1. Set the Right Twitter Name

Just the name, no frills.

One of the most powerful tips for ranking high for your personal or brand name is to carefully craft your Twitter profile name. Not the username, but the name associated with the profile that gets displayed as the page title.

Use the keyword, name or phrase you want to rank for. No other words, characters or icons.

Image via Flickr.

Over time your profile will gain backlinks from yourself and your own website and likely dozens more from Twitter profile directories and applications. An active profile almost always has a shot at ranking on page 1.

2. Fresh Content and Embedding Twitter Updates

One of the latest updates to Google’s search algorithm is rewarding fresh content. Google recently reported they’ve implemented this update which applies to queries posed in a way in which the newest content would be the most beneficial for the searcher.

The latest news and most-recent resources in your industry may be receiving a big traffic boost.

In other news from Google, it has been confirmed that indexing of dynamic content such as AJAX/JavaScript is now live. This includes elements like Twitter status updates widgets and advanced commenting platforms like Disqus and Facebook Comments.

Social media updates are often a source of fresh content, so these two Google updates go hand-in-hand.

3. Sharing for More Than Backlinks

Sharing your content is probably one of the most common, yet most under-utilized SEO techniques. Many website owners believe that there is not any direct SEO benefit to sharing links on Facebook or Twitter because the links are shortened, redirected, and tagged no-follow. What they’ve failed to realize is that SEO is no longer all about backlinks.

Search engines now monitor social media activity and may reward unique and valuable shares. It’s also been confirmed that no-follow links do provide some value.

Be sure to have the latest sharing button embed codes and make use of them to spread your content.

4. Engagement on Google+

The +1 button may not seem like much now, but overtime its value will prove great in terms of SEO. As more people adopt Google+ as their social network of choice, the addition of +1′s and share data will make your search results very attractive.

A page with a lot of recommendations may gain a significant boost within your network as well as friends of friends.

StudioPress has been shared on Google+.

This should encourage you to add new people of interest to your circles to grow your Google+ network. You should also advertise the Google+1 button prominently.

I’d be thrilled if you gave DotSauce Magazine the honor of a recommendation on Google+! The button is at the top right near the newsletter subscription.

5. Learning More About SEO

Likely the most valuable contribution social media provides to SEO is the latest news. Your lists, circles, groups or wall can be an excellent resource for broadening your knowledge on SEO.

Follow industry leading publications and known SEO experts to stay up-to-date on the latest in a constantly evolving industry.

I share SEO and social media marketing updates which inspire and inform me on Twitter @DotSauce and the DotSauce Facebook page. Follow and connect to keep informed.

Thank you for reviewing my tips on leveraging social media for SEO benefit. Please leave a comment below if you would like to contribute one of your own. Best of luck and happy networking.

5 Tips on Using Social for SEO DotSauce Magazine

Google’s official Page Speed announcement reports speed improvements of 25% — 60% on some websites. The service works by routing your DNS requests to Google’s server where they rewrite your website and serve it to visitors faster with optimized CSS, image, text and script compression, caching and other tricks.

[Header image via Flickr]

Is Google’s Page Speed Service really necessary? I’m not convinced it’s for the masses yet because most of these techniques are available freely. However, I’m sure there is a large market for individuals or businesses who are willing to leave website optimization up to Google. It can provide some peace of mind in knowing that all the many best practices for optimization are taken care of for you.

Try It Out

You can see how the Page Speed Service would improve your website performance now at WebPageTest.org.

For now, the service is free for a select number of webmasters who sign up here. Google plans to charge a fee for usage in the near future.

Related Article: Instant Pages: Google Plans to Preload #1 Search Result

My Page Speed Service Results

I ran the DotSauce Magazine homepage through the comparison test. You can view my results here. Google was only able to speed up the site by about 0.1 seconds, a 1% improvement. Not surprising really as I have taken steps to increase website performance manually.

Page Speed Service Comparison

Don’t get me wrong, I did see some benefit to the service. The start-rendering time as reported by the comparison did show a marked improvement. Some images began loading 14.9% faster as you can see in the results, particularly on the visual comparison.

I attribute the already fast load time to optimization techniques and resources recently featured in my article, 12 Tips and New Standards for Optimizing Your Website. I highly recommend you implement most, if not all, of these tips if you haven’t already.

How did Google Page Speed work for your website load time? Would you pay a subscription fee for this service? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

This should prove to be a valuable service that will help boost business by reducing website bounce rate and increasing search rankings.

Google Launches Pay For Page Speed Service DotSauce Magazine

[Header image via Flickr]

Multiple Domains Multiplies Risk

I have a semi-dedicated server that I use to host all of my web properties, domain development projects and many client websites. Before today, my public directory had something like 100 folders representing multiple domains for various websites, mainly WordPress installations.

I found out the hard-way that exploits within a particularly vulnerable script on one directory can lead to complete access of the public_html directory. In my case, a neglected old WordPress installation came back to bite me in the butt. I also discovered a vulnerability within an old PHP-LinkDirectory installation.

It’s something I should of known was possible, but never thought an exploit would be so bad as to lead to this.

The hackers placed code within .htaccess files, redirecting Google bots to spam sites. Normal visitors, including myself were none the wiser as search rankings were taken over. It’s an all-too-common, devious form of hacking that you should be wary of.

Luckily, several observant readers reported that something was awry with my search listings (they are still screwed up) and I was able to contact Google to remove the suspected hacking warning.

Avoiding This Disaster

Nobody should have to go through the experience of losing all their hard-earned search rankings. There are several actions you can and should take to prepare for and avoid a potential hack when using multiple domains on the same host.

1. Move inactive projects to a new folder, hidden below the public_html level
2. Be vigilant and timely about updating all web software
3. Regularly check notices from Google Webmaster Tools
4. Monitor website content changes through a third-party service such as CodeGuard

I’m not too worried as DotSauce Magazine should bounce back in the coming days and weeks.

I would greatly appreciate your support in sharing our content and +1′ing articles to help speed the process along. You can earn rewards like free domain registration through our loyalty program if you do. Try out one of our share buttons to sign-up for free.

Security Vulnerability When Using Multiple Domains On The Same Host DotSauce Magazine

Along with Voice Search for desktop, Google has introduced a brand new concept in search; preloading the webpage of the first search result.

As a user performs a search Google will use web rendering technology to load the webpage of the #1 search result behind the scenes. When the user navigates to the top search result the website has already been loaded and the site renders instantly.

Coming to Chrome Browser Soon

Google’s Amit Singhal states pages load 3 to 5 times faster for the average user. VentureBeat reports the feature is now available on the developer version of Google chrome and will début in the public beta later this week.

It’s obvious Google is committed to a faster search experience, most notably by rewarding websites that are optimized with better search rankings. When Instant Pages goes live the competition for the #1 search position will become much more intense, but the reward will be all the more sweet.

Extremely Beneficial for Website Owners

This is incredible news for website owners, especially those ranking well for many search terms. If you’re not, it’s time to read up on some of the new rules of SEO.

With instant load times, visitors’ time on-site and lead conversions will increase, bounce-rate will be reduced and more unique visitors will be recorded via analytics. Clicking on the top result will become preferential for the average user. Hopefully Google will expand Instant Pages feature to further top results so that more websites can benefit from instant loading times.

