That depends… does your website contain quality content? Google’s latest algorithm change, which they are calling significant compared to the ongoing subtle changes, will impact 11.8% of search queries. What kind of impact? Essentially, high-quality content will be rewarded with higher rankings, while websites with low-quality content will plummet, and in some cases, disappear from search results. Even websites containing predominantly good content can be hurt by a few bad pages. Ouch!

So, what determines whether or not your site contains ‘good content’? Isn’t that somewhat subjective? Without giving away any of those precious algorithm secrets coveted by many a web marketing nerd, Google outlined the criteria on which the new algorithm is based. The long list can be boiled down into these  points:

• Is the content original, thorough, insightful and written by an expert, or is it shallow fluff?
• Does the site contain duplicate content, even very similar content with different keyword variations?
• Are there any grammatical, stylistic or factual errors?
• Is the content created based on reader interest or high-ranking search terms?
• Does the site offer trustworthy advice and secure credit card processing?
• Would you bookmark, recommend or share the content?
• Do excessive ads distract from the main content?

Aside from suggesting you pay attention to the above criteria when developing new content, Google also recommends removing any existing content that could be deemed low quality by these standards.

The Big Picture

Essentially this algorithm change is good news for good copywriters, white hat SEO experts and the smart business folks who hire them. It’s bad news for people who try to cut corners and trick search engines into driving traffic with fluffy, keyword-stuffed content that doesn’t consider the reader.

Now, more than ever, good, customer-centric content is king, and farming less than stellar content with little or no effort in order to drive traffic is becoming a rejected practice. Writing for the site visitor is taking an even bigger role over writing for search engines (according to a search engine, ironically).

The main concern with this update, however, is that well-meaning websites that contain good content for the most part could still be negatively affected should Google detect even a small amount of what the algorithm registers as bad content.

Can Your Site Be Affected?

If you’re concerned your site could be affected by the algorithm change and are confused about the criteria, you could submit your site for review by a web copywriter or other web marketing specialist. A professional copywriter, especially one who’s familiar with ethical SEO practices, can spot bad content a mile away, and even offer suggestions for improvement.

If you’re starting a website for your business from scratch, working with SEO specialists can help you get started right, and reduce your chances of low rankings.

Aside from hiring professionals, these general guidelines should also improve your chances of achieving higher rankings:

• Spend a little extra time planning, researching and writing your blog posts or articles. If you don’t have the time, approach experts in your field to write guest articles.
• Avoid the money-saving temptation of outsourcing to spammy, low-cost service providers, which greatly increases the chances of populating your site with grammatically incorrect, typo-riddled, low quality content.
• Don’t hire ‘black hat’ SEO companies, who often employ unethical and spammy techniques, which did work at one point, but can get your site blacklisted (essentially removing it from search results) now more than ever.
• If you’re writing your own content — edit, edit, edit! And then edit some more and have colleagues proofread it for you to prevent typos and errors from slipping by.
• If you’re including keywords in your content for search engine optimization, ensure they fit logically, and in a way that makes sense to the reader. Don’t force it or overdo it.
• Check your facts and support your claims.
• If you’ve got an online store, ensure your e-commerce system is trusted and secure.

Quality Over Quantity

From what Google has communicated regarding this latest algorithm change, it’s evident they’re moving toward offering greater rewards for genuine, user-centric, thoughtful and technically flawless content. If you haven’t already, it’s probably wise to take our Google overlords’ lead.

Are you happy with the Panda update? Share your thoughts below.

In this inaugural edition of Are You Really Gonna Search That?, Opticon makes a peculiar discovery while conducting keyword research for a snowmobiling company in Whistler, BC.

Does the idea of stripping down and engaging in snow sports excite you? You may be in luck! According to my keyword research, a market exists for naked snow sports, and one snow sport in particular is underserved in the web realm. While ‘naked snowmobiling’ has a healthy amount of competition as a search term, ‘naked snowshoeing’ has zero competition and an 81.0 score on the Keyword Effectiveness Index.

Personally, I’d choose naked snowshoeing over snowmobiling. I would fear for the safety of my bits not only in the cold, but also whilst strapped to a snowy crotch rocket hurtling through the rough trails of Whistler. This guy, however, seems to be having a swell time with it:

Are You Really Gonna Search That? Is a regular series on the Webcopyplus blog that chronicles the gems discovered while conducting keyword research and building search engine optimization strategies for our clients.

