April
25
2012
There’s a great little Q&A on B2B link building over at search engine land …
Here’s a sample of one of the questions:
Q. How effective are link exchanges? Does Google penalize you for engaging in them?
Scott: Link exchanges are helpful if it is a very relevant content on the pages that are exchanging links. Partners, customers, industry associations are all examples of where a link exchange makes sense.
Participating in a large scale or questionable link exchange program should not be pursued as those types of situations – non-relevant content essentially – can cause some penalties.
Debra: If your customers are using mobile devices to access your site, they’re looking at other sites too. Increase exposure of your brand by adding/swapping your company link with influential blogrolls in your niche. These links aren’t heavy hitters algorithmically but because they are text links, they will be seen online and via mobile.
Read the rest here: http://searchengineland.com/six-degrees-of-seo-bacon-b2b-link-building-qa-117813
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
February
23
2012
With mobile marketing set to become the monster in the room no marketer can ignore. There is a great infographic over a Mashable that tells a pretty compelling story.
Heres’ a little nugget …
“Nine in 10 young adults spend between one and five hours on their mobile devices daily. Nearly one in 10, meanwhile, are on their gadgets between five and ten hours each day. Just under a third would actually like for brands to send them promotions viasmarthphone and tablet, but more than half say that it’s “extremely important” to be able to opt out of such come-ons.”
Go check out this informative graphic here: http://mashable.com/2012/02/22/mobile-marketing-infographic/
January
23
2012
The folks over at Wordstream put out a great inforgraphic on the big spenders of 2011. Go and check it out here: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/01/23/google-revenues
Below is a little teaser and the graphic …
On the heels of Google’s “disappointing” earnings announcement last Thursday – they generated a whopping $37.9 billion in revenues in 2011 – we conducted our own analysis to determine the top 10 industries that spent the most money on Google advertising last year. The results are summarized in our Google revenues infographic, also shown below (click the image to enlarge).
We think that the results of our analysis reveal some surprising insights into the current state of the US economy – read on for more commentary.
January
19
2012
Well it looks like people and their privacy are getting in the way again of tracking. Most of the big producers seem to be covering their butts on this issue. Can’t really blame them it’s a hot topic and when to Government gets involved it’s a down right nightmare. Just look what happened yesterday on the SOPA/PIPA issue.
Here’s a little quote from an article on Apple phasing out their unique device identifier. Which basically means mobile marketers better be looking for another way of tracking clicks and app installs.
“Why is Apple raining on the ad network parade? The obvious reason is the campaign for user privacy. Users don’t seem to like the fact that they’re being tracked on their web-capable devices. Of course, if Apple is so concerned about the user, why is it “phasing it out?” Why not just stop it dead with the first iOS 5 update? Answer: it would lose everyone a lot of money, including Apple. The bottom line is that the most downloaded games on the iPhone rely on mobile advertising to keep their numbers pumping, and phasing out UDID gives everyone a chance to transition their business or find alternate ways to track users. Ultimately, advertisers need to find accurate ways to track ad engagement without using any real personally identifiable information (PII).
The issue of user privacy is in its infancy on mobile right now. Most people have no idea what information on their phone is tracked when they install new apps or engage with advertisements. Even major mobile app marketers have no idea what information ad networks are pulling from user devices unless they’ve decompiled those ad networks’ software development kits themselves. That’s one of the reasons why everyone keeps calling mobile advertising the “Wild Wild West.” No one seems to know what anyone else is tracking or storing, and regulation is extremely weak, but that won’t last long.”
Read the rest here it’s worth a look: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30829.asp
Local Search and Mobile Marketing from TurnUp Local
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn how your business can benefit from mobile media
January
11
2012
David Mihm has put together a monster of an infographic detailing the changes of Google Places since 2004. It’s very detailed and easy to follow. If you have the time go check it out here: http://www.davidmihm.com/google-places.shtml
January
4
2012
If your not starting to run a mobile campaign this year it could prove to be detrimental to your business. There are a ton of different types of mobile marketing that can be done and just about every business could benefit from starting one today.
Mobile marketing watch has this to say in a recent article.
The latest projections published this week from research firm Berg Insight suggest that the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market is on pace for record growth over the next 48 months.
According to the latest estimates, the industry will see 37% growth by 2016, bringing the industry’s total value to $22.6 billion at that time.
“The popularity of smartphones and the increasing availability of mobile media that can include mobile advertising are the main game-changers,” said Rickard Andersson, telecom analyst at Berg Insight.
