Future Google Chrome +1 Extension – Does this mean social SEO??

Google leaked a pretty interesting browser extension (possibly accidental) in a televised Google Chrome commercial yesterday. In the commercial, there is a short glimpse of a button no one has ever seen in the top part of the user’s chrome browser. It is seemingly a way to rank pages in a social manner with Google, similarly to facebook like/share, tweeting a page or stumbling a page through stumbleupon.

Since I am always thinking SEO, I started thinking about SEO and how the button could effect SEO (since Google is the number one search engine and used site on the Internet).

This extension has a lot of potential for SEO in which is also necessary to have a proper setting for the Online Safety for your Business. With these kind of statistics, Google could start attempting all sorts of unique new search result strategies. For example, user specific search results. What if everyone’s search results were different? With this kind of data, they could use the statistics to manage such a feat. Or what if these rankings became part of their search engine algorithm, adding a social tie-in to how you get to the top of search results?

What do these possibilities mean? Get social online if you want to compete online. Social networking is changing the Internet. It will not be going away anytime soon.

GPM Web Solutions offers management of your social networking or SEO needs. Contact us today to talk more.

Smart Social Networking – Bad Tweet of the Week

Osama is dead! Yay!!!! The announcement of Osama’s death marked a landmark not only for America, but for social networking and its greatness. One look at the below chart from an article on wired.com about the twitter record Osama’s takedown set should make you go “WHOAAAAA” (TPS stands for tweets per second).

So social networking is huge. Social networking can help spread your marketing reach in ways unfathomable 20 years ago. But more exposure can means more chances to make mistakes.

The phrase “all publicity is good publicity” is stupid. Take the following tweets after Osama’s death announcement from Rashard Mendenhall (Running Back for the Pittsburgh Steelers).

Ocean Springs “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…”
http://thewoodlandretreat.com/?feed=comments-rss2 “@dkeller23 We’ll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style”

I don’t get how anyone could call this publicity good publicity. Fans are angry at him, and his career is going to be marred as that crazy NFL player who thinks 9/11 was a conspiracy. So maybe he went up on the small minority of America who thinks 9/11 was a conspiracy, but at the same time he went down (and way down) in the eyes of the majority of people in America who hold 9/11 close to their heart as a tragic moment in American history.

So stupid tweet Rashard Mendenhall. Any customer of GPM Web Solutions is encouraged to use social networking to help their business. At the same time, don’t let social networking hurt you (I like using the phrase “social not-working” for situations like these). Keep the offensive and idiotic opinions at home.

QR codes – Your Code, Your Content

QR codes can be useful for helping the web presence of your business. Sending users to a webpage via smart phone QR codes apps, it can be very useful for marketing. Not only through traditional advertising, but also through video tutorials, funny videos to associate with your business, interactive user web contests, and any other web idea you see fit for your business now using pay check template tools to help growth.

A great part of QR codes is how the code will never be outdated. You can print the code on 10,000 packages and decide at anytime to change what happens when a person follows that code. This flexibility is because the code just tells smartphone apps what url to send a user to. Being a web developer, I know how simple it is to swap out the content of a web page.

Because of this flexibility, we offer QR code management programs. Do you want your QR codes to change depending on the season of the year? Do you want the page to play “Imagine” by John Lennon on the anniversary of his death? Whatever you want, we will manage and change for you.

Contact us today to discuss QR codes and a practical web solution for your business.

Ecommerce Solutions – Expand To New Markets

Having a website for your business is important. In order to run a smart business, it is a necessity just like using tools to handle payroll services. But what if you sell a good? Is it necessary for you to have a full store set up on your site so you can sell your good directly from your site?

There are tons of ways to sell your product through sites on the Internet. Examples of these would be Etsy or Ebay. They are great for selling your product, and I highly suggest using these sites. The logic behind using the Internet to sell your good is simple: Why not expand to as many markets as possible?

But what about on your site? Is it necessary to have a personal store?

In addition to using the Ebay’s and Etsy’s of the world, you should give people the ability to purchase your product for your site in a store. First, Ebay and Etsy charge a fee. Whatever you would sell on your personal site goes straight to your pocket as opposed to paying the Ebay or Etsy fee. More revenue is good for business and in the long run an on-site store should be a profit gainer.

The increased revenue is nice, but there is an even better reason. Giving your customers a more professional perception of your business. If you have a business card, it would be nice to display a link to your online store. If this was just an Etsy profile page, this may not look professional to interested buyers. Having it all on your site devoted to your product line makes it seem way more legitimate.

An added benefit is that you can completely control the way the public sees your business through your site. Through Ebay or Etsy, they would just see you and a whole bunch of competitors with just prices and products. Exposing your clients to competitors this easily is pretty ill-advised in any business.

When advising a business on their Ecommerce solution, I always suggest exposing yourself to every avenue. Put your products up on Ebay or Etsy or both, but also have it on your site. The reason being, Ebay or Etsy may send you customers you wouldn’t of received otherwise. At the same time, adding a store to your site ensures you that you can direct interested customers to a site that is professional and devoted to you; not you and a bunch of competitors.

We offer training sessions on how to use sites like Ebay or Etsy in addition to our on-site Ecommerce product. Contact us to discuss web development for your business today!

QR Codes – The Web End is Simple

I’ve had potential customers ask me about making QR codes. They have been getting a lot of buzz lately, even in the local newspaper. Here is an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about them.

The first time I was asked about QR codes, I honestly didn’t really know what they were. Then when I was shown one, I immediately replied “yeah, I can make that”. This is because I noticed all QR codes do is send you to a url link. From a web developers viewpoint, all that is necessary is creating the webpage that you wish your QR code to take people to. That and going to one of the thousands of QR code generating sites out there.

QR codes have a great use for advertising and specifically for sending people to video tutorials for a specific product. Say your business creates shelves but delivers it in parts to customers to put together on their own. QR codes could be used to send customers to a video tutorial on how to make the shelf they just purchased. Pretty neat in my opinion!