Greg Tatka » Google http://www.gregtatka.com Web Marketing for Language Schools & Teacher Training Centres Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:21:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Findability Explainedhttp://www.gregtatka.com/findability-explained http://www.gregtatka.com/findability-explained#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:49:57 +0000 Greg Tatka http://www.gregtatka.com/?p=103

The Web offers great marketing and sales opportunities for your language school or teacher training centre. That’s the fact.

Now, do you take the full advantage of it? The answer is NO. Ouch!

But this is about to change and I’m going to help you out with making your language courses findable, real quick.

Findability signposts

Tidy up your backyard first …

Surely you spent a nice amount of your advertising budget on fancy graphics for your website, but how much did you spent on making the site usable (also convertable into bookings)?

Did you offer your prospect students:

  1. Clear navigation?
  2. Course search (site search)?
  3. Help with course selection?

and then go beyond Google

Even when that wasn’t a ‘triple yes’ for you, go beyond your own site and make sure your courses are findable everywhere people may search!

There are other search engines apart Google, you know!
Bear in mind people also search on:

  1. Video sites like YouTube
  2. File sharing sites like SlideShare
  3. Social media sites like Facebook
  4. School accreditation sites like English UK
  5. Course search sites like Courses, etc.

Make sure your courses can be found there! And as the new Web 2.0 services pop up, go and make most of them in all the creative ways you can think of.

Another good side of getting your course marketing information out there is the fact you generate a number of incoming links towards your own site. This in turn helps your own website become more findable in all other search engines.

If you are interested in findability and search I recommend you visit http://findability.org/

]]> http://www.gregtatka.com/findability-explained/feed 0 The What, Why and How of Google Accountshttp://www.gregtatka.com/google-account http://www.gregtatka.com/google-account#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:01:23 +0000 Greg Tatka http://babyinside.co.uk/?p=1

The Google Accounts hardly ever make the headlines, except for times when there’s a serious privacy concern over how Google handles your personal data!

Yet Google Account is a single piece of work that most webmasters and search engine optimisers (SEO) use daily, often subconsciously!

I’m a webmaster and an SEO consultant. I’m also a Google Account addict and you should be too!  Here’s why.

The other day I turned on my PC and launched a browser. My bookmarks didn’t load, my RSS reader was sitting there doing nothing, my mail wasn’t arriving. In the back of my mind I heard the famous ‘This is it, This is really it’!

But hang on, what’s the ‘Sign in’ link in place of my Google Account login status?

Google Account sign in button

Google Account sign in button

In that one second it all became clear. Google Account does a tremendous job for me and deserves some credit for it, definitely a blog post!

What’s a Google Account

There’s a great chance you use Gmail, or at least heard of it. Gmail and various other services from Google are all accessible with a single user account which is called, well, Google Account. But that doesn’t mean you need Gmail in order to use the other.

Google Account is an identity you use to access Google services. Full stop.

Why use Google Account

Web marketing is quite a complex activity and you need tools to monitor and troubleshoot any issues regarding your website’s performance in search engines and your web marketing campaigns.

Google Account gives you access to all those services and tools with a single login. Services you may want to use may include for example Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics, which collect a great deal of valuable data on your site usage and related marketing activities.

It’s a good idea to setup a personal Google Account and a separate Google Account for your business. You will use the business account to signup for services and then access the services with your personal account.

Why setup two accounts?

Well, you are most likely to share your Google Account with other people like your colleagues or business partners. You also want to ensure continuity of the data being collected over the years, which would otherwise be gone with the owner of the personal Google Account, should they ever decide to leave your business.

How to use Google Account in your business effectively

Okay, so we know what Google Account is and why you need one.

To finish off, a few good practices I’ve used over the years

  1. Setup a Google Account associated with a business
  2. Signup for all services using your business account
  3. Share and manage access for other people from your business account
  4. Access the services with your personal account
  5. Don’t share the password to your business account, share each service explicitly

Action items for you

  1. Learn how to set up a Google Account
  2. Share with your friends on Facebook
  3. Leave your feedback!
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