Go over and check the article here: http://bit.ly/xt67zR
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
Learn up mobile marketing here: http://www.turnuplocal.com/TurnUp-Local/mobile-media-marketing.html
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business
December
30
2011
I would bet most websites out there contain some kind of conversion killing buttons, text, ads, graphics, bad color pallets. The list could go on and on.
If usability testing is not on your list of things to do for 2012, go ahead and add it now.
Conversion Rate Experts have written a fantastic article about conversion killers on websites . These examples seem innocent enough but as you will see are just asking for people to leave the site or not continue on to the final conversion.
Here’s an example…
Types of Nuke Button
Here are some of the most common types of Nuke Button:
Nuke Button Type 1: The “Empty Cart” button. The internet is riddled with shopping carts that have “Empty Cart” buttons in them. Can you imagine a supermarket in which half of the checkouts are “trap” ones, at which a member of staff would grab your shopping cart and put all the items back on the shelves? An “Empty Cart” feature would never exist in the offline world.
But, online, they are commonplace. Here’s an example of one:
Notice how this “Empty Cart” button is identical in appearance to the Place Order” button. It’s even located on the right-hand side, where you might imagine the “Place Order” button to be. One false click and the order is nuked.
Read the full article here and get smarter about conversions: http://bit.ly/2t9p6
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
Learn up mobile marketing here: http://www.turnuplocal.com/TurnUp-Local/mobile-media-marketing.html
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business
December
15
2011
If you follow local search you already know about this frustrating problem. If your a business owner and this has happened to you. Your computer is probably sitting at the bottom of a lake somewhere. Needless to say it’s been an area of annoyance for many.
There is a really simple work around that only takes a few minutes to implement. The work around was brought to my attention by Blumenthal’s Blog. Here’s a little bit from a recent post that addresses this problem. (just hit the work around link to get the details)
“The forum comment provides a step by step procedure for assessing and coping with (but not solving) the issue. The listing nuking message, in the system for sometime, seems to have been occurring more frequently over the past 3 or 4 months. The work around offered is the one developed by the frequent contributor to the German Places Forums, Spinatmensch. If you want to see more discussion and experiences with the work around be sure to read themany contributor comments made in response to the suggested work around.
Google has finally provided some public guidance, if not a a long awaited fix, to deal with the persistent Places error state “We currently do not support the location“.
See the big G’s response here: http://bit.ly/sO6VfY
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
Learn up mobile marketing here: http://www.turnuplocal.com/TurnUp-Local/mobile-media-marketing.html
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business
December
13
2011
Seems more adults are spending time with their mobile devices than ever before. It’s no wonder mobile marketing is exploding these days.
Adults are spending more time with their mobile devices than they’re spending with print media, according to a report released Monday by eMarketer.
According to the New York-based market research firm, the average adult consumer spends 65 minutes a day on their mobile device, while they spend only 44 minutes with print media–26 minutes with newspapers, and 18 minutes with magazines.
This is the first year since eMarketer began taking their time tally in 2008 that adults have spent more time with mobile devices than with print.
Find out more here: http://bit.ly/tpRnYy
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
Learn up mobile marketing here: http://www.turnuplocal.com/TurnUp-Local/mobile-media-marketing.html
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business
December
8
2011
If your not monitoring your business reviews, you should start immediately if not sooner. Not only to listen to what you’re customers are saying and let’s not forget they’re your best bet in finding out where improvements can be made.
If you’re business gets a negative review don’t freak out it can actually improve how customers view your business. Any normal person knows it’s impossible to please every single person. By that rational having all positive reviews can seem fake. Consumers in today’s online world a quite a bit sharper than most business owners give them credit for so do get caught up in making sure your reviews are all rainbows any glitter.
Andrew Shotland wrote an informative article on how to respond to negative reviews.
“But there’s a lot of lemonade to be made from those review lemons. After all, negative reviews can increase sales. Negative reviews can help potential customers feel like they have “done their homework” which moves them further towards making a purchase decision. Negative reviews can also add credibility to your positive reviews. And perhaps most important, negative reviews give businesses a chance to respond and show how awesome they really are.
So when your business gets slammed on a local review site, be it a legit complaint or a crackpot customer, you can’t afford to ignore the negativity.”
There is a list if exactly how to respond to negative reviews here: http://selnd.com/uNADXI
So next time you’re business gets a negative review take a moment to look at the big picture, respond and look like a hero.
Learn more about local seo here: http://www.turnuplocal.com
Learn up mobile marketing here: http://www.turnuplocal.com/TurnUp-Local/mobile-media-marketing.html
Text “localbiz” to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business