Google, our internet in their hands.

Written by Malcolm Pugh


Continued from page 1

I had envisaged writing my own online real time search, front ended with Perl, accessing live sites viarepparttar IP address bands of websites, and returningrepparttar 118801 first ten to twenty hits encountered. This being a more live exercise on current data without missing out on sites created since Googles last run, which was then a five weekly cycle. Thankfully they have addressed this problem too, in an also very fair way of intuitively guessing which sites are genuinely being worked on and are real and viable, via currently experimental algorithms which seem to me to favourrepparttar 118802 real overrepparttar 118803 imitation. So I will hold back on indexing live data, probably indefinitely, in deference to their having pretty well plugged an annoying five week wait hole.

Through all of this I think we should applaudrepparttar 118804 whole Google operation for being so resistant torepparttar 118805 obvious temptation to placaterepparttar 118806 rich andrepparttar 118807 powerful atrepparttar 118808 expense ofrepparttar 118809 whole internet, andrepparttar 118810 integrity ofrepparttar 118811 whole internet. They are now firmly inrepparttar 118812 driving seat, and are there because they are fair, an unusual trait in an otherwise somewhat shoddy world compared with today and its values. I used to do deals on handshakes, I would shake Googles hand today for putting content over profit, and people power over consortiums.

Malcolm Pugh October 2003.

http://www.stiffsteiffs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/search-engine-tips.htm

I am English aged 51 and live in Birmingham. I am an ex Civil Engineer, and ex systems programmer and ex alcoholic chain smoking gambler.


Metrics Matter!

Written by Philippa Gamse


Continued from page 1

Hot Content Areas

Your traffic reports listrepparttar most requested pages on your site, telling you what's hot and what's not about your content. If you're offering downloadable articles or special reports, you can see which of these are most popular.

Mitchell Gooze makes a point of doing this: "We track white paper downloads by person, and we know exactly who downloads which white papers. We store this information in their data records. We also know which topics are most interesting to visitors."

Knowingrepparttar 118800 hot content areas on your site can give you great ideas for future product and program development. Rita Risser (http://www.FairMeasures.com) developed a whole set of online checklists and policy guideline documents based aroundrepparttar 118801 subjects that her visitors were searching for.

Calls to Action

One of my favorite mantras is "Every Page of your Site Should Have a Strategy". You should absolutely know which segment of your target audience each page is aimed at, what's in it for them and what you want as a result. Provide clear (and clickable) calls to action at every point in your copy whererepparttar 118802 reader might be ready to makerepparttar 118803 next move - whether it's "Sign up for our newsletter", "Buy our product", or "Contact me to ask about our services".

Sometimes this means directingrepparttar 118804 visitor torepparttar 118805 next page that you'd like them to see. Dave Paradi told me:

"I realized that people were entering my site on one of two specific pages, which are a couple of my articles that now have great placement on Google. I also noticed that almost all of these visitors entered and exited on that page, not visiting any other pages.

"So how could I get them to seerepparttar 118806 rest ofrepparttar 118807 site - particularlyrepparttar 118808 products that I hoped they would buy? I included a link to my products page atrepparttar 118809 bottom of each article. And last month,repparttar 118810 products page jumped torepparttar 118811 second most visited page, and it appears that many visitors, based onrepparttar 118812 value ofrepparttar 118813 articles, are checking outrepparttar 118814 products."

And he's taking this a step further:

"It hasn't yet resulted in increased orders, but I thinkrepparttar 118815 next area I need to address is writing more successful copy forrepparttar 118816 products page."

Atrepparttar 118817 Risk of Repeating Myself . . .

I like to think of Web traffic analysis as "market research that cannot lie". The reports show you what visitors do on your site of their own accord, without prompting or other influence. Not to discount focus groups, surveys and asking your favorite clients for feedback - those are important tools as well, but not as powerful.

So, if you haven't clearly definedrepparttar 118818 strategies, target markets and outcomes for your site, and if you aren't looking at your metrics to evaluaterepparttar 118819 success of these, then you're shooting inrepparttar 118820 dark with your Web investment. The examples in this article show you just a few ofrepparttar 118821 many ways that you can use this information - I hope that you're now motivated to find out more about your own site.

(c) 2003, Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317.


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