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By Wendy Suto (c) 2010

Since its debut in 1996, Google’s search engine has experienced countless updates and revisions. But none of those revisions have fundamentally changed the architecture of the Google search algorithm as much as Google’s latest update, codenamed Caffeine.

While recent reports put Google’s market share at around 65 percent, a massive update to its search engine technology makes sense at this point. Microsoft’s new Bing search engine showed some resiliency in late 2009, while Web 2.0 services like Facebook and Twitter have done a lot to change the way people search for content on the Internet.

For Google to remain the most popular search service, it will have to counter Bing’s claims of technical superiority. It would also have to more effectively incorporate “real-time search,” the term used for finding information and content - like tweets from Twitter and breaking news stories - that have just been posted.

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Jul 25, 2010 at 2:46pm ET by Chris Sherman

Virtually all of the famous print travel guides have online counterparts. Most are just as packed with information, photos and maps as their print versions. Most also have planning tools, community, deals and other online-specific features. Surprisingly, for sites that offer information about travel and moving around the world, many don’t have mobile versions of their websites, though some do have apps or iBook versions.

If you’ve ever browsed the print versions of many of these travel guides, you know that they’re largely similar, and the one that works best for you is largely a matter of subjective taste. That’s true online, as well. I’d recommend sampling what each has to offer before picking out a few favorites to return to as trusted resources.

ArrivalGuides.com

Arrivalguides.com

Billing itself as “the world’s largest network of free travel guides,” Arrivalguides.com is unique in that it’s entirely web-based, and all of its guides are available as free, high-quality PDF downloads. Although the website is available in either English or Swedish, if you click through to individual destination cities you’ll often find options to download the guide in different languages, including the local language spoken at the destination. Arrivalguides.com doesn’t have a mobile version, but does offer free downloads of its most popular guides in the iTunes app store.

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By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010


No less than CNN is reporting rumors that Google does indeed have a social networking site in the works which could give Facebook some competition. This new social site/program is supposed to be called GoogleMe or Google Me.

Only Google knows the truth.

However, creating such a site would be a smart move on Google’s part since they do need to compéte with Facebook, mainly because Facebook is turning into a real search engine, one that could possibly give Google a run for all those lucrative search dollars. Ridiculous you say - not really, especially when you consider Facebook’s recent move towards “Open Graph Search” and its use of the “Like” button and box. is the number of plugins which you can add to your blog.

Unless the surfing public changes overnight, Bing/Yahoo is not going to give Google any real search competition, but Facebook with its massive number of users and rating system could present a true contender.


We also might see a complete change in how the surfing public sees online search. Google and the other search engines are quickly becoming one big “joke” in regards to organic search with big companies buying and selling their way into the top 10 spots and the search engines are helpless to stop it.

Link buying and selling has made organic search a joke and more and more web users are catching on to this fact. Once this becomes common knowledge, search engines will be appropriately viewed as corporate billboards rather than anything of true relevance or importance - even the mighty Google could fall.

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By Ryan Singel, Wired

July 21, 2010

(Wired) — Facebook is primed to announce this week that it’s amassed a half billion active friends, a milestone reinforcing its status as the king of social networks — a company to be regarded with the seriousness and power (if not revenue) of Google, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Five hundred million and rising also makes it clear to anyone not paying attention that Facebook is no fad, that it is a cultural force shaping our collective culture. Even if you have no desire to ever set up a profile, you can’t ignore it and you are now oddly defined in the negative and left out of the zeitgeist.

A service of that size won’t disappear anytime soon, even if Facebook has hit its plateau in the U.S. But net users are fickle and the web’s short history includes dozens of sites that were once high-flying that have either since died (Geocities), lost their luster (Yahoo) or faded into irrelevance (Friendster).

So how could Facebook lose its place at the center of the web?
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By Mark Nunney (c) 2010

Your website’s content will get noticed, get read, and get customers if you use your headline and first paragraph to let readers know what is in it for them. Here, I’ll introduce you to some techniques you can use to make that happen.


This article is an edited version of a chapter of Wordtracker’s The Website Content Recipe Book - 21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization.

Don’t Stop Marketing - Every Page is a Marketing Page

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By George Muha (c) 2010

The people at Google are truly inspired! They are evolving their search engine into something that can be an incredibly powerful tool for business. There are a zillion things that Google can do for different parts of your business and in this post, I will highlight the top 10 Google search tools that will help your supply chain.


Since Google is just a click away, I think it’s a very useful for everybody involved in the supply chain to be aware of how much easier it can make their lives. Everybody from traffic managers, to purchasing people, to accounting people and customer service will likely need to reference what Google can do during the course of the week. There are a lot of people who don’t even know all of Google’s capabilities. So without further ado, here is your:

Top 10 Google Search Tools That Will Help Your Supply Chain

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Please click on link below to see a copy of the inaugural Travel Daily Airline Business Class Guide, a free supplement for TD readers giving an overview of the business class products offered by major airlines marketing flights in Australia.

Click here to download Travel Daily’s 2010 Business Class Guide


I’ve addressed the OTA issue a few times in the past, but it’s time to get down to brass tacks.  Not all OTAs are created equal, and in my opinion one of them is due for a comeuppance by the hotel industry.  At least, by those hotels that are not part of the big five.

