New info from Google and such...

"In a Google Hangout, Google’s John Mueller said that Google preferred short URLs. You should not go over 2,000 characters in your URLs. [...]

There are lots of exceptions there. Different factors that come into play, but everything else being equal, if you have a shorter one and a longer one, we will try to pick the shorter one."

Another tid bit: “Sitewide links in the footer or header of a website do not have much influence.”

"Titles [...] are important for SEO. They are used as a ranking factor. Of course, they are definitely used as a ranking factor but it is not something where I’d say the time you spend on tweaking the title is really the best use of your time.

So that is something where if you are focusing only on titles in SEO, if your SEO agency work is essentially going to people’s sites and say we will strip out all titles and rewrite them to include all the relevant keywords and you will rank ten places higher, that is not going to happen."

For years now, Google’s knee-jerk response to its frequent regulatory entanglements has been to point a finger north: It’s Microsoft’s fault!
For good reason. The Redmond software giant has actively stirred the pot in several legal cases against Google search, in both the U.S. and Europe, through its own lobbying and the dogged consumer advocacy group FairSearch.
Maybe not anymore.
In December, Microsoft quietly removed its financial support from FairSearch, an organization behind multiple legal threats to Google, including the pending one in the European Union.
“We routinely evaluate our participation in industry organizations and decided not to continue our membership in FairSearch,” a Microsoft spokesman said.
Thomas Vinje, a rep for FairSearch, said: “While we appreciate Microsoft’s contribution while a member, the work of our coalition continues unabated.”
Microsoft joined FairSearch shortly after the group’s founding in 2010. Since then, the consumer organization, a reliable attack dog on competition issues involving Google, has often been described as a front group for the software company that makes perennial second-place search engine Bing.
Recently, Microsoft’s policy efforts have focused more on data security and privacy issues, such as the heated Safe Harbor ruling in the EU. Its severance from FairSearch may indicate new lobbying priorities, or even warming ties between the once very bitter rivals. In Europe, at least, more of the legal pressure on Google has come from the German media and telecom than from Microsoft.
Clearly the change shows a softer posture from Microsoft. Three years ago, the company launched its infamous “Scroogled” holiday ad campaign that targeted Google for its shopping ads — and kicked dirt in Google’s eyes for two years. Even today, the public assault, orchestrated by former Clinton aide Mark Penn, leaves Mountain View bitter.
In some ways, Microsoft’s withdrawal from the group is a blow to Google, as it can no longer pin its troubles on a big competitor. Still, Google has no shortage of foes ready to call its search engine a monopoly: FairSearch is backed by several European and U.S. companies, including Oracle, Expedia and TripAdvisor. That said, the group has lost one of its more prominent financial backers — a boost for Google.
FairSearch is a formal complainant active* in the existing European Union antitrust case charging Google for abusing its search position in its shopping product, as well as a complainant in the EU investigation into Android.
While it may be spending less to go after Google, Microsoft isn’t fully out of the game. It remains a formal complainant in the EU shopping antitrust case, which Microsoft entered in 2011.

More to come.....................................................................

Brochures and cards and more!

Most of my customers do not know but we have been in the multi-media arena since 1994. With that said, we have created brochures, business cards and folders for customers.  If you want to brand yourself, why not go all the way, brochures, and business cards that match your new web site all from one source "US"  Yes we can create that neat web site but why not have more! Give us a shout and we can give you potentially a total solution for $5000.00 or less! One call, one source, one company with over twenty four years of experience.  Call Rossini.com at 913-244-6132 or visit www.rossini.com.

More to come!

Need to make an impression with your blog?

Yes I have a somewhat plain blog but that will shortly change as we continue our 2016 re-brand! You can look at our new web site at www.rossini.com  Now we sell specialized blogs! Want to make money blogging? You can take a look at one of our new blogs that our customer http://www.fifthaveinternetgarage.com/  uses. We are proud to have him as a customer and take a look at his blog! You can have one tailored to your needs too! http://fifthaveinternetgarage.blogspot.com/ .

If you are interested, e mail me or call me at 913-244-6132.

More to come soon!

Plan your work and work your plan....

I continue to push this idea or saying because it applies in all walks of life. I use a Franklin planner and have since 1989! I can tell you almost every day since 1989 what I was doing that day! I planned my work for that day and went about doing it. Now many use their phones to plan their work and that is OK as long as you can stick to the plan and it guides you. We had plans for January here, make at least two to four sales, release a new web site, work on a brochure, switch accounting to on line and of course there was more but we accomplished most and worked on finishing the rest. I now am looking at February.  So I plan for success. You should plan for your own success. If you are in sales, plan on the number of calls that you will make a day, a week, a month.  Oh yes do not forget to follow up on leads and do it no more than 48 hours after getting those leads. Ask for referrals, often time people will give them! Give those people a gift if you sell the referral or if you are in a store buy a product in that store as a thank you. Remember your existing customers! as a rule I always touched base with the existing customers in my territory and introduced myself as their new representative. I listened to their concerns and then tried to act upon any that they may have. I once worked for a company that said never go back to an old or existing customer, they will usually be upset or as I also later found out the service people were up selling them and getting the commission! That company will fail, you should be very proud of your customers and take good care of them. Remember the old saying that 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your leads and from your old customers! Well just a few more lines about sales...more to come and remember, if you need sales help, call me I am available to be contracted out to teach or to sell!

