after we reported a hike in google market share for 2011, new data is coming out showing that google market share dropped in july and yahoo went up 4%. below is the latest chart



In  a step back from google last stand with IYPs and showing their reviews on google local, Google retreated from their last postion and stopped using reviews from 3rd party IYPs. Many thinks that this step has a lot to do with the anti trust law suit against Google. IF you remember a while back when yelp asked google to stop showing their reviews, Google told them it is our way or the highway. This is really good news for all IYPS. They now at least know that Google will no longer try to get them out of business.



This is the latest Search engine market share for 2011. As you see, google with 29 bbbbbblion $$$ in revenue is taking the search engine by storm, moving from 65% last year to over 80% this year.

Utilizing XML sitemaps and sitemap indices is an advanced tactic that we recommend to all of our clients at Distilled. In fact, Rob wrote an exceptional how to post on this topic earlier this year, looking atdiagnosing indexation issues using sitemap structure. We knew it was a good way to track indexation better than using site: but would you believe me if I said it can increase traffic to your site as well?

It can. And we have proof from a client that is willing to share their story. Thanks a bunch to Razoo, a site that helps others raise money for charity, for letting me use them for this post.

Added Clarification: Adding a multiple sitemap structure does not guarantee better indexation or more traffic, but it CAN have that affect. Razoo did have sitemaps implemented before, but they were not updated and did not reflect the site’s content. The results shown at the end of this post are after they implemented new sitemaps.

This tactic is not just for large sites, it can be used by sites of any size because we are always growing right? Right. And it is a tactic that should be employed from the beginning if possible, the earlier the better. The more data you have on indexation the better. But more than just data, the earlier you give the search engines a clear path to your content the better. So let’s start from the beginning and go over sitemaps and sitemap indices.

From One to Many

There are standard single XML sitemaps: one file of XML code explaining to the search engines what pages are important. This is a set of instructions to the search engines, and are more guidelines rather than rules. Here is an example from the sitemaps.org site of standard protocol.

From sitemaps.org

Whether you are starting fresh or taking one 50,000 URL sitemap to many, it may seem daunting. That code seems daunting even. Did you know that a sitemap can consist of a text file with just URLs? That can be it. And that can be submitted as a sitemap. #justsayin Complexity is not the issue here, this is all about organization.

The best way to break that out to many sitemaps is a matter of how your site is structured. Do you have a blog based system with categories and content in each category? Do you have sets of products? Or many locations for your business?

• Simple: Groups of 100 pages per sitemap (or 1000, or 10000, but try to keep it smaller)
• Better: Static Pages (homepage, about, etc.), Products, Blog
• Best: Static, Categories, Subcategories, Locations, Blog by Date, etc.

The key will be to structure your sitemaps by how deep your pages go and by section. For instance, if I were to take a site about Unique Doll Clothing and design a sitemap structure from that site I would do:

• *Main Sitemap
  • Static Pages
    • Home
    • About
    • Shipping
    • Gift Certificates
  • *Doll Footwear
    • Doll Shoes
      • Category Page
      • Backless Canvas Mules
      • Balloon Shoes
      • Etc.
    • Doll Boots
  • Doll Dresses
  • Doll Pajamas
  • *etc.

Sitemap Indices

In the example above, the asterisk next to the name is indicating that the sitemap file is an index, not a sitemap as mentioned above. Sitemap indices are sitemaps to point to other sitemaps. This what makes your life easier and more structured. If you loaded each section of your site as a separate sitemap, that’s fine, but rather annoying to page through on webmaster tools. If you were to use indices, you could drill down and see more detail in specific areas. Let me show you.

Level 1: Main Sitemap Look in Webmaster Tools

Level 2: Notice the “Format” in the upper left.

The second screenshot shows that Google knows that we are looking at a sitemap index, not a sitemap file. If this company went further, they’d be able to see even more detail. The more you parse the data, the more you know about what isn’t being indexed. Rob described this as a tree-structure. Note: you can’t put page listings in a sitemap index, they are just carriers of sitemaps. You can get all the gorey details of how to write a sitemap index on the sitemap.org site, so I won’t bore you with that.

Just wanted you to see why they are helpful. Sitemap indices help:

1. Indicate where indexation issues are.
2. Allow an overview look (the numbers for sitemap.xml) all the way down to specific areas. Great for reports!
3. Show the search engines what your site structure is supposed to be.
4. Identify possible duplicate content. (Have a section for doll shoes and doll boots? Those might cause duplicate content if they share products and their URLs are different)

Please note that an intricate structure is not necessary to get the results Razoo saw. This is just better for you and the things I mentioned above. There has been some confusion on this so I wanted to clarify.

