Baytech Web Design - Guide to Web Applications and Internet Marketing

Google's New Search Engine Rankings Place Heavy Emphasis on Branding

2009-03-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Originally when we published this we were going to make it subscriber only content, but the change is so important that I thought we should share some of it with the entire SEO industry. This post starts off with a brief history of recent algorithm updates, and shows the enormous weight Google is placing on branded search results.

The Google Florida Update

I got started in the search field in 2003, and one of the things that helped get my name on the map was when I wrote about the November 14th Google Florida update in a cheeky article titled Google Sells Christmas [1]. To this day many are not certain exactly what Google changed back then, but the algorithm update seemed to hit a lot of low level SEO techniques. Many pages that exhibited the following characteristics simply disappeared from the search results

repetitive inbound anchor text with little diversity
heavy repetition of the keyword phrase in the page title and on the page
words is a phrase exhibiting close proximity with few occurrences of the keywords spread apart
a lack of related/supporting vocabulary in the page copy

The Google Florida update was the first update that made SEO complicated enough to where most people could not figure out how to do it. Before that update all you needed to do was buy and/or trade links with your target keyword in the link anchor text, and after enough repetition you stood a good chance of ranking.

Google Austin, Other Filters/Penalties/Updates/etc.

In the years since Google has worked on creating other filters and penalties. At one point they tried to stop artificial anchor text manipulation so much that they accidentally filtered out some brands for their official names [2].

The algorithms have got so complex on some fronts that Google engineers do not even know about some of the filters/penalties/bugs (the difference between the 3 labels often being an issue of semantics). In December 2007, a lot of pages that ranked #1 suddenly ended up ranking no better than position #6 [3] for their core target keyword (and many related keywords). When questioned about this, Matt Cutts denied the problem until after he said they had already fixed it. [4]

When Barry asked me about "position 6" in late December, I said that I didn't know of anything that would cause that. But about a week or so after that, my attention was brought to something that could exhibit that behavior. We're in the process of changing the behavior; I think the change is live at some datacenters already and will be live at most data centers in the next few weeks.

Recent Structural Changes to the Search Results

Google helped change the structure of the web in January 2005 when they proposed a link rel=nofollow tag [5]. Originally it was said to stop blog spam, but by September of the same year, Matt Cutts changed his tune to where you were considered a spammer if you were buying links without using rel=nofollow on them. Matt Cutts documented some of his repeated warnings on the Google Webmaster Central blog. [6]

A bunch of allegedly "social" websites have adopted the use of the nofollow tag, [7] turning their users into digital share-croppers [8] and eroding the link value [9] that came as a part of being a well known publisher who created link-worthy content.

In May of 2007 Google rolled out Universal search [10], which mixes in select content from vertical search databases directly into the organic search results. This promoted

Google News
Youtube videos (and other video content)
Google Product Search
Google Maps/Local
select other Google verticals, like Google Books

These 3 moves (rel=nofollow, social media, and universal search), coupled with over 10,000 remote quality raters [11], has made it much harder to manipulate the search results quickly and cheaply unless you have a legitimate well trusted site that many people vouch for. (And it does not hurt to have spent a couple hours reading their 2003, 2005, and 2007 remote quality guidelines that were leaked into the SEO industry. [12]

Tracking Users Limits Need for "Random" Walk

The PageRank model is an algorithm built on a random walk of links on the web graph. But if you have enough usage data, you may not need to base your view of the web on that perspective since you can use actual surfing data to help influence the search results. Microsoft has done research on this concept, under the name of BrowseRank. [13] In Internet Explorer 8 usage data is sent to Microsoft by default.

Google's Chrome browser phones home [14] and Google also has the ability to track people (and how they interact with content) through Google Accounts, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, DoubleClick, Google AdWords, Google Reader, iGoogle, Feedburner, and Youtube.

Yesterday we launched a well received linkbait, and the same day our rankings for our most valuable keywords were lifted in both Live and Google, part of that may have been the new links, but I would be willing to bet some of it was caused from 10,000's of users finding their way to our site.

