Tagging is quick and easy way to annotate and categorize content. Tags are used in many different ways on many different web sites now. Examples include Flickr, Amazon.com, Blogger, etc.

Let me give you a good example of how powerful tags can be. Lets say you are trying to find photos of Athens, GA. Where do you even start? You could go to Google and type in "Photos of Athens Georgia" and you will get back 699,000 results. Each of those results may have a photo or two of Athens, Georgia but you would have to spend an enormous amount of time to find anything useful. Or you could go to Flickr.com - a photo sharing site - and use their search by tag feature. Thousands of Athenians and tourists have posted photos of Athens Georgia and each of those people took the time to tag their photos with "Athens Georgia". In one action, and on one web site you can see every photo that was "tagged" with Athens Georgia.

Because tags are so prevalent, and usually have very good relevance in relation to content, search engines see them very favorably. When applied to the concept of search engine optimization, tags become an invaluable tool.

Because of the way a tag works, when you create a tag, a new page is created. So each unique tag you make becomes a new page. If you made 1 blog post and tagged it with 10 individual unique keywords or keyword phrases you essentially created 1 page for the blog post itself, and 1 page for each of the unique keywords. In a very short amount of time you have amassed 11 pages for your site!

Because ONE of the factors in how well your site is ranked compared to other sites in relation to a particular keyword is the volume of content in your site, the faster you can create relevant content, the more competitive you can be.

If you have worked with us on building your site you have the capability to add any of our tools which have the tagging capability to your site. Here is a few of those tools.

• pxBlogger
• pxGallery
• pxNews
• pxFaq
• pxVideo

If you do not have a site built by us, and would like to talk to us about building your site please contact us at (706) 353-2048 or through our contact form

This is not a joke my friends, but my work has finally been honored in the latest issue of TIME Magazine. As many of you may know, Time is one of the largest publications in the nation and is in news stands all over the country. This kind of recognition might cause me to be inundated with job offers from every designer coast to coast. Sorry Plexus, But I'm makin' it big time now.

If you don't believe my claims, you can see for yourself here. In TIME Magazine's February 11th, 2008 issue, page 35, top-left section of the page, there is a poster visible in the photo. That poster is my winning poster for Focus the Nation that TIME found compelled to include in their latest issue. Sure, it looks like the focus is on the student, but it's pretty obvious that the real focus is my poster (no pun intended).

Now that I've made it in the world of design, Stephanie, I think it's time for that raise.

I saw a news story online recently that said watchmakers are scrambling because so many people use their mobile phones as their primary timepiece. I'll admit, I'm far less likely to wear a watch these days with the knowledge that my phone will pick up the slack.

So phones are taking over territory from watches. At the same time I think we are recovering territory from our phones, in the form of available memory.

In 1995, how many phone numbers did you have memorized? I'll bet that number has been cut in half, if not more by now. I've come so far as to get my list of memorized numbers down to a handful. At present I know exactly four phone numbers off the top of my head: my cell phone, the landline to my parents' house in North Carolina, the number of my cousin's house when we were kids, and 911. I can also remember a couple of prior iterations of my own cell phone number, but those are no longer valid, so I'm not counting them. Every other number I "have" is stored on a microchip.

What now lives in my memory in place of all those phone numbers? Hopefully something useful, like good memories, not more numbers.

Not every company needs to hire a search engine optimization specialist. Chances are if you have a well seasoned and mature domain, a good number of other industry relevant and reputable sites linking to your site, frequently changing content, and competitive number of pages in your site, you are probably just a few tweaks away from being able to achieve some reasonable goals.

If you fall into this category, you probably just need to focus your efforts on optimizing the content on your homepage, your title tags, and your metatags.

Keyword research is your next step. There is a tool called Keyword Discovery that can help you focus your efforts on the most appropriate keywords. The key is to start broad. For example if you are a company that provides a service like career counseling, you should start your keyword research with a broad term like "Career". This broad search will show you every variation of keyword phrases using the word "Career". The reason for doing this is that while you might refer to your service as Career Counseling, you may find that Career Counseling actually gets less search traffic than Career Coaching. By researching broader terms you will stumble on other phrases that consumers use to find your service than you refer to it just as an industry professional.

Once you come up with 2-3 keyword phrases, make sure to place those keyword phrases in the first few positions in your title tag and provide links from your homepage to relevant content using those keyword phrases. Additionally if it is possible, request those companies that already link to you to change the words on their site that are actually linked to your site to a keyword phrase you are focusing on. For example instead of linking to you by just using your company name, have them link to you using for example, "Career Coaching with Company Name".

If you find you can't achieve your goals after addressing these key areas, you may need a professional firm to help you establish a link building or content building campaign.

News outlets everywhere are buzzing with the unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo! stock Microsoft waged on February 1, 2008.

Called "the next major milestone" for Microsoft by it's chief executive Steve Ballmer, the deal would pay Yahoo shareholders $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday.

According to cnnmoney.com, a Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. It would also be one of the biggest tech deals ever, on par with Hewlett-Packard's $25 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002.

As it stand now, Google reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft's share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic. So...I guess only time will tell if the search engine giant, Google, will be surpassed if Yahoo! gets empowered by Microsoft.