Some advice given by Cutts in the video that is invaluable is to ease your site into the change. Maybe only change a certain section of your site, and then monitor its progress.

Cutts explains how you can setup a ‘preview’ of how your site will look with the CMS, “For example, if your CMS means that your layout has to change, you can mock that up,” he continues. “You can try to make it so you change your HTML so that it looks like it would look like from your content management system. And then make sure that your rankings don’t change. They shouldn’t change very much at all, but you know, if you change a whole bunch of stuff on your page, that can affect how Google scores it.”

So, with my advice with a little help from Matt Cutts you should be ready to take a step forward. Just be sure that the step your taking is in the right direction.

If you want to increase efficiency and ease of Twitter research, then try out Twellow. This service is basically a ‘yellow pages’ for Twitter. You can go in and search different categories, to find users associated with those keywords.

For example, if you have a blog dedicated to architecture, you can visit Twellow’s category page dedicated to architecture. Every user on the page will have dealings with architecture in some form. F.Y.I - There are 2,744 profiles associated with architecture, and that’s just a sub-heading.

The benefits of the service are priceless. First, as I mentioned is the efficiency with which you navigate Twitter. Second, you can corner your market and find people that will want to visit your site. Just engaging in social media isn’t enough to have it turn profit for you. Much like other forms of marketing, you have to be engaged and really make it work for you. Twellow is a great place to start.

Google looks to be changing the rules yet again, with their impending change of how Google will crawl no-follow links. Meaning they’re going to start penalizing for them. This is going to be a major pain for some experts, who rely on no-follow links for clients. For those of you who use them, you know what I speak of.

Generally, no-follow links are used as a way to funnel search results to a particular link. If a page has a ton of no-follow links, and only a few others then the webmaster wants visitors to click those links.

Google doesn’t like that too much.

The no-follow strategy is mostly used by companies that are trying to sell particular products, hence the reason why so many SEO experts rely some on no-follow.

So, how many of you utilize no-follow in your strategy? What’s your reaction to the news of Google making this change?

Decision Engine goes beyond search to help customers deal with information overload.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 28, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Bing, a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions. Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. The result of this new approach is an important beginning for a new and more powerful kind of search service, which Microsoft is calling a Decision Engine, designed to empower people to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions. The new service, located at http://www.Bing.com, will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.

Microsoft is committed to building better tools to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision. Bing is an important first step toward this long-term vision and a strong indicator of Microsoft’s commitment to move search technology forward for customers.

It’s difficult to say with certainty just what will happen when Bing release. That’s because it isn’t out yet, but if you got by many expert’s evaluations of the Bing demo, you might want to pay attention. Here’s one tweet about someone who’s already decided to make a switch to the service.

Something to keep an eye on is how inclusive Bing looks to be. Very few times in the demonstration, and in the video did anyone navigate off a page. That’s because there looks to be a slew of information available through Bing. How will this play out with content owners, is the real question. We have until June 3rd to make judgement though.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a shining optimist, and the situation is no different here. This algorithm change, which is targeting Black Hat SEO can only be good for site owners, and marketers. Unless you do use Black Hat tactics, then you’re just SOL.

Of course, as with any change to Google there could potentially be unforeseen problems. Maybe the algorithm reads your site incorrectly, grouping it in with the Black Hat sites. I’m not saying it will, but it’s always good to be prepared.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this as it develops. As always, feel free to drop me an email or discuss this topic in the forums.

The keyword in my previous statement is quality. Ward drives the point home in his article, that Twitter has massive potential in obtaining the traffic you want.

Let me put it this way: Would you rather have 1,000 visits to your site that were accidental or you questioned their interest…or…receive 200 visits and every single one of those people were there specifically for your content?

At first you might be pondering the question. 1,000 page visits is 5x the amount of the second option. Of those 1,000 you have to think that a certain percent is doing something useful with your site. The problem is that you don’t know. Depending on where your inbound links are coming from, your trafffic could be completely worthwhile, or utterly useless. Option B might have you receiving less visits but you are guranteed a higher conversion rate. Those visitors are navigating through your site, possibly making purchases, and even some could be interested in your hosted ads. YAY!

Twitter, if used correctly can be a driving force behind option B. Ward explains that the great thing about Twitter is when you find experts, or reliable sources in the field your website pertains to. If you’re a gamer, and you are able to build relationships with gaming companies; this is an example of exposing your site to higher conversion traffic. Another great thing about Twitter is the domino effect…

If you have someone following you that is respected in the field, then they have people following them. Those people are exposed to your site, and you could soon have a brand spanking new community following your site.

I’ve been speaking hypothetically in this post, but the real magic is making it happen. Twitter like anything else requires savvy, and hard work to make it be to your benefit. Building relationships online for business isn’t always easy. The best you can do is keep tweeting away, and really provide the content that will blow people away.

