The SMX Advanced conference is coming up next week in Seattle, Washington. It will take place on June 2nd and 3rd, and WebProNews will be there to cover it both days.

More WebProNews Videos

WebProNews readers can expect interviews with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft on a variety of topics including what’s in store for the future of search for Microsoft.

The latest trends and seo and social media will of course be discussed as well. Stay tuned to WebProNews for tips and interviews in the form of articles and videos next week, and beyond.

Any particular topic you’re interested in hearing about from the event? Let us know.

Among SEO professionals, there isn’t always consensus on precisely which and to what degree site factors contribute or detract from rankings on Google because the factors actually vary by industry. There are indeed, a number of contentious issues: markup and content quality, use of title tags, site organization and even arguments that Google Analytics data factors in to site rankings. Not likely (yet), but certainly up for debate among SEO professionals.

However, there are some Google ranking factors that most professionals agree affect site positioning on Google SERPs. However, these are opinions, find out for yourself how these apply to projects you’re working on.

Recommended Steps to Improve Google Ranking

1. Use keywords in HTML title tags. Probably the most significant factor for a site regardless of the competitive landscape, the title tag must be consistent with content in the page for best results. The more keywords in your title, the less effective this factor, be judicious.

2. Create quality anchor text for inbound links. At one time, according to some SEO professionals, quality anchor text was an essential component of a well-ranked site. After all, this is the text the user opted to see by clicking a link on another site. Most SEOs still contend that quality anchor text is a highly significant, positive ranking factor. If not for spiders, for visitors clicking in as well. Obviously the text should be relevant to the destination page for best results; that’s where your on page optimization comes in to play.

3. Increase link popularity. Link popularity takes into account the number of inbound links present. Link authority has less relevance, though it is still a factor depending on the competitive landscape. Link popularity is based on a global count of links from all sites. However, quality links are still critical to creating site authority; authority means ranking for more phrases than you intentionally target.

4. Hang in there. The age of a site is an important positive weighting factor according to many SEO professionals. It’s certainly a reasonable assumption. Failed sites are dropped as soon as the hosting subscription ends. If a site has been around for 10 years, the owners must be dong something right, especially if link popularity is steady developed over the years. Unfortunately for site owners, there’s no way to speed up the aging process – except hanging in there.

5. Increase the popularity of internal links. These links direct visitors to helpful, related content. They’re important in providing visitors with a positive on-site experience. Search engines view on-site link popularity as a sign that visitors like what they see and want to learn more.

7. Build deep links. Deep links are relevant to the topicality of the target page or keyword. The relevance of these inbound links matters to a site’s Google ranking. However, please note point 3. The sheer number of inbound links is a factor as well. Quality deep links carry more weight and add credibility to a site.

8. Connect with sites selling to the same demographic. Create a number of links with sites within your topical community. This helps visitors further their searches – something Google likes very much.

9. Keep old links. Google looks for web stability. The older the link, the more trust it has. It indicates a happy relationship with the site owner linking in who recognizes the value of sending visitors off-site. Google watchers suggest a three to four month time window for spiders to determine that this is a well-established, long-term link that has value to visitors of both sites.

10. Use keywords in body text. Make sure that keywords receive prominent display in headlines, headers, sub-heads. It’s important that the keywords used in HTML text on page match with keywords used in the site’s meta data and title tags.

Not Recommended

1. Don’t use session IDs in URLs. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, an easy way to track customer information, but here’s the problem. Each time a spider crawls the site, a new URL with session ID is created. The spider now has two, or three or more URLs all showing duplicate content. Go back to Go, do not collect $200. Don’t confuse this with pages that may have a couple GET variables in them; avoid that when you can, but just avoid having your pages containing session IDs.

2. Choose a reputable web host. The most potent negative ranking factor is server accessibility. If your server, located in Timbuktu, is inaccessible to spiders, it’s inaccessible to visitors. Down time soon becomes down and out time.

3. Avoid duplicate content. Googlebots employ filters to detect duplicate content. Now, if you opt to post some syndicated articles, you’re providing a service to visitors. However, a bot will recognize that content (it’s already appeared on 400 sites) and you’ll see a drop in traffic rank.

4. Jettison low-quality links. Google assesses the character of your site by the company you keep so keep good company by unlinking from (1) links farms, (2) sites with absolutely no quality content and (3) otherwise low-quality sites; e.g. FFA (free for all) sites.

5. Avoid any kind of links deception. Googlebots aren’t smart, but they can detect some paid links and a variety of links scams, including generated links. If a Googlebot suspects links fraud, your site may be penalized and sent to the basement or banned altogether.

6. Avoid a log-in before visitors and bots access “the good stuff.” Log-ins can easily confuse a bot who won’t be able to access quality content hidden behind a log in. Even though users with Google toolbars will be unknowingly suggesting new URLs to be crawled as they surf about, having teasers for the content your monetizing by subscription will help your SEO.

7. Avoid using frames. Horizontal and vertical framesets <frameset> are commonly used by designers to present more than one page of a site on the screen at the same time. However, frames are also bot traps. They can get in but they can’t get out, making it impossible for them to index a site – at all! Tell your developer to look at using iframes if possible or absolutely necessary.

8. Avoid duplicate title/meta tags. Title/meta tags are a valuable resource for site owners to expand access points to a site. Using title tags ensures that more pages are indexed and listed in Google’s SERPs as distinct links. All good. Unfortunately, too many duplicate title tags on pages in which the content topic hasn’t changed, is redundant and a waste of the bots time. Use tag your pages uniquely and judiciously.

9. Do not keyword stuff. Even though search engines no longer give much weight to keyword tags, keyword stuffing continues. Select 20 to 30 keywords – top-tier and long-tail – and focus on them. Keep keyword density in body text at no more than 3%. The old 5% rule still led to on-site gibberish – obviously these figures vary by competitive landscape.

10. Do not let quality slip – even for a day. Spiders crawl sites with greater frequency and sophistication and index updates are common as changes to a site are implemented. During periods of construction, be sure to keep spiders out of staging areas that have yet to be completed <nofollow> or block with robots. These works-in-progress may cost you points in the ranking sweepstakes.

Google controls 46% of all searches. Doesn’t it make sense to give this search engine exactly what it wants and delete what it doesn’t want?

Rhetorical question.

In the ongoing employee tug-of-war that the top three search companies are waging, it looks like Yahoo’s scored a significant win.  Yoelle Maarek, who used to receive paychecks from Google, has accepted the title "Senior Director of Yahoo Research."

Maarek actually founded the Google Haifa Engineering Center in 2006 and acted as Engineering Director there.  During her stay with the search giant, Maarek’s team launched features like Google Suggest, Searching Ads, and Interactive Annotations on YouTube, too.

 

Now, as a post on the Yahoo Search Blog explains, "She will be leading the Yahoo! Lab in Haifa, Israel along with Ronny Lempel.  Their teams help further Yahoo!’s commitment to discovering new technologies that deliver compelling experiences on the Web."

Additional hints as to what specific direction the research might take aren’t really given, but the post does also state, "You can go to Yoelle’s website to read all about her impressive research experience in information retrieval, Web applications, and collaborative technologies."

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Google and Microsoft are a little nervous about how this development might turn out.

The SMX Advanced conference is coming up next week in Seattle, Washington. It will take place on June 2nd and 3rd, and WebProNews will be there to cover it both days.

More WebProNews Videos

WebProNews readers can expect interviews with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft on a variety of topics including what’s in store for the future of search for Microsoft.

The latest trends and seo and social media will of course be discussed as well. Stay tuned to WebProNews for tips and interviews in the form of articles and videos next week, and beyond.

Any particular topic you’re interested in hearing about from the event? Let us know.

Among SEO professionals, there isn’t always consensus on precisely which and to what degree site factors contribute or detract from rankings on Google because the factors actually vary by industry. There are indeed, a number of contentious issues: markup and content quality, use of title tags, site organization and even arguments that Google Analytics data factors in to site rankings. Not likely (yet), but certainly up for debate among SEO professionals.

However, there are some Google ranking factors that most professionals agree affect site positioning on Google SERPs. However, these are opinions, find out for yourself how these apply to projects you’re working on.

Recommended Steps to Improve Google Ranking

1. Use keywords in HTML title tags. Probably the most significant factor for a site regardless of the competitive landscape, the title tag must be consistent with content in the page for best results. The more keywords in your title, the less effective this factor, be judicious.

2. Create quality anchor text for inbound links. At one time, according to some SEO professionals, quality anchor text was an essential component of a well-ranked site. After all, this is the text the user opted to see by clicking a link on another site. Most SEOs still contend that quality anchor text is a highly significant, positive ranking factor. If not for spiders, for visitors clicking in as well. Obviously the text should be relevant to the destination page for best results; that’s where your on page optimization comes in to play.

