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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Content is king in terms of SEO



Content is king in terms of SEO

Posted: 5/31/2011
By: Jaime O'Hara
In today's digital world, it's essential for a small business to leverage search engine optimization to bring its online presence to the next level. Incorporating a variety of SEO tactics into a business marketing strategy will help a firm gain a greater number of consumers and push its brand image to the next level.

When it comes to SEO, experts often utter the phrase, "content is king." A company should post regularly updated content that features a variety of keywords - optimized for its industry and market - in order to rank high among search engine results.

"When you are making use of a blog in endorsing your small business, give your readers constructive content within your web site website. It is also imperative that you supply persistent updates," the UK News Reporter noted. "Regular actions on your blog will permit the major search engines to index your web blog rapidly."

Additionally, a firm should complement its SEO efforts with social media marketing. Not only can a business link back to its website using content loaded with keywords, but it can also boost its search engine ranking on its social pages by leveraging the same strategy.
 

Google's+Matt+Cutts+Debunk+Flowchart+By+Danny+Sullivan

Google's+Matt+Cutts+Debunk+Flowchart+By+Danny+Sullivan

How Google Decides When To Debunk SEO Nonsense

Jun 1, 2011 • 8:37 am | comments (2)by Barry Schwartz twitter | Filed Under Other Google Topics


As you can imagine, Google spends too much time debunking false and misunderstood information on how Google works. We covered one this morning on email marketing's effect on rankings. To be honest, we have posted some things in the seven plus years on writing on search that Google was upset with. It happens, Google has a PR team to deal with it and Matt Cutts, amongst other Google engineers, are frequently debunking false information.

Danny Sullivan put together an outstanding chart named The Matt Cutts Debunking Flowchart. It is a somewhat humorous but sometimes true flowchart of how Matt and his team decide when to debunk this information. From conspiracy theories to just wrong information, to making Google look better when they really are somewhat wrong. The large flowchart is at Search Engine Land, but here is a smaller sized version.

Google's Matt Cutts Debunk Flowchart By Danny Sullivan

So what were some of the recent debunking Google has done? Matt Cutts posted them atHackerNews:

  • Claiming that your email newsletter's Gmail reputation affects your ranking: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2600933 I did a full debunk here: http://goo.gl/6A8f9
  • Claiming that Hacker News was penalized by Panda: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2595704 I did a full debunk here: http://goo.gl/7Tw9o
  • There was an SEO blog that had a headline "Google Copying Bing's Image Results? Google Cheating Bing?" at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-indexing-bing-13477.html when in fact it was just images on bing.net and Bing neglected to have a robots.txt file. We have a policy against search results in search results, so we were happy to remove the images in less than a day. The SEO blogger changed the headline to be less sensational.
  • Oh, one more debunk: http://allthingsd.com/20110527/google-no-government-investig... The webspam team continues to take manual action to remove spam in the same way that we have for the last decade.
  • Those are the four debunks that come to mind from the last week or so. Sigh.

Of course I take a little issue with my story but I won't argue here.

The chart is fun and I can totally relate to this on a much smaller scale
.

Google India launches new tools to help India Inc go global

Google India launches new tools to help India Inc go global

Google India launches new tools to help India Inc go global

India Infoline News Service / 14:51 , Jun 01, 2011

This tool will be available as part of Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a new website and hub for businesses to identify, reach, and engage with customers worldwide.

Continuing with its focus on the Indian SMB sector, Google India today announced the launch of Google Global Market Finder - a free online tool for advertisers to find new markets overseas. The new tool is designed to help Indian businesses expand their business and reach out to potential customers in the international markets. This tool will be available as part of Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a new website and hub for businesses to identify, reach, and engage with customers worldwide.


The new tool will help businesses of all sizes address traditional barriers to international expansion, such as finding the right customers, translating their websites and ad campaigns into local languages, and reaching customers in foreign markets with relevant ads. The Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers will be available to advertisers in 43 languages.


Speaking at the ‘Think Export with Google’ event held by Google, Sridhar Seshadri, Head Online Sales, Google India said, “We have seen tremendous success with the adoption of our AdWords platform by Indian SMBs in the last two years in the domestic market. And with the launch of these new tools for export oriented businesses in India, we want to bring the benefit of Google’s global reach and help Indian SMBs compete at a global stage and overcome traditional hurdles of marketing in the international market.”


