Friday 19 August 2011

Most Important Tricks of Google Search






  1. Google Squared Searching for a comparison chart on a certain topic? Try using Google Squared for a collection of information. For instance, try searching Google Squared for "roller coasters" to see a chart of the top 20 tallest roller coasters, or check out chart of hurricanes for images, descriptions, and damage estimates of recent hurricanes.



  2. Wonder Wheel Not quite sure what you're looking for? Google's Wonder Wheel gives another way of looking at the related searches near what you're looking for. Located in the left-hand sidebar, Wonder Wheel produces a circular chart with searches that other people have done recently that are related to yours.



  3. Search history Need to find something you have found on Google before? Try searching your own Google search history. Sign into your Google account and enable web history. Run your searches and then visit www.google.com/history to see your search history and revisit previous searches. Search history also syncs to your mobile device.



  4. Google Voice Search Google Voice Search lets you speak your search queries into your mobile device while on the go. Google Voice Search app is available on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Nokia S60 V3 phones. If you have an Android phone, search for the "Voice Search" app in Android Market.



  5. Timeline For those who want info from a certain time period, Timeline option is a sure shot help. Located in the left-hand toolbar, the feature lets you zoom in on any time range and see news pulled from assorted sources, including books, news, and web pages. Searching for the Anglo-French Wars, for instance, brings up a timeline that runs from 1600-2010, stepping down into individual years, then months.



  6. Google Images Want to filter your results in Google Images. Try searching for a word that could be found in a range of images, such as names like heather or raven or cliff. Towards the bottom of the left-hand sidebar in Google Images, you will find a dedicated option to only clip art, photos, or line drawings.



  7. Searching files Trying to find a particular type of file? Google doesn't only look for HTML. Type what you're looking for and then add 'filetype:tag' on the end. For instance, 'filetype:doc' will only results with those types of file. This search supports PDF, Microsoft Office formats, Shockwave Flash and so.



  8. Google Suggest To compare different Google Suggest results side-by-side, go to http://hint.fm/seer/ to get a visual comparison of two search prefixes. Though not a Google product, Web Seer was built by two Googlers and gives interesting insight into Google results.



  9. Search in the URL If you know there's a specific string of letters or words in the URLs of pages you are looking for, you can use "inurl" to find them. For example, many websites with public webcams have URLs that contain "view/view.shtml". So search for inurl:view/view.shtml and your search results will display the URLs for webcams around the world.



  10. Searching websites You can search a wide variety of sites by inserting > before the type of site you want to search. For example, [penguins site:>.edu] searches for penguins across all .edu sites. [crater image site:>nasa.gov] searches for crater images across nasa.gov.



Blog by techgig.com


Thursday 4 August 2011

The Google First Page Lie and the Necessity For Creativity and Quality

Did you know the only businesses that make money on the Internet are those on the first page of Google?

Oh, you already knew that?

So you're not the least bit surprised by my statement?

What's that you say? You've been hearing for years how important it is to be on the first page of Google?

I see. So my statement just reinforces what you knew all along.

Well, that's good. That's very, very good.

Except for one thing...

It's a BIG lie!!!

The Google First Page Lie

That's right, it's a big lie!

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE ON THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE TO MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET!!!

I repeat...

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE ON THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE TO MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET!!!

I'll explain why in a moment. But first...a little history lesson in marketing.

Marketing lies didn't just start with search engine rankings. Long before the advent of the Internet, businesses were climbing all over themselves trying to get the best ad placement in other types of major media:

The Major Media

*Newspapers
*Magazines
*Direct Mail
*Yellow pages
*Radio
*Television
*Internet

Let's touch on each of these briefly...

Newspapers

The prime real estate in a newspaper is the general news section. Followed closely by the sports and astrology sections. But what if you can't afford prime placement? Does that mean your ad is doomed to failure?

Of course not. Ads in other parts of the newspaper can be successful as well. Heck, even the classified ads get read. The key is being creative enough to make your ad stand out, regardless of where it's located.

For example, I remember reading a very interesting newspaper article about how lint balls in clothes dryers are extremely flammable and can cause major house fires. Only after reading the entire article did I realize it was an insurance advertisement placed by a local independent insurance agent.

That advertisement, designed to look like an article, definitely got my attention. By the way, that advertisement was buried way in the back of the newspaper with a bunch of other ads, and it still managed to stand out.

Magazines

When it comes to magazine advertising, apparently size matters. According to Entrepreneur magazine, A two-page spread attracts about 25 percent more readers than a one-page ad. A full-page ad attracts one-third more readers than a half-page ad.

As far as ad placement is concerned, it really doesn't matter whether the ad is located in the front of the magazine or the back in terms of the ability to get noticed.