You can get some results now, the previous article here on DotSauce features several resources and tips for website optimization that can increase website speed.

Below is a video demonstration and introduction to Instant Pages.

Instant Pages: Google Plans to Preload #1 Search Result DotSauce Magazine

However, SEO publications are far and wide sharing a much different story. They cite Google’s latest search ranking algorithm changes (dubbed the ”Panda” update) as the final blow to exact match domain value for SEO.

The debate came about slowly as search results pages evolved to something completely different than what was seen a few years ago (shown below) and has climaxed in recent weeks.

Aaron Wall of SEO Book Chimes In

One of the leading authorities on SEO, Aaron Wall of SEO Book, has just published a detailed editorial on how Google killed category killer domains.

He has personally stopped buying domains for SEO purposes and points to numerous factors for the decline in category killer domain value.

Here are the major points he writes about:

1. Search engines influence domain valuation
2. Authoritative brands have received a healthy boost
3. Social search provides additional boost to brands
4. Larger and more numerous ads and product listings
5. Localization features may be harmful to GEO longtails
6. Small sites don’t matter
7. Anticipated new gTLDs

These all seem to be fairly reasonable observations in my opinion.

The World’s Not Actually Ending

Please note that Aaron does not believe all domains are doomed. We are talking about exact match domains; that is, keywords or keyword phrases that represent a search string a user would type into Google.

I own dozens of these and still feel that they have great value and potential for other reasons than SEO benefit. So, you don’t need to take this as the literal end of the world. There will still be a thriving liquid market for domains.

Aaron made the following important point when responding to one comment.

“There is plenty of buying budget for domains in the say $50 to $5,000 range, but the main point of this post was that the high-six and low-seven figure domain names are at this point often becoming malinvestments.”

What’s Your Outlook?

Do you think Aaron is right or wrong about these domains?

I’ve posed the following poll question fairly straight-forward in the hopes of getting a balanced result. Please select the answer you feel most accurately predicts the near future of category killer domains.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Thank you for responding to the poll question! Please check back soon for the results and feel free to share your thoughts on the precarious future of exact match domains in the comment area.

Aaron Wall Declares Category Killer Domains Dead: Is He Right? (POLL) DotSauce Magazine

Reyes found that those who have Google Apps setup on their domains are particularly vulnerable to a social engineering exploit. However, any personal or business domain that is allowed to expire may be vulnerable to identity theft. This warning is not necessarily restricted to those using Google Apps.

Being the owner of a domain obviously enables a person to create and use any email addresses, even those that may have been used in the past. With website histories and domain Whois registrant email addresses being archived, there is due cause for concern.

Additionally, expired domains may become a target for identity theft as news leaks out.

[Header photo via Flickr]

Google Apps for Domains Disaster

It is potentially very easy for a would-be criminal to use old email accounts with malicious intent. Reyes has provided us with a first-hand demonstration.

"This Domain Has Already Been Registered With Google Apps"

After verifying ownership of his new domain, Reyes was able to gain access to an existing Google Apps for domains account including stored emails, contacts and calendars. This leads to being able to access more sensitive information such as passwords to social networking accounts, shopping and online banking.

Personal Information Compromised

The Google Security team responded to news of the exploit with a statement that it is important to renew a domain or export your personal information. Google may be updating the domain verification process as a result of the incident.

Two Solutions to Avoiding Identity Theft by Domain

The risk associated with expired domains is so obvious that it is often overlooked. A little common sense goes a long way in protecting yourself.

1. Export and Erase All Personal Information

Before allowing any domain name to expire, erase any email accounts and personal information.

Inform all of your contacts that you will be using a new domain and provide them plenty of notice and follow up reminders to update your contact information and email address.

None of your accounts on other websites should be using email addresses associated with the domain.

2. Renew Your Domain Name Indefinitely

Domains can be registered for a maximum of 10 years. Doing so will put your mind at ease and is also said to give some website authority for SEO purposes.

All domain registrars have the option to register for multiple years or to automatically renew a domain. Be sure to have valid payment information on file. You’ll also want to be sure you are receiving email notices from the registrar. You don’t won’t those renewal reminders getting lost in a spam folder.

It’s also a good practice to use an administrator and registrant email address that is not associated with the domain name. Otherwise, you may be vulnerable to domain theft if your website or email address are hacked.

Take special care of your personal and business domains to keep your identity secure! If you are selling or re-branding, take the proper steps before transferring ownership and seek out a reputable buyer.

Please pass the word along about the security risk associated with letting domains expire.

Security Warning: Expired Domains Vulnerable to Identity Theft DotSauce Magazine

According to Aaron Wall of SEOBook, brand names have been given a boost to ensure doorway pages remain indexed. It has also recently come to light that Social Media directly effects search rankings.

The benefits of using generic domains like RealEstate.com or keyword rich domains such as DomainNameNews.com have been well-known for many years. It’s currently seen as easy by many industry professionals to get a top ranking for desired keywords if your domain name is an exact match of the keyword phrase.

In his latest video update, Google’s head of web spam Matt Cutts hints at the possibility of yet another algorithm change. Google may be reconsidering the weight it provides to keywords in domain names.

…we have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, and some people have complained that we are giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains. So we have been thinking about at adjusting that mix a bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given 2 different domains it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain name with a bunch of keywords in it. – Matt Cutts

Impact on Domain Name Value

Depending on how severely Google “dials back” the value of keyword domain names, we may see a negative effect on keyword domain values. However, quality domain names are increasingly in-demand and good keywords have inherent value beyond an SEO boost.

As quality domains become scarce and appealing new domain extensions are made available, there will always be opportunity for premium quality, short keyword domains. Domain investor Elliot Silver recently chimed in on this discussion with a great point, exact match domains can be brands too.

I suspect that those targeting long-tail keywords with three-word domains and hyphenated domains may find the SEO advantages diminished. Domains with similar content using a brandable domain will have a fair shot at ranking for targeted keywords.

How To Avoid Losing Search Ranking for Keyword Domains

The major advice we keep hearing from Google during updates is to ensure quality content. This image shows a prime example of the kind of flawed search results this algorithm will be targeting.

The domain name “ExpiredDomains.com” simply has a login form and no content, and no keywords in the title. Amazingly, this site ranks well for the term “expired domains.”

If you have developed mini-sites or are using a domain parking service for keyword domains, there may be some trouble on the horizon. I highly recommend beginning development on your best domains using a content management system such as WordPress. Quality content should be the top priority for a competitive website. Blogging is becoming increasingly important to remain visible online.

Relevant and unique content offers the best experience for your visitors and that is ultimately what Google will continually attempt to deliver.

Google May Adjust Keyword Domain Rankings: How To Avoid Getting Dropped DotSauce Magazine

Google is expected to be in the final stages of development and may be showing off a preview at the SXSW conference today. Update: Google has said they will not announce anything. ReadWriteWeb learned from those suspected to be working on the project that it may not be under development currently after-all.

Update Jun 29: Google Circles is now in private beta testing and has been dubbed Google+ (Google Plus). The team was working in stealth mode afterall. Well played. You can view this Google+ demo to get an early look.

