NetCrafters Blog

Brazee Street Studios is a warm glass resource center residing in Cincinnati, Ohio, located in Oakley’s growing arts district. Brazee Street Studios provides quality education in warm glass techniques, is a recognized Bullseye Glass Resource Center, houses a community of professional artists in newly renovated studios, and promotes innovative artwork of all kinds onsite in the Biome Gallery.

(Updated 1-19-2010 to confirm that the test searches are still accurate)

In SEO and How to Pick Up Girls, Part 1, I wrote about how the messages of “How to be Found in Search Engines” remind me a little of advertisements for “How to Meet Women”.

I said I’d share some brief, current examples of success in part 2 and have selected a few that have achieved great search results for the terms indicated in the list below.

In the first post, I focused on content as the key to success, and I do believe that content is the most important work to be done, because it really is Google’s job to find the site. It just isn’t necessary to resort to tricks and “insider secrets”.  There are, of course, other factors that can make a difference, including links from other sites, but focused, in-depth content is the most important factor, and fortunately, that doesn’t require any special expertise beyond your own - the kind of expertise you built your site to promote in the first place.

A common sense approach to SEO is a good thing in the world, because we can see that the search engines, particularly Google, have evolved to the point that they really are good at finding sites based on content and relevance, vs. special insiders-only knowledge and manipulation of data.

Including the key terms in your content, page titles, image captions, headlines and other elements of each page is important. It’s part of telling the story well.  The most important key words and phrases may deserve to have individual pages dedicated to your messages about those products, services and ideas.

A solid, easily navigated presentation, a clear identity and link popularity are all useful, but without great content, they’re not going to matter any more than a guy trying to meet a woman in a bar, relying on a certain kind of clothing, body language, car, club membership or pick-up line to make up for authenticity and just showing up.

How much content is enough?

It depends on your work, your market and the popularity of and competition for your desired key words. Links from other well-ranked sites provide a lot of value, as well, and you can work on that regularly, over time, so that the links to your site are in place for a reason (just like real relationships and networks). Crafting and staying with a vision of in-depth, relevant content is the most important work you can do for your site.  There is no mystery to this kind of success.

Try these quick searches to see how a few of our customer sites show up in Google:

Search Term: Waterproofing Cincinnati

You’ll find JacoWaterproofing.com in the top 2-5 results. Jaco’s site is simple, but very effective, with lots of relevant content that brings them exceptional search traffic without having to invest in pay per click or other search marketing.They’re interested in local results and they get them with the content and clarity of their site. No secrets needed.

Search Term: Conversion Van

You’ll find Conversion Van Land in the first few Google search results on any given day. Castrucci Chevrolet in Cincinnati sells more conversion vans than almost anyone in the USA. A huge contributor to that volume is their web site and its prominence in the Search Engines. Their site, conversionvanland.com, comes up in the top results on various search terms, including that simple two word term: conversion van, a very competitive search phrase.

Search Term: basement crack repair

You should find AppliedTechnologies.com in the top 1-4 Google search results on any given day. Their site was recently upgraded to our advanced content tools and ranks high on several strategic search terms, including: foundation crack repair. The only site that can usually out perform them in Google search results is concretenetwork.com, a site with thousands of pages that ranks for nearly any imaginable basement or concrete related search term.
- Be sure to click on the SITE MAP link in Applied’s footer, to see the automatically generated site map that also shows just how deep the site is:
http://www.appliedtechnologies.com/home/site_map.html

Search Term: custom woodwork Cincinnati

You’ll find C & W Custom Woodworking (www.candwcustomwoodworking.com). They’ve got three things going for them: A domain name containing search terms, good links around the web, including a Facebook fan page and lots of content.

Search terms: cylindrical grinding, tool grinders, profile grinding

You should find United Grinding Technologies, www.grinding.com, in the top few results. Like the sites conversionvanland.com and candwcustomwoodworking.com, it helps that their domain name includes the most important key term, but what helps most is their deep and relevant content.

It’s Google’s job to find your site

Remember, the big un-secret to search engine results is a solid, well-focused message with deep, relevant content, because it is Google’s mission to find you. If your story is being well-told, then find you, they will (especially if you remembered to comb your hair and brush your teeth before leaving the house).

P.S. A great book to read about the evolution of search engines is “The Search” by John Battelle - Like any tech book, it’s dated now (everything written about technology ages faster than the speed of Moore’s Law, it seems), but it is an excellent story about Search, especially how Google changed the game (and maybe saved search in the process).

Chasing after so-called Search Engine secrets, tricks and promises of magic bullet success just takes your attention away from telling your own unique, remarkable story. And your own unique, remarkable story is what Google, and your customers, want to find.

We’re told, by the countless experts on the subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), that there are secrets to SEO success; that there are discoveries and insider’s tips we must learn in order be found in Google and increase our website traffic.

The promises I read in energetic updates to Twitter and Facebook, and on boldly-worded web pitches tell me that I too can learn the little-known secrets of site ranking and hard-won insights for dramatically increasing my site’s traffic.

