Hey Microsoft – How About Free Windows 7 in 2011? It’s Not Really That Crazy

Microsoft was probably glad to see 2010 in the rearview mirror. Apple and Google grabbed most of the headlines, and almost everything Microsoft attempted sort of died on the vine. Its announced attempt at introducing an electronic tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad never appeared. Its KIN social networking phones died a quick death as well.
Meanwhile, Apple iPad and Google’s entry into “cloud” technology with the Chrome OS stole a lot of the headlines and most of the sales last year.

In fact, the only thing that seemed to work for Microsoft in the last 12 months or so is Windows 7, which was actually released in 2009.

Its success must be giving Microsoft some relief; Windows 7 has generated nearly $13 billion in sales so far. However, industry experts say it isn’t going to last. What’s more, one commentator has gone so far as to suggest that maybe Microsoft should think about simply dropping the price on Windows 7, or even start offering it for free.

Sounds crazy, right? Well, hang on a minute. Currently, Microsoft retails Windows 7 for about $300. Preinstalled versions are sold to computer companies for up to $100 per unit.

It’s good money if you can make it, but indications are that Microsoft may not be making that kind of money for long.

Google recently began offering its Chrome operating system free to OEMs. With more people jumping to Smartphones for their business procedures, having computers that can connect with phones is a big must-have. Installing the free Chrome OS means computer manufacturers can charge less for Chrome-based computers than they can for Windows-based computers.

Google is doing this because it understands that the money isn’t in operating systems anymore. Instead, it’s in the services that the operating system offers while serving as a gateway. These include search services, geo-location, advertising and social media.

So it stand to reason that within these new parameters, Microsoft will not be able to get away much longer with offering Windows for $300 and up. If the company wants to stay competitive, it needs to play with the same rules as the competition. It needs to offer reasonable alternatives to the products offered by everyone else.

That, however has never been one of Microsoft’s strong suits. But it’s a struggle that Microsoft must overcome if it doesn’t want to be seen as an also-ran in the near future.

Are You Wishing Your Customers the Wrong Thing During the Holidays? New Evidence Could Make You “Merry” Next Year

You hear a lot of salutations during the holiday season. However, the two that get the most use are, of course, “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.” Some people say the latter is more preferred because it encompasses everyone and their various beliefs, traditions and customs during the season.

But is “Happy Holidays” necessarily that best thing to say if you’re trying to run a business this time of year? A recent article in a New York Times blog says “Merry Christmas” is infinitely more popular than “Happy Holidays,” at least as far as printed media goes. What’s more, it’s been that way since at least 1800.

Does that trend continue when the merry wishing is meant for commercial purposes? The folks at Conversion Voodoo decided to find out. Using a 100,000+ customer list for one of their clients, they tested three different Email headlines on December 21. Each subject headline was sent to an equal number of people on the mailing list:

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

The Results:

“Merry Christmas” was far and away the front runner, garnering over 1800 clicks. That’s nearly twice what “Happy Holidays” or the combination greeting was able to generate.

Why “Merry Christmas” is so much more popular is open to conjecture. It could be that it simply sounds more exciting to be wished a happy single even rather than a pleasant group of days. Regardless, make a note now. If you used “Happy Holidays” this year, you missed out on sales. And if you used “Merry Christmas,” don’t change it. It’s been working like a charm for at least 200 years.

Will Yahoo! Be Around in 2012? That is the question in 2011

Yahoo’s recent layoff of more than 4% of its workforce leads one to ask what everybody’s been thinking for a while:

Is this it? Will 2011 be the last year for Yahoo?

Like any good company in trouble, the Yahoo PR department has been trying to put the best light possible on the layoffs (roughly 560 people worldwide):

“Today’s personnel changes are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo! for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products to the marketplace. We’ll continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities.

Yahoo! is grateful for the important contributions made by the employees affected by this reduction. We are offering severance packages and outplacement services to these employees.”

One has to ask why these layoffs are happening at all. Search has proven to basically be recession-proof. If Yahoo isn’t cutting the mustard, then the problem must lie within. Unfortunately, with Google, it lies at the top.

The appointment of Carol Bartz to the head position at Yahoo! appears now to have been a mistake that looked good on paper. She’s a no-nonsense money-saver. That’s good. However, innovation and creativity is not her forte. Consequently, the company seems to change its mind almost daily about what it’s trying to be. Apparently, not even Bartz could explain what Yahoo was as a company until very recently.

By turning over its search engine capabilities to Bing in 2010, the assumption was that it would free up the time for many Yahoo! employees to work on new, exciting projects. Apparently, that’s not the case at all. More and more, this appears to be an attempt by Bartz to save some money while keeping Yahoo’s relevance as a search engine alive.

Disgruntled employees are not known for their ability to keep quiet, and Yahoo is no exception.

Tweets and emails to industry bloggers report an atmosphere of a company in “shambles,” and digging a hole from which it may not be able to escape.

Here’s hoping that Yahoo! is able to get its act together in 2011, before it becomes the latest name at the top of a list that includes such past also-rans as Alta Vista, Infoseek, Cuil, etc.

Because quite frankly, if that happens, a lot of us are really going to miss it.

Content Marketing Institute Presents Three Ways to Keep Bloggers from Getting Bored and Tired

When it comes to blogging, the biggest challenge any company faces is ultimately keeping up the momentum. Writing is, after all, hard work. You can’t be brilliant all the time, but you don’t want to lose any power on your blog just because your contributors have a dose of writers block. So what do you do?

Heidi Cohen at Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has three suggestions on how you can keep your blogging team on track:

1. Set goals and related metrics for your blog. Give the blog goals that must be set to be of worth to your organization. Make sure your bloggers understand blog analytics so they can see how popular their posts are. As a result, bloggers will feel more compelled to write more exciting copy, since they know they are competing with other bloggers for rank. The elements to track include the amount of content provided, content effectiveness, page views, Social media shares, Email shares, Comments and Business-related actions to the post.

2. Incorporate blog responsibilities. Create corporate guidelines for your bloggers to follow. Involve senior management; get them to put their feedback on blog posts. A little encouragement from the guys upstairs does a lot to boost a blogger’s ego. And while this sounds odd, if you hire a blogger, make sure human relations requires blog participation in his or her job description.

3. Celebrate Your Bloggers. Everybody likes recognition. Cohen provides a variety of ways to show your bloggers that you appreciate what they do, including:

Create “About the Author” blurbs with pictures that appear at the bottom of each post.

Credit bloggers in company tweets. Let everybody know when a blog post is worth reading, and who wrote it.

Mention posts with the author’s by-line in marketing emailings.

Reward your bloggers. Gift certificates, recommendations, cash bonuses; all go towards creating a happy blogger.

In short, Cohen says if you keep your bloggers in the spotlight, they’ll write highlight copy almost every time out of the gate.

Blogger Tim Peter Contemplates Business in a World Without Google

Imagine doing business without Google. For some companies, it would be like the sun going out. They wouldn’t exist. Yet, says Tim Peter on Moran’s Biznology Blog, marketing online without Google is a very real prospect that every business faces. It can happen every time Google makes a change to their algorithm. Those changes can suddenly turn you from a page-one contender to a bottom of the list has-been.

Peter asks: “If (Google’s) next algorithm update—or a future regulatory-mandated change—knocked you out of their index, would your business survive?” He then offers seven tips to help keep yourself in the game should the worst ever happen to you:

1. Go where the customers are. Sure, Peter says. Everyone uses search. But everyone also uses email, social media and mobile phones. B2B companies also have the advantage of LinkedIn. Facebook could be a great way to contact your customers, but don’t forget to look at marketing channels that play to your target audience.

2. Set your objectives. Once you’ve located your customers, determine what you expect out of each of these sources. Leave yourself plenty of options for rethinking your marketing channels as things change.

3. Improve your web presence. That includes everything about you that your customers react with online. This is more than your website Peter is discussing here – it’s Facebook pages, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn, etc.

4. Continue to grow your opt-in contact list. Find out how your customers wish to be contacted. Then use those tools to communicate. Eliminate the methods that your customers ignore.

5. Blog. If you can do it well, Peter advises blogging. Allow for plenty of keyword-rich content that flows and provides valuable information for your customers.

6. Explore additional media. There’s still life in display advertising ; simply remarket your online message. Email and affiliate marketing can also work for you.

7. Investigate other additional media models. There are CPM and CPC, but Peter advises looking into Cost per acquisition as well.

In conclusion, Peter says that even with Google, you should be doing these things. But if you ever find yourself trying to battle your way back to the top, these tips will help keep you in the game.

Companies Griping About Google Local Search Have Nothing To Complain About

Even when Google tries to better itself, it can’t catch a break in the press. An article by Clint Boulton at eWeek.com covers Google’s reaction to a story published on December 12 that many startup companies are accusing Google of favoring iGoogle Places, Places Search and Place Pages over those of businesses that rely on Google results to generate business and provide decent search rankings.

Representatives from TripAdvisor.com, WebMD.com, Yelp.com and Citysearch.com complained that Google tends to promote links to its own services that are similar to the services they provide.

They point to Google boosting the profile of its Google Places local search directory. The lettered “pins” on any local search are typically sites listed with Google Places, and found within its Place Search Service.

If your company is on the map, and you’re one of the lettered locations on the map, you will rank higher than other businesses in your area that don’t. By favoring their own sites, companies say Google is makes it harder for people to find results from the startups, pushing them lower on the page.

One business, TripAdvisor.com, even reported a 10% drop in visits via Google-based searches.

In its defense, Googlesays this is not an attempt to take money from its advertisers, but rather to simply get information to people as quickly as possible.

For once, Google may have a point. By improving its product and trying to use new technologies to expand its brand, Google is doing what any business would do.

Plus, Google says Pages and Places get a lot of the information that they use from the websites that are complaining. Google’s only goal appears to be to get the information required to the person who wants it.

Seven Blog Housekeeping Tips You Learned from Your Mom

If you blog regularly, you know how hard it is to keep up a steady stream of ideas over time. However, there are some basic things you can do to help maintain your blog that you’ve known ever since you were a little kid. That’s because, believe it or not, they were taught to you by your mom.

That’s the message behind a recent article at DailySEOTip.com, “7 of Your Mother’s Housekeeping Principles to Apply to Your Blog.” It’s true – several simple rules your mom once told you about keeping your home clean can also be sued to keeping a clean, presentable blog. Here are a few:

1. Keep ahead of tasks. Out with the old blogs, full of irrelevance; in with the new blogs for fresh, interesting content. That helps keep your ratings up. .
2. Keep your software up to date. Updates are your friends. If you have worries about viruses, etc., make sure you have a good virus protection software and do your homework to make sure the update you’re about to apply is legitimate.
3. Take out the trash. Get rid of garbage from your computer, such as plug-ins or default templates. Anything you don’t need, toss.
4. Tidy up. Occasionally clean your blog database. It’s getting easier for most software to do so. Updating Wordpress, for example, is an extremely easy, one-click process.
5. Clean up your messes. Have people been putting spam links on your blog messages? Get rid of them! Check all comments and backtracks to make sure they’re not spam
6. Lighten the load on your site with smaller-sized attachments and photos.
7. Adopt new technologies. For example, slow sites can often by remedied by changing hosts or getting more memory from your current host.

Hey, Bloggers: Now When You Break a Story, Google Could Credit You For It

If you’ve been wondering whether you blogging and online reporting ever gets noticed, Google is coming to the rescue. Recently, it announced a new meta tag for journalists and bloggers, which credits the publisher who first breaks a story on the Internet.

Sounds good in theory, but in the article “The New Google Journalism Tag Could Work in Reverse,” at the blog SEO and Tech Daily, Charlie Anzman says there are still problems.

First of all the meta tag is actually tags – one for the first person to have the story attributed to them, and one for the first person to syndicate the story online.

The problem with this, Anzman says, is twofold:
1. Most current reputable blog and news organizations credit their source with a link. Now, they could decide to quit doing that and then just use the tag, which isn’t visible to the reader. So the author of the story gets no visibility for his/her work.

2. Anzman says the current trend to switch to popular blogging software means that a plug-in for that software needs to be created to accommodate the meta tag. That means a re-writing of code, so any major adaptation of this meta tag is not in the near future.

Anzman says this doesn’t really solve the problem of “story stealing,” a problem so prevalent that Reuters now prohibits its reporters from breaking stories on Twitter. Other writers pick up the scoops and claim them as their own.

In short, Anzman feels that for Google, it’s back to the drawing board.

2011 Could be the Year of the Search Engine, if 2010 is Any Indication

As we pull up on the end of 2010, it’s kind of hard to tag this year to one monumental moment in SEO. This is simply because so many things occurred.The ongoing Google/Facebook spat saw both sides releasing updates and improvements and redesigns, etc. throughout the latter half of the year. Is Google Instant Previews really more important than Facebook Places? Only time will tell.

But one area of SEO that was very busy – and really didn’t get that much press – was in the development of new search engines. Here's a review of the four new contenders who head into 2011 hoping to grab at least a piece of the action.

Quora: Billed in the press as a type of search engine, Quora calls itself as an online knowledge market. It doesn’t so much help you find information as much as it lets you ask questions, which other Quora users can answer or not. It's up to you to check on their authority.

Advantages: If someone has answered a question in the ballpark of the answer you chose, you might find the information you need.

Disadvantages: While probably millions of questions have been posed, very few answers seem to exist so far on Quora. It does not appear to be catching on.

Swingly: You could call Swingly a spiffed-up version of Ask.com. But you'd be selling it short. Its developers have gathered together more than 100 billion question and answer pairs of information. All of the info provided in a Swingly question is accessed from other web sources, like a traditional search engine.

Advantages: Swingly can offer answers to virtually any fact-based question in a flash. By paring down the search parameters, the answers provided can be extremely succinct.

Disadvantages: Swingly is NOT very good at all with speculative or opinion-based questions. Questions starting with the word “Did” or "Will" can cause confusion. Also, it's a bit confusing to figure where to click to go to your chosen result site.



Blekko: Blekko invites the user to “slash” search, literally, by breaking down search queries using a slashtag. For example, if you want to look at political websites that appeal mostly to conservatives, for example, you can enter “political/conservative” and the first results to come up are for Fox News. Type “political/liberal” on the other hand, and results for more liberal sites appear (Washington Monthly, Huffington Post, etc.).

Advantages: Blekko is capable of searching by categorical breakdown, as opposed to simply raw terms that have a page in common. This is why you can pull up conservative or liberal pages, for example, as opposed to just pages with those words on them.

Disadvantages: It's “geeky.” "Normal" people don’t want to have to add an action (separate terms by anything other than a comma) in order to get results. They want answers now. By adding a task before getting a result, Blekko leaves impatient searchers behind.

Qwiki: The latest addition to the search engine field, Qwiki is currently in Alpha testing (go to Qwiki.com to get on their troubleshooter list). You're in for a surprise. Enter a term into the search window (Qwiki says there are 2,000 entries at the moment, but experimenting with it implies if it’s in Wikipedia, you’ll get results), and you’re treated to a 30-second, audio visual summary of your product.

Advantages: It sure is fun! Qwiki should prove to be very popular in schools.

Disadvantages: What’s the point? That’s what most people will ask about various aspects of Qwiki. You get the idea that Qwiki was developed in the hopes that one of the big guys – Google or Bing, for example -- will buy it and incorporate it into their search engines.

HubSpot Answers Six of the Most Common Social Media Marketing Questions

Having a social media presence for your company is a given. However, once you establish that presence, getting people to notice it is an entirely different matter. That’s why Magdalena Georgieva, writing for hubspot.com, recently discussed Dan Zarella’s excellent presentation, “The Science of Social Media.” In her article “Answered: 6 Frequent Questions about Social Media Marketing,” she says that a recent appearance by Zarella inspired some very thought provoking questions:

1. When you put up a company Facebook page, how do you get somebody to “like” you? You can accomplish this by creating some form of positive interaction. One good example is creating a new tab on your Facebook page that offers something free and compelling to anyone who “likes” you. Contests for people who “like” you work well , too.

2. Can social media be anti-social? Non-social? Too social? You can certainly be anti-social by appearing rude or obnoxious, as well as non-social by not developing long-term relationships . Too social? As long as what you’re doing doesn’t overhype itself and come off as spam, it’s not easy to be too social in social media.

3. What tools should be used to track specific social media metrics? Zarella recommends the paid tools Trendrr and Radian6. Georgieva recommends Hubspot’s own social media monitoring platform and marketing automation software. She also mentions Twitter Grader as a quick, free way to evaluate your current social media influence.

4. Should the company have a landing page tab on Facebook? Most certainly. It’s a perfect way to use a call to action that doesn’t look overbearing.

5. What’s the best way to engage influencers? Influencers are those people and online connections most likely to get excited about your product or brand, who will then spread the word to their friends, etc.Sometimes simply paying attention to influencers is enough to get them talking. This can be done via direct contact or even mentioning them by name in a blog entry.

6. How do you stay personable on line without tweeting about yourself? Talk instead about things that interest you. Point out interesting articles and links that you can discuss online.

Search Engine Watch.com’s Duncan Parry Offers Tips on Staying Caught Up in Search News

The last few months are the best indication in a long time that the search business is constantly changing. Duncan Parry at SearchEngineWatch.com points out that today’s new employees in the business have never heard of AltaVista, Excite, Lycos and many of the other search engines that once dominated the field.

In his article “How to Keep Up to Date In Search,” Parry offers some pointers on what to take note of in this business, and what to ignore, since it will eventually change anyway.

1. Ignore noise. Parry says that with all the blogs and articles published every day, there are more “experts” entering this field by the minute. Most of it can be ignored. Everybody has an opinion, Parry says; whether those opinions mean anything depends upon whose saying them. He suggests sticking to sites that you find to be credible and correct. He also says to keep up to date on technical developments in the products you currently use or are planning to use.

2. Get an RSS Reader. All sites worth their salt have RSS feeds. Make sure you have access to a reader so you can add your favorite sites to it. This puts all relevant articles into one easy-to-find place, and allows you to add more at any time. Parry recommends Google Reader for its ease of use, and Feedly for its looks. (Feedly can be linked to Google Reader to give you the best of both worlds.

3. Watch the mainstream press. SEO sites are not usually the first place that you will find interesting news about developments in the profession. That’s given to major news sites first. Subscribe to the New York Times, USAToday, BBC News, etc.

4. Learn about digital technology in General. Along with Mashable.com, Parry provides a significant list of popular sites that you should be reading.

5. Some search sites are musts. Specifically, Parry recommends SearchEngineWatch and SearchEngineLand. They offer daily newsletters and feeds. They sum up the news you need to know and make it readable. Parry also recommends Search Engine Roundtable, as it often seems to be the first site with hot news from Google.

6. Don’t be afraid to cut. Culling from your Reader list over time is to be expected. If a site isn’t doing anything for you anymore, get rid of it.

Parry says that there’s good stuff to be found out there, but even the good stuff can get overwhelming. Determine which experts are worth your time and trust and take it from there.

What’s in a Word? Plenty – Click Through Rate on PPC Jumps when Google Changes One Little Word

About a week ago, Google made a very small change to its search results. Did you catch it?

If you don’t bother with PPC ads, you might have missed it, but the effect was phenomenal. As reported on TheSearchAgents.com by blogger Alec Green, Google changed the phrase “Sponsored Links” to “Ads.” That’s all it took to see an 11.4% jump in click throughs.

The Search Agents analysts performed a pre/post analysis of user behavior between the last week of “Sponsored Ads” and the first week of “Ads.” Their findings:

Across all AdWords campaigns examined, the average position increased 1.5%

Total impressions decreased by the same amount.

Clicks increased 9.7%.