[Image: Michael Chen, Circles, February 26, 2006 via Flickr Creative Commons]

Social circles are how our real lives are structured; close friends, family, co-workers, and dozens of special groups and interests.

Where Facebook groups and Twitter lists have failed, Google Circles may be able to rope-in a massive audience of users seeking a more personal, organized network with more freedom of expression.

I originally published this story on my personal website when rumors of Google’s interest in a social network product came about last year. The project name has had several iterations from Google Me to Loop and now I believe it may be finalized as Google Circles.

The lead user experience researcher for Google, Paul Adams published a very interesting presentation (embedded below) that points out the fundamental flaws of Facebook’s social network experience.

Instead of one mass list of friends, our true social networks are segmented into various groups of people. Social groups sound like an excellent idea that would be widely adopted. A little competition will do the social industry good and spur innovation that much faster.

There isn’t anyone better suited to take on Facebook than Google. However, I don’t see what is to stop Facebook from implementing similar grouping features.

I can’t help but cheer on Google Circles as Facebook’s tactics for world domination are continually shown as less than honorable. I also can’t wait to be empowered to share unique and relevant content to many diverse social circles.

Google Circles should prove to be a great communication medium for personal and business networking and marketing. The question is, will you be in or out of the circle? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Google Circles: A Major New Social Network DotSauce Magazine

Google Products can now offer unprecedented insight into what products people want to buy.

Web developers and entrepreneurs should consider consulting Google Instant data for keywords related to their products and services. Alongside the AdWords Keyword tool, Google Instant results rankings and keywords can be useful for both SEO and domain name research.

I am currently focusing on shorter domains (typically two-word), but I know many domain investors are interested in product domains and long-tail keywords for capturing eCommerce traffic. So, I am going to offer the results of my first keyword research experiment with Google Products and share with you how you can find available domains with your own keywords using this method.

Available Domains Found Using Google Products

I was able to find these exact match keyword domains in a relatively short time before writing this article. Several surprising results. You’re welcome to register these domains, but please don’t post this list elsewhere.

1. 3DVideoCameraForSale.com
2. 3DVideoGoggles.com
3. BestTabletNotebook.com
4. BookReaderLight.com
5. DigitalProjectionTV.com
6. DigitalProjectorBulb.com
7. DigitalProjectorsPrice.com
8. RefurbishedDigitalProjector.com
9. TabletNotebookTouchScreen.com
10. TabletPCWithGPS.com
11. ValentinesDayCostume.com
12. ValentinesDayInvitations.com
13. ValentinesDayShoes.com
14. WebsiteMalwareMonitoring.com
15. WirelessHeadphonesWithMic.com

GoDaddy has extended the $7.49 .com special another week if you want to pick one of these up.

How To Extract Keywords from Google Product Searches

You will notice that Google Instant results can not be selected, highlighted or copied because of their AJAX style implementation and constant updates. So, I had to use a little ingenuity to quickly get a keyword list.

I quickly discovered manually typing out the instant results from Google Products was going to be a pain. I thought to take a few image snapshots of keyword search results of interest to save for later. I used MS Office OneNote for screen capturing, but you can use any number of browser extensions to capture an image of a web page.

I then copy and pasted all the results on to one page (you can do this in Paint, Word, OneNote, PhotoShop) and basically combined them to be one image. (Shown below)

This shows 9 searches which yielded the 15 product domains listed above. Of course, I did have to filter out some obvious Trademarked results.

I took the full screenshot of keyword results to a web application called Free OCR that extracts text from images. Surprisingly, the text came out perfectly formated with one result on each line, ready to be pasted into your choice of bulk domain lookup tool. For most bulk domain availability checks you don’t even have to remove the spaces between keywords or add “.com” to the end, it’s automatic.

I hope you are able to find some interesting domains to compliment your business or add to your portfolio. Stay tuned to DotSauce this week for another exciting opportunity involving domain investment and available domains.

Please leave a comment if you found this keyword research method useful or if you would like to share your results.

Google Instant Search for Products: A New Keyword Research Goldmine? DotSauce Magazine

Webmonkey and the official Google blog report that a new release of the Chrome web browser is currently being rolled out. Updates include faster 3d graphics and access to the new app store, which happens to have lots of great apps for web professionals. But what I’m really excited about is the new Chrome Instant feature.

In addition to having Google search results appear instantly while searching in the URL bar, users will be able to begin typing a domain name to have the most relevant website load automatically.

[Header Image: Robert Scoble, Othar introduces Google Instant, Sep 8, 2010 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

Direct Navigation Gets a Speed Boost

The future of direct navigation to your favorite websites is just one or two keystrokes. Users currently need to enable this new feature in Chrome’s Basic settings. (Highlighted below)

Once enabled, you’ll find the fast paced browsing and searching to be very useful. Navigate to your favorite websites instantly, without the aid of your Enter button. This feature is powered by browsing history and Google’s prediction technology.

Some may interpret this change as a shift away from domain name direct navigation, when in actuality it is a very welcome shortcut that utilizes the domain name system. Memorable brands could see a significant increase in website traffic as loyal customers now barely have to think to access websites.

Chrome Instant makes visiting a domain easier than a Google search again. And, of course, it’s easier than finding a Facebook page.

Your Domain As Your Brand

Web developers, entrepreneurs and small businesses owners should work towards using quality domain names. Domains which are concise and catchy, easy to remember, pronounce and spell will benefit from lots of valuable type-in traffic.

A recent study shared by eConsultancy found that just 3% of traffic to eCommerce websites comes from social media, while a staggering 46% comes from brand familiarity. The domain name is a valuable resource for any business and should be a centerpiece of branding efforts.

I believe Chrome Instant will be a popular new browser function and may become a default feature on Google Chrome and other browsers. How do you think Chrome Instant will play out? Do you enjoy the faster browsing experience?

Chrome Instant: Load Websites Automatically While Typing Domain Names DotSauce Magazine

I’m not writing this to get you to convert to Google Chrome, but I am going to tempt you with a collection of amazingly useful new applications and extensions that can be found in the new Chrome Web App Store. Enjoy!

[Image: Ian Manrue, Wrenches, February 28, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.]

Web Development

Window Resizer – Quickly change the size of your actual browser window to see how your website looks at common screen resolutions.

Web Developer Tools – This is identical to the web developer toolbar that is so popular for Firefox users. Featuring an assortment of useful web dev tools.

Development & Code Search – Provides quick access to documentation for popular programming languages.

IE Tab – As the name implies, launch a tab running Internet Explorer inside chrome to see how your website looks for those poor souls.

Sight – Automatically highlights code syntax when source of websites is viewed in the browser.

Pastebin – Quickly store or retrieve text or code from a secure or public location on Pastebin.com

MeasureIt! – Determine the pixel width and height on any element of a page.

Speed Tracer – This official Google plugin really puts your website performance to the test and provides valuable information for improving load times.

csscan – Quickly view the CSS properties of any element on a page.

Blogging

Create Link – Allows you to copy the current page URL and title as a fully formatted HTML hyperlink or customize your own link structure.

SEO SERP – Check the search ranking performance of multiple websites against particular keyword term or phrase.

SEO Site Tools – A comprehensive suite of tools for researching and analyzing SEO and social performance of any website.

