Google Penguin: Checklist for Businesses

in Social Media by iqmadmin May 7, 2012January 21, 2014 0 comments

Social Media Soothes Where Google Hits You Hardest

For small- to medium-sized businesses who find their rankings adrift with every new wave of Google algorithm updates, finding a way to generate traffic without having to rely on Google might seem like a dream come true.

As with the latest Google Penguin algorithm update, designed to weed out Internet pollution and spam, Google is getting more specific about how websites are judged on quality. They want quality and relevancy at the top.

Well, as businesspeople and marketers with real content to promote, we can’t complain about that, can we?

The Consumer Shift Away from Google

If we think of Google as a single marketing channel, albeit a big one, we are headed in the right direction — because there are other sources of traffic and link juice, and they are getting more and more powerful by the day. Why not go straight to the source? After all, consumer behavior has shifted towards reliance on social media, as opposed to Google. And Google may help them find specific products like no other source but, through social media, they are getting brand information, recommendations from friends, and reasons to buy.

The bottom line is that people – and by people, we mean 60 percent of the entire U.S. population – use the social networks. So dip in.

Google Penguin: Checklist for Businesses

1. Get people, as opposed to Google, to share your content.

Do you have gorgeous photo galleries, videos, infographics, and other visual content? Put them on Facebook ,Twitter, and Pinterest. Be funny. Be inspiring. Most importantly, be social and shareable.

2. BLOG.

We can’t stress this one enough. Good, fresh content is something that both people and search engines look for. When you blog regularly, it helps build your brand and gives your readers a reason to come back, but it also forces search engine crawlers to continually index and rank your site. And Google Penguin gives particular weight to fresh, original blog content.

Push out blog posts regularly. Hire an Internet marketing company with great writers to help. Get guest blogs, and guest blog on others’ sites to establish yourself and your blog. Blogging is a big part of how Internet marketing is done these days, and it is simply too big a deal to ignore.

3. Go visual with Pinterest and YouTube.

People latch on to visual content. Visuals, particularly video, can pack a whole lot of information into a short time frame. And visual content is infinitely shareable, made even more powerful by both Pinterest and YouTube – two sites that are GREAT sources of traffic.

4. Stay on top of Google+.

In an effort to push Google+ further into the social realm, Google Penguin is giving its content and users unnatural importance in search engine results pages. Take advantage.

5. Optimize your Facebook and other social network profiles.

Buy social ads
Interact with relevant businesses
Make sure people see your URLs
Fill out all your profile info
Pull in your blog stream
Link to your profile on important keywords on your site
Do newsworthy things and publish them

***

What To Do

Google Penguin cares about relevancy, quality, diversity, and freshness — because these are the things that will ultimately make for a better Google search experience. What may seem like an initial hit to some of your Internet marketing efforts may be the best thing that ever happened — because it can push down those that are gaming the system, and help you and your brand rise to the top for being the cream of the crop. Just don’t slack on Google Penguin and social media best practices, some of which we have outlined for you above.

If you haven’t started in social media, start yesterday. If you’re there, do more. Get help — dedicate a team to it. This is a full-time job. Hire a full-service Internet marketing team. Iquarius Media’s number is 407-362-6503. We can:

Stay on top of your social media profiles
Start your blog and do exhaustive research, then have dedicated writers create your blog content
Produce videos and motion graphics
Custom-fit these and other Internet marketing services to you and your company

If you have questions, ask them. Ask us. You can do that here, on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Google+, to name a few.

Google+ Redesign is …So Pretty

in Social Media by iqmadmin April 12, 2012January 21, 2014 0 comments

Google has announced an overhaul of the Google+ interface. The rollouts began this week, and the changes are designed to be more customizable, more social, and more visual. It also offers a new interface for Google+’s breakthrough – but underused – service, Hangouts.

Icon-Centric Navigation

Navigation is the most obvious and dramatic change. Instead of function buttons framing the top left corner, the buttons for your Google apps – your profile, photos, hangouts, etc.— populate a “navigation ribbon” along the left, where users can drag-n-drop app icons. It’s a Google-simple version of the iOs app shelf.

A mouse-over reveals an app icon’s functions. Dragging app icons off the navigation ribbon will automatically drop it into the “…MORE” section. The ability to add, remove, customize your personal favorites and most-used Google+ features is designed to coax longer interaction.

