With all the bitching and moaning about the changes to the Facebook privacy policy we have to ask ourselves why are they now changing as they have always been one of the most private social medial websites for people to network and meet up.

We believe that it ultimately has to do with search engines now wanting to incorporate content from social media websites into their results. recently we have heard news of Twitter doing a deal with the business networking website “Linked In” to allow that website to bring in its content.

All the Major websites are doing it, MSN live chat now allows you to bring in your MySpace information into your account there. The use of a login system called Open ID allows you to have one account from facebook for example and that can be used on loads of other sites, making it easier to integrate larger and larger sites together.

Facebook is estimated to have nearly 1,000,000 users in Ireland by Christmas 2009, so now they have 1/4 of the population, they also have what all hungry search engines need. . . Content. We talked about content for web last week and how it will be needed more and more in the coming years.

Google Live Search

This is a new feature of Google’s algorithm that basically reads social media websites such as Twitter and uses its content as the results for questions searched for. So this is a big step away from google showing your websites it read through last night and showing you the “latest news”. Well if its from last night then its not the “latest” but if its from Twitter or F it is the latest. Facebook and Twitter are no strapped to a computer desk any more, we carry them around with us, they are now part of most mobile phones with all of us feeding them each time we click on a letter.

Doing a search today, google replied with a live twitter feed as the first results and then the normal listing from websites it would have indexed the day before. This is Google specifically pushing the social media websites as they have the “latest” content and this is why they need to read our content on Facebook!

For more information on how the interweb is changing call 053 9430748 to make an appointment.

Google Webmaster Guidelines are in Black and white.

I came across a website today for a company over in the west of Ireland doing surfing lessons and when I scrolled down the page i noticed that they have about 6 inches of nothing at the bottom. I click the mouse the tried to select and there it was . . . paragraphs and paragraphs or extra hidden content.

I think it strange it this day and age to be still pulling tricks like this and yet I also noticed that they are number one in google for the services they provide. So are they actually doing anything wrong, according to Google’s webmaster Guidelines we shouldn’t do this but on the other hand they still have an ok page rank of 4.

These hidden text guidelines go a little further and tell us that if Google find these they they can remove the site from their index. Yes, that means throw you out of Google. It happens all the time and business are there one day and gone the next. Not understanding that their webmaster has actually put their their business offline to google users.

For a quick glance of do’s and don’t in website design see the following google help and guidelines

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

I wonder how true this is for irish surfers. If you have moved to searching the internet and using bing, ping me back and let me know.

Would be interested to see how many people out there in Ireland are using it on a daily basis?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10354394-75.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Google’s listing, How do they work?

We have had a number of inquiries from companies this week asking us to help them get on top of Google.  It’s interesting to see how the “recession in the building trade” has pushed into many other aspects of life in Ireland.

One inquiry today asked if we could create a script to refresh a website so that I will appear higher in Google? Is this true If I write a script to refresh the page it will increase it Page Ranking in Google?

I don’t think so, is the simple answer.

Google has a complex algorithm that now consists of over 200 criteria that it rates a website. Google changes and alter this algorithm each day. Google is not a script that is the same each and every week. Google evolves, think of it like the stock exchange, it adapts to trends in the world and sometimes there are more focus on certain area’s than other.

In years gone by it could have been many things such as :

• your domain name
• your image content
• your video content
• the amount of links that pointed to you
• the amount of internal links
• the amount of good copy you have written on the site
• the amount of times the website was updated
• spelling
• grammar

Often business owners have their own idea of how Google works, but it is not always as simple as they think. We also has one company marketing director ask about changing the company domain name to AAsometing.ie as they assumed that Google lists is websites alphabetically.

Interesting so see how different businesses assume so much about how a search engines work and yet all be so far from the truth. Search Engine are a science, not rocket science but never the less a science, It’s called “Computer Science”

Many people are afraid to ask for help in business these days, we have found that if people let us work on the area of expertise that we specialise in we can help grow their business and grow their company.

Let Cada Media Ltd take your hand through the complex world of Search Engine Optimisation and put your business ahead of the rest. Call Dave Jordan on 053 9430748 for more information.

