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Businesses can make their website ‘journalist-friendly’ by making sure three links are prominently displayed on their website, according to e-consultancy.

The company believes that making a site accessible for journalists can help boost brand awareness and the company’s media presence.

However, it must be easy for the journalist to get what they need.

‘The key thing for a writer is to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible,’ the company said.

‘If they cannot find the answers online then they’ll need to quickly find some media contacts to call, or email.’

The first link is About, which should be a ‘one-stop shop for links to company information’, as well as containing contact details for people in the company.

Next should be the Press link, which will contain press releases and any media mentions of the business in question.

Lastly, a Blog link should be clearly displayed, as this allows journalists to get ‘the inside track straight from the horse’s mouth’, i.e. they can quickly find out people at the company’s opinion on matters.

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Google has provided advice for website designers on how to make sure their site is correctly displayed on the company’s new browser, Chrome.

Maile Ohye, a developer for Google writing on the Webmaster Central blog, recommends using HTML rather than AJAX coding, as this will help search engines find the site.

And to achieve a uniform look across all browsers, validated code should be used, while designers should make sure that they have tested the usability of the site and not just its aesthetics.

‘When your site renders poorly or is difficult to use on many browsers you risk losing your visitors’ interest and, if you’re running a monetised site, perhaps their business,’ she wrote.

‘It’s possible that the clickable area of a linked image or button may change from browser to browser.’

According to research firm Net Applications, Chrome has a one per cent share of the browser market.

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Black hat search engine optimisation (SEO) is becoming less frequent, the head of spam abuse at Google has said.

Matt Cutts told cnet news that he felt legitimate, or white hat, SEO techniques were gradually becoming the norm and this was in part because of Google’s anti-spam policies.

The search engine uses algorithms to deal with particular automated spam-creating techniques but also takes manual action when required.

‘We see the majority of the trend is people trying to find legitimate ways [to promote their sites],’ Mr Cutts told the website.

‘The hope is you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.’

Google advises website designers to use its guidelines on how to avoid becoming a black hat SEO practitioner.

However, Gab Goldenberg, an SEO professional, recently put forward the argument that black hat SEO was not ‘in and of itself unethical’.

He said that it only became so when it ’significantly and negatively affects humans’, rather than an abstract mathematical system.

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Businesses can see increased traffic to their websites by getting the basics of SEO web design right, according to an industry commentator.

Chris Lake, the editor-in-chief of E-consultancy.com, thinks that while there are many ways to attract traffic, for businesses with a limited marketing budget it’s the basics that are most important.

He said: ‘Read up on how to make your site search-engine friendly, and if you can afford it, look at employing a search agency or a search expert in-house.’

Mr Lake also believes that businesses should embrace Web 2.0 technologies to make sure there are as many links back to their site as possible.

‘There are lots of examples of companies attracting large numbers of visitors by producing videos or blogs that end up being picked up on the licks of YouTube, Digg and Yahoo Buzz,’ he said.

One such example is the ‘Will it Blend?’ campaign by the makers of Blendtec Total Blender.

A series of adverts featuring items being dropped in the company’s industrial strength blender (to find out if they will blend) became a huge hit on YouTube and in turn gave the company’s brand more exposure.

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If you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, you wont be aware that on the web, one of the best ways of generating new, direct traffic to your website or blog is via Social Media marketing. The blogosphere and twitter trail is all a buzz with the term, which can seem dauntingly new and intimidating to marketers with traditional experience. Hopefully this guide should help to summarise how to interact online, and what services to use.

An idiots guide to Social Media Marketing

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A new online tool could change the way that search engine optimisation (SEO) works in ranking websites.

Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

Currently SEO conducted by engines including Google works by comparing key words defined by the searcher with the related words in online articles and ranking them in the order of the most viewed.

However, a new tool called Powerset could change this by comparing the natural language of the content rather than simply the key words. This is done by ‘unlocking’ the meaning encoded in ordinary human language.

The first Powerset was launched last month to improve the search process on Wikipedia. The system promises to give more accurate results and to frequently answer questions directly.

‘Powerset’s goal is to change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language … We believe that now is the right time to begin the journey,’ the San Francisco company states.

In related news, it has been reported that physicians competing for the top internet search ranking have found it more successful and economical to take the SEO route rather than using expensive links.

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Blogging can be beneficial to some businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the Chicago Tribune has reported.

Websites can profit from a boost in credibility and get a higher search rank making the owners more competitive if they feature a popular and regular blog, the article comments.

Certified electrologist and owner of Face Reflections Liz Stapleton told the paper her website has attracted an extra ten clients every month since adding a blog and added that it was the ‘best business decision’ she had ever made.

By adding blogs SMEs can better compete with large firms by boosting their search rankings through the economic strategy of hosting a blog, a Northwestern University lecturer added.

Business Blogging Consultants’ Derrick Sorles gave further advice, saying that by adding one word to a domain name the likelihood that a blog will be found using a Google key word search increases.

On a personal level as well blogs can be beneficial as well. Petite Anglaise blogger Catherine Sanderson was fired from her job in Paris after her online comments about her job were discovered but her writing has now been made into a successful book.

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Email marketing is ‘easy’ and ‘inexpensive’, meaning that anyone can create a strategy, an online business resource has told.

However, to make the campaign successful it needs to engage readers and build trust, a representative from Emma told Ecommerce Guide.

When sending out emails they should be relevant to the interests of the subscribers and strike the right balance between content and image Emma’s Suzanne Norman told the resource.

Her eight tips included letting the design and message ‘flow’ from the original message a business wanted its campaign to communicate.

The marketing campaign should also be consistent with the business brand and ultimate message, she added.

As with all campaigns, it is important the reader is engaged straight away by using a well-crafted and intriguing subject line in the subscription email.

Ms Norman added that it was also important to make the correspondence personal.

‘Try segmenting your list so you can personalise the content based on the audience group to which you’re sending,’ she advised.

In a blog that offers advice to businesses, Ecommerce Guide contributor Jennifer Shiff advised businesses designing online campaigns to ‘never offer a product or service or make a commitment you cannot fulfil’.

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Normally I do not like doing reviews of things as I do not have time to do reviews. Today I am going to try to tell you about something that Web CEO development team probably does not want you to know about.

Web CEO, as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) software that I have been using for a very long time. It has been a while since the version 7.5 came out. Until today I did not need to use it much since I installed the new version. Just to get an idea of how CGC ranked by search engines I decide to give it a go and see what’s new.

First had to wait for some of the updates to download and install. But when restarted I was presented with an error message saying my Knowledge Base is out of date (current date is ‘10 December 2007′; the deadline for the next Knowledge Base update is ‘13 November 2007′).

Just shows how things can be left out even after very detailed quality control process. Hope they fix it soon, because I’d not like to go back a month on any software.

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While writing a script to list the file in a specified folder on the server I wanted to remove file extension from the file name before I link it. Here is the php code that will remove the file extension.

< ? php
if(!function_exists("RemoveExtension"))
{
function RemoveExtension($strName)
{
$ext = strrchr($strName, '.');
if($ext !== false) {
$strName = substr($strName, 0, -strlen($ext));
}
return $strName;
}
}
? >

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