I am referring to our friends at Expedia.  I’m not being facetious, the market managers I work with are great people.  But it’s time to get real.  I don’t know what your agreement says, but the ones I’ve seen lately are ridiculous.  Demands for 10% block space AND last room availability.  In other words, “we have rooms as long as you have rooms, and then we still have rooms after you don’t!”

There’s also Expedia’s facist regime that monitors your every promotion and hauls you onto the carpet whenever you have the audacity to give a rate to anyone else.  This week, they crossed the line as far as I’m concerned.

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El blog de Mirai para hoteleros
On May 6th 2010 in its press release Tripadvisor announced that over 12 000 hotels around the world had subscribed to its Business Listings service and added their urls, emails and telephone numbers.  Five months after the launch Paris has taken the leader position wih 13% slice of the total listings with urls, followed by Rome, Florence and Venice.

It looks like a great business for Tripadvisor! According to cautious estimates, the above numbers can mean at least 5 million euros in revenue generated by the new feature. But is it really worth for a hotelier to pay from 400 up to 10 000 Euros per year? Since TripAdvisor launched the service we have received many enquiries from numerous hoteliers, keen to boost their direct sales by placing a link, asking whether it pays off. We decided to check it.

So what is exactly a Business Listing on TripAdvisor?

It is a service that enables a hotelier to place a simple link containing hotel’s telephone number, URL and email on a search results page (Screen 1) and on a hotel’s sub-page on TripAdvisor (Screen 2).

01 TripAdvisor Business Listing – not for everyone

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JULY 12, 2010

The main reason? They just lost interest

There’s no question of Facebook’s position at the top of the social networking space, and one thing that makes the site so powerful is that when it comes to social networking, a user’s friends must be users too. But among some teens, Facebook may be losing its stickiness.

According to a study from OTX and virtual fashion siteRoiworld, nearly one in five teens with a Facebook profile had decreased or discontinued their use of the site as of April 2010.

What’s more, the decreases seemed to speed up in recent months, with two-thirds of the lapsed users having turned away from the site in the past six months.

Time Period of Decreased Facebook Usage, Apr 2010 (% of US teen lapsed Facebook users)

In addition, 9% of teen internet users said they had a Facebook profile but had completely abandoned it.

This turnover does not approach the level of MySpace, where 22% of teens had completely stopped using a profile. YouTube and Twitter both sported relatively high 15% abandonment rates.

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By Elyse Tager (c) 2010

Most business professionals are on LinkedIn at this point. LinkedIn tells us that:

  • LinkedIn has over 70 million members in over 200 countries.
  • A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and  about half of our members are outside the U.S.
  • Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
To me that states clearly that if you have almost ANY kind of business and are prospecting, LI will be a good resource for you. But just setting up a profile and dabbling once a week or so is not going to do much for your prospecting efforts. Below are a few tips that not many folks know about, but are powerful techniques for increasing your visibility and maximizing that “inbound marketing” that Social Media is known for.

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By Tinu AbayomiPaul (c) 2010


There are about ten common Facebook marketing tactics. (You can probably think of more, but most are a derivative of one of these ten.) It may surprise you to learn that five of these tactics don’t even work — that’s fully half! Now, no Fire God will suddenly appear to smite you if you happen to have done one of the following things. They are definitely mistakes, but they aren’t irreversible. In fact, they’re really only mistakes in one sense of the word.


My perception of these as “mistakes” isn’t about breaches of the unwritten Facebook etiquette either - I dance on those lines myself from time to time.

Rather, I’m calling them mistakes from a perspective of effectiveness, versus the alternative behavior. Whether they’re wrong in terms of just coming across as rude or politically incorrect is another matter altogether.

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Want to know what the top consumer trends are when it comes to searching for travel? We got some great statistics from JaneButlerGoogle’s industry director for travel.

Here are some some general trends and percentages that will help you know what your clients are looking for….(we’ll give you a hint, it’s deals!)

All statistics reflect a year-over-year change from 2009 to 2010:

Searches for “summer vacations” are up by 5 percent.

Searches for “all inclusive vacations” are up by 20 percent.

Searches for “travel packages” are up by more than 10 percent.

Searches for “train tickets” are up by 10 percent.

Searches for “cheap plane tickets” are up by nearly 10 percent.

Searches for “package deals” are up by nearly 20 percent.

Searches for “last minute flights” are up by 9 percent, year over year — as are searches for “last minute cruises.”

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By Jeffrey L. Smith (c) 2010


The only thing better than one search result in the top 3 positions in Google is two search results from a double ranking. This SEO tip works by pushing a competitor off the first page, broadening your websites keyword funnel and thereby doubling traffic and conversions.

Two Results are Better than One

I read somewhere that 87% of search engine traffic for a given keyword is allocated from occupying the Number 1 position in the search engine results page. If you understand SEO, then this post will share a quick method to double your SERP positions and to improve the likelihood of keyword conversions - once you have reached the Mecca for a specific search term.

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By Matt Jackson (c) 2010

Business blogging is a different kettle of fish to blogging for money and that, in turn, is entirely different to blogging socially. The type of blog you manage will determine the voice, design, and style of your blog as well as the efforts you’re likely to put into promoting i

A business blog needs to be professional as well as appear it. Regular posting on topics that your readers will genuinely find interesting can promote you as an expert in your field. A blog can keep the line of communication between you and potential customers open. It enables you to post relevant, keyword rich postings that encourage new traffic and help build your client base.

It’s far from an exhaustive list but below are ten tips to remember when blogging for business:

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By D M Gray (c) 2010

Social media marketing is an essential tool for any business. Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are among the most popular sites regularly visited on the internet and can generate large numbers of visitors and new sales leads.

Many businesses are already utilizing social media marketing as part of their ongoing business strategy, but a large percentage of these are not aware of the essentials required to fully maximize social media to its full potential.

Here are 5 important criteria that need to be addressed in order to run a successful social media campaign.

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In addition to hotel photos, hotel videos & reviews, the new service combines Google Street View technology with Accommodation Guru hotel data to enable consumers to virtually experience the location of their selected accommodation, before purchase.

It provides unprecedented panoramic views of each property – as if walking along the street outside – and helps travel researchers to check out details such as the location of their nearest restaurant, nearby parks and bars and get a good look at the general hotel surroundings so they can book with the assurance that they know exactly what to expect when they arrive. User reviews, hotel images and rates also pop up, allowing travellers to explore their chosen hotel from all angles before purchase.

No longer will people need to trust and book on the hotel description alone because it is now possible to see exactly how far it is from local attractions and sights as well as what the surrounding area has to offer.

In addition, Accommodation Guru has also added Google Panororamio - a display of local images within a given radius of a property.

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June 14, 2010 | Online Travel

Supplementing the site’s more than 35 million reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world, the wisdom of crowds on TripAdvisor is now enhanced by the wisdom of friends, delivering personalised recommendations.

TripAdvisor today announced the launch of its “TripAdvisor Trip Friends” feature, allowing travellers to get advice from their Facebook friends on TripAdvisor to plan their next vacation.

Supplementing the site’s more than 35 million reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world, the wisdom of crowds on TripAdvisor is now enhanced by the wisdom of friends, delivering personalised recommendations.

“As the world’s largest travel site, we’re thrilled to continue revolutionising the travel industry by providing our community with exciting new access to their friends’ valuable advice about travel,” said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. “With TripAdvisor Trip Friends, our 34 million monthly visitors can tap into their friends’ wealth of travel knowledge with just a few clicks, making holiday planning more fun, social and personal.”

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By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010

Recent changes to Google make it seem like Google is no longer just one search engine but a combination of 6 or 7 different search engines all rolled into one. Your SEO efforts should now be geared to ranking high in these search engines as well as in traditional organic search.


A little while back, I wrote an article entitled “The Five Pillars of Google Search” and had I known how important those pillars would become, I would have paid more attention to them. What I didn’t factor into the equation was Google’s whole re-structuring of its SERPs interface or landing page. It really is a whole new Google with not just one search engine but a combination of 6 or 7 search engines all competing for your attention.

The new left side column with its new functions and displays, opens up new opportunities for webmasters to get their listings within Google on that all-important first page. There are also many new ways to view the results such as view everything, or you can view with more or less shopping links. Plus, you can also view Google results for books, maps, blogs, updates, and discussions - all new ways to get your site or links into Google. Throw in the Wonder Wheel and things are indeed looking very different within the new Google SERPs.

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ASHER MOSES IN TOKYO
June 9, 2010 - 11:30AM

Google revamps search page

We moved the goalposts over here ... Google senior vice-president Alan Eustace describes the changes as huge.Google recently released this video to explain their revamped search functionality. From today, new algorithms will make searching even faster.

Google has today launched one of the biggest revamps of its search engine in history, which it says will provide search results that are 70 per cent fresher than the current algorithm.

The company says the new indexing system, dubbed “Caffeine”, will provide the largest selection of web content ever offered on Google. It’s faster - processing hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel every second - and takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database.

But, as happens with so many tweaks to Google’s mysterious formula, some businesses and websites that rely heavily on Google referrals might see their traffic suffer as the changes could result in them falling further down the search rankings.

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By Bonnie Jo Davis (c) 2010

Almost every social networking site offers a feature called a “profile” that allows members to include their picture, a biography, live links to their websites and other detailed information. Most of us have multiple online profiles that are empty or only partially completed. It is this profile that helps other users decide if they want to work with you. Another perk of online profiles is that the live links pointing to your website may impact your search engine ranking.

It is very important that you think of these profiles as your own “Public Relations Department or Media Room”, specifically designed to sell you and your business. Imagine that you only have a few seconds to sell a new prospect on why they should want to get to know you and possibly do business with you. What is said and offered during these few seconds can make all the difference in the world. This is EXACTLY why your online profiles need to be completed to capture the attention of anyone who visits these sites.

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By Merle (c) 2010 MerlesWorld.com

If you have a brick and mortar store, and rely on walk-in traffic for your survival, you may be wondering what the Internet can do for your business. Believe it or not, a lot - and you don’t even need a website.


In the “old days”, the bulk of businesses relied on the Yellow Pages to get the phone ringing. The majority of marketing dollars were spent getting listed in this ten pound paperweight. With the popularity of the Net, less people let “their fingers do the walking” when they need something, and more are letting their mouse do the talking.

Online search has gone mainstream when it comes to searching for local businesses. Google states that 73% of searches are done for local content. Another study by BIA/Kelsey and Constat report that 97% of consumers use online resources when doing research for products/services in their local area. See www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp.

