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Google’s Mobile Friendly Changes

Published on: April 23, 2015Category: Search Engine Optimization Comments: 0

This week Google added mobile friendliness as a factor in search engine ranking. Some of the factors in determining mobile friendliness are the text size, button size and the amount of space between links. A good solution is to have a mobile responsive site which means that as you adjust the screen size the layout changes to accommodate. This avoids having to zoom in and scroll side-to-side when viewing a site on a smaller device. See this site for example: plomberiedaeva.com and drag your window size smaller to see how the page adjusts. Notice that the menu also becomes a drop down menu which is easier to use on mobile.

We have been converting many sites to mobile responsive so that sites are easier to use on mobiles. If your website is not mobile responsive, please contact us to help with this transition.

A Google representative said mobile friendliness was “one of many” factors used by the search engine to rank results.  In a blog post the company said it would have “a significant impact”.

You can check this link to see how your site scores for mobile friendliness: google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly. The plumbing site I linked to above scored “Awesome”.

awesome-mobile

How the Doorway Page Penalty can affect Landing Pages.

Published on: March 27, 2015Category: Search Engine Optimization Comments: 0

doorway-pagesOn March 16, 2015 Google announced that they will adjust their algorithm which will strongly impact websites using doorway pages. The explanation behind this change is that Google believes that doorway pages negatively impact a user’s search experience. This is especially true for pages with similar content but only keyword changes or for websites created with the sole purpose to lead traffic to another website.

Landing pages

Landing pages can be set up on a website as a destination page for specific ads or even to bring in traffic from search engines. These two uses must be treated differently especially after this latest algorithm change.

If it is a landing page for ads, there are good reasons for customizing pages that would not be SEO-friendly. For example you might want to create several pages with very similar content except for keywords which match the ads bringing in traffic. The keyword focus would improve your quality score and improve conversions. There is no need to integrate these pages in your site menu or from links on other pages since the landing pages are meant specifically to convert visitors who come in from ads.  To avoid penalties to your site you must inform search engine robots not to index these pages. Use either the meta tag <META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”> or use a separate robots.txt file to tell robots which pages not to index.

Will a NOINDEX also block the AdsBot-Google

Blocking all robots in your meta tag or robots.txt file will not block the AdWords bot unless you explicitly block AdsBot-Google. AdWords will assume that you want the page to be spidered since you put it as a destination for a paid ad. Google Adwords support confirmed this with us with the following email:

“If we are ever unable to crawl a site for any reason, we will manually review the landing page before giving it a quality score. We do not automatically give you a bad quality score if the ads bot is unable to crawl the site.”

If it is a landing page for SEO meaning that you want to attract visitors from regular search results, it must have original, useful content and have links from menus and other pages on the site. Think of it in every way as new content to be properly integrated with your website.

Building doorway pages is a technique that we stopped using many years ago for exactly the reasons mentioned by Google. Ironically, doorway pages are what launched our company in 2000! Building landing pages for Google AdWords campaigns on the other hand is still a very good idea as long as you block search engine robots from pages with duplicate content.

Google Business View – Inside Your Business.

Published on: February 9, 2015Category: Search Engine Optimization Comments: 0

Why add Google Street View for your business?
Quite simply, it provides additional visibility for your company on Google Search, Google+ and Google Maps. It invites your potential customers to a virtual sneak peek of your place of business. High resolution, 360 degree images are taken by a professional photographer in your city, at a convenient time for you. You can discuss what your needs are with the photographer and what images you want of the exterior and interior of your establishment. Once approved, the images are posted after only a few weeks and the photo rights belong to your business, not the photographer. Google Street View can also be easily embedded on your website via Google Maps API or HTML. Numerous case studies have demonstrated that Street View has substantially increased foot traffic to businesses. Read more about Google Street View.photo-shoots

9 statistics about SEO

Published on: September 12, 2014Category: Search Engine Optimization Comments: 0

Read this convincing article that gives some teeth to the importance of SEO.

Here is a glimpse:

“Leads generated through SEO close at around 14.6 percent while leads from other channels close at an average of 1.7 percent. -HubSpot”

“The #1 organic result gets nearly twice as many clicks as the #2 result. –Chitika/ Search Engine Land”

See the full article here

Authority Building

Published on: June 13, 2014Category: Search Engine Optimization Comments: 0

most-popular-90Authority on the web is one of the building blocks of SEO.  Being popular online helps raise your search results just as having high search results helps raise your popularity. Basically you need to be popular… to be popular. Not very useful advice – I know. But how do you break into this circle of privilege? You can actively work on authority building. In fact we will do it for you!

See our authority building service for details.