Bing.com

Microsoft have finally launched their new search engine to compete against the search engine giant of Google Launched in May 2009 this new search engine has a similar looks to Google simple looking one line to input your search term. It also has features similar to Googles Image Search and returns the results in a way that we are all familar with. I personally think it’s too late for Microsoft to get into this market as the Internet is not really a place for their technology (in my personally opinion, I’m a linux and Unbunto and Open Source type of guy!)

If you have an opinion on their stab at this type of technology, please let me know

www.Bing.com

We had an inquiry today (you know you are “T”!) asking for a website with an into page with flash animation and maybe some soft music. This is available to everyone but I had to steer the conversation around to a few questions that soon answered if she really wanted a flash intro page with soft music etc

• Who are you target market?
  • How old are they?
  • Men or women?
  • Irish?
  • European?
  • USA?
• What is the website for?
  • Information
  • Sales Leads
• What time are they online?
  • Mostly evening
  • online in work

The list of questions goes on and on, but our answer is, why are you putting another hurdle in front of someone who has been looking for your services or products.

Get to the point and give them the info, they will appreciate it and use your business!

Have a good weekend

Dave

Google has changed.

Yes, Google have changed their algorithm as we have been writing about since last year. It seems that many people came back to work this week to find their website gone from it’s usual place in the search engine.

Expect more of this in 2009 as “Rich Media” plays a bigger role in getting listed in Google.

See :

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/google-changing/

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/google-algorithm-changes-all-the-time/

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/matt-cutts-from-google-interviewed/

Web Design Gorey

We have been looking at how Google is changing over the past few weeks and see that Goolge has definately started its changeover to the new listing method.

So I am writing this to see if it will appear in a basic listing for Web Design Gorey tomorrow. I will report back and let you know what happens.

Why?

Because if google is changing for us its also changing for the way they list you. . .  Our clients!

Matt Cutts from Google was interviewed in Las Vagas at the PubCon show recently and he pointed out a number of changes that are going to be happening in Google in the new year.

He talked about the user experience gaining in priority and that a move towards personalisation is very important. Meaning that the website content for searches must be geared towards the users and not just writing for search engines. Google basically will look at the content and examine it to see if it reads well or is just a string of key phrases thrown into a paragraph.

Localisation was touched on again by Matt pointing out that Geo Targeting your search results will become more to the front in 2009. Basically depending where you are will show results for your geographical location.

On the question on is “Page Rank Dead?” he pointed out again that basically Yes they are moving away from displaying sites with a high page rank and giving priority to sites with good website content. He also said that they are going to be looking more at companies that use “White Hat Solutions” and “Black Hat Solutions“. These are methods of creating web pages that fool a search engine into showing it first, like loading it with H1 tags in displaying content or “Keyword Stuffing” pages with key phrases what people might use, but when you actually sit down to read the page it’s crap. Just a load of phrases and no “Real Content” to understand what that page is about.

So to all our clients, get your thinking cap on and start coming up with good web copy and starting writing for your audience.

We have mentioned about google changing its algorithm over 450 times last year and having over 200 criteria for their page rank but now it seems that from early 2009 they will be pushing for Geo-Targeting search results, meaning that depending on where you are it will display different results. We have carried our a few simultaneous searches in our Wexford offices here and our Dublin office as well as a colleague in the Uk and found that we all have got different results depending on our location.

Great you say  . . .  but what has this got to do with me and my website. Well you must now starting taking this into consideration when writing your website content. Google is starting to look at wheat searches you are carrying out and is return results to suit you. This will happen even if you have a google account or not. They are looking at search trends and what an IP address for instance looks for.

This means that page rank could be a thing of the past as they change the way they look upon information around the world and how they index it.

We are predicting that people will start seeing their website jumpin Google’s listings from early 2009.

Ever wondered how many times Google changes it “Algorithm”, Well at a recent Live Questions and Answers session it turns out that last year it changed. . . . over 450 times.

