Although I follow along on the Google Webmasters blog (and other Google blogs for that matter)… having these videos are such a nice addition. Like most of us, sometimes we don’t feel like reading. We spend our daily lives catching up on emails, Facebook status messages, news, etc… who has time to read blogs? I’ve found videos are a quick way for me  stay up to date on what’s happening in the world of Google.  What’s awesome is Google is now also publishing notes from conferences which really helps stay informed  without even attending.

Even if you aren’t a web developer/designer, I encourage you to watch at least  a part of the video. However, if you don’t have time to watch the video, here’s an outline with links.

Users

• Chrome (browser), Wave (real time communication), Android (projects for the android platform)
• Music One Box – search for artist / song title / lyric and buy it
• Google Squared – displays information in a spreadsheet format
• Google Social Search – Google Social Search is a method to find public content on various social networking profiles about people within your circle.
• Show Options (Google Tool Belt) – This feature I think is one of the best for users. With Show Options, you can isolate your search into specific areas. Very powerful tool for bloggers.

Web Developers

• Code.google.com/speed –  Tools to test your site speed… a topic I will be diving into extensively over the next few weeks.
• Webpagetest.org -Not a Google product, but  worth a visit.
• Code.google.com/closure – Javascript optimizer, library, and templating system
• Google Webtool kit - Open Source applications used by Google

Webmasters

• Rel=canonical -  Worried about duplicate content? Here’s a great way to display your “preferred” version.
• Ignored URL – In your Google Webmasters under Site Configuration–> Settings, you can specify specific URLS ( up to 15 parameters) for Googlebot to ignore. This can come in handy when reducing duplicate content.
• Fetch as Googlebot – When you want to see exactly what Google is viewing, try the fetch as Googlebot function.
• Better malware warnings – Google now has an area in Webmasters to notify you of any malware type activity.
• Message forwarding – Whoo hoo! Although I try to check webmaster tools weekly, getting email notifications will be a helpful reminder.
• Keyword details – In Google Webmasters under Your Site On The Web–> Keywords, Webmasters now reports the significance of various keywords on your site. I was really happy to see this type of data as it will help determine the impact of keyword content rewrites when we work on onsite-SEO activities.

Google Communication

• Webmasters blog -  added more posts!
• SEO Beginners Guide – Contrary to popular believe, Google does support SEO when done in an ethical, white hat manner. To clarify any confusion in the past, they publish a SEO beginners guide for the public. I encourage any person with a website at least familiarize yourself with SEO .  As you will read, SEO is not difficult, just time consuming!
• Don’t use keyword meta tags – In the past meta keyword tags were stuffed with various words that were  sometimes unrelated. To prohibit the abuse of meta keyword tag usage, Google announced as of September 2009  they no longer view this as a factor.
• Webmaster in different languages
• Webmaster Videos – added more videos!

Caffeine

• Rewrite of indexing structure – In my recent article, Google Caffeine: Changes for 2010, Caffeine is the “new” search algorithm.  From what I’ve seen so far on our/clients sites, I have seen fluctuation in search results (some good, some concerning). Only time will tell in terms of how this will impact the overall strategy of SEO.

According to Mashable.com,  Google Caffeine may impact the following:

Speed: How fast can the new search engine load results?

Accuracy: Which set of results is more accurate to the search term?

Temporal Relevancy: Is one version of search better at capturing breaking news?

Index Size: Is it really more comprehensive than the last version of Google?

Although I don’t believe you will  see much notable difference from an end user perspective, when it comes to SEO – we may see some changes in the coming months. Areas I specifically will be paying attention to involve site speed with WordPress blogs.  I’ll be conducting some testing and monitoring carefully http://theclashblog.com, as most of our SEO testing is done internally especially during any algorithm change.  Code.Google.com has some fun little tools, which covers areas such as site speed. Keep you posted on what I discover…

With all of this in mind – I still believe the value of quality written, fresh content will still be as important than ever. I fundamentally believe the core of SEO is about improving the user experience. I’m not a big proponent of  “tricking” the search engines as it may generate an initial spike in ranking or traffic….  it doesn’t hold value for companies when it comes to branding, loyalty, and overall marketing strategy.

What do I mean by improving user experience?  Giving your readers what they want… the best, well written content possible (not just for SEO or self promotion), with relative keywords,  appropriate image usage, engaging videos,  interactive social media that participates with the readers  and solid coding.  So, I welcome this change as hopefully Google.com will be able to weed out other black hat SEO techniques that really provide little value.

Although the sound was a bit troubling at times (which really was my only complaint) , we gained some valuable insight we wanted to share with you

Value of content – I really liked Lorelle VanFossen’s mindset when it comes to blogging with a purpose and bringing back the human element into blog posts. So often I’ve seen blog posts written just as a promotion vs focusing on your readers.  I’ve often wondered if people understood the true purpose of blogging – that yes, it can help you promote your ideas, products, services… but if your blog only contains PR … is that really going to hold the attention of your reader? It was so nice to hear another professional blogger state that blogging should be personal, thoughtful and focused towards your readers… not just what you want to promote.

Quick easy ways to blog -  Lorrella also discussed how WordPress has the capability of “scheduled” posting. A light bulb came on and realized how effective this can really be. Often times as bloggers, we run out of ideas or we don’t feel like writing. Then inspiration hits us and we feel like writing 2-3 blogs. With scheduled posting, this makes it easy as you can write several articles at a time, but leave them for future posts. This way you still get a chronological stream of content for your readers, but you write when the mood hits you.

Social Media Overkill - Merlin Mann kept me rolling with his quirky sense of humor about the internet.  In his presentation Something Something Social Media: The Overdue Minority Report …  he discusses how social media can be used in some not so good ways.  According to him social media is about describing our relationships with others in public, specifically on the internet.  Where social media can be cool in many ways, the downside is it can be overwhelming and even disrespectful at times.

I totally agree. Often I’ve seen companies and individuals create tons of profiles on various social medial profiles. Although this may sound ideal, I don’t see the point.  I  believed social media is only as effect as the effort you apply. What is the point of a profile with no personal activities? Would you ignore your customers if they walked into your restaurant? So why do you ignore them if they post on your profile?  Kind of like blogging – if the only post on your Facebook profile your specials and discounts without engaging your time with your friends…then it’s not social media. It’s self promotion.  People will see right through it. They know they are just being promoted.  I think it’s insulting for the visitor.

So you have to ask yourself the question…how much time do you have to spend to engage yourself? Between Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn… managing social media can take alot of effort. It’s enough to make you go mental.  In my personal opinion, before you dive into the world of social media… ask yourself  are you committed? Are you willing to reply to comments and actually LISTEN to your customers?   Are you willing to share with the world your personal message about your organization that’s outside of what is on sale for the day? Do you know your voice? You need to define yourself first, apply yourself,  be honest, respectful to others  and keep it going.

Global IP:  During our break we chatted with Jim Christian, lead SEO expert at Godaddy.com. Curious on how to obtain rankings in the US market for one of our clients, he mentioned how from what he understood Google is looking at the global IP. Some things you need to factor in is the location of the server. In addition,   there is a setting in Google Webmasters tools where you can select your Geo targeting. Although he did mention he was not sure about the reliability of this – it was another option.

1. Go to Google Webmasters Tools

2. Under Site Configuration—> Settings, find the Geo Target area.

3. To learn more about Geo Targeting visit Google Webmaster’s Geo Targeting information page.

Changes in Google: During our conversation with Jim, he did mention he’s heard Google will make some alterations in their servers which may impact rankings around Nov/Dec/ Jan……more to come about this topic…

These were tid bits of what we gained from this conference. Useful and absolutely worth the $30.00  You can watch hi-lights at WordCamp 2009 hilights sponsored by Godaddy.com

I’ve seen those little orange buttons, but what the heck is RSS? RSS or Rich Site Summary is a method to publish your current content in a stream of information. Originated in 1999 for netscape.com, it has gained widespread use in news related websites and web blogs. Created using XML coding, RSS gives users the ability to publish ongoing content which in turn can build loyalty.

So how do I manage all these feeds? There are many different software applications called RSS readers. An RSS reader is a method you can use to subscribe and orgnize your RSS feeds.  I’m a big fan of FeedDemon for the ease of management and functionality.

Pros:

• PC based application that will give me notifications of new feeds in a small pop up box.
• Internet browser contained in the application is the best. I can comment on blogs, reply to comments, check out new links all within the application.
• Real Time Watches to keep informed of different keyword type topics. For example, I have several watches in the areas of design, SEO, social media and of course my favorite gardening. I find this function really helpful to discover what people are saying on the web.
• In Feed Demon 3.0, there is an ability to configure your twitter account to keep informed of your friends postings. You can also reply using Feed Demon.
• I use the clipping folder often to save specific articles I want to research, comment, or blog about. This saves me lots of time as  i am able to check my feeds and file them when the time is right.
• New Integration with Google Reader: Since I’m not always at home to read my feeds, I like the fact I can also log into Google Reader, check my feeds and it still be updated in FeedDemon.

Cons:

• I have not found many cons about FeedDemon. The free version  of 3.0 does have annoying ads. But for $10.00 I could remove them. Right now they haven’t bothered me enough to make me want to purchase a licensed.

So who’s on my list? Here’s a list of some of my all time favorites.

Blogging:

• Copyblogger
• Men with Pens
• Problogger
• WordPress Development Blog

SEO

• SEO Book
• SEOmoz
• Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Land

Google – I follow all the google blogs as who better to go to then the source!

• Google Analytics Blog
• Google Chrome
• Google Code
• Google Webmasters Central
• Google Website Optimizer
• The Official Google Blog

Social Media

• All Facebook
• Chris Brogen
• Facebook Blog
• Mashable
• Sociable Blog
• Twittip
• Twitter Blog

Design

• Design Reviver
• Smashing Magazine
• A List Apart
• CSS Beauty

So get subscribing and follow along with your favorite industry trends.

Kimberly at www.greenseedwebdesign.com

In my research, there is one E-book I came across that has  made me really think about how to structure social media campaigns.  John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing teamed up with Microsoft Office Live Small Business to create a very easy to understand e book that covers everything you need to know. Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Businesses is comprehensive and  simple to read.  In fact, I’ve recommended  this e-book  to friends, business owners,  business associates and  all  staff at Green Seed Web Design.

Why do I like this book so much? In his book, John explains how social media is like a pyramid (similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Nature) where one platform feeds into another.  He believes that blogging is the first step into the world of social media for most small businesses.  At first, I thought… “Ok, he’s a professional blogger, of course he recommends that!”

Then  a few weeks ago, I wrote an article about interconnecting social media.  In that research I realized that my blog can connect with so many different platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn,  and Twitter. Where connecting Twitter with LinkedIn or  Facebook —> Twitter  was more of a challenge.

If I put all in my eggs in let’s say Twitter, but at the same time did not have or neglected my blog – I have to ask would a potential reader fully understand our message?  Would microblogging  generate loyal followers and interested readers?   Would a Facebook page really connect with others outside of our friends? Where with a blog, readers have more information,  can  receive automatic updates, find out how we think  and learn more about the services we provide.  So after my research and reading John’s e-book a  light bulb came on… and it made sense to me why blogging was such a critical piece of social media and should be the foundation BEFORE any other social media is approached.

If you are a small business interested in the powers of social media, I highly recommend taking the time to read this e-book.   You can download  here for FREE at Duct Tape Marketing.

Happy Reading!

Kimberly at greenseedwebdesign.com

I wanted to understand this:

From Facebook—>  to WordPress, Twitter and  LinkedIn

From WordPress—> to Facebook, Twitter and  LinkedIn

From Twitter—> to WordPress, Facebook and  LinkedIn

From Linkedin —-> to WordPress, Twitter and  Facebook

After conducting some research, what I discovered is you can utilize different plugins and applications  to achieve the result you want. However, not all social media can go both ways.  In some circumstances, it is not possible  due to the the terms and conditions or I just have not found a way!

WordPress –> Facebook: Using RSS technology you can connect your “notes” to Facebook.  facebookadvice.com has a good how-to article.

WordPress —> Twitter: I love the twitter tools plugin. You can have your tweets post on your blog and vise versa

WordPress —> LinkedIn:  LinkedIn has their own applications. Although they aren’t very comprehensive, there is one for wordpress.  You can learn more at Linkedin:Wordpress.  The nice thing is all your articles you write in wordpress can be published full text.

Facebook —> WordPress: Facebook Connect is a facebook driven application to post your content from facebook to your wordpress and/or any other website. Using API technology, users can share their information to encourage more engagement. I have not tested this application as of yet, as I am still learning/reading more on the developers boards.

Facebook —> Twitter: Not possible. From further research, applications have been developed to connect content to twitter. However, this violates the terms and conditions of Facebook and the application has been terminiated. To read more visit Facebook 2 Twitter.

