After a bit of searchin’, rummagin’, plunderin’, & hackin’, I think I’ve found the easiest possible way to add a Google Map & “Get directions” form exactly like this one - http://www.webcast1.com/googlemaps/datamax-contact-us.html - to your client’s website.

One caveat right off the top:

Be careful when copying and pasting from Word Press.  It might be better to “view source” of this post and copy from there.

Frank had some issues with mangled characters and weird stuff that took some time to hammer back into shape.   We also ran into CSS issues there - the default <p> and <a>  styles were light and so text did’nt show up clearly within the popup “marker” window.

Check webcast1.com/googlemaps to see several working examples.

If you follow the painstaking yet simple instructions laid out below, you can spend just an hour or two to create content which offers a lot of value to site visitors, and is therefore justifiable as a marketing tactic and value-add, even though it does not promote organic search rankings (as far as we know right now - that could change, especially in terms of the benefits to a site’s local search profile).

Find out how Google Maps API 2, some poorly understood javascript, and HTML ducttape can be used to create simple, pretty, scrollable, useful maps with - bonus! - a clickable “marker” with pop up “Get Directions” form integrated into the map … [Read more →]

While setting up Adwords conversion tracking on your client’s website is a good idea to monitor how effective a pay per click campaign can be, people need to realize they may not see all Adwords-generated conversions showing up in the dashboard or in reports.

Keep these things in mind:

1- Conversion tracking on Adwords only picks up users that have cookies enabled. If not, it wont pick up the conversion or lead.

2- Conversion tracking can track when a sale was made, but on Ecommerce sites of course, the dollar value of each sale may vary wildly. It’s true that AdWords conversion tracking does offer the possibility of measuring a shopping carts dollar value and providing a total dollar value of Ad Words-referred sales. However, on many Ecommerce platforms it is difficult and costly to try to implement. OSCommerce, a very flexible open-source platform that many Webcast1 sites are using, can be tweaked to allow AdWords to grab this shopping cart value info, but the solution may have to be customized for some sites.

If you are working with a E commerce or shopping cart site, it is important to monitor the sales from the Admin side as well. This will give you a better idea of how well the entire marketing campaign is performing.

Does anyone have any experience with the Advertising.com/AOL pay per click program? I wandered across it by accident this morning whilst trying to access MSN AdCenter and until now, I didn’t even know that AOL offered a PPC program.

Apparently, an opportunity exists for some SEO’s to cash in by contacting website owners to entice them about paying to create “Google sitemap files”. Although I agree sitemap files need to be created to tell search engines to index a website’s pages, I get annoyed when someone lies or doesn’t back up a claim. I know the guy is just trying to make a buck, but he should get the facts straight before sending an email like the example that follows. I responded to the sender on behalf of my client stating that so called “Google sitemap file” does in fact exist on the website. I ensured that my client knows the related sitemap files (sitemap.xml, robots.txt file with sitemap command, and url list text file) do in fact exist on his sites, and are resubmitted regularly to the various search engines.

______

As I was on http://www.internationalbenefits.com this morning, I was unable to locate a “Google Sitemap file” on your website.

I am not referring to a regular “site map” for people to visit online, but rather to a script called “Google Sitemap file” which helps Google to read and index your website overall content. I advise you to visit us online where we explain clearly what is a “Google Sitemap file” and what you need to do to get one: (URL omitted for obvious reasons)
A Sitemap file is a “script/code” placed in the root directory of your website which captures all the crucial information about your website, thus facilitating the crawling and indexing process for Google. We can set up your Google Sitemap file for $125 should you need help to do so.

If Google takes the time to publish a page titled “What is a Sitemap file and why do I need one?”, it is obvious that every responsible online marketer should take action accordingly.
Read what Google says about Sitemap file and why you need one: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318

Regards,

(Signature withheld for privacy reasons)

PS: FYI, I had found your website a little while ago on the Yahoo directory when searching under travel insurance

________

I had been trying for awhile to tap into MSN Live Search’s local option. Finally I found out their submissions are evidently being taken care of by an outside company called localeze. Click here to go straight to the submission form

It’s fairly common knowledge within the SEO industry that many local search sites - including Yahoo and Google Local - use a mix of sources to both populate and enhance their local business listings. [Read more →]

It has come to my attention that Google recently made changes to its Algorithm once again on July 5th and probably continued making updates throughout the week. If you noticed clients rankings either soaring up the charts or plummeting to the depths of despair don’t get too excited either way. After analyzing the current SEO intelligence it seems more changes are coming.

Here’s Matt Cutts warning marketers and site owners about the dangers of buying text links

I’m wondering how this post from a newly registered user (the blog is set up to give all new users “author” status) will look once it’s approved & published.

Also, can I post pics of wizards and other things? Shout out to the WZA:

The Grand Wizards of Pajamastan

I’d like this first post to evolve into a statement of what this blog is about and what and who it’s for.

This first post is a call for suggestions - what do you want this site to be?

While we’re at it, feel free to share your thoughts about the layout of this here blog,  about the features and widgets, possible enhancements and even things that you’d like to get rid of.

Your comments will become part of a conversation about how we can make this blog useful for us — either internally (as a bulletin board for intra-dept communication on R&D stuff) or externally (as something clients would possibly want to read, and which could bring in new business through search traffic).

Of course, ideally this place will serve both roles at once!

What’s realistic to expect  considering how busy we all are and considering how different our approaches to researching & writing about any given topic might be? Once we have a general idea of what’s realistic, how should we try to pull off even this “most realistic / un-screw-up-able” solution? How much time do you think you could put into this each week, month?