I might admit to being a bit of a Google “fan girl,” but in fairness, they’ve recently rolled out two exciting new features, one for your mail and one for your searching/research.

Gmail Priority Mail

I’ve had the opportunity to play around with this new setup quite a bit and do find it easier to manage my inbox; primarily, I find it easier to pick out the things I want to trash in an instant. It may seem a little backward, but it helps tremendously: I log into my Gmail account and the first section I have set up is of “Important and unread” emails, the second section is of “Important” emails, the third of “Unread” emails, and “Everything else” is in the final section of my inbox. I pay most attention to the first and third sections because I immediately read the emails in the first section and almost always trash the things in the third.

For example, I subscribe to emails from a number of clothing, electronics, and office supplies stores so that I can see what sales and new products are being offered. But since I don’t need to purchase these items every single week—and since funds would dry up very quickly if I tried—I delete most of these emails before even reading them. With “normal” Gmail (as though it’s taboo to use “normal” programs), I had to sift through a mess of emails to find those that were unwanted, but with Priority Mail, I move straight into the “Unread [and Unimportant]” email section and go to town with the delete button! Similarly, I now see emails from friends and family, as well as those from my banks as soon as I log into Gmail. In the “Important and unread” section, they’re bold and marked with yellow tags, so I can’t miss them.

We can probably assume that it will be five years before Microsoft latches onto this kind of automatic organization/prioritization for Outlook, but I can’t wait until Mozilla can incorporate this into Thunderbird. And yes, I enjoy picking on giant corporations

Instant Google Search

Thought your Google searches were pretty fast, eh? Just yesterday, Google unveiled the new Google Instant, which hasn’t hit everyone just yet—but you’ll see it soon enough. WBAL points out that small businesses could be stung if instant results hit too quickly on major brands, but honestly, unless someone types into the search box “small business that manufactures shoes,” they’re always more likely to see Nike and Adidas before they’ll see the start-up.

With Google Instant, you’ll see something similar to the way Google used to fill in the search box with queries that it assumed you’d be looking for, but now it won’t stop and refresh every second or two. Instead, the suggestions will change instantly with each letter you type.

What’s even better is that the entire page of search results is just as instant. The “News for…” section, the “Images/Videos for…” section, the “Sponsored Links” on both the mid-section and the right, everything changes in the blink of an eye to match whatever you seem to be typing. As Google puts it, you don’t want search-as-you-type, “you really want search-before-you-type.”

You should be saving 2-5 seconds with every search you run on Google, so over the course of the rest of your life, you’ll save a good chunk of time.

How have these tools helped you in day-to-day business, or how will they affect you?

Dare I make a joke about getting your money’s worth out of these two? Yes, they’re free as always. Powerful tools at no cost. So how have they helped you shave time off of the monotony to allow for more productivity and/or more fun?! If you haven’t experienced the new toys, then how do you suspect they’ll help in the future? Maybe you do a lot of research throughout the day, or maybe you just get a lot of emails… Whatever the case, leave a comment for us below!

Catch up on Trends by reading parts one (starting out with Google Trends) and two (diving into more details) of the series.  Google Trends is a fascinating tool for helping you pinpoint keywords for SEO (search engine optimization) of your website.

Exporting your Google Trends data

Exporting is quite easy, though understanding what you’ve exported may not seem as simple. By clicking the small blue plus sign to the left of “Export this page as a CSV file” (under the subregions/cities/languages sections), you can choose to export your .csv file with relative or fixed scaling. A .cvs file can be opened with Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, Google Docs, or another spreadsheet application.

When working with email newsletters for clients, we export to .csv files so that the names, email addresses and other information are easy for clients to sort. So you may see these files more often than with Google Trends.

For right now, we’ll say you want to see the “fixed scaling” report because it is likely easier to read. Your browser should have automatically downloaded a small file called “trends.csv,” so go ahead and open that.

Understanding standard deviation

One of the first things you may notice about the chart is that for each search term, there is one column labeled with the term and one labeled as “std error” (indeed, I might call an STD an error, but this is a little different). This oddball column is to account for “standard error” or “standard deviation,” which in layman’s terms means “plus or minus.” So you see that for a particular week, one search term has a ranking of .6 on your scale and a standard error of 2%. This means that the position given to the term during this week of .6 is accurate +/- 2% of that .6. Generally speaking—and for our sake of finding some keywords to use—the standard deviation will not be important.

Reading the “fixed scaling” Trends report

The information in the “fixed scaling” report is generally based on information from January of 2004, and the 1.00 mark doesn’t change with time as it does with relative scaling; therefore, you can trace the numbers and compare them to one another. These numbers still don’t look like much, though. Putting them in a graph (in Excel, select the data and select “Insert -> Line Graph”) will make it all much easier to read. Ideally, you don’t even need the graph to include the standard error columns because seeing the minor changes in standard error over time is even less useful to us than is seeing the percentages for standard error. Again, because this is fixed scaling, you can certainly look down the line and see precisely how it’s been moving over the course of your selected time period.

