Do you need to rewrite your content?
You’ve been running your website for years, and you’re constantly adding new content. Maybe you’re drafting new product…
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What is the ideal length of a blog post?
Your logo is incredibly important to your business and your brand. Ideally, it will be the first thing…
How do you make an effective logo?
Your logo is incredibly important to your business and your brand. Ideally, it will be the first thing…
How can you get more engagement on social media?
There was a brief time when simply having a social media profile could set your company apart from…
Writing content based on online reading trends
When you are publishing online content—whether that means social media posts, blog posts or website content—you need to…
Tips for crafting a good meta description
When you write a meta description, it should be a summary of the general information offered on the…
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Do you need to rewrite your content?
You’ve been running your website for years, and you’re constantly adding new content. Maybe you’re drafting new product pages or running weekly blog posts. You’re always adding to the site and expanding the information for your audience. This may happen naturally, such as when your company develops new products or services and needs additional pages for them. It may also happen if you just identify areas where your site is missing important information and you want to ensure that you address everything appropriately.
What is the ideal length of a blog post?
Your logo is incredibly important to your business and your brand. Ideally, it will be the first thing people begin to recognize. If they see your logo, they’ll instantly know that those are your products, and this helps to build up positive brand recognition. Many multimillion-dollar corporations have a logo that is almost immediately recognized in multiple countries, and they may have spent years or even decades building up that reputation.
How do you make an effective logo?
Your logo is incredibly important to your business and your brand. Ideally, it will be the first thing people begin to recognize. If they see your logo, they’ll instantly know that those are your products, and this helps to build up positive brand recognition. Many multimillion-dollar corporations have a logo that is almost immediately recognized in multiple countries, and they may have spent years or even decades building up that reputation.
How can you get more engagement on social media?
There was a brief time when simply having a social media profile could set your company apart from other businesses. But those days are long gone, as most companies now have social media profiles on a variety of platforms. The most common are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn and the like. No matter what type of business you are trying to grow, social media can be an effective way to engage with your target audience. However, it is important to remember that other businesses are doing the same thing, so you are constantly competing against them.
Writing content based on online reading trends
When you are publishing online content—whether that means social media posts, blog posts or website content—you need to consider your audience. It’s very important to write for that specific audience and in a way that connects with them. Many people who feel like they are not getting as much engagement as they want out of their social media posts, for example, are simply failing to take their target audience into account. The content doesn’t connect with them, so it doesn’t get as many shares, comments and interactions.
Tips for crafting a good meta description
When you write a meta description, it should be a summary of the general information offered on the page. Many people see this and read it when they run a search, so it can help demonstrate to them that your page has the information they are looking for. An effective meta description makes it more likely that they will click that link and navigate to your website. There are many different ways to get someone to stay on the page, but the meta description is one of your main tools for getting them to visit that page in the first place.
Tips to get more out of email marketing
Email marketing has been around for decades, and it’s still relevant today. After all, once you build out an email list, you theoretically have direct contact with hundreds or thousands of consumers who are predisposed to buy your products. They have intentionally signed up for your email list, perhaps after buying some of those products in the past.
How do mobile searches lead to in-store purchases?
When you look at how people conduct searches, things have certainly changed over the years. It used to be that you needed a desktop computer—or a laptop—to run a Google search, but that’s no longer the case.
Is there an optimal time to run blog posts?
You know that you want to use blog posts as a significant part of your content strategy. They give you a chance to promote new content on your website, answer questions that your readers may have, and much more. Ideally, you hope that your blogs will draw in new traffic, which you can then funnel to your main website so that you can sell your products or services.
Why answering questions is good for SEO
If you’re considering search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation, you may simply be trying to figure out what type of content will be most beneficial. You know that you want to increase your web traffic. You’re trying to get a higher ranking on search engine results pages. But what type of content do you need to use to get there?
What makes an effective landing page?
A landing page can be one of the most vital parts of your website. While generally a standalone page, its primary purpose is to drive conversions. It is often used as part of a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign. When users see an ad promoting your product or service, clicking on it directs them to the landing page. From there, you have their attention and an opportunity to convert them into customers.
Key elements of a Call To Action
To some degree, a call to action (CTA) simply guides your reader. In the final paragraph of a webpage, blog post or other type of online content, you may want to mention how the reader can get in touch with your company if they have further questions or want to take action.
4 questions to ask about social media marketing
Social media can be a powerful tool for marketing your products or services. It gives you a chance to advertise and connect with your target audience. It can help with branding, direct sales or simply building out a network of people who are interested as your company’s reputation grows.
Your SEO isn’t working. Why not?
You will sometimes hear people talk about SEO as if it doesn’t work. Maybe they’ve had a poor experience with it. They tried to do search engine optimization, hoping to increase the traffic to their website, but they just didn’t see results. They decided that this means SEO doesn’t work as a general tactic, so they’ve given up on it.
Examining how people read online
Most people do not finish reading an entire article online, instead opting to skim and leave before they’ve read the whole thing. It’s important to put that at the top because most people reading this article also won’t get to the end. If you’re creating content for your website, the first thing you need to know is that the most valuable information should go as high as possible so that readers will actually see it.
Why do different search engines offer different results?
If you run the exact same search on two different search engines, there’s a good chance you’ll get very different results. This can make things a bit tricky from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. Many people run SEO campaigns focused on Google, as it is the most widely used search engine in the United States. However, users have many other options – such as Bing – and other search engines are more popular globally.
Why Does SEO Take Time?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is typically not an overnight process. It takes time and consistency to increase your page rank. Though there are cases in which people see limited results after just a few weeks, it generally takes between six months and a year to see the significant results you are probably after.
What is a lead magnet?
Email marketing can be very effective. As long as you have a list of potential clients that actively reflects your target audience, you know that these individuals are more likely to buy your products or services. They are on that email list for a reason. This is why purchasing email lists can be a problem, for example, along with failing to define your target audience from the very beginning.
What is parasite SEO?
Google has recently been pushing back against an SEO trend that has been referred to as “parasite SEO.” In general, this refers to third-party products being sold on already established sites. These host websites have high rankings already – for entirely independent reasons. Marketers have been using them to try to rank higher than they would naturally for a wide variety of consumer-based search terms.
What people get wrong with SEO
The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to generate organic traffic. A user types in keywords that are related to your site, and they are directed to a landing page, a product page or another location on that site. This is “free” traffic in the sense that you didn’t have to run any advertisements or pay to be at the top of the search results.
Voice search trends and statistics in 2024
Voice search features can be found on many different devices. Most people will run voice searches simply by using their phones. But there are also many in-home devices – such as an Amazon Alexa speaker or a Google Nest node – that allow people to search without even holding the device in their hand. These devices respond to a trigger word that activates them, and the user can then run whatever search they would like.
Why isn’t your email marketing campaign working?
Email marketing is a tactic often used to connect with repeat buyers or people who have signed up for an email list intentionally. Many times, customers will simply opt into these emails the first time they make a purchase. This is an effective way to get marketing materials in front of that target audience, such as telling them when new products are launching, when new sales are beginning or ending, and things of this nature.
Google will now watermark AI text
We offer a wide variety of services here at Content Customs, from website development to social media marketing to email marketing and ad campaigns. We help your company seek greater success by improving your online presence, and that looks a bit different from one client to the next.
Issues we look for in a content review
We offer a wide variety of services here at Content Customs, from website development to social media marketing to email marketing and ad campaigns. We help your company seek greater success by improving your online presence, and that looks a bit different from one client to the next.
Can a competitor use your brand name in SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of using keywords in your content that will direct organic web traffic to your site. If you run a musical instrument distribution company, for example, you want to rank first whenever someone searches for places to buy a new guitar or a new piano.
Creating urgency with online ads
Advertisers often rely on the theory of urgency. This can be a powerful tool when trying to get the target audience to make a decision. You can feed on people’s fear of missing out – FOMO – and you can make them feel as if they have to act quickly. They need to take advantage of the situation or make an impulsive decision. This can be beneficial to advertisers because people are more likely to make purchases if they’re acting emotionally and impulsively, so it can increase conversion rates.
Google accused of being a monopoly
Google recently faced an antitrust lawsuit where the company was accused of essentially being a monopoly. This is creating some serious legal challenges for Google and its parent company, Alphabet, as Judge Amit Mehta recently ruled in U.S. District Court that Alphabet is a monopoly. This means that the case is going to move forward into the discovery phase. Google will likely have to eliminate or significantly alter some of its previous deals to avoid these allegations, and these potential changes are being considered at this time.
Tips for starting a successful online business
You know well that the internet gives you access to millions of potential customers. Starting an online business today is nothing like starting a small business 50 years ago. Even if you don’t have the ideal physical location, your online store can still get a lot of traffic and generate significant sales. You can connect with your audience online, all across the country or all across the world.
How can you address abandoned carts?
When it comes to online shopping, there’s an epidemic of abandoned carts. Some studies have found that about 70% of carts get abandoned across all devices, but the type of device does make a difference. For example, the rate is 85% on smartphones and just over 80% on tablets. But one thing that is consistent across all devices is that the majority of people who put items into their online shopping cart will never buy those items. They will simply walk away without completing the purchase.
Which age groups use popular social media platforms?
If you’re considering social media marketing, it is important to identify your audience. You need to know exactly who the content is for so that you can tailor it to be as effective as possible. Part of the equation – especially when it comes to social media – is just to look at different age brackets. What social media platforms do they use? Where is your target audience going to be looking? How do you get your ads or content in front of them?
How long is the average Google search?
When some business owners think about search engine optimization (SEO), they want to focus on singular keywords. They have narrowed things down to one term that they think describes the core of their business. Maybe they sell “guitars” or they help people plan “vacations” or they offer “garbage” pick-up services.
What is omnichannel shopping?
When looking at online shopping trends for 2024, researchers have noticed an interesting shift. In the past, there was often a divide between consumers who preferred making in-person purchases and those who preferred shopping online. Some of the decline of brick-and-mortar stores is just due to this increase in online shopping.
Does it matter when you run your blog post?
You know that blog posts can be beneficial on numerous levels. They provide information to your target audience. They help you incorporate different keywords and work on search engine optimization (SEO). They can be used as a funnel to drive traffic to your main site.
Advantages of text over video
Here at Content Customs, we spend a lot of time helping people learn what they should do to make their content better. They learn what types of information to include and what types of content will be best in their specific situation. Every business is unique, and business owners have to find out how to get the results that they’re looking for. We use our experience and industry knowledge to help them accomplish these goals.
5 online content mistakes to avoid
Here at Content Customs, we spend a lot of time helping people learn what they should do to make their content better. They learn what types of information to include and what types of content will be best in their specific situation. Every business is unique, and business owners have to find out how to get the results that they’re looking for. We use our experience and industry knowledge to help them accomplish these goals.
Potential drawbacks to Google-centric SEO
It’s no secret that most people use Google to perform an online search. Some reports claim that Google holds about 82% of the market share. There are some other search engines that people do use, such as Microsoft Bing, but they are simply not as common – at least in the United States.
How can you address abandoned online shopping carts?
When someone uses a search engine, they type in certain keywords or phrases and they are presented with a search engine results page (SERP). They choose a link from this page and – you hope – navigate their way to your site. Their dwell time is the amount of time that they will then spend navigating on your site before they return to that results page and choose another option. In some cases, people will leave the site immediately, and this is known as your bounce rate.
Tips for making content more shareable
Regardless of why you need content, one of your main goals is likely to encourage people to share it. Maybe you are putting the content on social media or posting it on your blog. If even a few of your readers share that content, they can put it in front of thousands of new people. This is a great way to grow your brand and expand your reach. In some ways, it almost feels like free advertising. Your readers are doing the work for you.
Tips to increase website dwell times
When someone uses a search engine, they type in certain keywords or phrases and they are presented with a search engine results page (SERP). They choose a link from this page and – you hope – navigate their way to your site. Their dwell time is the amount of time that they will then spend navigating on your site before they return to that results page and choose another option. In some cases, people will leave the site immediately, and this is known as your bounce rate.
3 common questions about keywords
It’s clear that keywords are very important when trying to attract traffic to your website. In some cases, keywords will be used naturally; the website for a rock climbing gym is inherently going to have the word “climbing” in its content. But in many cases, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of identifying
Major hurdles with social media marketing
People use social media sites every day. For many people, “going on the internet” simply means using these social media apps on their phone or perhaps on a computer. These platforms have changed the way that people communicate, share information, store photos and even communicate with corporations or brands. Many companies use social media to connect with their prior customers or their target audience.
Why do blog posts work so well for SEO?
There are many different ways to address search engine optimization (SEO), and a comprehensive plan will usually incorporate many of them. This could include creating new on-site content, for example, and ensuring that you hit certain keyword strings on your main pages. Your goal is to create content that will organically draw the right type of traffic via Google searches, and you can then get conversions when you make sales through the website.
Key mobile marketing insights
In 2024, it’s a safe bet that many of your customers find your website through mobile marketing. This could be through search engine optimization (SEO) tactics that drive people to your mobile site. It could be through pay-per-click (PPC) ads on other websites that act as a funnel to your main page or your product pages.
Is your click-through rate really what you think it is?
When it comes to online marketing, metrics are important. You need to be able to analyze the data to find out if your marketing efforts are working. This goes far beyond simply looking for an uptick in sales whenever you run a new advertising campaign. You want to know exactly what worked, why it worked, what did not work and how you can replicate those results moving forward.
Why to hire a ghostwriter for an ebook
Modern ebooks are very popular and some of them outsell paper books by a wide margin. Versatility is certainly part of the reason why. People can read an ebook on their computer, on their phone, on a dedicated e-reader or on another type of device. They also have access to their entire library when they’re on the go, something that’s very beneficial for people who travel frequently, such as international business professionals.
How AI could lead to more searches
Artificial intelligence (AI) is still very new, but it’s already having a dramatic impact on the internet. Search engines are beginning to incorporate the technology, and people are also using dedicated AI apps to run searches. This is changing how people interact with information on the internet, at the same time that AI increases the sheer amount of information that there is.
Tips for increasing e-commerce conversions
Your conversion rate can be very low, even when your website gets a lot of traffic. People are coming to the site, but they’re leaving without buying anything. You know that you’re doing something right with your online marketing, but you’re also missing the mark. You want to increase this conversion rate so that you make more sales.
Tips for writing effective marketing emails
When it comes to marketing emails, your first goal is to increase your open rate, or the percentage of people who actually open the email and read it. Many emails automatically get sent to spam, while other users will manually delete them. A higher open rate gives you vastly better chances of making a sale.
Why More Brands Are Using Humor For Online Marketing
Online marketing has gone through many shifts over the years, depending on the types of platforms available and the target audience. In many cases, modern advertising tactics are still going to be much different from one business to another due to these factors. Business owners need to carefully analyze the audience that they’re trying to reach and determine what strategy will be best to create engagement with that specific group.
How important are online reviews?
If you’re a business owner, you probably spend a fair amount of time considering your business’s reputation and online reviews, and/or the reviews that your products get in popular shopping channels. Many business owners focus on the ratio of negative and positive reviews, hoping for more positive reviews to sway people to purchase their products.
Do users actually look at the second page of search results?
Search engine optimization (SEO) revolves around the use of content and keywords to draw organic traffic to a website. Users will type in keywords on Google, Bing or another search engine – though Google gets the lion’s share of search traffic – and the algorithm then tries to match them up with relevant results. The goal with SEO is simply to rank higher and get more traffic to your site by uploading useful content that contains appropriate keywords.
Should you use PPC ads or SEO?
Here at Content Customs, we can help you with many different online marketing efforts. These include search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Both have certain advantages, and our team will work closely with you to determine what will be best in your unique situation.
4 key facts about modern online shopping trends
It can be difficult to compete when running an online store. Online shopping is clearly becoming more popular and lucrative than ever. Billions of people have internet access and spend hours online every day. Every online interaction is a chance for you to market to your target audience, drive traffic to your online store and create conversions and sales.
The March Google Core Update targets spam
Google has recently put out a handful of updates, including the March 2024 Core Update and a spam update. This happens on a fairly consistent basis, and Google’s algorithm is always evolving. That’s why it’s so important to consider how they change the algorithm, what the updates mean and how your SEO tactics may help or hinder your efforts. You always want to focus on creating the type of content Google is most likely to recommend to your audience.
How can you lower your bounce rate?
If you’re running a website, you need to pay attention to your bounce rate. This is the rate at which visitors land on your page and then immediately leave. They don’t interact with the site in any way. They don’t navigate to other pages, and they certainly don’t make a purchase. This is why having a high bounce rate can have a negative impact on your conversions.
OpenAI challenging Google for search supremacy
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been developing very quickly. At the forefront of the effort is a company called OpenAI, which is now financially backed by Microsoft. The company has developed ChatGPT, which can generate text and images. Recently, they announced a program known as Sora, which can use AI prompts to generate videos.
Focusing on Google’s goals with SEO
When many people consider search engine optimization (SEO), they start by thinking about their own goals. Maybe they want to widen their reach to a greater potential audience. Maybe they want to create more conversions. Maybe they’re just focused on providing helpful information to people who may be interested in their products and services.
Is the internet more important than a physical location?
There’s an old saying in business that the three most important factors are location, location, location. Much of this viewpoint stemmed from the fact that businesses got a lot of their customers through foot traffic. People would be walking in a shopping area, a bar district or an area known for restaurants, and they would stumble upon these local businesses that they wanted to visit.
How do people usually contact companies?
Ideally, every person who tries to contact your company should come away thinking that they had a good customer service experience. They received the answers or information that they were looking for. It wasn’t frustrating, but went smoothly. They were able to contact the division of the company that they wanted. If this is the type of experience that they have, it can improve your online reviews and it can even create more conversions.
The benefits of geo-targeting with keywords
When considering keywords and search engine optimization (SEO), you may want to consider using geo-targeted keywords. These are specific keywords that have a geographical location worked into them. For instance, rather than just using the keyword “Italian restaurants”, one may use the keyword “Italian restaurants in Houston” or “Italian restaurants in Texas.” This can be applied to a wide variety of businesses and advertising campaigns.
Can Facebook help your business achieve greater success?
Social media has forever changed the way that people communicate with one another. It helps people connect across all corners of the globe. It gives them instant access to information they never would have had even just a generation ago. Additionally, it allows them to make beneficial online connections, even with people or businesses that they have never interacted with in real life.
Google involved in major AI technology lawsuit
Microsoft was recently sued, along with OpenAI, for its use of patented written material to train their artificial intelligence algorithm. That lawsuit came from the New York Times, but that is certainly not the only publication that has been used in creating this technology. It will be interesting to see what this means moving forward, and it also may just be the beginning.
Why isn’t my website creating conversions?
Ideally, you want your business website to make conversions for you. As long as you can direct traffic to the site, then the site can help you to make sales. When someone clicks on an ad, that’s a great first step because it funnels them to your site, but it’s not a conversion until they make a purchase. This is why there can often be quite a discrepancy between the click-through rate and the conversion rate.
Google and Bing Add AI to Search Capabilities
AI (artificial intelligence) has already had a major impact on numerous industries. This is not without controversy. For example, the New York Times has recently sued OpenAI on allegations of plagiarism and using copyrighted material because it takes content from other sources. Many artists have also expressed frustration with AI art tools that can “create” new pictures and images simply by taking elements from existing works.
3 Potential Online Marketing Changes for 2024
The new year is fast approaching. It’s a chance for you to consider what your company has accomplished over the last year and what you hope to accomplish in the future. Along with defining what success looks like, this gives you a chance to identify key steps that you can take to reach those goals in 2024 and beyond.
Avoid these mistakes with email marketing
Email marketing can be very effective when done correctly. Unfortunately, it can also be very ineffective when certain mistakes are made. Some companies and business owners that don’t have success with email marketing may believe that it’s the format itself that isn’t working.
Social media use declined this year
Reports from the summer of 2023 show that social media use declined over the previous 12 months. People are using social media less often and they are staying online for less time. Part of the reason for this may be that younger people are using other means of communication. For instance, it’s been documented that Gen Z uses voice notes more often than other generations, but does not usually make voice calls.
What makes your website less user-friendly?
A user-friendly website is incredibly important. One of the biggest reasons for a site with a high bounce rate (in other words, people who leave quickly after arriving) is that the site isn’t very user-friendly or easy to navigate. People who arrive at the site will immediately feel confused or overwhelmed, and they’re not going to take the time to figure it out.
Key statistics for Cyber Monday
Black Friday is the name usually used to refer to the first Friday after Thanksgiving. This is not technically a holiday, but it is when many stores will run significant holiday deals. It’s one of the biggest shopping days of the year, especially because people are trying to plan for the upcoming Christmas holidays.
Potential holiday shopping trends
Is your online store ready for holiday shopping? Midway through November, many people have already begun their Christmas shopping. That said, only 41% claimed that they started their shopping in October. For the majority, November and even December are the big months. This is why retailers need to be ready for the holiday rush.
Social media stats and the importance of monthly active users
Social media is widely used all across the globe. For instance, reports from this year claim that around 4.9 billion people have social media profiles. By 2027, projections indicate that there will be about 5.85 billion users. This has to do with both the growing world population and the expansion of internet access. Specifically, the spread of 5G is expected to dramatically impact how people use social media and how many people have access.
Subscriptions coming for Facebook, Instagram
Since it launched, Facebook has always been free. Initially, there was no catch. As the site grew in popularity, Facebook started to use advertising revenue. People did not have to pay to use the social media service, but they did have to view relevant ads while using it. Facebook has since rebranded as Meta, which is now the parent company for smaller properties that include both the original Facebook and Instagram.
Tips for Expanding Your Email List
When it comes to online marketing, many companies use email lists. Essentially, this is a collection of email addresses that have been voluntarily given to the business. Customers may opt into these marketing emails when they make a purchase, for instance, or they may sign up for the emailing list intentionally.
New X (Twitter) users will now have to pay $1
When Twitter launched, it was a free social media service. The platform, now known as X thanks to re-branding from Elon Musk, appears to be moving away from that model. It was recently announced that new users are going to have to pay a single dollar for annual access. If users want to have the ability to retweet content they find on the site or to write their own tweets, then they will have to pay this annual fee.
Reels get new advertising features
Reels are a type of content that can be posted on Facebook and Instagram. A Reel is essentially a short video, but users can also add text, music and many other features. These were created to give the properties owned by Meta similar functionality to TikTok or older social media platforms like Vine.
Benefits of having a ghostwriter draft an ebook
Sometimes, the information you want to deliver to your audience doesn’t fit in something as small as a blog post or a webpage. In order to really establish yourself as an authority, you may need to use an ebook. This can help you expand your audience, provide them with more information and draw traffic to your website or your business in general. Ebooks have been growing in popularity over the years, and there are millions of new ebooks coming onto the market annually.
Are you targeting the right social media apps?
Many consumers use social media apps to interact with brands. These apps include common social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok. In some cases, these apps will be the first point of contact or the place where a consumer discovers a new brand. In other cases, consumers will use these apps to interact with brands – such as a consumer asking a question about the products or services that you offer.
What are the benefits of a landing page?
A website contains numerous different pages, each with a different goal. This starts with the homepage, but it also includes things like product pages, informational pages, contact pages and much more. Although web design is constantly evolving, most websites are still created with this inherent design. Ideally, the site should be intuitive and guide the user from page to page so they can find the relevant information that they’re searching for.
When it comes to SEO, what does Google want?
The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase your search results ranking. Generally, this is geared around Google searches, as they dominate the search engine market. But SEO can work for any search engine because it simply incorporates keywords into your content, and your site ranks based on these keywords and other factors.
What we can learn from X about brand consistency
When it comes to branding, one of the most important things to remember is that consistency is key. This is true of your brand whether you’re doing social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing or anything else. Branding needs to be consistent and on point to help put your business in the best possible position for sustained success.
Head keywords vs. long-tail keywords
Keywords are an intrinsic part of search engine optimization. Even if a site has useful information that someone is intentionally looking for, they will never find it if it doesn’t show up in a search. Users are going to type specific keywords to find relevant information, which is why you need to do keyword analysis to find out both what your audience is searching for and what keywords are most relevant to the topic and information on your site.
How do people typically research products online?
As a business owner, one of the most important things you can do is to determine how people are going to look for your goods and services. You know that your products can be beneficial. You know that there’s a market for them, and that they have a very clear value. But you still have to connect the consumers who are looking for those benefits with your products or services.
Increasing Your Email Open Rate
When it comes to email marketing, few things are as important as the email open rate. You’re not going to get a response from everyone who reads your email, and you certainly need to work on your conversion rate – the rate at which these ads create sales – so that the emails are as productive as possible. But this all starts with simply considering how to get more people to open that email in the first place, giving you a wider potential audience for your increasing conversion rate.
Potential reasons for low social media engagement
As a business owner, you’re seeking as much social media engagement as you can get. It’s not just about presenting information to your audience. You want them to share your posts, comment on your updates and even contact your company through your social media profile to ask questions or place orders.
Google explains how outbound links impact SEO
Linking is an important part of SEO, but perhaps not in the way that you expect. For a long time, people believed that outbound links to popular sites were better than links to smaller, lesser-known sites. For example, you may consider linking to CNN or Fox News instead of to a local news station. Those other large sites already get a lot of traffic and are very popular and authoritative, so they seem like better options. The thought is that this would increase the search ranking for the page that contained the link.
Why did Twitter rebrand as X?
In a sudden move, Elon Musk has decided to rebrand Twitter. It is now going to be called X. This may be connected to X Corp., the company that Musk used when he originally purchased Twitter. It’s also worth noting that Musk once attempted to re-brand PayPal as X, but he purchased the x.com domain name six years ago, so that he once again has the right to use it.
5 tips for making a more intuitive website
As the owner of a business that has an online presence, you may feel frustrated with negative online reviews. Maybe it seems like they’re more common than positive reviews. Maybe it feels like most customers are very satisfied with your products and services, but you only hear from the people who are not satisfied.
What relationships can tell us about online reviews
As the owner of a business that has an online presence, you may feel frustrated with negative online reviews. Maybe it seems like they’re more common than positive reviews. Maybe it feels like most customers are very satisfied with your products and services, but you only hear from the people who are not satisfied.
Social media marketing isn’t always under your control
If you’re considering ways to market your company online, social media marketing is certainly one thing that you’re going to think about. Social media has exploded over the last few decades, and it’s a very easy way to connect with a wide audience. Some networks can connect you with billions of potential viewers. This can be a very valuable way to market your products, connect with your audience, work on your branding and much more.
Is social media in decline?
