Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category
Google Sketch Up
September 18th, 2007
MatthewWhat is Google SketchUp 6?
Google SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily. Google SketchUp was developed to combine the elegance and spontaneity of pencil sketching with the speed and flexibility of today’s digital media.
Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful yet easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, the result is an interface that supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form, material and light.
Google SketchUp combines a compact yet robust tool-set with an intelligent guidance system that streamlines the 3D drawing process.
3D for Everyone
Design software has been around for decades and is clearly here to stay. But we think something has been missing—the freedom, flexibility and fun that should go hand-in-hand with the design process. It’s our view that while traditional CAD software is necessary for developing detailed drawings, it’s simply too complex for most conceptual design work.
Google SketchUp bridges the divide between design utility and fun. As designers ourselves, we created Google SketchUp as much to satisfy our own wishes as those of our users.
We know you’ve heard it all before: what company doesn’t claim that its software is ‘a piece of cake to use’ or ‘the best around?’ We’re guilty of saying this too. But you don’t have to take our word for it—you can try it yourself. Just download Google SketchUp 6 fire it up and give it a spin. Most people say they’re off and running in a few hours.
But nevermind what we think, here’s what customers have told us Google SketchUp is to them:
Personalized Search Ads
September 14th, 2007
Matthew24/7 Real Media Inc. has conducted direct marketing campaigns with online advertising distributed via Internet search engines across a network of more than 950 Web sites.
Campaigns conducted in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region combined Internet searches with geographic, behavioral and keyword targeting.
Ads were personalized and customized to match specific Internet keyword searches initiated by individual consumers. The targeting resulted in increased click-through and response rates, according to the digital marketing agency.
Linking search and display advertising is an important step in integrating advertising strategies to take advantage of the Internet’s vast reach and targeting potential, said Brian Lesser, director of product marketing for 24/7.
Techniques like behavioral targeting and demographic targeting give advertisers an idea of what users might be looking for, but search targeting allows advertisers to serve ads based on what they know a particular consumer is interested in buying, according to Lesser.
Web Statistics Made Easy
September 11th, 2007
MatthewHere is a quick explanation of your web statistics.
Hits: “A “Hit” is a term used that represents the number of files downloaded from a server to your computer. For example, if a page has 20 different graphics, and someone visited it, it would count as 21 hits, one for the page load, and twenty for all the different graphics. The only real use for this statistic is for server administrators, so they can determine the server load.
Visits: The Number of Visitors shows you how many users come to your site and request a page. The visitor can move around your site visiting several pages, however he will still be counted as only one visitor. An exception to this rule occurs in the rare occasion when a visitor takes more than half an hour (or the amount of time set by your host) to click from one page to another, in which case the program will register two visitors.
Page Views: A parameter indicates how many pages have been requested. It is a very important number because it is indicative of the “stickiness” of your site. Stickiness is a good thing: if, for example, your statistics show 10 visitors, but 50 page views, it means that, on average, each visitor has viewed 5 pages. A large “page views per visitor” ratio usually means that your site is so interesting and valuable that users are inclined to “stick around” and explore.
Google Wifi
September 11th, 2007
MatthewThe Mountain View WiFi network just celebrated its first anniversary, and they thought you’d appreciate a few data points. The network’s 400+ mesh routers cover about 12 square miles and 25,000 homes to serve approximately 15,000 unique users each week month. Since the beginning of 2007, traffic has grown almost 10 percent each month, and the network now handles over 300 gigabytes of data each day, sent to over 100 distinct types of WiFi devices. Virtually the entire city has been taking advantage of the network, with 95 percent of the mesh routers being used on any given day.
Around the globe and across the U. S., many people are still not able to access the online services that are increasingly helpful, if not essential, tools for our daily lives. This is why google is committed to promoting alternative platforms for people to access the web, no matter where you are, what you’re doing or what device you’re using.
For those who have been following the effort to create a free wireless network in San Francisco, we continue to hope that EarthLink and The City will find a way to enable all San Franciscans to enjoy the free WiFi network they deserve. On a broader scale, they hope that the success of the Mountain View model will encourage others to think creatively about how to address access issues in many other communities.
