Why Pinterest Is Definitely Worth Your Time
Yeah yeah yeah, we’ve all heard about Pinterest. It’s that silly site where you can post pictures of cute animals and home-baked cookies, right? Wrong! Pinterest is a growing social media power, just behind Twitter in referral traffic. The number of unique visitors has consistently grown since Pinterest’s inception and there’s no sign of a halt. And now that Pinterest is allowing businesses to have ...
Google’s Penguin Update: Prevention and Recovery
Google's Penguin update and unnatural links warnings Back in March 2012, some website owners started receiving unnatural links warnings via Google Webmaster Tools. Often, their website's rank in Google search results would plummet shortly after. Naturally, these people ...
Penguin Pain? Google Launches Tool To Disavow Links
Google started sending unnatural links warnings in March, and rolled out its Penguin update in April, freaking out many website owners and SEO professionals. That's because sites hit by Penguin or unnatural links warnings typically plummeted in search results, ruining traffic and business results. Just to refresh your memory, Google's Penguin update was launched to crack down on links ...
Yes, Your Company Needs a Blog – 13 Reasons Why
Blogs aren't exactly the new kid on the digital marketing block, but boy, they sure do get the job done. Here's why I think you should seriously consider adding a blog to your company's website. 1. A blog shows visitors you know your stuff Whatever your industry, potential customers probably want to know you understand it before they hand over their credit ...
Why Every Blog Author Needs a Google+ Profile
You're diligent about writing for your company blog. You plan out blog posts, schedule them, respond to current events, and every post is thoughtful and appropriately seeded with your important keywords. But you're still missing one vital component if you don't have a Google+ profile that's properly hooked up to your blog posts. This status is called Google Authorship, and the ...
Effective Sales Copy: More than Just the Words You Write
When you walk into a classy restaurant you usually notice one thing before anything else. Sometimes, you don't even realise you've registered it: it happens on a subconscious level. But this seemingly minor element can have a huge effect on your overall experience. I'm talking about a sense of visual cleanliness. I'm talking about the crispness of your surroundings. I'm talking about ...
Wikipedia Paid Editing Scandal – One Wiki’s POV
Wikipedia, the popular wiki encyclopedia that anyone can edit, has rules to keep its content useful - and neutral. For example, if your business is notable enough to get a Wikipedia page, you're not supposed to edit it yourself, because the editors want the ...
How To Get Your Mobile Marketing Off the Ground
According to SmartInsights.com, 1.08 billion of 4 billion mobile phone users worldwide own a smart phone. And more and more, users are turning to these devices to find a place to eat, check their email or browse the web ...
Election 2012: Social Media Insight via Competitive Edge
Our Competitive Edge reports help marketers and business owners see who's earning the most social media engagement - them or their competitors. The report also helps marketers get new ideas from comparing successful, engaging posts with unsuccessful ones. We thought it would be fun to try running the Competitive Edge for politicians competing in the 2012 election. We've compared the ...
5 SEO Tips for YouTube Videos
YouTube videos are one of the best ways to market your brand, business, product, or service. The most popular video sharing site on the Internet, YouTube offers a venue where millions of people gather to catch the latest in visual media. This creates a hub where your videos can potentially go viral. Even if your videos don't go viral, good SEO practices ...
URL Shorteners in Social Media: Pros and Cons
I received a great question from one of our Competitive Edge customers: What is the best Twitter URL shortener? As I dove into writing an answer, I took a step back and pondered whether it's actually a good idea to use a URL shortener when posting in social media. After all, Twitter now has a built-in URL shortener, so you ...
You Deserve More Blog Comments & Shares
"We publish on our blog every week - but no one ever comments or shares." I wish I had a dollar - okay, $10 - for every time I've heard that. And when I look at the blogs people are complaining get no engagement, it's rarely the content that's the problem. People who put their hearts & souls into writing blog ...
4 Ways Facebook’s New WordPress Plug-In Helps Your Website
Facebook just rolled out a new plug-in that integrates with Wordpress. You're probably thinking, "Great, a new tool to learn about and add to the list of social media to-do's ...
Now Here’s a Social Media Contest that Makes Sense (Pinterest)
You may recall us kvetching a couple of weeks ago about a social media contest that didn't seem terribly social. Believe it or not, we like to commend - not ...
Facebook Will Take Your Money to Game Their EdgeRank Algorithm
Yesterday I was amused by a post about how Facebook was testing paid post promotion in New Zealand. I thought it was a bit crazy, but dismissed it as not all that important. After all, ...
Social Madness Contest: Not Really Social?
When we first saw the Social Madness competition hosted by The Business Journals, we were happy to sign up. Helping companies use social media more effectively is part of our mission, and we do a pretty good job of it, if we say so ourselves. So we thought this would be ...
Start Your Social Media & Content Marketing Before Opening Your Business
When is the right time to launch your company’s social media and content marketing? How about before you’re even open for business? That’s what Melinda Casady and Susana Holloway did. The owners of
5 Ways to Protect Your Blog from Hackers
It's a terrible feeling. You spend months, even years building up your blog. You lovingly polish each post, find the perfect image for each one and publish it for the world to see. Then – for no apparent reason – some anti-social cyber-weasel hacks into your site. They might place links to not-so-family friendly sites in your footer or (if they’re ...
Boost Sales, Conversions & SEO with Contact Info
Putting your contact information out there and inviting sales questions and customer service can feel unimportant -- or downright scary. But making contact information visible on your website can get you more leads and improve your sales, conversions and search engine rankings. You don't have to just take my word for it, though. Display your contact info - or make it ...
What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a single word or phrase defining a topic, subject area or concept. When people refer to keywords in websites and search engines, they're talking about the words and phrases that tell search engines what a website is about. In a nutshell, your keywords are the words and phrases you want to rank for in search engines. If you're ...