I saw this and just had to take a photo. 0 comments

Firefox Shortcuts: Many people still type out the whole URL in a browser ("w, w, w, andreas, ., com"). There's a faster way: type just the domain name (e.g., andreas), hold down the Control key, and press Enter. The browser automatically adds the www. and the .com part (this also works in Microsoft IE).

If you hold down Shift, you get .net and if you hold down Ctrl+Shift, it adds .org in Firefox. 0 comments

Analytics: Two years ago, people asked us "why should we use analytics?" This year, analytics has become the main tool in SEO/PPC. It answers two questions: "What are visitors doing?" and "What can I do about it?", namely, how you make changes to get more conversions, leads, and sales. An improved Google Analytics came out in the spring; if you have a website, add Google Analytics. It's free and it's good. In the new book, we'll show you how to configure and use it.
Analytics tools don't just track PPC conversions; they can track all conversions: SEO, links, banners, email, etc., including offline conversions (newspaper coupons, radio ads, TV, etc). You see what works; you improve it. What doesn't work, you shut off.
Stephanie has agency-certification with Clicktracks Analytics, plus she can install and configure WebTrends and Omniture. We are in the process of getting agency certification with Omniture.
There is also the Web Analytics Association. Stephanie is on the Exams and Certification Committee. She is writing the exam questions. 0 comments

SEO Book: 3rd Ed.: We're writing the next edition of our SEO/PPC book. Last week, we signed with McGraw-Hill. They are launching a new series and our book will be part of this. The new book comes out in summer 2008 in all major bookstores in Europe, North America, and Asia. Visit our current book at Insider-SEO.com 1 comments

Add Forms to Your Website: Do you have forms on your website? Do you want a form to collect registrations, contacts, etc.? Forms are much easier now. No more programming. Several companies have created tools that allow you to put forms on your web pages. Create the form with their editor and add a line of JavaScript on your page. I set up this up for a client a few weeks ago. It took five minutes. No more CGI! It can validate email address, telephone number, etc. Web-Form-Buddy.com ($40 per year). 0 comments

RSS Readers: Do you follow multiple blogs or news sites? You need an RSS Reader. It's much easier. See my FAQ about RSS readers 0 comments

Green Energy: In Palo Alto, we can switch to renewable energy sources (solar and wind). This increases my electric bill by a mere 66 cents per month. If you can, switch to renewable energy. By supporting this, it becomes more viable and we can all switch over sooner. 0 comments

How to Allow Comments at Your Website: Lev Walkin, an engineer at Cisco, wrote this for his wife. She wanted to allow visitors to add comments to her website. The result is a simple: just add a line of JavaScript to your website and your visitors can write comments. You can also assign star-ratings (visitors can vote on products, pages, pixs, items, etc), vote in polls, or write reviews. All of this increases visitor participation. There's also a dashboard, where you can view all the comments at your site (and moderate/delete) and see usage statistics. The tools are free and if you can copy and paste, you can add this to your website so you'll have the tools that the big Web 2.0 social networking sites are using. I've added a number of these at andreas.com. Visit JS-Kit.com 0 comments

There's a comet in the skies. It's very easy to see. I went out and found it right away. You can see it without a telescope. With binoculars, you see a big fuzzball about the size of the moon. Here's a map: How to find Comet Holmes 0 comments

andreas.com = $12 million? An analyst writes that each unique user on Facebook is worth $300, thus Facebook has a $15 billion dollar valuation. If that's true, then andreas.com is worth $12m. And my cat's page is worth $105,000. But c'mon, we know that isn't real. The analysts are exaggerating Facebook's numbers to drive up the value to make money on the IPO. 0 comments

Google Analytics finally turned on Site Search. This lets you track what your visitors are searching in your website's internal search (you do have an internal search box, no?). Various studies show that visitors who use internal search will convert 3X more than other visitors. So... add internal search and turn on Site Search (Here's how...) 0 comments

"Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature." 0 comments