Author Archives: The Web Guys

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 Ads Responsive 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 Ads The new expanded text ads allow for you to take up more space. They feature 3 headlines (at 30 characters) and 2 … 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

What Happens When You Quit Blogging?

Blogging isn’t something that is reserved for only the famous and super elite brands — it’s something that even small businesses should keep up with. But why should blogging be important for a website that’s main goal is to convert users? What if you just cast blogging aside for awhile? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here are the hard-hitting stats about companies who blog: Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Blogs on company sites result in 55% more visitors. So what happens when a business decides to quit blogging? WordPress developer Robert Ryan took this question to the test by abstaining from publishing new content to his blog for 251 days — and his results were alarming… Organic Traffic Takes a Huge Nosedive When Ryan quit blogging, his overall traffic … Continued

Where Should I Spend My Marketing Dollars?

Investing in online marketing is an important decision for your business, but where is it the most crucial to spend your budget? Take advantage of all that we at The Web Guys can do for you. As digital marketers, we can guide you how to get the most for your budget by selecting the right platform with the best ROI. Google AdWords Learn More Facebook Advertising Learn More Search Engine Optimization Learn More Google AdWords If you want to reach new customers online, then advertising with Google Adwords is without-a-doubt the platform to start. Google AdWords is a robust advertising service that display ads on Google search result pages, Google local pack and its advertising networks. With these amazing features below, it’s easy to see why AdWords is the most used pay-per-click platform in the world: Target Prospective Customers:Google processes more than 1.2 trillion web searches every single year, so … Continued

Using Instagram Stories for Your Business

If you’re not using Instagram for your business, now is the time to start. Recently, the photo-sharing social media powerhouse unleashed its latest feature: Stories. In a similar fashion to the already popular Snapchat app, Stories allows users to post multiple related pictures at once without the anxiety of clogging up your audience’s feed with a barrage of similar posts.

Using “Pokémon Go” To Your Company’s Advantage

The Pokémon Go phenomena has picked up steam quickly and doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, as rumored deals with major players like McDonald’s continue to generate buzz. So, could embracing the game and its players at your storefront be advantageous? And how exactly can Pokémon Go benefit your business? Unlike Magikarp’s Splash, it could be super effective! Let’s take a look…

Should I be Running Facebook Ads? #FAQuesday

There is a slew of different ways to advertise your business online these days. How do you know which platforms are the best bang for your buck? Aside from AdWords, which you should definitely be running, Facebook comes out on top. The audience is far too large and the targeting is much too precise to be ignored completely. Here are three reasons why you should be promoting your business on Facebook. 1. Your Target Audience is Already There Pretty much everyone has a Facebook account these days. No, seriously. There are over 1.6 billion active users currently registered to Facebook. No matter who your target audience is, they are reachable through Facebook advertising. It’s simply a matter of targeting them. 2. Your Money Goes Further Gaining organic traffic through your business’s Facebook page is quite difficult these days. In fact, reaching your entire audience for free is nearly impossible. The … Continued

Google Local Pack Updates Change the Game… Again!

If you thought that removing right sidebar ads was the biggest change Google would make to search results in 2016, buckle up. Prepare for an incoming update — Google’s at it again! Why Does This Matter? This change means that another organic position is being replaced with a paid ad. While the removal of sidebar ads already moved organic positions down the page, this is another push to dominate the top of the search results page with ads. On a mobile device, users will have to scroll past numerous ads before they see any organic results. Below you can see a mock up from Search Engine Roundtable of what the new local pack might look like with an ad in position one. These new ads will likely look very similar to the other two listings in the local pack, but Google hasn’t officially released information about what the ads will … Continued