Fun with Google Maps

Creative ways of wasting your time with Google Maps

My previous two Google related articles focused on building a Google map to display your company's HQ or branch network. I shall for the purpose of this article focus on the fun things you can do with Google Maps. Yes, folks, it is time to let our hair down.

Before you begin, log in to your Google Account and enter http://maps.google.co.uk into your address bar of the browser, or click the link entitled 'Maps' seen on the top left. Then click the link entitled 'My Maps'.

By then you should see a selection of user created maps. Above these, you are given the choice of creating a new map, or browsing Google's map directory. Click the link entitled 'Browse the directory'. By then you should see within your browser several add-ons for your Google Map.

Fun things to do with Google Maps:

1. Dig a hole through the Earth: always wanted to dig a great hole and end up in the middle of Australia? Google lets you do just that without the need of a spade or being frazzled by the Earth's inner core. From Altrincham we ended up being a few hundred miles south east of New Zealand;
2. Add elevation contours: if you enjoy walking or hill climbing, this is a most useful addition;
3. See Earth by night: ever wondered what the Earth looked like at night? This overlay enables you to see which parts of the planet are besieged by pollution from street lights;
4. Calculate the area of your front garden: the Area and Distance Calculator allows you to do just that;
5. View traffic jams: in some cities, Google Maps enables you to see which parts of the world are most congested. I was vaguely unsurprised to find the road to Bluewater being absolutely chocka;
6. View photographs of each place: by hovering over the 'More' link at the top right of the map window, select the tickbox left of 'Photos'. You will find the UK or any other part of the world covered by thumbnail images, lovingly contributed by fellow web users through Panoramio. Another plug-in is available through Geograph;
7. Watch videos through YouTube: again, by hovering over the 'More' link; select the tickbox left of 'Videos' and click on one of the thumbnailed TV screen graphics. The video plays within the speech bubble on Google Maps;
8. View Wikipedia entries: again, by hovering over the 'More' link; select the tickbox left of Wikipedia and click on any of the rounded square icons with a 'W'. From each entry is a link to the full article on Wikipedia.org;
9. See the seven strange wonders of the world: everybody knows that the sole survivor of the 7 Wonders of the World are the Great Pyramids, but this plug-in focuses on the esoteric, such as the Bermuda Triangle and Area 51;
10. Check Ordnance Survey grid references: a most useful tool for ramblers checking 4 and 6 figure grid references. Be warned, this can be quite addictive.

Mancunian1001, 24 July 2009.

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Social Bookmarking | Scuttle, Scuttleplus, Pligg

To follow on from my article on linking, I wanted to write about social bookmarking, while many may think the social bookmarking bandwagon has passed, there is still some weight and benefits to using it for your linking strategy.

As I wrote before, Linking strategy is just that, its a strategy, it should consist of many different angles, whatever works for you is good, linking on its own these days has become a job within SEO and I remember the days when you were a webmaster, an SEO, a server admin and the full IT within a company :)

If you look around there are lists of useless spammy scuttle and pligg sites, which I would imagine would just start to look like giant link farms to google and not a great idea to start submitting your links to any sort of social sites but some of them carry great value, can get your new sites indexed very quickly and can even rank for your niche if your using long tail keywords.

Delicious is one of these examples, although the main page has a high PR some of the inner pages dont show any although a link from delicious can be well worthwhile for fast indexing and carrying some weight. Alot of the sceptics claimed years ago oh delicious is 'nofollow' but with my recent post about nofollow it seems that at the time the social sites were adding the 'no follow' tag to all the big social bookmarking sites google was actually not even seeing it the way we thought, or according to Matt Cutts.

It should be noted that a lot of social sites use 'redirects' for the links so you will not get benefits of incoming links as its a dynamically generated. For example 'domainname.com/linkredirect?=id0143' where the id is in the sites database as your outoing link.