The value of original, high quality web content continues to rise as Google makes new moves to decrease the visibility of low-quality websites. The search engine giant recently updated its algorithm to suppress the presence of link farms, which generate endless streams of poorly written, regurgitated articles. It’s all in a bid to cater to users who have been complaining about spammy sites appearing in top search results.

While Google reports it makes approximately 500 changes to its algorithm a year, this one’s significant, and SEO types, business owners and users will likely notice changes.

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful,” Amit Singhal, a Google employee, and Matt Cutts, who leads Google’s anti-spam squad, wrote in a Google blog post. “At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites — sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Black Hat SEO Versus White Hat SEO

The updated algorithm, which is initially being unleashed in the US, reinforces the need for marketers and business to avoid black hat SEO techniques — illegal tactics that can get websites penalized or de-listed from search engines altogether.

Just days ago, The New York Times reported on how J.C. Penny was caught with thousands of unrelated websites in the retail industry linking to their site — a common black hat SEO maneuver. While the US-based retailer enjoyed a brief boost in online presence and sales, it’s now in Google’s bad books.

The short-term gains of black hat SEO do not make sense for a business seeking long-term success. Businesses are better off developing links from reputable websites and communities through quality web content, including articles and press releases, as well as videos and social media.

White hat SEO involves hard work and dedication, which can reap enduring results. Black hat SEO is risky business, with a high potential for unhappy endings. J.C. Penny learned this the hard way.

Savvy companies have increasingly been posting videos on their websites to help connect with customers. But, as video technologies continue to advance, there will be implications for web copywriters, marketers and business owners alike. To get an edge over the competition tomorrow, you need to ensure your company’s videos are ‘SEO ready’, today.

Video on the Web

The explosive growth in video web content over the past few years has mainly been attributed to decreasing video production and equipment costs, and east-to-use, DIY gear. Once limited to companies with large budgets, video production is now accessible to many businesses. Consequently, more companies are putting more videos on their sites.

The Internet and its surrounding technologies have also improved to better support video. Greater bandwidth and faster download times mean that clicking “play” no longer means risking a long wait time or crashed computer.

Changes to Google’s search algorithm have also supported the prevalence of video on company websites; Google’s search engine favours websites that contain a mix of media. By having a site that features text, video and other media you may improve your search engine results. However, this advantage is becoming less significant as more websites offer mixed media.

Why Use Video?

Several arguments support implementing video on your company website. Video is sticky — visitors tend to stay on your website longer. In theory, the longer visitors stay on your site the more opportunity to sell and solidify your company’s relationship with the visitor.

Video is also ideal for conveying visual information. It’s often easier to watch a how-to video on assembling a product than read how-to instructions. When conducting a product review, it can be helpful to show the reviewer testing the product rather than describing the experience.

Video and SEO: The View Today

If you choose to employ video on your company website, be sure you include supporting SEO text. Providing context for the video and describing its contents to Google will increase your views and exposure. There is nothing worse for users than sitting through several minutes of video and slowly realizing it’s not going to provide them with the information they want.

Video and SEO: The View Ahead

Video technologies continue to change, and we predict the future existence of widely-used software that automatically transcribes and indexes video. In 2008, Google developed a gadget that used transcription and indexing technology, which was applied to politicians’ videos on YouTube during the U.S. elections. Google’s elections video search gadget used speech recognition technologies to automatically transcribe from speech to text and to index it, making the spoken content searchable. Viewers could search speeches for different words or phrases.

Testing revealed some problems, however. Some words were transcribed incorrectly. The gadget also couldn’t return results differentiated by the context in which words were used. For example, if you searched an Obama speech for “Iran” your results could contain references to the country as well as Obama’s morning exercise routine.

Later in 2008, Google expanded this technology by adding a new transcription and indexing tool to their Labs site. Unfortunately, the current status of the tool, which they called GAudi, is unclear. Google removed GAudi from their Labs site and the Google Elections Video Search gadget is no longer available. Nonetheless, we’re betting that development on these technologies will continue at Google, and elsewhere.

