That’s roughly a year after the company first announced the update and gives us another six months to prepare for it. In short, Google will highlight search results that have a great page experience and could probably become a ranking factor. Google said you may see these icons and labels in the search results soon. The update will take expected user experience into consideration for ranking in search results.
What is Page Experience?
To understand how a user will perceive the experience of a specific web page, Google will evaluate a set of signals. This includes existing Google Search signals such as mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS, and intrusive interstitial guidelines. It also includes metrics in Google’s Web Vitals to do with a site’s loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.
How to prepare for the Page Experience update?
For site owners and others, understanding these signals and making the necessary changes should be a priority. Among the steps to take are optimizing for mobile, improving page speeds, CTAs, and alt text for images.
You can start preparing now for user experience to become a ranking factor now. The Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console is an excellent place to start getting a sense of how your site is performing in these areas. Alternatively, you can also make use of the PageSpeed Insights tool by Google (which is a part of our SEO Audit) to understand how your site stacks up.
How are we helping our clients with the Page Experience update?
To cope up with the update, we are already doing the below things for our clients:
We have also updated our SEO Audit Reports to bring back the Mobile and Desktop Page Speed Insights sections which are a critical part in improving the Page Speed experience for users. In addition, our Audit also shows the Website HTTPS (secure website) status which is a critical ranking factor in relation to this update.
By showing this to your clients, it presents a lucrative opportunity for you to upsell add-on services like “mobile friendly optimization”, “improving page load speed”, “making website secure”, “CTA optimization”, “landing page optimization”, etc. If you’re interested, our team can discuss this further how to best provide these services to your clients at a minimal cost.
A large number of people shop online for almost everything. To get these customers, you need to be ahead of the competition. We have listed some important SEO features to help rank your product page higher.
The important SEO features are:
1) Short URL Structure
The URL structure for your product pages should be short and must have some primary keywords (related to your product) to generate high click-through. Let’s compare the two links that are given below:
http://www.freeridepowersports.com/catalog_product_detail.asp?cat_9781-107864-111049_product_2176989.Garmin_Montana_680T_GPS.htm
https://www.rei.com/garmin-montana-680t-gps
The first URL structure is long and cannot be shared easily. The second URL structure is simple and keyword rich – considered a better URL by Google.
2) Optimized Title Tags
Your title tag affects the search rankings. You must include important product keywords like Brand Name, Part Name, Color, etc. It should be easy to understand and can be a little long. For example, the title tag given below has all the important details related to a specific product, making it easier for the user.
You must also pre-plan your product category (by color, size, or other features) and then add your pages to an e-commerce site.
3) Mobile Friendly Product Pages
With so many reliable smartphone options, most people shop using their mobile devices. Your site must have a mobile-specific design or should be AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) compatible. Don’t ignore your potential customers who use mobile devices. Take Google’s Mobile Friendly Test to ensure you are not losing business. You can also go a step ahead and use SEO audit tools to detect issues in your site.
4) Sitelinks Search Box
High-ranking e-commerce sites use the site search feature to help customers find what they are looking for. When does a search box appear? When you enter a brand name along with the word ‘website’ (Amazon Website), when you add a domain along with a brand name (Pinterest.com) or enter a brand name.
Wondering why you need a search box? You need a search box to improve your user experience and display results that are relevant to your customers from your site. To add the search box to your site, read the details provided by Google. Also, to monitor what people are searching for, set up Google Analytics Tracking for your search box.
5) Unique Product Descriptions & Images
Online retailers must avoid using product descriptions and images supplied by the manufacturer. Duplicate content is very easily detected by Google and Bing and will not show up in top search results. Nowadays, many companies offer multiple photos of a single product from different angles and these images can also be zoomed-in for better clarity. Some even add short videos. Image optimization can also get you more traffic and hence, more sales.
6) Simplified Version Of Product Data
Product specifications are very important to customers. If you provide clear, easy-to-read information, your customers will trust you and possibly return to your site again. The added advantage is that Google loves specification tables and includes them in search results as a snippet.
Organize your data properly and keep your tables simple.
7) Question & Answer Section
Having an FAQ or Q&A section on the product pages helps your customers to clear their doubts or confirm the details with previous purchasers. The users can make their purchase decisions faster.
8) Longer Snippets by Google!
A recent update from Google states that there are no strict rules on how long meta descriptions need to be. This helps the users to find the product information they are looking for without clicking on 10 different links. The below-given snippet has 310 characters in its meta description. But it answers the users’ query properly, so Google displays the entire description in the search results.
9) Rich Results
Customers prefer enhanced results or rich results. Rich results include additional details like pictures, reviews, prices, showtimes, etc. To generate rich results like the example given below, use Schema formatted Structured Data Markup of your website content. Microdata & JSON/LD are the two main options. Google prefers JSON-LD! Try out http://schema.org/Product to get started.
10) Reviews That Influence Your Customers
Every customer now checks the reviews before purchasing a product online.
Guidelines given by Google are as follows:
To learn more, read Google’s Review Guidelines.
11) Video Content
Some videos are designed to answer most of the frequently asked questions in a single go. Hence, videos save users’ reading time and help in making online purchase decisions. The only disadvantage is the page load time. Using an image link that opens on a new page with the video can be an easy way to reduce the load time.
12) Single Product Page with Many Options
Products are combined into a single page mostly when they differ in few specifications like size, color, etc. For example, a trouser that is available in various sizes and colors. The selection of a specific size or color generates a unique number or SKU. Such pages are preferred by customers and give better results.
Before creating combined pages, the points that must be considered include the following:
A product page can rank on Google when the details of all the products are simplified in a chart or listed on the page. Check out the table given below to understand clearly. Creating such tables definitely takes a lot of time, but the rewards are also higher.
13) Easy-To-Follow Product Details & Ordering Process
Adding unwanted information or complex functions can drive your customers away. The customers must easily understand the options and receive what they have ordered. Redesign your page and make some internal changes if needed to improve your online sales conversion rates. Also, your ‘Buy now’ or ‘Add to Cart’ buttons must be optimized (location, color, button text, size, and shape) to improve the click rate.
14) Quality Signals
Quality Signals are very important for every e-commerce site.
The basic requirements are:
These certifications will help you rank higher and assure your customers that your company is reliable & valid.
A shopping site must include Payment Policies, Exchange Policy / Information, Return Policy, easy to find Full Contact/Customer Service Information, Secure Server, etc. Check out the Google Quality Raters Handbook (PDF) for more details.
15) Fast Loading Website
A study shows that for every 1-second delay in page responsiveness, conversions can suffer by 7%. Also, Core Web Vitals will be included in page experience signals. So, Fast Loading Pages will be ranked higher.
16) The Marketing Team & Keywords
The marketing team that spends time learning about their products, their target customers, participates in Online Forums, joins various groups, attends shows, etc., can form highly optimized keywords & excellent sales copy. This will help make the business highly profitable.
After going through all these features, make a list of issues that your site might have and start improving it. To stay ahead of your competition, you must focus on enhancing your site.
Aren’t yet seeing messages in your GMB desktop dashboard? Soon you will! Google My Business is rolling out messaging for desktop this month. Within a couple of weeks in March 2021, all businesses will have access to messaging on the web.
Opt-in to enable users to send messages via your GMB account to use the service. You can automate the welcome responses as per your brand and interact with the users messaging you.
This new feature will allow you to track messages and save and download all your conversations. However, you should take note that Google expects you to respond to the messages within 24 hours. By failing to do so, you can lose access to messaging tools. Also, know that your customized automated welcome messages do not count as a response here.
As per Google, this is how it works:
Once you turn on messaging, customers will find a “Message” button on your Business Profile and will be able to message you at any time.
Steps to Take
Aren’t yet seeing messages in your GMB desktop dashboard? Soon you will! Google My Business is rolling out messaging for desktop this month. Within a couple of weeks in March 2021, all businesses will have access to messaging on the web.
Here’s another update by Google! Last month, Google My Business added a new Years in Business feature. So business owners can now tag onto their Business Profile to tell their customers in which year a business opened or will open, at its address.
Have a look at the image below:
Follow the below steps to set your opening date
All you require is the year and month of your opening date. It allows you to enter a date in advance up to one year, but it won’t show on Google until 90 days before the date.
Google says that “On certain places in Google Search, the opening date may be used to let customers know how many years a business has been in operation.”
Actionable Strategy — The new feature is being viewed as a trust factor by several consumers. So if you’ve been around, you should take advantage of your years in business.
Need another pair of hands to make sure you’re up to date with all of Google’s new updates?
Team eBizUniverse is ready to dive into your current state and do a comprehensive
Digital Marketing Analysis at no cost to you!
Give us a call at (800) 379-2829 or contact us so we can get to work right away!
On Dec 3rd, 2020, Google began rolling out a new core algorithm update, and as always it made some people happy, while others weren’t as pleased about it.
Google keeps making smaller modifications to its ranking formulas almost every day, but the big changes are made only about three times annually. This is also the reason why the recent change was anxiously anticipated since May 2020, when the last one took place.
Like always, Google responded to queries and comments by referring to their boilerplate recommendations of the past like what webmasters should know about Google’s core updates and the 175-page general guidelines for search quality evaluators.
Simply put, Google reflected their casual, don’t worry if you lost rankings attitude by saying…
“pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix.”
But, if you still feel you need to do something, try “focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can”. The same old line that they use whenever they are asked about getting your page ranked.
What Can Be Done
Even if your rankings have tanked as a result of the last core update, there are no specific actions that you can take to recover, says Google. They also went on to say that negative rankings do not mean there is anything wrong with your pages. That said, we haven’t noticed any rank drop for our clients due to this update.
Google does suggest a list of questions to consider, based on different categories.
Content and Quality Questions
Expertise Questions
Presentation and Production Questions
You might also want to have a go through this article comparing rank volatility and average position change. It also lists winners and losers!
Staying updated with the latest Search Engine Optimization (SEO) related developments is important to increase your website’s traffic. It can be a bit demanding, but it is worth your efforts.
To help you stay informed and prepared for the upcoming digital challenges, we have prepared a list of some SEO trends to look out for this year. These trends can be your flashlights on your way to SEO success.
Here’s a quick rundown of the most relevant SEO Trends:
Artificial Intelligence Will Decide The Rankings
The Shift To Mobile-First Indexing
Content Strategy Tips
Local SEO Gains Importance
Focus On User Search Intent
Other Ways To Optimize Keywords
Be Data-Driven
The right SEO tools can guide you to prepare a smart SEO strategy & help you stay on top of the rankings. If you are on the lookout for SEO on your own website or your clients, we can be the right fit. Just connect with us and our experts will assist you further.
See How You Can Improve Your SEO!
Did you know, around 28% of all local searches typically result in a purchase? Recent times have shown us just how important it is for a business to have a solid online presence. In order to establish that presence, a business needs to succeed at both, overall SEO and local SEO. The combination of a strong traditional and local SEO strategy can help propel your business way ahead of your competition.
To effectively harness the power of local search, you need to first understand how to build and implement a good local SEO strategy. Read on to find the top 12 local SEO tips that can help improve your business’s online presence in 2021.
#1. Do not delay in creating a GMB listing
Creating a GMB listing is not very difficult. Just ensure that you complete your profile and list all your products and services. Once you are done setting up your GMB listing, start creating mini-posts for your clients using the Google Posts feature. This will not only help you keep your clients updated, but it will also show Google that you are taking the time to manage your listing.
#2. Get your business listed in other important directories as well
Listing your business on all the important online directories is essential for local SEO. Check whether there are any online business directories specific to your area and target them along with the main national and global directories, such as:
#3. Ensure your Name and Place (NAP) information is updated and correct
Incorrect and inconsistent NAP information generally results in Google not displaying your GMB listing. So make sure your NAP information is correct and completely the same across all the platforms and in all your listings.
In case your business moves to a new location, update this information on all platforms as soon as possible. Also, since a business’s profile information can now be updated based on changes suggested by consumers, you should keep a close eye on it to ensure there are no discrepancies.
#4. Find out the local keywords you can target
Targeting local keywords is an absolute must when it comes to local SEO. Make sure your research for local keywords includes longer tail keywords related to your business as well as variations of search terms. You might also want to look into targeting hyper-local keywords.
#5. See to it that your site is optimized with the local keywords
Once you are done shortlisting the local keywords you would like to rank for, optimize your site using these keywords. The keywords must feature on your homepage as well as your service pages in the following areas:
If possible, try and incorporate your main local keyword in the URL as well. Just make sure that when you add these keywords, you incorporate them into the rest of the content as naturally as possible.
#6. Create locally relevant content
Creating non-local content for a locally focused business will do you no good. For better lead generation, you need to create content that is locally relevant. The best way to go about it would be by incorporating local keywords into content related to the products and/or services you offer. You can also come up with content that revolves around local news and events related to your business or industry.
#7. Make your site mobile-friendly
Statistics show that of all the mobile searches conducted, 30% are location-related. This makes it extremely important to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly. If your site fails to work properly on mobile, there are high chances that you might lose quite a few of your potential consumers to a competitor whose website is easy to access even on mobile. Make sure you do not lose them by optimizing your site for mobile.
#8. Optimize your site for voice as well
Mobile voice searches are now starting to become a common practice among consumers. It has come to light that mobile voice searches are 3X more likely to be related to something local as compared to text searches. However, voice search is still relatively new, and many businesses are yet to capitalize on it. Hence, optimizing your site and content for voice now will help you stay ahead of your competitors.
#9. Always look for opportunities to build inbound links
Building inbound links can strengthen not only your overall SEO efforts but also your local SEO game. While there are many ways to build quality inbound links, one of the most effective ways is to connect with those people and businesses that are related to your industry and figure out a way to place a contextual link on their websites.
#10. If you serve multiple locations, create location pages
If your business serves multiple locations, you will want your website to rank in the local searches for each of those locations. The best way to do so is by creating a separate page for every location, instead of just listing them down on one page. Besides creating unique content for every page, you will have to ensure that they are optimized for local keywords.
#11. Take the time to manage your reviews
Managing your reviews is an absolute must for succeeding in local SEO in 2021. Getting good reviews is great, but the negative ones can severely impact your authority and your rankings. The best way to manage your negative reviews is to respond to them with an aim to resolve the issues raised. This will not only help you retain customers, but it will also show Google that you are actively working to enhance customer experience. Hence, it is crucial that you manage your reviews across all platforms and listings.