There are lots of pieces of software for 'automating' social bookmarking on the market, I can only say it really is best if you have the time to do things manually, although semi automating some of the tasks for genuine bookmarking is not considered as black hat or spamming. There is a line and if your signing up for 1000s of bookmarking sites with senuke on auto sign up and spamming 1000s of long tail keywords in order to rank for them, then yes I'd say thats not a great thing to do.

So to summarise, I would include social bookmarking from some choice sites to your linking strategy, use of software is fine for making your life easier beware though alot of them dont work like they claim.

These are some of the things to take into consideration.

1. Google PR on the home page
2. Google PR in inner pages
3. Do the links use redirects (read above)
4. Are the links 'nofollow' (questionable)
5. Does the site use anchor text in the links
6. Is the domain of a decent age - 1/2 years +
7. Are there a decent amount of pages indexed in google? - 1000+
   

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Cross-Browser Compatibility: Now There's No Excuse

Good for Google, great for business, better for everyone

At the start of 2004, Internet Explorer 6 and its earlier versions had a near monopoly on browser market share. It was assumed that a website which worked well on Internet Explorer was 'the perfect website'. So Internet Explorer was seen as the de facto standard.

In the middle part of the same year came Mozilla Firefox, which rose from the ashes of Netscape Navigator. By the end of this year, designing websites for one browser ceased to be the rule.

We as designers till then became complacent and designed sites for the most popular browser with a 'devil may care' attitude to Mac users and Linux users (where Internet Explorer was unavailable). Five years on, cross-browser compatibility has become mainstream. Our browsing habits have changed since then; netbooks, mobile internet and Wi-fi has made it possible to browse our favoured sites on the train as well as at the desk. The success of Apple's iPhone has also seen a favourable shift towards mobile browsing.

Apple's iPhone and Google's Android is a world away from five years ago when mobile browsing was considered the exception rather than the norm. Internet access on mobile phones (if you were lucky) was slow and offered no real alternative to broadband or dial-up.

Nowadays, designing a website for use on one browser is both narrow minded and foolhardy. Current trends point the way towards websites which work well on mobile phones as well as PC/Mac web browsers. This can be done by creating alternate CSS styles for use on printed media and mobile phones as well as PCs.

For several years, cross-browser compatibility has also been a condition of entry into some web directories and search engines. Google is no exception to this, and rewards websites which work with Firefox, Safari, Opera, and its very own Chrome as well as Internet Explorer.

Cross-browser compatibility is also good for business. If the website loads quickly on his/her iPhone as well as his/her new PC, and has good quality content, he or she will return. If it works on his/her mobile phone, Linux box, iMac or Vista powered PC with Firefox, conversions on other browsers besides IE will improve. With the dominant browser losing share to Firefox and the iPhone, now's the time to test your site on as many browsers as possible.

What's more, you don't even have to install Safari, Opera, Firefox or Chrome onto your PC. For years, BrowserCam.com has offered a browser testing, albeit at a cost. In the last month, Gomez.com has launched a free equivalent to BrowserCam. A future posting on this blog may focus on Gomez.com's new service in the form of a review.

For further information, I recommend reading the Google's Webmaster Central blog's article entitled 'Working On All Browsers'.

Mancunian1001, 21 July 2009

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Creating a Google Map (2)

Part Two: how to embed a Google map onto your website.

In the previous article we focused on creating a Google map detailing your company's head office of its branches. For the purpose of this tutorial we are focusing on how to place the Google map within your company's contact page.

Embedding a Google map:

1. Enter your company's postcode into Google Maps. Shortly afterwards, the Google Maps page will display the immediate area around your company's office/factory/retail unit/shed;
2. On the top right navigation bar above the map window, click on the 'Link' text link. This is augmented with a picture of a chain left of the text link;
3. On clicking the text link you should see a dialogue box below offering you two options. For the purpose of this tutorial, select the second option entitled 'Paste HTML to embed in website';
4. Copy the link by clicking on the box below the title, selecting the link by pressing CTRL+A (or Apple Key+A for Mac users) key then CTRL+C (or Apple Key+C) to copy the link.

