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The StepForth SEO Blog
The SEO Blog - Keep up to date on the latest breaking SEO news and tips. The SEO Blog is updated regularly to keep you informed and on the cutting edge of search engine optimization techniques.
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4Q is a Free Survey Tool Not to be Missed
2008-05-15 19:57:00
Last night I uploaded a new article to Search Engine Guide on 4Q which is an excellent free survey tool you can easily add to your website in order to improve the website and your marketing intelligence.The scivy on 4Q can be found in my exclusive Search Engine Guide article: Free Survey Tool Fuels Marketing Insight.by Ross Dunn, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
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Microsoft’s New Beta, Out of this World.
2008-05-14 20:16:00
Microsoft offered a sneak peak back in February, and as of Tuesday the public beta of WorldWide Telescope has been made available, according to a Press Release issued by Microsoft. The online virtual telescope has been created in response to Google’s launch of Google Sky a few years ago, and takes things to the next level with a huge database of high resolution images from various stars, galaxies, and other non-earthly entities. Ray Gould spoke about WorldWide Telescope back in February and noted that some of "the best images from the worlds greatest telescopes from earth and in space are woven them seamlessly to produce a holistic view of the Universe." "The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe," said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. "By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope ...
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Google Goes Social, Launches Friend Connect
2008-05-14 20:01:00
The social web is rapidly growing and Google is trying to tap into this massive industry with the launch of Friend Connect. Released in a limited preview, Friend Connect allows web site owners to incorporate a number of gadgets to their site in an effort to improve the overall user experience. Friend Connect helps webmasters make their websites more appealing, engage users, and help increase the average time on site. Incorporating a number of available social features is made easy, and does not require any programming skills whatsoever. Webmasters select from a list of Google and Member gadgets, choose their colors and other options, and then simply cut and paste the code directly to their site. When your site visitors opt in to use Friend Connect within your site, when they enter a review, post photos, or interact with your gadgets, notices are posted within their friends various social media accounts which can attract them to visit your site. Currently Friend Connect is ...
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UK Mobile Phone Usage for Social Networking
2008-05-13 23:31:00
I am just on the way out the door but I caught this (opens in PDF) excellent news release by Nielsen/NetRatings stating that "one in four members of UK social networks use their phones to network." Now considering that Europeans tend to be dramatically ahead of North Americans in cellular adoption this statistics release seemed worth of attention.Here is a chart that really drove home the popularity of social networking via mobiles (click the image for a larger version):Whats the point? Nothing all that fancy, this is just more great evidence of the power of social marketing; and it seems the more evidence to convince skeptics the better.
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Open Pricing Can Improve Sales on Your Website
2008-05-13 21:25:00
Marketing Sherpa is my favorite site for catching up on the latest case studies on user behavior online; followed by another excellent publication called Alertbox. Marketing Sherpa's latest article does us all a service by illustrating how important it can be to have more transparent pricing for prospects visiting your website.First ask yourself the question that Marketing Sherpa asked its respondents:"Can you recall a technology/business purchase where a vendor got the sale (or the inside track) because they were more open than other vendors?"The response (see the larger image):From personal experience I can say that I am most certainly a part of the demographic negatively affected by sites that give no indication of pricing. Of course, as is carefully noted in the Marketing Sherpa article there are cases where accurate pricing is impossible or unlikely; where accurate service/product pricing requires customization based on interviews with the buyers. StepForth's SEO services are a go ...
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Microsoft Backs Down from Yahoo
2008-05-04 07:06:00
The web is afire with the news that after its latest bid attempt to takeover Yahoo failed, Microsoft decided to back down. My desktop news widget is going wild with this news... updating every 30s or so with more updates from Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Forbes, Information Week, CNet News, etc; hot news indeed. All those big time journals aside it appears that BoomTown's Kara Swisher was the first to break the news.So what happened? Why not read it directly from Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer:May 3, 2008 Mr. Jerry YangCEO and Chief YahooYahoo Inc.701 First AvenueSunnyvale, CA 94089 Dear Jerry: After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo. I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo's Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have ...
