'Net Features : sept-09

Microsoft Cozies Up to Designers and Developers

Mike Phillips — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Microsoft seems to be feeling the heat from other SMB providers. Recently they have launched BizSpark, a discount program for startups. Now they're hoping to entice the designer/developer crowd with WebSiteSpark. The program offers access to a host of applications from Microsoft Expression and they're offering it at a major discount - just $100, including training and some support.

The software included in the deal are Visual Studio Professional, Expression Studio 2 or 3, Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. In addition, WebSiteSpark participants will have access to WebsiteSpark Marketplace (to find developers), Partner Solution Profiler (providing a marketplace for freelance developers) and the Web App Gallery, a community for developers to show off their apps. Eligible businesses can participate for up to three years, at the end of which the $100 is charged, and Microsoft hopes to sell you their full suite of design/development services.

There are some conditions:

The business must provide design and development services to clients
The business is limited to having 10 employees or less
Businesses must join the Microsoft Partner Network (if not already members)
To continue eligibility, the business must, "...deploy a new public and Internet-accessible website developed using Program software within 6 months from Program enrollment, and report it and other new websites through the WebsiteSpark Portal."
Those continuing with the program must also renew their enrollment each year.

And once the three years are up, developers will no longer have access to the tools unless, of course, they decide to pay up.

For more information and full terms and conditions, visit Microsoft WebSiteSpark.

Also announced recently by Microsoft ASP.NET team (agains, aimed at SMB's) is a free AJAX content delivery network (CDN), that provides caching support for AJAX libraries (including jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX) and is billed as a competitor of Amazon's fee-based CloudFront CDN. Scripts are available on the Microsoft AJAX website. And for some detail on how to use the service, check out ScottGu's Blog.

SEO Books For Everyone

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT

The Website Magazine Editorial team has completed its November 2009 issue on E-mail marketing and that means one very important thing - the next issue (on Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing) has entered the planning phases. That's where you come in. SEO and SEM are in constant states of change so we want to know what tools, resources and services you use most often to secure top rankings on popular search engines. Share your favorite keyword research tools, link building tactics/services, or content creation techniques and you'll forever be immortalized in the pages of Website Magazine (you'll even be found at Barnes & Nobles across the U.S). In preparation of the upcoming edition, we've assembled a list of seven key reads (SEO books) for both newbie and professional search engine optimization specialists.

What have you read that positively influenced your SEO campaign? Comment below!

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

SEO Made Simple: Strategies For Dominating The World's Largest Search Engine by Mr. Michael H. Fleischner	Search Engine Optimization All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies by Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza

Online Marketing Inside Out by Brandon Eley, Shayne Tilley	The Truth About Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Lieb

The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing by Heather F. Lutze	SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible by Jerri L. Ledford

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone, Gradiva Couzin

Keyword Meta Tags and Google

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:50:00 GMT

How much does Google use the keyword meta tag? Not at all according to a post today on the Webmaster Central Blog.

Does that comes as a surprise to you? For many it won't but it's always nice to have some verification and today it came in the form of a video from Matt Cutts, Google's Head of Webspam. Google does (or will) use the meta description tag occasionally as a snippet for the description which appears in the search results, but it is important to note that Google does not use the description meta tag in how it ranks sites.

A rather insightful comment was posted by Michael Martinez on the post who said it would be helpful to Webmaster if Google used it in their Custom Search Engine solution and/or site-specific searches. We agree completely. The keyword meta tag is used by the Google search appliance but it does not influence organic results at google.com.

So should you leave the keywords meta tag empty or not include it at all? According to a some respondents on the post, some search engines (Yahoo! and Ask) still do use the keyword meta tag. Keeping it might offer some "insurance" just in case some engines do factor the keyword tag into their algorithm.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

Reputation Management and Monitoring for Everyone

MaureenA — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:03:00 GMT

Social media has turned traditional word-of-mouth on its head. Your customers can broadcast their thoughts of your company, products and their experience with you faster and easier than ever before – and reach a much larger group of people. Traditionally, you could assume that one person would likely tell a handful of people about their positive experience, or 10 people if they had an unpleasant experience. But that has grown exponentially with people broadcasting thoughts to hundreds of Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

So what are your customers saying and where? There are many online resources available that can track what's being said and where. Some resources cover all social media platforms such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., while others are specific to the social media platform such as only blogs or Twitter. You can choose from management, monitoring or both. Management tools help manage conversations, social networks and other information - adding specific qualities to certain information. Monitoring tools provide you with the conversations and where they are occurring. Below are a handful of online reputation resources ranging from monitoring to managing, depending on your business goals.

WhoLinksToMe: Released in March, this tool analyzes inbound links to your website. The philosophy of this company is that links have replaced traditional word-of-mouth, making online management key to any business’ marketing plan. This is a free Web-based tool that evaluates links in real time. According to the original announcement, the company plans to offer more robust offerings for businesses.

