Tag Archives: Google

SEO Tips | Website Strategies

Why You Should Avoid Building Flash Websites

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (12 Aug 2009)  |  1 Comment

It happens occasionally.  I’ll get a client who asks about getting a website developed that is high on creativity…inevitably leading to the question of using Flash for the site.

My answer is usually not as simple as just “avoid it.”  I like to give advantages and disadvantages to my clients so they can make an informed decision.

So with that in mind, I also looked for some credible resources to feed their opinion on the subject.  In a world where SEO techniques are growing more and more in demand, I find that drives the decisions of most people.

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Social Marketing Tips

7 Ways to Market With Twitter

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (11 Jun 2009)  |  Leave a comment

While doing some research for a client, I decided to take a stroll through Google to see if I could find someone who could give me some good reasons why a client might want to set up a Twitter.  My personal feeling is, it is only viable for a very small segment of the business website market…so I am looking for someone to change my mind.  Not sure if this does, in fact, it kinda confirms the main sites that would benefit from this “hot” app.

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/09/7_ways_marketers_can_use_twitt.html

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SEO Tips

Bada boom Bada “Bing”

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (1 Jun 2009)  |  Leave a comment

Okay, if at first you don’t succeed…rebrand!  At least that seems to be Microsoft’s plan on how to conquer the search engine market.  Consistently number 3 behind Google and Yahoo!, Microsoft has decided to dump its short lived “Live” branding for the new “Bing.com”

What is so exciting about the new Bing.com you ask?

Well, for  you…probably not a whole lot.  Yes, it does use a slightly different indexing method and algorithm, but in reality, regular searches don’t seem to deliver anything very different than its “Live” predecessor.  For shopping, it does seem to be branching into reviews and pricing searches (like mysimon.com is).  For maps it actually has my business location (which Google hasn’t gotten to yet).  The Bird’s Eye shots are really clean and crisp…  But again, searches don’t seem very advanced and not any more advanced than Google from my initial views.  Time will tell.

For Microsoft, they are going to go on a brand blitz, with millions of dollars going into pushing Bing.com as the hot new competition to Google.com.

You see, Microsoft’s Live search was no unnoteworthy that less than 1% of people actually typed in Live.com to do searches on the site…the other 99% came from MSN.com.  Google has no master website feeding it searches…it uses a combination of toolbar searches and direct access searches, which keeps Google’s name in the forefront.  So it seems Microsoft thinks its way to beat Google is to get a new brand developed again and just heavily promote it.

But this strategy hasn’t done Vista any favors.  Even though it really is a decent and stable operating system, it still has a bad name…no matter how much Microsoft promotes it.  They have started promoting “Windows” now more than “Vista” because the next operating system will be called “Windows 7.”  And maybe that is the key for Microsoft…stop coming up with cute names and different brands…and just call their search Windows Search or Microsoft Search…and then just make a product that doesn’t change every 6 months.

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SEO Tips

New Competition For Google

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (5 May 2009)  |  Leave a comment

As I am prone to do…I am always looking for a better mousetrap.  So, while doing a little research on the search engines, I read a curious post on Matt Cutt’s blog about new competition for Google.  The site is called Blekko. Curious as I was, I went to look at the site to see what they had posted on their site (since so many of the less professional sites I’ve seen feature those ugly under construction graphics).  To my surprise, this is what I found (http://www.blekko.com).

The image you see is appropriately called Boo.jpg.  Apparently the marketing VP discussed in the blog is going for “shock” value!  So far, Google has little to worry about from Blekko.

On another front though, there is a challenger to Google that might make some headway.  More than just a search engine, the Wolfram Alpha project is meant to think for you.  When it was first explained to me, it sounded like another version of Ask.com, where you give a question and this engine gives you back related sites.  But Wolfram Alpha is much more advanced than that.   Apparently Dr. Stephen Wolfram (obviously the engine’s creator) took his brilliant mind and came up with a search engine that actually intelligently takes the question you ask and finds the results and prints it on the screen…so it doesn’t necessarily take you to sites, but gives you the answers you’re looking for.  This I’ll have to see for myself.

