After reading Danny Sullivan’s post on Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy; I wanted to give my views on it too.

Why is Google suggesting Google search plus accounts when you search for keywords such as music, celebrity, cars and news? (Even when you are not logged in)

Because they want to produce relevant suggestions for those searches? Really? Or is it because Google is not making any money through PPC ads? Who would want to promote those type of keywords that costs a lot and doesn’t always guarantee conversion? Maybe they are testing it out on those keywords?

Now let’s look at other keywords such as:

• Rolex
• Hotels
• Shoes
• New Cars

If Google is generating Google search plus suggestions for cars and music then why not for the above keywords? Surely search for new cars has the potential to list the same brands that appears for the search for cars, no?

Why isn’t that happening?

Because these keywords have the potential to convert into business for clients who are promoting these keywords, which means CPC might be high, which means it’s making Google money!

Will they be rolling out Google search plus suggestion on all searches?

I believe so yes Google search plus your world is now a part of Universal Search it will soon be rolled out for all searches. But PPC ads will also remain.

So who should get on Google+?

Everyone and do it now!

People who know me will agree with me, when I say I am a man with few words (well I hope so anyways).

So here is another post from me that has some brilliant tools that I believe every SEM and a SEO person should be aware of, whether it is a Freelancer or a person working is an agency.

SEO & SEM tools

C Block IP Address Header

• http://ip-report.com/index.php

Backlink Checkers

• http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
• Majestic

HTTP Status Code

• http://web-sniffer.net/
• http://www.seo-browser.com/

SEOMOZ On Page Report Card

• http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization

Google Insights

• http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

XML Sitemap Creator

• http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
• G Site Crawler

Keyword Recombination

• http://webpagefx.org/rcc/ (create list of location based long tail keywords in a whisker)

Page Speed

• http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
• Chrome Plugin
• Pingdom

WHOIS Lookup

• http://whois.domaintools.com/

Keyword Difficulty

• http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty

Browser Size (Heat Map)

• http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

Title/Meta Preview

• http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html

Keywords tools

• Google Keyword Tools
• https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

SERP Ranking

• http://www.seoserp.com/web_tools/google_top_1000_serps_checker.asp
• WebCEO
• Rank Checker
• Raven Tools

SEM Rush

• http://www.semrush.com

Broken Link Checker (I am in love with these tools):

• Xenu Link Sleuth - http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
• Screaming Frog - http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Code to Text

• http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/code-to-text-ratio/

SEO Extensions for browsers (that I like)

Chrome Extensions:

• SEO Site Tools
• MozBar
• Page Rank Checker
• Screen Capture (why not?)
• Sites Traffice Meterz
• SEO For Chrome
• Google Global
• Check My Links
• Chrome Plugin for Site Speed

FireFox Extensions:

• SEO MOZBar
• Keyword Rank Checker
• Web Developer Tool Bar
• Search Status
• Yslow
• SEOQuake
• FoxyProxy Standard
• Firebug
• Yoast International Unpersonalized Search

Social Media

Twitter Trends

• http://trendistic.indextank.com/summer

ReTweet Rank:

• http://www.retweetrank.com

Positive vs. Negative Social Media Mentions

• http://www.socialmention.com

Social Media Mentions (Top 20 List)

• http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/11/guide-to-free-social-media-monitoring-tools/

Other Useful Tools & Software

• http://www.delicious.com
• Excel
• Open Office
• Textpad Text Editor
• Dreamweaver
• Notepad
• JING
• Evernote
• FTP client (your choice)

All in one tool

• Raven Tools

Guest blogging is currently looked as one of the most powerful techniques for link building, but for me it’s far more than that.

What can it bring?

Traffic? Links? Yes, but that’s not the only thing, look below:

Better CTR than pinterest.com.

It’s not about just writing a blog post, ok for most it is but they are not twisting their tired brains. Why not do something different? Why not ask a blog owner to run a contest on their blog for their followers? Fair enough the buzz/links it will create from it will benefit the blog owner but what do the client get?

