Go Google: 20 Ways to Reach More Customers and Build Revenue with Google Business Tools

Product Description

Google is not only the search engine of choice for millions of users, it is an immensely powerful tool for savvy businesspeople who know how to use its advanced features. Go Google is a comprehensive guide to everything readers need to know about Google’s myriad applications, including Google Apps, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google SMS, Google Base, and other services that will help businesses get organized -- and get noticed. Companies will learn how to get their message heard and take their marketing to a new level by:

* Creating and strengthening their business websites with Google Page Creator, Google Analytics, and Google Checkout.

* Improving communication with clients and co-workers using Google Talk, Google SMS, and Google Groups.

* Marketing themselves to prospective customers using Google AdWords, AdSense, and Google directory placement.

* Improving their visibility by creating business blogs with Blogger.

Complete with information on research tools like Google Local, Google News, and Google Alerts, this is the ultimate guide for businesses of every size.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #918340 in Books
* Published on: 2008-01-02
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 356 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Holden (Chicago, IL) has written more than 30 books on computers and the Internet, including Starting an Online Business for Dummies , Selling Beyond eBay (978-0-8144-7349-8), and How to Do Everything with Your eBay Business. He is founder and owner of Stylus Media, his own small Internet-based business.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Learning from Google:

A 21st-Century Model for

Success

You know what Google is. At least, you think you know Google. Chances are you

associate Google with being among the most successful high-tech businesses in the

world, as well as being the most popular search service on the World Wide Web. And

you have probably heard ‘‘google’’ used as a verb, meaning ‘‘to search for or find

something online,’’ as in: ‘‘I Googled my professor and found his home page . . . I

Gmailed him my report.’’ (Gmail is Google’s email service; you’ll hear quite a bit

about it in the pages that follow.) If that’s all you think of when you hear the word

‘‘Google,’’ you’re missing the latest Internet revolution. What you can learn from this

book will improve your life immeasurably, especially if your goals are to work more

efficiently and to do a better job of marketing yourself or your company.

What’s So Great About Google?

Back in 1996, two graduate students started their own Web-based search service,

which they called BackRub. By 1998, the project had gained a lot of attention, secured

some investors, and turned into a corporation called Google—a Web site that

made specific Web pages, discussion groups, or even individual words and phrases

easy to locate. In recent years, Google has expanded its services for businesses in a

dramatic way. Its Gmail and AdWords services are now in widespread use. For example,

Google offers scheduling, word processing, spreadsheet, email, and other applications

both separately and as part of an umbrella package called Google Apps. These

days, Google is also an increasingly popular solution for small businesses that need

to increase their visibility and build their brand. Google is fast becoming the most

affordable and effective marketing venue for businesses.

Through its expansion into the business services space, Google itself provides you

with a role model that you can follow as you develop your own business online. It all

starts when you create a service that gives you a solid foundation. After a steady

stream of customers are knocking at your virtual door, you can expand into new

areas. Google can help you make that exciting move.

This book will give you comprehensive descriptions of the site’s search engine,

advertising, marketing, workflow, and communications features. Not only that, but

you’ll be provided with tips on how they can best meet your needs. Google’s search

tool and other services can help businesses get organized and on the same page,

often for little or no cost. The new Google Apps will let businesses take their online

communications and data sharing to a new level. This book will examine ways in

which businesses like yours can communicate messages and make Web sites more

visible to prospective customers; it will go a step beyond what has previously been

said about Google to describe how clients and coworkers can use it to communicate

with one another more effectively.

These days, Google is much more than a directory of the Web’s contents. It’s on

the verge of becoming an integral part of many small business operations. Google is

itself a model for a 21st-century business. You can learn a great deal about how a

successful company operates by reading the sections that follow.

Googling Google: Researching an Internet Success Story

Plenty of books have written about Google and how it started. In a nutshell, the

business was founded by two men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who first met in late

1995 when they were graduate students at the University of Michigan. They spent a

lot of time and programming effort to come up with a complex algorithm for finding

content on the Web with amazing accuracy.

It should come as no surprise that the best way to find out about Google is to

Google the company history yourself. If you enter the search terms Google History on

the home page (http://www.google.com), you will see that the first returned result is

a link to Google Corporate Information: Google Milestones (http://www.google.com/

corporate/history.html). This will reveal a comprehensive and up-to-date timeline detailing

the company’s achievements. Here you will find personal anecdotes from and

biographies of Larry and Sergey (who are shown below), as well as a detailed history

of their company’s humble beginnings and remarkable growth. Don’t be afraid of being

bored. You won’t be. It’s all told with the straightforward and laid-back style that have

become synonymous with the name Google.

For more information, you can also scroll down to the bottom of any page on the

Google website and click on the link labeled About Google (http://www.google.com/

about.html). This will take you to a map of all of the products, services, and support

features that Google offers, as well as provide links to more corporate information.

The ‘‘take away’’ point here is that Google succeeds by providing a service that

everyone wants and needs: access to information and links to virtually any kind of

online content.

