We all know that one of the keys to great SEO is making sure you keep your website updated, new and fresh. 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 “alive.” For many small businesses in particular, this is a real challenge.
So you already have great, fresh content on your site—what’s next? Do you know what is coming that may benefit your small business?
Have you heard of QR codes yet? Here is a quick introduction:
What Are QR codes?
They look like this:
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. You may soon see QR Codes in a magazine advert, on a billboard, a web page or even on someone’s t-shirt. 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. The full Wikipedia description is here.
How does the cell phone read the code?
The cell phone needs a QR code reader, like this one from Kaywa. It takes literally 1 minute for someone with an iPhone or Android phone to find and install the reader.
How do you generate a code?
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. Google also has a tool — see our separate article about that:Close-Up With Google’s New QR Code Generator.
How can you use QR codes to benefit search marketing?
We are only just scratching the surface of how they will be used. We have added one to every business listing in our directory. Here are a few examples of how others are using them.
A business card company showing how they are using them for businesses:
In print that links the user straight to a web site:
Skip to half way in this video to see some examples:
You can also watch this BBC Click interview on YouTube.
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.
Will your customers use them?
Today, few may use them, but those that do will certainly appreciate your tech knowledge, and those that don’t 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.
How could you use a QR code?
Your business, no matter how small or large, could use QR codes in a number of ways. You might auto generate one next to every product on your web site containing all the product details, the number to call and the URL link to the page so they can show their friends on their cell phone. You could add one to your business card containing your contact details so its easy for someone to add you to their contacts on their cell phone.
Add them to any print advertising, flyers, posters, invites, TV ads etc containing:
Product details
Contact details
Offer details
Event details
Competition details
A coupon
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace IDs
A link to your YouTube video
Want to know more about QR codes? Check out these articles:
Bar coding for inventory and warehousing applications has been around for quite awhile. Viewed in the simplest manner, a warehouse must receive, inventory, and ship product efficiently. When mistakes are made in the warehouse, problems are often compounded before they are corrected. For example, if an item is incorrectly pulled from stock, not only would inventory be off, but the mistake of shipping the incorrect item would cause customer dissatisfaction, increased shipping and overhead costs, additional man-hours to "adjust" the problem, etc. Automatic ID has been a driving force in improving Inventory Control operations. Many affordable solutions now exist and can be implemented to improve productivity and reduce errors in what has historically been marketed only to Fortune 500 companies.
Whether a company is small or one of the Fortune 500, Inventory Control is not an option, it's a must. In today's competitive market, with smaller profit margins, inventory levels must accurately be maintained. Solutions exists starting from integrating a simple wedge decoder to more complex RF data collection systems. Most companies already have inventory applications currently installed. While some of these applications can be improved, the focus of this section is to provide a more efficient way of getting to and updating the host information.
To begin with, when the inventory is received, each product must be properly labeled. Most off-the-shelf programs can accommodate any kind of label. The label itself can practically be any material including paper, vinyl, polypropylene, or polyester. These are the most common facestocks available (for additional information, see the Ribbons and Labels section). Paper is the most common face stock and the least expensive. If the label must be smudge or smear resistant and/or hundreds or thousands of labels will be created daily, it is probably best to use a thermal transfer or direct thermal printer. Otherwise, a common office dot matrix or laser printer is sufficient to print labels.
The label must include a printed bar code. For most inventory applications Code 39 or Code 128 is adequate. The part number which is usually bar coded and a description of the part are often the minimum contents on the label. The time and date can also be added. Once the items are labeled, there are many solutions to maintain an accurate inventory.
If the warehouse is relatively small, the items for an order can be verified with a simple scanner and wedge decoder setup. The items must be physically brought to a terminal station. In a small warehouse, this is the least expensive approach to begin implementing bar codes for Inventory Control. Extenders can be added to some wedge decoders to have wireless scanning capability of up to 100 feet. If the warehouse is more than 30,000 sq. ft. Radio Frequency (RF) should be considered.
RF solutions provide real-time access to a central database in which the on-hand, committed, and on-order values are kept for each item. Radio Frequency Data Collection (RFDC) eliminates the inefficiency of an individual walking back-and-forth to a host terminal to query the database. As previously mentioned, there are now affordable RFDC systems that can be installed in practically any warehouse environment. With this configuration, the worker generally scans the item at the bin location for one of several reasons (1) to determine if it is the correct item, (2) to directly update the host database, (3) to locate additional inventory, and (4) to immediately update and flag any discrepancies for unexpected stock outages. RFDC is certainly a remarkable technology for inventory control.
If RFDC is cost prohibitive and/or real-time access to the host computer is not necessary, batch Portable Data Terminals (PDT) are an alternative.
Several clever methods can be employed with PDTs to simulate real-time access with a host computer by loading the database onto the portable reader. If this is coded in C or PASCAL, this will generally require several weeks of development time to get an initial program working. The key though is that simulated configurations are not real-time. The user must still manually upload the information at a workstation. With decreasing prices and today's technology, RFDC should be considered first if real-time access in necessary. Most PDTs have resident operating programs and can easily be programmed to record inventory. Applications can be written to prompt the user to input certain fields such as the item number and quantity. Additional fields can prompt for the warehouse number, aisle, bin, and shelf. When the operator has completed the set of tasks, the PDT is connected to a host terminal so that the inventory file can be uploaded. For most warehouse applications, an RF or Portable Data Terminal (PDT) is critical to accurately count and pull inventory. For additional information on which terminal to use, see the On-line vs. Off-line section under Radio Frequency Data Collection heading.
