Let’s say you want to join some new social networks for your brand; how to determine which networks are most popular?

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img221771_02042012092041_0

Sure, you can find some nice social networks, you can then Google for some user stats, and then aggregate the data. But wouldn’t it be simpler had a web site dedicated to just showing statistics existed? More than this, wouldn’t it be great had the statistics would be constantly updated with the latest news about the number of users for those specific networks? Good news! Such a web site exists, and it says: Here is my monthly, running tally of how many people are using some of the top social media, digital services and mobile apps updated for July 2014 (the best I could find, at least). This list grows pretty regularly. It began with a simple listing of some of the obvious social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype, YouTube, WhatsApp, etc; then grew to include digital services like Amazon, Google, eBay, Netflix and Pandora; then the focus turned to APAC social and digital properties like Weibo, WeChat, JD.com, LINE and Renren; and lately, I have been focused on updating current listings, adding in new ones along with smaller niche ones that I may have overlooked at the beginning. This post now includes over 600 listings and more are added almost weekly. Visit the web site here (the social networks are so numerous, that they need to be divided on more than one page): How Many People Use Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and 600 of the Top Social Media?

News. Old news

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Nicolas Alejandro - today's news, https://flic.kr/p/nJ29pU
Nicolas Alejandro – today’s news, https://flic.kr/p/nJ29pU

Jurnalul.ro

I did once a web site audit for a major newspaper in Romania. I told them Google had some trouble accessing very old news on their web site (for 2005, for example). They had a calendar, similar to their current one:

article-calendar

, and I told them Google might have some problems going through the dropdown, selecting 2006, and then going through the dropdown again, selecting, say, March, then picking a day, and then, for that day, going to page 4. The number of clicks necessary to go to page 3 of news from March 19, 2006, was the following: Home => Archive => 2006 => March => 19 => Page 3 => News. It’s just huge. Also, the Google bots generally don’t click on dropdowns, they don’t select from a dropdown.

Nowadays, they have a clickable way of displaying the archive:

archive-link

, which, although is not a huge improvement, is, still, an improvement (Google can follow a clickable link much easier).

The topic of the current article is to show how various news sources in Romania treat old news.

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How to travel and visit a new country like a PRO?

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Naval S - Traveling over Cappadocia

I see people saying things like:

  • I’ve visited 100 countries, most of them for less than 2 days! (my reaction – facepalm)
  • Next month I’ll go and visit 8 countries in Asia! (my reaction – facepalm)
  • There’s this low-cost airline company who just created a new route to Paris! (facepalm)
  • Last year, I saw both the statue of Christ the Redeemer and the Eiffel Tower. (facepalm)
  • I’ll go with some friends to the seaside! We’ll sunbathe in the day and spend the nights in a tent. (half-face-palm)
  • I’ll go with some friends to the mountains! It’s useful for health and bonding. (half-face-palm)

Some thoughts about these?

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Ce e mai important – Google sau vizitatorul tău?

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Ce e mai important - Google sau vizitatorul tău?

OK, să zicem că ai un site și cauți tot felul de scurtături prin care să atragi vizitatorii la tine în site. Ca principiu general, e mult mai important să faci vizitatorul fericit cu ce găsește, și să îi dai task lui Google să își dea seama de relevanța site-ului tău, decât să încerci să crești relevanța site-ului tău prin chestiuni manipulative, iar vizitatorul să fie mulțumit. E mult mai important ce părere are vizitatorul despre site, decât dacă Google găsește un articol exact match („rochii femei”) pe un site exact match („rochii-femei.ro”), pe tema exact match (se repetă cuvântul, imaginile sunt denumite pe tema rochii femei, linkurile către site sunt pe tema asta). În plus, lupta pe cuvinte cheie foarte targetate ignoră long-taill-ul, loc de unde ar putea veni trafic serios. E o situație de fapt că tot mai mulți deținători de site-uri încearcă să manipuleze rezultatele din Google. Până la un punct, e OK să intereseze SEO, să ai habar cum să pui un titlu din punct de vedere SEO, să alegi un domeniu, să optimizezi viteza de încărcare a site-ului, să creezi comunități, să faci site-ul ușor de navigat de către Google. Însă, de la un punct, e mai important ca vizitatorii site-ului tău să fie mulțumiți. Pe ei ar trebui să pui accent, pe comunități, pe rețele sociale, pe satisfacția utilizatorilor. Google poate să își dea seama de cât de mulțumiți sunt vizitatorii prin următoarele procedee: Abilitatea lui proprie de a evalua dacă site-ul e bun sau nu, dacă e înțesat …

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Singular or Plural for product categories? What to do if you have similar terms „fighting” for the same category?

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Let’s say you have web site about PC components.

You sell, among others, some notebooks. There are at least the following options for naming the category:

  • Laptop / laptops.
  • Notebook / notebooks.
  • Notebook computer / notebook computers.

Some other products which you debate on are:

  • USB flash drive / USB flash drives.
  • USB stick / USB sticks.
  • Flash memory stick / Flash memory sticks.
  • USB drive / USB drives.

Of course, you would prefer to be the first result for all of these terms. What’s the best strategy in such a case?

Craig Key - Lifestyle Keywords vs Product & Brand Keywords, https://flic.kr/p/6Bcnai
Craig Key – Lifestyle Keywords vs Product & Brand Keywords, https://flic.kr/p/6Bcnai

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URL shorteners – which one to choose, pros and cons of cons of using them, in general, some real-life examples and some conclusions

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URL shortening is the process in which you take a long URL, such as this:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2013/10/07/the-pursuit-of-happiness-makes-life-shallow/ and you make it into something simpler, such as this:
http://goo.gl/rHwPN0 (this is the same link as the above link, when you click it and you will be redirected to the long URL).

URL shortening started (I think) in the first years of 2000, and the most notable example of the first years was tinyurl.com. The web site still has a similar interface of what it used to have back then. Time passed, and more services appeared, such as bit.ly or goo.gl (and many many others, of course).

The current blog post is about URL shorteners – which one to choose, why should you use them, why avoid using them, some real life examples and some conclusions.

Pawel Loj - tiny foot, https://flic.kr/p/edDaA
Pawel Loj – tiny foot, https://flic.kr/p/edDaA (yes, this is a tiny URL)

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