Here is a great straight forward video on the major Google SEO changes coming fourth in the near and far future. As always a lot is quite vague and secretive but for the most part you can weed out some important details. As always they are discouraging away from buying links that claim to raise your PageRank.

Cutts is careful to note that any of this information is subject to change, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Penguin

He does not specify any of the changes but says a new big version (2.0) is getting closer.

Updates To Panda

It sounds like they are becoming more friendlier in the new update. Sites in the grey area will not just get thrown to the wolves. They also claim links will not be as bad if they are from a spammy site. As long as it’s not your main source of identity, after all it’s not rocket science to submit your competitors sites to hurt their Rank.

Authority Sites

They will be adding more weight on the sites that have an “authority”. We have no idea what this is based on but my guess is the companies with the highest ad-words revenue lol. Bigger rarely means better in my experience, in fact it’s new independent thinkers that keep the internet perpetual.

I assume this authority will put more emphasis on forums and blogs, so track down the top ones in your industry and get involved!

Of course those are probably ran by an objective competitor anyways, just tread lightly and you might be able to talk a little about your site.

Searches with high spam rate.

Terms that get the highest spam will be targeted as well, hopefully web hosting will be added for our sake lol. Half the front page for the term “Web Hosting” is fake top ten web hosting sites!

My two cents.

It sounds like they are getting smarter and a little less cruel to the little guy. I also really liked how they mention that one site will not have more then one link on the first couple pages of Google. I feel like Matt Cutts is a well grounded person and understands the importance of helping new webmasters, hopefully we will see a new system that can separate new domains with spam and new domains with real sites trying to work their way up fairly.

For organic SEO help check out our services here: SEO

Good luck!
Charles Yarbrough

Got a minute? Check out these top ten flops of 2012.
You can learn a lot about what not to do by watching others fail. Too be honest these tech companies might of failed but the people who gave them a shot probably will not.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/28/tech/web/tech-fails-2012/index.html?npt=NP1

The tool that promises to launch the next era of websites, smartphone apps and online video is finally finished.

HTML5, the long-in-the-works update to the language that powers the Web, is “feature complete,” according to an announcement made Monday by the standards-setting Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C). There’s still some testing to be done, and it hasn’t yet become an official Web standard — that will come in 2014. But there won’t be any new features added to HTML5, which means Web designers and app makers now have a “stable target” for implementing it, W3C said.

The HTML5 language lets developers deliver in-the-browser experiences that previously required standalone apps or additional software like Java, Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash or Microsoft’s (MSFT, Fortune 500) Silverlight. It supports lightning-fast video and geolocation services, offline tools and touch, among other bells and whistles.

The W3C has been developing the spec for the better part of a decade.

“As of today, businesses know what they can rely on for HTML5 in the coming years,” W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe said in a prepared statement. “Likewise, developers will know what skills to cultivate to reach smart phones, cars, televisions, e-books, digital signs, and devices not yet known.”

Most of the top browser makers didn’t wait for the language to be 100% finished before building support for some elements into their software. The latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari are already compatible with most HTML5 elements.

Getting inspiration for entrepreneurs is like getting gas for a car. Without it you can’t can’t anywhere with a new start up yet a growing business. There is thousands of ways to get new ideas but without inspiration they will just spin in circles. Here is ten recent must see great business documentaries all business owners and entrepreneurs should watch at least once.

Freakonomics The Movie (2010)
Startup.com (2001)
Steve Jobs: One Last Thing (2011)
Beer Wars (2009)
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
The Call of the Entrepreneur (2007)
Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words (2011)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)
We Live In Public (2009)

No household making more than $1 million each year should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle class family pays. This is the Buffett Rule—a simple principle of tax fairness that asks everyone to pay their fair share.

The Buffett Rule Explained

What’s the deal with our current tax system?

Under the current U.S. tax system, a number of millionaires pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than a significant proportion of middle class families. Warren Buffett, for example, pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary, and that’s not fair.

A full 22,000 households that made more than $1 million in 2009 paid less than 15 percent of their income in income taxes — and 1,470 managed to pay no federal income taxes on their million-plus-dollar incomes, according to the IRS.

And, the very wealthiest American households are paying nearly the lowest tax rate in 50 years— some are paying just half of the federal income tax that top income earners paid in 1960. But the average tax rate for middle class families has barely budged. The middle 20 percent of households paid 14 percent of their incomes in 1960, and 16 percent in 2010.

What is the Buffett Rule?

The Buffett Rule is a simple principle that everyone should pay their fair share in taxes. No household making more than a $1 million should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay. For the 98 percent of American families who make less than $250,000, taxes should not go up.

How would it make sure everyone pays their fair share?

The Buffett Rule would limit the degree to which the best-off can take advantage of loopholes and tax rates that allow them to pay less of their income in taxes than middle-class families.

Anyone who does well for themselves should do their fair share in return, so that more people have the opportunity to get ahead—not just a few. And at time when we need to pay down our deficit and invest in the things that help our economy grow and keep our country safe—education, research and technology, a strong military, Medicare and Social Security—giving tax breaks to millionaires simply doesn’t make sense.

