a look at Google’s AdSense center to begin learning.

2. Choose profitable keywords

Even if you already have an existing web site, in order to make money with AdSense you need to choose the most profitable keywords within your niche. If you plan on writing your own content (as opposed to hiring freelancers or copywriters), it is also crucial that you know something about the subjects of those keywords and can research and write useful material on them.

3. Create useful, keyword-rich content

Once you have chosen your keywords, you can actively start creating content while keeping those keywords in mind. Don’t start keyword-spamming, because users will not find your site useful, and while they might click on an ad just to get away from your page, that’s not a profitable or traffic-building strategy. If your content doesn’t make sense, you also risk getting banned by Google; not just the AdSense program but the search engine too!

4. Place your ads strategically

The placement of your ads within your content really matters. The optimum placement will of course depend on your design and the placement of your text. You also have the choice between image, text and video-based ads, and how well one works for you will depend on your readership, the type of your content and primarily your existing web design. Many WordPress themes and the like come already enabled for displaying ads, but don’t let that prevent you from trying different options and choosing for yourself which one has the best ROI.

5. Build traffic

The more traffic your site has, the more users will click on your ads – it’s that simple. Traffic building is a whole another blog post, but remember that it goes hand in hand with creating useful, keyword-oriented content!

Making money with AdSense is easy – once you understand the program and follow some simple strategies for maximizing your profits, it’s truly a program you can “set and forget”!

The Power of Google Analytics

Internet marketing efforts need to be tracked so you know if you are using your resources wisely. Google analytics is a good, free tool you can use to track traffic sources, conversion rates, etc.

Make sure you have Google analytics or some other type of analytics installed on your website.

- Traffic Sources

You want to know where your traffic is coming from and where it is not coming from. This will help you allocate your resources properly. Google Analytics is able to track where your site visitors are coming from, where they go on your site, etc.

A few examples of where your traffic may come from:

- Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)

- Pay-Per-Click campaigns

- Twitter, Facebook, etc

- Articles and press releases that include links

- Websites that have your links

- Etc.

Having this information can help you have a more effective Internet marketing plan.

- Easy Come, Easy Go

It is easy to find out where the traffic comes from and what page they leave from. Both of these pieces of information are valuable. Knowing them can help you identify if your Internet marketing strategy is working.

The page people enter your site on is important. You want to make sure they arrive on your website on a page that has a focused message for what they are looking for (most websites have multiple entry points, each focused on a different search term). Pay careful attention to what page your visitors land on and make sure it is well designed and well written.

The page visitors leave your website on is also important because it may identify a problem with your site. If you find that a certain page is the primary exit point you want to see if there are any technical or other issues with that page that make people leave your site.

- Conversion Rates

Though it is important to learn about where your traffic is coming from it is more important to know where your sales are coming from. Conversion rates in Google Analytics are tracked by traffic source. You can see where your actual buyers are coming from so you can put more emphasis on those resources.

Google Analytics is important to add to a website. Learn about your website traffic, conversion rates and more so you can make important tweaks to your Internet marketing strategy. It’s free to use so all you have to do is go for it.

Time Spent In The Google Sandbox: Still Important To Success

Google denies that they sandbox new websites. Yet, webmasters and SEO gurus alike have been frustrated to no end by the sandbox effect noted when a new website is launched. Google does acknowledge that there may be something in the algorithm that penalizes new websites and gives them lower rankings until they have proven their value. The reasons for such a filter are many and include keeping people from putting up multiple sites with links to one another when one website is what they need. Whatever the reasons behind ending up there, time spent in the Google Sandbox is still important to success.

Whether it was a conscious decision on the part of Google owners or not, they have written into the algorithm a set of filters that manage to establish the quality of a website using time-based indicators. These indicators include the age of the web site or domain, the age of different backlinks and inbound links to the site, and other factors. One important feature to note is that not only new sites are found in the sandbox. Older sites that suddenly get a rush of inbound links are often sandboxed while the value of the links is established.

With these points in mind, many who have paid for SEO services and still ended up in Google Sandbox are wondering what they can do to get out. Sadly, the only true way to climb out is to be patient. Time is actually on the side of those who are in the sandbox. There are several reasons for this.

The first reason is that time spent in the sandbox allows the website owner to work on tweaking any problem that is found with the site so that it is 100 percent ready when page rank climbs to a point where new visitors are coming in large numbers. This is the best time to test and fix any programming errors noted.

The second reason is that it allows you to work on the content of your site and any related sites linked to it. On the internet, content is king and Google is no different on that score. New, keyword optimized content appearing regularly with links that go back to a site that has been sandboxed catch attention and increase the odds of getting out sooner. Of course, these links must be relevant to the material on the website to be of any real value.

It gives webmasters time to establish relationships with others that are considered authorities in their fields. These authorities can include links to a site in their own pages. If these individuals are recognized as authorities in their fields, the value of their links increases dramatically.

Trust is an important part of any business relationship. There are some sites on the internet that are trusted more than others. Links from these sites are seen as more trustworthy by the search engine, and can help boost page rank quickly.

Ideally, you should try for a trifecta by seeking out relevant links from sites owned by recognized authorities in the field who have been deemed trustworthy by Google and users doing business with them. These links can combine in an exponential manner to boost a page ranking significantly regardless of the page’s age.

Another trick to consider is not limiting yourself to Google when performing SEO operations. One can be in the Google Sandbox and still get good organic results on other search engines such as Yahoo or Ask Jeeves.

You can also optimize for more long tailed keyword phrases. The sandbox effect only seems to affect sites that use highly competitive keywords. Therefore, if you sell an item that can be described in the keywords, the longer keyword phrases may help increase page rank. Of course, you must choose keywords that users are likely to type into the search engine.

In a nutshell, to take advantage of these time-based indicators, you should:

1. Get links that deliver the most trust, first.

2. Start your website today and also begin your link-building task as well

3. Target quality 4-in-1 links. This means going for links that are Relevant, Authoritative, from Trusted sources and from High page rank pages.

The Google Sandbox is real, despite denials from Google. These filters are part of the algorithm that assigns page ranks and they do penalize new sites that use competitive keywords. They also penalize established sites that enter into link farming agreements and try to manipulate the rankings artificially. The filters are age related for the age of the domain, the age of the links to the pages, and other factors.

The time spent in the Google Sandbox is important for the success of any web based business. To be more precise, what is done during this time is important. This is an opportunity to work out any bugs in your website that could hurt business. It is also an opportunity to establish high quality relationships with other site owners who can provide links to your site that are relevant, authoritative, from trusted sources, and coming from pages that are ranked highly, allowing you to take advantage of their rank until your own comes into being.

Google Instant Means The End Of SEO

Initially, Google’s new Instant Search system could mean a major change in how web surfers look for information online. Instead of typing a search query into Google and then hitting return, and waiting for a list of results, Googlers now see a dynamic list of results as they type. Google considers this a positive step forward in the development of searching. Google claims this new style of response will save between two and five seconds per search query. That potentially means 11 hours are saved every second. but does anyone other than Google really care?

The internet marketing community, however, will never be very enthusiastic about Google Instant. SEO consultants, who try to get sites listed at the top of Google’s organic search rankings, and SEMs, who battle for their clients’ sites to be placed near the top of Google’s Adwords Sponsored Listings, have been blogging and tweeting as if Armageddon is here.

The SEO community is paranoid at the very best of times, and perhaps with good cause as: a small change in the Google algorithm can determine the future of many websites. In this instance, however, the reaction is not necessary, essentially the results are the same, the sole change is you can see potential results of each word as you type it in, so if you are typing in ‘Italian restaurant’ you will observe everything Italian prior to getting to the restaurant results and then you will have to include your location unless you are very flexible about your travel arrangements, so in fact long tail key phrases are far from dead.

And this time round the latest Google scare is ‘much a do about nothing’ or will it be? There isn’t any denying that Google’s original innovation in search transformed how the Internet worked and made the business of finding stuff considerably quicker and easier. It also created an enormous market – one Google still dominates – that allowed companies to market us things depending on whatever we had entered in that box and all was well, for a while.

