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

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

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El blog de Mirai para hoteleros
On May 6^th 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).

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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.

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.

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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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• July 02, 2010
• By: Ruthanne Terrero
• TravelAgentCentral

Want to know what the top consumer trends are when it comes to searching for travel? We got some great statistics from JaneButler, Google’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

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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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The 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

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MAY 24, 2010

Individual engagement for healthy brand relationships

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

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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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

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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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 5, 2010 - eMarketer Staff

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

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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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April 21st, 2010 by John | Posted under Google, Link Building, Search Engines

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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).

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

By Tim Ash, ClickZ, Apr 14, 2010

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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By: Clint Boulton
2010-04-09

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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