1. No written plan. Don’t believe the myth that a business plan isn’t worth the effort. The discipline of writing down a plan is the best way to make sure you actually understand how to transform your idea into a business.

2. Slim or no revenue model. Even a non-profit has to generate revenue (or donations) to offset operating costs. If your product is free, or you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume. You may have the solution to world hunger, but if your customers have no money, your business won’t last long.

3. Limited business opportunities. Not every good idea can become a blockbuster business. Just because you passionately believe that your product or service is great, and everyone needs it, doesn’t mean that everyone will buy it. There is no substitute for market research, written by domain experts, to supplement your informal poll of friends and family.

4. Can’t execute. When young entrepreneurs come to me with that “million dollar idea,” I have to tell them that an idea alone is really worth nothing. It’s all about the execution. If you’re not comfortable making hard decisions and taking risks, you won’t do well in this role.

5. Too much competition. Having no competitors is a red flag — it may mean there’s no market — but finding ten or more with a simple Google search means your area of interest may be a crowded. Remember, sleeping giants can wake up. So, don’t assume that Microsoft or Procter & Gamble are too big and slow for you to worry about.

6. No intellectual property. If you expect to seek investors, or you expect to have a sustainable competitive advantage against giants in your industry, you need to register for patents, trademarks and copyrights, as well as enlist non-compete and non-disclosure agreements to protect trade secrets. Intellectual property is also often the largest element of early-stage company valuations for professional investors.

7. An inexperienced team. In reality, investors fund people, not ideas. They look for people with real experience in the business domain of the startup, and people with real experience running a startup. If this is your first time around, find a partner who has “been there and done that” to balance your passion and bring experience to the team.

8. Underestimating resource requirements. A major resource is cash funding, but other resources, such as industry contacts and access to marketing channels may be more important for certain products. Having too much cash, not managed wisely, can be just as devastating as too little cash. Don’t quit your day job until new revenue is flowing.

9. Not enough marketing. Having a slick word-of-mouth marketing strategy isn’t enough to make your product and brand visible in the relentless onslaught of new media out there today. Even viral marketing costs real money and time. Without effective and innovative marketing across the range of media, you won’t have customers — or a business.

10. Giving in too early. In my experience, the most common cause of startup failure is the entrepreneur just gets tired, gives up and shuts down the company. Despite setbacks, many successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison kept slugging away on their vision until they found success.

The obvious conclusion to changing the name of your website is that it will lose it’s popularity quick.

“You are going to lose traffic,” a SearchEngineLand blogger warned would-be name changers in 2009. “That is a fact. Even if you only perform a domain change and preserve the exact same site structure and content, you will lose some traffic.”

If that’s true, it spells bad news for MSNBC.com, which on Monday changed its name and URL to NBCNews.com following a split from Microsoft, the technology giant that had partnered with the U.S. news network to produce the website.

But maybe that assumption is outdated?

NBC, for its part, said it doesn’t expect the move to affect traffic. All existing URLs, including those linked on social media sites, will still work or will redirect to the new NBCNews.com URL, Vivian Schiller, NBC News chief digital officer, said in a conference call with reporters Monday. (The MSNBC cable channel will launch a new website in 2013 as an extension of its on-air brand, NBC News said.)

If you take a look at a few of the sites that have changed their names — it’s really rare for a site to do so, by the way — you see that many of them not only survive a name change but are able to thrive after it. Or maybe because of it.

Here’s a look at a few that have come out better on the other end of a URL switch:

Facebook: If you’re under 30, or if you saw “The Social Network,” you probably know that Facebook used to be called thefacebook.com. The company officially dropped the “the” in August 2005. That’s universally regarded as a good move, but it’s worth pointing out that the switch occurred before Facebook was a household name.

IMDB: The Internet Movie Database, now super popular and owned by Amazon, started in 1990 as a USENET group with the domain rec.arts.movies. The site then was hosted by Cardiff University before it migrated to IMDB.com, according to a feature in Total Film.

PerezHilton: The pop culture and gay news blog started out as PageSixSixSix.com, a reference to the New York Post’s gossip column. Now pretty much no one (except a friend from HLN’s website, who sent this reference) remembers the previous blog.

Overstock.com: The Internet retailer changed its name to O.co in 2011, but switched it back, as CNET reports, because of brand confusion. Consider this the warning for NBCNews.com, although NBC is already a recognizable brand in the United States. O.co, by the way, still redirects to Overstock’s site.

PayPal: Elon Musk founded a site called X.com in 1999. The next year, it would merge with Confinity to become PayPal, the well-known online payment system. According to PayPal’s official blog, the “X” was a reference to that “universally recognized programming variable” — a reference to innovation and creation. This may be the only example of a site’s URL actually getting less cool because of a change.

Twitter: The micro-blogging site launched in 2006 as Twttr because a “bird enthusiast” already owned the URL for Twitter.com, according to CNNMoney. Six months later, the company had enough money to buy some vowels.

Ask.com: Remember that fashionable digital butler from the ’90s? Ask.com began in 1996 as AskJeeves.com but fired Jeeves in 2005 to become Ask.com.