The Twitter-like trending box in the upper right feeds into the Explore page, where users can see what’s going on throughout the entire network.

Emphasis on Photos and Videos, Hangouts

According to Google, much of the overhaul was designed to “make sharing more evocative.” One area that got lavished with attention was videos and photos. More screen real estate is dedicated to them. There was an emphasis on sharing from anywhere on Google, including YouTube and Google search.

The dedicated Hangouts page features a rotating list of current and popular hangouts, from pros and from your circles. Hangouts – like buffed-up conferencing — are still used primarily by tech-y and nerdy types, as is most of the Google+ network. The page hopes to make Hangouts more accessible to everyone else.

No one can deny that Google+ is thoughtfully designed. It was partly a matter of reaching out to a different type of user, namely, everybody.

Google Starts Getting More Personal Today (1/10/12)

in Social Media by iqmadmin January 10, 2012January 21, 2014 0 comments

google people Starting today (Tuesday), Google search results will start looking different more frequently for different people. Google will start including content from their social network, Google Plus (G+), including photos and comments, when it performs a search. This way, search results will be more intimately tailored to each user. The search engine will even start incorporating content from their older photo service Picasa.

This feature will automatically be made available to all English-language searches conducted by users who are logged into Google. This is just one step toward one of Google’s most ambitious goals. Eventually, Google hopes to amass enough information about each person’s individual preferences and interests in order to provide custom-fit search results. Google is calling this functionality “Google, plus your world.”

People signal what’s important to them through what they do and share on the social networks, and it’s this information that Google is in the business of curating. Facebook has greater insights into personal tastes, though, because of its 800 million users sharing 1.5 billion photos each week. This is the territory that Google is hoping to encroach on with these new additions to their search.

Here’s the part we wanted business owners to hear.

In more general searches, like “music”, “sports”, “fishing”, “design”, you name it, Google will generate a drop-down box of suggestions from companies, people, and places that have accounts on Google Plus. Couple that with Google’s ability to localize search results — and the fact that Google Plus signed up 20 million users in December alone – and the implication for companies is huge. This brings the idea of targeted traffic to soaring new heights.

[Existing clients: Call us, as always, if you want more information on how Google fits into your marketing strategy and what we can do for you. Potential clients: Ditto.]

Google+ Pages For Business: Taking Branding to New Heights

in Internet Marketing / Social Media by iqmadmin November 11, 2011January 21, 2014 0 comments

Google Plus (Google+ or G+) just launched its G+ Pages for businesses. We already know that a proper Google presence is absolutely crucial for business growth. And we know that G+ is the most explosive force on the social network scene in history. Now, the marketing propellant that is Google search combines with the G+ social aspect – and what you get is a powerful opportunity to increase your company’s presence on the Internet.

+1, +1, +1…

Here’s where G+ Pages surges ahead of Facebook: linking your Page to your AdWords campaigns. All the positive interactions and SEO-boosting fragments that your marketing efforts have been able to garner up until now get tallied together as a single total. Your customers will be able to see all your +1s seamlesslessly, no matter where the +1s came from (including from your website) and whether they are looking at:

one of your ads
a search result
your Page

It also means you will be able to put all your recommendations in more places. As Google points out:

“This means your +1’s will reach not only the 40+ million users of Google+, but all the people who come to Google every day.”

More importantly, this integration with regular Google search means your recommendations from your customers – all your +1s – send an even stronger signal to Google about the popularity and authority of your brand.

Making (Direct) Connections With All Things Google

Of course, the biggest power of Google is that it is everywhere. These G+ rollouts are just the beginning of Google connecting all of its offerings together. We couldn’t be more excited, as social media marketing people, of the potential uses of all these changes coming up (and of course we’ll blog about it as the changes are rolled out)!

Google is even changing the functionality of its basic search to give more importance to G+ with Direct Connect. Typing a + before a company name in the search bar will take you directly to their page. This is only in limited functionality as yet – you can only do it with big names like +Android and +Toyota for now – but the possible ramifications of this for businesses is immense.

Google Themselves Say It Best

From their blog:

“Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too. For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world.”

To Our Clients, Friends, and Fans

All of our current social media clients should know we’ve got them covered regarding G+ Pages, as well as all upcoming trends in social media and Internet marketing. You’re welcome to call us/message us/see us with questions, of course. While we’re at it, new friends and fans — whether you need Internet marketing, social media, audio, video, or website help — are welcome to contact us as well.