#12. Don’t forget to pay attention to your overall SEO
While local SEO is important, especially for the locally-focused businesses, that’s no reason to ignore overall SEO. Google has made it very clear that organic SERP plays a major role in improving your local rankings. Chances are high that if you ignore implementing certain very important traditional SEO components, your local SEO efforts may fail as well. So make sure you keep a close eye on that front.
Final Takeaway
The year 2020 played a huge role in the colossal move of the majority of the consumers and the smallest of businesses online. Even if you may have already implemented some of the above listed local SEO tips, a lot more goes into building a comprehensive SEO strategy. If you find that your business is still floundering in the digital world, then it’s high time you get in touch with a reliable SEO expert to help you catch up to your competition.
Are you getting the best return out of your digital marketing?
Need an extra pair of eyes to review your online game plan? Let our experts take a look at your current state and do a comprehensive digital marketing analysis at no cost to you. Please call us at (800) 379-2829 or contact us today and we will get to work right away.
To help your start-up or medium-sized business gain momentum, we have listed some important local marketing strategies. These strategies can help you to increase your brand’s awareness & gain new customers. Hiring a marketing agency can help you to generate leads right away, but if you wish to do it on your own, this article is for you!
Here are some SEO tips for the DIYers:
Even when you are done following these tips, it takes patience & expertise to achieve the ranking you desire! If you need quick results, consulting an SEO expert is your best choice. We’re here for help!
Recently, Google made an announcement saying, “Today we’re completing the migration of the Disavow links tool to the new Search Console interface.” The migration of the Disavow tool was pending for a long time. Almost a year after officially closing down the old version of Google Search Console, they migrated the disavow link tool from the old Search Console to the new Search Console.
Importantly, Google goes on to caution that “This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google Search results.”
Google explains, “If you have a manual action against your site for unnatural links to your site, or if you think you’re about to get such a manual action (because of paid links or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines), you should try to remove the links from the other site to your site. If you can’t remove those links yourself, or get them removed, then you should disavow the URLs of the questionable pages or domains that link to your website.”
The new location for the disavow link tool is – https://search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links
Apart from this, Google will now let you download a disavow file as a text file and will no longer limit the error reports for uploaded files to just 10 errors.
As we all know, Google has always ignored bad links rather than penalizing businesses for it. However, if manual action is taken against your site for unnatural links or if you think that you are about to get one because of paid links or link schemes that violate the quality guidelines. Importantly, Google prefers that you ask the other site to remove those links first and if you can’t get them removed, you can use this tool to disavow those sites.
In October, Twitter launched Carousel Ads for advertisers globally. These ads enable marketers to display 2-6 horizontally swipeable images or videos.
You can check out Twitter’s new Carousel Ad Format here.
It takes just a few easy steps to create Carousel Ads. Advertisers can create them via Tweet Composer in Ads Manager or via the Ads API using creative specifications similar to other image and video formats.
Ads can then be promoted or used organically.
If you wish to learn more about Carousel Ads, visit this page!
Are you getting the best return out of your digital marketing?
Need an extra pair of eyes to review your online game plan? Let our experts take a look at your current state and do a comprehensive digital marketing analysis at no cost to you. Please call us at (800) 379-2829 or contact us today and we will get to work right away.
Aside from its employees, your business’s single largest asset isn’t the patents it holds, its office spaces, or even its distribution and supply channels. All of these assets, though important, pale in comparison to your company’s reputation. A single statement taken out of context can result in your business’s reputation crashing down to the ground, especially when it goes viral for the wrong reasons.
Your potential customers will likely look up your business online before they buy anything from you. If they find something negative about your brand, they will most likely take their business elsewhere. This is where online reputation management (ORM) comes in.
More than half of digital marketers say ORM plays a significant role in their company’s success. However, we feel this figure does not reflect the full reality. All businesses should be conscious of their online reputation, regardless of their niche or business model. ORM is important for businesses that wish to maintain a positive brand identity and attract consumers. In other words, all businesses!
This is confirmed by a survey conducted in 2018. The study claims more than 60% of companies monitor their online reputation at least once a day, with 21% checking in on their reputation every hour. These businesses obsess over their online reputation because bad press results in a loss of customers.
Whether you’re dealing with a local business or a larger one, you wouldn’t want to transact with a business that has a shady reputation, would you? ORM helps your brand transform its online presence into something that generates leads and attracts customers instead of turning them away.
Digital marketing and online reputation management are closely intertwined. An excellent online reputation makes it easier for digital marketers to generate leads and convert them into customers, while a poor ORM performance complicates your digital marketing team’s job.
Here are some ways online reputation management makes an impact on your digital marketing strategy:
People make a purchase from your business because they feel they can trust the quality of its products and its after-sales support. That trust is built mainly on the strength of reviews and feedback from your customers.
A quick Google search of companies that operate in your niche will bring up the businesses that have the highest star ratings. Because of changes to the Google algorithm, a single one-star review can have a massive impact on your business. On the other hand, a five-star review from a satisfied customer can convince potential customers to give your business a chance. This means review management has a real impact on your sales figures.
Aside from boosting your Google search performance, you can also use reviews as social proof on your home page and product landing pages. Good reviews will show up in search results and improve your online profile.
The first step in claiming a presence in Google is to create a new Gmail account specifically for your business and claim your Google My Business profile. From there, you can ask your loyal customers to leave their feedback.
Online reputation management helps your business improve its search engine ranking. Performing activities related to ORM, such as claiming business listings across online platforms such as LinkedIn or Google My Business, increase your brand’s online presence. Encouraging your customers to post their reviews and write testimonials will help push your brand to the first page of the search results.
SEO-related activities also help you boost your online reputation. If you write guest posts on high-authority websites, you gain important backlinks, build your credibility, and enhance your reputation.
Experts estimate that as of 2019, 65% of customers came to businesses via online referrals. If your reputation is strong, your clients and those in your network will recommend you.
Customer feedback management is an important part of ORM in digital marketing. While it is impossible to get purely positive feedback all the time, responding to negative comments and using intelligent email scheduling for these responses will send a signal to potential customers that your business is working hard to provide a satisfactory user experience.
While people claim that bad publicity is still publicity, that is not the case in industries where the competition is stiff. There’s always someone else offering a similar product or solution.
Your brand’s online reputation might be the one factor that sets you apart from the competition, so you need to take ORM seriously if you want to increase visibility and improve customer awareness of your products. ORM in digital marketing includes publishing blogs, social media posts, and forum posts about your brand and products – content designed to enhance your brand’s standing as a leader in its niche.
The only visibility your brand should be aiming for is positive visibility. Online reputation management helps you achieve that visibility and maintain it.
Before you can implement ORM in digital marketing, you need to know where your business currently stands. Here are four things you can do to assess your online reputation and draw up a plan for reputation management.
Your search results tell you a lot about your business. Run a Google search for your business, your product name, and the people who work for you, then look at the first five results (not counting paid ads).
You should also check that your business information, such as its address, business hours, website, and contact details are correct on Google My Business. If not, it’s time to update it.
Your social media channels are also an important component of your online branding and reputation management. People will use your pages to check out your business information, leave reviews and comments, and engage with your brand. Use this checklist to run an audit of your social channels:
Besides your own branded social accounts, you need to check what people on social media say about your company.
You can search your brand name and company hashtags and see how many people are talking about you. If they are talking about your business, is it positive? If not, do any of your followers defend your brand, or do other negative commenters chime in?
Much of your online reputation comes from the comments your customers (and critics) leave on review sites. You need to take a close look at these sites to get a sense of overall customer sentiment towards your brand. Here are a few ways to do that:
Aside from review sites, you could also look at websites that compare your products and services with the ones your competitors sell. How do your products stack up against the competition? This information will help you improve your products and determine how you’ll market them.
Unless you have a huge team that operates around the clock, you can’t monitor everything manually. Therefore, you will need a tool to monitor your reputation in real-time.
For example, Google Alerts will “scrub” the Internet for mentions of your business, key people in your company, and your products. Just set up your relevant keywords, and they’ll be delivered to your inbox. You might also use another reputation monitoring software like BrightLocal or Qualtrics for more advanced metrics and settings.
These solutions will alert you to potential issues with your reputation and allow you to take action before they start inflicting significant damage to your business.
As long as your business is in operation, people will always have something to say about it, and not all opinions will be positive. Doing online reputation management will help attract customers and address criticism by emphasizing your business’s positive aspects and addressing its critics.
ORM in digital marketing is not something you do once and then forget. Like all the other aspects of your marketing strategy, it needs constant monitoring and continuous improvement to ensure that your reputation stays positive. Regardless of your industry, you need to protect your reputation and convince potential customers that they’re dealing with a brand that knows what it’s doing.
Owen Baker is a content marketer for Voila Norbert, an online email verification tool. He has spent most of the last decade working online for a range of marketing companies. When he’s not busy writing, you can find him in the kitchen mastering new dishes.
Want to know how to write a press release?
Great, your search ends here.
In this post, you’ll learn how to write a press release for reputation management. We’ll describe
six steps to write formal announcements in an objective and easy-to-understand way.
Follow these steps to create meaningful news.
Every press release has a major goal to communicate with the public. A product launch, a new
partnership announcement, a note about a new investor, etc. – the goal can help to organize the
entire text.
Here’s how to organize your press release:
Let’s now take this press release from Samsung. The purpose is to announce the recent
decision to join Google's Android Enterprise Recommended program.
In essence, the headline should summarize the entire press release in fewer than ten words. In
most cases, it describes the main information point you’d like to share.
The best headlines meet these criteria:
These headlines from IKEA are a good example – short, with a proper style, and on point.
Credit: IKEA Newsroom
PR professionals and digital marketers publish thousands of press releases every day. Yet, people don’t even notice most of them. In fact, over 90 percent of websites don’t even get any organic traffic from Google.
A lack of SEO optimization is a major reason why press releases remain undiscovered. To give yours some attention from Google:
By using these four SEO tips, you’ll increase online visibility of your press releases.
Writing an introductory section is a common practice to begin online press releases. It’s a one-sentence summary of the release that gives additional details about the topic. You could say it’s a second, more descriptive subheading.
There are two good ways to write the introductory section:
With a descriptive introduction, you’re summarizing the main point of the release in an ordinary sentence. It shouldn’t be very specific but rather give the reader a good idea about what you’re trying to say.
Here’s an example from Wizz Air’s newsroom. The company uses the descriptive style to announce the recent launch of the carbon offsetting scheme.
Credit: Wizz Air Newsroom
A list-based introductory section lists the main points from the release and separates them with commas. It’s useful for information-heavy press releases where multiple major ideas are involved.
In this example, Apple announced the next generation of Mac computers. The company gave a list of the four most important points, including new products and technologies.
Credit: Apple Newsroom
You can also write the intro section as a bullet list. Just choose the most important information points to summarize the content. Also, don’t use more than four bullets to avoid overwhelming the reader.
Dell uses this strategy to make their announcements.
Credit: Dell Newsroom
Press releases should be written in a “news writing” style. If you have no experience with it, no worries. Checking a few examples and following some techniques should be enough for a good writer to write a press release for reputation management.
Here are the techniques to keep in mind:
If you feel like a professional should take a look, check out this list of online writing services. There’s definitely a press release writing expert who can suggest improvements to language and style.
Any press release should end with contact details. They give the readers an opportunity to connect if they have any questions. Depending on the company and a preferred communication method, you can include:
IKEA, for example, uses email for press and a phone number.
Make sure to have at least two communication channels to give the readers some choice of how to get in touch.
So, to write a good press release for reputation management:
Take some time to read examples to get used to press release writing. That style might look challenging, but getting it right can help you manage your reputation like big successful companies.
Google announced last month that they are launching a new Google My Business App that provides a host of features that can help small business owners to easily manage their online presence and respond to customers.
Following are the biggest features and highlights:
Google has made it extremely easy to upload photos, create offers and add events by providing a post button. You can also update information of your business from the profile tab and it will instantly appear on the search as well as Map.
People can connect with you in many ways. They can message you, follow you, book a service or leave a review. From now on, you can see all of these customers in one place – The new customer tab. You can not only see but also respond to the reviews & post offers. Not to mention that you will get a notification when you get a new customer connection. Also, you will soon be able to respond to messages directly from the app.
The data that matters to you the most is now on the home screen itself. So you can now check how many new people interacted with your business, new connections & more in one place.
Here’s a short video:
Takeaway
Google My Business App is a very powerful tool that every business owner and SEO professionals must have. It’s easy to use and offers a lot of tools that make tracking, analyzing and making changes easy.
The other big news is that Google is about to launch a chat feature for Maps. So users can directly chat with business owners directly after searching for their business. Having a GMB app will help you with this feature as well.
If you have a WordPress site or manage one for others, then you need to stop everything & check the PHP version of the site. The PHP version 5.6 & 7.0 will no longer receive security patch from 31st December & 3rd December respectively, which makes them very prone to hacking.
WordPress has released data which shows that most of the sites are built on these two or even older version of the PHP. Only a limited few sites are using 7.1 or higher version of the PHP.
If you are not sure how to check the version of the PHP your site is built on, you can simply contact your hosting company.
To know the life cycle of the all the PHP versions, please see the below table:
Be informed that updating PHP is not that complicated. However, the outdated plug-ins & themes can make it a bit daunting. So we advise you to back up all your website before making any changes.
Not all the Plug-ins that you are currently using would be compatible with the latest version of the PHP that is 7.1 & higher. So before you even start to upgrade, make sure you identify all the plug-ins and themes that can be updated, and remove those that are not compatible with the latest version of the PHP. The PHP compatibility checker will help with just that.
It’s vital that you remove any plug-ins that are not compatible with the latest version of PHP because they pose a security threat. Upgrading your site’s PHP version will go like this:
In case you are stuck anywhere between the whole process, make sure to reach out to your hosting provider and ask them your specific question. Alternatively, you can also reach out to us. Our expert team we will be more than happy to assist you. Call us at (800) 379-2829 or contact us.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Did you know that around 90% of consumers research online before making a buying decision? Your online reviews play a major role in how a buyer makes a buying decision today. Have you checked your online reputation score?” quote=”Did you know that around 90% of consumers research online before making a buying decision? Your online reviews play a major role in how a buyer makes a buying decision today. Have you checked your online reputation score?”]
MyReviewEngine is a review management tool where your business can get more 5 star reviews and triple your sales. The system automates your review process and makes it easy to invite your clients to review your business, via email, SMS, etc. In addition to growing your reviews on auto-pilot, the tool also prevents negative reviews from being published online and be sent to you so you can handle that directly. There are several other features but those are just a few. Go here to run a review scan and check your online reputation.
