How Accurate Is Google Ranking?

Google has created a club that everyone wants to be a member of.

 

Every one using social media wants to be number one on Google or at least get to the first page and Google has devoted much of their press to creating the idea that Google ranking is important. However I had an interesting experience when discussing a social media campaign with a real estate client. I had completed some research on the client’s site with a keyword phrase through SEOMoz’s page ranking tool

SeoMoz’s page ranking tool.

http://www.seomoz.org/rank-tracker and determined that the real estate business was ranked numbered 45 for the phrase. Of course this means that anyone searching with the phrase would have to go through 44 listings before seeing the realtor and most web surfers would probably not search past the first three pages.

During my meeting with the realtor we accessed her site several times as I discussed and advised on improvements to design, content and engagement for the site. At the end we did a final search by the keyword phrase to check out the competition, surprisingly their site was listed at the third place spot on the first page.

I was a little surprised at this since we had not made any changes to the site until I saw under the listing there was the line showing “You have accessed this site 18 times.” It was the first time I had seen this line and it is a line that still does not show up for me in Internet Explorer, but it was obvious that the site had been moved up based on the usage either through the browser cache or through Google tracking the activity and displaying results based on the personal usage of that specific computer.

Which means the ranking of the site for that keyword search had not changed except for that user on that computer? Now you might just say “So what?” as I did, at the moment. However after thinking about it later I realized that this could be a devious tool in the wrong hands.

After all it would be possible to access a prospective client’s site before meeting with them on your own laptop, or IPad and rank the client’s site to the first page on your device. Then when you meet with the client asked them to do a search for their site on their device, talk about what you could change for them, pretend to make changes from your device and then do a search from your device and show them that they are now on the first page.

It is not something that I would do and I am sure no one else would do something so underhanded but I am just saying that there is more than one way to get into the Google club.

Likes, Pins, Follow Me

The social trend on LinkedIn groups is the promotion of exchanging Facebook Likes, Pinterest Repins and Twitter Follow Mes. The question I have for everyone is; Is it enough? How effective is this approach with Google pushing content and Facebook deleting “ Fake Likes” from accounts. How much engagement does this create in traffic and back links.

I think it is a good first step in developing traffic to your pages but I would suggest we carry it a step further. I would like to suggest that we exchange campaign marketing to develop cross promotion networking. This would be an exchange of meaningful content and the development of true content back linking. Consider the process that is accepted now, we have groups of SEO and SMM professionals who are asking other SEO and SMM professionals to exchange LIKEs; how does this help the promotion of products or services? Should’nt we as professionals be asking for exchanges that will benefit our clients? We should be engaging in exchanges that will serve our clients through cross promotions of marketing campaigns.

If a SMM manager has a client that wants to sell shoes and I have a client that wants to sell handbags, I would agree to follow the shoe client and would Tweet about the shoes with information exchanged from the SMM manager that follows the shoe campaign’s direction, and the SMM manager would do the same for my handbag client.

The steps of Cross Promotion Exchange would be done in simple steps.
• SMM manager request help with a client’s campaign
• Campaign is described by product or service and marketing focus
• Other SMM managers agree to post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogs and Pinterest or any other relevant media outlet
• As part of the agreement the benefiting SMM manager agrees to recpricate for each manager who has posted for them

The big difference here is that LIKES, PINS, and FOLLOWS can still be exchanged but exchanged with content, engagement and purpose. The following list is a list of groups that I belong to on LinkedIn and as you can see there are over 500,000 members which is not a count of their possible clients. That is over 500,000 opportunities to cross promote marketing campaigns. The resources here are incredible and the ability to create a buzz for a client are almost without limits.

• Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals 83,692 members
• Link Building and SEO UK 978 members
• Media and Marketing Community 17,409 members
• Pinterest Networking Group 828 members
• SEO Professionals Group 3,123 members
• Social Media Marketing 448,052 members
• Twitter, Google-Plus, and Facebook for Sourcing and Recruiting 14,497 members

That is 568,579 members. There has to be someone else out there beside me who would like help to create a buzz for a client.


If anyone in any of these groups would like to test this process out I am eager to provide my clients with true back linking content exchange. Got Buzz? Of course you could just LIKE ME.

Using Google to Analyze Your Goals

The QR Databook logo[/caption]Every website has a goal, its purpose for being. The purpose for QR Databook.com is to offer anyone a convenient method to carry their entire medical history with them wherever they go. The goal of the site is to have someone complete the interest form which will be used to collect the data to create a QR Databook. If your site has a goal that is important to track you will then need a means to monitor if the goal is being met. This is one of the services provided by using Google Analytics.