3. Increase link popularity. Link popularity takes into account the number of inbound links present. Link authority has less relevance, though it is still a factor depending on the competitive landscape. Link popularity is based on a global count of links from all sites. However, quality links are still critical to creating site authority; authority means ranking for more phrases than you intentionally target.

4. Hang in there. The age of a site is an important positive weighting factor according to many SEO professionals. It’s certainly a reasonable assumption. Failed sites are dropped as soon as the hosting subscription ends. If a site has been around for 10 years, the owners must be dong something right, especially if link popularity is steady developed over the years. Unfortunately for site owners, there’s no way to speed up the aging process – except hanging in there.

5. Increase the popularity of internal links. These links direct visitors to helpful, related content. They’re important in providing visitors with a positive on-site experience. Search engines view on-site link popularity as a sign that visitors like what they see and want to learn more.

7. Build deep links. Deep links are relevant to the topicality of the target page or keyword. The relevance of these inbound links matters to a site’s Google ranking. However, please note point 3. The sheer number of inbound links is a factor as well. Quality deep links carry more weight and add credibility to a site.

8. Connect with sites selling to the same demographic. Create a number of links with sites within your topical community. This helps visitors further their searches – something Google likes very much.

9. Keep old links. Google looks for web stability. The older the link, the more trust it has. It indicates a happy relationship with the site owner linking in who recognizes the value of sending visitors off-site. Google watchers suggest a three to four month time window for spiders to determine that this is a well-established, long-term link that has value to visitors of both sites.

10. Use keywords in body text. Make sure that keywords receive prominent display in headlines, headers, sub-heads. It’s important that the keywords used in HTML text on page match with keywords used in the site’s meta data and title tags.

Not Recommended

1. Don’t use session IDs in URLs. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, an easy way to track customer information, but here’s the problem. Each time a spider crawls the site, a new URL with session ID is created. The spider now has two, or three or more URLs all showing duplicate content. Go back to Go, do not collect $200. Don’t confuse this with pages that may have a couple GET variables in them; avoid that when you can, but just avoid having your pages containing session IDs.

2. Choose a reputable web host. The most potent negative ranking factor is server accessibility. If your server, located in Timbuktu, is inaccessible to spiders, it’s inaccessible to visitors. Down time soon becomes down and out time.

3. Avoid duplicate content. Googlebots employ filters to detect duplicate content. Now, if you opt to post some syndicated articles, you’re providing a service to visitors. However, a bot will recognize that content (it’s already appeared on 400 sites) and you’ll see a drop in traffic rank.

4. Jettison low-quality links. Google assesses the character of your site by the company you keep so keep good company by unlinking from (1) links farms, (2) sites with absolutely no quality content and (3) otherwise low-quality sites; e.g. FFA (free for all) sites.

5. Avoid any kind of links deception. Googlebots aren’t smart, but they can detect some paid links and a variety of links scams, including generated links. If a Googlebot suspects links fraud, your site may be penalized and sent to the basement or banned altogether.

6. Avoid a log-in before visitors and bots access “the good stuff.” Log-ins can easily confuse a bot who won’t be able to access quality content hidden behind a log in. Even though users with Google toolbars will be unknowingly suggesting new URLs to be crawled as they surf about, having teasers for the content your monetizing by subscription will help your SEO.

7. Avoid using frames. Horizontal and vertical framesets <frameset> are commonly used by designers to present more than one page of a site on the screen at the same time. However, frames are also bot traps. They can get in but they can’t get out, making it impossible for them to index a site – at all! Tell your developer to look at using iframes if possible or absolutely necessary.

8. Avoid duplicate title/meta tags. Title/meta tags are a valuable resource for site owners to expand access points to a site. Using title tags ensures that more pages are indexed and listed in Google’s SERPs as distinct links. All good. Unfortunately, too many duplicate title tags on pages in which the content topic hasn’t changed, is redundant and a waste of the bots time. Use tag your pages uniquely and judiciously.

9. Do not keyword stuff. Even though search engines no longer give much weight to keyword tags, keyword stuffing continues. Select 20 to 30 keywords – top-tier and long-tail – and focus on them. Keep keyword density in body text at no more than 3%. The old 5% rule still led to on-site gibberish – obviously these figures vary by competitive landscape.

10. Do not let quality slip – even for a day. Spiders crawl sites with greater frequency and sophistication and index updates are common as changes to a site are implemented. During periods of construction, be sure to keep spiders out of staging areas that have yet to be completed <nofollow> or block with robots. These works-in-progress may cost you points in the ranking sweepstakes.

