Google+ Reaches 20 Million Users

Over the weekend, I read a few articles about Google+ that really made me think. The first was an article claiming that Google Plus had already hit a user base of 20 million members. The other was an article talking about how Google plans on creating a similar celebrity atmosphere to Twitter's where celebrities will gain "Verified Account" status.

Let's tackle the idea that its a big deal that Google Plus already has 20 million members. Why is this so surprising or astonishing to people? The site probably has over a billion page views worldwide everyday and Google+ is the cool new thing for all the tech bloggers and Google lovers to check out. Just because they've reached 20 million members in 3 weeks isn't all the surprising, even if they're only in "invite only mode" right now.

The second article about Google possibly adding a verified account status to celebs who actually sign up for Google's new social network also isn't much of a surprise. Those of you who frequent my blog may remember a post I wrote back in March about how Google/YouTube were planning some time of celebrity option. Of course they'd love it if celebs joined their social network. This is exactly how Twitter became popular in the early days. I personally don't think celebs would be willing to jump on Google+. The reasons Twitter is so intriguing to celebs is the idea that they can gain thousands of followers by typing out 140 character messages whenever they want. It's quick, it's easy and it's another way for them to market themselves to a global audience.... right Kim Kardashain?

I think everyone needs to settle down on the Google+ reporting. Yes, I know it's the newest thing and yes I know everyone wants to see if anyone can topple Facebook, but Google+ is still in its infancy, lets talk about it more in a year or so.

My SEO Skills: Tony Rauti Luxury Homes

Just wanted to write a quick post today talking about the search engine optimization work I did for my client Tony Rauti Luxury Homes. One of the first things they wanted to talk about in our initial meeting was how they could get better results in Google. I explained to them the ways in which I would try to get them better rankings. The first thing I asked them was which search terms they'd like to rank for. Initially they said generic terms like "custom home builder" or "luxury homes". I explained to them that since they're a local home builder that most of the people searching for those type of terms would most likely attach a city to the end of them. We collectively decided to go for the terms "custom home builders windsor" and "luxury homes windsor". I did both on-site and off-site search engine optimization for them and after just 5 months here are the results when searching on Google.com.

"Luxury Homes Windsor" - Result #2

"Custom Home Builders Windsor" - Result #5

I'm the first to admit; the competition for these two keyterms isn't as great as some of the more generic terms however, considering the fact that the domain is only 6 months old and the site is only 5 months old. I'd say I did a pretty good job optimizing this website.

Top 5 Google Apps & Services For Web Designers

There are plenty of reasons for webmasters, web designers and just people in general to love Google. They offer some of the best "free" services around and most of them are very user friendly. As a web designer, I find myself constantly using Google's services and apps in my everyday life as well as my work life. Here are my top 5 Google services and apps for web designers in no particular order;

Google Analyics - There is no free website statistics services better than Google Analytics and they keep making it better. They've just released a new version in Beta that allows for better dashboards and even more advanced segments.

GMail - The reason other email services like Yahoo and Hotmail are getting better is because of GMail. GMail makes it easy to organize all your mail, they offer the most free space and it's probably the most user friendly email service around.

Google Places - I've already used an entire post to discuss why Google Places is one of the best Google services for small businesses. You can read that post here.

Google Docs - I recently starting using Google Docs when I teamed up with other Windsor web designers to work on specific projects. The files are stored online and can be updated by anyone, anywhere using the Cloud.

Google Webmaster Tools - This one is specifically used by webmasters and web designers. This tool helps you see what type of errors Google gets when it crawls your site. They've also recently updated it to show you how many times your site shows up for certain keywords.

These Google services and apps are great for web designers, webmasters and even everyday people and the best part is... they're all free!

Google Places A Big Help To Small Businesses

It's become very clear in the last couple of years that Google really wants to tailor their ads and search results to where you are in the world. One of the biggest signals of this is in their local search service called Google Places. If you have a Google account and you've added your location, chances are you've already seen these ads.

Anytime you see a little orange balloon type icon next to a result, it's Google Places. They even have an entire section devoted to Places. If you look in the left column, you'll find a link that says Places. This will give you all the place results in your area.

This is a big help to small businesses who have trouble optimizing their site for Google. After you submit your website to the Google Places, they send you a postcard in the mail with a code to insert to verify your Place. After that, you're good to go. Sometimes your result will show up in search results, which is a bonus, but it will always show up in a Places result.

The Google Places account I created for Tony Rauti Luxury Homes, showed up right away in the Places results. Eventually I optimized the site enough that I didn't really need the Places result, however it's always good for a small business to have.

Must Have's When Optimizing For Search Engines

The other day I was working on a web design for a client who had purchased my basic plan of search engine optimization as well. When they first approached me about designing their website, one of their concerns was being ranked highly for a specific local term when it was searched on Google. I explained to them the difference between my SEO packages and they agreed that the most they needed for now was on-site SEO.

There are several must have's when it comes to on-site search engine optimization. The first comes right at the top of your website. You have to have properly described <title></title> tags for each page on your website. When someone performs a search, this will be the title they see on Google. Another must have is the <meta description> tag. This should be a short paragraph consisting of no more than 150-160 characters. It should describe your website and/or your business. This is usually what Google pulls in search results under the title of your website. Check out the image below to see what I'm talking about.

Those two tags are absolute must have for every page of your site and each should be unique. They're both easy to add and will be a big help when it comes to search engine optimization.

Google Looks Into Celebrities For YouTube

Before I went to sleep last night, I came across an article about Google that I found pretty interesting. The article was written in the New York Times and spoke about how Google is moving from a search advertising company to a media advertising company. You can find the article here; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/business/media/21carr.html?_r=1&ref=technology.

The point I found most interesting was this; "There have also been reports that Google has set aside $100 million for incentives for well-known celebrities to program their own “channels” on YouTube to increase the amount of high-profile content on the platform."

I'm not sure why this hasn't been looked at more closely by people in the media business. I think this could be the key to YouTube gaining even more popularity (if that's even possible).

The reason Google has "set aside" 100 million for incentives for well-known celebrities is because Google understand what makes Twitter so successful. That's right, it's celebrities. Most of the people who sign up to Twitter sign up for two reasons; 1) to follow their favorite celebrities more closely or 2) promote their business, themselves or to do social marketing for another business.

No one signs up for Twitter to follow what their friends are saying or doing, that's what Facebook is for. No one signs up to get news either, Google, Yahoo, NYTimes and local online newspapers handle that. No my friends, the main reason Twitter ever took off was because of Ashton Kutcher and his celebrity friends.

What's my point? My point is, if Google/YouTube can somehow get celebrities posting home videos from their webcams, cell phones or HD recorders they'll strike gold. People will jump onto YouTube even more than they do now, and it's all because of the celebrities. Google will laugh all the way to the media advertising bank.

Google's Latest Algorithm Change

I'm beginning to really wonder what effect, if any, this latest Google algorithm change had on their search results. Since I'm a web designer who is into search engine optimization, I try to keep a close eye on what happens when major changes are made to the search algorithm.

I had read reports that cheap article sites like eHow.com had been hurt by the latest change, but then I did a search today for "hamburger patty recipes" and the first result was a lame article from eHow. The link was titled exactly what I had typed in. I was actually fairly surprised to see that it was still there, so I clicked the link to see if the information was useful. NOPE. Not at all. Just another article listing about nothing. You can clearly tell this site was optimized for the search engines and not end-users like myself.

I guess it may still be early to tell, but it seems to me that Google needs to continue to work on getting these content farms out of the top 10 of their results. As a website designer, it's always frustrating to see a clients site pushed down because of some crummy written search engine only optimized article.