Matt Cutts and Maile Ohye from Goolge faced questions from webmasters from around the world. They ran through many of the questions that have been bugginh web masters for ages. 404 error pages, 301 redirects,  myths and confirmed some speculations that have been batted around the internet.

Get the full Story here

GoreyLinks.com

This is our own business directory for Gorey Town, It was established in 2005 to help new arrivals to the area to find the main businesses in the town. We have around 600 business listed with a more still to be listed. The chamber of commernce in Gorey also have a site thats lists businesses but they they list members, we are a member and are one of the 100 or so businesses that are listed.

There are many new website out there these days like MyTown.ie or YourLocal.ie and these are larger sites covering the entire country. We only list businesses in each town and its surroundings. This has kept the Gods (Google) happy and we are usually listed in the top three for a key search phrase for the town.

We also have directories for other towns in Wexford, Carlow and Wicklow. Some of the main ones are

www.GoreyLinks.com

www.EnniscorthyLinks.com

www.NewRossLinks.com

www.Wexford-Links.com

If you would like to be listed on any of our directories please give me a call on 053-9430748 ( many businesses use our directories as their home page.)

I was reminded this morning of how common this question is . Many of our inquiries always say they “want to be No 1 in Google” but don’t have an idea how to get there. I talk about search engine optimisation SEO (this goes over 99% of peoples heads) but really i am talking about getting a natural listing in Google listings.

I have to remind people that this is 2 tasks, 1 getting a website and 2 getting it top of the search engines.  It doesnt automatically happen (sorry!)

There are many search engines that are in use, Google, Yahoo, MSN and there are also directories such as browse.ie and of course GoreyLinks.com our baby ! Each search engine has it’s own formula to read a website and categorise its content into relevance for search terms people use when searching the net.

So what is SEO?

SEO is where you configure / program a website so that you are giving a better chance of coming up for a particular search phrase.

Why is SEO important?

It’s important because getting and retaining customers is important. If your website is not optimized to be read better by search engines you will not be on the first page of google let alone on the top. Remember being on the top of Google is google’s way of saying this is the best website we can recommend for your search term. So don’t expect a one-page for a chipper to be listed No 1 for “Restaurants in Ireland“.

This is actually a very common fact, that people who have a “One page website” often think that their job is done. Just put it up there and people will find it. With about 20 billion pages up on the net that theirs will pop up. You might as well nail a flyer to a tree in the amazon and hope that passers by will read it.

The internet is not “Field of Dreams“, Build it and they will come.

You must work at it, read up about what search engines want, get rid of :

• Frames
• large images
• large flash animation

And Make sure to insert:

• Meta tags
• Keywords tag
• Description tag
• Title tag

These may sound basic, but basic means to have the foundations correct before you build further on your site. Also a quick hit, make each page unique with titles, meta and content.

What is link Building?

This is the process of getting relevant website to point to your. It’s no good having a website but no ones knows about it. You don’t get a business telephone line and then keep your number our of the phone book, so don’t do it online.

Get your website listed on directories and portals that are important to your industry. Links are the Internet version of sign posts, Get “links” or signposts from good sites. The more signposts/links you have pointing to your site the more footfall you will get.

Note: don’t get links from crap sites, sites that are just one long page of links for every industry in the world, This is a link farm of 000’s or links and does nothing of benefit for you site. In fact some think it may have a negative effect on your site. Like putting a link in the local dump to your hotel, Its guilt by association.

Time for lunch…..

I decided to pop down to Wexford town to attend a presentation put on by the Irish Internet Association and Wexford County Enterprise Board. These type of event are run all the time in every county around Ireland and it a great opportunity for business owners and managers to take a day off !!

No. No. Many people think this, but in fact to see the response and the questions from the floor, these type of events are seriously needed. I was surprised by the questions, things that I was taking for granted about search engines, the internet and blogging were not understood by the people there.