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Create Your Own Mobile Website - Easily and Free
2008-05-02 01:33:00
In follow-up to my most recent posting I just completed my article on How to Simply Create Your Own Mobile Website and it is now posted exclusively at my favourite search engine resource; Search Engine Guide.Here is the introductory paragraph for a little taster:"Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website. The reality is, however, that many website owners seem to have no inclination to spend money on a medium that (as far as they know) is unproven and could generate zero income. Fortunately there is a way for every website owner to create an alternative to their website and not only is it exceedingly simple but it is FREE. Now no one has an excuse to ignore this growing medium!"Continue reading...by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
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How to Redirect Mobile Traffic to the Mobile Version of a Website
2008-04-30 22:23:00
In the past I have written articles about the growing importance of creating a mobile website. I am currently in the process of creating yet another article with an update on the basic methods of creating a mobile website based on StepForth's own work so that hopefully more people will take the time to do so. During my writing I came up with some burning questions:Once I have a website how do I ensure mobile users find it? The obvious answer was a redirection of some sort but what kind? Is there a simple answer to the most popular programming languages online?I plowed through endless articles and tutorials that were often jam-packed with bafflegab only understandable to programmers - a group I am far from apt to join. After a while I finally came up with some answers but frankly I found the process exhausting and it became clear I had better share my findings so that others could benefit from my research. As a result, here is my latest addition to StepForth's Web Marketing Knowledgebas ...
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How To Optimize for Google: Q & A
2008-04-30 00:48:00
Over the past few weeks I have received a few questions regarding my 3 part series on How to Optimize for Google. This post will answer a few of the questions I have received. Do hyperlinked images count as back links? Which scores higher, text or image links? Yes, Google does count hyperlinked images, however, to get the most out of imaged based links it is best to have relevant, preferably keyword-rich, alt text tagged onto the image. As far as which scores higher, for the most part they are equal, assuming that the image has the appropriate alt text. In some cases a text based link may actually pass on a little more value if it is located within a highly relevant paragraph as an in-line link. What about Business Link Directories? Some link directories can offer significant value to your site. While many may be virtually useless, a well targeted business directory of related websites can help boost your link density and ultimately your organic rankings. When submitti ...
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Google's Ad Quality Score Leaked
2008-04-29 19:03:00
This morning I arrived at my desk to find a very welcome message from my friend and colleague Eric Lander. Apparently Google made a colossal boo-boo and exposed the quality score and max bids for some advertisements. As far as I know this is a first. Check out Eric's article at Search Engine Journal.Below is one of the screenshots of the leak from Eric's article
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Yahoo's 1st Quarter of 2008
2008-04-25 23:40:00
In the first quarter of 2008 earnings are up, employees are down, Microsoft started its attempts at a takeover, and Yahoo still found time to get into bed with Google (although the U.S. Justice Department is still out on that one).(Note: this posting was originally aired in this week's StepForth Weekly Newsletter) First quarter earnings for Yahoo were higher than most experts had predicted. Sales rose by 9 percent to $1.8 billion, with an increase in net income by a sizable 282% to $542 million, compared with $142 Million for the same period in 2007. These profits were largely in thanks to Yahoo's investment in the initial public offering of Alibaba.com which accounted for $401 million. In mid February Yahoo also laid off approximately 1000 employees, thus taking a significant chunk out of their payroll. While this would account for only a small percentage of the increased profit, considering that many of the layoffs involved fairly prominent and higher paid employees, it likely ...
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How to Optimize for Google - Part 3 of 3
2008-04-23 23:53:00
In Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Optimize for Google I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided.Completing Optimization: Other ConsiderationsRedirectsIf you need to use redirects on your site it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location, or being removed all together, it is very important to have this page redirected to either the new location or the next closest page using a Permanent 301 Redirect.While rare, if a page is being moved to a new location for a short term, with the intent of it returning to the original location, then and only then, will you want to use a Temporary 302 redirect. For more information please see Redirects: Permanent 301 vs. Temporary 302Non WWW RedirectsTo help eliminate page rank split, and provide your site with a little ext ...
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How to Optimize for Google - Part 2 of 3
2008-04-21 23:30:00
Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools.LINKS Links are very important in today’s Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves.Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant! Topical relevance is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most value. If the page that links to you is relevant that is good, if the entire site linking to you is relevant, that is better.First to get an idea of how many links you may need, take a look at the top 10 ranking sites in Google and record how many links Yahoo is noting for each site. (This is because Google does not display anywhere near all the links they have noted). The average of this count is often a good indication of how many links ...
