Get Indexed by Google Quickly

In this video Matt Cutts points out a feature of Google Webmaster Tools that essentially allows you to manually update Google's record of your webpage. The fetch as google bot function used to simply show you how google would see your page but now it can be used to refresh, or create, Google's record of a page on your website. For established websites this is very useful if some important information needs to be changed, a common example being a change in the price of a product or service. For new websites this should enable webmasters to get their content indexed more quickly than waiting for a google bot to crawl their content naturally. Interestingly Matt also points out that this feature gives you the option of crawling the linked content on that page as well. This is an excellent way for new sites to get into the index especially if a main navigation page is submitted to the fetch as google bot feature.

View Visits by the Hour - Google Analytics

If you want to find the time of day that your site is the busiest the standard views in the current version of Google Analytics aren't much use. Instead you will need to make a custom report.

The custom report outlined below will highlight which hours of the day are generally the busiest.

The Custom Report tab is right next to the standard reporting tab (look at the green bar towards the top of the screen).

Once there create a new report
- Metric
Select Visits. You will find this under visitors. It will be the last item on the visitors list.
- Dimension Drilldowns
Select Hour. It is the 3rd item from the bottom in the 'Other' Category.
Be sure to select Hour NOT Hour of the Day. Hour of the day gives every hour of every day it's own code (as such you will end up with 7 0700s if you are looking at a week's worth of data. ~30 0700s if you're looking at a months worth of data)

This is a useful analysis as it will help you identify when people are engaging with your content. You can then use it to help shape your advertising campaign and optimise the time to make announcements, updates, and more.

SEO mistakes - Following the wrong signals

A lot of people stress out about SEO. Here Matt Cutts of google reminds us that your SEO efforts make less of an impact than having compelling content does. Remember, if you're optimising for the current search algorithm but not thinking about users you will not be around long term.

How to think like google

I've spoken about this is previous posts as well but if you want to optimise your website for search you need to understand how search worls. In this video from Google Matt Cutts explains how relevant results are indexed, searched, and ranked to produce the search engine results page that google users see. once you understand these basic elements of how search works, or how google thinks, you're ready to dive into SEO on a deeper level.

Google's 5 mistakes in SEO

1) Failure to provide value to the client
A website that has great SEO but no real value to it searchers will not reliably click through or refer friends.

2) A segmented approach to SEO
Focus on optimising your site through the whole customer experience. Align your marketing message with your SEO strategy.

3) Time Consuming Work Arounds
Stay up to date with current best practices to avoid wasting effort. One example is flagging content in such a way that causes google's spiders to disregard it completely.

4) Getting caught in SEO trends
The most dangerous trend to get caught up in is chasing the search engines rather than users. Search engines try to emulate users. If you chase users you and the search engines will be working towards the same goal meaning algorithm changes should help rather than hurt you.

5) Slow iteration
Update your site continually to provide maximal optimisation

Do these:
1) Do something cool
2) Include relevant keywords in your copy
3) Be smart about title and meta description tags
4) Sign up for e-mail forwarding in webmaster tools (it will send you information about problems etc.)
5) Attract Buzz, often referred to as creating link bait
6) Stay fresh and relevant

Increase you Adwords ROI with Remarketing

Remarketing is an option that can be found in the Audience tab in Adwords. Remarketting allows you to target the same cutomers multiple times across the google display network by placing a cookie on their computer. This is how some ads can seem to follow you all over the internet.

In order for it to work you must include some tracking code on the relevant pages of your website. Adwords will generate this code for you while you set-up remarketing in the audience tab.

While attracting the same customer multiple times may seem counter intuitive at first there are sound reasons to implement such a practice.
1) It is rare for customers to purchase something after a single presentation
2) Remarketing helps you get found again
3) Remarketing targets customers who are likely to be interested in your product or service

The importance of what you don't see - Why what Google and Facebook are hiding from you is important

Oddly enough while people are quick to criticise news networks, such as Fox in the US or even the Herald locally, our new information source, the internet, is not yet subjected to the same critical eye. Yet in this age of increasing personalisation Facebook, Google, and other providers using similar algorithms to determine the relevance of information are acting as the new censors. Ironically though this censorship does not (yet) serve to expose you to the views of the censor, instead it seeks to expose you to your own views. In so doing it will reinforce your existing beliefs at the expense of providing opposing viewpoints.

This is especially dangerous given the way that we work psychologically. If we hold a particular viewpoint we are likely to hold onto it even in the face of conflicting evidence. In fact we will use any supporting evidence at our disposal, no matter how weak, to counter any perceived need to adjust our viewpoint. Furthermore instance of information that are in line with our viewpoint are more likely to be remembered than those that do not. This all culminates in an idea known as confirmation bias - essentially our tendency to continue to believe things that we already believe.

When our innate confirmation bias is combined with an external confirmation bias the danger is that false/incorrect beliefs may be held even more deeply. Afterall instead of information in line with our thoughts being the exception to the rule the additional filter will now ensure that our belief is the rule.

In the video above the presenter rightly points to the importance of being exposed to information outside or personal bubble and suggests that those from Facebook and Google should listen. Arguably they may feel that the focus on social networking should achieve some of this already as we are being exposed to the filters of others. However in order for this to hold the exposure to these filters needs to be immune from the relevance shaping that we have seen occuring, so far it is not.