Remember that case study I talked about with increased traffic? You wanted to see that right? Time is now, because they are the ones that used it to help with indexation and structure. They just happened to have the best metrics ever from implementing this. Have better metrics? I’d love to hear how this has worked for you!

Case Study: Razoo

Razoo is not my client, it’s someone else’s client although I was involved in the design and development of the site a while back and they recently saw an awesome spike in traffic. We checked it to be sure nothing else could be the cause and for sure, it was the use of XML sitemaps. See the chart below (smiley courtesy of Mike). The arrow is where the sitemaps were implemented.

I checked the stats again tonight, and sure enough, for over two weeks now, it’s still going up.

We looked into it and sure enough, the number of pages sending traffic shot up, more than doubled (486 to 1240). The same with keywords sending organic search traffic, more than doubled (548 to 1347). Nothing could be attributed to a fluke keyword or page, just everything went up. This is the power of good indexation and giving the search engines some help.

So take some time to think through your site and it’s structure. Talk to your IT team and see if they can break up the XML sitemaps into a tree structure. It’ll help you diagnose issues down the road (indexation and duplication) and may even bring an influx of traffic as the search engines find content they might not have found before. The power of backroads. *big smile*

What matters to most potential customers is not what you say about your business, but what your existing customers have to say.

Tweets Make Good Testimonials says webstigma.com.  Here is a simple strategy to help you convince prospects to become customers. And it’s done by embedding Twitter testimonials on your website.

When potential customers check out your business online, they want to see proof that you deliver what you promise. It’s important that you provide evidence that you have happy customers.

Testimonials are powerful because they come straight from your customers in their own words.  You can easily tap into tweets from people who say great things about your business.

Tweets make great testimonials for several reasons:

• They’re short, so they get to the point quickly.
• People write them in a moment of enthusiasm, so they’re filled with praise and excitement.
• They’re written for public review, so you don’t need to ask permission to use a tweet as a testimonial.

What kinds of tweets make great customer testimonials? Those whose entire content is about your business, your product or your service.

Use Twitter Favorites to Display Testimonials

Twitter makes it easy for your business to capture and display tweets when you mark them as Favorites. To make this strategy work, you must use Favorites exclusively for testimonials.

To Favorite a tweet, hover your mouse over the tweet. Twitter displays a list of commands that are not visible until you hover on the tweet. Locate the Favorite (star) option and click it. Twitter adds this tweet to your list of Favorite tweets.

Twitter allows you to display your most recent Favorite tweets on your website or blog using a widget. Every time you mark a new Favorite tweet, Twitter adds it to your customer testimonials automatically.

How to Create Your Testimonials Twitter Widget

Before you start creating your Twitter Favorites widget, you need this information:

• The size of the spot for your Twitter widget on your site in pixels (height and width).
• Optional: The hex code (for example: #d34e01) for colors used on your site to customize the widget.

You may also need technical assistance to insert the HTML code into your blog or website.

To create and customize your widget:

#1: The Twitter Widgets page

Choose widgets for your website on the Twitter Widgets page.

Click My Website.

Make sure you have Favorited some tweets.

#2: Customize your widget heading

To customize your widget:

• Change the Title to What People Are Saying About (or something similar).
• Change the Caption to your business name (if necessary).

Click Test Settings to see your changes take effect (if necessary). On the right, Twitter displays your widget with your favorites and your settings.

#3: Customize your widget preferences

Click Preferences. Twitter displays the Customize Your Faves Widget Preferences page. This page allows you to customize how your widget works. Choose the options that you want for your widget.

• Poll for New Results keeps checking for new tweets marked as a Favorite.
• Include Scrollbar lets you add more tweets than fit into the widget display area.
• To make your list scroll through your tweets, choose Timed Interval and Loop Results.
• To remove the date, uncheck Show Timestamps. (Leave this checked if you want to display the customer testimonial dates.)

To see the effect of your options, click Test Settings. Experiment until the widget works the way you want it to work on your site.

#4: Customize your widget to your site and brand colors

Click Appearance. Twitter displays the Customize Your Faves Widget Appearance page.

This page allows you to change the colors used in your widget. Use the hex codes for your site colors to exactly match your Twitter widget to your site.

To change a widget color:

Click the color box next to the color you want to change. Twitter displays a color picker window.

Type the hex code for the desired color.

Click Test Settings to see your colors (if necessary).

#5: Customize your widget to fit the space on your site

Click Dimensions. Twitter displays the Customize Your Faves Widget Dimensions page.

Type the height and width of your finished widget in pixels.

#6: Finish your Twitter Faves Widget

When you have finished customizing your Twitter Faves Widget, click Finish & Grab Code.

Twitter displays the code in a text box in the middle of the page. Copy and paste this code into a text file for storage, or directly into your website.

