industry updates

• RT @sengineland Report: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase In 2010 http://selnd.com/a7aVSV #

• Getting ready to launch the new Automatic Swing Trainer site…stay tuned! #

• SERP personalization study shows no upheavals, with minor differences only…but study is early http://bit.ly/7nnk4w #

• SEOmoz | 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010: http://bit.ly/6R3mHC via @addthis I especially like #3 on personalization #

• RT @seoforall Google Launches Living Stories: Google calls Living Stories “an experiment in presenting news…http://bit.ly/81piFV #
• RT @SEMSynergy Ask.com Develops New Q&A Search Technology, Aims to Index the Human Source http://cli.gs/0ZANU #
• @jeffreycjackson background looks good bro! in reply to jeffreycjackson #
• RT Friendster sold http://bit.ly/7kN3b5 #

As high speed internet continues to penetrate other countries, many U.S. companies are now focusing their efforts on this world wide market. Google’s India site is now the twelfth most popular site in the world, and Baidu.com, a search engine in China, is even better at number nine. Companies can see huge sale increases from people buying their products from all over the world. Problems are created, for internet marketers, like TK, as people from various countries search quite differently.

Andy Atkins-Krüger explains some of these differences and there importance to SEO experts, in a Sept. 23, 2009 article, “Do Accents Really Matter in International SEO?” . He points out that in German and French searches many words require “diatrics”, the little accent marks above or below some words. International search engines treat these words differently. Some ignore them all together, but most have to take them into account as many will actually change the meaning of the query. Also, many searchers will not use the required diatrics in their search words, creating some often missed opportunities for marketers. Many marketers will make the mistake of ignoring the diatric, or ignoring the word without the diatric, hence, missing out on placing their website in front of potential clients.

The author is now hiring employees from diverse backgrounds, or educating current employees on international search trends, so these opportunities are not missed. TK sees the same trend of international search engine marketing increasing over time, and will now consider the cultural background and linguistic ability of the next person we hire. Many of our current clients are already starting to request more international search engine optimization, and these are rather small companies. They see the potential of worldwide customers, and as a business owner, increasing my knowledge of the online searching trends will become increasingly important.

Some of our clients recently have asked us to explain Cloud Computing as a concept. I found this decent video from Ken Colbourn, who gives the basics and some examples. He also explains some pros and cons.

Giving up some privacy, and placing your data in the hands of some company that you may or may not know much about. Also, if you don’t have access to the internet, then you don’t have access to your info. The pros include the fact that anywhere you DO have the internet- you’ve got your data. Also, you don’t need to spend lots of money maintaining the hardware. Companies (e.g. Google) is doing this for you, and most the time they offer many of these services free (google docs) or for really low cost.

If the term ‘cloud computing’ is new to you, enjoy the video, above, and enjoy the benefits of the cloud.

• Adobe buying Omniture, wow! http://bit.ly/2oGrC #
• TWiG has great discussion about Chris Anderson's FREE: http://twit.tv/twig7 #
• Facebook cashflow positive! Whoa! http://bit.ly/3Ti59s #

A few days ago we posted about Bing going visual with their visual search, well Google is getting into the game as well. CNN posts a nice video that gives you a sample.

I like the direction this leads. The more visual search becomes, even more people will use it. Search engine marketing will just continue to grow in importance and complexity…but with it, will be a more enjoyable, effective experience for the end user.

Matt Cutts from Google explains how they treat pipes (|) and dashes(-) and there use in meta titles.

Essentially, he says it makes no difference to their engine, which you use in your meta title. For example if your title looks like this (on SEOmoz):

SEO Blog | SEOmoz Blog Featuring Search Engine Marketing & Tips

OR…

SEO Blog- SEOmoz Blog Featuring Search Engine Marketing & Tips

Makes no difference to Google. However, one may want to consider the aesthetics and watch the click-through-rate. We like using the pipe |, just because we think it looks really professional. It’s nice to hear directly from Google that they handle each really well.