PALO ALTO - May 12, 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is apparently in talks to buy Electronic Data Systems (EDS), founded by former Presidential Candidate, Ross Perot, who went on to found Perot Systems after being booted out of EDS by then majority owner, General Motors (GM).
What is interesting about this acquisition is that EDS is a major IT consultant and software developer of enterprise wide systems. But, that is not what is quite so interesting. About a year ago, HP purchased LogoWorks, a leading distributed web-based graphic design service provider, which targets small businesses.
It seems obvious that HP, the company that started out building Oscillators in the 1930’s, radar-jamming devices in the 1940’s, frequency counters in the 1950’s, computers in the 1960’s, calculators in the 1970’s, laser jet printers in the 1980’s, personal computers in the 1990’s, and plasma TV’s and laptop computers in the 2000’s now seems to be poised to build websites, both large and small in the 2010’s.
photo credit: robad0b
A client of mine in the real estate business was telling me the other day about a cold call he got from a sales rep selling Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. Apparently, someone at the SEO company had taken a look at his property website and drawn up a short list of related search terms, and passed the details to this young lady who was now quoting him a price for optimizing his website to show in Google’s top spots for those search terms.
But my client was SEO savvy as it so happened…
He immediately realised that the search terms this SEO company were proposing to optimize his website for seemed to be very specific and relatively uncommon keywords that would be easy to get top Google spots for. What’s more, they probably were not terms property hunters were likely to use.
Smelling a scam of sorts, he turned the tables around and asked the hapless sales rep if she could find out how much it would cost him to get number one spots for ‘property’, ‘real estate’ and a bunch of other impossibly competitive search terms. Apparently she didn’t have a clue about SEO, as she happily promised to call back.
The moral of this story is quite clear: There are unscrupulous SEO companies that think they can impress and scam unwitting clients who might not know that having the No.1 spot in Google is of diminished value if few people are searching on those keywords
So how do you spot a possible SEO scam?
Don’t get me wrong - in many cases, it makes perfect sense to target niche keywords that you can easily get top spots for, rather than keep fighting tooth and nail for the few keywords that everyone wants. But you must make sure that those keywords you target do get enough searches to make it worth the SEO effort. Besides, you will need to cover a much longer list of low-search-volume keywords with your SEO if you are to get any serious traffic going to your website.
Unfortunately, Google does not reveal data on how many searches individual keywords get each month, but there are keyword research tools you can use that take data from other search engines to give estimates of these figures. It also makes sense to find out how many other websites are using the keywords you are interested in (either using these same keyword tools or simply running a search on Google) so that you can see how much competition you are up against in each case.
So before you get anyone to do SEO on your website, ask them to tell you how many people are searching for the terms they are proposing, so that you can get an idea of how much traffic you can expect. Also do a little research yourself to double-check their figures. Only then can you judge if it is worth the money and effort and avoid falling for those scammers who won’t be delivering the real goods.
Online Presidential Marketing
If you want a good lesson in how the Internet and effective online marketing is changing the way American politicians compete, see www.barackobama.com.
Looking at his website, he has done a very effective job of striking a balance between good design and search engine optimization. His site ranks extraordinarily well on the search engines while looking very attractive and professionally designed. He has made good use of CSS and has created clear and compelling calls to action: Donate Now.
Obama ‘08 has unique relevant content and makes effective use of TITLE and H1 HEADER tags. He posts his videos on YouTube and links them back to his site. In short, his entire site is very effective and well done.
In the lower right hand corner of the website, you can see that he is making effective use of social networking sites like:
www.MotorsportSimulators.com
Mark Nixon and inQbation™ are pleased to announce the successful and rapid launch and redeployment of www.MotorsportsSimulators.com, a website that promotes the brand and equipment of Motorsport Simulators for the Professional Driver.
Omniture > Visual Sciences > Web Side Story > HBX™
October 25, 2007 – Omniture, a leading website analytics company agreed to acquire Visual Sciences, formerly known as Web Side Story, creator of web analytics software Hit Box (HBX) for $394 million.
HBX™ Analytics provides data analysis and metrics to consumer-oriented companies. HBX Analytics also provides the ability to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) within its interactive dashboards. The reporting modules and dashboard feature provide insight into site traffic and its source, key search terms, numbers of new and return visitors, site abandonment statistics and related site visitor information, such as how much time is being spent on the company’s Web site and related conversion rates.
Circa June 15, 2007 - Google purchases FeedBurner for around $100 million. Feedburner is a subscription service for RSS (Real Simple Syndication) news contents from blogs, websites, and news agencies. It Allows blog owners and podcasters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers.
The value to Google is that it is one more tool for Google to listen to, monitor, and measure Internet activity - especially with regard to blogs. It helps Google discover which bloggers tend to produce and disseminate original content and newsworthy information quickly and efficiently. Through FeedBurner, Google discovers who are the authoritative web and blog masters.
Fifteen Degrees Corporation
inQbation™ is pleased to announce the launch of eco-friendly startup company, Fifteen Degrees Corporation. Fifteen Degrees ambitiously plans to drive the solar powered market as a new concept. Their fundamentals requires us to scrap the dark and unreliable solar powered products in the market today, and bring to light a brighter and more reliable product to our customers.
Some of Fifteen Degrees products and services include:
inQbation™ is thrilled to be working with former Russian ballerina and Mrs. World turned Hollywood action hero, Sofya Skya (IMDB Profile: Sofya Skya) in the development of her official website: www.SofyaSkya.com
Photo copyright (c) Sofya Skya
