Internet Marketing

If you are interested in creating a Google Plus page for your business you can visit the Google Plus for Business guide or click the link below:
http://www.google.com/+/business/

Here is an instructional Youtube video on how to create a Google Page for your business

Your customers and clients will often turn to their friends and family to help them make decisions and gather recommendations for using businesses. The +1 button combines the power of these types of recommendations on Google and it’s owned and operated properties. Google has social circles across the web and has integrated this into Google search and on many news sites to show these timely recommendations to help your site stand out in the crowd.

You can customize your +1 button and +Snippet here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

Google+ Pages help you build deeper relationships with customers by sharing your links, photos and videos as well as promotions. You can get reports on visitors and highlight special deals and offers as well as to chat live with international customers all over the world.

There is still an old school site submit that Google has but not the recommended way to establish a relationship with Google. If you want to drop your URL into a black hole then you can use the Google Addurl tool. I remember over 10+ years ago when this was the only way to talk to the engines and let them know you existed.

Google has one of the most advanced Webmaster tools that you can use to both submit your website to be crawled and also to add sitemaps, xml feeds or product feeds for them to crawl and index.

Google Webmaster Central also has great reporting tools and resources to show you any site errors or issues they have crawling your content. To sign-in to Webmaster tools you just need to have an active gmail account. I usually use the same one that is linked to my GA and Adwords accounts to keep everything streamlined.

Once you have logged into the site and are on the Tools homepage at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home, you will see a red “Add a Site” button and enter your sites URL. You will then need to authenticate ownership of the site and you can do this using Google Analytics if your GA tracking code that uses the asynchronous snippet. You can also click on the ‘alternative methods’ tab and add a meta tag to your sites homepage, add a DNS record to your domain’s configuration or upload an HTML file to your website. They will provide a link to download the HTML file and you will need to upload it directly to your root folder. Remember – you only need to do one of these methods to verify your tag.

Google Verify with HTML

Google Site Verification Tag

If you are using WordPress and want to verify your site using the meta tag snippet then you can usually go to the Appearance > Editor > and edit the header.php file and place the meta tag just before the tag in the file and then go back to the Google Webmaster Central page and click to verify the tag. Don’t forget this process as Google doesn’t do an auto-check until you tell them to.

Once you have verified your site then you will want to get your sitemap submitted to them. If you haven’t ever built an xml sitemap then there are a bunch of free xml sitemap tools or if you are using WordPress then you can download a sitemap plug-in which will automatically create and update your sitemap on the fly for you. I’ll do another post on best practices sitemap settings for the different fields like lastmod, changefreq and priority.

If you haven’t already setup a Google Places account or claimed your business listing on Google Maps then here is where you will want to start:

http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter

With your Google Places account you can get your business listed locally and be found on Google searches. Your Google Places listing will also allow you to control the categories you would like to be placed in as well as to enhance your listing with photos, videos and public reviews.

Once you have setup and secured your listing on Google Places then you can create offers that show up on your Google listing where your customers can print the offers and bring them in to your place of business to redeem. The offers will also allow you to attract new customers as you can specify that they need to be first time customers if you own a salon or service related business.

If your business is already listed on Google and you see if appear on Google Maps and want to claim if from there then you can follow these steps below to do so.

1. Make sure you are logged into a Gmail account that you want to associate with your business.

2. Go to the Google maps page that you saw your company listed on.

3. Click on the “more info>>” link next to your listing.

4. Next to the Get Directions links you’ll see a link that says “Edit this place. Business Owner?”. Click that link.

5. This should take you to the Google Places dashboard if you are already logged in. You can verify your business by getting a phone call to the business phone or receiving a postcard in the mail with a 4-digit verification.

Tips: Make sure you pick a few categories for your business and if you have a local physical location of your business then be sure to list the address in your home page footer. Google seems to like this for use with Google Instant search results.

-Brian

If you are a local business, company, band or brand that would like to start promoting on Facebook you can set up a Facebook Page or what used to be called a fan page where your family, friends and fans can “Like” your page. Once you get 25 people to “Like” your page then you can secure your custom user name or vanity URL.

Here is the starting page for everyone that wants to create a Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

What is the difference between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups?

I get this question quite frequently and think of Facebook Pages as being the official profiles for entities, such as businesses and celebrities or brands and Facebook Groups for smaller groups to interact with each other around a common interest like a church group or athletic team. If you are interested in creating a Facebook Group you can still do so at:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php

Another good reason to create a page for your business is that you can then create Facebook ads to promote your page or you can create and embed your own Like Box on your companies website by going here after your Facebook Page has been created:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box

Happy Facebooking!

-Brian

If you didn’t already know that your name is automatically claimed on Linkedin as a permalink. You need to setup your permalink by going to your profile page at:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit

Once you are on this page then you can click on [edit] in the Public Profile line and then you can put in your last name or full name in the update address box and click the set address button. You can also make changes if you have recently had a name change from a marriage. The only problem is that your old name won’t remap to your account anymore.