Google's Eric Schmidt Offers Great SEO Advice

If you ask Matt Cutts what big SEO changes are coming up he will tell you "make great content" and so on...never wanting to reveal the weaknesses of their search algorithms. Eric Schmidt, on the other hand, is frequently talking to media and investors with intent of pushing Google's agendas and all the exciting stuff that is coming out. In the last 6 months Mr. Schmidt has made a couple quotes that smart SEOs should incorporate into their optimization strategies - one on brands [15], and another on word relationships [16].

Here is Mr. Schmidt's take on brands from last October

The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.

"Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."

"Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component."

And here is his take on word relationships from the most recent earnings call

“Wouldn’t it be nice if Google understood the meaning of your phrase rather than just the words that are in that phrase? We have a lot of discoveries in that area that are going to roll out in the next little while.”

The January 18th Google Update Was Bigger Than Florida, but Few People Noticed it

Tools like RankPulse [17] allow you to track the day to day Google ranking changes for many keywords.

4 airlines recently began ranking for "airline tickets"

At least 90% of the first page of search results for auto insurance is owned by large national brands.

3 boot brands / manufacturers rose from nowhere to ranking at the top of the search results.

3 of the most well recognized diet programs began ranking for diets.

4 multi-billion dollar health insurance providers just began ranking, with Aetna bouncing between positions #1 and 2.

3 of the largest online education providers began ranking for online degree.

5 watch brands jumped onto the first page of search results for watches. To be honest I have never heard of Nixon Now.

The above images are just some examples. Radioshack.com recently started ranking for electronics and Hallmark.com just recently started ranking for gifts. The illustrations do not list all brands that are ranking, but brands that just started ranking. Add in other brands that were already ranking, and in some cases brands have 80% or 90% of the first page search results for some of the most valuable keywords. There are thousands of other such examples across all industries if you take the time to do the research, but the trend is clear - Google is promoting brands for big money core category keywords.

From:seobook

Google Japan Buys Dirty Pay-Per-Post Links

2009-02-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Google Japan seems desperate in chasing the Mighty Yahoo! (see here for example). They are now using a tainted and controversial social media optimization method called pay-per-post, provided by CyberBuzz.

Recently, Google Japan announced a top-page redesign on their official blog, in which they added a “Google Kyuujyoushou Waado (Hot Keywords)” feature. This addition displays the 5 most searched-for keywords in the previous 24 hours. Google Japan planned the new feature to help with their tough search-share fight against nemesis Yahoo! Japan.

In the screenshot above, just below the search box section, 5 keywords are listed with links to their respective Google searches.

At the same time, there are a number of blog entries on Google’s blog widget (called “blog parts” in Japanese) reviewing this “Hot Keywords” feature, all of them strangely resembling each other.

When you search for “Google Hot Keywords Ranking” + “Blog Widget” + “CyberBuzz” in Japanese on Google Blog Search, you will see over 30 posts by bloggers writing about this new service, saying things like “I’m a part of the CyberBuzz campaign” or “You can earn some money by writing interesting stories provided by CyberBuzz”. (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4)

So Google Blog Search, which has been spammed for so long, is now spamming itself in Japan.

I have translated part of a random entry as an example:

The Google Hot Keywords blog widget [link to Google's page] can show you what is in fashion now, and what other people are interested in.

It’s appealing that you can view buzzwords from the previous day or the previous week. I am sometimes surprised to see that such words are so popular! Personally, I like the “fortune-teller” feature from the previous week’s ranking. When I click on a keyword, I am quickly taken to Google’s result page and so I enjoy the feature.

I might not have noticed them by myself, but now I understand that these things are what people care about.

I am participating in CyberBuzz’s campaign.

CyberBuzz is one of the biggest pay-per-post agencies in Japan and are known for their high payouts. (Some blog posts fetch $100 for a single entry.)

So they are now link-building using monetary incentives to try to crook their own search results in a malicious way. I think this is a waste of money and only tarnishes their reputation for fairness.

Google Japan also does business with notorious news-clipping site Gigazine, and has been running a few ad campaigns which include special customized banners. There are many article-like advertisements on the site.

