10 Advanced Google Places Optimisation Tips and Actions
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So you are probably quite happy with yourself – you have taken the time to list your business (and it’s branches if you have branches) on Google Places. You have probably asked a number of your clients to kindly write reviews about your business on your Google Places page. You buy yourself a pint or a glass of wine (whichever is your preferred poison) for a job well done. Well…wait…you are not quite there yet! With the horrendous amount of competition on Local Search, Here are 10 Ways to take your Google Places page to the next level that’ll make your listings stand out from all your competitors and drive more clicks through to your website:
1. Add More than 10 Business Images
Google is Clamping Down on “Over-Optimized” Sites
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SEO blogs & forums alike were buzzing at the later part of last week about Google’s recent shutdown and de-index of a major link building network BuildMyRank.com. Whilst ‘a proportion’ of the SEO world continues to be stunned about this move, I personally remain adamant as I have always been wary about so called ‘link networks’. I’m not sure if you remember how people carried out dodgy SEO with article networks for a couple of years before Google clamped down on them last year with the Panda update. So called ‘SEOs’ would get low quality articles with a 250 word count written for less than $5 from offshore writers and get them spun into 100 different versions using software in a bid to trick Google. They’d then post the 100 different spun articles to so-called ‘article directories’ for backlinks and higher rankings. It did work for a 2 or 3 years but Google deindexed a large number of article directory sites last year with its unpopular ‘Panda’ Update.
6 Ways to Sell More on Your Website with Copywriting
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Copywriting is a very core pillar of selling online & e-commerce. Potential customers or your website visitors have no way of touching or seeing your products or attesting to your service in real. All they can do is to read about what you have to offer. Copywriting is a very fine art of convincing readers to purchase a product or service through writing. A properly written piece of content has the potential of increasing traffic by 50% and conversions by 30%. Every business owner should value the importance of good copywriting. As soon as your readers start to trust your brand and become convinced about your credibility, they would start to demonstrate their intent to purchase products or services recommended by your brand. Below are six steps to improving your copywriting skills and spice up your sales number.
This post was inspired by the infographic after the article below.
Seven Major Changes to Business Pages on the New Facebook
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The majority of businesses have a social media element within their digital marketing strategy and Facebook often plays a starring role. So it’s worth knowing about the seven major changes that Facebook are making to business pages on 30 March. Read More
AdWords Increases Campaign Limit Per Account to 10,000
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When I started managing AdWords campaigns in 2005, the campaign and ad group limit back then was a maximum of 25 campaigns and 2000 ad groups per campaign.
Last year, Google quietly increased this limit to 500 campaigns, 20,000 ad groups per campaign and 5,000 keywords per AdWord account.
Just yesterday in response to feedback from current AdWords advertisers, Google AdWords announced yet another increase to an astounding 10,000 campaigns (includes active and paused campaigns) per account!
Google: We Are Changing How We Evaluate Links
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Google just announced 40 changes it has made to its search algorithm. Some of them are sure to raise an eyebrow. Here are the top 3 changes that stand out:
Image Search
More image results are now turning up in general search results, making image optimisation more important.
Location Specific YouTube Suggestions
Google’s also made changes to the way its YouTube suggestions are generated, making them more location-specific.
Link Evaluation
One key change is a shake-up in link evaluation. Google often uses a site’s back link profile to determine it’s authority, quality and search rankings. According to Senior VP Amit Singhal, there have been changes in the way in which links are evaluated, as part of their ongoing policy of rearchitecting or simply turning off various parts of the scoring system to keep things tight and easier to run. What caught my eye was the fact that they’re ditching a link analysis method that they’ve been using for the last decade.
5 Ways to Measure the Success of a Social Media Campaign
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If you’re running a social media campaign you are probably not doing it for fun – you are most likely looking for results. In most cases, the intended outcome of a social media campaign is to strengthen and increase awareness of your brand. In the past, traditional marketing efforts in this arena were difficult to evaluate due to the complications of determining the link between a campaign and brand awareness. One of the appeals of social media marketing is the fact that, as a digital campaign, it is possible to measure various metrics and so evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. Use these five methods to measure the success and effectiveness of your social media campaign.
7 Reasons Your Business Needs Pinterest in its Social Media Mix Now!
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Pinterest is a social media platform that works like a collection of virtual pin-boards. Users can “pin” pictures of the things that interest them – everything from holiday photographs and cartoons to products and advertisements – creating a collage of images. A designer on the hunt for inspiration might pin photos from the latest fashion magazines; a technology enthusiast might share snaps of that new must-have gadget. Creative individuals are using Pinterest to set up a visual CV. Web-savvy businesses are getting in on the act too, pinning images of their products to catch the eye of possible customers – and not forgetting to share others’ photos as a way of generating both traffic and goodwill. Pinterest can be a great way to get your business in the public eye. Other users can “like” photos, add comments or re-pin favourite images on their own boards. Read More
Is Google Really Against SEOs?
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In some ways it seems as if Google and SEOs have an antagonistic relationship. Reading comments like those posted by a Google employee at Hacker News could lead you to believe that while Google are trying to give their users valuable, relevant content, SEOs are trying to find loopholes in the system to get bad or irrelevant websites higher than they should be.
The Google employee who goes by the pseudo name of jrockway on Hacker News said:
If the social features are relevant, though, then users are getting a better experience. And that’s a good thing, even if individual pages get less traffic from Google. Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That’s a good thing because SEO can’t scale, and SEO isn’t good for users or the Internet at large.
What Does Google’s Disappointing Financial Year End Results Mean to Search Marketers
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My first degree was actually a BSc in Economics but I shied away from this fascinating discipline to join the army of marketers…online marketers to be precise! This is not to say that headlines related to Finance & Economics do not grab my attention – they absolutely do! Whilst prowling through my G+ stream yesterday, I came across this post from Google’s Larry Page:
And then this post from Avinash Kaushik:
It led me to their Q4 2011 financial summary and Year end report and YouTube webcast.
Here are some take-aways I think every search marketer should take note of from their year end report:
