Whether you do this with a blog, or you change your homepage with new offers, coupons or new products, it serves to show Google that your site is \u201calive.\u201d\u00a0 Having a blog is an easy way to keep the site “alive” with new content and comments from your readers.\u00a0 That is one reason why Facebook has an Alexa score of 2 at the moment.<\/p>\n Small businesses sometimes struggle with this if they have the typical billboard type website.\u00a0 Once they upgrade their website to include a blog, that helps but what’s the next logical step?\u00a0 Have you heard of QR codes yet? Here is a quick introduction: What are QR codes? They look like this:<\/p>\n They come to us from Japan where they are very common. QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a cell phone). They are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone. The airlines<\/a> have been using them as early as 2008.\u00a0 You may soon see QR Codes in a magazine advert, on a billboard, a web page or even on someone\u2019s t-shirt.\u00a0 Mari Smith gave me the idea of putting it on the back of her business card<\/a>! That’s an excellent networking idea!<\/p>\n Once it is in your cell phone, it may give you details about that business (allowing users to search for nearby locations), or details about the person wearing the t-shirt, show you a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text. The other key feature of QR Codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, many modern cell phones can scan them.\u00a0 The full Wikipedia description is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n How does the cell phone read the code?<\/strong> The cell phone needs a QR code reader. It takes literally 1 minute for someone with an iPhone or Android phone to find and install the reader.<\/p>\n How do you generate a code?<\/strong> You can easily generate a QR code using a site like Kaywa.com or you can use the Open Source code to generate codes for you if you have a smart developer on hand.<\/p>\n How can you use QR codes to benefit search marketing?<\/strong> Here are a few examples of how others are using them.\u00a0 How will Google see them? If you add them to your website, the search engines will see that your pages have changed, and that you are updating pages. The search engine will see a new image and index it accordingly. At some point soon, the search engines will likely recognize QR codes and possibly index the content in them.<\/p>\n Will your customers use them?<\/strong> Today, a few may use them, but those that do will certainly appreciate your tech knowledge, and those that don\u2019t will certainly be inquisitive, which may open the door for conversation and a potential sale. Those that do use QR codes will definitely have a high tech know-how and may be more receptive to your presence on the web, your Twitter presence, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc.<\/p>\n How could you use a QR code?<\/strong> Your business, no matter how small or large, could use QR codes in a number of ways. You could use them to direct your contacts to ever changing areas on your website.\u00a0 Prospective employees could use them to point to their resume online! The QR code is generated and the link to which the code points can be changed.\u00a0 I do see an issue there.\u00a0 You will want to use a very secure password to generate your QR code so that you can retain control over where it points.<\/p>\n I think it’s neat to be able to use them when I’m visiting new places of interest.\u00a0 I can see them being used to store video and audio of places of interest.\u00a0 I think they’ll be awesome for the education system!\u00a0 Perhaps this will help to usher in a mobile education system?<\/p>\n Need to know how to assemble something and you’re concerned about an issue with language translation?\u00a0 No problem!\u00a0 You’re instructions are now a video that is translated into your native language!\u00a0 How awesome is that?!\u00a0 Teachers could use these in their teaching plans to come up with all sorts of teaching tools to relate our history to our present day activities.<\/p>\n These codes are currently printed on paper.\u00a0 Could they be tattooed?<\/strong> They could but will the QR reader be able to read them?\u00a0 Have you ever seen someone who got a tattoo when they were in their 20’s that is now in their 50’s or 60’s?\u00a0 The tattoo becomes distorted over the years.\u00a0 The ink bleeds into the skin.\u00a0 If the person has gained and lost a lot of weight, again, there is more distortion.\u00a0 They are simply not practical for this application.\u00a0 The mark can be removed or re-pointed to a null pointer rendering it useless.\u00a0 So I don’t believe there is anything to be concerned about concerning QR codes in connection with the mark of the beast and end times predictions.\u00a0 You can breathe now!<\/p>\n UPDATE:<\/strong> Apparently some folks are actually getting these QR codes permanently<\/strong> tattooed on their skin!\u00a0 I knew it was just a matter of time; however, as I stated above, it’s only a matter of time before the tattoo will distort due to age.\u00a0 The tattoo in the video below is large.\u00a0 Never underestimate the power of marketing!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/monetizationmagic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/marismith-224x300.jpg\" "\\"marismith\\"")
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