Meet the New Ask.com

We've known that Ask has been working on a new version of Ask.com for months, but now it's here. Ask is placing new emphasis on the Q&A side of search, and is injecting the Q&A experience directly into the main search experience, which is what SVP of Product Management Tony Gentile tells WebProNews, sets the new Ask apart from other Q&A sites.

He says they've taken a hybrid approach, utilizing existing partnerships and new technology that's been refined over the last six to nine months, to build a new social Q&A experience that's built directly into Ask's search capabilities. When Ask doesn't immediately give you an answer (or the right answer), you can simply ask "the community."

We asked Gentile to tell us a little about who this community is. Initially, he says, they are using their existing employee base across IAC companies in a private beta. These employees are encouraged to invite their own families and friends to participate. Some journalists have been invited as well. Eventually this will expand. He says they will also implement technologies like Facebook Connect, Twitter, LinkedIn, OAuth, etc. to get users to bring in people from their own networks.

Also as a result of the social media aspect, he says profiles can lend credibility to answers. For example, if you answer a question and your LinkedIn profile is attached to it, that can show your experience in a field related to a question you have answered.

This is where the new Ask.com comes in as a potentially useful tool for businesses. Businesses may want to answer questions about products, and even create relationships with potential customers. An interesting nugget Gentile shared is that in analyzing the questions Ask receives, the majority of them are either related to "how do I spend my time?" or "how do I spend my money?"

Ask has the ability to work at the local level, as well. Gentile says they have the ability to analyze questions of both an implicit and an explicit local nature. For example, if someone asks, "what's the best burrito shop in San Francisco?", that's clearly a local question, and they can route it accordingly to people in and who have visited San Francisco.

Another type of local question, however, is something like "who's a babysitter I can trust?" That's also a local question, but it doesn't name a specific city. Ask says it has the ability to figure it out, and again, route accordingly. It calls upon signals in the user profiles. If a user gives permission, they will use location.

Here are the main features of the new Ask.com (as described by the company):

- Proprietary semantic search technologies: Finds the most relevant, quality answers across the Web, and displays them at the top of the page. No click-throughs required.

- The largest Q&A database on the Web: More than 500 million questions and answers indexed, and the ability to quickly extract Q&A pairs from hundreds of thousands of sources.

- Ask.com community: Leverages proprietary search categorization to route questions and solicit high-quality answers from community members based on their interests and areas of knowledge.

- New user interface: Improved UI makes it easy to ask and answer questions, highlights advancing and trending questions from the Ask community throughout the site.

"Ask's heritage has always been about answering questions – in fact, more people associate Ask with answering questions than any other brand in the world," says Ask.com U.S. President Doug Leeds. "As users continue to embrace the social Web, now is the perfect time to extend Ask’s technology beyond finding pages that have answers to finding people who do as well.  With 87 million monthly users and more than a decade of Q&A experience, Ask.com is uniquely positioned to answer the long tail of questions that are impossible for search engines alone to address."

It's worth noting that Google purchased Aardvark not too long ago, which also calls upon a community to answer questions, but the company's plans for the service are still somewhat unclear. It remains to be seen if that will become fully integrated with the search engine.

"As the Web becomes more conversational in nature, consumer expectations and the Web’s ability to meet those expectations are changing rapidly.  It has become natural for people to ask questions and receive answers online, and algorithmic search alone can only take that proposition so far,” says Allen Weiner, Research VP, Media Industry, Gartner Research.  "There is a huge market opportunity for companies who can get this right." source: webpronews.com

Android Market Sales Commence In Korea

South Korea has a reputation for being home to some of most ardent smartphone users in existence, and Android devices are supposed to be among the world's most advanced smartphones.  It never made much sense, then, that Koreans were only allowed to access free Android apps, and Google's now (mostly) corrected the oversight.

Tim Bray announced on the Android Developers Blog, "As of today, Android Market is open for business to application buyers in the Republic of Korea. . . .  We welcome the people of Korea, acknowledged everywhere as one of the world's most-wired societies, to the world of Android."