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adtwThe Tourism e-kit is designed to assist tourism operators to make the most of opportunities the internet provides. We understand that you are all busy individuals with limited time available. So we have developed a series of simple tutorials to quickly give you the skills and knowledge to make informed decisions on this important area of your business.

The e-kit covers a wide range of subjects from the basics of developing a good web site to advanced topics like search engine marketing and online product distribution.

You’ll also:

  • Get step-by-step lessons on e-marketing
  • Find out what resources are available to you

Click here to download pdf

Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a compelling promise that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist. So, from a copywriting and content marketingstandpoint, writing great headlines is a critical skill.

Here are some interesting statistics.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of your title, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.

Remember, every element of compelling copy has just one purpose — to get the next sentence read. And then the sentence after that, and so on, all the way down to your call to action. So it’s fairly obvious that if people stop at the headline, you’re already dead in the water.

The better your headline, the better your odds of beating the averages and getting what you’ve written read by a larger percentage of people. This 11-part series will provide you with concrete guidance that’ll have you writing better headlines in no time.

  1. Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First
  2. The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines
  3. Do Key Words in Post Titles Really Matter?
  4. How to Write a Killer “How To” Post That Gets Attention
  5. 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
  6. Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles
  7. 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
  8. 9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy
  9. 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work
  10. Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Templates at Your Own Risk
  11. The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines

For the other fundamental elements of writing great copy, check outCopywriting 101.

Sign up for free updates from Copyblogger for more tips on copywriting, content marketing, and writing great headlines.

May 25, 2010 at 8:58am ET by Greg Finn

Last month, Facebook dropped the news about their “Open Graph” or new Facebook Platform that brings content into Facebook  – and of course expands Facebook’s web reach out to a more granular level. Since the announcement, there have been two questions asked quite frequently:

  1. Should I put this on my website?
  2. How do I put this on my website?

Luckily, this post will answer both of the above questions.  To question 1: unless you have content that isn’t interesting, isn’t social in nature or you have privacy concerns, adding this is new functionality to your original content is recommended.

However, it isn’t recommended to go buck wild putting this functionality on every page, just your content that would interesting people. Should it be on your Contact Us Page? No. Should it be on your weekly unique and creative blog posts? Yes. The answer to question 2 isn’t quite cut and dry, so this post will serve as an à la carte menu on the various different ways to implement the Facebook “Like” code onto your individual pages/posts.

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MAY 24, 2010

Individual engagement for healthy brand relationships

Frequency with Which US and UK Internet Users Compare Products/Services Before Purchasing, 2010 (% of respondents)

The Internet and its increasingly social technologies have put more power into the hands of consumers. They can easily conduct their own product research, get advice and read reviews from peers, and broadcast their own complaints if they have a bad experience. According to the “Your Brand: At Risk or Ready for Growth” report from marketing services companyAlterian, these technological changes have led to skepticism and cynicism in consumers.

Rather than simply trusting experts or putting faith in brands, Internet users expect to do their own research and comparison shopping using many sources.

Nearly every respondent to Alterian’s survey did their own research and comparisons before a purchase at least sometimes, and 71% said they looked for as many information sources as possible to verify their findings.

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May 25, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

Facebook’s new “Like” button acts like an open channel - allowing creative hotel marketers to offer discounted rates, room photos, or special offers directly to people who are already interested in your services.

In April, Facebook debuted their new-and-improved “Like” button, allowing users to more easily connect with brands, services, and products across the Web.

The old Facebook “Like” function allowed users to connect only within their Facebook networks. For example, if someone posted any content, their network of friends could click a button if they enjoyed the content. The new “Like” button takes this group-excitement principle a step further by letting Facebook users click “Like” buttons on third-party websites. The user’s Facebook profile will then be connected with the company’s Facebook page.

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By Duncan Wierman (c) 2010

The one problem here is that most entrepreneurs look towards quantity as opposed to quality in their followers. This can prove to be a huge mistake since you don’t ever want to sacrifice quality when looking to amass Twitter followers.

How do people make such a mistake? Well, they look at volume as being the secret to their success. The problem here is that the process is not going to be a very successful one. Rather, it can prove to be disastrous more than anything else because your business ends up promoting itself to those that are really not interested in the products or services you are offering.

Yes, some people will sign on to be followers of your Twitter account with no real interest in being customers. That is why you need to develop a strong niche following as opposed to a large following.

The bottom line here is you do NOT want a large list of followers. You want an EFFECTIVE list of followers.

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The final top 10 ranking in the awards were:

1. Asiana Airlines

2. Singapore Airlines

3. Qatar Airways

4. Cathay Pacific

5. Air New Zealand

6. Etihad Airways

7. Qantas Airways

8. Emirates

9. Thai Airways

10. Malaysia Airlines

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Keywords are the defining element of SEO.


They help people find what they’re looking for when they perform a search — which is why you want to make sure your site is properly optimized for your best keywords.

… But will keywords always be the focus of SEO? Probably not.

Even now, the search engines place a lot of importance on the words that surround the keywords on your site. It’s not enough for you to have your best keywords embedded in strategic locations on your site. The rest of your content also has to be relevant.

Latent Semantic Indexing

For example, if you sell a diabetes cookbook and your top keyword is “healthy recipes for diabetics,” you need to optimize your site for that keyword.

… But you also need to make sure your content includes other related words and phrases, such as:

  • diabetes
  • cookbook
  • healthy eating
  • insulin
  • glucose
  • blood sugar
  • diabetes management targets
  • nutritional requirements
  • carbohydrates

… and so on.

