1.866.840.3062

If you haven’t heard, Google is expected to rollout its latest search engine algorithm, Caffeine, just after the holidays. Google hopes the new algorithm will provide better, more accurate and relevant search results for users. But for many of us (website owners and search engine optimization providers) this can be scary stuff.

What’s New with Caffeine

Based on testing done by some other people, rumor has it you can expect Google Caffeine to be:

• Faster - Google nearly doubled the speed in which its search results are generated
• More Accurate – The new search seems to put more emphasis on keywords
• Timely – Search results seem to change faster with new articles
• Bigger – Larger index, turning up more results for each search

So what does this mean for your site?

From an SEO stand point there may be a few things you can do to make sure Caffeine doesn’t take off with out you.

• Keywords – Since more emphasis seems to be placed on keywords, get your title tags, description tags and copy chop full of them and make sure you’re using the right ones to accurately describe your products of services.
• Load Time – Reduce your site’s and pages’ load times. People get frustrated when they have to wait for a page to load with will often click back or close out of the search all together. It is believed that the new “faster” Google will rank faster loading pages higher than ones with long load times.
• Content – Update you site regularly with new, original content. Google wants to be accurate and up to date so sites with fresh and relevant content are likely to be ranked higher than sites that haven’t been updated in a long time.
• Quality Links – Link building will still be important, but the emphasis will be on high quality links that are also relevant to your site. Any old high quality link will no longer do. This goes for both inbound and outbound links.

All these changes are really just to improve search results. And isn’t that what everyone really wants – faster, more accurate and relevant results? So don’t be afraid - grab a cup o’ joe and get ready for some Caffeine!

If you use the internet at all there is no doubt that you’ve been seeing a lot of that little orange icon. Like most, you’ve gone right by it, continuing for the information that you are searching for. When in fact, that little icon could be helping you find information and saving you time!

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is generally used by websites who have content that is updated frequently.  A feed is a document that contains a part or all of the updated content along with the date and author. Using a feed reader (you can download them from Google or Yahoo! for free) You will be able to add the feeds of all your favorite sites with the click of a button and then have the latest content from your favorite websites all located in one place.

Increase Your Website Traffic With An RSS Feed

If you own a website, at first glance providing a feed doesn’t seem like a good idea if they don’t even have to visit your site to see it! Generally this is not the case, when supplying a feed most sites will supply a partial feed so that if the story is of interest, readers will need to visit your site for the full story. You are also able to display the feeds of other websites on yours – instantly generating content for your website.

Ingredients:

2 or 3 keyword phrases per page of SEO. For best results use keywords that have a high search volume and little competition. Google has a free and easy to use keyword tool that may help you pick your keywords.

Directions:

1. Add keyword phrases, separated by vertical line or dash, as your page title
2. Place keyword phrases into description tag. Try to keep total word count for your description tag under 30.
3. Stir in keyword phrases to keyword tag, being sure to mix up the word order well.
4. Add your keywords to the image descriptions (alt tags) for all images on the page.
5. Use H1 tags for all headers and mix in your keywords.
6. Sprinkle your keywords lightly throughout the content of the page, using each keyword phrase at least one or two times, more depending on the amount of copy.
7. For added seasoning, bold the keywords in the copy and / or use them as links to other pages in your site.
8. Upload your SEO and let bake for 2 to 4 weeks or until Google re-indexes your site.

Nutritional Information:

Per Serving - Increased web visibility and traffic through organic search results.

Have a great holiday everyone!

These days, there is no question that social media marketing is a major buzzword in promoting your company. Whether it be Facebook, blogging, Twitter, or Digg, people are investing a lot of time and money into making these sites work for them. In fact, according to a poll by e-Tailing Group in September of 2009, by the end of next year 96% of brands and retailers will be using Facebook fan pages as a community and social networking tool for their business. So the question is how can you use these sites to help you too?

Great question! All of the sites mentioned above can be fantastic sources (and to find out more about how Twitter can help you, watch our Twitter for Business video blog series about it in posts below!!) but we will explore some options with Facebook in this post.

The first thing to do is to set up a Facebook fan page for your business. Just follow the set-up instructions or if you want a more branded or interactive fan page, we can help by developing a custom Facebook fan page for you. Either way, with a fan page, you will have a venue to get whatever message you want to whoever “fans” your business.

It is a great idea to send messages to all your Facebook friends suggesting they follow your fan page and hopefully you gain more followers from that. Through your fan page, you can post exciting things happening with your business and upcoming events that are going to happen. Specifically, you can post messages about upcoming deals you may be having at your company.

For example, if you are giving a special offer to customers because your company is celebrating its five-year anniversary, why not tell all your fans on Facebook in hopes of a potential sale?

Messaging your fans could also be used if you want to host an event that you want people to attend. You can send them an invite to attend your event. All their Facebook friends will see the event as well and could greatly increase the awareness and attendance of your event than if you chose to stay away from Facebook. With how competitive businesses are now, you should do whatever you can to get noticed by the public.

The potential doesn’t end there! On your fan page, you can link back to your website and have your company telephone number listed. This not only gives people another way to reach your site, it can also help bump up where your website is ranked in Google searches and other search engines. It could be the difference that sends your company to the top of the charts!

The fun never ends when you join Facebook! Adding Facebook to your company’s marketing repertoire makes you more relatable. Your customer will see you as someone who is social and in tune with recent trends. This means you are using a venue that they feel comfortable using. They can see what your company is all about through Facebook before giving you a sale later.

Once you have tackled Facebook, you can take the basic principles you have learned to then further market yourself in other online social tools. From fan pages to messaging, higher rankings to higher customer usability, Facebook does it all. It’s time you start using it for your company and see your sales grow!