E-dreamz Company Blog

As an internet marketer I start my day by cranking up Chrome and checking out what’s new on the Google home page. This morning I was greeted by a Google Doodle that reminded me who’s the Alpha & Omega of web search.

It’s easy to lose sight of Google’s accomplishments when the media jumps at every opportunity to make the search giant look bad. A quick look (and click) on today’s Doodle and you’ll be reminded that they are top dog.

Today’s Doodle celebrates Martha Graham’s 117^th birthday. It is a fantastic animation that is interesting, striking and begs to be clicked; I’m thankful for the latter since I had no idea who Martha Graham was. Google’s lovely little doodle directed me to a search engine results page (SERP) filled with links to authoritative organizations oozing with information on Martha Graham, the mother of modern dance.

Today’s doodle, and accompanying search results, not only taught me about the life of an amazing woman but also reminded me that the number one source for information online is undoubtedly Google.

It has been exactly 20 days since we first laid eyes on the update for Google Local. Two great things have happened in those short twenty days. One is I have watched local clicks drive tons of new traffic to our client's websites. This has spiked leads and conversion and made positive results for us and the client. Two is I have been able to personally search locally for things I wanted and received much better results.

The previous Google Local was quite the mess with a very gameable system and rampant spam. Since this new system practically relies on the standard algorithm the results are much better filtered. While the new system is not 'perfect' it takes a ton more effort to spam/game.

Overall this has been one of the best updates I've seen this year for Google. Props to them for finally updating something that was overdue since it was put in place.

A decent part of my job is to stay up to date on events concerning the major search engines. The Yahoo/Bing merger has definitely made a difference in the balance of press but Google still controls at least 70% of the search engine news market.

Since Google receives so much publicity, I’ve begun to notice a slew of negative reports about Google lately. First, there were all the Google Buzz privacy concerns, then the controversy about street view trucks gathering too much info in foreign countries, and now a military/boarder situation in Central America.

Search Engine Land reported on a story yesterday afternoon that a Nicaraguan military leader “accidentally” invaded Costa Rica and held Google Maps responsible. Nicaraguan commander, Eden Pastora, lead a group of soldiers into Costa Rican territory to perform a cleanup exercise. Although the authorized map of both countries clearly placed Pastora and his men in Costa Rica, he justified his mission on the fact that Google Maps placed his location within Nicaraguan borders.

Although this incursion is technically not Google’s responsibility, where and when are we going to draw the line? Every day billions of people trust Google to give them directions, provide them with information, connect them with friends, etc, etc.  Like it or not, Google has become an international information database and they either need to accept this responsibility or move aside.

Human Beings have always used outside sources to help make decisions. Whether it is a farmer’s almanac, world atlas, Webster’s dictionary or news reporter, we rely on authorities of information to help make decisions. In the age of technological revolution Google has become this authority. I want to know when are they actually going to become a resource we can trust? Has Webster ever given you the incorrect definition of an ambiguous word? Has your Encyclopedia ever taken personal information? Has the World Atlas ever misplaced the location of international boarders?

Just something to think about for the sake of conversation, happy Friday!

When I first saw Google’s new tech demo website DemoSlam I thought, “Wow Google, that’s incredibly philanthropic of you, free tech videos for average people made by average people, just great!”

Then I noticed a slight peculiarity, the only tech items you can demo are Google products. Not quite as charitable as I originally thought. Make no mistake; this is still a very cool site and a great idea. It’s brilliant to utilize the web to connect like minded people so they can share tips and ideas in a format that is easily understandable. It’s also really fun to see how these Google products can be used in “everyday” applications.

I would love to see this done by a third party though, maybe a tech site that allows people of all ages to submit how-to videos for popular technology devices. Think of the tech harmony; grandparents showing each other how to use Facebook, parents divulging to other parents how to post tweets, and toddler’s instructing other young one’s on how to play games on the iPhone; the connections are endless!

When I first started doing Internet Marketing I assumed keyword research was going to be my biggest challenge. Especially when I was unfamiliar with the clients products or services. I used multiple tools and with multiple estimates. Those always 'worked,' but I was never sure how accurate each of these tools actually was. Even more as each tool fed me different data. 

Then along came a fellow internet marketer who had been in the industry many years longer than myself. He explained the best keyword research was spending money on Adwords. It was so simple, but was something I never really thought of. All you have to do is run a test campaign with some industry words on broad and phrase match. Check your search keywords report tool each day for about a week(depending on search volume). Put in negative keywords as the irrelevant show up.  Remove the non converting keywords. Increase the bid/potentially separate out the 'winning' keywords while still on broad match. Let it teach you those ever so rare 'killer' keywords for the client.  

Can we say automated keyword research with a chance to see conversion? Not to mention this is before we ever start the ever so long link building process. Never have to repeat or change your SEO game plan again with this simple trick.

Combine this with the new Google Instant suggested search results and your keyword research will be on fire.