Tag: News & Trends

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The Specialization of the Web

In the last two to three years I have seen a growing trend of specialization on the Web. When I started out in business in 2001, we could do it all for clients: web design, optimization, and site promotion. The Web environment was simpler then. With the advent of e-commerce, that all changed.

Now, you really need specialist in many areas such as e-commerce, mobile website, mobile marketing, pay per click, YouTube videos, web design, and content creation. The days of one business being able to supply all the needs for your online presence is rapidly changing. Why is this so? The degree of complexity and uniqueness of each of these avenues has changed immensely over the last few years.

The best case in point is with e-commerce. As complex as shopping carts are now, and the degree of difficulty in setting up accounts and implementing credit card security you must know what you are doing to be security compliant. Add in issues such as New York state having a terribly complex sales tax situation (where the percentage is driven by zip code and not necessarily by county or city) and you add in another layer of difficulty.

In this year, I expect to see a boon in web design for smartphones and tablets. Although many websites still look good on smartphones having to pinch and drag the screen to navigate to important contact information is simply irritating. Having a great mobile site this year may be one of your most important items on your own wish list.

Specialization in search engine marketing has also been another growth area. With Google AdWords becoming so complicated, many consumers are looking to professional managers, such as ourselves, to off load the degree of difficulty and time it takes to use and understand Google AdWords for online lead generation.

As I look back over the years I’ve been in business, it is interesting to see these trends develop. All I can say is, that I am glad we chose to diversify, and will continue to do so to stay relevant to our customer base.

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Google Search Plus Your World Will Be Rocking Your World Soon

Google rolled out a new version of its search engine last week and many of you will see it this week and in the weeks to come. It is called Google Search Plus Your World or in my industry Google Search Plus. Using the backbone of Google+ this incredibly important search engine enhancement may very well change Google.com and organic search placement tactics as we have known them forever.

This new way that Google will be delivering your search results is based on Google+ and your social activity (including your updates and your social network). The key is Google+ but that does not mean that Google may not show Twitter or Facebook activity at some point in time. However, for now it appears that it will be mainly pulling from activity on Google+.

Clearly businesses and individuals will need to embrace Google+ now or in the very near future in order to capitalize on this new approach for organic search placement and Web Visibility.

Here is just one future world example, and that is not too distant really:

Let’s say you are active on Google+ both personally and you have tied a business page to your personal Google+ profile. On top of that, you tie your Google AdWords program to your Google+ account (yes, you can actually already do this). You post and interact with a wide variety of followers and people on the Web using the +1 button as well as comments on Google+. You actively work to grow your network and hashtag your updates(at this point we are not sure of the character key that will mark this on Twitter it is #). What Google says about this activity is very important…

“Search has always brought you information from across the web. Now, search gets better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends. When signed in with Google+, you’ll find personal results and profiles of people you know or follow. You can even expand your world by discovering people related to your search.”

You can sign up or find out more information about Google Search Plus Your World here.

You can read more on the Google Blog about Search Plus Your World.

Since the announcement last week, Twitter has been mounting an online complaint campaign about unfair use and favoritism of Google properties in Google.com results. Clearly Twitter feels challenged by Google’s actions.

To our clients and readers, I recommend that you watch Google+ very closely. Google is so big and so powerful and it is throwing its full resources into integration of Google+ and +1’s that it will be impossible to ignore the importance of embracing this far reaching change early.

As Google+ does not yet allow for easy posting and scheduling of updates yet, we do not provide client services, but will be in the very near future. As clearly involvement with Google+ will impact what prospects and customers see about you in the Google.com search results this is an action item for all businesses concerned about organic placement in the near term. Not only will status updates be needed to position your business, but you will need interaction with others, and a follower growth program to really impact your search placement.