Google Analytic

Google Analytics provides the means to track multiple usage type of traffic to your site. You can track how much traffic is coming to your site, where it is coming from, how time a viewer spends on your site and if a goal is being met. As with QR Databook.com, the goal is to find out how many viewers check out the “requestformnew” page.

If your site has similar goals the first step is to establish a Google Analytics account. In order to use Google Analytics, you’ll need to set up an account with them. If you already have a gmail account you are already one step closer to using the analytical services. This will provide you with a unique identifier to add to your site. You can only access information about your own site.

You will not be allowed access to information for other sites unless the site owner explicitly grants it to you. The only people with access to your information will be yourself, and those you give special permissions to. 

Go to the Google Analytics website (Google.com/Analytics). If you have a Google account already, use your email address and password to sign in. 

1. Click the Sign Up button to continue.
2. In the next window, provide Google with the URL of the site you wish to analyze.
3. Give the site an account name that is easy to remember. If you will be tracking multiple sites, this is especially important.
4. Select the country your site is based in, or the country it is serving. Then select the appropriate time zone. 
5. Click Continue.
6. In the next window, provide your contact information.
7. Click Continue.
8. In the next window, read the Google Analytics terms of service. If you agree with them, click the Yes box.
9. Click Create New Account.

Google will provide you with a block of code. Copy this – you’ll need to insert it into your web site. You must insert the code that Google Analytics provides you with into every page you want tracked. This will help when you want to measure how people move from one page of your site to another. If you understand how to edit HTML, this block of code must go between the HEAD TAG of each page. If you are using a service like WordPress, you’ll need to open the footer.php file to place this code.

The moment you set up your account and insert Google’s JavaScript into your pages, Google Analytics will be ready to provide you with charts that will give you an overview of your site’s performance. However the service may take up to 24 hours to begin gathering data for your site. 

The main information I track is the Visits, Traffic Sources and Bounce Rate. Visits maintain the number of viewers, Traffic Sources will define where the traffic originated from and Bounce Rate gauges how long viewers stay on your site. 

If you have planned a campaign through Twitter, FaceBook or a Blog the Traffic Sources Overview will define how many of your visitors came from those other sites. This can be used to qualify how well your campaign is accomplishing driving traffic to your site.

The Bounce Rate gauges if traffic sticks to your site or just bounce away. This is one of the reasons why it is important to place your Google Analytics code on every page, other wise if the viewer moves from a page on your site to another page on your site that does not have the code; it will appear as though the viewer has left your site. A good bounce rate is open to opinion but on average a good rate is from 30% to 50%. This percentage is the amount of traffic that leaves your site after viewing an entrance page. The lower the bounce rate number the better the stickiness of your site. 

Google Analytic admin button

To establish a goal; select the admin menu item from the top menu bar and then click on the Goals tab. You can set up to 20 goals, select one of the goal set links to create your goal. As was mentioned above a goal for QR Databook is to track how many users land on the “requestformnew” page. The goal was named Interest Form and the URL was selected as the Goal type. The URL was set as /requestformnew.php as it is not necessary to include the entire page path from the domain to the page. This information was saved and then added to the main Dashboard as the Dashboard can be customized to fit your needs. 

Google Analytics provides important data for web site owners to track however I am in the process of learning and I am not yet an expert on everything Analytic but I do encourage you to sign up an begin your own goals analysis. 

Do you have a favorite set up for Google Analytics? Please share.

Web Site Development

How I tested the art of Search Engine Optimization.

The first step to optimizing a website is to establish a website. My choice for hosting a website has been to use Go Daddy. It is fairly simple to purchase a domain and a hosting account with Go Daddy and for me it has been affordable. I usually choose the Linux account because I want to be able to develop the backend database in PHP.

I developed the logo and the tag line “Your Data When You Need It!” for the website.

Your data when you need it.

There is an abundance of information from experts on how to optimized websites for search engines. The goal is to have a high ranking site so that those who are searching for information will be led to your site first. Some of my favorite sites for SEO articles are Hubspot, Sherpa and the Social Media Examiner. I have collected many articles from these sites and now I want to use this information to test the theories of the experts. Some web designers prefer to design the website then develop the Search Engine Optimization. My research has concluded that most exports agree that SEO is an integral piece of the website design and it should be incorporated from the beginning of the project’s process. Most websites are driven by content and content is the message or idea that is being delivered to the user. The design of the website will be driven by the most efficient way to deliver the content to the user. Once you have a clear understanding of what the website’s mission is the design is initiated from there and the parts of the website such as page titles, meta description tags and navigation will merely be a redundancy of your goal and will begin to establish your SEO direction.