Social media seemed to rise up to take the internet by storm. It existed for a long time, on the fringes, with online forums and blog sites. But everything changed when Facebook appeared in the early 2000s, spreading across colleges in the United States. Eventually, Facebook was opened up to the general public and you no longer needed a college email to sign up. This helped make it into the most widely
4 benefits of SEO for small businesses
Search engine optimization is a tactic used to draw traffic to your website. Quite simply put, it focuses on the keywords included on that site to get organic traffic. When people run searches for these terms, perhaps seeking out the services and products that a business offers, the page ranks higher because of this SEO process. This generates more traffic, and the small business then has a chance to sell its products or services to those consumers.
3 key elements of an effective business logo
The first interaction that many potential customers have with your brand is when they see your logo. They may be testing out a product when they see it printed on the side. They may see the logo on advertisements on TV or on social media. Regardless of where they encounter it, your logo creates that all-important first impression. If that’s a negative impression, it’s going to be very hard to overcome.
Reddit and Twitter come down hard on APIs
Ever since the early days of social media, with sites like MySpace and Friendster, APIs have been used. These are application programming interfaces. They do not create the program on their own. Instead, they allow you to interact with it. For example, Reddit has its own app that you can use on your phone and a website that could be used on a desktop computer.
Google sells off massive amounts of office space
The world is changing, and nowhere is that more clear than in the tech industry. Lately, search engine leader Google has been trying to downsize the amount of real estate that it owns. Reports claim that the company is going to be selling office space to the tune of 1,400,000 square feet.
What types of social content do people share most often?
When creating content for your social media profiles, the goal is to get your audience to share that content. You certainly want them to learn from it and interact with it on your page. But it is far better for your business if that content gets spread around by members of your audience. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to go viral, per se, but simply that people who engage with your brand will want to share that content with other people in their network.
Key stats showing search engine popularity
The internet is not static. It’s always evolving. It’s changing depending on consumer trends, technological development, devices that are being used and many other factors. This means that those who are attempting to advertise on the internet, or who are trying to drive traffic to their website, need to be aware of how this evolution takes place. They need to know where the consumers are, how people are interacting with the internet and how they can leverage that knowledge for their own success.
Predictions about the future of e-commerce
Over the years, there has been a major shift to online shopping. During the pandemic, this naturally soared to new heights. While many people are returning to shopping in person, in brick-and-mortar stores, it became very clear that online shopping was going to be a significant part of the future. More and more often, this is where people turn to do research, buy products, communicate with companies and much more.
Google explains why quality content is necessary
Creating quality content, naturally, should be at the heart of your SEO efforts. You need to get keywords on your site so that search engines are able to find it. This gives you organic traffic, which then gives you the potential to make sales. It doesn’t matter how good your website is or how great your products are if no one can find the website. Keywords make that possible, along with a lot of other tactics, such as social media marketing or pay-per-click advertising. But keywords are usually where people start.
What will AI mean for the future of Google search?
AI has been changing quickly. With the release of ChatGPT, which was developed by OpenAI, people gained access to an artificial intelligence that was more powerful than anything that they had used before. It was seen as a large step forward. The development of artificial intelligence has been ongoing for a long time, but it has never before been this useful for consumers.
Does embedded text belong in your site images?
Websites have become more focused on videos and images in recent years. But it’s important to remember that text is still a critical part of the process. One trend that has begun is that people are more often putting text directly into their images and then uploading those images to their site. The text will be added in Photoshop or a similar program in advance, for instance, and then it will become part of the image itself when the final copy is rendered.
3 reasons your site traffic is far lower than you want
Without traffic, even the best website in the world won’t create any conversions. You could have incredible products at a great price point, but they’re not going to sell if no one knows that they exist. Many businesses in the modern era don’t even have much of a physical presence, if any. They rely entirely on web traffic.
What Devices Do People Use Most for Online Shopping?
Part of the reason why search engine optimization is so important is that people increasingly shop on their devices. When you’re trying to sell goods and services, this is where the customers are. For many businesses, physical location no longer matters the way that it used to. That’s not to say that there aren’t companies that still rely on foot traffic. But physical visibility has become much less important than online visibility.
5 Tips for an Engaging Website
An engaging website is critical to your success. It’s not simply enough to have a website, as it used to be in previous decades. Everyone has a website, and people use them all the time. What sets your website apart and makes it successful is how well people actually engage with it and the value that they get from it.
Some Current Problems with AI Content
AI content has certainly been in the news a lot lately. This began with the launch of ChatGPT, which is an AI writing tool. Most recently, Google announced that they are releasing their own writing AI, known as Bard. It seems like the future will see many companies creating competing AI services.
The Internet Makes People Mean. How Does That Affect Your Brand?
Some people act the same on the internet as they do in real life. But many people will change significantly. Studies have found that the internet lowers a person’s inhibitions. This has been termed the “online disinhibition effect.” People will say things that they would never say in real life or act in an overly aggressive manner. For instance, people often use hedge words – like “seems to” or “sometimes” – to try to soften the mood when saying something
3 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Email Marketing
If you are doing online marketing, we can help here at Content Customs. One of the benefits of working with us is that we are such a versatile company. The heart of our business often revolves around doing search engine optimization and SEO work. But we can also handle other types of online marketing, such as social media marketing, or setting up pay-per-click advertisement campaigns.
Are You Taking the Wrong SEO Approach?
When it comes to search engine optimization, people are often very focused on what they should be doing. They know that they need to get more keywords on their site, for example, or that they want to create links to other pages. They know that they can promote their content through social media to grow their audience. All of this is true, and it certainly is important to focus on the things that you should be doing to try to improve your content and your results.
SEO Is Always Changing
It may be time to forget everything that you know about SEO. Many people assume that the process is the same year after year, but that’s simply not the case. Often, there will be major changes in any calendar year, especially as Google updates its algorithm. SEO is always reacting to these changes or trying to anticipate how an edge can be created over the competition.
How Often Should You Post on Social Media?
Social media is clearly a way to expand the reach that your brand has and to find a new or larger audience. You can also use it to connect with the audience that you already have, keeping your brand fresh in their minds and even interacting with them to do things like answering questions or telling them about upcoming products. Social media creates this level of interaction in a way that no other type of advertising has in the past.
Google Announces Improved Translation Capabilities
It sometimes feels like the world becomes a bit smaller every day, and that is especially true when considering connections made on the internet. Even minor brands now have the ability to market themselves all over the world to a vast array of customers. This has allowed major corporations to spread all over the globe, but it also allows small companies to find niche markets in different areas that they may not have been able to discover previously.
What Is Google Search Really Looking For?
When considering how to optimize your website, it can sometimes be helpful to dig into the psychology behind a Google search. What is the search actually designed to do? What is the person starting that search actually looking for? By carefully considering what their goals are, you can then apply this to your SEO strategy to determine how to optimize your site in a way that aligns with these goals.
Why Is Your Site Suddenly Getting Less Traffic?
If your website suddenly starts getting less traffic than it has been in the past, you’re certainly going to notice the change. You may not have made any alterations on your end, at least that you know of, but something is clearly impacting your numbers. You need to figure out why this is occurring so that you can rectify it or, if it’s a short-term problem, wait for it to resolve itself.
Voice Search Keeps Getting More Popular
Voice search features have changed the way that people use their devices. These searches can be carried out on a wide variety of devices, which is one reason why they are popular. For instance, voice searches could occur on a cellphone, on a home assistant – Alexa or Google Home, to name just two – on a computer equipped with a microphone and in many other ways. Part of the popularity is just the convenience, especially when using a phone.
What’s Next for Social Media?
Social media changed the way that businesses interact with their customers forever. When social media sites first came on the scene, they were geared around consumers, with sites like MySpace allowing people to connect with their friends. But businesses very quickly got involved, such as music companies with MySpace, and that only expanded once Facebook and other mainstream sites took over. Today, almost every business is going to have a Facebook page and some sort of social media presence. They will use it to do advertising, answer questions, move products and much more.
How Do You Write a CTA?
An effective call to action (CTA) is a very important element to add to your website. It prompts your readers to take a specific action after they examine your content. This varies from industry to industry, of course, but typical examples of actions that people want their readers to take include contacting the business,
SEO Tactics for the New Year
You know where you want to take your business in 2023 and beyond. You have dreams of exciting growth and the development of the company over time. You know that these goals are achievable if you can just market your company properly and get your products in front of potential customers. It’s the only thing that’s missing, that’s holding you back from that level of success
Is the Second Search Results Page Good Enough?
It takes time, effort and investment to rank on the first search results page. The old days of the internet, when simply having a website could get you more attention, are over. There are billions of sites and you’re constantly competing against others for placement and rankings. Merely having a website is not going to help because it is what your potential customers already expect. It would certainly be a red flag if you did not have a site, but they’re not impressed just because you do.
Why Aren’t You Getting Higher Conversion Rates?
Web traffic stems largely from SEO. You put the proper keywords on your website so that someone using those words will quickly find your business in the search rankings and click the resulting link. Certainly, that’s a simplified version, but it outlines the main goal that most business owners have.
Answering Questions Is a Great Way to Connect with Customers
It’s sometimes difficult to come up with content that will connect with your customers. Maybe your company has one main product, for instance, and you’re constantly posting about it on your social media channels and running new content on your website. This all helps your position and traffic, but you start to feel like there is nothing left to say.
Why You Get More Negative Reviews
Do you ever feel like it’s incredibly hard to get positive online reviews, while the negative reviews just pile up? You’re not alone. It has been found that negative events are much more likely to cause people to leave reviews than positive events. Even a single issue can be enough to trigger this negativity bias. Some have said that just one negative interaction is so detrimental that it takes 40 positive interactions to make up for it.
Get Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season
The holiday shopping season is upon us, and it’s important to make sure that your web presence is ready. While it is true that more shoppers will likely buy in person this year than over the last two years, it’s also true that the vast majority of Americans will do at least some online shopping — if not all. After all, one study claimed that around
5 Ways Companies Can Use Social Media
Your social media profile is essential for your company. It is likely one of the first ways that people are going to get to know what your company does and what you’re all about. When they hear about your products or services, they may first go to your social media profiles to get a better idea of what they should expect. As such, it’s one of the first ways that you will interact with these potential customers.
Will Twitter and Facebook Changes Impact Your Business?
By its very nature, the tech industry has always changed fair quickly. However, recent shakeups at Twitter and Facebook have been a bit surprising. Many companies use these social media sites to engage with customers, answer questions, promote products, run ads and much more.
What Impact Have Smartphones Had on SEO Tactics?
Smartphones have existed since 2007, and it’s now been long enough that most people in the United States expect everyone they meet to have a smartphone. It’s true that there are some who still use landlines or older models of cellphones, but they are certainly in the minority.
Video Ads Show Concerning Decline
On sites like YouTube, video ads have long been seen as the most important advertising content, both now and in the future. This isn’t necessarily a new model, but it’s easy to apply to many different types of content. Videos range from unboxing toys to repairing pickup trucks to showcasing songs from the biggest bands in the world.
Google Algorithm Shifts to Address Spam
SEO tactics are based on search rankings, and that typically means writing to address the Google algorithm. This is what determines where pages rank based on the search terms that the user inputs. It’s a complicated process and Google, to protect its intellectual property, does not like to provide specific details.
Why Should You Partner with Content Customs?
When you’re looking for new content, SEO services, online ads and much more, you have options. Some people choose to do it themselves. Others go with a professional agency to assist them. And companies that seek these services certainly have different goals.
Keyword Optimization and Knowledge Levels
When choosing keywords to optimize for, you need to first consider how people are going to find your site and what they’re going to expect. If you were looking for a similar site, what words and phrases would you use? You can also check keyword rankings, search density and search volume.
3 Factors for PPC Quality Scores
Quality scores have been debated for years, as people wondered if Google checked the overall quality of a site, using that information in search rankings. This does happen, but quality scores are not just used for websites and rankings. They can also be applied to Pay Per Click Ads.
Consider Your Audience with Online Content
One of the first things that you should do when considering your content strategy is to determine what audience you want to reach. This is a unique factor for all businesses. Some companies market directly to consumers, others need to connect with retailers and still others are interested in reaching other business owners — just to name a few examples.
What Is a Niche Market?
One of the major benefits of the internet is that it allows you to find a niche market anywhere. In the past, someone who lived in a small town may not have been able to make a living selling art, for instance, because the town just didn’t have enough people to support it. But that same artist can easily make online sales, as long as they can find their target audience.
Apple Finally Making Strides in Online Ads
For many years, online ads have been virtually controlled by two companies: Facebook and Google. This duopoly handled the lion’s share of online marketing, and still does. However, recent reports have shown that things may be changing. Apple is gaining ground and picking up more of the market share, finally making a real push to be a major player in this space.
Are You Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season?
On the final day of August, it’s clear that we’re moving into the fall and the holiday shopping season that comes with it. Major retailers like Wal-Mart are already putting out toy lists and other material to take advantage of it. Over the next month or two, early shoppers are going to start focusing on getting their purchases in, while even those who aren’t actively shopping will start making lists and considering their options.
You Need More Than a Beautiful Website
Many business owners spend weeks or months constructing the ideal website. They may build it themselves, or they’ll hire a team to do so.
Bad Publicity Can Harm Your Business, Especially Online
You have probably already heard one of the strongest myths in the business world, that there is no such thing as bad publicity. This cliche has been said so many times that a lot of people believe it to be fact. All you need, they claim, is for people to be talking about your business. It doesn’t matter what they’re saying. It can all help you.
Writing for Shrinking Attention Spans
It’s no secret that people’s attention spans are shrinking. It’s unclear exactly how long this has been going on, but the last two decades have been dramatic. If you look at studies from 2000, they found that the average attention span was about 12 seconds long. If you’re already thinking that sounds shorter than you may have expected, it’s worth noting that more recent studies put it at just 8.25 seconds.
Your Best SEO Strategy Is to Focus on the Reader
When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), many people think only about keywords. They want to game the Google algorithm. They’re convinced that all you have to do is figure out the right keywords or the right way to use them, and that’s enough to increase traffic.
The Inverted Pyramid and Your Online Content
There are many different theories about how you should set up your online content to make it impactful. And the truth is that different theories are going to apply in different cases. Content creators who want to get people to read for as long as possible, for instance, will often save the most important information for last.
Online Shopping Declines, a First Since COVID
When the pandemic started two years ago, people took heavily to online shopping. Some of it was just convenience. Businesses were closed and the internet was an easier way to get essential products. Some of it was safety.
People Are Far More Likely to Leave a Negative Review
It’s frustrating the first time that you see a negative review of your business. Maybe it’s on Facebook, Google, Yelp or some other site. You have worked hard to provide excellent products and services, and the majority of people leave your business feeling happy about what they’ve received.
Is Facebook in Decline?
In the early days of social media, sites would rise and fall rather quickly. MySpace’s peak only lasted for three years, starting in 2005 and running to about 2008.
What Is a Natural Language Search?
Search terms used to be based mostly on simplicity. If someone wanted to look for a repair shop in West Virginia, they might search for “car repair West Virginia” or “West Virginia car repair shop.” These short searches contain only what is absolutely necessary.
Why Are People Adding “Reddit” to Searches?
The tagline for Reddit is that it is the “front page of the internet.” It’s a place where you can find communities — known as subreddits — for just about any subject you can imagine. Want to climb mountains? Looking to learn how to knit?
The Psychology of Social Media Sharing
When your company produces content for social media, you are certainly hoping for interaction. You want people to click on the content and read it. You want them to like that content and boost its popularity. You probably want them to use the content as a way to link back to your main site, which can help you make sales.
How Do You Make Content Easier to Skim?
Many people start reading an article by skimming it. Say that they typed in the relevant keywords and found a page that looked like it would answer their question or give them the information they’re searching for. But all they really know is that the keywords worked. The site was optimized for those keywords.
What Are the Advantages to Evergreen Content?
There are two extremes when writing content. News sites and sports blogs tend to focus on current events. Breaking news is king, and all of the content is geared around connecting with what readers care about at that specific moment. Topics will become very important for a few weeks or even just a few days, and identifying them can help you capitalize on that traffic.
What If Your Company Has Negative Reviews?
You believe that your company offers tremendous value to your customers. You have high-quality products, your staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and you always go above and beyond to make sure customers are fully satisfied.
What Are the Benefits of Connecting a Blog to Your Site?
When blogging first became popular, it was more like social media than a professional platform. It was a way for people to keep a journal, write down their thoughts or develop different types of creative works.
Do Search Users Want Specific or General Information?
When users turn to a search engine, they have a goal in mind. As you create your own site and fill it with content, it can help tremendously to understand the intent that these users have at the moment they type in that search. What are they trying to find?
Your Bounce Rate Can Help You Find Content Issues
It’s clear to you that having a high bounce rate is a detriment to your business, making it an important metric to watch. It simply means that a lot of people land on that specific page and then leave quickly without ever navigating to another page. If they have very low dwell times, meaning that they leave the site in seconds after landing, you’re losing out on a lot of potential traffic.
Local Businesses Especially Benefit From SEO
Any business can benefit from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on any stage, whether they are doing business internationally or domestically. The biggest corporations in the world use it regularly to drive traffic and sales. However, there is evidence that local businesses can especially see positive results from SEO that has been done properly.
Your Social Media Presence Needs to Reflect Your Brand
You can use your social media presence in a lot of different ways, but they all need to stay true to your brand identity. This is why it’s important that you have a clear picture in advance of what you want that brand to be.
Why Content Needs to Be Updated Frequently
If your site’s content was lacking or nonexistent and you recently added new pages or new content on existing pages, that’s a great move for your business. The content on your site helps people find the site through organic traffic, it answers their questions and it helps to create conversions. It’s one of the most powerful tools that you have. However, people often make the assumption that they’re set for good once they have this premium content.
What Makes a Call to Action Work?
A call to action (CTA) is an important part of your content in many industries. You don’t just want to provide information to the reader. You also want them to take some specific action. Perhaps the content tells them about a certain product and you want to invite them to make a purchase. Maybe the content talks about the services your company provides and you just want to ask them to contact you for more details.
Statistics Show Search Engines Just Keep Growing
Most websites that you visit make rather liberal use of subheadings. You may have found this curious, at least from an SEO perspective. If search engine optimization is about getting keywords on the page, does it really matter where you put them? Wouldn’t it be just as effective if you added a huge block of unbroken text, as long as it had the right keywords?
Why Subheadings Matter
Most websites that you visit make rather liberal use of subheadings. You may have found this curious, at least from an SEO perspective. If search engine optimization is about getting keywords on the page, does it really matter where you put them? Wouldn’t it be just as effective if you added a huge block of unbroken text, as long as it had the right keywords?
What Is Organic Traffic?
As you research how to get more traffic to your website, you’ve probably run into people talking about organic traffic. They note that you can use search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your rankings and get more organic traffic, which helps your site grow.
Do Search Users Want Specific or General Information?
When users turn to a search engine, they have a goal in mind. As you create your own site and fill it with content, it can help tremendously to understand the intent that these users have at the moment they type in that search. What are they trying to find?
The Downsides of AI Writing
Have you ever thought about letting an AI write your website? Artificial intelligence has been used in many different areas, and AI writing is the newest area where it has begun to pick up steam. People have used these systems to write everything from computer code to novels.
4 Ways To Incorporate Video Content Into Your Marketing Strategy
As marketing strategies continue to evolve, entrepreneurs are looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve. One technique emerging as a growing trend is incorporating video content into marketing plans.
Email vs. Text Marketing: Pros and Cons
Back in the days when mobile phone users had to pay for every single text that they sent or received, sometimes paying 25 cents each time, text-based marketing was fairly pointless. If anything, people getting these messages would just be frustrated with the brand because now they were being actively charged to look at a marketing message. Even if they liked the product, they wouldn’t like that method of learning about it, so conversions weren’t as likely.
How Frequently Should You Work on SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be done, in part, through the use of optimized content on your website. You can use it to add relevant keywords and optimize your content for both the search engines themselves and for the visitors who find your site through those engines. This means having a focus on useful content that provides information and answers questions, it means linking to pages on your main site to get conversions and it means using the keywords with which people are going to search when looking for your goods and services.
Google Ad Sales Up by 33%
Many types of technology rise and fall. Consider sites like MySpace or Xanga, which had their day and then faded from the public eye. It’s a common issue with social media. As useful as sites like Facebook are for advertising purposes, there are already those who are wary about the future since younger generations are using Facebook less often. This doesn’t mean social media marketing will disappear, of course.
Important Search Engine Statistics
It’s clear that most people tend to use search engines fairly frequently. However, the internet isn’t the same today as it was 10 years ago, or even five. There are many options, many potential uses and many ways that people connect with friends, family members, brands and local businesses. You need to consider this from every angle, considering the use of social media, smartphones, voice assistants and much more.
The Advantages of Email Marketing
Email marketing has been around for decades. After all, the first email was sent more than 50 years ago, in 1971. By the 1990s, it was being used for plenty of marketing campaigns. Audio and video content didn’t come along until much later, and things like social media have only gained their current level of popularity over the past decade or so. There has been a lot of time for change and innovation.
How Online Marketing Surpasses TV Ads
Television ads do have their uses. Much of the time, they focus on creating brand awareness. Few people see an ad for a car and head over to the dealership to drive one. But, when someone needs a new car, they’re more likely to think of one that they’ve seen on TV many times before. The goal of the campaign is to make that person think of the brand first, not to immediately sell them the car.
9 Tips On Creating A Website Sitemap
Sitemaps aren’t required for websites to be found by every search engine. However, they’re highly encouraged for websites, regardless of the niche. A sitemap is like a blueprint or a map that enables search engines to crawl and index your website pages more efficiently, no matter the size. It tells search engines which of your web pages are the most important and how they relate to one another.
Lawsuit Claims Google Is Buying Off Apple
Google and Apple have long been two of the largest tech companies in the United States, and there are some ways in which they overlap. They both sell phones and laptops, for instance, and they both have virtual assistants that show up on their devices. But there has long been one way that they don’t compete: Google is focused on search engines, and Apple has never really gotten into that realm.
Signs That Your Site Just Isn’t Getting the Job Done
It used to be that simply having a website was nearly a guarantee that you could increase your reach and your sales. But that era of the internet is long gone. A site is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. It’s expected. Every business has one, so you don’t stand apart simply by creating your own.
Key Tips for Effective Email Marketing
Social media marketing has, in some ways, encroached on email marketing, but it has certainly not replaced it. People often view social media much differently; they’re often willing to browse without clicking ads, or they’re focused on their interactions with friends on the app, so they don’t pay attention to the ads.
Seeking That Holiday Boost with Online Shopping
Christmas is almost here, but that doesn’t mean that shoppers are ready. Many of them tend to put it off. In one study, roughly 79% of those polled said they would do shopping in the final two weeks before the holiday, having put everything off until the last possible second.
What Makes People Trust Brands?
People have always supported brands that they trust more than those that they don’t, but studies have found this is more important in the modern day than it has ever been before.
How Important Is Content Voicing?
Posting content on social media is certainly a good way to build up your brand and attract new readers who can connect with that content. Not only is social media an easy platform to use, but you literally have billions of potential readers
Addressing Some of the Recent Changes at Google
Posting content on social media is certainly a good way to build up your brand and attract new readers who can connect with that content. Not only is social media an easy platform to use, but you literally have billions of potential readers
Interacting on Social Media Can Help Your Brand
Posting content on social media is certainly a good way to build up your brand and attract new readers who can connect with that content. Not only is social media an easy platform to use, but you literally have billions of potential readers
Online Christmas Shopping: Will It Stay Strong?
COVID-19 changed the world in 2020. As the United States began to shut down in March of that year, people didn’t know how long it would last. By the time Christmas rolled around, things were only getting worse and many stores were closed. People wanted to stay home and shop.
Mobile Devices Now Responsible for Most Searches
When you think of someone who is running a Google search — or using any other search engine — you probably think of someone sitting at a computer and typing on a keyboard.
Does an FAQ Help Your Website?
Many websites have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to give readers quick answers to questions that are often received. In many ways, this page is a benefit to your company or to you as the main communications operator for the company. If you’re answering the same question by email every day, it takes a lot of time and energy. Putting it on the FAQ isn’t always going to solve that, as many people may overlook it and ask anyway, but you can at least reduce the amount of time you spend on a singular issue.
Why Do People Really Share Content?
It’s clear that there is an inherent value in having content that people want to share. This is especially true in social media marketing. Creating content is just one step in the chain. If you can get users to share it for you, they’re essentially doing your work for free.
How Specific Should Your Keyword Phrases Be?
Generally, when people talk about choosing keywords for a website, what they’re really talking about is choosing keyword phrases. With a few exceptions, singular keywords are just too general.
Government Using Keyword Warrants to Request Data
When you run a search on any engine, such as Google, you likely assume that no one else really takes the time to look at it. It’s stored in your search history on your device, but you don’t think any outside parties are going to look at it or connect it with you specifically.
How Long Is the Ideal Blog Post?
It has been shown many times that blogging is an excellent way to increase organic traffic and page rank. Blog posts help you generate consistent content, they allow you to add keywords on a regular basis and you can use them to answer questions and address issues that your readers are interested in.
Are There SEO Tactics You Should Avoid?
Like everything, SEO evolves over time. It changes. Some of this is inherent to the practice itself; i.e., people learn more effective ways to do things and update their tactics. Some of it is due to the shifting algorithms.
What Is the Impact of Predictive Text Searches?
You’ve likely seen predictive text suggestions or autocomplete suggestions when running a search. In some cases, these just make it faster and easier to type what you were going to type anyway.
Why Do Blog Posts Help SEO?
We know well that having a blog attached to your site can do wonders for your SEO. There are plenty of stories of people doubling or tripling their organic traffic — or more. While you do need on-site SEO as well, one of the fastest ways to increase your ranking and make your SEO more effective is to consistently blog about the search terms your audience is looking for.
Google Searches May Not Be As Specific As You Assume
Google searches in 2021 are often framed around questions, phrases and other uses of “natural language” to get a result. In other words, users aren’t typing in keyword strings. They’re quickly writing out phrases or asking complete sentences as they search for an answer.
Is Facebook Use Declining?
You may have heard rumors that Facebook usage is declining. This is especially common with younger users, who may favor other types of social media. After all, Facebook has been around for going on two decades now, so it is hardly the trendy new site that it once was.
Why Update Your Content?
It’s common for business owners to assume that content that works is going to work forever. Once product pages and landing pages have been written, you’re tempted to just check that job off of the list and forget about it. But running a successful website and having a strong web presence doesn’t work this way.
Only 20% of Google Searches Are New
If you ever wonder how it’s possible to choose keywords that users are going to search for, consider the fact that the majority of searches are just repeats. In fact, some estimates state that merely 20% of searches, or one out of every five, are actually new.
7 Affordable Ways To Increase Your Website’s Speed
Page speed measures how quickly a web browser can load all the elements of a page such as images, videos and text. It affects how much revenue your website generates, which is directly related to the website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
What Kinds of Content Do People Share?