Average cost per click dropped 2.3%.

Total cost increased more than 7%.

Clickthroughs increased 11.4%.

The double-digit increase for clickthrough came as a huge surprise to the Search Agents team.

So what caused the change? Was it pressure from the FTC to be clearer to consumers what PPC ads are? Then, in turn, did it turn out to be true that most people didn’t know what a “Sponsored Link” was?” This isn’t likely, says Green, since the “Sponsored Links” typeface is the smallest on the page, and reducing the term by 11 letters to “ads” would make it even smaller and harder to see than it already is. If the increase sustains itself over the next few weeks however, that may be exactly what’s spurring the growth.

Facebook Email Another Needed Volley in the Social Media Wars, Ruud Hein Says

Hot on the heels of Google’s announcement of Instant Previews last week, Facebook confirmed what many people had suspected for a while: Facebook email is on its way.

The service will compete directly with Google’s Gmail audience, and the upstart may just be the competition Google needs, says Ruud Hein at SearchEnginePeople.com.

Using copious illustrations, Hein presents “The Three Reasons Why Facebook Email is a Big Deal.”


1. Facebook Overtakes Everything. Hein points out that not long ago, the way people did things online was different. They got pictures from Flickr, watched videos on YouTube, IM’d on Live Messenger and made announcements on Facebook. But now, Hein says more and more people are using Facebook to do all of these things – except email.

2. Facebook’s Social Graph Gets Larger. Hein uses a social graph to show the way all social networks used to be connected (Yahoo to LinkedIn to Gmail to Facebook, etc.), and another to show how social integration will work with Facebook email . He says: “By also overtaking email and incorporating as many type of social connection streams as possible, the Facebook social graph of you -- and as a result of its whole 500 million user network -- becomes much, much more complete.”Hein’s point is that Facebook will now not only know whom you connect with on Facebook, but also whom you connect with outside of it.

3. Email is Huge. In spite of what you may have heard – that email is losing its popularity, especially among younger audiences – Hein says email is still very much alive. He points out that Email marketing is still the #1 social list-based moneymaker. So Facebook is entering the email market at the right time.

What this all means to you, Hein says, is that getting people to “like” your company will become much more important. Messages within your social sphere will be given different “weight” than those out of that sphere. What’s more, keeping your company’s emails off people’s “spam” lists will be vital. Facebook has become, Hein says, “the world’s most efficient spam filter.” Similarly, you’re going to have to target your ads even more pointedly to reach your intended audience.

Google Instant Previews: Will it Change the SEO Landscape?

The closing months of 2010 are proving to be busy ones for Google – and by extension, busy ones for the entire SEO industry. The recent release of Google’s Instant Previews, particularly, has sent waves of reaction through the search community.

By now you probably know that when you click the little magnifying glass next to a search result (or when you tell Google to do it automatically), a graphic representation of the page you’re considering pops up.

Some people, like Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com, took the Instant Preview release as more water under the bridge. In fact, Sullivan wonders what took Google so long to do this. He reminds us that Ask.com tried a similar tactic some years back that was not overly well received.

However, other critics, such as Patrick Stafford at SmartCompany.com, see a much more significant change coming to SEO as we know it. If people begin to click on a search result due to the “look” of the site, rather than the information in the descriptive copy, your position on a page may take a back seat to how attractive your page is to the eye.

Experts say that much to the dismay of webmasters, but much to the joy of page designers everywhere, how your page looks is now going to be important. Colors, the size and position of the logo, even your who site layout now needs to consider how eye-catching it is.

Knowing that, 2011 could be an interesting year for SEO indeed.

Looking for Links? Don’t forget your interlinks, says Caroline Bogart at FathomSEO.com

There’s no question that you need to have external links connecting back to your website in order to boost your rankings. But Caroline Bogart at FathomSEO.com says that there is one link source that many companies tend to overlook that can also be an effective source of “link juice”: internal links.

Internal linking, Bogart says, is a content optimization procedure that can both help your users navigate your site and pass page rank from point to point on your website.

In her article “10 Tips for Effective Interlinking,” Bogart adds that interlinking gives you some control over how ranking power flows through your site. Her ten tips include:

1. Make sure your link structure provides easy access to every internal page on your site.

2. Use the keywords for each page in the anchor text on that page.

3. Determine the best page hierarchy. This helps to manipulate your page flow.

4. Use calls to action. They can be before, inside or after your link.

5. Only link pages related by keyword.

6. Make sure every page links to at least one other page. This speeds up the srawl for search engines.

7. Don’t use Javascript or other applications that slow down search.

8. Don’t overdo it. Too many links makes a page impossible to read.

9. Don’t link to pointless pages.

10. Try to avoid nofollow links. They block spiders, which is not what you want to happen.

Danny Sullivan: Google is the “New California”

It’s official, says Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com; Google is no longer the most popular kid on the block – at least when it comes to attracting and keeping good people.

Citing the recent departure of Lars Rasmussen, the creator of the highly popular Google Maps and the not-so-popular Google Wave. Sources indicate that he’s headed to Facebook, to join Facebook COO and former Google bigwig Sheryl Sandberg.

Sullivan says that’s no big surprise. Why? Because Google is the current “California” of SEO.

Sullivan compares the Google of today to the California of the 70s and 80s. Everybody wanted to live in California back then; enough of them moved there that the state went from being a relatively problem-free paradise to an economic, bureaucratic nightmare. Still, more people want to move to California all the time. Those who get tired of the overcrowding, etc., eventually leave for more appealing scenery, until those places too become another “California.”

Sullivan says that is exactly what Google is going through right now – growing pains that any huge company eventually experiences. People who’ve worked there for a very long time are starting to get restless and are looking to move on. Still, more people want to work for Google, even though their expectations of how they will benefit are much different than those who joined before the company went public.

Sullivan points out that Yahoo was the “new California” in search before Google was, and Facebook is undoubtedly poised to take the helm at some point in the future. But his point is that these changes, while they may not be necessarily good for a company, are unavoidable as companies grow into “adults.”

The Secret to Stopping Scanners in their Tracks: Three S’s from Abigail Rossbach at Fathom SEO

The internet has turned most people into scanners. That is, they don’t have time, or want to make time, to read a lot of content on the web. They want to arrive at a site, find what they want and get on with their lives.

Which can be rather disappointing if you’re a good content writer. So what’s “The Secret behind Getting People to Actually Read What You Write?” That’s the title and subject of Abigail Rossbach’s recent article at FathomSEO.com.

Rossbach says you need to do three things before you sit down to write your next blog post, website update, etc:

Step 1: Admit it: People today scan more than they read.

Step 2: You need to quell their urge to scan.

Step3: Implement scan-busting methods that get people to stop scanning and start reading.

To do that, Rossbach says, is simple use of the “Three S’s:” Substance, Subheads and Scannability.

Substance: Your content needs to have value. People only read when they are expecting to get some benefit out of it. That benefit could be more information, a price, ingredients, materials, etc. Start by creating a headline that screams “Look at me!” Rossbach says.

Subheads: Subheads are vital on a web page. Why? They break up copy blocks. They organize what you’re talking about. And most of all they allow scanners to find what they’re looking for. Think of subheads as mini-headlines, because that’s what they are.

Scannability: Finally, Rossbach discusses the need for making your article ultimately scannable. Format your message in to manageable, meaningful sections. When the scanner finds what he wants, he’s yours. That’s why every sentence of your content should be entertaining and make a point.

Danny Sullivan on Google: Why Does Less Always Equal More?

Something at Google is bugging Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan. Namely, why is it, when you try to specialize a search – namely, eliminate potential search results by typing “-keyword”, you frequently get a much larger list instead?

To prove his point, he conducts a simple search on “cars,” and elicits over 546 million results. However, when he performed a search for “cars –used,” which one would think should eliminate any website with the word “used” in it, the number increases to over 661 million.

This, Sullivan says, is a long-standing problem; a gripe he has had with Google for years. Sullivan provides an answer of sorts from Google’s Matt Cutts, who says that search results are simply “estimates,” and not an exact count of pages that meet the parameters of the search.