These articles, which look almost the same as regular ones, have “ad” tags (”広告” in Japanese) at bottom, which are very subtle, and will no doubt not be noticed by many readers. You can see for yourself by clicking the screenshot below, and reading the (poor) explanation at the bottom of the article that the entry is in fact an advertisement.

Google Trends Features ASCII Art Of 9/11

2009-01-09T01:17:00.000-08:00

A reader tipped us off to how ASCII art of an airplane is showing up in the number two position at Google Trends. When we first looked ourselves, we thought the image was that of an airplane approaching a landing strip. But a reader suggests it represents a far more disturbing scene, that of an airplane crashing into New York’s former World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

The ASCII image is this ✈ ▌▌. Below, how it appeared on Google Trends:

The “Hotness” level is “Volcanic,” which is hottest level Google Hot Trends can see. The related searches include trends, google trends, bematech, frigorific, google analytic and the geographic source seems to be from Sacramento, CA - at least according to Google’s details. There is currently related no news, blogs or web results for this “search term,” if you will.

This is not the first time we have seen issues with disturbing ASCII art hitting Google Trends. We spotted a swastika in Google trends back in July of this year. Google quickly removed the result and sent us a statement that said it was purely algorithmic and a spike in searches based on it being posted in a forum, caused it to show up in Google Hot Trends.

-----From:SearchEngineLand

Google Testing New AdWords Budgeting Option: Timeframe

2009-01-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

we have confirmed reports from Google at WebmasterWorld that Google is testing a new AdWords budgeting option named Timeframe.
Timeframe gives advertisers a new budgeting method that automatically adjusts the daily budget based on your traffic to reach a set dollar budget as per the calendar month. For example, with daily budget, you might not use up the whole day’s budget and what is not used, is never used. But with the monthly budget, Google would automatically adjust your daily budget based on the unused monthly budget limit - which would then help you use your whole budget.
For more information on how this works, read the Google help document.
-----From:SearchEngineLand

More PPC Tips from Baytech

2009-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

Tips of PPC Campaign Settings!

Has your Pay-Per-Click campaign disappointed you? Does it lack the power and impact that you had hoped for? BayTech can assist you in your endeavor to make your Pay-Per-Click Campaign work for you and give you a return on your investment that will make you glad you invested the money in your PPC Campaign and took the time to educate yourself about how to improve your currently broken PPC Campaign. Get ready for RESULTS!!! They are coming soon…

1. Do your best to avoid Phrases with less than THREE Words!

There is a massive difference between “stock market” and “stock market quotes.” The more words incorporated within a keyphrase the more targeted your keyphrase is likely to be for that query. Place yourself in the mindset of the browser, users searching for information will type “stock market” users who specifically are searching for stock market quotes will type the latter.

2. Don’t throw your money away! Ditch the “Broad Match”!

While I concede that “Broad Match” generally generates more traffic you will most often find that this is due to Adwords “Extended Broad Matching” and that a multitude of unrelated terms will sneak in. Unless you are researching for additional terms (by utilizing the “Search Query Report”) you should not waste your investment on keywords that don’t pre-qualify. DO NOT TAKE KEYWORD RESEARCH LIGHTLY! Do a thorough, comprehensive, in-depth, detailed keyword research before embarking on ANY Adwords Campaign. A good rule of thumb is always phrase (with negatives) or exact. This will let you know exactly what you are getting for your monetary investment.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, there are certain phrases that people will utilize while in different stages of their search. Identifying these correctly can potentially mean the difference between paying $30/conversion or $10/conversion.

3. Helpful bidding ideas:

A. Bid on Products and Items as well as Brand Names.
B. Bid on Manufacturers and Company Names.
C. Use buy compare and purchase keywords.
D. Leverage reviews of products.

4. Pay Attention to the Search and Content Networks

Observe your Campaign Settings to see if the Search Network and Content Network are turned on. It is best to switch off both initially as you can’t always trust where the traffic is coming from. Once you get the campaign to a solid CTR, Position and Return you can then test the Search Network to see if it is adding or removing value.

If you want to run a “Content Campaign”, it is suggested that you run it within its own campaign. Alone…….