Having your web content go viral can bring in a ton of attention for your brand, but you don’t need to have that type of success to have a major impact. Any content that people share is highly beneficial. It’s far more likely that their connections on social media will interact with that content than if they come across it in any other fashion. The personal endorsement from someone whom they know makes all the difference in the world.
Will Online Shopping Slow Down in the Coming Years?
The pandemic closed businesses and kept people home in many parts of the United States last year, and online shopping saw a huge and predictable boom as a result. While many companies floundered, places like Amazon had to hire more drivers and workers to make all of their deliveries on time.
Can You Forget About SEO and Still Expect It to Work?
When people think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), they often want to know how to update their site to get more traffic. They assume that it’s a quick fix. If they take the right steps and add some new links or keywords in the right places, then their site will be optimized and traffic will increase indefinitely.
One Statistic That Illustrates the Value of Social Media Marketing
One issue with social media marketing is that people often find their return on investment (ROI) harder to measure than they’d like. Sure, if someone clicks through an ad and makes a purchase, you know it works.
The Two Keys of Content Marketing
Your goals with content marketing are many. They start with driving more traffic to your site. Beyond that, you also want to make sales or conversions, you want to uphold your brand and you want to answer customers’ questions and provide them with the information that they need.
Are Predictive Searches More Accurate?
Predictive text is what Google uses to guess what you’re going to search for, often starting from the time you type in the very first letter. An “F” may give you the auto-fill option for Facebook, for instance, while a “W” may offer suggestions like “weather” or “Wal-Mart.”
The Internet Crashed. What Happened?
Many people think of the internet as something that will always be there. Yes, specific websites may crash or go down from time to time, and it can be frustrating, but the internet as a whole is considered stable. Until Tuesday. That’s when a relatively small error led to a major crash taking a huge portion of the internet offline.
A 404 Is a Traffic Killer for Most Sites
You have a comprehensive site with dozens of landing pages, scores of main pages and category pages, and hundreds of weekly blog posts aimed at increasing traffic and SEO.
Google Quietly Releases Fuchsia Operating System
Google has been working on an operating system called Fuchsia for a few years now. It has been tested on a Pixelbook, for instance, but that was back in 2018 — now three years ago.
For SEO, How Important Is Your Domain Name?
Back when people used to consult the phone book when finding new businesses and services, some companies opted for names that would make them more visible. For instance, there are companies with names like “Aardvark Construction.”
Why Does Google Roll Out Constant Updates?
From the perspective of running your website and trying to get consistent traffic, the Google updates can be frustrating. Just when you feel like you have it all figured out, they change something.
Social Media Isn’t Just an Extra or a Luxury
There was a time when social media was seen as a bonus or a benefit for businesses. People were interested in learning how to use this new, emerging technology to help their companies thrive.
During Online Ad Boom, Google Sets Financial Records
During the pandemic over the past year-plus, life has shifted. People who previously went to the office began working remotely, doing everything online. People who used to go out for entertainment — to the movies, for instance — started finding entertainment online.
How Much Search Traffic Comes From Mobile?
The smartphone changed how we think of computers. In the past, a computer was a dedicated device that did little else and that had to be wired into the network to access the internet.
Is Your Company Discoverable?
It’s clear that marketing is never going to be the same. The internet has changed everything, and that change is here to stay. Rather than clinging to older ideas that may be outdated and may no longer work, companies need to accept this new reality and find out how they can leverage it for greater success.
Google Wins Case Against Oracle
The case between Google and Oracle has centered around Google’s use of lines of code that were originally written for Oracle. Google used the code to develop the Android operating system and has argued that it is not a violation of Oracle’s copyright because the code, which allows for communication between devices and software, was available for fair use.
Is Your CTA Ineffective?
You must have an effective call to action (CTA) to get the most out of your content. You know what you want the reader to do, and many will naturally take that action anyway — they’ll read about your product, appreciate the advantages and then order.
Seven Writing Tips for Struggling Marketers
Most companies looking to get more business on the internet know they need high-quality, regularly published content. And when it comes to creating a content strategy, writing various types of content, tracking the results and adjusting the plan, a professional content team usually gets the best results.
Study: Most People Research Products Before Buying
Are you an impulse buyer? If so, you know how it feels to see a new product that immediately grabs your attention. You may just see one ad or spot the item in person, while walking around the store, and know that you have to have it.
Ten Years From Now, What Will the Internet Be?
Throughout human history, technology has changed slowly. If you were able to take a person from 1000 A.D. and put them into 1200 A.D., they’d be fine. They’d recognize everything and feel that the world was similar to the one they’d left.
Google Makes Stunning Announcement About Targeted Ads
Targeted ads are everywhere. Do one Google search for a new guitar, and all you see are guitar ads for the next few weeks. It may not even matter if you bought the guitar.
Are You Really Connecting with Customers on Social Media?
It’s easy to understand that social media carries a lot of power and can open doors. Companies used to need to do extensive research to see what their customers liked, how old they were, what they spent money on, etc.
Why Using the Right Type of SEO Matters
The right type of SEO is crucial to your success and the success of your site. The internet is not the Wild West that it used to be, where it often seemed like everything and anything could be done to get more traffic.
The Importance of Your Bounce Rate
Your site’s bounce rate is important. This is the measure of how many people come to your site and then almost instantly leave. While it may be more encouraging to study positive numbers, such as your overall traffic or an increase in sales, you really want to seek to improve your negative numbers to enhance your site on the whole.
Jeff Bezos Steps Down at Amazon
When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in his garage in 1994, thanks in large part to a quarter of a million dollars from his parents, he had no idea how huge it would get. In the decades to come, Amazon single-handedly changed the way people shop.
Report: Online Ads Getting Record Results
Record-breaking numbers may be on the way for tech companies that run online ads, reports claim, as the numbers for the final quarter of last year are about to be released. These include giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook, though they also include numerous smaller companies.
Google and Ambient Computing
We often say things like “the internet changed the world” and yet still think about a world where we have to sit down at a computer and open up a browser to use it. To some degree, smartphones have changed this, but not entirely.
9 Out of 10 Consumers Read Reviews
Don’t think of online reviews as something extra for consumers, a small piece of the puzzle that they use when deciding what to buy. The truth is that they’re far more important than that.
Google Workers Create a Union
Google is often thought of by end consumers as its own company, but it is actually owned by Alphabet. This is important since workers at Alphabet have recently decided to unionize, and this could have an impact on how Google runs its own operations moving forward.
What Reading Level Is Right for Your Audience?
Not all online audiences have the same reading level, nor should you expect them to. This is why it’s so important to understand not just the goals you have for your content, but for whom that content is being written.
Connecting with Buyers in Other Countries
A small business in the rural United States is no longer confined to their immediate area. For non-perishable sales, companies can easily connect with buyers all over the globe.
Gmail and YouTube Both Crash
We are a society that is so interconnected and dependent on the internet that it’s easy to imagine that our favorite services will always be there exactly when we need them. In fact, having anything else be true could be highly detrimental to a lot of businesses and individuals.
Why Do People Love Voice Search?
The human population is moving toward an astounding 8 billion people and should get there in just two years. By that time, the number of voice search assistants, which is currently over 4.2 billion, is projected to hit the same mark.
Language That Makes People Take Action
Have you ever wondered if the difference between making a conversion on your website and not making one is simply due to the words that you choose in your copy? If conversions — i.e., making a sale or getting someone to pay for a service — are your ultimate goal, you need to know how to give yourself the edge.
SEO Works: Key Statistics Every Business Owner Should Know
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is complex and always changing and shifting with updates to the various algorithms — most notably, those used by Google. It also provides a bit of a different experience than other types of marketing, in that the return you see isn’t always immediate.
6 Key Tips for Writing on the Internet
You have a lot of things to consider when crafting your website content. How does it fit with your brand? What is your main goal? How can you address SEO? What information is your audience looking for? It can almost feel overwhelming.
Why Would People Leave Fake Negative Reviews?
Reviews are massively important for online sales. A buyer on Amazon, for instance, may not even click on a product with less than four stars, much less read the reviews to find out if they seem legitimate. The fact that the product got some negative reviews is enough to push them into looking elsewhere.
Will Google Always Be the Only Option?
When you tell someone to search for something online, what do you say? Odds are you have frequently muttered some variation of “Just Google it.” You may have even used it to define your own actions. For instance, you could say “I Googled the weather this morning and it looks like it’s going to snow.”
Best Practices To Gain More Quality Backlinks
Off-page search engine optimization (SEO) is all about the tactics that you do outside of your website, including social media marketing and link building. With the latter, you maximize your efforts to acquire high-quality backlinks, which play a significant role in building your domain authority and helping your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Mistakes People Make with Their Social Media Accounts
You started using social media before you even owned a business, as a simple way to keep in touch with your friends. Now that you run your own company, though, it’s impossible to deny the potential that it gives you.
Is It Better to Use Email or a Phone Number for Your Contact Information?
You have a stunning website. It showcases your products, it answers some of the questions people have, it includes a call-to-action to create sales and it helps establish your brand’s identity. You’re about ready to launch the site. There’s just one thing left to do: create a contact page.
10-Year-Old Google Case Heads to Supreme Court
Google and Oracle have been at odds for a decade, and it all centers around the use of computer code. When Google created the operating system for its Android line of phones — one of the most popular phones, along with Apple’s iPhone series — they used part of a coding language called Java.
Only Half of Searches Lead to Clicks
For many online marketing divisions, the click-through rate (CTR) may be the most important measure of success. Getting that search result in front of people is just the first step.
Why Do People Delete Facebook?
A new documentary called “The Social Dilemma” has been making waves lately. It relies largely on interviews with tech insiders who have worked for companies like Facebook and Google.
Google Rolls out a “Nearby” Filter
Local shopping has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, there has been a spike in online shopping, specifically centered around Amazon. But it has also changed the way people shop locally. Instead of going to stores or restaurants to browse and make purchases, people have started looking for what they want online.
5 Tips For HVAC Marketing In 2020
Every kind of business needs to have a solid marketing plan to be successful in its industry. With that said, if you’re an HVAC contractor or if you own an HVAC business, you also need to have good marketing. Customers won’t just be coming to your doorstep, begging for your services.
Google Cares About the Quality of Your Content
It’s easy to get pulled into the trap of thinking of search engines like Google as nothing more than computer systems that you need to appease with your content. You start thinking exclusively about statistics and numbers: how many keywords to use, how to break them up, what the ideal word count looks like, where you should put your links, etc.
Think About Your Web Content on a Sentence Level
There are two ways that most people think about web content: the overall message and the specific keywords. In some cases, the message takes priority. The content is designed to answer questions and engage readers. Getting the right message out, and keeping it on-brand, is the critical part of the process.
Most Google Searches Are Nothing New
How many times have you searched for the same thing on Google? Odds are, you’ve done it a lot. Maybe you use Google to get the local news or weather and, rather than using an app or the related links, you just search “local weather” or “local news” every morning. Maybe you tend to shop for the same types of products, so you’re always browsing for them, and that means making the same searches.
Can You Increase Dwell Times?
When people first start thinking about search engine optimization (SEO), they tend to concentrate on visibility. The site needs to rank higher in the search results so that more people can find it. The traffic numbers are too low. They want more clicks. These are all valid concerns and they are definitely the focal point of a lot of SEO efforts.
Google Stops Automatically Storing Audio
Did you know that Google was storing your audio recordings? If not, the news that they’ve stopped may come as a surprise to you on many levels. The company doesn’t want to stop collecting this important information, but they have stopped doing it automatically. Instead, to get people to opt into the program, they’re giving every user the option and explaining what the storing process means and why it happens.
Do People Trust Search Results?
Ask most people who are interested in SEO what their goals are, and they’ll tell you that they want to rank higher on the search results. They may care about sites like Bing or Yahoo, but they’re generally focused on Google, the industry leader. They may state something about how most people never click beyond the first page of search results and so they want to get to that first page.
What Does Your Bounce Rate Mean?
When you rank higher in search results, you get more clicks. Ideally, many of those people will stay on your website. Some of them, however, are going to quickly leave and return to the search results page. This is known as “bouncing” and it’s a problem because it often signifies that your site did not give them what they were looking for.
Chrome Now Lets You Link to Part of a Webpage
Have you ever been creating a hyperlink when you realized that the page you were linking to was massive and full of information? You were just using one single quote, but you had to link to the page as a whole. You knew that would make it confusing for the reader. Well, Google’s Chrome browser has taken that problem head on, utilizing a new extension that gives you the ability to pick out a fragment of text and create a unique link to that fragment.
Right Now, Internet Use is at an All-Time High
Have you been thinking about revamping your website, updating your SEO or running an online ad campaign? Maybe you just aren’t sure when to start or if it even matters whether or not you act quickly. You know it’s something you want to do eventually, but you’re not feeling much urgency and you’ve been putting it off.
The Importance of Headings in Web Content
When trying to create effective web content, you need to think about more than simply what information that content provides to the reader. You also have to carefully consider formatting and layout questions. Ultimately, quality content is a must, but you can make it more effective if you understand how to set it up and how that layout can impact the reader.
Google Begins Auto-Deleting Location Histories
Do you ever feel like everything you do is being tracked and recorded without your knowledge? It’s definitely a concern for some users, especially since most people have their phones on them at all times. Those phones can track location data and find out exactly where you’ve been, and when. Many Google users likely don’t even realize that location data is being tracked.
Online Shopping Starts Setting Records
The amount of time people have spent online in the past few weeks has likely never been higher. It’s one of the natural reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. People are working from home and doing their entire jobs online. Others are communicating with loved ones through video calls. Still others are buying almost everything they want and need on the internet to avoid going to stores or even going outside.
Google Meet Use Soars With Home-Based Work
While many businesses have ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, others have attempted to shift and adapt. For many, this means working from home as much as possible. It will be interesting to see how many workers continue to do this after the disease has run its course, but, for now, it is clear that many of them are changing tactics.
How Many People Contact Companies on Social Media?
Social media absolutely gives you marketing opportunities and unique chances to get your products and services in front of your potential customers. You can show products to people who have already bought them in the past, making repeat sales, and you can branch out into new areas by marketing to those who have shown an interest in related products, services, interests, hobbies and much more.
Google and Facebook See Ad Declines
Two of the biggest platforms for ads these days are Google and Facebook. They may operate in different spheres — search results and a social media — but these are two places where people tend to flock and they’re the kings of online marketing. That’s not going to change, but they are seeing a recent drop in ad spending as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to get worse by the day.
COVID-19 Leads to Online Shopping Spike
It’s not the way that anyone would have wanted it, but online shopping has seen a massive surge lately. COVID-19, often called coronavirus, has forced people to stay home to slow down the outbreak. Many are allowed to work from home, and others have professions where they simply cannot go to work at all; for instance, gyms, bars, restaurants and many other places were closed by the government in Michigan and other states.
You Need a Defined Digital Marketing Plan
The internet offers seemingly limitless possibilities for marketing and contacting potential consumers. A company in any part of the country can connect with customers and clients all over the world. With smartphones and social media, people spend more time on the internet than ever before. Gone are the days when it was a fringe interest; it’s so mainstream that it takes over many areas of our lives.
Facebook Doesn’t Listen to You
People often feel like Facebook keeps the mic open on their phone and listens in on their conversations. How else can you explain the targeted ads? They assume that their smartphone is always listening to what they have to say, pulling information from the conversations they have, and sending them ads based on what they talk about.
Tips for Making a Call to Action Work
One of the big worries that people have with a call to action is simply that they’re going to annoy the reader and actively push them away from making a purchase. In fact, some business owners specifically do not use them on these grounds. They don’t want to seem pushy. However, since studies have found that calls to action do work and do increase sales, it’s time to shift that perspective.
AI Update Enhances Google Collections
If you have ever used a site like Pinterest, you’re familiar with the concept of the rather similar Google Collections. Users can create their own collections of content, which they can then browse whenever they would like to do so. Pinterest does this with images, but Google Collections takes things a step farther and allows people to collect links, images, map locations, articles and much more.
Is Social Media Moving Away From Facebook?
Facebook has more users than any other social media platform. As a company, it also owns some of the other major platforms — like Instagram — and so there’s nearly a monopoly at the top. If you use social media at all, odds are you use a platform created by or owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
Why Are Visitors Leaving Your Website?
Getting traffic to your site is only half of the battle. You also need to keep people on the site, make conversions and make sales. This is why quality content, rather than keyword spamming, is so important. You need the type of site that not just ranks highly, but that offers information and that keeps people on the page.
Clear History: Advertisers Face a New Challenge on Social Media
The beauty of targeted ads is that they can focus directly on people who have already expressed an interest in that type of product or service. This can lead to a rise in conversion rates, even when the total amount of people who see the ad shrinks. You do not waste time and resources putting the ad in front of a lot of people who have no interest and would never make a purchase — no matter how good that ad is. Instead, you show it to those who really appreciate it and, often, you just have to convert them to your specific product.
Reasons You Need to Work with Professionals for Digital Marketing
You know that online marketing is important. You want to increase your digital footprint, improve your page rank, create fresh content that your audience enjoys, increase sharing on social media, manage your online reputation, and much more. What you don’t know is exactly how you should approach these tasks.
What Items are Included in an SEO Audit?
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is a crucial marketing strategy that you should employ for your business. The process entails boosting your brand’s online visibility by appearing as one of the top websites that answer your target customers’ queries on search engines like Google and Bing.
Content Your Audience Wants to Read
When you start researching content creation, you get a lot of advice to create more content or that the frequency with which you post new content is key. These things are, without a doubt, important parts of your strategy. How you reach your readers and how often you reach them matters. However, do not let this focus push you to overlook yet another key factor: the type of content your readers actually want to read.
Facebook and eBay Join Forces to Stop Fake Reviews
Reviews are a huge part of the online shopping experience. For many potential buyers, they are the difference between making a purchase or not. Unlike a brick and mortar store, shoppers cannot have any contact with the items before buying them. They also know that returns tend to be a bit more complicated.
Google Trends Shows You the Interest in Any Topic
Google Trends is a simple way of tracking interest in a topic over time. You can use the pre-selected times that Google suggests or you can put in a custom time range. What you learn can help you understand what topics and terms your audience is most interested in.
This has been highlighted lately with the move from 2019 to 2020. Google released some decade-based search information to show how things have changed over time.
Understanding the Future of Social Media
Social media started long before Facebook in the early 2000s, but Mark Zuckerberg’s launch really defined the space. More than anything, it gave it stability. Before that, sites like MySpace and Xanga had risen and fallen. Users had turned to forums, chat rooms and other forms of communication, but they were never mainstream.
Why You Need Consistent Content
If you check your Google rankings and you don’t like where you’re sitting, it’s natural to decide that you need more content. First and foremost, you want to provide something fresh and valuable that readers will click on. Beyond that, you want to get more keywords onto the site in an organic way that shows Google how valuable your site is. That’s what helps you rank higher.
Content Needs to Eliminate Reader Surprises
When people set out for any type of event that requires planning, they tend not to want any surprises. This fundamental desire drives a lot of search traffic because it helps to determine what they search for and why they need to find it. Google itself notes that people have a “low tolerance for surprises” whether they’re planning a dinner date or a month-long vacation.
Twitter’s CEO Supports DuckDuckGo Due to Google’s Data Gathering Practicess
Although “Googling” is now synonymous with searching for information, Google is far from the only search platform
Recommended Instagram Posts Depend on AI
For many businesses, the goal of a platform like Instagram is exposure. You may not make direct sales off of a post about a product or a service, but you can generally reach people who are interested in what you offer. You create more brand awareness, and you can get direct followers whom you can interact with in the future.
Facebook’s New AI-Fueled Ads Deliver Targeted Experiences for Individual Users
Today, advanced machine learning helps businesses of all shapes and sizes improve how they reach and interact with customers. By examining users’ online behavior, preferences and other data, these tools help marketing teams tailor ad campaigns for maximum effect. Facebook recently debuted a new feature which capitalizes on this unique capability.
Five Unique Strategies to Help You Brainstorm Ideas for Fresh Content
For many businesses, developing creative ideas for fresh content on a routine basis can quickly become a resource-consuming chore. With the sheer volume of articles, blogs and landing pages hitting the web each day, how can a startup hope to craft unique and appealing content to attract readers?
Consumers Give a Lot of Weight to Online Reviews
What is the first thing you look for when it is time to buy a new product or service? If you are looking online, odds are that reading reviews is right at the top of your list. In fact, it may become the driving force behind your entire purchasing decision. While we have always known that reviews were important and make an impact, new studies have shown that people trust them far more than many realize.
YouTube Updates Homepage with a Variety of New Features for Desktop Users
As video content becomes more popular and accessible among users, industry leaders such as YouTube continually seek new avenues to enhance the user experience. In a recent announcement, YouTube discussed a forthcoming overhaul of its homepage for desktop users as well as consumers accessing videos via iPad and Android tablets.
Facebook Has a New Logo
Successful companies often keep their logos forever, relying on decades of branding, but Facebook has recently decided to buck that trend. The social media giant announced a brand new logo instead of the lowercase “f” that it used for so long. The new logo is simple, just “FACEBOOK” in all caps.
How to Best Incorporate Evergreen Content Into Your Marketing Strategy
Today, startups pour extensive resources into chasing the latest search trends and SEO tactics. While this strategy can yield benefits, it fails to account for the vital role evergreen content has in promoting a brand’s growth. Evergreen content, which remains fresh and relevant year-round, can be easily repurposed for a wide range of benefits.
Statistics That Show How to Get People to Read Content
Your web content serves a few purposes, from drawing search traffic to establishing a ranking order to providing useful information to the reader. All of these things naturally intersect. For instance, fresh and useful content will attract more eyes and keep people on the site longer, helping to establish your site as an authority and increase your ranking.
Ranking Higher in SERPs After Google’s Revolutionary BERT Update
Google just announced a major update to its search algorithm which could take the SEO world by storm. Known as BERT, or Bidirectional Representations from Transformers, it is a state-of-the-art search tool backed by advanced machine learning. By applying BERT to search queries, Google aims to help users find information faster and more efficiently.
Prediction: 1/3 of Web Searches Won’t Involve a Screen
Over the years, web searches have changed and shifted dynamically. Computers shrank. Desktops arrived in every home. Laptops flooded college campuses. Phones started connecting to the internet, then smartphones changed things so dramatically that some people stopped using computers entirely.
Pinterest Details Top Holiday Search Trends for the Upcoming Holiday Season
With shoppers already on the hunt for the hottest holiday gifts, tis’ the season for startups and small businesses to tune up their holiday marketing strategies. Capturing consumer interest during this critical time of year often requires an intimate understanding of customer desires and emerging trends.
Let’s Focus on Your Exit Pages
Don’t assume your website is done being built just because it went live. Maybe you put a lot of time into considering your content. Your goal was to create a site that could basically run itself successfully for years to come. If that’s your mindset, it’s time to turn it around. The truth is that, as with any other part of your company, you can always be improving.
Facebook’s New Suite of Marketing Tools for SMBs
Although it is hard to believe, the annual holiday shopping season is just around the corner. Small businesses hoping to boost sales during this time should waste no time planning a holiday marketing campaign. Fortunately, Facebook is ready to assist SMBs with a range of new marketing tools.
Keywords, Without Intent, Do Not Convert
When considering keyword strategies, most people simply want to rank as highly as possible for the most common, popular keywords within their industry. If you run a hotel, for instance, you may consider words like hotel, motel, lodging, accommodations and the like. These are considered fairly broad keywords, and you can find them within every industry.
Google Report Highlights Tremendous Momentum for Small Businesses
Owning and operating a startup or small business can be a time-consuming and stressful endeavor. However, based on recent reporting from Google, small businesses are currently enjoying unprecedented levels of support from consumers.
Google’s report, titled Small Business Search Trends in 2019, not only delivers some eye-opening statistics about the popularity of local businesses, but also examines current customer search trends.
Google Makes Changes to Nofollow Links
Linking is a big part of your SEO strategy. Search engines can both see and acknowledge the links you put on your site, along with links to your site from other sources. While it sees them all, it only acknowledges or recognizes the dofollow links. For those links with the added nofollow tag, it ignores the link.
Boost Traffic by Adding Infographics Into Your Overall Content Strategy
Marketing to consumers who are increasingly focused on bite-sized, visual content often requires skill, patience and
Does Short Content Work?
Excuse the pun, but you’re worried about selling yourself short. In your efforts to reach your audience and educate readers, you want to go in depth. You want to put as much information as possible out there. You want to answer all of their questions and work hard to sell them on your goods and services. You wonder if there’s any way to use short content, or if everything needs to be the size of a chapter in your favorite novel.
Improve Business Decision-Making with Google’s Search Data Update
The season of giving came a bit early this year for small business owners and site development teams. Based on recent news posted to Google’s Blog, the company listened carefully to user feedback and devised an update to radically improve access to site performance data.
Under the current system, results stemming from adjustments to site content, marketing campaigns and advertising strategies would not be available for several days, at best.
Google Pixel 4 Phone Leaks Keep Coming
It’s almost like Google does not care about leaks when it comes to their phones. There were a ton of them for the Google Pixel 3. There may be even more for the upcoming Pixel 4. Is this all part of the marketing plan? People have asked why the company does not keep a tighter grip on secrecy, but maybe the tech giant wants the information to get out early.
Use Creative Images to Help Your Site’s Content Outshine the Competition
Today’s online consumers, especially those in the younger, tech-savvy generation, flock to visually appealing web page
Apple’s Newly Launched iPhone 11 Packs a Big Punch for a Relatively Low Cost
Apple once again captured the headlines and the attention of users eager to take advantage of the next generation of iPhone technology. Their recently announced iPhone 11 not only delivers a variety of upgrades over its predecessor, but also arrives at an attractive price point sure to turn heads.
How to Enhance Business-Decision-Making Through Effective Metric Tracking
Measuring an eCommerce website’s performance in today’s information-rich online marketplace is a daunting task
Targeting Your Copy to Customers’ Needs
When you are creating marketing copy with a call to action, the ultimate, final goal is not always some general concept like brand awareness or spreading the word about a new idea. Sometimes, you’re trying to directly sell to the reader. You’re trying to get a conversion. That’s not to say that copy for brand awareness won’t work; it can, and it does.
Google Reports That Consumers Now Rely on Video Data When Making Purchases
Google, in an ongoing effort to get inside the minds of modern consumers, recently conducted an in-depth study that unearthed some surprising data about shopper behavior. In this study, Google experts surveyed nearly 25,000 shoppers across 10 separate countries to determine the type of data they used when making purchase-related decisions.
Does Facebook’s Slogan Change Mean a Paid Site Is Coming?
When did you sign up for Facebook? If it was any time in the last 15 years — the site launched in 2004, though it was very restrictive at the time — then you probably saw the simple logo on the signup page. The page read “Sign Up” in large letters, and then had a small slogan below that read: “It’s free and always will be.” Always. It’s something that many users have taken in stride.
