Google, in their never ending quest to make the internet search experience more relevant, not to mention faster, is rolling out Google Instant Previews.

Back Button Joins the Unemployment Ranks

Google Instant Previews provides a magnifying glass to the right of the top line of the search results…

Clicking on the magnifying glass turns the Instant Preview feature on and displays a snapshot of the page along with the search terms outlined on the snapshot page as well as displayed in a call out box. Clicking any ‘preview’ icon turns the feature on for all the listings on the page.

Search Term Used: Best Toaster Ovens

How Does Instant Preview Affect Small Business Search Results?

What do small business (or any size organization) need to understand about the impact of Google Instant Preview?

• Consider how your website appears in the scaled down window that Google Instant Preview provides. Searchers only give you 8 seconds to convince them they’re at the right place when clicking through to your site; how many seconds will they give you when scanning through Instant Previews?One impact I noticed immediately is that Google previews don’t appear to like Flash as shown here:

• Be prepared, I believe, to see your bounce rate drop and a corresponding decline in site traffic – your bounce rate is determined by the number of people who click away immediately after landing on your page. They’ve determined from their initial scan that your site won’t fit their search needs. An example would be a search for a “motivational speaker” that lands you on a “car stereo” site.This is not necessarily a bad thing but if the wrong terms are bringing the wrong traffic to your site, it can be a bit of a downer if you measure site success by overall traffic (never a good idea).
• Better clarity about how your site displays keyword terms and phrases versus your site and, with a little analysis, an opportunity for improvement.

What’s Wrong with this (Internet Explorer) Picture

Interestingly enough, the Google Instant Previews icon was available in my Chrome and Firefox browser but not Internet Explorer. I’m sure it will but an interesting omission for the time being…

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Corey Perlman on the Evolving Internet Marketer Podcast. Corey is the author of the Amazon best selling book, eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business.

This everyman’s guide to using the web to promote your products and services and generate revenues was written with the average business owner in mind; the guy/gal who knows they need to have or have a more effective online presence but, until now, has lacked the resources or knowledge to know what to do.

Corey’s provides an informative, educational and actionable guide to using the web to generate traffic and revenues. This interview demystifies the web for small business owners and gives them some great ideas for putting the web to work for them right now. (Links Mentioned on Today’s Podcast.)

Leave a Comment and You May Win an Autographed Copy of Corey’s Book

The first commenter as well as the best comment – decided by Corey and I – will each receive a personally autographed copy of eBoot Camp. This contest will end March 24, 2009.

Listen

Do you still wonder why (or if) you should be blogging? I’m going to give you 3 hardly comprehensive reasons…

1. Customers & Prospects like blogs with good, relevant content that addresses their interests, opportunities or needs.
2. You can engage those customers and prospects at a deeper level than through traditional marketing media. More importantly, you can engage them with value that often creates obligation.The value leading to obligation conversation may well look like this: “They’re the guys who told me about this … It’s obvious they know something about this … I have a need for this … I should add them to my list of prospective resources for this…”
3. You should have your customers (although they’re seldom aware of all you can do for them). Prospects are a different story. If they don’t know you from Adam where do they find you? Well, if they’re online, chances are they’ll find you through Google, Yahoo, MSN or another search engine. Which brings me to the point of this post. 

The more frequently you blog and the more relevant your blog post are to your expertise the more often Google (and other search engines) will visit and the quicker your content will be indexed, ranked and listed online where it can be found by those prospects (and customers) I mention above (and that we all so dearly covet!).

Yesterday (2/3/09) I wrote this post (1) talking about the growth in adult adaptation of social media networks and equating this to the new gold rush for acquiring customers. An hour later (2) Google had the post indexed and ranked for the keywords I’d used. While it’s a bit long-tailish, you can see that an hour after posting my article ranked #1 for (3) “social networks gold rush“. 

So here’s a question for you, have you ever talked to a search engine optimization company and they told you that the work they do today won’t bear fruit for 2-3 months depending on several factors? Yup, that’s what they’ve told me too. And they’re correct.

So why blog?

Because search engines equate blogs (and other forms of social media) with currency and relevancy. They also recognize that blogs tend to be less ‘commercial’ and more value driven from a content perspective. And, if you blog with any sort of consistency, focus and frequency, you train the search engines to check-in with you more often. A site like CNN.com gets spidered (a search engine term meaning checked out for fresh content) several thousand times a day. With frequent posting your site will get spidered on a much more frequent schedule as well.

And, obviously, the more frequently Google and other search engines visit, the quicker your content will be available for your next prospect to find you!

So don’t delay, start blogging today!

And, if you need some help you can always contact me (303) 882-8252. Afterall, you found out how effective blogging can be here!

Good advice on surviving tough economic times from the virtual assistant folks at Team Double-Click® …

I do want to draw special attention to one thing …  We didn’t stop marketing or selling.  Let me say that again.  We DIDN’T STOP MARKETING.  In fact, one of the shifts we made was to take budgeting away from backend systems and move it over to sales and marketing.  I attribute our ability to continue to grow and thrive during this economic mess, not only to cutting back in some areas, but also to stepping up our marketing.

Now’s the Time to Market More

Marketing can be even more effective in these tough times as competitors cut back their budgets or fall by the wayside. Less noise in the channel. And companies that appear to be prospering (because they continue to market) provide a perception of success that’s all the more attractive in these doomy/gloomy economic hard times.

Now’s the Time to Market Smarter

But, be prudent. Negotiate everything. Look for performanced based models both online and off and be sure that whatever you invest in is trackable. No more advertising on the back of cash register receipts – it’s not trackable. Code all your advertising so that you know when people respond where that response originated. If you’re using PPC strategies or you’re driving people from offline media (print advertising, broadcast, direct mail) then be sure and drive prospects to a dedicated landing page, not your home page. Use Google Analytics to track the conversion rate of your Pay Per Click campaigns. If you’re using a YellowPages or magazine ad or using postcards be sure and have the responder mention the ad by rewarding them with a special discount or premium.

Look for opportunities to expand the reach of your message without spending a whole lot (or any) additional money. Investigate and invest in local search, use Craigslist, link up on LinkedIn, Twitter & claim your space on Yelp, start a tips or howto email newsletter with signups on you website if you’revirtual and your counter or tabletop if you’re not…

In other words, dollars are precious so don’t waste any of them and, if you don’t know whether your marketing/advertising is working or not, then you’re wasting your money!

How Are You Surviving in This Down Economy?

Leave a comment with your best ideas to survive a down economy.

High ROI B2C Marketing Tactics

• Paid Search,
• SEO
• Email Marketing

Aren’t all these tactics supposed to be dead?