11:10 AM August 15, 2014
Or, if you’re looking for someone to help you improve your company’s search rankings, a better version of this question might be: “How do I find the right SEO specialist to help my business?” 
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as easy to find as it should be. That’s because we live in a day and age where business web design and Internet marketing can make or break your company within months. It’s no surprise, then, that so many people are calling themselves search engine optimization consultants… even though they don’t have the training, background, or reputation to back it up.
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3:08 PM July 18, 2014
SEO is Alive and well.
For the last few years, a handful of authors and experts have been practically shouting that search engine optimization is dying, if not dead already. It no longer works, they say, isn’t relevant anymore, and actually, poses a threat to your business. Even Mashable – a popular news blog – recently joined in with this article suggesting SEO is coming to the end of its long run.
All of these writers make some wonderful points and observations. The only problem? Their conclusion is all wrong. SEO is not dead, it’s alive and well. In fact, it might be getting even stronger.
To understand why we first have to look at the reasons people are giving for the demise of search engine optimization. In some cases, it’s fair to say that the people who want to throw dirt on SEO’s grave simply aren’t very good at it. It is getting harder, and more competitive, to climb the search rankings. If you aren’t a skilled marketer, and a patient one, it won’t take long for you to conclude that optimization techniques “don’t work.”
Once you look past that crowd, however, there are some very intelligent people involved in the debate. What they usually point to are some indisputable pieces of evidence: that over-optimizing websites for search have made it more difficult for actual users to find useful information, and that Google and the other search engines have started looking for ways to punish (or at least de-emphasize) those websites as a result. In fact, through the magic of semantic search, Google can now match pages to context, meaning exact keyword and link matches aren’t as important as they used to be. Instead, factors like author credibility and social following are being prioritized.
Those are good arguments, but they still don’t suggest that you shouldn’t optimize your site, just that you shouldn’t over-optimize it. There’s no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater, especially when there are so many opportunities to take advantage of. Continue Reading…
3:28 PM July 12, 2014
How to merge two Google+ page accounts. If you were an early adopter to Google+ for your business and you were also in Google places and Google Maps, then you probably have two Google+ pages for your business (not good). Until now you didn’t have a way to merge the two accounts, but Google has finally given us this ability and it’s pretty simple.
How to merge two google+ pages.
1. Go to your Google+ Verified business page
2. Select settings
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11:03 AM June 12, 2014
How to Choose a Magento Development Agency
There are several important factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce Magento development agency. In this article, I’ll run through a group of them to help you make a more educated decision. When it comes to Magento developers and Magento development agencies, not all are created equal. Some require a minimum starting cost of $25k and up, while other overseas outsourcing companies may try to deceive you and say it’s only going to charge around $5k. So who do you choose and who will make the best fit for your eCommerce website? This is an important and difficult question for a lot of companies to address.
Budget
If you’re on a tight budget because you’re a startup, you might be looking at that $5k number and thinking it is desirable, but if you’re choosing an outsourced company overseas, there are a whole different set of factors that need to be considered. Such as time zone; are they awake and working when you are? Are they an actual company or just a middle man outfit who’s pushing your project out to local freelance developers? Then there’s also the obvious language barrier and their ability to comprehend exactly what it is that you’re looking for.
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12:10 PM June 5, 2014
Google’s Laughing Panda 4.0
Did your site take a hit in the recent Panda 4.0 update by Google? You’re not alone if it did, some pretty high profile sites such as E-bay and Ask.com are feeling the laughs of the Panda. (See laughing Panda above.) Who knows if this will adjust itself over time, Google always makes minor tweaks and adjustments after a new algorithm update, so expect more changes to come over the next several weeks.
Google didn’t just roll out a minor update this time around, they went so far as to give this new Panda update it’s own number, Panda 4.0. Google’s Matt Cutts said that is current update should only affect around 7% of queries made for the English language. Matt posted the news on Twitter the morning of the update to give people notice. That’s when SEO’s all over the globe began to run to their Analytics accounts and Webmaster Tools to see if their client’s sites saw a drop.
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11:08 AM June 2, 2014
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10:19 AM May 30, 2014
Google occupies a somewhat ironic place on the Internet marketing pantheon at the moment. On the one hand, lots of businesses would do almost anything to rank highly in Google’s search results. But on the other, a surprisingly high percentage of them are simultaneously ignoring Google+, which isn’t just a powerful social networking platform but also a tool you can use to influence the search engine rankings.
That means it’s time for you to stop ignoring Google+, today. I don’t mean that you should check it out or add a few things to your profile… I mean that you should make Google+ a big part of your Internet marketing plans beginning right now. Set aside a few hours to learn its finer points, and then start adding to your profile and contact list.
Here are just a few of the reasons you need to take that step today:
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10:58 PM March 22, 2014
Google takes the high low road (updated)
Google has decided to take the
high low road and no longer offer to share outside its social network Google+ via plugins installed on its Chrome browser. Google+
now no longer allows you to share posts to
Facebook,
Twitter,
Pinterest and Googles own
Blogger, as well as others (see below). This
is was a huge step in the right direction for the number two social network and
gives gave them another leg up on their main competition. (
too bad they disabled all Chrome app extensions which allowed the ability to share to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and many others directly from your Google+ posts. What a lame bunch of duck Google+ managers.)
This used to work, now it doesn’t.
4:55 PM May 23, 2013
In case you weren’t aware, Google Page Rank (PR) has an update schedule they use each year. These are the timeframes Google uses, so if you plan for these in your action schedule, you can watch for changes in your websites ranking.
2013 Google Page Rank update schedule:
Winter: January 28th to February 7th
Summer: June 27th to July 7th
Fall: September 29th to October 4th
Holiday Season: December 2013 (unannounced date).
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10:11 PM May 17, 2013
Well people Google did it, they made a major update to the Google+ social media pages. In the post I show you some tips and tricks on how to navigate the new Google+. I’m not a big fan of significant site changes, especially ones of the UX and UI nature. As a somewhat anal and organized person I tend to like to know where things are all the time. My car keys, sun glasses, wallet and just about everything else in my house has a place and purpose. Yup I’m one of those. But Google has actually done quite a good job and everything they’ve changed has been pretty easy to figure out, heck they even simplified things. So I’ve decided to write a quick and short blog post about how to navigate your way around and even show you a few tricks to hidden clicks. See the images below for more.
Tricky Clicks
As you can see by the above image, there’s a few places to click on either side of the navigation that will scroll you up to reveal the entire monstrous image Google seems to like. Overkill in my opinion, but lets see what some people come up with with these large images. In fact, if you’ve seen some really cool ones some creative types have created, please comment and leave me the links.
After you’ve been scrolled up by the page to reveal the huge image, the easiest way to get the image back under control, so you only see a small portion of it, is to select the “Posts” link in the navigation. This will return the page to a more viewable perspective.
Like Facebook, Google+ has a red notifications alert box in the upper right. This is all the activity that others are performing on your page, posts, images or events.
Upper left you have a collapsed navigation panel. To access it all you have to do is roll your mouse over it and it will reveal all the important navigational areas of your Google+ account.
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