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Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Optimize Big, Focus Small

Hello. I hope your week is going well.

I had some extra time this evening and thought I’d catch up on some blog reading.

Seth Godin’s blog is one of my all time favorites, as well as one of my all time favorite authors. (Read what I learned from his latest two books).

In one of his recent posts he introduces the opening to his new book, “Small is the New Big” (I can’t wait).

Search Tail Optimization

His post reminded me of another article I read about focusing your marketing and search engine optimization efforts on the “search tail“. The search tail is where more specific searches are performed.

A recent customer of ours is in the payday cash advance business. Have you seen the competition? It’s incredible. We had to figure out what other phrases users would type in besides the typical cash payday keywords.

I think optimizing is more beneficial this way - finding the needle in the haystack. Once you figure it out, you’re golden. When optimizing for the real specific keywords your users are typing in, you get less looky loos to your website and more people who know exactly what they want, thus more willing to buy or make contact with you.

Research Your Website Statistics

The easiest way to optimize your site in the “search tail” is to research your website statistics. Find out how people are getting to your site currently. What keywords are they using? You’d be surprised at what you find. There might be a few hidden gems in there.

We optimized another customer’s website recently strictly based off of her website statistics. Now she’s making at least one sale on her website every day. Not bad.

Look for and research the hidden words, the specific words that are really associated with your business and USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Look for the needle in the haystack.

Your business has a point of difference. Use it to your advantage and in your search engine optimization efforts. No other company does what you do. Prove it.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:23 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Friday, January 20, 2006
Optimize for Google First

I just received my latest copy of CIO magazine and there was a little blurb in there about Who Uses Google? 52% of 1,000 survey respondents chose Google “as their primary site for general web searches”.

Experienced Internet Users Use Google

The more interesting part of the article was that more experienced internet users use Google and they tend to have higher incomes - above $60,000 - than those who use competing search engines like Yahoo or MSN.

This is why I’ve been saying all along, optimize for Google first – the other engines second. Why?

  1. More affluent people use Google
  2. More people in general use Google
  3. Experienced people use Google
Our Website

This is not just true from an article perspective. It rings true for our own site. I just checked our web statistics and 78% of our traffic from search engines comes from Google. That’s huge.

So take my word for it. Optimize for Google first. The rest of the search engines are icing on the cake.

Have a great weekend.

Note: The Google survey was done by S.G. Cowen & Co.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:00 am

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Tuesday, January 10, 2006
A Hard Drive Crash is Only a Click Away

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope your new year is going well. Mine is off to a running start. I just had to deal with a potential hard drive/computer crash. It didn’t happen, thank God, but it could of.

Last week I heard a clicking noise in my computer and it wouldn’t shut down correctly. This clicking sound is usually associated with the read/write heads of your hard drive. I was right and I scared myself into purchasing a new Seagate 250GB hard drive. I chose Seagate because it is not a Maxtor, the clicking drive, or a Western Digital, which failed on me twice. Seagate also offers a 5 year warranty and by the time 5 years is up, I’ll have to get another drive anyway.

Anyhoo…

I spent most of my week and weekend preparing for the reinstall of all my files, operating system and applications. Good thing I prepared because the install went without a hitch.

The reason why I’m telling you this story is:

  1. If you hear a clicking sound in your computer immediately get a new hard drive, no questions asked. It only cost me $100 for 250GB of space. That’s less than $.50 a gig.
  2. Maximum PC, a magazine I subscribe to religiously, helped me out immensely. Usually each issue has some kind of “How To” article or review on the latest components. The “How To” articles that came in handy for me were: “Upgrade Your Hard Drive, Step by Step”, “Slipstreaming Windows XP” and “Installing WinXP – The Right Way”.
Check out a copy of Maximum PC today. Heak, get a subscription; it’s only $12.00 a year. You’ll be glad you did.

Mike Swartz says, “Check ‘em out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:56 am

Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Uncategorized


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