Google has also introduced rich text signatures into Gmail. Now you can change the colors or font size of your signature, or insert images and links right in Gmail — without any additional plugins, scripts or other workarounds.

Gmail users now are able to format text, add bullets, numbering, indenting and alignment your email signature. You can also insert images and hyperlinks into your personal signatures, adding a little creativity and flair.

The next time you log in and visit the Settings page, you’ll see a rich text editor in the signature section. Here, you can customize your signature by adding pretty formatting, links, and images — or decide to leave things nice and simple.

While some argue that these features should’ve been introduced long ago, it’s nice to finally be able to create a personal signature that has a business card-like look to it. As of now, the mobile version still only supports plain text signatures.

More information is available at the Gmail Blog.

Some background for those of you who don’t build search engines for a living like us: when you search Google, you’re not searching the live web. Instead you’re searching Google’s index of the web which, like the list in the back of a book, helps you pinpoint exactly the information you need. (Here’s a good explanation of how it all works.)

So why did we build a new search indexing system? Content on the web is blossoming. It’s growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex. In addition, people’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish. Read more…

People look at information above the fold far more than they do at information further down the page.

He looks at user viewing patterns along the horizontal dimension:

In this chart, each bar shows the amount of time users spent on fixations within a 100-pixel-wide stripe running down the screen, starting from the very left.

People spent more than twice as much time looking at the left side of the page as they did the right:

• Left half of screen: 69% of viewing time
• Right half of screen: 30% of viewing time

The remaining 1% of viewing time was spent to the right of the initially-visible 1,024 pixels. Such information is visible only after horizontal scrolling, and the minute amount of attention it attracts confirms the guideline to avoid horizontal scrolling. Read more.

He concludes: Stick to the conventional layout, because it works perfectly with how people look at Web pages:

• Keep navigation all the way to the left. This is where people look to find a list of current options.
• Keep the main content a bit further in from the left.
• The most important stuff should be showcased between one-third and halfway across the page. This is where users focus their attention the most.
• Keep secondary content to the right. It won’t be seen as much here, but that’s okay — not everything can get top billing, and you need a place to put less-important material.

Read more.

Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider. Example:  An estimated 6.5 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, representing 65.4 percent of all search queries conducted during the given time period.

We’re already experimenting with this new feature and studying how you could use it to produce more qualified visitors to your website.

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr are here to stay. . . if you’re not taking advantage of these opportunities to reach out to your target audience, you should be!

Sigma Web Technologies is a Google Favorite Place!

I just received a letter (a real letter — on paper!) from the Google Local Business Team, telling me that Sigma Web Technologies’ business listing as accessed 240 times in the past quarter, and driving directions were accessed 38 times.

The letter goes on to say “Because you’re so popular, we’re enclosing a window decal that shows you’re a ‘Favorite Place on Google’. ” The sticker is about 5″ x 7″ and has a special bar code that can be scanned by some cell phones so those potential customers can see my business listing on Google, read and write reviews, and add me as a Favorite right there.

What a great marketing tool!!

How can you become a Favorite Place on Google?

It’s pretty simple, really:

1. Create your listing in Google’s Local Business Center (http://www.google.com/localbusinesscenter)
2. Keep your hours, website, and other details up to date. Stand out with photos, video, even coupons — all for free.
3. Ask your customers to write reviews for you on your listing in the Local Business Center.
4. View your personalized Google business dashboard to see how many visits your listing is getting, which zip codes people are coming from, and more!

Sigma Web Technologies today announced it has joined RatePoint’s Business Partner Program. Sigma Web Technologies (www.SigmaWebTechnologies.com) is now able to provide its clients with easy to use email marketing and customer feedback tools to help small-business clients improve customer satisfaction, build credibility and increase profitability. RatePoint, Inc., (www.RatePoint.com), is the leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services for small-and-medium sized businesses.

Using RatePoint, Sigma Web Technologies can easily help its clients proactively manage their online reputation through every customer interaction by capturing customer feedback and testimonials and displaying them in multiple areas, including Web sites, emails and marketing materials. Additionally, Sigma Web Technologies can now provide its clients with customer feedback, product reviews, email marketing and survey tools, and dispute resolution capabilities.

“Our customers are always looking for cost-effective ways to grow their businesses,” said Larry Levenson, founder of Sigma Web Technologies.”RatePoint’s tools help us provide our clients with multiple ways to connect with their customers and leverage their reputation as a sales tool. RatePoint’s business partner program is a valuable addition to our core services, helping boost loyalty and build stronger and more profitable relationships with our customers.”

Sigma Web Technologies’ clients will receive a 30-day promotional trial of RatePoint’s Web-based reputation management solution, which includes feedback tools, email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities.

Focus on Local Marketing

Our work remains the same, with a strong focus on help you use the internet effectively to market locally. There are many, many tools available to help to you do this for free, and we’ll be highlighting some of them here.

One of our favorite, and more effective local marketing tool is still email newsletters. They just work! We’ll talk more about this in future posts.

Focus on Organizing and Managing Data

A lot of our work is based around managing data, whether is a custom project management system, seminar registrations, document collaboration, or a website that displays customized data for every city. We’ll showcase some of these projects, and provide tips on effectively managing your data.

By the way, don’t let the word “database” scare you. . . your email software or online service is a database. Databases are designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing and retrieving information. They do so through the use of tables. If you’re familiar with spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel, you’re probably already accustomed to storing data in tabular form. It’s not much of a stretch to make the leap from spreadsheets to databases. We’re experts at creating and customizing databases to meet you business needs. And we can show you to do it securely!

Contact Us

If you have a question about local marketing or need some input on managing your data, you can still contact us while we’re remodeling. We’ll be happy to talk with you!