Microsoft and Yahoo Displeased With Google Buzz
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Yesterday Google released Buzz, an integration of new social features for Gmail that connect users with each other. If you read my article I had mentioned something about finding it a little strange the name “Buzz” was used, seeing as Yahoo! Buzz has existed for quite some time now. Evidently I’m not the only one who has taken notice of this- Microsoft and Yahoo have both taken it into their own hands to speak out on how they feel towards Google at this point in time.
Microsoft came out with a pretty hasty statement, saying “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.”
Microsoft has been pretty chummy with Facebook lately, so I can understand why they may not think Google has the right to release “another social network” when the other search giants have already hopped on board with it. Windows Live has “Spaces”, listing tons (and I mean TONS) of applications for various social networks to share with other Live users. You can broadcast your web activities right on your own page. I just wonder how many of the activities people use. I counted well over 50, and I would use maybe 4 of those.
I can only wonder if Microsoft is slightly threatened by the capabilities Buzz has and the implications for its competitors.
Yahoo, on the other hand, took more of a direct hit from Buzz due to the fact that they are now sharing the same name. Yahoo! Buzz hasn’t had a ton of publicity lately and for a moment, I almost forgot it existed.
It seems Google has followed suit of Yahoo! Updates, another feature Yahoo has to congregate your social networking and updates. They decided to send an email out just to “updates” their users on what Yahoo! Updates already has…in case they forgot or got blindsided by Google Buzz, along with a pretty simple tweet for Yahoo! followers.
So, what do Yahoo! Updates and Google Buzz have in common?
Similarities Between Yahoo! Updates and Google Buzz
* The ability to have streaming updates to broadcast to contacts
* Updates appear in mail, so comments are never lost or gone unnoticed
* Connect with sites already used, such as Flickr, to share content
* Capability to share updates both publicly and privately
…they DO sound pretty similar to me.
All in all, I think Microsoft and Yahoo! have a right to be miffed- after all, Google joined the game a little late with introducing a complete package for social sharing and networking… but do you think Microsoft had the right to put out that public statement openly slamming Google? Thoughts?
Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ :
* Introducing Google Buzz! GMail Social Sharing Ladies and gentlemen- Google Buzz has now been announced! It ...
* Yahoo! Buzz Rolls Out New Publisher Landing Pages Aside from the new features of its various online products, ...
* Yahoo Buzz Gets a Facelift, Goes to India Too Yahoo is making it easier for Buzz users and followers ...
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Easily Create Search Engine Optimized Websites with Eden Platform (CMS Review) By SEJ
I sometimes try and review various content management systems because I need to be in the loop of what types of tools I can recommend various people with different backgrounds. To me, the main advantages of using a CMS are:
(!) The ability to manage many websites from one dashboard;
(!) The ability to effectively distribute tasks between many users (even if they have very basic tech knowledge).
Last week I was contacted by a company representative who asked me to review a new (to me) content management system called Eden Platform which seems to pay a great deal of attention to SEO. As an added benefit, Eden Platform is offered under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.
So I decided to try it out: luckily they offer a very handy free-trial option.
The process
The sign-up process was quick and easy. After providing a few details, I was instantly taken to my dashboard.
After signing up, the first thing I wanted to do was to add pages to my test website. So I clicked “PAGES” in the top navigation menus. Adding and editing content looked like a fun. I found the “page tree” containing the visualized structure of my site. From there I could:
* Zoom the structure;
* Expand and collapse page sub-sections,
* Preview any page;
* Edit any page;
* Show each page in the main navigation menus, etc:
Each page editor looked very usable: I could change the placement of any element by simply dragging and dropping. The page meta tags and template could be controlled though SETTING tab:
Uploading files seemed also very easy. By accessing FILES module I was given the option to upload a file, edit it, organize files in folders and view all previously uploaded files:
So far the process seemed fun, I kept on browsing…
Some features I really loved:
Dashboard
The dashboard contains a lot of important information about your website including:
* News about recent updates to Eden Platform
* Contact information for your Account Representative
* The number of recent pageviews your website has received
* The number of recent unique visitors to your website
* A list of your most visited web pages
* Your current optimization score
* A list of off-site events that might have affected website traffic
Flexible system of permission distribution
Working in an SEO team, I always prefer the tool I am using to allow a flexible platform for permission management. I want to effectively distribute tasks among my team members. The Eden Platform offers a really nice option for that.
If your account has the proper administrative privileges you can add, edit, and delete users from your website. You can assign any “group” for each user to manage his permissions. A group stands for the set of rights and privileges a user have. By default, there are three groups:
* Administrators;
* Guests;
* Visitors.
You can edit or delete each group. You can also add a new group by providing:
* The group name;
* Description;
* Type of privileges.
After that the permissions are controlled from the “Authentication” module. See how flexible it is:
1. Setup your different user groups within the Users module.
2. If you would like to have one particular page accessible to one group but not the other, scroll down the page until you see “Pages” on the left hand column.
3. Find the page you’d like to set as private, turn on the permission for the group of your choice by clicking the red dot that lines up with the group and the page, turning it green.
4. To limit access to this page to all other groups, simply click each corresponding dot to red (note: you should leave the admin group’s dot green).
5. Now any user within the group that’s allowed access will be prompted with a password protected interface when trying to access the page, where they will enter in their username and password. Once entered, they are “logged in” and can access the page without having to retype their credentials.
6. You can also limit access to any or all modules within the Authentication module by following the same steps as above.
How-to Guides
The platform is really easy to use due to extensive help guides:
* There’s a Quick-start guide;
* Each section has “Quick help” guide explaining it;
* There’s also the knowledge base containing FAQ and other handy troubleshooting material.
Add to this very fast and efficient customer support: on signing-up I was instantly contacted by a team representative (who found my site in Google, looked through it and dropped me a message via my contact form). It looks like solid training and support are included with all full Eden accounts.
Optimization
Once you are done with learning the tool and performing some basic tasks (like adding pages, content and distributing user permissions among those who are going to be in charge of each page), you can go ahead and optimize your site.
Every page has an overall score from 1 to 100 that represents its current level of optimization. As you edit your Content elements this score will be updated each time you hit save. To increase your page score follow the suggestions displayed in the optimization.
The highest priority suggestion is automatically displayed in the optimization panel. To view all suggestions simply click on ‘view all’ to expand the list. The suggestions that need the most work are highlighted in red and yellow and suggestions that are already performing well are highlighted in green. As you make the changes indicated in each suggestion your page optimization score will increase.
Each recommendation has HOW? and WHY? buttons: hover over any of them and you will get specific instructions and explanations:
The traffic stats:
Eden platform does support third-party traffic analytics software (like Google Analytics) but it also has some nice built-in feature. I haven’t seen it in action because my test site hasn’t received any traffic yet, but from the screenshots I found on help pages it looked like a nifty tool.
For example, the dashboard contains the following visualized graph of your web site performance:
My verdict?
Since Eden Platform is not a blogging platform, I don’t see myself using the platform but I can see how many of my clients and even team members can benefit from that slick, self-explanatory interface that easily guides you though the whole process of creating, optimizing and managing a website.
You are highly encouraged to go ahead and try the platform for free and share your thoughts in the comments.
Disclaimer: this review was published on the service representative’s request but in it I express my absolutely independent opinion. Note: the tracking URL is not used for affiliate revenue purposes.
Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ :
* Pixelsilk: SEO-Friendly Content Management System Why would one want to use a content management system? ...
* Organize Multiple Campaigns and Distribute Permissions with SEJ Tools With SEJ tools you can unite all your personal projects ...
* How to Aggregate Google Analytics Stats with SEJ Tools The best thing about the SEJ tools is that ...
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Easily Create Search Engine Optimized Websites with Eden Platform (CMS Review)
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/notes/search-engine-journal/easily-create-search-engine-optimized-websites-with-eden-platform-cms-review/308770930944
(!) The ability to manage many websites from one dashboard;
(!) The ability to effectively distribute tasks between many users (even if they have very basic tech knowledge).
Last week I was contacted by a company representative who asked me to review a new (to me) content management system called Eden Platform which seems to pay a great deal of attention to SEO. As an added benefit, Eden Platform is offered under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.
So I decided to try it out: luckily they offer a very handy free-trial option.
The process
The sign-up process was quick and easy. After providing a few details, I was instantly taken to my dashboard.
After signing up, the first thing I wanted to do was to add pages to my test website. So I clicked “PAGES” in the top navigation menus. Adding and editing content looked like a fun. I found the “page tree” containing the visualized structure of my site. From there I could:
* Zoom the structure;
* Expand and collapse page sub-sections,
* Preview any page;
* Edit any page;
* Show each page in the main navigation menus, etc:
Each page editor looked very usable: I could change the placement of any element by simply dragging and dropping. The page meta tags and template could be controlled though SETTING tab:
Uploading files seemed also very easy. By accessing FILES module I was given the option to upload a file, edit it, organize files in folders and view all previously uploaded files:
So far the process seemed fun, I kept on browsing…
Some features I really loved:
Dashboard
The dashboard contains a lot of important information about your website including:
* News about recent updates to Eden Platform
* Contact information for your Account Representative
* The number of recent pageviews your website has received
* The number of recent unique visitors to your website
* A list of your most visited web pages
* Your current optimization score
* A list of off-site events that might have affected website traffic
Flexible system of permission distribution
Working in an SEO team, I always prefer the tool I am using to allow a flexible platform for permission management. I want to effectively distribute tasks among my team members. The Eden Platform offers a really nice option for that.
If your account has the proper administrative privileges you can add, edit, and delete users from your website. You can assign any “group” for each user to manage his permissions. A group stands for the set of rights and privileges a user have. By default, there are three groups:
* Administrators;
* Guests;
* Visitors.
You can edit or delete each group. You can also add a new group by providing:
* The group name;
* Description;
* Type of privileges.
After that the permissions are controlled from the “Authentication” module. See how flexible it is:
1. Setup your different user groups within the Users module.
2. If you would like to have one particular page accessible to one group but not the other, scroll down the page until you see “Pages” on the left hand column.
3. Find the page you’d like to set as private, turn on the permission for the group of your choice by clicking the red dot that lines up with the group and the page, turning it green.
4. To limit access to this page to all other groups, simply click each corresponding dot to red (note: you should leave the admin group’s dot green).
5. Now any user within the group that’s allowed access will be prompted with a password protected interface when trying to access the page, where they will enter in their username and password. Once entered, they are “logged in” and can access the page without having to retype their credentials.
6. You can also limit access to any or all modules within the Authentication module by following the same steps as above.
How-to Guides
The platform is really easy to use due to extensive help guides:
* There’s a Quick-start guide;
* Each section has “Quick help” guide explaining it;
* There’s also the knowledge base containing FAQ and other handy troubleshooting material.
Add to this very fast and efficient customer support: on signing-up I was instantly contacted by a team representative (who found my site in Google, looked through it and dropped me a message via my contact form). It looks like solid training and support are included with all full Eden accounts.
Optimization
Once you are done with learning the tool and performing some basic tasks (like adding pages, content and distributing user permissions among those who are going to be in charge of each page), you can go ahead and optimize your site.
Every page has an overall score from 1 to 100 that represents its current level of optimization. As you edit your Content elements this score will be updated each time you hit save. To increase your page score follow the suggestions displayed in the optimization.
The highest priority suggestion is automatically displayed in the optimization panel. To view all suggestions simply click on ‘view all’ to expand the list. The suggestions that need the most work are highlighted in red and yellow and suggestions that are already performing well are highlighted in green. As you make the changes indicated in each suggestion your page optimization score will increase.
Each recommendation has HOW? and WHY? buttons: hover over any of them and you will get specific instructions and explanations:
The traffic stats:
Eden platform does support third-party traffic analytics software (like Google Analytics) but it also has some nice built-in feature. I haven’t seen it in action because my test site hasn’t received any traffic yet, but from the screenshots I found on help pages it looked like a nifty tool.
For example, the dashboard contains the following visualized graph of your web site performance:
My verdict?
Since Eden Platform is not a blogging platform, I don’t see myself using the platform but I can see how many of my clients and even team members can benefit from that slick, self-explanatory interface that easily guides you though the whole process of creating, optimizing and managing a website.
You are highly encouraged to go ahead and try the platform for free and share your thoughts in the comments.
Disclaimer: this review was published on the service representative’s request but in it I express my absolutely independent opinion. Note: the tracking URL is not used for affiliate revenue purposes.
Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ :
* Pixelsilk: SEO-Friendly Content Management System Why would one want to use a content management system? ...
* Organize Multiple Campaigns and Distribute Permissions with SEJ Tools With SEJ tools you can unite all your personal projects ...