When video content becomes searchable, SEO tactics will come into play. Implications are huge: video script writers and maybe even speech writers will need to write text that’s search engine optimized. If your CEO or client is delivering a speech that is being video recorded and posted on your company’s website, you’ll want to make sure  his or her speech contains words and phrases that will help get desired search engine rankings and presence.

Get Your Videos SEO Ready

What does this mean for video production today? Once transcribing and indexing technology becomes available, companies will scramble to re-shoot SEO optimized video content. Those who have already addressed this issue and ensured their video content is search engine optimized will be well ahead of the game. The next time you are developing video content for a website, give some serious thought to making the content search engine friendly.

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of the best-selling book The Long Tail, once stated that “your brand isn’t what you say it is, it is what Google says it is.” In a world where most website visitors find your company through search engines, this statement seems truer than ever. When search engines assign the same weight to bloggers as multi-national corporations, how much control can you exert over your brand?

The Challenges of Brand Management on the Web

It wasn’t many years ago that when people wanted information about a company or product, they looked in the Yellow Pages phone book. They might call or visit the company, talk to sales staff, or pick up a brochure.

Today, the first point of contact with a company or brand is often through search engine results pages. Studies show that consumers use the web to research products and services before buying. Most of this research involves search engines.

Consequently, a consumer’s first exposure to your brand will include content generated by people who are not official brand representatives. Your brand website will be presented along with web content created by supporters and critics.

Fortunately, there are strategies you can employ to exert more control over your brand in the online environment. You may never reach the level of control of the pre-web 2.0 world, but you can be an active participant. Used effectively, these strategies also bring new opportunities to connect with current and potential customers.

Strategies for Managing Your Brand

1. Optimize your website for search engines

Make sure that people can find you. You don’t want to be on the tenth page of search engine results while your critics are on page one.

2. Monitor what is being said about you

If you don’t know what is being said, you can’t respond. There are a number of tools available to monitor what is being said about your brand, your competitors and your industry. Google Alerts allows you to select search parameters and notifies you when it finds your search term. Technorati provides a similar service for blogs.

Use search engines to see what results are returned when searching for your brand, your executives, and your products and services. Check to see who is linking to your website and find out what they are saying about you.

3. Respond to critics

There is no better way to allow others to dominate a conversation than to not participate. It is not easy to jump in when your brand is being slammed, but it is critically important.

Be polite and identify yourself as a brand representative. Even if you can’t fix the problem, acknowledge the issue. This can go a long way to diffuse hostile situations.

Online discussions about your brand are an opportunity to solidify brand loyalty and reach new customers. The comments of your critics may live on the web forever, but so will your response.

4. Claim your space on the Web and in social media

Most companies recognize the importance of claiming their domain name on the web, but it is equally important to stake your claim in social media. Many social networks do not verify the identities of people creating new accounts. You need to get there first. Put links to social networking sites on your website so that people know they are connecting with the real goods.

5. Consider the pros and cons of going after unauthorized users of your brand

For years, marketing was about protecting the brand. Companies would quickly block any unauthorized use. But on the web, consumers have developed websites, blogs and even promotional videos for their favourite brands. Monitor these activities and jump in when necessary, but let your supporters do some marketing for you.

Branding Challenges Bring Branding Opportunities

Google may influence how your brand is perceived, but so can you. By jumping into the fray, you will not only manage your brand but reach new customers.

See how Webcopyplus can help put your brand on equal footing.

As a fellow web marketing professional — whether you’re a web copywriter, web designer, web developer, or a business owner interested in learning about the best way to market your business online — I’m sure you follow a plethora of like-minded people on Twitter.

You’ve probably also noticed a pattern in the kind of headlines that enter your feed, some at a more irritating frequency than others.   These headlines purposely target high pressure points, and get incessantly regurgitated as a result.

Here’s how to recognize these repeat offenders and why you’d be better off to spend your clicks elsewhere.

New Development Signals Death of SEO!

These headlines are worse than a crazy guy wearing a sandwich board in Times Square, babbling incoherently about the impending end of days.  Don’t we have better things to do than fall for this fear mongering?

Of course there will be changes to the way search engines operate, but this certainly doesn’t signify the end of search engine optimization, but rather, a constantly changing concept to which we must learn to adapt.  Just like planet Earth has gone through changes in its climate, species, and geography, so, too, will this ever-dynamic Internet universe.  Fear not, my cyber disciples! The end is not near!