Many potential customers come to these review sites to see whether or not they would like to come to your business. These reviews have a huge influence on their decision. You can boost reviews on these review sites just like these and even more!
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Company Background: Chicago Controls (aka Landlord Thermostats) is an expanding nationwide company headquartered in Chicago IL. In business for over a two decades, Chicago Controls has its origins in a company started by founder Mike Lyle in 1996. The company’s goal is to provide landlord’s, property owners, and property managers tamper-resistant thermostats for their properties. The company has invested heavily in digital marketing to differentiate and to expand their presence online.
Are you getting the best return out of your digital marketing? Need an extra pair of eyes to review your online game plan? Let our experts take a look at your current state and do a comprehensive digital marketing analysis at no cost to you. Please call us at (800) 379-2829 or contact us today and we will get to work right away.
HTTP is the protocol browsers use to connect to websites.
HTTPS is a secure version of that protocol.
Did you know the ‘S’ in HTTPS stands for secure? Communication sent over a secure protocol is encrypted. Although the communication can still be intercepted, the information that is received by the thief is in a format that can’t be read.
HTTPS serves the dual purpose of protecting the privacy and security of visitors to a website while protecting the integrity of the website itself. It’s common to think that HTTPS is important only for financial transactions, but that’s not the case. Intruders can gather information about visitors to a website that doesn’t use HTTPS technology and use that information for nefarious purposes.
Google has been vocally pushing its goal of making the internet more secure through its advocacy of HTTPS encryption adoption.
Its HTTPS encryption on the web report shows up-to-date progress toward Google’s goal of web-wide adoption of HTTPS usage.
Google Chrome is, by far, the most used browser, with 56.31% of the market share as of January 2018. Chrome’s closest competitor, Safari, holds only 14.44% of market share. It behooves websites to design with the understanding that consumers of their site are most likely viewing them using Chrome.
Now that Chrome users will be able to easily see which sites are not secure, psychologically, people may be less likely to enter personal information into sites that don’t use the HTTPS protocol. This can translate into a decrease in lead data capture for those sites.
Although many resources on the internet are designed to help transition a website from HTTP to HTTPS, it is not a quick and easy change to make. If your business relies on an internet presence, it’s not worth the risk of downtime to take this on without professional help. This is an instance of “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Save yourself the headache and lost time by investing in expert assistance.
Google has rolled out the beta version of the new and improved search console and SEO’s are more than happy, to say the least. The most promising new feature is the access to 16-month-old historical data. It enables year over year comparison which is great from every aspect.
Google has built the new search console from the scratch and not all features are available yet. They are still working on it, and they will keep on adding useful features from the old search console to the new. So as of now, most of the tools you will click on will have a coming soon message.
However, you do have access to the performance tool which is easy to understand with filtering options like: By device, country, impressions, CTR and more.
The Index coverage report is the perfect blend of old index status & crawl reports errors. It enables you to see how well Google is indexing your site as well to identify and fix any issues.
The new search console will also help you validate newly fixed AMP URLs. The updated AMP status report will provide details into the specific Errors.
As of now, the above-mentioned tools and features are the biggest highlights of the new search console. But it’s still in the beta mode and many tools and features are yet to come, so stay tuned.
We will keep you updated on new features as and when they go live.
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Google was testing a new video feature in early January that allowed business owners and customers to add videos, related to the business. Allyson Wright from Google My Business advertiser community announced that they have fully rolled out the video feature and now all the business owners can add videos to their listing. These videos will be visible on Google Maps and local search results.
Some important points to consider:
The process to add videos is same as photos. Go to your GMB dashboard, click photos on the left and instead of adding photos, add the link to the videos.
It’s 2018 and if your web page takes more than 10 seconds to load, then you are far behind! Nobody likes to wait for minutes just for your page to load — they will simply hit the back button. According to a study, 53% of the users will abandon the site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load! So it came as no surprise when Google announced that site speed will be a ranking factor within the mobile search results from July 2018.
However, Google assured that only a small percentage of the sites will be affected by it since the majority of the site loads faster than 10 seconds. Also, there will be exceptions to websites which provide relevant and high-quality content to users. Those websites can still rank well in the search engine result pages because the intent of the search query is still a strong factor.
If you are not sure about your site’s speed, you can use the Google’s “Test My Site” tool. This tool uses a standard 3G connection to replicate what most people are using to surf the web using mobiles. It not only tells you about your site speed but also gives suggestions on how you can improve.
What About AMP?
Google’s announcement stated that it “applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page”, which means AMP gets no special advantage except that by its very nature it will pass all of these speed standards with flying colors. However, that doesn’t mean that you get an automatic pass if you’re using AMP because you need to be sure that everything is set up properly.
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If you need any help with mobile optimization, we can assist. Just reach out to us and we will be able assist you further.