There's only one small problem.  Bray also wrote, "We hope that this will make the outstanding Android devices now available in that nation even more useful and fun."  And Matt Brian reported that Android games remain off-limits in Korea due to complications with a rating system.

Still, this development represents a big step forward for Android that's bound to make the mobile operating system significantly more appealing to consumers in Korea.  Its market share - and ability to generate revenue - should improve as a result.
 

eBay Launches Social Media Seller Initiative

eBay sellers who use Twitter and Facebook on a regular basis might soon receive a bit of recognition for their efforts. Something called the eBay Ink Social Media Seller program has launched, and while it's still very much in the early stages, it's not looking like a terrible idea.

Richard Brewer-Hay explained this afternoon on the eBay Ink blog, "We've been working on a program behind the scenes here at eBay that I'm hoping will help promote all of the great online sellers that are embracing social media tools as a way to augment their presence online, ultimately promoting their stores and sales."


The program's payoff: badges that are supposed "to drive traffic to their social media seller profiles and/or their ecommerce stores." Plus, at least at this point, a fair amount of publicity to split between not many folks.

You see, it seems that just six people (@ColderICE, @PowerSellingMom, @thesavvyseller, @galleriagifts, @auctionwally, and @katskloset) have been granted eBay Ink Social Media Seller status so far, meaning the label may be reserved for a fairly special set of individuals. Which would mean the badges could be of real value.

U.S. Launching Program To Detect Cyberattacks On Critical Infrastructure

The U.S. National Security Agency is launching a program called "Perfect Citizen" aimed at detecting cyberattacks on private companies and government agencies running critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear power plants.

Perfect Citizen would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would flag "unusual activity" signaling an impending cyberattack, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Defense contractor Raytheon recently was awarded with a classified contract for the first stage of the surveillance program valued up to $100 million.

Some industry and government officials with knowledge of the program view Perfect Citizen as overreaching by the NSA into domestic affairs, while other view it as a critical program to fight emerging security threats that only the NSA can manage.

"The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government...feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security," said one internal Raytheon email, the text of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal. "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother."

A U.S. military official said the program was long overdue and would not be a violation of privacy.

U.S. intelligence officials have grown increasingly concerned about possible Chinese and Russian surveillance of computer systems that control the electric grid and other U.S. infrastructure.

"Because the program is still in the early stages, much remains to be worked out, such as which computer control systems will be monitored and how the data will be collected. NSA would likely start with the systems that have the most important security implications if attacked, such as electric, nuclear, and air-traffic-control systems," according to the Journal.

NSA chief General Keith Alexander head of the recently created US Cyber Command said in a speech that the role of the agency is to ""deter, detect and defend against emerging threats against our nation in cyberspace."

"All of us in government recognize that we cannot do this without the help of industry, academia and our allies," he said. "Securing cyberspace is a team sport."

Twitter Launches @earlybird Deals Feed

Twitter has introduced a new ecommerce feature called @earlybird which offers "special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events."

"We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community," the company said.
"Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program."

Twitter said it launched @earlybird because many users find the site timely and that it has relevant information. "We believe that surfacing deals through the @earlybird account will help you discover the best of those deals, as well as find and follow accounts that consistently provide exceptional value," Twitter said.

Twitter did not name any advertisers or brands but did say they would large brands initially focused on the U.S. market. The company said @earlybird will feature US-wide offers but it will consider location-based deals in the future.

2 Billion Add-Ons Downloaded by Firefox Users

Mozilla has served its 2 billionth Firefox Add-on download. The download rate has been increasing each year, but Firefox also faces increasing competition in the open source browser market.

This week Google actually took efforts to make Chrome more accessible, and introduced a new category of featured extensions.

Mozilla's milestone is certainly a significant one though, and there's no question that Firefox has been revolutionary in the web browser space.