Pixlr Grabber – Useful for taking a full or partial screen capture of any website and instantly enables crop and editing.

Word Count – Watch what you’re writing. This app counts the words and characters within a selection.

RSS Subscription – Amazingly, Chrome does not automatically recognize RSS feeds. This application remedies the problem and helps you quickly subscribe to the feed of any blog.

Social Media Marketing

Session Manager – Enables you to save individual sets of tabs to open anytime you want. Use this to quickly open a set of important websites or for repetitive tasks that require multiple windows.

Personalized Web – This powerful application allows you to mold the web to work for you. Modify the code of any site to your liking.

iMacros – Automate repetitive tasks with ease with this advanced application. Record and playback actions to make your PC do the grunt work.

Stay Focused – Limit the amount of time you spend on time-wasting sites or manage your marketing efforts by making sure you cover all the bases before you run out of time.

Proxlet Tweet Filter – An amazing new web application layer for Twitter.com that enables useful features such as filtering your twitter stream, hashtags, and blocking annoying Twitter applications.

Thank you for browsing this list of tools for website development, blogging and social marketing. What are your favorite items from the Chrome Web App store? Let us know which tools you can’t live without.

If you found these Chrome applications useful and know someone else who might, please consider sharing this post.

Chrome Web App Store’s Useful New Tools for Web Developers, Bloggers and Marketers DotSauce Magazine

Credit for the boom is given mainly to a rise in international search volume. The United States is expected to see a 12% yearly growth in total search queries, while international market queries will grow by 19% yearly.

Search advertisements are expected to contribute 70% of the total online ad market in the U.S. this year.

Similar reports are also coming in from eMarketer analysts who are projecting a record breaking increase in ad spending that will top $40 billion in 2014. It is said to be recovering more rapidly than the overall economy.

The graphic below shows an overview of the current paid-search market.

Google’s paid-search network encompasses spending on AdWords, publishers’ sites using AdSense, Google custom search, AdSense for Domains, YouTube and other networks.

The JP Morgan report, entitled Nothing But Net: 2011, also references an interesting third-party study performed by Microsoft’s Atlas Solutions. In the study, comparisons were made between clicks on display ads and clicks on search advertisements. Users who clicked on both display ads and search ads convert 22% better than search alone and 400% better than those who only clicked on display ads.

The effectiveness of search ad campaigns is no longer in question. More big brands and small businesses are expected to flock to search and social advertising in 2011.

Do you think we will begin to see good PPC revenue again for parked domain names? It looks promising as search queries continue to rise. Can we count on Google and other networks to be transparent and pass on a fair share of the revenue? Please share your thoughts in the comments area below.

PPC Expected to Make a Comeback DotSauce Magazine

In one response, Google writes that the number of times an article is shared on Twitter is used as a signal in both organic search rankings and Google News.

Both Bing and Google mention that they calculate some form of social authority for use in live search and limited situations within ordinary web search.

Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz has just published his reaction to the news, describing exactly how social media may impact search engine rankings and SEO strategy.

The SEO metrics of tomorrow may well include social data such as:

• Timing – Is this an automated Tweet or something of more value?
• Diversity – How many people shared this link and are they important?
• Engagement – How many clicks, likes and retweets?
• Social Authority – How many followers and friends?
• Relevance – Sharing randomness or sticking to a topic?

Rand excitedly predicts this may bring about the end of web spam as we know it. How so? Few people will follow or friend a profile that is not authentic or is being used for advertising purposes.

Social media has become an integral part of marketing and is now extending it’s reach into the powerhouses of the web.

For the best chances of success in gaining maximum exposure across Google and Bing, it will become increasingly important to be active on Twitter and Facebook.

Publishers and marketers should make it a goal to grow a large following, add social media buttons to your website and adopt other proven social media strategies.

Have you noticed social media providing a boost to your SEO efforts? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Google and Bing Confirm Social Media Impacts Search Rankings DotSauce Magazine

In this article I will take a look at two promising Blekko features that Google simply can’t and won’t compete with. First, take a look at this video introduction to the new search engine.

Open SEO Data

Being a web developer who tries to keep up with the latest SEO news, I was very interested to see that Blekko has made their SEO data public.

Each search result at Blekko has a dedicated page detailing information on incoming links, domain and host authority, geographic data and more.

Have you ever wondered just why in the world a certain page is ranking highly for a given query? Click the “SEO” link on any Blekko result and take a glimpse at interesting data that would normally have to be pieced together from various SEO tools.

Human Edited: Slashtags

Blekko’s premier feature is a query modifier called slashtags. These are custom made filters added to the end of your search that provide an extra level of refined results.

A directory of slashtags have been created to represent topics. A wide range of slashtags have already been added and users are invited to create their own. Here are some examples:

• /technology - Results filtered to popular tech destinations
• /health - Only known health authority sites are shown
• /movies – Browse just the top movie information sites
• /liberal - No articles from Fox news here

Another set of useful slashtags are also available. Here are some examples:

• /blog – Filters results to only show blog posts.
• /seo – Shows ranking data for any URL or keywords
• /weather – Provides a weather report for your city
• /date – Organizes results by the most recent data

Some slashtags will automatically be appended to certain queries when Blekko editors deem appropriate. It has been reported that results from mass content producer Demand Media are being filtered out in this manner.

This is something that Google could never do as it avoids favoritism and editing of results for legal reasons.

Will Blekko take a piece of the search pie?

I think they should change their silly name as soon as possible, but the technology looks very good. I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more about Blekko as they strive to take a piece of the search market. The good thing is, they don’t have to even come close to Google’s reach to be successful.

Are Blekko slashtags something you would use regularly? How about their public SEO data? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts or pass this article on to someone who may find Blekko interesting.

New Search Engine Makes Ranking Data Public and Slashes Demand Media DotSauce Magazine

The newest release, CoverPad takes the concept one step further with cues from the popular FlipBoard news-reader application.

As seen in the video demonstration below, CoverPad uses CSS/XHTML to make your blog appear like a native iPad application without going through the App store.

Blog media is highlighted and content styled elegantly for readability.

CoverPad websites will have a hidden address bar and features for bookmarking as a home icon and social sharing.

Google TV

TechCrunch declared yesterday that the future of TV is HTML. We will soon see solutions similar to CoverPad for converting WordPress blogs into awesome video portals optimized for Google TV.

I have been hinting at the possibilities for awhile. It’s exciting to think that blogs will be able to effectively compete for the public’s attention in the living room.

If you want to learn about optimizing a website for Google TV right now, start at the official guide and read the latest from the Google blog for more information and examples.

Optimizing Your Website for Mobile, the iPad and Now Your TV DotSauce Magazine

In one very interesting update (shown below), Danny quoted Baris Gultekin, a representative of Google who detailed that 55% of all search queries contain three words or more.

Of these billions of searches, 70% of search queries have no exact match, meaning they are not represented on any website at all.

New search queries are continually being created. Baris Gultekin goes on to say that 20% of searches have not been seen in the past 90 days. So, these queries may not be receiving a high volume of searches, but even a handful per day can provide good value to any website owner by growing overall traffic.