But something happened. Social networking, social media, whatever you want to refer to it as… suddenly, content was coming right at us, without us even looking for it. We couldn’t escape it. Several hyperactive egotists in each community began curating content and spewing it out to their friends. People were sharing photos, stories and links so we found that we were spending less and less time foraging around for things and increasingly more time sitting back and allowing it to wash over us.

Fast forward to 2010, and we’re being assaulted by more stuff than we could possibly consume. Facebook, Twitter, and email are shoveling pictures and video down our throats more and more quickly. Feedback loops enabled by sharing and retweeting functions imply that each of us has now changed into an over-sharer as well as an over-consumer. If you are not confused and over loaded with information, you soon will be.

Google Instant Search for Marketing

Google recently introduced their “Instant Search” feature which starts to populate search results the instant you start typing into the search box. At the same time, Google suggests alternate search terms as you type to help narrow your search without forcing you to enter entire search phrases.

The main idea behind this new feature is to save users a few seconds on each search and cut down on misspellings for search terms, business names or product names. Users may not notice much difference in their overall experience, however, for small businesses and online entrepreneurs, this new search method carries a few interesting ramifications.

Since Google clearly ranks as the “900 lb. Gorilla” of the online marketing world, acting as de facto gateway to the Web for millions, any change to their system makes businesses nervous. Many have expressed concern that this latest change will force users of Google’s AdWords program, the search giant’s lucrative pay-per-click marketing arm, to pay for more expensive keywords.

They reason that since the most popular search terms appear in the search box first, and that most people will opt to accept Google suggestions, those most popular searches will carry the highest click prices. In other words, businesses that depend on Google to show their ads fear that Google will force them to pay more money by recommending more expensive keyword searches.

I disagree.

The suggested search term feature actually appeared on Google quite a while ago, and all that’s really changed is Google starts to display the actual search results AS you type. With the old 2-step process, Google made suggestions as you typed and then you clicked the search button to see the search results.

Instant Search just creates a FAST way to see the results for different search variations without forcing you to click the button each time to see those results. This process makes it simple to see the results, change your mind, and not wait for the results each time you change the phrase.

My experience shows that most people always start with a broad search and then narrow it by including more descriptive terms (often called “long-tail” keywords) to better find what they want. This new process won’t change that.

In fact, it will give people more chances to refine their searches on-the-fly by providing Google more details of what they want. Instead of posing a threat, I believe this new Instant Search feature creates an opportunity for any business to perform high-speed market research to look for possible opportunities and trouble spots.

The following four steps will help any small business use Google’s new feature for instant results.

1. Go to Google and search for your business as if you were a consumer.

2. Make a note of the keyword suggestions Google offers as you type.

3. See if those suggestions give you any ideas for your own marketing (since they should represent the most popular phrases).

4. Note which competitors show up and where you appear in relation to them.

These 4 simple steps make a great barometer for taking a read on your local market, fast.

Who appears consistently?

Who shows up hit-and-miss or every once in a while?

Who shows up in Google Maps?

If your competitors show up and you don’t, you’ve got some work to do!

Bottom line: as a small business, use Google’s new Instant Search to quickly get the big picture when it comes to your business, industry, and local competition.

The Buzz about Buzz

If you haven’t treated yourself to a lovely shiny new g-mail account, then you are missing out. Not only does it have endless memory, quick processing of large attachments, and a lovely search function of deleted e-mail; it also has a super cool new function called Buzz.

Buzz functions like many other popular networking sites, but it has a few new perks. Instead of friend-ing someone, like on Facebook, with Google’s new Buzz you follow them. So you want to get as many people following you as possible. Start with friends, family, and people you network with regularly on other social web-sites. Now for the cool part: any website that you have attached to your Buzz account generates posts via Buzz. Websites that you can attach to Buzz include Google Chat Status, Picassa, Flickr, posted via Buzz@gmail, Google reader, and Twitter.

Once you have connected any of these websites to Buzz, anything you post on the other website automatically appears as a post on Buzz. Anyone who is following you will be able to see these posts. You get twice as much exposure with half of the effort. You can post information about events, a sale your business is having, or a gig your band is playing. Buzz will get the information out.

Buzz also has some other nifty features, similar to other networking sites. You can comment on someone else’s post or a post of your own. You can like a post. You can re-share a post, e-mail a post to anyone (whether they have Buzz as well or not), and finally, and probably the most cool, is one of your contacts is online and has their G-mail account open you can reply to the post by chat, which is conveniently built into G-mail’s website.

- How Does This Affect Pay Per Click Marketing?

Buzz taps into Google’s AdSense program with a more refined algorithm. If someone clicks on an add while on a Buzz screen, then the logic states that their friends might also like similar ads, articles, and websites. This adds a powerhouse punch to pay per click advertising. Much like harnessing the power of Facebook, PPC advertisers now have new avenues opened before them. Unlike fishing on particular keywords, potential customers are assisting in the event. Using this analogy it is like having fish help teach you how to fish.

This sort of advertising momentum can take your marketing campaign to the next level. Couple this with analytics tools and your PPC approach will be unstoppable. All PPC Google ads permits companies to set their advertising budget down to an exact dollar amount. In fact, the minimum required daily budget to advertise with Google through PPC Ads is one dollar. As always, the advertiser only pays when an ad is clicked, and Buzz doesn’t change that, it only helps to harness the power of social media for the purpose of ad refinement and dissemination.

Tips For Google Adwords

One of the best Google Adwords tips I can give you is to not consider this a do it yourself type of traffic tool. Adwords has many elements to it and if you want to make more money than you spend you will need to find someone, or some course, to teach you how to get the most out of it.

Pay Per click (PPC) can work exceptionally well at getting hordes of very targeted traffic to your website virtually instantly. Of course, you may be asking, if it’s so good, why doesn’t everyone use it?

That is the crux of the matter. PPC is not an easy thing to learn how to do. It will take time and you need to be willing to invest not only the time but the money too. You will need to carefully test and track various elements of each ad that you place. In the start you will spend way more money than you will earn.

Another challenge is that Google isn’t really worried to much about you or your advertising budget, they are more concerned that their searchers get what they are looking for. The searchers on any of the search engines are the real customers and if they don’t find what they want they’ll go elsewhere. That is why Google wants to make sure to keep them happy by providing them with just what they’re looking for.

To do this, Google will periodically change the way they do things. They will rewrite an algorithm or make other changes and if you’re not right on top of those changes you can find that the ad that once made you a lot of money is now costing you a lot of money.

Here are a few tips that you can use to optimize your PPC campaigns:

1. Find a course or a mentor who can teach you the ins and outs of PPC advertising. If you try to just jump in and figure it all out on your own you had better make sure you have a lot of time and very deep pockets.

2. Carefully choose the keywords you use. Don’t even try to compete for the one or two word keywords since they will almost always have so much competition you’ll be spending way too much per click. Instead focus on the keyword phrases that have 3, 4, or 5 words in them. These ‘long tailed keywords’ can fly under the radar yet still get you some decent click through rates (CTR’s).

3. Always test your ads. You can do this by having several versions of each ad running at the same time. Find out which headlines get the most clicks. Which body text gets the most clicks, etc. Keep testing until you’ve got a winning ad. When testing make sure you only change one element at a time otherwise you won’t know which change really made the difference.

Out of all the Google Adwords tips I can give you the one I think is the most important is to find someone to show you the ropes. PPC is effective if you know how to do it right, but if not it can very quickly become a money pit.

Google’s Need For Speed Means You Need to Check Your Website

Not too long ago Google released a new search tool “Google Instant.” Google Instant tries to speed searches by anticipating what you are going to type next based on what you have searched in the past. When you start typing Google offers you a selection of results and you can watch the results change with each letter typed. Google claims that it will save 3.5 Billion global seconds a day! I don’t know about you but I feel better knowing that I won’t be searching for the same thing fifteen years from now.

Putting aside the privacy issues and the file Google has on each and every one of us, let’s look at how this will affect your website and your search placement. In that same Google interview they stated they will pursue all options to shorten search times. At the top of the list was site load times and robot read times.

We already know there are rules to govern the code to content ratio, keyword density and placement, and content quality but this rule goes right to the foundation of every website. This rule speaks right to the background code, which by the way, has changed a lot over the years. Under this new rule the load and read speeds of your website will have a direct affect on your ranking.

How do you know if your website needs to be updated?

1- Web code standards and browser capabilities have advanced a lot in a short time. If your site is pushing five years since the last tune up, it is time to look.

2 – Was the original site written with outdated or obsolete WYSIWYG software? These are notorious for adding tons of erroneous code (Google already penalizes for this).

3- Copy placement. Search bots only read so many words in to a website. It is important that these be the important words. We call that “strategic copy placement.”

4- On-page optimization. Is your website easy for Google to find and more importantly, understand where you want to be listed? Older sites have little or no optimization at all. This is especially true with WYSIWYG and templates.

How do you fix this problem? Sorry, there is no short answer. The best thing to do is find an experienced website designer and get an evaluation. Not an artist turned developer but a good design / code / search optimization team. I have argued this point many times in the past and won’t go into here. But, other than the graphic design there are two other components to a website. These two parts together are the most important components. First, the way the site is written and second is the search optimization, which includes current market research.

What the code should look like, again that is too deep to cover here. We coined a phrase a couple of years ago “search engine positive code”. This is how your website is presented to the search engines. You need to give it to them the way they want it. This is now critical to website placement and that is important in this competitive environment.

Once you have the evaluation tackle it one step at a time. You can re-do the code with minor changes to the design. Another option is to just re-do the index page. The occasional overhaul is part of the normal evolution of maintaining a website. Technology changes and you have to also, you can bet that your competition will.

Who Created Google?

Do you want to know a secret? The answer to the question in the title of this article is me. That’s right, I created Google. No, really, and so did you. You don’t believe me? Okay, maybe that is because you have already heard the story of how Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD’s of Stanford University, and how the concept for Google was born of Page’s dissertation idea to investigate the mathematical properties at work online. It is truly a great story and Page and Brin do get the credit for creating the company known as Google, but they are not solely responsible for the popularity of the company. This is where you and I come into the picture.

Well, before we come into the picture I have to admit the marketing team at Google also played a significant role in the success of Google. While Page and Brin put together the concept behind the page rank system, it is their marketing staff who really helped to promote Google as the superior choice in search engines. The fact that Google produces reliable results is important, but there are other search engines out there such as Yahoo! and Bing that are also doing this, but they are not nearly as popular as Google.

Think about when your friend asks you the name of a song and you can’t think of the answer. Do you tell him to just DogPile it? Do you tell them to Yahoo! it? No, you are much more likely to tell him to Google it. That is because the marketing team at Google has done such an excellent job of branding this company that their name has come to mean search engine in the minds of many internet users. It is the first place many of them turn for any information they want.

Which brings us to why I created Google! Right, it wasn’t just me, you helped too. Page and Brin created the concept their marketing team promoted, but it is the users of the internet who embraced it so wholeheartedly. It is also the users of the internet who have remained loyal to the brand. While other fads on the internet have come and gone, this search engine is showing no signs of losing popularity because the internet users are happy with the results they receive when they use Google.

Google Acquires SocialDeck: What Does This Mean For Google’s Future?

It seems that in recent times, Google has made some mistakes when coming up with new programs. Google Accelerator, Google Answers, and Google Wave are all examples of programs that flopped. And with the recent merger of Yahoo and Bing, Google might be losing its grip on the search engine monopoly. However, it seems that Google may have something up its sleeve. Recent acquisitions reveal that the Internet giant has big plans for their social network platform that is currently under development. And it seems they are taking every measure to ensure that this next project of theirs won’t be a flop, and can even rival social media giant Facebook.

This is evident by the fact that Google recently purchased social gaming developer SocialDeck, which is one of five acquisitions made in August. The popular games created by SocialDeck, such as Pet Hero and Color Connect, are available across a variety of platforms, including Blackberry, iPhone, and Facebook. SocialDeck uses their own social gaming platform technology, which enables simultaneous game play across mobile devices and social networks.

With the acquisition of SocialDeck, Google will be able to integrate SocialDeck’s games into their future social network. In addition, Google is looking to either purchase or work out deals with other social gaming companies which work over multiple platforms, such as Zynga, Playdom, and Playfish, which all currently produce games popular on Facebook, such as Mafia Wars.

It seems Google may have some big plans in store. Chris Morrison of InsideSocialGames.com mentioned the possibility that Google is working on a viral platform for the web and its own mobile devices, like Android. Earlier this summer, Google purchased social application developer Slide, and also has purchased other companies involved in social gaming and other aspects of social networking. Just days before acquiring SocialDeck, Google purchased Angstro, which developed Knx.to, an address book that combines a user’s connections from social networks. Google also has acquired Jambool, which makes “virtual currency,” and visual shopping engine Like.com. Each acquisition is another piece to the puzzle of what Google is planning.

Google’s activity has been generating a lot of buzz over the Internet. Many speculate, “Will this social network,” rumored to be called Google Me, “be the ultimate social network? Will it dethrone Facebook as king of social media?” While the growing popularity of Facebook caused many people to flee from MySpace, there is no guarantee we’ll see people fleeing from Facebook to join Google Me in the same manner, but it’s certainly a possibility. With confusing and ever-changing privacy policies, some Facebook users might be eager to make the transition to a new social network. There are also rumors that the way Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was negatively portrayed in box-office smash The Social Network might turn away Facebook users if they have another option for social media.

While some are predicting success for Google, others are not so optimistic. Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, has taken note of Google’s unsuccessful attempts at social media, such as Google Buzz, and doesn’t foresee Google Me as an instant success. He states, “So far, Google’s failed to have a hit in the social-networking space, swinging and largely missing with both Orkut and Buzz. It’s unclear whether a third, new service (or a renamed Buzz) will do that much better.”

Negative press regarding Google Buzz alone has caused some to be doubtful that Google can gain a foothold in the realm of social media. Harry McCracken, the founder of tech site Technologizer.com, believes that the failure of Buzz shows that people may not want their relationship with Google to be a foundation for social networking.

When Google’s social platform emerges, possibly later this year, we’ll see how these applications integrate and whether or not Google will achieve the success it’s after. If Google has made wise choices and can provide a social site that provides users what they want, and has features not found on Facebook, including clear-cut privacy policies, Google Me just might prove to not be another Google Wave.

12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert

If you’re like me, you probably use Google many times a day.  But, chances are, unless you are a technology geek, you probably still use Google in its simplest form.  If your current use of Google is limited to typing a few words in, and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, then I’m here to tell you that there’s a better way – and it’s not hard to learn.  On the other hand, if you are a technology geek, and can use Google like the best of them already, then I suggest you bookmark this article of Google search tips.  You’ll then have the tips on hand when you are ready to pull your hair out in frustration when watching a neophyte repeatedly type in basic queries in a desperate attempt to find something.

The following Google search tips are based on my own experience and things that I actually find useful.  The list is by no means comprehensive.  But, I assure you that by learning and using the 12 tips below, you’ll rank up there with the best of the Google experts out there.  I’ve kept the descriptions of the search tips intentionally terse as you’re likely to grasp most of these simply by looking at the example from Google anyways.

* 12 Expert Google Search Tips

1. Explicit Phrase:

Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

Example: “internet marketing”

2. Exclude Words:

Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the “-” sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search:

Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the “site:somesite.com” modifier.

Example: “internet marketing” site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms:

Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.

Example: “internet marketing” ~professional

5. Specific Document Types:

If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”.  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

Example: “internet marketing” filetype:ppt

6. This OR That:

By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note:  The OR has to be capitalized).

Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing:

Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note:  the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup:

If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges:

This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol):

Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

Example: GOOG

11. Calculator:

The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions:

If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the “define:” command.

Example: define:plethora

Hope this list of Google search tips proves useful in your future Google searches.  If there are any of your favorite Google expert power tips that I’ve missed, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Google Instant Means The End Of SEO

Initially, Google’s new Instant Search system could mean a major change in how web surfers look for information online. Instead of typing a search query into Google and then hitting return, and waiting for a list of results, Googlers now see a dynamic list of results as they type. Google considers this a positive step forward in the development of searching. Google claims this new style of response will save between two and five seconds per search query. That potentially means 11 hours are saved every second. but does anyone other than Google really care?

The internet marketing community, however, will never be very enthusiastic about Google Instant. SEO consultants, who try to get sites listed at the top of Google’s organic search rankings, and SEMs, who battle for their clients’ sites to be placed near the top of Google’s Adwords Sponsored Listings, have been blogging and tweeting as if Armageddon is here.