5. Generate Highly Targeted Adgroups

Theme your adgroups around a specific keyword. If that keyword is “stock market quote” then the adgroup may contain:

“stock market quote”
“stock market quotes”
[stock market quotes]
[stock market quote]

Using these methods gives you the ability to create highly targeted creatives which relates directly to the keywords that you’re bidding on. Maintaining things highly related like this will increase your CTR, reducing your cost basis in the long run.

6. Utilize Highly Targeted Creatives

As previously explained you have the ability to write highly targeted creatives focused around a small group of keywords.

Long live PPC!

2009-01-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

eMarketer talks about how traditional print is really feeling the pinch. What would happen if the media industry was to go under too? Who will deliver my news?

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool---wordtracker

2009-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these 'keywords' in your website copy and people will find your site when they search.

No matter what business you are in, Wordtracker will tell you the words people use when they search - and how popular each word is.

With a Wordtracker subscription, you will be able to:

Optimize your website content by using the most popular keywords for your product and services
Generate thousands of relevant keywords to improve your organic and PPC search campaigns
Research online markets, find niche opportunities and exploit them before your competitors

In short, your search engine ranking will soar, you'll get more visits to your website and more people will buy your products.

wordtracker 7-Day Free Trial

Google Keyword Tool

2009-01-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Keyword Tool

Use the Keyword Tool to get new keyword ideas. Select an option below to enter a few descriptive words or phrases, or type in your website's URL. Keyword Tool Tips

Important note: We cannot guarantee that these keywords will improve your campaign performance. We reserve the right to disapprove any keywords you add. You are responsible for the keywords you select and for ensuring that your use of the keywords does not violate any applicable laws.

new Want more keyword ideas? Try the Search-based Keyword Tool, a new tool that will generate ideas matched to your website.

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

2009-01-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

How Does The SEO Book Keyword Tool Work?

This keyword tool is powered by Wordtracker's API. You can explore more keywords by subscribing to their powerful keyword research tools.

Free Keyword Research Tool :

Offers rough suggested daily search volumes by market for Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.*
Links the search volumes to the related global search results.
Provides links to price estimate tools from Google AdWords. That Google AdWords tool shows the necessary bid to rank #1 for 85% of queries, and roughly how much traffic you could expect AdWords to send you based on that bid price and ad position.
Links to Google Trends, Google Suggest, Google Synonyms, Yahoo! Suggest, and Keyword Discovery keyword research results.
Links to various vertical databases like Topix.net, Google Blogsearch, and Del.icio.us to let you know if people are talking about your topic and what types of resources they are referencing.
Is driven off the Wordtracker keyword suggestion tool. If you sign up for a Wordtracker account they offer many additional keyword research features and tools that are lacking in our basic keyword tool.

Want more free PPC or keyword research tips? Need more Keyword Research Data?

If you use pay per click marketing you are probably best off using Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter over the smaller PPC engines due to typically higher click quality and faster feedback loops.
Wordtracker offers a valuable subscription based keyword research service and has a free keyword research guide [PDF]. Wordtracker also sells lists of top search terms at various price points and depth.
Compete.com offers affordable competitive research reports. Snoop on the competition with Compete Search Analytics. Don't be left out!
Wordze is also recommendation worthy, though I believe it has a slightly steeper learning curve.
Aaron Wall offers a free Google AdWords & Yahoo! Search Marketing Tips PDF and lists many other free keyword research tools, and includes offers a few free keyword research videos on that page.
Dan Thies's SEO Research Labs offers professional keyword research services and this free 75 minute keyword research video.

Tool Limitations:

Tools can only provide helpful information and estimates. Don't let tools make your mind up for you!
- Don't expect precise quantitative analysis from keyword tools.
- Use tools for qualitative and relative analysis.
- People tend to typically use language in similar patterns. If there are 14,000,000 search results for ["car hire"] and only 2,000,000 pages for ["hire car"] then odds are car hire is a more common search term.
Since we estimate Google, Yahoo!, and MSN traffic based on Wordtracker's keyword data, any sampling error is amplified due to the difference in traffic.

