Press releases do work!

The web has a great resource and that is called an on-line press release. I have used this tool and I can tell you it works and works well. I write this because a company usually has something that they can do a new press release about such as a new web site, a new product, a new promotion or more. These PR releases are excellent for search engine rankings and yes it is good to get your company noticed by some major news organizations. The following came from a major web organization about press releases:

Back in the summer, a major study involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn't believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the "shelf life" of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.

Back to my thoughts, I believe that all major companies should also include a Twitter and Facebook account on their web sites. These social media tools can be linked to a press release to further increase your web penetration efforts.

Marty Weintraub, the President of aimClear shared some great tips and insight into the use of press releases for search. Among other things, he noted that when you do a press release, you're "hitching a ride" in the search engine results and news results. You can use outbound links in press releases, and perhaps more importantly, you're out there where the journalists are looking.

That last statement where teh journalists are looking is important! We at Rossini.com do on line press releases of various sizes and scope. If you have an interest, please give us a call or an e-mail and I will discuss the many ways we can help you and your company.

To all of you... A very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!

Not all laptops are the same!

From Yahoo news:

1 in 3 laptops die in first three years

So your new laptop computer died in inside of a year. "I'll never buy a computer from [insert manufacturer name here] again!" I've heard the protests time and time again.

Yeah, maybe you got a lemon, but no matter which brand you bought, you truly are not alone in this situation: An analysis of 30,000 new laptops from SquareTrade, which provides aftermarket warranty coverage for electronics products, has found that in the first three years of ownership, nearly a third of laptops (31 percent) will fail.

That's actually better than I would have expected based on my experience and observations on how people treat their equipment.

SquareTrade has more detailed information (the full PDF of the company's study is available here) on the research on its website. But here are some highlights about how, why, and which laptops fail:

> 20.4 percent of failures are due to hardware malfunctions. 10.6 percent are due to drops, spills, or other accidental damage.

> Netbooks have a roughly 20 percent higher failure rate due to hardware malfunctions than standard laptops. The more you pay for your laptop, the less likely it is to fail in general (maybe because you're more careful with it?).

> The most reliable companies? A shocker: Toshiba and Asus, both with below a 16 percent failure rate due to hardware malfunction.

> The least reliable brands? Acer, Gateway, and HP. HP's hardware malfunction rate, the worst in SquareTrade's analysis, is a whopping 25.6 percent.

None of the numbers are overly surprising. As SquareTrade notes, "the typical laptop endures more use and abuse than nearly any other consumer electronic device (with the possible exception of cell phones)," so failures are really inevitable.

Want to keep your notebook running for longer than a few years? Ensure your laptop is as drop-proofed as possible (use a padded bag or case, route cords so they won't be tripped on, lock children in another room), and protect it as best you can from heat and dust.

Keywords are important

Keyword Effectiveness -
Observing Big Differences In Little Keywords

by
John Alexander

There are all kinds of keywords being used by people daily, in their search for information. Most professional search engine marketers learn early in their career, that all keywords are not the same. Some keywords are highly competitive while others are less competitive, which often seems as though fewer people are searching for them. But then there are some keywords that are really hardly being searched for at all. Some of the most ideal phrases are those that relate to a product or service but are being fairly often used by a specific audience of searchers, but at the same time have low competition.

Let's put it another way. Phrases which have a low number of competing pages, but also are phrases that are actually being used often by searchers, represent a nice "window of opportunity." The reason these keywords are appealing is because you can gain significant advantage (with little or no competition) while only performing mild optimization.

Result: High visibility on major search engines without the stress of competing with millions of pages.

Of course you can go after more competitive phrases once you know how, but the point is that you have to work a little harder if you are competing with 40,000,000 pages as opposed to say 400 pages or maybe just 40 pages.

Holiday gifts

Need a holiday gift for a fisherman/fisherwoman? I have one that is under $11.00

Visit http://www.topcatfishingtackle.com.

Want some outstanding coffee from all over the world?

Visit http://www.actioncoffee.com and ask Bud to make you a special gift for a friend!

How about a science kit that explains solar power? Visit http://www.solarsavior.com.

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

Google and paid links

The short answer here:

What does Google think about paid links?

Google is very clear about paid links. They don't like them. Google even has an official form that enables webmasters to report paid links to Google:

This was from Axandra.

A new tidbit

I got this from an article in Axandra and it does owk it just takes time!

If you target long keyword phrases with little competition, then the relative value of on-page web page optimization is very high.

For example, if you want to be listed for the search term "buy black adidas samba sneaker in knoxville" then it is enough to optimize one of your web pages for that search term because the competition for that search term is not high. You don't need many inbound links to get high rankings for that keyphrase.

The more competitive the targeted keyword is, the higher is the effect of inbound links on the position of your website in the search results

Content management CMS

CMS is gaining speed fast and we here at Rossini.com offer it. CMS allows you the end user to have tremendous control over your web site. You can now add pictures, add or change content, add video, add calendars and on and on. If you ever wanted to break free of your web master....call me at 913-533-4098 and I will tell you how!