The SEO community is paranoid at the very best of times, and perhaps with good cause as: a small change in the Google algorithm can determine the future of many websites. In this instance, however, the reaction is not necessary, essentially the results are the same, the sole change is you can see potential results of each word as you type it in, so if you are typing in ‘Italian restaurant’ you will observe everything Italian prior to getting to the restaurant results and then you will have to include your location unless you are very flexible about your travel arrangements, so in fact long tail key phrases are far from dead.

And this time round the latest Google scare is ‘much a do about nothing’ or will it be? There isn’t any denying that Google’s original innovation in search transformed how the Internet worked and made the business of finding stuff considerably quicker and easier. It also created an enormous market – one Google still dominates – that allowed companies to market us things depending on whatever we had entered in that box and all was well, for a while.

But something happened. Social networking, social media, whatever you want to refer to it as… suddenly, content was coming right at us, without us even looking for it. We couldn’t escape it. Several hyperactive egotists in each community began curating content and spewing it out to their friends. People were sharing photos, stories and links so we found that we were spending less and less time foraging around for things and increasingly more time sitting back and allowing it to wash over us.

Fast forward to 2010, and we’re being assaulted by more stuff than we could possibly consume. Facebook, Twitter, and email are shoveling pictures and video down our throats more and more quickly. Feedback loops enabled by sharing and retweeting functions imply that each of us has now changed into an over-sharer as well as an over-consumer. If you are not confused and over loaded with information, you soon will be.

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.

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)

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

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’

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.

Can Google Become the Next Facebook?

Is it just me but didn’t Google recently put everything on its
main homepage except for Google Buzz? What’s up with that? For
heaven’s sake, they even put the PacMan game in their logo for
two days running… you would think some of the brightest minds
on the planet would have figured out by now if Google truly
wants to compete on the new memeyouyou web, they simply have to
fully integrate all their programs into one homepage or at least
place Buzz right there along side the Gmail button.

Google Buzz has all the ingredients to finally make Google your
one-stop center on the web. It can be THE place for sharing not
just your conversations but photos, videos, and everything else.
Will it live up to its full potential and become a true Facebook
killer?

The main reason Facebook is such a threat to Google is not
because of the massive amount of users it has, but the amount of
time those users stay on Facebook. If you just look at the Alexa
comparison alone, Facebook users spend over 30 minutes on the
site, which is triple the time users stay on Google. Facebook
also beats Google in the bounce rate and page views per user.
Could all the recent changes to their SERPs be, not only
Google’s answer to the upcoming Bing/Yahoo marriage, but a
strong way of presenting a real challenge to Facebook’s
overwhelming stats.

Web users are lazy and they want a one-stop solution to meet all
their needs. They want to connect with friends and family, they
want to broadcast to the world, they want to search for
something to buy, they want to be entertained… iGoogle should
be that solution/center but I don’t believe it quite passes the
test because there is still no Google Buzz?

The main problem with Google is that it has no well-defined
center which users could call their own. Perhaps I am reading
this wrong, but have Google users fully bonded with iGoogle?
Putting the privacy issues aside, I don’t think they have
embraced it in the same way web users have embraced their
Facebook. What is missing are all the elements that are present
in Google Buzz, but again we seem to have two disjointed
programs rather than one solid rallying point.

For many web users, Facebook is the starting point of their web
day… in many cases, it is probably the only place they go on
the web religiously each day. Why? Because all their
friends/family are on there and they don’t want to miss out on
any news or gossip. Not checking your Facebook page has become
the ultimate faux pas of this new social media etiquette.

No one is going defeat or compete with Facebook you say?

Not so fast! Even empires come and go; a web site is even more
fickle, especially if something more convenient comes along.
Does anyone remember MySpace which is still a very popular site
but no longer has the numbers it once had. Facebook or even
Google could suffer the same fate if something better comes
along.

Google’s main business is online search. It is its bread and
butter, which may have blinded those in charge from seeing the
bigger picture. The bigger payday.

Google owns so many popular sites within the top 20 including
YouTube and Blogger… if only they could better connect all
their interests into one SuperSite or one SuperDevice for those
thinking within the box. Online search can still be the main
course, but you need to corral all of these different users into
one starting point or center with a couple of Billion users
logging in each morning to start their web day. Just imagine the
ad revenue potential that would generate for the big G.

Impossible you say, but not really, all the ingredients are
there to form this SuperSite but it needs one big bang to get it
going, to create a center of the web universe, which will be
Google.

Whenever I think about Google, I am reminded of a class 5
Hurricane with all these popular sites and programs swirling
around it like mad, but there is no eye to this hurricane, at
least not yet. Google needs a solid center to draw everything
into focus and get everyone at the same starting point. Whether
it is the Google search page, Google Buzz, Google Profiles,
Gmail or iGoogle… but it all needs to be pulled together if
Google wants to truly compete with Facebook for all the marbles.

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.

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 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.

Being a full-time online marketer means you have to keep a close watch on how Google is ranking pages on the web… one very serious concern is the whole issue of duplicate content. More importantly, how does having duplicate content on your site and on other people’s sites, affect your keyword rankings in Google and the other search engines?

Now, recently it seems that Google is much more open about just how it ranks content. I say “seems” because with Google there are years and years of mistrust when it comes to how they treat content and webmasters. Google’s whole “do as I say” attitude leaves a bitter taste in most webmasters’ mouths. So much so, that many have had more than enough of Google’s attitude and ignore what Google and their pundits say altogether.

This is probably very emotionally fulfilling, but is it the right route or attitude to take? Probably not!

Mainly because, regardless of whether you love or hate Google, there’s no denying they are King of online search and you must play by their rules or leave a lot of serious online revenue on the table. Now, for my major keyword content/pages even a loss of just a few places in the rankings can mean I lose hundreds of dollars in daily commissions, so anything affecting my rankings obviously gets my immediate attention.

So the whole tricky issue of duplicate content has caused me some concern and I have made an ongoing mental note to myself to find out everything I can about it. I am mainly worried about my content being ranked lower because the search engines think it is duplicate content and penalizes it.

My situation is compounded by the fact that I am heavily into article marketing – the same articles are featured on hundreds, some times thousands of sites across the web. Naturally, I am worried these articles will dilute or lower my rankings rather than accomplish their intended purpose of getting higher rankings.

I try to vary the anchor text/keyword link in the resource boxes of these articles. I don’t use the same keyword phrase over and over again, as I am nearly 99% positive Google has a “keyword use” quota – repeat the same keyword phrase too often and your highly linked content will be lowered around 50 or 60 places, basically taking it out of the search results. Been there, done that!

I even like submitting unique articles to certain popular sites so only that site has the article, thus eliminating the whole duplicate content issue. This also makes for a great SEO strategy, especially for beginning online marketers, your site will take some time to get to a PR6 or PR7, but you can place your content and links on high PR7 or PR8 authority sites immediately. This will bring in quality traffic and help your own site get established.

Another way I combat this issue is by using a 301 re-direct so that traffic and pagerank flows to the URL I want ranked. You can also use your Google Webmaster Tool account to show which version of your site you want ranked or featured: with or without the www.

The whole reason for doing any of this has to do with PageRank juice – you want to pass along this ranking juice to the appropriate page or content. This can raise your rankings, especially in Google.

Thankfully, there is the relatively new “canonical tag” you can use to tell the search engines this is the page/content you want featured or ranked. Just add this meta link tag to your content which you want ranked or featured, as in the example given below:

Anyway, this whole duplicate issue has many faces and sides, so I like going directly to Google for my information. Experience has shown me that Google doesn’t always give you the full monty, but for the most part, you can follow what they say. Lately, over the last year or so, Google seems to have made a major policy change and are telling webmasters a lot more information on how they (Google) rank their index.

So if you’re concerned or interested in finding out more about duplicate content and what Google says about it try these helpful links. First one is a very informative video on the subject entitled “Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues” which is presented by Greg Grothaus who works for Google.

Another great link is this page from Google Webmasters Support Answers by Matt Cutts. It has a lot of helpful information, including a video on the Canonical Link Element.

