Big Ideas for Small Business

Google has launched their new instant search feature. Because of the way search listings (paid and organic) are displayed, I would suggest reading up on instant search and the impact it may have on your SEO & Marketing strategies.

Here’s a brief article written by Jill Kocher at Practical ECommerce.

Last week, Google introduced “Instant,” a feature that predicts searchers’ queries as they type them and streams the results for that predicted query onto the results page in real time. Google announced Instant on its blog, at “Search: now faster than the speed of type.”

Google Instant builds on personalized search and on the popular Google Suggest feature to bring every searcher a personalized result set based on his or her search history, location, preferences, and other factors. Every letter typed improves Google’s ability to predict the searcher’s intent, enabling Google to refresh the search results set in real time. With. Every. Letter. Typed. Google is the first of the big three engines to launch quick, predictive, personalized search to the masses as a foundational feature. For a helpful overview of Instant, I recommend “Google Instant Search: The Complete User’s Guide,” an article published on Search Engine Land.

read the full story

Sarah Worsham has written a nice article on using Flickr to create a social community through posting product pictures. If you’re a retailer with a website, give this article a read.

from Practical Ecommerce by Sarah Worsham

Flickr, a photo sharing site, can be a powerful tool for promoting your products. Not only can you upload images of your products, where they can be seen throughout the Flickr website, but you can encourage your customers to participate and socialize with your company and products by uploading and sharing their own images of your products.

Included in the article:

• The Action Shot
• Social Hour
• Tag, You’re It
• Kick Start
• Rewards
• Who Uses Flickr on Their Site?
• Related Articles

Read the full article

from ProBlogger Blog Tips by Darren Rowse
With a new blog being started every second it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. Following are some tips on how to differentiate your blog from the millions of others out there. (more…)

This is the single biggest change in Google search since its creation and as a small business owner, you need to keep your eye on this ball. It’s basically this: Google users can order their search results, delete search results, or add new listings. Other Google users can see what they’ve done and even read notes they’ve left behind. Why should you care? How is this going to effect your hard-won top rankings? How will SEO and web marketing practices change given the boom in social networking site usage? Round up your peeps and start flexing those social network muscles now or you could be lost in the dust.

Here are some articles that give you all the details and a few thoughts:

• Google Launches SearchWiki for Custom-Ordered Search Results
• Google Gets Jiggy
• Google Intros SearchWiki
• Google Makes Major Interface Change to Search: SearchWiki

by Susan Sweeney, CA, CSP, HoF

FacebookIn my last newsletter we talked about social networking. I explained what it was and I gave you a few examples of where you could find it. So, today I would like to take one step closer to this new found beast and see if it has anything to offer in terms of using it to help your business grow.

Of course not all social networks are created equal. There are many different sites out there with very different opportunities. You must first determine what you want to achieve out of social networking online and then find the site that will give you the biggest benefits. Today we will focus on the ever popular Facebook. (more…)