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Sarah Worsham

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Google Shares Their Ranking Philosophy

Google shares their ranking philosophy, which is used in many of their products, including News, Images, YouTube, Maps, and, of course, Search.  Their philosophy breaks down to:

1) Best locally relevant results served globally.
2) Keep it simple.
3) No manual intervention.

– Official Google Blog: Introduction to Google Ranking

What does this mean for your business website?

Best locally relevant results – if you have a small local business you are still very much in the running for search results to people within your area.  Your company does not need expensive nationwide advertising or reach to still be relevant in Google’s eyes.

Google may change their algorithm which may change the ranking of your website in their search results.  However, they are not manually removing you from searches unless you violate their terms of service.  Most importantly, keep it simple, implies that having good content that is of value to your customers will get you further than just relying on SEO tricks.

I still believe content is king. If you have information that your customers want (remember to listen to them), they will come.

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Cubeless – A Virtual Water Cooler

Cubeless is a fun and easy-to-use corporate social network platform which provides a virtual water cooler for employees to share information, jokes, insight and to connect on a personal level even if they are miles apart.  The platform is revolves around questions – employees asking and answering questions from/for each other, but adds fun features to keep them coming back.

Once an employee has logged in, they see the ‘Hub’ or an overview of everything that is currently going on in the community:

  • Latest Community Question – Lists the last question asked by anyone from the company.
  • Recent Notes from friends/coworkers (to the employee) – Peers can leave notes for each employee.
  • Hot Topics – By tag cloud.
  • Watch List – Questions an employee wants to track.
  • Ask a Question – Employees are able to ask a question right from the first page.
  • Explore Profiles – Pictures of other employees with links to learn more about them.
  • Questions With New Answers – A list of questions that have new answers.
  • Referred Questions – Questions that have been referred to the employee to answer.  This allows people to get a question answered by the person who knows best.
  • Questions I Can Help Answer – Questions the employee has selected as ones they can help answer.
  • Latest Picks – Restaurants, Companies, Attractions, etc. other employees have recommended to each – a fun way for employees to find new places to eat or meet.
  • Who is Online Now? – Who else is on the community right now.
  • Company Stream – List of last 20-24 actions any employee has done on the community.

Just like many social networking platforms, Cubeless allows employees to create their own profile with picture, blog, and join groups.  But as an employee asks and answers more questions, visits the sites regularly and contributes, she gains Karma points.  This is a fun way to encourage employees to continue to use the network and to interact with each other.  Cubeless may be a great alternative to the bland Intranet/Portal solutions out there if you just need a place for your employees to share information and learn from each other or if you have employees who do not all work in the same location.

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Are Your Customers Viewing Your Website With a Fast Internet Connection?

Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a May 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 79% have a high-speed connection while 15% use dialup. – Pew Internet

The report also shows that broadband has dropped slightly for households with incomes less than $20,000, which is not unexpected with the economic downturn.  Take this information into account when you decide what features to add to your website and whether your customers will be viewing it mostly at work (where most have broadband) or at home. If your customers are in a lower-income bracket, they may have a slower dial-up connection or no connection at all at home.  Websites which have lots of graphics and Flash may turn away customers with slower Internet connections.