Google is not just the #1 search engine, they’re also a voting machine. They determine, through numerous factors, if your site deserves to be on the first page of search results or the next, or the last. Google is always trying to improve the quality of their search results. One way of doing this, is to follow the search user from the search (at Google) to the site they found in the search. Before Google Analytics, Google had no way of doing this. Now, they can remain tethered to the search user if they click on a search result that has Google Analytics installed.

For Google, it let’s them know if the search was a good search or a bad one. And that is determined by the bounce rate. How long or how short does a user stay at the website/page they found from the search. If they don’t stay very long, like less than 20 seconds, we can assume that whatever content they saw on the site they landed on was not what they were originally searching for, or was not compelling/engaging enough for them to stick around.

Whether you are Google or the owner of the site, knowing your analytics and reviewing them is pinnacle to understanding what your site visitors are experiencing. Having 15,000 unique visitors is great. Finding out they all came and went in one hour and you’re bounce rate was 85% for that day means that your marketing was awesome to drive traffic, but your content on the page scared them all away. And the bounce rate is just one many juicy analytics that is being collected all day long, month after month.

If you’re too afraid to look at your analytics, email me and I’ll introduce you to a world you need to know.

Cheers,
Richard Lee, Chief at Large
The Agency @ PILLAR
chief@pillarsupport.com

Second, you need a site that gives your audience what they’re searching for without requiring them to search further for it. In other words, site visitors should not have to think too hard to find more of what they’re looking for. And with today’s limited time to do anything and short attention spans, one of the best ways to serve site visitors is with pictures and video. And, even that visual content can be tagged to help your SEO.

The third prong is community and it’s not just a Web 2.0 requirement. We all have constituents to begin with. As we communicate to that base, more join the conversation, even if just to read it (versus contributing to it). Enabling access to this conversation (through blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, LinkingIn, dragging people by their hair while holding a club) gives your constituents ‘inside’ access to what’s happening within an organization, a kind of online voyeurism, that helps spread a company’s ‘culture’ online. This works well for restaurants as it does consultants and most every kind of company in between.

All of the above is possible without any of our help but unifying it into a cohesive, seamless, time-saving, audience-attracting package is what we do best. And, teaching you how to use it, harness it, and steer the best course is a part of that too. Email me and let’s chat further.

Cheers,
Richard Lee, Chief at Large
The Agency @ PILLAR
chief@pillarsupport.com

]]> http://pillarcc.com/blog/2010/03/simple-seo/feed/ 0 http://pillarcc.com/blog/2010/03/extraordinary-tech-support/ http://pillarcc.com/blog/2010/03/extraordinary-tech-support/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:39:54 +0000 admin http://pillarcc.com/blog/?p=293 We’ve been called the best computer repair company in NYC and our long list of happy clients is likely a testament to that.

What makes us special is our ability to troubleshoot an issue quickly and accurately. Secondly, all two of our techs are friendly. We won’t blame you for any of your problems. And, when you come to us at the worst of times, we’ll make sure that your data is safe, first and foremost. We never operate without the safety of a backup (and neither should you).

Come try us out yourself or refer us to a friend, next time your Mac or PC is acting up. We aim to please.

It was easier to reverse the door than the office.

office, we’ll be sure to let you know if we can look at it while you wait on our couch or if we need to look at it later.

And, we’ll troubelshoot the problem and let you know how much it would cost before you commit to anything.

Call us at 212-255-3970 and ask for Michael Song, our resident Mac Genius.

Now that you’ve decided between a white or black case for your new Apple iPhone 3GS, you can spend even more time deciding what bling-tricked-out case to get from UltraCase’s website.

This Swarovski Crystal-encrusted case is $300 (more than a 16Gb 3GS).

We signed up for the Enterprise version to give us more space, and more everything else, only to find some gross limitations on the product, keeping us (far from the size of an Enterpise) from using the product fully. Our initial findings are:

Upside on email:

- Providing PUSH for iphone
- App sync for Outlook (very similar to Exchange)

Downside on Docs:

- Difficult to upload to
- No single file size larger than 2Mb
- Limited file formats (i.e. won’t accept Quickbooks files)
- Can’t access files via iphone (you can login, can see files, can’t open them)
- Currently there is no easy way of converting file folders into “labels”

The simple idea of using Google Apps as an online storage drive is not there, not even to hold us over while they work out the bugs. Essentially $50 per user, for the Enterprise version, gets you nothing more than 25Gb of email storage.

The office next door to mine is no bigger, about 270 usable square feet of space. For some that’s a refrigerator but for us it’s 3 people comfortably working in a rapidly-evolving modern office. Copper lines give way to one single DSL connection on which we use Skype, Google or Yahoo phone, and Vonage to make all of our calls. We are an experiment in shoestring technology to produce a premium product. We combine patience and technical savvy to overcome what technology is not yet perfected, and for when it has we are in awe of it.

And for my neighbor, it’s a bunch of rackmounted servers and 24/7 air conditioning–yes, even in the winter. And, when you pass his office door, the unmistakeable networking room hum can be deafening for us who are used to only the clatter generated by typing or clicking, and Ambient sound generated by an iphone application–this week’s background sound, the French cafe.

And here we are in the last quarter of 2009, and fast-approaching the year of the cloud, the year in which we trade in all of our servers for network drives, our Windows Server for Google Apps, and the expensive subnotebook for either a Netbook or an iPhone or both.

The rack-mounted status symbol is going out the door for something that is already remotely managed coming with 99.9% guaranteed uptime SLA and for a mere $50 per user per year! Save money and focus on running your business.

We are recommending giving the cloud a chance and to not get a traditional Windows Server. Though we can support you either way, you can save a bundle of money at this time on hardware and software that you might simply not need. And that’s okay.

We are in the process of reinventing Pillar. As the year draws to an end, we will spend most of December completing our own internal projects that will make us leaner, more nimble, more competitive, more visible and more profitable. These same tactics are what we will pass on to our customers. Some will kick and scream, others will be happy to hear it. This is the future, why wait for it to arrive?

Cheers,
Richard Lee

Listen to The Right Click Episode 1.8

Below are some examples of before and after work, as discussed on the show.

Sonya’s website is www.seriatim.net. Check it out!