Link to full scale SMM BC Map

Any local business should be easily findable in Google since many customers may use Google when they are trying to find a store or supplier. There is a Google Local Business Center, so you might think there was nothing easier than to add in your business coordinates there. Unfortunately that is not always the case. There are some distressing SMBs case studies mentioned in a Cre8asite Forum discussion. It is not just businesses that are affected. It can even happen to hospitals with much more tragic results.

Unfortunately Google does not seem to be willing to put in resources to ensure the veracity of the data. A number of people have been trying to get Google’s attention on this and the following are some of the more vocal:

• Mike Blumenthal
• David Mihm
• Andrew Shotland
• Martijn Beijk
• Greg Sterling
• Miriam Ellis

Google does not have a local search facility as such. Rather within its universal search process, if Google guesses that local results might be beneficial it shows some within the total set of results. It is somewhat fuzzy in application but it presumably is the best Google can do with its fixation on a single search box. How much easier if Google followed the Yellow Pages approach, also used by its competitors, of having one box for the product/service and another for the location. Instead they go for the much more technically challenging single-box approach.

An additional way of flagging where your business is located is to use geotags on each of your web pages. This is basically the precise latitude and longitude for the location that is associated with the web page. You can find them using a Geotags locator. They can be handled invisibly using meta tags or can even be displayed on the web page if you wish. The geotags for this web page for example are 49.17467; -122.62195.

If you are not yet happy with the way the Google Local Business Center has referenced your place of business, what is the best approach for you. Rather surprisingly, the only way is to get more citations in as many other local directories as you can. Even though some of them are decidedly flaky, for example Yellow Pages, Google applies its algorithm to such questionable data. It’s not quite, Garbage In, Garbage Out, but the results might sometimes get you scratching your head..

The following is a list of references you may wish to use to maximize the chances that Google can find you correctly. They were featured in a Guide to Canadian Citations for Local Search by David Mihm.

• YellowPages.ca
• 411.ca
• ShopinCanada.com
• CityDirect.info
• Canpages.ca
• ZipLocal.com
• WebLocal.ca
• FoundLocally.com

He also added some citation sources not specific to Canada

• Yelp Canada
• BBB.org Canada
• Hotfrog Canada
• iBegin.com

The problem is that Google is relying on computer algorithms to handle this local data. Unfortunately there are often errors in the data that only can be corrected by a human review. Thankfully some of the above sources do have such a review process.

The CityDirect Network is particularly good in this respect. SMM BC is featured in the Langley Direct directory. This only occurred after a call from a staff member of CityDirect who verified that the business really did exist and operated out of the named location.

If your business is not yet featured in the CityDirect Network, I would highly recommend it. You can sign up via this membership link. You can have a free listing or you can pay for an enhanced listing. Once you have entered all your data, you will be called by a representative to confirm the validity of the data that you have entered. It seems to be a process that runs very smoothly.

The other bonus is that this may be a way of getting the Google local search process to get additional knowledge of where your company is located. That is indeed another major advantage. Plus you are featured in the CityDirect Network where other human visitors may find you. See you on the Map.

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Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Getting Your Local Business On The Map In Metro Vancouver

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What sort of question is that?  Isn’t everyone on Google to a certain extent?  However you probably do not believe it is something you join like Facebook or Twitter. 

Well that has changed although you may have missed the memo.  As MG Siegler has pointed out, Google Profiles Is Taking An Important Social Step With Vanity URLs.

The problem with Google’s movement towards becoming more of a social entity is that it lacks one cohesive place to tie everything together. Google lacks a singular area – like a Facebook profile page – where all that Google knows about you can reside and be easily seen. Actually there is such an area, Google Profiles and Google is now making it quite a bit easier to find.

So are you on Google?  You can check this out with the following search for your name on Google Profiles.

If you already have a Google Account and have a Gmail address, then you are well along in joining this new potential social network. 

Mike Elgan believes this will be Google’s ‘Facebook Killer’.  He feels that Google is just one acquisition away from offering a social network that does everything Facebook does, minus all the things everybody hates about Facebook.  That acquisition he is pushing for is that Google should buy Twitter. 

The end result of this integration would be a social network far better than Facebook.  Rather than being a link dead-end like Facebook, Profiles would be a launching pad of discoverability for everything you want to promote. It would be cleaner, faster and easier to use than Facebook. And it would be a one-stop shop for both social networking and Twitter.

