Usability Consultancy, Website Reviews, Website Optimisation

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google are most likely the first few websites you think of when you think about Internet Marketing, social branding etc., but have you explored Flickr yet?

Don’t Forget About Flickr as a Social Platform

As many people, I paid a lot of attention to the rise of Bing (www.bing.com) last week and enjoyed using it a few times. I'm not ditching Google in favour of Bing, although I have set Bing as my home page in IE (I use Firefox most of the time).

What makes writing this article more interesting to me is that last week I was questioning a lot of data that a client had been sent - that suggested his site got no traffic and this other one got this much - blah blah blah. Obviously that was a sales pitch. We checked out the data and, sure enough, the 'authority' statistics sites got it totally wrong. We know the site gets traffic because they get sales and they get enquiries, but some people love to use and present inaccurate data...

Which brings be nicely to the rise and fall of Bing in just a few days.

Interesting Data from Two "Authorities"
It makes the question "who should we believe" even more relevant when 2 of the most 'repsected' statistics sources fail to agree on basic stuff like which Search Engine is the most popular. Surely, that's a question that's answered with statistics and rears it's ugly head in thousands of 'willy waving' arguments around the world every day. But which statistics should you and I believe?

Bing was 2nd Most Popular SE for One Day
Says StatCounter. They claim that Bing peaked in second place for just one day (on June 4th 2009) and then promptly slipped back to 3rd place behind Yahoo. In their 'worldwide' stats, Bing barely even sneaked past Yahoo at all - apparently.

Bing Outranks Yahoo Since Launch Date
But, according to HitWise, Bing soured above Yahoo on it's first day, peaked during June 1st to 4th and then drifted down in the rankings but stayed above Yahoo. Not  a lot, but above the nearest competitor nonetheless.

Now Here's The "But"
Anyone who has read my material over the years or has been to my workshops etc., will know that I'm not a fan of what I call 'willy waving' - the mega hyped up claims made by one website over another or statistics that are gently 'tweaked' to make one product look better than another. The bottom line, as always, is do people find it useful.

People are staying on Bing longer than they stay on many of their competing sites (in my opinion there is good reason to do so because of it's unique approach to 'search results'). This means that people are not just rushing over to Bing for a minute just to see what all the fuss is about, they're going there, trying it out, and realising it's actually a pretty cool product and they obviously enjoy using it.

Bing Is Yet To Get Into Top Gear
I anticipate a massive marketing campaign by Microsoft. I've read that they are throwing millions of dollars into advertising the new baby and will peak again once that advertising kicks in. Once it hits the mainstream Internet population, then we'll see how many people decide to set Bing as their preferred SE because that, I feel, is the true statistic that counts. I'm 50% converted but I see that Bing and Google each have slightly different purposes and each have their own unique characteristics that make searching a bit easier.

What I Love About Bing and Where Google Fails
For a long time I have frowned at the way people can beat Google. I hate the trend because I believe relevant search results is what gets people to keep coming back. And we've all seen search results that 'look' relevant, only to click a link and find it was a relevant title but the content is not so relevant. With Google, you don't know this until you click the link.

With Bing, you get a sneak preview of the text from the website before you click the link. I know it takes a second or so to appear but so useful. You get to see immediately if the content relates to the title and snippet, and decide if you want to actually click. That, to me, along with a few other really nice features, makes Bing my second choice SE and one that I will keep exploring.

As For The Data
Well, if the two big names in statistics can't agree. And I don't care about the reasons used like, one gets updated hourly and one reads data from only 2 million users (probably through toolbars and plugins) so their data will be different. So what's the point? We all know that Google is the Daddy with roughly 3/4 of the search traffic, and Yahoo is way down at anywhere from 3% to 10% depending on which data you look at, but what matters most is what we enjoy using and find most useful.

Try Bing, Try Google, Try Yahoo - You Decide
If you do the same search on the 3 SEs you will most likely get 3 different sets of results. But what matters is how these results relate to your search and how comfortable you feel with the way it is presented. Some may prefer the simplistic look of Google (which Bing has kind of 'adopted') and others may go for the 'everything in one place' approach of Yahoo.

