Social, Organic or PPC

Posted on March 20, 2012 by freshtraffic

For a new business starting up, or for those looking to make their presence known online, the over whelming amount of options you have can be staggering. There’s pay per click, organic search engine optimization, social media and social media optimization, the internet is a speedway filled with potholes if you’re not careful.

Pay per click marketing, also known as AdWords, is a pretty straight forward marketing plan. It’s bidding on ad placement within relevant search results, to put it plainly. If your ad is deemed relevant, and you’ve won the bid, your ad will be displayed in a “Sponsored Listings” box on the results page. Basic optimization needs to be kept in mind, as well as the quality of your website and it’s landing pages.

Organic search engine optimization, SEO, or the holy grail of online marketing, are the results you see in the center of the page when you conduct a search. A fair amount of time, resources, knowledge and creativity are involved where organic SEO is concerned. Finding an expert in the field can be a difficult, if not troubling experience. In recent years, the field has become inundated with web designers, graphic artists and the like all proclaiming to be SEO experts. If you find your business is being contacted by parties wanting to sell you SEO services, here’s a little tip. After they tell you their business name, try searching for them. Because after all, if they can’t list their own business, how can they list yours?

Then we get into the bustling world of social media. Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and now Pinterest all vie for your attention. And as an added result, your customers attention as well. It’s incredibly cost effective, if not free, to become invested with social media for your business. The majority of your investment is going to be with your time and creativity. Taking the time to leverage all of the social angles is a consuming process, but it’s well worth it as it can quickly build a positive brand image.

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Canada’s internet economy lags

Posted on March 19, 2012 by freshtraffic

Canada’s internet economy is expected to grow by 7.4 per cent a year through 2016, better than the country’s overall GDP but still lagging many global peers, according to a new study commissioned by Google. Full Story

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PayPal gets into mobile payments

Posted on March 15, 2012 by freshtraffic

PayPal, the payments service owned by eBay Inc, jumped into the nascent mobile payments arena on Thursday with a new device that helps businesses accept credit and debit cards via mobile devices, taking on early-moving start-up Square Inc.

“PayPal Here” — as the service is called — launches in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong on Thursday. Small business merchants in those countries can sign up and get a free, triangle-shaped card reader and mobile application to affix to mobile phones.

That gadget — sometimes referred to as a dongle — plugs right into the top of devices like Apple Inc iPhones and, soon, Google Inc Android smart phones, allowing merchants to take payments through these gadgets on the go. Full Story

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Yahoo vs Facebook – Possible?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by freshtraffic

It’s almost like a tragic love triangle, with Microsoft somewhere in the middle between Yahoo and Facebook. In case you missed the news, Yahoo is making a lot of fuss and bother over Facebook, and the more scrutiny that’s put into it it looks like it’s founded on some loose interpretations.

How is Microsoft stuck in the middle? While it doesn’t own Yahoo or Facebook, it does have it’s finger in both of their pools. With search and social sharing with Facebook and delivering the search results for Yahoo. Yahoo isn’t a stranger to suing others over what they see as patent infringement. They’ve also sued Google as well, which was eventually settled for some stock after a couple of years of duking it out. The difference there however, is that Yahoo may have actually won a case had they not settled. Google had began to use a similar idea to Overture’s pay per click and auction system, and Yahoo had bought the fledgling search engine. Even with changing, upgrading and innovating on the ideas, they were still taken from that basic idea that Yahoo effectively owned.

Where Facebook is concerned? Yahoo is on thin, shaky ground at best, and in la-la land at worst. Some of the points that Yahoo is going to attempt to sue? How about the “method and system for optimum ad placement on a page” which take literally on it’s own could allow Yahoo to sue any company or website using paid advertisements. If that isn’t a loose enough patent for you, how about the patent for dynamic page generation? PHP and any other database driven site or achitecture could technically be dinged on this point.

The key points which Yahoo has decided to press on in regards to Facebook infringing patents are hopefully met with a realistic view and not a literal one when the day comes. When all the points are taken together, Yahoo could almost translate any of them to suing the vast majority of the web, which is a twisted pipe dream in a literalists world.

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Google – Too Big To Be Good?

Posted on March 13, 2012 by freshtraffic

The motto that Google has followed since it’s inception, widely regarded as having fallen to the wayside, “Don’t Be Evil”; but is it even possible for the giant to be viewed as being a good guy?