* Please note our tool currently assumes Google having ~ 70% of the market, Yahoo! having ~ 20% of the market, and MSN search having ~8% of the market, and is based on rough math that is less precise than Wordtracker's computational techniques.

Depending on your topic / vertical and your geographic location the search engines may have vastly different search volumes. The tool can only possibly offer approximations. Exact search volumes are hard to find due to vanity searches, click bots, rank checkers, and other forms of automated traffic. Exceptionally valuable search terms may show far greater volume than they actually have due to various competitive commercial forces inflating search volumes due to automated search traffic.

10 Ways Marketers Blow Money on PPC

2008-12-31T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here's another gem from the trusted folks over at Lyris HQ: http://www.lyrishq.com/content/view/472/1/

It basically outlines why some people fail so hard at PPC, and others are making millions for their clients. Plain and simple. Must read for any would-be online marketers.

Google's SEO Starter Guide

2008-12-30T23:52:00.000-08:00

Webmasters often ask us at conferences or in the Webmaster Help Group, "What are some simple ways that I can improve my website's performance in Google?" There are lots of possible answers to this question, and a wealth of search engine optimization information on the web, so much that it can be intimidating for newer webmasters or those unfamiliar with the topic. We thought it'd be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites' crawlability and indexing.

Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.

So, the next time we get the question, "I'm new to SEO, how do I improve my site?", we can say, "Well, here's a list of best practices that we use inside Google that you might want to check out."
[Via Google Webmaster Central blog.]

An appeal from Wikipedia founder

2008-12-29T22:49:00.000-08:00

These days I find that Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales are going to ask all the readers to support Wikipedia with a donation. You can just see this "An appeal from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales" on the top of the home page.

As one of the world's five most popular web, Wikipedia is different from other websites. Wikipedia content is free to use by anyone for any purpose. There is no any advertising in Wikipedia, so now they ask donations to support the website.

To my surprise, people from all over the world has support Wikipedia. This website, without any commercial form advertisement, but it still can grow strong very much and live down, it's amazing.

Wikipedia service's core is supplies the free information for the global user. The contents include the character, the humanities, the history, society branch, society, geography, nature, science, technology and so on. In the past 8 year, the volunteer used 265 languages, has compiled 11,000,000 articles.Every month has surpasses 275,000,000 people to register the website to gain the information, the website information completely free, the web cam may stand in this gains the free lunch not to need to pay any expense, moreover Wikipedia has no any advertisement. To my surprise, only the staff 23 person of websites, do not establish any profit pattern, does not have any advertisement, make Google in contacts with Wells, hoped that can provide the context advertisement, but Wells is clear in the letter to the advertisement pattern expresses the rejection.

After English Wikipedia pages join founder Jimmy - Wells to collect the donation the letter, The Wiki media foundation the donation which receives within short one day rises suddenly 892%, amounts to 283,000 US dollars, we can not but acknowledge that its influence had already surmounted the national boundary.

Up to now

Google carries shopping search result imitates natural result processing

2008-12-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

Today I search "computer" on Google, I find an interesting result. Google carries on the homepage search result's in shopping search information part imitates natural result processing.

Google canceled the 3 shopping search links.
Moreover, in my astonishing discovery, most above picture indicates the pale blue area shopping search information is unexpectedly identical with the nature search result. If you don't look carefully, the distinction does not come out really.

Before then, we click on 3 product information link which under the shopping search tabulation demonstrated that will be will skip directly to the product seller stand page, but present Google had already canceled these product link, only retained most above “computer - Google Product Search” the link. This slight change, will guide to the demonstration product information search user to click on a link again, will thus enter a new page to examine the product search result.

This should cause many search user's to take for graphical representation in shopping search information will be the nature search result, thus for its shopping search introduction huge current capacity. Before has not changed, places the first three homepages in the shopping search result, may obtain in the homepage search result the remarkable position demonstration opportunity, but the present situation has the difference greatly, estimated that could have the majority BtoC stand to profit.

How to get top 10 rankings on Google & Yahoo!

