Ideas for Business

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service from Google that provides webmasters with tools and data about their site. I want to touch on some of the benefits of authenticating your site through this service. The first step is to have a Google account (set it up here).

Diagnostic Tools

The Diagnostic Tools section provides information on any crawling issues that Google may be having with your website. This section will provide a list of problematic URLs with a short description of the problem. You can use this data to further investigate the individual pages on your site that may be hindering Google in the indexing of your site. If you have too many errors, your URL structure may not be Google-friendly.

Statistics

I really like this section. You can find the top queries in Google that return your site as well as the top keywords generating clicks. The tool even allows you to define your search parameter to a specific month, 4 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago, or even last week.

This section also provides “crawl stats”. It shows the last 90 days of activity from Googlebot (Google’s search engine spider). Here you can see the number of pages crawled per day, the number of kilobytes downloaded per day, and the time spent downloading a page. The number of pages crawled can be used as a gauge on how Google-friendly the URL structure is. The time spent downloading a page can be a indicator as to whether you have any performance issues with your site.

The section also provides a graphical representation of your Google Page Rank for all of your pages combined. It also provides the page URL with the highest Page Rank. There is quite the debate as to whether Page Rank is something that should be monitored. I believe that it is a “loose” indicator on how authoritative a site is compared the webosphere.

Links 

Understanding that links can influence your search engine rankings, this section provides some additional insight on external links as well your internal linking structure. The section provides a list of pages that have inbound links pointing to them. You can use this tool to track you linking efforts to see if they are effective. The tool also provides insight on the website’s internal linking structure. Analyzing this data may help you find areas of your site that are not linked effectively with other pages on the site.

Sitemaps

The Sitemaps section allows you to claim any current general, mobile, code, geo, or video sitemaps. Sitemaps help assist Google in finding all of your content that they may not otherwise discover. Read more about sitemaps.

Tools

There are some effective tools within this section that can help you with your overall search engine optimization strategy. You can have your current robots.txt file analyzed or you can generate one if you currently do not have one for your website. The robots.txt file can prevent search engines from indexing certain areas of your site (i.e. admin section), certain files, or even prevent certain search engine robots from crawling your site.

The “Set Geographic Target” tool allows you to define your geographic area that you want to associate with your site. Currently the tool allows you to limit by country. My guess is that as local search continues to grow, e will see state or regional geo-targeting options.

The “Set Preferred Domain” tool allows the site owner to choose either the www or non-www version of the URL as the one you would like used to index your site’s pages. This is also referred to URL canonicalization. Search engines can see variations of the same domain as different pages and this can cause confusion and possible ranking reductions.

The “Enhanced Image Search” tool allows the Google to index your images and to include them in the image search. This can be an effective strategy for sites to drive additional traffic through Google’s image search. Now if you are a professional photographer, you may want to opt out of this to protect your images.

The “Remove URLs” tool allows you to remove content from the Google index. You may be saying why in the world would someone not want their content in Google. Well maybe the site had a promotional page that is no longer valid or the content page was removed from the website.

The “Enhanced 404 Pages” tool creates a custom 404 error page widget. Instead of providing the un-friendly default system 404 error page, you can now enhance it to make it easier for site visitors to find the information they need on your site.

 Well there is your two cent tour of Google Webmaster Tools.

Tags: google, google webmaster tools

Podcasting is a growing method of reaching your target audience and yet, many small business owners aren`t taking advantage of this useful technique. Unfortunately, many people suffer from a fear of podcasting, but today, we`re going to look at why you might not want to try it and get rid of those fears.

“My voice sounds weird/I have an accent.” Well, GOOD! Your voice is unique and that makes it ideal for podcasting. People just love to hear what someone sounds like and you`ll probably end up with more clients than ever before once they have the chance to get to “know” you via podcasting.

“I can`t commit to podcasting on a regular basis.” That`s fine. Why not start with one podcast and see how it goes? There`s no rule saying you have to record something every week. Audio can be a handy way to connect with your visitors, but you can do it when you want to, there`s no need to schedule if you don`t want to.

“I`m not interesting enough/I have nothing to say.” Maybe not. But that`s why you prepare for your podcast. Write up a sheet of points you want to convey, do some research or even invite a guest speaker and interview them. If you don`t have anything to say, look for information on what your target market wants and talk about that.

Don`t let fear hold you back from podcasting. You could be losing out on making a vital connection with your clients!

The winners of the Google Android Apps Developer Challenge each receive $275,000. 

1. Cab4me.com - Ever been looking for a cab? cab4me is the answer. Anywhere. Anytime.
http://www.cab4me.com/

2.  CompareEverywhere - Shop smarter using your phone. Compare prices, read reviews, and connect with local stores.
http://compare-everywhere.com/

3.  Ecorio - Ecorio automatically tracks your mobile carbon footprint, suggests transit and carpooling alternatives and lets you stay carbon neutral by offsetting your trips easily.
http://www.ecorio.org/

4.  GoCart - Scan a product’s barcode with your phone’s camera and view all the best prices online and at nearby, local stores.
http://www.biggu.com/

5.  Life360 - From major natural disasters to little things like your child wandering away at the mall, there is a lot you might worry about. Life360 can help.
http://www.life360.com/

6.  Locale - Locale is an advanced settings manager that automatically changes your phone’s settings based on conditions, such as location.
http://www.androidlocale.com/

7.  PicSay - Easy to use image editor that enables you to quickly personalize your pictures and share them with friends or photo sites.
http://www.shinycore.com/picsay/

8.  SoftRace - Turn your workout into a thrilling race and challenge the world in real time.
http://www.softrace.net/

9.  Tunewiki - TuneWiki Social Media Player, is an advanced player, featuring synchronized lyrics for audio or video, translation, music maps and a social network.
http://TuneWiki.com/

10.  Wertago - The mobile application nightlifers have been waiting for. Find the hottest parties in town and connect with friends and others all night long.
http://wertago.com/

If you’ve been marketing online for any length of time, you’ve no doubt seen the brand “Duct Tape Marketing“. John Jantsch, the guy behind that brand is a true, “marketer’s marketer” as you’ll see in the interview below. Because of John early in my blogging experience, I was able to pick up a lot of great insights and secured blogging gigs with Business Blog Consulting and AllBusiness.com which lead to a number of media opportunities and consulting engagements.