In yet another post, Matt Cutts discusses the related issue of content scraping and advises webmasters not to worry about it. This is a slightly different matter, other webmasters and unmentionables may use software to scrape your site and place your content on their site. This has happened to me, countless times, including when my content has been reduced to scrambled nonsense. Cutts says not to worry about this matter as Google can usually tell the original source of the material. In fact, having links in this duplicate content may just help your rankings in Google.

“There are some people who really hate scrapers and try to crack down on them and try to get every single one deleted or kicked off their web host,” says Cutts. “I tend to be the sort of person who doesn’t really worry about it, because the vast, vast, vast majority of the time, it’s going to be you that comes up, not the scraper. If the guy is scraping and scrapes the content that has a link to you, he’s linking to you, so worst case, it won’t hurt, but in some weird cases, it might actually help a little bit.”

As a full time online marketer I am not so easily convinced, I mainly have pressing concerns about my unscrupulous competition using these scrapings and duplicate content to undermine one’s rankings in Google by triggering some keyword spam filter. Whether in fact this actually happens, only Google knows for sure, but it is just another indication, despite the very detailed and helpful information given above, duplicate content and the issues surrounding it, will still present serious concerns for online marketers and webmasters in the future.

When it comes to “cool tools”, Google is the master inventor. Say what you want about Google, but they know what they’re doing when it comes to giving the public what they want and need. Take the telephone for instance. An old invention that now has been given a new twist with ” Google Voice” (G.V.) . Hold onto your chair as I’m about to tell you how to have a lot more fun with Ma Bell.

Google is giving you the ability to manage all your phones with one centralized number. At the time of this writing, it’s only available to those in the U.S., and by invitation only. Upon registration, you’ll be given your phone number that you connect to any existing phone number. When someone calls the Google Voice number, it rings the phone number that you specified. The option of selecting a word for your personalized number is also given.

Now, if all Google Voice did was send phone calls to your cell phone, that would be great all by itself, but the amount of extra tools and features are truly amazíng.

When a call is received you can answer it, send it directly to voice mail, listen in on the incoming call to decide what to do with it, or start recording the call upon answering. How’s that for a few options?

After receiving a call you’d like to record, hit 4 on your phone to start recording. Different states have different laws when it comes to recording calls, so check your current federal and state laws before using this feature. Currently outbound calls cannot be recorded. Google does provide an automated verbal announcement when the recording starts and stops so the person you’re speaking with knows they are being recorded. So much for incriminating yourself (LOL).

Say goodbye to voicemail as you know it. When a voicemail is recorded, you can check it by going to the Google Voice website and logging in, or calling your Google number. You can even be notified by email, or text message of new messages needing your attention. The ability to listen in on voice mails as they are being left is a very handy feature.

Voicemail messages can be shared with others via Email, even downloaded as MP3 files and embedded on a website or blog. Messages are also transcribed as text and housed on Google’s site for later reading, or sent to you by email. When it comes to voice mail greetings, custom messages can be set for groups or certain individuals.

Google Voice is free for use within the U.S., but does give the ability to make low cost international calls to over 200 countries from your phone or Google’s site. You’ll first need to purchase credits through Google Checkout before making these calls. Rates vary per country.

Here are some other handy features:
• Phone spam filters which block calls and mark them as spam

• Conference Calling

• Temporary forwarding of calls to another number

• Access Google Voice from mobile browsers at http://google.com/voice/m

• Call Widgets – Easily add a “call me” widget to your blog or site with copy and paste code located under setup.

• Do not disturb option which sends all incoming calls directly to voicemail when you don’t want to be bothered.

So what about when you call someone and want it to appear you are calling from your Google Voice phone number? No problem. The ability to make calls that will display your G.V. number on caller ID can be done in three different ways.

1) Hit call from within Google Voice website
2) From G.V. mobile site on your cell
3) By calling your G.V. number and logging into the system.

Google will call you at the number you specify and connect your outbound call. It doesn’t get much better than that.

The technical requirements to use this service are a computer with Win XP, Vista, Mac or Linux, Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Firefox 3.0 or higher, Safari, Google Chrome and Flash 8.9. To request your invitation go to – https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/ .

So, if you thought using the phone was outdated, sign up with Google Voice and put some “FUN” back into an old relationship. This just might be the best thing old Ma Bell has seen in years.

There is always a big discussion when it comes to comparing two of the best ways to advertise online: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and article marketing, otherwise known as “organic” or “natural” search engine optimization. There is no denying that both methods can be effective. However, which method is better? Which gives you a bigger bang for your buck?

You may get varying statistics on this issue, depending on which website you visit for information. Oh yes, this matters, because you have to consider the source of the statistics and who is sponsoring the article. For example, two sources of information (respectively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ComScore) recently produced studies indicating that PPC advertising was more cost-effective on average. However, did the fact that Yahoo/Overture and Google were sponsoring this major study play any role in determining the final outcome? Of course it did – those are the two biggest PPC companies on the net!

In figuring out which of the two is better, you have to consider cost-effectiveness as well as click-through-rates and direct conversion from visiting user to paying customer. We are going to review some statistics a little bit later on. For now, let’s consider some logical points that illustrate how PPC and article marketing differ.

Search engine result pages display more listings than PPC results, which does have a psychological effect on the user. For some users seeing ten search results (each one relevant to the search) is enough to convince them that there is enough web information on the subject and that “fishing” PPC ads might not be necessary.

The catch is that in order to actually rank in the Top 10 SEO results for your keyword, you have to have relevant website content, not to mention technical prowess in HTML coding. Search engines will be focusing on their proprietary algorithms, or the most relevant websites based on the search term queried. There is no “bribery” here, whereas in PPC, it is quite the opposite: whoever bids highest for each word usually gets the top listing. A quality algorithm definitely plays a part in PPC, but in the end money talks. In article marketing, we haven’t quite come to the point where “money talks”. The best websites still win the search engine contest and that is an important factor to consider in your marketing campaign.

Even PPC proponents will admit that PPC is largely style over substance. With PPC advertising you are trying to grab attention in just a few loud and occasionally obnoxious words. You direct the user to a carefully crafted page that “sells” the idea. This operation contrasts with article marketing, which doesn’t necessarily sell an idea on a single page, nor does it grab attention with a few words. With article marketing, there is an entire article waiting for the visitor, which uses a methodical and “indirect” approach. Assuming you are listed in the Top #10, your listing means that the search engine agrees that your website is the best authority on the keyword subject – for the time being. People in a hurry or on a whim will probably click on PPC. People on a mission will be looking for relevant content on their chosen keyword.

Therefore, the question now becomes which methodology works better for your business? Are you appealing to the fast clicker or the thoughtful user? Let’s now consider two sources of statistics for a clearer view of the issue. First, one in favor of article marketing, the next in favor of PPC.

In Favor of Article Marketing

Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. and principal founder of the Nielsen Norman Group researched the behavior of users who found search engine results pages and noticed some trends. Forty-two percent of users selected the #1 search listing for their result, leaving 58% that selected another Top 10 Result. The #1 site listed held the majority of clicks. This indicates that almost two thirds of Internet users were not content to choose even the #1 listing on a natural SEO search. That means that these users (and the majority of all users) are actually using independent judgment in deciding what links are most relevant to their needs.

Other related statistics (with sources from ComScore, Webxico, iProspect, SEOResearcher and Hotchkiss, Garrison, and Jensen) concluded that 77% of search users choose organic listings over PPC ads. There were also studies that suggested organic click-through generated 25% higher conversion rates than equivalent PPC click-through.

In Favor of PPC Advertising

Now to be fair, we have to consider some advantages that PPC advertising has. The best feature PPC has is that it gets instantaneous results. SEO advertising takes time, especially if you have a new website just submítted to the all of the major search engines. Yes, this can be frustrating. PPC brings you immediate traffic and sometimes brings in thousands of users. Seeing your Alexa ranking take a drastic jump certainly pumps up your adrenaline!

ComScore recently published statistics in favor of PPC, stating that their studied users had an 18.3% click-through-rate on “paid” search results versus a 4.3% click-through rate for organic search results. The conversion rate was also higher according to ComScore, stating that PPC had a 1.4% versus SEO’s 0.6%.

