Similar to the Facebook "Like" button that offers those with a Facebook account to vote socially and "like" something - whether a person, business or web page outside the walls of Facebook's closed eco-system, Google now is about to roll out a "Like" button of its own: the +1 (plus one) button. |
Over the last couple of years Google, and to a lesser degree Bing, have shared the spotlight when it comes to search. In fact, Yahoo! who above all other brands brought search to the masses has found itself slowly in a death spiral that it finds hard to get out of. Recently, Yahoo! has signed an agreement with Microsoft's Bing to provide search results, however on this innovation Yahoo! goes it alone to bring its customers Search Direct. |
For small-business owners, staying afloat in a sea of big-name corporate brands can be one of the biggest challenges in today’s market. In order to keep your head above water and maintain a competitive edge, you have to get your name out there – and get it to stick. Effectively promoting your business to potential customers not only spreads the word about your business, but with the right promotional items and techniques, you can build a positive image around your brand that helps people remember who you are and what your business is all about. |
Many people in the SEO/SEM community are talking about the recent article in the New York Times titled: "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search". |
When it comes to advertising, it's said that there is usually nothing better than the strategy of word of mouth. Hearing about a product or a service from a trusted friend or even an acquaintance is likely to help you drop your resistance to that item and open your wallet or pocketbook. As in the real world (brick and mortar), many businesses on the web are also looking for a way to leverage word of mouth for advertising purposes and one of the newest companies which is rolling out word of mouth to the masses is Facebook. |
Google understands that what drives its business is advertising. For years they have worked diligently to do all they can so that businesses may get a return on their investment when they use their AdWords service. AdWords, as SEO/SEM professionals already know, focuses on keywords. So it's no wonder that Google has continually added improvements to AdWords making it not only easier to use, but more effective. Recently Google has offered a new and improved Ad Preview Tool. Continue reading to find out what's new and how SEO/SEM professionals can effectively utilize this tool? |
There's been quite some news recently regarding Google. First off, you've probably heard that CEO Eric Schmidt will be moving into the role of Executive Chairman while, co-founder Larry Paige will be CEO. But besides big news such as this, another news "shoe" dropped as well last week with Matt Cutts who is Google's Principle Engineer stating that Google will be actively making an effort to reduce spam from its rankings - specifically spam created by content farms. So what is spam created by content farms and how does this affect SEO and SEM professionals? |
When it comes to advertising on the web, you'll be hard pressed to find a service better for the average web business than Google's PayPerClick AdWords. Google has revolutionized the way web users and web sites connect - making it not only relatively affordable for just about any business on the web to attract views (impressions), but also level the playing field against huge corporations in many ways. |
SEO and SEM is always a game of cat and mouse with the big search engines. Professionals in the industry are always trying to determine the strategies that can help them place a website at the top of the rankings and deliver more traffic and business. While the vast majority of SEO and SEM professionals are considered "white hat" using tools and strategies that are ethically sound and that conform to the major search engines quality guidelines and policies, there are individuals that do cut corners and to some extent use whatever means necessary to rig the game against the search engines in their favor (we'll call this black hat). |
You probably already noticed that Google is spending tremendous resources and real estate space on its results pages to show both traditional search results along with location based results using its product Google Maps. Google Maps has grown in leaps and bounds not only for those using mobile phones and tablets, but for those searching at home. If you are a SEO/SEM professional, it's critical you take note of how location is changing how the major search engines are delivering and ranking results. |
