Microsoft is systematically killing off the mystery of Bing-Yahoo optimization. In addition to a post on quality content that we covered previously, Bing has now told us the 18 fundamental things that webmasters need to know about search engine optimization. Here’s the basic breakdown:

1. Make sure your site is crawlable by using an XML sitemap, a robots.txt file, and well-structured on-site navigation.
2. Improve your site structure by using an HTML sitemap and linking to trusted sources both within your site and outside of it.
3. Create a solid content hierarchy by doing basic keyword research and avoiding placement of your content in rich media such as Silverlight and Flash.
4. Use a short meta title that has fewer than 65 characters and that’s unique to each page, and try to include the targeted keyword toward the beginning of that title.
5. Use a unique meta description tag.
6. Create quality content (following the guidelines Bing provided earlier).
7. When you build links, focus on keyword-relevant anchor tags that link back to quality content on your page.
8. Create an RSS feed.
9. Use schema.org markup.
10. Create a user interface that prioritizes the user experiences; the search perspective on things like page load time aren’t as important as how the user responds.
11. Encourage social sharing with the use of social buttons.
12. Don’t cloak your website.
13. Don’t use link farms.
14. Don’t engage in three-way linking.
15. Don’t duplicate content.
16. Don’t use auto-following on the social front.
17. Don’t use thin content.
18. Don’t buy links.

It’s always good when the search engines themselves tell us what they’re looking for. While this list is fairly basic, it does cover the most needed 101 ground. What items, if any, do you feel Bing is missing?

[Sources include: The Bing Blog]

Working in the Katonah Village Library, I am surrounded by great books to read. Whenever parents ask for a book recommendation for their fourth or fifth graders, my “go to” author is Richard Peck.

Richard Peck writes realistic fiction with humor, quirky characters, and historical time periods. The companion books, A Long Way from Chicago (a Newbery Honor book) and A Year Down Yonder (a Newbery Award winner), take place in the heartland of small town Illinois during the 1920’s and 1930’s. A brother and sister from Chicago spend the summers with their ornery grandmother and wackiness ensues.

Three of my additional favorites from this master storyteller are: The Teacher’s Funeral – the old crabby teacher of the one-room schoolhouse has died and a replacement must be found by September; Here Lies the Librarian – two brothers in a small Indiana town help out when the fate of the only library in town is up for grabs; and Fair Weather – a Midwestern farm family gets the chance to visit the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 where unusual sights and characters abound.

Richard Peck gives the reader strong characters, visual settings, humor, adventure, and wonderful language. His stories are peppered with “old-timey” phrases that will keep you laughing.

Adults can enjoy all of these novels, as well as Richard Peck’s short story collection, Past Perfect, Present Tense. He really does have something for everyone.

Most of these books are available on CD-audio which would really be a treat for the whole family to listen to while driving to the beach or to visit grandparents. Make sure to stop by a local farm stand or general store when you are on your next car trip and buy some rocky road fudge to make the experience even sweeter!

On a personal note: This writer is looking to rent a small house or 2 bedroom apartment in the Katonah/Cross River/South Salem area. Please call me at the library with any leads—there may be a box of Perugina chocolates in it for you!

Playing dress-up with luxury real estate

Mood of the Market

You might find this surprising, but I’ve never been a huge fan of houses, per se. I love real estate (no surprise there), but I when I got into the business years ago, I chose it more for its power to improve people’s lives, and for my love of contracts and negotiations.

Every home I’ve owned was either a reluctant choice or a home I just happened to stumble across while showing homes to clients and was able to score a great deal on — I’ve been very happy in the final analysis with every home I’ve owned, but I’ve also always prioritized location, comfort and value.

But the other day, I was thumbing though a book of luxury homes and had a “Eureka!” experience. I had found my house — the house in which I was destined to live. It even had a name: La Villa Contenta.

Or, as I said it when I told my friends and family about it, “La Villa Contentaaaaahhhhhh.” Sited on eight pristine acres of lawn rolling down to Malibu shores, La Villa Contenta is a Mediterranean fantasy, complete with 18th-century amethyst chandeliers, an orchid greenhouse, secret gardens, a Hermes fireplace, Hearst Castle-style indoor pool, and a private terrace hovering above the waves of the Pacific Ocean (the better to deliver Shakespearean soliloquies from, my dear).

My pals spouted objection after objection, but I overcame them all. They said that I don’t live in Malibu — and that I can’t stand Los Angeles-area traffic; I pointed out that I could telecommute from my library at La Villa Contenta.