2008-12-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

Internet Business Promoter (IBP) is a multi-award winning website promotion software tool. IBP helps you get high search engine rankings:

Get top 10 rankings on Google, Yahoo, MSN Search and others.
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Fact: If your website cannot be found on search engines then you'll lose a lot of customers and sales. IBP helps you get high search engine rankings, more customers and more sales.

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IBP is a SEO software that offers everything you need to successfully promote your website. It is a proven suite of professional web promotion tools that helps you with all aspects of website promotion and search engine optimization.

1. Optimize	2. Promote	3. Track
Top-rated optimization	Next-level promotion	Reliable tracking

Optimize your web pages and links for top 10 rankings on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines.	Get your website listed on all important search engines, directories and special interest sites.	Track the results of your Internet marketing and search engine optimization activities.
Click here to download IBP now!

Content and Structure Tools For SEO

2008-12-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Spider Simulator
The simulation spider capture assigns the homepage , include Text , Link , Keywords and Description.
How it works?
A lot of Content and Links displayed on a webpage may not actually be visible to the Search Engines, eg. Flash based content, content generated through javascript, content displayed as images etc. This tool Simulates a Search Engine by displaying the contents of a webpage exactly how a Search Engine would see it. It also displays the hyperlinks that will be followed (crawled) by a Search Engine when it visits the particular webpage.

Click here to try this tool

Similar Page Checker
Examines two page's similarities (if similarity reaches above 80%, will receive possibly penalty)
How it works?
Search Engines are known to act upon websites that contain Duplicate / Similar content. Your content could be similar to other websites on the Internet, or pages from within your own website could be similar to each other (usually the case with dynamic product catalog pages). This tool allows you to determine the percentage of similarity between two pages. The exact percentage of similarity after with a search engine may penalize you is not known, it varies from search engine to search engine, Your aim should be to keep your page similarity as LOW as possible.

Click here to try this tool

Sitemap Creat Tool
Build your Site Map online

For English website:Click here to try this tool

But these online tools have some limits(If the website has over 500 pages, you'd better not use these online tools), the recommendation uses the following off-line tool:

Google SiteMapBuilder .Net
The Sitemap creat software. It can creat both XML and txt form Sitemap.You can download from net.

PS:This software will work under the Net 1.1 environment, 2.0 are unable to move.

Baytech Flash Demo

2008-12-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

Jam Your Website with Traffic Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

2008-12-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

Jam Your Website with Traffic Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

Have you ever wondered what this icon in the corner of your URL search bar does?

It’s called an RSS Feed which is short for “Really Simple Syndication” and it can really and truly simplify your life.

It’s basically a helpful notification that some news headline, blog post, or podcast has been posted to a site that you like. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the one-time subscription process (you can opt out at any time too.) It shows up in your “feed reader”–a tool similar to an automated e-mail program, but no e-mail address is needed to sign up. It’s beneficial to have one installed for a few reasons:

1. You can get quick summaries of what’s been posted with links to read the rest of the article.
2. The RSS Feeder checks for updates regularly and automatically (or at pace you set.)
3. It’s all accumulated and custom organized in one easy to read format.
4. It’s convenient because there are many web-hosted or desktop-hosted “feed readers” to choose from. Also, your feed reader runs in the background and won’t pop up at annoying times.
5. When subscribing to a feed, users do not disclose their email address, so users are not increasing their exposure to threats associated with email: spam, viruses, phishing, and identity theft.
6. It’s free! (It costs nothing, and asks for nothing but fresh, daily content!)

Companies can and should take advantage of this when deciding to publish a blog or incorporate some sort of instant publishing tool on their websites. It’s an easy way to push your company’s message, current events and news, press releases, blog posts—basically anything and everything you would like your audience to know about. It also allows you complete control of your message online, and helps you facilitate further dialogue between you and your customers. And leading blogging platforms like SixApart and Blogger all include options to integrate an RSS feed into your website easily.

RSS feeds are used by all major news syndicates, most Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, top bloggers, and everyone in between. There’s no reason you shouldn’t have one attached to your company’s blog/website. Just think about the consequences of not having a blog and RSS feed capabilities. (They’re a lot scarier than you think.) You’ve probably heard of the Kryptonite brand of bicycle locks by now.

