When browsing online with an Apple mobile device (iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone), users have the option of saving web pages directly to their home screen. When a page is saved, an icon is generated to which users may use to access said page without having to launch their browser. Essentially, users are able to create a bookmark of sorts that is given priority placement amongst their apps.

Unfortunately, by default, Apple will use a screenshot of the page when creating a home screen icon which will often look hideous and illegible. Thankfully though, website owners have the ability to change this by designating a specific icon graphic, called an Apple Touch Icon, to be used instead.

What is an Apple Touch Icon?

In short, an Apple touch icon is basically a favicon for Apple mobile devices, and, if set, is displayed when a user saves a web page to their home screen. For example, the Apple touch icon for this website looks like this:

How Do I Create an Apple Touch Icon?

To create an Apple touch icon, you will likely need the assistance of a graphic designer or have access to and knowledge of graphic editing software, such as Photoshop. Begin by creating a square graphic that is sized to 129 by 129 pixels, and then saving it in .png format. 129-pixels is the perfect size for the Apple iPad, and will allow other devices to properly resize as needed.

Also, when creating your icon, don’t worry about adding fancy rounded corners or glowing effects. While these are key characteristics of Apple icons, the device will do this automatically.

How Do I Implement My Apple Touch Icon?

You will be pleased to know that Apple has made implementing touch icons very easy to do. You have the following two options:

Option 1: Standard Icon

Standard Apple touch icons are rendered with a gloss effect and rounded corners. To implement a standard icon, apply the following code into the head section of your website:

<LINK REL="apple-touch-icon" HREF="/apple-touch-icon.png" />

Option 2: Precomposed Icon

Precomposed Apple touch icons are rendered with rounded corners, but without a gloss effect. To implement a precomposed icon, apply the following code into the head section of your website:

<LINK REL="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" HREF="/apple-touch-icon.png" />

With either option, your icon will need to be hosted online. This means that you will need to edit the code provided above and specify the correct path location of your icon (within the 'HREF' section). Also, you can only implement one of these options, not both.

The following is a side-by-side comparison of what each looks like:

Why Website Owners Should Use an Apple Touch Icon?

Hopefully I’ve been able to give you enough information to create and implement your own Apple touch icon. However, some of you are undoubtedly questioning why it is that you should want to create and implement one. Why not just use the default screenshot that Apple captures, right? I will tell you why not: design and branding.

Creating a Complete, Customized Design

Like most website owners, design is important to you. I imagine that you wish to control every aspect of how your website looks and functions. Let me start by saying that there is nothing at all wrong with this for I feel the same way. Creating an Apple touch icon will not only make users happy (because they won’t be subjected to seeing a lame, generic icon on their home screen), but also help you to provide a more complete, customized website experience through design.

Brand Development

I am a HUGE advocate for branding. Proper use of company and personal branding can have a long lasting effect on one’s ability to grow their business, whatever it may be. I strongly encourage all website owners, if given the opportunity, to tie-in their brand’s logo, color scheme, and messaging whenever possible. Creating an Apple touch icon is one of those opportunities.

Give it a shot. If not for design or branding purposes, create one to help brighten up other people’s iPod, iPhone, and iPad home screens.

"While you can manage certain aspects of your brand, you can't control the weather. You can't control the media. You can't control what your competitors do. You can't even control the behavior of your own employees. Which means that the most effective barrier to competition - your trusted brand - is exposed to danger from any number of directions. Even the most loyal customer can change allegiances when the trust that underpins that loyalty is threatened."

Brand reputation is more important now than it ever has been before. With social media connecting the world as it does, true and false information about a brand can travel fast. Even the strongest brands can be leveled in a flash - by disgruntled customers, competing companies, and even internal sources. In Brand Resilience: Managing Risk and Recovery in a High-Speed World, author Jonathon R. Copulsky shows companies (and individuals) how to play brand defense in the twenty-first century.

Copulsky is a veteran marketing executive and consultant working with many of today's leading brands. I first learned of his book last October while attending Search Engine Strategies in Chicago. I was fortunate enough to sit in on a session in which he was speaking and was very much impressed to say the least. In fact, I would venture to say that Copulsky was the most interesting speaker I had the privelege of seeing during that particular conference. He plugged his book, and I bought it.

Book Review

Branding is a topic that has always captivated me. It's the simple idea of a company's perceived value being, at times, greater than its actual value that interests me. Or, that reputation can have more influencing power than price. Or, that consumers can become so passionate about a brand that they'll happily defend it at the drop of a hat.

In my years as an Internet marketing professional, I have given great thought into the ideas behind branding. I've become quite knowledgeable on topics of brand building, brand marketing, and brand advocating. However, not once had I given consideration to idea of brand defense, and the role it might play in a long-term branding strategy. That is, until I read this book.

