We would like to introduce a new search engine optimization technique which we’ve nicknamed PASEO for Performance Adjusted Search Engine Optimization. The technique uses the external references, the tag-cloud concept and internal search to reinforce content within a site and encourage improved natural search rankings.

How does it work?
By parsing out referring URLs for search terms, PASEO calculates which terms are the most popular for a particular page. The same method is used by all the major search analytic tools. These terms are then listed in order of importance on the destination page. Clicking on any of the terms listed on the page will drive the visitor into an internal site search which helps the user locate relevant content for the end user.

The dynamically ranked PASEO tags help build relevant text links; thereby providing a positive feedback loop for when the search bots come to re-index page content.

Is this Black Hat?
No, it is not. We fully believe that PASEO tagging helps the visitor locate more relevant content, quicker. The technique is akin to tag clouds with the fundamental difference being that tags aren’t assigned by the end-user, rather they are driven by external influences.

Example.
Have a look at the Imulus homepage page tags on the bottom left corner; compare these tags to the page tags on our Solutions page.

Considerations.

• Given that PASEO is analyzing the referral URL it is wise to setup exclusions for terms which you may find undesirable.
• This technique isn’t foolproof and we feel others could expand on the concept by blending PASEO tag rankings with a combination of other Web 2.0 methods to tweak the results to be more relevant.

I have to compliment all of the great companies that have gone green lately. I think it’s a huge concern for many environmentally-conscious people, and it shows great awareness that companies are dedicating resources to this cause. Most notably, Walmart has pushed a huge marketing campaign showing their “greenness.”

While, I commend companies for doing this environmentally-friendly push, I think they are going about it the wrong way. Most companies seem to be doing this as the next trendy, cool thing to do. They are using this opportunity to be leaders in this category, and if they truly feel that this is the right thing to do, then bravo! However, if they really think it’s the right thing to do for the industry, why aren’t they encouraging everyone in the industry to do the same, instead of using it to prove their own brand’s worth? Consumers are smarter and more cynical than we give them credit for. Personally, I think the average consumer can see right through this.

Attention Brand Marketers: Don’t use this “green” opportunity as a brand differentiator! It may seem like the thing to do now, but if this really is the way of the future, within months every company will be pushing for green and showing off their capabilities. Don’t rely on a one-time fad to be your companies brand benefit. I beg you to look inside your company and find the true differentiating benefit and really focus on that in your advertising campaigns. The green effort is an amazing thing to do, and great to talk about in your marketing. Keep doing it! But, don’t rely on that to get you more business. It’s obvious you found a trend to latch onto and a big following for it. Try to stay a step ahead of the fad and don’t just look to find the next trendy thing. Your company was made for a reason. Obviously there was a need for your product, service, or whatever it is you offer. Once you show consumers why you exist, and reasons to believe that inherit benefit you can offer them, I have no doubt your company will succeed.

Just when I was starting to knock Google’s track record of innovation they roll out GrandCentral. While it isn’t truly a Google “innovation” what they will be doing with it sure is innovative. I’m not a user of it – yet, but it sounds like an awesome idea and I’m very excited about getting into the application.

If you never heard of GrandCentral, it’s a phone aggregator…. in a nutshell it will allow all your phones and voicemails to be managed under 1 account.

Here are just a few of the features I’m excited about:

• One number, rings everything
• Let people call you from a Web pageClick2call from your keyboard
• Call Record. Yep… record your calls… this will be fun to see the lawyers debate
• Voicemail notifications via SMS
• Mobile Access, similar to the iPhone visual voicemail

I can just hear the telecos whining about this latest invention by Google. But why are they doing this, I’m only guessing at this point but let’s follow the money for some clues.

• Phone based ads using AdWords
• Click to Call, perfect for tracking AdWords conversions over the phone
• Planting the seeds for the Google Phone
• Searchable Voicemail

OK, I’ve drank the juice and I haven’t even used this yet. I encourage you to visit the site and sign-up as well.

As many of you have probably noticed, a huge design trend these days is the infamous reflection. I am not ashamed to say that I am probably one of the biggest fans of this style. However, I am not a huge fan of throwing perspective out the window. What I mean by this is if you are going to use reflections, you should understand how something would reflect if it was a physical 3d object.

Too often do I see images that are robotically flipped, rotated and opacity-ed but the designer doesn’t take perspective into consideration. If the object is 3d, this tactic doesn’t work mainly because the surface should reflect the planes of the object.

Harking back to my last post about educating on the topics near and dear to interactive agencies, I’ve arrived at another topic; hits are not visitors. These metrics are incredibly useful when evaluating a site for marketing purposes, hardware requirements, coding methods and load times.

So first, let’s define the difference.
A “Hit” is a successful request to your web server from a visitor’s browser for any type of file, including an image, HTML page, MP3 file etc… A single Web page can account for several hits. A simple page might include a logo image, CSS file, HTML code, 6 image based navigation items with 6 more images for rollover effects. The net hits for such a simplistic page would be 15.

By contrast, a “Visitor” or “Session” is a series of clicks by a particular user on your site. If I load the same simple web page in the previous example it would be considered 1 visit. Sessions / Visitors to your site are all given a unique anonymous IDs which track the user throughout the site. The “session state” is used by the Web site to remember things like login information and shopping cart contents.

For comparison purposes let’s look at an example of the differences between hits and visitors using one of our clients for the month of March 2008.

Total Hits: 792,487
Total Visitors: 26,104

So yes, it is important to note the difference in the two measures.

A special note though; Google Analytics won’t track Hits because it uses JavaScript to check visitor behavior and for this reason Google isn’t aware of every hit back to the Web server.