Again this is going to be a very short post.  It’s Saturday morning and I just finished reading the Windsor Star and came across an article on Google’s Street View coming which is coming to Windsor shortly.   Now I love Google, frankly because my business focuses directly on helping small businesses dominate the first page of Google.  And I can think of many ways small and medium size businesses could use this technology to make more money but this is not what my post is about today.

It’s about Google being able to peek it’s head into my living room when I’m half naked, well not exactly naked but  you get the point.

This past Wednesday Google launched it’s Street View image service into 11 Canadian cities and Windsor will be coming very soon.  By the way, has anyone noticed the funny looking car driving around Windsor Ontario?  You may have noticed the one with the tall camera connected to the roof, well that’s a Google car.  I should have applied for the job.

Anyways according to Google, more than 28 million Street View images of various locations within Canadian cities were viewed this past Wednesday.  That number is insane!

So after reading the article I was like all others and immediately went on to see what I can find….call it sort-of voyeurism or not…but I think it’s kinda cool!

All I can say is make sure you shut your curtains.

Can you see the woman in the window?

Internet Marketing Windsor Ontario - Google Street View - Kitchener

I’m just joking about the woman in the window, but honestly…it is kinda creepy.

Have a great day!

Mike d

Search engines like Google have changed the way we communicate, collaborate, research, buy and sell, date etc.  We all appreciate Google and welcome any thing that helps us in our lives.

However what I’ve noticed from a lot of people I’ve talked to is that they understand Google and they understand how to search.  But they have no idea that Google has advanced search techniques that would help us to quickly find what we’re searching for.

Below you’ll find some advanced search techniques that should help you streamline your search results and find the things that you’re searching for easier.  For illustrations purposed we used bold and underline for the advanced search techniques.

Enjoy!

• Phrase search (“”)
  Using double quotes around a set of words tells Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without altering them. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for “Eddie Francis” (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Eddie H. Francis.

See example below!

Google Search - Online Marketing

• Search within a specific website (site:)
  Our friend Google allows us to specify that our search results must come from a given website. For example the search mayor site:windsorstar.com will return pages about the mayor but only from windsorstar.com The simpler searches mayor windsorstar.com or mayor Windsor star will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the Windsor Star. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example mayor site:.gov will return results only from a .gov domain and mayor site:.ca will return results only from Canadian sites.

See example below!

Google Search for Mayor with in windsorstar.com

• Terms you want to exclude (-)
  Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the search anti-virus software, the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the search anti-virus -software will search for the words ‘anti-virus’ but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example mustang -cars –football -ford. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the ‘site:’ operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.

See example below!

Google Search for Online Marketing

• Fill in the blanks (*)
  The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search Google * will give you results about many of Google’s products. The search Eddie Francis voted * on the * strike will give you stories about different votes on human rights. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

See example below!

Online Marketing Windsor Ontario - Google Search

More advanced Google Search techniques.

• Search exactly as is (+)
  Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the search child care (with a space), or Ontario history for the search ont history. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don’t really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don’t add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it.

• The OR operator
  Google’s default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type ‘OR’ in ALL CAPS). For example, Detroit Lions 2004 OR 2005 will give you results about either one of these years, whereas Detroit Lions 2004 2005 (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)

Well I hope the above examples will help you in your quest to find what you’re searching for in Google quicker and much easier.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

Thanks and good luck!

Mike d

Business owners are always on the look out for qualified prospects and the best prospects are targeted qualified prospects searching for your products or services with money in hand.

That’s the life blood of any business.  But the question remains, how does a business owner get highly targeted prospects 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and even on holidays?

We have the answer! And it’s somewhat simple…

Focus on local Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies.

Fact: Local people are searching for products and services from local businesses every single day.   If you’re a local business and haven’t put a thought into getting on Google’s first page then you are definitely missing out on a huge opportunity.  By learning web marketing strategies you can get more customers walking threw your doors which will help you make more money.

Try this: Go to Google and search for your particular niche.  For example if you’re own a store that sells furniture then go to Google and search “furniture windsor ontario” and see if you show up in Google’s organic search results.  Because if you don’t then you’re missing out on 289 potential customers per month in Windsor Ontario.

Now if you see your business listed on the first page of Google and you wonder why you’re not getting any additional foot traffic threw your store you may want to get your website analyzed for maximum website optimization and traffic conversions.

Think of it this way with your website.  It’s just like your brick and mortar store.  If a potential customer walks in and they presume your store is not attractive, messy or your staff seem not to care, then you’ll most likely miss out on a sale.

When People visit a website they automatically make a first impression about your business.  They look around the site and judge how pleasing to the eye your website is, they see how easy they can find information, and they won’t think twice about “bouncing” off going to the next website if they don’t like yours. You could be missing out on opportunities!

Get your website rated for market effectiveness!

Are you competitive?  As a business owner myself, I’m extremely ruthless when it comes to competing for possible business.  And the more inside information I have about my customers the better equipped I am when it comes to beating my competitors.  Imagine dominating the first page of Google for your specific industry.   Think about your site becoming the authority website online, and on the first page of Google.

It’s possible for your website to become the local authority site and remove most of your competitors off the first page of Google !

Watch this video below by clicking on the link.  You’ll be taken to our YouTube station!

Check out local Google domination for one of our customers!

I’ve included some screen shots of some industries in Windsor Ontario and how many monthly searches are performed on Google.

Check out and see if you’re missing out on golden money making opportunities.

Keyword Search Phrase – Furniture Windsor Ontario

Internet Marketing - Furniture Windsor Ontaraio

Keyword Search Phrase – Cars For Sale Windsor Ontario

Internet Marketing - Cars for Sale Windsor Ontario

Keyword Search Phrase – Hair Salon Windsor Ontario

Internet Marketing - Hair Salon Windsor Ontario

Keyword Search Phrase – Dentist Windsor Ontario

Internet Marketing - Dentist Windsor Ontario

If you don’t see your particular industry or niche then click the link below and put in your name and email address.

Download the WINDSOR ONTARIO INDUSTRY SEARCH VOLUME PDF HERE!