“Why isn’t my website listed in Google?”

The answer to this question is straight forward (kind of not really) and I will quote from the Google Webmaster tools site for specific information.

You need a website.
Google is in the business of organizing relevant information and delivering relevant results to the people making the searches.  Forwarding a domain name to a network marketing, candle/travel business, anything else that is scam will not be indexed.

Once you build an actual website you have to make sure to include a few key components.

• Title – If you don’t have a proper title that references the keyword you want to be relevant in  – well how would you expect Google to list you? Would a book publisher release a book without a title?
• Text – Make sure you have relevant text (information) that is in regards to the keywords you are targeting. Google can’t read your big ugly images, annoying flash, random iFrames, etc. For added benefit you can make sure the text is actually unique and uhh…. relevant.
• Links – You can’t expect the Googlebot to find all your pages if you make it difficult to jump from one page to another from within your own site. Make it easy for your surfers, make it easy for Google, and you will be rewarded.

Google specifically says this: “Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page. In addition, we process information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes. Googlebot can process many, but not all, content types. For example, we cannot process the content of some rich media files or dynamic pages.”

Did you call Google and invite them to play?
Submit your domain name to Google so they know your website is up and ready to play the search engine game. You can do this at the following address: http://www.google.com/addurl/.

Become relevant enough to crawl?
You can provide a website with a title, great coding, and even some original text but Google might still not locate your site. The only way to ensure your listing is seen is to make sure other peers, relevant peers (people already in Google), link to your website.

Ready for the quick fix?

• Create a website (if it is not already made)
• Give it some titles
• Submit to Google
• Have friends and other sites in your keyword range link to your site

Now your listed in Google!

My first point, as was pointed out by New York Times columnist Dave Pogue in his article about  the iPad, is that it is not a laptop.  His main contention and that of the techie world is that it is not a  device that is equipped to create stuff well.  This is true, so from a business owner’s perspective of this being a useful tool for creating documents, well it simply isn’t as efficient as a laptop.  However, having said that, the iPad’s utility is not in its creative processes, which it might develop down the road, but its utility as a media consumption device.  Dave Pogue in his article goes on to say that “it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it {media} — books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one.” This is where the iPad’s usefulness to the online business owner comes in to play, they have a new way to connect with their audience.  Portability is king, and most consumers who are referred to online business are told about said businesses while out on the road.  Many of them will turn immediately to their mobile devices, lest they quickly forget the referral.  You the online business owner now have access to one of trendiest new online media consumption devices out there.

My second point is that the iPad will bring in new audiences to the internet.  In the concluding statements of David Pogue’s article he states that “The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.”  It is this statement that should bring hope and excitement to the online business owner!  They have the new potential to reach audiences that they had not been able to reach before, and perhaps even open up new marketing strategies to route traffic to their site.  As Aldus Huxley’s book is entitled “A Brave New World,” so it is in the dawn of the iPad.

So if you are a business owner and you are thinking about future market segments, one cannot overlook the iPad as a gateway to new lands.  Does it have its drawbacks from a geek’s perspective? Sure, but the masses who are going to buy the iPad aren’t geeks.  They are average joes like you and I, who will fall in love with the iPad for its cool looks and ease of use factors.  So as an online business owner embrace the iPad and think about how you want your website to embrace these technologies.  With already 300,000 plus sold in the opening weekend, it is a sure bet that the iPad will be carving its niche in the online world in the days to come.  Wouldn’t you like a piece of that action too?

When I first started playing around with website design I used the little page counter to track visits.  At the time that was the best metric I could get about whether my website was generating interest or not.  If I were to use an analogy at this point I would say the original counter is like the invention of the wheel, and Google Analytics was the invention of the modern car! Google, being the swell company they are, envisioned a data mining application that would allow the business owner, blogger, or web designer the ability to finally monitor all sorts of data sets.  Now instead of a little counter, there is a whole dashboard with an assortment of data to go through.  For instance not only can I get a precise visitor count, but I can receive important information about those visitors.  I can see what part of the world they are coming from, if that is not enough one can drilldown two further levels to see not only the country or state, but what specific city. One can also see unique visitors versus returning visitors and what pages they tend to look at, and for what duration.

Google Analytics

Knowing about your visitor is nice, but what about how they got there to begin with?  Google Analytics also accounts for what words, sites, and engines brought your visitor to your door step.  As a further metric you can even see what page they tend to land on and exit from on your website.  Do you want to know if they are using a computer or mobile device?  No problem!  Google will give you that information as well!

To list every feature of the amazing tool that Google Analytics is would be far too time consuming, but needless to say it is worth checking out.  What does it mean to you the consumer?  It means that you don’t have to take shots in the dark as to what’s working and not working for your site.  With a click of a button one can see how their website is performing and where they could stand to do better.  So if you are a business owner, web designer, or blogger installing Google Analytics is the best move you could make in understanding your place in the online marketplace and how you could carve yourself a bigger slice of that market.