Google will be rolling this out over the next couple of weeks for all users but for now you’ll need to opt-in to the real time version by clicking the “New Version” link which is found at the top right of your Google Analytics account. Look for the Dashboards tab and you will find Real-Time reports. If you do not see them there you’ll need to either sign up with Google for early access or wait until it shows up in your account over the next few weeks.

I’ve personally been waiting for this for a long time as there have been other tools that provide real time stats but were either lacking the rich data found within Google Analytics or did not integrate well with other Google products such as Google AdWords. We are looking forward to using this tool to further optimize our campaigns and increase sales revenues for our customers.

Click the following link to learn more about Google Analytics Real-Time: Google Analytics Real-Time

We’ve Got Your Web Design Needs Covered

Whether you need to get a basic website designed or a customized site for your e-commerce business, we can help you by creating a site to improve your company’s image and visibility. We offer comprehensive web design services to meet your needs. In the hands of our award-winning staff of professional designers, you can rest easy knowing that your design needs are covered.

While we are experienced in building sites on a variety of platforms our preferred interface is WordPress. WordPress offers great design flexibility and can be used for a variety of purposes including eCommerce. WordPress CMS (Content Management System) also makes it simple for just about anyone to easily and quickly make changes to site content.

The Elements Of Good Web Design

What exactly makes great web design? We believe that a good website should be:

• Attractive And Unique. Since web design is part of your overall branding and image creation strategy, it’s essential that your site stands out from all the rest. This is why we work hard to produce sites that are original and appealing to the eye.
• Appropriate To Your Audience. It is also essential that your website is appropriate for your niche. It needs to be clear to your visitors what you’re offering and whether it’s what they’re looking for.
• Easy To Navigate. A simple and clear design is extremely important. Websites that are busy or overly complex cause your visitors to click away and find something easier on the eyes.

The first step in creating your website is for our designers to communicate with you and show you our ideas. We see creating websites as a collaborative process and we make sure that our clients are 100% satisfied with our work. We design each website as if it were our own.

Many companies fail to realize how important website design is for their overall marketing strategy. A badly designed website can cost you serious money and lose lots of potential business. Get it right the first time with our experienced professionals!

“Turn off secure browsing? We can’t display this content while you’re viewing Facebook over a secure connection (https). Would you like to temporarily switch to a regular connection (http) to use this app? You will have a secure connection upon your next login” or,

“Please Update Your Secure Tab URL. To make sure users can view your app over a secure browser connection (https), please visit the developer console to update your Secure Tab URL.”

What is causing these pesky error messages? Well, Facebook is preparing to implement a MAJOR change on October 1, 2011 which aims to bring site security up a notch. This will make it less likely, for example, that while you are browsing Facebook over an insecure WIFI network, etc. that someone can hack access into your account.

However, as a result of this change, certain custom developed Facebook business pages and welcome pages on custom tabs will no longer be able to be viewed within Facebook. This presents a big problem and headache for a number of businesses and individuals who have these unsecured pages embedded in their Facebook pages and tabs. Businesses, their customers, and other Facebook users are already beginning to see the aforementioned warnings in their Facebook accounts.

How We Can Help

As a developer of custom Facebook business pages we have been concerned about this change and the impact on businesses and their customers and have been able to successfully correct this issue.

We will be happy to review and fix your Facebook page content to enable it to display over a secure browser connection (https). If you would like assistance with this, fill out the form below and we will be in touch which you shortly for a free consultation or just give us a call at 877-778-6598.

The project is currently by invitation only. Learn more at: Google+

1. Enable Sitelinks
2. Optimize your ad text for longer headlines
3. Link a Google Places account to a campaign to show location extensions
4. Get reviewed to show Seller Rating Extensions
5. Link a Merchant Center account to a campaign to show product extensions

There are a number of things you can do to optimize your Google AdWords account but implementing these 5 easy steps will get you going in the right direction with your AdWords marketing. You can read more details regarding each of these steps at the following: 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your AdWords Performance

Google specifically mentions, “An ad in a more prominent position on the page will tend to get both more clicks and more conversions than an ad in a lower position, but the conversion rate (conversions/clicks) will tend to be about the same for the two positions. In summary, average position is a popular metric, but don’t rely on it alone as a measure of performance. The metrics that really matter are clicks, costs, and conversions.”

You can read the complete article here: Understanding the Average Position metric

The NYT article mentions that a spokeswomen for J.C. Penney, Darcie Brossart, said regarding the black hat techniques that were used, “J. C. Penney did not authorize, and we were not involved with or aware of, the posting of the links that you sent to us, as it is against our natural search policies”. She added, “We are working to have the links taken down.”

The article also mentions how Google took manual action against J.C. Penney and now searches for these keywords are found in very low positions in the Google search engine. For example, they were No. 1 for “living room furniture” and a few hours later they were No. 68 in the search results for this search term. The lowering and/or removal of this search term and others can result in thousands of dollars in lost revenue for J. C. Penney.

The article mentions how Penney reacted to this by firing its search engine consulting firm.

The NYT further goes on to mention how in 2006 Google caught BMW using a black hat technique to get its German web site to the top of the search results. As a result of this Google was given what the BBC called “the death penalty,” stating that it was “removed from search results.”

So do you get the moral of this story? Be very careful of what consulting company you chose to do your SEO work. You should be especially wary of any company which guarantees they can get you in the No. 1 position on Google or offers to post hundreds or even thousands of links for you online for a ridiculously low price or similar black hat tactics. No one controls the Google search engine algorithms but Google and therefore no one can guarantee your web site positioning in the search results. The best procedure and most ethical is to follow Google’s search engine policies very carefully and work hard to produce valuable and relevant content for your web site over time to avoid being penalized by Google or even worse having them remove your web site completely from the search results.

In other words, play right, but try to game the system and you will eventually get caught.

You can read the complete New York Times article here: The Dirty Little Secrets of Search