So simply put YES it can help and in some cases in needed to get over whatever plateau you may be at right now. I would suggest that you make sure the name can be remembered or catchy and is somewhat short. Unfortunately any domains like this will cost money, most likely lots of money.

Brought you by DWHS Website Hosting

A big, fat Yellow Pages landed in my driveway the other day with an audible whomp. I promptly picked it up and deposited it into the recycling bin with a second whomp. Harsh, right? But when I’m searching for something local–be it a snow shovel or a cinnamon roll–the last thing I’d do is flip through the phone book.

Chances are, you feel the same way. A study last year by Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 51 percent of U.S. adults get information about local businesses from the internet, rather than from newspapers, word-of-mouth, TV reporting or those tragic phone books.

So, the question becomes, How good is your local business at generating online leads? Here are the basics.

Build a website with your own domain.
This is obvious, right? But according to stat site Statistic Brain, up to half of small businesses don’t have a website.

One business owner told me she didn’t need one because she has a thriving Facebook page with great customer interaction. That’s awesome, for sure.

But think of any social platform as an “in addition to,” not an “instead of.” Why? You wouldn’t build a house on rented land, so don’t place your sole web presence on a platform you don’t own.

I’m a big fan of WordPress for building websites. The software is highly customizable–you’d be surprised how many WordPress-powered sites don’t look like typical blogs–and fairly straightforward to update and maintain. It also allows for easy integration of social widgets, so your site feels more inherently “alive” with customer engagement and interaction. You might consider importing a calendar of local events your business supports, too.

Use keywords to attract local traffic.
There are numerous ways to increase the likelihood your site will be found–a search-engine expert could fill this magazine with information on that topic alone.

But I’ll leave it at this: At a minimum, your site should have your physical address and phone number (don’t smirk–you’d be surprised how many overlook this!) and should contain geographically specific keywords in various combinations. (For example, a roofing company in Glendale, Calif., should include phrases like “Glendale roofing company,” “greater Los Angeles roofing” and “Glendale, Calif., roofing business.”) Place keywords in the page title, header tags and, where appropriate, in the content of the page itself. Use online research tools like Google AdWords, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery to research the words and phrases people use when they are searching for the product or service you sell.

Convert visitors into customers.
A “contact us” form is a nice start toward giving the public a way to reach you online. But how do you juice up your efforts to convert visitors into leads? One way is to offer free, downloadable how-to kits, guides or worksheets with an eye toward becoming a resource–a trusted advisor who can help potential customers as they inch toward a purchase decision.

I like the way Los Angeles architecture firm Modative offers nicely designed resources to would-be clients, including a site evaluation sample report and a design process guide. Both are free of charge at Modative.com in exchange for providing your contact information.

Create local profiles.

Claim your profile on search engines and online local business directories like Google Places, Yelp and, yes, YellowPages.com. A great list of 50 online directories is available on HubSpot.com’s blog.

If you don’t claim your profile, you’re either needlessly invisible or you risk letting others publish faulty information about you. Writing at MarketingProfs.com, Jon Schepke, president of digital marketing agency SIM Partners, tells of a family restaurant that failed to capture its town’s brisk tourist trade because Google had it listed as a grocery store, Yelp described it wrongly as an Italian restaurant and Bing had an inaccurate address. Don’t let that happen to you!

Search engines like consistency, Schepke says, so be sure your business’s name, address and phone number are listed the same way across the web.

Encourage reviews.
Customer testimonials (presumably positive ones) enhance search rankings and increase click-through and conversion rates. Positive reviews validate your business not only to search engines, but also to actual, well, people.

When you want to start an online business, the first thing that you need to ask yourself is where you want to sell your product. If you’re really serious in running the business, creating a website will give you an advantage better than any other means. In order to have good quality website, having to choose good website hosting is a must. As a result, you’ll find many companies running business hosting these days.

Getting good hosting doesn’t always mean you need to pay lots of money for it. You can pay cheap hosting and receive good service instead. The key is to find hosting that is enough for your business. Make sure that the capacity that is being offered to you is enough for your website so that your website will be able to function perfectly.

If you don’t want to take a risk for finding good hosting, you can search for information on what is the best hosting these days. There are plenty of reviews given for many hosting companies that you can take advantage of. Do your homework by comparing them all. Choose the one that is in accordance to your budget and of course to your need.

Most people surveyed recently were just as likely to turn to the internet, as they were to ask for personal recommendations about local businesses. For business owners, this is a good indication that now more than ever, it’s important to have a strong online presence. We’ve highlighted a few key takeaways from the survey below:

1) “There has been a significant jump in the number of consumers using the Internet to find local businesses, and the regularity of their ‘searches’ has also increased.” In fact, only 15% of consumers surveyed have not used the internet to find a local business in the past 12 months. This number is down from 21% in 2010.

2) The majority of consumers surveyed use online reviews to make spending decisions. 27% of consumers are regularly reading online reviews, while another 49% are occasional readers.

Local directories like Business Faves is a great place to get a free business listing to help SEO for your business and to help local customers find your business on the internet.