So I get an email tonight from the VP of Marketing at Panorama, for whom I have done a bit of SEO. He tells me that Panorama has partnered with Google to offer pivot table functionality in Google Spreadsheets as well as on top of Google AdWords.
WHAT? Surely this is some sort of weird spam I am thinking; a Google search returns nothing… Well he did mention the partnership was just announced today so perhaps it has not made it to the organic listings yet - after all, SEO does take time. So I search Google News…and sure enough there are a couple of press releases indicating there is some truth to this email.
The really weird part is that I don’t use Google Spreadsheets because they can’t filter or do pivot tables - seriously… I am geeky enough to do pivot tables to analyze clients Google Analytics or WebTrends data. It gets more weird…. just tonight I was speaking with Jacques, one of our WebTrends configuration guru who is currently doing work at AUCC for me this week, and was mentioning that I’d like to learn dashboarding as I think it would be a sexy alternative to pivot tables for some clients.
Perhaps this new Panorama feature within Google Docs and Google AdWords will mean I don’t have to learn dashboarding?
Wow… I can’t wait to check this out!

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response from attendees, Neo Insight is pleased to announce that Gerry McGovern returns to Ottawa in May 2008! As well as offering an encore presentation of his Masterclass, Gerry McGovern is offering a special half-day Executive Session, plus opportunities to work more closely together to refine and apply his techniques to your specific needs.

May 5-6: Gerry McGovern Masterclass: Creating Customer-Centric Websites
This Masterclass is an updated, encore presentation of the November 2007 session. It will give attendees the tools and arguments to show why a customer-centric approach is the best way to serve customers in Canada—whether they are citizens, customers or your own staff. The future of Web management is task management—and this Masterclass will give you the road map to achieve it. Gerry McGovern will show you why the key to success for your website is a relentless focus on the tasks of your customers—and how to keep that focus.

More than 280 people attended the sold out November workshop. The response to Gerry’s powerful, communicative and entertaining style was overwhelmingly positive. Typical feedback included: “Gerry is an excellent, knowledgeable and entertaining speaker who captivates your attention throughout the session” and “Mr. McGovern offers some outstanding insights, research results, and advice.”

* See details of the Masterclass - Creating Customer-Centric Websites

May 7: Special half-day session: Managing Customer-Centric Websites - Executive Session
A special 1/2 day executive session focused on quickly getting quantifiable results from a Customer Carewords approach to managing your website. This Executive Session is for senior managers and executives who have to translate strategic plans and visions into coordinated actions by other people. It is for those of you who want to:

* Take your vision and manage your website to realize your strategic objectives
* Make decisions based on data rather than opinion
* Establish a clear return on investment
* Maintain a clear focus to get maximum impact from limited resources
* Develop actionable metrics for effectively managing the web channel

The Executive Session will take place in the Penthouse, Sheraton Hotel, on Wednesday May 7, 2008, from 7:30am - 12:00 noon. Seating is very limited, so reserve your place early:

* See details of Managing Customer-Centric Websites - Executive Session

May 8-9: Work with Gerry McGovern to apply his Customer Carewords techniques

In the two days following the Masterclasses, Gerry will be available for a very limited number of private team sessions intended to kick-off a Customer Carewords project within your organization. Visit the Customer Carewords website for full details of the process and pricing and details about applying the Customer Carewords techniques in your organization.

Note - The Masterclass and Executive Session will be presented in English only

You’re looking over your site’s Google Analytics data and notice that traffic dips regularly during certain days, months or seasons. Whatever the case, the bottom line is that not-so-favourable trends can’t always be easily explained.

Help has arrived in a new feature of Google Analytics called Industry Benchmarking.

To put it simply, if you agree to share your information (anonymously) for Google to compile, they will provide you with a comparison between your stats and aggregate industry verticals.

Now, I can understand how this might elicit some anxiety in users, particularly those who fear Big Brother. But in this case, the positive really does outweigh the negative:

First of all, by surrendering your statistics anonymously, you aren’t losing anything. (Plus, didn’t you kind of assume Google was using it anyway?)

Secondly, the statistical information you’ll receive will teach you indispensable information about your industry. It can give you hints about when you might need to improve or when it’s OK to stop worrying.

Most amazingly of all, this service promises to become more and more helpful as time goes on. The more users who opt in to the service, the more valuable and accurate the statistical information it generates will be.

So if Google turns around in two years and takes over the world with its vast bank of information, I’ll be wrong. But until then, I’ll use Google Maps to find my way around, enjoy the best web-based email and keep getting my stats, all for free.

Today I was asked by SEO-master Darlene if I had been inundated with all the new information she had given me.

Now, I consider myself a person with a pretty good grasp on the English language. After all, I do have a journalism diploma and, from what I remember of high school, have always trodden down the arts-student path.

But for some reason, my brain took “inundated” to mean “well introduced” instead of its true definition: overwhelmed. How absolutely accurate she was, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.

After the few days that I’ve started learning about SEO (and a little bit of PPC), I now know things are not what they seem.

Instead of tuning your content to bring anyone and everyone to your web site, it’s far more important to spend time targeting a specific audience with specific wants. After all, the target audience is precisely who’s going to purchase your product– and isn’t that the whole point?

I came into this thing thinking wider and grander is better, when in fact, it’s the very opposite. Finding a niche search term is key, I think.

So that’s it for today’s raving. Other than that, Ottawa was inundated by snow today, forcing me to work in PJs and telecommute. It’s really not so bad.

When I came in this afternoon, I picked up exactly where I left off yesterday — doing on-page SEO work for a neat web site that offers streaming online workout videos, so people on-the-go never miss an exercise class. Okay, so what’s my excuse now?

The task involves picking the best keywords and phrases to inject into the most search-able areas of the site. What’s challenging is learning to strike the balance between stylistic and functional writing. The keywords have to be there, but for for the sake of usability, they’ve got to sound nice.

I’ve been able to speed up my progress bit today, but there’s so much to learn. At this point, I’ll be honest — I have no idea how much research and analysis it takes to do a full SEO job. It seems like a daunting task! But for now, I’m having fun.

Must… finish…