Tip: When you leave this page, your customization settings are lost. Save this code permanently by storing it in a text file, Microsoft Word document or other location.

Your website uses this code to display your Twitter widget. You insert the code into your website at the location where you want the Twitter widget to appear. Common places for Twitter widgets include:

• The front page of your website. Put your customer testimonials where new visitors can easily find them.
• In your blog sidebar. If your website gets traffic landing directly on blog posts, consider adding your Twitter widget in the blog sidebar.
• In your website footer. You can adjust the height of the Twitter widget to fit your footer height.

When you install the code, the Twitter widget appears immediately and displays your current favorite tweets. As you mark new tweets as favorites, they appear in the widget, also.

Website speed is a competitive advantage. There’s plenty of experimental data proving that the slower your website loads and displays, the less people will use it.

Web page speed and performance is very important to the user experience. If your site is too slow, you’ll not only be losing visitors, but also potential customers. Search engines like Google factor a website’s speed into account in search rankings, so when optimizing your site’s speed, you should take everything into consideration. Every millisecond counts.

Per Google, Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction. Amazon found that even very small delays would result in substantial and costly drops in revenue.

The opposite is true: the faster your website is, the more people will use it explains san diego web development.

-Follow the Yahoo Guidelines. Religiously.

The golden reference standard for building a fast website remains Yahoo’s 13 Simple Rules for Speeding Up Your Web Site from 2007. Or use the tools that do this for you: Yahoo YSlow, Google Page Speed, Pingdom Tools

Using a Content Delivery Network. The user’s proximity to your web server has an impact on response times. Deploying your content across multiple, geographically dispersed servers will make your pages load faster from the user’s perspective.

-Optimize for Your Anonymous and Registered Users

Both classes are important, but have fundamentally different needs. Anonymous users are voracious consumers optimizing for rapid browsing, while our avid community members are the source of all the great content that drives the network. These guys (and gals) need each other, and they both deserve special treatment. We design and optimize for two classes of users: anonymous, and logged in.

-Make Performance a Point of (Public) Pride

Where else can we go for performance? Back to our code, of course. When it comes to website performance, there is no getting around one fundamental law of the universe: you can never serve a web page faster than it you can render it on the server.

Most of the performance fixes were trivial, and even the ones that were not, turned into fantastic opportunities to re-architect and make things simpler and faster for all of our users.

A lesson to be learned here about the competitive landscape of the public Internet, where there are two kinds of websites: the quick and the dead.

Social media is a great resource for learning more about your business. Social channels  repeatedly deliver relevant, usable information. From feedback, trends, marketing opportunities, the interconnectivity keeps on promising new ways to benefit and strengthen your business.

Putting that information to good use is a free opportunity offered by social media.

So what do you learn from social media?  Here are some ways san diego web development explains how social media helps keep you on top of your game.

- Current Business News

Social media keeps you abreast of all the latest news that pertains to your business or industry. Being connected to brands and experts in your field helps you learn what others are doing and allows you to immediately apply that learning to your business.

-Exposure to Great Content

Social media consistently exposes you to the terrific content. From blog posts to videos to podcasts, social media delivers a wealth of ways to find content that can help you become more educated about what matters most in your industry.

- Competitive Analysis

Staying ahead of your competition is vital to the success of any business. Using social media to educate yourself on what your competition is doing will help you keep your competitive advantage. You’ll instantly know any new information so you can quickly react, and you can identify areas of opportunity by filling in the gaps where competition doesn’t exist.

-Idea Generation

By having access to thought leaders and industry experts through social media, there’s plenty of opportunities for exposure to great ideas. Social media can show you what’s working well for other businesses and give you ideas on what you can do to improve your business.

- Identify Market Trends

Social media can be a great predictor of things to come. If there’s a lot of new conversation around a brand, product or service there’s good chance that it’s in the early stages of becoming more relevant. Knowing what is about to create buzz or be the next “big thing” can help you position your business to take advantage of that trend.

- Discover Improvements for your Product or Service

Customer feedback, industry chatter and competitive analysis can help you identify areas for improvement for your business. Incorporating the latest techniques, tools or technologies into your business approach can help you discover potential improvements for your product or service.

-Ways to Improve Customer Support

Watching how companies handle customer feedback, both positive and negative, can provide direction in how you handle your customer support both online and offline. By watching companies that provide great customer service and learning from those that mishandle their relationships, you can apply the most successful tactics or learn how to avoid potential pitfalls.

- Event Notifications

If you enjoy attending industry events in person, there’s no better place to hear about them than through social channels. Seeing which ones are generating the most buzz and seeing which events the people you respect most are attending will help you decide the events most worthy of your consideration.

With all the benefits that social media brings to the table, how often do you consider it a source of business education?  There are many other ways that  social media helped you learn and has impacted your business.