If you haven’t, listen closely.

According to The Corporate Blogging Handbook by Debbie Weil, a few years back a video circulated around the Internet showing a simple way to break open a couple of Kryptonite product lines with nothing more than a Bic pen. While Kryptonite was fully aware of the impending disaster from day one, they didn’t have a dynamic web page with a blog, and so couldn’t contain the buzz surrounding the controversy caused by the blogosphere. Instead, they issued press releases the traditional way, didn’t come out clean right away, and waited until the last moment to admit their mistake. Had they a blog and an RSS feed attached, Weil argues, they could have candidly provided up-to-the-minute details of their solution to those who were paying attention and wanted to know more (i.e. customers, the news media, internal stakeholders, etc.)

While Kryptonite won’t admit any damage done to their brand image, think about how something like this could affect a larger company or institution with much more at stake. It’s scary right?

Donna Tocci, Kryptonite’s PR Manager, had this to say of the experience, “However, I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I wouldn’t change much [about how we handled the situation]. I would post a note on our website about us working on the issue a day or two earlier. That’s it. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything we did then.”

You too don’t need this kind of media catastrophe on your hands. Incorporate a blog with an RSS Feed into your website. Get your information out fast and simple. Get an RSS Feed today.

WHY CONTENT IS KING!

2008-12-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

WHY CONTENT IS KING!

Whether it is your web page, brochure, or newsletter you have precious few seconds to capture the ATTENTION of the person SKIMMING your page to determine if it is worth their time to read on. Exceptional copywriting is a psychological science that induces the browser to continue reading and absorbing your message. The written copy of your message WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOU BUSINESS. Your copy can either make the reader eat out of your hand, declare Jihad against you or simply hit delete or toss your marketing material in the bin.

Pay-per-click and other marketing technologies have their place, BUT WHAT MAKES A CUSTOMER DO BUSINESS WITH YOU IS THE WRITTEN WORD! It all depends on the words you choose to use, the way you utilize them, the combinations you use them with as well as the way you decide NOT to use them. IT’S 100% THE WRITTEN MESSAGE YOU CONVEY THAT CONVERTS!

95% OF ALL BUSINESSES FAIL because they fail to capture their target market and convey the message that will drive the consumer to action. Most copy is unconvincing, stale, dry and frankly; flaccid. Whenever you convey a printed message, you must HAVE A CLEAR OBJECTIVE! The response it invokes is ENTIRELY DEPENDANT ON THE COPY! The message you convey to your customer about you must be in a voice and tone that reaches DEEP!

Your message lays the bricks upon which the walls of trust and confidence are built between you and the consumer. At the core of your business success is the copy content of your message.

· Your copy MUST touch the nerve of your customer or client.
· Your copy conveys the feeling to your customer that you and your product can be trusted, thus instilling confidence.
· Your copy must MAKE THE CUSTOMER EAGER TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU!
· Your copy speaks to them on a personal level as if you were speaking to them directly.
· Your copy must INFORM the reader as to exactly what they need to know to make an educated decision.

Find out more about why excellent Copywriting is good for your business. Read More.

eCommerce Solution

2008-12-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

Did you overlook the necessity of an ecommerce website designer?

Baytech Web Design can offer e-commerce website design and development service so you never have to lose another customer to ineffective applications and frustration.

You can:
1. Accept credit cards online
2. Realtime credit card processing
3. Intergration with UPS, Fedex, and other shipping outlets
4. Secure Online ordering and SSL encryption
5. Order notifications to you and your customers
6. Product displays
7. Inventory management solutions
8. Ecommerce Website Design and Development

Old Scenario:
The marketing plan works great. Your site has gotten more traffic since you launched your new marketing campaign than it did since the site has been available online. Then, all your hard work and efforts fall apart when your customers can’t navigate the site to actually make a purchase. The application to accept credit cards is not working properly, and when it does, the transaction is not secure. To top it all off, there is no confirmation to the customer that the order has been received. Read more about the eCommerce Solution article.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics

2008-12-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics

Search Engine Marketing refers to a set of online marketing practices that covers Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Placement or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. There is another practice called Paid Inclusion (PI), but it is fast dying out, so we’ll spare you. (Yahoo! is one of the only vendors left and it continues to get criticized by the industry and the media for that.) In any case, online marketers use just one or both aforementioned methods to:

(1) Get their brand message out on the Web
(2) Promote a product or service line
(3) Drive traffic to their websites

If you haven’t already thought about your internet marketing campaign, know that North American advertisers spent $9.4 billion in 2006 on SEM, a 750% increase from 2002, far surpassing the growth of traditional advertising and even other online marketing channels. This article will provide a brief introduction to the two different methods, and how you should determine which one(s) will work for you.

Search Engine Optimization Drives Traffic, Increases Web Presence

The goal of SEO is to drive warm traffic to your website. Specifically it refers to increasing your visibility (or your PageRank on Google) on search engine results pages (SERPs) by tweaking the content on both the frontend and backend of your website. It works because search engines use algorithms that “crawl” through your website’s backend, parsing and storing the relevant information in the form of keywords in their database. In other words, they analyze the code of your website to determine its relevancy.

SEO specialists strategically “tag” or summarize your website’s contents with specific keywords phrases and descriptions called “meta tags” that are picked up SE crawlers, which in turn will determine how relevant those pages will be to users searching for those keywords.
This is important because the search engines thrive on collecting meta data, and if that data doesn’t exist, your web site doesn’t exist.

Here’s an example:
Bob wants to purchase or learn more about scooters. He types in “scooters” on Google’s search bar, and gets 250,000 results for variety of web pages with the term “scooters” in them. How is he going to know which one to click? He doesn’t, but market research shows that he will most likely click on of the first 10 or so results he sees.

GoScooter.com wants to teach Bob more about scooters, and more importantly, wants his business, so they have employed an SEO firm like Baytech Web Design to make sure that the next time Bob searches for “scooters”, GoScooter.com is on the first page of top ten results, increasing the chances that Bob will click on their link. Baytech’s SEO experts do that by:

(1) Analyzing and modifying the HTML and CSS backend code
(2) Conducting an extensive cycle of testing and modification until your web site is where you want it to be on the SERPs.

There are two other methods called paid placement or PPC, and paid inclusion which are different from SEO but usually handled by SEO experts to drive traffic in other key ways, namely advertising and search engine indexing.

Remember! SEO is to SEM like apples are to apple trees. Read more about Search Engine Marketing Basics.

Bad economy? Consider an E-mail Newsletter Campaign

2008-12-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

Bad economy? Consider an E-mail Newsletter Campaign

Business may be facing tough market conditions in the months ahead with the credit crisis and reduced consumer spending. Now is the time to do the little things that help your company stand out in the crowd.

Email marketing is a strategic means of staying in touch with your customers and potential customers. Email newsletters can generate new leads and maximize returns from clients. Additionally, newsletters can reassure your clients that you are still around to help them. This is also a very cost effective way to reach out to your potential customers.

Baytech Video

2008-12-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

Got Microsites?

2008-12-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

Got Microsites?

So you launched your website that’s just collecting dust…what next you wonder? How am I going to promote this thing? There are many ways in fact: organic search engine optimization, paid search advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, and much more. But did you know one of the quickest and easiest ways to get targeted traffic to your website is through the addition of a one or two page microsite?

A microsite is an individual page or set of pages, supplemental to the main website. The microsite can relate to an event or promotion that you want to feature, without creating an entirely new website. In fact, microsites allow greater creativity and freedom in design so that once you capture customers’ attention with interactivity; they will be more likely to take action.

Baytech can quickly turn around microsites, as we have a full-service internet marketing and web development team who have won awards working together to produce compelling and brand-propelling websites.

Microsite Benefits:

1. Great for temporary promotions (holiday season, end of month deals)
2. Highlight new products/ services/ discounts/ online surveys
3. No limitations – can be flash, dynamic, and interactive!
4. SEO friendly, keyword rich content
5. Good for tracking PPC campaigns, specific landing page
6. Fast Turn Around
7. Drive Traffic/ Business
8. Creative – can have different feel from the rest of your site