“According to the recent foreign trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Indian export market has witnessed 37.5% growth in 2010-2011 fiscal year, which is a standing testimony of the huge potential of this space. With this launch, we want to reach out and help all advertisers, especially SMBs, by giving them access to information about the markets that have shown demand for their products. Since the tool determines demand based on the how often the product is searched for online in a particular geography, it is quite accurate in its assessment of demand“ he added.


Global Market Finder (http://translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder) helps in identifying new markets with high demand for your products and services. Businesses enter keywords that describe their product or service and select the region they’d like to explore. The Global Market Finder automatically translates those keywords into any one of 56 languages used in the selected region. It then ranks each location by opportunity based on factors like local search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword.


Google Ads for Global Advertisers (http://www.google.com/adwords/globaladvertiser) is a new website where businesses can learn how to expand into foreign markets. It contains tools and tips to help businesses:

  • Find the right market for their products and services using tools like the Global Market Finder and the Consumer Commerce Barometer.

  • Translate their website and ad text using Google Translate Web Element and Google Translator Toolkit.

  • Reach new customers with relevant online ads using services like Google AdWords.

  • Understand options for international payment, shipping, and customer service.

Google has already helped hundreds of thousands of businesses reach new customers in foreign markets. The Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers website will help even more businesses realize their global potential. These tools are especially relevant for SMEs as they do not have the resources required for in-depth research and insights into unexplored markets.


Sharing his experience, an entrepreneur from Kochi, Mr. Brijith Shaji, Managing Director of Arbrit Safety and Engg solutions- arbritonline.com , a consultancy service on Health and Safety management said, “Initially, for a long time we believed that our customers were limited only to Kerala and the neighboring markets at best. Google AdWords made us realise that there were several other markets whose potential we had never even considered.


The AdWords platform enabled us to not only identify this target group, but also helped us to tap other markets in a focused and effective manner. We were able to enhance our business prospects to several new markets both in India and the Middle East. The results have been simply phenomenal as Google AdWords has thrown open a whole new customer universe for us.”


Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Google Wallet - make your phone your wallet


43 Things You Should Know About Google Wallet
May 28, 2011
http://www.WebProNews.com

Would you use Google Wallet to store all of your credit card information?
Let us know what you think

43 Things You Should Know About Google Wallet
Chris Crum | Staff Writer

For Consumers and Businesses

This week, Google introduced Google Wallet, which could either be representative of the future of how we pay for things and organize our daily lives or a massive bust. Time will tell. In the meantime, we've compiled a great deal of information about the product, and what's known about it before its true launch.

Share your thoughts about Google Wallet with us in the comments.

Here is what you need to know about google Wallet:

1. Google Wallet stores virtual versions of credit cards and coupons on a phone.

2. It will also store loyalty and gift cards in the future.

3. Google Wallet is a free app.

4. Google Wallet is separate from Google Checkout, and can be thought of as the brick-and-mortar counterpart to the online payment nature of Google Checkout

5. Google Wallet uses Near Field Communication to allow consumers to make contactless payments.

6. Google Wallet is currently field testing, but will become available to consumers this summer.

7. At first, Google Wallet will only be available on the Nexus S 4G by Google from Sprint, but Google will expand it to other devices/platforms in time.

8. Citi, MasterCard, First Data, and Sprint are launch partners for Google Wallet.

9. Google is also partnering with point of sale systems companies, including Verifone, Hypercom, Ingenico, and ViVOTech, to "introduce rich interaction between Google Wallet and the point of sale."

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10. Google says it continues to partner with issuing banks, payment networks, point of sale systems, semiconductor companies, mobile handset manufacturers, mobile operators and merchants on Google Wallet-related elements.

11. Google is being sued by PayPal, who had two executives leave for Google. More on this here.

12. If you want to be notified about Google Wallet availability and product updates, you can give Google your email address here.

13. Google Wallet will support Citi PayPass eligible MasterCard credit cards and the Google prepaid card upon launch, but will support more in the future.

14. Users can pay with Google Wallet anywhere MasterCard PayPass is accepted.

15. Users can tap their phones on the merchant's PayPass terminal to transmit payment details.

16. You don't have to have a network connection to make a payment.

17. You can't use Google Wallet if your phone battery is dead.

18. Currently, when a user adds their Citi MasterCard to Google Wallet, they can immediately spend up to $100, but to access their full line of credit, they'll have to wait for Citi to send an activation code to enter into Google Wallet. 19. Google has very ambitious goals for Google Wallet, saying one day it may store your boarding passes, ID, and even keys.

