Small businesses are wise to create websites, but sometimes miss the point of what websites are about. Understanding that a website is not a get rich quick scheme is an important key to approaching web development. Here are common website mistakes made by impatient small businesses: Rushing to Make Sales Before your website can win the trust and loyalty of customers, you need to first learn about your...
Google has dropped Google+ Local Apps, which was designed to help iOS users learn from reviews in their circles about local businesses, particularly restaurants. The reviews contained customer scores for food, service, decor and other factors. Part of the reason for the discontinuation was dropping usage, but another factor was many of the features are already integrated into the Google Maps for mobile devices, which represents the convergence of several online trends.
Even though Google+ became the number two social network behind...
Google is celebrating its 15th birthday with an interactive piñata doodle. Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include search, cloud computing, software and online advertising technologies. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords. Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, is...
In August 2013, Google changed Quality Score reporting to AdWords by better integrating three sub factors: expected click-through rate, landing page experience and ad relevance. While the way Quality Score is calculated has not changed, the reporting changes can affect relevancy and bid rates. Understanding the effects of these changes will help with using the AdWords report better to assess ad success. Quality Scores Increased After the implantation of these changes, very low scores decreased significantly while high...
Google is helping nightlife seekers easily track down local restaurants and nightclubs with Zagat, which provides ratings and reviews based on customer surveys. Google announced the relaunch of the Zagat website and mobile app for Android and iPhone in the summer of 2013. One of the new features of this relaunch will be the appearance of editorial videos and curated lists of local establishments for searches such as "best organic food in San Francisco."
Zagat, which has rated restaurants with a 30 point system since its inception in...
Online businesses are realizing in 2013 that social media is the message, which is creating a major shift in marketing towards social media engagement. Businesses are learning that building an online community through social media is the key to nurturing and converting sales leads. Social media is not a place for direct sales and is more suited for developing leads than sending traffic to your online hubs for landing pages.
Content Marketing Google+ is attracting a significant following now that the "+1" button...
Online advertisers who use Google's AdWords platform can now get a better idea how well their campaigns are working as Google fine tunes its reporting. Quality Score is a rating of keywords on a scale of 1-10. Google has just updated how this score relates to expected click through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. The purpose of the update is to help advertisers evaluate and improve their ads based on visibility and expected performance. Google has not changed how Quality Score is calculated for keywords, so the new...
Google Authorship is a set of tools designed to connect web content with the Google+ profile of the content creator. Authorship can help your search rankings, as it assigns "Author Ranking" to your content. One of the advantages of setting up Authorship is that it indexes writers in Google's search engine and matches them with their articles and blogs. Authorship is still in its infancy and now there are concerns about how it affects search and traffic results.
A web owner named Alex Yumashev of Jitbit.com using Authorship noticed...
Microsoft has made a significant change of course regarding Windows devices and user access to Flash content. Going forward, Microsoft mobile devices, tablets, and desktop browsers will allow Flash to run unless the content being requested is on a Microsoft-created blacklist of prohibited websites. Previously, users had been experiencing potential problems with Flash or even a complete inability to view certain Flash sites. Upon the rollout of Windows 8, people using IE10 on desktop computers could use Flash but experienced sporadic and...
Google Plus can be an effective tool for building your business…with 10 caveats. Here are ten things that you should avoid while using Google Plus: Using a Low Quality Profile Picture Unclear profile pictures deter users from connecting with you, especially if the picture is a brand name. Use large, high quality pictures. Images of yourself in professional business attire will generate more leads than a picture of you in a tee shirt. An Incomplete Profile An incomplete profile tells visitors that you will sacrifice sales...