I would like to add to my sources of information so if you have a site or know of a site that provides SEO information please feel free to post them in the comment.

QR Data Book Market Research

Market research is a valuable tool to support the concept of ideas or products.

 

My first step in market research was a casual conversation with friends. I explained the concept to them and listened to their candid reactions to the idea. Everyone I talked to thought it was a good idea and most said it was something that they needed or would want. The feed back was positive and encouraging. However I thought of this product as a can without the can-opener. I still believed this was a very useful idea that had the potential to save lives but if there was no support in the field then the QR code would be useless to the public. In order for the data book to be of value EMT, paramedics, ER personnel and physicians would have to support it. I then decided to expand my research to the professional field.

Since the QR Data Books primary purpose is to provide medical information in the field I felt it was important to gather feed-back from the EMTs. I first approached the local Fire Department because they would oversee the EMTs stationed at the Fire Houses.

Having your medical data for an emergency situation Could save your life.

Unfortunately the administrator I spoke to informed me that they do not do scanning in the field and they do not supply EMTs with smart phones. She could not see where their department would be involved in the usage of a QR code. I was discouraged because if the emergency personnel were not informed about the QR Data Book and how to scan it for information then there would be little need for anyone to carry a Data Book. I thought about it for a few days and then decided that not all administrative staffs have an open mind about new technology and that I should pursue my research directly with EMT personnel.

I approached my local fire department and spoke with one of the EMTs. He recognized the QR code image but said that you would need a smart phone to scan that for information and that he did not carry a smart phone. He did agree to look over the product and give me some suggestions.

Using a QR Reader on a Smart Phone

I was glad he did recognize the code and that he was willing to give me suggestions but I was still a little discouraged that he did not have a smart phone. Up to now I had assumed it would be normal operating procedure for all EMTs to carry a smart phone. He gave me a form that was required of all EMTs to fill out when providing emergency services. Most of the information I had already incorporated in the book. Based on the county document and his suggestion I changed the heading Primary Medical Issue to Medical History. The EMT also suggested that they would want to know the person’s name so that they could make sure the person was carrying their book and not another family member’s book. As our conversation continued another EMT came in he was younger and he mentioned that the training he was taking now encouraged all of he EMTs to use a smart phone in the field to retrieve medical information. Now that was encouraging that in the very near future all EMTs would have a smart phone as a normal operating tool in the field. Also encouraging was that both EMTs felt that it would be a very useful tool. They explained that having all of the information with immediate access would be extremely useful. What they liked especially about the QR Data Book was that they would not need internet access to attain the information. This would be particularly useful when they were in areas that did not even get cell phone signals.

Feeling very encourage from this feed-back I approached a local Paramedic company. Again I was given suggestion on what information should be included in the book and was told that they had begun to supply smart-phones to their paramedic. I had begun to see the “can opener” materializing. I know that this is not very extensive or complete research but I felt that is was enough to motivate my process and I believe from this research that the QR Data book was being developed at the right time.

The next step would be to develop a web site and begin to test some SEO.

QR Code Research

Your data when you need it.

I knew that the QR Code could store a large amount of data in a small space.

 

I wanted this database to include prescriptions, allergies, emergency contact, blood type, physician’s contact and primary medical history.

My first attempt was made to include all of this information in one QR Code. I was able to create the code but soon found that the QR Readers that are available are limited to reading about five lines of codes. Most users of QR Codes will primarily use the code to direct the scanner to a URL which is a small amount of information is easily read by QR Readers. However my intent was to get around the need to have an internet connection and instead use the code as an imbedded database. The only way around this would be to break the information down into smaller chunks and categorize the information under medical headings.  Unfortunately this would also mean that the product I was creating could not be a credit card size form. I was thinking the limitation of data reading was derailing the whole project until I discovered the Avery label 5302 which is a tent card. It is still the size of a credit card but because it folds there is the potential for a four sided card or eight if I use two tent cards attached as a book. There is still the convenience of a small form but the added bonus of multiple pages to hold multiple categories of health information. By breaking some of the large informational categories into multiple codes, such as prescriptions I could have two pages of medicine data holding up to 10 prescriptions. If there is need for more prescriptions I could reduce the size of the QR Code image and include up to three images on each of the two pages giving me the potential to hold up to thirty prescriptions in one book. The added bonus of the Avery Tent Card is that the sheet contains enough space to print two copies of one person’s card. I was concerned before that if I used business card stock I would end up wasting material of one sheet to print one person’ card. Now I can offer a duplicate card to the user and not waste the material of left over blank cards.

Your data when you need it.

The project was beginning to come together. I had the form. I knew that it was now possible for anyone to carry their personal medical data with them at any time. “Your data when you need it.”, became the QR Data Book slogan.

With slogan and logo developed my next step would be to attain feed back through market research.

The Medical Information Project Continues

I had begun to think of how my father-in-law could carry his information with him without having to have a large document or to have to access the internet. I remember reading an article earlier about data being imbedded in a graphic symbol using a QR Code. The QR Code according to the article could hold up to four thousand characters and could be small enough to fit on a credit card size card.

I felt this could be a good solution for carrying medical information. It was convenient in size and the QR Code in its nature would offer some privacy since the information would have to be read using a QR reader. It would also allow the information to be shared without the need to connect to the internet. It would provide the carrier a personal database that could be carried on his or her person at all times.

The solution was convenient in size and easily accessible. The next steps would be to research QR Codes and to develop a system that would incorporate the code in a easily accessible form.

The Medical Information Project

My father in-law asked me one day if I could think of a way that he could have immediate easy access to his medical information. His present solution was to carry a 8 x 10 piece of paper with him when he visits his physician. The paper included his medication, allergies, past medical history and physician information. You see he has several doctors not just a primary physician and each of the physician prescribe medication for what ever diagnostic they specialize in and each doctor did not keep track of what the other physicians prescribed. However when ever he visited these different doctors the first question they would ask him is what medication he was taking. It was difficult for him to remember all of the medication and dosages so he developed this one page document to show his physicians.

The issue for him was that the paper because of size was not convenient for him and he only carried it when he knew he had an appointment. What he wanted was a more convenient form that he could carried all of the time and one that could be used if he was ever in an emergency situation and was not capable of communicating his history.

The first solution that came to me because of my experience with database development and PHP would be to develop a web base database to store his information and then give his physician access upon request. However because of my understanding of (1)HIPAA regulation I accepted that a web base database system may be flawed. I felt that if access could be given to the medical information it would be possible for it to be hacked by anyone who just liked to hack into web sites. Also the web based system may not be accessible in situations especially in remote areas where emergencies may occur. The solution called for a way to carry the information in a convenient form that would be accessible without an internet connection and that it maintain some degree of privacy.

I told him I would give it some thought and see if I could develop a solution for him.

(1)HIPAA

Screen Capture Made Easy

In the process of developing this project I needed a way to capture the website images. I thought I would be able to do this simply by using the “Print Screen Button” and pasting from the clipboard into the Word document. However there were some screen that I did not want to include the entire page and I decided to download a tool that will allow me to capture part of the screen.

I needed to download a tool to capture the images for illustrating this project. I have used CNET for most of my downloads because over the years I have not had any problems with their downloads. The downloads are reviewed and this gives you a good indication if others have had problems with the applications.

Screen area captured

I found a Screen Capture application that was free. It is ScreenCapture. It is easy to use because of the very simple interface which consist of two buttons 1. Capture Area 2. Capture Screen. The program floats on top of the page and if you click on the Capture Screen button the application goes away for a few seconds and then reappears. It looks like nothing has been done but as the application did it’s disappearance act it copied the screen to the clipboard. All I had to do then was go into the Word Document and paste the image into my page. The Capture image works similar as the application disappears but this time it is replaced with a cross hair cursor which will allow you to select the portion of the screen you want to capture.

As soon as you have drawn your area by clicking and dragging then release the button you have the portion captured to the clipboard.

Captured area

If you want to save the image to a folder instead of the clipboard you can use the browse button to select a folder for saving the images.

Traffic building through Search Engine Optimization

I have been collecting articles and information on how to develop Search Engine Optimization and using Social Networking to improve Page Ranking. I have decided to put all of this information to a test. This test will include the development of a project idea and the incorporating of Social Networking to improve Search Engine Optimization. I want to ascertain if a web site company follows the accepted advise will that company be able to build a noticeable development in page ranking and traffic creation to the site.

I will be posting about the development of this project and the steps I implement to drive traffic to a new site.