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Welcome to Google Trusted Stores

At our company we always try to encourage our clients to include “trust logos” on their sites to help with visitor confidence and higher conversion rates.

As of today, June 7th, 2012 Google just released the Google Trusted Store program for all merchants in the United States.

We wanted to include initial information about the program:

You will have to make sure that:
– You are an online business in the United States
– You are incorporated
– You have all customer service pages onsite (privacy, contact, shipping, terms, clear phone number and email)
– You feel free to submit your shipping and cancellation information to Google
– You have a Google merchant account (Google Base/Shopping Account & Feeds)

Also Google Specifies that you will NOT be able to apply if:
– They are part of marketplace sites and other sites where different stores share a common domain for their store and checkout pages.
– They are unable to add JavaScript to their confirmation pages.
– They are unable to provide daily feeds of shipped and canceled orders.
– They have greater than 50% of total orders shipped without tracking.
– They offer custom and made-to-order products in which average time to ship is greater than 14 days.
– They offer subscription services or future deliveries in which payment is taken in advance.
– They offer direct to store shipments in which customers are not direct recipients of shipment.

Visit Site Google Trusted Store for more information

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Google Browser Size Tool

All web designers today must pay attention to additional aspects such as SEO and conversion data.

See Google Browser Size Tool to get a better idea about what users can actually see without scrolling (numbers ofcourse don’t include less space taken from toolbars and funny browser bars)

Oh, users can only see first row of 3 products without scrolling

Enjoy!

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How to Link MCC to Adwords Certification Company Status

After spending at least an hour on searching what had happened and why my organizational account could not be setup for the link of an MCC account on my Google Certification, i had finally succeeded.

See simple instructions below:

1. Login to Google Account for certification.
2. Go to “my profile” page at https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/?hl=en&pli=1#IndividualProfile
3. Under “Email Address Preference” click on “add email address”
4. Add MCC google account email
5. Go to MCC google account email and login as that email
6. Click on “https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/?hl=en#AddEmailAddress”
7. Approve user on next page
8. Go to MCC accound and get account number on top right hand corner of page xxx-xxx-xxxx
9. Log back in to Certification Google Account
10. Go to https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/?hl=en&pli=1#CompanyAdWords on “Company Tab”
11. Click on “adwords partner status”
12. Click on “link MCC” and enter info

That’s it!

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10 Ways to find content ideas for your SEO efforts

For most of our SEO efforts we have dealt with the need to find ideas for content and writing for our client blogs and websites on a regular basis. We typically prepare monthly tasks for our writers and sometimes it happens that we have trouble with unique fun content to write (especially for those clients that don’t sell space travel and that we have been working with for a long time).

This article will explain a few ideas of how to find new content and a walk-through of a sample website and keywords to showcase how easy it can be.

Website Topic – Ecommerce Site Selling Yoga Mats (we choose this because we do not have a client in this field and it is the first idea that popped up in mind)

Strategy #1 – Using Google AutoSuggest

We would like to begin with a variation of the terms you all learned in preschool, The 5 W’s OR The six W’s and one H’s:
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

Our tip is to take the 6 terms and add to them. For example “who sells …”, “what is a…”, “when is the …”, “why do …”, etc.

Please see real live examples of ideas that we have found:
#1 Why are:

includes: why are yoga mats so expensive, why are yoga mats so thin, why does my yoga mat smell

#2 Why do:

includes: where do i buy a yoga mat, where to buy yoga mat

#3 What is:

includes: what is yoga mat made out of, what is yoga mat material, what size is a yoga mat

#4 How does:

includes: how does a yoga mat help, how long does a yoga mat last, how much does a yoga mat weigh

* NOTE – ofcourse this strategy gives you content ideas for your blog as well as new things to add to your site, products descriptions, reviews, etc.You can go on and on for this.

Strategy #2 – Use Twitter Content Ideas, Suggestions and Funny Topics

Using a quick search for “yoga mats”, https://twitter.com/#!/search/yoga%20mat we have found a few topics to play with:

a. Funny or not, this is your decision: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2012/05/28/every-dog-has-its%E2%80%A6-yoga-mat/
b. “Walking around with a yoga mat is the new borrowing your friends dog.”
c. “Lately there’s been an improvement in my wife’s trustworthiness. Now she even takes her yoga mat when she goes to yoga class.” – Suggested topic learned form this post – “Becoming serious in yoga, invest in a quality mat”
d. “mat cleaning tips” link

Strategy #3 – Google Insights for Search

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=yoga%20mat&cmpt=q – Use Google Insights for information such Country searches and trends.

found sample articles such as
The McRib Sandwich and a Yoga Mat: What Do They Have In Common?
Fangtastic! Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev turns contortionist as she uses Conan O’Brien as a human yoga mat
An 8-months pregnant Lara Dutta on the yoga mat

found terms such as:
best yoga mat
manduka mat
jade yoga mat
yoga towel

DON’T FORGET – to add the search terms and rising searches to your igoogle if you are like me and you load igoogle multiple times a day once you load your browser.

Strategy #4 – Search Social Sites

Compare and get ideas of what works – We typically use reddit, digg and delicious to start with but you can search for both yoga related or any other desired site. Please see a few topics we have found:
– Yoga 30 Day Challenge (Starts Friday 4/20!) Join us!
– Border yoga event stretches boundaries at U.S.-Mexico fence
– Five Reasons You Can Thank Yoga for Better Sex

Strategy #5 – Look at Video Content

Search for ideas of videos that work – for example on youtube.

Use you have come up with ideas for videos, if you don’t have budgets to create videos, search sites like fiverr or craigslist for help with videos.

Strategy #6 – Use customers questions to write content

In addition to updating your FAQ, try to write specific detailed content on your blog about the most frequent emailed questions.

Strategy #7 – Write an annual summary report

Some users love to use the year in their search terms. Try to include the year in your content for the year in review and the upcoming year. We have found that in many cases these terms as much less competitive.

For example – Yoga Mats Reviews 2012 or Upcoming Yoga Mats 2012

Strategy #8 – Use Google Adwords Keywords Tool

This is a pretty obvious tool to use while completing keyword research but finding long tail terms is great for content ideas.

Ideas found: model numbers, coupons (coupon code), personalized, materials (cotton, plastic, bamboo, etc), non slip, thickness, shape (round, rectangle, square?), colors (pink, green, red, etc)

Content from above idea: what are the colors …., what is the best material, …. can a yoga mat be round?

Strategy #9 – Finding Niches from Article Submission Sites

A quick search on ezinearticles shows new topics to read about and learn from including:

– 5 Yoga Mats for an ECO Friendly Practice
– How to choose a yoga mat
– Improve Yoga by Learning How to Clean a Yoga Mat
– What Does an Ashtanga Yoga Mat Provide?

Strategy #10 – Experimental and Photo Galleries

With the entire inventory of products, try to be creative and photo shoot unique products, products together and be creative.

Examples just made up:
– Rainbow yoga class pictures
– Create a quiz for “What does your yoga mat color mean about you”
– Yoga mat kite flying in the air
– Red Carpets photoshop changes at Academy Awards with yoga mats.
Etc Etc.

Hope you loved this article from Astral Web. Also see our Yoga SEO Link List. Share the love and spread this on Twitter, Google + and Facebook.

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Google Search Operators

The following article explains the use of common search operators that work with Google’s search engine.

allinanchor:
Anchor text is text on a web page that serves as the actual link text for another web page. For example, the search “allinanchor: android developer” will return web pages that have links on their own page which include the words android or developer. Do not include any other search operators when using allinanchor:.

allintext:
Starting your search with allintext: will restrict Google results to those which contain your search term in the text of the web page. It is similar to allinanchor:, but doesn’t restrict the results to only web pages with links that match the search terms.

allintitle:
The title of a web page is the text that is displayed at the top of the browser or is the text that populates a certain tab of a browser. Using this search operator will return web pages that contain the search phrase in the title of the web page.

allinurl:
Using the search operator allinurl: will provide results with the words you specify only in the URL of the returned web results. For example, if you query “allinurl: android seo”, you may see the following web page in your results: http://www.promoteseo.com/android.php. URLs frequently use run-together words, but you don’t need to worry about this when using allinurl: because Google will look for your search characters throughout the whole url.

author:
If you include this search operator, Google will restrict Google Groups results to include articles by the author you specify. The author can be a full or partial name or even email address. For example, “android author:john author:doe” will return articles that contain the word “android” with the author John Doe. As another example, “android author:[email protected]” will return articles containing “android” by [email protected]. Google will only search exactly what you specify meaning “author: “John Doe”” (with quotes) will not return articles by Doe, John.

cache:
The search operator cache: allows you to view a Google-cached copy of a given website as opposed to the current version. NOTE: do not include a space between the operator and URL. Google will highlight any terms on the cached site if you include them after the URL. If you search for “cache:www.promoteseo.com/android assault alarm”, you will be taken to the cached version of the site with “assault” and “alarm” highlighted.

define:
Starting your query with “define:” will return definitions from pages on the web for the word that follows. For example, “define: android” returns “(in science fiction) A robot with a human appearance.”

ext:
This is an undocumented alias for filetype:.

filetype:
Including filetype:suffix in your query will restrict results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, (android developer checklist filetype:pdf) will return Adobe pdf files that match the terms “android,” “developer,” and “checklist.” You can broaden your search by using the OR operator (android developer checklist filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc).

group:
Including group: in your search will restrict Google Groups results to newsgroup articles from certain groups. For example, (nexus group:android.developer.bugs) will return results for “nexus” in the group android.developer.bugs. The query (nexus group:android.developer) will return “nexus” results from the group android.developer.

id:
This is an undocumented alias for info:

inanchor:
Including inanchor: in your query will restrict Google results to pages containing the terms that you specify in the links or anchor text of the page. For example, (android inanchor:development) will return pages with links that include “development” and whose page text contains “android.”

info:
The query info:URL will return some information about the particular webpage that you specify. There must be no space between the operator and the URL.

insubject:
Including this operator will restrict articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you specify in the subject. For example, (insubject:”android development”) will return articles that contain the phrase “android development” in the subject. It is equivalent to intitle:.

intext:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the text of the document. For example, (developer intext:”android”) will return documents that mention the word “android” in the text and “developer” anywhere in the document (text or otherwise).

intitle:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the title. For example, developer intitle:android will return documents that mention the word “android” in their title and mention developer in their text.

inurl:
If you include inurl: in your query, Google restricts results to documents containing that word in the URL of the website. For example, (inurl:android site:www.droidforums.com) will return pages on Droidforums.com which contain the term “android” in their URL. If you want to search multiple terms in the URL, just use allinurl:.

link:
The search link:URL shows pages that link to that URL. For example, to find pages that link to Astral Web’s home page, type in (link:www.promoteseo.com). To find links to Astral Web’s home page not on Astral Web’s own site, type (link:www.promoteseo.com -site:www.promoteseo.com).

location:
Including location: in your search on Google News, only articles from the location specified will be returned. For example, (android location:canada) will return articles that match the term “android” from sites in Canada. Two-letter US state abbreviations match individual US states, and two-letter Canadian province abbreviations (like NS for Nova Scotia) also work – although some provinces don’t have many newspapers online, so you may not get many results. Some other two-letter abbreviations – such as UK for the United Kingdom – are also available.

movie:
If you include move: in your query, Google will find move-related information. The possibilities are great for the movie: operator. Examples include searching for a movie from which a quote originates, finding the movie in which “Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball” (movie: Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball), and more.

phonebook:
If you start the query with phonebook:, Google shows all public U.S. residence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify. For example, searching (phonebook: John Doe Los Angeles CA) will return phonebook listings for all named John Doe in Los Angeles, CA.

related:
The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar to the web page you specify. For example, related:www.promoteseo.com will return other websites that deal with search engine optimization (SEO) and other internet services. Don’t include a space between the operator and the term.

site:
If you include this operator, it will restrict Google results to the site or domain you specify. For example, (android site:www.promoteseo.com) will provide all results of “android” on the site specified. You can also specify the domain (android site:gov) which will return all results of “android” on .gov sites. Additionally, you can specify to look everywhere but a specific site (android -site:google.com).

source:
If you include the source: operator, Google News will restrict results to articles from the news source with the ID that you specify. For example, (android source: new york times) will return articles mentioning “android” from the source New York Times.

weather
If you enter a query of the word weather with a city or location name, if Google recognizes the location, it will show forecast for that location. Weather is not an advanced operator like the others that are mentioned here.