20. Google Wallet will sync to your Google Offers (Google's recently launched Groupon competitor, which it also intends to integrate into other Google products like Search, Latitude, Maps, and Shopper.

21. According to reports, there will be stickers that customers can put on any device that can hold the information for one card, and when tapped on an NFC device, would work with Google to handle payments.

Security and Privacy Concerns

22. If your phone with Google Wallet is lost or stolen, Google says you should contact your credit card company for assistance, and that you should report your phone lost/stolen and basically take the same precautions you would have anyway.

23. Google Wallet will allow you to remove all cards from your phone by resetting it (which also removes all transaction data).

24. Google says it protects your payment credentials by storing them in a chip called the "Secure Element" that is contained within the Nexus S 4G, and is isolated from the phone's main OS and hardware. Google does not say how this will be addressed with other devices. That's probably for the manufacturers to determine.

25. Google does enforce a PIN number.

26. In terms of the possibility of a malicious app accessing your credit card, Google says, "Both the Android platform and the Secure Element are designed to prevent this from happening. Android enforces strict access policies so that malicious applications wouldn't have access to data stored by Google Wallet. Even Google Wallet itself has very limited access to the Secure Element, and cannot read or write data from its memory. There are multiple levels of protection for data stored on the Secure Element and it is protected at the hardware level from snooping or tampering."

27. Note that malware did infect Android apps as recently as March.

28. Google's response to the possibility of someone getting close to your phone to read sensitive data, is, "The NFC antenna in your phone is only activated when the screen is powered on, and even if the antenna is on and in proximity of a reader, payment credentials can only be transmitted from the Secure Element to a payment terminal if you first enter your Google Wallet PIN."

29. As far as being held liable for unauthorized transactions on credit cards store on Google Wallet, Google says the same rules apply as plastic cards.

30. Google says it does not "currently" receive data about products you purchase using Google Wallet.

31. Google Wallet does record locally on the phone the time of transaction and the credentials used to pay. There is an option to turn on a feature to record your location.

32. Google enables you to clear your transaction history from the main menu of the app. What Businesses Need to Know

33. To accept contactless payments, Google says your terminal must be ISO 14443 or 18092 standard (they will normally contain the universal contactless symbol).

34. You'll need First Data's latest systems to be able to accept Google Wallet (in addition to other contactless payments).

35. Merchants interested in participating can call First Data at 888-265-8147 (you can also request a call back here).

36. Merchants pay card-present rates for transactions made via Google Wallet (as opposed to card-not-present rates)

37. There are no additional charges.

38. Google does not take a cut of transaction fees through Google Wallet.

39. Businesses can request to become "SingleTap" merchants, where consumers can pay, redeem offers, and earn loyalty points. Merchants can integrate gift cards into Google Wallet.

40. Current SingleTap merchants include: American Eagle, Bloomingdales, The Container Store, Duane Reade, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy's, Noah's, Peet's Coffe & Tea, RadioShack, Subway, Toys R Us, and Walgreens.

41. Current Tap and Pay merchants include Coca Cola, CVS, Jack in the Box, Sports Authority, and Sunoco.

42. Merchants can always send questions about Google Wallet to the company at wallet-b2b@google.com.

43. Google says it will remain an "open commerce ecosystem" by supporting many payment instruments with the goal of creating virtual versions of all the plastic cards that exist today, establishing APIs that issuing banks can develop for, and APIs to enable transfer of offers, loyalty programs, receipts, etc. at the point of sale, and spreading Google Wallet to more mobile devices and platforms.

"In terms of iPhone, RIM, Microsoft -- we will partner with everyone," Google VP of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius (named in the PayPal suit) is quoted as saying.

Questions

There are still plenty of unanswered questions. Rachel King at ZDNet posts some good ones, such as what happens when the battery dies? ATM cash advances? International travel?

Google is clearly very serious about the future of this app (see those aspirations mentioned earlier). I'm guessing some of these things will be addressed in time.

Do you think Google Wallet is a good idea? Tell us what you think.
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Google Wallet - make your phone your wallet

Source : Google Wallet - make your phone your wallet

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