Rise of the Three-word Domains

I have been thinking about what the domain industry might look like a few years from now. There are a few things I believe will change drastically. Firstly, the introduction of new gTLDs will accommodate the exponential growth of the internet. Small businesses will adopt new TLDs for one and two-word brand names.

The other major change will be an abundance of three-word names as viable .Com domain options. There are millions more combinations of words and phrases that can be created. Three-word domains provide the opportunity to create a more detailed description of a business or target a specific niche audience.

Domain investors have been acquiring the best phrases and keyword terms for many years. Thousands of businesses are using three-word domains as brands and more will continue to follow suit.

With the introduction of Google Instant, people are using more keywords.

There is a lot of opportunity to find and acquire three-word domains to develop relevant content. This will provide an extremely competitive edge for ranking highly on Google for your domain keywords. Offer the world what they’re looking for and you will be repaid with significant advertising revenue and leads.

Quick Poll

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Google: 55% of Search Queries Are 3+ Words, 70% Have No Exact Match DotSauce Magazine

In a recent announcement about the AdWords Keyword Tool coming out of beta, Google has finally revealed information which explains the significant decrease in search volume data.

Domainers like to review Global and Local monthly search volume data for expired domain research, aftermarket valuations and more. It’s an excellent resource for getting a first impression of keyword popularity.

Many have been in a state of confusion as to why global monthly and local monthly search volume data rapidly dropped by tens of thousands or more in some cases.

The Google AdWords team explained:

Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners.

Now, it’s not clear whether their search partners were powered by other engines or if they are referring to Google Custom Search implementations which display results on external websites.

It seems a shame to me to lose that extra search data. If it was indeed data from Google Custom Search setup on niche websites that was removed, they could now be significantly undervaluing keyword search volume.

This change is reported to come at the request of advertisers. Big AdWords bidders were likely not seeing the return expected from such high volume numbers. The new data should now accurately represent a potential for traffic from Google.com.

Google Explains Sudden Drop in Global and Local Monthly Search Volume Data DotSauce Magazine

Visit certain applications within Facebook, such as Living Social or browse the Games page and Facebook may send you 25 free credits (a $2.50 value).

Credits can be purchased using credit cards, PayPal and even through your cell phone.

Pretty amazing, right? The story just got much more interesting today.

TechCrunch writes that Google has acquired Jambool for $70 million. Jambool powers virtual economies with a platform called Social Gold.

Google may implement Social Gold into their existing checkout product, their new social platform and Google Me, a social network in-development.

I believe this is a very strong possibility and am sure that both Facebook and Google will be vying to integrate and promote the use of their virtual currencies by as many users as possible.

Facebook has a head-start, but Google seems to be nonchalantly adopting all of their strategies and will have the benefit of learning from any hiccups.

Both social giants should realize that there is use for virtual currency beyond games and virtual goods. Could it be that they are just testing the waters for now, or that governments will not allow these currencies to be used for real-world goods and services?

It’s going to be very interesting to follow as the virtual economies evolve. I believe virtual currency will be a success and am excited about it’s potential impact for the future of online business.

Welcome to The Age of Virtual Currency DotSauce Magazine

Metaweb has built a smarter, more connected internet by classifying all persons, places and things under a unique ID they call an entity.

This video introduction does a good job explaining the concept and how Metaweb could bring great content to site owners.

I learned of all this at the Official Google blog today and am a little troubled by the tone of the announcement. I have lots of questions.

Will this optimistic outlook of Metaweb as a service to web developers change as they merge into Google?

Will these cool widgets ever see the light of your monitor?

Google has been increasingly adding content alongside search results in recent years. They have already taken over the traffic and attention of numerous industries and niches such as travel arrangements, business listings, definitions, product comparison and even the news.

Now Google hopes to enable a smarter search where people can go beyond text.

Looking for a college? You may search like this in the near future…

• [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000]

What’s going on in San Jose tonight?

• [events in San Jose]

There is far reaching opportunity for Google to use Metaweb to provide great answers without a user ever leaving their domain. This is what worries me. How much content will they take for themselves and will websites suffer for it with dwindling traffic numbers?

Metaweb’s data is hosted on a separately branded community site called Freebase. I tried to sign up, but registrations are currently closed.

Google does mention that Freebase (all that data from Metaweb) will remain open to the public. So, you should definitely check it out and support the cause. There is also a wiki for Freebase developer tools.

A free and open database for the world’s knowledge sounds like a phenomenal resource for business and web development. I can imagine countless new applications connected to this data and the social web.

Update: The following video is an astounding Freebase search project called Parallax. It is a new way to explore data and integrate it simultaneously from multiple Metaweb data sources.

While I’m still playing the conspiracy theorist (it’s all this UFO buzz), I believe Freebase may cut into web traffic of some individuals and businesses. Google started something similar with Knol a few years ago; I’m not sure how well it’s doing now.

Popular destinations like WikiPedia, IMDB and who knows what else may soon have smart competition with a major home-field advantage.

Regardless of how it turns out, I respect Google for bringing innovative web ideas to fruition. I hope they continue to recognize their users are creating great content and personal answers that deserve to be found.

Google Breaks Into the Content Business in a Spectacular Way DotSauce Magazine

We will be using a simple browser tool and a cool new web application, but will leave the most important tasks to your experienced eye.

Round up your good keyword domains, set some reasonable prices (show a little empathy) and get ready to make some sales.

1. Search Google for your domain’s keywords and other highly relevant keywords

The most ideal potential end users will come from using your exact match keywords. Take the keywords from your domain and search for them using quotations.

To use the domain I’m marketing now as an example, for GrowLettuce,com I searched for the phrases “grow lettuce”, how to grow lettuce and grow lettuce indoors.

2. Take note of the results and paid advertisers and select the best potential leads

You will want to avoid some corporations and informational portals like Wikipedia in preference of individuals or businesses. Scan for individuals with an inferior domain on the same topic and businesses that sell products and services related to your domain.

Don’t stop on page 1. The people who need your domain the most will likely be found deeper within search results.

3. Open each lead in your browser and use the DomainTools bookmarklet

This simple tool gives you 1-click access to a site owner’s contact information. Simply drag the link to your browser toolbar in a convientent location and click it while  viewing a potential lead’s website.

Bookmarklet: DomainTools (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)

You can find this and other useful browser bookmarklets here on DotSauce.

4. Create an account with Tout, a new email marketing app

I’ve was recently introduced to the Tout app and have really enjoyed my experience with it so far. Tout allows you to create email templates for any messages you would like to send out.

Here is a quick video demonstration showing what Tout can do:

When you’re ready to start sending out emails, click “Pitch” and enter the recipients name and email address.

Tout Premium services enable you to track the performance of your templates by logging email open rates and click through data.

5. Setup a unique email template for each domain sale

I initially created a generic template for all domain sales, but found that composing a new template for each domain would yield the best results. Take a moment to customize the message, include your domains’ keywords and the domain itself.

Here is an example of a template I have setup for a domain:

I would love to get your thoughts on this technique. If you have any suggestions for automating domain sales marketing, improving this method, or if you try it out yourself please let me know by leaving a comment below.

