Now that Google has officially launched its real-time search, SEO will become a new ballgame. Recent partnerships with Twitter and Facebook mean you will now see tweets and soon Facebook posts in line with search results under the "Latest" search setting.

What Users See

Google keeps the content streaming so that it is updated continuously, scrolling as new tweets arrive. No real-time results will appear for subjects no one is tweeting about, the scrolling box starts below the fold and for some searches. Many consumers may not notice the new feature right away.

Why it Matters

So why is this such a big deal? We saw a mishmash of changes in 2010 to the way Internet marketers strategize their SEO campaigns and search engine marketing. The change presents several opportunities and some concerns.

Opportunity Knocks

Because Internet marketers can now see their search positions immediately and take action to remedy poor positions on critical promotions. If a link is not getting the kind of action they want, they'll start tweeting and posting like mad to give the link a boost.

Keyword Research

The scrolling feed also represents an opportunity for keyword research that is much more powerful than the tedious keyword research tools available on the Web. For instance, a search for "Internet marketing" returned no scrolling box, but a search for "SEO" was scrolling right along at a good pace. Which keyword would you want to use?

Spamming Twits

The change will also mean that frequent tweeting will become an internet marketing strategy. Get ready for tweet spam explosions. Twitter has already faced criticism for poor spam filters. Will Google pick up the slack in its search results? That remains to be seen.

Those Left Behind

Google's real-time search is just rolling out, but will include feeds from Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca, according to Google's official blog. Because some of these sites integrate others, the full list will be as follows:

Twitter

Facebook

MySpace

FriendFeed

Jaiku

Digg

Tumblr

Flickr

What will become of TwitPic, YouTube and Delicious? Clearly, those strapped for marketing time will focus efforts on the sites that are included in Google's feed, and no one can afford to be left in the dust when Google takes the ball and starts running with it.

What happens to those other sites remains to be seen. Perhaps Bing will take an opportunity here or the others will come on board with Google soon. Whatever happens, Internet marketing and SEO will see many strategy changes in in time to come.

Search Engines and Website Sitemaps.

If you're having problems getting web pages indexed by Google, you may need a sitemap. A sitemap is a specially formatted file used by Google to spider your website and find web pages. The file is useful for people who have pages that can't be crawled by Google including AJAX, dynamic product pages, and archived files with no internal links. If you search Google and can't find your website pages indexed, a sitemap increases the chance of more search engine exposure.

Sitemap Format

A sitemap uses XML tags to list the URLs located on the website. Google guidelines indicate that sitemaps should have no more than 50,000 links and shouldn't be larger than 10MB in size. For sites with more than 50,000 links, the webmaster can separate the sitemap into a series of smaller files. Webmasters can also use gzip on files that are too large. Gzip software compresses files, so Googlebot downloads a smaller file and decompresses it after retrieval.

A properly formatted sitemap requires a few XML tags, so Google can read the information and index URLs without errors. First, the sitemap must open with the "<urlset>" tag. This tag indicates the schema for the file. The next two requirements are the "<url>" and "<loc>" tags. Each set of URLs should be encapsulated with the "<url>" tag. Within this tag is the list of links on the website. Each link is identified using the "<loc>" tag. The links located in these tags can be dynamic product links with query string variables, or it can contain static HTML files.

An example of a simple sitemap is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

<url>

<loc>http:// mysite.com</loc>

<lastmod>2009-12-20</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.8</priority>

</url>

</urlset>

Sitemap Options

Three other XML tags are optional tweaks to help control the frequency Google crawls and indexes pages. These tags are optional, and leaving them out of the sitemap will not cause errors with Googlebot.

The first optional XML unit is the "<lastmod>" tag. This tag tells the search engines the time and date of the last file modification. If you update your web page daily, this date and time changes frequently. However, you can also specify the amount of times a web page changes using the "<changefreq>" tag. This tag tells Googlebot the frequency of web page modifications such as daily, monthly, yearly or weekly. This tag affects the frequency Googlebot crawls pages. However, abuse of the "<changefreq>" tag can lower the amount of times Google crawls your site, so use it properly.

Finally, the "<priority>" tag is the last option for a sitemap. Many webmasters leave this value as 1.0, but this degrades the value of the sitemap. The priority tag is used to indicate the importance of each page, but it does not change the website's ranking. The priority tag influences the URL chosen for display by the search engines. For instance, the home page should have a priority of 1.0 while a page deeper within the site structure would have a value of 0.5.

Once the file is created, upload the sitemap to your website's host directory. Login to your webmaster tools at Google, and register the sitemap's location. Within a few hours, Google will crawl your sitemap. Although Google doesn't guarantee all available pages are indexed, it improves the chance of having more web pages included in the search engine results.

