Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Have you heard of NumSum yet? It is a simple online spreadsheet tool. To be completely honest it lacks many features, but the project appears to be on the right track. Another hinderance is that from my understanding every spreadsheet built on numsum is publically available. UPDATE - After reviewing the site it appears they are building a more advanced version that will be available for a fee. This version has no published release date.

I’ve heard rumors that the Sun and Google relationship could result in a free online office suite. More on this available here. Here’s to hoping a fully functional online spreadsheet tool will be released soon.

Search engine marketing has continued to be a hot topic over the past few years and won’t be slowing anytime soon. I come across tips and discussions constantly on page rank, reciprocal links, and back link strategies. What does it all mean and what should be given precedence?

SEO Misunderstandings

1. I’ve improved my search engine results and now I can call it a day. Wrong. If you are committed to remaining at the top it is a never ending process. Internet marketing practices must be ever present in your plans for a successful online presence. This means monies should be allocated to your businesses budget and resources/employees assigned to the task.
2. I can work the system with unapproved techniques. Wrong again. Yes, I’ll admit there are some minds out there that are able to crack the system successfully. You, however, are not one of them. You may be bright. You may even know of a proven black hat technique, but is it really worth it? Your business ethics will reflect upon your continued success and scars are very difficult to remove. Also, the threat of being banned from search engines altogether is real. Just stay away from link farms, spamming, etc.

Practical SEO Techniques

1. What are the search engine results above you doing to stay ahead? Take a look at the source code of your competitors. Do they have specifice keywords spread more prevalently through their content? How many link backs do they have compared to your site? This research is extremely valuable as they are doing something more effectively than you.
2. Submit to every directory you come across.
3. Place your link on websites found in the same category of search engine directories.
4. Choose your domain name wisely. This actually does not pull as much weight as many think so don’t stress too heavily. Your content and back links are much more important.
5. Add fresh content frequently. This is key to your positioning. Update news on your industry or new clients. You get the idea.
6. Don’t give up. Your results will improve with your continued effort.

Contact MidScape in the Utah area if you are looking for professional SEM services. Sorry, I’m forced to solicit our services at any opportunity. The SiteManagement package includes search engine marketing management.

For those of you who haven’t already heard Google released a new FREE online analytics application this past week. I setup 2 of my domains the day it was released and waited…and waited. Upon login I read “Awaiting Data” for the past two days. Last night I sent a support email to find out if I had done something wrong and received the following:

Hello,

Thank you for your email. I understand that you aren’t seeing data in your reports, even though your tracking code has been set up for over six hours. We apologize for any inconvenience. We have collected your data since you installed the tracking code on your site, and are continuing to collect this data throughout the day.

We are currently in the process of creating reports from your data. You should be able to see your reports populated with data later today. Please note that this reporting delay is associated with unexpected demand for Google Analytics. Under normal circumstances, the data in your reports will be at most six hours old.

For additional questions, please visit the Analytics Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/analytics. If you’re unable to find an answer to your question on our site, please feel free to reply to this email.

Sincerely,

Bo
Analytics Support

As confirmed in this response my data started collecting today. Let me just say Google Analytics is impressive. Yes, I know many people fear google because they collect so much information through your email (gmail), searches, and ads (adsense & adwords). You may as well let them view all of your website analysis. Personally, I’m not afraid of them tracking my data and the new tool is really impressive. Obviously the sophisticated features available from SiteCatalyst aren’t all available, but I’ll choose free over $XX,XXX.