How To Automate End User Domain Sales Marketing DotSauce Magazine

Google has made several big announcements at it’s I/O developer conference. Among them are a web app store, a font API to make the web more beautiful, and now Google TV may soon be a seriously popular destination for browsing the web and consuming video content.

Here is a brief explanation and demo of Google TV:

Will .TV Domains Be In High Demand?

While I personally do not own any .TV domains, I have a feeling the .TV brand is going to get a lot of exposure this year.

Thousands of websites may be interested in creating their own media channel optimized for Google TV. Of course a .TV domain is not required, but makes clear sense to use in this setting and may provide a more memorable branding option.

Please take a moment to respond to the poll question:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Get Your Own Media Channel Started

.TV domains can be registered at GoDaddy for $39.99 per year.

Web Developers interested in getting a head-start will want to read this guide for designing websites optimized for Google TV.

Google TV will certainly not be limited to just video. Images, text and interactive features will need to be carefully placed to ensure a pleasant user experience.

Google TV Coming This Fall: Will .TV Domains Be In High Demand? DotSauce Magazine

Many search optimization professionals (and enthusiasts) are essentially freaking out and lamenting as if all their efforts to rank highly for certain keywords will be thwarted. In some cases, this may be true.

Here is a brief video introduction to personalized search by Google.

A Step Closer to Search Perfection

This is an innovative change for the general public to gain accurate results. I feel that legitimate business websites, well optimized blogs and organic content will begin to reap the benefits of personalized results soon as well.

Why will this be good? This search history data that Google is collecting is more powerful than we can readily imagine. They will use the nationwide collective data in the future to improve their algorithm, deliver further optimized results and put quality content at the top.

So, if you put in the hard work to deliver great content, network with your industry to gain authority links (which may now be more important) you will be rewarded by Google and indirectly by those who find their way to you through Google.

Another perk may be that spammers, keyword stuffers, obscure minisites or made for AdSense sites may become a thing of the past as the trickle of traffic they do get from Google grinds to a halt.

For more information on privacy issues, opting out and how Google is making sure to keep results diverse despite personalization, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has published a nice writeup for further reading on the topic.

Turning It Off For Research Sake

Web developers, domainers, marketers, and SEO professionals may want to consider turning off personalization. Sacrificing your own customized search results to get a more accurate representation of keyword research and where your own sites rank.

Alternatively, you could use a third party service like Authority Labs to monitor your rankings on Google as well as Bing and Yahoo.

What are your thoughts? Will you be turning off personalized results? Comments are always open.

Google Personalized Search Results Now Live for Everyone DotSauce Magazine

Oddly enough though, the majority of SEO responsibility is placed within the hands of third-party WordPress theme developers as well as yourself, the site owner.

Some theme designers may not be familiar with SEO best practices, so you should take some time to examine your site for any ways to improve it’s effectiveness on search ranking performance.

I’ve come up with several common WordPress SEO mistakes that I see day in and day out. I hope you can use these tips to improve your blog or website!

1. Bloated Title Tag and Abandoned Post Titles

One of the simplest concepts goes overlooked on even the best of blogs. The title tag is essential for ranking well on search engines.  Consider looking into the effectiveness of the way your title tag is currently displayed on search results.

The following method has proven to work wonders for me in getting posts to rank well on Google.

How To Optimize Your Titles

Luckily, this is a fairly simple, but important issue to correct. The code below will feature only the title of your post as the title tag of the page.

With a few simple statements in your WordPress header.php file you can make sure that titles on all posts and pages are properly formatted. Replace your current <title> tag with this code:

<?php if ( is_home() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_search() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Search Results</title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_single() ) { ?><title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_page() ) { ?><title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_category() ) { ?><title><?php single_cat_title(); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_archive() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Archive</title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_month() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Archive</title><?php } ?>

If you must have your website name in the title of every post, then place the most condensed version of your name after the post title separated by a simple, search-friendly dash.

2. Lack of Relevant Keywords and Phrases

Repeating the same keyword or phrase over and over again will eventually hurt your rankings as search engines will recognize this as “keyword stuffing.” It’s a bad idea for usability as well, you don’t want to bore visitors.

Adding supporting keywords keeps content fresh and readable. This practice may show search engines that you have been doing your homework and deserve to be listed as a credible resource for a specific subject.

How to Find Keywords

As mentioned in the previous article here on DotSauce, the new Google AdWords Keyword Tool (Beta) has just been released. This is just one of many great tools for finding complimentary keywords and phrases to use for blog articles.

We’ve also featured SEO Blogger, a free keyword suggestion tool for Firefox. This tool opens up as a sidebar and suggests keywords as you write posts!

3. Disregarding the NoFollow Link Attribute

Love it or hate it, the nofollow tag is helpful for publishers to direct mindless search engine indexing robots to your most important content.

How to Use NoFollow

It is very important not to abuse this link attribute. Slapping a nofollow tag on every external link is not the way to go about it. Here are some basic guidelines on when to use nofollow.

• Use nofollow for external links to large sites that don’t influence your own or are not directly related to the content on your website. (Examples: Twitter.com, Facebook.com).
• Use nofollow for internal links that lead to pages you don’t want to appear in search results.
• Use nofollow on affiliate links and advertising banners, unless otherwise requested by sponsor.
• Use nofollow on untrusted blog commentors.
• Use nofollow when linking to an external video, image or other downloadable file.

4. No Sitemap or Ping Notification to Search Engines

A sitemap is a cleanly defined list of every post and page on your website. Search engines use sitemaps to quickly and efficiently find and index all of your content.

Unfortunately, WordPress does not come packaged with a site-map solution. There is some good news though! This is one of the easiest mistakes to fix.

How to Create a Sitemap

Simply visit your WordPress admin, search for and install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. You will find there are options to exclude certain categories, posts, and pages that you don’t want indexed.

This plugin will also ping search engines whenever your website is updated with a new post.

5. Not Adding Images in Posts

Yes, just one simple image can have search ranking benefits and I’m not talking about appearing in image search. Adding images is one of the most valuable things you can do for a blog post.

Take note, virtually all of the best online publications and blogs include images in their posts.

Your readers will love the accompanying graphic and will be much more inclined to read the post, share and potentially link to the post.

How To Properly Add Images

WordPress takes care of uploading media and clean image markup. So, you just have to take the initiative! Spend just a few minutes finding a cool image, crop and re-size it to fit nicely above or alongside your content.

Check out the WP Smush.it plugin to compress image file sizes on the fly.

Be sure to include 2-4 keywords that are related to your article and image as the ALT attribute of your image. This may get your original images indexed within image search.

6. Improper Anchor Text for Internal Links

Sometimes we have to trade off search engine value with usability, as is the case with most “Home” links. Website owners don’t won’t to rank for the keyword “Home” but it is good practice for usability.

Using proper keywords as link anchor text is important as it reinforces the keyword or phrase you want to rank for.

How To Format Links Correctly

Identify the root keyword phrase of the page you are linking to.  Check Google Analytics often to stay on top of what keywords are driving traffic to your articles. You will want to reinforce rankings that are doing well by using those exact keywords as anchor text for the article.

For example, a post entitled “55 Active RSS Directories to Help Promote Your RSS Feeds!” would benefit from using the keywords that are sending traffic to that article (i.e. RSS Directories). This is much better than using the entire article title as anchor text.