Putting your SEO keywords into practice

After you’ve run as many keywords and phrases in as many ways possible, take some time to figure out how you should proceed with your website and other marketing. Quite possibly, the things you assumed were the best descriptions of your work or company are not being searched nearly as often as the more simplistic versions. The people who are looking for you are doing so because they don’t know your field—they don’t know the industry buzzwords or what your work is technically called. If they did, they wouldn’t need you.

For my company, we’re more technically web developers because the additional programming that we do behind the scenes is what sets us apart from others who only do design work. But who would really assume that they need a web developer? Thus, my results are quite predictable. Similarly, for entrepreneurs who haven’t yet realized that they need a website or for those who aren’t sure how to start, I broaden our keywords to include things like “starting business” and of course “small business.”

Your own results with these keywords

Do you have any revelations to share since playing around with Google Trends? Have you found from your website statistics that people are hitting your website based on certain keywords that you didn’t expect to see? Did you at least find this three-part series on using Trends helpful? Leave a comment below!

Has your brain been wracked enough yet? Well either way, it’s time for round two! If you haven’t, be sure you read part 1 of “Google Trends helps you reach your target market” to get caught up – we’re looking at this very useful, free tool and how it helps us get past the first step of finding keywords for our websites. Let’s jump right in…

Your keywords in the news

Beneath the graph that we were looking at last week, the Search Volume Index Graph, is the News Reference Volume graph. This graph isn’t scaled the same way that the Search Volume graph is; so while you don’t need to look as deeply into this one, you do need to remember to switch modes when looking at either one. Instead of using relative comparisons for plotting the lines, the News Reference Volume graph simply shows you when there was an increase or a decrease in the number of news stories about your keywords. Notice that there are no numbers on the axes of this graph and that it follows the time frame you have selected. In my case, December 2009 saw the largest decrease in the number of news stories about web design and May 2010 saw the largest increase in the number of news stories about web design.

What the news is saying about you

Maybe they aren’t talking about you, but if you look to the right of the two graphs, you see a list of news headlines with their sources and publish dates. This is in no way a conclusive list of news headlines, as A) these correspond only to points in time when Google picked up on a notable spike in related news stories, and B) these particular stories have been drawn at random from all related stories published around the specific point in time. For example: In early October 2009, there was a spike in news stories about web design, so Google Trends marked it with the flag B. This happens to be at a time when there was a relative increase in the number of general searched on “web design.”

My guess in this case is that the two are hardly related. The news story that was automatically picked from that time period is about a script that allows Ubuntu users to use Mozilla Firefox. Ubuntu isn’t really a news-maker and the script allowing Ubuntu to run Firefox probably wouldn’t have led the masses to search for web designers. Just a guess

Similarly, news flag D happens to mark a point when searches on “web design” began to decline (relative to the entire year). A news story about a web design company creating 40 jobs when Americans are struggling to find jobs is likely not the cause of the decline, so it’s safe to say that this randomly chosen news article is not quite indicative of the time. As you see, you don’t need to live by this news section of Google Trends.

You can click on “More news results” under that list to be taken to Google News, where Google will have already searched your keywords for all the news that has been published about them.

Where in the world…

Where are these people who are looking for you? And do you need to learn some quick Russian to be able to get a hold of them? Look below the graphs and news section and you’ll see sections for subregions, cities and languages. Google explains this one best: “Google Trends uses IP address information from our server logs to make a best guess about where queries originated. Language information is determined by the language version of the Google site where the search originated.”

It’s possible that these results won’t be 100% accurate, as “Trends” is using its best guess, but it may be helpful to look into these results. To determine top-ranking regions and cities, Google Trends divides the number of searches on your keyword from each region by the total number of searched from the region. So if there are X number of searches coming out of Las Vegas, NV, and Y number of them are on “web design,” then Google Trends works out the math in Y/X and ranks Las Vegas among other cities using the same math each time.

What do you think so far?

Now that you know a little more about this powerful, free Google tool, see what kinds of information you can glean from all of these aspects and how the information can help you. If you’d like some additional insight or more help with the tool, leave a comment here or email me (jayme@lymelightwebs.com). And if you’ve come up with astounding information or other helpful tips, comment below!

Next up, we’ll export our data and analyze it to find the right set of keywords.

Today’s post is more of a how-to, designed to help you familiarize yourself with a neat Google tool that will guide you toward an answer to the question:  ”Knowing that I can rank better in search engines by writing about the things people are searching for, how do I find out what the heck they’re searching for?!”

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts put in full-time hours to conquer the intricate aspects of optimization for their clients, so while there is no definitive answer, there is Google Trends.  ”Trends” lets you search up to five terms at a time, and from there, it draws a line graph to compare how often those terms are searched by Google users.  It breaks the information down into which geographical areas are searching for those terms most, and it also points out a few online news headlines that were running during the specified period of time.

I’ll run through what Google Trends does and then explain how this can help you.

