TechieDIY.com

Training Google To Crawl Your New Website

Richard — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:59:05 +0000

How To Series

Getting Google to pick up your posts within 30 minutes is something you have to train Google to perform so it will crawl your site more frequently.

Getting your site to be picked up by search engines is a very important part of the process. There are so many different things which may have an impact as to how much traffic your site might get and it is critical to get anything that you post to show up in Google Search in a reasonable period of time. One might ask what is reasonable and for every person you might ask, you would get a different answer. Much depends on how often you plan on posting things and what you desire. What I want to see is Google showing my searches within 30 minutes of posting them. So, in a very unscientific method, I created a new web site to see what I could do to get Google to show my posts in that time period. This is a WordPress site which was not previously set up and I started this once the site was set up. This testing has nothing to do with traffic to the site, only that Google shows my posts in a reasonable period of time.

Google and Webmaster Tools
Google is the big search engine that everyone focuses on to try and get their sites to show up in the search results on page 1. How you do that is the subject of SEO related articles and you can find that elsewhere. The first thing which you must do to get Google to find your site and have it show up in searches is set things up with Google Webmaster tools. There are other explanations on how to do that and you can find that elsewhere. Once you have been able to set up your site with Webmaster tools and configured what was necessary, you then need to add your sitemap to it. You will need to have a sitemap generated for your site in XML and with WordPress, there are a number of plugins which do this. We often use Google XML Sitemaps. The name of the file is normally sitemap.xml.

Google will crawl your site periodically and that is part of the problem with a new site. It is going to take some time for Google to start to crawl your site on a regular basis. When you first add your sitemap.xml file to the Webmaster tools, Google is going to crawl your site for the first time. It is after that which you want to train Google to crawl your site more frequently. I use the word “train” as you are trying to convince Google and all their algorithms to look at you site on an increasing basis.

You will want to post things at least 3 times a week to start and at various times of the day. Do not post things at the same time as Google will then learn to crawl your site at the same time everyday once it gets to that point. The key is to have Google crawling your site with 30 minutes of posting something. If you are striving for high volume traffic, you want it to pick up posts within a few minutes of them being posted.

The Training Test
Google is always reworking things, but here is what I did for a period of 40 days.

Started posting articles everyday and attempted to maintain a minimum of 300 words in the articles.
Missed posts on days 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 36 and 37. This indicates that you do not have to post every day, but to establish your site it is probably a good idea.
Links to the articles on days 13, 16 and 24. The value of links to your posts is an important item in driving traffic to your site and Google is seeing it as having value.
At day 10, Google was crawling articles anywhere from 3 to 7 days. (1 to 10 days)
At day 20, Google was crawling articles anywhere from about 3 days. (11 to 20 days)
At day 30, Google was crawling articles anywhere from 1 to 3 days (21 to 30 days)
After day 30, Google was display articles at the 30 minute mark. This is the goal when this started.
At day 40, Google was displaying articles on average at the 10 minute mark

This test was only about getting Google to display a posted article within 30 minutes of it being put up and I was able to attain that value by “training” the crawling of the web site. This was not about driving traffic to the site as the site was getting 3 to 5 page views per day which was probably me looking at the posts, so most of the traffic came from my location, though Google Analytics is showing some traffic from other locations.

So this tells us that you can “train” Google to crawl your site more often to establish the baseline for that period forward. I have to assume that most web sites start out pretty good for the first 10 posts and then drop off which would indicate the improvement in crawling after day 10. .

Your results will vary as this was not a scientific endeavor and not an exact test. Checking for pages to appear in the Google Search was not done in a strict manner and the results may be better than what was recorded. This should give you hope in training Google Search on a brand new web site. If you are doing this on an existing web site, it may take longer to get similar results especially if you already have Webmaster Tools set up on the site because Google has history in place for the site.

Good luck.

How to Increase Your Klout Score

Tom Litchfield — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:21:44 +0000

If Klout is important, then asking how you can raise your score is certainly a natural enough question. You might even be trying to decide how much you can guess about the algorithm and how you can turn your guesswork to your own advantage.

What is Klout?

Klout has been around since 2009, but it only really seems to have started gaining lots of ground and attention very recently. Suddenly, Klout scores are popping up everywhere, a sort of “bragging rights” metric that gives people a snapshot of how important they seem to be to the social media world. But what is Klout, exactly?

Klout is a free social media tool that lets you measure your effectiveness at engaging your audience with valuable content. It combines the best aspects of a pure “metrics” tool with the functionality of a social media platform. Of course, that’s not the real question. The real question is: how do you turn all of this into new leads and sales for your business?

