Single sign On Service

I’ve been asked a few times to give sample code on SSO (single sign on) services.

But because the code, is sectioned to the services running within the IP / Host then this is the example;

Within your script or software you can redirect pre-approved users to – User Web Application — by signing the request with your API key. The remote authorization url looks like this:

https://yourcompany.com/api/auth?email=user@email.com&timestamp=20110310120000&hash=a94a8fe5cc

Let’s break this url to parts:

https://yourcompany.com/ – this is your url
api/auth – this is the remote authorization path

?email= – the e-mail parameter specifies the pre-approved users that will be logged in
&timestamp= – the timestamp parameter is the current date and time in the following format

“yyMMddhhmmss”; for example November 22nd, 2011 08:10:00pm would be “110310201000”

&hash= – the e-mail, timestamp and your api key concatenated in this order and then hashed with SHA1

Here’s a sample code for ASP.NET in C#:
string apiKey = “myAPIkey-goes-here”;
string email = “someuser@somedomain.com”;
string timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString(“yyMMddhhmmss”);
SHA1Managed sha1 = new SHA1Managed();
byte[] paramBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(email + timestamp + apiKey);
byte[] hashBytes = sha1.ComputeHash(paramBytes);
string hash = BitConverter.ToString(hashBytes).Replace(“-“, “”).ToLower();

Response.Redirect(
string.Format(“https://yourcompany.com/api/auth?email={0}&timestamp={1}&hash={2}”,
email, timestamp, hash));

SEO Style Tips

But first, I’d like to introduce you to Dan Floersch of BleedingBaseball.com.

We selected Dan’s question on the blog post “What is Your Biggest Challenge?” and we’re providing a more detailed answer that you can also use.

He sells a baseball trivia book and says his biggest challenge is finding his target audience online.

Here are our 10 most effective targeting strategies in a blueprint customized for Dan’s needs.

However, these strategies will work for any business-so as you read this blueprint, think about how you can make these strategies work for you.

Targeting Tip 1: Just Say No to Lists

“Should I be accessing baseball related e-mail lists?” Dan asked us.
Our answer is an unqualified “No.”

They’re too expensive and there’s little chance that people who have never heard of you will respond to an unasked-for email from you. On top of that, you run the risk of getting slammed with spam complaints.

Targeting Tip 2: Grow a List of Keywords Using the Google Keyword Tool

Everyone who is trying to reach an audience online should know about the Google Keyword Tool.

This handy free tool allows you to explore the exact words and phrases people are typing into Google when searching for information. Be sure to look for “long-tail” keywords that clearly represent people who are interested in what you offer but don’t have a lot of competition.

Dan, we plugged these five keyword phrases into the Google Keyword Tool:

· baseball trivia
· baseball quizzes
· baseball facts
· baseball book
· baseball history

… and we came up with a list of 124 associated keywords, many of which would be perfect for you to use in your SEO and paid search efforts. Here are some particularly good ones for you
to start out with:

Keyword

Global Monthly Searches

Approximate CPC
(Google Adwords)

• Baseball trivia
• 9,900
• $0.26
  • Baseball quiz
  • 2,400
  • $0.25
    • Baseball trivia questions
    • 1,000
    • $0.l7
      • Baseball quizzes
      • 390
      • $0.16
        • Baseball trivia facts
        • 140
        • $0.14
          • Baseball facts and trivia
          • 140
          • $0.15
            • Easy baseball trivia
            • 140
            • $0.21
              • Baseball trivia for kids
              • 320
              • $0.18
                • Baseball trivia quiz
                • 140
                • $0.15
                  • Kids baseball trivia
                  • 320
                  • $0.19
                    • Baseball trivia and answers
                    • 1,000
                    • $0.16
• • • • • • • • • • • • Baseball trivia questions and answers
                      • 1,000
                      • $0.18

If you were to successfully target just these twelve keywords, you would be able to put your product in front of 18,790 people who you’re probably not reaching right now-and that’s huge.

You can grow this list huge by adding team-specific, league-specific, and player-specific keywords as well, such as “Babe Ruth trivia,” “Boston Red Sox trivia,” and so forth.

A good keyword list should have at least 100 keywords on it.

Targeting Tip #3: Run Google AdWords ads

Google AdWords is the fastest way to get your product in front of people who are actively searching for what you offer.

Start by experimenting with the keywords in the list above. Make sure your ads lead directly to landing pages that give searchers exactly what they’re looking for–preferably in the form of a compelling downloadable freebie.