After taking all of the numbers into account, Google is worth 12 times than when it began and has undisputed reign over the search, and search advertising world. But the increasing growth and use of social and mobile advertising as well as mobile operating systems, has made the giant stumble to keep up. Patent fights over Android, an ongoing feud with Facebook to enter the social space, now in their (at least) third iteration with Google+, it’s not just those in the industry who have begun to look at the antics and actions of Google.

Some have always believed that the company has been a little on the shady side, gathering your personal information in order to improve it’s search algorithm. And there is the other side of the fence that reads the blogs and papers about the search company strongly opposed to internet censorship and the company that works hard to stay out of the fight to manually change the search results to suit governments. But with the added push placed behind Google+, the move towards a single privacy policy and an ever improving mobile operating system, Google is absolutely more aggressive than they used to be.

Ostensibly the loudest calls that Google is an evil online presence come from the governments of the world. Usually aiming their sites on the search engine to make it bend to their each individual will, and allow them the power to basically shut off search if they don’t like the results. Google, as well as Bing, Yahoo and other large internet machines have all had the same answer in that regards, they want no part of internet censorship, or in allowing governments to have control over what is allowed to be online. What’s your take on the search giant? Are they evil? Are they still just a room of people who sought to find order on the internet?

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Keep Advertising Simple To Win

Posted on March 10, 2012 by freshtraffic

There’s a main point that needs to be kept in mind when working with your website and search engine optimization. Your top priority needs to be your consumer, whether you are looking for sales, sign ups, etc. When you sit down to have a look at your website, your content, your print ads, you need to always know, you are not creating content for yourself. You’re creating this content to be digested by people you wish to attract.

Between the trillions of webpages, the thousands of television commercials, or the billions of pages of print advertising available, it may seem like a lost cause to try and be noticed. But no matter how daunting the obstacles might seem to be, there are ways to tackle the mountain of being found, and turn it into a simple bump in the road. A general rule of thumb to always have in mind when working on your brand, website or advertising – keep it simple. The more complex your imaging is, the more convoluted you make your content, all equate to putting up road blocks for your consumer. Often times, complexity is found in simplicity, keep your images crisp, clear and to the point of your brand, Coke and Pepsi are great examples of this. If you see a billboard painted completely red with a simple white wavy line drawn on it, you almost immediately think ‘Coca Cola’.

The same can be said of your written content you deliver, whether on your website or in print advertising if you still use newspaper adverts. Being cryptic, or non-descript in your text is more likely to hurt your advertising efforts rather than reward them. Think of your target demographic, the consumer which you wish to attract and even those who might see your advertising and be curious enough to search for you. Stay away from using strict industry only terms if you’re trying to improve awareness of your product. Having a clear, and concise call to action on your website is one the larger issues to over come when working with new clients. It is too easy to become caught up in trying to sell your company or products, and never get to the point of actually saying ‘Buy now!’.

Google recently wrote a blog about re-imagining some of the more influential advertising campaigns in the past 50+ years. One of the advertisers made the most relevant point, that covers every advertising avenue you could explore. “No matter what media you’re in, think about the content. Content is what matters.” – Amil Gargano

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The Google Search Secret

Posted on March 9, 2012 by freshtraffic

Often times, you’ll read blogs, reviews, forum posts and editorials about the search engines. Almost in every instance that there is a complaint, the perpetrator is none other than the big guy on campus, Google. The company is no stranger to scrutiny being that it is the search engine with the largest index, and what they feel they can’t develop in house, they search for, and obtain the technology to meeet their ends.

They’ve purchased Youtube, Motorolla, and a slew of other companies in order to meet their goals. But the top skill set that the company is known for of course, is search. The company has been around for nearly 20 years now and what started off as a simple exercise to build an index, has grown into a multi-billion dollar empire. With the real juice behind the company being their famous search algorithm, techs, SEO professionals, even black hat practitioners have tried to work out just what it is that makes it tick. In the end, Google isn’t talking, and we can all just speculate on how close, or far, we are from ‘solving’ it.

It wouldn’t surprise me if even the techs who work on the algorithm itself, don’t entirely know how it all works. Google is famous for saying that the actual search mechanism is comprised of hundreds of different ranking factors. Ranging from content, quality of content, quality of the site, off site factors etc. There’s no telling just what it is exactly that’s a part of that machination, but there is however a small secret, shared amongst the search industry elite. It’s a simple phrase, and it’s a technique that none truly share; those who know, know. It’s short, simple, cryptic, and while only a handful, born with the search industry on the web truly know the loops and kinks in the algorithm, they’re not talking either. If you should happen to find yourself in the company of one such individual, pay very close attention, as you may, and will, still miss it. I know I have.