But what about all those other ads in the magazine? Are they doomed to failure because of their smaller size? Of course not. Just like with newspaper advertising, even the classified ads get read. Again, the key is being creative enough to make your ad stand out, regardless of where it's located.

Whenever, I think about magazine ads, I always think about Joe Karbo's classic The Lazy Man's Way to Riches. The secondary headline really struck a chord in readers: Most People Are Too Busy Earning a Living to Make Any Money.

Out of the thousands and thousands of magazine ads I've read over the years, that's the one that continues to stand out in my mind all these years later.

Direct Mail

Even with sky high postage costs, a properly executed direct mail campaign still provides a solid ROI (return on investment).

Cooperative direct mail companies such as Valpak make launching a direct mail campaign easy and affordable, for even the most budget conscious small business.

So what exactly is cooperative direct mail? Cooperative direct mail simply means you share an envelope with 35-40 other advertisers. Sharing an envelope with other advertisers reduces your costs significantly.

Obviously, it can be a challenge to get noticed in an envelope full of ads. But one resourceful direct mail advertiser found a way around that problem. This was one of the cleverest and most effective direct mail pieces I've ever seen. It was a simple, light yellow postcard with black print that read:

"Dear David Jackson:

I've sent you a very special gift. It will be arriving in a few days in a light blue Valpak envelope. When you receive it, please sort through the envelope immediately and claim your free gift. Tape this postcard to your refrigerator as a reminder."

I waited with anticipation for that blue Valpak envelope to arrive, and when it came, I tore it open, completely disregarding the dozens of other offers in the envelope and went fishing for my free gift. Talk about an advertiser jumping to the front of the line...brilliant!

By the way, in case you're wondering what my free gift was, it was two free movie passes from a local furniture store. Did the free gift work? A month after receiving those movie passes, my girlfriend and I purchased a new living room set from that very same store.

Yellow Pages

Just like in magazine advertising, size matters. and all things being equal, a bigger ad does get a greater response, as well as the best placement. That being said, all things are rarely equal in marketing. And a smaller ad that uses basic copywriting fundmentals can be just as effective as a huge ad that is placed at the front of the category. Once again, the key is being creative enough to make your ad stand out in the crowd.

One yellow page ad in particular that stands out was that of a local pizzeria. The ad featured a picture of a flying saucer with the headline: Our Pizza is Out of This World!

Radio Advertising

When it comes to advertising on the radio, prime time is known as is "drive time", which is the time when most people are in their cars driving to and from work.

Morning drive time is typically 6 am to 10 am, and is traditionally the most expensive air time because that's when more people listen.

Afternoon drive time, is 4 pm to 7 pm.

But what about all those other radio commercials that are aired at times other than drive time. Are they doomed to failure? Does anybody hear them?

The answer is an emphatic YES!

Millions of people listen to the radio at work, in the office, while exercising, in their homes, etc. And while drive time is preferable, it's certainly NOT necessary to be successful. What is necessary, however, is being creative enough to make your radio commercial stand out...regardless of when it's aired.

I heard this commercial when I was visiting relatives in Houston Texas. That commercial sticks out like a sore thumb!

Television

It goes without saying, prime time is the most coveted advertisng time for advertisers. Prime time is weeknights and Saturday from 8 pm to 11 pm. Sunday prime time is 7 pm to 11 pm. But what about all those other commercials that air at times other than prime time? Certainly, they're doomed to failure right?

Wrong! Many commercials do well in other time slots. In fact, late night television has been extremely successful for many businesses. Again, it's all about being creative enough to make your commercial stand out regardless of when it's aired.

I remember watching this tv commercial as a child. It still stands out in my mind.

So there you have it. Real life examples of companies that were creative enough to make themselves stand out - regardless of the competition - regardless of their ad postioning.

The Internet

Which brings me back to why being on the first page of Google simply doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because something exists that is more powerful than even the almighty Google. That something is called word-of-mouth advertising.

Word-of-mouth advertising is what caused visitors to flock to Alex Tew's Million Dollar Homepage and enabled him to generate over a million dollars in income for himself.

If you are creative enough to come up with an idea that offers both value and quality, it will capture the imagination of visitors, and you will be the beneficiary of the type of game-changing word-of-mouth advertising that money just can't buy.

Focus your time and energy on coming up with creative ways for getting your website found on the Internet. For example, chances are you didn't use Google to find this website - although it is highly ranked. You either visit this site regularly, heard about it through word-of-mouth, or you're a newsletter subscriber.

So, what does that prove?

It proves there are other ways of getting found on the Internet other than Google. There are other ways to stand out. Videos, e-books, newsletters, press releases social media, podcasts, seminars or a variety of other methods.

The point is, there are any number of ways you can get your website found on the Internet without being on the first page of Google. You are limited only by your own imagination and creativity.

If you're not the creative type, or need some help with coming up with creative ideas to promote your business, I highly recommend Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing website.

