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In my last article I went over a few of the things that search engines love. Now I ll finish up the discussion with an article on what they absolutely hate which includes everything from clutter to cookies. So if you re in the mood to build a website grab your pen and paper and start taking notes because this article will offer some of the most important tricks of the trade....
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As Twitter microblogging captures the mainstream media's imagination, Google Analytics has quietly relaunched Measure Map analytics for bloggers. Email invitations went out this week to alpha users of the blog tracking software.

The bad news for Measure Map bloggers: historical analytics data from the original Measure Map can't be imported into the Google Analytics / Measure Map platform.

We reported on the acquisition of Adaptive Path's Measure Map by Google back in February, 2006. Since then Jeffrey Veen and his team have redesigned Google Analytics and integrated new features such as Website Optimizer with great success.

Sitepoint's Technical Editor Andrew Tetlaw posted a question on April 11, 2008 in a dormant Google Groups forum for Measure Map:

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling MM has beenabandoned?

Performance is terrible, the browser report still doesn't even
recognize Firefox 2.0....

That post seems to have spurred the Google Analytics team to email all the original users of Measure Map to test the newly rebuilt analytics software for bloggers. You can ask the MM team questions in the resuscitated Measure Maps Google Group.

Andrew also told me that to convert to the new and improved Measure Map you need to sign up for a Google Analytics account and add GA tracking code to your site. For an update, check out Andrew's excellent post today in Sitepoint: Measure Map Redux.

We're not sure whether the original MM "Date Slider" will be reinvented but it was one of the original cool tools for Analytics that had wide appeal (even if it seems clunky by today's Web 2.0 standards).

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As we all know search engine optimization is must required thing for any small business. Nowadays every small business owners are crazy for expand their local business globally. Thus they build up eye catching websites with their product list or with their service documentation.But, an effective website is not enough for catching online traffic of any business area. Building a noticeable website is only the basic steps of any local business and after that the term SEO is arising.Do not f more...

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Posted by rebecca

Last week on The Office, corporate weenie Ryan visited the Scranton branch and told them that they needed to make up extra sales that their website should have brought in. He had been fervently pushing the website onto the staff, telling them that version 2.0 of the site will be even bigger and better, and that embracing new technology like online sales will skyrocket paper purchases and make their jobs easier. Unfortunately, the staff had been deeply rooted in the "old school" method of providing a great customer service experience and developing a relationship with the customer. Ryan, however, was intent on this push towards web 2.0, insisting that Dunder Mifflin's social networking feature will bring loads of young, hip people on their site to interact and hang out with each other (never mind the whole sexual predator snafu they ran into...).

I bring up this lengthy example (see the episode here if you haven't already) because the timing of the episode was pretty spot-on. Last week I spoke at the eCommerce Summit in New Orleans (I'll be sure to post about that later this week), and Brian Smith from ComparisonEngines.com was on the New Media Panel with me. After I gave an overview of social media and its benefits, he came to the podium and asked the single most important question every business should ask themselves before diving into the sordid world of upvotes, stumbles, tweets, pownces, and photo streams: "Do you need to do this right now?"

Brian went on to say that too often, businesses dive into the new web big buzz thing because they feel that they need to keep up with the latest trends on the web. However, is social media truly your top priority now? I met a lot of eBay sellers and small business owners at the eCommerce Summit, and they often either worked for themselves or were part of an extremely small team. These people barely have time to SEO their site, and yet they're asking about which social media sites they should join and if they can create the same profile for each site.

Going back to The Office and last week's episode, if you watch the show or are remotely familiar with it, you'd clearly know that making a fancy website and offering a super cool social networking feature shouldn't be Dunder Mifflin's top priority. More specifically, what will a social networking section accomplish for them? Do teenagers and young hipsters order bulk reams of paper? Too often people think "I need to do that!" without first asking themselves whether they need it at all.

Both Brian and The Office taught me (in both a pointed and comical way) that before diving into something as time-consuming as social media, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this a top priority, or are there other, more important things I need to take care of first? (There's no point in having 30 social media profiles if they point to an ugly, poorly SEO'd, horribly converting website.)
2. Is social media appropriate for your business?
3. What goals are you trying to accomplish by engaging in social media marketing?

Once you tackle those questions and feel that SMM is right for you, then you can start implementing a strategy. If not, well, you can always take a trip to Dwight Schrute's beet farm and figure out what your website does need.

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Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Strategies spoke with Daron Babin and discussed the current state of the conference circuit with regards to individuals believing that they have been banned from either SMX or SES events. Danny Sullivan kindly transcribed the...

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Microsoft has introduced enhanced mobile product search at m.live.com. It shrinks down the content from the desktop product search into a bite-sized mobile presentation. You get images, reviews, product specifications, and features. These things don't come up for every category; however, it's a very nice presentation of information, and the available categories should grow rapidly.

The company has simultaneously introduced "Find My Location," based on cell phone tower triangulation, for Japan and the UK.

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Google commissioned Jeff Koons, the controversial modern artist, to create graphic images for iGoogle backgrounds. Koons' Google Doodle today features his interpretation of (chrome) tulips. "Where art thou?" asks Marissa Mayer, VP of search products & user experience, in her official blog post this morning:

"Did you notice the chrome tulips on Google's homepage today? They are part of a special Google doodle done by renowned artist Jeff Koons. And that isn't the only art appearing anew on Google today. As part of our iGoogle Artists project, we have collaborated with almost 70 artists in 17 countries on 6 continents to create special iGoogle themes -- works of art that appeal to all ages and interests."

Our response: "O Brother, Google, where art thousands of dollars going?"
Or perhaps, "O Pop, Where Art Thou?"

Most of the time, the controversy about Koons -- at 53-years old modern art's aging bad boy -- centers on whether he's a brilliant artist or the emperor's new clothes.

Jeff Koons isn't the only Google artist designing for iGoogle: non-artist artists like UK rockers Coldplay and U.S. kiddieboppers The Wiggles (shown below); fashion designers Mark Ecko (rhino logo) and Diane von Furstenburg (wife of Ask.com owner Barry Diller of IAC); architects Phillipe Starck (W Hotels) and Michael Graves; and New Yorker cartoonist Robert Mankoff.

Why in the world would a world-famous artist like Jeff Koons hire himself out for graphic design work?

It seems the multimillionaire artist and ex-husband of an ex-porn star may need the moolah.

Jeff Koons famously married a European porn star, La Cicciolina ("fleshy one"), after hiring her as his muse for photos, paintings and sculptures.

The artwork Koons spawned from their union was graphic but not graphic in a Googley design way. Think NSFW: sexually explicit in a flashy, fleshy Paris Hilton - Britney Spears - Lindsay Lohan kind of way. The only difference? Koons' sculptures starred Jeff and (as Brit wits might say) his naughty bits.

A few weeks ago, La Cicciolina, AKA Ilona Staller, sued her ex-husband, Jeffrey Koons, for $2.4 million dollars (1.5 million euros) in child support for their 15-year old son, Ludwig Maximilian Koons, according to papers filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court.

Child support payments of 15,000 euros a month were ordered by an Italian court in June 2007. Koons has only paid 191,426 euros for child support during the roughly nine year period (Oct 1998 - Dec 2007), leaving a balance owed of about 1.5 million euros.

Staller starred in X-rated films in Italy as La Cicciolina before she was elected to serve as a member of Italy??™s parliament for five years.

After the jump we have a two-minute clip from the Sundance Channel: fashion designer "Tom Ford on Jeff Koons" from the Iconoclast series. You can see what Jeff Koons Safe-For-Work art is all about in a SFW video.

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