We all know that Google has become the place to turn to for answers. The search engine giant constantly improves user experience. In fact, the most recent improvement involved job searching—Google for jobs—a discussion for another time. But it left me asking the question: “Could Google improve search results for Read more…
A new Google Analytics home screen is now available. Well, according to Search Engine Journal only 50% of users have access. I’m fortunate to be one of those users, and I first noticed the updates this morning. From a quick glance, I am most pleased with these updates.
These new changes will provide clients instant access to data that they care about. On the home screen there are 5 sections that can be customized by date. So, here’s a brief overview: (more…)
In real estate it’s all about location, location, location. The same applies with local online real estate—especially with Google. Last year, Google eliminated all paid ads on the right-hand side thus increasing the competition in paid search.
Everyone has always been jockeying for position on the organic section of the search engines as well. In the ever-changing world of search, marketers are always looking to improve their online visibility on the search engines. Let’s take a look at how to improve local online visibility: (more…)
Construction Marketing Association conducted a survey to better understand the marketing plans and priorities of the construction industry. Surprisingly, over 96% of companies plan on increasing their marketing efforts. They realize the importance of their brand, relationships with local companies, and more engagement through the social media platforms. The national survey consisted of 7 questions that were asked.
We’d like to focus on the first four questions and the results: (more…)
Page speed impacts SEO. “I feel the need…the need for speed!” Remember that famous line from Top Gun? Out of all the factors that impact SEO, I would suggest focusing your website efforts on speed. Two reasons why speed is important: The search engines (i.e. Google) and user experience. First of all, it seems logical that if a website takes a long time to load, visitors will be less likely to do business with you. Think about it, because we live in an “on-demand” society where we no longer find the news; the news finds us. So what is page speed? (more…)
Google wants all of the web to be encrypted, and they aren’t going to hold back to let users know that your website is not secure. Google announced in September 2016 that they are moving to a “more secure web.”
Google wants to make sure your website is secure, so starting in January 2017, they will start notifying Chrome users of unsecured websites.
This is not the first time Google has made a push for security. In fact, in 2014 Google started giving a ranking boost to secure https/ssl sites. 2017 is going to be the year of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure).
There’s nothing more frustrating than not having data to measure your online efforts. When reviewing Google Analytics, there is usually a lot of sessions that have “not set” or “not provided” in your reports. But what do they mean? More importantly, is there a way to access this data? Yes, but only for “Not Provided” data. Let’s take a look at what these mean.
Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms and the reason is simple—to improve user experience. The most recent change occurred on September 23, 2016—the Google Penguin update. If companies don’t adapt or change with these updates, their SEO will suffer.
What worked a year ago or ten years ago (even if they were considered “best practices”), does not mean they will work today. Some companies pound their chest saying that “Google trusts our site” or that we have a “high TrustRank” with Google. Some SEO marketers still measure their website success by having a “high” PageRank. Another SEO strategy still common today: submit a website to as many online directories—the quantity over quality approach. So let’s take a look at these 3 SEO strategies that once were the norm:
First of all what are hashtags? Hashtags are simply a keyword or phrase preceded by the # sign. Why should your company implement hashtags in your social media strategy? Because your customers (and potential customers) are using them to find information on products/services and to keep up-to-date with topics of interest. Hashtags are everywhere and there are several websites (now including YouTube as of May 2016 and most recently LinkedIn as of September 2016) that support hashtags.
Google’s online real estate just got more competitive. Last week, numerous sources announced that Google will be removing ads on the right side of the desktop search results. The only exception will be Product Listing Ads (PLA’s). You may have also noticed another change: Four ads on top instead of three: (more…)