In closing, while being creative may attract visitors to your website initially, at the end of the day, it's quality content that will keep them coming back!

by David Jackson

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Website Architecture Analysis

Unless a web page is indexed, it cannot generate any traffic to the website from search engines. If you could have more than one listing in the phone book for all of the products and services you offer, you would. Indexing is very similar. It's the way that search engines include pages in their database and is the starting point for evaluating overall search marketing performance.

Depending on how your site is built and the value it provides to an audience, the search engines might index one of your pages, or they might index thousands of them. Search engines crawl the World Wide Web to include web pages they find relevant within their search engine index.

Today, it is estimated that only 20% of all material published online is being indexed by search engines. If your website has two-thousand pages, but only ten of them are indexed, only .5% of your website is available to people searching. The more pages you have indexed, the more keywords you can compete for. If 100% of your website is indexed, these pages represent hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to be found. Pages can't rank in search results if they aren't indexed!

Some of the items that can impact your website's ability to get fully indexed are:

  • Global site navigation
  • Footer links
  • Site maps
  • Form based navigation
  • Multiple query parameters within URLs
  • Spider traps
  • Indexing of identical content
  • Session ID's
  • Javascript links
  • URL length
  • Directory structure
  • Content publishing
  • Use of cookies
  • Search engine exclusion protocols
  • Robots.txt
  • Meta-robots tag
  • Javascript content
  • Spam characteristics
  • Invisible text
  • Text embedded in "hidden" code
  • Text in comment tags
  • Internal link flexing
  • Domain spam
  • Cloaking strategies
  • Use of redirects

Page Speed Service: Web performance, delivered.

By Ram Ramani, Engineering Manager

Update 7/29/11: We were notified of a bug in the measurement tool that sometimes causes incorrect measurements. If your results indicated a slowdown on your pages, please run the tests again, and make sure you specify a fully qualified domain such as www.example.com. We apologize for any inconvenience and confusion this may have caused.

Details:
Measurement tests run for bare domains (such as example.com, without the prefix www) previously indicated that pages were loading more slowly, rather than speeding up, when using Page Speed Service. The test results page now prominently notifies you of this when you visit this page, if this error applies to you. Please check your old measurement results page if this bug applies to you. Running the tests again with the fully qualified domain such as www.example.com usually fixes the issue and gives you the correct measurement.

Two years ago we released the Page Speed browser extension and earlier this year the Page Speed Online API to provide developers with specific suggestions to make their web pages faster. Last year we released mod_pagespeed, an Apache module, to automatically rewrite web pages. To further simplify the life of webmasters and to avoid the hassles of installation, today we are releasing the latest addition to the Page Speed family: Page Speed Service.

Page Speed Service is an online service that automatically speeds up loading of your web pages. To use the service, you need to sign up and point your site’s DNS entry to Google. Page Speed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices, and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe. Your users will continue to access your site just as they did before, only with faster load times. Now you don’t have to worry about concatenating CSS, compressing images, caching, gzipping resources or other web performance best practices.

In our testing we have seen speed improvements of 25% to 60% on several sites. But we know you care most about the numbers for your site, so check out how much Page Speed Service can speed up your site. If you’re encouraged by the results, please sign up. If not, be sure to check back later. We are diligently working on adding more improvements to the service.

At this time, Page Speed Service is being offered to a limited set of webmasters free of charge. Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later. You can request access to the service by filling out this web form.

Ram Ramani is an Engineering Manager on the Make the Web Faster Team in Bangalore, India. He is a believer in "Faster is better".

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor

Is your website fast enough?

Recently Google added one more product to its portfolio- Page Speed Service. As has been mentioned time and again, Google PageRank accords higher importance to web pages which have a faster download time. Thus Search Engine Optimization and faster download time go hand in hand.

To help web masters achieve this feat Google has come out with Page Speed Service. Currently offered for free to a limited set of webmasters, Google is planning to come out with a paid version of the same soon.

It has kept the whole process very simple and easy. When one signs up and points the site’s DNS entry to Google, it will enable Google to fetch content from the server on which the site is hosted and rewrite those pages according to web performance best practices. It then serves these pages from Google’s own servers.

The visitor does not see any changes except that the download time is reduced 25% to 60% (atleast that’s what Google claims).

From a webmaster point of view, he no longer has to bother about concatenating CSS, compressing images, caching and all the accompanying paraphernalia.

Critiques however believe that sharing data, specially credit card numbers and personal information of a customer, with Google might not be such a great idea. Also with upcoming technologies like Rails 3.1 and the available option of hosting a site on CDN, Page Speed Service becomes somewhat redundant.


Sunday 31 July 2011

5 Little Known Ways To Generate Free Traffic

Most people have the notion that generating traffic is a one-off event, and it involves spending huge sums of money on advertising.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

First of all, it's possible to open up streams of autopilot traffic geometrically, surely and steadily over time.

