As a Project Manager at PICnet, I often give clients advice on how to optimize their web content for search engines. However, when posting some items to eBay the other day, I realized just how easy it is to make fatal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) flaws.

After spending a fairly tedious two hours posting nine items to eBay, here is what I have been reminded of when writing content for the web:

Google just released some major upgrades to Google Analytics that make it extremely valuable for anyone managing a website. So, if you haven’t logged into your account for a while, or if perhaps you never got around to signing up for one, now is the time to immerse yourself in Google Analytics.

Here are a few things that have changed:

• Real Time Reporting: This means you no longer have to wait around to view how people interacted with your site in the past. Instead, you can see how people are using your site right now. With this feature you can more directly track how changes to your site are affecting the way people are interacting with it. For example, if you add a new homepage banner to your website about your Thanksgiving Food Drive in preparation for your drive being featured on a local radio station, go to GA while they are announcing the food drive and see if people are clicking on the banner during the radio segment. It will help you to learn whether or not the banner was an effective addition to your website.

From time to time, non-profits come to us wondering what they can do to improve their search engine standings. We recently came across a great video straight from the horse's mouth, specifically Matt Cutts of Google, that serves as a great reminder of what is really the secret behind good search results—good websites! Watch this video to see what we mean, but here are a few spoilers: