How important is Google to my business?

The way people search for information has changed dramatically since the inception of Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Over 80 percent of Internet users is using some form of Search Engine in their daily website activities. It is also a fact that if your business or organization is not on the first page, or even in the top ten, it is unlikely that people will ever find you. This is a major challenge for many businesses, and with the ever increasing number of websites coming online things will get even more challenging in the future.

As you can see in the chart below, Google is the dominant player in the search market with an estimated market share of over 85 percent. Although Google is a market darling in terms of its business success, having such a large market share (or should we say ‘monopoly’) is creating some real challenges for business owners around the world.

E-commerce influences in-store transactions

Wondering if investing in E-commerce capabilities on your website is worth it for your business? Consider this. According to Website Magazine, by 2014 eighth percent of all retail sales will be conducted on the Web. This seems to be only a small part of the total sales volume.  However, the same survey indicates that 53 percent of the sales will be influenced by e-commerce because consumers increasingly are using the Internet to research products and companies before purchasing.

Free Photo Editing program

With the vast array of web-based services for almost anything you can think of, I ran into a new tool for people that need to do some basic touch-ups on a photo, or have to optimize an image before uploading it to the web.

www.picnik.com is a great (and free) tool if you don't want to deal with something like Photoshop to do your work. Simply upload an image, make your edits, and save back to your own computer. The intuitive and very to use interface makes it fun to work with. You can even automatically link to a web album such as Picasa or Flickr, edit your images and resave them online. How cool is that! But it doesn't stop there; you can also print your images or make a custom photo book.

If you are using a Content Management System (CMS) to maintain your website, resizing (optimizing) your photos before uploading is an absolute must in order to keep the loading time of your pages to a minimum. Www.picnik.com is a great tool for this as well. Simply resize the image and save. Check it out for yourself and let me know how you make out.

Google Search Engine Demystified

Many people are asking me about what it takes to make their website easier to find through Search Engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. My first reply is often that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is part art and part science. Although some SEO marketers make it sound like there is a 'Golden Bullet' that will bring your website on the number one position in the search results, the reality is much different. There are an estimated 150 to 200 million websites made up of over 25 billion pages, although nobody knows the exact number. My point is, no matter what kind of business you are in, there will be thousands of websites that sell or promote a similar product or service.

Although there are no shortcuts when it comes to ranking high in the search engine results (most people will only click on results that are on the top of the first page) there are some things that can be done to make it easier for search engines to find you on the web. Google has an excellent, easy to read document that describes some of the most important factors that Google uses to rank websites in their database. The Search Engine Starter Guide gives clear direction of best practices and is a good primer on how you can optimize your website.

Most importantly, having fresh and relevant information and content on your website is probably the easiest way to find your way to the top of search engine results.