Some of these terms, such as “carbohydrates,” and “healthy eating,” aren’t specific to “healthy recipes for diabetics” at all… yet they’re terms the search engines want to find on a site that’s optimized for that keyword. They are a sign that the content on the site is relevant and useful.

… And that’s what the search engines are in the business of providing: USEFUL information to their users.

This focus on related terms is called “latent semantic indexing.” That’s just a fancy term describing how a computer determines the meaning of a body of words by looking at the relationships between those words. Instead of looking at the words and phrases individually, they look at the content as a whole.

Right now, search engines aren’t yet able to employ true latent semantic indexing– with all the information on the Internet, this job is enormously complicated! But that’s the goal they’re working toward. And when they reach that goal, your individual keywords won’t be nearly as important as the depth and breadth of your content as a whole.

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May 19, 2010

As reviews become ubiquitous, playing an increasingly critical role in travel decisions, hoteliers can no longer afford to let complaints go unanswered. Here are more tips for responding to negative online reviews.

By Daniel Edward Craig

It appears that hotels are finally waking up to the importance of monitoring and responding to online reviews. TripAdvisor reports a 203% increase in hotel responses to negative reviews last year. Unfortunately, this equates to a mere 4% response rate. As reviews become ubiquitous, playing an increasingly critical role in travel decisions, hoteliers can no longer afford to let complaints go unanswered.

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All the buzz about Facebook’s most recent changes has left marketers scrambling to get a grasp of what these new products and features mean for their business. For marketers, keeping up with the entire social web is a job in itself, and FacebookFacebook’s constant evolution doesn’t make it any easier.

To sum up the recent announcements, it is appropriate to simply state that Facebook has moved one step closer to creating the semantic web — that is, a human-powered web — and positioning itself at the center of this new universe.

Facebook’s Open Graph protocol will help cultivate richer and more useful data in an attempt to make “social” the new default of the web. Still, the looming question is: What does this mean for businesses that have invested so much in Facebook marketing? If any of Mark Zuckerberg’s audacious F8 presentations come to fruition, businesses should start optimizing their Facebook presence now more than ever.


What Was Introduced at the F8 Conference?


There were three primary items that were announced at F8 that will work in conjunction with the rest of the web to make it more social:

  • Social Plugins: Social plugins are the easiest way for anyone to integrate Facebook’s social features on their website. By adding a few lines of code to your site, you will give visitors the ability to engage with both your website and your Facebook presence. The focus is on the “Like button.” Clicking it places content from that web page in your Facebook stream. This differs from the Facebook “share button,” as you now receive updated content from that web page directly in your feed.
  • Open Graph Protocol: The Open Graph is less of a feature or product and more of the overarching concept of what Facebook is employing. The foundation of the Open Graph protocol lies in having website owners identify their pages as “objects” (examples: a movie on IMDb or an athlete on ESPN.com). This allows Facebook to establish a connection to those objects, optimizing the website’s presence across Facebook and setting up two-way channels between the web pages and Facebook.
  • Open Graph API: This is the actual API that developers will be working with to integrate websites with the Open Graph. At F8, Facebook’s product team stressed the simplicity of implementing the API, perhaps after seeing the mass adoption of the TwitterTwitter API and its ease of use.

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By Martin Sejas (c) 2010

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you know how popular and widely used Facebook is today.

Just a couple of years ago, you had to relentlessly encourage family and friends to join this social networking website (shortly after others had convinced you to join). Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t got a Facebook account.

At last count, there were over 350 million users on Facebook and this number is continuing to grow. It overtook MySpace as the number 1 social networking website on the planet last year and is just behind Google when it comes to online traffic. You can then understand how important Facebook marketing has become for websites everywhere.

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May 06, 2010

The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool has been our favorite keyword research tool for some time now. It’s easy to use, it uses actual Google data, and, as noted, it’s free!

Google recently started making the beta version of its new keyword research tool more available to the general public — and it now offers an even greater wealth of information you can use to:

  • Identify profitable business ideas
  • Optimize your site for the search engines
  • Run highly targeted PPC campaigns
  • Connect with your audience online

Today we’re going to take a closer look at some of the great new features offered in the beta tool so you can ramp up your keyword research and start taking advantage of all this great new information right away

Brand-New Interface

This is what the current keyword tool looks like:

google keyword tool is one of the best internet marketing tools

And this is what your results look like:

The #1 Internet Marketing Tool

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May 5, 2010 - eMarketer Staff

After years of healthy growth, a perfect storm comprising the global recession, high unemployment, terrorism scares, flu-pandemic fears and continued economic uncertainty took a devastating toll on the U.S. travel industry in 2009.

Despite such difficulties, use of the online channel for researching, discussing and booking leisure and business travel has shown surprising resilience and will grow to constitute an even greater percentage of the total travel market in the post-recessionary environment.

While sales declined 6.7 percent in 2009, eMarketer projects that U.S. online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales growth will begin to accelerate this year, peaking at 7 percent in 2012, when sales will hit $105.4 billion.

TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards are based on the millions of real and unbiased reviews and opinions from travelers on TripAdvisor.com. The winners were determined by a combination of travelers’ destination comments, favorite places, and overall destination popularity on TripAdvisor.