Google controls 46% of all searches. Doesn’t it make sense to give this search engine exactly what it wants and delete what it doesn’t want?

Rhetorical question.

Google has or is working on pretty much all of the main ingredients for a really great social network. The problem (in my opinion) is that they are scattered and not integrated as well as they could be. Do you particiapte in any of Google’s social projects? Tell us which ones.

Gmail

A while back when Gmail turned five years old, Google said that the coming five years would see more radical changes for Gmail than ever. Given the social nature of the web today, changes for the more social are the next logical step(s). Here are some rather social things (as I discussed here) that you can already do with Gmail.

    – send messages to friends

    – keep conversations with multiple friends together

    – embed videos/rich media in emails/chat messages

    – send messages to people beyond the Gmail wall

    – use search operators to bring up all photos /other media from any past messages

    – Account holders have profile pages with their picture

    – Creating a Google account essentially gives you an account to a much broader range of products in Google itself that allow for sharing things with friends (such as Docs, Reader, and Bookmarks)

Google Wave

Google Wave is a little confusing at first glance, but Jordan Golson at GigaOm sums it up well as a combination of email, instant messaging, and a real-time wiki. MarketingShift calls it the closest thing Google has to Facebook. Google calls it "a personal communication and collaboration tool" with the current incarnation being a "very early form."

This thing was made by the creators of Google Maps. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes. It has received a lukewarm response thus far, but we’ll see what happens.

Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Conect is Google’s way of connecting users through other sites that aren’t owned by Google. It comes equipped with gadgets such as a Q&A gadget, and an event gadget that lets you coordinate events with friends, something you can do with Google Calendar also, by the way.

Web Elements – Conversation Element

Besides announcing Google Wave at the Google Developer Conference this Week, the company also announced Web Elements, which we discussed here. The Google Social Web Blog looks at one element in particular – the conversation element, which is powered by Google Friend Connect. It lets your visitors post comments restricted to just your site or participate in a global conversation based on topic of interest. That is interesting. Google explains:

A global conversation takes place on several web sites simultaneously and will have a "Global conversation" label underneath the title. When visitors post to a global conversation on a specific topic, such as mandolins (as shown in the image below), the post not only shows up on the site where they posted it, but it also on any site that chooses to embed a Conversation element on mandolins, now or in the future. So now your visitors can talk about mandolins with others interested in the same topic, no matter what site they’re on.

Google Reader

Google Reader, which of course allows users to subscribe to blogs and content sites by way or RSS feeds, has gotten a lot more social this year. They added a commenting feature, and a "friends and trends" feature.

More recently, they have pointed out the ability to create and share custom feed bundles with friends. This is an intersting way to share content.

YouTube

YouTube is often thought of as a video site, and it happens to also be the 2nd largest search engine. I think people often forget that it’s also a social network. Google continues to add social elements to this as well. For one, they’ve been testing realtime updates. They are also finally tying YouTube accounts to Google accounts. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Real Time Search

Google Co-founder Larry Page made it pretty clear that we’re going be seeing some more in the way of real-time search coming from Google. Well, that’s one of (not the only one, granted) the big appeals to Twitter. We don’t know what is going to come of this yet as far as Google’s concerned, but you can expect something.

Photo via Loic Le Meur

iGoogle and the Google Profile

I think these two elements are the real keys to integration of social activity through Google. If Google and users want to tie all of Google’s social elements together, I think it’s going to be through their iGoogle page and through their Google Profile. One appealing thing about both of these, is that neither one has to be limited to only Google’s social elements.

Google has a tremendous advantage with iGoogle, because it is designed to be the home page, and no doubt many people (myself included) use it as the home page in their browser (not just for Google).

Everytime I open a browser window, i start from my iGoogle page. And why not? It’s got access to my email, chat, Twitter, Facebook, task list, and everything else I want, all on a customizable basis thanks to Google’s directory of gadgets that can be added to preference – and that directory keeps growing. Most of Google’s products have gadgets. If you want to bring together your social Google experience to one home base, this is the most likely place that is going to happen.

Then of course, you have the Google Profile, the page that really ties your Google experience together from the backend. This is what you log in to every time you use a Google service, regardless of which you actually log in from (there may be exceptions). You can add any links to this page that you want (and I suspect that there will be a lot more customization options available in the future). Recently

Google made some big moves with the profile. For one, you can now create a vanity URL with it, based on your Google account name. Second, they started adding profiles right into regular Google searches for names. Considering that Google is the largest search engine in the world by a very large margin, that’s going to give those profiles some pretty significant exposure.