For example, if you’re going to run an ad targeting the keyword, “baseball trivia questions,” link to a page that offers a free eBook titled something like, “49 baseball trivia questions that even the most die-hard fans can’t answer.”

Targeting Tip #4: Run Facebook Ads

Did you know you can create Facebook ads that target people based on the interests on their personal profile?

This means you can use Facebook ads to promote your downloadable freebie only to people who have identified themselves as baseball fans. It’s a great way to grow your fan base!

To save money on your ads, make sure they point to a custom tab on your Facebook Page rather than to your website.

Targeting Tip #5: Become Active on Facebook Pages/Groups Related to Your Interest

Dan, simply enter “baseball” into the search bar at the top of Facebook and start looking for pages to like and groups to join.

Use your “Bleeding Baseball” account to interact on the pages you like but don’t overtly promote your book-instead make interesting comments that make people want to engage with you. If they feel like they know you personally, they’ll be more interested in your book.

Targeting Tip #6: Become Active on Industry-Specific Forums and Blogs

To find forums and blogs that appeal to your target market, go to Google and do a search on terms such as “baseball + forum,” “baseball + blog,” and “baseball trivia + blog”

Be sure to offer fun and helpful comments on the forums and blogs you like best. Take the time to listen and give people what they really want. Then be sure to link back to your site via your post signature.

Targeting Tip #7: Find Your Audience on Twitter

Go to Twitter and do searches to identify people who are interested in baseball. Follow them and chances are good they’ll follow you back, if they see you offer fun baseball-related tidbits of information instead of a constant barrage of promotional messages.

When people follow you, send them a personal message thanking them. Relate to them on a personal level and they will be more likely to be interested in buying your book.

Targeting Tip #8: Write Short Articles and Post them on Popular Sites

Dan, this should be easy for you as you have a whole book full of interesting content to work with.

Create a series of short 400-700 word articles and approach the owners of popular baseball blogs and websites to see if they would be interested in publishing your article. Make sure you include a link back to your site in your “About the Author” blurb. This is a great way to introduce yourself to a larger audience.

Targeting Tip #9: Grow Your Site Content with a Blog

Dan, I see you don’t have a blog on your site. I would put that on your “to-do” list right away. Having a blog is a great way to grow a site full of valuable content that’s optimized for your best keywords, so it appeals to the search engines as well as your human visitors. Plus, it’s a great way to encourage repeat visits.

Targeting Tip #10: Include an Opt-in on Every Page of Your Site

Dan, your site visitors are some of the most targeted people you can find-and yet you’re not making any effort to stay in touch with them if they don’t immediately buy your book.

Studies show it takes a minimum of 6-7 points of contact for someone to be comfortable enough to make a purchase online. We recommend you help your visitors over that hump by encouraging them to sign up for your downloadable freebie and then using email to grow a strong relationship with them over time.

Bonus Tip: Use Email to Close the Deal

At strategic times of the year-the beginning of the baseball season, Father’s Day, the end of the regular season, the final series of the World Series, and Christmas-promote your book to your mailing list. Give them an exclusive subscriber’s discount and you’d be surprised at how many of them will take you up on your offer!

I hope these strategies have given you a better idea of how to reach your audience online and convert them into buyers. If you have any questions, let me know.

All the best,

SEO

Google Instant & SEO

From the moment Google Instant was announced back on September 8 there have been forum chats, blog posts, articles and podcasts discussing the ramification of this new technology. Some have called it the “Death of SEO” which others (myself included) have proclaimed this a step forward and an opportunity for SEO’s, not a threat. And then of course there’s those who don’t even know there’s been a change at all, let’s call them “the vast majority”. In this article we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of Google Instant as it pertains to SEO’s and to website owners as well as cover some of the reasons that this new technology may not have as large an impact on search behavior as some may fear/predict.

But first, let’s cover the basic question …

What Is Google Instant?

Google instant is a technology that allows Google to predict what you are looking for as you type. They are referring to it as ‘search-before-you-type” technology (catchy). Essentially – as I type a phrase (let’s say “buy shoes online”) as soon as I get to “buy sh” I start seeing results for “buy shoes”. As soon as I’ve entered “buy shoes “ (with a space after shoes indicating I want more than just the 2 word phrase) I start seeing results for “buy shoes online”.

Technologically this is genius. Google is now serving likely billions of additional search results pages per day as each query has multiplied results that apply to it. Well … I suppose we all wondered what the Caffeine infrastructure update was all about didn’t we? But what does this do in the real world?

