Tag: Google

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Why Google+ Still Matters

Image of a Google Maps exposure on Google.com.
Image of Google My Business Listings on Google.com.

Google+ is not just another social media site like Facebook or Twitter. It is a Google owned property that Google loves and promotes heavily in its own user experience.

If you say you just don’t “get” Google+ let me explain why you should have a presence.

1. It is owned by Google. If Google created it and promotes it heavily in the search results showing updates within the search listings and has now tied it to your Business Local Page it is important.

2. Don’t fight Google, embrace what Google says they consider important. Sometimes outside of Google, we don’t know the long term strategy that Google is taking on a product. What I do know is that Google continues to consider Google+ much more than a social media platform.

3. Google has built the Local Guides program and the Google My Business platform all around Google+ and Google+ Local pages. Add to that AdWords Express which is tightly integrated into Google+ and you will start to see that Google is really very serious about Google+.

4. Leverage Google+ for your search exposure. For those of us who “get” Google+ we are leveraging it for Google.com exposure. I use my personal and business accounts widely and drive traffic to the communities I moderate at Google+. By doing so I build followers to my Google+ account leveraging the ability for my own Google+ posts to appear in the search results of those in my circles. That alone is one of the most powerful ways to boost exposure with Google+ and Google.

If you are ready to embrace the world of Google and Google+, I invite you to first read what we do for Google+ services and then get with us to discuss your needs and to create a special plan for promoting you and your business on Google.

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How to Add Location Specificity to Your Website

Google Partner Badge
McCord Web Services is a Google Partner.

I am in the process of building a new website for a client and wanted to share a few of my own tips for adding location specificity to your website. Although these are very simple tips, you would be amazed at how many web designers, who are not SEO-focused, will forget to use them.

1. Put your address, phone number, and locations in the code never in images. Search engines cannot read images and do not place any emphasis on what you have in the alt tag. Style these items with CSS don’t take the lazy route by creating them as images.

2. Make sure your phone number is at the top of each and every page and make the phone number clickable using this html tag: <a href=”tel:301-705-7303″>Phone 301-705-7303</a>. When you use code such as this for phone numbers in your content, smartphones will allow these links to be click to call and even browsers and tablets will try to open Skype or other phone calling application with a click.

3. Make sure you include the full address including spelled out state and zip code in the footer of all pages. I even go a step further and note the service counties if there are only several. Don’t do huge lists of cities or counties as Google does not like this approach, but a very small list delineating your service area to readers is appropriate.

4. On your contact page, make sure to embed a map from Google Maps. You can create this custom linkable image from within Google Maps and use the <iframe> code to insert it. This gives visual cues to readers and also a link that can be followed to your exact location for search engines. I have found many sites don’t include their physical location on their contact page; I think that this is a mistake, and unless you are working from a home office location you may want to correct that.

5. Consider on your about page giving more details about your service area. For pest control professionals we have found that a service listing with unique pages built for their important city locations may give the placement that they need in a town or city that they would like to place organically in.

If you need quality but affordable SEO-focused web design or redesign services make sure to check out our details on our responsive website design page.

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Online Reviews Can Damage Your Sales

Recover your reputation online by embracing the online system.
Recover your reputation online by embracing the online system.

Here’s a comment I found on Yelp about one of the businesses I cross paths with that when I saw it I cringed for them:

“…Terrible. My 8 year old was like, “OMG MOM what happened?” Called her to adjust, try to fix, whatever, she was rude and condescending beyond words… AND WAY over priced. She had the *** to tell me how much it would cost to fix them! She said it was a touch up…  Losing her eyesight and hand is NOT steady, her mind is gone too! NUTS! ”

Consumers love Yelp and business owners hate Yelp, but as a business owner, you’d better learn how to work the Yelp system to your advantage. Reviews about your business happen on Yelp whether you have an account or not. Deciding not to claim your page there does not mean that your poor reviews will not show up, rather you simply have no way to rebut them . This is the same for Google Local. Google will build a page for your business where a review about you will be housed whether you claim the page or not.

As this business I mentioned with the poor review, has tons of really great reviews, it is a shame that this one review on Yelp is getting serious exposure on Google that is sure to damage their sales.

Better by far is to embrace the system, claim these page (Yelp and Google Local) and drive happy customers there by pointing emails to these pages and asking customers to review you online. One terrible review will not hurt you when you have 10, 20, or 50 fabulous reviews. There will always be “trolls” out there and consumers know it, but when you have only one review and it is a really poor one and Google is choosing to show it by your website listing, it can damage your business terribly.

Need more help with your image online? Ask us about our Brand Booster program or savvy solutions to help build your online and website reviews.

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Mobilegeddon So Far Has Been a Bust

Pros and Cons Sign
What was Google thinking when they back pedaled on the mobile search release?

Fresh from doing a SEO review of five client sites, I have to say that mobilegeddon is a bust, at least so far.

Google started the roll out of this much talked about algorithm that was to have impacted over 14% of the search results in the mobile search sphere on Monday April 21st. But as of April 30th, I was still seeing sites appear routinely in the mobile search space that were not mobile-friendly.

Does that mean that there was all this hype about nothing? No, not really. I suspect that Google got scared of crashing it’s search engine and money driver if it moved too fast to chop sites that had not moved into mobile. I suspect that they will over time tweak this as new sites enter the index that are mobile-friendly, but they have already back pedaled from their previous approach.

Earlier in the year in the pending change announcement Google stated that if you did not have a mobile-friendly site you would be dropped from the mobile index. Later, Google softened this approach to say, well maybe you’d be dropped, but if your website really matched the query best and even if you were not mobile-friendly they would show your site in the mobile results as most relevant – totally watering down the first announcement.

Then, Google AdWords reps started to say, well if your site is not mobile-friendly and you are using AdWords advertising, your non-mobile-friendly website would still show in the mobile results as an AdWords ads. Note the serious conflict here? Advertising vs. Search?

I think that as it got closer to the date, Google decided that there was too much money at stake and sites had simply not upgraded as they had thought they would.

I do suspect that over time there will be a “weeding” of sites from the mobile index but for now I think the change on Google’s part is being driven by a concern for a loss of revenue in AdWords and search relevancy versus the competition.