Google Ventures

Yesterday Google announced Google Ventures, Google’s new venture capital fund.

Google states “Google Ventures is broadly interested in startups in industries including consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and others. First and foremost, we’re looking for entrepreneurs who are tackling problems in creative and innovative ways.”

Due to the current state of the economy, Google thinks this is a great time to invest in growing companies.

If you are interested, visit Google.com/ventures/. Or, if you would like your venture to be considered by Google, email: ventures@google.com

Ask.com Places Ads on their Homepage

Ask.com started displaying ads on their homepage. The ads they are showcasing are for their sister sites. Yesterday, when I typed in ask.com to my browser, I saw an ad for match.com.

This is the only search engine that is displaying ads on their homepage. Will Google be next?!

Check Out Wikirank to see what’s Popular on Wikipedia

Wikirank is a new tool that shows you what is popular on Wikipedia. The data is based on the Wikipedia servers which is available to the public. On the homepage of Wikirank you will see trending topics for the day, and the most read Wikipedia pages for the last 30 days.

For example, in the last 30 days, one of the most read pages was Natasha Richardson, the actress who recently passed away due to a ski injury. The Wikipedia page for Natasha Richardson was viewed 2,482,209 times in the last 30 days!

Also, when you are on the site, there is a search box where you can search for any name/topic to see how popular the pages are. I did a search for “Google” and saw the following:

This tool is beneficial in helping internet users keep with the current search trends. Wikipedia is one of the top visited websites and the pages rank very well organically (Google loves Wikipedia!). Many Wikipedia pages will rank in the top search results, even higher than the sites that have been working with Search Engine Optimization Professionals.

White House Holds Online Town Hall Meeting

Tomorrow the White House is holding an online town hall meeting giving American’s the opportunity to ask President Obama questions about the economy. The meeting will be powered by Google Moderator powered by App Engine. This gives participants the opportunity to submit questions and vote on which questions they want answered from others.

The meeting will be held at 11:30am Eastern time. If you are interested in learning more about this meeting, go to WhiteHouse.gov.

Updates to Google’s Search Results

Today Google made two updates to their search results.

The first update has to do with the related searches that typically appear at the very bottom of the page when you type in keywords. Now, this has broadened and Google will give you related searches based on the associations/concepts related to your search.

For example, when I typed the keyword “science” into Google’s search box, I not only received related searches that include the word science. I received words such as “nature” and “nasa” which you can see below.

The second update is longer snippets in the search results when you type in a long query (more than 3 words).

For example, when I typed in “optimize a website for competitive keywords,” the first search result had a longer description tag.

The Importance of Geo-Targeting your Keywords

If you are a plumbing company who only services Fort Lauderdale Florida, is it beneficial for your phone to be ringing off the hook with calls from other areas? Absolutely not! Therefore, you want to make sure the keywords that people type into a search engine that bring up your website in the search results are the keywords that are going to bring visitors to your site who might convert. Off the bat, you know that someone who calls your Fort Lauderdale Company who lives in Colorado is never going to convert!

This is the reason why it is so important when you optimize your website to geo-target your keywords if your business only services a specific city, state, or region. Geo-targeted keywords will provide you with highly targeted traffic and these keywords will most likely have a lower amount of competition. A lower amount of competition means a better chance to rank high in the search results. For example, if you type the keyword “plumber” into Google, there are 15,900,000 competing websites. But, if you type the keyword “plumber Fort Lauderdale” into Google, there are only 419,000 competing sites. This is a huge difference!

So when you are selecting the keywords to optimize, be sure you don’t select generic keywords if your business only services a specific area.

Check out WeFollow.com

Twitter is becoming so popular that there is now a Twitter Directory organized with multiple categories to make it easy to find celebrities, musicians, online marketing professionals, etc to follow. On the homepage of this directory you will see the top 5 people in each category. The categories listed on the homepage are the categories that have the largest number of followers in each category. For example, when I wrote this post “Celebrity” was the top category, with Britney Spears being the most followed. Who would have thought!

So if you are an active Twitter user, check out WeFollow.com. If you would like to add yourself to the directory, all you have to do is reply to twitter.com/wefollow and list up to 3 categories you are interested in being listed under. For example, if Getupdated were to submit them self, they might suggest the following categories: @wefollow #seo #web #design

How to Brand your Business Online

Once your create your business, is it very important to start branding yourself online. Nowadays, branding your business on the internet is an absolute necessity. According to Wikipedia, “A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or any other artifact or entity.”  Your brand is how your business is viewed by consumers.  Creating a strong brand name increases your credibility and will push you ahead of your competitors.

The following are some ways new businesses can start branding themselves online:

• Create a website.

• Engage in Search Engine Optimization.

• Start a blog.

• Visit blogs/forums in your industry and leave comments that include your website or brand name.

• Create a newsletter.

• Create social networking profiles. (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, ZoomInfo, etc)

Get started on branding your business today!

How to Utilize Facebook to Promote your Business

Facebook is the leading social networking site attracting users to connect with friends, share videos and links, promote their business and much more!

Many people do not associate social networking sites as business tools, but they are actually a great means to increase your company’s exposure and promote your business/product. Facebook offers Facebook Pages for businesses/products that are simple to create and easy to use. These profiles are public, giving your page the opportunity to show up in the search results. This is a great way to showcase your business, plus they are free! Once you create a page, you can share this page with friends, coworkers, and even place a link to your Facebook Page on your website.

For example, Getupdated has a Facebook Page to connect employees across the globe and to promote their business. Check out Getupdated’s Facebook Page.

So if you are interested in creating a Facebook Page for your business/product, get started today!

What are Sitelinks?

Have you ever wondered why when you type a search query into Google you sometimes see additional links under the first search result? These are called sitelinks and they are automatically generated by Google to help users navigate on your site and find what they are looking for fast! These links are pulled based on the content and relevancy of your pages. Google finds these pages to be beneficial for its users.

For example, when you type in “Getupdated” into Google’s search box, you see the following sitelinks:

If your site is generating sitelinks and you do not wish to showcase some of those pages, you can block certain pages of your site in your Google Webmaster account. Simply login and go to “Links”, then click “Sitelinks” and follow the necessary steps to block a page.

If your site does not appear to have any sitelinks, make sure that your site is SEO friendly and that Google’s algorithm will not have any trouble finding relevant pages to use as sitelinks.

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