Information Sells

What’s the first lesson you learn from Google’s story? Having identified a need that

is shared by each one of the millions of individuals who go online every day, Brin

and Page stuck to their core business and kept improving it. They spent many years

building their company, slowly focusing on the basic activity of searching for content

on the Web. Only when that process became widely accepted did they begin to sell

ads that would appear alongside search results pages. Only after several years did the

company go public. Only recently hav

Get to the Top on Google: Search Engine Optimization and Website Promotion Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search Engine Rankings - and

Product Description

Written in a clear, non-technical, style by a leading expert in SEO (search engine optimization), GTTTOG explains techniques and strategies proven to return higher search engine rankings and sales. It addresses all aspects of search engine marketing and includes an assessment of the impact of Web 2.0 on Internet search strategies.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #19325 in Books
* Published on: 2008-05-01
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 240 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"David Viney's book pulls off the difficult trick of both being comprehensible to beginners and offering a level of comprehensive (and up to date) detail that will appeal to older hands. It's divided into seven steps that broadly follow the timeline of an SEO campaign, with some useful case studies. Put simply, this book delivers what it promises." -- .NET Magazine, August, 2008

The information in this very specific book can help you increase the effectiveness of your Web efforts and gain better visibility among the Web search results on Google and other search engines. David Viney shares his expertise in Search Engine Optimization and provides useful detail on the topic. Have you wondered if you need professional input in this area? Read here to find out how expert guidance, copywriting, site design and Web master services can supplement your efforts, and boost your visibility and sales. Viney explains how to assess your current results. He tells you how to make sure your Web page appears among search results in productive positions, but he doesn't overpromise about what you can accomplish. Much of his information is quite detailed and technical, but relatively accessible and applicable -- The Press-Enterprise, June 30, 2008

From the Publisher
Search Expert, David Viney, provides his top 5 tips to improve the search ranking of your business.

Court the Crawl
Don't bother with paid search engine submission services; they're now obsolete. If you have at least one link from another website, the search engine spiders will list you eventually. 90% of the market is controlled by the big 4 (Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com).

More important today is that all your pages carry the right weight (on Google, called "PageRank"). Make your site structure like a tree; the home page is the trunk, your categories the branches and the pages the leaves. Make your tree (a) symmetrical rather than lopsided, and (b) don't have too many branch levels before you reach the leaves. Less is more!

Find Phrases the Pay
What do you want to be top on Google for? Don't limit your ambitions to being top for the name of your business, but target instead searchers looking generally for services you offer.

The key is to research the popularity and competition for each search phrase. As an example, did you know that people search for "rugs" four times more often than "carpets", but that carpets features on twice as many pages? There are a number of keyword analysis tools on the web that help you find these "phrases that pay".

Target the Long Tail
Some phrases, like "mp3 player" are very competitive! Try targeting the longer phrases, as demand for these falls more slowly than supply!

For example, ranking well for "ski chalet Chamonix child care" is likely to be easier than "ski accommodation France" (and get more conversions)

Prime your Pages
The best-known part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is SEO copywriting, the art of writing content that both humans and search engines love.

Realize every part of the page is read by the spider, including the full URL (or page address).

The most important page elements are the page title, the full URL and the page headings.

Remember 3 rules; (a) prominence, (b) proximity and (c) density. Put your keywords nearer the front of a text block, keep them together and make sure they appear often.

Landing the Links
The Google algorithm gets tweaked often but retains a simple principle; sites that get mentioned often by others (on a topic) will rank better on that topic! You need links from other sites in (a) quantity, (b) quality and (c) containing the keywords or phrases that you want to be top for.

If you write great content, others will naturally find it and link to it over time, but you can speed this along through listing on directories, forum participation, article submission, online press release publication, and exchanging links with other webmasters. KEY FACTS Do not doubt the size of the prize on offer; It has never been as vital to top the search engines as it is today! 40% The U-Switch forecast for the percentage of all sales online by 2020. 90% Percentage of site visits that originate from the top four search engines 80% The Market Share of Google on most industry measures 84% Of users never go beyond the bottom of page two of the Google results 65% The percentage of users who never click on sponsored (or paid) ads

From the Back Cover
The vast majority of searchers never make it past page two of Google or click on sponsored listings, so being at the top of the standard search results can literally transform your business. Having your site in the top 10 is like having a store near the entrance of the largest shopping mall in history, while if you're outside the top 20 you could experience the frustration of an empty shop with few visitors and poor conversion rates.


Search engine optimization (or SEO for short) involves making it easy for search engines to find your website and boosting your position in their rankings. Get to the Top on Google is the first book to address all aspects of search engine marketing comprehensively through a simple, seven-step methodology, tried and tested with clients small and large, including Amazon and Microsoft. Designed to be accessible for the beginner but comprehensive enough for the skilled marketer, the book is illustrated with global case studies and covers emerging ideas in Web 2.0, local search optimization and the future of search itself.


