Well the answer is: “Yes” and “No”! But you knew that already …

Here is a very short video from Matt Cutts of Google explaining that:

• Google ignores the “Keywords” metatag

• Google uses the “Description” metatag

Related posts:

1. First Page of Google Guaranteed Yes this is possible – for any search term. I...
2. How to do Keyword Research Here is a link to a short (less than...
3. The Google Brand Update About a month ago Google made a set of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here is an article from Harvard Business:

Understanding Users of Social Networks — HBS Working Knowledge

“For one thing, findings show that people don’t click through on advertising on social networks. “A good analogy is to imagine sitting at a table with friends when a stranger pulls up a chair, sits down, and tries to sell you something while you are talking to your friends. You will not get far with a strategy like this.”

Well worth having a look at the rest of the article – based on serious research rather than “here’s my next great idea to make a million”

Related posts:

1. Forums to generate business Forums can be great! members self-select and by definition are...
2. Social Media and SEO Here are some comments from Joe Griffin: “Building a presence...
3. Kids Abandon Social Media clipped from www.guardian.co.uk From uncles wearing skinny jeans to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here is a great new service from Google – Google Opt-out.

Watch the video for more information: Google opt-out

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A large team of staff over at Google have been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search.

“It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits under the hood of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences.”

If you would like to try it out the current beta for yourself, here is the link

http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

More information at the Google WebMasterCentral Blog.

Related posts:

1. Should buy shared hosting for SEO Backlinks to your site are very important in boosting your...
2. The Google Brand Update About a month ago Google made a set of...
3. New Google Privacy – How to Opt-Out Here is a great new service from Google – Google...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

OnlyWire is a great concept. It has a number of dimensions but in essence they all do the same thing – bookmark a URL to lots of bookmarking sites with one action (you do need to have accounts at each of these accounts – RoboForm is a great way to create these). The OnlyWire options are:

• toolbar button – click it and the bookmarking begins
• WordPress plugin – all your posts automatically bookmarked
• API – use PHP to bookmark several URLs simultaneously
• button on your website for visitors to bookmark using their OnlyWire account

I have tried all of these. In fact, with the API I thought I had found the secret of efficient bookmarking.

Unfortunately, the reality is a little different. Many of the sites require CAPTCHA completion. This means logging into your OnlyWire account and completing the CAPTCHAs – this can be very time consuming (and possibly a bit of an irritation if you have to do this after every blog post.)

However, this is not the main issue. The big problem is that many times, despite what the program tells you, the bookmarking is unsuccessful. Secondly, the service is free providing you have an onlywire button on your blog or website. Every so often OnlyWire checks that the button is there. If it isn’t, your bookmarking is cancelled. Fair enough – except their checking system continually fails to identify their own button and you end up with a message like this on your OnlyWire page.

Click on the Check Status and everything is fixed. However, your bookmarking has failed. Incredibly frustrating – and this happens a lot!

Finally, there is the OnlyWire button on your blog or website. The image for the button, together with its script, is stored on the OnlyWire server. This means that for your webpage to finish loading, data has to be brought from the OnlyWire server. At times this is busy and so your page cannot finish loading.

It’s a real shame that the OnlyWire tools don’t work – great idea but just too much hassle.

Related posts:

1. First Page of Google Guaranteed Yes this is possible – for any search term. I...
2. Refreshing Honesty I felt I had to post about a really...
3. How to check the speed of your web host Do you ever feel that your web site might be...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do you ever feel that your web site might be loading a little slowly?

I have had this concern for awhile. The problem is, I live in the UK and one of my servers is in the USA. I don’t know how much of the delay is due to server location. For instance, between my PC and my hosting server there are 22 hops – in other words the data is passed through 22 servers.

How do I know this? The tracert command. On windows, open up a command window and type:

tracert your domain      For example: tracert ideas-for-marketing.com

You will then see each of the servers along the route to your webhost (and the time each one takes).

What this means is that the speed at which a web page loads is largely dependent on server location / hops and not just how you designed your page. So what you see is not necessarily what somebody else sees.

Here is a tool that will allow you to check the speed of your server:

Website Speed Test

Related posts:

1. New Google Search Architecture A large team of staff over at Google have been...
2. Should buy shared hosting for SEO Backlinks to your site are very important in boosting your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

About a month ago Google made a set of changes to its ranking algorithm which became known, unoffically, as Vince Update.

