Business
Insights to Improving Your SEO
- When it comes to purchasing decisions, a recent study found women turn to social media for research, more than men. However, the study found search engines are the most popular resource for researching for purchasing decisions.
- New website content needs to go up, or be up on nights and weekends. Need to make sure your website is functioning at full capacity (as in: not down or slow) on nights and weekends. The reason? Spiders crawl most on weekends and nights.
- Don’t write for spiders. Write for people. A recent study showed people gauge trustworthiness of organic search results on the descriptions that appear in those results. So write for people not bots.
- General speaking, blog posts get the most uptake on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Earlier in the morning is always best. The “Linkerati” (those who posts tons of links in social media) look early to figure out what they’re going to post.
- A blog post containing video gets more links, than blog posts with pictures. Don’t know why.. that’s just what the study found. So experiment with video in your blog.
- The more you post to your blog, the more links you get. That’s a fact.
- Conversations on your blog will not help your SEO. Links to your blog help SEO. Period.
- The optimum length of the title of a blog post, the sweet spot 40-100 characters. These get spread through social media the most. You will get better SEO results.
- The most important piece of SEO, and the hardest thing to get, is a link. The more links you can get, the better.
- Don’t worry about SEO as a tactic, think of it as a function of what you do. On that same note, Dan Zarrela said (emphatically) “Don’t hire an SEO consultant to help your SEO, hire a content producer.” You need good content more than you need a spider-tailored meta tag.
- The most linked-to words right now are:
1. recent
2. insights
3. soon
4. answers
5. analysis - The least linked-to words right now are:
1. settlements
2. franchise
3. deliverables
4. episode
5. carpet
Any surprises here for you?
Erin
Steve Jobs Last Legacy, Siri
As the world’s most influential icon in business and technology, Steve Jobs leaves behind decades of personal trademarks. Steve Jobs had a vision to change the world and he lived that vision right up to his final days. Steve Jobs transformed our lives further and faster than many of us were able to keep up with.
Steve Jobs’ legacy isn’t how he changed Apple Computers into Apple. It isn’t how he revived Apple Computers with iMac and iBook, Mac OS X and iOS, or how he revolutionized the music industry with iTunes and the App store. Although those are all amazing achievements, Steve Jobs should be remembered for fundamentally and forever changing the role of mobile devices. Jobs altered how we humans interact with mobile technology, information, and content, on the go. Mobile in many ways is, Steve Jobs.
Before the iPhone, mobile technology was limited to certain gaming devices, RIM’s Blackberry and the Palm. Jobs took his own vision of touch-screen interaction, ignoring the “nay sayers”, and launched the iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007, and iPad in 2010. In one decade, Apple forever changed how we interact with content and information through a touch screen interface.
From music to videos, the way we interact, capture, watch, and listen to content has forever changed culture, society, and individual lives. Some may argue or see it differently, but to the masses, the world is a better place because of Steve Jobs. Today’s startups such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare all have Steve Jobs to thank for reinventing the way people interact or connect with mobile devices.
In 2010, Jobs again made a daring move, acquiring Siri for $20 million. Consumers may knock the iPhone 4S as a minor upgrade, but 20 years from now, I believe we’ll look back at Siri as teve Jobs last, but most important innovation. Siri is potentially a game changing app that enables us to interact with our phones in more human and intelligent ways.
Yes, you can now talk into your phone and get an intelligent answer.
Need a reminder when you get home? It does that too.
We’ve heard that companies have been testing artificial intelligence in technology from fridges to consumer electronics, but Apple is one of the first to hit the mainstream market with such capabilities.
Next up? Most likely the TV with integrated voice commands. For example,
“Please turn on TV and change channel to CBS for Two and a Half Men”
Or what about a voice command PVR?
“Pause TV.”
“Rewind and show in slow replay.”
Goodbye remote.
You get the point. Once again, consumer electronics is about to change – and change the way we live in a busy mobile world. Business is going to need to change, too. Processes will need to be put in place that allow employees to respond to voice review boards instead of online review boards that require typing (think TripAdvisor and Google Places). Siri is strictly seen as an “Assistant” to the user right now. In the near future, a Siri API will likely be released allowing developers to build Siri enabled apps. At that point, business will need to adapt again to an evolution in the intimacy and speed of communication that allows customers to voice their opinions, good or bad, to companies and other consumers.
As Wayne Gretzky famously put, “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is.” Steve Jobs skated ahead throughout his career and in so doing changed the world.
Photo credit: Jonathan Mak
Tags: apple, iPhone, Siri, steve jobs
3 Awesome New Google Analytics Features
The new version of Google Analytics (version 5) was made available to all users on April 20, 2011. If you are using the old version of Google Analytics, you can easily switch to the new version by clicking on the “New Version” link located at the top of your Google Analytics account.
Since its public beta launch, Google has been steadily adding new features that are only accessible on the new version. Here are a few features worthy of your attention.