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PPC Management – Part 2 - A User's Review of Yahoo
2008-04-21 23:22:00
This is the second in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.If you missed part one, you can view it here. Today I will be covering Yahoo’s Panama. Of the three, this is my least favoured, so I’m wearing my Yahoo Search Marketing ball cap today, to remind myself not to allow too much vitriol to slip into the article.InterfaceLogging into a Yahoo account brings you to the Dashboard. This is an overview page containing basic account information, along with any alerts. Also on this page is a drop down menu allowing you to shift to different accounts under your master account. If you are advertising in multiple countries this is useful for easier access without requiring multiple logins, though these accounts can only be linked by Yahoo support personnel.The dashboard also contains a table which allows you to view either top performing campaigns, ad groups or keywords at a glance. The ...
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A Google LinkForth - Articles of Note this Friday
2008-04-18 21:42:00
In my travels today I came across a few articles I just had to share.How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search as We Know ItSource: Popular Mechanics. April 16th, 2008.Excerpt: Such a prediction probably seems ridiculous when Google has a market capitalization five times that of Ford and General Motors combined. After all, Google has developed a superfast, highly efficient method of making sense of the most overwhelming mass of data mankind has ever created. What’s more..." read on20 (Rare) Questions for Google Search Guru Udi ManberSource Popular Mechanics. April 16th, 2008.This is an excellent interview and it even covers a response (as shown below) from Guru to the concept that social media will kill search.Excerpt: (Interviewer) "While we’re talking on the subject of personalization, a colleague of mine said that search as you know it is falling to the wayside and changing dramatically as social networking comes into play—trending toward this MySpace-Facebook model where pe ...
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How to Optimize for Google – Part 1 of 3
2008-04-17 23:54:00
In today's online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important.In this three-part series on How to Optimize for Google we will touch on a number of important aspects for top Google rankings including website optimization, links, Google Webmaster tools, and a number of other considerations.The focus of Part 1 will be with on page website optimization.THE RIGHT KEYWORDSThis article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly. If you are interested in reading more please see Keyword Research for Organic SEO.Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimization experience essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are attainable bu ...
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Top 5 Ways to Keep it Up - Rankings That Is
2008-04-17 22:06:00
Today I was kindly offered the opportunity to participate in Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm with Jim Hedger and Dave Davies. The discussion we had was all about what it takes to keep rankings high in search engine results after successfully attaining them. Here is a link to the episode on the Webcology page where our show will be archived and to Jim's article on Keeping it Up and here are a few tips from me on the essentials of maintaining rankings:Keep adding content to your website in the form of a blog or informational pages and where appropriate provide relevant textual links to the pages you want to maintain rankings. Check out our comprehensive tutorial on how to create, market and manage your own blog.If you write articles for your blog(s) try submitting them to article sites like ezinearticles.com. If your article includes links to your website these external sites will provide link juice to your content and help you maintain visibility.PRWeb is a great tool for telling the wor ...
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Matt Cutts Pipes in on Google Spidering Forms
2008-04-11 21:54:00
At the exact same time (both at 10:50 am PST) Google announced it's spider (Googlebot) was now indexing a variety of forms Matt Cutts jumped in on his blog with his perspective where raised a great point that hadn't occured to me. Essentially this new spider function will allow the indexing of form-based drop-down menus which previously were road blocks to search engine spiders. This form of navigation is unfortunately used quite often as primary navigation by web site owners so this recent addition to Googlebot's super spider powers may mean huge rank increases for such websites.That said, according to Google this doesn't always mean this content will be indexed... which begs the question whether form navigation is still a good idea to rely on. At this point I hardly think it is now an acceptable navigational tactic. After all the other search engines first have to jump on board and implement a similar capability or else form navigation will alienate them entirely.Thanks Matt for your ...
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Google Now Fills Out Forms When Spidering
2008-04-11 20:24:00
I am in disbelief. Less than 40 minutes ago the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google can now fill out web forms and spider the resulting content. Previously this was not only not done by search engines but it was well known that such content would be useless since it wouldn't 'necessarily' be formatted for the eyes of searchers. Apparently Google is now throwing this concept to the wind.How to Block Google's Spider From Your FormFrom the announcement it appears that Google is not yet spidering forms on a wide spread basis. Here is a quote that sums up their policy on forms quite nicely:"Only a small number of particularly useful sites receive this treatment, and our crawl agent, the ever-friendly Googlebot, always adheres to robots.txt, nofollow, and noindex directives. That means that if a search form is forbidden in robots.txt, we won't crawl any of the URLs that a form would generate. Similarly, we only retrieve GET forms and avoid forms that require any kin ...