Search Query / Queries

Upon opening the Google Trends home page, you’ll still feel right at home with the Google logo atop a standard search box and some gibberish at the bottom of the page (the categories are self-explanatory).  Start by typing two search phrases into the box, keeping in mind what you think your potential customers are looking for.  I’m looking to first compare “web design” with “web development.”  Click “Search Trends.”

Settings / Filters

Before diving into the results, it’s important to look at the light blue bar stretching across the top.  My recommendation is to limit your search by region to “United States” and by time period to anything less than the pre-filled “All Years.”  I’m going with the past 12 months.  After the page reloads, a subregion field becomes available so you can also choose a specific state.  For instance, if you’re an architecture design firm that only operates within Arizona, then you’ll want to choose the subregion of Arizona.

Search Results: Line Graph

Note that you need to be signed into your Google account to view the numbers or to export the data.  The one thing to bear in mind when looking at the line graph is that it is relative, so all changes in the slopes of the lines are based on the average of the ‘baseline’ search query during the specified period of time  (I’ll explain).  The numbers on the graph represent the mathematical relativity, moreso than the actual number of searches.

So in my example, “web design” is my first term and is therefore the ‘baseline’ term, situated around the 1.00 mark; the results for “web development” will be relative to the results for “web design.”  I can now see that people have been statistically five times more likely to search “web design” than “web development” because the latter scored merely a .20, compared to the former’s score of 1.00.

This part will seem even more baffling, but remember that the entire graph is based on relativity.  Each line fluctuates according to changes from the average for the specified period of time.  In my example, to say that fewer people searched for “web design” in December 2009 than in January 2010 is not exactly what’s read from the graph.  Rather, December 2009 saw far fewer of these searches than was average for all of the past twelve months, and January 2010 saw a slight increase in the number of these searches for this time period.  I can still assume that more people were looking for web design in January than in December, but the actual drop/incline is relative to the year’s average.

Now I know that I can relax more during the holiday season because people won’t be looking for me (they’ll be looking for sales)

You can change which term becomes the ‘baseline’ using the drop-down under the graph.  By making “web development” the baseline, you can see more easily how relativity is working.  ”Web development” is now ranked 1.00, and “web design” is suddenly ranked 5.10 because “Trends” is still showing us that people have been five times more likely to search “web design” than “web development.”

Play around with the chart alone for now, trying out different words and phrases that relate to your business in a way that others’ may be thinking.  Ask the people around you:  ”If you were in the market for _________, what words or phrases would you be using to search online?”  You may be surprised at the names and comparisons people come up with in their searching, especially if you’re selling a service.  Another tip:  Use keywords that are problem-based, not solution-based.  People are going to jump online and tell Google about their problems because they don’t always know what solutions exist.  You want to come up in the search results as being the solution they need, no matter how they go about searching for you.

Bear this in mind as we now move on to part 2! You can also jump to part 3 for exporting your data.

I’ve watched several clips and have read plenty of reviews on Apple’s new iPad, which hits the streets on April 3rd. TechCrunch shared an image comparing the iPad to a rock, and engadget posted a review of disappointment with a video of an uncooperative iPad and its lack of features.  Naturally, my initial take on an Entrepreneur article titled “How the iPad Will Change the Way You Do Business” was a wary one.  My foremost thought when checking out reviews of the iPad was that business owners are not going to waste their precious time and money on something that seems downright incomplete.  But Allen Moon, the author of the Entrepreneur article actually makes a solid argument – one that I’m even willing to share.

If you’re already familiar with the iPad, you’d might as well skip the first section of the article; Moon briefly describes the iPad’s resemblance to the iPhone and its pitfalls.  He then explains that those who are middle-aged and older will find the iPad easier to work with than a ‘traditional’ laptop, that those who travel or want to shut their kids up will find its portability useful, and that students will start getting more and more of their textbooks as iPad e-books.
Read the rest of this entry »

Most small business owners don’t have time to work on the search engine optimization (SEO) of their website on their own.  There’s a lot to account for and look into, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to start.  It can, however, be very rewarding to see your site among the first that Google and other search engines present to people looking for your products and skills.  By the same token, LymeLight as a website design and development firm does not do SEO, per se.  The most basic aspects of SEO are built into the website and we can work with you on those if you know what you want.  Beyond URLs, tags and titles, you’ll want to have someone else – whether you do it yourself or hire someone to work with us – lay out a solid SEO plan.  A piece from HTML Goodies mentions that people rely very heavily on search engines to show them what they want to find. As vital as your website is to your company, and as vital as Google is to your potential customers and clients, it’ll be worth the time and/or money.

With that said, Entrepreneur magazine just published an excellent article on what you can do to formulate an SEO plan for your website and what questions you can ask an SEO ‘expert’ who is likely charging a pretty penny for their work.  You can probably imagine what people are “googling” when you would want them to find you, so we’ll work with you to develop keyword-driven titles, tags and descriptions.

LymeLight prides itself on not cutting corners and finding the most effective and most efficient way of getting your website in front of the people you want to attract and turning those leads into customers.  Even a custom $600 website from LymeLight is loaded with SEO possibilities, so don’t forget to bring it up!