Real-time Search Example on Google

The news about Google’s real-time search has been out for a little while now, but many people are still wondering how this is affected by real-life situations.  Well – Matt Cutts was gracious enough to show by example.  He displays exactly how Google tracked a recent mild earthquake and how long it took to show results on Google.

It’s good to see that their real-time search update actually functions as intended, and I can see the potential for it to help in a variety of ways.  Being the top search engine and a huge point where people check on things every day, getting your breaking news from Google (for info relevant to what you’re looking for) may get info to some people (who don’t check the news so often) faster.  Whether or not Google should take this role is not something that’s universally agreed upon, but there are visible benefits.

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Android vs. iPhone – Which is Better?

Now I’m already an iPhone user, but I’ve heard plenty about Google’s Android. And while I’m not able to do a fair comparison, Danny Sullivan (SEO extraordinaire) is, and he did.

He does more of a businessman’s review, as to how each phone worked in an efficient manner (or not), and what his impressions were of each overall.  Check it out if you’re trying to decide between the two.

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Web Design With SEO

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SEO, by its very nature, requires changes to the construct of the web pages in the site being optimizated.  Because of this it’s usually easier to integrate SEO with web design on the initial construction of the site.

By doing this in combination, the decisions of which pages to create can be more targeted from a marketing perspective, and this can make a well-ranked site look good instead of just “adjusted”.

The key to this is finding a web designer and an SEO expert that can work well together to make this process seamless.  Or else to find an SEO expert that also does web design (as TMO does).

Attention to these details was pointed out by Last Click News.

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Negative Attention Can Mean Positive SEO

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Most companies perceive getting negative attention or negative reviews as a purely bad thing.  However, any type of attention is good for SEO.  It will build up links, it puts eyes on the company.  And in the case that the bad review or bad attention is a minor part of what is overall a good reputation for the company, getting eyes on the company (even in this way) can be a very good thing.

Also, a balance of positive and negative attention tends to make a company look more legitimate, so this can also make this negative aspect bring positive points.

For SEO, any links that point back to the site (even if for negative reasons) will increase PageRank and sometimes may even affect keyword ranking in a good way.  I wouldn’t recommend searching for negative attention, but getting some is not always a bad thing.  SEO Consult in the UK has more details on why this is.

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How is SEO for Bing different?

Usually in the SEO world, Google comes first.  However, as Microsoft adjusts its approach, it seems that Bing is starting to get more ground.  So how is Bing different than Google when it comes to SEO?

Michael Carden-Edwards from Coast Digital explained it well: Bing needs a lot of the same things Google does, but just focuses on some key elements more heavily.  The primary areas that Bing checks are the following:

  1. Domain age – Bing likes well-established sites, it shows that there’s some experience behind the site.
  2. Quality links, both inbound and outbound – This is one area that differs from where most SEOs focus on, by looking at quality of outbound links as well as incoming links.
  3. Substantial content on each page – At least 300 words for any page that you want ranked on Bing.  It appears Microsoft is going to reduce ranking for shell pages that don’t offer much information.
  4. Title tags – This is the one major element that fits for all SEO, and stays the same with Bing.  Keep them relevant and with your keywords, it will help.

Even though Google is still king, Bing is starting to become a bigger source of traffic than before, and it’s worth knowing how to rank in their listings to keep traffic up.

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Duties of an In-House SEO Employee

As SEO becomes more prominent, more companies are turning to it to increase their rankings on the search engine results and to drive traffic to their site (to increase business).  The choice for these companies is to either hire a qualified SEO company or to hire an in-house SEO guru.

Unfortunately many companies still don’t realize the amount of work involved when asking one person to handle all of the SEO work.  Patricia Skinner from Search Engine Journal does an excellent job of outlining all of the responsibilities any in-house SEO will hold in this article.  She clearly shows that it’s something that does take time, and covers details on what to do for a company that wants quick results when you have work that isn’t always quick to show results.

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Put Business Phone Numbers on Cell Phone Ads

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Google’s made a little tweak to AdWords, so now you can put an ad that will show on cell phones that lists a business number.  If the owner of the phone calls that number, that counts as the click that is paid for.

The benefit of this is that it’s a very quick hot lead for anyone who advertises on the mobile network.  And it’s easy to do, since it defaults to all devices in AdWords, anyway.  To make sure you’re listed, check to see that mobile devices are checked in your settings in the campaign settings in AdWords.

Also, to have your phone number listed, you can either have the business information synched up with your business account or enter it manually, both done inside of the AdWords campaign settings.  Make sure whichever you do that you include your phone number.

Then to see the results, just choose the “Filters and Views” drop-down list and choose “Segment by”->”Click Type”.  This will show which clicks were URL clicks, and which were calls, from either the Ad Group or Keywords tabs.

It’s just an addition Google’s made to AdWords, and sent out an announcement through email to Google advertisers.  This could be a good change for people who use AdWords for markets that actively use their cell phones.

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A Major Element of SEO: PageRank Explained

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Most people view PageRank as that value from 0 to 10 that’s in your Google Toolbar, showing how much reputation your site has on the internet. There are some details that you should know if you really want to understand PageRank. Read more

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