* How to Aggregate Google Analytics Stats with SEJ Tools The best thing about the SEJ tools is that ...
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Easily Create Search Engine Optimized Websites with Eden Platform (CMS Review)
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/notes/search-engine-journal/easily-create-search-engine-optimized-websites-with-eden-platform-cms-review/308770930944
PPC Magic for Keyword Research by SEJ
Wow your website is now indexed and everything seems to be going well with Google. You have your articles written out, and each page is getting indexed within the hour of posting it.
You worked really hard on the landing page, and you’re constantly receiving quality links.
Everyday you’re religiously checking your rankings to see if you had an increase in the SERPs.
A few weeks pass by and one of your pages is now showing up on the bottom of page 1!
You tell your friends, coworkers, and even family members that you’re now on page 1, and you’re going to make a whole bunch of money.
A week goes by and you’re not receiving any visitors. You check all your stats and make sure all the analytic tools are working properly, and everything is in place.
You then search to see what percentage of visitors the #10 listing on page 1 receives the keyword. You see it’s a small percent, and say to yourself…”I need to rank higher so I can get more visitors!”
So you go back and build more quality backlinks, and within a month you’re now in the top 3!
Still….you’re not receiving any visitors.
You ask your friends to search the keyword just in case it’s not Google messing with you…and they’re all say you’re #3.
You now look at the description tag, and redo the tag to make it look at lot more enticing to get a higher CTR.
You wait a few days for Google to update your description, and in the meantime you’re building more quality links. You say to yourself “I’m so glad I took care of that description Tag. That must’ve been the reason why nobody was clicking”
Next week comes along and you search your keyword….and BAM YOU’RE #1
You remembered that the #1 listing receives over 40% of the search traffic.
You check your affiliate network site, and notice that you don’t have any sales. You check your analytics report and see NO INCOMING TRAFFIC. You call everyone to check your rankings and everyone says you’re #1, and that you’re an SEO genius. You start reminscing the day before you started working on the website, and how you made sure to use all the keyword tools to verify each keyword gets SEARCHED. You even went on the Google adword tool and made sure you clicked on ‘Exact Match’ for that particular keyword. Still no visitors….and now you feel like a SEO Loser and decide to try something a lot easier like Social Media. ;)
Has this happened to you? True Story. It happened to yours truly, but I already was some kind of Social Media Guru…we all are actually…
Nowadays, I use PPC before I start a new SEO campaign. PPC and SEO go hand in hand, and if you don’t use PPC you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns gives LIVE impressions, and gives me a quick idea if the keyword gets searched or not.
I still use the keyword tools to get a bunch of keywords (over 100) and I drop them all in an Adwords Campaign to get a real impression count. I generally run the PPC campaign for 1-2 weeks…or longer (will depend on the niche)
I optimize the campaigns so the keyword will show up on page 1 of Google, and I generally have the keyword on 5-7 placement for Adwords SO I WONT GET CLICKED ON. My goal is to collect data, not really to get clicked on.
Here’s an important note…
I run an exact match campaign and a phrase match campaign. Broad match campaigns will not give you the EXACT keyword until the ad gets clicked and Google shows the actual keyword. You’ll get thousands of impressions but will never know what the actual keyword is.
With Exact Match you will receive Exact Impressions for the Exact Keyword.
After 1-2 weeks running the Exact match campaign I’ll have an idea if any of the words in my keyword list gets searched.
David Kyle, a local internet marketing expert, mentioned that there were a few people actually using this technique. He advised to run a Campaign Report on your Adword Campaigns, and to make sure to click on the Impression Share (IS) & Exact Match IS in the column section when running the reports. It will give you a percentage of how many times your ad was shown compared to the overall impression count.
Now you don’t have to wait weeks or months to find out if you’re going to get any visitors for a keyword. You’ll be saving a lot of money, and a lot of time for your sites and your client sites. Nowadays, if a new client doesn’t want to run a PPC campaign for their site, I don’t work with them. It doesn’t make sense to build a site and anchor text around a keyword that will never bring visitors and/or business.
Robert Enriquez, Founder of Search Exchange, can be contacted at his SEO Company site, through twitter @NC_SEO.
Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ :
* 5 Ways to Maximize PPC Impressions It's exciting to have a client with a virtually unlimited ...
* Google AdWords Keyword Match Advertising Google AdWords is Google's own advertising system, allowing advertisers to ...