Google Mobile Search
September 11th, 2007
MatthewGoogle quietly launched a page explaining all of their mobile search features at mobile.google.com. Anyone who has gone to www.google.com on their cell phone or portable device in recent times might have noticed that you were being shown a different user-interface than when you were using a normal browser. That’s because google has been forwarding mobile devices to a WML gateway to make using Google on your phone/PDA a more pleasurable experience. From what I’ve seen of Google’s XHTML mobile search — available at http://www.google.com/xhtml if your phone’s browser won’t automatically redirect from Google.com — they’re using many of the same methods along with some upgrades to make phone-searching as easy as possible.
Check your web rankings
September 11th, 2007
MatthewMake it a habit to check your search engine rankings at least weekly. This will give you a good idea of your visibility on the Web and alert you to any trends - up or down - in your rankings. You should check all of your important keywords and key phrases, and check all the search engines that matter to you, not just Google. There are programs available that will automate this task. One of the best is Web Position, but there are many other tools on the market, including free ones
Bad SEO
August 29th, 2007
MatthewLinks gone Bad.
Some links are bad… for example, if you are a car sales company and you’ve got dozens of completely irrelevant links to international hotel sites… yeah, YOU know the ones! in Prague, Munich, Shanghai etc! That’s a BAD neighborhood over there! That IS going to put a world of hurt on you! And as for the Free-For-All link sites, web rings, and 3 way link schemes… that’s just suicide in cyberspace! Why? its a blatant and completely indefensible attempt at cheating the system!
American Airlines Sues Google
August 21st, 2007
MatthewAmerican Airlines filed suit against Google in federal court late last week, alleging that the search giant’s AdWords program infringes on American’s trademarks. Without authorization or approval, Google sold the right to use American Airlines’ trademarks and service marks, the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northwestern District of Texas, asserted.
According to the suit, Google’s search engine is helping third parties "mislead consumers" and "misappropriate" the American Airlines marks by using them as keyword triggers for AdWords campaigns and by displaying the trademarks in the actual ad text, the airline claimed.
The airline pointed to several ways in which Google is violating its trademarks but reserved its greatest ire for Google’s policy of selling trademarks as keyword triggers for other companies’ ad campaigns. The complaint includes screen shots that show the AdWords system recommending American Airlines trademarks for an ad campaign
Read More About this here.
Pay Per Call
August 14th, 2007
adminGoogle may have dumped pay-per-call listings from its Maps product (some speculate due to abuse) but that has not seemed to stop others from integrating the technology.
LexisNexis launched Direct Call Service for their existing Attorney Match program. The new Pay Per Call service is currently hosted on attorneys.com. To bring the product to market, LexisNexis joined forces with Ingenio, Inc, the leading provider of Pay Per Call advertising.
Via the release: After a nominal set-up fee, Attorney Match – Direct Call Service allows attorneys to advertise but only get billed for calls received in response to the their ads, allowing them to directly experience a return on their marketing investment while targeting consumers with an immediate need for legal services.
Those that subscribe to the services will receive calls from a variety of channels, including attorneys.com, lawyers.com, Internet Yellow Pages, directories, mobile search providers and free directory assistance services - seemingly everywhere LexisNexis has a presence. Typical of Ingenio services, attorney’s will be able to set the price they want to pay for each phone call received.
LegalZoom seems to be the only legal resources using the new platform at the moment, but there is a lot of potential here as attorney’s can afford the service more so than a traditional offline business (plumbers) which Ingenio tried to focus on initially.
Yahoo Favored Over Google
August 14th, 2007
adminThe University of Michigan American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has shown in a new poll that overall user experience has favored Yahoo over Google for the first time. Watch out, hell may be freezing over soon. Based in terms of customer satisfaction score, Yahoo got a 79, while Google slipped to 78.
Google is still clearly the king of search, but Yahoo is presenting customers with more offerings - unlimited email, other websites and social networks are some.
“People have gotten comfortable with the (Yahoo) interface,” said Larry Freed, chief executive of ForeSee Results, which sponsored the study. “They’ve also done a good job in continuing to be dominant in communities and sub-functions of the portal. That’s always been Yahoo’s strength.”
“For the average consumer, what you see with Google is what you saw three years ago,” Freed told Reuters.
The ACSI method uses data from interviews of nearly 70,000 customers to measure satisfaction with more than 200 companies in 45 industries. The Internet business data was compiled in the second quarter with at least 250 respondents for each company studied.