It reminds me a little bit of “HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS”

You know, those magazine ads, web sites and late night infomercials that offer guys a chance at success with meeting women they’ve always wanted to attract, but whom they had no idea how to approach. They talk about the amazing women one might meet, where they can be found, how to approach them with clothing, body language and opening lines that have been “field tested” with trophy results.

It’s such a strong message of a need for mastery that it might never occur to the consumer  that if he stops reading, takes a shower, combs his hair, brushes his teeth, puts on fresh clothes and goes out into the world as his authentic self, he’s going to meet people. Some of those people might even be girls, women, the very same species he’s been studying from afar like they’re featured in some show on Animal Planet.

The selling of SEO can be like that.

Really.

Complicating the simple is a tried and true way of selling the snake oil of any age, and a lot of what passes for Search Engine Expertise is little more than jargon-laden complication of a simple process. Like the guy wanting to meet a girl, just showing up is more than half the work.  There are no secrets.

Here’s the un-secret truth that can ease your mind:

It’s Google’s job to find your site.

It’s their mission in life.  Literally, Google’s mission is: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

They find everything that can be found. I don’t have to trick them into finding me. I don’t have to shout or wave my arms or wear a special Google-attracting outfit.

It’s their job to find my site, your site, all sites and they’ve done it really, really well.

It’s not complicated.  It’s simple. You can trust the process without anxiety. Creating relevant content with the key terms for which you want to be found is the starting point for natural success.

I’ll tell you more and offer some quick, current examples in Part 2.

Most people know they can embed a Google map into their web site, but Google also has a number of other embeddable items.  They just released a handy single-page location called Web Elements where you can set parameters and quickly get code to embed a variety of things.

Embeddable products include Google Maps, Google Calendar, Conversation Element (visitor comments on your page), a custom search, Google News search listings, YouTube News service, and Google Docs presentations and spreadsheets.

Visit: google.com/webelements

As always, if you’re a NetCrafters customer and need assistance with adding any embeddable code to your site, just open up a ticket with our support department and we’ll be glad to help.

I’ve come to think about life in terms of “The Thirds.” Culturally we’re told that 8 hours of sleep constitutes a good night sleep, and businesses generally operate within an 8 hour work day, which leaves 8 hours for the rest of life to fit into. It’s no secret, but just in case you’re not with me: 24 divided by 8 = 3, which means our days are divided into thirds and the philosophy of the “micro = macro” equation brings us to a simple logical conclusion that our lives - as a whole - are therefore divided by “The Thirds.”

There’s the Bait… Now the Switch:

The division isn’t quite that simple though because even though 24 hours is simply divided into “The Thirds” by 8 hours three times, we still have this mysterious weekly remainder of 48 hours - more commonly referred to as: The Weekend. However, I consider this “The Remainder” because it’s the time we use to fit in all the remaining things necessary for a complete existence that didn’t fit into our daily thirds. This could be more work, more sleep, or more time for our selves.

The debate over whether or not it’s healthy to compartmentalize your life can go back and forth, but through my work as a keyboard & mouse professional I know that it’s not healthy to sit our bodies in front of a computer for more than 5 consecutive hours per day, let alone 8 hours! This recent theory of compartmentalizing my day into “The Thirds” has helped me stay aware of how much time I’m spending in front of the computer. There’s a great article I was sent last week called: You, Unplugged. In this article, a 2002 study at Tokyo’s Chiba University is mentioned as concluding:

“… workers who spent more than five consecutive hours in front of a computer screen experienced problems ranging from headaches, eyestrain and stiff shoulders to depression, anxiety, fatigue and sleep disturbances.”

This is not news to me, just a really great reminder. This article was delivered to me at the right time. Over the past few months I’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to intertwine the two thirds of my day that aren’t spent sleeping, in an effort to avoid burn-out and health problems later in life, caused by spending too many consecutive hours in front of the keyboard & mouse (trackpads count too!).

Interconnecting my two waking-hour thirds also helps to avoid the territorial anxiety I feel when one inevitably encroaches upon the other. If I put too much stock into the idea that my “Working Third” is spent working and “My Third” is spent not working, I’m just asking for anxiety and/or less time for my “Sleeping Third.” Life is entirely too dynamic for this kind of thinking.

Like any shift in habit, this is an ever-evolving process but so far I’m enjoying it. At NetCrafters, we use a tool called: The Emergent Task Timer (I call them bubble sheets because of the little bubbles you fill in to track your time) which is an amazing aid for keeping track of where you’re spending your working time during the day. It’s dynamic enough that when used properly it’s easy to track your time even on a day when you might work 3 hours here, 2 hours there, a long lunch, then a few hours in the evening.  With the bubble sheets there’s no anxiety if I decide to go for a walk at 2 o’clock (with my cell phone of course.. just in case!) because I know I won’t lose track of my “Working Third” when I decide to have a piece of “My Third” pie in the morning or early afternoon.

The Hook:

Don’t be too strict. Stopping points are everything. Just because I’ve hit my 8 hours doesn’t mean I have to stop right then and there. I may need another hour to get to a good stopping point for my “Working Third” so I can move cleanly into a “My Third” activity. This works both ways though and the reverse is much harder to slide within our culture. You may have only spent 7 hours on the “Working Third” today, but you’re at an excellent stopping point and you know that the next things on your list will take you past your 8 hours to get to the next good stopping point. It’s okay to stop at 7 hours or even 6.5!

