A few days ago Facebook announced that they would be stepping into the search engine arena by releasing an experience that delivers personalized answers to your questions. It’s called Facebook Graph Search, and I want to point out immediately that Facebook Graph Search is not entirely a search engine the way Google is. However, Graph Search will incorporate Bing search results when relevant – more on that later.

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I had the opportunity to attend one of the best search engine conferences of the year: SES Chicago. The conference runs the first week of November and brings together the top minds in the Midwest and abroad. I should mention that SES is a well-known, traveling conference that builds incredible momentum as the year goes on – and Chicago happens to be one of the last stops. This means a wealth of knowledge is collected by way of speakers and social media coverage that comes to a boiling point in the Windy City.

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We hear it all the time – I just don’t have the time or energy to stay current with Google or I don’t know the first thing about Facebook marketing, or worst yet, I have a website, that’s all I need to do.

While my post will touch on the latter two points, I am not here to endorse Facebook or scold you for abandoning your website like a bad habit. My goal is to provide you with easy-to-implement pointers on how to build a solid yet simple website that is both search-engine and user friendly without making your web developer burn the midnight oil. Let’s dive right in. Read More

Does the thought of optimizing your website make you wake up in a cold sweat every night?  Do you hear the phrase SEO strategies for ranking number 1 in Kentucky and think to yourself, someone got it wrong, what they meant is SEC strategy falls on no. 1 ranked Kentucky (let’s go Wildcats!)?  My apologies for throwing a March Madness reference in there, but it is that time of year again. Or, simply put, do you just not have the resources to keep a well maintained website according to Google’s standards?

If any of these questions resonate with you, then I would like to talk about a product Google has been pushing rather aggressively for some time now and the potential impact it may have to you, especially if SEO and website maintenance are on the same level as quantum field theory in your book.  The product I am referring to is Google Places and if you have not yet claimed your Places, it’s a good thing you are reading this post. Read More

Most people know that SEO is important, but not many know how to get started.  In this episode of our Got a Minute? video series, I am going to walk through the SEO and SEM tools I use every day to monitor Apartments.com.  Hopefully some of these work for you, but there are lots of tools available, so you can find something that fits your needs.  If you have any questions after watching the video, please leave them in the comments section below.

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Last week Google announced on their blog that they would be transforming their search experience into something rich with people and personal content.  Today, Google claims search is limited to public webpages that are created by people you’ve never met.  At the heart of this new ‘search,’ Google is looking to bring your social world closer to you than ever before:

“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.” – Amit Singhal, Google Fellow Read More