A serious downgrading of many sites occurred in late February as Google believed a number of UK news sites had sold links to a web site via advertorials. An advertorial is an advertisement that in this case is used to boost page rank and Google has come down especially hard this time. There were stories that the page rank scores of the sites involved were downgraded to zero. The advertorial is similar to a television infomercial. There is a story about a product or company being discussed as if it…

An interesting use of digital marketing may be how high street survives in the UK. An article in marketing week points out that with proper use of new marketing strategies stores can welcome the Smartphone and computer user by appealing to their digital habits. The article also points out that help may be coming from an unusual source: Google. Google wants to help retailers understand current consumer behavior. One way is to inform retailers how people use Smartphones while they are in the store. This information could help retailers use…

If you read part one of this post you can see just how important the proper use of primary and secondary keywords and key phrases to create anchor text for back link purposes is. The techniques of Joseph Archibald in the area of using anchor text have withstood the test of time and the Google Penguin and Panda updates. The secondary level of creating backlinks that he uses is a little different. You want your secondary level to be where people hear about your product through mass article submissions and…

When you want your message to get out to qualified prospects who are interested in buying your product or service you need to pay careful attention to the keywords you use. The Google algorithm is on the lookout for spam and too much repetition of a small number of key words may be read the wrong way. The best way to get backlinks that can help your organic search results is by properly using keywords and anchor text to direct readers back to your site. In a recent article on…

The focus of all your marketing efforts has not changed – the classic idea to bring more customers in by good word of mouth still applies. Although when it comes to digital terms this effort may better described as good word of keyboard. The new Google maps function and Facebook Graph Search has opened up opportunities in an area that some companies fear to tread – sharing of reviews. The great review that a Facebook friend shares is something every location wants, almost as much as they fear that a…

The new Twitter API, which has been a topic of conversation for some time, was officially released on February 20, 2013. It is a new advertising platform that will make it a more viable alternative to Facebook.  Twitter’s new API will make it easier for large advertising agencies to upload ads onto Twitter where their older API allowed this, but only one ad could upload at a time. This could mean a major increase in revenue for the Twitter as more companies will be able to make better use of…

There are so many different articles available on the web that talk about Search Engine Optimization. While having access to all this information can be good for those looking to do research, the sheer volume can be overwhelming and confusing. There comes a time when a small business or a large one that has many locations needs to focus on what Aaron Zwas called Google Optimization in a recent article on his company website. The focus on how to optimize your presence on Google should involve efforts beyond just search…

Any company that is considering using Facebook, Twitter and other social sites to communicate with customers could easily have second thoughts due to the potential downsides. One major negative of using social media can arise when something goes wrong, like a customer service or product issue. Any bad news about your company can spread quickly through social sites and hurt potentially hurt the reputation of your business. Even if your company isn’t participating on these sites you still may be getting some bad reviews if your customer service isn’t where…

 The mobility offered by tablets, Smartphones and laptops has created yet another category of search optimization to be considered – mobile search optimization. The strategies for mobile search optimization are a little different than those commonly used for Search Engine Optimization. If a user just wants to access your website using a mobile device your efforts at SEO can get them there quickly. If you want to do everything that you can to increase mobile search results though you might have to retool your SEO tactics a bit: You could…

The focus of many social media based advertising plans was to get as many likes and recommendations as possible from those who participate on the networking sites. Shared Twitter posts, gaining likes on Facebook and even posting company info on LinkedIn have been important drivers in digital marketing efforts. Now there is another way to use the social networking giant Facebook to improve your company’s bottom line – and it isn’t related to Search Engine Optimization. Facebook can help local companies go up against larger companies with the help of…