• RETURN ON INVESTMENT.
• If the power of that contest page increases with comments and links, then there is a link to your client’s site from that page. You have nothing to lose.

How to do this?

Find a relevant blog that has a niche following of your target audience. Ask the blog owner to run the contest for you.

Yes, you will need to spend a little (most of the time it’s a one off fee) but within a month or even weeks you will make that money back.

The most important factor is that creating Guest Blog might have been a one off fee but the revenue generates from the blog is ongoing.

N.B: In the example shown above the money spent was made within few weeks.

Google Wallet was officially released in the summer of 2011 but take-up has been relatively slow, primarily because it has not been available to a significant proportion of the cellphone population. Limited only to Google-branded handsets like the Nexus S with NFC (Near Field Communication), this contact less payment system, which some see as being the replacement for credit and debit cards as well as cash, is still a niche technology.

However, many are now suggesting that 2012 will be the year in which Google Wallet will come into its own, representing an entirely new payment method which may change the retail industry forever. Of course this can be debated at length, but it is difficult to refute the idea that Google Wallet will gain market share over the next 12 months.

What is Google Wallet?

For those new to the technology, Google Wallet is essentially a digital representation of your personal finances which allows you to make low value purchases when you are at a store with a compatible terminal. Rather than searching through your bag or wallet for your credit card, you can simply place your compatible smartphone close to an NFC-enabled surface at the cash register and money will be taken from whichever account you have linked to the Google Wallet service.

What Else Can It Do?

But the Google Wallet app is not just a one trick solution as with other contactless payment schemes. It supports not only bank accounts and credit services, but also other payment methods such as Google Checkout. It also reflects Google’s love for advertising, ensuring that you see exclusive offers, vouchers and deals which are only redeemable when you use your smartphone at a participating store. The aim is to combine the best parts of online shopping with real world retail and could help keep traditional bricks and mortar outlets afloat in an increasingly tough market.

Possible Problems

One of the roadblocks that is preventing the adoption of Google Wallet and NFC in general is that major investment is required to set up the infrastructure of compatible terminals in stores. There is already a long established payment card network in place, so convincing users that NFC is more convenient when it is not as widely available as existing methods may be difficult.

Google Wallet is not the only NFC service on the block as existing card providers are also beginning to embrace the technology. Visa recently announced that it would be approving a number of compatible smartphones for its PayWave application which aims to compete with Google Wallet. Models like the Samsung Galaxy S2 and a host of BlackBerry handsets will be able to take advantage of NFC wherever they find it.

The roll-out of NFC seems to be unstoppable while there is investment there to support it and Google clearly has a vested interest in making it work. But for the time being, the future remains unwritten.

Author bio:

John East is a personal finance journalist with a keen interest in the impact of technology on the retail sector. He regularly contributes to moneysupermarket.com.

Inbound marketing seems to be the hot topic of the moment, especially in these cash and budget strapped times when marketers are looking for more cost effective ways of generating leads. It’s gaining increasing purchase as more companies seek to drive their lead acquisition strategies via the web, but in reality it’s more than just a switch from the conventional lead generation practice of cold calling. Inbound marketing also requires a complete change in mindset by marketers to veer away from “selling” and begin to embrace the idea of “telling” potential customers about themselves or their product and the advantages of entering into some sort of relationship with the company rather than just pushing a product or service.

Conversations – Not Conversions

Inbound marketing is in some senses preaching to the already converted (or at least those likely to be interested in your product or proposition), but in order to find out who may be more well disposed to your message, time has to be spent establishing a relationship and some sort of rapport with the potential audience. It’s the classical social media marketing model of listening first and only then joining in the conversation. Traditional outbound marketing focuses on methods such as cold calls, direct mail shots, print ad campaigns or mass face to face opportunities like tradeshows and exhibitions. The idea behind these techniques is to get in front of cold leads and warm them up over a period if time to the point where they might show interest in your product or service – a period of weeks or months in the case of ads and direct mail and perhaps only a few minutes if you are part of a huge exhibition. This approach is basically a numbers game, requiring contact with a huge amount of people before you stumble across those who may be remotely interested in you. A response rate of around 1% is considered phenomenally successful in direct mail for example, but that means that 99% of your effort, material and budget have been wasted by contacting (and very possibly alienating) people who have no interest in your offering at all.

