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Reach Local with ReachLocal

Paul — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:15:00 +0000

One of the challenges in the local advertising and local Web publishing spaces is that there has not been an ad exchange or network which has worked effectively on that often micro level. That's all about to change with the release of a new platform from ReachLocal (the ReachLocal Xchange) that enables Internet publishers a way to "tap the advertising budgets" of local advertisers and offers local marketers access reach to local consumers. "The local online advertising...

Blogger platform: new mobile blogging options

Paul — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:53:56 +0000

Google has announced that several new features have been added to the Blogger Dashboard to make it easier to post blog entries from mobile devices.

At least for users in the US, the mobile service supports SMS, MMS and email posting from a registered mobile phone. It’s also possible to set up a new blog from the phone.

Of course, some advanced mobile phones (such as the iPhone) make it easy enough to add to Blogger using the standard web interface, but it’s useful to have alternative ways of getting content onto a blog while on the move, and even on smartphones, sending a text or email can be quicker and less fiddly than using the built-in web browser.

ABCSearch Acquired and Rebranded as Advertise.com

Paul — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:14:28 +0000

Privately-held paid search company ABCSearch, Internext Media Corp. company, has acquired Advertise.com. They will rebrand under the Advertise.com name, which will serve a larger online advertising solution including PPC, contextual advertising, and display ads.

This is, of course, not to be confused with AOL-owned Advertising.com (which has been rebranded as Platform-A).

"I believe that online advertising needs a new approach," said Daniel Yomtobian, founder and CEO of Advertise.com. According to Yomtobian, advertisers and publishers have so many choices--some work, while others definitely do not. "The current model does not provide advertisers enough ROI. We launched Advertise.com to provide advertisers and publishers a new value proposition--effective, affordable, and easy-to-use advertising campaigns all under one roof. We are committed to our motto: 'online marketing made easy'."

Google Launched “Profile Results”

Paul — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:00:43 +0000

Ever searched for yourself on Google and come away dissatisfied, especially if someone else you share a name with seems to dominate the results? Ever looked for someone else and been disappointed that you couldn’t find the person you wanted? Google’s new “Profile Results” launching today aim to correct both problems.

Yahoo! Inquisitor IPhone App

Paul — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:30:14 +0000

As the IPhone grows in popularity it is becoming a new way of experiencing the Internet. Yahoo! saw this coming and produced the Inquisitor App which allows users to search Yahoo! very easily from their IPhone. Yahoo! has also made it available for Safari, Firefox, and IE as plugins.

You can find out more about this update on the Yahoo! Search Blog. Sadly I’ve not had the pleasure of owning an IPhone but I have tried the Inquisitor App within FireFox and find it convenient but not a replacement for the traditional search interface on a PC. But on the IPhone - that’s another story. It makes searching on the IPhone easy and fun to do.

Stumpedia: Another Human-Powered Search Engine

Paul — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:46 +0000

Google seems to hold a lock on the search space but many of us still come up empty-handed from time to time when we search. It s enough to keep us looking for a better search engine or at least one that goes about the whole business differently. Stumpedia offers a big difference no bots no spiders no algorithms just users entering links and voting them up or down....
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Small Business Web Optimising

Paul — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:55:00 +0000

Okay, so you have found your keywords. Now what?

Well, you need to know where to put them!

Here is a list of the best places to use your keywords on your web pages to give you that much need SEO boost.

Title tag
This is an extremely important tag and it certainly should include your keywords. I've lost count of how many home pages I have seen with the Title of "home page".

The title is also what appears when your page is listed by the search engines and so it needs to be compelling to the human eye as well as include your keywords for the search engines.

Ideally the title should be no more than 100 characters including spaces. Google displays unto 66 characters, Yahoo much more.

Also, get your main keyword in early in the title text. For example, on a web page aimed at offering web optimising advice to small businesses and the keyword for the page is "web optimising" I might use the following Title:

Web Optimising for Small Businesses

Alternatively if my keyword for the page is "small businesses" I might switch the Title to be:

Small Business Web Optimising

Description Tag

Some search engines check the description tag to get a good understanding of what the web page is about. So you must include your keywords in this tag. It's important to remember that your description tag is frequently the test displayed when your web page is listed by the search engines. So again it needs to be compelling for your potential visitors.