Why Google Instant Isn’t A Big Deal

Alright, obviously it is a significant technological enhancement in search but the way some react you’d think the whole universe was about to be turned on it’s head. There are two reasons why that’s not the case.

I find it unlikely that many will notice right away that the change has occurred and further I find it even less likely that the majority will use the feature. You see – the major hindrance of this enhancement isn’t in the technology – it’s in the users. Only those who touch type and can do so without looking at their keyboard will be affected. If the user looks at their keyboard while typing then they wouldn’t even notice the results coming in ahead of their actual search.

This will only affect users who are searching in instances where the shorter or predicted terms match the users end goals. For example, if I am searching for “buy shoes online” and get as far as “buy sh” the top results are sites which clearly suit the needs of a searcher for “buy shoes online” and thus – this may work to the detriment of sites who rank well for “buy shoes online” as they may well lose traffic. In the case of a site targeting, oh – I don’t know – “seo consulting” there will likely be little affect if any. The searcher, looking for an SEO consultant, will find once they’ve entered “seo” that they are presented with Wikipedia and Google – sites that, while informative, don’t offer the services (or results) desired and thus – the searcher would be less affected. Once they proceeded on to enter the “seo c” the searcher would be presented with the results for “seo company” but I’m prone to believe that if the searcher wanted those results – they would have searched for it. For this phrase I’m confident we’ll see little in the way of negative affect from Google Instant.
So we’ve discussed why Google Instant isn’t a big deal, now let’s discuss …

Why Google Instant Is A Big Deal

On the other side of the coin lies the reasons why Google Instant brings forth a revolution in search technology. Followers of the Beanstalk blog or my radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm (Webcology) will know I’m not one to love everything Google does but in this case the immediate affects and long terms affects may well be significant and at the very least – one has to appreciate the brilliance behind the effort. In this section of the article we’re going to cover the three important perspectives involved with the launch off this (or any) Google product. They are:

The Searcher – we’ll look at the pros and cons from a searcher perspective. It’s this aspect that will dictate whether the feature will matter at all.

Google – we’ll look at the positive affect on Google. Of course – this aspect is of paramount importance for this feature to be kept.

SEO’s – I’m of course incredibly interested and have spent much of my analysis time determining the pros and cons to SEO’s (admittedly – there’s more than a bit of self interest here).

So let’s begin …

Google Instant And The Searcher

This is sort of a win-win for Google from a searcher perspective. One of two things will happen for the searcher. Either they won’t notice the change or won’t be affected and thus – Google will be exactly where they are now OR they will notice the change and will select results quicker and find the feature helpful. As I noted – it’s a win-win. There isn’t much of scenario from a searcher perspective where the searcher will be negatively impacted and if they are – they’d simply revert back to past searching patterns. From the perspective of impact on the user – Google has it made with this feature. Their worst-case scenario is that they’re exactly where they are now.

Google Instant From Google’s Perspective

Any feature added to any corporate system must serve a single primary function – it must make it’s developer money. We’ve already seen that the feature itself can’t really negatively impact the searcher but can it make Google money? There are two ways that this can happen:

Improved loyalty and marketshare, and

Increased revenue directly from the initiative
Fortunately for Google – they’re going to win on both fronts here and when we see the Q3 earnings and moreso in the Q4 earning Google reports we’ll begin to see how significant an impact this change will have for them – mainly in the second of the two monetary reward methods noted above. And here’s why …

We’ve already covered the improved loyalty this can have on the searchers. Anything that makes my life easier and makes my quest for information faster will make me more loyal. At worst – Google will see my behavior stay the same but for many, the search experience will become faster and more effective – especially once the technology is improved by user behavior to a degree that people trust it more. Overall there will be a net gain in the experience – we’ve only to wait to see how large that net gain is and how it translates into marketshare. The big win is in the second point.

For anyone who’s every bid with AdWords you’ll know that for the most part – bids for generic terms are more expensive than bids for very specific terms. If I’m bidding on “shoes” I’m going to pay more than I would for “shoes online”. So let’s view the world where I start showing the results (and paid ads) for “shoes” while someone is searching for “shoes online”. And what if that person sees the ads that was written and bid on for “shoes” but relates to their query and they click on it. Google just made more from the paid ad click. Maybe only pennies but multiply that by billions of searches per day and you’ve got a significant increase in annual revenue.