I believe he is over-valuing what Twitter would bring to such an acquisition.  Twitter has relatively rudimentary features and undoubtedly the Twitter owners will put far too high a price on their social network.  If Google was of a mind to add the social media trappings to Google Profiles, it would not be rocket science to do so.  The Google name would ensure people would flock to it.  Indeed how many of you reading this have already claimed your Google Profile once you heard about it.

All the concept needs is a little marketing.  Google Profiles is clearly a no-no. Thinking over possible names and remembering the precedent of the Google Chrome browser, one name jumps out. 

Google Glitter!  The name would almost market itself.  The related concepts are multitudinous.  Status reports would be glints of course.  Perhaps if some related helpful ideas come to mind for Google, you could add them in the comments.   It undoubtedly would be much cheaper to buy the appropriate domain(s) and/or trademark(s) to allow the concept to shine than it would to buy that tottering whale.

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Are You On Google?

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So many people are now Googling for answers to their questions, it is not surprising that Google brings a goodly number of visitors to most websites.  I was particularly struck by this after a simple analysis I did for an article on Search Engine Marketing in the Marketing Right Now series.

Before I show you the results, perhaps you would like to fill-in the small survey on the right, provided your own website has more than 5000 page views per month.  This restriction is intended to give slightly greater validity to the findings.  It is completely anonymous, so please provide truthful results. 

From whatever data you have available for a reasonable period of time, say at least a month, please signify which bracket covers the percentage of visitors coming via Google to your website.  That could for example be Google analytics data if you use that.  Other traffic monitoring usually give similar data.

I suggest the result may be indicative of how well your site is optimized for Google keyword queries.  It will be very instructive to see the range of responses.  I was extremely gratified for this SMM domain with the results that appear below.  That is based on 6 months of data. 

71 percent of visitors coming via Google shows the SEO is very effective.  Can anyone top that? Please add your result in the comments if your website gets a greater percentage of Google visitors. Your views on what this all means would be much appreciated too.

Update: There’s a very interesting discussion on this at Cre8asite Forums. I encourage you to join in.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Take The Google Challenge

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The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has announced it will use “With Glowing Hearts” and “Des plus brilliants exploits” as the Games’ English and French mottos.

Both phrases come from O Canada. They will be used leading up to and through the Games. The phrases were recently trademarked by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee. According to VANOC chief executive officer John Furlong: “With glowing hearts’ is connected and familiar to all Canadians through our anthem, O Canada, and it also embodies what it takes to be an Olympic or Paralympic athlete.” It seems that this really appeals to the athletes but the general public is more divided. At the present time in a Castanet poll the votes split fairly evenly:

Poll Question: Do you think words from the Canadian national anthem should be used as the motto for the 2010 Olympics?
Yes 342 No 321 Total Votes: 663

In a way it is not surprising to see that split. It links to a topic raised by Guy Kawasaki on whether one should work on Mantras or Missions. Missions often tend to be long-winded and empty. He felt that mantras would better fire up the troops.. On the other hand, I felt that mottos or taglines were better since they tell your customers what you will do for them.

I believe what VANOC has delivered is a great 2010 Olympics mantra. It links in with all that good work done by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow. Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Who better than Olympics and Paralympics athletes to feel that Flow “With Glowing Hearts”.

Related: Faster Is Better

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

2010 Olympics Motto – Or Should That Be Mantra

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If Wikipedia is an essential resource of knowledge for you, you may find it is about to lose out against a powerful new competitor. Google announced last December that it would be encouraging people to contribute knowledge. Now we are told that Knol is open to everyone.

.. and what exactly is Knol? Well it is a website where you will find knols, which are authoritative articles about specific topics. And who are these authorities? It’s you and me. Provided no one else writes a better knol, then yours may stay as the authority. Your topic can be as important or as unimportant as you wish. For example, I wrote a knol on the humble exclamation mark!. I even included a relevant New Yorker cartoon on aliens and the exclamation point. That knol will stay as the authority until someone writes a more authoritative one.

Other commentators are quite clear on what it is all about. As ReadWriteWeb suggests, Google is taking on Wikipedia.

In many respects, Knol is similar to Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo, though its scope seems even more ambitious and its tools a bit more refined. It does, however, validate the Mahalo model.

And as Matthew Ingram suggests, Mahalo may be an early casualty as the heavy artillery arrives.

TechCrunch is even clearer on Google’s motivation: they wished to create a monetizable version of Wikipedia. However they do raise questions on whether this initiative will have any long-term lasting value.

What is quite clear is that this will markedly affect the normal Google search process. Although new web pages often rank well in a honeymoon period, Danny Sullivan feels already that knols are doing even better than might be expected in the search results. It all just makes it that much more difficult to rank well with organic search engine optimization (SEO).