Make sure the links are readable within the context of use in an article. Users clicking through is ultimately more important than search ranking.

That’s all for now!

Know of any other common WordPress SEO mistakes? We’d love to hear your tips or success stories. What works for you? Comments are always open. Thanks for reading.

Common WordPress SEO Mistakes and How To Fix Them DotSauce Magazine

The AdWords team have rolled out a completely overhauled keyword suggestion research tool. Smooth user interface and updates make using the new tool a much better experience.

In this article I will share some alternative uses for the AdWords Keyword Tool and run down the new features in this beta release.

Accessing the Beta Keyword Tool

To access the new beta AdWords Keyword Tool login to adwords.google.com, click the “Opportunities” tab,  find the current Keyword Tool link and then click the (beta) link.

The general purpose of this tool has always been to help advertisers find relevant, popular keywords.

As it turns out, the AdWords Keyword Tool is pretty useful for publishers and developers to get a  glimpse at this data for various reasons.

7 Alternative Uses of Google AdWords Keyword Tool

• Cover all the bases of a specific niche.
• Discover areas of interest to publish content about.
• View what phrases are trending or becoming extinct.
• Improve keyword optimization on your website.
• Target untapped, low competition keywords.
• Find complementary keywords for articles to boost ranking.
• Find exact match available domain names to purchase.

New Keyword Tool Beta Features

The new AdWords tool enables you to search by keywords and a URL simultaneously. Additionally you can filter or browse results from popular defined categories found in the sidebar.

Also new in this beta release is the ability to search broad matches (the original standard) as well as Exact Match and Phrase Match keywords.

Once your searches are complete and you’re satisfied with keywords you see you can download all data for each keyword result or the entire table and let further research begin.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool (Beta) DotSauce Magazine

Gizmodo reports that Google has reserved 1 million new phone numbers from Level 3 communications.

An article by Adam Mills of the Charlotte Examiner points out this twitter update by one of the Google Voice Founders who states they are working 24/7 to get it released!

Just What is Google Voice?

Using VoIP technology (this means any mobile device, even your iPod), users will be able to route all their phone calls from any mobile device as well as send and manage SMS text and voice mail through one central web based location.

Google Voice will also feature all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a Google app, like these examples…

• Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
• Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails
• Conference calling – Join people into a single call
• Call record – Record calls and store them online
• GOOG-411 – Check directory assistance
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring

Goodbye Phone Contracts. Hello VoIP!

The outlook is bleak for the phone carriers of today. VoIP and WiFi hot spots will soon replace these ghastly cell contracts and finally open the mobile web to the masses.

SecondLife virtual world has generated over 15 billion minutes in free online voice calls in just under 2 years and wildly popular Skype has reportedly played host to 200 billion minutes in it’s 6 years in operation.

Here is a quick video demo of some Google Voice iPhone features in action.

Will There Be A Google Voice Phone Number Land Rush?

This could be an opportunity to pick up an awesome phone number for your online business!

You can sign up to receive an email alert when Google Voice goes live at the Voice home page.

Since signing up will require a unique Google account to claim a Voice phone number, I think this phone number rush will be comparable to the recent Facebook username rush.  (Where I scored facebook.com/MarkFulton!)

It is also likely that you will not be able to choose the digits of your phone number, but who knows? We’ll have to wait and see!

I will be looking out for the launch announcement email, you may want to do the same and tell your friends and associates.

Google Voice Launching Any Day Now: Be Ready to Reserve Your Phone Number! DotSauce Magazine

Just what does Authority Labs really do?

The service allows you to monitor your domain names for search engine rankings of specific keywords or search terms of your choice.

Once you set a domain name and define the search terms you want to track, Authority Labs goes to work monitoring your ranking for those terms. There are options to be updated via email alerts and you can view charts to track your performance over time.

Monitor One Website for Free

You can give this service a go for free through a promotional free trial account. You can monitor one domain and 10 search terms.  Simply visit the Authority Labs website to sign up.

There is also a Personal Plan which is $9 per month to monitor 3 domains, though the beauty of this service may lie in the fact that it’s scalable, allowing paying customers to monitor many many more websites with ease.

Why Bother?

Monitoring search rankings can beneficial for numerous reasons. For one, it can help you visualize the progress you are making, especially if you are just getting started!

Keeping tabs on those rankings can help you discover where your traffic is coming from and try to repeat that success.

Do you track your search rankings? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Monitor Google, Yahoo and Bing Rankings for Free with Authority Labs DotSauce Magazine

There have been some great developments this week, interesting article guides, editorials and even big announcements from Microsoft and Google!

Let’s face it, nobody can really keep up with all of the news and articles surrounding the domain and internet industry and I’m sure all you guys who were at TRAFFIC missed some things. I monitor and share this stuff actively and I still manage to miss some of the news myself.

So, for your convenience, I have compiled below what I feel are the most valuable and important articles on domaining from the previous work week.

Domain Buzz – Monday June 1st through Friday June 5th

Whizzbang’s Blog – The PPC Industry: “For the first time ever Google posted a down-turn in earnings which is remarkable for a number of reasons…“

The Domains – Congress Calls ICANN Out On Finances: “Florida Republican Cliff Stearns called ICANN out on its finances , noting that the last balance sheet the nonprofit group showed a $7 million surplus.“

DNW – Congress Beats Up ICANN, 3 Part Series: “members of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet took turns ripping into Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its President/CEO Paul Twomey.“

The Domains – Verizon Testifies To Congress Against New gTLD’s: “in front of the House Energy and Commerce Internet Subcommittee panel, which is holding hearings on ICANN, that new gTLD’s shouldn’t be allowed unless there is a proven market demand“

DN Journal – Final Day Photos and Highlights from the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “We have already seen one blockbuster sale, DiamondRings.com at €162,000 ($230,179 at today’s exchange rate). In a solid ccTLD sale, Houses.co.uk just went for €51,000 ($72,429).“

TechCrunch – The Dot Coms Are Booming Again (Domain Registrations, That Is): “VeriSign has just put out its quarterly report on the web domain industry stating that there are now just about 183 million domain names in existence. This represents a 3% increase from last quarter and a 12% increase from last year.” Full VeriSign PDF report here.

DNN – Targeted TRAFFIC ccTLDs 2009 Live Auction Results

INC. Magazine – Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business?: “Choosing the right domain name is crucial to helping potential customers find you — with shorter, simpler, intuitive descriptive names ending in dot-com considered better.“

DNN – Dan Warner Sails From Dark Blue Sea: “Dan Warner, one of the most public faces of Dark Blue Sea has left his position as COO of DBS (parent company of Fabulous.com).“

DomainNews – President of CCIA will be keynote speaker at Domain Roundtable Conference: “Domain Roundtable Conference in Washington ,D.C. will start this month and will have as a keynote speaker Edward Black, President & CEO of Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).”

Google – Page Speed Firefox Addon: “Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.”