There are a number of theories on how the changes will affect ranking. The brand theory suggests that Google is giving preference to big companies and popular brands over other website based on the fact that brands are often used in search terms. The more a term is searched for, the more important the term. So if that term is a brand name, the number of searches indicates an important brand. The controversial aspect is that the brand-owning site may also rank higher on associated keywords phrases that don’t include the brand name. Thus Coca Cola would rank well for a search on “soft drink”.

One has to ask the question though – wasn’t this always the case? Does the supposed change really make that much difference?

Should you start optimizing your site in a new fashion?

The official statement was that what is known as the Vince (or sometimes called ‘brand’) update is not really an update but rather some slight changes to the algo that only influence a small fraction of queries. First of all this change obviously influences the queries containing brand names in them. Personally I don’t see anything wrong with a company ranking first for its own brand name. Moreover I do believe that the company’s website holds more relevance for the user searching for its brand then a Wikipedia ‘about’ article. But generic keywords are a different cup of tea, so why do big brands get to rank better for these as well?

Let’s once again go back to the basics. What are the major factors that determine the search engine rankings of a website: Reputation, relevance, authority, link popularity, PageRank and trust to name a few.

Big companies and popular brands remain popular online the way they are offline: they get a lot of publicity on the Internet just like they always get talked about offline. They attract a lot of ‘natural’ links with relevant anchor texts and therefore they get to rank high for their keywords. Consider yourself blogging about cars: what websites are you most likely to link out to in your blog posts? That’s right BMW, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen – that is the brands. They are the major producers of cars. Basically the make cars and make up the industry as a whole at the same time. No wonder they get to rank high for the automobile related keywords.

So, there’s no conspiracy going on. The ranking algo stays pretty much the same with the same SEO techniques, link building still being the most important one. Brands get to rank better simply because they magnet links naturally.

Related posts:

1. How to create backlinks A constant refrain on my website is that quality is...
2. Should buy shared hosting for SEO Backlinks to your site are very important in boosting your...
3. Social Media and SEO Here are some comments from Joe Griffin: “Building a presence...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

clipped from www.site-reference.com To be Great and an Easy Sell Your Product Must Have These 5 Essential Character Traits 1. It must solve a problem. If it doesn’t fix, mend or alleviate a nagging pain, problem, condition or situation—why would people want it, much less buy it? There must be a strong, recognizable and somewhat measurable or appreciable benefit to owning and using your product. 2. It must have mass appeal. 3. It must be unique. 4. It must offer instant gratification. 5. It must be demonstrable. You can show why your product or service is superior to your competitors by creating tables.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Marketing Guide Which Affiliate Marketing Guide If you spend any time...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you have been involved in internet marketing for any length of time you will know that it is incredibly time-consuming. The only way to be successful is to automate. Or is it.

It depends what your definition of automation is. Let’s re-define it as getting work done but not doing it yourself. Michael Gerber in the e-myth said that it is vital to work on the business not in the business. You can do this through software or through other people.

Outsourcing has become very popular in the world of major corporates. Outsourcing recategorizes costs – fixed costs become variable. Variable costs are less risky. More recently, sites such as elance have enabled entrepreneurs to outsource by providing a market place where suppliers and buyers of services can meet.

It can still be a little daunting though and tends to be fairly transactional.

The best way to learn how to outsource internet marketing is to learn from an expert who will not only take you through the process step-by-step but pretty much give you a business in a box. If you are looking to outsource your internet marketing, follow the link and find out a little more about replacemyself.com.

How To Outsource Internet Marketing.

Related posts:

1. How to create backlinks A constant refrain on my website is that quality is...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk From uncles wearing skinny jeans to mothers investing in ra-ra skirts and fathers nodding awkwardly along to the latest grime record, the older generation has long known that the surest way to kill a youth trend is to adopt it as its own. The cyberworld, it seems, is no exception. The proliferation of parents and teachers trawling the pages of Facebook trying to poke old schoolfriends and lovers, and traversing the outer reaches of MySpace is causing an adolescent exodus from the social networking sites, according to research from the media regulator Ofcom. The sites, once the virtual streetcorners, pubs and clubs for millions of 15- to 24-year-olds, have now been over-run by 25- to 34-year-olds whose presence is driving their younger peers away.

Related posts:

1. Social Media and SEO Here are some comments from Joe Griffin: “Building a presence...
2. Social media advertising doesn’t work! Here is an article from Harvard Business: Understanding Users of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.