In regards to why “A B –C” can return more results that A B searches, Cutts says: “The query [A B -C] causes us to go deeper through our posting lists looking for matches, which can lead to more accurate (and larger) results estimates. Other things can cause us to go deeper in finding matches, such as clicking deeper in search results.”

Using the cars example and Cutts’s explanation, Sullivan says, when you delete a term from the search task, it allows the search engines to “think” harder. Consequently, it can pull up more results.

In addition, with more and more websites coming online daily, Sullivan says it’s not as easy as it once was for Google to catalogue all of the information available on the web. This, however, doesn’t excuse Google from aggravating behavior. He suggests that maybe Google should add a disclaimer next to the results count stating that what you’re seeing is indeed an estimate.

Using Facebook for Business? Hubspot.com has 9 Tips on What Not to Do

No one is denying that Facebook has become a viable business tool. People are coming up with new marketing methods for Facebook literally every day.

However, there are also things you shouldn’t do with Twitter – which is what Diana Freedman writes about at hubspot.com: “The 9 Worst Ways to Use Facebook for Business.” They are:

1. Duplicating your Twitter Strategy on Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are two different platforms, and you need to use them differently. While it’s good to Tweet two or three times a day so that your customers (hopefully) see you, too many Facebook updates could lead to people dropping you. When you do post on Facebook, take advantage of the extended number of characters you have to get your point across.

2. Posting plain-text entries exclusively. People like variety. Post relevant videos or links to interesting articles. Involve your readers.

3. Not Allowing Fans to Share Content. If you don’t let your fans post on your wall, what’s the purpose of having a Facebook page? If you sell a product, for example, don’t you want pictures of your fans using that product to put on your wall?

4. Not Responding to Fans’ Comments. Facebook is a social medium, so be social. Respond to comments and questions. If you don’t have time, make time.

5. Ignoring Fans’ Comments and Content. Those very contributions to your site can be shared with others when they’re beneficial to promoting your product or service. They can also be great content additions when you’re short on time. So use them!

6. Not using Facebook Questions. This new Facebook service, allows anyone to ask and answer questions to and from Facebook users. It’s a great way to get customer opinion on your product ideas, service changes, etc.

7. Using a Profile Image with a poor thumbnail. When you upload your logo or brand image, Facebook cuts it down to make it fit in the little thumbnail on the profile. As a result, many logos get cut in half or rendered totally unrecognizable. Create a 200px-wide image of your logo and use it.

8. Not Linking to your Facebook Page from your Website. Stop keeping your page a secret! Put a Facebook link box on your web page and start drawing traffic to your Facebook page.

9. Putting Up a Page with No Personality. If your page is stuffy, you won’t get many fans. Facebook users want to connect with friends, not with a sales pitch. Freedman provides several examples of companies who are doing this correctly.

Google Gains on Bing-Yahoo in September, According to Experian Hitwise

Recent statistics from Experian Hitwise reports that search giant Google received nearly 75% of all searches in the U.S. in September. This is a full 1% gain from the previous month, and is remarkable in that the gain was made in the same month that Bing was hoping to cut into Google’s share by adapting its search engine to its new partner, Yahoo!

International Business Times writer Surojit Chatterjee, in his article “Google Rules Online Search Market in September,” says that Google’s gain was substantial, given that searches on Bing gained 2% when the search was conducted on Bing.com. However, Chatterjee says that Bing/Yahoo searches reported a 5% loss. That more than cancels out any gains that Bing.com may have made on searches made to its home site during September.

64 other surveyed search engines split the remaining 4% of the search pie not already taken by Google or “Bing-Hoo.” According to Chatterjee, Bing can be encouraged by the sites intellectual growth. For example, he says that in September, Bing saw its first double-digit sequential growth in the four major categories of Automotive, Health, Shopping and Travel.

Chatterjee could not say whether Google’s release of its Google Instant service helped the company’s growth in September. However, Google stock prices rose steadily throughout the month after Instant’s release.