Advertising and Revenue Models

Revenue models and social networks don’t always go hand in hand. Some of course have yet to really even launch a viable one, but that has not been a problem for Google. Google has one of the best revenue models on the web (though there has certainly been a lot of talk that there is more to be done with YouTube), but Google has no problem with putting AdWords ads anywhere it feels like. Consider their foray into "interest-based" advertising, and you have to wonder if they’d ever consider displaying ads on iGoogle…or the profile. iGoogle being the starting point for the user (in many cases), and the profile being outsiders’ gateway to finding friends.

Conclusion

Basically, my point to all of this (and has been for some time) is that Google is building a social network right under us. Many Google users will find themselves social network users without even realizing it, and Google will have to be included in the conversation of top social networks. And Google is a beast to compete with, I’m sure others will tell you. Google has not had great success with every product  it launches, but if the company can find the right way to integrate everything, it’s going to be quite a force (or even more so than it already is).
 
What are your thought on Google as a social network? We would love to hear them.

Like anything, Google Analytics has its fans and its critics, and both sides may distort the truth a little to support their position.  But Google recently named ten specific myths about Analytics and embarked on a special effort to debunk them. 

Now, posting Google’s arguments here might amount to preaching to the choir.  Also, since the post on the Google Analytics Blog is about 1,500 words long, reading them all would take up a bit of your time.  So here are the ten myths (as identified by Google), plain and simple: 

If any of these statements sound accurate to you, click through to the original post to get Google’s take.  Otherwise, supporters of Google Analytics may just find it interesting that these matters were highlighted at all.

Google appears to be going after new customers by addressing some very basic issues.  This could indicate that the company’s trying to expand the service’s reach by introducing it to a whole new group of not-especially-tech-savvy individuals.

The World Series of Poker is now underway, and Twitter is pointing out a Twitter app called PokerRoad Nation, which aggregates tweets from professional players.

With PokerRoad Nation, users can filter the tweets to see updates from specific WSOP players or from specific events. There are over 50 events, and thousands of players (pros and amateurs).

"When you’re trying to follow an event like a poker tournament where thousands of people might be playing at hundreds of tables, a tool like this let’s you see what’s going on through the players’ eyes," says Jason Goldman on the Twitter Blog. "It’s a whole new way of seeing the game."

PokerRoad Nation was created by poker professional Joe Sebok, who is also an avid Twitter user. Along with poker pro Barry Greenstein, Sebok also runs PokerRoad.com, which features a blog, audio, and video content.

Looking at PokerRoad Nation, I can’t help but be reminded of when poker superstar Phil (Poker Brat) Hellmuth was drunk tweeting a while back. I wonder how much drunken tweeting we’ll see throughout this WSOP.

I just spent the past two days at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Dallas. While I am no expert on social media, I am also not a novice so there was plenty for me to learn. Chris Brogan’s New Marketing Labs puts on the event and they did a great job. The roster of speakers spanned nearly every area of Internet Marketing with a strong emphasis on social media which is no surprise whatsoever considering the source.

What was interesting to me was the range of social media experience that was present for the event. There are wide ranges of experience at any event like this and that’s good. You always want to be around people who know more than you do so growth can occur.

What was both surprising and encouraging all at once were some of the folks and the companies they represented that obviously had little to no knowledge about how Internet marketing works. I realized at this event that I make way too many assumptions about who knows what about Internet marketing. For some of these folks I have to suspect that social media must have looked like a "dark art’ to them since one of the questions asked was "What’s an RSS?"

We are all drinking from a fire hose on social media. It changes often and is rife with opinion based on conjecture that may have some actual facts mixed in along the way.

It does, however, offer hope in a time that it is desperately needed. Here’s what I mean.

1. With people being totally new to the medium attending it reminds us that there are many people out there that may end up being customers for others now that are online. This could help move the needle a bit on this economic malaise we live in.
2. There are people that are actually able to say with all seriousness "What recession?" If you check the history books not everyone became dirt poor during the Great Depression. Many built their fortunes at a time when many others suffered. That’s the way it works. The Internet age is no different. For those who are smart enough to find a way to have their best year ever during these times all I can do is tip my hat and wonder what I can do to get there as well.
3. The Internet offers more opportunity to grow even during tough times. I loved the fact there were people a conference that is put on by arguably the most well known social media "celebrity" in Chris Brogan who had no idea what they were getting into. They did know, however, that they needed to change and grow. All I can do for these folks is tip my cap to them and admire their courage and willingness to start from nothing.
4. Even with all of the talk of government intervention and takeovers and general meddling with the free market there is an undercurrent of fierce independence in people who embrace the Internet for commercial needs. It’s a pioneering spirit that is sorely needed and one that could provide a light for others to follow so we can get out of this.