Brand Resilience is an absolute fantastic read. Copulsky uses real life examples to explain how brand damage even in the smallest sense can mean millions or billions in lost profits. For example, we need look no further than to 2009 and at Tiger Woods whose story is in essence the near-total takedown of man who once held the highest popularity rating of any figure.

Furthermore, Copulsky offers practical advice for managers engaged in building and protecting long term brand value. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways for readers will likely be his 7-step program for managing brand risk and recovery. It features how to access brand risks, how to create and deploy warning systems, how to repel brand attacks, how to adapt brand defenses, and more.

Overall, I found the book to be a short easy read, but filled with remarkable and actionable insights. The author does a terrific job of clearly identifying brand risks and providing a blueprint for proactively managing these risks. Simply put, this book is a must read for anyone involved with shaping and delivering brand strategy.

Page Redirect Manager is a relatively new feature (launched in September, 2011) which is designed to assist Yahoo! Store owners with their search engine optimization (SEO) and site management efforts through 301 redirecting. Using this feature, Yahoo! Store owners can now easily create, edit, and delete page-level 301 redirects for their websites. In addition, one does not need access to hosting nor have programming knowledge to use this tool. I cannot begin to explain how happy this update has made me.

A number of logical reasons exist for why a Yahoo! Store owner would wish to permanently redirect one page to another. However, up until this release, store owners were not able to do so. In fact, not being able to implement a 301 redirect was, in my opinion, one of the biggest shortcomings of the entire Yahoo! Store platform. As an Internet marketing professional who happens to specialize in Yahoo! Store development, I'm sure you can imagine just how frustrating this was.

The Page Redirect Manager is available for all Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Yahoo! Store accounts. Users can create specific rules for handling 301 redirects either through the redirect table - a friendly, easy-to-use interface - or by uploading a CSV file containing their redirect rules. Page Redirect Manager can be used to create a maximum of 50,000 redirect rules, which should be sufficient for most Yahoo! Store owners.

Before I jump in and begin my tutorial on how to use the Page Redirect Manager tool, I think it might be best if I first outline some of the basics.

What is a 301 Redirect?

A redirect is exactly as it sounds... directing something to a new or different place than where it was originally intended. In this case, I am referring to an Internet user. There are many reasons as to why a website would choose to redirect its visitors, but the most common reason is because a page has either moved or been removed.

A 301 redirect is considered a "permanent redirect". On the surface, a 301 redirect will seamlessly move website visitors from an original location (old page) to a newly specified location (new page). However, below the surface, a 301 redirect informs search engines and other server crawlers that a specific page will no longer be available, and to begin referencing the new URL instead of the old.

Why is Using 301 Redirects Important?

A 301 redirect is extremely important to website owners. A 301 redirect will help to transfer site visitors from point A to point B with little effort and error. In addition, as I alluded to above, a 301 redirect signals to search engines that a switch is being made. Search engines will take this as a queue to remove the old page from their index and direct users to the new URL.

Furthermore, and more to the bigger picture, search engines will also pass along any and all search engine value that the old page has accumulated on to the new page. This includes age merits, value from inbound links, and search engine rankings. Therefore, even though a page might be brand new, through 301 redirecting it can have all the benefits of an already established page.

When to use a 301 Redirect

Once again, a 301 redirect should only be used when the original page location will never be available again. We're talking a permanent redirect from one page to another. While I am sure there are numerous reasons for why a Yahoo! Store owner would wish to use a 301 redirect, the 3 most common examples seem to be:

Example 1: A store owner wishes to optimize their page URLs for better search engine placement thereby recreating an established page so that its URL now includes keywords. Assuming the old URL is already indexed by search engines and ranks well, a 301 redirect will ensure that all previous page value is passed along to the new URL.

Example 2: A store is selling a product that has now been discontinued. If this particular product page has accumulated search engine value and currently ranks well, store owners might opt to transfer this value to a similar product, rather than simply deleting it.

Example 3: An online merchant wishes to transfer their website from their current content management system (CMS) onto the Yahoo! Store platform. If their current pages receive significant traffic and already rank well within search engines, a 301 redirect would help to retain its overall value when moving the website over.

The Yahoo! Store Page Redirect Manager can be used to create 301 redirects to assist with each of these efforts, and others.

How to Use the Yahoo! Store Page Redirect Manager

Creating 301 redirects with the Yahoo! Store Page Redirect Manager is easy. Follow these 6 steps to create a single redirect, one at a time.

Step 1: Navigate to Page Redirect Manager

After logging into your store control panel, locate and click "Page Redirect Manager". This link is located within the "Site Settings" column.