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Part 3 - The Genesis for a Successful Online Marketing Campaign
2008-04-11 07:23:00
In this article two important marketing strategies are reviewed: search engine optimization and social media.Just as the spokes of a wheel are held together and strengthened by its hub so too is the planning for a successful marketing campaign. The greater the integrity and quality of the hub, the better are the chances that the spokes will stay true and provide far reaching performance. In this series we have looked at several ‘spokes’ that contribute to a winning web marketing strategy. Part 1 looked at several of these building blocks: marketing budget and timelines, market research, and competitor analysis while Part 2 discussed the importance of keyword research, focus on achievable phrases, creating relevant textual content and search friendly website design. A future article will deal with the remaining spokes: link building, blogs, newsletters, and website analytics.But central to all of this, the hub, is search engine optimization. A properly optimized site wi ...
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"Boring" Photos Result in Google Lawsuit
2008-04-08 01:30:00
What would you do if you suddenly found your private residence plastered over Google Street View, along with photos of your yard, pool, and other private property? Well, this very thing has happened to Christine and Aaron Boring, and they have since filed a lawsuit against Google. According to The Smoking Gun, when one of the vehicles shooting photos for the mapping service made a wrong turn up a 50 foot private driveway, it also continued snapping photos and those photos made it onto the live version of Google Street View. Google spokesman Larry Yu told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "There is no merit to this action. It is unfortunate litigation was chosen to address the concern because we have visible tools, such as a You Tube video, to help people learn about imagery removal and an easy-to-use process to facilitate image removal.” The Boring’s are seeking “in excess of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for compensatory, incidental, and consequential damages, punitive dam ...
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StepForth Named One of the Best Blogs on the Net
2008-04-08 00:35:00
We are proud to announce that StepForth is once again rated one of the best blogs on the net by the BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs. Created and managed by respected web marketer Lee Odden of TopRank the BIGLIST is a comprehensive list of the best marketing blogs online - at least it is now that we are on it ;-)All joking aside the StepForth team is proud to be recognized for their writing efforts in the search marketing space and plan to continue delivering the best work we can - or not at all. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't stress that the StepForth SEO News Blog is comprised of articles from more than just myself - our team rocks!Here is the entry as it is shown on the BIGLIST:StepForth SEO News Blog - (Welcome back!) Since 2003 the StepForth blog has covered a range of search marketing industry news and sets a great standard for SEM blog writing. Kudos to Ross Dunn for a great job.If you haven't subscribed to our blog feed yet or our weekly SEO newsletter then just c ...
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Yahoo Launches Shine, a Site Geared to Women
2008-04-04 18:22:00
As posted at Yodel Anecdotal, Yahoo has developed and launched a new website targeted at women. Unveiled on Monday, Yahoo! Shine "features the best writers and bloggers in women's publishing". It helps "connect like-minded women, share stories, and more". Shines editorial team features editors from Lucky, Jane, and the Wall Street Journal. They created Shine to appeal to a large demographic of women and give them a "smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info, and connect with each other". Content found on Shine is derived from some the best of the best, and features works from women at Glamour, Self, Cosmo, Women's Health, and more. Shine does not focus on "how to please a man" or "lose 10 lbs fast" but rather more real world, intellectual content, as well as entertainment news. While many women appreciate and seem to be quite pleased with the site, this is not the case across the board. One woman commented "It's a rather scary thing that Shine is being pushed a ...
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Google Docs is Now Available Offline
2008-04-04 18:12:00
If you've been swayed away from your Microsoft Office products and are now a frequent user of Google Docs you may be interested to know that a select few users will now have offline access to their Google Docs files, as Google begins rolling out their offline editing access. On Monday Google announced in the Official Google Docs Blog the upcoming functionality to their software. The big push came with requiring the ability to work on your documents when on an airplane, commuting to work, or when your home internet access goes down. Now users will have the ability to work on their files offline and synchronize when they again have an active internet connection. This is all made quite seamless and easy as it all happens behind the scenes. Users will not have to remember to save documents locally, or to save their changes when an active connection is restored, everything is done automatically. This increased functionality helps Google get one step further in their pursuit to ...