Instead it means you will be seeing even more Google Adsense ads. That clearly is the name of the game. Whether this ubiquitous presence for AdWords will induce AdWords blindness is an interesting question. It certainly may give opportunities for other advertising services such as Performancing with its Targeted Blog Advertising.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Knol – Wikipedia With Ads

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This week I attended the WordCamp Fraser Valley session in Langley. It was excellent with a great deal to learn about the WordPress blogging software from some fine speakers. However the biggest revelation to me was that Vancouver is perhaps the Twitter capital of Canada.

Like many others I had wondered about the allure of Twitter. It is a very simple webpage with a box where you can tell the world something about your current status. What you type will be seen by any of your followers, if they happen to be looking. You can send that message from your mobile phone if you choose, and it all seems very simple. How could so many in the audience be such enthusiasts? I was at the other end of the spectrum with people like Steven Hodson, who proclaims that Twitter is Not a Micro-Blogging Tool.

My shortsightedness on this is explained by the fact that I never read the instructions. Indeed how could such a simple tool need instructions? How wrong I was.

The major item that has come onto my radar screen is that Twitter now has Search. It acquired Summize and has integrated this as Twitter Search. Just check out some of the Search Operators. You can type these search operators directly into the search box. (Alternatively, you can use the advanced search form to automatically construct your query.) Just look at some of the examples they give:

How does a search function distinguish between a positive attitude and a negative attitude. It’s still one of the unanswered questions I have.

Of course 140 characters and spaces is a very short post even for a micro-blog. However you can tag individual tweaks by using what is called a hashtag. Provided you register with hashtags.org then you can do searches such as #haiku to find all tweaks containing the hashtag “haiku”. You can also have Realtime Tracking of Twitter Hashtags if you wish.

Once I realized that Twitter was more than just a small box I decided I should read the instructions. They are labeled the Official Twitter Commands. These allow you to keep Twitter under control from phone, IM, and most 3rd party applications by using the designated Twitter commands? On all devices they give you fine-grained control of Twitter updates.

For example type in STATS and this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and which words you’re tracking. Twitter Tracking is a feature allowing you to receive on your mobile devices all Twitter updates that contain a word of choice. Send track+keyword to Twitter from your phone or IM to get updates containing that word. For example: track Obama to receive updates matching Obama. For now, track is for phone and IM only but Web support is potentially coming soon.

If you have not read the instructions for Twitter, studying the above information will be very worthwhile. Who knows, if you find blogging would be too much of a challenge for you, perhaps micro-blogging will give you similar pleasure for much less effort.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Twitter Micro-Blogging

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What is the most popular three letter word on the Internet as far as Google knows? We probably should disregard words that describe the Internet such as net (4.95 billion entries) or Web (4.33 billion entries). If you’re thinking sex (824 million entries), you are wrong. It’s that humble word tag (1.04 billion entries).

Surprisingly, Google does not have a definition for tag, but you can see lots of examples all around you.

Tag is a word you’ll be hearing more and more about. Another word, you could use would be label. The search engines using computer-based algorithms sometimes have difficulty finding that article you know exists on say, ‘artificial intelligence’. If only the author had tagged or labeled his article ‘artificial intelligence’, then your chances of finding it would be much higher. You can use a service like Technorati, which tries to tag as much of the Web as it can.

To make the popular tags in a blog more visible, you can use what is called a tag cloud. This has been added to this blog in the right sidebar, and it is also being displayed in the other SMM blogs. This is a feature that is simplicity in itself to implement if you’re using the WordPress software. If you click on any link in that tag cloud, then you will see a list of the posts that carry that tag. The tag archive web page also displays a longer list of tags, together with the categories under which posts here are listed.

If the simple logic of the tag does not convince you, then further proof is in this week’s news item that the tag is getting a powerful friend. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Internet, is receiving a $350,000 grant from the James S and James L. Knight Foundation to help refine news searches by employing more sophisticated tagging, way upstream. He and Martin Moore are working with Reuters and the BBC to figure out how to incorporate “source tagging” into routine journalistic workflow.

If you are not using tags yet, isn’t it time you should start. Guten Tag.

Related:
Effective Tagging For Both Usability & SEO – Stephan Spencer

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Tags Attract Eyes

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Google has a paid link dilemma, at least according to Patrick Altoft (tip of the hat to Lee Messenger). As he says:

The reason Google doesn?t like paid links is obvious and understandable from their point of view. Google quite simply doesn?t want websites to be able to buy their way to the top of the search engine rankings.

