Category: Web Content

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2014 Trends for Business Websites and Online Marketing – Part Two

Looking into 2014.
Looking into 2014.

In continuation from Tuesday in this blog post on trends for business website marketing and visibility, I’ll talk about Google+ Local pages and YouTube.

Google+ Local Pages Also Known as Google Places

Big changes happened last year for Google+ Local pages. First, Google removed many of the fields you can use to add information, removing any degree of optimization you could previously do on keywords. Once the account is set up, what the customer sees about your business is limited. Google now returns listings not based on optimization or the number of reviews but based on the smartphone user’s location. For desktop searches, Google Places/Local Page listings are shown based on proximity to your location and possibly in some markets based on the number of reviews and possibly again on click through rates.

What a business owner used to be able to do to get placement on location specific keywords is gone. We do still recommend a regular update of videos and pictures on the account, but there is simply not a lot of updating to be done once the account is set up. In fact in the last three months, Google even removed the owner’s comment field where promotions and specials were listed.

YouTube Videos

For many businesses we work with, YouTube is still “undiscovered country”. Many business owners feel that they have to pay to have professionally created video for YouTube, but actually even videos made with your phone or camera are considered the same to Google. Videos that show your products, explain your services, explain briefly a concept are still excellent for business owners to use for exposure. As videos may be shown in with organic results and not even associated with a link to your website utilizing YouTube better should be a New Year’s resolution for business owners for 2014.

Product Listing Ads Now Called Google Shopping Campaigns in AdWords

If you have an ecommerce store and are an AdWords advertiser and are not using Product Listing Ads – soon to be called Google Shopping Campaigns, you are missing out on one of the best things that Google has brought to the AdWords arena. Google shows pictures of products within the organic results and you pay be the click for activity on your store products. Although the data feed is onerous to create and requires much more than just a download of your products (it requires the use of Google’s own taxonomy for each product,) implementation can really boost your individual product sales. Your competition is already embracing Google Shopping Campaigns!

2013 has brought us some sweeping changes at Google. It will be interesting to see how these important changes will impact business and visibility as we enter 2014.

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2014 Trends for Business Websites and Online Marketing – Part One

Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?
Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?

As a online business marketing provider and small advertising agency since 2001, this post is about my identification of trends that will impact online visibility and business for 2014.

Google AdWords

Everyday I am getting more calls from old clients who state – “Our business has lost placement. We’ve been doing some things ourselves over the past years and now we know we need professional help. We seem to have simply fallen out of the Google index and need to get fast exposure and leads. Can you help us?” In fact in the last 10 days alone I have had five calls just like this.

What Google did in 2013 is now bleeding over into 2014; with businesses being pushed right into AdWords to get exposure and sales leads. Many prospects ask “Isn’t there a better way to get sales other than paying for them in pay per click? Won’t blogging get me sales?” Hands down the best way to increase revenue is to get into pay per click. Although for some clients Bing may be the right place to start, typically it is best to start off in AdWords.

Organic Placement and Blogging

The new SEO model is not about anchor text, volumes of links, or even article marketing – rather the new SEO is about relevant, unique, quality content for your website and blog. I am seeing very few clients invest in blog postings with a three day a week frequency, rather the preferred trend is to buy longer more authoritative blog posts with a one post per week frequency.

Although I am still getting clients that want keyword density, keyword anchor text links, and think they want article marketing, using these tactics now for placement on Google may actually push your site into one of Google’s filters that looks like a penalty.

Tune in Thursday for our trends on Google+ Local and You Tube.

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The Shift in the Google SERPs to Value Legitimacy

Businesswoman Crossing the Finish Line Ahead of Businessmen
Win the SEO race with a unique authoritative voice in your content.

Legitimacy is what the new Google algorithm Hummingbird is all about. Legitimacy of who you are, the authority of your voice, and the legitimate value of your blog and website content. Your legitimacy is verified by Google through co-citation (mention on other website without even links), mention and links in social media, and activity and engagement with your content in Google+ and Google.com.

That’s the new world of SEO for Google in a quick synopsis. This legitimacy of voice and authority cannot be created by scheming, spamming, or spewing content. When you really evaluate what Google is valuing and placing highly in the organic search results with the new Hummingbird algorithm, it is all about relevancy to a user’s search query and providing an answer to a long tail question or implied request. Google understands what the user wants to see based on their own unique search history and history of time, place, and engagement activity.

So how can you leverage your own business/website in this new world of Google? I say it in one word – Content. If you have quality content, that provides value to readers, answers questions, helps a reader to further understand a topic in your niche, and that content is shared by others, you will be rewarded with a higher search position as you improve your own relevancy.

The beauty of this new Google algorithm is that anyone can do it. You don’t need to buy links, hire an SEO firm to spin content or list you at directories you’ve never heard of, you just need to focus on being unique, transparent, and provide information of value.

If you need help moving your website forward with this type of focus, we may be a good match for your need. I invite you to find out more by visiting our website for more information on what we do.

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Not Provided Keyword Data in Analytics Requires Out of Box Keyword Discovery

Searching for keywords in an alternative way
Searching for keywords in an alternative way

In Google Analytics almost all organic search activity is being returned with a “not provided” tag masking the actual keywords used to find your content. If you are not advertising in Google AdWords, you may be totally in the dark as to what keywords visitors are using to find your web page content.

If you are looking to improve website visibility and popularity of your website, you may be struggling to figure out what keywords you should use for a landing page, topic for an e-newsletter or for that matter even the topic for a blog post.

Here are a few tips on how you can discover keywords and opportunities to incorporate into your content creation program by thinking outside the norm.

1. Use Google.com’s predictive text insertion to identify top search terms to see if you are covered. Click in to some of the searches you like and look carefully at the returned results. Do you see businesses like yours there or do you just see PDFs from colleges or government entities. Make sure the words you use for your final cut match with your business based on the returned results.

2. Use YouTube.com’s predictive text insertion in the search field to identify possible keyword variations you may not have considered. If you are video minded and see a possible keyword opportunity, consider making a video to fill that niche and place on that topic.

3. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to do a reality check and see what type of competition you may face and look for alternative keyword variations.

4. Make sure to review your Google Analytics beyond the first page of results where you see the “not provided” as further down the page and back you will be able to see some of the actual keyword terms used to find you.

5. Make sure to review your Google Webmaster account to see what terms Google is showing as your query results. Although you may not see all the terms used to find you, you will be able to glean very specific insight as to city name, combinations, and top activity.

If you feel you need professional help, we provide consulting services to help identify areas of opportunity.