Personally, I think there is room for a challenger to Google and hope Bing gets a bit more of a media push than just the Google hackers saying things like "here comes another Microsoft product".

Have you already got wind about the transfer of power in the big three search engines?

If not, here's today's "buzz" that's happening around the Web you absolutely must know about: the two search giants Google and Yahoo! Today found firm competition: Bing.com.

Barely a couple of days ago Microsoft superseded its MSN and Live search engines with this newfangled version. All searches from MSN and Live are now managed by Bing, and - like it or not, Bing's results are not exactly the equivalent to the old Microsoft's search engine.

Exactly what does this mean to you? Simple: if you targeted MSN (and Live Search) in your SEO efforts, now you need to optimise your web site for Bing. And even if you brushed off MSN prior to Bing, you'd better catch up. Looks like it's gonna bring a good portion of hits to our sites.

I'm looking at this as a big opportunity - this is genuinely your chance to get to the top of page one in this hot search engine ahead of your competitors.

Do you know what important elements to look for when selecting a website service for you business?

Avoid the Common Pitfalls When Choosing a Website Service

Your web presence has the power to attract a greater number of customers to look at your service but it is undoubtedly a two edged sword that also has the ability to damage your business if you have a poorly setup website.

We all know how important it is to have a website if you run a business these days. The home computer revolution of the past 10 years has seen most homes use the internet to source their services locally. Many people assume as long as you have comprehensive content on your site then yo have the makings of a quality website.

Looking for website marketing services? Read this great article and prepare yourself, before you fall for hype and BS.

Website Marketing Services? 3 Myths Exposed

By Ethan Allen

When you finally launch your website, if you don't have a marketing plan in place for bringing your site real targeted visitors, you are basically flying by the seat of your pants. Just hoping that people who are interested in the information, products or services offered on your site will somehow find it will get you absolutely nowhere. People are often so desperate for visitors though, that they'll often jump on any website marketing service that sounds good. Unfortunately, some of the best sounding marketing offers are often the worst for your website. Here are three to watch out for.

Website Marketing Myth 1: Cheap Targeted Hits Services Will Help Your Site

Even to this day, you will find advertisers going after new webmasters by selling packages of thousands or even tens of thousands of "targeted hits" and even "targeted visitors" for low prices. Avoid these like the plague. While the companies selling these packages often do send a lot of so-called traffic to your site, they often use techniques that suck up your bandwidth but don't actually bring any interested people to your site.

Of course, truly targeted visitors will be the lifeblood of your website. Getting them requires research and marketing that involves search engine optimization and proper link building. Any offer that sounds like a quick fix is likely too good to be true.

Website Marketing Myth 2: Thousands Of Instant Incoming Links Is Good For Your Site

Speaking of link building, you also need to watch out for marketing ads that offer to place incoming links to your site on thousands of other websites in a short period of time. While link building when done correctly can still improve your site's search engine rankings and traffic, these fast and cheap link building services can do just the opposite.

This is because they often place your link on thousands of pages of unrelated and often spammy websites. When the search engines see all these links pointing to your site on pages that have nothing to do with your site's topic, it sets off a red flag. The search engines know you are trying to cheat your way to higher rankings. Because of this, using these services will almost never help increase traffic to your site. In worst case scenarios, using these types of services can even get your site permanently banned from the search engines.

Website Marketing Myth 3: A Number One Ranking Equals Traffic To Your Site

If you search for website marketing services you will be overwhelmed by offers from self-proclaimed search engine optimization specialists who guarantee to get your site "Number 1" rankings in the search engines. While this sounds good, the fact is it is very easy to get top rankings for many phrases - especially phrases that no one is searching for. A top ranking for an unsearched phrase is nothing but a waste of your time and website marketing budget.

Make sure that any search engine optimization service you use provides you with data that estimates how many people search for the phrases you are going to optimize your site for. Remember, it is almost impossible to get high rankings for heavily searched keyword phrases and you should be suspicious of any service that claims they can do this.

Now that you know what website marketing services to avoid, you need to create and implement a plan using internet marketing strategies that actually work. You can find out how just by visiting http://www.InternetMillionaireCode.com right now.