BlogPulse: Produced by Nielsen (one of the most credible data companies), BlogPulse tracks blogs, linking to blogs, trends and conversations. It can tell you the most cited blogs, trends, links, phrases and more. You can add your blog for free to its blog search engine for content syndication and analysis.

TweetBeep: A free tool that also offers premium accounts with additional features, TweetBeep tracks conversations about you occurring on Twitter. You notify keywords or URLs that you want TweetBeep to track and you are notified anytime someone uses those words in tweets. You can set how often you want to be notified of TweetBeeps – making your response to those talking about you faster. For example, last week, Website Magazine received a TweetBeep about a reader who wasn't able to read an article on the website because they thought they needed to buy a pro-level subscription. Website Magazine saw the tweet, and responded quickly to let the reader know she only had to log in to read the articles. Quick response can turn frustration into satisfaction.

StepRep: StepRep is another free tool that monitors what people are saying about you, and helps manage your reputation as well as build it. StepRep can tell you everything from people are talking about you on Twitter to posting photos about you and even videos. In regards to managing, StepRep allows users to syndicate content through its website or add a widget to your site. In addition, StepRep has its own social network site where users can interact with customers.

Trackur: Built by prominent Web professional Andy Beal, Trackur monitors news sites, social media sites, blogs, images, videos and other websites based on your keywords. Trackur results are populated on a dashboard allowing users to add and refine keywords, view trends, and add sentimental tagging. The sentimental tagging allows you to tag items based on positive, negative or neutral sentiment. Trackur has different pricing plans to appeal to individuals and large companies. Pricing starts at $18 per month to $197 per month for the enterprise level.

Human Powered Reputation Management?
CARMA International: This organization looks at online measurement a different way. Instead of software and programs, it uses humans to determine how people are talking about you online. Recently, CARMA updated its methodology as well as introduced three additional features: Social Media Access, Tone, and Customization. Social Media Access allows users to combine social media coverage results with traditional media including blogs, tweets, forums and more. Users can choose to have this coverage display in an interface with the traditional media results or separately. Tone provides users with a rating on the tone of articles which was evaluated by CARMA’s team. And Customization provides users with additional data and charts.

You can take management into your own hands by using WordPress and the WP-O-Matic plugin. In September 2008, Peter Prestipino, editor-in-chief, wrote about his experience setting up the WP-O-Matic plugin to manage and implement campaigns within 30 minutes.

For those looking to read more about online reputations, check out a list of books on the topic.

Do you use an online reputation tool not listed here? Tell us about it below.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

Facebook Peak Times for Business

Mike Phillips — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:20:00 GMT

By now we all know that Facebook is dominating the world. It won't be long until Facebook implants are installed at birth and Mark Zuckerberg demands a framed photo in every living room. Well, maybe that's a little extreme. But Facebook is dominating the Web these days and for businesses, its important to know how and when to take advantage of the opportunity.

Every business should have a Facebook Page - a place where consumers can become fans and see updates in their personal feeds whenever you post to your Page. In terms of social media, there's no better way to become entrenched in users' online lives. But when is the best time to reach out?

Social media services vendor ViTrue has released results of a study "...compiled from nearly 200 million fans impressions on Facebook pages over a 5 month period (March though August 2009)." What they found is that Tuesday and Wednesday represent the highest click-through rates (CTR) on wall posts. Tuesday's CTR is an astonishing 9.89 percent, while Wednesday is no slouch at 9.87 percent. The worst days, somewhat surprisingly, are Thursday (4.39 percent), Saturday (2.7 percent) and Friday (2.67 percent). So, maybe Facebook users have social lives offline after all? Yes, that's probably true. And that's a good thing - it means you're reaching out to real people in real-world situations. That's big incentive to make your clickable wall posts inviting, value-driven and useful.

On average, the study shows an overall CTR of 6.76 percent, supported by an earlier study with Ad Age that showed CTRs of 6.49 percent just a few weeks ago. In those estimates - and these are educated estimates - those clicks were broken down by age:

13-17:   40%
18-24:   30%
25-34:   14%
35-44:   10%
45-54:   4%
55-plus: 2%

And by sex:

Female: 56%
Male:     44%

Impressive, these numbers are. What's more, they might actually be higher. ViTrue CEO Reggie Bradford explained in August, "If a site has 100 fans and your wall post gets five clicks, that's a 5% CTR. But if you assume only about 20% of those folks actually saw the post, it's really a 20% click-through rate." While his math is slightly off, the point remains the same - not everyone is going to see your wall posts, particularly when users might have hundreds of "friends." So, timing is also critical. You want to be present during the highest points of activity, but you don't want to get lost in the noise. The only real way to find your hot zone is to test it out and track your results.

