Author Archives: The Web Guys
A Fine Balance: Market-Building Strategies for 2020
Online marketing – it’s complicated. You’re looking for your piece of the pie, but should you be focusing on search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), or some combination of the two? The fact is that, while many companies are looking to up their online game, most look at these as two separate and distinct entities, it’s actually more complicated than that. While SEO and PPC both stand alone in their own right, they’re also incredibly interconnected, and the best path forward is generally to think of each as an important component of a whole – a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Customer Reviews
You know that customer reviews matter in some capacity, but how much do they matter and why? For content marketers, search performance is king, but do customer reviews really have much influence? The fact is that yes, they certainly do. Google itself confirms that positive, credible customer reviews lead to both enhanced visibility and higher conversion rates. To better understand what customer reviews mean to your business, it’s important to distinguish between the objective and subjective responses your potential customers encounter during their search queries. Objective Responses When a potential customer goes online to inquire about a business, they encounter objective information that you generally control. You are the master of your own marketing content, and no one is better qualified for the position. Objective information generally includes information about: The products and/or services that you offer Your company’s history Your team Contact information While this represents the nuts and … Continued
Google Search and the BERT Algorithm
Google’s primary focus is to understand better what it is that searchers are actually searching for, and in the process, it’s rolled out the BERT algorithm. When Google describes BERT as “one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search,” they say they are making a significant claim. The underlying goal is to bolster Search’s ability to organically discern which information a user is seeking and to parlay that into results that make sense from the user’s perspective Google shares that, with the implementation of BERT, about 1 in 10 Google Searches will reap greater user rewards based on its capabilities, which can help you enhance your brand right out of the gate. While this currently applies only to those searches made in English in the United States, more countries and languages will be included over time. BERT: What’s It All About? BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations … Continued
Google Ads: 2 Fresh Ways to Target Users
Google Ads, the goliath of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, recently launched two new offerings to help you reach your target audience in Google Search, and it’s pretty big news. The rollouts include Affinity Audiences and Seasonal Event Segments for In-Market Audiences – just in time for the holidays. Read further to discover more about these targeting options and to find out what they might have to offer you. What’s It All About? When potential customers – and there are likely far more than you realize – are in search mode, they are exploring their personal interests, searching for inspiration, and digging around for things that matter to them. If you can provide these potential customers with what they want (even if they’re not aware of what it is they want in the moment) when they want it, you’re golden. Google Ads’ latest additions are focused on helping you make your advertising … Continued
Creating a Holiday Content Strategy
The holidays are nearly upon us, and while you may be most excited for holiday celebrations with friends and family, your business’s content calendar may not be on track. With Halloween kicking off Thanksgiving – and Thanksgiving leading directly to Black Friday, Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s – online traffic surges. If your holiday content isn’t keeping up, you could be missing out on significant business. With a bit of planning, you can help your business reap the rewards of this most fruitful season, and you may even find time to pencil in a few holiday festivities of your own.
Should I Utilize My Google Beacon?
By now you’ve probably magically received a Google beacon for your business. Google is proactively sending these beacons (along with instructions on how to register them) out to businesses that use their advertising services and are likely to benefit from it.
The New Google Ads Experience
Google is constantly improving upon their practices across their many platforms. Recently at their Google Marketing Live event, they announced a whole slew of changes impacting advertising, analytics, and more. One of the major changes? Google AdWords is now Google Ads. What are some major updates coming to Google Ads? Responsive Search AdsResponsive search ads will allow you to create 15 headlines (at 30 characters) and 4 descriptions (at 90 characters). Google will then mix and match these headlines and descriptions to create the optimal ad. Not only will this allow you to have more high performing ads, in theory. But, the ads will be much larger in size, thus taking up more real estate on the page, and standing out from competitors. New Expanded Text AdsThe new expanded text ads allow for you to take up more space. They feature 3 headlines (at 30 characters) and 2 descriptions (at … Continued
Indy Do Day
Think back to a time where you felt a sense of accomplishment, involvement, helpfulness, and community. What were you doing? Were you volunteering your time and services to a cause bigger than you? Volunteering is a great way to give back to your local community and achieve those feelings. Sometimes it can be difficult to find projects that need volunteers or volunteers to help with your project. Indy Do Day bridges that gap. What Is Indy Do Day? Indy Do Day is held from September 27-29, and it empowers community members to take pride and ownership of their community all while building relationships. It allows local volunteers and organizations to come together by providing a platform for organizations to post volunteer opportunities and for volunteers to sign up. It is Indy Do Day’s hope to invoke a sense of change towards a more civically-engaged community in Central Indiana. Why Participate … Continued
Your Helpful Guide: Yelp’s New Review Solicitation Policy
Yelp recently announced that it will be more aggressively enforcing its “Don’t Ask” policy, penalizing companies that show signs of “organized review solicitation.” Specifically, companies that Yelp believes to be actively soliciting reviews are now at risk of having their pages demoted in the platform’s search results as well as having a “Consumer Alert” warning placed on their Yelp business page. A Yelp spokesperson explained the company’s reasoning for its “Don’t Ask” policy stating, “A business is more likely to ask their satisfied customers to write reviews, and when businesses heavily solicit or offer freebies or discounts in exchange for reviews, that puts other businesses that play by the rules at a disadvantage.” Whether or not Yelp’s policy is a sound business decision is yet to be seen. In the meantime, business owners need to figure out their next move. If you’re working on your own to collect more reviews … Continued
User Reviews are The King
Did you know that positive online reviews produce an 18% average uplift in sales? Or that consumers are likely to spend 31% more with businesses that have excellent reviews? How about that 59% of consumers say that review sites have the most influence on their booking decisions when traveling? Online reviews have become an important part of how consumers make decisions, whether it’s what to eat, watch, buy, or sell. See below for even more industry-specific information and statistics. The facts and impact of online reviews are real. What are some effective strategies you’ve used to garner positive online reviews for your business? Image Credit: Website Builder