Re-marketing is good but only if done in a balanced manner. Many advertisers overdo it and as a result, annoy the users. Although Google can’t tell advertisers to stop targeting a particular user, they may give the power to the users to block re-marketing ads coming from a specific advertiser.
Recently, YouTube has announced that it will demonetize all the small channels on the platform, as per the site’s new eligibility criteria channels need to have more than 1,000 subscribers, with at least 4,000 hours of watching within the past 12 months.
The decision came after Logan Paul’s ‘suicide video’ incident. According to the company, the decision of demonetizing the small channels is taken in order to, “prevent bad actors from harming the inspiring and original creators around the world who make their living on YouTube.”
The channels that fail to meet these criteria will no longer be able to monetize and will lose access to tools and features associated with the YouTube partner program by next month. If any channel fails to meet the criteria but, later if they manage to pass it, will be automatically re-evaluated in the new criteria. All the new channels joining the platform will have to, manually apply for evaluation.
Though many are criticizing YouTube’s new policy and terming it as “favoritism” for big channels or “penalty” for small channels, it is not a bad decision.
Not generating enough leads online? Call us at 800-379-2829 or submit form to contact us now and we will perform a complete digital marketing analysis for FREE!
Today people are Googling for answers more than ever. What are the chances that some of those who are searching will land on your web page?
It depends on what you put on there!
Here is a summary of the 8 types of content that work best for search engine optimization.
Creating blogs is the perfect medium to create awareness and make your voice heard, and its the easiest method for your website to work best for SEO. It’s fast, cheap and a reliable way of communication. Blogs are of numerous types. Be it fashion, beauty, food, health or entertainment, you name it and its all bound to be there. It’s like who needs a newspaper when you have the same thing on blog posts online.
As the old statement goes, seeing is believing. Pictures speak a thousand words. Searching for the hottest fashion trends, choosing the best buy from online stores or simply downloading wallpaper for your desktop all require searchers to look at photos and visual galleries before making a decision. After all, the impact a picture creates in your mind will last for a while. Alt tags can be added to any image and will be visible to viewers if the image does not load properly. Alt tags work best for SEO because it’s searchable in Google’s image tab.
For all those in search of a quick read, this is definitely for you. Short articles are a great way for searchers to spend time reading quality material, fiction or nonfiction stories or just passages meant to leave an impact on the reader’s mind.
Long form articles are another great way for readers to gain access to some of the best storytelling on the web from a sea of numerous publishers. Examples include in-depth interviews, long-form journalism, long form blog posts and even nonfiction stories.
Online tools have made life so much easier. With the click of a button, you can make purchases, sell items and even get a hold of prices of things like property. It’s a fast and convenient way of spending less time pondering over decisions that can now be done in minutes.
This may come as no surprise to anyone out there. YouTube is the best example as well as other embedded videos on search pages. Be it learning tutorials for all things, video clips for important events or just an occasion that would like to be remembered, videos say it all in a short period of time, and work best for SEO when searching for interactive content.
The hottest news of the hour like the US Presidential election campaign statistics or the FIFA World Cup winning team goals can all be obtained through search engines within seconds. Who needs to switch on the TV when all a searcher needs to do is type the preferred element in the search bar?
Sometimes while searching through a web page, you end up looking at things that you never initially intended to search for. This is because a certain site led you to another site that sparked up your interest. This is what comprehensive category leaders are all about.
Be it professional or scientific interests, quick answers to simple questions or just a broad overlook at a certain topic, a searcher’s intent can vary to various degrees. This top 8 list for the SEO content material is a definitive guide for all those searching for content that ranks the highest amongst search engines today.
Digital marketing in today’s technologically advanced world means much more than just having a business website. A company needs to capitalize on every opportunity to achieve effective marketing techniques in a highly competitive business environment, from social media posts to email campaigns.
Marketing is a constantly evolving field, so it’s important to have a working knowledge of the elements of a solid digital marketing campaign so you can adapt your strategy to your business model.
One of the most important parts of marketing is SEO, or search engine optimization. Search engine companies are constantly revising their algorithms to ensure a level playing field, and SEO experts are always looking for new ways to get their companies on top of the rankings.
Basically, search engines index websites and rank them based on their content, update history, relevance to search terms, and user interaction. It’s important to consistently evaluate your website’s search engine rankings and assess your SEO. Good SEO can guarantee your potential customers will find you when searching for terms relevant to your business.
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is another important element of digital marketing. Advertisers pay for ad space on a website or in search results for specific terms, and the advertiser pays the host whenever a user clicks on the ad. This can be a great way to ensure your website and digital marketing materials get in front of the right users.
Another great way to promote your brand is to work with other businesses related to your industry. Cross-promotion, or affiliate marketing, can help you get a foot in the door with established partner companies’ consumer bases and expand your sphere of influence. It’s important to consider potential partners to make sure you’re doing business with people who share your values.
Digital marketing has tremendous potential for any size company, and it is essentially a requirement for modern business in the digital age. Think of the efforts you’ve made on the digital marketing front and look for new ways to reach your customers online.