Destinations were awarded in the following categories: Top Destinations in the U.S. and World, Best for Families, Romance, Beach & Sun, Culture & Sightseeing, Food & Wine, Nightlife, Outdoor & Adventure, Relaxation & Spa, and Top Emerging Destinations.

“Millions of travelers rely on TripAdvisor for travel inspiration and have helped identify the world’s most outstanding destinations,” said Christine Petersen, chief marketing officer for TripAdvisor. “From stunningly beautiful locales to hot spots with amazing attractions, the 2010 Travelers’ Choice Destinations Award winners are truly incredible places that travelers love.”

For the complete 2010 Travelers’ Choice list, visitTripAdvisor

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you would know how popular and widely used Facebook is today.

Just a few short years ago, you had to encourage all your family and friends to join this social networking website (just after others convinced you to join). Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t got a Facebook account.

At last count, there were over 350 million users on Facebook and this number is continuing to grow. It overtook MySpace as the number 1 social networking website on the planet last year and is just behind Google when it comes to online traffic. You are then able to understand how important Facebook marketing has become for all websites.

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2009 saw a lot of exciting changes and additions to the world of online marketing and search engine optimization. Some important events that took place were the launch of BING, announcement of Google Caffeine, the merger of Yahoo and Microsoft search. 2010 will see real time web emerging which will become more popular than the traditional methods of optimization.

Following is the list of pointers to get your website on top, reach out to potential customers and ensure brand visibility in 2010.

  1. Decrease Webpage Load Time. Google’s Matt Cutts recently hinted that the load time of a website may affect its ranking in the search engines. That is, the faster a website loads, the better its chances to rank well for its niche keywords. Website load time is touted as the next big step towards improved rankings. The pre-requisites to a good webpage load time are; reputable web host and fast internet connection.
  2. Get Listed in Google Local Search. Getting listed in Google Local Search ensures brand visibility in front of visitors from the nearby places. It has been proven that the number of visitors to a website increase exponentially when listed in local search results. The reason being, a customer will always prefer to purchase a quality product which is easily available in his or her vicinity rather than order it from another unfamiliar city or state.
  3. Get Involved in Social Media. Social Media is the flavor of the season and in 2010 organizations are going to actively engage in conversation and social networking and reach out to their potential customers. Social Media Marketing is a must for every organization as it helps create brand awareness and build relationships with consumers in the highly competitive market. Micro targeting and Personalization will be the keywords in 2010.
  4. Optimize Your Website Mobile Users. With and ever increasing number of people tweeting and using Facebook from their mobile devices, a lot of organizations are now finally paying attention to how their websites appear on mobile phones. You can have your website appear on the mobile under the same URL or have a special domain for the same. The most common way is to have the domain name as mobile.websitename.com.
  5. Apply Web Analytics to its full potential. There are hundreds of web analytics tools in the market which provide a mountain of data pertaining to the visitor’s usage. Some of the most well known web analytics tools are Omniture, Google Analytics and Yahoo! Web Analytics etc. Web Analytics tools can answer the “how” but not the “why”. That is, you can find out how many visitors checked the product catalogue webpage, but not the answer to, why the visitors didn’t place an order for the product. Organizations need to dissect the data from web analytics tools and successfully apply its learning’s to enhance their visitors experience and in turn increase sales revenues.

In 2010 companies must go beyond organic search engine optimization by integrating social media marketing and optimizing their websites for mobile users.


Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Read my SEO Blog for hints and tips. Follow me on Twitter @searchmar. Call 1.866.885.6263 to speak to one of our SEO Consultants and receive your free consultation.

A press release is the standard way to alert the media, and increasingly, the online public, about what you are doing or selling.

The press release forms part of the public relations artillery and should be used wisely. Though mostly written and distributed by PR professionals, you too can competently write your own press releases, if you keep the following 12 key points in mind.

  1. Think of the 5 ‘Ws’: The press release mantra is WWWWW. Before you do anything, think Who, What, When, Where and Why. Fail to include this vital information and it’s a total Waste of time
  2. The golden first paragraph: this is your chance to grab the media’s attention, so make it punchy. The first, short paragraph should announce the ‘5 ‘W’s’ and the rest of the press release will expand upon it
  3. Newsworthy: We call it the ‘news’ because it is ‘new.’ What makes your story press-worthy? What is new about what you are doing? Is there new research? The media love stories about anything that is the biggest, smallest, fastest, world’s first or most exciting. Think of all the ways your story is new, include them, and back up your claims
  4. Concise: A press release should never, ever be longer than two pages of A4. One page is ideal. Keep the font neutral and the layout clear — a 1.5 line spacing is bes
  5. Contact: Always include your contact details at the bottom of the press release. That’s your full name, phone number, mobile and email address
  6. Personal touch: Include a quotation which communicates your key messages in a lively way. Sound ‘thrilled’ or ‘excited’ about what you are announcing. If it’s not really interesting or exciting news, you shouldn’t bother the press with it
  7. Proof, proof and proof again: it is unacceptable to send out a press release full of grammatical errors. Get someone else to proof it, then print it out and proof it again
  8. When emailing your press release, include it clearly in the main body of your email. The media probably won’t bother opening your word document attachment
  9. Balance: it’s a fine, fine line between spin and being downright misleading. Go for an attention grabbing headline, but don’t lie or over-hype your story and NEVER USE CAPITALS AS IT WILL ONLY ANNOY PEOPLE
  10. Write for the task in hand: your press release is not a submission for a prose writing competition. Keep it clear, informative and as factual as possible. Have fun with the headline, but don’t over use ‘fluffy language’ in the main body of the release
  11. It is not a sales pitch: refrain from ’sales speak’; this is not the place. A press release serves to inform the media about a newsworthy event, not flog a product like in an advert (although, that is the desired byproduct of course)
  12. And lastly: use press releases wisely. Expanding your home office into a purpose built garden shed may be big news in your family, but probably less so on the global stage. Put out strong stories and get a good name for yourself. Put out rubbish and, well, it’s your reputation that’ll be at stake.