There are numerous ways to keep that conversion rate up. Below is a video of Dr. Karl Blanks, who is the Co-Founder of Conversion Rate Experts. He provides some useful tips on how-to up your conversion rates…

-Always find out why you’re not converting, through surveys or contacting your users. Finding out why you aren’t successful is just as important as making the change.

- Changes must always be tested. It’s not enough to just change your site, you have to keep an eye on the change in comparison to your old style.

You can find more useful tips in the video…

If you’re not sure what Google Checkout is I’ll briefly explain. If you’ve ever bought something off Amazon, or any other retailer then you have to go through a checkout process. Google has taken this and simplified it in a way that people with smaller sites can integrate it into their structure.

As I mentioned before, Google Checkout has seen a couple of significant upgrades that greatly increase its value to users. First, they’ve simplified the installation process, to the point you don’t even really need to know a lot of code to do it. Before the upgrade you had to insert the Checkout code directly into your PHP files. Now, they’ve set it up so that when you install Google Checkout it finds where it needs to insert itself.

The second addition, and one I think could take Google Checkout into the next level is allowing subscription selling. If you’re selling something that will have a recurring charge, then Google Checkout will implement it with they’re latest beta build.

If you want to checkout some more about Google Checkout, visit the official blog.

Has anyone used Google Checkout before? If so, what did you think of the service? Is it worth saving money by hiring someone to set it up?

Feel free to drop any comments, or questions below.

It might not sound business related, but I think there’s an untapped potential for Twitter. Actually it has been tapped by Skittles. Which could ultimately make Twitter a huge power player in online advertising.

In this Marketing Pilgrim article, we find that Skittles increased traffic to their site by 1332% due to their Twitter-site campaign. That’s quite a bit of traffic for a site, about candy. Just imagine what Twitter can accomplish for a business more online oriented.

I’m not saying you should drop all your other strategies and adopt Twitter as a main outlet. However, with how easy Twitter is to update, the scope of its userbase there’s no reason you shouldn’t be linking to your site from there.

The trick to Twitter is to become a part of the community, and gain followers. People more than likely won’t follow, or if they will stop if they think you’re there just to advertise. Be natural, and Twitter could provide a bright future for page traffic.

The problem is that while it might not seem like much, checking your various social networking profiles throughout the day can be a time sink. Sure, you might only be checking Facebook for five minutes, but add that to the time you check Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, and so on. Instead of feeling bad about doing so, why not make your time spent there work for your business.

Before we get further into this article, let me preface by saying that social networking isn’t for every business. You’re not always going to find a diamond in the ruff by looking to Facebook, or Twitter. But if the conditions are right, you could find yourself with some increased page traffic. Which of course leads to more clicks, and clients.

So, if social networking isn’t for every business your first step is deciding if the platform could help. In my experience with social networking, and business, one key ingredient is how new is your product? What the product is doesn’t matter, but is it something fresh and exciting? The reason being is that social networking takes the old saying ‘word of mouth’, and mixes it with about twenty Red Bulls. If you have an original product that’s engaging, then getting the hype started through a social media platform is a wonderful place to start.

Another aspect of your business, or product you need to analyze is how community oriented is it? Is what your offering going to benefit from starting an online community around it? If you hear yourself answering a loud YES! to those questions, then social media might work for you.

Ok, so you’ve made it this far. If you’ve decided that getting onto social networking is a good idea then you need to know how to start. First, any profile you have on any site that’s being viewed by others needs to have a link to your business. I don’t care how small, or underground it is. If you’re name is there, a link to your business should be as well. Looking through stats, and analytics on different sites you wouldn’t believe where some web traffic comes from.

If you’re utilizing a site that allows you to create a group, or community then base one on your site. Invite as many people as you can to it. Try and do as much upkeep with the community as possible. Even link to it from your actual site. The point is to make sure your community is always thriving, and that there’s something going on. Nothing can kill reputation faster than seeing an owner not actively engaged about their product.

What I consider the most quintessential aspect of utilizing social networking, is Do Not Advertise. The advertising that you pay for, or put on your site should seem completely separate from what your doing through social media. You need to come off as being natural, which can probably be the hardest step to take. The easiest way to do this is to utilize family and friends. It might sound dirty, and underhanded but if you can get people close to you for help you can establish a naturally flowing community with ease. Have them start discussions, and mention the product. In some of the large circles certain people run in on sites, just having one person helping can be a big help.

Once you’ve gotten your social presence started, the important thing is to keep up with it. You’re not going to be a Facebook, MySpace, or any other kind of sensation over night. People giving up after a week, or even a few days is a common occurrence. I know it sounds cliche’, but who won the race, the turtle or the hare?

I hope that you find success in jumping into the social media platform. With the amount of users that have some kind of presence on these sites, it would be a knuckle-headed move not to get involved somehow. You just have to know your niche, and make sure the time and resources you invest are going to be valuable enough to your bottom line.

Of course, having a large friend list doesn’t hurt either …