There were 4 great speakers to give a talk about how to use social media as a marketing tool for your business or brand. They were:

• Mr. Philip Macartney (Head of Sales Ireland) Bebo
• Mr Donald Douglas (Managing Director) Return2Sender
• Mr. Brian Greene (Director) doop
• Ms. Joy Redmond (Director) Flexitimers.com

Philip from Bebo was not sellign Bebo but rather selling the idea of branding and pushing your brand through a busy social networking site to reach a large audience. Interesting to see him again give us a few examples of how large companies use bebo to reach their target audience. Even more interesting to see that none of them are Irish examples, It was as if this is too high brow or beyond Irish marketeers. I’ve seen a few presentations by Bebo in Ireland and still nothing with an Irish flavour to it.

Donald educated us on how the use of mobile advertising is growing in Ireland, but that it must have a purpose. Assigning it a real task is important. Just putting up your website in a mobile format is great but it really has a getting chance of getting found and used if you use it for a competition to engage your customer base. Guinness are one of their clients and again not sure if your average business in Ireland would get involved but definately worth noting. “Rewards are for the early adopters”

Brian is a Digital Media Consultant with Doop.ie , a business involved with the postcast media and audio industry. He loves his job, it’s great to see someone really understand their topic and passing on the knowledge is a well presented manor. He showed us the growth in podcasting in Ireland and how it has gained in popularity of the past few years. RTE for example are the largest podcasting company with 1/2 a million listeners per month. He mentioned to take note about copyright issues with music and to use bought music from sites such as podshow.com

His point were , Engage your Clients, Expand your customer Channels, Enable internal dialogue, Enhance comapny profile, Enforce your message.

Having a podcast is great but how do you get it noticed, “Every good podcast deserves a blog” thiswill drive search engines towards your podcasts. He concluded by telling us to lookout for “Social Radio” as this is on the horizon.

Joy is a Director of Flexitimers.com, a newly launched business (and our office neighbour by chance) Joy gave us a bit of her background in the Web design industry and that she was at the forefront of website design in Ireland back in the 90’s.  She has great experience in software development and also was a lecturer for 4 years teaching website design etc. During those years she also was thinking about working on a part time basis, with a 1 year old at home, she wanted to be there but still keep her position in the work place. Years later she and her ex boss decided to set up Flexitimers.com to help other professionals looks for part time work. Also of course to allow employers who are looking for people for part time work.

A new step away from recruitment agencies who charge anywhere from 8% to 10% of the salary of a client. Agencies are supposed to trim down the long lists of people looking for jobs and send you the top 3, but often they are commission based and only want to get the top position with the top salleries as then they can get a higher commission. Grr!

Flexitimers.com are looking to get into this recruitment industry in a new and different way.

They are asking employers for a “fixed fee” to list their positions on the site. The site then matches the two like a dating style site.

Great Idea and and having a background in the software and Web industries really puts Flexitimers.com at a huge advantage as many businesses are set up on an idea, but the people running the site often don’t really have a grip of the technology. This marriage of both will be a winner in my opinion.

Joy was easy to listen to and got her point across very well, people scribbling notes left right and center. That’s always a good sign.

Search engines are all about new fresh content, we are saying this on a daily basis to our clients and prospective customers. Search engines was to see who’s say what and how mush are you saying about your field of expertise. Thus I’m writing this !

I would suggest uploading new content each day, but at least each week. Websites are looked upon like newspapers, you don’t read them twice. so if you have a content managed site get stuck in and edit your site, if not get someone to do it, even better get us to do it!

When writing your content write for real people, think about the keyword and key phrases alright but really write to your audience in a personal manner and it will be reflected back in your hits. People don’t search the website short phases like “hotels ireland”, they search for “family run hotels in wexford” much more specific. Wrire for those people not just the googlbot robot scanning your content in the middle of the night.

Get good quality links to your site. Don’t get crap links from any old site thats handing out free links left right and centre, Google pagerank for example looks for quality links from relevent sites. Think of them like sign posts, you would not follow a signpost to a hotel from the middle of a dump, but you would from the main street in a town. Website Links are the same. Get good links.

If you can’t get links, buy them with Google Adwords, If you dont know how call us.

Make sure while all this is going on to be keeping an eye on your site stats that it actually making a difference, see what pages are being view, what time, what search phrases people are using.

It’s friday 5.15, long day, im heading home!