Internet Marketing Blog» Toronto Web Development, Internet Marketing and Facebook Applications

Google’s SEO Starter Guide

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:45:22 +0000

The Google Webmaster Central blog has a recent post linking to a new guide they created that lists some of the best practices to improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing. The guide covers topics such as page titles, meta tags, anchor text, site navigation, URL structure among others.

I gave the guide a brief once over and found it to be a very useful starting point for those who want to make their own website and maybe can’t afford the services of a professional web designer and/or search engine optimizer. Even if you can afford the services of an SEO pro, it’s still nice to understand some of the basics of in-site optimization.

You can find a copy of the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide here.

Ekamtech Helps DomainNamePricer.com with SEO/SEM

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:59:22 +0000

DomainNamePricer.com, a new and innovative website that helps with domain registrations by comparing the price of Top-Level Domain (TLD’s) from different registrars across the internet, recently retained Ekamtech for help with SEO/SEM. The Search Engine Consultants at Ekamtech provided guidance and advice in expanding DomainNamePricer.com’s presence on the Internet.

Ekamtech Helps Launch KitchenPricer.com

admin — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:20:27 +0000

A new price-comparison site focusing on Kitchen products had its beta launch today. The site, KitchenPricer.com, was built with the aid of Ekamtechs SEM and SEO consultants.

Google purchases GrandCentral

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:02:33 +0000

Google recently purchased a company called GrandCentral - A company I had previously never heard of … after taking a look at their website I was somewhat impressed. As a closed invitation only service I wasnt able to test out their technology but basically they are a voip provider with a nice looking suite of web-based features. It’s exciting to think of how Google’s presence will affect the voip market. This is definately something to follow for small business owners.

Ekamtech Helps Launch DVD-Pricer.com

admin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 17:53:20 +0000

A new price-comparison site focusing on DVD’s had its beta launch today. The site, DVD-Pricer.com, was built with the aid of Ekamtechs SEM and SEO consultants. Ekamtech’s consultants provided design recommendations for search engine optimization as well as search engine functional design consulting and will also be running DVD-Pricer.com’s online advertising campaign – to be launched after Thanksgiving.

DVD-Pricer.com compares DVD prices across a large number of top online retailers in order to provide the end-user with the least expensive purchasing option. DVD-Pricer.com has a clean look and a very simple interface and provides shipping quotes for online retailers as well as search functionality, product reviews and similar product recommendations.
We wish the folks at DVD-Pricer.com the best of luck on their launch!

Missing Adults Google Maps Mashup

admin — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:13:31 +0000

Following the successful launch of Missing Kids Map in May, Ekamtech has teamed up with the National Center for Missing Adults and has launched the Missing Adults Map. As with Missing Kids Map, Ekamtech hopes that Missing Adults Map will assist in finding missing adults.Any feedback regarding this endeavour and the technology behind it is welcome. Please email us using our contact form.Google Maps mashup using data from the National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA). National maps of the US and Canada show recently missing adults and state maps show the missing adults from each US state. Profiles of each missing adult are found by clicking on each map’s markers. Designed by the same people who designed missingkidsmap.com.

Google Modifying Keyword Quality Based on Commerciality

admin — Wed, 10 May 2006 08:35:38 +0000

Google is modifying the way they define keyword quality by considering the ‘commerciality’ of the keyword. In a recent interview a Google product manager suggested that Google will deliver more impressions for queries for which ads are useful and fewer ads on queries for which users might prefer not to see them.

The interview cited an example where queries such as ‘dog friendly parks in Mountain View’ would show fewer ads as Google feels users typing in these queries are most likely not interested in a product or service.

Toronto Maps Launched

admin — Tue, 02 May 2006 11:24:52 +0000

Ekamtech has used Google Maps to create 13 new Toronto area maps: three on JewishinTO.com (eg. Toronto Kosher Restaurants) and 8 on TObars.com (eg. Toronto Club District Map). Have suggestions for other maps? Let us know and we might just add them!

SES Toronto

admin — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:53:45 +0000

Last Tuesday we checked out the exhibitors at SES (Search Engine Strategies) 2006 Toronto. We made the decision early on to skip the conference and just check out the ‘expo’. Next year, however, I think we will attend the whole thing.

SES pits itself as the ‘premier event for search engine marketing and optimization’ and while that might be true it still doesnt mean that they attract alot of exhibitors (around 20 by our count). The exhibitors included heavyweights Google and MSN and then an assortment of sem related companies (both local and international).

We spent about an hour and half there on Tuesday morning (arriving during a conference session – so very few people were at the expo). We spent most of our time chatting it up with the Google and MSN people who all seemed very interested in our experiences as sem professional using their products. Unfortunately, half the time they had no idea what we were talking about with regards to Google Adwords and MSN Adcenter. Case in point was the fact that none of the Adwords Googlers knew anything about Google’s recent announcement to charge for the Adwords API (I had to use their laptop to show them the Google PR).

Well at least I got a Google yo-yo!

btw MSN had the weirdest giveaway – MSN Adcenter Napkins (no the napkins aren’t branded – only the package that they came in is)

Google to Charge for use of Adwords API on July 1st

admin — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 14:00:37 +0000

In a move that has angered many developers and search engine marketing firms, Google has announced that as of July 1st it will start charging for the use of its Adwords API. Pricing for the Adwords API will be based on a usage fee structure where $0.25 USD buys 1,000 units.

The Google Adwords API allows adwords users with a My Client Center to create their own programs to interface with the Adwords system. Using the Adwords API, developers and SEM Firms have created custom and commercial reporting, automation, bidding anc cross-PPC platform comparison tool that greatly improve efficiency and scalability of the Adwords platform.

From its initial launch, the Adwords API has been free to use and based on a quota system that was calculated for the most part based on the number of accounts one administered within their My Client Center

In addition to the new fee structure, Google is making some changes to their Adwords API terms of use. Rohit Dhawan, Google product manager explains that the new terms of use were needed to “to simplify developers’ abilities to commercialize their applications while at the same time ensuring that advertiser returns are maximized through the promotion of certain functional standards”. Google has made available a preview copy of the new terms of use. We will blog about the changes in the new tos once we have had a chance to thoroughly examine it.