2008 November | flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Archive for November, 2008

Google SearchWiki: Major Changes for Google Search Results…Maybe

Monday, November 24th, 2008

For those of you who were logged into your Google account over the past few days, you may have noticed a major change in Google search.

It's called Google SearchWiki and it's causing waves in the world of search engine marketing.

The brief is that if you're logged into your Google account you'll see a few new icons next to each result on the search engine results page: an up arrow, an "x", and a speech bubble.

With these new icons you can rearrange the search results by moving a result up, removing it, or adding comments.

(more…)

Posted in Search Engine Marketing | 8 Comments »

Converting Keynote to Google Presentations and Slideshare

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Being the loyal Mac user that I am, I use Keynote rather than PowerPoint when presenting to an audience. (Plus, I love those transitions!)

Earlier today I put on Social Media and Your Brand: Go Viral! for the Maine Marketing Association's lunch and learn. I was asked if I could share my slides, and since the presentation was on social media, I decided to use some of the social media tools at my disposal.

Two popular options are Google Presentation (part of Google Docs) and SlideShare. Both allow you to create, import and share slideshow presentations. Both also can be embedded into your LinkedIn profile. Both also choke on Keynote presentations.

The first thing you need to do in Keynote is save your presentation in the PowerPoint format (PPT.) You can do this by choosing File > Export…. Next you'll see this screen:

Choose PowerPoint and hit Next…. Then you can save your ppt file.

You can then import your .ppt file into Google Presentation or SlideShare. I tried both and found that the Google Presentation version was way off in terms of alignment. Not surprisingly, the fonts that worked well in the presentation weren't supported on the Web. However, many of the words bled off the edges of the screen, the centering was all off, and links and bullets were inconsistent.

I thought I could maybe tweak some things in PowerPoint and then reimport to Google, but PowerPoint–perhaps sensing I had been unfaithful–quit every time I tried to open the file.

I had never used SlideShare before, so I decided to give it a chance. Importing the file was as simple as clicking a button. Although there were still changes in fonts, and there were also inconsistencies with links and bullets, overall, it did a much better job of keeping the integrity of the original slideshow. One major frustration is that it replaced my Web-friendly Trebuchet MS with a less interesting font.

Please note that both of these presentations are a bit wider than this blog column, but I didn't feel like fiddling with the fine tuning. One nice thing about both Google and SlideShare is that they kept the links in the presentation live.

Social Media and Your Brand: Go Viral!

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

If you'd like to compare that to the Google Presentation you can check that out here:

Rich Brooks
Social Media Guy

Posted in flyte news, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Use Alt-Tags for Image Optimization

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Search engines still have difficulty understanding images on your Web site, but as Google’s Matt Cutts explains, you can help them out by using an alt-tag.

The alt-tag is attached to an image; you often see it as the yellow box that pops up as you roll over an image. The original purpose of the alt-tag was to help the visually impaired better understand your Web site. It was then used as a place for Web site owners to cram as many keywords as possible in the hopes of ranking higher for a desired search term.

As search engines matured, however, meta-data (the information not readily seen by the human visitor) was discounted in favor of the information they could see, such as titles, headers and body copy.

Then came universal search. Now, when you do a search at Google you may get more than just 10 text links, you may also see images and videos embedded in your results. Because of this reason, alt-tags and image optimization are getting a closer look.

In the video below, also available at the Google Webmaster blog post “Use Alt Attributes Smartly,” Matt explains more about the alt-tag and how Google wants you to use it.

As Google commands, we obey….

Rich Brooks
Alt = Maine Search Engine Marketer

Posted in Search Engine Marketing | 3 Comments »

Six Reasons Why Blogs Are So Good for SEO

Monday, November 17th, 2008

I've been trumpeting the benefits of blogging for search engine visibility for a while now, and here's why:

Blogs are all about content. Search engines love content. They don't love Flash, and they're still struggling with photos and video, but they absolutely get content.
Blogs have text-based navigation. Search engines have an easier time with text based (vs. image based) navigation because it's more transparent. Search engines for a while now have told us that they want sites to serve up the same information/experience to a search engine bot as to a person.
Blogs offer lots of links. If search engines feast on words, they travel on links. Blogs are often a good place to find new content on the Web.
People are more likely to link to business blogs than business Web sites. At least, this has been my experience, and anecdotally what I've seen out there. I believe this is because of the interactive nature of blogs, and they're traditionally more about communication than selling. And since getting incoming links is half the battle of search engine optimization, this is a key point.
Blogs make it easier to create more pages. Search engines don't rank Web sites, they rank Web pages. In other words, every Web page is an opportunity to rank well at the search engines. Every time you put up a new post, you have another opportunity to be found at Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine. You don't need to worry about how this is going to fit in your current Web site navigation, you can just assign it to one or more categories and be done with it.
Blogs put you in control. This doesn't directly affect your search engine optimization, but with a blog you can publish when you feel like it. You don't have to worry about how much your Web developer's going to charge you for an update, or when he's going to get to it. That makes it easier for you to target new keywords and go after the long tail of search that can bring ready-to-buy, qualified leads to your site.

If you are interested in better rankings but don't yet have a blog, the good news is there's a great opportunity for you to increase your search engine visibility.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Consultant

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing | 20 Comments »

Photos from Harbor Fish Market, Portland, Maine

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Tonight's my last class of Introduction to the SLR at the University of Southern Maine, and we're having a critique of our photos. This kind of snuck up on me, but luckily my friends over at Harbor Fish Market were kind enough to let me come in and take some photos for class.

What's so cool about Harbor Fish Market is that it's a real fish market, not a tourist trap. As you can (hopefully) see from the photos, the fish is incredibly fresh and high quality; people and restaurants from around the country order from Harbor Fish.

Entering the retail store is a blast. The floors are uneven and a bit wet…you have to watch your step! Giant lobster tanks line one wall, and local and fish from around the world lay displayed on ice. Unlike some other fish markets in town, the prices are very reasonable, and the people who work there are very real, very cool, and very authentic.

There's a slide show below of some of the other photos I took. If anything looks appetizing you can have fresh, Maine seafood delivered to your door for dinner tomorrow. Just call 1-800-370-1790 x2 and ask for my good friend Robyn. She'll treat you right.

Rich Brooks
Fishing for Compliments

Posted in Client News, Off Topic | No Comments »

How to Share Your Google Analytics (Without Sharing Your Google Account)

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

As you may know, here at flyte we're pretty fond of Google Analytics and set our clients up with this great, free traffic reporting software.

If you're working with a contractor who's helping you with search engine marketing, or improving your Web site's effectiveness, they may want/need access to your traffic reports to make better recommendations. However, if you give them full access to your Google account they can also access your Gmail and intercept all of your mushy emails or those cease-and-desist letters from Sarah Palin's lawyers.

Here's how you can give them access to just your reports but keep curious eyes away from anything else.

First, login to your Google Analytics account. Down near the bottom of the page you'll see "User Manager." Click there.

That will take you to a page that will show you any user that already has access to the traffic reports. In the dark gray bar you'll see an Add User link near the right. Click there.

This will take you a page where you can add a new user. You can give this new user just View Reports access or make them an Account Administrator. If you choose to give them Account Administrator access they will be able to edit your account settings such as adding other users, creating filters or having Google Analytics email certain reports to users.

This could be just what you want, but just be aware of what you're choosing.

Your new user will need to have a Google account, but as Google accounts are free this probably isn't much of a problem.

You may be tracking reports for multiple Web sites. If you're just giving View Reports access you'll need to select at least one domain from the Available Website Profiles, click the "Add>>" button, and make sure they end up under Selected Website Profiles. Otherwise, the reports won't transfer.

And as always, save your work.

That's all you need to do. Next time they log into their Google Analytics account they'll see a link to your analytics on their dashboard page.

Rich Brooks
Web Analytics Guy

Posted in Analytics, Search Engine Marketing, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 22 Comments »

Half-Assed Book Review: Content Rich by Jon Wuebben

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

I consume a lot of data. I read a lot of work related books, listen to one or two audiobooks a month (usually business related), subscribe to about 2 or 3 weekly magazines and at least a dozen monthly magazines. I have a subscription to the Wall St. Journal both in print and online.

I also subscribe to a number of blog feeds, a few dozen eziens, listen to a couple different podcasts, follow hundreds of people on Twitter, and follow many of their links to new articles.

I enjoy reading business books, but I often don’t follow them. I put them down somewhere in my house and then pick something else up. It’s rare that I finish them. Even if I do, I generally don’t talk or blog about them.

It’s for this purpose that I’m starting a new–pardon the pun–chapter at the flyte blog: the Half-Assed Book Review. Basically, I’m going to start reviewing books (and perhaps audiobooks) as I get to the halfway point of the book. If I ever finish the book, I may come back and add on a comment of how it all turns out.

The first (but hopefully not last) entry to the Half-Assed Book Review is Jon Wuebben’s Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web.

Honestly, the title put me off a bit. I mean, who doesn’t like a little alliteration in their subtitle, but the title seemed a bit spammy to me. Luckily, my first name was the biggest word on the cover, so I dove in.

I’m glad I did. Content Rich is an excellent book for any copywriter looking to make the jump to the Web or any business owner looking to drive more qualified traffic to his/her Web site.

I found myself dog-earing pages as I went along, making mental notes to check out some of the sites and tools Jon talks about in his book. I especially liked his “Content Rich Quotient” (CRQ, because we don’t have enough TLAs (three letter acronyms,)) where he talks about the importantce of:

Content Breadth Factor
Social Media Optimization/Search Engine Optimization Balance
Content Effectiveness Measurement and
The Content “Clincher.”

There’s also good information on how to perform a keyword analysis, where to put your best keywords, where else you should be creating copy (article marketing, press releases and more.)

Jon’s writing style is easy to follow (good thing for a copywriter), and by following his advice any small business owner should see an increase in qualified Web traffic and conversions at your site.

I’d strongly recommend this book for any search engine marketer, entrepreneur or copywriter. Heck, I might even go back and read the rest!

Rich Brooks
Half-Assed Book Reviewer

Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing | No Comments »