They expressed concerns that I’m an empty nester and might not need so much space; I said that the guest suite in the fern grove could be theirs when they visit. They balked at the $75 million list price; I pointed out that (a) it’s a buyer’s market, (b) I’m a crack negotiator, and (c) Candy Spelling’s place a few miles away just sold for a 40 percent discount, and La Villa Contenta is listed for half her home’s asking price (what a bargain!).

Clearly these conversations were entirely tongue-in-cheek. But in some ways, just the fantasy and window-shopping experience I had with La Villa Contenta lived up to the promise of the home’s name.

Would it be amazing to live in a place like that? Sure! But if I actually had $75 million handy, do I think the incremental benefits to my life, compared to the already wonderful life I live in my current home, would be worth the expense? No.

I don’t know that I’d be all Warren Buffett about it, if I had that kind of wealth — the Oracle of Omaha (the world’s third richest man, according to Forbes), is famous for (among other things) still living in the same home he bought for $31,500 in 1958.

But I like to think I’d spend my disposable millions feeding Somalian kids, or educating American ones, or something in that vein.

It turns out that I am pretty “contenta” in my home now, and more consciously so after mentally trying on the high life at La Villa Contenta.

It also turns out that I’m not the only American housing consumer who is playing “house up” (that’s what I call this real estate version of dress-up) with luxury homes.

On the Web, some of the most popular real estate sites are those dealing exclusively in pics of celebrity homes, like the Real Estalker blog, and other outlets specializing in real estate eye-candy like HomesOfTheRich.net and PriceyPads.com.
Every once in awhile, these homes offer some inspiration in terms of design themes, paint colors or even little conveniences “normal” people can integrate into their lifestyles.

But more frequently, the people I know who are addicted to this so-called house porn love it more for the opportunity it presents to ooh and ah, then to shake one’s head, stating a morally self-righteous position to the effect that you wouldn’t drop that kind of cash on a place even if you had it.

Rather than being green with envy, these days many smart homeowners who salivate over (or sneer at) uber-luxe homes leave their house-porn hobby more grateful than ever that they have such great lives and such great homes for such small fractions of these homes’ gargantuan price tags — especially in light of the short-sale and foreclosure epidemic that has hit celebrities and laypeople alike.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com

I realize everyone is glued to the stock ticker today, watching their personal net worth fall yet again; I know this because every time I wired up to do a live shot on CNBC today, my “hit” was “killed” at the last minute because the Dow dropped again.

But it is precisely on days like this that we have to focus on how it all affects housing; stocks may fill our 401K’s, but our homes are (or were) our single greatest investment.

The drop in the stock market was preceded by a huge drop in mortgage interest rates, and it will likely be followed by one as well. The overnight average last night on the 30-year fixed hit 4.35 percent on Bankrate.com. Economic uncertainty pushes Treasury yields down, which in turn pushes mortgage rates down. Tomorrow we get the jobs report, and my guess is that it won’t be particularly stellar either.

So I was all set to talk on TV today about how mortgage rates, even this low, won’t help the housing recovery significantly (sure, higher rates would hurt) because a) we’ve been at historically low rates for quite some time now, and b) rates are not the most important decision-making factor for consumers today. We had a great conversation about this yesterday on the blog, so I took it further to ask some mortgage professionals.

How SAP Uses Communities to Connect With Customers

By Michael Stelzner
Published August 5, 2011

In this video I interview Mark Yolton, senior vice president of the SAP Community Network.

Mark shares how SAP’s community of 2 million members from 200 countries is organized around business roles (such as developers, IT professionals and business process experts) to better engage with customers.

You’ll find out how SAP puts together content focused on specific needs to build their community. Listen to the tips to learn how you can get customers to participate in your community.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• How to get your customers to participate in your community
• The value in providing a platform where customers can get answers to their questions
• Why you need to look at customers as individuals and not brand accounts
• How to use Twitter to build your community
• How to use social media to give customers a platform for discussion
• How Twitter can improve your event marketing

And listen for these hot tips to get your customers involved in your online community:

• Find a problem, focus on solving that one issue and expand from there
• Do a lot of listening and responding; use the feedback to move you forward
• Expect to have a learning curve

Connect with Mark on Twitter @markyolton and check out the SAP Community Network which everyone is welcome to join.

Do you use social communities to connect with your customers? What tips do you have to share? Please leave them below.

Tags: community, customer community, customers, event marketing, mark yoltonb, michael stelzner, sap, sap community network, social media community, social media marketer