Canadian Newspapers to also offer SEO???
Over the past long Victoria Day weekend, there’s a new development in SEO offering firms that just may affect us canucks too! The Gannett Media chain with over $6 billion in revenue, has apparently begun offering up pilot SEO services to SMBs in the Phoenix, AZ community! Read more about same here….
Gannett are the folks who own many major dailys in various US cities along with radio and tv stations too — not to mention their USAToday paper, they will attempt to provide SEO services to various advertisers and other small/medium enterprise businesses in an attempt to become a one stop marketing shop in that pilot community.
PAC-Man’s 30th Birthday on Google!
Yup, been playing it now for about a half-hour and I’m no better now than back in the 70′s, eh?
It’s a fully working Pac-Man game that you can run right from the google.ca 0r google.com (aint had the time to spend to look globally as I’m too into the game, eh!) and it’s true nostalgia!
Internet Retailer Survey Numbers are IN!
Okay, the report is in from a combined Internet Retailer Survey and the numbers are pretty impressive!
As we thought, the survey which encompasses chains, catalog firms, web-only merchants and manufacturing firms too, shows that overall, more than 50% of all attributable sales are results of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)!
WooHoo! Knew it! Kinda makes my day, eh…but let’s dig into those numbers a little shall we?
First, do look at the chart in it’s entirety…it asks quite a few SEM queries from all of the survey respondents and while I’ll only look at a few here, there are more than my meager items to note…you should — that is if you use SEM to market your own products to the web world, take a good read of the whole chart, eh!
DIY Canadian SEO-Chapter 4
I guess that most of us know how to read and no, this is my lead to the whole world of <H1> & SEO rankings, regardless of how dumb that sounds…after all, you’re reading this, eh?
What that means for us SEO practitioners, is that if you read, then you should surely understand both the usage and importance of using an <H1> tag, and simply put, it’s used as a header for a few following paragraphs and it explains what’s to follow as succinctly and as honestly as is possible.
Our SEO Tactics/Report Potpourri!
I need to lead with this one! Mike Blumenthal is a New York state based SEO who specializes in LOCAL search for his many clients on both a state and national basis, and he’s got a real jam-packed SEO Tactics report entiled “Where Social and Rank Meet…” that you can look over here…
With info therein on social rankings, rank relevance, where we all stand in the google scheme of things and much much more, means that anyone who ever thought about Social ranking needs to read this one!
Some of the latest stats on Google MAPS (ie LOCAL search) show that there are approximately 20% of all google traffic using same and that accounts for millions of searches a day….numbers that any SEO firm or a SME business owner needs to be aware of, eh! Make sure you look over his tables on “Who shares reviews with who!” to see just where the juice comes from and where it goes too!
ConsumerReports on:Social Media “State of the NET!”
Well, if you’re like me, you’ve often glanced at the glossy mag entitled “Consumer Reports” at the local supermarket checkout line…but if you’re like me you seldom every buy. I mean honestly, who needs to know the “Top 10 Refridgerator Models for 2010!” anyways….
I mean come on, eh? There’s only so much to research and once you determine how many Canadians you can stock in the “beer crisper,” how much more do you need to know, eh?
Ahh…but that’s not ALL that this well known, big-rep magazine offers to it’s readers, I’ve just learned!
Google Ain’t “NEW” in Canada!
The web is awash this morning with how Google has updated/changed/modified their UI (user interface) and while that is apparent in the US at google.com — us canucks up here in Canada using google.ca didn’t get any of that love!
As you can see from the top logo, the colorations have changed — Google has both brightened the hues of the various primary shades used as well as decreasing the 3D bevelled look and lightened the drop-shadow too.
But not for us canucks, eh!
Facebook Privacy Issues for Canadians!
Okay, you’re thinking that hey, Facebook is one of those “social” sites, right? So who’s worried about privacy when you “choose” to be social online, eh?
Sigh….there are some MAJOR concerns that are apparently coming more to the forefront for us canucks and here’s the Canadian skinny on same!
First, Facebook has like millions of Canadian members, it’s estimated that 7 out of 10 online Canadians are members. That’s a lot of us, for starters. Go to google.ca and try “facebook privacy issues in Canada”….and note that there are 135 million hits. Looks like this Facebook foray into publication of personal information has struck a chord for us Canadians, eh! I’d say so and this is somewhat of an interesting issue too…
Blackhat SEO Expose from SOPHOS!
Okay, I know that you may be thinking that Blackhat SEO is something practiced by a teensy tiny minority…but it’s the “how they do it” that is most troubling, and my hat’s off to SOPHOS for exposing this for us.
SOPHOS is the anti-virus, security company with more than 100 million users globally and yes, we use their products our own selves but did NOT receive anything for this article <note my disclaimer is now OFF>.
To Dot-CA or not to Dot-CA?
Many Canadian businesses are faced with a conundrum: do they set up their website on a .ca domain or on a .com domain. There are pros and cons for each, and some of those are related to SEO, to the rankings that the website can achieve in the search engines.
The first question a business should answer is whether a website is targeting just a Canadian audience or whether it is targeting a world audience (including Canada, but also the USA, Europe, Asia, etc.). This post will address only those businesses targeting primarily a Canadian audience.
I will say only that if your business is targeting a world audience, and you do choose to use a .ca domain, we have seen no evidence that it will hurt your rankings in New York or London. However, .ca does say “Canadian” and it is reasonable to expect change at any time – that Google and Bing might one day wake up and decide not serve up a .ca listing in results outside of Canada, or at least to reduce their rankings.
We're in the Globe!
We're in the current Canadian Dealer News Magazine!
