hal9000.ie

Google Juice:-

Nothing to do with the juice of Googleberries (which only exist in Toytown, in Dinah Doll’s muffins). ‘Google juice’ refers to the means by which your site is given extra ’power’ leading to an increase in the ranking of your search results on Google .

For example: “popular and relevant inbound links will deliver good ‘Google juice’” for your web site and increase traffic.

Previous Weekly Web Word

Favicon:-

A favourites icon, the small icon that appears to the left of the web site address (URL) in an internet web browser.

Search Engine Optimisation and Twitter

Twitter is the most recent social networking tool to gain popularity, although, even amongst the experts, it is still unclear as to how it will evolve, and how useful it is for businesses. The enormous number of Tweets (short messages) being posted is too great for most mere mortals to follow usefully.

However, one thing Twitter has clearly got going for it is the ability of search engines to scan through the content (or verbiage!) and they do, very regularly. So regularly in fact, that content may be indexed every few hours, well beyond the ability of people who have businesses to run!

So, to gain more traction from your own blog or web site news, feed it through to Twitter using TwitterFeed. It’s free and straightforward to use, simply follow these steps:

1. Set up an account with TwitterFeed
2. Attach your Twitter account to it
3. Use the URL of your own site’s RSS feed (this can be found by placing the mouse over your own RSS feed logo). Type in full http address.

SEO Tip: For greater search engine brownie points, use your full site’s URL (rather than the shortened forms eg. tinyurl.com – these are useful for maximising on the limited 140 characters available in a Tweet, but not useful for search engines).

The answer is:  67.3% of Ireland’s population. 

This has risen hugely in the last number of years and people are using the internet for a wider variety of functions, information, news, shopping, social networking, games, job hunting, bill payments.. the list goes on. Even young children are online and you can see from the following chart how it’s going. This generation will be enormously sophisticated in their usage, in how they view, and discerning in what they view. The challenge for online marketeers is to grab their attention, and then to hang on to it! 

Digital Marketing - the global audience

In Sweden, this penetration rises to 89.2%, the highest in the EU.

Statistics source: internetworldstats.com/Europa.htm

Of course, my own personal theory, that the ratio between internet users and inclement weather is inversely proportionate, is borne out by the fact that Iceland has the highest penetration of internet users, at 93.2%. The combination of  a long, cold, dark winter and cheap geothermal central heating has led to the population spending increasing amounts of time online, in the comfort of their home.

In fact, Iceland has the highest Facebook penetration in the world – almost 50% of the population is facebooking! (Source: www.nickburcher.com/2009/04/facebook-usage-statistics- by-population.htm).  And you see the same trend in the cold Nordic countries also.

Business Blogs are increasingly being seen by many businesses as a useful way of engaging with viewers. They can be an effective way of informing site visitors/customers, and of developing relationships. At it’s simplest, a blog can be used for the company’s PR, to post regular updates on what’s newsworthy within the company. Alternatively, it can be used to inform viewers, and show that the business is an industry leader, by regular posts on what’s happening in that particular sector.  A blog can illustrate that the business is an expert in the field by showing that it is up to date with innovations and conditions relating to the business.

But a business blog is not appropriate for every business. However, one new business I’ve seen lately where it is relevant is feelgoodscarves.ie.  This recently launched web site is an online shop, but one with a difference. The products are hats and scarves, and the target market are people who are experiencing hair loss, generally due to either alopecia or cancer therapy. The target audience is also female. This is a sensitive issue and potential customers would  benefit from a personal relationship – one which can offer perhaps some empathy, advice, information and sharing. To this end, the woman behind the site, Catherine O’Sullivan, has created her own blog. The blog is accessed from the shopping site, but is hosted on Blogger.

A blog such as this allows shows the personal face behind the business, and allows a relationship to be developed. The comments allow viewers give feedback, both on products and on their personal experiences, the sharing of which is relevant on this particular shopping site.

The other advantage of a business blog, for any business, is in terms of search engine rankings. A regularly, and relevantly, updated blog will be picked up by search engines and will score more highly in organic search results returned than a similar site without a blog.  Search engines like to have new, relevant, content to index. They love blogs!

Of course, the critical thing in making a business blog successful is to keep it current. Regular posting is essential. After that, relevance and good writing are required to keep an audience engaged.

For excellent resources about starting a Business Blog, visit Mark White’s Business Blog.