By now, you might have heard that Google updated their search algorithm with a change that people are calling mobilegeddon. Although some claim it’s the most significant update that Google has ever applied, associating it with doom, death, and destruction might be over the top. But the point is if your website design isn’t “mobile-friendly”, you might soon be losing a chunk of traffic from search.
Let’s cut through the hype and take a look at what this change really means for you.
This is a question I’m hearing more often now that many of our clients are adopting an Inbound Marketing strategy and redesigning their websites with a business blog at the centerpiece of their marketing.
I’m going to cut to the chase and state it now, and then you can read the rest of the article if you’re interested in learning why.
This is true in almost all cases when it comes to the clients and industry we work with (small companies that are ERP and business software resellers). Here’s why.
If you’re still searching for answers the old fashioned way – by just typing a few keywords into Google – you’re seriously missing out.
Google is packed with little-known advanced features designed to help you pinpoint your search and find some really useful content that’s buried beneath the surface.
While there is a big list of advanced search operators built into Google, here are a few that we think are handy and useful.
For the past 2 years, small business owners have been trying to make sense out of Penguins and Pandas. If you run a business and own a website, you’ve probably heard of these infamous updates to the Google search algorithm.
But do you understand what they mean for your business?
Is your SEO agency using post-penguin and post-panda scare tactics in order to squeeze a few more dollars out of you?
The truth is, Google updates its algorithm hundreds of times each year in order to keep delivering the most relevant search results. And even though they were relatively significant changes, the Google Penguin and Panda updates only affected a small fraction of websites.
So to help you avoid the “panda-monium” surrounding these algorithm changes, here’s a breakdown of Google Panda and Penguin in plain English.
As Google+ gains more traction every day, small businesses are starting to realize the importance of the search-dominant juggernaut’s new-ish social network. There is no doubt that Google is increasingly blending social activity and posts directly into “regular” Google Search Results – which bolsters the case for making sure your business has a presence on Google+ (that is, if search and SEO are important to you).
At Juice Marketing, we’ve noticed a trend among ERP VARs that had an old Google Places listing but have yet to claim their free Google+ Local Page.
In some cases, data and information from your old Google Places listing was automatically migrated to Google+. But until you claim and verify the new Google+ Local Page, you’re missing out on extra SEO juice.
Here’s how to convert your old Google Places listing and start taking advantage of the significantly-improved local search results that a Google+ Local Listing can offer.
Spring is in full swing and there has never been a better time to give your website a good ol’ fashioned spring cleaning.
So we put together 5 easy-to-implement tips to help get your website in tip-top shape for the summer and tighten the belt on your SEO strategy.
So you finally did it … after years of listening to all the SEO and marketing experts, you started a blog.
But after countless hours cranking out content and posting articles on the blog, you haven’t seen much of an uptick in website traffic or improved search results. So what happened?
For many of the technology and ERP blogs I see, a few simple tweaks can go a long way in helping to get all that new content found and indexed by Google and start driving a little more traffic to your website. Here are some of the most important elements of structuring your blog entries for better search visibility.
Here’s a Google search tip that I think you’ll find handy. In order to limit the search results to show just PDF documents, you can use the following Google search modifier:
filetype:PDF
I use this search modifier most often when I’m looking for information that I think is probably in PDF format. As an example, I often get email messages from Hubspot offering some sort of White paper that catches my eye. But they often want me to fill out a lead capture form (which I’ve done several times before so they already have me in their database!).
So instead, I go to Google and type something like this into the search box:
filetype:PDF 15 business blogging mistakes
Lo and behold, right there on the first page of search results is a link to the very eBook/White paper I’m looking for in PDF format. It provides me with “back door” access to download the PDF directly and circumvent their lead capture form.
My team at Juice Marketing also uses this technique when we’re doing research for the Sage Product Newsletters we publish because most of the meaningful information we’re looking for is contained in PDF documents (product user guides, Sage White papers, etc).
Using filetype:PDF filters out all those HTML web pages with thin, salesy content that’s search-optimized and almost always going to dominate the first several pages of search results. So rather than clicking several pages and sifting through all that noise, filetype:PDF instructs Google to serve up the good stuff and put it front and center on the first few pages.
You can do this for white papers, price sheets, eBooks, published research findings, user guides for ERP software, and just about any other PDF that’s often buried deep on a website and hard to find or hidden behind a lead capture form.
I discovered something interesting using Google+ that I wanted to share.
Earlier today, I posted an update on our Juice Marketing page on Google+. Then, out of curiosity, I did a quick search on “SEO Backlinks” using Google (the regular old search engine, without the +). Lo and behold, the brand spankin’ new G+ post was instantly picked up and displayed as the #3 search engine result … in just 17 seconds!
Here’s the proof (image below):
As you’ve probably heard, SEO has changed … and most VARs simply haven’t been keeping up.
If you still think that SEO – and achieving better search results – means stuffing your website with keywords and tagging it with metadata, then let me introduce you to 2012 and something called social media.
Social media is now an integral part of today’s SEO mix. It’s really difficult to rank well in search without incorporating a social component.
Here’s why …