Our new video tells the story of Ashley, the small business owner whose coffee shop is suffering due to competition from large corporations. Ashley realizes the Yellow Pages is no longer the best place for her to advertise her business. She knows that most consumers use the Internet to find information about local companies, but she doesn’t know how to begin getting her coffee shop found online. Can you relate? Find out what she did to get noticed.

Watch the video:

There’s a new way to search on Google; writing your search query via Google Handwrite. Now when using a touch-screen mobile device, you can handwrite your search query rather than typing it. Google explains that when you’re standing on a busy street corner, in a bumpy taxi ride or just sitting on the couch with a friend, Handwrite lets you search by just writing letters with your finger anywhere on the touch screen. You no longer have to deal with a keyboard covering half the screen or “hunt-and-peck typing.”

Handwrite is the newest addition to the many ways to perform a Google search. Now you can speak your queries, get results before you even finish typing, search by image and handwrite your queries!

For more information, check out the full announcement on the Official Google Blog.

We all know how important it is to write useful, interesting content on your blog. However, if no one can find it in Google, you’ll never reach your desired target audience. Follow these search engine optimization (SEO) tips to make sure your blog is seen by customers, potential customers, employees, peers and whoever else you want to reach.

Include optimized videos and photos.  Not only are photos and videos eye-catching, but they are also easy to optimize. Read this blog for tips on optimizing photos and videos. It’s important to use big, bold photos that serve a purpose. Your photos should help explain the point of your blog post. Infographics, graphs and screen shots are all excellent to include in blogs. The better the photo or video, the more people will want to link to it. More links always equal more SEO juice.

Join communities that relate to your blog. Find other blogs, articles and websites that relate to your blog topic and start reading, linking and commenting. This will help you start building relationships within the community, which will encourage others to comment and link to your blog.

Promote your blog on all different kinds of social media. While Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn are great places to promote your blog, don’t forget about other niche social networks like StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr, delicious, etc. Check out this list of social media websites to get ideas.

best social media platforms 2012 infographic

Infographic courtesy of eThority