"This exciting feat was made possible by the huge community of people who have made and used Firefox Add-ons since we launched in 2005," Mozilla says in its announcement. "Over the years, we remained dedicated to building features and products that make Firefox the world’s most customizable Web browser for consumers and developers."

Mozilla has put up a "Best of 2 Billion Firefox Add-ons" list based on feedback. There are 25 add-ons in the collection, with the top one being Adblock Plus.

Facebook Gets Into Customized Data Centers

It's always a big deal when a company like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft begins to build another data center; the move proves that they've got a fair amount of cash on hand and are growing at an impressive rate. More significant, though, may be the idea of a company first getting into the DIY data center business, and Facebook appears to have reached that juncture.

Rich Miller reported yesterday, "Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow. The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space from wholesale data center providers, but has grown to the point where the economics favor a shift to a custom-built infrastructure."

The facility Facebook's rumored to be behind is under right now construction and will cover 117,245 square feet in Prineville, Oregon. Unless some seriously innovative construction techniques and types of hardware are employed, it's sure to cost more than $100 million, and data centers often carry price tags along the lines of $500 million.

Then, when the construction's done, Miller writes that it will take about 35 people to staff the data center.

So Facebook does indeed seem to be making a major move. We'll try to relay more details as they become available.

UPDATE: Yep, it's official.

Twitter Earns Itself a Candy Heart Phrase

You know those candy hearts everybody has around Valentine's Day with the little sayings on them? Showing just how much of a stronghold Twitter actually has on pop culture, this year, one such saying that will appear on these candies is "Tweet me."

NECCO, the company that makes Sweethearts announced today that this (and "Text Me") were among the top user-generated choices for sayings to appear on the hearts this year. In the past, they have said things like "Fax me" and "Email me." Twitter hasn't exactly toppled email, but is "all the rage" right now to say the least.

I can't figure out if this is better marketing for NECCO or for Twitter. On the one hand, you will have the increased exposure of the tweeting culture to a wide candy-hungry audience (which will likely include some who have absolutely no idea what tweeting is referring to), and on the other, you will have a generation of Twitterers possibly considering Sweethearts over circus peanuts the next time they go to buy candy. I guess it's a win-win. Sweethearts are also coming in new colors and flavors.

"Sweethearts have long been America's favorite Valentine's Day candy for sharing a sweet sentiment with loved ones," said Jackie Hague, vice president of marketing at NECCO. "The new tastier flavors, vibrant colors and modern expressions will ensure that Sweethearts continue to delight people of all ages and help them say something sweet to those they care about."

"It's great that America chose 'Tweet Me' to be a new Sweethearts saying," said Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, Inc. "Twitter is a new way to communicate in 140 characters or less and Sweethearts have been helping people communicate using short phrases for decades."

There is also an iPhone App that works with a user's Twitter account and allows them to personalize up to five Sweethearts with up to 25-character messages on each. These digital Sweethearts can then be sent to prospective Valentines.
source: http://www.webpronews.com

Bing Makes Out Well In Search Spend Report

A little bit of data from the Efficient Frontier Q4 2009 Search Engine Performance Report has been made available, and it's completely un-shocking in that it shows search marketers are still more than happy to spend their money with Google. The interesting thing, though, is that Bing seems to have gained a little ground on the search giant.

To give credit where it's due: Nathania Johnson is the one who got an early look at Efficient Frontier's report (which is supposed to be released tomorrow). It's thanks to her, then, that we know Google's market share in terms of search advertising spending fell 1.0 percent on a year-over-year basis to 74.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's share stayed steady (at 20.4 percent), and Bing's increased by 1.0 percent (to 5.1 percent).

From Microsoft's perspective, that represents a move in the right direction, at least. And it's interesting, too, that Bing managed to draw revenue away from Google instead of its partner-to-be in Sunnyvale.

As for the future, Johnson wrote, "Bing is expected to grow 30% in 2010, giving them a 6-7% share of paid clicks." The outlook for the whole industry seems fairly bright, too, given that she stated, "SEM spend will grow 15-20% in 2010."