Facebook —> Linkedin: Using My LinkedIn application, you can create a button on your home page in facebook for users to visit and add you to their LinkedIn profiles.

Twitter —> WordPress: See Twitter Tools

Twitter —> Facebook: I use a facebook application for twitter to post any of my tweets in my status.  When you combined twitter tools with this application, not only can you tweet from your blog, but any of your blog postings will be posted to your facebook.

Twitter —> LinkedIn: As of yet I have not found an application to connect your tweets with LinkedIn. However, you can search tweets using Company Buzz to find out what people are saying about your company on Twitter. So as of now this is a read only application.

LinkedIn —> WordPress: You can post your LinkedIn resume on your wordpress using LinkedIn Resume. I have not tried this as of yet, but it appears to be an interesting application.

LinkedIn —> Facebook: The only method I found for this is adding a website link under “other”. However, they only allow 3  website links on a profile.

LinkedIn —> Twitter: Same as above. The only method I have found is adding a website link to your twitter profile.

Other Options: Other options I am currently exploring include what you can do on a static HTML website. For example using feedburner.com,  you can create a list or a button of all of your articles from your blog using RSS feeds.

Why am I worried about connecting social media? Very simple.  Not only will this improve my traffic and SEO though interlinking,  I wanted to find a cleaner and easier way to manage my social media efforts. Personally, I believe social media can only be as helpful to your overall business strategy as the ongoing effort you apply. So connecting your social media will save you time and energy.

I hope to conduct further testing and research on other platforms such as youtube.com, flickr.com, technorati.com, stumbleupon.com, del.icio.us, fark.com and so on. I’m sure the list could be endless. For now, I’ll just stick with a few.

Kimberly at greenseedwebdesign.com

Why: Project Pier did require some recoding to implement functions such as email notifications and time management.  I was able to modify it to get it to work, but advanced functions I still could not figure out.  After further research on the Project Pier developers board, it was very apparent to me this software had limitations in this particular area. In addition, I didn’t like the look/feel for subprojects.

The most comprehensive list for project management systems I’ve found online is Wikipidia’s article: List of Project Management systems. After testing several other open source platforms such as dot project, eGroupware…. I decided to select Open Goo. According to the Wikipedia’s article, Open Goo is a project management, collaborative software, issues tracking system, project portfolio, resource management, document management, and work management software.  After reviewing their website, it seemed like they had a strong community of developers….so I decided to give it a try.

The install: Just like most PHP driven applications, once the SQL database was installed it was a piece of cake. No hang ups on the install which I was pleasantly pleased.

The interface:

After installing, I really loved how all of the projects could be now categorized by project and sub project.  The biggest difference I noticed was Open Goo has a “workspace” feel. Each new project has it’s own workspace where you can create unique calendars, project lists, and documentation.

For tasks, I loved the function where people can add comments, log time. or attach a related document. It has become very handy to keep everything consolidated and centralized. I was also pleased that there was no need to recode for email notifications on tasks since this function was already built in.

The only problem I did find with this system is the reporting tools are a bit weak. But I am at least able to pull a time spent report for any projects which is all I need at this time. I hope that in the future they can build other reports such as open tasks,  list of due dates etc. . From what I’ve read on the developers boards, this is an issue they are addressing for future releases.

My conclusion: So far,  I’ve been happy with Open Goo. My team members found it very easy to navigation and update. It did not require recoding and the development seems to be active and involved which is always key for an open source software.

Kimberly at greenseedwebdesign.com

To learn more: Please visit http://opengoo.com or visit a demo at  http://demo.opengoo.org/.

I would love to hear other people’s experience.  What have you liked or disliked about this platform?

What is branding?

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) branding is ..”a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or groups of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers”.

What is branding to me?

Branding to me is not only the look and feel of your website but also the total representation  of your business.  Often I see small businesses take what they can afford either by templates, stock images, or personal taste, without thinking about the long term effects of what your potential customers perception. This hodge podge of colors, designs, text and layout “cheapens” the overall purpose of your business and can  leave a bad first impression. Sometimes these  free methods such as Myspace,  can make your branding inconsistent and unclear. The  core of branding to me is  consistency – not only on your personal website but also how you represent yourself on any social media, blog  or print publication.

Branding is not just thinking about a name and your favorite colors and graphics… it’s an entire marketing strategy to “capture” the potential customer’s attention.  It is a process that takes careful planning.  Here are some steps I use when defining a brand.

Step 1. What are your competitors doing? Do they all focus on the same thing? How can you make convey you are “different”?  For example: in the world of the web with .com, .biz, .org, .net, .us, etc…. often times you can think of a great name… but your competitor is already doing the same thing with your name! When you pick your name for your website, make sure you check to see if it’s reserved by anyone else in various extensions. If possible, purchase those extensions for your own security.  Look to see how you could differentiate yourself from the competition. Competitive research should be the first priority when developing your own brand and business.

Step 2. What are keywords you want your customers to remember you by?  High quality, best value, organic, affordable.  Write a list down of the different words you would use to describe your business.   This will give you focus and help you develop our niche not only to distinguish yourself from your competition but also define your keywords online.

Step 3: What’s your name?   Joe’s barbar shop isn’t that memorable… but Great Hair by Joe has a bit more flare. Write a list of all the different names you would consider and look at it in a few days. What you think might be good at the time can sound  silly  a few days later.

Step 4:  Do you have a missions statement? With using your keywords and your name write a mission statement  to help you define what is your business and what is your reason for being.

Step 5:  What are key phrases? Using your mission statement, define several key phrases or slogans you can use throughout the text and content of your marketing materials. Pay close attention to the words you chose that they are consistent with your mission statement.  Pick 1 primary phrase for your slogan.

Step 6:  Pick a color pallet.  Strong and bold, sensitive, professional, caring?  Colors can convey emotions. For example:

RED: energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

Orange: joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

Yellow: joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.

Green: growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility

Blue: trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Purple: power, nobility, luxury, and ambition

White: light, goodness, innocence, purity, perfection

Black: power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery

Step 7: What’s your style?  Do you want to appear neat and tidy, creative, fun, modern, antique, etc?  Search on the web for different styles of websites. Look to see what elements you like and don’t like. I often look at monstertemplates.com to inspire me for different design styles.

Step 8: Develop a logo. Finally, once you’ve identified all of the key elements, share them with your logo designer or design a logo yourself. Keep in mind the different variations of your logo such as black/white… large/small.

Step 9:  Get feedback. Sometimes what you think may look good, others have a different perception. Ask your friends and family for feedback.  Most importantly, ask them if your ideas leave a lasting impression.

Step 10: Put it all into action and create your business. Now that you have a strong foundation,  creating a web presents will be easier and more effective to your potential customers.

My Brand:

When I decided to “rebrand” my previous business Gopher Girl Virtual Assistance,  there were several reasons why. Gopher Girl was originally branded as a virtual assistant business. Hence: the “gopher” name. Although I attempted to incorporate web design into these services, it still maintained the “assistant” image on the web.

When I completed the same exercise above, I wanted to focus on very key elements. As a web development firm catering towards small business, I wanted to target the very core of what I do.

• Foundation – the foundation of every business is a website!
• Growth – helping businesses grow though my services
• Organic – Organic SEO, organic
• Seeds – idea seeds, starting out, new business
• Clear – clear navigation, clear information, clear designs
• Fresh look, fresh design

Although I am still in the process of developing my primary website, this method of  analysis has been incredibly worthwhile for my short and long term goal of my business.

Kimberly at greenseedwebdesign.com

Just like every blogger, periodically I run out of ideas on what to blog about.  Although I would hate to admit it, sometimes I stop blogging all together because I’m stuck! .

To help me stay inspired I keep a notebook by my bed and in my purse. When the idea strikes and I think “wow, I should blog about that” I write it down.  This way, I keep a running list of ideas to chose from when I actually sit down to write.

So what is a good blog topic? Anything really. Write how you feel, what you read, or tips you wish to share with the world.

Some ideas include:

• Write a book review
• Write about something you read in the news
• Post a rant
• Subscribe to different RSS feeds and blog about others
• Review a product or application
• Make a list
• Make a tutorial – how to’s I find generate great traffic!
• Write something controversial
• Talk about something that inspired you
• Analyze something
• Post a youtube video and write about it
• Run a poll
• Interview someone
• Tell your personal story
• Suggest an idea
• Blog about an event
• Post pictures or a graphic you find useful or beautiful
• Write a case study
• Create a contest

What ideas do you blog about?

Kimberly at greenseedwebdesign.com

Click here to view the embedded video.