1. Social Plugin
Google Analytics now allows users to track and analyze how website visitors engage with sharing buttons such as Google +1, Twitter and Facebook. Google +1 integration is part of the default configuration. Additional programming is require to integrate the other social sharing buttons. Here’s a link to more information about the Social Plugin Analytics.
2. Multi-Channel Funnels
One of the most insightful features on the new version of GA is the multi-channel funnel. Website conversion tracking used to only identify the last place a visitor was before completing a goal. However, online conversions are not always a direct process. Users can visit a website multiple times from different sources before converting. The new multi-channel funnel feature now identifies the actual path a visitor took before converting. See this video for more information.
3. Linking Multiple Adwords Accounts
This feature is handy for those using multiple Adwords accounts. Google Analytics originally only allowed one Adwords account to be linked to one Google Analytics account. Linking is necessary to track Adwords performance via Google Analytics. Google just released a new feature that allows users to link multiple Adwords accounts to a Google Analytics account. See this Google Analytics Blog post for instructions on how to set it up.
You might need a bit of time to get used to the new Google Analytics layout, but if Google continues to innovate with new features and functions, it will be worth the effort.
Have you tried the new version of Google Analytics? What are your thoughts about it?
Victor
Tags: Google Analytics
The Effects Google+ Could Have On Business
After months of rumours Google jumped into the social network game with a big splash last week, announcing its new social network Google+ as the competition for Facebook. Currently, users are only able to sign up through invites but It’s expected that by the end of July, Google+ will be open to the public, possibly with new Google+ Brand Pages, too.
Yes, Google+ is yet another “sandbox” to play in and learn about but it comes with some big enticements including the prospect of easy integration of services. As we discussed last week, Google+ has many features that compete with several web and mobile apps and it appears that Google+ may be looking at using one of their latest features, Google Hangouts, in their upcoming Google+ Brand Pages. The big advantage that both Facebook and Google have over their competitors is scaleable size. But will an all-in-one solution win out? Too early to call but here are some early indicators.
It seems Google couldn’t be happier with the launch of Google+ and its social sharing button “Google +1.” Stats show that websites are quickly adopting the Google button, and that social sharing continues to grow across the web
With “+1” and Google+, Google has the ability to tie all of its products together to create the ultimate search friendly business platform. From content curation to user reviews, most businesses will be in a position to benefit from Google+ — possibly even more than Facebook. Despite current pervasiveness, it’s even conceivable that Facebook could transition into a MySpace 2.0 evolved social entertainment network with its large audience of gamers, and now rumoured music service. We’re not suggesting a mass exodus but with the prospect of a shift as significant as this one, we are saying that it’s more important than ever to have a meaningful digital strategy.
In June, it was reported that people are spending more time on mobile apps than the web itself. Time spent surfing the Internet shifted to 81 minutes/day on a mobile app compared to 74 minutes/day on the web itself. Was Chris Anderson’s article on “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet” an accurate reading of the future? The trends halfway through 2011 would say so – and there’s more to come. Google has already reported that native apps for Google+ are coming soon.
The question is no longer whether a business has an audience on the Internet — only where? Is it on the web, on a mobile app, or both? With an integrated strategy, a brand can better identify its top priorities and its best channels for engagement. Community and context are everything, but if a brand is not active on the same channel as its target audience then despite good intentions, it’s operating in different universe.
Tags: digital strategy, facebook, google plus, mobile apps, web
Google Domination
Google has just unveiled its Google+ Project. Essentially, the social sharing and networking features are very similar to Facebook. At least one Google representative suggested that people desire a better version of Facebook. Google+ hopes to be the answer.
But wait a minute. All the similarities of the new Google+ features position Google to take on a lot more than Facebook. See for yourself.
Google+ offers its users a new way to…
- Organize friends & connections thanks to +Circles.
Or you could keep using: Facebook Groups. - Communicate with specific groupings of friends and/or family thanks to +Circles.
Or you could keep using: Facebook Groups, Email groupings - Group-text thanks to +Huddle.
Or you could keep using: Beluga, GroupMe, WhatsApp, Grouped{in},KIK, or countless others. - Show off photos taken with your phone thanks to +Instant Upload.
Or you could keep using: Instagram, Hipstamatic, Pano, Pocketbooth,
Camera+, 360, Mobli, or a zillion other apps. - Geek out over niche interests thanks to +Sparks.
Or you could keep using: Quora, Blogs, or many forums. - Group chat thanks to +Hangouts.
Or you could keep using: Skype Group Chat, Fring, or video-enabled instant messaging. - Share your physical location with friends thanks to +Location, Location, Location.
Or you could keep using: Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, or several other location-based apps. - Share content thanks to +(all of the above).
Or you could keep using: all the things you’re used to.
Well, you’ll likely have to for the next while anyway – as Google+ is pre-Beta, meaning invitation-only. No confirmed date on when Google+ will roll out to a general audience.
Have some more tools we could add to these lists above? Share ‘em and I’ll add ‘em.
- Erin
Tags: google