Secondly, it costs next to nothing to do it, if you know how.

Here are 5 instantly implementable methods to open up new traffic streams without needing to spend a dime.

Free Traffic Method #1: Contribute Content

Writing an ebook is a time consuming and arduous task. In comparison, writing a chapter of rock solid content is much easier and more achievable.

I've personally been invited to contribute content to many people's info-products, usually in the form of 'chapters', and this has resulted in a lots of quality traffic that is not only free, but presold.

While I understand that a person who is little known might not receive invitations to contribute, one can always solicit permission for your content to be included by publishers.

It's all a phone call and email away, and if your content is good and your approach is right, a rejection is unlikely, and even if it happens, it's not gonna kill you, so just tell yourself 'next' and move on.

Free Traffic Method #2: Give away Free viral Reports

Put your best content into reports and give it away.

Articles are great, but when you package them as Portable Document Files, there is a greater "perceived value".

Give away free reports. Allow people to give away your free report to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the internet.

Obviously, your reports will have to be 'viral' in order for that to happen.

The best way to make your reports viral, is to include a monetary incentive.

The links within the reports can be made brandable, and it'll be to your advantage to find some sort of multi-tier affiliate program that will increase your earnings exponentially, because you make money when the person giving away your reports makes money.

It's a win win situation, and also allows you to use these magic words "make money by giving this report away".

Free Traffic Method #3: Help Other Publishers

It may surprise you, but your own website visitors may be info publishers as well.

Help them help you by using these magic words, "Use Our Free Content On Your Site Or In Your E-zine" Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site or in their e-zine. Just ask them to include your resource box. This will spread your advertising like wildfire all over the internet.

Free Traffic Method #4: Offer Testimonials

If you're reading this article, chances are you're an info-junkie. If you've bought lots of info products, why not offer an unsolicited testimonial to the info-product creator?

Simply include your URL under your name when giving the testimonial, and if it's used, you'll have additional exposure, and traffic.

Obviously, you'd only give a testimonial to a product that you think has value and is good, and not endorse anything or everything under the sun.

Testimonials can bring you traffic and top of the mind awareness, so don't underestimate the use of something as simple as this.

Free Traffic Method #5: Syndicate Your Content

A word of caution: don't use JavaScript. Why not? Because search engines don't 'see' JavaScript, so JavaScript feeds are useless for SEO. To make newsfeeds visible to search engines, their text has to be embedded into your page.

FACT: If you view the source of your page and you don't see the actual text of the newsfeed, then search engines aren't going to see it either.

Intead, do try using Real Simple syndication, or RSS. It's the buzzword on the Internet. RSS is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing things like news headlines and other web page content.

You have a variety of opportunities for increasing traffic to your website. Publishing your own feed is a great way to cut through all the noise and clutter and get your message directly to your target market. On the other end of the spectrum, importing feeds from other sites or even other parts of your own site and displaying them on your webpages can increase your search engine rankings by automatically keeping your website full of fresh, relevant information

If you're a little lazy and not too motivated, you'll be glad to know that regardless of what topic or subject matter you've built your website around, there's valuable content out there... articles and information written by an "expert" in that particular field.

Because a large portion of it is available through the magic of RSS feed capability - YOU don't have to create the content yourself! Yes, you can profit from other people's content.

There you have it, 5 easy ways to start getting free traffic fast.

From: Copyright 2004 Jo Han Mok

Specially Tips For Adsense Beginner

[1] Find long tail keywords with a CPC of atleast $2.00 and make sure these long tail keywords have the higher competition and searched for keywords within them. The Secret (Shhhh): Targeting the long tails will also target the higher level ones too. By the way, a long tail keyword is NOT how many words it has in the phrase. Long tails deal directly with how many searches it gets and these get less searches than higher level keywords and therefore less competition. And yes, a lot of these will only get 1-2 searches per day...USE THESE...but I guarantee most of you will not, because you dont know how to think outside of the box. That will be at your expense.

[2] Place your ads near the top of your pages, and get them off of the bottom spots. This will greatly increase Adsense CTR.

[3] Use double-block ads. (2 ad blocks right next to each other on a page)

[4] Maximize your use of the 336x280 ad block as this is one of the most popular and revenue generating ad blocks.

[5] Use a theme which makes it easy to incorporate your ads into the aesthetics of your website.

[6] If you have a search field on your site, replace this with an Adsense search bar. These are clicked less often but they do get used so take advantage everywhere you possibly can. Look up at this forum's search box in the top right corner. This is an Adsense search block used correctly.

[7] SEO your Adsense pages and site structure to bring even more targeted traffic in front of your ads. Google is very good at optimizing their ads for your pages when the content makes sense.

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More