How to Turbo-Charge Your Site’s Content to Maximize Search Engine Rankings
Modern search engines utilize complex algorithms to help determine where a site ranks on search engine results pages. These sophisticated algorithms consider hundreds of unique factors when determining where your pages fall in the final rack and stack. While it may not be realistic to tackle each of these factors, devoting time and attention to three key elements can help yield significant results.
Writing Content for Readers Who Scan
There are readers who want to delve into every article they read, approaching each new page the same way they’d approach a good book. They read thoroughly and completely, giving the page their full attention. However, it is far more common in today’s fast-paced, mobile-oriented world for readers to simply skim (or scan) the content. In some cases, all they do is scan for a few moments and then move on.
Instagram Rolls out New Measures to Fight Back Against Growth Hackers
In today’s increasingly crowded online marketplace, many startups struggle to find effective tactics to grow a robust
Facebook Uses AI to Uphold Community Standards
Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. For a website that started in a dorm room and targeted college students, its growth over the last decade and a half has been tremendous. Today, that means that an incredible amount of content gets uploaded every day. People add new photos, write new status updates, run ad campaigns, create new groups and much more.
Four Key Elements to Help Deliver a Valuable Online User Experience
Discovering and implementing tactics to secure a competitive edge in today’s ever-shifting online marketplace presents
Engaging Content Should Answer Readers’ Questions
When you create content, one key element is writing information that those in your target audience are actively searching for. They may never have heard of your company, your products or your services, but they already have information they’re seeking and questions they want to ask. That’s where they’re going to start their search efforts.
Snapchat’s Agile New Instant Ad Creation Tool Allows SMBs to Reach New Users
As today’s teens, college students and young adults abandon traditional social media sites such as Facebook, newer, more popular platforms stand ready to benefit. Snapchat, in particular, is an agile, wildly popular social media platform that younger users appear to turn to in record numbers.
Teens Admit They Love Brands, Not Facebook
Undoubtedly, one of the most important things about online marketing is simply knowing your audience. Where you reach out to them and how you do it depends entirely on whom you are trying to reach. A terrific ad campaign can fall flat if it is improperly targeted. This importance became very clear in a new interview run by CNBC, in which teens talked about how they use — and don’t use — social media.
How to Use Evergreen Content Strategies to Boost SEO Traffic Year-Round
Many modern SMBs endlessly pursue content focused on the latest trends, top-ranking news stories and other trending topics in an attempt to attract users and boost site traffic. Unfortunately, this endless cycle of chasing what is “new” not only requires a significant investment in time and energy, it yields content which remains relevant and attractive to users for only a short time.
Google’s Targeting of Fake User Reviews Leads to Unintended Consequences
Showcasing positive user reviews of products and services is a critical element of success in today’s online marketplace. Unfortunately, many SMBs attempted to game the system by purchasing or crafting fake positive user reviews from overseas “review farms” to mislead consumers.
To combat this practice, Google’s introduced an update to target and remove this misleading information.
Google Launches Shopping Page to Combat Amazon
Google and Amazon continue to fight for prime position on the net, trying to draw as many advertising dollars as they can. In recent reports, many companies have started spending less on Google ads and more on Amazon ads, finding that consumers often go straight to the source. Rather than searching for a product on Google, they know they want to buy it online and just go straight to Amazon, the sales giant where they are most likely to make that purchase anyway.
Facebook Fights Back Against Monopoly Allegations
In the American business world, the government has a fair amount of control in situations that involve monopolies, as they want to keep the free market open to competition. A monopoly would theoretically remove all choice from the consumer, thus allowing companies to raise prices or otherwise take advantage of their customers.
Google to Phase Out AdSense Apps
AdSense is the major player in online advertising, as the Google-powered platform makes it simple to get ads in front of numerous eyes. Over the years, it has shifted to become even more focused on mobile devices. Reports from Google indicate that more than 1 out of every 3 people who use AdSense to create ads do it with their mobile devices.
Your Social Media Reputation Has Never Been More Valuable
Social media is often branded as a way to connect with friends and family members. While it does that, the reality is that it’s also one of the main ways that people interact with companies and brands. The level of contact is unprecedented. In the past, people thought of corporations as these distant entities that they could never really connect with at all.
Google and Amazon End Epic Dispute
Google and Amazon are two of the biggest tech companies, always striving to make that next innovation and corner the market. While they do compete regularly, it’s a bit of a complex relationship since the two have opportunities to overlap. Google can help to run ads for Amazon products and direct traffic, for instance, while Amazon can sell Google-branded products and create sales.
Google’s Diversity Update May Present Unique Growth Opportunities for SMBs
Google’s Diversity update, launched last month, intentionally limits the total number of listings in search engine results pages (SERPs) to two per domain. This means that only two pages from the same site may appear in a SERP when a user searches for a particular keyword string.
Based on a recent study conducted by Searchmetrics, it appears that the change is working as Google intended.
YouTube Lets Users Override the Algorithm
Are YouTube videos a major part of your online marketing campaign? Video content is powerful, especially considering
5 Affordable Outside-the-Box Marketing Strategies You Can Use
Small businesses are more reliant on marketing than ever before in history. Without marketing, they would have little means of setting themselves apart from competitors. Marketing is an endeavor that is largely driven by creativity – pouring more money into it is not guaranteed to bring better results.
Google Shareholders Fail to Stop Dragonfly
Google’s Dragonfly project has been incredibly controversial since the public first learned that it existed. The project
Does LinkedIn’s Rebranding Indicate a Paradigm Shift in Website Design?
Networking giant LinkedIn recently launched a full-scale rebranding campaign to incorporate more warmth, humanity
Will Facebook Watch Compete with YouTube?
At some point, it feels like companies and platforms in different technology spaces are bound to overlap. They begin to compete with each other. Regardless of their goals when they launched, they start to work toward the same spaces and the same ways to attract new users, new eyes and new traffic.
Firefox Accuses Google Chrome of Erecting Barriers to Privacy Settings
In a recent fiery announcement, Mozilla Firefox went on the offensive to point fingers at several search engine giants claiming that they intentionally bury enhanced privacy settings. Firefox contends that most users lack the knowledge to understand or reach advanced security features in browsers.
Bots Are Now Dominating Online Communication
With social media marketing and online marketing in general, you’re trying to create communication between the company
Google Provides Advanced Notice of Major June 2019 Core Update
In an uncharacteristic move for the search engine giant, Google recently took to social media to give users a heads up on the launch of a major search algorithm update. The update, termed the June 2019 Core Update, is the second such major system overhaul of the year and appears poised to shake up the SEO landscape.
Google Duplex Still Isn’t Using AI in Many Cases
In 2018, Google rolled out the Duplex AI system. The goal was to give customers a new, easier way to make reservations and connect with companies online, even if those companies did not have the systems in place themselves. Duplex was designed as a “human-sounding AI” that had the power to call businesses for these customers.
Google Poised for Shift to Default Mobile-First Indexing by Summer 2019
It is no secret that today’s netizens rely heavily, some almost exclusively, on mobile access to site content. Ensuring an optimized experience for these users not only helps deliver smoother access but often translates to more meaningful interactions and expanded growth opportunities for SMBs.
Why Is There No Real Alternative to Facebook?
When you say that you’re interested in social media marketing, what you really mean is Facebook marketing. At least, that’s true in most cases. Facebook is a juggernaut, the clear social media leader, and it’s been that way for a decade.
Why is this? Why did social media sites in the past rise and fall, but Facebook seems to be here to stay?
Recent Study Reveals Nearly Half of All SMBs Lack a Marketing Plan
Passion, more than any other quality, fuels today’s small businesses. While it is an essential quality, it is only one small fraction of the equation that yields success in the modern marketplace. To reach today’s consumers, startups must deliver exceptional products and services, and offer positive user experiences backed by a viable marketing plan.
With AI’s Help, Searching Becomes More Natural
Search algorithms over the years have focused on keywords. Often, the way people search most effectively does not at all mimic how they would talk if they were speaking to another person. The terms feel clumsy and unnatural. They work for a computer, which is going through the keywords and matching content, but you end up typing — or, with the recent focus on voice searches, saying — things that don’t reflect real speech patterns.
Groups, Not Pages, Will Drive Facebook Use
Facebook has to walk a fine line when it comes to brand interaction and more “traditional” social media, which aims at connecting people. Clearly, users start on the platform because they want to connect with other users and they value that experience. To some degree, they’re also fine with connecting with brands and advertising content, especially when it focuses on their interests.
Original Videos Get a Boost on Facebook
The value of high-caliber original content just keeps going up. In one of the most recent moves, Facebook has decided to update the algorithm that drives videos on the site. With these changes, they’re going to do more to promote original content, at the expense of the repeated content that keeps making the rounds with different accounts.
WhatsApp Platform Poised for Major eCommerce Enhancements for SMBs
Facebook’s annual meeting of the minds, F8, recently wrapped up after two days of intense tech-centric discussions which brought developers, entrepreneurs and innovators together in one forum. In the F8 keynote speech, Mark Zuckerberg highlighted exciting enhancements ahead to boost the eCommerce functions of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp platform.
Google Increases Privacy, but There Is a Downside
When you use Google services and devices, the company saves a lot of data about the way you use them, including your location data and your web searches. You can go in and delete some of this manually, and there are ways to turn the features off so that they will not automatically save. However, many people don’t do this, don’t know how to do it, or plan to do it and then forget to actually take the time to log in and make the changes.
Bing Ads Receives AI-Fueled Overhaul and Is Reborn as Microsoft Advertising
In a recent blog post, Microsoft discussed the need for a new approach to address today’s evolving online advertising space. Much like Google’s focus on enhancing user experiences through innovation, Microsoft sees the value in helping startups craft genuine connections to consumers that go beyond antiquated marketing messages.
Leveraging Social Media for Business Success
When you consider the business side of social media, a lot of emphasis still falls on the traditional model of trying to get advertisements in front of viewers. How many users will see your ads? What are the click-through rates? What are the conversion rates? These are important questions to ask, and online advertising is a powerful tool.
Easily Highlight and Customize Recent Positive Reviews in Google My Business
Earning a positive, four- or five-star, review from customers is not easy in today’s highly competitive business environment. However, startups that crack the code on earning superior customer satisfaction ratings may soon be in a unique position to highlight these positive user reviews in new ways to help attract clients.
Watch Out, Alexa: Facebook Is Coming
Like it or not, you can do a lot of things online simply by speaking to your phone, your computer or another voice-controlled device. It’s changing the way people carry out internet searches, do online shopping, listen to music and much more. And, while the premier program is arguably Amazon’s Alexa, it seems like everyone in the tech industry wants to have their own voice assistant.
The Importance of Verifying the Accuracy of Your SMB’s Online Listing Information
In today’s competitive marketplace, building trust with new clients is essential to creating future growth opportunities.
Google Changes Date-Based Searching to Make It Easier
Have you ever felt like it was too hard to really run Google searches based on the date? A lot of your automatic results come up with the most recent articles. That’s fine if you’re looking for breaking news or something else of that nature, but what if you’re doing research and you need something older?
Google Offers Insight Into Improvements in Page Speeds for Mobile Searches
In 2018, in an ongoing effort to enhance user experiences and decrease user abandonment rates, Google made page loading speed a ranking factor. They recognized that today’s online consumers do not have the luxury of spending valuable time waiting for large image files, multiple plug-ins or site redirects to load.
After Abandoning News, Facebook Considers Bringing It Back
Facebook got out of the news game over a year ago. They did not abandon it altogether, but they cut out the trending topics on the sidebar and limited the amount of news they put in front of users. Now, founder Mark Zuckerberg appears to be thinking about changing course and adding news into the equation again.
Crafting a Reliable Content Development Strategy for Your Startup
Each day, businesses generate and host massive volumes of new content designed to attract the interest of new clients. As a startup, carving your space in this saturated digital marketplace can appear intimidating on the surface. How can you best reach your intended audience?
Although many online marketers devote time to the latest tricks to boost SEO, there is no substitute for a time-honored, common senses content development strategy.
Google to Start Transcribing Podcasts
You listen to a great podcast at work, but it’s on someone else’s phone. It really sticks with you, and you want to tell other people about it later. The only problem is that you have no idea how to find it. You don’t know the name of the host, the show or the episode. You do not know when it was recorded or when it aired.
How to Tailor Site Content to Capitalize on Google’s New Search Journeys Concept
Traditional question-and-answer-based searching is rapidly giving way to more advanced models incorporating
Facebook Chat Gets Less Confusing
You use Facebook to talk to customers and clients. It’s an easy way to answer questions, provide support, gather feedback and generally promote your brand. Not only do you comment on posts and engage them in public, but you allow them to send you chat messages when they have more in-depth issues or simply need to check on the status of a project.
Wayback Machine to Archive Google+ Content Prior to Service’s Termination
In late 2018, Google announced the pending termination of Google+ services after an internal audit unearthed a myriad of data privacy concerns, security risks and more. Based on this study, Google discovered that the service was no longer meeting users’ needs and set an April 2019 retirement date.
Your Online Marketing Should Include Video Content
An online marketing plan must take a comprehensive approach. The more ways you connect with potential customers, the more inclusive your marketing is and the more productive those efforts can be. In the past, we’ve discussed some of the major focus areas, such as mobile-oriented SEO and the value of voice search.
Twitter’s Insights Tool Helps SMBs Maximize User Engagement
Today’s consumers eagerly seek concise, engaging content when searching for products and services, interacting via social
Facebook to Focus on Privacy and Communication
Do you ever feel like the big downfall of social media is that it’s all too open and exposed? The internet used to be far more of an anonymous experience, but now it seems like everyone is can see everything and nothing is really all that private. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has some big plans for what he considers the future of social media as a whole, and they involve focusing on privacy and encrypted messages.
Facebook Targets Overseas Companies Trading in Fake Followers and Likes
Protecting the integrity of the information on social media sites continues to be a hot-button issue. Recently, Facebook broke new ground in this arena by filing a lawsuit accusing four Chinese companies of generating and selling fraudulent likes, followers and more.
Although the lawsuit addresses Facebook specifically, the accused overseas businesses allegedly violated terms of use for other popular services including Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Welcome to .dev: Google Opens a New Domain
In 2018, Google announced that they would be taking their private .dev domain and opening it up to the public. They made that announcement at the Chrome Dev Summit, and it really didn’t generate much buzz with all of the other news coming out at the same time. They had also just announced VisBug and Web.dev.
Test and Improve Your Site’s Speed with Google’s Revamped “Test My Site” Tool
An overwhelming majority of today’s customers interact with your small business via mobile devices. Therefore, optimizing
Remember That SEO Goes Beyond Google
Your search engine optimization tactics likely focus almost extensively on Google. It’s a natural move for most businesses, as Google has the biggest market share. After all, some reports credit Google with as much as 90 percent of organic traffic. Even if you debate that exact statistic — it can differ depending on the study and the year — it is still clear that Google is the industry leader.
Posture Your Business to Capitalize on the Upcoming Facebook App Integration
According to the New York Times, last month, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg allegedly set in motion plans to fully integrate messaging functions of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Although the three apps are projected to remain fully independent, the planned technical integration will allow the 2.6 billion combined users to connect and communicate across all three platforms seamlessly.
LinkedIn’s New Social Media Guide Helps Tell Your Brand’s Story More Effectively
LinkedIn’s recently published comprehensive guide to social media management is a must-read resource for startups
Voice Search Is the Most Recent Revolution
The internet is such a massive part of our day-to-day life in 2019 that it’s easy to forget just how new it really is. You don’t even have to go back a few decades to find a world in which the internet itself was considered something of an information and technology revolution. People knew it had potential, but your average American had no idea how it worked, had very little experience and honestly did not understand how it could change their lives.
When Running Google Ads Focus on Your Optimization Score and Recommendations
Google’s recent release of a series of best practices targeted toward optimizing the Google Ads experience is an essential step for any SMB hoping to stay ahead of the competition. Google delivers this powerful optimization data via an easily interpreted score which allows startups to view, sort and apply recommendations to boost performance.
Taking a Cautious Approach to Decision-Making Based on Customer Feedback
Timely, accurate and candid customer feedback is an invaluable resource for small businesses looking to continually improve
YouTube Targets Misleading Content to Improve their Video Recommendations
As part of an ongoing effort to improve user experiences, YouTube recently announced plans to enhance its existing video recommendation process. Under current criteria, users scanning through lists of recommended videos often encounter intentionally misleading content. These videos, despite large numbers of views on YouTube, often contain blatantly false claims, inflammatory content or promote products and services in misleading ways.
Sync with Twitter’s Marketing Calendar to Keep Your SMB on Track in 2019
As you craft your SMB’s marketing game plan, you are likely planning to target product launches, discounts and more around major holiday events like Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, etc. But, have you considered your strategy for National Siblings Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day and National Beer Day?
Google Assistant Adding Arabic and Polish
Google quickly realized that the Assistant artificial intelligence program would be a hit when they paired it with smartphones and Google Home devices, and they’ve been working ever since to expand and offer it to even more people. To that end, news recently broke that they’re going to be adding two more core languages: Polish and Arabic.
5 Ways to Keep Your Brand Laser-Focused on Delivering High-Quality Site Content
Investing your business’s precious advertising dollars into market research, link-building strategies, email solicitation campaigns
What Is a Featured Snippet?
Search engines never stop evolving. The minute you think you have beaten the system, the system changes. That’s why it’s so important to understand even the smallest changes and what they may mean for your tactics moving forward. You simply cannot afford to get complacent. It never pays off, least of all in the world of SEO.
Inspire Customers to Action with Newly Enhanced Tools From Google
Although just over a week into 2019, Google is already forging headlong into exciting new online marketing territory. In a recent announcement, Google detailed a wide range of enhanced services added to the popular Manufacturer Center.
Voice Search Is Growing More Common: Are You Ready?
Voice search isn’t a fad. It isn’t a trend. It isn’t some new attempt at technological advancement that is going to catch on for a short time and then be forgotten about as users return to more tried-and-true methods. It’s here to stay, and it’s only on the rise.
The Keys to Proper Branding on Social Media
The lure of social media is simple: connection. In the past, branding efforts focused around building up a brand and culture that people would recognize, but it wasn’t very personal. You did it all at a distance.
Enhance Calls-to-Action with Google’s New Extension for Video Ads
Google recently announced the upcoming debut of a new call-to-action extension for TrueView in-stream video ads. The debut of this software extension, slated for January 2019, will coincide with the retirement of the current YouTube call-to-action video overlay.
Google Releases the Annual “Year in Search”
Every year, Google compiles a key list of search trends and tendencies, which can shed important light on user tactics and changes in search traffic throughout the year.
Use Year-End Marketing Tools to Heighten Performance Through the Holidays
Although it is hard to believe, we are now sitting firmly in the heart of the 2018 holiday shopping season. Although the finish line is well within sight, your startup or small to medium-size business still has time to capitalize on seasonal marketing tactics to drive your numbers even higher this year.
Search Engines by the Numbers
In the early days of the internet, search engines were still brand new and there was uncertainty about which ones would catch on and how users would interact with the various brands. You had options like AltaVista (1995), Ask Jeeves (1996) and HotBot (1996).
3 Ways You Can Leverage Chatbots to Boost Traffic and Drive Conversions
Customers, especially those in the more tech-savvy generations, overwhelmingly desire to purchase goods, research services
How Can You Boost Your Conversion Rate?
Overall traffic means nothing with a low conversion rate. That’s the one key number your analytics need to revolve around. It may mean slightly different things depending on your business model.
Survey Reveals the Top 3 Local Search Factors Your SMB Needs to Thrive
As the digital marketplace becomes an increasingly competitive space, it is difficult for many startups and SMBs to determine the best strategies to attract new customers and boost growth opportunities.
Google’s Updated My Business App Helps Businesses Boost Marketing Opportunities
Google’s recent announcement discussing the next round of updates for the My Business app presents some exciting news for local startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Which Social Media Sites do Millennials Use Every Day?
When it comes to social media, millennials are dialed in. They connect, they communicate, they engage. Social media defines their lives. It’s something many of them feel they have known all their lives, as intrinsic as television or electricity. They use it to replace a host of services and activities: text messages, garage sales, photo albums and more.
Fine-Tune Your Holiday Season SEO Strategy to Maximize Your Growth
Although it is hard to believe, the holidays, and the associated massive uptick in online shopping, are just around the corner. Is your startup, e-commerce site or SMB well poised to capitalize on this period of surging consumer interest and spending?
Duplicate Content, Google Alerts and Your SEO
When deciding what content to put on your site, you always want to have fresh, unique content that does not appear anywhere else on the internet. Duplicate content can result in your site getting penalized by Google, which can lead to indexing and ranking issues.
Google Expands Campaign to Target Misleading Content
Google recently announced an expansion of ongoing campaigns to craft a safer, more reliable and, ultimately, more satisfying online user experience. The latest iteration of this campaign focuses on protecting users’ abilities to interact with content without encountering misleading or malicious content.
Is Social Media Just About ROI?
Is return on investment (ROI) all you really think about when you set up your marketing campaigns? You want traffic, you want conversions and you want sales. A good social media campaign can and will get you all of those things, but remember that you have to go farther.
Google’s Newly Launched Discover Feed Enhances Intuitive Searching Functions
Google’s recent debut of the intuitive search feed, Discover, for U.S.-based mobile users comes fresh off of the heels of the company’s 20th-anniversary announcement detailing a wide range of future innovations
Is There Value in Long Tail SEO?
You know that most people don’t have a lot of time when they search for something on the internet. In our fast-paced modern culture, people expect to put a word or two into Google and get relevant results in a split second. And it usually works. This means the competition for those keywords can be incredibly high.
Improve Conversions and Traffic to Your Site with Well-Crafted Meta Descriptions
In today’s highly competitive digital marketing landscape, it pays to maximize the usage of every tool at your disposal to stand out from the competition and drive interest in your business’s products and services
In China, Google Has Started a Censored Search Engine Test
So far, Google has not officially launched a censored search engine for use in China. It may never do so. However, earlier reports that the tech giant was at least testing a search engine seem to be correct.
How to Enhance Your Brand Through Effective Reputation Management
In today’s highly competitive digital marketplace, attracting new leads and building long-term client relationships
Google Turns to Mobile-First Indexing. Are You Ready?
Smartphones have officially taken control of the internet. People use them to search more often than they use desktop or laptop computers. Statistically speaking, it is more likely that a person browsing your site will use a phone to do it than any other device.
Google+ Services End Due to Lingering Data Privacy and Security Risks
With a seemingly never-ending stream of high-profile data breaches, network penetrations and other malicious online
Study Finds Clear Link Between Hackers and SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the keys to your online marketing strategy. It’s critical in today’s competitive market, as necessary now as it used to be for businesses to have prime real estate.
Four Factors To Help Develop a Content Strategy that Provides Value to Customers
With leading search engine providers heavily focused on enhancing overall user experiences, hosting content
Cracking Google’s RankBrain AI
To get your site to rank as highly as you can on Google, the most widely used search engine by a huge margin, you must understand exactly what the algorithm looks for and what factors have the biggest impact.
Google to Expand it’s AI-Fueled Innovation to Take Users on “Search Journeys”
Although it is hard to believe, Google is now celebrating 20 consecutive years of helping organize and make information accessible for users in an ever-expanding global network.
The PRET Model Shows You How to Design for Google and for Users
Effective search engine optimization must cater to Google’s algorithm to achieve a high rank, but that should not mean ignoring the user experience. Over the years, Google has worked hard to analyze search trends and find out what people are truly searching for in order to give them the best results.
Facebook Targets Misinformation Through Analysis of Images and Video
Efforts to combat the spread of fake news, misinformation or otherwise false and misleading content online is rapidly becoming a top priority for many social media platforms. Facebook recently announced further efforts to reign in the proliferation of false information by fact-checking images and video, rather than just text.
Facebook Rolls Out Creative Ad Overlays in Time for the Holiday Shopping Season
Preparing to capture consumer interest during the upcoming holiday spending spree requires meticulous planning, focus
Google’s Specialized Search Engine Presents Significant Long-Term Potential
From scanning news headlines to checking weather and traffic updates, and shopping online, search engines offer us rapid access to simple data we rely on to make it through each day.
Five Tips to Help Your Business Craft a Dynamic Social Media Presence
Each day, your clients and potential new leads interact extensively via a wide range of diverse social media sites. Does your small business have a defined strategy to capture and maintain interest across social networking platforms?
Using Google Trends to Turbo-Charge Your SEO and Marketing Campaigns
Gaining insight into current, seasonal or regional search engine keyword trends is a crucial avenue to attract new clients to your small to medium-sized business.
How to Write Blog Posts That People Want to Share
You know that blogging is a fundamental part of your SEO strategy. It allows you to connect with readers, to keep fresh content on the site and to pull people in with timely information.
How Your Veteran-Led Business Can Capitalize on Google’s Attribute Identifier
Veteran-owned, led or founded businesses received a significant helping hand from Google’s recent announcement discussing
Google Updates Search Quality Rating Guidelines: The Highlights
Some of the data that Google uses to improve their search algorithm comes from the feedback of thousands of search quality raters. These raters conduct actual searches and rate the top quality pages according to a publicly available set of guidelines.
How to Create Content That Stands Out
One of the biggest challenges businesses face when it comes to content marketing is finding a way to stand out. Considering the sheer amount of content being published every single day, it can be incredibly difficult and potentially very frustrating to create content that sets your company apart, is memorable to readers and ultimately ends up helping you achieve your business goals.
Google’s Speed Update Is Here, But Fast Pages Already Rank Higher
Announced earlier this year, Google’s “Speed Update” is officially beginning its rollout. This means that loading times on mobile will now affect search rankings, especially for the slowest sites.
11 Ways to Write Better Blog Posts Right Now
There are many methods for improving your content over time: creating and adjusting a long-term content plan, studying your analytics and using customer feedback to inform your content, formulating new strategies based on what’s worked for you in the past – just to name a few.
Linkable Content vs. Shareable Content: When and How to Do Both
Your content strategy should include specific goals for everything you publish. Consistently creating new, valuable
The 8 Best Types of Video For Small Businesses (and When to Use Them)
The benefits of using video in your digital marketing can’t be overstated. As a strategy, video has been a top performer for years, providing companies with unmatched social reach, increased conversions and excellent ROI overall.
9 Essential Tips for Effectively Writing a Landing Page
Landing pages are an integral part of just about any digital marketing campaign. Whether they’re designed for PPC, email marketing, social media or any other channel you’re trying to leverage,
Majority of Local Businesses Still Place Importance on Blogging
Content marketing can often seem like an unapproachable strategy that only big businesses can benefit from. With so many advertising and marketing options currently available, why would a local business spend their limited resources on planning, creating and promoting content – especially when the ROI can be difficult to prove?
13+ Content Editing Tools for Marketers and Writers
Whether you’re an experienced content marketer or an employee of a small business asked to begin writing posts for the company blog, there’s one step in the process that creators at any level cannot afford to skip: editing.