The move is a huge win for Google but it does come with a theoretical downside and that is annoying the businesses that are paying for the ads. The argument I’ve heard is that if businesses find that the cost of their campaigns is increasing higher than the ROI that they might get annoyed. Fair enough BUT I would argue – what are they going to do about it? As long as Google maintains the first consideration (the searcher) then the advertisers have no choice. They can drop their bids but at worst – they’ll level off to what they were paying for the longtail phrases. Again – worst case scenario, Google will find themselves where they are today.

Google Instant From The SEO’s Perspective

So let’s assume for a moment that Google Instant is here to stay. Based on all the ways Google and the searchers can win and the limited situational permutations by which they could only come out even I’d say that’s a safe assumption. Given this, what’s happens to SEO’s and those optimizing their own websites?

For one thing – we can’t assume that research we did up to and before the 8th will be relevant down the road. I have already scheduled to redo keyword research in a couple months to see what industries and search types have been most (and least) affected by this change. The main reason for this is that I have a strong suspicion that specific industries will be more prone to being affected by the change based mainly on search types (such as the “buy shoes” vs “seo consulting” example above) and demographics. A Linux developer site is more likely to have a demographic off touch typers who can type without looking at the keyboard than say a life insurance site with a more scattered and thus less technically proficient overall demographic.

So in the short term – life is going to be very interesting for the SEO and website owner while we figure out which industries and phrase types are most affected. In a few months when we see the trends and which phrases are being affected and how we’ll likely have to make adjustments to many campaigns. The downside for may business owners will be that for those who’s campaigns focuses on searches for longtail phrases – they may find the search volumes for their phrases decrease and a shift to more generic (and generally more expensive to attain) phrases is necessary. Only time will tell what the best moves are there and we may not know what exactly will shift and how for a few months yet and even then – we’ll then know the trends, not where things will settle (if anything in online marketing can be referred to as “settling” anymore).

If there is a segment that should be concerned about the situation it is small business owners with limited organic or PPC budgets. Google Instant – because it puts preferences to more generic phrases – clearly favors businesses with larger budgets. How much so we’ll know after we’ve had a chance to see how the search volumes shift. For SEO’s this presents two opportunities and for business owners who do their own SEO – it offers one. And here’s the good news for those.

For SEO’s you’ll find two new opportunities, The first is that there will be a shift to more generic terms in search volumes. This means that there will be stiffer competition for more competitive phrases. If this sounds like a bad thing it’s not. If you’re a skilled SEO who knows how to get the job done it means you’ll have more access to larger volumes of traffic without the added efforts required to rank for a wide array or phrases. Rather than needing to rank for 10 or 20 phrases to get traffic you’ll be able to focus in more and reap the same rewards in the way of traffic. On top of that – SEO’s will be able to charge more for the rankings as fewer phrases have a higher value. A win-win for SEOs and a win for business owners who either do their own SEO or have talented SEO’s on staff.

The second opportunity will come in the form of improved clickthrough rates though I’ll admit – at this point that’s just a theory (noted with a hint sent to Gord Hotchkiss to run eyetracking tests on this theory). If I type while looking at my screen and I’m entering in “buy shoes online” and I rank organically or via PPC for both “buy shoes” and “buy shoes online” I would hypothesize that searchers who complete the phrase “buy shoes online” who had the site (or ad) for “buy shoes” appear and then the same site appear for the full query will have a tendency to click on the familiar. This same principle has been witnessed in sites appearing in both paid and organic results who have an increase in their organic clickthrough rates. This will present opportunities for both PPC and organic marketers to improve the traffic to sites by ranking for specific phrases meant to both attain traffic on their own but also to improve traffic for the other. I would suggest that down the road we’ll be hearing of this phenomenon when conducting and discussing keyword research.

Conclusion

There isn’t much to conclude that hasn’t been discussed above. Virtually every party wins or at worst, breaks even with the introduction of this technology. The only victim appears to be small businesses without the budgets to compete for the more generic phrases but even they may win with a shift away from these phrases by the larger companies. It may well occur that while the search volume shift heads in favor of large companies with larger budget – that the lower hanging fruit, while reduced in it’s search volume, may fall too in the competition levels making it more affordable. Larger business may focus like snipers on larger phrases and smaller business may well be presented with the opportunity to go after more, less search phrases that aren’t worth targeting for larger companies – at least organically.

But only time will tell and of course – we have much data to collect and many algorithmic updates to come between here and there.