Until next time...Joe

SEO and key words and how best to use them

The old way of doing things with key words in a web site has changed. In the past people would stuff fifty keywords about your company or products on the first page and then also on every other page. This is called cramming or stuffing the keywords and it is no longer an accepted practice.
What do you do you ask? Focus on key words that are specific for the page that it services. For example, if you decide to target “software development” on your services page, than you should not use it again on the homepage. Instead, target a keyword like “software development company”, or another keyword that describes what your company does, on the home page and save keywords like “software development”, which describes your specific services,  for your services page. If your business is locally based, consider using descriptive keywords such as “software development Boston” on your home page to ensure that potential customers will find your site.

Depending on the products/services you offer, some of your pages might be targeting incredibly long-tail keywords to avoid double targeting. For instance, “mobile app development services” only gets 110 searches a month, but it’s still worth incorporating into the “app development” service page on your site—it’s exactly what you offer! Many site owners get so hung up on search volume that they forgo the best keywords for ones with a higher search volume or ones they wanted to target on another page but couldn’t squeeze in. Remember, you can tell the search engines whatever keywords you like for your page, but if your site doesn’t back it up with the content you’ll never do well. You might list “banana” as a priority keyword for your site, but if you don’t sell bananas don’t expect to do well. I tell customers to think about what they would search for specifically. If you do solar electrical work in Franklin County Kansas put that in because you would potentially get a lead from someone from Franklin County Kansas.

Once you know which keywords you’ll be using on your site, there are some guidelines you need to follow in order to make sure that your site is optimized well. Here’s an overview of what you should do:

• Relevant keywords. Make your keywords relevant to the page. Only place keywords on that page if it has something to do with the overall content. If the keyword doesn’t exactly match the content, leave it off that page.
• Placement. You also need to understand where to place the keywords. Select a strong, relevant keyword to go into the title of your page and in the meta description. Next, you’ll want to incorporate that keyword when/if it sounds natural.
• Don’t over optimize. Resist the urge to stuff the relevant keywords into the content. More isn’t better. In fact, doing so can give you a penalty! Place the keyword one or two times into the body copy, but only if it reads naturally. Otherwise, you’re better off taking a conservative approach.

I have been using key words for a long time and yes the use of them has changed but as I have told many that have told me that keywords are dead, I say they resurrected and shine again in the area of SEO.

More late.......

More Google Tidbits.....

Want to get more sales from your web site? Google says this: Google will index the right pages of your site. The number of indexed pages is not as important as the quality of the indexed pages. If the right web pages can be found for the right keywords, you will get many more sales.

The right content is important as I have said many times! The right key words still work and are looked at or searched on! What would you search on if you were looking for a plumber? Would you type in  plumber? NO, no no  you should be more specific such as plumber Miami County Kansas. Most people are starting to get more specific and less general and thus your keywords and content should be created in such a way.

The Google Penguin update that was expected in 2015, that was then delayed due to the holidays and now was expected this month should launch within weeks. It has been 15 months since the last official Penguin update, which was Penguin 3.0. I believe we are in for anohter shakeup once this new update comes out!

More to come soon.....

I give good phone...

Yes I do give you good phone:) OK no jokes, the bottom line is that using the phone takes time and effort. The phone can be a great sales weapon.I start by setting a goal, remember plan your work and work your plan. I like to set a goal, a reachable one like making twenty telephone calls and then I find a niche to go after and there are so many then you set up a script to use.  A script like you were going to give a speech. Practice the phone call then sit down at your desk and begin to make your calls. You would be surprised that the more you call, the better your pitch gets.  All you need is a couple suspects say yes and then all of a sudden, you have hit your twenty calls and then you need to log them, put them in a database so you do not lose them and then, write them a thank you note...yes I said write them a thank you note.  Now you send them information but it is that thank you note that those suspects will remember and that may turn them into prospects.

So let us review:

• Set a reachable goal of people to call
• Make up a call script
• Practice your script
• Sit down and make those calls
• Update your database
• Send out a Thank You note

OK, much more to come and trust me there is so much more to learn.

More to come and remember practice makes perfect and soon you too will give good phone:)

Joe R