In this interview, John talks about getting started, branding, blogging, SEO, outsourcing marketing and tips, getting referrals, specialization and a few of his favorite tools and technologies.

You’re well known, heck your famous, for many things related to small business marketing. Tell us about yourself. How did you get started blogging and where did the idea for Duct Tape Marketing begin?

I’ve owned my small business for over 20 years and have always been into marketing, but about six years ago discovered I loved working with small business, but man was it hard to make a living doing it the traditional way. So, I decided to turn marketing into a product and call it Duct Tape Marketing because it seemed like the perfect metaphor for the small business reality.

There are a significant number of small businesses started each month, meaning a tremendous marketplace of marketing opportunity both for and to those new businesses. What advice do you have for small businesses thinking about outsourcing their marketing?

It’s a great idea to delegate but don’t abdicate. You’re got to know more about your ideal customer and more about what makes what you have to offer valuable than anyone ever will - your job is to help a marketing coach or consultant understand what makes your business tick and let them leverage that.

We are no doubt experiencing some uncertain economic times and marketing is often the first to go when budgets get cut. What advice do you have for marketing agencies that want to reach small business marketplace in this kind of environment?

Buy more market share now but narrowing your focus. Get really good, right now, at serving the narrowest possible market like nobody ever dreamed of.

You’ve written a lot about the importance of referrals within business, a tactic that I think, is often overlooked by many online marketers. Can you offer a few of your best tips for getting referrals from clients?

Ask. I know, brilliant, but the fact is nobody does it systematically. The best thing you can do is build the expectation of a referral into your lead conversion process. In other words, tell a  prospect that you know they are going to be so thrilled with what you have promised to do that, if in fact, they are thrilled, they agree to introduce you to two other who need this type of solution - sounds too simple, but works every time.

Search engine optimization can play such a huge role in a small businesses marketing plan, but it’s not right for every business. what are your thoughts on small businesses relying on SEO?  Any tips on outsourcing SEO or keeping it in-house?

SEO for the small business is properly formatted HTML, good updated content and relevant links back - a lot of SEO folks can help you do that, but a lot of small business owners can do that part DIY. I think the trick is to understand your objectives - what role does your web presence play?  Are you in highly competitive turf where it’s cut throat to get search traffic? If you outsource anything learn enough about it to be a good buyer.

Over the past year or two there’s been a lot of buzz over Social media as a marketing channel, yet most businesses still don’t really know what it means for reaching new and existing customers. What’s your advice for companies just starting to make sense of social media? What are the best social networks, media sharing sites and web 2.0 sites for small business?

I always say start with a blog because I think it’s the front door to social media and can do a lot of really positive things for most small businesses. After that I would say get involved in the local and social search sites that are indexing businesses and allow user to rate and recommend local businesses. I think that’s a hot space and will get bigger.

You’ve done an amazing job of branding yourself and Duct Tape Marketing. How important is branding to a small business. Are small business branding efforts wasted in lieu of direct marketing and sales?

All businesses have a brand. A brand is simply the collective impression of your business by folks who have heard of you. So, the question is, was the brand built intentionally or accidentally. I like to say marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you - branding for the small business is the act of becoming knowable, likable and trustable. It may not make the phone ring, but it sure attracts the right customer when done right.

It’s highly likely you’ve posted this on your blog, but what are 3-5 John Jantsch marketing tips that every business needs to consider?

• Differentiate - find a way to define your value as different in a way that matters to your market - even if you have to make it up.

• Partner - every single day spend some time developing strategic partners - the right one can inject 500 customers into your business tomorrow.

• Harness the Internet - start with a blog, learn how to tap RSS technology, use email marketing

What are some emerging marketing opportunities for businesses marketing online that you’re seeing? Mobile, social, new forms of advertising?

(iPhone applications - today anyway) - mobile has promise but it’s still learning. I think maybe the emerging marketing opportunity that I find most useful for small business is offline/online integration Remember, most of us still sell to real people

You’re pretty much everywhere on the web and clearly a very busy guy. How do you stay current with marketing news, strategy and tactics? What are your favorite online resources?

I am a huge fan of RSS technology. I stay current because I am curious and because technology makes it easy for me to filter and aggregate. I think it also helps that I actually do everything I write about and I am my target market - what a killer combo that is.

I love Jott

Thanks John!  Get more John Jantsch insights on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog.

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If you thinking of doing social media marketing for your business blog, the first thing you should do is find out where your target audience is hanging out.

You may think, that’s pretty obvious. But some business don’t do this crucial first step. They pick a social media site to participate on, but they don’t research that site first to see if their target audience actually uses that site.

An example of this is a wedding blogger trying to promote her site on Digg. Digg is a very popular site but the vast majority of Digg users are not interested in weddings.

Another example is joining a social media site because it’s the “next big thing”. Right now, Twitter is growing in popularity and some social media experts are saying you need to join Twitter or you’ll get left behind. However, much of this talk is hype. Many industries still don’t have a big presence on Twitter.

So, how can you find out where you target audience is hanging out? How can you discover which social media sites they are using?

In my next post, I’ll give some practical ways for locating your target audience on the internet. You can subscribe for free to get updated whenever I publish my next posts.