Google is launching a preview of their next generation architecture for search. The system isn’t completely ready yet, but they are offering a preview here: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ One can also provide feedback to Google on the results that you find from this new index.

The talk so far about the big change with this index is “Freshness.” From what I’ve seen so far from limited testing, it appears that sites that have the freshest content are doing better than older, static, or “stale” sites. I suspect that the quantity and quality of backlinks plays an important role as well.

Updating your site with fresh content via articles, blog posts, social media, etc. may be more important than ever. It will be interesting to watch the search engine results pages to see how this new index plays itself out.

There is a good article at the Wall Street Journal about real life examples of companies making use of social media to monitor negative PR and move quickly to rectify it. Even if you are a small business and can’t afford to dedicate significant resources to monitor comments and reviews made about your company, you can make use of free and paid tools to monitor comments about your business.

For Alaska tour operators, it’s very easy to monitor travel review sites like TripAdvisor with the tools they provide to business owners (you can be notified via email and/or a RSS feed when you have new review).  I set up email or RSS feeds for my Internet marketing clients and can quickly react to positive and negative reviews. Sometimes a quick post to clarify a policy is all it takes to respond to a question or a negative review. There are many free and paid tools out there to monitor reviews, article mentions, and social media. Here are just a few of the possibilities to consider:

• Google Alerts: Set up the term(s) to trigger an email or RSS feed. A very useful way to monitor news, blogs and other websites that mention your business.
• Twitter Search: Enter your search term to see how many tweets include it. RSS feed available, or make use of TweetBeep and have the results emailed to you.
• Social Mention: Real time search of social media sites.

Ideally, your company or organization should take the time to craft a strategy for monitoring social media and engagement. Perhaps I’ll tackle that one in my next post.

There has been quite a bit of discussion about the value of Twitter Search. The downside has been that in it’s current form, it’s simply a text matching search engine, and the results can be repetitive (and even filled spam tweets, I’ve been noticing more spam-looking tweets).

CNet reports that Twitter has announced that it will begin to crawl the links included within tweets and rank the results. Reputation will be important as well.

For businesses that truly engage their customers (and potential customers) on Twitter, such changes could give them a real advantage.

Alaska Wildland Adventures has announced an Escape to Alaska or Bust Essay Contest. The rules appear to be simple: in 500 words or less, convince Alaska Wildland Adventures why you and your group should escape to Alaska this summer. You could win an Alaska Trip for four people (two cabins for the family or group) with Alaska Wildland Adventures, featuring the new Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge. The tour is 8 Day / 7 Night Action-Packed Wilderness Lodge and Wildlife Expedition, Valued at Over $12,000.

The second and third place winners in the contest receive discount coupons for Alaska vacation packages from Alaska Wildland Adventures during the 2009 summer season.

See the Alaska Wildland Adventures’ Escape to Alaska website for the details.

A new green tourism certification program is being launched in Alaska. For those people searching for Alaskan tourism businesses that care for the environment and Alaska’s communities, this new program will serve as a great resource. The Adventure Green Alaska program will announce the first businesses to be certified on March 4, at the 20th Annual Ecotourism conference hosted by the Alaska Wilderness Recreation & Tourism Association (AWRTA).

I’m happy to announce that we have purchased carbon offsets from TerraPass in order to offset the carbon dioxide generated by our dedicated server during 2009. There are quite a few options out there to either offset your server’s generation of greenhouse gasses or going with a “green powered” hosting company. For 2009, I’ve decided to only offset the server, and not attempt to offset all of my business.

There have been a number of warning signs that it will be a tough year for the Alaska tourism industry in 2009. I’ve seen significant drops in traffic for many of my clients during the fall months. On the positive side, I’ve seen an increase in traffic after the holidays.

If you are an Alaskan tourism business, now is the time to get serious about your Internet marketing strategies. Since many of the large cruise ship companies are slashing prices, it may be time to offer significant discounts on your trips.

Here are few ideas for expanding your reach on the web:

• Review your website’s performance. Evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns (Pay per Click, etc.). Are there opportunities to try new programs? Ways to save money on your PPC campaigns? If you are not tracking your website statistics already, then get started with Google Analytics (its free!).
• Experiment with social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, etc.
• If you don’t already have one, consider starting a blog. Highlight the unique features of your location in Alaska, and your business.
• Interact with others on blogs, travel forums, etc. Offer genuine advice and options for travelers. Interact with past customers.
• If you correspond with your past customers, ask them to provide reviews and links to your site. Positive reviews and links are extremely valuable.

After reviewing the statistics for my website, I was struck by how many new visitors have come through my blog. Granted, my website and blog are pretty small, but still, I was impressed at the results of my efforts to date.

For small businesses, especially here in Alaska, making use of a blog is a great way to reach out and engage with your customers and/or website visitors (or at least attempt to!). Obviously, you should consider if blogging is right for you. If so, then consider this list of 10 great resources for beginning bloggers.

A blog is a great way to expand your site’s content, and bring in more website visitors. Even modest efforts can provide benefits in a short time.

Google AdWords has released a great new search based keyword tool, that helps you target keywords that match up well to your web page content.

I’ve tried it out on a campaign that I just reviewed for new keyword ideas, and it came up with a significant list of additional keyword targets to try and test out. The data displayed for each keyword includes the number of monthly searches, competition, suggested bid, Ad/search share, and the web page that best matches the keyword.

This looks like a great tool for finding “new” keyword targets for both PPC and organic search. I especially like the fact that one can find and target keywords with lower cost and competition levels.

Google Analytics will begin rolling out new enterprise level features, including advanced segmentation, custom reports, motion charts, and improvements to account management. The possibilities for analyzing website data are mind-blowing. I’m looking forward to trying out the segmentation and custom report features.