Here is some other helpful Linkedin resources on setting your privacy and personalization controls on your profile:
Linkedin Privacy Settings

A get a lot of people asking where they go to setup their Facebook Permalink or as FB calls it: username. Here is the link that you can hit once you are logged in:

http://www.facebook.com/username/

Be careful in choosing the name as you can only release and change it once. This is a great way to promote your business or personal profile to friends and fans. As Google and the other engines continue to crawl and index the entire Facebook community this makes it easier to connect your social profiles with your name and business.

If you ever want to change your username, you have to go to your account settings page at:
Facebook Edit Account Settings

It is available in the account drop down menu on the top right navigation bar. Remember it can only be changed one time and it is the ‘username’ that you will want to edit.

Here is another Facebook SEO tweak that you can apply to your profile to cross link your sites to show the engines that they are related to one another. Go to your profile page, click the info tab, scroll down to contact section and click edit and you can fill in your website URL(s) there.

Another great tool that Facebook allows you to do is create a profile badge or widget to embed on your website to increase your fans. The Facebook widget page can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/profilebadges.php

-Brian R.

Google just rolled out their new Search Beta project, codenamed “Caffeine,” that could change how your business will rank in natural search on Google if this project makes it to public launch. For those businesses that live-and-die on free Google organic traffic, this can be a huge deal for them.

In a blog post announcing the project, Google suggested that Caffeine could change search results, which raises the concern of companies’ needing to change their optimization tactics to protect their Google listings and ranks.

It’s probably too early to make changes, but web developers and others with SEO interests are doubtless already running searches using their existing keywords to see what changes appear in their rankings.

Here’s what Google is saying:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search,” two engineers wrote in the company’s official blog.

“It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits ‘under the hood’ of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

If you’d like to see Google’s “Caffeine” in action, visit: http://www2.sandbox.google.com. Only the URL tells you that you are on the test site.

“Right now, we only want feedback on the differences between Google’s current search results and our new system. We’re also interested in higher-level feedback (‘These types of sites seem to rank better or worse in the new system’) in addition to ‘This specific site should or shouldn’t rank for this query.’ Engineers will be reading the feedback, but we won’t have the cycles to send replies.”

In order to give Google feedback, do a search using the Caffeine beta site. Look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Click on that link, type your feedback in the text box and then include the word “caffeine” somewhere in the text box.

It’ll be interesting to see how the new score card is setup with this algorithm on whether it continues giving rank preference to the big boys or shares some of that love with the mom and pop shops. I did a couple of searches in dating and hip hop and saw a nice blend but still too much emphasis on news, wikipedia and youtube. If I wanted hip hop videos then I would have searched that exact phrase and the same goes for news.

-Brian R.

Bada-Bing-a-hoo. As crazy as this sounds it is true. MSN or as we now should refer to it as Bing.com has signed a 10-year deal with Yahoo to power its searches for an initial 88% share of search revenue. What does this mean to you? Well if you have ever ranked high with MSN search in the past then get ready to get about 4 times more natural search traffic from this partnership. I have always optimized SEO around Google and have never really gotten much love from Yahoo and have stumbled on great placements on MSN over the years with no real math behind the results.

In a lengthy interview on Friday before departing for a vacation, Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, said she sold the search business because Yahoo could no longer continue to match the level of investment Google and Microsoft were making in searching, one of the Web’s most lucrative and technologically complex businesses.

“My first reaction when I got here was that I wouldn’t even do a search deal,” she said, “until I looked at our expense structure and our actual options and looked at what our prime job was, which is to grow audience.” Yahoo will lose some of its most talented engineers to Microsoft and as many as 400 employees through layoffs. The deal also undercuts years of investment around search technology.

Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies premium search advertisers. Read the below bullet points from the press release. It is a bit lengthy but good information:

• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
• Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;
• Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

This announcement could be one of the biggest game changers in the brief history of Internet as we like to call it.

Google recently published a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide in the Google Webmaster Central Blog due to the high demand of requests from people asking “What are some simple ways that I can improve my website’s performance in Google?”. This compact guide is very comprehensive and covers all of the best practices that people can follow to improve their overall crawlability and indexing by the engines. The guide is also available in Spanish and German.

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

This is my week to rant about Google so just let me be for a second. I have been doing random searches everyday in areas and verticals that I don’t typically search on just to find some funny search results that don’t make sense or where the SEO pro’s have worked the “Google Algorithm” also referred to my me as “Google Love’s How Popular I Am” tool. We already know Google doesn’t care about your inbound links or your PR link backs or your PageRank score. They get their data from Analytics, Feedburner, links from trusted sources which are usually news publications (Authority links), Registrar info on the age of your site, how active the content is and the list goes on. So what happens when all of your competitors are employing the same tactics to Google? Check the “Nordstrom Coupons” search example below:

Isn’t this reminiscent of how Altavista.com search results used to look back in 1999 before they went under?

Now let’s look at how the search results used to look back in January, 2001 now that Google has published their own ‘way back index machine’ for us to view the Google 2001 results for Nordstrom Coupons:

What has changed in 10 years? Looks like the consumer is getting a pretty shitty experience and where are the ads? Oh, Google doesn’t think that advertisers should be able to buy this keyword I guess because it isn’t relevant even though tons of those same advertisers are now SEOing the hell out of it. This results are starting to look a little homogeneous.

I wish our friends at Mahalo.com would hurry up and get all of their index filled up and start spending some money to get some mind share in search.

-Brian R.