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/18/bing-makes-out-well-in-search-spend-report

Microsoft pulls Office from own online store

Microsoft has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store to comply with a court order requiring it to remove custom XML technology from its popular Word software that starts on Monday.

As of mid-day, the only edition available from the Microsoft Store was Office Ultimate 2007, a $670 ‘full-version’ suite. All other Windows editions, as well as Office 2008 for Mac, were accompanied by the message: ‘This product is currently unavailable while we update versions on our site. We expect it to be available soon.

Microsoft confirmed that the disappearance of Office was related to the injunction that came out of a patent infringement case the company lost in 2009. ‘We’ve taken steps to comply with the court’s ruling and we’re introducing the revised software into the US market,” said Michael Croan, a senior marketing manager, in an e-mail.

In the meantime, Microsoft also told potential customers that they can download the free beta of Office 2010, the next-generation suite slated for a June release.

source: http://socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com

Facebook Founder on Privacy: Public is the New “Social Norm”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg claims that if Facebook was starting out now, sharing with everybody would be the starting point, rather than with a small group of friends. Is this more about reflecting social norms or changing them to help Facebook compete with Twitter?

The statement, made during a livestream of the Crunchies awards, hits on a hot button issue for Facebook: it recently notified users of privacy changes via a pop-up notification. While the message claimed that Facebook was displaying the message to give users more privacy controls, blindly clicking “next” was a way to make much of your data public. And in fact, some data like the Friends List has become more public without any settings changes by users.

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Zuckerberg: Sharing is the “Social Norm”

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Zuckerberg’s statement to interviewer Michael Arrington avoids any major “gotcha” quotes, subtly implying that Facebook’s move is a reaction to societal changes but carefully avoiding any mention of Twitter’s () role in those changes. The full quote, picked up in a very well-written post by Marshall Kirkpatrick this weekend, emphasizes “social norms” and “evolution”:

When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was ‘why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’

And then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.

We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.

A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change – doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Change was Inevitable

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Critics of Facebook’s move will probably find support: Facebook’s user base is notoriously resistive to change, and yet nearly every major change, with the exception of the failed Beacon project, has seen a huge surge in popularity for the company. Facebook users were certainly opposed to its expansion beyond colleges, but it’s hard to argue that the service has become less useful as a result.

So now Facebook () is becoming a catalyst of social change, a transition that’s likely to be somewhat painful for all of us. Twitter dramatically lowered the barriers to content creation, and thus sharing our day-to-day lives became effortless. But it was Facebook that took the trend mainstream, affecting 300 million+ people worldwide.

My take: Zuck is right, the change was inevitable. If Facebook hadn’t pushed this forward, Google () would have inevitably made our lives more public in its quest to make all the world’s information accessible (yes, that includes information about individuals). And if not Google, then Twitter … the trend started there and Twitter’s growth would have gradually defined the standard in sharing.

Public sharing as the default was unavoidable, but Facebook has pushed the trend forward faster than any of us might have expected. It’s a concept that will take some getting used to.

source: http://mashable.com/2010/01/10/facebook-founder-on-privacy/

Google To Introduce Click-to-Call (Billing) in Ads on Mobile Devices

Google sent out notification to its AdWords advertisers that this month “your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website.”

On most smartphones, phone numbers typically can be touched (or “clicked”) to initiate a telephone call. This “click to call” scenario already exists for Google organic local listings on smartphones. What Google is saying, simply, is that it will allow phone numbers to display in ads and will charge advertisers when calls are initiated accordingly.

This is a version, effectively, of “pay-per-phone call” but the cost per call is the same as a click — a bargain (generally speaking) for the advertisers to receive a “warm lead.”

source: http://searchengineland.com

Yahoo Southeast Asia Seals Deal With Friendster

Late yesterday, Yahoo Southeast Asia got what may be a big leg up in the social networking arena. Yahoo Southeast Asia established a partnership with Friendster that will see the two entities doing a great deal of cross-promotion in the near future.

Friendster has over 90 million registered users, and about 90 percent of its daily traffic comes from Southeast Asia, so the arrangement is a rather significant deal. Yahoo stands to benefit as Friendster is putting ads for Yahoo services all over users' homepages and profile pages. Then Yahoo will receive some additional exposure when Friendster incorporates its search results.

As for what Friendster gets out of the equation, a Friendster application has already been granted a spot on the Yahoo homepages in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Plus, Friendster users are supposed to obtain the option to link a Friendster account to a Yahoo account.




Both sides seem more than pleased about the arrangement. Ken Mandel, the vice president and managing director of Yahoo Southeast Asia, said in a statement, "Working together with Friendster ensures Yahoo! remains relevant to people by offering the best online content and experiences."

He then added, "This is a major milestone in the Yahoo! Open Strategy, our combined services will enrich the online environment allowing people to get more done faster and in a single place."

YouTube On Verge Of Supporting 1080p Video

YouTube will soon put even more distance between itself and its old reputation for being a repository of crummy-looking, user-generated content. Support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is due to be introduced on Monday.

1080p is, in case you didn't know, the picture type associated with Blu-ray. It makes very minute details visible (hair and makeup teams were none too happy about its creation), and on YouTube, should simply allow for larger images, too.

Unfortunately, creating and displaying 1080p clips requires enough stuff that not everyone will be able to take part. Content creators who don't have fairly new cameras will be left out. Then, viewers who don't have fast Internet connections, fast computers, and large monitors should probably just stick to what was already available for the sake of not having clips stutter.

Still, YouTube's trying to make the switch easy on people. A post on the YouTube Blog stated, "[T]hose of you who have already uploaded in 1080p, don't worry. We're in the process of re-encoding your videos so we can show them the way you intended."

And the introduction of support for 1080p is important. In the long run, it'll provide an attractive option to professional content creators and advertisers, along with the obvious eye candy benefits for YouTube users.

Google Introduces New Drawing and Form Features for Docs

Google has launched some new features for Google Docs. They have made a couple improvements to drawings and added several new features to Forms.

As far as drawings, Google has made it easier for users to build flowcharts, by adding 20 new shapes for standard flowchart components. In addition, users now have more control over drawing text layout by supporting explicit line breaks in text boxes and text within shapes. The features can be accessed, by simply inserting a drawing into any document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

As far as forms, you can now gather responses for a group of similar questions in a new, compact grid format. The Grid question type lets users label several columns and create a limitless number of new rows. Row results appear in their own spreadsheet columns with their own summary charts.

The summary charts themselves actually have new formatting as well:

The form editor supports right-to-left text input now. “When you enter RTL text in the form editor, it will automatically switch the directionality of the form editor and rendered forms (similar to Gmail and other Google Apps),” explains User Interface Software Engineer Eric Bogs on the Google Docs blog. “This means your text and questions will flip directionality, making it easier for RTL users to create and use forms.”

Google Apps customers have two options for using forms within their organizations now. They can automatically collect respondents’ usernames as usual, and they can also now require sign-in to view a form.

Google Shares New Privacy Policy for Books

Google has introduced a new privacy policy for Google Books, to try and appease the critics of Google's enormous book indexing project. The company has also been in communication with the Federal Trade Commission, and has discussed both the new policy and a letter to the FTC on the Google Public Policy Blog.


Google is still waiting approval from the court on its settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, so some services discussed in the privacy policy don't even exist yet.

"Our privacy policies are usually based on detailed review of a final product -- and on weeks, months or years of careful work engineering the product itself to protect privacy," says Google Global Privacy Counsel Jane Horvath. "In this case, we've planned in advance for the protections that will later be built, and we've described some of those in the Google Books policy."

The privacy policy can be read here.