So where are you on this continuum of Internet marketing? Are you so experienced that you are too jaded to care about newcomers? Are you wading into the deep end and experimenting more so you can get more from your Internet marketing efforts? Lastly, are you just coming out of the shadows and making the move to get in the game since it is painfully obvious that the old ways are being redefined which in turn redefines how we must do business to survive?

I am rooting for these folks that are saying that they do not want to be left behind. It takes guts to step out into this expanding frontier of the Internet economy. Keep trying everything and remember that NO ONE has this all figured out. That’s why it’s fun!

Comments

The SMX Advanced conference is coming up next week in Seattle, Washington. It will take place on June 2nd and 3rd, and WebProNews will be there to cover it both days.

More WebProNews Videos

WebProNews readers can expect interviews with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft on a variety of topics including what’s in store for the future of search for Microsoft.

The latest trends and seo and social media will of course be discussed as well. Stay tuned to WebProNews for tips and interviews in the form of articles and videos next week, and beyond.

Any particular topic you’re interested in hearing about from the event? Let us know.

WebProNews has investigated the origins of the popular #FollowFriday trend on Twitter. It began over 4 months ago with a man named Micah Baldwin, and snowballed from there. Do you use #FollowFriday on Twitter? Let us know.

More WebProNews Videos

Micah and others interviewed in the above clip think that a lot of people are missing the point of #FollowFriday, which, is a way to show friends other people they could be following that would interest them.

Well, that’s how most people use it, but they don’t include the "Why," which is really how the hashtag becomes more effective and useful. If a reason to follow someone is laid out for you, you are more likely going to actually follow that person.

Would you agree with this mentality? Share your thoughts.

Google has or is working on pretty much all of the main ingredients for a really great social network. The problem (in my opinion) is that they are scattered and not integrated as well as they could be. Do you particiapte in any of Google’s social projects? Tell us which ones.

Gmail

A while back when Gmail turned five years old, Google said that the coming five years would see more radical changes for Gmail than ever. Given the social nature of the web today, changes for the more social are the next logical step(s). Here are some rather social things (as I discussed here) that you can already do with Gmail.

    – send messages to friends

    – keep conversations with multiple friends together

    – embed videos/rich media in emails/chat messages

    – send messages to people beyond the Gmail wall

    – use search operators to bring up all photos /other media from any past messages

    – Account holders have profile pages with their picture

    – Creating a Google account essentially gives you an account to a much broader range of products in Google itself that allow for sharing things with friends (such as Docs, Reader, and Bookmarks)

Google Wave

Google Wave is a little confusing at first glance, but Jordan Golson at GigaOm sums it up well as a combination of email, instant messaging, and a real-time wiki. MarketingShift calls it the closest thing Google has to Facebook. Google calls it "a personal communication and collaboration tool" with the current incarnation being a "very early form."

This thing was made by the creators of Google Maps. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes. It has received a lukewarm response thus far, but we’ll see what happens.

Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Conect is Google’s way of connecting users through other sites that aren’t owned by Google. It comes equipped with gadgets such as a Q&A gadget, and an event gadget that lets you coordinate events with friends, something you can do with Google Calendar also, by the way.

Web Elements – Conversation Element

Besides announcing Google Wave at the Google Developer Conference this Week, the company also announced Web Elements, which we discussed here. The Google Social Web Blog looks at one element in particular – the conversation element, which is powered by Google Friend Connect. It lets your visitors post comments restricted to just your site or participate in a global conversation based on topic of interest. That is interesting. Google explains:

A global conversation takes place on several web sites simultaneously and will have a "Global conversation" label underneath the title. When visitors post to a global conversation on a specific topic, such as mandolins (as shown in the image below), the post not only shows up on the site where they posted it, but it also on any site that chooses to embed a Conversation element on mandolins, now or in the future. So now your visitors can talk about mandolins with others interested in the same topic, no matter what site they’re on.

Google Reader

Google Reader, which of course allows users to subscribe to blogs and content sites by way or RSS feeds, has gotten a lot more social this year. They added a commenting feature, and a "friends and trends" feature.

More recently, they have pointed out the ability to create and share custom feed bundles with friends. This is an intersting way to share content.