The first four points cover how we copy the map from the Google Maps interface. After copying the link, we need to paste it into your contact page. Do this by:

1. Opening your favoured web editor (Notepad/Dreamweaver/Kompozer/Frontpage): with WYSIWIG packages like Dreamweaver, go into the 'Source Code' view of your desired page;
2. If you prefer to see the results visually, select on Dreamweaver or your other favoured web editing package 'Design and Code View';
3. If you are pasting the map within a Content Management System, or your blogging client, select 'Edit HTML'. Please note that this provision may vary from CMS to CMS or within your blogging client;
4. Paste the code within your desired position on your 'contacts' page;
5. Your Google Map has been added to your 'contacts' page.

If you have a basic knowledge of HTML coding, it is easier than you think. Seen below is an example of a Google Map embedding into the code of a web page:

View Larger Map

Cool, isn't it! You can also change the view from Satellite View to Map or hybrid mode. This example shows the town centre of Altrincham centred from our office's postcode.

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SEOlinkpro the latest link building mania....

Such an emphasis on backlinks these days, everywhere you read about SEO they all talk about backlinks, many of you may have heard about Xrummer, automated forum postings to create backlinks and links into your product pages, sales and so on through forum spam, still in widespread use you can pay for links through people running xrummer or buy and run your own copy at quite an expensive price, around 500$.

SEOlinkpro claims to do what alot of the tools around these days do but basically do it all for you, build links while you sleep! Some of the claims are that it utilizes modules for different aspects of link building, from social bookmarking to rss submission, some of the modules listed are pliggs, phpdug, wikka2, webalizer, minibbs, nucleus cms.

Its said the software breaks captcha, allows the use of proxies, auto account creations and email confirmation automation!! almost sounds too good to be true. From what I have read they are building more plugins as we speak, very few reviews around at the moment i can find. Although its listed as a black hat tool, I would think it could be used sensibly to automate alot of link building tasks to save time. SEOLinkpro

If you have any comments or insight on this software, please feel free to post.

0161 941 7944 - Matchmakermarketing

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Creating a Google Map

Part One: How to put your business on the map - literally.

In a personal capacity I have created a few Google Maps myself. I have been fascinated with maps myself from an early age and found Google Maps an extension of this.

Adding a map to your website is a useful addition to your company's contact page. It allows visitors to find your company most easily. Google Maps' tools are powerful enough to give directions to your company's office/factory/retail unit from your home. You can even view the factory's location by means of a satellite aerial view as well as in map form.

This tutorial will enable you to create a Google map and embed it onto your company's contact page.

Creating a map:

1. Sign up to Google Accounts or use your existing Google Account. If you already have a Googlemail/Gmail account click on the 'more' link and click 'even more >>' at the bottom of the pull-down menu;
2. On clicking the 'even more >>' link you should see a page entitled 'More Google Products'. Select 'Maps' and click on the title link;
3. On loading Google Maps you should see a map of the world. To find your location, type in for example 'Manchester'. Google Maps will zoom in towards the city famed for its footballing sides and The Hacienda;
4. On the left hand side of the map you should see your company's location and below it, links to other maps;
5. At the top left of the browser window, click the link entitled 'my maps'. You should see links to Google maps created by other users. Click the link entitled 'Create New Map'. Another window should emerge below the links enabling you to start work on your new map;
6. You should see a form below enabling you choose a suitable title for your map. Below this box is a second one for your description. The title could be your company name with the description used to depict the purpose of the map;
7. Below this box are the privacy settings. You can choose whether you would like to make the map available for public or private viewing. Click the 'Done' button;
8. Your map is almost complete. All you need to do is add a pinpoint to display your company's location or locations. Click the 'Edit' button to add your pinpoint;
9. After placing your pinpoint, start adding your company's details within the speech bubble. You can choose whether you wish to add text with or without text formatting properties or in code view;
10. The top right of the bubble includes a pinpoint icon. Click on the icon to choose from Google's range of pins. Click 'OK' when you are satisfied with the results;
11. Your map is complete. To confirm this, click 'Done'.

At this point we leave this part of the tutorial. The next one will focus on embedding the Google map to the contacts page of your website. Till then...


