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A floating waste of plastic trash the size of Texas

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:56:18 -0700

A giant floating mass of debris the size of Texas...

http://lorenzlammens.com/literature/341-grays-elegy.html

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:30:40 -0700

An analysis of Thomas Gray's Elegy.

Tracking Local search Traffic with Analytics | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:15:48 -0700

From the page: "Tracking Local search Traffic with Analytics
Category: Google Maps (Google Local) �" Mike �" 6:23 am

Analytics is not something that I specialize in but given the increasingly high profile nature of the Local 10 Pack and not easy solution from Google for distinguishing this traffic, I turned to Martijn Beijk for advice.

Martijn Beijk works as a SEO at Onetomarket, one of the leading online marketing agencies in Europe with offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. There he focusses on local search , analytics and SEO in general. You can find him writing on his blog about Local Search, SearchCowboys and other guest appearances. Some of you might know him from his article �The Definitive guide on using KML for SEO� which was nominated for a Semmy Award.

***
This article is for all of you who have already claimed their businesses or those of a client. Some experience with Google Analytics is required
***

A good thing for any website owner is to run a Web Analytics package which tells you some things about the visitors of your website. They way they entered your website, with what, where from, for how long and where or even why they left.

It is also possible to set specific goals using a Web Analytics package like a form that has been filled out or a contact page that has been reached. This can be very useful to determine if your Local Traffic is converting into any phone calls, filled out forms or an ecommerce transaction waiting to be picked up from your storefront.

The following examples with Google Analytics will help you get more insight in your local traffic. Basic knowledge of Analytics is assumed. Google Analytics (GA) should already be set up for the website in order to continue the following examples.

Track URLs in Local Business Center

First of all, we want to track the URLs in the Local Business Center. The Local Business Center provides very basic information. Impressions and Views. Google is very vague in their answers in the help groups/forum on what an impression or a view actually mean. Does it account universal search traffic as well? or just directly Google Maps related views/clicks? And is this data accurate? We will decide to monitor this not from the Local Business Center but rather with Google Analytics.

Imagine your business has 2 store locations. Each in a different city/state. Your website has one URL http://www.example.com .

We will give each location a URL with GA parameters. By doing this, we will create a �virtual� campaign in GA for our local listing.

In order to do this we will use the Google Analytics URL builder tool, which you can find here: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578

You only need to fill in your specific location URL. the campaign source (in this case; google), the campaign medium (maps) and give it a campaign name, for example local_location_1.

Now copy the full URL and enter it in the Local Business Center for that specific listing. Everything should work okay (although the URL might be a bit long for the LBC to display it properly). Note that Google Maps will only display the part of the URL before the parameters!

Track Local campaign using 301 Redirects

You can do the same using a 301 redirect. (this is my preferred method, but you will have to know how 301 redirects work. ) Using 301 redirects you will be able to have a clean URL in your local business center.

In this case the Google Local Business Center contains the following URL :

http://www.example.com/locationpage

Google Maps will display :

http://www.example.com

clicking on the link in Google Maps will actually bring you to :

http://www.example.com/location/city/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=local&utm_campaign=local_location_1

That�s it to track your Local Business using a virtual Campaign!

Tracking your traffic from Google Maps

Now we would like to set up a filter to filter everything from the �vertical� http://maps.google.com

In order to do this you will have to do the following:

1) Create a new profile in Google Analytics using the same domain you are already using

analytics-11

2) Set up the filter for maps traffic

analytics-2

analytics-3

analytics-4

Step 1 :

New filter ->

Filter name �Maps�

Filter Type -> Custom Filter

Checked : include

Filter Field: Referral

Filter Pattern: �maps.google.�

case sensitive : no

save changes and wait for data to be collected. The next day you should be able to view maps traffic (if any)

Track Local traffic from Universal Search

Ok. I get it. I tracked the URL from the Local Business Center, I tracked the Traffic from Google Maps. But what about those maps appearing in the regular search results. Are those covered now too?