Windows 7 to run Faster

Microsoft and Intel share an age old partnership of working operating system with processors respectively. Intel is closely working with Microsoft to enable Windows 7 make the best of multi-core and multi-threading supporting chip line up for faster performance. Joakim Lialias, Intel alliance manager, posted about a feature called SMT parking that'll allow Windows 7 to be able to make the best of Intel Hyper threading Technology for 'enabling better performance on hyper-threaded, multi-core Intel processors'. Looks like Microsoft is competing against Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that is capable of using multi-core CPU and GPUs.

When Intel rolled out multi-core chips, the industry stalwarts said that Windows platform and the applications
lacked potential to make best of multi-core CPUs. Apple recently announced new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with 64-bit computing, multi-CPU, GPGPU and OpenCL support. Basically, Snow Leopard is coded for making the best out of multi-core Intel processors for overall system performance and stability.

On the other hand, Microsoft too boasts of more stable Windows 7 and has tied up with Intel to make it work better with its multi-core processors. Lialias stated that Microsoft has worked closely with Intel on improving 'the boot/shutdown/sleep/resume times on Intel platforms during the development of Windows 7 to identify opportunities to optimize Intel drivers and BIOS as well as Windows 7'.

Traditionally, System performance was boosted by overclocking the CPU clock to make the sequential application code run faster. Gradually, Intel implemented multiple cores on smaller silicon die, thereby giving more room for higher overall system performance. Not many major applications available today are able to make the best of the multi-core processors.

Apart from that, Intel-Microsoft team is also working to technologies that will make Windows 7 work faster on SSDs - obviously it's about netbooks and laptops. The process of read and write would be speedy on SSDs with a firmware update from Intel. In June, Intel had already rolled out graphics drivers supporting Windows 7 which supported DirectX 10. Microsoft has incorporated the upcoming DirectX 11 platform level graphics driver capabilities for splitting tasks to different cores for boosting graphical performance and application processing.

It's just the matter of time when the two titans - Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will battle against each other. This time, it would be on grounds of system performance, hardware acceleration and also system stability.

Resources: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Microsoft_Intel_to_make_Windows_7_run_Faster/551-104853-580.html

Semantics for SEO

Semantics is the study of meaning and relationships and plays a role in SEO. Google makes its money from being successful at crawling, indexing, and ranking data. One important aspect of this procedure is being able to understand content in a manner that is more complex than keyword density. One way of doing this is Latent Semantics Analysis or LSA. Google may not use this exact approach, but Google is sure to use some similar system of semantic analysis to look at textual content.

Intro to SEO Semantics

By using semantics, search engines can have a basic understanding of the English language. There is an understanding of synonyms, antonyms, and polysemes. In addition, Google can relate niches and keywords. They’re able to develop complex relationships with keywords through their huge database of information and linking relationships.

For example, Google can understand the following relationships for a Make Money Online site.

Make Money Online

• Make Money
• Make Money Online
• Make Money Blogging
• Make Money on eBay

Internet Marketing

• Internet Marketing Services
• Online Marketing

Social Media Marketing

• Social Media
• Social Bookmarking
• Web 2.0
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Blogging

• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Plugins
• RSS Feed

SEO

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Article Marketing
• Directory Submissions
• Dofollow
• Nofollow

Google knows that the usage of any of the above keywords is related to the primary keyword of make money online. It can relate long tail keywords as well as related keywords and the long tails of those related keywords.

Role of Semantics when Writing for Search Engines

Knowing that Google uses semantics is important when writing your site’s content and building links. You should use this knowledge to solidify your page’s focus on a keyword.

Quick Note on Keyword Density

Google content analysis is more advanced than keyword density. Do not stress keyword density. Keyword density will not help you rank higher. Anyone still teaching you to achieve a certain density is wrong. Keyword usage is important, but there is no set density that you should target. Simply use it naturally, but ideas like LSA move Google away from basic keyword density analysis. Keyword density is not a direct measure of relevancy. The usage of a keyword 10 times does not make it more relevant than a page that uses its keyword 3 times. If anything, the over usage of a keyword can hurt your rankings. The usage of semantics can be used to determine if a site is using natural language. An over optimized keyword stuffed page does not use natural language and may hurt your rankings.

Use Long Tails

Instead of trying to use your primary keyword over and over, use long tails. Research your keyword before you write your article to determine long tail keywords. Select two or three long tails that have your main keyword as their parent keyword. Use them in your content to support your main keyword and do it without keyword spamming. Not only does this create natural content, but this increases the number of terms you can rank for. You can now work your primary keyword as well as the long tails.

Related Terms

In addition to long tails, use related keywords. If you’re writing about SEO, talk about internet marketing. If you talk about McDonalds, talk about hamburgers. If you talk about hamburgers, discuss hot dogs. If Apple, discuss Mac and Ipod. These related terms will support your main keyword because Google understands the relationship. In addition, it will increase the number of keywords you can rank for.

Role of Semantics when Link Building

The classic advice of varying your anchor text. If you get too many links with the same anchor text, Google will consider it a Google bomb. Varying anchor text is important for two reasons. First, it looks natural. Having the same anchor text is a sign of self generated links. Second, semantics comes into play. You can use related anchor text to support your primary target keyword.

A post about BANS (Build a Niche Store) could use any of the follow keyword(s) as anchor text and still support the primary keyword.

• BANS
• BANS site
• BANS ebay
• Build A Niche Store
• Make Money on eBay
• Make Money Online
• eBay Niche Store
• Build an Online Store
• eBay Affiliate

Google understands that all of these keywords are related.

Dominating Multiple Long Tails Keywords

By using this approach instead of keyword stuffing one keyword phrase, you’re able to dominate multiple keyword listings for long tails. You can rank for many long tails by simply mentioning the keyword. Instead of repeating one keyword phase over and over, use semantically related keywords. This will reinforce your main keyword while also increasing the number of long tails you can rank for. As your page gains authority for the main keyword, your authority for the semantically related keywords will also increase. And the opposite is also true, as you gain authority for the semantically related keywords, your authority for the main keyword increases.

Conclusion

Understanding that Google uses semantics to evaluate content can help you improve your on site SEO. Simple measures like keyword density are out dated and should not be used to determine how targeted a page is. So when developing content, consider developing a list of long tails and related keywords that you can sprinkle through your content to help support your targeted keyword.

3 SEO Services That Make a Difference

Web-based business owners understand the importance of visibility. If a potential customer can’t find your store, how is he going to purchase your product or service? And since many people are using the internet, even for local searches, the importance of online visibility has never been greater. The way to guarantee that visibility is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO encompasses all of the tasks that a web-based business owner completes in order to ensure that his business appears at the top of the search engine results page when a potential customer conducts an internet search using words that are relevant to the business owner’s products or services.

There are two ways to go about these tasks. The first is for the web-based business owner to complete them himself. This can be very time-consuming, and SEO can be a steep learning curve. The second option is for the web-based business owner to hire an SEO professional for search engine optimization services. This is the optimal choice for business owners who don’t have the necessary skills to complete SEO tasks, or don’t have time to learn them. In this case, the services of an SEO professional can be invaluable. If you’re busy with the details of setting up your own business, you probably don’t have time to learn everything there is to know about search engine optimization. Here are 3 SEO services that will make a difference in the success of your online business:

1. Keywords. Keywords are one of the primary focuses of search engine optimization. SEO professional know how to determine which keywords potential customers use to search the web for products and services similar to yours, and they can write relevant, compelling website copy that makes the most of those keywords. While it may seem simple to choose appropriate keywords, SEO professionals can use keywords in combinations and variations that make them very effective.

2. Website Creation. There’s no sense in driving traffic to your website if doesn’t look professional and if it doesn’t make it easy for potential customers to find what they’re looking for. SEO services include website design, an easy-to-navigate layout, and features and tools that make it easier for customers to find out more about what they’re interested in and then buy it.

