Las Vegas SEO Blog from Clicks-Online.com

Google continues to introduce new modules. In mid-November, 2010, Google announced the release of “Hotpot”, a (yet another) recommendation engine for local businesses based on your own recommendations as well as that of your friends’ ratings. Hotpot is connected with Google’s Places, targeting local business owners to claim their business listings, verify information and engage with customers.

Google Hotpot can be a powerful consumer tool as it is part of a 50 million business listings database. You can sign in and then are prompted to search for a general theme and establish your location. The default search is “restaurants”. For the most accurate results, enter your city or town for better geo-targeting.

Similar to Yelp.com, Citysearch.com, and other rating sites, users can proactively rate the businesses they’ve patronized. Ratings are on a 5 star system — 5 stars being excellent and 1 star being terrible. As a user rates places, Google’s Hotpot determines other places the person may be interested in visiting.

Google has also created a Hotpot rating application so that users can quickly and easily rate and find friends while on their phones. The company also upgraded Google Maps on Android to allow users to input and view ratings on the go.

10 Reasons Why You Need SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO can be defined as the use of optimization strategies to improve search engine rankings for your website, web pages and video so that they show in the organic search results for a match to particular keyword phrase search queries.

1. 85% of people who click on a search result click on the organic search result. The only way to rank in the organic results is through continuous SEO efforts.
2. 100% of searchers click the first organic search result. Less than 50% click the first paid (Sponsored Ads) result. That’s from Google’s Vanessa Fox’s excellent book, Marketing in the Age of Google.
3. SEO has a cascading effect. Most of the work you do for organic SEO – content creation, site performance
improvements and link building via outreach – also improves conversion, grows your overall brand and strengthens other marketing efforts.
4. It scales well. If you spent $5000 on organic search and then get 1,000 clicks from an organic listing, it cost you $5/click. As your rankings improve, though, and you get, say, 10,000 clicks, your cost doesn’t increase. Now your cost is $.50/click. And so on.
5. You’ll learn critical stuff about your customers. Improved search visibility will mean more unpaid search traffic. That will tell you more about the words, phrases and questions on customers’ minds when they look for your product or service.
6. Search puts you in front of the customer when they need you. Unlike traditional advertising, banners and such, search-driven marketing appears in front of the customer right when they need your services. You know that, because they’re searching for you. Hopefully you know why that’s good.
7. SEO is a fantastic deal. Even the most expensive SEO campaign costs a fraction of offline marketing. A typical print ad in a national magazine will cost you $40,000, minimum. A banner campaign on a major site? $10,000/month. Television? Don’t even ask. Even plain old face-to-face selling may cost more by the time you’re done missing work, buying meals, traveling around and wearing holes in your nice shoes. Try this: Take 5% of your offline marketing budget and invest it in a smart SEO person. See what it gets you.
8. Paid search costs increase over time. There are very few topics for which pay-per-click (PPC) marketing has become cheaper. “Bid inflation” means that most companies have seen a rapid rise in their PPC expenses. SEO only gets more expensive if your consultant increases their price, or your in-house team asks for raises.
9. SEO is a lasting asset. Assuming you stick to SEO techniques with long-term viability, your search engine optimization work will help you for months or years. Every improvement you make, every page you add to your site, every link you earn will stick around, boosting later efforts. Think of SEO as a marketing savings account:
Your work will generate compound interest.
10. SEO is a small business’ best chance to beat out incumbents. SEO requires a degree of agility that most companies often can’t manage. They may not have the knowledge, experience, or the time.

Who knew? Not me….until today (November 2 – Election Day) when I received an “official” email from Google announcing the update on a class action lawsuit concerning Google Buzz users. (If you have a Gmail account, you are included in the lawsuit).

I was wondering, although sort of in the background, how Google and other social networking widgets, websites and such could so easily want to potentially invade my privacy.

I mean, here we are, inside our Gmail account, and having the opportunity to “Buzz” with other Gmail users. Come on, isn’t having an email enough? Oh wait, no….we have to be as close to “real-time” as possible. Why not just pick up the phone and call? Oh wait, Google email does that, too. You can call someone using the keypad within the Google chat….or something like that….I’m confused at most of it. Wasn’t the internet supposed to make communication easier?

Skype. MagicJack. Face to Face on iPhone…..George Jetson, are you out there?

And why is it when I try to use these forms of communication, nobody answers? I don’t want my privacy compromised, but didn’t we think about that years ago?

Cancel my accounts….I’m leaving the internet…..getting rid of my cell phone….leaving the planet…..

Just kidding. But this privacy thing is just scarey to most people….I wonder how many want to get off the “merry-go-round” we call the internet.
Here’s the email sent from Google, if you didn’t see it already:

Subject: Important Information about Google Buzz Class Action Settlement
Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz

(http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about
privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

——————————————————————–
This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern

District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043

Clicks-Online went right to work after this mornings Facebooks Live Webcast on “Facebook for business” which explained how and why to have a business “Page” on the popular social media network.
Just as we have done at www.clicks-online.com, your business can benefit from increased traffic from people liking your Facebook page, or even recommend your website by clicking on the “Like” button.

A Like button can be gnereated from the Developer page at Facebook. Altough the Like button was easy to embed onto our website, it take some poking around to find the actual link for the “Clicks Online SEO Las Vegas” page I had created this morning. What you need to understand is you must have a regular name and profile linked to your “Page”. The whole process was confusing at first, because it appears that Create a Page is not a seperate account.

If someone is logged into Facebook and does a search for your Page, they can then click the Like button to “share” your postings with their friends.

A post at MSNBC’s Technolog suggests Facebook will reveal “something” on Wednesday…..

Is it the Facebook Phone? Does it have something to do with the new “Social Network” movie? Or maybe it’s going to be “Facebook TV”…..or the Facebook Car of the Future?

What’s your take?

I recently purchased the Samsung Captivate (ATT) which is on the Android OS. My wife has had an iPhone for a few years, and recently upgraded to the “i-4″. I liked the idea of the front-side camera, and felt the phone had more popularity than the Android, so I returned the Captivate and got the iPhone-4.

However, on the 29th day of the “bring it back within 30 dyas” policy, I went to Apple and returned the iPhone. Why? Well, after I saw a commercial and speaking with some colleagues, promoting Android has more available free apps, I decided to go back and get the Samsung Captivate.

Personally, both phones are good, but I am really begining to like my “Google Phone”. I love playing with it….with the voice activated and text-to-speech apps and such.

Howver, being that it’s Google based, you would think the Google Talk (Chat) would work properly. It doesn’t. When I go to my computer and to my gmail accounts, I can chat with others there, but when you go to the mobile, it just shows my account…no friends, no communications…..it just doesn’t work.

And the forums are filled with like-complaints, not only on the Samsung Captivate, but other Androids as well. Google, What’s up with that? Didn’t you guys invent this stuff?

The free app I installed for use with AIM and other chat services seems to work ok…..

Are you having the same issues with Android and Google Chat? We would love to hear your comments.

And now Google TV? (www.googletv.com). This looks promising. Everything on your TV…..web, tv, media…..I guess the “Apple” doesn’t fall from the tree.

What’s next, Google Internet Radio? The “Google Powered” Car? Or will Apple beat Google to the punch?

And where does this all fall into play with search?

Revel Spa, a valued Clicks-Online client, has officially opened its doors to the public in San Francisco. Clicks Online prepared the Revel Spa press release, which was published today (Friday, July 16, 2010).

So, if you’re in the San Francisco area, check them out!