Discover how to attract searchers with the phrases that pay, how to court the crawl of the Google spiders, tips for copywriting and link building, how to target the long tail, and techniques for tracking and fine-tuning your campaign to make more money online. This book could be the best investment you ever make in your website and your business.
Customer Reviews

Style over Substance2
I have to admit I had another SEO book in my hands at the bookstore and picked this one because the cover mimicked Google's homepage logo so well. I figured the majority of my clicks would come from Google so a book that resembled their homepage design was probably a good bet. I thought the author surely had to be vetted by Google to be allowed to use their Logo. I was wrong. Also the fact the author appears to be from the UK based on his site address is a bit of a concern for me as a US marketer.

I will admit there is useful content here, but I was just expecting more from someone who touts themselves as "The SEO expert". Maybe the truth is that SEO is really not that hard. Then again as with many things in life they are not that hard but just take dedication, because their are no shortcuts in SEO.

I do agree with his first tip for success however, that you should "Find a great niche and great content". I'd think twice before making this my first SEO book, but it is probably worth skimming through.

Good book but has to much self promotion for my liking.4
Good book but has to much self promotion for my liking. The book has some useful tips that could be helpful but you get the feeling that its almost an advertisement for his company, but not a bad read overall.

seo garbage, bought for employee3
was hoping for basic book to explain things to new employee. however it was typical SEO garbage.

The Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines: A Handbook for the Serious Searcher by Randolph Hock

Product Description

Finding the best engine for a specific Web search used to be hit or miss. Now the major search engines' special features and strengths and weaknesses are outlined in this comprehensive volume. In addition to information on how search engines work, what to realistically expect from a search engine, and search engine add-ons that are available, there are tips and techniques for efficient and effective searching on every page. The author's Web site includes a regularly updated, hyperlinked directory to the most important search engines and resources.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #1322806 in Books
Published on: 1999-06
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
212 pages
Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Everyone knows how to call up a search site, tap in some keywords, and hope for something relevant. But to get valuable and speedy results from Web search engines, you need some advanced knowledge. The Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines tells you what you need to know.

This book shows you how to assemble high-quality queries on major search sites. In addition to providing a general tutorial on composing Boolean searches--that's all the AND, OR, and NOT stuff--Randolph Hock shows you how to use each site's special search terms and characters. He explains how to do proximity searches on Lycos, for example, and how to limit a HotBot search to information no more than a week old.

If you're publishing information on a Web site and want to increase its chances of coming up in search results, be sure to check out Hock's information on how documents get pulled into the engines' databases and how they're indexed. Documented sites include AltaVista, Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, Yahoo, and others. Hock doesn't pay enough attention to searches for nontext media--a search for MP3 files and clip art would have been helpful. Coverage of non-U.S. search tools is lacking as well. But what's here satisfies most needs. --David Wall

From Library Journal
With nary a hint of condescension, this solid video overview of the Internet discusses a fairly broad range of issues, making two important points: 1) the net is comparable to the biggest library ever owing to the linking of millions of servers full of information, and 2) no one actually designed the Internet, it just kind of happened an idea that might not come across clearly in a book. Other topics include standard terms, domain names, online auctions, and e-mail. Teachers could use this as a lead-in to a discussion or as a basic introduction for young or new users; recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

HR Today
A very useful and illuminating guide to searching the Web...
Customer Reviews

Makes Finding Information Online a Much Easier Task!
The availability of a lot of information on the Internet has made finding specific information a more difficult task to accomplish. Unless someone knows were to find something online they must make use of existing tools to find it. A number of elaborate search engine tools were created with this one goal in mind.

Randolph Hock has written The Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines to provide us with helpful insight into how existing search engines can be put to use to help researchers find specific information online. A number of these search engines have been around for a while and have seen much use, but time, effort, and money can be saved by becoming more familiar with the major ones and using those that will get the job done!

This book covers the operation and use of major search engines such as Alta Vista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Internet Sleuth, Lycos, Northern Light, WebCrawler, Yahoo, and others. Readers will find out that there are not only search engines that search the 'Net, but search engines that search multiple search engines themselves! Some of these are covered in the book as well!

Readers are introduced to each search engine covered in the book. Screen shots, entry fields, and information about special functions and use are provided. They will learn how each search engine operates and how they should be put to the best possible use. They are compared with one another and the author offers his own opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Readers are left to determine which search engines are best suited for their own particular needs. An accompanying Website provides updated information at their fingertips!

The book is ideally suited for professional researchers, students, businesses, and libraries. It can be read from cover-to-cover or opened up at any particular place as special needs arise. It is thoughtfully written and very readable. It will make finding information online a much easier and more enjoyable task!

If you search the Net, you need this book
It's always hard to figure out which search engine to use when you're trying to find information on the Web. Hock's book does a great job at sorting out the strengths and weaknesses of each of the major search engines, as well as providing easy-to-read documentation of features such as phrase searching and searching for personal names. I especially liked the sections on "What Happens Behind the Scenes" and "Special Options," which show where each search engine excels. Any serious Net.searcher should have this book within arm's reach.