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Change For Freshness in the Results

Posted on March 8, 2012 by freshtraffic

When it comes to search engine optimization and it’s a fairly well known point of the industry that it’s not a quick fix. It’s not like bidding on ads for AdWords positioning, it’s not using dirty, black hat techniques to try and trick the search spiders to rank. It’s a time proven and tested method of working your website, its content and proving that your site is the most relevant in your niche.

There are time proven methods and even step by step guides listed with most search engines about what you should do to improve your websites chances at ranking well. Relevant content, a clean and consistently built website, and even being compliant to web standards are all part of the basics to being well placed within the SERPs.

But while your website needs strong consistency, it’s also important to work with your content and to monitor your competitors positions. Periodically changing your content, to maintain relevancy and to try and capitalize on possible or burgeoning trends. Small changes and tweaks are like food for the search engines, they will continually return to your site and go through your pages until you’ve reached the position you desire in the results. Bear in mind that there is a line where change is conncerned on your pages, you need to ensure that you remain consistent to your theme and what you already are known for. Deviation too great, can harm your positioning, both current and future if you’re not mindful.

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Brands Need Online Marketing Too

Posted on March 7, 2012 by freshtraffic

Branding, it’s what makes your business and it’s purposes widely known, usually by mention of name and reputation only. It’s like when someone mentions the name Pepsi, or Coca Cola, you know immediately what is being talked about and can picture the products.

There’s a bit of a razing argument going around lately about how if you’re a “real brand” that you shouldn’t, or won’t have to worry about the search engines. The argument is basically online shoppers don’t search for brands nearly as often as they Google generic categories and phrases. Which is somewhat true, and the article goes on to argue that ‘everybody’ automatically knows that Amazon sells online books and knows that eBay is the number one online auction site. The problem with this argument, is that the average online user doesn’t strictly use a search engine to search for a single term. Most of the time users are searching for an article or they’ve seen a product or service which they want to research.

Even when a user is searching for a specific brand name or service, it’s typically typed directly into a search engine to quickly find their desired destination. It’s a fallacy to think that the only time a person uses a search engine is when they have no idea what they’re looking for. Small business, large business, branded and not branded all need to recognize that search engine optimization is more and more becoming a required marketing tool. To believe that your company, name and brand will be easily found online only because of your brand, is a misinformed position, typically trumpeted by old media advertisers. Do not get trapped in the idea that your name, your brand and your company are too big to fail in search, because more often than not it’s the little guys who rank better than the brands because they embrace the high return on investment where search is concerned.

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New Google Privacy Policy

Posted on March 3, 2012 by freshtraffic

So the end of all internet privacy began just one short day ago, at least that’s what the legions of (over concerned) privacy advocates and public would have you believe. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Google’s new, single privacy policy, went live yesterday.

It’s actually a very simple idea, Google took all of it’s privacy policies on all of it’s services (which numbered somewhere north of 60), and unified everything under one policy. It’s a step to make using Google tools and websites a little slicker for the end user, and to deliver a more personalized web and browsing experience. And yet, as early as this morning, 36 U.S. state Attorney Generals weighing in with a strongly worded letter, and a pan-European privacy commission starting up an investigation into the new privacy policy.

As a daily user of the web, Google, Bing, Yahoo and a vast majority of their tools and services, I’m having trouble with the issues that are being brought up with regards to the new policy. When Google first introduced the idea, one of the first terms which needs to be satisfied in order to glean your personalized information was: sign into your Google account. If you don’t sign into your account, anything you search for via the search enging, any videos you view, will just be dumped into that already existing cache of trends and web usage. If you happen to be signed into your account, using Gmail, Docs or some other tool, then your search will possibly (likely) be used as an advertising tool at some point down the road.

I would have to admit, the confusion for me exists where users are calling it an infringement of privacy of what they are doing on the internet. But as someone so eloquently put it in a discussion I’d had about the new policy: Unless you’ve been living in the hills, hunting for your food and clothes and being completely cut off from *everything* in this techno world, you have a web history, it’s been recorded, and it is used to deliver advertising to you.

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