Step 2: Create a New Redirect

Locate and click "Create New Redirect". The button is located above the redirect table, on the left side of the screen. When clicked, a new row will open at the top of the redirect table, where users can create your page redirect.

Step 3: Enter "Old Page URL"

Locate the "Old Page URL" field within the redirect table. Enter the URL of the page you wish to redirect.

Step 4: Enter "New Page URL"

Locate the "New Page URL" field within the redirect table. Enter the URL of the page you wish to redirect to.

Step 5: Save Redirect

Locate and click "save". The button is located on the right side of the New Page URL field. Once saved, the newly created page redirect will appear in the redirect table.

Step 6: Publish Redirects

Locate and click "Publish". The button is located above the redirect table, on the right side of the screen. Follow through by clicking the "Yes" button when a confirmation box appears.

Additional Things to Know

Yahoo! has created an excellent FAQ guide to address commonly asked questions regarding the Page Redirect Manager. In addition, I took the liberty of including the following 4 troubleshooting tips to which I found to be quite helpful in my 301 redirect efforts.

Redirects CAN Be Uploaded in Bulk

In the event users wish to redirect a large number of URLs at one time, a CSV template can be downloaded, edited, and uploaded to create a maximum of 50,000 redirects.

Redirects MUST Be Published

It is important to note that page redirects must be published (Step 6) before they take effect. Simply creating a redirect will not make it live.

Redirects MUST Be Absolute URLs

It is important to note that when entering values for the Old Page URL and New Page URL that they are absolute URLs. Relative URLs (ex: index.html) will not work.

Old Page URLs MUST Already Be Deleted

It is important to note that Old Page URLs must first be deleted prior to setting up a redirect. Redirects will not work while Old Page URLs still exist on the site.

The Internet is no longer an untapped resource of revenue for small businesses, as it once was in the past. Competition is extremely heavy, and it would now seem that every small business on the planet has a website. Yes, those early days of being successful online simply because a company was one of a few in their niche industry with a website are long gone.

With so much competition online already and more coming daily, how do small businesses adapt?

There is, of course, no single correct answer to this question. Every company operates differently to achieve different goals, and with that each will have their own strategies for dealing with increased competition. However, one strategy that I believe every small business should consider when dealing with increased competition is Repeat Business Marketing - those strategies focused on generating revenue from current or past customers. Allow me to explain.

As the age old saying suggests, it is much easier to keep a customer than it is to create a new one. This saying exists because the process for finding, attracting, and converting shoppers into customers takes a great deal of time, money, and effort. Simply stocking a product and hoping for the best is not going to be enough in a competitive online world. In addition to this, there are really only a handful of online marketing initiatives available to attract new customers (SEO, PPC, Social, etc.). The chances of a company using the same or similar marketing channels and strategies as their competition are very likely.

The one competitive advantage that every small business has over their competition is the ability to reach out and solicit business from current and past customers. Soliciting repeat business is a viable marketing strategy that every merchant should consider, and for these reasons:

Repeat Business Marketing is Easy
In most cases, a repeat business strategy can be implemented by a company directly, and without the need for outside consulting. With most repeat business strategies, there are no pages to optimize and no bids or ads to manage. In fact, repeat business strategies can be as simple as calling or emailing a past-customer.

Repeat Business Marketing is Cheap
Most repeat business strategies require very little overhead and can be implemented much cheaper than the cost of those geared towards attracting new customers. Also, as previously mentioned, there is little need for a marketing consultant which has the potential to save quite a bit.

Repeat Business Marketing is Targeted Marketing
Repeat business strategies provide merchants with the ability to directly engage a large group of extremely targeted buyers - those that have not only shown interest in a company's products and services, but have also opened up their wallets to purchase said products and services once already.

Repeat Business Marketing Removes the Middle-Man
Repeat business strategies usually feature one-on-one communication between a company and their customers, and because of this, there is no need for a "middle-man" to facilitate the engagement between the two parties, such as a marketing firm, a search engine listing, or an ad.

The following are 7 repeat business strategies that I personally recommend for small businesses with limited budgets. Consider combining a few of these ideas with those of your own to develop a long-term marketing campaign.

Send a Business Card with Every Order

One cheap and easy repeat business strategy is to include a company business card (or refrigerator magnet) with every order shipped. The idea is a simple one; unless a company is a big brand like Amazon or eBay, not every online shopper that decides to buy from them is going to remember their company's name and URL. In fact, most may forget as quickly as 10 minutes after placing their order. A business card (or magnet) is likely to find its way to the customer's fridge where it can serve as both a reference and a reminder for future orders.

Send an Occasional Email Offer

Sending the occasional email offer (Email marketing) is one way in which a company can create a one-on-one engagement with their current and past customers. This engagement, if done correctly, is likely to lead to additional repeat business. Sending an email is both simple and free, and will not only help a business remain top-of-mind with their customers, but a worthwhile promotion may increase sales.