The Real Issue: Longevity

However, the downside here (even if you didn’t contest these suspicious results) is that instant and high volume traffic is, frankly, cheap and not as exciting as it first appears to be. Remember that when you use PPC ads you are making a pitch and capitalizing on your audience’s curiosity. When that curiosity fades, they forget your website – especially if it’s just a glorified advertisement. PPC campaigns can also be costly and time consuming when you consider your duties as a manager.

Another problematic scenario with PPC is that they have no staying power – unless of course you have thousands of dollars a month to blow in this recession. With article marketing you get more quality traffic, and perhaps more importantly to you, you earn customer trust over time. Internet users aren’t stupid, the popularity of Yahoo Answers notwithstanding. Most users know that PPC ads usually aren’t relevant to their search – they’re just there because someone is consistently paying to get noticed.

You can consider article marketing as an investment that continually pays all through the life of your company (or until you shut the website down) since it generates traffic forever. You can easily spend thousands a month on a brilliant PPC campaign and soon run out of money, meaning your ads go extinct. Therefore, we can conclude that article marketing does have specific advantages over PPC, which are intrinsic because of the differences in operation.

• Article marketing generates traffic forever

• Article marketing improves your natural SEO ranking and backlinks

• Article marketing establishes trust – you appear as a professional in your industry

• Article marketing doesn’t cost you extra on top of fees spent on websites, landing pages and superfluous domains

How About Return-On-Investment?

ROI is another key issue, as short-term and long-term profit must equal out. Article marketing, by some authorities appears to have a slower ROI -(especially if you make revenue on CTRs). However, studies suggest that organic ROI is more consistent than PPC. Consider some independent research conducted by popular blogger Gord Hotchkiss who explained the situation in crystal clear terms. Let’s say you have 50 high traffic search terms. Now for these 50 terms, there are 2.8 million searches being launched in a month. If statistics like ComScore’s are correct and unbiased, that translates to 456,000 visitors thanks to PPC and 153,000 visitors thanks to article marketing.

The total cost of those 456,000 PPC visitors would amount to over $500,000 with an average CPC of $1.18. Even if you work with an SEO company that charges top dollar ($10,000 a month, let’s say) you’re still paying $10,000 compared to half a million. That means article marketing’s virtual CPC amounts to $0.07. Even if you apply PPC’s higher conversion rate, 3,647 converted visitors, you are paying $147.08 for each individual person. Compare that to 611 visitors you earned through article marketing – you are paying $16.37 for each visitor. And in doing so, you are also earning a higher quality of customer and generating traffic until the end of days.

Does your final ROI number take into account your total expenses? Absolutely! While both methods of advertising have their place online, when it comes to earning quality traffic, article marketing gets the last word.

SEO is a race. And in any race learning from your competitors makes you a better runner. Even when you’re running first it’s sometimes good to look back and check the runner-ups. And if you’re not the yellow jersey guy, you absolutely should examine the leaders: their gear, their training, their strategy. In SEO the most interesting thing about your competition are their links.

Whether you like it or not SEO is still pretty much about links. Good link profile can make up for almost any lack of optimized content and other onpage flaws. Love or hate, the best thing you can do about it is embrace the fact and run with it.

So let’s go through some tricks that will enable you to look deeper into your competition’s link profile granting you access to the restricted areas: their locker room, dirty laundry and even the briefing hall where they plan their link building strategies.

Let’s Talk Competitive Link Research

Finding out where your competitors’ links come from is not all that hard. You just go to Yahoo! or Google and type in link:www.your-competitor.com to get a list of inbound links to the site.

Yahoo’s much better in that respect as it tends to give more extensive and accurate data. The problem here is that there’s a limit of 1,000 links per website which is often not enough as the fattest link sources get left behind the limit fence. Here’re some tips to break through to the other side.

Note: If you’re lazy like me skip to the end of the article where I’ll share a tool that does it all much quicker.

Trick 1: Search for Links to Particular Web Pages of a Competing Site

Alongside with link:www.your-competitor.com search for

link:www.your-competitor.com/products.html or
link:www.your-competitor.com/services.html

and so on.

Trick 2: Exclude Internal Links

You may examine the internal linking structure of your competition if you want to gain some insight on their navigation and marketing steps. But as we want to find more external links, let’s exclude the internal ones.

You can do this by adding -site:site.com operator to your search query. Type in:

link:http://www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com or
linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com

and you’ll get a list of external backlinks only.

There’s a dropdown option in Yahoo! site explorer that does the same.

Trick 3: Exclude Links Coming from Certain Domains

The -site: modifier lets you exclude links coming from specific sites. So, whenever you see a large chunk of links coming from the same domain add -site:thisdomain.com modifier to your query and the links from this site will get replaced with new ones.

You can add -site: multiple times in one query so that you have something like this:

link:http://www.cnn.com -site:cnn.com -site:en.wikipedia.org

Trick 4: Check Links Coming from Certain TLDs

This is a little known trick. The site: modifier actually lets you get a list of links coming from domains with certain TLDs: .com, .org, .edu, .co.uk and so on. Just type in

link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.gov or
linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com site:.gov

and you’ll get a list of .gov sites linking to your rival.

Note: Do this in Yahoo! regular search, not site explorer

Trick 5: Exclude Links Coming from Certain TLDs

This is an even lesser known trick. You can exclude certain TLDs from the results with the -site:.tld modifier. Usually the biggest chunk of links comes from .com’s so add a -site.com modifier and you’ll get lots of new link data.

Trick 6: Use Different Combinations of the First 5 Tricks

Try link:http://www.your-competitor.com/page.html -site:your-competitor.com -site:.com
Or link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.org -site:wikipedia.org

Give it a thought and I’m sure you’ll come up with lots of ideas. Feel free to share your findings in the comments.

Trick 7: Use the Above 6 Tricks in Different Search Engines

Don’t limit your searches to Yahoo! and Google, go to AltaVista, Alexa, (Bing doesn’t give you link data, so forget about it) but then there’re Exalead, Excite and tons of regional search engines. Search them, get rid of the the duplicates and you’ll have a goooooooooooooooogol of competitor’s links to study.

Note: Some search engines have a different set of operators so you’ll need to type domain: instead of link:.

Getting It All Done Fast

This sure seems like a lot of work and it is. Moreover, getting the links list is only the beginning and the easy part of competitive link research. Once you get the list you need to analyze each link, weed out poor quality sites and only leave the ones you can get a link from. Now THAT’s a lot of work.

I’m too lazy to do this all by hand, besides I value my time too much to waste it on such kind of work. That’s why I use SEO SpyGlass an advanced link analysis tool that employs all the tricks described in this article (plus some more advanced ones I don’t even know) to get up to 25,000 links per domain, which is much, much more than any other tool can get.

SEO SpyGlass also finds all the data I need to analyze the links:

• Google PR of the domain and linking page
• The URL and title of the linking page
• The anchor text and description
• Whether the link is still on the page (sometimes the link gets removed but search engines will
think it’s there till they reindex the page).
• Whether the link is no-follow or dofollow
• How many other links are on the page
• How much link value the link passes
• And some other data like TLDs, domain age, country, etc.

If you want to do competitive link research seriously, I’d strongly recommend trying SEO SpyGlass out. And of course you can always use my tricks whenever you want to run a quick background check on that new guy on your block.

Everyday it seems, people are asking me about the optimum number of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google.

My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer.

Answer: You need more inbound links – of equal or higher quality – than what your competitors have.

Albert Einstein argued that any mathematical formula that required pages of calculations did not contain within it “the mind of God”.

So when Albert Einstein developed E=mc2, then Einstein had fulfilled the promise of a simple formula that could encompass the brilliance of God.

When people wonder how many inbound links they need to acquire to rank in the Top 4 of Google’s search results or even the Top 10 of Google’s SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not.

I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone. Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal.

You can’t truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until you have taken the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google’s SERPs.
• You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword.

• You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google’s search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo both tend to understate the actual link counts. While Yahoo will show you more than what Google does, they also show a number of “no consequence” links in their results.)

• You need to look at the quality of a few of the pages that provide links to the URLs in the search results.
This is not an easy process to undertake. I have done it before, but the best you can hope for is a “snapshot” of what is out there, and therefore, what you need to accomplish.

Note: If Wikipedia turns up in your search query, few people with small budgets will ever be able to dislodge Wikipedia in the search results. What they make up for in a small number of inbound links, they more than make up for with links from dozens or hundreds of PR4, PR5 and PR6 pages. Wikipedia is the king of Internal Linking, and they use that to a great degree to rank extraordinarily high in Google’s search listings.

Your analysis should seek to uncover how many links a page has to it.

As a general rule of thumb, Google will show you less than 1% of the existing number of links for a web page. Yahoo will sometimes show closer to 5% of the existing number of links for a web page, but they will not show you the highest quality of those links.

So, as you strive to gain a “snapshot” picture of the playing field, you want to take Google’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 100. Then you want to take Yahoo’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 20, then cut the number in half to acknowledge the number of worthless crap links they have in their database. Once you have achieved these two numbers, then I tend to call the truth “somewhere in the middle”.

With your “somewhere in the middle” number in hand, you then need to look at the quality of links to a few of those search listings, to get an idea of whether those links exist on higher quality pages or simply junk pages.

If those links are on junk pages, then the goal could be achieved by just working the numbers. But if there are a lot of high PageRank pages in the mix, then whatever number is in your hand, should be multiplied, perhaps 100-fold, to overcome the quality of pages that link to your competitors.

If you get the idea that my simple formula leads to a complicated answer, then you are right.

All of the numbers that I have included in my sample formula are based on rough speculation, as the “snapshot” offers you your best hope of understanding the challenge in front of you.

While the number of inbound links may be relatively easy to determine, the link quality is a factor that is really hard to pin down.
• If you determine that you only need 300 inbound links to rank with the big boys, you may be right.

• Your 300 inbound links number should also be quantified against the number of links that Google will count worthy, so you may need 1200 links to get 300 links that Google will deem worthy. This calculation depends more on the “quality of your content”, rather than the “quantity of your content”.

• When all is said and done and your 300 Google-worthy links have not yet put you on page one, then you know that the quality of the links pointing at your competitors is greater than the quality of the links pointing to you.
If you were hoping for an easy answer, I am sorry that I could not help you with that.

But with this explanation of the challenge, you may be better prepared to answer the big question, the question that is really on your mind:

Are my hopes of achieving good rankings in Google within my reach?

I tend to throw “worry” to the wind and just start working. I don’t worry if I can afford to do it or not. I simply start doing, and I know that in one month, one year or five, I will have built enough value in my website that my competitors are going to be the ones who are trying to figure out if they can unseat me!

Can my site rank better with a keyword-rich domain name? Sure.

Can my site rank better without a keyword in the domain name at all? Absolutely.

I get questions (or assumptions) like this regularly. Actually, there are many other things going on behind the scenes that impact rank, and the domain name is rarely a significant factor.

Let’s say your website has been out there for 6 months or more and you assume, for whatever reason, that you can get a higher search engine ranking if you were using a keyword in your domain name instead of the one you have. In addition to your company web domain, maindomain.com, you rush to purchase keyword1.com, keyword2.com and keyword3.com.

From Google’s perspective, there is both a good way and a detrimental way to assign these additional domain names to your site. This can cause a much greater problem in terms of organic ranking if you get it wrong in terms of duplicate content and trust. Have you ever heard of duplicate content? Which domain name does Google have more history and trust with, your current domain name or one you just bought?

Common methods webmasters use to point multiple domain names to your web server include:

• Domain Mirroring/Masking
• Domain Cloaking
• Domain Alias/URL Alias
• Domain Redirecting

Domain mirroring/masking is sometimes called a pointer domain. It looks like it is the domain name when it is used in a browser, but it is simply a mask overlaying the real domain name and its content. When someone types in www.domain.com, it’s really forwarding to domain.blogspot.com without the address changing in the address bar. The user continues to see www.domain.com in the address bar, although the site and its contents are really from domain.blogspot.com.

Domain cloaking uses an iframe or embedded frameset to display the content of another site.

Domain redirecting (also called URL redirecting) requires all traffic that is sent through the new domain name to be redirected to the main domain name. This can also be a domain redirected to a subdirectory of the main domain, or multiple domains redirected to a complex URL. This is different from domain mirroring/masking and domain cloaking because, when a user types in www.domain.com, they end up on www.maindomain.com and the address changes appropriately in the address bar.

But, let’s back up a second and look at the issues you must consider before making this decision.

1. To limit confusion, it’s better to change the brand (or company) name to better reflect the keyword-rich domain name. This could be as simple as recreating the company logo, but you might consult your customer base first.

SiteProNews Reader Rewards Program

Later this month SPN will be introducing a Reader Rewards program that will provide loyal readers with quality ebooks, whitepapers, service & product discounts and useful software.

Readers will receive points for each SPN issue and advertorial they open and read. Each giveaway offered in a given month will be assigned a point value and will become immediately available for download when that point value is reached by a reader. The entire program will be automated and readers will simply have to click a link to review their point totals and the downloads available to them. New giveaways will be added each month and some older giveaways carried forward from month-to month.

If you would like to participate in the SPN Reader Rewards Program as a contributor of software, ebooks, whitepapers, etc., contact us at info@sitepronews.com to obtain more information on the program and how your company, service or website can benefit.

2. The technical procedure of redirecting domain names must be done so that the search engines do not get confused about what you are trying to do. Otherwise, you risk tripping a duplicate content filter, which would force Google to accept only one domain with that content (explained below). But the biggest risk is setting off an alarm at Google that you are trying to trick them to get a better rank.

Just for fun, let’s say you’ve gone through the trouble of changing the company name to reflect your new keyword-rich domain. Now it’s time to get technical.

If you use any method other than domain redirecting, you are going to be disappointed with your search rank. Domain mirroring, masking, cloaking and aliases confuse search engines because they see the same content under a different domain name. Google then selects one of the domain names to display that content and leaves the others out of the search results. Google chooses for you – since you are not aware of how to manage your duplicate content issues – and no one knows which domain name Google will choose. You could be saying “bye-bye” to all the hard-earned link juice pointed at your main domain name.

The more serious issue with domain mirroring/masking is the probability that Google suspects you are trying to manipulate search rank by suddenly using keywords in additional domain names. The result is either loss of whatever good ranking you did have or your site is banned from Google altogether. Ouch!

This is precisely what happened with a client. Despite my warnings, but thinking they might change the company name eventually, they bought additional keyword-rich domain names and had the webmaster point them at their server (using domain masking). Within a couple weeks Google dropped their domain ranking across the board, but did not ban them.

Of course they came to me with their issue. I gently reminded them about how this should have been done, redirected the domain names properly (using a 301 redirect) and asked them to consult me next time they’re considering a marketing or technical decision regarding the website. It took about 6 weeks – a long and painful 6 weeks – for Google to restore their good rank again.

When a company acquires additional domain names, they should be permanently redirected to the main domain name – the one, central location on the web for all of the company’s or brand’s content.

Redirecting a domain name should be handled differently depending on the type of server hosting your site (Apache or Windows), how much control you have over that server (hosted on a shared or dedicated server) and the purpose of the redirected domain name.

Google’s SEO Report Card… Information Nuggets or Fool’s Gold?

While ostensibly aimed at helping Google target potential weaknesses in its own product pages, and of no direct use to SEOs, there is nonetheless more than a little gold to be found here, if one just examines the document in a little more depth. So while the post at Google’s Webmaster Central Blog is already beginning to bristle with comments lamenting the fact that this isn’t a clear treasure map to the search-ranking mother lode, it’s worth sifting through the Report Card to see what informational nuggets are hidden inside.

Subject I: Search Result Presentation

It’s easy to see why some readers simply dismissed this document out of hand, as the first section starts off being little more than a rehash of the standard “Use Page Titles, Use Meta Descriptions” advice found in any SEO-101 manual. Only by persevering to the part talking about Google Sitelink Triggering, does one begin to suspect that there may be a little more to the report card than meets the eye. Here the authors throw out a couple of crumbs about categorizing website and link-structure, and consolidating a site’s URLs to maximize its informational focus with the aim of increasing the chances of Google generating Sitelinks.

Even so, it’s nothing most professionals haven’t heard before, and I suspect that by this time a lot of readers had given up, thinking that nothing interesting was in store.

Subject II: URLs and Redirects

This is where we see a little glitter among the rubble, as the section starts off with the statement that: “Google products’ URLs take many different forms. Most larger products use a subdomain, while smaller ones usually use a directory form…”

In itself this is not an exceptional statement, and the chapter continues to give handy, but hardly unique, information about canonicalization, URL structure, and redirects until Page 10, where we find the following declaration:

“Subdomains require an extra DNS lookup, slightly affecting latency, which is very important at Google.”

Page load-speeds are an important factor to Google. There’s been talk and speculation about this ever since Matt Cutts dropped the first hints last year, and these days most SEOs are busily proclaiming that slow websites are now a handicap.

Haven’t they always been?

Be that as it may, this fact is not common knowledge with the average webmaster, as demonstrated by a question I’m regularly confronted with over at the Google Webmaster Help Forum:

“Which is a better way to categorize my site, subdomains or folders?”

The standard answer to this question used to be “Whichever you prefer” before load-times became an issue. Now, however, we find a clear indicator that a folder-based approach is much-preferable unless a category actually contains enough information to merit its own site, which is effectively what a subdomain turns it into.

Subject III: On-Page Optimizations

While at first glance this chapter is more standard SEO-101 fodder, it’s where we find a sizable nugget, as the report talks about semantic markup, and how Google uses it to gauge a page’s content.

“Nothing new here; we all use H1 tags.” you might say, but you’d only be partially right, because this issue not only runs much deeper than H1 headings, it runs beyond Heading tags altogether, as I’ll explain shortly. For the moment, however, let’s stay with them.

In the past few years, a great many Optimizers have reached the conclusion that only H1, and, to a degree, H2 are of any promotional value, and that lesser headings (H3 – H6) carry practically no weight at all. But let’s take a look at the following statement, taken from Page 38 of the Report:

“Most product main pages have an opportuníty to use one

tag, like the example above, but they’re currently only using other heading tags (

in this case) or larger font styling. While styling your text so it appears larger might achieve the same visual presentation, it does not provide the same semantic meaning to the search engine that an

tag does.”

For starters it’s obvious that the lesser headings are alive and well, and being used by Google. We’re also told that Google does not, or cannot, judge the visual-context meaning of CSS styled text. The conclusion is to use more heading tags instead of CSS styles wherever your content calls for it. However, there’s more to it still. Let’s take another look at part of that statement:

“…but they’re currently only using other heading tags…”

It would appear that Google still places greater value on other semantic markup tags (em, strong, blockquote, etc.) than many professionals give them acknowledgment, for these days. Otherwise why would the author specifically note the fact that Google only uses headings and font styles?

I personally know quite a few professionals who have long-since abandoned most semantic markup tags in favour of CSS style, since the prevailing attitude of designers and SEOs has been that making text bold or italic no longer carries much promotional weight, following widespread abuses in the mid-2000s and Google’s consequent algorithm updates.

And although the above statement may be a tentative one, it might just point the way back to a more HTML-based approach to web design. Indeed, if it can be taken at face-value, it’s entirely possible that those SEOs and designers advocating CSS-based, table-less design as the way forward are barking up the wrong tree. Whatever the case may be, there is undoubtedly more to the SEO Report Card than first meets the eye, and at the very least, there is a little gold to be extracted from the mass of standard information. Only by reading the full document will you be able to make an assessment yourself.

What should also be remembered is that the SEO Report Card is not aimed at high-flying SEOs or E-lebrity industry pundits, but at the intermediate webmaster for whom even the report’s basic information is of immense value, if read alongside Google’s SEO Starter Guide

]]> http://www.linkwebservices.com/web_university/googles-seo-report-card-information-nuggets-or-fools-gold/feed 0 http://www.linkwebservices.com/web_university/five-simple-but-powerful-ways-to-use-google-analytics?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-simple-but-powerful-ways-to-use-google-analytics http://www.linkwebservices.com/web_university/five-simple-but-powerful-ways-to-use-google-analytics#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:00:41 +0000 Luigi_M_Scollo http://www.linkwebservices.com/web_university/?p=1237 Five Simple but Powerful Ways to Use Google Analytics If you haven’t started using Google Analytics on your website(s) or blogs, I highly highly recommend it. If you’ve set up an account but rarely look at it – I recommend you start looking. First of all – what is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a [...]

]]>

Five Simple but Powerful Ways to Use Google Analytics

If you haven’t started using Google Analytics on your website(s) or blogs, I highly highly recommend it. If you’ve set up an account but rarely look at it – I recommend you start looking.

First of all – what is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free analysis tool which gives you information on where your website visitors are coming from, which pages they visit, how long they stay, and a lot more. There are plenty of paid stat counters available which present data in different ways, but Google Analytics is one of the best, and it’s free.

One can over-analyze or under-analyze any website. Some people spend too much time checking stats, analyzing, and planning, and don’t spend enough time writing good content and getting new readers to their blogs.

On the other side of the pendulum, you could go on week after week, blindly publishing content and flailing along with offsite promotíon, without seeing what results your campaigns are getting, which type of content is the most popular for your visitors, and which traffic-generation techniques are getting the best results.

The first is like tuning your car’s engine every day without ever turning on the ignition, the second is like driving in the dark.

In between, we have a happy balance.

I find that the best times to check stats are when I don’t have a lot of time to do a more intense project, or when I am a bit too tired to do anything more “heavy.” Sometimes just before I go to bed at night is a good time to check into what has been happening between my visitors and my websites’ pages. I can browse and poke around in my Analytics account and learn quite a lot – even with minimal energy.

Here are five simple and powerful ways to use Google Analytics:

1. Find out which of your website’s pages are getting the most traffic, and optimize those pages.

If you are running ads on the pages, make sure they are properly placed and updated. If you are linking to affiliate products, make sure your links are up-to-date and that you aren’t missing any links, or new products which should be there. If you are using that page for some other purpose, such as to generate subscriptions or whatever the case may be, make sure that the page is laid out as well as possible. This can be helpful if you have a large website which has a long “to do” list and many things to optimize or tweak. By just starting with the most heavily-trafficked pages, you will get the maximum results from your efforts and also know where to start.

2. Find out which referrers are generating the most traffic, and continue any actions you have been taking to generate traffic from those referrers.

For example, if you see that Twitter is generating a large amount of targeted traffíc, you can expand your activity on Twitter. If you see that your article submissions are getting new visitors from article directories, you can make a note not to drop those out – or possibly step them up. Conversely, if you see that you have been spending time/money on a traffic-generation method which is not getting very far, you can stop wasting your time on it (presuming you have given it time to take effect).

3. Find out which keywords you are ranking the best for, and see which ones you can “push to the top.”

If you had a website on dogs, for example, and found that you were ranking at #30-#40 on Google for many keywords, but ranking #11 for, lets say, “dog chew toys,” you might want to work on increasing your rankings on dog chew toys and focus more of your SEO efforts on this term (of course there are other factors you would consider as well, such as the searches and competition for this term). Climbing from position #31 to #20 will generally not get you a huge improvement in traffic. But climbing from position #11 to position #3 almost certainly will. Focus first on keywords or key phrases that have the best chance of ranking high in the near future, and then move on to the others.

4. Find out which pages keep your visitors’ attention for the longest.

If the average visitor on Page A stays for 5 seconds, while the average visitor to Page B stays for 150 seconds, the likelihood is that your visitors find Page B’s content more interesting than Page A’s.

5. Look at the graph of your bounce rate.

This tells you how many people left your site without visiting a second page. Depending on the website and the page, this may be a good or bad thing. But if you have a blog or a content site, it is usually a good sign when people stick around to view more of your posts and content before they leave. If your bounce rate increased or decreased after you made a certain change, you can opt to revert that change (if bounce rate increased) or keep it (if bounce rate decreased). For example, if I changed the theme of my WordPress blog and then noticed a date-co-incident jump in my bounce rate, I might consider changing it back This statistic can be used in many ways – it will depend on the nature of your blog.

There are many, many other ways to use Google Analytics. The above are great ways to start, if you aren’t familiar with or used to using this tracking system. Google Analytics can give you a far greater understanding of what’s happening on your site and can guide you to continue on successful actions and drop the unsuccessful.

]]> http://www.linkwebservices.com/web_university/five-simple-but-powerful-ways-to-use-google-analytics/feed 0