How Integrating Search & Social Ads Can Improve Your Revenue

Published on: April 21, 2014Category: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing Comments: 0

In a recent study that explored search and social advertising campaigns, it was determined that customers who clicked on both search and social ads actually had 2x the conversion rates and a 26% increase in revenue per click when compared to users who only clicked on a search ad alone. What this means for advertisers is that by integrating both search and social campaigns together, you can expect to see more profitable sales, resulting in a greater return on investment! Read the article for a more in-depth look at how this integration can benefit your advertising campaigns.

http://marketingland.com/study-integrated-search-social-ads-80463

Google’s New Planning Tool: Databoard for Research Insights

Published on: November 21, 2013Category: SEO Blog Comments: 0

Google recently launched a new tool to help marketers create meaningful and insightful infographics for clients.  Based on the statistics compiled from completed Google research, marketers can easily build presentations with the information provided. Topics vary from Youtube marketing data to understanding mobile search by consumers.

 At the moment, only 8 studies are available meaning that content is limited however we hope to see more added soon. Also, though you can easily share your nicely designed infographic via social networks and email, Google hasn’t made it easy to save it as a file!

Here’s an example of an infographic regarding the impact of a non-profit organization’s online presence on potential donors. It was pulled together in less than 10 minutes.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

What it means to be a Google Certified Partner

Published on: November 15, 2013Category: Ad Marketing Comments: 0

Google Certified Partner BadgeWhile looking through your current or potential SEO’s website, you may notice the Google Adwords Certified Partner Badge. This badge represents that the company currently has Google Adwords Certified employee/s, and has also met other important criteria to become recognized as an official Google Partner.

Google Certification Benefits

In order to become Google Adwords Certified, an individual must pass two exams: Advertising Fundamentals, plus either of the Advanced Search or Advanced Display exams. This signifies that through extensive studying and experience, a company is more adept at providing a client with industry recognized training. Ultimately, this will help to improve your campaign performance across the Search and Display Networks.

This can also help to reassure the client that they are dealing with a dedicated and trustworthy company. The company invests time and money into the skills development of their employees in an effort to offer their clients advanced account maintenance and recommendations within the Adwords system. These techniques are applied to bring maximum results to a client’s campaigns.

To read more details on the process of becoming Google Certified, please see our post about how to become a Google Certified Partner.

How to Become a Google Certified Partner

Published on: November 15, 2013Category: Ad Marketing Comments: 0

With the many updates that Google has recently posted for the Certification program, we thought we would give you a little insight into what these changes entail and what the process is to become Google Certified. Now, instead of learning and taking exams through the Google Certification Program (GCP); users and companies will now have to create/transfer an account to the new Google Partners program.

Google Certified Partner BadgeImplemented Changes

•  As of September 30, 2013, all access to your GCP account will be read-only information.
•  A Google Partners account will be required in order to take exams to become certified.
•  Exams will no longer cost $50.00 USD. All exams and certifications taken via Google Partners will now be free!
•  Your previous exam history and certification status will transfer from GCP to Google Partners if you join using the same Google account.
•  Certifications earned through GCP will remain valid through the expiration date.

Google Exams
To become Google certified, you must pass at least 2 exams; first the Advertising Fundamentals, then you can choose between either the Advanced Search or Advanced Display exams.

Advertising Fundamentals
In order to pass this exam, you need to have a passing score of at least 85%. You will be given 90 questions that must be completed within 120 minutes. Study material for this exam contains 11 lessons that can be found on the Google Partners site: Advertising Fundamentals Lessons
While the Fundamentals exam covers the basic aspects of Adwords, it is highly recommended that you study all 11 lessons.
Once passed, this exam is valid for 2 years.

Advanced Search
If you pass the Advertising Fundamentals exam, you can then choose between the Advanced Search exam and the Advanced Display exam.

The Advanced Search exam requires you to have a passing score of at least 80%. You will be asked 99 questions over 120 minutes. The study material contains 9 lessons that you should study explicitly. This is no easy exam. The questions are created to challenge even the most experienced Adwords users, and require you to answer with the best practices…not necessarily the methods that you as an individual apply. The study material can be found at: Advanced Search Lessons
Once passed, this exam will be valid for 1 year.

Advanced Display
If you choose to become certified specializing in the Display Network, then you should choose the Advanced Display exam. This exam requires a 70% passing score and will ask you 90 questions over 120 minutes. There are 4 lessons in the study guide: Advanced Display Lessons and once again, it is highly recommended that you cover all of the lessons while preparing to take this exam.

Once passed, this exam will be valid for 1 year.

Once you pass the 2 exams, your certification status will be updated on Google Partners (and your affiliated company) within 24-48 hours.

Failed an exam? Not to worry, they are free to take but you will have to wait 7 days to retake a failed exam.