Headings

The heading tags (ie: h1, h2, etc) are considered of importance by the search engines and therefore you should include your keywords in these headings whenever you can. You should certainly make sure the main heading of the page (ie: the H1 tag) contains your keyword.

Content

The main copy of your web page should also use your keywords. However it is important to remember that the copy is there to convert your customer to do something once they have arrived at the web page. If the copy does not guide them to taking the action you want them to take then getting your customer to the page has all been for nothing. So, write the page with the purpose in mind and try to work the keywords in naturally into the content.

Incidentally some pundits state that you should include your keywords near the top of the page as this effects the rating the search engines apply to your page. I’m not sure if that is true, however if I were a visitor to your site that found you through keywords on a search engine I would find it welcoming to find those keywords early in my reading of your page.

Links

Use your keywords in any links to your page from within your own web site and ideally where you can on links from external web sites. Search engines following these links will pick up on these keywords as being relevant to your page.

Alt tag

On all your images, use the alt tag and include your keywords in the text. Obviously the text needs to be relevant to the image. Using the alt tag is important for addressing web site accessibility which is now a legal requirement in many countries. Also, search engines read this text and use it for indexing your site.

Follow the guidelines in this article on how to use keywords to optimise your web site and I’m sure you will soon see increased traffic to your site.

Mike Seddon is the founder of KKSmarts. Their site contains many free guides that will show you how to drive traffic to your website. Their Free Google SEO Training is also very popular and can be enjoyed online in the comfort of your own home.

Wordpress: Google XML Sitemaps Plugin

Paul — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:20:53 +0000

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

SEO: Website Architecture

Paul — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:35:00 +0000

Making your web site's information and content affects various parts of your business's web sites,

Usability:
Achieving high search engine rankings can drive voluminous amounts of targeted traffic to your website, but making the site user friendly is also important. You need to create a logical information architecture that will make sense to users.

Rankings:
In addition to users, it's also necessary to consider search engines in creating an intelligent content structure. You want to ensure you're giving the right pages the right amount of emphasis.

Conversions:
Web design for businesses should also feature a natural walk through the conversion process. IA in these instances should walk the user through the conversion process, offering informative pages which begin with broad, early-in-the-buying cycle content and consistently moves the user towards the next step in the purchasing process.

While every link on your site has value and passes some degree of "link equity" (search engines essentially see links as votes, and each "vote" passes a certain amount of "juice," also known as link equity), two types of links tend to pass considerably more juice than others,

Internal Links:
Links that are in your site's "site wide navigation" include an internal link on each page of your site. These links, notably those in your site's tool bar or left or right navigation bars, pass a lot of "juice" as they are voting for their targeted page across your site.

Inbound Links:
Your website receives link equity not only from its own pages, but also from other pages across the Web. In many cases, most of these inbound links will be pointed at your home page. Thus, pages that are "closer" to the home page (linked to directly from the site's home page) receive more of this valuable link equity.

The higher up in your site's architecture a page is, the more likely that page will be able to rank for more competitive keywords. The most competitive keywords, as one might imagine, are generally the short, broad, traffic driving keywords.

Google’s Influence In The White House

Paul — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:01:01 +0000

Google’s Clout Grows as Tech Initiatives Take Shape from the Wall Street Journal outlines Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s recent technology meeting with Obama and the new US government. If you missed the news, a group of executives met with President Obama last week to discuss technology’s role in the US stimulus plan. One of those executives was Schmidt, who sat right next to Obama at the meeting.

We are all aware that Google was very politically and financially supportive of Obama during the elections. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that Google was the “fourth-largest corporate source of campaign cash” for Obama’s presidential race. Why is this important for Google? Because the government can issue policy that can either help Google or hurt Google.

From making it easier for more people to use the Internet to making deals like the Yahoo/Google ad deal easier to get passed to incentives on renewable energy that would lower Google’s data center costs - all these policies can either help Google or hurt Google.

Some are concerned over what appears to be Google’s tight relationship with President Obama. Jeff Chester, founder of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer-privacy advocacy group, said:

Given the relationship of Schmidt to the campaign, I think there’s a real concern there’s a kind of open office, revolving door between Google and their goals and the Obama administration.

Even Schmidt admitted that “There is no question technology has more influence with this president,” adding that President Obama has “a personal interest” in technology. But when asked about Google’s influence with the new administration, Schmidt said, “I think our influence is moderate, not tremendous.” In fact, Schmidt turned down the CTO position offered by Obama months ago.