As I commented there:

Google is really a publisher. It publishes its search results. It adds paid advertisements and the more you pay the more visible your Adwords will be. It is trying to maintain that the non-Adwords content is commercial free. However it realizes that big advertisers may well spend money to get higher in the organic results ( the publication side of the business). It needs to be visible in trying to preserve the integrity of that noncommercial content.

Clearly Identifying Advertising

This is not a new issue. Back at Christmas 2003, I offered Google a suggestion on how its Search Engine Report Pages (SERPs) might appear.

Google SERP Mockup

This is almost like a newspaper page. In a good newspaper, there is a strict division between the advertising side and the editorial side. Similarly, in Google there is a strict division, a Chinese wall some say, between Search and Advertising. In the image, the Search section is white and labelled Information Zone. Here Google will serve relevant informational pages that relate to the meaning of your search. The blue section is labelled Commercial Zone and here Google delivers Advertising that is in context with the meaning of your search.

Such a clear distinction is what the Federal Trade Commission has ruled must occur on Search Engine Report Pages (SERP’s). Indeed if Google chose to show each content on different colored backgrounds as in the image, perhaps everyone would win. Those who wish to read the advertisements can easily identify them.

Ethical Publishing

Google will be 10 years old this coming September. The New York Times will be 157 years old in the same month. So it is had longer to grapple with these issues. Perhaps its Handbook of Values and Practices on Ethical Journalism (pdf file) might provide a model for Google. In particular, one can read the following:

72. The Times treats advertisers as fairly and openly as it treats readers and news sources. The relationship between The Times and advertisers rests on the understanding, long observed in all departments, that news and advertising are strictly separate – that those who deal with either one have distinct obligations and interests and neither group will try to influence the other.

Google might also take to heart what the New York Times says about integrity.

At a time of growing and even justified public suspicion about the impartiality, accuracy and integrity of some journalists and some journalism, it is imperative that The Times and its staff maintain the highest possible standards to insure that we do nothing that might erode readers? faith and confidence in our news columns. This means that staff members should be vigilant in avoiding any activity that might pose an actual or apparent conflict of interest and thus threaten the newspaper’s ethical standing. And it also means that the journalism we practice daily must be beyond reproach.

The Search Engine Report Pages (SERP’s) that Google produce around the world clearly have a much bigger impact than the New York Times. Given Google’s size, the need for integrity is paramount.

Is Google A Publisher?

Although a Doctor in Philosophy might not agree, the person in the street would have little difficulty with this question. Just take a look at Google News for example. Its tagline states: Search and browse 4,500 news sources updated continuously. It is so similar to a newspaper that Google even has to add a disclaimer at the foot of the page. The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.

Clearly there is a major difference between a New York Times publication and a Search Engine Report Page (SERP) produced by Google. What Google publishes is entirely created by computer. Every entry is there because Google’s search algorithm deemed it more relevant than items lower down in the list. The actual text for each item is then developed by an automatic snippet production process. No human author is involved.

The problem arises because Google’s search algorithm places some weight on the number of links pointing to any given web page entry. That is the core principle of the PageRank concept, which is what distinguishes Google from other search engines. Paid links may be one way in which website owners try to influence what appears in the Google SERPs. However this is only a tiny tip of the iceberg, as compared with the way major companies can influence where their websites appear in lists. Major companies can easily create a network of associated sub companies, affiliates and partners. These might quite naturally link to the mother company website. These links are technically not paid links but certainly generate benefits for their creators. It would however be a task worthy of King Solomon to decide which should be deemed paid links and which not.

Google has decided to take a different path, which could be viewed as undemocratic. It seems to be working with a very narrow definition of a paid link. This is a link that has been created because cash was received directly for its creation. Large companies can create links in much more creative ways and avoid the paid label being applied to their links. The present Google approach is likely to hit smaller companies and of course the more who are affected the louder the volume of complaints. If they wished to create the maximum noise about their approach, this is the way to do it. If effective, it could reduce the volume of such directly paid links. It avoids entirely the difficult question of links that are created by big company networks.

The Advertising/Editorial Content Dilemma

It’s not an easy problem for Google to resolve. As Louis Hau points out, even Newspapers Confront The Enemy Within:

Newsrooms have long cultivated a strict “church-state” division between themselves and their papers’ advertising departments, fearing a loss of independence and integrity–and with it the trust of readers. Like it or not, the newspaper industry’s increasingly grim financial outlook leaves editors with little choice but to work across the aisle.