Nick James is a true example of a self made success. He offers the inside track in every aspect of internet business creation and development. Right now he’s giving away a Free Income Secrets DVD for only �1 S&H while stocks last! Free Nick James DVD

Believe it or not, social networking isn’t the next best thing…You are! It’s the personal connection that still seals the deal.

The Internet, social networking, and other breakthroughs in technology have fundamentally changed the way we do business. New technology drives communications, messaging, and information access at warp speed, and our clients expect immediate access. This pattern of ever-increasing speed and sophistication not only creates an intensely competitive marketplace, but places further demands on us to act and react quickly.

The rise of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and LinkedIn have lured many sales pros into scaling back their personal interactions and relying on social media to get more “qualified leads.”

It’s time to get real!

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By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010

Until Bing turns into David and slays Goliath, the only search engine game in town is Google. While the other search engines can’t be ignored or forgotten, when it comes to online search, Google will deliver the majority of your quality organic traffic. For webmasters and especially for online marketers, having your website virtually hard-wired to Google is a marketing Must-Do.


We are strictly talking about white hat stuff here. If you’re seeking the opposite color, look elsewhere. As a full-time search engine marketer, I have learned a few things over the 10 years or so I have been working on the web. One of the most significant factors running constantly in the background has been Google. And, the underlying fact is that the more I intertwined my sites and content with Google, the more success I achieved. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the two, making it a little more than ironic that the original name for Google was BackRub.

But this is not exactly rocket science territory here. Google is the biggest entity on the web, especially if you go the free organic traffic route. There are tons of ways to market online which don’t involve Google at all, but for the purposes of this piece, I will be discussing ways any webmaster or marketer can better connect their site and content with Google. Plus, I’ll (if it’s not already obvious) also give you some reasons why this is a smart marketing strategy on your part.


The first technique you must perfect is how to get your new content into Google’s Index within minutes, if not seconds. These days with social media sites this can be easily achieved. It may be as fast as your latest Tweet or Google Buzz. Google News is another easy way to instantly get your content into Google. Press releases are another immediate way to connect your content with Google. So too is something as simple as making a video and posting it on YouTube which is Google Owned.
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By Sue Cooper (c) 2010

Proper Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, has quickly become a popular topic of conversation among website owners and entrepreneurs. The difference between having a successful website, and hosting a flop, is often the difference between whether or not you’ve incorporated proper keywords and phrases into your webpages.


Learning proper SEO techniques can seem like a daunting task, especially to those who are not familiar with the concept. The following list offers 18 simple SEO techniques you should keep in mind when developing and marketing your website.

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posted on April 21st, 2010 by John | Posted under GoogleLink BuildingSearch Engines

In order to understand the rise of paid content, it’s necessary to understand the meaning of the nofollow tag and  how it is used (and some would say abused) by large sites like Twitter.

The nofollow tag is used to tell some search engines (*cough*Google*cough*) that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s search engine ranking. It was originally intended to reduce the effectiveness of search engine spam. Spam comments were the nofollow tag’s original targets: spam comments on blogs were used to get back links and try to squeeze a few drops of link juice from as many places as possible. By making comment links nofollow, the webmaster is in effect saying, “I am in no way vouching for the quality of the place this link goes. Don’t give them any of my link juice. Maybe it’s a good site, but I’m not taking chances.”

Nofollow links are not meant for preventing stuff from being indexed or for blocking access. The ways to do this are by using the robots.txt file for blocking access, and using on-page meta elements that specify on a page by page basis what a search engine crawler should (or should not) do with the content that’s on the crawled page.

Nofollow was born in 2005, and since that time, in the SEO arms race between the search engines and those who want to game them, websites started selectively using the nofollow tag to “sculpt” page rank for pages within their own site. In other words, a link going to an internal page that was ticking over nicely could be made into a nofollow link in an attempt to “conserve” PageRank juice to give to another internal page that was just starting out, or struggling, and needed some help.

Well, Google frowns on this, insisting that you’re better off in the long run to use links to your site’s pages but not to selectively use the nofollow tag in an attempt to juice up the pages you think need a boost. According to Matt Cutts, the only time you should use nofollow is when you cannot or don’t want to vouch for the content of a site. An example would be a link added by an outside user (say, in a comment thread) that you don’t trust. Cutts suggested that unknown users leaving links on your guestbook page should automatically have their links nofollowed.
Right, so what does this have to do with paid content?

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By Peter Nisbet (c) 2010

The truth of the Google duplicate content penalty is quite simply that there is none! If that confuses you, then you have been reading too many misinformed forums or blogs where people get stuck on some popular term that they have no idea what it means, and then profess to be experts.