3. Search Engine Results. Top placement on the search engine results page is the result of many different SEO tasks done in concert with one another. Not only do you need on-site optimization, but you also need backlinks from quality websites and relevant copy in which to use your keywords. SEO professionals know exactly how to use all possible tools to ensure that your website receives a high placement on the search engine results page.

In addition to these three SEO services, SEO professionals also know which SEO tactics to avoid. Using sketchy tactics to increase your search engine ranking can get your site penalized by, or even banned from, the search engines. While some individuals use these ‘black hat’ tactics purposefully, other inexperienced business owners may use them without even knowing that they are viewed as questionable by the search engines.

Hiring an SEO professional can therefore help you avoid two major issues. The first is using questionable SEO techniques, and the second is wasting time trying to master the ins and outs of SEO yourself. Your competitors are optimizing their websites. If you aren’t doing the same, right now, then you’re losing customers because they’re finding your competitors on the search engines instead of finding you. It can take up to several months before you see the results of your SEO endeavors, so the sooner you start, the sooner you will reap the benefits.

So don’t waste anymore time. Hire an SEO professional and see what a difference it makes for your business.

Internet Marketing Role of Time Management

“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money but you cannot get more time.”.
Earning an income on the internet is a process that in broad terms involves three stages:

1. Getting your product (acquisition)

2. Developing your product presentation

3. Promoting the product

• In this article, “product” means any tangible product, digital products (ebooks and software) and services such as membership sites, web design and development, hosting, “print on demand” for ebooks, fulfillment for orders and so on.

• By necessity you will spend time in each of these stages. Each stage will involve a learning phase and an action phase. It’s important to identify clearly what stage of development you are currently working on and to focus on completing that stage.
• Getting your product (acquisition).

• Choose between your own product and an affiliate product.

• Key Point: Once you have your product you can stop spending time looking at other product possibilities for the time being.

• 2. Developing your product presentation.

• Once you have chosen your product you will need to develop a presentation.

• This will include your website primarily and can also include auto responder sequences and a newsletter.

• .3. Promoting the product.

.”We have to become better at promoting what we do than doing what we do.”

• This is where it is also important to be clear about what stage you are in. Remember, time is limited, so if you have already chosen your product and developed your presentation it is not productive to keep looking for products or spending a great deal of time “tweaking” your presentation.Time can always be spent tweaking sales copy, images, layout, web presentation, upgrading or trying new software, investigating new product opportunities (before the current one is complete), improving design skills, keeping up with the changing web “standards”… The list can seem endless.Key Point: Time is better spent developing a clear promotional strategy and putting it into action. Only when you are seeing results from your promotional activities should you consider altering your presentation (such as modifying headlines and sales copy) to assess how that affects conversion of prospects to customers.

• Here are a few tips to keep you on track:

• Name your project

You may name your project as a final name of the product or you may just give it a code name that means something to you.

• Understand what part of the three step process you are in: Acquisition, presentation or promotion.

• Here is a simple question to ask yourself to check if you are on track with your time budget, “What is this activity designed to do?” or perhaps, “What is the outcome of this activity?”

This will help you to identify if you are spending time in the wrong area at the wrong time.

• . Set up check lists to make sure everything is covered. Focus on completion.

• Promotion: Clearly define your action steps.

• . Track the results or your promotional campaign in terms of traffic, click through rates, subscribers and purchasers. Include costs of conducting your campaign and compare that to your sales to determine your return on investment. It is only by tracking the results of the promotion that you will know how to effectively change the presentation for further testing.A spreadsheet is an invaluable tool as a template for specifying your promotional campaign and also for tracking results, costs and return on investment. Adding in columns for each day of the week allows you to allocate your time so that all your promotions are covered in a time effective manner. This becomes your business gauge by which you assess the effectiveness of your promotional campaign.

source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Internet-Marketing-Role-of-Time-Management/298597