This is a serious matter, can Google really deliver top quality search results for other countries? The answer so far is "sort of". In this article I will use Canada as an example of the quality or lack of quality, that is delivered by Google's search results.
Let's take a look at Canadian search results by Google.ca
When you highlight "Canada" through Google search results and then start searching, you may be surprised at the number of companies that aren't really Canadian. All of this also applies to the UK and other major markets as well...
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ - May 2, 2005 -- Globe7, announces a simple, elegant and fully functional Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) VoIP solution that is ready to use on its Globe7 site. Customers can log on to the http://www.globe7.com and download the software, install it to their PC and the customer will receive a U.S. number for their PC. Customers can start making and receiving calls across the world.
The perfect search engine be a small microchip implanted in our brain. It would act as an instantaneous connection between the vast complexity of our brain and the vast complexity of the Web. To find something, we would just have to think about it and the chip would match that concept with the most relevant destination online.
Unfortunately, such a development hasn't rolled out of the Google Labs yet. So for now, we have to shoehorn our thoughts into a small quarter-inch by three-inch box on the search engine's home page. We have to distill our thoughts into a few choice words and hope this provides the search engine with enough to go by. And there lies the ultimate vulnerability point of search. Often, our ideas are too big to capture in one or two words.
Search engine optimization is in many ways, like weight loss. You've got some things that are effective, some that are not and it's hard to tell the claims of one from the other. You want to believe the great-results-with-no-effort claims, and you hope they are true... but are they worth wasting your time and money on?
What are Topical Search Engines? Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.
While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don't realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.
A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.
If you've been in the copywriting realm for very long at all, you've heard the phrase "features vs. benefits." It's a fundamental copywriting principle and driving force behind much of what we, as copywriters, create. But there's also another aspect to this equation.
What happens after customers buy your product or service? Once they've used what you have to offer, what will be different in their lives? What will the end results, of their buying decision, be? Getting your customers to look at the end results of their actions can be an extremely powerful persuasion tool that you'll want to incorporate into your copy.
Let's look at features, benefits and end results and see how all three work individually and collectively to create a targeted push to the point of purchase.
NEW YORK, NY -- JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today reported that the number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35% in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers. Currently, over 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared to 19% in 2001.
JupiterResearch consumer surveys show that the percentage of online adults using the Internet for daily news had been flat - hovering around 50% - for the last few years. Preference for online local news is growing, but hasn't exceeded 10% among online adults. Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are helping drive the preference trend, especially in national news. Thirty-three percent of online young adults say they prefer the Internet as their primary source of news, while 40% prefer TV and 10% newspapers.
In preparing for a presentation I'm going to do in a month or so to a group of catalogue publishers, I decided to do some research to see how search worked to bring traffic to some well known online catalogues. What searches translated into traffic for Lands End, or L.L. Bean, or Victoria's Secret.
The more I dug, with the help of Hitwise, the more surprised I got. In each of these cases, variations of the site's name accounted one half of all search traffic. With Lands End, these variations totaled a little over 48% of all their search referrals. Just over 3% of all search referrals were for www.landsend.com, the exact URL users could have just typed in their address bar.
With L.L. Bean, the total was about 42% and Victoria's Secret was about 63.5%. So, about 1 out of every 2 searches that ended up delivering traffic to these sites appears to be someone who was unsure of the actual URL and thought it would be quicker just to search for it.
This article covers some useful tips for creating a blog.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.
I almost missed this one as there was an obscure post relating to MSN and they mentioned it as an aside but Google now has a new way to help you manage your search history.
If you go to Google labs you'll find a new tool called "My Search History" which, when clicked on, allows you to sign into your Gmail account (or create a Google account) and it will store your search history for you. From what terms you searched for but didn't click on any results, to those sites you did visit when clicking on results.
It only seems to work on the main Google search results (no images, news or groups yet) and doesn't seem to work on other regional Google sites (such as Google.ca). But again, I'm sure that will come with time.