All of these numbers are encouraging and the CTR far far exceeds those of traditional online ads. However, keep in mind that not everyone on the Web is on Facebook, and the site is relatively new to most people (as opposed to online ads in general). You can expect these rates to drop over time, as more people realize that becoming a fan of a business is a lot like opting in to an advertising campaign. Post nothing but ads or post too frequently and you'll soon have fewer fans. Or worse, they might remain a fan but hide your updates - skewing your numbers terribly. So, those businesses that prioritize value over clicks will be the ones that benefit the most from Facebook fans in the long-term.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

On-Page SEO and Alt Text: SERP Ranking Influencer?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:41:00 GMT

The most important on-page ranking factors for placing competitively in search engine results pages (SERPs) include keyword use in the title tag, keywords in the domain (page names and folders too), keywords in the headline tags, within internal and external anchor text, within page copy, and yes ... keyword use in the alt text. While each of these factors is hotly contested in professional SEO circles, it's image alt text that has our attention today. You may be asking yourself, "What is this ... 2002 ... with the discussion of alt text?" And I might agree completely if it weren't for a recent spin I took on the SERPs of popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Let's start by developing a definition of alt text. The alt attribute is used in HTML (and XHTML) documents to specify alternative text that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered. Over time, adding alternative text for images became a principle of Web accessibility. While alt text can be applied to media, applets or other non-text Web content (like entire areas of a Web page) the common understanding is alt text as related to images (and image optimization).

Why include alt text on images? While they do provide screen readers something to consume and aid those with visual disabilities, alt text provides a semantic meaning and description to images which can't be read by search engines. Did you get that? Search engines, despite being technological marvels of efficiency and productivity, are dumb and they need your help (the webmaster/SEO) to tell them what an image actually means. That presents an incredible opportunity to influence position on the SERPs from where I stand. Don't believe me - take a look at an example.

Today I searched for "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread" - after a good experience over the Labor Day weekend. I concede that the examples below are only one sample but the results encouraged me to rethink the use of naming images (as an on-page SEO tactic) that appear within content. More on that below.

Of the top five results on Google, three out of five returns named an image on the ranked page with the alt text (or some slightly modified derivation of it) with "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread": AllRecipes.com, AndreasRecipes.com, and ClosetCooking (on Blogger) all had alt text on their images. And the last one didn't even have any PageRank! RecipeZaar (which had an image but no alt text) and Cooks.com (its own search return list of related recipes) were the other two sites in the top five that were reviewed. Of the five final results on the first page, none had alt text.

Of the top five results on Yahoo!, three were identical to the top five on Google, but more importantly they (those with the alt text) were the ones that secured the first, second and third position. The next two results (position four and five respectively) did not have alt text on their images. Of the remaining listings, only one had alt text on its image.

Of the top five results on Bing, little had changed. AllRecipes and AndreasRecipes still topped the SERPs in the first and second position, but they were the only two of the top five that were using alt text. Consequently, of all the results that I encountered during this brief tour, Bing by far had the "spammiest" looking results.

So what’s the final verdict on alt text? While I do believe there are other more important factors in determining position (as outlined above) on the search results page, using alt text should be an important part of your on-page SEO – if only to be in-line with accessibility best practices. In the end, adding another layer of meaning onto your visual content can't hurt and by the looks of it, might just influence position if only for long-tail terms.

Bing Cashback: 6 Reasons to Get Started Now

Mike Phillips — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Cashback started as a Microsoft Live Search offering in 2008. It gained some attention, but didn't really catch on with consumers like Microsoft (and retailers) had hoped. That attitude looks to be changing.

Several weeks ago, Bing offered to double their cashback rewards for consumers - if a retailer offered a $10 discount, Bing would throw in another $10. And it was successful. So much, they ended the program three days early after burning through their allotted budget for the promotion.

With Bing's strong focus on shopping and being a "decision engine," now might be the time for retailers and affiliates to get serious with Bing and their cashback program. Consumers look for deals - particularly online, where it's expected. Using cashback, retailers can set their purchase rewards amounts for items, and everything is on a cost=per-acquisition (CPA) basis - what Bing calls a guaranteed ROI. Below are a six more reasons to think about Bing cashback for your business.

Bing is up: The search engine itself is gaining in marketshare every day. Early returns from users are positive and with the overwhelming response of Bing's double cashback promotion, it's a clear indication Bing shopping is catching on. Click the "shopping" link on Bing's home page and the first thing you see is information on Bing cashback.
Yahoo!: When Bing takes over Yahoo! search properties, cashback is going to get even more exposure. It's not a bad idea to start now, so you can get familiar with the system and test what's working best with the Bing audience.
Cashback's new TV ad: It just started airing. Simply put, whenever you see a major advertising push on television, it will get attention. You can see it below.
Facebook and Twitter: Cashback has a presence on Facebook (more than 13,000 fans) and Twitter (over 4,500 followers). As you've been hearing for some time now, Facebook and Twitter are no joke. Expect those fans and followers to mushroom in the very near future.
eBay: Bing cashback is integrated with eBay. Although declining, eBay still sees 70 million uniques per month, according to Compete.com.
'Tis the season: Search for just about any product (toys, watches, etc.) on Google Trends and you'll see that the online shopping season is rapidly approaching. I can't think of a better time to get accustomed with Bing and cashback - the calm before the storm.

Learn more and get started with Bing cashback.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.