YouTube

YouTube is often thought of as a video site, and it happens to also be the 2nd largest search engine. I think people often forget that it’s also a social network. Google continues to add social elements to this as well. For one, they’ve been testing realtime updates. They are also finally tying YouTube accounts to Google accounts. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Real Time Search

Google Co-founder Larry Page made it pretty clear that we’re going be seeing some more in the way of real-time search coming from Google. Well, that’s one of (not the only one, granted) the big appeals to Twitter. We don’t know what is going to come of this yet as far as Google’s concerned, but you can expect something.

Photo via Loic Le Meur

iGoogle and the Google Profile

I think these two elements are the real keys to integration of social activity through Google. If Google and users want to tie all of Google’s social elements together, I think it’s going to be through their iGoogle page and through their Google Profile. One appealing thing about both of these, is that neither one has to be limited to only Google’s social elements.

Google has a tremendous advantage with iGoogle, because it is designed to be the home page, and no doubt many people (myself included) use it as the home page in their browser (not just for Google).

Everytime I open a browser window, i start from my iGoogle page. And why not? It’s got access to my email, chat, Twitter, Facebook, task list, and everything else I want, all on a customizable basis thanks to Google’s directory of gadgets that can be added to preference – and that directory keeps growing. Most of Google’s products have gadgets. If you want to bring together your social Google experience to one home base, this is the most likely place that is going to happen.

Then of course, you have the Google Profile, the page that really ties your Google experience together from the backend. This is what you log in to every time you use a Google service, regardless of which you actually log in from (there may be exceptions). You can add any links to this page that you want (and I suspect that there will be a lot more customization options available in the future). Recently

Google made some big moves with the profile. For one, you can now create a vanity URL with it, based on your Google account name. Second, they started adding profiles right into regular Google searches for names. Considering that Google is the largest search engine in the world by a very large margin, that’s going to give those profiles some pretty significant exposure.

Advertising and Revenue Models

Revenue models and social networks don’t always go hand in hand. Some of course have yet to really even launch a viable one, but that has not been a problem for Google. Google has one of the best revenue models on the web (though there has certainly been a lot of talk that there is more to be done with YouTube), but Google has no problem with putting AdWords ads anywhere it feels like. Consider their foray into "interest-based" advertising, and you have to wonder if they’d ever consider displaying ads on iGoogle…or the profile. iGoogle being the starting point for the user (in many cases), and the profile being outsiders’ gateway to finding friends.

Conclusion

Basically, my point to all of this (and has been for some time) is that Google is building a social network right under us. Many Google users will find themselves social network users without even realizing it, and Google will have to be included in the conversation of top social networks. And Google is a beast to compete with, I’m sure others will tell you. Google has not had great success with every product  it launches, but if the company can find the right way to integrate everything, it’s going to be quite a force (or even more so than it already is).
 
What are your thought on Google as a social network? We would love to hear them.

It is no real secret that a well written topical blog can significantly help out your website – so why aren’t you doing it?

The most common reasons I hear for not starting a blog involve a lack of time to write posts, and limited ideas to write about, but taking that extra time to get some useful content out there can do wonders for your search rankings among other things.

An established blog that is updated regularly gets spidered by Google often, and increases the chances of new search rankings considerably. I have seen multiple situations where regularly updated blogs wind up ranking #1 in Google for relevant phrases literally within a couple hours of posting. It usually takes a well established website and blog to make this happen, but there is big potential if you do things the right way.

While blogs work best if updated multiple times per week, even those with a new post every week or two have advantages. Blogs don’t have to be a major undertaking, spending only an hour or so a week on posting can have you seeing results in no time.

There are many advantages to adding a blog to your website. Here are a few.

Increased Rankings
By boosting your topical content, you increase the value and relevance of your site. The more new stuff you add, the more of an authority you make your site, and this helps to improve your overall search rankings. It can also help you obtain rankings for “long tailed search phrases”.

Long tailed search phrases are those that are less commonly searched, and usually exceed 3 or 4 words in length – they are also very targeted to your product or service. Blogs are great for getting rankings on long tailed search phrases. If you see a long tailed search phrase you want to rank for, use the phrase as the post title (if it makes sense to do so) and write a good, content rich post about it and your ranking potential for this phrase will rise.

By writing blog posts with your target phrases in mind, you can often help improve your overall rankings by increasing the relevance of the site to that search phrase. Consider also linking to other relevant pages within your site from the post.