5 Important Things to Know About Google’s Mobile-First Index
Mobile usability has been a Google ranking factor for years, but the algorithm was primarily focused on desktop versions of sites when indexing.
Dwindling Shares and Backlinks: What Can Content Marketers Do?
Earlier this month, content marketing firm Buzzsumo released their extensive Content Trends 2018 report, which analyzed
One Simple Way to Start Boosting Your Email Engagement Right Now
Email marketing, while sometimes considered outdated, has actually been exploding in popularity over the past few years. It remains one of the most effective ways for brands to communicate with customers and promote their content, while also driving traffic, leads and sales.
8 Ways Content Marketers Can Adapt to Facebook’s Algorithm Change
When Facebook announced in January that it would be overhauling their News Feed algorithm to prioritize posts from family and friends, they stated that “Pages may see their reach…and referral traffic decrease.”
Top 7 Reasons to Outsource Your Content Creation
With 89 percent of B2B marketers using content, it’s no wonder that companies are increasingly moving content creation in-house. It makes sense, as in-house content creation can potentially streamline their overall marketing operations.
How to Improve Content Readability: Grammar, Design and Testing
Content readability should always be in the back of your mind whenever you’re creating a blog post, website copy, product description, email newsletter or any other type of content that’s meant to attract or appeal to a wide audience.
Google’s ‘Speed Update’ Makes Mobile Page Speed a Ranking Factor
There are many factors that are well-known to contribute to decent Google rankings: quality content, optimized meta
6 Great Ways to Promote Content in 2018
Each year, Content Marketing Institute releases their comprehensive report of Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends
Google Officially Extends Snippet Length
Meta descriptions are one of the most important onpage SEO elements, with webmasters often spending large amounts of time thinking about, researching, and testing different variations to find the most effective description for each page of their site.
4 Ways to Increase Direct Website Visits
When trying to market a website, app, or any other internet entity, marketers’ go-to strategies most often involve using 3rd party platforms to try getting more traffic.
Study: Effective Blog Posts are Longer, More Media-Rich than Ever
When it comes to creating effective content that gets real results, SEOs and content marketers have had two questions constantly in the back of their minds for years: how long should a blog post be, and how often should a site post a new blog?
AdWords Users – It’s Time to Implement AMP on Your Landing Pages
With Google’s mobile-first index on its way, SEO-minded webmasters are more focused on mobile load speed than ever before. Simply put, the AMP format allows content to load extremely fast on mobile. In turn, AMP content often sees a lower bounce rate, potentially better search rankings, and even improved engagement.
Which Types of Content Actually Get Conversions?
Aside from the SEO boost that can come from regularly posting fresh content, marketers know that all internet content needs to be created with a goal in mind.
Twitter Testing Subscription-Style Ads While User Numbers Drop
Twitter usage has had its share of ups and downs, but it was hoped that a boost seen earlier this year – thought to have been caused by what is perhaps its most infamous user – would kickstart an upward trend throughout the year.
Time Inc.: 90% of Consumers Welcome Custom Content from Brands
There’s a lot of talk these days about whether or not traditional advertising is “dead.” Some argue that the Mad Men-type mindset of finding the right pitch and getting it in front of as many consumers as possible simply isn’t as effective as more modern methods.
Email Marketing Continues Massive Growth Trend
The number of marketing channels and strategies available to brands has skyrocketed in the last decade, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of this trend slowing.
Study: Google’s AMP Increases Content Engagement by 35%
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), launched just over a year ago, has already become an extremely popular mobile SEO tool
8 Marketing Takeaways from Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report
There is perhaps no more authoritative source for internet statistics than Mary Meeker, a financial analyst and venture capitalist whose 1995 book, The Internet Report, was a landmark in internet study.
Study Says Review Sites Get More Conversions Than Search or Social
When it comes to local SEO and marketing, many small businesses simply don’t have the time or resources to devote to every potential strategy.
Facebook Cuts Down on Links to “Low-Quality” Web Pages
We’ve all been there: you’re scrolling through your Facebook news feed and end up clicking on a link to an interesting-looking article, only to arrive at a slow-loading page riddled with ads, popups, autoplaying video and tons of sponsored links to unrelated content that have shocking or just plain disgusting accompanying images.
About.com Is Gone, but Its Evergreen Content Will Persevere
Anybody who’s used the internet in the past two decades has likely visited About.com. A giant in the early days of the web, About.com was an amalgam of all types of educational content, from “how-to” home improvement articles to pre-WebMD health advice.
Why Employees are the #1 Content Marketing Resource for Small Businesses
A common misconception about content marketing is that it’s only valuable for large brands. Small-to-medium sized
Voice Search & Featured Snippets: Why You Need Q&A Content
Content is more likely to accomplish its goals when it’s in the right format. Would the content attract more attention and generate more leads as a blog post, ebook, social post, video, infographic, quiz or survey?
Facebook’s Instant Articles Losing Favor with Content Marketers
Two years ago, many content marketers were hailing Facebook’s Instant Articles (IA) as a potential game-changer in social
Google: Mobile Product Research Consistently Leads to Purchases
Everybody knows that smartphones have had a profound effect on daily life. They’ve made it much more simple and efficient to complete many different tasks, and they act as a single source for finding all sorts of information needed on a day-to-day basis.
Snapchat Now Most Popular Social Network for Teens
As of December 2015, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly active users, with millions more using the standalone Messenger
Google Removes Right Sidebar Ads: The Effects on SEM
Anybody involved with Internet marketing – and especially search engine marketing – has likely heard the news that Google will no longer be displaying text ads in the right sidebar of search engine results.
Google Penguin Update on the Way: Time to Analyze Your Backlinks
When Google’s Penguin algorithm first went live nearly four years ago, sites that were engaging in black hat link schemes saw massive reductions in search rank and traffic that ended up being very difficult to recover from.
FTC Releases New Guidelines for Native Advertising
In December of 2013, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating what was then a burgeoning content
Search Engines Reveal Top Searches of 2015
Looking at the top search trends of the year helps internet marketers, content creators, SEO professionals and
Swift, Apple’s Programming Language, is Now Open Source
Apple’s Swift programming language, debuted last year, has seen fairly wide use since its inception, counting LinkedIn, Yahoo Weather and Clear as apps that currently make use of it.
5 Common On-Page SEO Problems (And Why You Might Ignore Them)
On-page SEO is important in a number of ways. Not only do well-optimized site pages improve your chances of ranking highly in search results, but they typically tend to provide an improved user experience as well.
Will a New Facebook Video Feature Finally Compete with YouTube?
Sharing videos on social media is incredibly popular, and Facebook now gets around four billion video views every day. For marketers, video is one of the most effective and popular techniques for bringing attention to a product or service on the Internet.
Twitter May Drop 140-Character Limit
Last week, it was reported that Instagram now has a community of over 400 million active users, which makes it officially more popular than Twitter.
Survey Says Content Creation is the Most Effective SEO Strategy
Despite social media creeping up on search as a leading source of referral traffic, search engines are still the number one way a user will find your site on the web. At the same time, you know that you need to undertake certain optimization strategies in order to get seen on search engines in the first place.
Facebook Surpasses Google As Leading Traffic Source to Media Sites
You know that getting referral traffic is just as important, if not more, than organic traffic to your site. Referred visitors often land on your page due to a recommendation (in the form of a link or social share) from a trusted source. This means that these visitors aren’t just casually or accidentally arriving at your site – they’re already interested or engaged with your content or products.
Will Windows 10 Boost Bing’s Search Market Share?
Do any SEOs concentrate on search engines other than Google? While many would argue that it’s important, trying to optimize specifically for Yahoo or Bing doesn’t seem all that worth it when you look at the numbers. According to the latest comScore report, Bing still only has around 20 percent of the search market share.
7 Steps For Optimizing Images
Everybody knows how important images are on webpages. Visual content continues to get more and more popular, making pages that have large blocks of text without any images or video appear ever more outdated. Not to mention, image posts on social media tend to get much more engagement and traffic.
Yelp Study Accuses Google of Manipulating Search Results
Google is no stranger legal action. Since its inception, the search giant has faced all sorts of lawsuits and accusations of wrongdoing. Now, Google is facing what might be its largest legal battle yet, as it prepares to defend itself against European Union charges that it’s been abusing its market power and violating EU antitrust laws.
comScore Lists Most Used Mobile Apps – Google and Facebook Dominate
According to Business Insider, 65.5 percent of the millions of people who use smartphones fail to download any new apps in a given month. This is despite the fact that over 1.4 billion apps are available in Apple’s app store and 1.5 billion are available in Google Play.
Google Says Mobile Searches Outnumber Desktop, Plans AdWords Updates
According to Google’s internal data, the trend that every webmaster has been preparing for is now a reality: more Google searches are being performed on mobile devices than on desktops in the U.S. It makes sense, as more and more people are using mobile devices as their only access to the internet, and Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm is fully up and running.
Is Facebook’s ‘Instant Articles’ a Game-Changer For Content?
One of Mark Zuckerberg’s goals is to make Facebook’s News Feed a “perfect personalized newspaper” for every user. To do this, the News Feed algorithm attempts to show users the updates, birthdays, events and shared stories that it thinks would be most important to them. It follows that news sites have been very successful under this system.
HTTPS May Be Essential in the Near Future
Just as Google has made it essential for your site to be mobile-friendly, another big industry change that promises to benefit all internet users could be on the way. Luckily, just like having a responsive design, it’s probably something you’ve been considering – if not already doing – for quite some time.
Initial “Mobilegeddon” Reports Start To Come In
A week ago, Google announced that its mobile-friendly algorithm began rolling out globally. This means that mobile-friendliness
Spending on Social Ads to Reach $23 Billion This Year
Last year, Brian Carter of Moz suggested that every business should spend at least one dollar per day on Facebook ads. He cited how cost-effective the ads can be, pointing out their low cost-per-impression, their sophisticated targeting, and their unprecedented reach capabilities.
Facebook’s Anti-Fraud Strategies Working to Decrease Fake Likes
Fake likes and profiles have been a nuisance on Facebook for years. Instead of earning likes organically, some page owners choose to purchase likes as a way of increasing the perceived popularity of their page. Unfortunately, this shortcut can end up being detrimental to legitimate businesses and has led to accusations that Facebook ads are worthless.
Bing Quietly Adds Mobile-Friendly Label to Search Results
Back in November, Google announced they’d be labeling sites as “mobile-friendly” in the search engine results when those sites meet a specific set of criteria. Later, as you’re probably aware, Google announced they’d be changing their algorithm to rank sites more highly if they’re mobile-friendly. This has many webmasters scrambling to improve their sites’ mobile capacity, as the change will begin rolling out in less than a week.
LinkedIn Elevate Leverages Employees For Content Sharing
Rule number one of content marketing is to create engaging, valuable and shareable content. At the same time, it’s just as important to make sure that content gets as much visibility as possible by publishing it through various social and professional channels.
Yelp Exclusivity Ends in Apple Maps Amid Controversy
When it comes to business recommendation sites, Yelp is undoubtedly the leader. It currently has around 86,000 local business accounts, and it attracts 135 million monthly visitors. Companies strive for good reviews on the site, as Yelp ratings can have a huge effect on sales.
Is It Time to Start Addressing Content Blindness on Social Media?
A relatively new idea in the content world involves the notion that content marketing will become less and less sustainable for businesses as the amount of content on the internet continues to grow. Respected business consultant Mark Schaefer called the idea content shock last year, and it’s been widely discussed ever since.
Larger Numbers of Americans Only Access the Internet Using Smartphones
The fact that mobile devices are taking over an industry once dominated by PCs is a well-established trend. Smartphones have been outselling personal computers for years, and 80 percent of internet users now own a smartphone.
Google Provides More Information About Mobile-Friendly Algorithm
First came the addition of mobile usability features to webmaster tools. Then it was announced that mobile usability will absolutely become a ranking factor in mobile searches. Then came the announcement that Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm will begin it’s rollout on April 21.
Content Tool Keywee Promises Unprecedented Audience Targeting
The notion that the absolute best content will always get noticed without needing any promotion is slowly fading away. While valuable content will always beat out content of low quality, the sheer amount of content being published every day gives even the best pieces little chance of getting noticed on their own.
Survey Reveals How Businesses are Currently Using Content Marketing
The hesitation that many businesses express when deciding whether or not to execute a content marketing campaign is understandable. Content marketing is still a relatively new approach, and it can often be difficult to measure any given campaign’s return on investment.
Study Says Video Posts Get the Most Organic Reach on Facebook
The lack of organic reach on Facebook has been a thorn in the side of many content creators and content marketers over the past year. The percentage of people who organically see posts from brands in their News Feeds – even from brands they Like – is so low that companies have been essentially forced into paying to boost their posts or promote their page.
Young People Read News Content, But They’re Finding It Differently
It’s a trend we’ve been hearing about for years now: young people are paying attention to the news less and less. This isn’t really surprising, as interest in print media and television news programs have been dwindling for decades. So, if you’re trying to attract young people to your website using content, are you forced to find a way to make a “boring” niche more entertaining? Should you even resort to mindless but popular listicles à la Buzzfeed? Not necessarily – according to a new survey, news content is actually more popular with millenials than previously thought.
Is Your Company Taking Advantage of User-Generated Content?
According to Demand Metric, around 90 percent of organizations are now using content marketing to generate traffic, leads and sales. Also, 78 percent of CMOs consider content to be the future of marketing.
Google+ Splits Into Separate Services: The Final Nail in the Coffin?
It’s commonly accepted that Google+ is nowhere near as successful a social network as Facebook or Twitter, despite having respectable user numbers. At the same time, Content Customs often argues that Google+ is a worthwhile platform for businesses; not only to gain exposure in a fashion similar to being on other social networks, but also for SEO advantages.
Google Develops Algorithm That Rewards Factual Accuracy Over Links
Everybody knows that the internet is full of factually inaccurate, questionable, deceitful or even blatantly untrue information.
HTTP/2 Support Begins Rollout In Browsers
The internet has changed immensely since 1999. Besides simply being used by many more people for tons of new and varied purposes, one of the most drastic ways the internet has changed involves design. Using web archives, we can see the quaint design that sites like Google and AOL had at the time – simple (if sometimes cluttered), text-heavy and very little multimedia.
Facebook Ads Thriving Despite Skepticism
Anybody involved in online advertising and marketing knows just how huge of a business it is. Internet companies like Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have thousands of people paying to run ads or promoted content on their platforms.
YouTube Kids App Makes Its Debut, Still Includes Ads
Last year, we reported that Gmail and YouTube accounts specifically designed for children were in the works. Now that the YouTube Kids app has finally launched, we may now be seeing the beginning of a full-on strategy from Google to develop child-friendly services.
13 Tips For Generating New Blog Post Ideas
A blog is often the heart of any content marketing campaign. You know that consistently posting new, high-quality blog posts and sharing them through relevant channels can help you generate traffic and brand awareness. But what happens when you run out of blog post ideas? While writer’s block has been written about many times, the internet in 2015 provides many new, easy ways to generate blog post ideas. Of course, the old standby methods still work as well. Before you start, though, just remember that content shouldn’t be posted just for the sake of posting. Quality is infinitely more important than quantity.
Google Throws Down the Gauntlet on Mobile Usability
Back in December, we reported that Google was adding a mobile usability feature to Webmaster Tools. The feature is designed to help webmasters determine which pages on their site are not mobile-friendly, and it provides suggestions for fixing usability issues.
Blogging Legend Andrew Sullivan Retires, Future Of Blogging Questioned
Andrew Sullivan, well-known political blogger and pioneer of blogging as a journalism platform, announced his retirement
Live Tweets Returning to Google Search Results
Google users may remember back in 2009 when live tweets started appearing in search results in near-real time. Google described the idea as a way to provide up-to-the-minute data related to users’ queries, while also being financially beneficial for both Twitter and themselves.
Content Syndication Is Big Business – But Does It Promote Clickbait?
If you’ve heard of Taboola, you’re likely pretty familiar with content marketing and the various publishing channels that can get your content in front of a targeted audience.
Beyond Clicks: Facebook Develops Conversion Lift Measurement For Ads
Internet advertising is often filled with guesses and assumptions. It can be incredibly difficult to determine whether or not your ads are actually convincing people to buy your product. Some services, like Google AdWords, have conversion-tracking features that can at least shed a bit of light on a customer’s path from seeing an ad to making a purchase.
Snapchat Discover: Are Chat Apps The Next Big Content Portal?
The main principle of internet marketing is the same in 2015 as it’s been for many years: content is king. If you want to get targeted visitors to your website who are ready to do business, you’ve got to have engaging, valuable content first and foremost.
Google Fights Back After Yahoo-Firefox Deal
The search engine wars continue. Earlier this month, we reported that Google’s search market share has fallen to its lowest level since 2008. The major impetus behind these changes involves the recent Yahoo-Firefox deal, in which Mozilla replaced Google with Yahoo as the default search engine in its browser.
Is The Google+ Team Hiding Dismal User Numbers?
Many might consider Google+ to be a black sheep among social media networks. Despite claiming to have around 540 million active users, many people feel that Google+ is a ghost town when compared to networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
6 Tips For Avoiding Filler and Fluffy Writing in Your Content
Everybody knows that getting visitors to your website is tough. Unfortunately, keeping visitors on your site is just as difficult. Your content needs to be engaging and concise if it’s going to stand any chance of keeping a reader’s attention. Realistically, most visitors don’t finish written content and many don’t even scroll down at all, so it’s essential to make sure your writing accomplishes goals quickly.
Google’s Search Market Share Falls to Lowest Level In Years
Google is the undisputed king of search. According to the latest numbers from Statcounter, Google had 75.2 percent of the search engine market share in December of 2014. However, while that number is indicative of Google’s domination, it’s actually a significant decrease from the prior month (77.3 percent) and from December of 2013 (79.3 percent). Google’s market share hasn’t been this low since 2008.
Over Half of Internet Users Now Visit More Than One Social Media Site
A Pew Research report published last week has outlined some of the major trends in social media use over the last year in America. Unsurprisingly, the popularity of many social networks continues to grow, with many platforms seeing significant increases in user numbers.
Promoted Pins Set To Go Live
When it comes to native advertising and sponsored content, marketers have no shortage of options. There are Facebook’s promoted posts, Twitter’s promoted tweets, LinkedIn’s sponsored updates and Tumblr’s sponsored posts, not to mention the thousands of blogs or news sites that are willing to promote content for a fee.
New Year, New Chance to Update Your Old Site Content
Many webmasters spend time updating their blog, news section or product pages throughout the year. They often spend a lot of time focusing on building new pages as well. But when was the last time you did a detailed review of your Contact Us page?
Microsoft Ditching Internet Explorer in Windows 10?
The impending release of Windows 10 is surrounded by rumors and, for Microsoft supporters, high hopes. More will be learned about the new OS at an event on January 21, but for now, it’s thought that Windows 10 will cater as much to enterprise PC customers as it will to personal users.
Misleading Headlines Can Influence Readers More Than Actual Content
You’ve probably run into it dozens of times: you click on an interesting article headline only to be taken to content that doesn’t exactly fulfill the headline’s promise. Sites that have been labeled as click-bait farms, such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy, are often accused of this.
Google Displaying Lyrics: Is Knowledge Graph Content Scraping?
Even if you’re not familiar with the term “knowledge graph,” you’ve probably had experience with Google’s Knowledge Graph technology. Whenever detailed information about your search pops up directly on the search engine results page, that’s the Knowledge Graph at work. For example, a Google search for “Benjamin Franklin” returns birth and death dates, works written, images and much more in a box placed prominently on Google’s results page.
Facebook Popularity Continues to Decline Among Teens
If your business considers 13- to 17-year-olds its target audience, chances are good that you’re already using social media in your marketing campaigns. Facebook is undoubtedly the king right now, but several reports have shown its teen demographic slipping. For example, a Piper Jaffray report from this October showed that Facebook popularity among teens has absolutely plummeted this year.
Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Bing Reveal Top Searches of 2014
Year-end lists of the top searches provide a snapshot of what people look for on the internet and how they use search engines. Such lists also provide an overview of the topics, events, issues and people that were most culturally relevant that year. For marketers, the top searches don’t necessarily represent keywords to be focused on; instead, they help keep SEOs informed about search trends, audience tendencies and where – or where not – to be focusing their efforts.
Email Marketing Will Be Important in 2015, But the Tools May Change
The online marketing landscape in 2015 will look very different than it did even three or four years ago. Mobile marketing, social media and content marketing will likely continue to be some of the most important elements of a marketing campaign. A term like “email marketing,” however, already sounds like an outdated technique.
Bing Outlines How Content Quality Affects Rankings
According to the latest comScore numbers, Microsoft sites got around 3.7 billion searches in October. While that’s only 19.5 percent of the search market share, the numbers are high enough to suggest that Bing should not be ignored – especially if your site targets an older or wealthier audience.
Google Says the Majority of Online Ads Are Never Viewed
The number of ads that Google runs on a daily basis is staggering. According to some sources, ad impressions from Google’s display network end up totaling an unfathomable 24.17 billion per day, while impressions from Google Search total around 5.57 billion. This means that Google runs almost 30 billion ads every day.
Video Content Will Be a Must in 2015
Marketers have known for years that video content is effective at driving traffic, links and sales. Check out this now vintage-seeming case study from 2006 (less than two years after YouTube debuted), in which it’s shown that short video clips can generate thousands of impressions at a fraction of the cost of PPC advertising.
Google Adds Mobile Usability Feature to Webmaster Tools
The importance of mobile traffic should not be underestimated. Earlier this year, comScore reported that people spent much more time accessing digital media on smartphones and tablets than on desktops. Also, according to eMarketer, smartphone users could total 1.75 billion by the end of this year.
Yahoo Becomes Default Search Option In Firefox
Despite talks of breaking up Google in Europe, search marketers know that it will continue to be the most important search engine in the foreseeable future. Also, as far as browsers are concerned, Google’s Chrome is the most popular in the world.
Forrester Research Recommends Ditching Facebook Marketing Completely
Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it would be significantly reducing the reach that promotional page posts
Evergreen vs. Viral Content: Which Is More Effective For Your Brand?
Every content marketer’s first priority is developing high-quality content. But secretly, all content writers want their pieces to go viral too. Wouldn’t it be nice to write a blog post or create a video that gets tons of views, likes and shares right away, causing thousands of people to visit and convert on your site?
“Facebook at Work” Faces Uphill Battle
Are the major tech giants running out of original ideas? Maybe not, but a trend in which companies try to steal some share from others’ flagship markets seems to be increasing as of late. For example, Google launched Google+ after the success of Facebook, Microsoft launched Bing to directly compete with Google, Facebook launched Graph Search to get into the search game, and there’s evidence that Apple could be doing the same.
Is Apple Search On Its Way?
One of the most fascinating things about Apple, and arguably one of its greatest keys to success, has been its ability to keep most of its offerings within its own sandbox. Despite Bing powering the latest version of the Spotlight search feature, Apple has done an excellent job of separating themselves from other big names in technology.
Firefox Developer Edition Launches
Mozilla’s Firefox browser definitely doesn’t have the popularity it once did. According to Adobe, Firefox was the second-leading browser behind Internet Explorer in U.S. desktop and mobile usage combined until around the end of 2011.
Bing Focusing on Search Apps To Compete With Google
The latest comScore numbers indicate that Google still has over two-thirds of the search market share, and some people believe that number is actually quite a bit higher. There’s no question that search marketers will need to focus mainly on Google in the near future.
Is Facebook Advertising Worthless?
Last month, content marketing powerhouse Copyblogger announced that it would be deleting its Facebook page. This
Paid YouTube Subscriptions Could Be On Their Way
YouTube is clearly one of the most popular sites on the web. It gets over one billion unique visitors every month, and around 100 hours of video are uploaded to the site each minute. Competitor sites like Vimeo are growing, but their viewer numbers pale in comparison.
White Papers Aren’t Dead, But How Are They Different From eBooks?
Last week, an article titled “The White Paper Is Not Dead” appeared in the Huffington Post. It was an interview with John Fox, founder of Venture Marketing, and it defended the use of white papers as an effective marketing technique. Indeed, so many articles have asked “are white papers dead” that it could seem like their usefulness has ended.
Skyscraper Content: Invest Some Time In Being the Best
There are seemingly endless ways to make your content stand out when it comes to content marketing. Maybe you can provide a unique perspective or voice that others in your industry don’t have. Maybe your content will get attention because it’s fun and entertaining.
Penguin 3.0 Is Here, but the Disavow Tool Remains Mysterious
It’s that time again. Google’s Penguin 3.0 update has officially rolled out after about a year of silence, and the reactions so far have been mixed. Webmasters and SEOs will likely be doing one of three things as the update takes effect: enjoying a surge in rankings due to a clean link profile, seeing no change in traffic, or scrambling to fix low-quality links.
A Spoonful of Sugar: Why Entertaining Content Is Great For Any Brand
Between programs like The Daily Show and comics sites like The Oatmeal, we’ve been seeing it for years: people love to get a spoonful of humor while learning about important or otherwise “dry” topics. It’s no different with content intended to drive sales.
DuckDuckGo and Ello: Will Privacy Concerns Topple the Establishment?
Apple’s iPhone 6 recently broke sales records, with over 10 million units being sold in a matter of days. This was a big win for Apple, but it’s also a huge opportunity for a much lesser-known company: DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that Apple is now allowing users to easily set as their default search tool in iOS 8.
Where’s the Debate Over Reddit’s Inclusion In Google News?
Forget everything you know about Google for a second and just ask yourself this: what is Google’s core purpose when it comes to search? Many would agree that, at its most basic level, Google’s job is simply to help users find information that is most relevant to their queries.
Microsoft Sway Promises Beautiful Content, Still Needs Work
Last week, Microsoft introduced Sway, a content aggregation program that allows users to develop visually appealing,
Thin Content: What It Is and What to Do About It
Pierre Far, a Webmaster Trends Analyst for Google, announced last week that an update to the Panda algorithm has begun rolling out. For those that aren’t aware, the Panda algorithm is Google’s way of penalizing spammy sites and moving high-quality content upwards in search engine results.
Social Media Advertising: As Facebook Expands, People Flock to Ello
Earlier this month, we reported how smaller social networks might be the future of social media. They potentially offer more intimate connections with like-minded members, without forcing users to maintain a profile that’s acceptable to hundreds – if not thousands – of different people.
Future of Google Plus is Anyone’s Guess
Earlier this week, several sources reported that Google is no longer forcing users to create a Google Plus profile when signing up for a Google account. Instead, users can simply click a “no thanks” button during signup and go on using services such as Gmail without establishing a profile on the social network.
Will Article Writing Software Put Journalists Out of a Job?