* 3 Google AdWords Reports That Will Get You a Raise Let’s face it executives love reports. If you work in-house, ...
Specail thanks to Search Engine Journal for awesome tips
You worked really hard on the landing page, and you’re constantly receiving quality links.
Everyday you’re religiously checking your rankings to see if you had an increase in the SERPs.
A few weeks pass by and one of your pages is now showing up on the bottom of page 1!
You tell your friends, coworkers, and even family members that you’re now on page 1, and you’re going to make a whole bunch of money.
A week goes by and you’re not receiving any visitors. You check all your stats and make sure all the analytic tools are working properly, and everything is in place.
You then search to see what percentage of visitors the #10 listing on page 1 receives the keyword. You see it’s a small percent, and say to yourself…”I need to rank higher so I can get more visitors!”
So you go back and build more quality backlinks, and within a month you’re now in the top 3!
Still….you’re not receiving any visitors.
You ask your friends to search the keyword just in case it’s not Google messing with you…and they’re all say you’re #3.
You now look at the description tag, and redo the tag to make it look at lot more enticing to get a higher CTR.
You wait a few days for Google to update your description, and in the meantime you’re building more quality links. You say to yourself “I’m so glad I took care of that description Tag. That must’ve been the reason why nobody was clicking”
Next week comes along and you search your keyword….and BAM YOU’RE #1
You remembered that the #1 listing receives over 40% of the search traffic.
You check your affiliate network site, and notice that you don’t have any sales. You check your analytics report and see NO INCOMING TRAFFIC. You call everyone to check your rankings and everyone says you’re #1, and that you’re an SEO genius. You start reminscing the day before you started working on the website, and how you made sure to use all the keyword tools to verify each keyword gets SEARCHED. You even went on the Google adword tool and made sure you clicked on ‘Exact Match’ for that particular keyword. Still no visitors….and now you feel like a SEO Loser and decide to try something a lot easier like Social Media. ;)
Has this happened to you? True Story. It happened to yours truly, but I already was some kind of Social Media Guru…we all are actually…
Nowadays, I use PPC before I start a new SEO campaign. PPC and SEO go hand in hand, and if you don’t use PPC you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns gives LIVE impressions, and gives me a quick idea if the keyword gets searched or not.
I still use the keyword tools to get a bunch of keywords (over 100) and I drop them all in an Adwords Campaign to get a real impression count. I generally run the PPC campaign for 1-2 weeks…or longer (will depend on the niche)
I optimize the campaigns so the keyword will show up on page 1 of Google, and I generally have the keyword on 5-7 placement for Adwords SO I WONT GET CLICKED ON. My goal is to collect data, not really to get clicked on.
Here’s an important note…
I run an exact match campaign and a phrase match campaign. Broad match campaigns will not give you the EXACT keyword until the ad gets clicked and Google shows the actual keyword. You’ll get thousands of impressions but will never know what the actual keyword is.
With Exact Match you will receive Exact Impressions for the Exact Keyword.
After 1-2 weeks running the Exact match campaign I’ll have an idea if any of the words in my keyword list gets searched.
David Kyle, a local internet marketing expert, mentioned that there were a few people actually using this technique. He advised to run a Campaign Report on your Adword Campaigns, and to make sure to click on the Impression Share (IS) & Exact Match IS in the column section when running the reports. It will give you a percentage of how many times your ad was shown compared to the overall impression count.
Now you don’t have to wait weeks or months to find out if you’re going to get any visitors for a keyword. You’ll be saving a lot of money, and a lot of time for your sites and your client sites. Nowadays, if a new client doesn’t want to run a PPC campaign for their site, I don’t work with them. It doesn’t make sense to build a site and anchor text around a keyword that will never bring visitors and/or business.
Robert Enriquez, Founder of Search Exchange, can be contacted at his SEO Company site, through twitter @NC_SEO.
Like This Post? You'll LOVE These Related Tutorials from SEJ :
* 5 Ways to Maximize PPC Impressions It's exciting to have a client with a virtually unlimited ...
* Google AdWords Keyword Match Advertising Google AdWords is Google's own advertising system, allowing advertisers to ...
* 3 Google AdWords Reports That Will Get You a Raise Let’s face it executives love reports. If you work in-house, ...
Specail thanks to Search Engine Journal for awesome tips
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