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Google Now Indexes Scanned Documents

Google has announced that it will now begin including scanned documents in its search results – a feat that requires an immense amount of processing power and advanced image recognition technology. Unlike standard text documents, scanned files don’t contain any text data that Google’s spiders can index. Instead, Google has employed Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, converting photos of words into digital text files. – TechCrunch – Google Now Indexes Scanned Documents

The implications of this on search engine optimization (SEO) are fairly huge.  In order for PDFs to be indexed by google, they had to be saved in text format (instead of image format), which counted out millions of older documents and documents from sources not aware of this caveat.  There is a wealth of information online in the form of scientific papers and technical documents that could not previously be included in search results.

For business owners, stop worrying about whether documents on your website will be included in search results.  Instead, shift your concerns to more important issues such as content, usability and increasing sales.

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Business Blogging – What to Write

blogginghummyhummyOnce you have your business blog set up, what should you write? We mentioned briefly in the Business Blogging Startup Guide that you should write about anything your customers would want to know, but what is that exactly?

Showcase Your Expertise

One of the easiest ways to get started is to write about what you know.  Try to get tidbits of information out of your head and to your customers in short easy-to-understand posts.  Come up with subjects that your customers would be interested in and then break them into smaller topics that you can cover in a series of posts.  Write posts for whatever topics and subjects you mention on your business website, taking the time to explain them more thoroughly.

Tap Into Customer Support Requests

Both product and service companies get customer support requests.  Take a look at what your customers are asking and cover issues on your blog.  If there is a larger problem that affects your customers, address it frankly in your blog.  Covering problems will help your customers help themselves.  More importantly, you’ll let them know that you’re listening so they’ll be more likely to let you know when there is a problem.

Review Sales Info & Quotes

By taking a look at your sales information and quotes, you can find out what your customers are interested in purchasing right now.  You can cover topics regarding those products and services to help customers make informed choices (just don’t sound like an advertisement).

Look for Hidden Gems

In all your sales information and other business statistics you probably have some hidden gems that would be of interest to your customers and to the industry.  Maybe you also belong to an industry association that provides industry statistics you can summarize for your customers.  Look for information that your customers may not be able to find elsewhere.

Have an Opinion

Take a look at industry trade sites and other blogs to see what’s going on.  Feel free to choose topics and post your viewpoint on your blog.  Blogging is about having a conversation and being able to easily find many different viewpoints on any one issue.

Ask Your Customers

This is an easy one.  Just ask your customers what they’d like to know more about.  Sometimes it won’t be a direct question about what to blog but a conversation you’ve had recently at a conference or networking event.  If one person asks a question there are probably others who are interested in the answer.

Have a Conversation

Encourage your customers to comment on your posts.  Listen to their opinions and answer them honestly.  Ask for input with leading questions on your posts.  Take a look at other blogs to see what people are saying about your company and address it on your blog.  Having a blog is a great opportunity to connect with your customers.

Have a business blog?  Where do you get writing ideas from?

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(photo by hummyhummy @ Flickr CC)

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This post will make you more attractive and successful

Now that is a headline. It’s bold. It’s confident. Its not true, but who cares? If you read this far than it did its job, hooking you the reader in through my digital storefront and into my shop to peruse my wares. That is what marketing does and that is why it still matters.

Steve Yegge starts us off right with his 2007 OSCON Keynote entitled ‘How to Ignore Marketing and Become Irrelevant in Two Easy Steps’

Marketing is the difference maker for me when evaluating a software project as being a Technical Success instead of a full out Success. It is not enough that people can use your web service because that is only a Technical Success. They have to prefer to use your service over the competition, prefer to use your application over the way they worked before, prefer to buy your new product over your old product because marketing has made it attractive for your customers to do so.

Advertisers and paying customers are more interested in the market leader than the technical leader.  Alex Kniess wrote a good piece on Scott Bedbury called ‘ Five ways a junior Employee can be a Change Agent’.  Its really a simple Marketing primer that applies to technology just as much as Advertising (his original audience).  With brands like Starbucks and Nike under his belt, it is a ridicious understatement to call Scott a subject expert. I like #3 ‘Make everything a pitch’ because marketing is like any learned behavior, it gets better with practice.  Also, you want to get your bad pitches out of the way early on on unimportant things.

We must remember that, like Steve mentions in his talk, marketing is a powerful way to create persistant pointers to ideas or concepts or things.  With a little effort, you can control where that pointer is directed.  If you don’t, your customers will for you.