It’s a question that’s been asked thousands of times in many different ways: will robots eventually perform every human task? While it’s looking more and more like the answer could be “yes,” many would argue that technology could never replicate human creativity. For example, artificial intelligence could never paint the Mona Lisa or write Moby Dick.
Netropolitan and the Fracturing of Social Media
Do you feel like your Facebook friends just don’t get you? Ever wish your online communities could be a bit more… exclusive? Gated, even? Basically, are you tired of hearing people complain about how poor they are on the Internet?
Is the Riskiness of Link Building Too High? Experts Are Divided
John Mueller recently announced that Google’s Penguin 3.0 update is likely to launch sometime this year. Webmasters
Annoying But Effective: 4 Lessons From Upworthy’s “Curiosity Gap”
Two weeks ago, we discussed how and why Facebook is curbing click-bait in users’ News Feeds. When the announcement was made, the first sites that people looked toward were Upworthy and Buzzfeed – arguably the originators and largest proponents of click-bait and it’s maligned headlines.
Twitter’s Buy Button Being Tested, Similarities with Facebook Continue
According to a blog post shared by Tarun Jain, Twitter is testing out a new feature that could seriously increase the social network’s e-commerce influence. Known simply as the “buy” button, the feature will allow users to purchase products directly from a Tweet.
11 Tips for Creating Authoritative Content in a Post-Authorship World
Well, it’s official – Google Authorship is done and gone. First they removed author photos, and now all author info will be dropped from the SERPs completely. According to Google, the “rel=author” markups signifying authorship will not incur penalties – they’ll just be ignored.
Is There Any Way to Overcome Content Shock?
At the beginning of this year, business consultant Mark Schaefer coined the term content shock to describe how the overwhelming amount of content being posted on the Internet every day could result in content marketing ending up as an unsustainable strategy for many companies.
The One Shocking Way Facebook is Stopping Click-Bait Will Make You Cry
Ok, you definitely won’t cry – in fact, you might even rejoice. In a blog post published by the Facebook Newsroom earlier this week, the social giant announced that it would be cracking down on click-bait headlines similar to the one above.
Bing Maps Expands Streetside, 3D Features
In an apparent attempt to compete with the reigning web map service, Google Maps, Microsoft’s Bing has recently added some new features. The new options will allow users to preview certain landmarks, buildings and streets in over 100 U.S. cities.
Google Accounts for Children Could Be On Their Way
In order to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter typically do not allow children less than 13 years of age to use their services without parental consent. One of the problems with the system, however, is that it’s relatively easy to fake your age when signing up for an account.
Google Buys Jetpac in Latest String of Acquisitions
It’s common knowledge that Google has been purchasing startup companies of all types for years. According to this list, Google acquired 18 companies in 2013, and it’s bought well over 20 businesses so far this year. The latest Google Acquisition is a unique travel app known as Jetpac.
Twitter Launches New Ad Service: Promoted Video
According to a new post on Twitter’s blog, your Twitter stream may soon start looking a lot more like your Facebook news feed. The popular social media platform announced yesterday that they will be debuting a new ad service known as Promoted Video, which will allow brands, publishers and some verified users to share video ads directly on Twitter’s platform.
Major WordPress Security Risks Leave Sites Vulnerable
A serious Wordpress security vulnerability has been found by Nir Goldshlager, a member of the security team at Salesforce.com. The vulnerability leaves sites open to a DoS attack involving XML documents, similarly to a billion laughs attack or an XML bomb. Drupal sites could also fall victim to this attack.
Google’s Pigeon Update Changes Local Search
Google recently tweaked it’s algorithm in an attempt to provide users with more relevant and useful information during local searches. The change, dubbed the “Pigeon Update” by the experts over at Search Engine Land, has reportedly caused local search to function more like typical web search through the use of similar ranking signals.
“Right To Be Forgotten” Claims It’s First Wikipedia Link
Back in May, the Court of Justice of the European Union backed the concept of the “right to be forgotten.” The ruling meant that Google is now responsible for deleting links to data that’s considered “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” whenever a member of the public requests it to be done.
Readers Hate Sponsored Content, But Netflix Did it Right
Sponsored content is an important part of today’s native advertising strategies. Native advertising pieces are intended to
Majority of “Direct Traffic” Could Actually Come From Organic Search
According an experiment recently conducted by Chicago company Groupon, much of what websmasters believe to be
Social Media Consumer Satisfaction Low Despite High Usage
It seems counterintuitive that social media users would actually be unhappy with services they spend so much time on, but that’s exactly the case according to a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. While the social media consumer satisfaction numbers have generally increased overall, they’re still pretty low in the grand scheme of things.
Chinese Internet Population Rises to 632 Million
China is currently the second biggest economy in the world behind the United States. At the same time, the Chinese internet population is by far the largest. According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the country now holds around 632 million people who use the Internet – and the number grows by the day.
Google Plus Profile Names No Longer Have to Be Real
In an apparent attempt to become more welcoming and persuade tentative users, Google Plus has dropped its famous “real name” restriction. While still encouraging people to honestly represent themselves by using their true identity on the social network, Google has now allowed users to choose just about any name they’d like.
The State of Link Building in 2014
The processes and effectiveness of link building have been under constant scrutiny over the past few years. Between Google’s anti-spam Penguin updates and less-than-reputable SEOs taking advantage of decent linking techniques, the link building arena looks very different in 2014 than it did even three or four years ago.
Google Domains Available For Beta Testing
Between search, email, social networking, online mapping and a host of other services, it seems like Google has had its hand in just about every major aspect of Internet business – except one. Until now, Google has been notably absent from domain hosting, instead instructing people to check out their domain partners such as eNom.com and GoDaddy.com.
New YouTube Message Fuels “ISP Blame Game”
Last week we reported how net neutrality issues could have a profound impact on both Internet marketing and the way users access specific websites. One issue that’s brought net neutrality into the limelight involves streaming video services arguing that Internet service providers are responsible for lagging playback.
Google Removes Authorship Photos from Results Pages
Almost exactly three years since Google introduced authorship markups to their search engine results pages, they’ve made a big change in the process that has come as a bit of a shock to the SEO world. In an attempt to “clean up the visual design” of the SERP’s, Google’s John Mueller announced last week that authorship profile photos and Google+ circle counts would no longer appear in both desktop and mobile search results.
Small Internet Businesses Could Suffer Without Net Neutrality
The issue of net neutrality, or an “Open Internet,” is a growing topic of debate that many have likely heard of but might not know much about. When considering the fact that net neutrality might come to an end, it becomes clear that this is an issue every Internet user needs to pay attention to, especially if they’re concerned with Internet marketing.
Major Brands See Big Decline in Facebook Organic Reach
The term “organic reach” refers to the number of people that can be reached simply by posting content to your business’s Facebook page and having it appear in users’ news feeds. Organic reach is one of the main reasons why marketing on Facebook seems so effective – it’s free, simple and has the potential to net some huge exposure.
Did Panda 4.0 Signal the End of Press Releases?
Press releases have long been considered a powerful SEO and marketing technique. A well-written and marketed press release can allow a company to announce news related to their business to a wide audience. When accepted by reputable PR syndicates like PR Newswire and PRWeb, a press release can be a source of high-quality backlinks, especially after being picked up by other quality sites.
Introducing Fire Phone, the New Amazon Smartphone
In a move that has been rumored about for some time, Amazon has finally thrown its hat into the smartphone ring. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the new device today at a Seattle press conference, and the new phone promises some very innovative features.
Chatbot’s Passing of the Turing Test Up For Debate
Tech blogs and news outlets are backpedaling a bit after publishing a frenzy of reports claiming that a “supercomputer” had passed the famous Turing Test last week. The test, adapted from the writings of computer science legend Alan Turing, is generally intended to determine whether or not a computer can exhibit behavior that is indistinguishable from that of a human.
Pinterest’s Guided Search Comes to the Web
Pinterest, the popular online tool used to discover images and articles related to various interests and creative endeavors, will soon be bringing its well-received “guided search” function to its web version. Guided search was previously only available in the mobile app.
Bing Claims Image Search Superiority Over Google
An extensive new post on the Bing Search Quality Insights Blogs gives readers a long list of reasons why Bing’s image search works better than Google’s – at least according to Bing, that is. But is it really better, especially given that so many choose to use Google while ignoring Bing?
“Cortana” is Microsoft’s Answer to Apple’s Siri
Rumors have long circulated that Microsoft would launch a competitor to Apple’s Siri voice assistant. After all, Microsoft’s line of Windows Phones and other mobile devices such as the Surface tablet compete directly with Apple’s iOS devices including the iPad and iPhone, both of which run Siri.
Bing Threatens Keyword Stuffers With Stiff Penalties
If you’re desperate to see one of your pages rank highly in search engine results for a certain keyword query, you might be tempted to squeeze that keyword into as many places as you can in the page’s content. Doing so could backfire spectacularly, according to a new report from Search Engine Land.
Google Improving OneBox Answers
Remember Ask Jeeves? If you’ve been online for a while you probably do, even if you haven’t turned your browser to the still-running Ask.com in many years. The central premise was that you’d type a question into the search box, and “Jeeves” would deliver you an actual answer to your question – sometimes – instead of a list of sites that might have the answer to your question.
Google Gains Big in December Search Market Share
A new report published by comScore reveals search engine market share figures for December of 2013, indicating that while Google made the largest percentage gains from the previous month, Bing managed to claim a bigger piece of the search pie than they ever have in the past.
Keyword-Rich Domains Boost Rankings? No, Says Bing
A new post published on the Bing Webmaster Blog by Duane Forrester, a Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Bing, weighs in on the importance of having a web site domain name that is comprised of relevant keywords.
How Did Google Search Change in 2013?
A new infographic from E2M Solutions breaks down the eleven most important changes that happened to Google search in 2013. The list focused on algorithm updates and changes, many of which may have had some effect on the search engine rankings of your site pages over the last year.
Paid Search Figures Up Big for Holiday 2013
Virtually everything related to paid search advertising campaigns trended upward over this holiday shopping season, with clicks,
Bing Reveals Top Search Trends for 2013
According to one of Bing’s top twenty search lists released a few days ago, Beyonce Knowles ranked #1 for the most searched-for people in 2013. Kim Kardashian held this top position last year, but had to settle for second place in 2013.
Known Retailers Matter for Product Searchers
A new report published by Search Engine Land indicates that search engine users place the highest level of value on whether or not they are familiar with the retailer when deciding whether to click on results for product searches.
Content “Stitching” – Is it OK by Google?
You’ve probably visited a few blogs and websites that made you think, “this information is great, but haven’t I heard this before?” In order to give relevant content to their users without spending a lot of time or resources, many sites copy and paste content from other authoritative sites, leaving a citation as the only clue that the content isn’t original.
Does Google Penalize Pages with Too Many Links?
Matt Cutts, head of Google’s search spam team, has added yet another video to his series in which he instructs site owners and search engine optimizers on how to stay within Google’s quality guidelines and avoid having various pages, or your entire website, penalized in your search engine results.
Traffic Referrals from Social Media Sites Surging
A new report published on Shareaholic indicates that traffic referrals from many social media sites, especially Twitter,
Duplicate Meta Descriptions: OK or Not?
Matt Cutts, Google’s chief of battling search spam, is back with yet another video to tell us a simple but important search engine optimization (SEO) tip. Today’s tip concerns meta descriptions and the best ways to use them. A meta description, of course, is a brief description of the contents of a given web page.
How Much is a Pin Worth, Exactly?
If you own or operate a small online business you would be wise to consider promoting it through the use of Pinterest, according to a recent report published by Piqora. In fact, the report suggests that a pin is a more a powerful way of driving sales than either Facebook posts or tweets on Twitter.
Bing Up, Yahoo Down in October Search Market Share
New data published by comScore suggest that there was little change in the overall October search engine market share percentages between September and October of this year. More specifically, Google remained perfectly steady while Bing made some small incremental gains and Yahoo declined slightly.
Bing for Sale? Microsoft CEO Race Could Decide
Despite intensive advertising and awareness campaigns and promotions, including the “Bing It On” Challenge, Microsoft’s Bing
comScore Data Reveals App Popularity Shakeup
comScore recently released data for United States smartphone marketshare for September, and although the data has not
Does Site Ranking Depend on Page Quantity?
If you want your site to rank higher, you should strive to add as many pages to it as you can, right? Not so fast, according to a new video from Matt Cutts, chief of search spam at Google. In the video, Cutts explains that certain factors related to overall website size do indeed play into your rankings, but that size itself isn’t really an issue.
Foursquare Gets New Homepage, Features
Many companies are competing for your attention when it comes to local search, and it appears that Foursquare isn’t looking to be left out in the cold. A recent post on the Foursquare Blog heralds the arrival of a new home page for the company, offering not just a bold new look but also new functionality that improves the usefulness of the site.
Apple Announces Thinner, Lighter iPad Air
Apple hardware enthusiasts had a lot to talk about yesterday with the company unveiling their new and heavily updated Mac Pro and MacBook Pro models, not to mention their free-to-download OS X Mavericks operating system software.
Guest Blogging is Great, but Don’t Overdo It – Cutts
Matt Cutts, chief of search spam at Google, has been especially prolific with his question-and-answer videos as of late, and he’s back again with a new one covering the benefits (and potential drawbacks) of guest blogging.
Little Change in September Search Market Share
comScore just released its search market share report for September, and the figures reveal remarkably little change since August. Google continues to dominate the search scene, while Bing and Yahoo traded a tiny amount of traffic to keep their overall share of the search pie roughly the same.
Cutts: Location-Based Redirects are Fine
Matt Cutts, chief of search spam at Google, is back with a new video in his ongoing series featuring a question-and-answer format. SEO experts worth their salt know that using an excessive number of redirects on any page is a good way to have it lose ranking in Google’s search results.
Yahoo Updated on iOS
After revamping their desktop search experience earlier this year, Yahoo is back with a retooled search site for iOS, just in time for the release of iOS 7 and Apple’s new smartphones, the iPhone 5C and 5S. Not surprisingly, the mobile Yahoo experience is now very similar to the experience Yahoo rolled out in early summer for desktop users.
Bing vs. Freakonomics – Is the Bing It On Challenge Legit?
Did Bing cook the books when they claimed that their “Bing It On Challenge” revealed that search engine users prefer using Bing on a 2:1 ratio when compared to Google? That’s the assertion made yesterday by a publication posted on the Freakonomics blog, in which Ian Ayers said he conducted his own study and determined that, even in the context of the “Bing It On Challenge”, users preferred Google’s search results over Bing’s the majority of the time.
Pinterest Boards Come to Bing Image Search
Are Bing and Pinterest officially joining forces? Not quite, however, both companies are seeing an increase in their value and functionality today with an announcement that was posted on the Bing Search Blog stating that Pinterest boards will now be included in Bing search engine image results.
Does Google Penalize for Invalid HTML?
Matt Cutts, chief of search spam at Google, is back with another video in his series of YouTube question-and-answer pieces in which he answers questions about SEO, Google penalties, ranking factors and more. This time, Cutts dives into a topic that many site owners and web developers might consider when they’re trying to figure out why they’re not ranking higher: invalid HTML text.
BlackBerry Going Private, Returning $4.7B to Shareholders
BlackBerry, the company whose name was once synonymous with the mobile business communications sector, has struggled
What Ad Types Do Consumers Trust Most?
A new report published by Nielsen, analyzing the various ad types, indicates that while newer types of advertising are gaining trust among consumers, the most trusted form of advertising of all time is still the original – word-of-mouth. A total of 84% of respondents polled in the Nielsen survey stated that they most trust a recommendation provided by an individual that they actually know, up from 78% in 2007.
Foursquare Allows Users to Search for Menu Items
When you’re thinking about a place to have dinner, you often imagine what you want to eat as opposed to where you want to eat. However, except for more generalized classifications like “Italian” or “Chinese” or “seafood,” there hasn’t really been a great way to search for specific dishes – say, “chicken and sausage paella” or “Beef Wellington.”
Auto-Generated Content is a No-No, Says Google
Matt Cutts, chief of search spam at Google, is back with a new video in a series in which he answers questions from SEOs, web developers and site owners looking for clarification on exactly what Google does and doesn’t want to see when assigning ranking to a web page.
Apple Unveils Premium iPhone 5S, Entry-Level iPhone 5C
During a special live event yesterday in Cupertino, Apple unveiled the two latest additions to its iPhone lineup. Tech junkies will be most excited about the high-end iPhone 5S, while smartphone newcomers and those looking to save a few extra bucks will likely turn their attention to the Apple iPhone 5C.
Want to Search Tweets? Try Topsy
A news item published on Marketing Land suggests that social search engine Topsy, which also doubles as an analytics firm, may be the single best place to go for individuals that are looking to search for current and past Tweets.
Google Search Revenue: Dropping for Desktop, Rising for Mobile
A new report published by eMarketer suggests that a large portion of advertising revenue will shift drastically towards the mobile segment and away from desktop search over the next couple of years for Google and many other search engines.
Product Search Replaces Bing Shopping
A new post published on the Bing Search Blog announced the demise of current Bing Shopping appraoch, which will now be replaced by integrated shopping results presented the same way as any other search engine results.
Bing for Schools Brings Ad-Free Search to Students
Yesterday marked the inauguration of Microsoft’s new “Bing For Schools” program, intended to support digital literacy (or at least how to use a search engine, a crucial skill for any student) among kids in elementary, middle and high schools across the country.
Google Now Like-Quick Answers Come to Desktop Search
The lines between desktop and mobile devices continue to blur with a new post published on the Google Official Blog announcing the arrival of Google Now-like quick answers in Google Search, not just on smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices but on desktop PCs and laptops as well.
July Search Engine Market Share: Google Gains, Others Lose
New comScore data is now available with insights on search engine market share data in the United States for July of 2013. Google was the month’s big winner at the expense of Yahoo, Ask and AOL. Bing was immune to Google’s gains, however, were flat.
Google: Mobile Sites Should Prioritize Speed
Google’s new quality guidelines may have you feeling a little frustrated, especially if you trade in rich content that can take a few moments for users to load, even on a 4G connection.
Google Search Results to Include In-Depth Articles Section
Old-school SEOers will still tell you that a blog post, or any page of content on the internet, should be comprised of no more than 300 to 400 total words – maybe 500 words at a maximum and only 500 words if the subject matter that is being discussed really calls for it.
Does Google Only Fight English-Language Web Spam?
If your website or blog site predominately caters to an English-speaking audience, it is all too easy to forget that the rest of the world – at least the portions with internet access – use Google and other various search engines too search for information.
You Can Now Embed Facebook Posts
By now, everyone’s accustomed to pulling links from news, entertainment and business websites and posting them on
Google Brings Back Zagat App for Nightlife and Restaurants
A post published yesterday on the Google Official Blog reveals that Google is bringing back the Zagat mobile application for both iOS and Android mobile devices.
Is Expandable Text OK With Google?
Matt Cutts, head of web spam at Google, is back with another video Q&A session, this time focusing on and tackling the topic of whether expandable text sections will negatively impact your search engine optimization efforts.
Customer Satisfaction Down for Search Engines and Social Networks
A new customer satisfaction survey published by ForeSee Results does not bode well for most of our beloved search engines and the most popular social network sites, according to a new report by Search Engine Land.
7+ New Categories Come to Bing Autosuggest
A new post published yesterday on the Bing Search Blog indicated that seven new categories are going to be released on the Bing Autosuggest application – a functionality in which Bing provides you with a list of predictions as to what you might be searching for based on the text you have entered so far.
Search Market Share Remains Stagnant from May to June
Most months, all the major search engines trade at least a few percentage points of market share, but from May to June of this year, all of the Big 3 (Google, Yahoo and Bing) and even the lesser-remembered two (AOL and Ask.com) remained essentially stagnant.
New Google Maps is First Dedicated for Tablets
The official Google Maps Blog published news yesterday of a significant upgrade to – what else? – the Google Maps application. The new version of the Google Maps application is being released now through Google Play for smartphone and tablet devices that utilize the Android platform.
Facebook Graph Search is Now Live
If you’re an English-language Facebook user in the United States, you should see a new feature appear the next time you log in, if you haven’t already. According to the Facebook Newsroom, Graph Search – which has been in beta status for the past six months or so – is now being rolled out to all U.S. users.
4th of July has Little Impact on Bing Search Trends
How did the Bing search trends and activity change during the week leading up to the 4th of July holiday celebration? Not much at all, according to a recent post published on the Bing Search Blog that you will either find highly surprising or incredibly predictable, depending on your frame of mind.
Bing Adds Image Search Filter for Usage Rights
If you’re populating your website or blog with images, it’s a good idea to first make sure you’re doing so legally. Just because you find an image on the web through a Google, Bing or Yahoo image search doesn’t mean that that image is free for you to use.
Netmark Unveils Top 10 Google Ranking Factors
How, exactly, does Google decide the search results rank of a given web page? The simple answer is that nobody knows with 100% certainty except for people like Matt Cutts and other members of Google’s Search Quality Team, but their lips are sealed.
How to Send a Reconsideration Request to Google
Google’s Search Quality Team posted an informative FAQ on the Google Webmaster Central Blog about filing a reconsideration request to Google for backlinks – something you may need if your site suffers from inbound links from spammers and black hat sites.
DuckDuckGo Reaches 3 Million Daily Searches
Just over a week ago, we reported that indie search engine DuckDuckGo had passed 2 million searches in a single day. Impressive, given that they finally passed 1 million daily searches in February 2012 after struggling far on the margins of the search engine competition for several years.
Do Stock Images Affect SEO? No, Says Cutts
When you’re choosing images to put up on your site, who are you mostly concerned with – search engines, or the people actually visiting and looking at your site? Although you might be inclined to place a lot of importance on the former, a new video from Google web spam head Matt Cutts may have you rethinking your strategy.
WWDC: What Will iOS 7 Bring to iPhone?
Apple made their highly anticipated appearance at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, and while they introduced
DuckDuckGo Reaches 2 Million Searches in One Day
If you’re among the many who feel that Google digs a little too far into your personal life and violates your privacy, you’ve probably heard of DuckDuckGo, the search engine whose most-touted feature is the fact that they fully respect user privacy.
Pinterest Allows Users to Search their Own Pins
If you have ever struggled to find the old photographs that you had previously pinned to Pinterest yourself, the photo sharing website has a new feature that it has added that is designed to make your life a little bit easier from this point forward.
Yahoo Totally Revamps Search Appearance
Big changes came to Yahoo today, as the company has totally reinvented the appearance of their search engine results pages, also known as SERPs. At first glance, the new look is cleaner, easier to scan and more focused on the results themselves.
Health Nut? Google’s Getting the Nutrition Info You Need
If you’re at all concerned with watching what you eat, a new feature being added now to Google search should make it easier. In short, Google will now allow you to see detailed nutrition information for a wide variety of foods, including whole foods like bananas and tomatoes as well as meals like burritos and macaroni and cheese.
Google to Warner Bros, NBC Universal: No, We Won’t De-List Mega
Remember way back in 2012, when the federal government forced legendary (perhaps notorious?) internet business mogul
Google Rolls Out Penguin 2.0, a New Weapon Against Web Spam
According to Search Engine Land, the latest instrument of destruction in Google’s battle against web spam – Penguin 2.0 – is now live. There may be confusion among the SEO media about what exactly to call the update; Google is going with Penguin 2.0, as we will as well, while Search Engine Land is calling it Penguin 4.
Study Reveals Search Engine Popularity by State
While a recent comScore report indicates that Bing and Yahoo are slowly chipping away at Google’s dominance of the search industry, a new study by WebpageFX tells a slightly different story.
Bing Chips Away at Google’s Market Share in April
Bing’s piece of the United States search market share pie grew bigger than ever before in April, all at the expense of Google, according to a new report from comScore. The company already set a personal record for search market share in March, when it climbed to 16.9%.
The Summer of Google: Killing Spam, Updating Penguin
Matt Cutts, Google’s chief of web spam, is back with a new video, this time answering the question of what types of SEO changes to expect from Google over the summer.
Is Yahoo Search Dead? Hardly – New Features Coming Soon
Just barely over one year ago, we discussed how a string of layoffs could mean the end of Yahoo search. However, it now appears that Marissa Mayer’s leadership has changed all that, as Yahoo is redoubling its efforts by adding new upgrades, tools, and features to its search engine.
Microsoft Relaunches Bing It On Challenge
According to Microsoft, Google isn’t the only search engine in town. That being said, Microsoft is designing another advertising plan in an effort to gain market share in the competitive world of search engines by relaunching their Bing It On Challenge.
Yelp Records Highest Ever Earnings in Q1 2013
The local business online review industry is absolutely booming, if the most recent earnings report from Yelp is any indication. An online urban guide and business review site founded in October of 2004, Yelp brought in an astounding $46 million in the first quarter of 2013, up almost 70% from the same quarter in 2012.
Google’s Cutts Reveals 5 Most Common SEO Mistakes
After explaining why new pages drop in ranking over time and warning site owners about the dangers of purchasing a spammy domain, Google web spam chief Matt Cutts is back with a new informative video. This time, Cutts is talking about the top 5 mistakes site owners make with their SEO.
Bing Touts Dynamic Page Sizing, Reveals Click-Thru Rates
A post published yesterday on the Bing Search Quality Insights Blog explained the company’s thoughts in relation to search engine results that display no more and no less than 10 blue links on a page.
Nielsen Releases Stats on “Second-Screening”
Although tablets are often considered “mobile devices,” most people aren’t carrying them around all day – instead, they’re spending plenty of their tablet time sitting on the couch and engaging in an activity that’s come to be known as “second-screening.”
Bing, Yahoo Gain Ground on Google Search Market Share in March
The majority of search market share gains that Google managed to make in the search market share in February were lost to rivals competitors Bing and Yahoo in March, according to a new report published by comScore.
Can a Spam Domain Rank Later? Unlikely, Says Cutts
So, you found an existing domain name for sale and it just so happens to be available at a steal of a price. The only problem is that for most or all of the domain name’s life so far, it’s been a spam site packed with black hat SEO techniques. Now, you have good intentions to turn the domain around and use it for your reputable business.
Why’d Your Page Drop Ranking Over Time? Matt Cutts Explains
You posted a new page of content that you’re particularly proud of. You enter the page’s target keyword into Google a few days later, and you’re pleased to see that it’s ranked #1! However, when you check back a few days later, your post is now ranking #4.
Traffic from “New and Improved” Google Image Search Drops 63%
Back in January, Google drastically redesigned how their image search feature works. Although the Google image search
Facebook Home: Good or Bad for Google?
The internet was swept up yesterday morning in rumors about the potential announcement of a Facebook phone, long awaited by analysts who expected Facebook to enter the hardware market to compete with Apple, Samsung and other smartphone makers.
April Fools Recap: SEO Edition
If you logged online yesterday morning and forgot to check your calendar, you may have had some pressing questions. Is YouTube really shutting down? Is Google going to start allowing users to search for smells? As you’ve realized by now, no, the sky isn’t falling – it was just April Fools day.
Mobile Device Searches Up 20%+ in 2012
A recent study, conducted in 2012, of 3,000 adults in the United States found that more and more individuals are using their mobile device to search the internet. More specifically, the results of the study concluded that tablet searches increased by 19% while and searches on smartphones increased by 26%.
Apple Acquires WiFiSLAM – What’s Next?
Apple Acquires WiFiSLAM, according to Reuters, was acknowledged by Apple as they stated that they are in the final stages of their acquisition of WiFiSLAM, a tech startup focused on indoor tracking.
Yahoo Acquires Social Search Startup Jybe
Despite having just one-sixth of Google’s search market share, Yahoo isn’t giving up on search just yet – not even close. In fact, the company just announced the acquisition of Jybe, a startup company that analyzes trends across a variety of social circles in order to offer personalized recommendations to members of those social circles.
Moving Your Site? Bing Offers a New Webmaster Tool to Help
Are you planning on moving your website? Many site owners hardly give it a second thought when they decide they want to move some pages around on their site, or even move their whole site to a new domain. Unfortunately, these types of moves can play havoc with your standing among search engines, especially if you don’t take the proper steps first.
Google Makes Major Gain In February Search Market Share
Who were the big winners and losers last month in search market share? According to a a new press release from the analysts at comScore, Google made major gains and came out on top with a gain of about half a percentage point.
Site Hacked? There’s a Google Help Center for That
So your web site has been hacked – happens to the best of us, really. What’s the next step? Freak out, give up on your website, or possibly beg the hackers for mercy? The answer – none of the above.
Yahoo Cutting Seven Services
The ability for employees to work from home is not the only thing CEO Marissa Mayer is getting rid of at Yahoo. According to a post on the Official Yahoo Blog entitled “Focusing on our future – some changes to our product line-up,” Yahoo will be cutting seven services from its offerings, including some that SEO’ers might miss quite a bit.
Google Infographic Reveals How Search Works
Just a few days ago, Google released a very handy infographic entitled How Search Works. Even if you already consider yourself well versed in search engine optimization *SEO) and marketing, the infographic is certainly worth a read.
Android-esque Navigation Tool Coming to Google.com?
In an apparent effort to streamline their various interfaces and give users better access to all their services, Google is testing a new navigation tool on Google.com.
8.5% of All Search Clicks Go to Facebook
Nearly 8.5% of all search engine click results bring users to Facebook, according to the 2013 Digital Marketing Report prepared by Experian Marketing Services. In fact, a whopping 20% of all search clicks go to just five different websites, including YouTube, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook, if the report is to be believed.
Pinterest Now Worth $2.5 Billion
If you weren’t already saying “why didn’t I think of that” with regards to photo sharing site Pinterest, you will now. According to a new report in CNET, the site – which hit 10 million unique monthly visitors faster than any other independent site in Interent history – is now worth a staggering $2.5 billion.
Google, Bing Up in January U.S. Search Market Share
Previously we discussed how Google’s global search market share had dipped slightly in December of 2012. Although we do not have more recent data on how Google fared against their competitors, we do know that they have rebounded, at least in the United States.
Bing is Better than Google – Bill Gates
Well, at least Bill Gates has a reason to be biased when the word Microsoft is mentioned in a conversation – Bill Gates is the one who founded Microsoft in 1975, and many years later, in 2008 to be exact, stepped down as CEO of the company.
Google’s Grip on Global Search Share Loosens Slightly
Google is still the worldwide juggernaut when it comes to search engine market share, but a new report from Search Engine Land reminds us that there are plenty of other search providers that could be just a few ingenious ideas away from cutting into that dominance.
Still Not Marketing on Pinterest? Infographic may Change Your Mind
Social media firm Wishpond has just released a new infographic describing how users typically interact with photo sharing web site giant Pinterest. If you are an internet marketer selling photogenic products or services, this information could greatly influence your social media strategy in 2013.
The Hottest Search Terms of the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl pulled in about 108 million viewers this past Sunday. But what did all of those people do while they watched the Super Bowl? Searched the internet, of course!
Vringo Wins Lawsuits Against Google, AOL; Microsoft is Next
Vringo, a company engaged in the innovation, development and monetization of mobile technologies and intellectual property,
Twitter Who? Google+ Becomes #2 Social Network
According to recent report published by Search Engine Journal, there has been a major shakeup among the typical leaders within the social networking world.
Google Introduces Smoother Image Search
Google has been tinkering with their image search feature lately, changing from side-navigation to top-navigation for their search options menu bar only a couple of months ago.
Mobile Devices Account for Quarter of Search Clicks
If you need any additional convincing that your online advertising campaign should be targeting mobile devices, have a look at the new “State of Paid Search” report recently published by The Search Agency. The report published by The Search Agency concluded that paid search – including paid clicks, cost per clicks (CPC’s) and impressions are continuing to rapidly increase in popularity and volume.
Chocolate Bars in the Mail? One Company’s Unique SEO Strategy
There’s an interesting post by Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land today about a company currently in the midst of an innovative campaign that uses a unique SEO strategy. Plastering their name all over social media? Not really. Trading links with some black hat SEO firm huddled up in Siberia?
Internet Archive Wayback Machine Reaches 240 Billion Pages
If you have never heard of the Archive Wayback Machine, get ready for a trip down memory lane – especially if you are a long time veteran internet user with fond but hazy recollections of how things were “back in the day.”
How do Facebook and Google Make Money? 46% Are Clueless
The results of a survey conducted last August by The Search Agency and Harris Interactive are now in, revealing that nearly half of Americans have a poor understanding of how online brands like Facebook and Google make money.
eBook Glue Turns Blog RSS Feeds into eBooks
Experienced bloggers and site owners know that the best blogging and publishing tools are often the simplest ones. One of the latest and handiest tools to come to the blogging industry – and this one’s so simple even a monkey could use it – is eBook Glue.
How to Become an Affiliate Blogger Success in 7 Steps
Of all the ways to monetize your blog – placing advertisements, selling merchandise, offering a premium membership – affiliate marketing is one of the most attractive.
Meet Izik, A Search Engine for Tablets
While Google, Yahoo and Bing may have all modified the mobile versions of their search engines to make them more tablet-friendly, no company – until now – has created a search engine that is specifically designed for tablets.
The Hottest Search Term of 2012? “Facebook”
“Facebook” was entered into the various search engines more often than any other keyword, or keyword phase, in 2012, the same as in 2011, 2010 and 2009, according to a new list of search trends compiled by, and published by Experian Marketing Services.
How to Become a Topic Generating Machine
As the weeks wear on, generating new topics for your website or blog can become a real chore. Some days, creativity seems to be in endless supply, and you’re able to come up with more titles and topics than you could possibly handle that week.
Quick View Button Coming to Google’s Mobile SERPs?
If you frequently use a mobile device to access the web, and especially if you sometimes suffer from a slower-than-ideal wireless internet connection, a new feature from Google known as “Quick View” could make your life a whole lot easier.
New Instagram Terms of Service Stir Outrage
Photo sharing service Instagram made a lot of loyal users royally unhappy yesterday when they introduced their new terms of service, as reported by GizMag, Business Insider and others. The new terms state that “you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service.”
Yahoo Touts New Ad Format: Cost Per Lead
Under the fresh direction of Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has just announced a brand new advertising unit that should prove interesting to internet marketers while allowing Yahoo to profit off its search business in ways it’s simply been unable to with Microsoft.
iPhone 5S Coming in Mid-2013, iPhone 6 Prototypes Circulating?
It’s only been less than three months since Apple released their new iPhone 5 phone, which has sold over five million units within its opening weekend despite a poor critical reception to one of its most anticipated new features, Apple Maps.
Meet Aviary, Twitter’s Answer to Instagram
It’s been about eight months since Facebook made the largest purchase in its short company history, acquiring photo sharing and limited-editing service Instagram for the cool sum of $1 billion in stock options and cash. Twitter and Instagram have had a strained relationship that has led to disabling the Instagram photo integration on Twitter starting December 9th.
Google Rolls Out Mobile-Friendly AdSense Text Ads
People using mobile devices to access the internet increase every day and Google is responding to meet their needs, according to Google Inside AdSense Blog. AdSense text ads found in the margins of millions of monetized websites the world over.
The Top Yahoo Search Terms of 2012
Just a few days ago, we brought you the top searches of 2012 for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Today, we give you the top Yahoo search terms most frquently entered for the past year, a primary competitor of Bing despite the fact that both search engines work off the same search algorithms.
Biggest Online Shopping Day in History? Cyber Monday 2012
A new press release published by comScore reveals that Monday of this week – Cyber Monday, in case you somehow managed to miss it — was the biggest online shopping day in history.
Bing Announces 2012’s Biggest Search Trends
Microsoft’s Bing announces their search engine list of the top search trends for 2012, and it’s about double the size of last year’s list.
Although most of the 19 Bing search categories are strongly focused on pop culture – they kind of have to be, since a search trend can’t make it to the “top” unless it’s popular – they still serve as useful information to creative site owners and internet marketers within any niche.
New Social Sidebar Coming to Bing
Bing unveiled its Social Sidebar about six months ago, allowing users to see how the recent activity of their social media friends relates to their current searches. While the feature lets you know which of your friends might be able to help with whatever you’re searching for based on their social media activity, it can be a little startling visually, and lacks features that could make it a truly useful device.
New Interface Tools Come to Google AdWords
A series of useful new interface tools have been incorporated into Google AdWords. If you log into your AdWords account today, you should find a new “Keyword” column that allows you to detect exactly which word(s) from a query triggered the display of your advertisement.
Only 3% of Consumers Convert Before Doing Online Research
If your business model depends at all on online reviews, listen up: search engine marketing company McKremie just released its Online Reputation Management Survey, an informal study conducted between October 25th and November 6th of this year.
FTC Preparing Antitrust Ultimatum for Google?
According to the following news outlets, Google could be facing a major antitrust complaint from the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, if the recent reports published by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are to be believed.
Web-Based User Profiles Come to Instagram
According to a recent post published on Search Engine Journal, Facebook-owned and operated Instagram is now adding
Google’s UK Search Market Share Makes Rare Dip Under 90%
It is common knowledge among the majority of American SEO’ers that Google’s dominance, in terms of their overall share of the search engine market, makes them far and away the most popular way in which individuals search the internet.
AdWords Earn Google $121 Million Every Day
A recent study published by WordStream determined that as of the third quarter of 2012, AdWords earn Google, on average, over $100 million every single day .
Disavow Links Tool is More of a Last Resort, Says Google
Last week, we discussed the new Disavow Links tool developed and released by Google that allows website owners and developers to dictate which inbound links they would rather not have Google assess when determining their website ranking.
Apple Reveals iPad Mini, Much More
Despite nearly universal criticism of Apple Maps in iOS6, Apple has already sold 3 million units of its iPhone 5. Several experts predict that 1 billion iOS devices will be in people’s hands by 2015, and Apple took a major step toward fulfilling that prophecy yesterday with the unveiling of two new iPads.
Site Owners can Disavow Links with New Google Tool
Back in May, in the immediate aftermath of Google’s Penguin update, we talked about how sites were being down-ranked because their link profile included inbound links from shady, irrelevant or otherwise unreliable sites. Site owners complained heavily, saying that they were being unfairly penalized for something beyond their control.
Nearly All Manual Actions Now Reported by Google
If you are one of the many website owners or SEO marketers that are displeased with your search engine result rankings for the various pages across your website and you have a “sneaky” suspicion that manual actions implemented by Google must be to blame, you can officially stop wondering.
Does Google Think Romney is “Completely Wrong”?
If you have conducted a Google search for the phrase “completely wrong” anytime within the last several days, the image results that are displayed from a Google search may have convinced you that Google is on a mission to deface Mitt Romney’s campaign, one search query at a time.
Yahoo Loses Search Engine Market Share in September
Although official comScore data for September search market share won’t officially be released until later today, Search Engine Land already has a preview, and the results indicate that Yahoo loses search engine market share while Google managed to make some small gains and Bing held firm from August.
Twitter Launches Search-Friendly User Directory
As reported by Marketing Land, Twitter has launched a directory of user profiles with little fanfare in an apparent attempt to improve their search engine optimization.
Chitika Study Says 43% of Google Searches are Local
According to a new exclusive report published by Search Engine Land, approximately 43% of all Google searches that are performed by users are for queries seeking additional information related to topics that are local to their area. The statistic, which may be surprising to some website owners who continue to ignore the power of local search engine marketing, comes courtesy of a recent study conducted by the Chitika advertising network.
“Bing It On” Challenge a Major Success, says Microsoft
A little under a month ago, Microsoft issued an aggressive challenge to search engine users everywhere in the form of “Bing it On”, a promotion that asked individuals to compare the search results provided by Bing vs. the search results provided by Google for the same queries to determine which ones were better.
Facebook Purging Fake Accounts
Did your business page on Facebook lose a significant number of fans yesterday and today? If so, do not be surprised if you lose even more over the coming months. However, do not fret about it as you most likely didn’t do anything to alienate or irritate your followers and hence, incite a mass exodus.
Should Google and Yahoo Just Merge? Yes, says Eric Schmidt
Earlier today, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman at Google, spoke in Tokyo about how Google has yet to release its own maps app for iOS6 and iPhone 5 (to summarize, they haven’t worked on it at all, and Apple would need to approve it before release — fat chance of that, in light of Apple’s desire for iOS6 users to use Apple Maps instead).
iPhone 5 Debuts with Lackluster Maps App
And lackluster may be a bit of an understatement. Although thousands are lined up to buy Apple’s new iPhone 5 and thousands more have already exited the checkout line with their lighter, thinner smartphones in hand, universal criticism has been brought down on a key feature of the new iOS6: Apple Maps. NBC News is calling it an “epic fail”, and a summary of the situation has been offered by Reuters:
A Facebook Search Engine? Someday, says Zuckerberg
In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook discussed the company’s falling stock price, their
What’s New in Apple iOS6?
Apple officially announced the iPhone 5 yesterday, and while that’s good news for anyone looking to replace their dusty old 4S models they picked up last fall, the more interesting tid bits for search engine optimizers came in announcements related to the Apple iOS6 revision of its ever-popular mobile operating system.
New Amazon Kindle Fires will Use Bing by Default
Maybe Jeff Bezos and other executives at Amazon took the “Bing It On” challenge and liked what they saw so much that they decided to switch to a new default search engine platform.
Microsoft Says “Bing It On” to Google
Two days ago we talked about how Bing is quietly trying to differentiate itself from Google by offering more than 10 results per page, something of a no-brainer that many users will probably appreciate. Microsoft is now upping the ante far more directly, with a “side-by-side search off” the company is calling “Bing It On.”
Bing Showing More Than 10 Results Per Page… Sometimes
Bing vs. Google – which should you choose when you need to find something online? For most consumers, the decision starts with an even simpler question: “what the heck is the difference, anyways?” Bing, which is largely tied with Yahoo for search engine market share (in other words, way behind the Big G), understands this, and is doing everything it can to differentiate itself from the search giant.
Projected 2012 Earnings for Facebook Down $1 Billion
Bad news continues to come down the pipeline for Mark Zuckerberg and company of Facebook, this time in the form of the market analysis group eMarketer slashing the company’s projected earnings for 2012 by a whopping $1 billion.
Yahoo and Bing are More Popular Among IE Users
A new study published by Chitika Insights indicates that Yahoo and Bing search engines are more popular among users of Internet Explorer than users of any other browser, including Safari, Opera, Chrome and Firefox.
Google Job Posting Indicates New Focus on User Privacy
As reported by David Angotti and recently published over at Search Engine Journal, a new Google job posting indicates that the search engine giant may actually be taking steps to enhance and protect the privacy of their users.
Survey Says: SEO Pros Love Google Tools
The statistical results of the SEOmoz industry-wide survey were published just a couple of days ago, making perfectly clear that Google provides and supports the most popular and useful SEO tools and services on the planet.
Search Market Share Remains Stagnant from June to July
As reported and published by Search Engine Land, search engine market share among the top five search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and AOL, remained largely stagnant between the months of the June and July.
Many Major Sites to Evade Google’s Pirate Penalty
Beginning this week, Google will implement and enforce a new “pirate penalty” against web sites that regularly and knowingly violate a variety of copyright infringement laws.
Major Growth for Yelp in Q2 2012
Despite Facebook’s ongoing troubles, not all social networks are struggling. Yelp, the popular social restaurant and business
Fake Users and Big Losses: More Trouble for Facebook
It looks like there’s no end in sight as additional concerns continue to surface for Facebook, if recent reports published by the Los Angeles Times and Fox News are to be believed.
Google Buys Wildfire for $400 Million
Google, the biggest search engine company in the world, apparently has no problem spending extremely large sums of cash, even when faced with the possibility of almost $4 billion in fines. As reported on the official Google blog, the search engine giant recently made another massive acquisition by purchasing Wildfire, a small fledgling social marketing company.
iAcquire Returns to Google’s Index
Back toward the end of May, we reported that Google had removed search marketing firm iAcquire from its indexes as part of Penguin Update 1.1, an algorithm update intended to reduce the visibility of webspam in Google search results.
8 Values And Characteristics Every Successful Blogger Possesses
Many new blogs, across the spectrum of virtually every conceivable topic imaginable, are created and started each and every day on the internet. However, the vast majority of blogs that are created are unsuccessful and the posts are discontinued after a relatively short period of time.
Google Could Face $3.8 Billion in Fines from EU Regulators
Google could face fines as high as $3.8 billion dollars imposed by European regulators, according to the Washington Post. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt recently contacted Joaquin Almunia, the European Union Competition Commissioner, to negotiate a deal that would save Google from forthcoming antitrust litigation.
Facebook Losing U.S. Users; Stock Price in Trouble?
A new report published by Rory Maher, Capstone Investment’s senior internet analyst, spells out some rather dreary news for Mark Zuckerberg and friends at Facebook, the world’s largest social media networking site. Maher’s report indicates that Facebook is bleeding users fairly quickly in several of its most crucial global markets, namely Europe and the United States.
Google Adds “Download Latest Links” Button to Webmaster Tools
Way back in May, we reported on the aftermath of Google Penguin and how so many sites saw their rankings fall to the nether-pages of Google for apparent webspam offenses, examples of which include keyword stuffing, associating with content farms and engaging in shady link building practices.
Using Local Search to Drive Customers to Your Business
One of the best ways to get started with search engine optimization (SEO) on your website and drive customers to your local business is to work with local search, both in major search engines and on mobile platforms.
Google Rolled Out Panda Update 3.8 on June 25th
A recent post on Twitter indicates that Google released a new update to Panda just yesterday on June 25th. The update comes in the wake of other recent Panda updates, including one on April 26th and another on June 8th. The new update is being described by SEO’ers as Google Panda Update 3.8. It’s slated to affect approximately 1% of all search engine queries across the world.
Big Changes for Bing Image Search
A few days ago, Microsoft’s Bing search engine rolled out a total overhaul to its image search feature that will certainly appeal to fans of Pinterest. The most apparent change comes in the appearance of the search results themselves, which are now presented in a tiled layout similar to the aforementioned social media site, with a minimal amount of white space.
14 Million Daily Google Searches Retrieve Hacked Sites
Niels Provos of Google’s Security Team published a new post today on the Google Online Security Blog, detailing the actions the company will be taking in order to reduce the presence of hacked sites and harmful malware visible within search results.
Yelp to Power Bing Local Pages
Just last week, we talked about some major upgrades coming to Apple’s mobile operating system iOS6, namely a collaboration with Yelp that will allow Siri users to instantly retrieve menus, locations, prices, reviews and other information about local restaurants.
Major Upgrades for Apple Siri in iOS6
Apple unleashed a slew of new software and hardware products yesterday including the lavishly spec’d and absurdly priced Retina Display MacBook Pro that visual professionals of all stripes are salivating over.
39 Changes to Google Search in May 2012
May was a busy month for Google as they rolled out 39 changes to their Google search algorithm. Changes include the introduction of the Knowledge Graph, upgrades for Asian users, a retooled search app for the iPhone, and better hacked page detection
17% of Top Twitter Searches Change Hourly
If you are trying to base your blog or website’s regularly-updated content around what is hot right at the moment on Twitter, you had better be quick about it. According to a new post published on the Twitter Engineering blog, a full 17% of the most popular Twitter searches change on an hourly basis.
Google Building New Tool Suite for Small Business Marketers
According to a Sunday report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is developing a new suite of services and tools aimed squarely at small business marketers. The new service, which was once known as Business Builder, could be launched as soon as July, according to a “person familiar with the matter.”
iAcquire to Stop Buying Links
Hot on the heels’ of Matt Cutts’ announcement of Penguin Update 1.1, a search algorithm refresh to a major Google update largely targeted at reducing webspam and the rankings of sites that trade in it, search marketing firm iAcquire has announced that it will stop purchasing links for its clients.
Penguin Update 1.1 is Here
Ever since Google shook up the internet with its Penguin update over a month ago on April 24th, bloggers and site developers have been speculating about a “new Penguin update” every time they suspect even a mild alteration to Google’s search algorithms.
Facebook IPO Fails to Impress
Today marks the third day of live trading for Facebook shares after the company’s historic IPO last Friday. The initial public offering itself was plagued with technical problems that prevented the actual shares from becoming available for purchase as scheduled.
Google Penguin: One Month Later
It’s been approximately one month since the Google Penguin release shook up the internet with its controversial updates to several key ranking algorithms, which were intended to reduce the visibility of webspam but apparently dragged a lot of worthwhile websites and blogs down along with it.
Google to Purchase Meebo for $100 Million?
Sources including AllThingsD and VentureBeat are reporting that Google could be on the cusp of purchasing Meebo, a popular social media platform, for the tidy sum of $100 million. Such a deal would represent the biggest acquisition in the tech world since Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion just over one month ago.
Yahoo Loses Search Market Share for 8th Straight Month
The official comScore data regarding April 2012 search engine market share was just published and released a few days ago. One piece of information gleaned from the publication is that, as expected, Yahoo loses search market share in April.
Google to Receive Heavy Fines for Safari Privacy Debacle
A few months ago, we reported that Google was covertly bypassing Safari privacy settings for the primary purpose of installing tracking cookies in their users’ browsers. The purpose of the alleged hack was to circumvent Safari’s default settings in order to secretly place web forms in online ads.
Google Details April Search Changes
April was a tumultuous month for search engine optimization (SEO), especially in light of Google’s Penguin Update in addition to revisions for Panda. A few days ago, Google offered some assistance and clarity to SEO’ers everywhere by announcing a list of 52 search changes, all of which have already taken effect.
Introducing the “Social Networking Online Protection Act”
At least somebody out there is concerned with your social media privacy rights, but you might be surprised to hear that the concerned parties actually reside in Washington.
Google Offers Feedback Form for Penguin Update Victims
Google released a webspam update (now officially referred to as the “Penguin Update”) last week which has a lot of website developers, bloggers, search engine optimization (SEO) marketers, and owners wondering what happened to their page rankings.
Google’s Webspam Update: One Massive Fail?
Yesterday, we reported that Google would soon be releasing a search engine update to reduce the website page rankings of websites that engaged in webspam, or black hat search engine optimization (SEO) practices and techniques, that are in direct violation of Google’s quality guidelines and procedures.
Google Reveals Anti-Webspam Update
According to a post published on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Google will soon be launching another update aimed at minimizing webspam and reducing the visibility of sites that fall short of the search giant’s quality guidelines. The post indicates that approximately 3% of all search queries will be affected.
Google Drive Officially, Finally Released
It’s been a long time coming – six years, in fact, since rumors first started to emerge that Google would “soon” be releasing a hosted online storage solution that would compete with services such as Dropbox. That moment has finally come, and Google Drive has been released and is now officially open for business.
How Google Works, According to Matt Cutts
For all questions SEO-related, Google Webspam department head Matt Cutts is probably the person to ask. Cutts joined Google as a software engineer way back in January of 2000, and he’s become something of an SEO legend during his decade-plus of service at the world’s biggest search engine.
AdWords Will Automatically Match Keyword Variations
As a website owner or blogger, building keyword lists in AdWords to account for things like keyword variations, plurals, misspellings, and abbreviations is probably low on your “like to do” list. After all, Google already accounts for these types of variations automatically within its organic search results, so why can’t the same be done in AdWords?
Google Reveals “Brand Activate” and New Advertising Metrics
According to a post this morning on the Google Official Blog, Google will be making a new program entitled “Brand Activate” available to online advertisers in the very near future. The purpose of Brand Activate will be to offer online marketers additional metrics specifically designed to highlight the benefits of online advertising.
Survey: Personalized Search is a Little Too Personal
MDG Advertising recently released a comprehensive new infographic detailing public perceptions of the search market
Yahoo to Retain Search After Restructuring
A little over a week ago, we reported that upcoming layoffs and restructuring could signal the end of Yahoo’s search functionality. According to a memo by Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and reported by AllThingsD, those fears can be put to bed – at least for now.
New AdWords Features Bolster Local Advertising
If your site or blog targets local customers, a slew of features included in Google’s new AdWords release should make your life a whole lot easier. According to the Google Inside AdWords Blog, AdWords users will now be able to specifically target over 30,000 ZIP codes in order to reach out to potential customers.
34% of U.S. High Schoolers are on iPhones
Ever wish you had owned one of the fanciest smartphones available when you were a mere teenager? That dream is actually a reality for a huge chunk of American high schoolers.
What Happens in an Internet Minute?
The evidence that technology is ever-evolving and occurring at a rapid pace can be seen in virtually every aspect of how we perform everyday tasks, both inside and outside of work. This can be witnessed through making a phone call through the technology in your car to purchasing items over the internet at lightning speed and the ability to remotely control functions at your home while you are away, to name a few.
Do Upcoming Layoffs Spell the Death of Yahoo Search?
Yahoo has been struggling lately, losing approximately 2.3% of overall search engine market share over the past year. Google and Bing, meanwhile, continue to surge. The latest bad news for Yahoo, as reported by AllThingsD, is a bit more significant than an incremental drop in search engine market share.
Google Drive Finally Coming in Early April?
A few of months ago, rumors were swirling that Google would finally release its hosted cloud storage service, tentatively called Google Drive. At the time, the rumors suggested the release would occur within a few weeks, but some SEO experts started to wonder whether the rumors were just an echo of similar announcements from 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011 when that timeframe came and went.
Google Autocomplete Under Fire in Defamation Suit
Most individuals would probably agree that the Google autocomplete feature, which automatically guesses the next
Wikipedia Appears on First Page of Google Less than Half the Time
Most site owners and bloggers are eternally envious of Wikipedia, if for no other reason than the online encyclopedia’s apparent knack for showing up at or near the top of search results so frequently.
Google Developing Over-Optimization Penalty
According to Search Engine Land, Google is working on a new algorithm that will penalize sites that attempt to “over-optimize” or “over-SEO” their on-site content.
The announcement was delivered by Matt Cutts, the head of the webspam team at Google, at a South by Southwest panel named “Dear Google and Bing: Help Me Rank Better.”
Yahoo Suing Facebook Over 10 Patents
If you are a company that recently filed for a $100 billion IPO, the last thing you want on your hands is a lawsuit. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Facebook is now faced with, and the plaintiff in this case is not some small internet start-up company looking to cash in on the success of Facebook, but rather Yahoo, one of the world’s largest and most popular search engines.
February Search Market Share: Google/Bing Up, Yahoo Down
The recently published comScore data regarding search market share for February of 2012 has now been made available to the public, and the big news is exactly what you’d expect.
Beware of Pinterest Phishing Scam
Whenever a new website happens to attract the attention of the general population, it has a way of attracting a few seedy characters as well. I’m talking, of course, about internet con artists, and their tendency to latch onto whatever happens to be popular in order to launch an attack and make a quick buck. In this case, the site-of-the-moment is Pinterest, the popular social media site that has amassed a user base exceeding 13 million individuals despite legality concerns and reports that the site was covertly adding affiliate links to user submissions.
Google to Launch Siri Competitor This Year
As reported by the International Business Times and other sources, Google is looking to release its own version of Apple’s Siri by the fourth quarter of 2012, giving Android users access to a virtual assistant that will answer questions and keep digital assets organized using intuitive voice commands. Siri was the “killer app” packaged with the iPhone 4S, an app that helped Apple move over 4 million units just a few days after that phone was released in October of 2011. Google’s Siri alternative will likely mimic Apple’s current app with the usual Android touches.
Google+ Users are Less Active than MySpace Users
Yes, I said “MySpace,” not Twitter, not Facebook, or some other social networking website that’s actually relevant in 2012. Things were looking up for Google+ in January when Larry Page (Google’s CEO) said that over 90 million users were now registered on the search engine giant’s social network.
Flickr is Allowing Users to Disable Pinterest Sharing
SEO headlines have been ablaze with news and controversy regarding Pinterest, the hot new image-based social media site that has been growing very quickly and is now competing with Google and Twitter in terms of referral traffic despite its beta status.
Scroogle Closes Doors – Where Next for Private Search?
As reported by BetaBeat and other sources, the public’s desire for greater privacy when performing search engine queries took another blow yesterday when Daniel Brandt, owner of the non-profit search engine Scroogle, announced that his website would be taken down and “gone forever” due to a number of crippling DDOS attacks and relentless pressure from Google.
Google is Bypassing Safari Privacy Settings, Report Says
Thanks to upcoming changes to Google’s privacy policies, everyone from consumer advocates and government
Survey Says! People Hate Google’s Targeted Search Results
According to a survey conducted by AskYourTargetMarket, people aren’t so keen on Google’s decision to force targeted
Google to Change Search Results for Health Queries
If your site or blog deals with health and fitness-related information (and if it doesn’t, you might want to rethink that, given that 2011 comScore data indicates that around 100 million Americans search for health info every month), listen up: Google will be changing the way it handles health-related queries in the very near future.
Study: Social Media is Harder to Resist than Sex and Cigarettes
If your website or blog still hasn’t made the jump to social media, a new study issued by Booth Business School at Chicago University will have you thinking twice.
Why Your Online Startup Should Support Startup America
With SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, in our collective rearview mirror, the tech community has now turned its attention to a new piece of legislation that could drastically impact online entrepreneurship, according to an article published by TechCrunch, this time it’s actually something worth supporting.
Revitalizing Your Blog with Alternative Content Types
You’re a serious blogger. With a background in technical writing and journalism, you supply your readers with a daily dose of thoughtfully-written, highly valuable, easily-actionable content, and you take pride in the fact that you accomplish this task with nothing more than good ole’ fashioned words (and a few pictures, just to keep with the times).
Achieving Ideal Keyword Density Naturally
Online copywriters need to keep two distinct but interrelated goals in mind at all times when writing content: convincing the search engines to rank their content highly in their search results (preferably on the first page), and convincing their visitors to actually read the entire piece of content and once complete, act upon it.
Should Your Blog Release an Ebook?
Most bloggers monetize their blogs in the same way – placing ads throughout their site. While high-traffic blogs can easily generate a sustainable income with nothing more than a Google AdSense campaign, many bloggers find this to be a difficult approach.
Why Your Blog Never Gets Comments
According to a study by Jakob Nielson, 90% of users at the average website never contribute a single comment. Just 9% of users comment on occasion, while 1% of users comment frequently.
How to Replicate the YouTube Success of Dai Ling Ping
In less than a year, YouTuber Dai Ling Ping has started a YouTube channel and gained over 25,000 subscribers strictly as a one-man operation. Now, he’s raking in advertizing revenue and is poised to grow his unique brand even further in 2012.
How Long Should This Article Be?
If there’s any one question that beginning, intermediate and advanced online content writers, as well as virtually any type of content writer, grapple with on a daily basis, it has to be this: “Exactly how long should this article be?”
Using Homemade Graphics to Spice Up Your Blog
Every good blogger knows that her site will be incomplete without pictures. Photos and graphics, even homemade
The Pros and Cons of Popup E-mail Opt-Ins
“You expect me to believe popups can be useful?” In a word, yes. Although it may seem counterintuitive because “everyone hates popups,” there is truth to the statement that popup e-mail opt-ins can be useful for certain businesses.
How Conservatives Can Maximize Their Power Through Social Networking
First the good news: we conservatives do not completely stink at social networking. In fact, in certain cases, we are actually pretty good at social networking. Take, for instance, the last mid-term elections, which took place in the November of 2010, in which our side pretty much swept the field.
How to Make People Love Your Blog
Think back to your days in high school for a moment. Do you remember the popular kids in your class? Why did they always seem to attract the most attention? Were they good looking, funny, smart, athletic, or controversial? Did they offer something unique and buzz-worthy? Whatever they did have to offer, many of the kids in school either wanted it and/or looked up to it.
9 Ways Facebook Could Cost You Your Job
Social networking has become a virtual requirement for today’s entrepreneur and small business owner, both online and “brick and mortar” alike. For many individuals it is a small sacrifice to make; especially since participating on social networks can be quite enjoyable, entertaining, and financially lucrative.
E-Revolution: How to Start a Political Movement Online
In the war for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, voters were left with a difficult choice between political upstart Barack Obama or former first lady and New York senator Hillary Clinton.
Defending a Giant: Why Wikipedia Doesn’t Get the Scholarly Credit it Deserves
In 2006, Emmy award winning comedian Stephen Colbert infamously introduced the concept of “Wikiality” on his show, The Colbert Report. Colbert poked fun at the concept of Wikipedia by editing an article on the air and stating, “…any user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true.”
How to Write an Interesting Film Review
When it comes to expressing an opinion about a film, everybody’s a critic. However, not everybody can successfully translate their thoughts into an interesting, cohesive review. Writing an interesting film review involves preparation, critical viewing and creative writing.
3 Reasons Your Backlinks Aren’t Bringing Reputation
There’s few things worse than spending hours crafting the perfect post, then finding a great place to put it (with a link back to your site), only to find out that the coveted Page Rank 6 backlink you so dearly wanted pointing at your site is about as worthless as a no follow link from a porn site or some other insignificant website.
Tales From the Dark Side: Link Cloaking
There’s a lot of mystery behind black hat SEO. Most techniques tend to be delegated to the hushed whispers or become quite public when a large company gets caught using them (see the JC Penney fiasco).
How to Empower Your Brand with a Personalized Facebook Page
The popularity of social media and the associated marketing of social media is moving at breakneck speed. Snooze now and your primary competition will outshine you on the major social network stage. A personalized Facebook page has the power to take brand recognition to the next level – if you do it correctly.
How to Manage a Successful Affiliate Program
Publisher and owner of Weblogs Inc., Jason Calcanis, grew ad revenue from $200 per day in September 2004 to as high as $3,000 per day in only six months by using AdSense and a successful affiliate program, according to a recent Google AdSense case study.
5 Free Must-Have Services for Internet Marketers
Thanks to the availability of wireless service, you can update your blog at almost any time. Also, with the ongoing trend of declining wireless internet costs, more and more individuals from all around the globe can visit your web site.
How to Make Money with Skype
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Internet call provider Skype. Made famous for allowing its users to make free phone calls through the Internet, Skype swiftly changed the communication game by giving its users free and unlimited access to videoconferencing, file transfers and instant messaging.
How to Safely Trash Your Old Hard Drives
The majority of homes and businesses have some form of wireless broadband service. In other words, an “always on” connection. What this means to the unethical hacker is that they have an around the clock ability to scan your server or home computer for vulnerabilities and thereafter, compromise your system(s).
How to Monetize Your Website by Selling Ads
Many internet marketers understand just how lucrative it can be to monetize your website by selling advertising space on the pages of your site. The ads can be either text ads (consisting of a hyperlink embedded into the lines of an article that is related to the hyperlink) or banner ads (graphical ads that act as a link).
How Can Internet Marketing Help Your Business Grow?
Is your company’s online presence failing to generate the interest, traffic, page rankings and ultimately, the revenue that you had hoped it would? Similar to the “brick and mortar” world of business, targeted and effective marketing is an essential activity for increasing visibility, traffic, the ability to monitor performance accurately, and to improve brand recognition and hence, value.
How Often Should You Blog?
Have you made the effort, worked through the hassle and put up the money to finally get that fancy website where publishing blog posts is a reality for your business or personal needs? Is it shiny, fancy and complete with bells and whistles? If so, now what?
Why Aren’t You Blog Commenting Right Now?
Regularly making comments on blogs can be a great marketing strategy for almost any website. There are millions of users who read and comment on blogs every day. Smart marketers are able to attract these readers to their website or blog by commenting on blogs related to their topic.
How To Use Traditional Marketing Techniques In Your Online Business
Marketing tactics have been around since commerce began thousands of years ago. Well before the explosion of public relations and Edward Bernays in the late 1920s, ancient Egyptians would nail papyrus to a wall or tree advertising their businesses.
How to Make Money with Any Hobby
For many individuals, hobbies remain just that – hobbies. However, with the right balance of drive, creativity and business smarts, you can transform any hobby into a profit-generating online business – simply by creating a blog about your hobby.
StumbleUpon vs. Digg: Case Study
StumbleUpon and Digg are two sites that article marketers and the social network advertisers must take seriously. The sites are set up to send traffic to other websites, based on posts that users make. Frequently, it is the originator of a page, article, blog post or page comment, who will take the initiative to submit it to either or both sites.
How to Increase Your Word of Mouth Referrals
Back when I was young and foolish – now I’m just the latter – I wrote for an educational children’s show that achieved critical acclaim, a Peabody, but no commercial success.
The Advantages of Using a More Advanced Hosting Setup
When most people think of hosting, they are thinking of public cloud services; with good reason. Public cloud hosting services are the most common on the Internet – where perhaps thousands of different users will share the same servers.
Crafting Content that is User and SEO Friendly
In order to be successful online it is critical that you improve the long-term exposure and search engine result success of your web site by taking the time to compose content that is user friendly and search engine optimization (SEO) friendly.
Guest Posting Done Right: A Blueprint to Guest Posting
There can be a high level of value derived from guest blog posting for both the author of the content and for the blog owner alike. However, the problem is that, of late, guest blogging has become more of a new age type of spam; a type of spam that is more advanced than most.
What You Should Know About Hosting on a Managed Private Cloud Solution
Hosting on a managed private cloud solution offers some major differences from hosting on a public cloud – mainly in the areas of customization and security. On a public cloud, a variety of users access the same servers to store their data – reducing cost and creating an on-demand resource center.
Hosting 101: Hosting Options for Dummies
It’s often difficult to imagine that every bit of information on the Internet has to be stored on some sort of physical device. Before the Internet became popularized, web masters usually just bought their own servers and hosted their web applications on their own equipment.
How to Successfully Market Yourself as a Freelance Writer
Though freelance writing can be quite a lucrative business, you need to have a solid client base in order to make any money. Probably the biggest obstacle for any freelance writer is finding people that are willing to pay for your content. If you want to get hired, you must market yourself as an effective and hard-working freelancer.
6 Ways to Create SEO Friendly Content with Ease
Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, can be quite useful in getting your website or blog noticed and read by many more visitors. In fact, with the millions of websites and blogs that currently exist on the internet, and compete for your visitors, it is absolutely critical that you develop a sound and effective SEO strategy.
Tips for Creating and Marketing Your Content
One of the most important aspects of running a successful website or blog is producing and marketing high quality content on a regimented and consistent basis. Because blogs are so abundant on the Internet, you cannot just simply start writing and expect increases in readership nor consistent user feedback.
4 Strategies to Make Your Blog More Interesting
As a blog writer, one of your primary objectives is to obtain the ability to attract readers and convert them into repeat visitors will largely determine whether your web site succeeds or fails.
4 Steps to Developing a Site with a Killer First Impression
Every web designer dreams of developing at least one authority web site where users will return to based on their first impression to find quick answers to their tough questions or to continue learning about the subject matter that is compiled on the web site. While there are countless web sites that aspire to such goals, in reality, very few are actually able to actually that kind of status.
Creating Content Around Long Tail Keywords
In today’s Internet marketplace, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is extremely vital to achieving and, thereafter, sustaining a healthy and prosperous online business. Search Engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo evaluate the quality of each website page based on a several known search ranking factors.
4 Steps to Merging your Content and Design Like a Pro
Successful website design and development requires a significant amount of knowledge and creativity. In addition,
How to Develop Content with SEO in Mind
In a perfect world, search engines would order results based on the true relevance and accuracy of articles. In reality, however, operators of search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo aren’t able to read and assess all of the information on the Internet, they must rely on their mathematical algorithms to order the results.
How to Create Content that Brings You Traffic
If you are looking to learn how to create content that will drive a large amount of visitor traffic to your website, there are several approaches and techniques that you should employ each and every time you write a new piece of content.
How to Be Great at Your Affiliate Business with Content
Successfully operating an Internet business is no easy task. As part of virtually every market, there are literally thousands of competitors selling similar item and services at similar prices.
10 Ways to Make Sure Your Content Will Suck
Writing high quality content for your personal or business website or Blog can be extremely difficult, especially if you are looking to establish a loyal following of readers.
Are You Killing Your Website With Shorter Pages?
It’s no secret that most individuals shoot for around 500 words when they write online content or order content from an online writing service. However, there is a wide variation in article content length as some individuals prefer that their page articles be around 300 words while others prefer that each of their pages are at least 1000 words.
Why People Can’t Live Without Social Media
Eight years ago I had a Myspace account. It was all I could do to keep in touch with the people I’d meet. It was fun until a relative learned about Internet predators and preached that Myspace was their target. She sent a link to my profile to my mother and needless to say, the two of them persuaded me to “delete” my account forever.
The History of Search Engine Optimization
Search engines were originally designed to assist users in navigating files and web servers across the Internet. In general, search tools use algorithms to collect, organize, and rank information on the web site. At this point, web site designers and developers began to recognize the importance of placing high in this system of ranking.
If You Must Have Ads, Make Them Look Nice
While many start their blogs for fun, a blog can become a source of income seemingly over night. You may hold ideals that regard using your blog to make money as selling out or losing sight of its core intentions, but everyone must find a way to keep paying the bills.
Research an Article in 20 Minutes
Taking the time to thoroughly research the topic that you intend to write an article on is likely a major part of the overall time required to complete the project. If you approach researching the topic without the proper methodology, you may find yourself wasting hours doing unnecessary searching.
How to Improve Readability in your Blog
So you are a blogger? Almost every day you are at that keyboard, plodding away, coming up with your next brilliant idea and carefully crafting your next blog post. Day in and day out, you really commit to your blog – your heart, your soul, and everything that you perceive to be valuable to your readers is in there.
Five Things That Make Your WordPress Blog Look Professional
It is estimated that nearly one hundred new blogs are started every minute. Simple math dictates that a single day presents tens of thousands of potential new competitors that are intent on stealing your readership. How then do you construct a successful Wordpress blog that will allow you to stay ahead of the competition?
Finding New and Interesting Subjects for Your Blog
When you write blogs on a consistent basis, it can be easy to run out of subjects for your blog to discuss. However, as most professional bloggers know, posting to your blog on a daily or weekly basis is extremely important for improving your search engine results, retaining your current reader base, and growing your reader base.
Expanding Your Blog Audience
As with any pursuit in life, plateaus are often common and a fairly natural occurrence. Things that make the difference between hitting a plateau and overcoming that plateau are often the tactfulness of the approach and the wisdom to put one’s cards in the proper place. In the world of blogging, the rules, in many cases, are no different.
19 Things That Make Google Analytics an Awesome Tool
By now, most everyone has heard of Google and just in case you haven’t – Google began as a search engine company and now has the largest search engine market share in the world. However, Google is much more than a search engine company and in fact, has countless Internet based applications, programs, and tools.
Writing a Video Game Script
Writing a video game script is quite a large undertaking for most individuals. This is especially true if the game script will be for an expansive fantasy or role playing game. This being said, making the jump from casual fiction writing to script writing should not be taken lightly, even for the seasoned veteran.
How to Write a Blog in 30 Minutes or Less
Blogs have become a common addition to many websites across a large array of different and diverse industry types – and for good reason. Maintaining and operating a blog is an excellent way to provide useful information to your visitors/customers, improve traffic to your website, and increase brand recognition.
The Simple Do’s and Don’ts of Blog Writing
Consistent blog writing can be a difficult task in that it requires that each blog post be creative, unique, well written, informative to the reader, and SEO optimized. In addition, managing the blog writing team can be challenging task as well.
eBooks – The New Publishing House
It is no secret why most individuals prefer eBooks over traditional books. Communication with electronic information is much faster than with physical paper. It is also much cheaper, more widely available, and constantly being updated.
This is How Your Site Should Flow
The flow of your website, although it may not initially be noticeable to your audience, can determine the level of enjoyment your visitors feel while browsing through your site. Good flow will not only make it easier for web surfers to navigate your site, it increases the readability and aesthetic value of your content.
How to Get Other Sites to Link to Yours
Getting the word out on your web site will greatly increase the flow of traffic to the various pages throughout your web site. One way to increase the traffic to your web site is to have other sites place anchor text that is a hyperlink, that when clicked on, links back to a page on your web site – this is the definition of a link.
Above the Fold: How to Quickly Capture a Web Audience
There is no point in writing content for a web site if you do not have an audience to read it. If you target your content toward a specific group of individuals, then your target audience is more likely to read your article.
When Not to Use Anecdotes in Content Writing
Some writers like to use anecdotes in content writing to prove a point, strengthen their story, or to give the article a bit of personal touch. Anecdotes can be effective when used correctly, but that does not mean you should use them frequently. They should be just one of many tools that you use to write strong web content.
The 600 Word Report: Best Practices of Professional Bloggers
Anyone who can type “free blog” into a search engine can create his or her own blog. However, that does not mean that they know how to successfully write blog posts that will capture a loyal audience over the long. This being said, there are a lot of techniques that professional bloggers use, of which amateur bloggers may not be aware.
I Got a Job Writing Content: Now What?
Writing may seem like an easy job, but it actually takes a lot of work to write a readable, accurate article for the web. Though Internet content may not be held to as high a standard as a physically published article, that does not mean you should not maintain competency throughout your content.
Writing Content that Google Will Love
Google is one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This means that writing content that Google will love is essential when writing for the web. That is, if you want anyone to read what you write.
When a Wealth of Information Becomes Too Much
Information overload, a concept that was introduced as early as the 1960’s, is more relevant now than ever. As the amount of information available increases, the likelihood of experiencing an information overload also increases. During an information overload, you are overexposed to a stream of information. This greatly affects your ability to reason and make rational decisions.
To Use Photos, or Not To Use Photos…
Many websites and blogs do not use images within their content. However, that does not mean that you should not use them. When you are writing a blog or an article, photos can be extremely beneficial to the rest of your written or video content.
Writing About Your Passion From Home
Each day, millions of people post content to the Internet without compensation. Whether the medium is a blog, message board or community website, many of these free posts contain high quality, valuable content written by individuals with in-depth knowledge of their subject matter, as well as an understanding of the style and content interesting to their readership.
Keeping Your Writing Organized
It can be difficult to keep all of your ideas within a clear and concise structure when writing content. For example, you may have trouble grouping your ideas by relevance, which can make it difficult for your readers to keep track of what you are actually talking about and, more specifically, the point that you are trying to make.
Work In Your PJ’s: Great Online Writing Jobs
The proliferation of the Internet has created an entirely new industry: online content writing. There are many great online writing jobs that allow you to work in your PJ’s from home.
Top 5 Content Formats That Attract Visitors
One of the often overlooked aspects of effective content creation is the idea of content format. If you have hundreds of pages on your web site or blog with the same exact format – block text and a few subheads – nothing will stand out or catch the user’s eye.
Why Your Content Isn’t Converting
You can have all of the high quality content in the world and be ranking #1 across the various search engines for your targeted keyword search terms. However, if you are not converting with your content, it is not more valuable than content ranking on the 10th page.
Spreading the Virus on Your Blog
There is really only one place where the thought of spreading a virus is a pleasant one – with Internet marketing. Viral blog posts are the bread and butter of growing blogs and web sites. You want to create posts that catch the eye of the reader and generate buzz – maybe because they are worth passing on.
Why You Should Be a Content Writer
There are many advantages to being an online content writer. Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to work from home while pursuing a lucrative career, content writers enjoy flexible hours, competitive pay, and the ability to frequently write about subjects that they are passionate about.
How to Manage Your At-Home Work Life
The advantages of at-home work, including flexible hours, competitive pay, and the ability to obtain an income without adhering to a dress code or commuting to an office, make working from home attractive option for many individuals.
How to Gear Your Portfolio for Content Writing
If you’d like to pursue a career as a content writer, you’ll first need to create a portfolio that is geared toward content writing. The profession of “content writer” is extremely broad, and most content writers choose to focus on a certain subcategory such as news writing, creative writing or report writing.
Guest Blog Post Writing
If you run a website or blog, then it is likely you are trying to get as much relevant traffic to your site as possible. If this is the case, then there is a strategy you can use that will surely help increase traffic to your website in more than one way.
Web Site Content Services
Web site content services can be defined as any online application of words that serve to promote or inform general Internet readers about a product, service, process, or whole host of other items. To this end, it is important to note that not all web content is specifically designed to sell or promote products or services.
Press Release Writing Tips
One of the most effective marketing tools for an online web site or business is to publish a variety of press releases. Press releases can be used to promote new web site launches, new services or product lines, company news or simply to attract new visitors.
How to Effectively Write an Article
One of the most frustrating things for web site owners or online entrepreneurs is learning how to write an effective article, especially when they do not have a great deal of experience with writing technical content in a timely and efficient manner.
Article Writing Service: The Advantages
There are a fairly large number of web site owners that have the ability and experience to comfortably write high quality content that is search engine optimized for their own web site. However, when it comes time, many of these business individuals still trust article writing services to handle their content. Why is this so?
Choosing a Domain Name – Part 1
One of the first and most aggravating problems of developing a web site is choosing the right domain name. This is a tricky subject because there are many schools of thought with a lot of good points. Even choosing something as simple as whether or not your web site will end in .com, .net, .org, or anything else can be a difficult decision.
The Paypal Problem – Strategies for Handling Paypal
Anyone that works on the Internet knows the value of having a PayPal account. There are few companies that perform services online that do not accept PayPal as a payment option. At Content Customs, 95% of our business is done through PayPal including accepting payments from clients, making payments to advertising clients and domain sellers and paying our staff.
Web Site Partnerships – Content Creation
As an experienced content writer, I often receive offers from developers requesting that I consider entering into a variety of different types of web site partnerships that center around assisting them in generating the content for the web sites that they create for their clients.
Monetizing Your Web Site
I’ve gotten a few requests to write this post and, to be honest, it’s probably about time. Creating a valuable and well written web site is a service that some people offer for free. However, do a simple Google search and try to find a web site in the top 10 that doesn’t have some sort of advertisement, store or banner.
Developing Content Writers – Web Site Revenue Shares
As our staff of content writers continues to grow, we are constantly looking for new ways to reward our staff for their hard work and dedication to the art of Internet content creation.
Managing Content Company Costs – Client Billing
One of the major considerations of running an on-line content company, or for that matter, running any business, is how to properly manage customer billing and invoices.
Designing Effective and Easy to Read Press Releases
While there is really no standard format for designing Press Releases, most content companies that regularly design them have settled on a tried and true method for creating a press release that will properly advertise new web site launches, new product lines, service offers, or business announcements.
Developing eBooks: What Makes an eBook Valuable?
At Content Customs, we receive a high number of orders for eBooks. If you place an order for an eBook, you obviously have given some thought to what the overall intent and purpose of the eBook is designed to accomplish. At an average of 20,000 to 40,000 words per eBook it is well worth the time to precisely define the objective of the eBook as this can quickly become an expensive service.
Why You Should Never Give Up On Content
When we first began preparing to expand our companies capabilities in selling high quality content, we enjoyed
Editing – Turning Good Copy into Excellent Copy
For every web site owner or writing company owner, one of the primary considerations is having a solid Internet copy writing editor to review and correct any mistakes associated with search engine optimization, grammar, and punctuation. It can be tempting to simply hire a solid team of writers and hope that they can always draft excellent copy.
Online Plagiarism and The Importance of Original Content
One of the things that I find plagues the Internet is the sheer amount of plagiarized content that some web site developers think they can use to boost their search engine rankings.
Managing Freelance Writers
Let’s be honest – For many content companies, either online or “brick and mortar”, consistently generating high quality content on schedule and with a high level of repeatability can be fairly challenging task when working with freelance writers.
Search Engine Optimization: Keyword Placement
One of the most common mistakes that beginning search engine optimization (SEO) content writers typically make is
Working From Home – Is it as Great As People Think?
At Content Customs, some upper management and editors work from local offices to better serve our clients. However, the lifeblood of the content portion of the company is comprised of United States based free lance writers that work from home.
Generating Good Article Topics
One of the most common and frustrating aspects of developing a web site that provides a high level of value to your intended audience is generating good article topics. This often requires a great deal of research and thought.
Your Web Site – The First Step in Any Solid Business Plan
I was discussing several options that centered around web site development with the owner of Content Customs today and he made a very thoughtful remark that I thought I would share with you today:
Developing Quality Internet Content Writers
We get a great deal of applications at Content Customs from writers looking for freelance work. One of the first things that I look for when considering the application is the quality of their writing samples and how they would function in an online environment.
Welcome to the Content Customs Blog
Thank you for taking the time to check out our Blog section at Content Customs. We have been in business for several years and focus on “all things” related to the internet.