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A Net Reality - Cybercrime & Punishment
2008-04-04 00:43:00
The evolution of the internet is anything but dull. It is a precarious world that is subject to the influence of both devious and altruistic actions. Just like any human society, there is order and there is chaos. Yet, what makes the cyberworld so unique is the opportunity for people to come together that may never have done so by traditional networks. Through communication on different websites and blogs, individuals can discover new ways to make mischief or find assistance in solving crimes.Recently, there have been some particularly interesting happenings in Internetville that I’d like to share with StepForth’s loyal blog readers. Top of the list is the now infamous Craig’s List Hoax; where a man’s property was raided by loads of people who read a false ad on the popular classifieds site stating, “Everything must go”. At first, it was unclear who perpetrated this spiteful and sinister act. Theories exist, but now that the dust has settled it seems clear to authorities wh ...
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PPC Management - A User's Review of MSN
2008-04-03 07:32:00
This is the first in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.Each engine has its pluses and minuses and I thought I would write a short blurb describing my experiences using the interface for each of these. The first engine I will be looking at is the lesser utilized of the three, MSN Adcenter. Interface One of the things I like about working within Adcenter is the clean look. Although from time to time I wonder if the uncluttered interface is more a product of its relative youth, there’s no denying it’s easier on the eyes than either of its competitors. In part, this appears to be due to the lack of clutter that plagues both Panama and AdWords. Perhaps Microsoft hasn’t had time to fill every gap on each page as seems to be the case with the others. Part of the reason however, is the use of bullet links. More often than not, clicking on these causes the additional information to ap ...
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Recessions Can Teach Valuable Marketing Lessons
2008-03-28 21:50:00
Recession, recession, recession… I don’t know about you but I have had my fill of this doomsday word! It seems to me the panic caused by this word simply increases the chances of a recession occurring. Recessions, however, have a silver lining because they provide business owners with the opportunity to look long and hard at their expenses and this can provide valuable insight in strengthening the business long after a recession recedes. Some cut backs may become obvious such as eliminating frivolous office expenses and are a wise move but should business owners cut back on their web marketing? Lets look at the circumstances within web marketing where cutbacks may or may not make sense.When You Should or Should Not Cut Back on Pay Per Click or Search Engine Optimization CampaignsSo what is unnecessary marketing? Logic dictates that any marketing that is not profitable is not worth keeping. That said, how certain are you that a particular form of marketing is not profit ...
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Today's Social Media and SEO Linkforth
2008-03-19 23:45:00
AOL Time Warner had acquired Bebo, one of the largest social networks outside of North America. Bebo is huge in both the U.K. and New Zealand. It's the third biggest social network in the U.S. after Myspace and Facebook and for AOL it "positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers." With 4.1 billion supposed to be spent on social network advertising by 2011 it's understandable why the major players want to secure a spot on these sites.Myspace mobile has been officially launched and people using this social network can use this site to connect with one another on the go.Mobile phone search is reaching large proportions and search engine's are well aware of this trend and are finding new ways of speeding up this process. This article has a good rundown of "a Google search plug-in that puts a search box on the "home screen" of the phone and reduces the time it takes to get there (to Google) and get results." ...
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Google, Youtube, Blocked by China
2008-03-18 22:50:00
In order to help curb the possibility of rioting, the Chinese government has blocked all access to both YouTube and Google News to prevent the viewing of news reports and video footage documenting riots and protests in Tibet. Other web properties blocked include giants Yahoo, CNN, and the BBC. Cnet reported on the blockage over the weekend and many others such as the New York Times have also picked up the story. Google has before been blocked by the Chinese government. Back in 2002 searches through the internet giant were blocked to the Chinese population leading into a Communist Party congress in November of that year. In 2002 the Chinese government reported that an estimated 45.8 million Chinese were online. In July of 2007 this number had increased to approximately 137 million. Since then the total of those online has continued to skyrocket. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, and reported at the Register, the communist country, exceeded that of the US and reached an estima ...
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What is PPC?
2008-03-14 21:41:00
PPC (Pay-per-click advertising) has been around for a while now and many site owners have either experimented with, or have at least heard of the marketing platform but surprisingly, there are still a large number of potential advertisers who have had no exposure to the world of PPC.After fielding questions from new clients as well as our newest sales representative, I have decided to write an article to explain a few of the basics of what PPC is, some pro's and cons and provide some insight into how it works.PPC advertising is a means to let businesses advertise their products or services online, within search results or on other websites participating in an advertising network. The advertiser pays only when a potential customer clicks their ad and follows it to their site. The advertiser competes on ad display and positioning by bidding on relevant search terms.Pro’sMatches consumer specified search terms for something they are already interested in researching/purchasing, with the ...
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