Anyway, for anyone that is interested…check out his video presentation and read this article from G4 that gives you an overview.  It’s supposed to launch this month.  We shall see.

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SEO Tips

Twitter and Facebook Little Business Power In Google

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (16 Mar 2009)  |  Leave a comment

Digging deeper into this concept of social media, I read some interesting articles the weekend.  Apparently anyone thinking their business is going to reap great benefits from putting links in Facebook and Twitter are just fooling themselves.

Both services use a “nofollow” attribute on their links to your site.  There are some ways around this, but for the novice or casual business owner who isn’t getting guidance from an SEO professional or web developer in the know are most likely wasting their time putting links in these two mediums.

Apparently Google developed the “nofollow” attribute to fight spam.  Years later, many business people don’t realize that Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia have all agreed to use this tag to stop spiders from reaching through your posts to find your web site.

So in the end, it seems Google has chosen the Blog as the preferred medium for delivery of timely content.

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SEO Tips

How Many Links in a Page Are Considered Spam?

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (10 Mar 2009)  |  Leave a comment

Its funny how the universe works.  The other day I was working on some Google AdWord concepts and one of the tips I wanted to give out was what cities were best to use in an Adwords campaign on a city level instead of a national level.  The thought was, I would post a list of the 25 most popular cities and then 400 or more of the next level towns.

This would be quite a list.  And then it got me to thinking about whether Google would consider my post to be a spamming attempt, when really it wasn’t…it was just meant to be good useful information.

Well, the universe came around and handed me the answer as soon as I started reading through some of the popular blogs I like to frequent.  There was one from Matt Capps of Google who was suggesting How Many Links Per Page? were within Google’s limit before they considered you spam.  Surprisingly, he said there really wasn’t a limit and that they wouldn’t consider more than 100 to be spam.

I was quite surprised.  But logically, as he suggested, having that many links in a page would make for a less than desirable user experience and with so many links in a page, it would lessen the power of the PageRank (an interesting clue into how the PageRank system also looks at the pollution of links on a page as well as its relevance and power).

So I am going to run ahead with my post in a little while.  Yes, it will be full of city names and wouldn’t be a very interesting read, but then, its not for reading, its for copying and pasting for a good purpose.

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Of Interest

AdWords 101: Play with your keywords

Drew Hannush by Drew Hannush (2 Mar 2009)  |  Leave a comment

Some people, when putting together a Google AdWords campaign put in a bunch of words and then leave the campaign alone for a month or two.  Others micromanage their keywords to death throughout the campaign.  This second group usually burns out quick, especially when they don’t see results.

If you watch your AdWords Campaign Summary long enough, you’ll see that AdWords are actually fluctuating quite frequently in their average cost per click for front page views.  It would seem that these micromanagers who get burned out probably pile a big dollar amount on their words, blow their budget and disappear, leaving a keyword back with a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

A good strategy is patience with a bit of up front micromanaging.  Try out some words, see how they do.  Try a few more…watch for trends.  You’ll notice that just because Google tells you you’re not on the first page, you may be (especially in some quieter markets if you’re targeting nationwide).  Watch your impressions, pay attention to click-throughs and if your just not getting any results after a few days, it may be time to trim that keyword phrase out of your campaign.

A good keyword analysis will be done with highly targeted words and phrases, and also secondary keyword phrases that may not be as popular, but which are more targeted to your specific user or their expertise to the subject or jargon your industry deals with.  What you may find is that you get a higher percentage of click-throughs and a higher percentage of serious viewers when you target these secondary words and phrases.

But don’t take the slash and burn approach.  You can blow a lot of money fast in Google AdWords if you want to.  Make sure your site is selling what you’re advertising…make sure your ad is clear…and keep eyeballing your keywords until you get them right.

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