Tag: Tips

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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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Pocket – a Cool App That Allows You To Read Later

Don't let your pockets be empty! GetPocket helps you be productive.
Don’t let your pockets be empty! GetPocket helps you be productive.

Brian Shea of Seven Sages turned me on to this very cool app that you should check out, it is called GetPocket. Here’s what GetPocket is and what it can do.

Pocket allows you to save to read later any article or web page. By saving something of interest to your own Pocket account, you can read it on your phone, on your tablet, or on your desktop. You don’t even have to be online to be able to read the content!

To get started visit www.GetPocket.com. Chrome makes it easy to add a GetPocket app that sits in your browser top menu. IE makes it a little more difficult but follow these instructions and add it to your Favorites Bar. In this case you right click the orange button and then save to Favorites and then in the open list Favorites bar.

You can sort your links, delete them, and favorite them. You can add articles, videos, links whatever you want. Visit Google Play or the Apple Store to get the free smartphone app that expands it use tremendously.

For me, this is a fabulous tool as it takes everything that I want to read later and allows me to be more productive on the go. So often I find cool things or articles I want to read later to blog about and I have been saving them in Outlook for Saturday reading. But I have to be sitting at my computer to re-read them. Now, I can sign into GetPocket.com and read my articles sitting at the dentist waiting on kids or when I have a free moment out and about.

Thanks Brian, for letting me know about this very cool and helpful app/tool!

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Dealing with Teen Internet Addictions

Teens Taking Self Portrait with Camera PhoneThis generation we are raising up has always known Facebook, texting, and Twitter. They have been connected online and to each other electronically to a degree that many adults do not even embrace for work. While it seems like a good thing on the surface – teens are embracing technology which is good for their work futures, this is what I am seeing.

Oh, by the way I have triplet 16 year olds, so not only do I see what three are doing, but multiply this by the number of their friends as well. I am seeing a wide strata of 15, 16, and 17 year old teens.

1. Texting is out of control, not for every teen but for some. I have one who fits the category of a hypertexter. She had 8,000 tweets in a 30 day period before we took her phone away. What is concerning is this behavior is not about socializing by borders on addiction. With the instant interaction and need to respond immediately when a text comes in, this type of behavior crosses the line into concern. Studies have shown this type of behavior actually although appearing to be socializing is at such a superficial level that it is not relationship building. Additionally these online interactions can lead to a serious amount of drama in a teen’s life that sleep patterns are affected, grades drop, and depression becomes a common problem. Studies have shown that the same type of endorphins in the brain that are released with an addiction are released with hypertexters while they interact – highly concerning!

2. Inability to read body language and emotions – which is leading to increased bullying and rudeness. By connecting nearly full time with other teens online, kids are missing out on the crucial cues that are translated via faces and body language. As a result I am seeing more correspondence that borders on rudeness, bullying, and comments like “I am just speaking my mind.”

3. The Instagram Mentality – one of my own teens mentioned how Instagram has fostered a false sense of individuality. With selfies being the rage and pics of “here I am at a party”, “look at me”, accompanied by conversations of “did I get 100 likes yet?” Instagram is not feeding confidence, but eroding confidence in our teens. Superficiality is the rage and the more outrageous the pic the better. All these things are posted without regard of others feelings or the awareness that once online, forever online.

4. Lack of socialization – which regresses self identification and slows maturity. Wow, just go to any restaurant and look around and you’ll see families all on their phone not even talking to each other. One of my teens went to a party last night and said there were many people sitting by themselves using their phone, not even enjoying the party. Some did not talk to another person all night. Those at her table interacted, but had to frequently check their phones to check the time or comment on other’s Twitter posts or Instagram posts while at the party.

I wonder what kind of legacy we are leaving for this generation by allowing, fostering, and encouraging this type of hyper-Internet behavior. I personally feel that we are hurting them more than we are helping them.

I welcome your feedback and comments on this interesting and important topic.