Content Is King
Inbound Marketing can deliver warm, qualified leads into your sales funnel by blogging, interacting on social media, search engine optimization, and use of webinars for example. Inbound methods pre-qualify leads (in effect they are self-qualified) so you can be sure your message is reaching a welcoming and receptive audience. The entire budget effort can be focussed on those with whom it’s worthwhile maintaining contact. The most important part of a successful inbound marketing strategy is to draw those people into your orbit. Rather than broadcasting a sales message to all and sundry, create great content that will draw people into your sales process. It’s a well worn cliché in online marketing, but like any aphorism it remains true that “content really is king” and “if you provide it they will come”.

Inbound marketing/social media strategies like those above should continually bring in new leads and help grow the company’s online status, reputation, trust and authority, but it won’t happen overnight. You won’t see Google place one and two for desired key terms instantaneously and your first webinar may only be in single figures, but perseverance pays. So, while inbound marketing will save money, it does take a substantial commitment of time and effort as well as considerable patience before you begin to see results.

Turn on the television and watch any episode of NCIS, Gibbs and the crew are using GPS tracking technology to find and catch the bad guys. Sure, it makes for great TV, but really what does that have to do with my business? If your business relies on a fleet of vehicles, a GPS tracker pays for itself and increases your company’s bottom line.

Proper Vehicle Maintenance

We all know that well-maintained engines last longer. In a busy company, it can be easy to overlook important maintenance like tune-ups, tire rotations and oil changes. Using your GPS tracker, receive notifications of miles driven or amount of time in operation. You also have an accurate log of past maintenance using GPS records. Staying on top of maintenance will maximize your miles per gallon of fuel and reduce repair costs on company vehicles.

Employee Accountability

Not all employees are reliable in their record keeping. When businesses use a GPS tracker, you will know where your employees are at any given time, as well as how long they spend at a job site or in transit. You can eliminate wasted time and keep employees productive and on-task through this type of monitoring.

Company Vehicle Safety

People speed when driving. Whether an employee is in a hurry to get to a service call or is a fast driver, you will know when your vehicle is speeding. Keep an eye on how fast your employees drive. Less speeding will prevent accidents and tickets. Accidents mean vehicle repairs, which affect your bottom line. Besides, fewer accidents and tickets equal lower insurance rates. Lower insurance rates save you money!

Saves Fuel

You will know where each one of your vehicles is at any given time when you have a GPS tracker. This knowledge can help you save fuel in a few different ways. First, you can plot the shortest route to a destination. Taking the most direct route saves on miles travelled. If you are sending an employee out on a service call, you will be able to find who is nearest the call, resulting in less travel. Especially we know that the price of the fuel is going higher upcoming summer of 2012 and this will save you decent amount of cash!

If your business relies on the use of vehicles, a GPS tracker system will pay for itself and benefit your bottom line and time.

With the increasing importance of online shopping and social media to business, marketing strategies are undergoing something of a sea-change. Consumers have become more aware of advertising and marketing strategies and their omnipresence in daily life.

Outbound vs. Inbound Marketing

The old style of marketing was one in which potential customers were targeted by marketers, interrupted as they went about their day and otherwise ‘bothered’ or persuaded into making a purchase. Examples of this tactic include the use of target-driven salespeople and paid advertisements in magazines and on television. Today this marketing strategy is known as ‘outbound’ marketing.

By contrast, inbound marketing focuses not on finding customers, but rather enabling a company or product to be found by those who are already looking to make a purchase or may make a purchase in the future. This approach is less adversarial and focuses on developing a partnership between provider and consumer.