Mancunian1001, 09 July 2009.

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Google announces new operating system

Google continues its quest for internet world domination with an announcement of their new operating system to be released later next year.

Chrome the browser has always seemed a little more like an o/s than just a basic browser, with its web applications and minimalistic look, its efficient basic and works well. Google said that they had realised the web had become more than just web pages and people wanted/needed more interaction with application.

Googles new operating system will be aimed at netbooks but not limited to and run on top of linux kernel, which sounds great, linux is good but more widespread use in the commercial sector as an o/s would give much more functionality, it seems now only developers and tech savy people are into linux.

All in all sounds like another great idea from google, simplicity coupled with functionality and capability.

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Is Bing going to take over? what's google doing?

While google continues its quest for world domination, with a foot in every pie it seems, microsofts new Bing is sitting tight but providing much more relevant results after the latest SERP changes in google.

There has been daily changes in the google SERP's for the last month or so but last week, things went crazy for many people and the multiple page threads on lots of webmaster forums about "what happened to my google results" are still ongoing.

Theres lots of speculation about the subject I wrote about recently less weight on incoming links, with people giving examples of sites with less relevant content but 1000s of links dropping and sites with more relevant content but less links ranking higher in their relevant industries.

I know personally I have seen a fair few of my sites drop 100s of positions, but what I do and what I recommend is that you dont jump on the drop my links and add content bandwagon, so many times over the years when Google updates its algorhythm webmasters go crazy and start trying to make masses of changes only to find things settle down or change back in a short period of time.

I am sure it will come out in the wash pretty shortly what exactly has changed, whats going to work and what wont, and you can adjust your strategies accordingly, I do hope we drop back to how it was 2 weeks ago, but I also hope we do give less weight to useless links.

In the meantime bing is just waiting for things like this, google giving less relevant results in their SERP's while bing still returning great results for lots of searches.

0161 941 7944 - Matchmakermarketing

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We Know You Have A Choice

(of search engine that is)

After an impressive debut in its new guise, Microsoft's Bing has seen a great drop in traffic as its users return to Google for their search results. However, it seems that the Redmond based software giant have been playing dirty tricks with persons wishing to use Google as their search engine of choice.

In an article on Cnet.com, its contributor nearly saw the default search engine on his browser change from Google to Bing.com, saved only by his Google Toolbar. His Windows Search Settings attempted to change his default search engine. This is claimed to have been caused by Bing itself.

Long time Windows users may recall similar attempts by Microsoft with the IE6 web browser. Typing a search phrase within the address bar of this browser returned results from MSN and Live.com, Bing's predecessors. IE6 was released in 2001, the year when Google started making inroads into the search engine market before becoming the behemoth it is today.

If you have been affected by these issues, the article in full is on http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-10277784-68.html. This gives you instructions on how to change these settings.

Another easy way of ensuring Google remains your first choice search engine can be achieved by downloading Google Chrome. This is a stable browser with a clean interface with options to browse in private.

Mancunian1001, 06 July 2009.

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Linking strategies for your website

Linking linking linking, its all you seem to hear about these day and I agree the right incoming links make a massive difference.

So what sort of links do you need? link farms? free directory submissions? reciprocal? canonical? one way? three way? there are so many different areas of link building and its always expanding.

I beleive .edu domains used to be massively favourable but getting a link from them has always required more than just a simple website, if were talking sme's they are hardly going to have that type of content to get links from .edu sites.

You can start by checking how many links you have incoming, ive found backlinkwatch to be a great tool it will tell you who ranks to you, what anchor text they use and how many outbound links they have on that page, also if the links are nofollow or dofollow. If your smart you can also find out who is ranking to your competitors, if you could get a link from them and how many other people they link to:).

The best sort of links are one way links containing your relevant keyterms within the anchor text from sites of authority or of decent page rank. Thats not to say that you shouldnt get links from lower PR sites. There are many ways of going about this and varying different softwares you can use to manage your campaigns including helping you find sites with outgoing links in your niche that you may well be able to get a link from, advanced web ranking is one of them.

