Tracking your Website with Google, Yahoo & Bing
By Sam PascuaAre you or your web manager tracking your site on the major search engines? We are big supporters of using Google Webmaster Tools, Bing’s Webmasters Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer to upload XML Sitemaps and track the ways the different search engines are indexing our own and our client’s sites.
Google Webmaster Tools lets web managers control their Sitelinks which are being displayed on Google results, it also alerts us to error pages or pages not being properly indexed by Google, and a displays info on how Google picks up the incoming links to our sites.
Bing Webmaster tools provides users with a range of graphs displaying info such as pages crawled, traffic summaries over the past six months.
Yahoo Site Explorer gives similar information with clearly indentified sections such as feeds, crawl errors, stats on their own indexing of your site.
The information provided by these three tools are essential in understanding how your web is being displayed to these search engines and will help identify areas which need to be improved or analysed to help scale the heights of search engine ranking.
Setting them up is relatively easy and if you don’t have the time, or don’t want to play around with a ftp program, just ask your web developer to set it up for you.
Are you or your web manager tracking your site on the major search engines? We are big supporters of using Google Webmaster Tools, Bing’s Webmasters Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer to upload XML Sitemaps and track the ways the different search engines are indexing our own and our client’s sites.
Google Webmaster Tools lets web managers control their Sitelinks which are being displayed on Google results, it also alerts us to error pages or pages not being properly indexed by Google, and a displays info on how Google picks up the incoming links to our sites.
Bing Webmaster tools provides users with a range of graphs displaying info such as pages crawled, traffic summaries over the past six months.
Yahoo Site Explorer gives similar information with clearly indentified sections such as feeds, crawl errors, stats on their own indexing of your site.
The information provided by these three tools are essential in understanding how your web is being displayed to these search engines and will help identify areas which need to be improved or analysed to help scale the heights of search engine ranking.
Setting them up is relatively easy and if you don’t have the time, or don’t want to play around with a ftp program, just ask your web developer to set it up for you.
Is Magento the right eCommerce platform for your online buisness?
By Sam Pascua
When Magento was released in early 2008, it was met with excitement and interest from e-commerce site developers around the world. It quickly became the preferred software option for mid-range ecommerce sites due to its powerful administrative features and functionality. As Armando Roggio states on www.practicalecommerce.com,
“Magento’s feature list is clearly the result of years of ecommerce experience. The platform includes features like a built-in product image zoom capability, advanced pricing rules to support special promotions, a landing page tool to help with marketing campaigns, inventory management, side-by-side product comparison tools, and more.”
If you are in the market for a new platform on which to run your ecommerce site, here are some reasons why Magento may be the right choice for you.
Read moreGoogle Web Fonts
By Sam PascuaIt has taken way too long, however the day has come, Google has announced that it is joining Typekit, Font Squirrel, Ascender, Font Bureau and others with open-source-licensed web fonts.
The Google Font Directory lets you browse all the fonts available via the Google Font API. All fonts in the directory are available for use on your website under an open source license and are served by Google servers.
We love it, and the first project using these lovely web fonts has already started.
Search Engine Optimisation Tips
By Sam PascuaCreate as much content on your site as possible.
The more content, the better. Of course the content needs to be of good quality. Basically, a search engine will view a 50 page site to be more important than a 5 page site. Here are some ideas as to what can be used for additional content:
Educational Content
Adding useful information aimed at educating your visitors about your product and/or service can be extremely beneficial. Not only will search engines be happier, you’ll find that other web sites within your industry will be more likely to link to your site for the benefit of their own audience. If you know of a popular site in your industry that offers helpful links, try to think of what content you can create to inspire them to add a link to your site.
News
News articles are probably the most popular method of content creation, used by many of the major SEO companies today. All web sites should be able to create a news section filled with articles relevant to their industry. Articles can then be archived so that search engines can find them, even if they may seem out of date. Over time larger sites can accumulate 100′s of extra pages in their news section.
Expansion of Core Information
You may be able to expand the information that currently exists on your site. For example, you could create a separate page for each staff member in your business. Or you could offer a more in-depth explanation of your product or service. You may want to run a forum or a blog on your site that is focused on related topics to your web site.
Read moreGoogle to leave Australia over ‘evil’ filter
By Sam PascuaWhat a great April fools article and at the same time an important political message agasint the attack on Australian freedoms over the net by the Rudd Government and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
——————–
(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)
Google will close its Australian operations, effectively blacklisting the country in response to the Federal Government’s “evil” plan to filter the internet.
Goooone
ZDNet.com.au has confirmed that the search engine giant will close its doors on Australia for good, effective immediately, marking the end of four years of its operation here and a long-running battle with the government over its plan to filter the internet.
Read moreGoogle to stop supporting ie6
By Sam PascuaHere is a new article from IDG News Service.
Google will phase out support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 Web browser starting in March, the company said Friday.
“Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites,” Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager, wrote in a blog post Friday.
The announcement comes more than two weeks after Google reported that its servers had been the target of attacks originating in China. Those attacks targeted a vulnerability in IE 6, for which Microsoft has since issued a fix.
Support for IE6 in Google Docs and Google Sites will end March 1, Sheth said in the post. At that point, IE6 users who try to access Docs or Sites may find that “key functionality” won’t work properly, he said.
Sheth suggested that customers upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome 4.0 or Safari 3.0, or more recent versions of those browsers.
According to StatCounter, IE6 has 18 percent market share among browsers.
Read more
SEM Strategies vs. SEM Tactics
By Sam PascuaThere are many people in this world who still don’t believe in the power of the business vocabulary. Experts argue about the importance of building your knowledge about business terms and how they represent the true core of understanding the development of your business across its various stages. This fact is especially important in the case of business men entering newer business fields like Search Engine Marketing. The point here is that you can’t afford to make a faux pas when you are communicating with your clients and management about strategies and risk mis-coordination. The problem is compounded as the project grows in size and every aspect requires more attention to detail.
Read moreSEMs mostly get confused about two terms: SEM strategies and SEM tactics. It has been found that 90% of the marketers tend to define strategies as tactics or vice-versa. The definitions of these terms clear the confusion to an extent. A strategy is defined as a “long-term action plan for achieving a goal”, whereas tactics are described as “near term actions taken to solve specific problems or accomplish specific goals” (investorwords.com).
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