Examples of Inbound Marketing

A basic example of inbound marketing would be a Search Engine Optimization strategy that seeks to put a company’s products high in the Google search engine results for searches for that product. The user is seeking to make a purchase to fulfill a need, and the company simply wants to present their products as the most available and convenient solution.

Another inbound marketing strategy that many companies are using is to host a helpful blog. The focus of the blog is not a hard sell, or a showcase for individual products, but rather to be informative and useful to potential customers.

This approach offers several opportunities for sales. Firstly, the company embeds itself in the mind of consumers as a helpful and useful resource. When customers need a product or service in the future, they will likely have goodwill towards the company. Secondly, when advised of products or services that could be helpful in solving their problem, the consumer is less wary of the company’s motivations – after all, the advice given so far has been free and informative. Lastly, the customer may become a regular reader of the blog, and so learn of a product or service that they find interesting or useful from that company, making them more likely to make the purchase from that company in the first place.

Social Media and Inbound Marketing

Social Media can be an excellent tool for any inbound marketing strategy. Social media is in essence about personal connections and relationships. The successful use of social media can make a company seem like a trusted friend, whose intrusion into daily life is welcomed rather than treated with suspicion and hostility.

A company or brand can take on the role of a social media user themselves, setting up, for example, their own page on Facebook. Importantly, the company’s penetration is dependent on users choosing to add or ‘like’ the product. The decision to associate with the product or brand is made by the consumer. Additionally, the company’s updates and promotions can then be shared by users, allowing added penetration without any imposition by the company; rather it is something that people must opt-in to.

Inbound marketing can be a very successful tool in generating sales and raising awareness of a company’s brand, products and services. Focusing on inbound marketing can reap dividends for any company.

SEOs love drinking beer especially when they have to travel around the World, whether it is to attend a conference or to meet their clients.

BeerAroundTheWorld

In my travels I learnt how to order a beer in different languages, so I thought why not share it with you. Of course I also learnt how to say hello and thank you but I thought I rather share this with you.

So here it goes:

Cerveja, Por Favor! – Portuguese

Biru Onegai Shimasu – Japanese

Bier, Alsjeblieft! – Dutch

En Ol, Tahk – Swedish

Mayekju, Joo-Se-Yoh! – Korean

Mee-A Bir-A Para-Kal-Oh = Greek

Yed-No Peev, Proshe! – Polish

Edj Pohar Shurt Kayrek – Hungarian

Pia, Ho’Olu – Hawaiian

Beoir Amhain Le Do Thoil – Irish

Jeg Vil Gerne Have En Ol – Danish

Ein Bier, Bitte! – German

Une Biere, S’il Vous Plait – French

Kan Jeg Fa En Ol – Norwegian

Pee-Vo, Pro-Seem! – Czech

Una Birra, Per Favore! – Italian

Eno Pee-Vo, Pro-Seem! – Slovene

Lyawn, Mahs Eh Doh Hawl Eh – Scots Gaelic

Una Cerveza Por Favor! – Spanish

A Beer, Zeit A-Zoy Goot – Yiddish

A Beer Please – English

Yeuta Beer Dinusna – Nepali

Ek Beer Do Yaar – Hindi

Last One For The Ditch – SEO Language??

Please let me know on the languages I have missed out on because there are loads.

Twitter accounts give companies direct access to their target market. A strong social network following can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues.

One of the best ways for a company to take advantage of this direct channel of communication is by offering an incentive to follow their twitter feed. When we say “an incentive”, we’re talking money. Money is what makes the world go ‘round.

When companies give their followers first-hand knowledge of deals, discounts and sales, they now have a captive audience. It’s quick and easy to tweet a deal to their most qualified traffic.

As a consumer, if you don’t have a twitter account, you’re missing out. Today’s twitter is like yesterday’s Sunday circular, stuffed with coupons.

Here are a few of the best twitter accounts if you’re looking for good deals on technology.

 Apple Deals | @apple_deals

Apple Deals is dedicated to finding the best deals on all things Apple, including iPhones, iPads, accessories, and games.

Some of their recent deals include an iPhone 4 (8GB) for $88, an iPad (64BG WIFI + 3G Tablet) for $450, iPhone 4 case for $4.08, and an iPod shuffle (2GB) for $38.73.

Many of the deals are good for the same day only, most are limited quantities, and some end up being bogus. For instance, one iPhone 4 deal ended up being for a iPhone 3.

till, following this Twitter feed is an excellent idea if you’re in the market for Apple products, games, applications or accessories. It’s also a good idea if you’re interested in learning more about Apple’s future releases. One tweet broke news that coming in November will be the unlocked and contract-free iPhone.

Amazon.com Deals | @amazondeals

This feed is officially supported by Amazon, and it brings you first notice of some amazing deals without ever having to log on to their site.

Some of their recent deals include Toast 11 Titanium Pro Mac software for $67.99 when it retails for $129.99, an Actron AutoScanner Plus (with CodeConnect ABS and Hard Case) for $140, and a Motorola XOOM Android Tablet (10.1-inch 32 GB with WIFI) for $339.

These are the same gold box deals featured on their site and all are for a limited time only (we’re talking a few hours). With Twitter, you find out about them without making any effort. That’s always a plus!

Target Daily Deals | @targetdailydeal

From smart phones with built-in GPS intelligence to iPads to TVs, following this twitter feed means getting notice about some great deals at Target.

Although they are for one-day only (still better than that couple-hour window Amazon gives), they offer free shipping.

It is normal for a website to have different pages listing same products via different URLs, especially in ecommerce websites.

For example a certain page can display products in price order, brand order, newest products order, rating order etc. When selected a certain order the URL of the page changes from the original URL but you are still seeing the same products.

For example:

The 1^st URL is the original URL of the page and the 2^nd is generated after selecting the most popular order.

http://www.amazon.com/blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm

http://www.amazon.com/blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm&sort=mostpopular&sessionid=5678asfasdfasfd

If Google finds out that these two pages have the same content that is when you are in danger of getting penalized and that is when you use a rel=canonical tag. You will add a rel=canonical tag in the 2^nd URL which points to the 1^st URL telling Google that the 1^st URL is the preferred URL.

How will the rel=canonical tag look like?

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.amazon.com/blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm“/>

Where should rel=canonical tag go?

Head Section

Add a rel=canonical link into the <head> section of the non-canonical version of each HTML page. So in the above example the tag will go into the 2^nd URL.

.htaccess

.htaccess is definitely an easy option as most SEOs will have access to the FTP of the website but if you are not use ti .htaccess then I suggest you ask your developer to help you out with this.

Example of the code:

<FilesMatch “blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm&sort=mostpopular&sessionid=5678asfasdfasfd”>

Header set Link ‘< http://www.amazon.com/blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm >;rel=”canonical”‘

<FilesMatch “blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm&sort=mostpopular&sessionid=5678asfasdfasfd”>

The above was to rel=canonical the 2^nd URL to the 1^st URL. You can also rel=canonical the PDF file to the html file using .htaccess. Most SEOs tend to use robots.txt to avoid pdf files being crawled but by using the rel=canonical you won’t have to do that anymore.

Here is an example of the code:

<FilesMatch “blue-cufflinks.pdf”>
Header set Link ‘< http://www.amazon.com/blue-cufflinks-s/41.htm >;rel=”canonical”‘
<FilesMatch “blue-cufflinks.pdf”>

To test this you can use LIVE HTTP Headers https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/live-http-headers/#id=3829

How do you apply the tag in APS.net, APS or PHP?

ASP.Net C#:
<%Response.AddHeader(@”Link”,@”< http://www.amazon.com/>; rel=””canonical”””);%>
ASP VBScript:
<%Response.AddHeader “Link”,”< http://www.amazon.com/>; rel=””canonical”””%>
PHP:
<?php header(“Link: <http://www.amazon.com/>; rel=\”canonical\””);?>