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Google is constantly updating the way it indexes websites, so maintaining good Google rankings is an ongoing task...and you've got to keep up with the times.

Google is now looking closer than ever at the visitor searches. It's fair to say that Google is becoming more "human" in its approach to understanding what people are searching for.

Google now considers factors like the credibility and popularity of the website, the level of user engagement and the context of the content - so the days of treating Google like a machine and stuffing in as many relevant key words and key phrases as possible are long gone.

SEO Tactic: Develop meaningful content around your primary search terms - those that visitors are most likely to use to find you.

Google now understands website content far more deeply than just analysing the keywords, so with appropriate terms and clear language you can make it much easier for Google to include your website in the relevant search results.

A group called VoucherCloud sent us an infographic of statistics about US consumers and their online habits. While some points came as no surprise, there were still things that made us go 'Hmm'.

Like did you know that a judgement to buy your product (or not) is made in just 90 seconds! That's faster than your Aunty Denise on Boxing Day!!

Tell us what you think about the stats in this infographic. Does it change the way you look at your online customers?

View the Infographic: Consumer Psychology and the E-Commerce Checkout

More Information: Consumer Psychology and the E-Commerce Checkout - An infographic by the team at vouchercloud

The power to publish directly via the web came with responsibilities and over the last 21 years business has had to adapt to this new reality.

Then along came Social Media - with it's own perils - did you know all content published on Social Media platforms is subject to regulation under Australian law...including all comments and visitor interaction?

Social Media has delivered the most powerful marketing tool to business since the Internet itself, but the moral of this story is there are big traps for young players.

Before engaging in Social Media activity, be sure you understand the legal responsibilities - and the terms and conditions of the various platforms you use.

For more information about the Australian broadcasting standards see the ACMA website and some popular Social Media Platforms terms of use pages are here:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Google+
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

As a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for more than a decade, we're always striving to meet demands for new functionality that satisfies the current and future requirements of the hundreds of clients using our iASP shopping cart and the hundreds of thousands of customers who in turn purchase goods and services via desktop and mobile devices using our technology.

To that end we are pleased to announce the release of new advanced adjustment and shipping rules that now allow for practically any adjustment imaginable at the checkout based on any combination of individual customer attributes, product attributes or transaction attributes.

For example, a vendor can now offer 50% off shipping to customers named Paul who purchase XXL Blue T-shirts on Tuesdays between 4:00pm and 5:00pm!

In the lead up to Christmas we're releasing more exciting new e-commerce functions, so please watch this space!

There are literally hundreds of factors Google uses to calculate search rankings.

SEO professionals spend their lives tweaking client websites to extract every possible advantage, however, in our experience, focusing on the following 4 areas will see most websites rise above their Google competition.

1: Overall Content

If your website does not contain the key words ice cream then chances are it won't appear in a Google search for that search term.

The placement and density of key words and phrases within a web page is the most important on-page search engine optimisation (SEO) metric.

2: Page Titles

Page Titles (for the technically minded Meta Titles), after the overall content, are the most important area to place your primary keywords and phrases.

Every page on a web site should include a unique Page Title. Page Titles not only serve as headlines for the page but also factor heavily in key word weighting.

3: Domain Name

If your domain name contains the key words within a search term you're well on the way to a high search ranking for that term.

For example, try a Google search for: peaches and cream (pages from Australia) and note the top results.

4: Google Page Rank

Google Page Rank was once the most important Google ranking factor and is still a useful method of measuring the overall link popularity of a web page.

Google Page Rank is based on the link structure of the web where a link from site A to site B can be considered a vote by site A for site B.

To get a FREE overview of your website's SEO performance, visit http://www.seobenchmarker.com.au/ and try the free Search Engine Ranking Score Tool, or to learn more about SEO download a free copy of the SEO Benchmarker white paper: An Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation