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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.