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Valuable Lessons Learned and Advice From the Front Lines of an Online Business

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caregiverThis the latest installment of our Q&A Series – short interviews with talented, experienced, and successful entrepreneurs who are on the front lines of running online businesses. I’ve always believed that it’s a big mistake to not at least listen to those who have worn the same shoes that we are putting on every day. I hope these interviews prove to be as informative to you as they have been for me.

Today’s guest is Elizabeth Pitt, CEO of CareGiverNeeded.com. I had a chance to sit down with Elizabeth recently. She’s extremely bright and has some really valuable insights on starting a business for the first time, acquiring traffic, and the importance of learning as you grow.

B5: Talk a little bit about what CareGiverNeeded.com is all about.
EP: CaregiverNeeded.com is the fastest and easiest way to find senior in-home care on-line. We have thousands of in-home senior caregivers on our site, and hundreds of in-home care agencies, so when a family is looking for care, we are an ideal resource. We answer a lot of questions families have about home care on the site, and we have experienced caregivers on staff to answer questions live.

Read moreValuable Lessons Learned and Advice From the Front Lines of an Online Business

Google Snippet Links Can Help You Drive More Traffic

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You may have noticed a recent subtle change to some search results on Google. In an effort to help people find the information they want faster and easier, Google has started putting links within the search snippets (more commonly known as results. The new links are not just to a page, but to topics within a page.

Here’s an example result to a search for “estimated taxes”. Notice the three snippet links (I have circled on of them):

link-snippets

Read moreGoogle Snippet Links Can Help You Drive More Traffic

Google’s Next Gen Search–What SEOs Are Talking About

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There’s been some really interesting stuff happening in search over the last 24 hours. Here’s a quick recap:

First, Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed and subsequent immediate launch of live search has led to lots of speculation that, together, the two might make a formidable team that will challenge Google in real-time search.

Second, what Google is calling their Caffeine Update was unveiled. This is the news SEOs are talking about today. According to Google’s search wizard Matt Cutts, Google Caffeine is not going to be obvious when you test it out.

“This update is primarily under the hood: we’re rewriting the foundation of some of our infrastructure,” said Cutts on his blog. “But some of the search results do change, so we wanted to open up a preview so that power searchers and web developers could give us feedback.”

You can test Google’s new search index yourself by going to http://www2.sandbox.google.com and doing some searches. You can even leave feedback for Google by clicking the “Dissatisfied” link at the bottom of the results page. Just be sure to include “Caffeine” in your message.

Here’s the key point to remember about Google’s update: no one knows what’s new. Google has said they’ve made changes and has given you a way to try and find those changes, but has not said what exactly is different. Let the speculation begin!

Anytime Google even hints about tweaking their algorithm or the way search results are displayed, SEOs everywhere take notice. Caffeine will, undoubtedly, have SEOs trying to find the difference (subtle or otherwise) between current search results and what they see on caffeine. I’m sure over the next few weeks the blogosphere will be buzzing with theories and findings about what’s different.

I’ve tried caffeine a few times, but only for searches we manage for clients. Other than seemingly faster results, I didn’t see any obvious differences.

Search is BIG Business. It’s cool to see that competition seems to be alive and that Google is trying to get better.