The only experts on the Google duplicate content penalty, and the only people who are qualified to define it, are Google, and in Google’s own words “There is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty“. This comes directly from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.

That should be the end of this article, at precisely 96 words excluding title as I define my word count. But it is not. Why? Because even though this blog is operated by Google, and even though much the same has been stated by Matt Cutts, Google’s main software engineer, and other Google experts, people still argue and complain about the Google ‘duplicate content penalty’.

So here is the truth: you might ask who am I to know the truth, but I read all the Google blogs and their official statements, and in applying what I learn, I achieve excellent results for my web pages on Google search engine listings: and those of Yahoo, MSN and Bing. So I am coming from a sound base that my results can prove.

As a professional article writer whose customers trust to get them the best results from the articles I write, I have to be very aware of the policies and the way the algorithms work of each of the major search engines, and so I am as qualified as anybody to comment on myths such as this.

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By Jill Whalen (c) 2010


In the early 1990s, when I was first online, very few businesses had a website. Gradually companies started coming online, but most of them were those that served a national or global market. While many local directories also came online, it was rare to see a strictly local company with a website. There were some exceptions, like those with professional practices such as dentists, doctors and lawyers. In fact, professional practice websites were some of my earliest SEO clients, although they weren’t in my local area. But even in the mid-2000s, the typical hair salon, plumber or chiropractor were very rare to find online.


About 10 years ago I remember looking for a chiropractor in my area online and could only find one with a website, and it wasn’t even one in my town. Much to my dismay, I ended up using the old-fashioned telephone book to make sure that I found all the nearby chiropractors.

Things are different today. While there are still a surprising number of small local businesses without websites, they are easily online thanks to Google’s local search results. Did you know that, according to Google, one in every five searches is related to location in some way? It’s no wonder that Google has put a lot of effort into enhancing their local search listings.

This week I learned through Search Engine Land that Google had changed this feature’s name from Google Local Business Center to the simpler Google Places. In addition, they’ve added even more cool things you can do with your Google Page, once you’ve claimed your listing. For instance, if you’re located in certain cities, you can purchase an enhanced listing, which they now call “tags,” for $25 per month.

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  • People who come from search engines are self-motivated, so they are best buyers. According to WebCEO.com statistics for the first 3 months of this year, visitors from search engines buy 3,6 times more often than visitors from sites, and 2 times more often than visitors from paid ads and bookmarks.
  • Also:  Did you know that, according to Google, one in every five searches is related to location in some way?
  • Another useful statistic:
    ….continuing to focus on the air traveler and how to meet his or her needs, whether traveling on business or leisure ……this represents just 15% of the trips taken each year in the USA.  The other 85% of travel is done by car.

1. Helpful how-to tips related to your product

2. Reviews for products you don’t sell but you know would appeal to your audience

3. Explain why you are so passionate about your business

4. Explain how you got into the business in the first place

5. What inspired you to take the jump into small business?

6. Describe a day in the life of your business

7. Share a photo or video “walking tour” of your business

8. Describe your customer service philosophy

9. Share Testimonials you get from your customers

10. Offer product tutorials, either for your product or other ones your customers use
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About the Webinar
Learn why social media optimization (SMO) should be part of an overall SEO strategy (SEO + SMO = Amplified Findability in the traditional and social web).

http://www.hubspot.com/smo-is-the-new-seo-video

Presented by: Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. Moderated by: Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot and author of Inbound Marketing.

Technical requirements: Internet connection and computer speakers for audio.

Read more: http://www.hubspot.com/smo-is-the-new-seo-video#ixzz0lEbhaWSt

By Tim Ash, ClickZ, 

Human beings are social creatures that seek out companionship and relationships. Our map of reality can be viewed as a series of concentric circles which include the most trusted relationships and those who are in our hearts at the very center.

We crave trust. Without it, we would be consigned to a world where we must examine everyone’s actions with suspicion and assume that they are working only for their purposes and not ours. Because of the sheer number of social interactions that we have with complete strangers, we must at least extend some trust. Otherwise, many acts, both small and momentous, simply could not happen at all.

Even with total strangers in the “real world,” we at least have their appearance and body language to go by. But what do you do online? Almost anyone can quickly create a Web site or landing page and masquerade as a wide variety of businesses. Many of these enterprises are untrustworthy. We are often barraged in the media about various scams perpetrated online and have our guard up.

As an online marketer, your job is very difficult compared to your brick-and-mortar marketing counterpart. You must not only overcome anxieties, but do so in the most challenging of circumstances.

Online trust must be developed without any face-to-face contact, and it must be created instantly in the few precious seconds it takes a Web site visitor to evaluate your value proposition.

So how can you build instant trust online?

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Microsoft’s Bing search engine commanded almost 11.7 percent of U.S. searches in March, up from 11.5 percent share in February, comScore said. Google’s search share slipped to 65.1 percent through March from 65.5 percent in February. Yahoo stopped the bleeding a bit, notching 16.89 percent of searches in March, up slightly from 16.81 in February. Since Microsoft rolled out Bing in June 2009, the service has gradually tacked on 3.7 percent market share gain, gaining more share than Yahoo has lost.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine commanded nearly 11.7 percent of U.S. searches in March, up from 11.5 percent share in February, according to the latest comScore figures.

Google’s leading search share slipped to 65.1 percent through March from 65.5 percent in February, the market researcher said.

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