23 Things You Should Never Say on Twitter

These headlines are annoying unless they’re done in a hilariously brilliant fashion (as seen on The Oatmeal). The accompanying articles usually express violent opposition to people broadcasting what they’re eating or what other inconsequential tasks they’re completing to their social networks.

But, these articles often disregard one important fact about social media — its popularity can be partially credited to the little perverted voyeur in all of us.  Sometimes we DO care what you’re eating because we want to compare it to what we’re eating, or get inspiration for tonight’s dinner, or we’re storing it in our minds for the next time we meet so we can start a conversation about it IRL (no, not creepy at all, right?).

Deep down we all want to believe that the CEO of our favourite company shares our guilty pleasure for Funyuns.  Plus, it’s good to have a mix of subject matter in your Twitter feed so you can demonstrate that you’re a real person, and not just a robot pumping out blatant sales pitches 140 characters at a time.

Obviously, you shouldn’t do things like bash your employer on Twitter, but do people really need to be reminded of this?  If so, they deserve to be fired.

Aside from wise tips like this — go ahead, be yourself online! After all, that’s how people connect through social media, right?

Finally, a Surefire Way to Calculate Your Social Media ROI!

People who write headlines like this are smart.  They know that the elusive social media ROI is a pressure point for a lot of business owners trying to decide whether they should venture into the social media world.  Unfortunately, so many of these articles fall short, resulting in their sweeping categorization in our minds as wolf-crying disappointments.

How can you quantify the value of building relationships with current and prospective customers?  We know this practice has value, but the exact value depends on how you cultivate these relationships and how well you can turn online networking into real world connections, and social media driven site traffic into sales.

Social media is about participating in conversations, listening and constantly being visible and accessible so you’re top of mind next time a new or old customer is in the market for a professional or business with your qualifications.  In that regard, determining a formula for calculating exactly how much money you will make per tweet is a tall order.

On the other hand, with Twitter’s recently announced official analytics tool, we might actually be a step closer to authentic measurement practices.

Get a Beta Invite for Hyper Hype Mail!

Everyone will eventually be able to use the new product, so why do people freak out about being the first ones to use the beta version, which is likely full of bugs?

Remember when Gmail was invite-only? How many people are using Gmail now?  In fact, what was commonly viewed as a highly successful marketing tactic, and thus copied by many others since, was actually credited to paranoid engineers who thought the system would crash if too many signed up for a Gmail account at once.

Wait until the product is actually good, and let the tech nerds clamour for beta invites.  You can get the play by play on their blogs as they curse the bugs until it’s properly adjusted for optimal use.

How Social Media Is Changing Business (or Life, or Shopping, or the World, or Butt Scratching)

These articles usually begin with some dramatic generalized statement, such as ‘The world as we know it is completely turned inside out, upside down, right side left, etc. etc. thanks to the all powerful phenomenon known as… drum roll — SOCIAL MEDIA!’

Sure, just like the telephone and television and the Internet, new, widely adopted ways of communicating do affect every aspect of our lives because communication IS life.  We do it every day.   But, really, it’s not social media that’s changing the world, rather the way we choose to use it.

Need Help Finding A Good Headline?

Here’s a list of proven social media headline formulas you can customize for your content.  Just make sure they don’t end up looking like the headlines described above, or the accompanying content you’ve worked so hard to create may get left behind.

– Opticon

Journalists are increasingly turning to the Web to generate story ideas, gather information and source subject matter experts. If you’ve done a good job building your brand online, that expert could be you.

“The Web, search engines and social media are all important tools in what we do,” Vancouver Sun journalist Gillian Shaw told Webcopyplus, adding that reporters constantly scour the Web when conducting research for stories.

Other journalists back that claim. When 40 journalists participating in a www.useit.com study were asked how they get basic information about a company or organization, they all said they begin by doing some Web research, usually with Google.

And it’s not all about Google. A national Cision and George Washington University study found that a vast majority of reporters and editors also depend on social media sources when researching their stories.

Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter.

Case in Point: Getting Found on Google

Vancouver-based Clear HR Consulting, a Webcopyplus client with just a few employees, is beating several industry giants in online searches, including Mercer, a 73-year-old corporation with more than 19,000 employees in over 180 cities and 40 countries and territories worldwide, and Hewitt, a 70-year-old company that boasts 23,000 employees in more than 30 countries.

Prior to getting their website optimized in 2007, only 3% of clients had found Clear HR Consulting through Web searches. By the end of 2008, 26% of new clients were finding the HR firm via Google, Yahoo and other search engines. In the first half of 2010, 67% of new clients discovered Clear HR Consulting via search with terms such as HR services Vancouver and HR experts Vancouver.

“With more than 50% of our revenue coming from clients who find us through search engines, I have to say search engine optimization is probably the most important marketing investment we’ve ever made,” said Cissy Pau, Principal Consultant at Clear HR Consulting.  “The icing on the cake is that we’re getting a lot of media coverage without spending time and money on PR campaigns and PR firms.”

With editors and journalists finding the consultants via Google, the small HR firm has scored dozens of features and mentions on prominent TV and radio shows, magazines, newspapers and websites, such as CBC Radio, CBC TV, Canadian Business, BC Business, The Globe and Mail, and others.

This is an excellent example of a business truly leveraging the power of the Web, which is now used by a record 1.9 billion people (source: Internet World Stats). Most businesses get a website created, launch it, and then let it float aimlessly in cyberspace. By optimizing it for search engines, conveying the right messages to the intended audiences, and leveraging social media, any website can be turned into an active marketing tool that generates very real results, and an excellent return on investment.

Making Life Easier For Reporters

The www.useit.com study concluded most of the PR sections of sites they studied failed to support journalists in their quest for the facts, information, and contacts they can use to write stories about companies and their products.

Here are the top five reasons journalists gave for visiting a company’s website:

• Locate a PR contact (name and telephone number)
• Find basic facts about the company (spelling of an executive’s name, his/her age, headquarters location, and so on)
• Discern the company’s spin on events
• Check financial information
• Download images to use as illustrations in stories

“I appreciate companies that make information easy to access — that covers everything from phone numbers to images — instead of requiring back and forth phone calls, which can end up being too late for our deadlines,” stated Shaw.

As 18th century writer Matthew Arnold put it: “Journalism is literature in a hurry.” When tens of thousands of dollars worth of PR are at stake, helping journalists who “do it at deadline” makes sound business sense.

Consumers are going mobile, and fast. If your business isn’t, it could be missing out on potential revenue from the increasing number of consumers using their phones to decide where to direct their spending.

As many web marketers have been predicting, the number of people using their mobile phones to access information on the Web is dramatically increasing. According to AdWords EBook author Ian Howie, over the next four years mobile Google searches are expected to overtake those executed on desktop computers. In fact, all new Google products are being developed with mobile use in mind.  Nearly half of all US retail spending will be influenced by online research this year, and growing, with online consumers most keen to use their mobile devices to check out events, restaurants and retail outlets.

With smartphones expected to increase from 31% of all handsets in 2010 to 50% in 2014 (source: Cisco Systems), more businesses should be adapting their existing sites for easy mobile use.  What does this mean?  A YouGov survey of 2,244 UK consumers found that 54% said their negative mobile web browsing experiences were largely due to ‘having to zoom in and out to view all information’ — a problem that occurs when a website is not designed with mobile in mind.  Another problem consumers encounter is not being able to quickly find the information they’re looking for while using their mobile phones to search on the go.

If you’re considering creating a mobile version of your site for iPhone, Android, and other smartphone users (which you should be) there are some things to consider, including design and content tailored specifically for mobile.

Deliver Information Relevant To Mobile Users

“Ensure that your mobile site focuses on providing relevant, decipherable information immediately,” said Tamara Brooks, a marketing specialist at October 17 Media. “People using their smartphones to search on the go are usually looking for quick information like addresses, directions, and contact information.”

For example, someone running late for a hair appointment will want to find the salon’s contact information quickly and easily from their mobile web browser.  Sites not designed for mobile, or that don’t redirect mobile users to a mobile friendly interface, will frustrate them as they load new pages and zoom in and out looking for the contact information.

Another example would be a restaurant mobile site that quickly delivers a menu sample, along with any specials and an easy way to make a reservation, or a hotel website that offers up rates and reservation information quickly.