Pay with a tweet. Getting the twitter community  to talk about you.

Choosing a web design company is a critical decision. You’re not just putting a project in their hands, you’re entrusting your business to them. This questionnaire will help you assess the website design companies that you are considering.

How do they price their services?

You’re buying a professional service, where a team of experts should be putting in time to plan, design, develop and manage your project.

o   Which of their team members will be working on your project and what are their qualifications?

o   How much time will they be spending on your project?

o   Do they provide a flat project price that corresponds to a detailed agreement?

o   Does the cost of the project match up with the agreed upon deliverables and hourly rates?

o   Is there a clear procedure for billing for extra features or work otherwise out of scope?

• What is their track record?

A more important question than ‘how much is this going to cost?’ is ‘how reliable is your company?’ You should be confident that you can trust the team in producing the best results for your project and that they are able to show you a return on your investment.

o   What types of clients have they worked with?

o   What kind of results have they delivered for those clients?

o   Do they have hard figures to prove their results?

o   Do they retain their clients and have ongoing working relationships with them?

• How do they measure their results?

A website is a marketing tool that should be used to generate more business and increased brand loyalty. A professional company should address the bottom line: how did they increase the market value of their clients.

o   Do they measure results in terms of lower bounce rates, higher repeat traffic, conversions (i.e. sales, memberships, etc,) and Page One Google rankings for multiple keywords?

o   Are their results published and verified by their clients?

• What are their core services?

A company that has the capability to handle your entire project, from planning, to design, to development and marketing success is better qualified to do things right from the start.

o   Do they have the ability to provide comprehensive web design, development and marketing services to industry standards?

o   Have they done system integrations or customized web projects that require excellent problem solving skills or advanced coding capabilities?

o   Do they have experience developing mobile applications?

o   Do they have search engine optimization expertise and a proven track-record of achieving Page One Google results?

o   Do they have copywriting abilities to create both compelling copy for the website itself as well as quality content for the social web?

• What are their credentials or qualifications?

You want to be sure that the company you are entrusting your business to are respected professionals in their industry.

o   Are their key players recognized as industry leaders, speaking at events, or published in the media?

o   What is their Dun & Bradstreet rating? (D&B is a third party source monitoring client satisfaction.)

o   Are they are authorized to work for government agencies? Do they have other special credentials showing other expertise?

o   Have they developed any special applications or done groundbreaking projects.

• What does their operation look like?

Before getting into a relationship with a company, make sure you go visit their operation and see the people face to face who will be responsible for the success of your project.

o   Are they fully staffed with professionals or do they rely on freelancers or outsourcing for the heavy lifting?

o   Do you get the sense from talking to staff members that they are skilled, passionate and trustworthy? Simply put, do you get a good vibe?

o   Do they have the type of operation that you would entrust your business to?

• How do they ensure your project is executed properly?

From following coding standards to employing an in-house team of professionals, be sure any assurances you are given are put in writing.

o   Do their agreements stipulate that coding will be done according to industry standards, and that the work is customized for your needs?

o   Do you own the work produced, and have access to it, or is there a licensing fee?

o   Do they plan your website in accordance with your business goals?

• How big is the company and what is their structure?

If the team is too small, you may run the risk of delays, lack of available expertise, or even company closures. If the team is too large, you may run the risk of getting lost in a bureaucratic systems, and lack of personal service or care for your project. No matter what size company you decide to work with, it’s important that you feel comfortable throughout the process.

o   What is their methodology for website planning and execution? Is it right for you project?

o   Do they have a ‘Go To’ person that holds your hand and takes accountability for the success of your project?

o   Do you feel confident that the company has the stability to continue providing your business with the same level of website service, for edits, maintenance, and future phases of growth?

• How do they staff individual projects?

Building a successful website takes a skilled project manager, a professional team, and concrete objectives. A proper team consists of information architects to plan the site, web designers to design the user interface, web developers to code the site, quality assurance engineers to test it, and online marketing specialists to develop and implement an efficient online marketing strategy. This team should work under an experienced project manager to ensure a successful outcome.

o   How many team members will be working on your project?

o   Who takes accountability for your project?

o   How often will they send you updates and what is the communication process?

o   Are they pro-active in leading a project or do they count on you, the client, to direct them?

• Who owns the company? Is it financially stable?

You want to give your project and the future of your company’s image to a stable company that will be around well beyond your website’s beta launch. Compare apples to apples. Don’t compare a reputable company’s prices to a guy working out of a tiny office with a ‘team’ halfway around the world.

o   Who owns the company, and who are its key officers?

o   What motivation does the team have to put best efforts into your project?

o   What is their financial strength? How long can they survive without any new projects or if something goes wrong?

By M Elgamal