Another Google backed scheme

A little while ago WE WROTE ABOUT a Google backed scheme called GET BRITSH BUSINESS ONLINE. The scheme offers businesses a free domain name and website and was a collaboration with BT, Google, E Skills and Enterprise UK. Google have just launched another scheme this time in partnership with Pearson called GROWING BUSINESS ONLINE TRAINING. It is an online training package for businesses about best practice for being online.

The video below explains things in more detail, when you sign up you get the first module for free and then you can purchase the remaining modules for £99.

A roundup of some Facebook news

Facebook shares will be on sale this Friday but it may prove difficult to get your hands on any. Most will only be available through brokers with whom you will have to had several previous trades and even then your purchase won’t be guaranteed. THIS ARTICLE from The BBC has some more detail on this and the increase in the initial share price offer which will value the company at over the $100 billion prediction.

We also came across a couple of info graphics that we thought were worth sharing. The first is from SOCIAL BAKERS and looks at how US based firms are using Facebook as a way into foreign markets. The second is from WORDSTREAM and compares the Facebook and Google IPO’s.

Paralympics ad filmed in one shot without CGI effects

Very simple story behind this post but please take a few minutes to watch the video below, it is well worth your time. Advertising agency BBDO Toronto were asked to produce an advert for the Canadian Paralympic Committee designed to inspire and inform young disabled athletes of the options available to them.  If your asking us they have done a very good job, especially on the inspiration point. You can read more at Design Taxi and let us know if the video inspires you.

A couple of weeks ago we wrote a post about how popular Pinterest has become and if it was worth getting involved. We are still contributing daily to our Pinterest feed and still finding it addictive. Not seeing much benefit from a business point of view but take a look at the info graphic below that we came across on Mashable (Originally from Tamba) and you can start to see how Pinterest is becoming a credible source for social media commerce.

This is a nice thought provoking info graphic from Recycle Bank, we came across it originally on Mashable. Not much to say really, please take a look and share if you can.

We came across this first video a couple of weeks ago. We decided to share it because it is further reinforcement (From Google themselves!) that the world of SEO can be over focused on the type of details that should not be your priority, i.e. key word density.

It is important that you have relevant key words in your text, but it is more important that your content is compelling, original and overall makes sense within the context of your website. When adding content ask yourself what will be rewarding to users?, this is exactly what Google are trying to reflect in their search results.

As a bonus we have also included the latest Google Webmaster Help video on what type of action Google takes when their guidelines are violated. Websites can find themselves demoted or as is more likely removed from Google’s index if they don’t play but the rules. This video confirms that Google will take manual action if required rather than wait for their algorithms to kick in. BTW, if you want to keep up with Google Webmaster Help or ask them question then Visit the Forum or Follow them on Twitter.

We have just started using Pinterest, it works along similar lines to twitter in that you share things and follow people and share things other people have shared etc but it focuses on images to tell the story, it really is quite addictive.

‘Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.’ More about Pinterest here.

A recent Mashable article put Pinterest as the third most popular social network in the US with 104 million visits in March. Twitter was second with 182 million and no surprise that Facebook was fist with a staggering 7 billion! Not sure on the bushiness application of Pinterest but it you can find a lot of useful stuff on there. We came across the info graphic below that was posted (Or should I say pinned?) by ROI Media

and we thought it was worth sharing…

Interesting video from Google, they are answering a question about what you should do if you don’t have much text on your website. The main focus is on how you can enhance images (In terms of helping with search engine rankings) by adding a good description and some useful additional text, or ‘alt text’.

Google cannot see what a photo is so unless they are described within the filename and the text around the photo then they are simply a black hole on your site, this won’t necessarily go against you but you want score any points when it comes to your search engine rankings. The video also goes onto describe the best way of using flash on your site and that embedding text in images is a bit of a wasted opportunity.

We develop websites using WordPress. Why? Because we believe it’s the best tool available to put our clients in control of their online presence, they can happily add content and update their site as they see fit with minimal help from a web developer. Anyway, we came across some interesting stats at WPMU about the popularity of WordPress and thought they were worth sharing:

• WordPress 3.3 has been downloaded over 12 million times
• The latest version of the software was released on 12 December 2011, making that an average figure of 105,263 downloads per day
• 16% of all websites run on WordPress in 2012. That’s an estimated 58,000,000 sites
• Indonesians are the most prolific WordPress users on the planet. WordPress is the 8th most popular website in Indonesia. By contrast, it’s the 21st most popular in the United States, and 18th in the United Kingdom
• WordPress holds 53.8% of the market share for Content Management Systems
• Over half of all webmasters using any kind of CMS have chosen WordPress
• Joomla, the closest competitor to WordPress in terms of popularity, holds just 9.2% of the CMS market. Drupal sits in third place with 6.7%
• WordPress has been translated and localized into at least 73 different languages. This has been achieved entirely on a volunteer basis, by passionate WordPress users in all parts of the world
• There are 19,017 plugins freely available in the WordPress Plugin Directory
• Altogether, these plugins have been downloaded over 285,000,000 times
• Over 20,000 people make their living with WordPress. Developers, designers, consultants, bloggers and countless other professionals use their WP skills to put bread on the table
• Speaking of which, WordPress skills are in higher demand than ever. According to the latest Online Employment Report at Elance, WordPress programmers rank second place on a list of the 100 most sought-after freelance professionals

Let us know if you have any more facts and figures on WordPress, just drop them into the comments below.

Last week LinkedIn announced that it was making improvements to how you find people you may know. Basically they have improved the overall look and feel of the process and added a few slicker functions. We came across this info on Social Media Examiner by the way. The news from LinkedIn although interesting is hardly earth shattering but we did think that their video tips were worth a mention.

The LinkedIn YouTube Channel is full of short useful videos on getting more from your profile. They are a bit basic but deliberately so as many people do not take full advantage of all the features that are offered and often don’t take the time to complete their profile. A few of the videos are below for your to check out and please ask yourself when was the last time you updated your profile?.