Increased Traffic
Blogs are great for increasing traffic. Aside from the added traffic you may see from search ranking improvements, if your blog is interesting and topical, you will get some repeat visitors to your site as readers check back for new posts. If people really like your blog, they will spread the word, resulting in even more visitors. Just think, have you ever emailed or instant messaged a friend with a link to an article you have read? Don’t you want your link to be the one passed around?

Credibility
By blogging regularly about your industry you will help to establish yourself as an expert. Many of your potential customers will see your blog and notice that you know what you’re talking about and be more likely to utilize your services. By sharing your knowledge it can help to instill trust onto your visitors which can actually result in increased conversions. There are a lot of faceless, anonymous websites out there – an active blog can help people relate to you and trust you.

Links
A good, well written blog can result in free one way links to your site. Sometimes it is as simple as a fan adding your link to their blog roll, and other times it may be RSS working its magic. Try to squeeze in a link or two into your posts and direct them to other internal pages on your website. If anyone then republishes or syndicates your posts on their sites, you will also end up with a relevant back link. (If you would like some other ideas on link building be sure to check out Ways to Increase Link Density & Building Links with Directory Submissions)

A blog is not a magic bullet used to skyrocket your inbound link counts, but it can certainly help.

What Platform To Use
I am a firm believer in the power of WordPress and the seemingly unlimited plug-ins available to help you. That said, just about any blog platform will work. It is probably best to stick with the main stream providers as they tend to have more options available and better support forums in case you get stuck with customization issues. In the end however, any search friendly blog platform will ultimately do the trick.

Blog Post Ideas
If after reading this you are sitting there thinking, “What should I write about?” here are some ideas to help you get going:

• New product launches
• Press releases
• Industry relevant news
• How to’s related to your product or service
• Answers to reader comments
• Posts revolving around relevant long tailed phrases
• In depth product descriptions or tutorials
• Company history or interesting stories
• Reviews of related products, services or online tools

Blogs are relevant for pretty much all industries, and they don’t have to take a lot of your time. A little creativity can help you come up with ideas for posts, just try to think outside the proverbial box.

If you’ve been putting off the blogging idea for some time, consider getting started now. There is much to gain and very little to lose.

Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott’s articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Blogging Your Way to the Top

You may have noticed the explosion of $7 products and the $7 script phenomenon. You could hardly miss it!

This all started when a well-known marketer released an ebook in which he contended that $7 was the perfect price point for impulse buys. He claimed that if a product was $7 or below, people were more likely to buy because the price was in the ballpark of what they would pay for other impulse buys, like going out for lunch. And of course he then released a $7 script designed to sell things for, you guessed it, $7.

The next thing you knew, products that were previously selling for $19.95 or $27 were selling for $7. $7 products were everywhere.

Now most direct marketers will tell you that if you that if you have a good offer and good copy, you are usually better off selling for more rather than less. Logically, it makes more sense to sell a $97 product than a $7 product. Theoretically it’s the same amount of work.

I have noticed though, at least with my lists, that there really does seem to be a dramatic increase in sales when the product is priced at $7 or under. I often get as much as an 8% conversion or more at $7 compared to a 1-3% conversion at $27. That seems weird to me. After all, $27 isn’t really a huge price tag either in today’s economy. But with that difference in conversion, a product may actually produce more dollars in total sales at a $7 price point than at a $27 price point!

So is there really something magical about the $7 price point? I think there is. But I think it’s the magic of expectations. You see, so many people bought into the $7 phenomenon that tons of products were released for $7 each. So it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People are used to seeing ebooks priced at $7, and even collections of multiple ebooks priced at $7.

People are so used to it that when they receive an offer priced at more than $7, they subconsciously feel like it is overpriced. They could be getting 30 ebooks of 100 pages each for $27 – less than $1 per ebook. The problem is that with so many people selling things for $7, it starts to feel like a bad deal whenever the price of anything is more than $7, even though logically they would never expect to be able to purchase books so inexpensively in a bookstore.

I have noticed that even at $9, conversions can drop precipitously. There can be much more of a change than one would expect with only a $2 difference. After noticing this repeatedly, I can only assume that the $7 phenomenon has become an expectation, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So the question becomes what to do about the $7 phenomenon now that it has become such an expectation. The easy way out is to just price things at $7. And I must admit that I often do that, as it makes for easy fast sales. But I don’t always do that, because I’m not sure it’s good to feed the expectation of such a low price point. Most good products really are worth more than $7.

Maybe it’s time that someone comes out with a report extolling the magic of the $97 price point! After all, I would much rather be getting an 8% conversion at $97 per sale than $7 per sale, wouldn’t you?

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The $7 Product – Myth, Reality, Or Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?