DotSauce – SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging: “Matt recently gave a presentation on the subject of SEO and blogging at WordCamp San Francisco and has been kind enough to share his presentation with everyone.“

DNJournal – Wednesday Photos & Highlights from T.R.A.F.F.I.C Amsterdam Including Kevin Ham’s Keynote: “With one day still to go I can tell you this has been an exceptionally informative and entertaining conference.“

DotSauce – POLL: Do You Buy Expired Domains?: “The nature of a domain registration will continue to provide virtually infinite opportunity for domainers, simply because of the fact that names expire.“

DotSauce – Hot New Domainer Resources Coming This Summer to DotSauce: “new Domaining Directory will feature comprehensive industry resources, tools and contacts. It is currently in early stages of development but is already an industry first.“

Rick Schwartz – It’s a DEAL! Candy.com (Sells for $3M). And the Buyer is…: “G&J Holdings, LLC today announced the purchase and acquisition of the web domain Candy.Com and the development of a new internet based confections retailer“

LLLL.com – Marketing — Are Domain Companies doing all they can do?: “9Domain Marketplaces should) have a link on your homepage which showed the last hundred or even the last thousand sales on your site? Would that not give potential buyers more confidence in making a purchase?“

DNJournal – Photos & Highlights From the First Full Day of Business at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “Internet Commerce Association President Jeremiah Johnson spoke about new threats facing domain owners, including efforts being undertaken by trademark interests to have the UDRP process replaced with a new system“

WannaDevelop – Exact Match Keyword Domains – Most Important Investment for Online Business: “Lots of opportunities for people who do get it to capitalize on this. Big time! Lots of opportunities for “domainers” and the collectors of quality exact match domains that are two to three keywords long…“

Domainvestors.tv – Do You Know Your Visitors? Why Analytics is Key to Monetization: “Analytics is an often overlooked part of the website development process but potentially the most important step in the long-term monetization of a site.”

eBusinessDomains – Bing Is Now Live – Microsoft Launches New Search Engine: “Microsoft has unexpectedly launched their new search engine ahead of schedule. Bing.com is the new face of search and will replace Live.com“

DNJournal – DN Journal’s First Report from Amsterdam: “The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs conference gets underway tonight in Amsterdam, Holland.“

Hope you enjoyed the Domain Buzz round up for the week! Have a great weekend.

If I missed anything feel free to leave a comment below.

Domain Buzz – This Week in Domaining DotSauce Magazine

The presentation is titled, “Straight from Google: What You Need to Know” and provides excellent advice and insight from Google on optimizing WordPress for search engine ranking.

Please browse through the slides and read the highlights below the presentation. Update: Video is here to accompany slide, enjoy!

Matt has also provided a link to download the presentation in PowerPoint format.

Highlight Slides from the Presentation

• Slide #12: Use WordPress to get a head start!
• Slide #13: Basic but essential WordPress Plugins.
• Slide #21: SEO Tip – Choosing content keywords.
• Slides #22-#23: Ask yourself, “What will my visitors type?”
• Slide #26: Tweak your titles, URLs and content.
• Slide #27: Use keywords as categories and use dashes between words.
• Slide #29: Be passionate, write often, but don’t over do it.
• Slide #34: Be useful, creative and informative.
• Slides #36-#39: Use Google’s free Webmaster Tools to optimize.
• Slide #46: Save the Internet! Support net neutrality.
• Slide #48: WordPress Security – Block access to wp-admin with htaccess.

Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

As you can see, this presentation was a wealth of information, thanks Matt!

Pass it along to your fellow bloggers and developers!

If you have any questions or additions to the topic of SEO and blogging, the comments area is always open.

SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging DotSauce Magazine

Can we transform a simple GMail account into the workings of a domainer pro?

Sometimes you may feel like you need to quickly scan through a newsletter so that you can clean out your inbox for the day, when you would rather read it completely at a more convenient time.  This method may be a fix to that problem and save you time and frustration later.

GMail Filters can store all your newsletters and information under a common easy-to-search and find label.

GMail Labels also allow you to manage alot more information than you would usually be comfortable taking in.

2 Step Process for Filtering and Labeling Newsletters

Step 1. After you subscribe and begin receiving newsletters, immediately create a label and filter for each one. See Newsletter Suggestions below.

Step 2. Choose display features like skipping the inbox (handy for those daily newsletters) or placing a star icon. Then of course you create your label name. See Label Suggestions below.

A Label For Everything and Everything in It’s Label

Here are some Label suggestions to help keep all the various aspects of the domain business in order.

• Available Domains
• Domains For Sale
• Domain Publications
• Blog Newsletters
• Affiliate Sales
• Domain Tools Alerts
• Domain Registration
• Domain Renewals

You can create more detailed labels for virtually any type of email you will be receiving regularly.  Perhaps a label for your clients, advertisers, domain deals, payments sent, Registrant Alerts, Twitter followers, Google Alerts, etc.

Bonus Label Makeover Treatment

You can style your various labels so that you can easily recognize your favorite newsletters and emails as they arrive.

On to the Goods! Quality Domain Industry Newsletters

Here are some newsletter and information suggestions to get you started.  There is a vast amount of valuable information that can be delivered right to your email inbox.

• Available Domains
  • DotSauce Available Domains Newsletter
  • AvailableDomainNames.com
  • DailyDomainDrop.com
  • FreshAvails.com
• Domains For Sale
  • AQDN – Affordable Quality Domain Names
  • Rick Latona Domain Deals
  • name.com Brokerage
  • BuyDomains
  • Sedo Highlights
• Domain Publications
  • DotSauce Magazine Articles
    
  • DNJournal MonthlyNewsletter
  • Domaining.com Daily Newsletter
  • DomainNameNews.com
• Blog Newsletters
  • Chef Patrick
  • Domainvestors.tv
  • Elliot’s Blog
  • Domain Name Wire

Now you’ve got a constant eye on the domain industry that you can watch at your own pace!

There are plenty more blogs which may offer email newsletters.  Please feel free to comment and suggest more resources that can be delivered through email. I will only add to the list if they are well established and provide some sort of value.

Carpe Nomen ~ Seize the Name!

How to Use GMail Filters and Labels to Become a Domainer Pro DotSauce Magazine

Many domainers, bloggers and marketers currently use affiliate marketing as supplemental income… earning a few hundred bucks a month to pay some bills.  But, did you know there are many affiliate marketing millionaires, earning thousands weekly by promoting other businesses products and services?

It’s true, and John Reese, founder of this powerful affiliate resource website is one of them.

What’s Inside Opportunity.com?

John’s Opportunity.com has a dedicated staff of people keeping tabs on all aspects of the affiliate marketing industry.

There is an extensive directory of offers from the top networks available.  They show you what offers are hot that you should be promoting and what’s not.

They even will have market research experts tracking buzz from popular Google searches and other trends.

New to Affiliate Marketing?

Opportunity.com makes earning money as an affiliate so simple!  You will find checklists, blueprints, video tutorials and other materials created to get you started ASAP.

This could be one of the best business investments you ever make.  Here’s why…

• Run Part-Time Or Full-Time
• Run From Anywhere
• No Inventory To Keep
• No Products To Ship
• No Payments To Collect
• No Customer Support
• No Recruiting
• HUGE EARNING POTENTIAL

The service is reported to be just $39.95 per month, a steal of a deal for all the commisions they will have you earning!

Opportunity.com Knocks! Affiliate Marketing Powerhouse Goes Live DotSauce Magazine