Well, to be safe, or to get more insight in which of your locations are actually appearing in any of the onepacks, 3packs or 10packs you can set up another pr

Leveraging Reverse Search For Local SEO

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:31:42 -0700

Most local businesses should include their business name, category, and city name in their page titles, particularly on their homepage. The article doesn't seem to mention that your address should also be mentioned in the title tag of your contact page.

Court: Trademarked Keywords Can't Be Used By Third Parties In AdWords

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:26:09 -0700

Finally. Google allowing competitors to bid on trademarked keywords has always been controversial and frankly, it violates the spirit of Trademark. Now a court agrees. It would appear that 'Do no evil' had to be enforced (Do no evil is Google's slogan - but the grey zone of business has corroded this slogan quite a bit already...)

It Takes A UK Village To Thwart Google Street View

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:41:19 -0700

Google's Street View recently hit the UK streets, and an angry throng of Brits has hit back. It happened in the wealthy village of Broughton: Seeing the Street View car driving through town, residents formed a human chain to stop the car and hassled the driver until he turned around and left.

6 New Web Technologies of 2008 You Need to Use Now

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:57:38 -0800

I don't agree with Google Chrome. Sure it will develop in something impressive since it is add-on based and Google is a popular brand, but I was really disappointed with this release and even more disappointed that it doesn't even support Google's own apps in full!

Study: Fortune 500 Doesn't Get SEO

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:11:18 -0800

A brilliant opportunity for small businesses to compete...

Use Humor for Link Marketing - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:33:38 -0800

From the page: "Humor is a great form of content that will give people a reason to link to your content and help it spread virally.

The strategy could include all kinds of humor, including cartoons, animations, videos, jokes, confessions, or even things overheard. Think of all the funny or embarrassing things overheard in offices, stores, streets, and public places. Do a search and you'll find a collection of sites devoted to this topic. Be forewarned, though: some things published on these sites can be offensive.

The challenge for most sites is coming up with something funny. For companies with marketing budgets, there's no shortage of comedians, comics, satirists, cartoonists, and animators seeking work.

Here are some ideas that can be used by everyone, regardless of the size of your marketing budget. It all depends on how resources are allocated and a little creativity.

Staff

Empower your staff to develop the humorous content. Have customer service people keep a notepad near the phone to write down comical things customers say, or even hilarious thoughts they have while speaking with customers.

These notes will provide great inspiration for the content. Plus, it will surely provide some lively lunchtime conversation. It might even turn into a great team-building activity.

Brainstorming Sessions

Have the staff get together once a week to brainstorm what to publish the following week. This is a great team-building event that's perfect for Fridays, when people tend to be less productive.

Let the staff fine-tune and vote on people's ideas. Consider offering a prize to the winning idea.

Customer Involvement

Get your customers involved for even better results. Who better to poke fun at an industry or product than the people who use it? Have a weekly, or monthly, contest for customers to submit material. This could be everything from videos, to cartoons, to written jokes.

Better yet, hire a cartoonist and have customers submit the captions. Then allow the public to vote.

Need a real world example of this in action? Check out how The New Yorker handles cartoon caption submissions and voting. Learn from them and keep it simple.

The New Yorker's approach of having people register is also a clever way to collect information on potential new customers. From a marketing standpoint, you could use that data to find people of influence to help promote the humor section of your site to a much larger audience. Simply add in an input field for site, blog, or social profile.

Enable it to Spread Virally

Viralize your content. Make sure the content is set up to go viral. That way your campaign will achieve the maximum results.

The easiest way to do this is to have your developer provide copy and paste code with each piece of humor. This will allow people to easily republish it on their site, blog, or social media page. That way you get a link and it reaches a wider audience. Plus you may acquire new customers in the process.

When trying to find ways to outsmart your competition for online marketing, humor is always a good choice. Just don't reinvent the wheel. Study successful campaigns and keep it simple."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081024/ap_on_el_pr/polls_apart_q_a_2

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:48:16 -0700

From the page: "Why polls vary on presidential race"