Offer Gift Certificates with all Order Discrepancies

A time will come when a shipping mistake will occur. The most common errors seem to be shipping the wrong size or color of a product, or the wrong product altogether. Mistakes will happen. How a company addresses their mistakes will be key in determining whether or not that specific customer will be back in the future.

In addition to simply correcting the problem, say refunding the buyer or shipping out the correct order, my recommendation is to include a gift certificate that can be used with the customer's next purchase. By doing so, the company is showing that they take order discrepancies very seriously and is committed to customer satisfaction. Also, by providing such an offer, the company is giving their customers a reason to purchase again and themselves another shot at making a great impression. Something as simple as 10% off or $10 off their next purchase can turn a botched order into a life-long customer.

Include Free Samples with Every Order

The word "free" is very rarely said or meant in a world where everything now costs a pretty penny. Offering free samples of products is a great way to not only attract new customers, but to also encourage repeat business as well. A company can use their free sample promotion to introduce customers to something new, such as a different type, brand, size or flavor of the product they ordered. If the products compliment each other well enough, this strategy may encourage customers to not only re-order in the future, but to possible increase their next order to include both products.

Integrate a Login / Password Shopping Cart

This idea is a simple one. For most online shoppers, having an account with an online merchant means not having to enter several lines of billing, shipping, or credit card information with each visit. This convenience ensures that customers receive a head-ache free and speedy check-out process upon future visits, which, by default, encourages repeat business from past customers.

Integrate an Automatic Re-Order Program

This repeat business strategy is perfect for those companies that sell consumables, such as specialty foods, health and beauty products, tobacco products, medications, etc. The idea is to offer customers the option to have their order automatically replenished after a specific amount of time. Customers that enroll into the program, agree to have their credit cards charged and refills shipped at a time they specify. For example, every 2-Weeks or every 2-months.

The benefit to such a system is that the customer no longer needs to continually shop for their products. With regards to the company, the benefit is the promise of future repeat business, as well as the security of not losing a customer because he or she forgets to reorder, forgets the company's name and website address, or finds an alternative supplier with cheaper prices.

Implement a Rewards (Card) Program

This strategy is one that works very well in the offline world, and with a little creativity could be implemented to drive repeat business online. The idea is to reward customers simply for their repeat business. For example, some popular reward programs promote "buy 10 get 1 free" or "5% off every purchase with our rewards card." With a quick brain-storming session, every company should be able to create and implement a rewards program that not only provides value to their customers, but in the end also promotes repeat business.

In an ongoing effort to help users find more high-quality websites in search results, Google has launched an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a web page and the amount of content that is visible once users click on a result. This new algorithmic update is said to impact websites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or when relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

What does this mean for website owners? In a nutshell, if you maintain a cluttered website above the fold - to the point where site visitors are not able to locate the content that Google has promised they would find - then you risk annoying Google users, and thus Google. And, as we all know, Google doesn't take to well to websites that annoy them. We're talking penalties.

Why the Change?

As I alluded to above, it all comes down to user-experience. If search engine users aren't happy, Google is not happy. Google has said to have received numerous complaints from their users who have become annoyed with not being able to find their desired content after clicking on a listing. Personally, I can relate to this. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I've landed on a website, only to utilize a "Control+F" (find) to locate the information I was originally looking for. Needless to say, this leads to a poor user-experience to which Google is now trying to avoid.

Google is quoted as saying:

"Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn't have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site's initial screen real estate to ads, that's not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward."

What to Do if You Find That Your Site Was Affected

According to Google, this algorithmic change will noticeably affect less than 1% of searches globally - that's less than 1-in-100 searches. However, if you believe that you've been affected by this recent algorithm change, consider how your pages use the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is obscured or otherwise hard for users to discern quickly.

If you decide to update your page layout, consider using Google's Browser Size tool, among others, to see how your website will look under different screen resolutions. Find the solution that works for you, and roll with it.

How Should You Move Forward?

First things first, do not just sit back and ignore this update... not if you value your site's high rankings! As an Internet Marketing professional, it is my recommendation to be proactive. Pool the resources of both your design and marketing teams, and create an adequate solution. The goal is simple. Satisfy Google's need for a high quality user-experience by ensuring that each pages' most relevant content is found above the fold.

Furthermore, if you haven't given much thought in the way of user-experience, I'd strongly suggest that you start. Google is hell bound on delivering the best possible search user experience and, as this update proves, that means taking care of their users even after the click. Google has said that this is one of over 500 improvements expected to roll out this year. I'm not a gambler by any means, but I'd wager that "user-experience" will be the basis for more than a few of them.