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No GPS and No Worries with MSN’s Live Search 411

CherylW — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:54:40 +0000

So, you don’t own a GPS. No worries. MSN updated its Live Search 411 service by adding a real time traffic information service. To access the U.S. based free services just dial 1-800-CALL-411 or 1-800-225-5411 and say “traffic” to get real time traffic updates.

Originally launched in 2007, Live Search 411 also offers: turn by turn driving directions, business search, sports updates, stock quotes, weather reports, movie listings and show times, cheap fuel prices, and travel resources.

If you are looking for alternative driving directions or the latest sports news, just add MSN’s Live search to your speed dial. Live Search 411 is a free service; however, you are responsible for normal airtime minutes on a mobile phone.

Let Live Search 411 help you get the information you want.

Update: This article was originally posted on April 30, 2009

SEO Competitive Analysis: Five Essential Tools

CherylW — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:56:27 +0000

In the marketplace competition is natural. As a buyer of goods and services, would you really want to buy a product or service that was only offered by one vendor? Consider this point, those exclusive opportunities and one of a kind products often equate to higher prices and limited support. Since the goal of search engine optimization is to get your pages to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPS), evaluating your online competitors is a given. An SEO competitive analysis is an essential step that leads to market intelligence.

Here are five online tools that are readily available to acquire competitive data and market insight.

Compete.com uses survey data along with their massive database of U.S. internet users, to collect information on pages visited and online behavior. Having access to over 2,000,000 users enables compete.com to provide data on site metrics, rankings and more.

Quantcast collects and measures data from over 90K partner publishers and marketers. According to Quantcast, the data is anonymous and contains no personally-identifiable information. According to cruchbase.com, Quantcast uses what they call a Mass Inference algorithm to produce refined profiles that they believe accurately represent web audiences. Users can see estimates for gender, age, household income, and other demographic information.

Yahoo! Site Explorer is a tool set which lets marketers access the information about a site’s online presence. You can see which sites and inside pages are indexed by Yahoo! Also, you can see a list of inbound links. Yahoo Site Explorer can be used for a rapid high level competitor evaluation.

Alexa Site Information can be used to learn about related sites, site overviews and traffic details; Alexa has developed a database of information about sites. The information can be easily accessed by visiting Alexa.com

Google Page Rank is used to identity the importance of a page based upon Google measurements. The PageRank is determined by t he number of inbound links on the page as well as the PageRank of the referring pages. SEO experts agree, the PageRank is controversial and is not always the best indicator of the importance of a page.

Yes, there is competitor in the marketplace, but with some elbow grease and good tools you can use competitors data to you advantage. It’s never too late to identify and evaluate your competitors.

Lost and Found: I Can’t Find My Website

CherylW — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:17:58 +0000

Here’s a common question among new website owners. Why can’t I find my website? This article attempts to shed some light on why your website may be lost in the myriad of search engine listings.

Now that your web site has been launched, the next most important step is your site must get indexed by the leading search engines. Since search engines love content, each search engine automatically spiders the web looking for new and updated pages. If your site is found during this process, then your site will be indexed (it’s been added to the search engine database).

Has My Site Been Indexed?

Here’s one simple way to find out if your home page has been indexed. Simply copy and paste the following text into the search engine box:

“mydomainname.com”

Be sure to use the double quotes around your domain name. If your home page has been indexed, then you will see your website address listed in the search results.

If your website has not been indexed, then you should:

Create an XML site map and notify Google, Bing and Yahoo!
Write an article that includes a link back to your home page. Be sure to submit the article using www.ezinearticles.com
Submit your site to several leading directories
Make blog post that includes a link back to your home page (watch out for no follow attributes)
Add your link to a website that gets spidered on a regular basis

Why can’t I find my site using my company name?

The short answer is that your favorite search engine does not know enough about your web site yet. The long answer is your company name is competing with other pages that use the same keywords. When you enter your company name into a search box, you are simply entering a keyword phrase. So, the keyword phrase Bill’s Lawn Care Service, has to compete against any page that contains the term bill, lawn, care and service. As you can imagine, there could be over 400,000 competing pages.

With so many competing pages, you’ll want to increase your visibility within the search engines. There are several strategies that you may use to increase your search presence. You may want to generate inbound links to your web site, submit your home page to relevant directories and indexes or start posting to blogs and social networks. These are simple tactics that anyone can you can use.

Don’t get overwhelmed, an online marketing plan can help to keep you on track.

So you have learned that getting a site indexed is only the beginning. If your website is lost in the maze of search engine results, then you can use a few of the above suggestions to find your web site.

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Cheryl Wilson has been creating search engine friendly websites and providing online marketing services to small business since 1997. Learn how you can have a website that produces leads and sales online by visiting Vertronics Media at http://www.vertronics.com/