Be a Beta Tester Program for the Google Chrome Browser
Posted on September 5, 2008
Filed Under google, Chrome, Google Chrome, Chrome Browser | Leave a Comment
One reason I am never quick to upgrade any of my Microsoft operating systems is because of what I call their “free beta tester program.” It seems that the Microsoft way is to launch a new product and then have their users find the bugs so they can release fixes (also known as patches). It is very annoying and I don’t get involved; I am still using Windows 2000.
Enter Google, with their new Chrome Browser. I was away when it launched and I came back to many articles on the problems people are having with it as they made the mad dash to be first to try it out. If I had lots of free time, I would jump in and play like the rest of the cool kids, but I am thankful to get the updates from a host of alerts about how it is coming along. Sadly, I am not yet impressed.
If you want to join the Google Chrome Beta Tester Program, you can jump in right here. And to all of you who have already entered the Google Chrome Beta Tester program… I thank you (as does Google).
Are Message Boards a Thing of the Past?
Posted on August 28, 2008
Filed Under blogging, bloggers, blogs, forums, message boards | 8 Comments
Several years ago, Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny made a prediction that set some people off. He (brilliantly) stated that forums and message boards would fade away and blogs would be the new form of online community. If you look at the thread on his Weblogs vs. Centralized Message Boards blog post, you will see that some people thought he was crazy to even suggest that blogs would replace message boards.
I believe the argument can be made that forums and message boards are a thing of the past in that they are often clunky (not user friendly), and usually require logins which people often forget - limiting the ability to participate. Blogs, on the other hand, are very easy to interact with, create community just as well, are very search engine and Social Media friendly, and have become a form of journalism with bloggers gaining national attention and big time press (and getting arrested) based on their work.
What are your thoughts?
Address Reporting Error at Google Local / Google Maps
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under google maps, Google Local | Leave a Comment
Has anyone else ever had this problem? I manage a website where Google continues to report the address incorrectly. It was an address that was used to register the domain years ago, but has since been changed at the registrar AND in the Google Local business profile. There is no real way to contact Google to discuss this, but updating and even removing the business profile has not fixed it.
When you Google the business, the domain comes up showing an address that is nowhere on the site and no longer associated with the business. When you click on the listing, the address actually changes to the correct address but it won’t show it in the search results.
Any thoughts? Matt? Google? Bueller? Bueller?
SEO Basics for Web Designers
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under SEM, SEO, SEO Basics, web design | 2 Comments
I don’t have to try really hard to find content to blog about because I live this stuff, but finding time to write, now that is the real challenge. Today, I had to post something about my latest client interaction. I did a site analysis a while back and was told that the clients design team would handle the changes. I assured him that his design team, while very skilled in design, most likely did not have the skills necessary to implement the recommendations effectively. I went as far to offer to chat with the designers if they had any questions, but never heard from any one. Today, he contacted me to ask me to review the implementations, and truly, it was one of the worst things I had even seen. Not only had they taken a site designed with a flat architecture and a site map and convert it to a dynamic site with no site map, they left the default Joomla coding in the pages, so here is what the titles and meta data look like:
< title>domain.com - Home
< meta name="description" content="Joomla - the dynamic portal engine and content management system" />
< meta name="keywords" content="Joomla, joomla" />
For you designers out there that want to be WAY ahead of the competition, I will share some pointers with you.
First - make sure you know the difference between a flat site architecture and a dynamic architecture. If you are building a non-ecommerce site, DO NOT use a dynamic architecture. It just doesn’t make sense. While I am not a Joomla programmer, I understand that they even had a module to correct this and you should learn it.
Second - PLEASE put something other than the defaults in the title, keywords, and description. If it were all the same on every page that is still better than nothing. Here are some recommendations.
Title - Don’t put just the URL and by all means, don’t leave the defaults in there (you know, Home, New, etc.). Just put the company name in there. If you don’t know what they do, look at the website you just built then describe it in five words or less. For example for this blog you could put “Old School SEO - Search Marketing Blog”.
Description - If you really can’t figure it out (and you should be able to) go the extra mile and ask your client what they do. Then put that in the description in two sentences or less, but at least 10 words.
Keywords - Without using generic words, list the first five words that come to mind when you read the site and separate them by commas. For example, with this blog, you might use “search, engine, marketing, blog” This is better than nothing, and in my example above, FAR better than putting Joomla on a site that has nothing to do with Joomla.
I hope you appreciated that because if you implement it, you will look like a genius compared to the competition. If you need an SEM partner, let me know and I will do what I can to help you or refer you to a trusted colleague
A Tribute to LeRoi Moore of Dave Matthews Band
Posted on August 20, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Friends, we have lost one of the most gifted musicians of this era. LeRoi Moore of Dave Matthews Band passed away due to complications following an ATV accident. Here is a tribute video that someone put together.
