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Archive for May, 2009

Custom Word Press template from Newport Digital

May 30th, 2009 by Pete

Many thanks to Wayne van Elsen from NewPort Digital for the groovy new custom Word Press template

NEWPORT DIGITAL
Webhosting, Graphic Design & Photography

Ph: 08 8440 2479
E:
admin@newportdigital.com.au
Web: www.newportdigital.com.au

Todd Street Business Chambers
6 Todd Street
PORT ADELAIDE SA 5015

Google Search Options | The next evolution of search?

May 30th, 2009 by Pete

The subtlety of the new Show options link on the Google Search page defies its potential to change the way we search in future.

Google have nonchalantly introduced a new suite of search refinement tools that will help experts through search novices to find that elusive answer buried in the sea of internet information.

Here’s a summary of the search option functionality this new capability provides:

Filters:

  • Content type (Videos forums & reviews)
  • Time (recent, 24 hours past week or year)

Search result views:

  • Images (images & SERP from results )
  • Time line (results over time)

Search refinement:

  • Related searches (shows related searches to your query)
  • Wonder wheel  (a visual relationship interface)

This video provides a brief overview of the search options functionality:

Undercover Spam: "I visited your website and found…"

May 28th, 2009 by Pete

A number of people have contacted me to seek advice after receiving an email typically starting with I visited your website and found it did not rank for <insert apparently relevant keywords here>.

The email finishes with an offer to get your website ranking in Google.

Client’s initial reactions are that this was a genuine pro-active service provided by the sender, and they felt some obligation to contact them and seriously consider their offer.

The harsh reality is that some software found your site, tested it against potentially irrelevant keywords and then composed and sent you that email.

There’s no caring proactive professional business person behind this; just a spammer using software to try to trick you into contacting them.

Yes, its  spam email masquerading as a proactive service from an allegedly reputable business.

The human(s) responsible are unlikely to actually know of your business; and probably don’t even know that their software sent it to you until of course you contact them.

Do a Google search and you will find that this spam has even been sent to Google themselves claiming to be able to help them improve ranking for  their website !

I think the WebWise blog best sums this up with a quote from Google:   ”reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for ‘burn fat at night’ diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.”

Google WebMasters Tools update

May 17th, 2009 by Pete

It must be update time at Google with the new AdWords interface migrating into production, and now I see Google’s WebMasters Tools is also being updated too!

Apart from a neater layout, the major enhancement is the ability to view more of the site’s serach queries and the ability to email alerts.

Read more here or view it on YouTube

Listen to what your website is trying to tell you!

May 8th, 2009 by Pete

I encountered a great example today of really appreciating what your website is trying to tell you.

Actually it is really what visitor activity tells you, and the only way to ‘hear’ this is through interpreting website statistics.

In this case the client had a temporary parking web page while they underwent the arduous task of implementing a new website.

Recently installed, Analytics (my fav web metrics tool) revealed that the site was attracting visitors from searches nicely aligned with this client’s business and in their target geography. Great news!

The bad news was Analytics revealed these visitors were immediately abandoning the site, apparently unimpressed with the parking page.

Until I revealed this today the business had no idea how many sales opportunities it had lost, and as you would expect, the website refurbishment is now a top priority.

How may sales leads are you loosing because you can’t hear what your website telling you ?

Google gadgets are more accessible than you might think

May 1st, 2009 by Pete

Google Gadgets have a stunning range of functionality.
I love the fact that despite their sophisticated internals, you can simply copy & paste them into your website.

Check out some of the gadget functionality on offer.

Ive added the Google gadget for Google’s Insights for Search into the right hand column in this blog so you can marvel at what South Aussies are currently searching for…

OK so maybe you’re not that interested in what we do in little ‘ol Adelaide, but look closer at the Insights for Search Gadget and you’ll notice you can even filter the display to particular search terms.

This example shows global searches relating to internet marketing in the last 30 days