I wouldnt say directory submissions are redundant, however not what they were a couple of years ago, its certainly worth getting a few incoming links from relevant categories in high PR directories, but I wouldnt bother wasting your time on low->0 page rank directories that are full of spam. There are softwares that will submit to lots of directories, mimicking human behaviour but manual submissions are the best way to go, although time consuming.

Alot of people talk about links that 'appear' natural, but the way is that they are natural :) take what you want from the above, but its a start to your link building campaigns. I will write a whole new article on article submissions, blog posting, social bookmarking and the likes at some point soon.

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Google SERP changes backlinks to carry less weight?

Recent posts on some of the big forums speculated that big G's latest SERP changes will cause a big upset in peoples linking strategies. Its stated that less weight will be given to incoming links of no relevance, we all know that anchor text is not the be all and end all but certainly worth doing and keeps the semantics on target.

On another note this would possibly put alot of software producers out of business if it becomes the way to go, the likes of submiteaze, submit helper and fast directory submitter are used quite alot in SEO campaigns everywhere to gain incoming links, alot of these have no relevance due to poor category selection and directory choice (alot through user error).

In conclusion I think it would be great if google managed to drop out useless links and links with little weight, stop people submitting 1000s of links to useless directories and give the people who work harder for 1 way links from articles, social bookmarking and social media better results in the serps.

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Google now doing city tours!!

Google has firmly got its foot in the door of the tourism business with their new google labs city tours!. Google will give you a route and the map for it of places to see in alot of cities at check out http://citytours.googlelabs.com/

I would say from a marketing point of view that this firmly puts google in place for more exposure within the tourism industry, whats next, advertise on google city tours?

The functions of the city tours are quite good, you can change dates and view distances between sight seeing points, well worth a view.

0161 941 7944 - Matchmakermarketing

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Does having a phyiscal address/legit info help your google rankings?

Amongst the masses of SEO clients I have seen, its clear that most people who come looking for SEO, havent thought about the process or consulted someone at the key stage of their online business venture, ie before the site is designed, before the name is registered, before the branding idea is discussed, before the target market is examined and before the keyword research is done.

I see a mass of sites with conflicting business names, products, and whois info, this all leads to an element of mistrust in alot of ways. If people can see that your whois info, company name, company address all match up then so can google. This is not to say that if you match up all that info then you will be #1 for your relative keyterms, just that you should consider all those elements before starting out in an online venture and if you dont know or understand it then hire someone who does, its a key element that can be seriously problematic if you try to change later.

Personally the way I would go about setting up an online business is to build an element of trust with your clients and the search engines, there is no part of this process that will give you top rankings, but if you put it all into place, you can be sure it wont be negatively affecting your results, and may well contribute towards your rankings.

Company name, address on your website may also help with your geo-targeted traffic if google picks up on your city name within the serps again there is no guarantees in this business, but it all helps to build a trustable online profile.

high ranking on google

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'nofollow' is it what we thought it was?

In 2005 rel="nofollow" was the new in thing for PR sculpting which msn and yahoo also followed in their respective ways, some literally didnt follow links similar to robots.txt some followed but gave no weight to the link, nofollow also gave no weight to anchor text within the link.

Over a year ago google decided to change the rel="nofollow" attribute and allow PR to flow through and no one even realised! I think when people found out they all initially panicked and thought all the PR sculpting they had done was going to be penalised and felt they had wasted their time, however this isnt the case, if you have nofollow tags in place they will be simply ignored for now.

Although Pagerank has become of less importance as time goes on, ie pages ranking highly with zero PR, its still well discussed subject within the SEO world.

Google's Matt Cutts doesnt recommend the use of the nofollow tag to sculpt the PR around your own site and says it should 'flow freely'.

I am not sure if this relates to external or only internal linking if so, I think this is gonna upset alot of people who have entered into the selling/buying of certain PR value links and also alot of blackhat methods, however for most it wont be a massive issue and they will continue to spend more time on more valuable SEO methods.

Advertise on Google


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