SEO and Social Media Marketing News
MOBILE PAID SEARCH IS TAKING OFF
Not so long ago, you’d look around and see people with their cell phone attached to their ear, engrossed in conversation. No more. We’re using our Smartphones and other mobile devices to do so much more than talk. It shouldn’t really be a surprise that according to recent reports, mobile search now accounts for 5% of paid search spending.
If the current trend continues, that number could be 10% by year’s end. Google still rules paid search and that includes mobile search. “Clearly, this is the future of search in the Internet,” said Google Senior Vice President of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg during the company’s third quarter 2010 earnings call in October. “Our mobile search queries have grown five times over the past couple of years, and of course, a lot more of those queries are now coming from Android phones.”
The top Google mobile search query is for restaurants 29.6%, followed by automotive related 16.8%, consumer electronics 15.5%, finance and insurance 15.4% and beauty/personal 14.9%. If you’re running a pay-per-click campaign, you may want to consider experimenting with mobile ads but keep in mind that the average cost-per-click for mobile ads tends to be higher than that for PC ads.
People searching for a business on their iPhone or Android mobile device can use the new Google filter “Show Businesses Open Now.” A business that has claimed their Google Places listing and reported their hours of operation may get a little boost in the mobile search results when this feature is activated. If you haven’t taken advantage of Google Places listings, we recommend youdo it now and be sure to include your business hours. After all, it’s free!
WHAT DOES FARMING HAVE TO DO WITH GOOGLE SEARCH AND SEO?
In a nutshell, Google has been attempting to crack down on sites that are considered “content farms.” These are sites that are low quality, not very useful to searchers, have little or no original content or use any combination of tactics to trick Google into bumping up their site in the search rankings. Poor quality sites that appear high in the search results create a poor user experience which will certainly cause searchers to migrate to other engines. And when search traffic deteriorates, advertisers look for other places to spend their money. Google will not let this happen! Contrary to reports, this is not the first time Google has pushed out the low quality sites that are a threat to their business model.
What does this mean for your website? If you’ve got good quality original content, it’s actually great news. The “Google Farmer Update” eliminated many of the sites that don’t really deserve a high ranking so that opens the door for other sites to move up in the rankings. Most sites that achieve top rankings use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. If you have questions about
SEO services give us a call!
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE GREAT FOR BUSINESS—BUT BEWARE NEGATIVE REVIEWS
Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter can be very useful for getting your message out but you have to put some thought and effort into it. If you create a Facebook page for your business and don’t actively promote it, it’s pretty useless. But if you put a “follow us on Facebook” button on your website and encourage your customers to “like” your Facebook page, you’ll start to build an online community of customers. You can offer specials and promotions for your Facebook fans that will make your customers want to “like” your page and keep coming back.
Remember, Facebook is the world’s largest social site and that means that many of your customers and prospects use Facebook (most of them spend more time there than they’re willing to admit).
There’s no cost to set up an account.
Twitter is another free and simple way to communicate with customers and prospects. But again, you have to work it—add the Twitter button to your website and give customers an incentive to follow you.
Pay close attention to mentions of your business on social sites. If people do a search for your business, social mentions often show up at the top of the search results. You can’t stop people from writing a negative review or comment but you can take actions to help push them down on the search results page. If you need help monitoring and managing your social media mentions or advertising on social media, we can point you in the right direction. Just ask or follow link below.
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