Incorporate Mobile Into Your Marketing Strategy

When purchasing your Adwords campaign, Brooks recommends buying pay-per-click ads that are mobile friendly. It’s also a good idea to choose the ‘click-to-call’ option, she explained, which allows mobile site visitors to connect with your business immediately.

Howie suggests targeting specific markets by directing campaigns based on things like device and operator.  For example, if you wish to target business travelers, you might want to buy mobile ads on the Blackberry Vodafone network, which is popular among corporate mobile users.

Help Consumers Find You Quickly

Placing high on the page of search results is especially important when people search for your business using their mobile phone.  If they’re on the go, speed is even more likely to be a factor. “As with searches conducted from desktop computers, search engine optimization can help people find you faster than the competition with strategically placed keywords,” said Brooks.

See What Your Mobile Site Looks Like

There are tools available to check out what kind of user experience mobile searchers will have when they visit your site.  Check yours, then decide whether you need to make changes to have a better mobile web presence.  It could mean the difference between more customers through your door or phone calls to your store.

Mobile phone MobileOK Beta checker:
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/
Mobile phone emulator:
http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php

You may also want to consider directing mobile site visitors to your Facebook or Twitter page, which, like other Web 2.0 sites with simple interfaces, perform well on mobile browsers.

Getting Started

If you’re unsure about where to start with your mobile web presence, contact experienced web developers and companies that specialize in mobile web marketing to point you in the right direction.

Editor’s note: While conducting research for this article, we realized we need to fast track our own plans to get a mobile site. We’ll share our experiences once we get one up and running.

Website visitors are demanding fast-loading sites, just like they did in the 90s. But are they getting it? Despite faster Internet connections, users complain websites are still too slow, suggest tests conducted by usability specialist Jakob Nielsen.

The culprits, which used to be large images and Flash intros, are now fancy page widgets. Just try going to social media site Digg to get a taste for yourself.

Speed for Humans

According to Nielsen, speed matters for two reasons:

• Human limitations, especially in the areas of memory and attention. Nielsen noted: “We simply don’t perform as well if we have to wait and suffer the inevitable decay of information stored in short-term memory.”
• Human aspirations. “We like to feel in control of our destiny rather than subjugated to a computer’s whims,” added Nielsen. “Also, when companies make us wait instead of providing responsive service, they seem either arrogant or incompetent.”

Nielsen insists a “snappy” user experience beats a “glamorous” one because people engage more with a website when they can move freely and focus on the content instead of on the wait.

Webcopyplus’ own studies support this theory. For instance, in a 2009 online poll, more than 50% of participants noted that getting their information promptly on the Web is a top concern.

Speed for Spiders

While website loading speed is integral for visitors, it has also gained significance with search engine rankings. This is especially the case with Google, which introduced a new search architecture earlier this year called Google Caffeine.

Google Caffeine is considered faster, and brings users social media updates in real time. Additionally, it injects a new ranking factor into the algorithm — website speed. Consequently, Google is pushing faster websites higher in the search results, whereas slower websites find it harder to rank.

Response Time Limits

Nielsen outlined the following response time limits for websites:

• 0.1 seconds gives the feeling of instantaneous response — that is, the outcome feels like it was caused by the user, not the computer. This level of responsiveness is essential to support the feeling of direct manipulation (direct manipulation is one of the key GUI techniques to increase user engagement and control).
• 1 second keeps the user’s flow of thought seamless. Users can sense a delay, and thus know the computer is generating the outcome, but they still feel in control of the overall experience and that they’re moving freely rather than waiting on the computer. This degree of responsiveness is needed for good navigation.
• From 1–10 seconds, users definitely feel at the mercy of the computer and wish it was faster, but they can handle it. After 10 seconds, they start thinking about other things, making it harder to get their brains back on track once the computer finally does respond.

How Fast is Your Website?

Okay, so we know faster is better. There are several website speed tests you can use to find out how fast your website loads, including the one on iWeb.

We benchmarked our site, Webcopyplus.com, against Google and did fairly well. Our home page took .42 seconds to load, versus Google, which is renowned for speed, and clocked in at .11 seconds.

Take a moment to test your website speed. Is it too slow? Perhaps you need to optimize the page or move to a faster server. For more on website performance, check out an insightful article at Smashing Magazine, called Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do.