Whereas newspapers may be discussing life-and-death issues here, that’s hardly the case for Google. Whether the Google Adwords program is influencing its approach to paid links is not something they declare. Paid links are certainly a competitor for a share of any online marketing budget. Some feel that Google can set its own rules in its own publications. However when a company becomes so dominant in any market place, perhaps the normal free competition rules need some restraint.

If you feel strongly on this, you may choose to add your comments here or perhaps join the ongoing discussion on this at Cre8asite Forums.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Does Google Need An Ethics Policy Like The New York Times?

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Robin Cannon in Search Engine Journal asks the somewhat puzzling question, ‘Is Google Trumping The URL?‘ Apparently more and more people use Google to find websites than type in the URL in the address bar of their browser. As he says:

When there?s a simple box to fill in with your search term, and you know exactly what you?re looking, why bother to use the address bar? If statistics on popular searches are anything to go by, it looks like many people aren?t bothering with that inconvenient ?www? and ?.com? and are just going straight through Google.

Hitwise UK just published its most searched for brands 2007 statistics, and the fastest rising US search terms are widely available. Both suggest that Google users know exactly where they want to browse to, and just use the search box to give them the link to click.

It’s certainly an intriguing finding. It brings with it a very important downgrading of the value of a dot-com domain name. If anyone is typing in a website URL in the browser address bar, then they may well guess that it’s a dot-com domain. So they type say ‘cnn.com’, hit the [Enter] key and will be shown the www.cnn.com website. If they are somewhat computer savvy, then they need only type cnn and hit [Control][Enter] and the same website opens up. That works for almost any browser, be it Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari or even exotic ones like Flock.

Using the Google search box instead of the address bar opens up a whole new world. Typing in only the domain name without the dot-com may or may not bring you to the dot-com website. It all depends what Google feels is the most relevant result for the word you have typed in. If you can get your dot-net, dot-org or dot-ca website to be #1 in Google, then you’ll win the searcher’s click. Dot-com domains are no longer invincible on the web. As so often happens, the Internet with Google’s help is levelling the playing field

Reference:
SWOT That Company Name
I?m Feeling Lucky, Google

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Google Downgrades Dot-Coms Value

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Apparently those responsible for Stanley Park are concerned that people may just type in StanleyPark into their browser address field and end up on the website of Gerry O’Neil who operates the horse-drawn carriage tours in the Park. It is true that most browsers will behave exactly like that. So according to the Vancouver Sun, the Park Board is asking Mr. O’Neil to give them the StanleyPark.com domain. Apparently they much prefer the dot com domain to the StanleyPark.ca domain, which also exists.

What they seem to be forgetting is that more and more people use Google nowadays to find almost anything. Only a tiny minority would try to guess the domain that might apply. Would that be StanleyPark.com or Stanley-Park.com or something else? Google is so much easier. Doing a Google search for ‘Stanley Park’ quickly brings up a number of relevant websites. Surprisingly not too many of them look like StanleyPark.com. The closest are the following:

• #7 www.stanleypark.org for Welcome to the Stanley Park of Westfield, MA 01085
• #17 www.friendsofstanleypark.org.uk The website of Friends of Stanley Park, Blackpool, UK
• #79 mystanleypark.com All about Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada

You have to go as far as #161 to find the cherished stanleypark.com. So is it really so important to have the dot com? stanleypark.ca isn’t even in the top 500 so that’s not the answer.

It’s a pity that those dot ca domains aren’t getting more recognition. As Michael Geist points out in The Toronto Star, the dot-ca domain name policy puts us in the Internet vanguard.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the agency that manages the dot-ca domain, celebrated its one-millionth domain name registration. A noteworthy development is that CIRA also quietly announced the implementation of a new “whois” policy that will better protect the privacy of hundreds of thousands of Canadians and serve as a model for domain name registries around the world.

However fine the attributes of a dot-ca, it doesn’t seem to get respect. For example, the Royal Bank doesn’t own rbc.ca. However if you do a search for ‘Royal Bank’, then most of the initial entries are for Royal Bank of Canada websites, with the rbc.com coming in at #3. rbc.ca doesn’t feature in the first 500. Nor should it, since it is the Recreation and Business Centre. It can’t even appear in the first 100 for a search of its exact name.

The bottom line on all this is that the domain name has very little influence on how Google or the other major search engines choose what is relevant when someone searches. If a website has good content on its subject and other websites link to it as a reference, then it will feature highly in Google. That search engine visibility is the most important online strength a domain can have.

Reference: SWOT That Company Name

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Stanley Park, Vancouver, Google Search

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