Differences between SEO and SMO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media optimization (SMO) are two terms that are often used together and even interchangeably. However, despite both terms containing the word "optimization", there are key differences between SEO and SMO. It is possible to achieve SEO and not SMO, or vice versa, if one is not aware of how the two strategies work. Alternately, if good SEO practices are followed, one may also be rewarded with SMO.

SEO is defined as the marketing of web content via the search engine results page (SERP) in order to increase site traffic, product sales, and company/personal recognition. The process starts with the strategic placement of heavily searched words and phrases, called keywords and key phrases, into the body of the web content. Internet users inputting these keywords and key phrases into search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are presented with a list of the best optimized web sites through the SERP. Ideally, a web site that has achieved SEO will be found in the top 10 results of the SERP.

Top placement on the SERP leads to increased web site traffic, publicity, and an improved online reputation. It may also result in a greater number of inbound links, which are one-way links created by outside sources that lead to the published content. Inbound links are valuable because they raise the web site's page rank (PR). The PR of a web site is a logarithmic credibility scale ranging from 1 to 10. As a site's PR value improves, so does its credibility. Sites with high PR are listed prominently on SERPs and can command a higher price for posted ads aucasinosonline. Such sites may also charge a set price for linking to lower PR sites, in turn raising their PRs.

Much of the SEO process is designed with search engine bots in mind. Therefore, the content that is presented to the reader is often lacking in interest and readability. Ideally, one should strive to create web content that not only attracts search bots but also engages its readers.

SMO is defined as the marketing of web content and other multimedia via social community, bookmarking, news, picture, and video sites. Examples of social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Businesswire, and YouTube. Additionally, the content might be promoted through user web blogs. The goal of such marketing is to increase site traffic, product and affiliate product sales, and gain subscribers.

Web content does not achieve SMO by employing specific keywords and key phrases, although doing so certainly helps. Rather, SMO is achieved by the creation of fresh and dynamic web content that engages its target audience. An audience that is engaged will also post comments and/or vote on, bookmark, link to, and otherwise interact with the published content. Should the content become especially popular, it will rise to the top of social media bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. It will also be ranked at the top of blog search engine sites like Technorati.

SMO frequently has the added effect of making a web site and/or blog into SEO material. Because web content that is optimized for social media distribution typically contains heavily searched words and phrases, these terms may be picked up by search engines. Likewise, there are hybrid search engine and social media search sites such as Twoogle (Twitter and Google) that seek out optimized and attention-grabbing web and/or multimedia content.

SMO is a strategy that often places user interest and publicity ahead of defined keywords and key phrases. This can lead to immense initial popularity for the web content, followed by later stagnation. Therefore, it is imperative that content submitted to social media sites still maintain SEO as a goal.

In summary, while there are notable differences between SEO and SMO, both strategies may be used to market the same web content. The use of both SEO and SMO increases the chance of the published content gaining traffic and publicity, as well top ranking on search engine and social media results pages.

Web Site Hosting.

Exploring the Basics of Web Hosting

The Internet is full of amazing websites, from personal homepages to business to educational pages. There are many intrepid website owners who build their own websites and need to find a way to display them on the World Wide Web. Some tech-savvy developers are able to set up their own servers that have constant connection to the Internet, but most people find that they need a web host to house their site files.

Website Location

Web host companies offer space on their continually connected Internet servers for website files. These files, comprised of HTML documents, images, and other types of documents, are uploaded and stored on the web host's server. With their continual connection to the Internet, this means that the website is available at all times. The website owner is required to register for a website domain name as an Internet address. This domain name is then associated with the owner's site files that are housed on the web host's server. When a viewer types in that website name into their browser, their ISP or Internet Service Provider finds that site on the web host's server and displays it for its viewing audience.

Hosting Options

Web hosting companies offer a wide variety of hosting options, but the two basic options are free hosting vs. paid hosting. There are pros and cons to each option, and each website owner should weigh their hosting needs and goals against their hosting choices. Free hosting has the advantage of lowest possible cost, but the hosting company requires advertising to be placed on any sites hosted with them. This can distract from the main content of a site, often providing links away and irritating visitors. Free hosting usually has serious restrictions on amount of space for files and amount of bandwidth that the site can use.

Paid hosting can range from reasonable to exorbitantly expensive, depending on the hosting options purchased. With paid hosting, the advertising requirements are very minimal or nonexistent, depending on the option. Typically, the more expensive the option, the larger the space and bandwidth and the more extra features are offered, though this isn't always the case and hosting options should be researched before bought. Extra features can include multiple domain and sub-domain names, email, ecommerce, site-creation tools, and blogs.

Internet Presence

For anyone wanting to get their information across to a target audience, whether for personal or business reasons, having a site on the Internet is a necessity in today's world. Exploring web hosts and choosing the hosting option that's right for your site will get you on your way to a secure website location and a formidable Internet presence.