Demonstrating Your Brand

One of Klout’s greatest strengths is its ability to show you exactly which topics you’re dominating as an influencer. If you’re not getting any topics at all then your focus is probably too broad. If you’re trending for all the wrong topics then you will know it is time to adjust what you’re doing. You can also gain more traction in a topic when someone else chooses to give you +K for it—a stamp of approval which indicates you’re giving your audience exactly what they’d like to see.

Measure Your True Reach

If you’ve ever wondered how many of your followers are actually paying attention to your content then Klout will prove very useful. Klout gives you something called a “true reach” score. You may have 1,000 followers on Twitter, but if only 3 of them are responding, sharing, or clicking then something is very wrong. Getting followers is easy. Standing out from the general noise is the hard part.

Another Source of Social Proof

You can display your Klout score across a number of forums. In fact, you currently have a score whether you’ve ever interacted with Klout or not. For better or for worse, Klout is starting to gain a lot of attention, and people will make assumptions: namely, that a higher Klout score indicates greater niche authority. Raising your Klout can’t happen unless you’re actively doing everything you can to create this kind of authority to begin with, however. It’s a clear case of success breeding success.

How to Increase Your Score on Klout

If you are new to Klout, the absolute fastest (and easiest) way to bump up your score is by adding all your social networks and services to your account: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Instagram and Last.fm. You may not have accounts with all these services, add as many as you can. I’ve seen many people double their score after connecting all their accounts.

You can start taking control of your Klout profile and score by visiting klout.com.

Once you’ve added all your social media accounts you should see your score go up. After that it’s a little more involved to build your score. In truth, trying to make guesses about the Klout algorithm is the wrong way to go about things. There is a social proof benefit to having a high Klout score, of course, but it’s not the end-all, be-all of what Klout has to offer. Klout is, first and foremost, a metric that measures your performance -a valuable tool that tells you how well you are engaging your networks. It makes no sense to “game” your Klout score. Gaming the Klout system would do little more than reduce the usefulness of the measurement, which tells you whether or not anything you are sharing is actually worth reading in the eyes of your audience. If you want to see better numbers you’ve got to take the time and make the effort to put out better content.

Don’t Worry About Your Score!

Having the mentality that you must grow your score iconically allows you to avoid some of the truly bad, shallow advice on Klout that you can find all over the internet. Some people advocate raising your Klout scores in ways that aren’t very respectful of other people. For example, some people advocate ignoring anyone whose scores are “too low,” because lower scores supposedly bring down your own scores.

One blogger even went so far as to say that people with low scores aren’t “important” enough to associate with. This kind of thinking reeks of the behavior of high school cliques. Such a mentality is too selfish to be conducive to the kind of relationship marketing that has transformed the relationship between customers and the people who provide their product and service. It also ignores the fact that the boost you get from Klout will only take you so far: if you’re not genuinely “about” helping your customers, if, instead, you’re all about what others can do for you, then your business isn’t like to succeed, even if you manage to get a Klout score of 100.

Klout will back this up, saying that the absolute best way to increase your Klout score is to “constantly offer great content that people want to share and respond to.” In other words—keep using social media effectively, and your Klout score will follow!

No related posts.

60 Percent of Social Media Users Made a Holiday Purchase Based on Recommendations [Infographic]

Tom Litchfield — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:36:19 +0000

Think social media just fun and games? According to social media and marketing agency Mr Youth sixty-six percent of social media users made a holiday purchase as a direct result of social media interactions with brands or friends and family. Additionally, 65% of users’ recommendations led to a purchase, with recommendations of social media users twice as likely to lead to a holiday gift purchase.

Surprisingly, while 80% of users who receive a response to their post will make a purchase as a result of the interaction from a brand, brands are only responding to half of their page posts. It’s clear that marketers who truly understand social media will experience higher levels of trust and consumers who will purchase their products. The full findings are available in Mr Youth’s infographic:

Social Media Makes the Sale

QR Codes for Small Business 101

Tom Litchfield — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:08:32 +0000

One of the ways a small business can market itself better both offline and online is by using QR codes. Although, currently quite new to business owners and customers, QR Code usage has been rising (see these QR code stats from back in April) and it’s wise for any small business owner to jump on board now before getting left behind by the competition. If you have no idea what QR Codes are about, then read on as we look at the basics.

What are QR Codes?

Quick response codes, commonly known as QR Codes are similar to the barcodes you find on physical products you buy at your supermarket such as your box of cereal or bottle of shampoo. While regular barcodes are scanned by barcode readers at the till, QR Codes can be scanned by mobile phones and most importantly direct the person scanning to an offline or online destination.

For example, you can scan a QR Code and be directed to a phone number, a SMS, a website, an online video on Youtube, a social media page on Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare, an image on Flickr etc. As you can probably imagine QR Codes give both business owners and their customers a wide and exciting range of experiences than just a regular bar code.