Everything always balances out in “The Remainder,” if you’re mindful about it. When thinking about my available time in between planned activities on the weekend, I try to take a look at how much time I’ve spent during “My Thirds” for the week so I can catch up on sleep, work or play time.

We recently had a customer ask if it’s possible to update a fan page in Facebook using Twitter.  Most people know that the traditional Twitter application in Facebook will allow you to update your Facebook status anytime you update your Twitter status - but it doesn’t let you update a fan page, at least not yet.

The easiest way I’ve found is to use the newer Selective Twitter Status application instead. The only small catch is that you need to remember to include the tag “#fb” at the end of your tweets.  I’ve never liked having every Twitter update automatically go to Facebook, so I’d already switched to this application last month.  But if you’re accustomed to having everything update automatically, you’ll need to get into the habit of using the #fb tag every time with this application.

In the Selective Twitter Status application’s settings, you can configure Twitter updates to go to your fan page, your personal profile page, or both.  And while testing, I usually noticed about a 15 minute delay for an update, which seems to be on par with the traditional Twitter application.

If the main objective is simply to update your Facebook fan page from a mobile device, there are two other options worth considering…

You can configure your fan page settings so that sending an SMS text message to the number 32665 (FBOOK) will update your status instantly.  It also lets you send a second reply to undo your last update, which is pretty handy. Of course, there are two SMS messages sent every time you do this - one outgoing and one incoming - so you’ll incur any regular charges made by your carrier’s plan, if there are any.

Or if your mobile device has a web browser and your mobile plan includes access to the web, then you could always just do Facebook updates directly to the fan page over the web, and set a bookmark to get there quickly.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the traditional Twitter application ends up supporting fan pages soon, but until then, maybe these ideas will be helpful.  And please feel free to follow up with a comment and let us know what kinds of interesting things you’re doing with social networks!

While reading tech news stories, I often see writers mention that RSS feeds are becoming irrelevant due to the increasing popularity of Twitter and Facebook, and the ability to get news through their feeds.  They would have you believe that RSS feeds and readers are on the way out, but I think quite the opposite is true.

It’s definitely possible that Twitter, or Facebook, or some new service will figure out a different way to format article links and titles embedded in updates in a predictable way that some new type of aggregator will be able to save for you.  But why would anybody do that when RSS is already ubiquitous.  Until these social networking feeds become strictly channelized, it’s tough to pull out every article from all your favorite news sources.  Even then, it still feels awkward to try and form the output of a Twitter feed into something as useful as RSS already is.

On a larger scale, I’m not convinced that the Twitter model will last in its current form anyway.  I’ve heard people whose opinions I respect say that Twitter will soon be the “new dial tone.”  It would be fun to think so, and I believe its style of communication will carve out a permanent place on the Internet, I just don’t think people will find it useful for everything.  Like so many technologies before Twitter - blogs, push, frames, chatrooms, and even RSS comes to mind - they’ve all found a their uses within the big picture, but they haven’t overtaken as some completely new and dominant paradigm like these writers would seem to imply.  They also say that the new attention-scattered generation is why Twitter will eventually take over, but it doesn’t appear that teens really care about these services more than their older counterparts.

Honestly, I’m not sure they know the scope of what they’re saying when they flippantly mention that RSS is becoming irrelevant.  Based on past experience, I wouldn’t look for the little orange RSS icons to go away any time soon.

Social Network Aggregating

There are applications that attempt to combine all your social networking accounts and activity into one package.  The first two that come to mind are FriendFeed and Flock.  FriendFeed is a web-based service that aggregates all your social networking feeds into one single feed, and also provides self-contained conversational commenting.  Flock is a desktop application that allows complete interaction with all of your social networking accounts, and includes a web browser to boot.  Both handle a wide variety of services and work very well at what they do, but I’ve never found I like to use them on a day-to-day basis.

Multiple IM Clients

Then there are the multiple IM clients that have been popular for a few years.  The most popular of these are the Pidgin open source project, formerly known as Gaim, and Trillian, an application that comes in both free and paid versions.  Pidgin has a vanilla interface but handles all the popular IM protocols in one IM client.  They recently came out with a plug-in for Facebook chat, as well.  By comparison, Trillian is a very slick and skinnable application that also handles many IM protocols in one spot.  Both of them also offer an interface to IRC (Internet Relay Chat).  I used the Pidgin client as my only multiple IM client for many years.

The Best of Both Worlds

Then I discovered Digsby.  Digsby aims to do the best of both types of applications.  You get the multiple IM goodness of Pidgin and Trillian, along with lightweight interfaces for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace.  You can have it notify you on varying and configurable levels any time there’s a new update in any of the feeds, as well as post your own updates.  It will also notify of you new email for any email accounts that you specify.

Surely different people have different needs, and there may be those who still prefer to run each IM client and Social Network interface individually.  But I’ve found that Digsby handles the perfect combination of what I do every day, and has made for a great everyday IM/Social Networking client.