Latest Web Site Related News and Developments...

Earlier this year we blogged about how Google was shutting down 10 of its services, now Google is in the midst of it's spring clean and has added yet another 12 additional web services to that list of 10 closures earlier in the year. Some of these you may know already, while other Google services may be totally new.

The full list of new Google service closures includes: Google Bookmarks Lists, Google Friend Connect, Google Gears, Google Search Timeline, Google Wave, Google Knol, Google's Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, Code Search, Jaiku, iGoogle's social features, University Research Program for Google Search and the Google labs website.

Well the answer is simple, yes and it is in the process of penalizing more websites that exist, or Google believes exist, purely to push web adverts on their websites.

The head of Google's web spam team announced at the PubCon conference in Las Vegas on November 7^th, 2011 that Google was testing improved algorithms that will determine how much of your content is available above the fold, before you have to scroll, on a web page to your web site visitors. Websites that have lots of ads that obscure the content of the page where warned they may see penalties applied to their website as a result.

Most people are totally unaware that their static website, or even their content managed website for that, can have web applications (apps) placed in them to help expand their functionality and useability. These web apps can do everything to help keep your website up to date using a calender, entertaining your users by putting super Mario Brothers and other games in your web pages, to letting people read their horoscopes. All of these can be added by Specnet to your website for you.

Beexquisite are one of our relatively new clients who came to us as they felt their website was underperforming and could do with a significant boost of dedicated and relevant traffic to their website. We sat down with the owners and identified some key areas where their website could be improved and optimized.

It was decided to add more pages about each one of the treatments they offer and improve the text and links on the website, to not only bring better search results but to bring more sales by making their pricing and treatment information easier to find.

Over the next few months Google will be shutting down the following 10 services and the developers on these projects will be moved to other Google products. Some of these may be familiar others may not be. The Google services that are shutting down are: Google Aardvark, Google Desktop, Google Fast Flip, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Google Image Labeler, Google Notebook, Google Sidewiki and Google Subscribed Links.

Moore farm services have been using Specnet's Search Engine Optimization package since October 2010 on a month by month basis and have kept coming back due to the phenomenal results Specnet has managed to achieve for their website in a relatively short amount of time.

In this short time we have managed to accumulate a massive 63 page 1 listings of which over 80% are position 1, and some even hold position 1, 2 and 3 for the same key term.

What is Google's Panda update?

Google, like the other Search Engines have special, unique algorithms that they have created and which determine where your website will be placed in their search result pages. From time to time the search engines will release major updates to these algorithms that can either positively or negatively affect your websites results, and that is what Google has done with the latest update, Panda.

Over 10% of websites have been affected by the Panda update worldwide so far so it is something all website owners should be aware of and how to work with it and not unknowingly against it. The Panda update is also one of the first updates by Google to its algorithm to be a staggered update, due to the intensity of the changes that Google is putting in place, these are still going on and may do for some time to come as Google rolls out the changes gradually. The last update to Panda , Panda 2.5, was released on February 24^th, April 11^th, May 9^th, June 18^th, July 22^nd, September 28^th, October 9^th, October 15^th, October 19^th, November 18^th 2011 just to show you how recent the last Google Panda update was.

Getting to page one of Google can increase your customer foot fall and improve your sales

This 60 second presentation was written for the Women In Business Leicester North group to demonstrate how powerful SEO can be.

How many website our out there on the internet?  Is it at all possible for your website to stand out above the rest?  The answer is YES with a bit of effort and commitment.

View what are QR Codes as a Video Blog

QR Codes, or Quick Response codes, are funny little square 2D barcodes which look a bit like modern art, but in fact they contain information for your company such as your company, or companies contact addresses, like web address, phone number and key person to contact. QR Codes are free to produce and can be read by mobile phones via a free QR Code barcode reader application - and it's not JUST for IPhones.

QR Codes can then be printed off and attached to off line advertising or installed on your company website, this way your customers or potential customers can just scan the barcode into their mobile phone and have all of your company or companies contact information stored for later.

Yes I know this could be considered lazy, but it is a very convenient way to get your company information sent straight to busy clients who are always on the go, some restaurants are using it to provide you with their menu information, now I can certainly see the advantage of this.

View this article as a Video Blog

Google started life as a search engine but these days the Google folks are into all sorts of things; email, calendar, web browser, mobile phone operating system, web statistics, docs, groups, sites, video, they own You Tube, My Sites but these last two are another story. Google dominate the search engine market, and via this have created a world renowned brand and a revenue stream via their phenomenal ad words advertising system. Bill Gates famously said that his one big mistake was to underestimate the web search engine market!

The details below followed on from a conversation I had with an existing client, I felt that the details would be of interest to a wider audience, so please read on......

As discussed, you have a number of options for moving your website forward and the ones we discussed were as follows;

The search engine prominence of your website, is an important area and it’s vital you get it checked – improvement of a websites’ search engine prominence is not easy, cheap or a quick task I’m afraid, but it is an area in which we spend a lot of time. You have two options; 1-Google paid listings (SEM) and 2-natural search listings (SEO). The first option is instantaneous but you must pay EVERYTIME someone clicks on your advert, the second option takes a minimum of 3 months, but then you don’t pay no matter how many people click on your website. Paid ads can work particularly well if you have a niche market, if not set your budget at a reasonable level, at least £100/mth and regardless of how much you plan to spend it is essential that someone monitors the campaign at least once a week.

If you’re not high on Google – you’re nowhere.

Businesses who want to make the most of their website need to be looking at search engine optimisation relentlessly to ensure the information stored by Google is relevant to what their customers are looking for. Business website owners need to get savvy about their website, their customers and Google.  To ensure good ranking with Google, it important that all 3 marry up. By being internet savvy business website owners will;

A realistic approach to getting page 1 ranking with Google search engine...

Once you have the perfect web site how do you drive traffic to it? How do you stop your web site from being that invisible shop front nobody ever visits? How do you make your website work for you?

The answer is simple - Search Engine Optimisation for Google.

Do you understand how competitive your market is and how intense your competition is?

Do you understand how the world wide web works?

If the answer is no then you need professional help from Specnet to develop an effective Search Engine Optimisation Strategy. A successful strategy will keep you on top of your game, keeping your website up to date with the latest requirements of Google and ahead of your competitors.

Using completely legitimate techniques search engine optimisation techniques, Specnet have created a procedure that optimistes your html code and will get your website on to page 1 of Google – in the natural listings.

This has massive advantages over PPC and sponsored link ads with Google, as once in the natural listings you website link will remain there for a number of months, 24/ 7 and Google will not bill you each time your link is clicked on.

It's safe to say that Google Product Search is becoming more popular. A measurement of growth extending through November 2008 has the service putting its rivals to shame.

Google Product Search had 11.8 million unique visitors in November 2008. That's up a MASSIVE 786% from the same period November 2007 last year. This is the biggest one-year increase to date of any online comparison shopping service.