Business owners are provided with creative and high conversion marketing strategies, while customers get quick and easy interaction with brands and businesses through the convenience of their mobile phone.

How to get a QR Code?

One thing that stumps small business owners when it comes to QR Codes is that they often don’t know where to begin.

The first thing is to decide how QR Codes can fit into your existing marketing strategy and the best ways to integrate QR Codes into the kind of business you run. For example, a restaurant would have a more entertaining QR Code marketing campaign than a funeral parlor or a lawyer would.

One also needs to decide where to direct QR Code scanners in a manner that is appropriate to your business. So while a restaurant could direct customers to a coupon landing page, a lawyer would direct clients to his online resume or profile.

After setting up the destination page/video/image etc, you can generate a QR Code using our software or use one of the free online generators.

The final part is to place the QR Code in the most appropriate location that your current and potential clients are most likely to notice it. This could be on newspapers, magazines, business cards, promotional material, storefront windows etc.

Now that you know what QR Codes are and how to use them in your small business, you can now go out and create a mobile marketing campaign using QR Codes.

QR Code Shopping Wall Trend Continues

Tom Litchfield — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:47:40 +0000

A few months ago I posted a video on QR code shopping walls in Korea, which provides busy commuters with a convenient way to purchase items they need on the way home from long work days.

Now the trend is spreading, here are some great pictures of shoppers in Singapore buying Christmas items by scanning qr codes with their phones courtesy of the site 2d-code.co.uk:

“Singapore has joined the QR Code shopping wall movement with installations at Bugis (image below) and Boon Lay Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations. Supermarket chain Cold Storage have unveiled specially designed posters from which commuters can order and have delivered 20 specially chosen Christmas food items. There seems to be a trend developing now with QR Code shopping walls having products of a seasonal nature and fewer items.”

If you have any unique pictures or stories of QR code usage please let us know.

Consumers Are Aware Of QR Code

QR Code Generator New Version Release

Tom Litchfield — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:01:16 +0000

Now in COLOR!

The latest version of our QR Code software has some great new features and is still easy to generate QR codes for your business cards, campaigns and other print material, and will now do it all in color. Instead standard back-and-white add a little color to your codes to make them stand out or to match your logo and business colors.

This new version also has built in support for geo-location and WIFI configuration in addition to web address, email, phone numbers, SMS text message and contact information. Also support for the Android Market.

A quick rundown on the benefits of using our QR code software:

Generates codes quickly and easily
Can create codes in different colors to help your QR codes get noticed and match your branding
Easy sizing of codes
9 built in formats: SMS, email, phone, web, ME card, Android Market, location, Wifi and text
Runs on desktop and does not need an Internet connection –great for on the spot demos when visiting clients
QR codes with web links are NOT tracked through 3rd party sites (unlike online versions). Your information is not stored and your customers are taken directly where you want to send them faster.

Owners of our original QR code software Pro version will receive a free upgrade, an email with the new download link has been sent. New customers may order from this page: QR Code Generator

Get this new version now for only $5 for a limited time as the price will increase to $7 soon!

The QR Code Generator runs on Windows XP, Vista and Win 7 only.

If You Use QR Codes You Need a Mobile Site

Tom Litchfield — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:28:44 +0000

I’ve helped a number of clients add QR codes to their business cards, print advertising, etc., and was shocked to learn that many of them are putting urls in their codes that send visitors to non-mobile websites. Because QR codes can redirect potential customers (or existing customers) to any site, you need to ensure that the website is suitable for mobile devices. You may experience a massive drop in the effectiveness of your advertising if you are sending people to a website that doesn’t look good, or is flat-out a pain to use on a smartphone.

If you use WordPress you are in luck, the easiest way to make a website look great on a mobile device is to use a mobile plugin. These are the two I use most often on my sites:

Wapple Architect (free)

WP Mobile Detector (paid)

After testing dozens of plugins I have found these two to be compatible with the most devices, and have a great balance between fast loading, ease of use and design.

If you don’t have a mobile site yet, you may want to check out the second video in a series I began a few months ago: Planning Your Mobile Website. You’ll see that mobile sites are easier to plan and maintain compared to desktop sites. And if you’re still not convinced you even need a mobile site, then check out the first video: Why You Need a Phone-Friendly Site.

The rest of the videos in the series are in production (way overdue) but if you have any questions right now about building mobile websites, or the plugins I mentioned, please feel free to send me a note. I am more than happy to answer any questions you have.

