If you are a local business and want to be found on Google Maps, you will want to make sure you are listed first of all. Along with that, you might also want to pay close attention to some new guidelines Google has issued regarding their goal to keep Google Maps a great source of information for users and business owners alike.
When commenting on Netflix’s blog regarding the 15% credit they were to provide to their customers, I basically scolded them for using Blogger as their blogging platform. Sorry, but I can’t understand why a company such as Netflix, a leader in mail order DVD rentals as well as a business who has no brick and mortar locations but is an “online” business, would use a free service provided by Google to run a most important function to their customers.
A recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller revealed that ONLY 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. This number was quite lower than I expected, at least as far as Fortune 500 companies go. It is not surprising to me however with regards to businesses in general. While any business that has an online presence should be blogging, a large majority of them are not. Read on for some common excuses they come up with along with reasons why those excuses are invalid.
I came across a story posted at Search Engine Land pointing out that Google has an “unsatisfactory” record with The Better Business Bureau. How can a company voted “top global brand” in 2008 at the same time have an unsatisfactory record with the BBB? Apparently because out of 331 complaints filed against the search giant over the past three years, 2 were listed as unresolved. that’s right – just 2! Despite this, Google continues to lead the way in search and nothing on the horizon seems to be able to change that.
I was recently asked the question, “How do you market your company on social news / bookmarking sites without appearing like a spammer?” This is a great question — one that has a pretty straightforward answer but which also requires a lot of work. Why? Because it is easy to sign up for a social bookmarking site and simply submit your own “stuff.” Submitting your own stuff does however not guarantee that your efforts will be successful. There is actually a lot more to it.
Besides just hoping that Twitter runs consistently without experiencing outages all the time, there are a few things I would love to see the micro-blogging service add that would make the Twitter even more useful than it already is. Even though it is several months till Christmas, I give you my Twitter wish list.
As a final installment to my “back to the basics” series, this post will discuss some of the pitfalls or obstacles you may come across when developing a SEO strategy. These may include duplicate content issues, potential problems with e-commerce sites and/or content management systems and obstacles that Flash and AJAX technologies may pose.
The 2nd installment of SMX Advanced has come and gone. I was glad to have been able to be a part of it having missed the first one. In two days I live blogged a total of 8 sessions and attended one additional one that I didn’t live blog. I met up with many old friends and even met some new people. It was also the first trip to Seattle for me although there was little time to actually enjoy the city. All in all, another great conference and a great trip.
In this second part of developing a SEO strategy, I will look at using external cascading style sheets (CSS) and JavaScripts to clean up your code as well as how the age, size and trust factor of your site can affect your overall SEO efforts. Keep in mind that these factors will not always apply to a SEO strategy as many sites today are already using external CSS/JavaScript and may already have some age and trust factors working for their benefit. In cases where your site is not taking advantage of these, read on.
This is the second installment of a “Back to the Basics” series I am currently writing. In case you missed it, the initial installment was about keyword research and how it is the foundation of any search engine optimization (SEO) effort. In this segment I will actually detail how to go about developing a SEO strategy for your web site.