QR Codes May Redefine the ‘Convenient Store’

Tom Litchfield — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:34:54 +0000

One of the most creative ideas yet for the use of QR codes. Watch the video:

Ten Steps to Getting Internet Leads

Tom Litchfield — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:35:10 +0000

People often ask me what the best ways are to bring leads into their business via the internet. While it really does depend on your niche, I’d have to say the following three internet lead builders can convert prospects into paying customers quite well.

Video
Blogging
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

So how are you going to use these platforms to get those leads and convert them into paying customers? I’ve set out ten steps to help you do this and these will be the foundation of your lead-converting online marketing:

Use your personality and your knowledge to showcase what you know to potential customers to help them feel comfortable learning from you.
Use video, blogging, and social media.
Understand you must give valuable free information to build interest, trust, and a loyal following.
Resist the urge to go into sell/sign-up mode until you have an audience.
Get a blog! (I highly recommend self-hosted WordPress) Start posting articles related to your niche: Pick a common problem and give a solution. Throw in some facts for good measure.
Don’t be afraid to talk about things outside your niche – like what you did for the weekend, films you’ve seen and music you like. You want to build a friendship with your audience. You are human, not a robot. Your audience will appreciate little insights into your daily life; the objective is the more they feel comfortable with you, the more likely they will trust you enough to seek your services. But don’t share too much. No one needs to know you had an argument with your partner or the like.
Comment on other people’s blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn group comments, and add your link to any blog comments. Make the comment meaningful. This gives link-back power to your site, thus raising you up the search engines.
Understand building an army of loyal followers takes time and with regular scheduling of blog posts and social media updates, you don’t have to spend ‘all day’ being online feeling despondent you’re not getting attention straight away.
Include your social media, video, and blog link in all your emails and mention it to your clients. Example: “For more ways to save money follow my blog, YouTube channel…”
Write articles and guest blog posts to expand your internet reach.

The most important thing to remember when trying to gain a following online is to actually limit your time doing it. You do not want to spend the whole day on Facebook for instance. This limits your productivity so you need to be really strict and work with time blocks during the day.

If you find you’re really not going to be able to spend the time gaining followers online, then consider outsourcing.
Most people discount this as not being cost effective but as you’re aware, you’ve got to put money into your business in order to see a return.

Websites such as Fiverr, Elance, and Odesk all showcase people who want to do some sort of marketing work for you. And yes, you may find some will do it better than others, but work with a few people and see what results you get. If you find someone who’s really pulling in the traffic for you, it would be very wise to keep them on board on a regular basis, leaving you to focus on other profitable areas of your business.

How to Do Market Research on the Internet

QR Codes in Business: 3 Direct Benefits

Tom Litchfield — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:27:02 +0000

As we have written about many times at Techie DIY, many companies today are using the power of QR Codes as part of their marketing strategy. If you haven’t heard, quick response codes, or QR codes are simply a type of barcode that were first used in Japan for tracking down auto parts during manufacturing. Today, these QR barcodes are used in many industries and businesses, even coffee shops, gaining popularity for their ease of use, versatility and effectiveness.

For example, savvy restaurant owners are using QR codes for queuing on busy nights (instead of handing out those awkward pagers) and to allow customers to get a copy of the menu of their phone while they are waiting for a table. And of course, restaurants are also using QR codes to offer discounts and deliver coupons.

Here are just a few benefits from using QR codes in your business

Build Customer Excitement Providing QR codes in your advertising and operations increases excitement and makes your business unique compared to others. People are curious about what information is hiding behind your QR code. Scanning those codes facilitates feeling of thrill and instant gratification and stand out from the competition.
Instant Response The “Q” in QR code stands for “quick”, your clients do not have to wait long for additional information about the product. No longer do they have to wait until they get home to look at your website to get the information they want. QR codes facilitate instant access to information about your business, products, and services.
No Reprints or Forgetting to Bring Coupons QR codes do not require printing of your advertisements and promotions thus reducing your printing expenses. People can simply scan a QR code with their phone to view information they need about the product. They can click the code anytime they want to retrieve the information. Also, nothing is more frustrating to a customer who arrives at your store knowing you have a great deal but forgot to bring the coupon. They have to beg your staff to allow the discount which is humiliating and probably won’t work, or they have to drive home and come back later. Do your customers a huge favor and make it easy for them to take advantage of your promotions.

This is only scratching the surface of benefits QR codes provide. You can use different codes for loyalty and rewards programs, get reviews for your Google Places page and to conduct quick surveys and customer feedback.

Although they are still considered “new” technology, QR codes are already becoming ubiquitous in advertising, just like every ad you see has a web address; soon most ads will have a QR code.

Keep an eye out for an email in the next week about a new QR code website plugin I’m testing. The plugin won’t be free, but our subscribers will receive a substantial discount. If you’re not on the list, just drop your email on this page to make sure you receive updates.