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Google For iPad Gets A Facelift In Time For The holidays
Michael Block | November 22nd, 2011
Google isn’t the best search engine in the world by accident. There are a number of reasons that Google left other engines like AltaVista, MetaCrawler, Lycos, AskJeeves and Yahoo in the dust and why Bing still struggles to make inroads on Google’s market share. Chief among these reasons is Google’s commitment to research and development, innovation and user experience. Google constantly experiments with elements of the search engine results pages, makes adjustments to improve its algorithm and adds features (e.g. Google Instant Search) that users didn’t even realize they wanted. As a result, users know they can trust Google to deliver the best experience in search because there’s never been a reason to look elsewhere.
Well, nothing has changed! If you own a smartphone, you are likely aware that Googling something on your mobile device has a similar but optimized feel compared to Googling something on your desktop. There are ads cluttering up the side, the links are big enough to easily be able to select them with your thumb and phone numbers are more commonly displayed and automatically enable click-to-call. These small changes keep users happy and keep manufacturers of web operating systems choosing Google as the default search engine.
Up until recently, the Google experience on tablets has been very similar to the experience on desktops. Of course, even though the activity on tablets more closely resembles activity on desktops than does the activity of smartphones, the experiences are distinct. Therefore, it should be no surprise to anyone that Google has released an update for its iPad app just in time for the holiday shopping season. One of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, summarized the details rather succinctly:
Posted in Internet News | 1 Comment
Sales Strategies For Social Media & Mobile
Dexter Rangel | November 21st, 2011
Wpromote attended the Sales 2.0 conference in Santa Monica, CA. The event offered various sales strategies and best practices in social media. Speakers offered their personal insight on how social media has positively affected sales and marketing initiatives. Throughout the entire conference I was amazed at how connected everyone was. Twitter names were displayed on big screens, people on various tablets, and it seemed that everyone was tweeting from their chairs. Below are some great tips that I took away from the conference.
First off, it’s clear that nowadays people are spending most of their Internet time on social networks. For this reason it is important to have a strong social presence. Scott Holden of Sales Cloud and Salesforce.com mentioned that Facebook users are now twice as active as desktop users. Scott proposed getting into the habit of establishing a short daily social routine.
This routine would allow:
• Businesses to form closer relationships with current clients
• Help find more customers
• Help prospective buyers find you
• Close deals faster
A key factor in establishing a strong social presence will be to understand your consumer. Andrew Somosi, SVP, Marketing & Business Development of Lattice Engines stressed the importance of knowing your customer. By understanding how your consumer buys and where and when they buy will allow you to make informed decisions when converting leads from social outlets. Consumers are not only visiting your site to make a purchasing decision, they are also looking at all of the additional components of your brand like blogs, Facebook, Twitter
, etc.. Having a strong and unique social presence will push your prospective customer to make that final call. Companies who are able to make their business social will have greater success in the long run.
Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment
Alternatives To Yahoo! Site Explorer
Jamie Lane | November 21st, 2011
On Friday November 18, 2011 Yahoo posted the following, brief statement:
“With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011.”
We knew this day would come, in July Yahoo! officially announced that they expected this transition to happen later in the year, we simply did not know the exact date. Even before that we knew that having two platforms feeding data for a single source of organic rankings was not efficient. It took months to make the switch because they had not transitioned to the Microsoft search platform in many areas of the world. They wanted to be sure that it was a smooth transition on one date, worldwide.
Many SEO evangelists and webmasters are sad to see this tool go as they actively use the competitive link data provided by Yahoo Site Explorer. Bing Webmaster Tools simply does not provide the same insight and therefore many are turning to SEOmoz, Majestic SEO, Open Site Explorer, and free web-based tools such as our own SEOAudit Tool, in an attempt to gather the same insights. For most, Bing Webmaster Tools platform will be sufficient and users will no longer have to submit their sitemaps and updates to both locations.
Do you have thoughts or suggestions on other webmaster tools that would help fill the void once Yahoo Webmaster Tools is officially gone? Let us know!
Posted in Internet News | No Comments
Movember Is Upon Us!
Jeff Collins | November 10th, 2011
Some background: Movember was originally devised in 1999 by a group of 80 Aussies with the idea that they would grow out their mustaches for 30 days in the name of charity. At that time they were fundraising for the RSPCA*. As the years went on, the movement adjusted its aim to tackling men’s health issues, in particular, prostate cancer. From there it snowballed into something much bigger and in 2010 Movember raised over $80 million from 447,808 global participants, almost doubling its fundraising efforts from the year prior.
Two years ago, when I came on to work with Wpromote, I had a pre-existing affinity for growing facial hair and, as such, was very happy to hear that we were active participants in this time-honored tradition. In 2010, our team of twenty five raised over $2,300 and although our numbers have dwindled to twenty this year, we are looking to smash that record. With that being said, please donate what you can to our team here: Wprofontaine or–better yet–directly to me here: MoBro:Jeff Collins.
Junior League of Los Angeles Hosts Wpromote on Social Media Panel
Michael Block | November 9th, 2011
Clockwise from top left: JL President Barbara Wright, Adria Holtzinger, Michael Wilde, Joanne Coghill, Michael Block, Lonny Schwartz
Last night, the Junior League of Los Angeles hosted an event called “Social Media for Non-Profits” at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica. Wpromote was proud to send four employees to sit on the panel to discuss the importance of social media in non-profit marketing. Joanne Coghill, our Director of Human Resources, moderated and Adria Holtzinger, Lonny Schwartz, Michael Wilde and I sat at the dais taking questions and doing our best to articulate the value of social media.
It was a real treat to have been a part of this event. Not only was the presentation well-attended by about 200 professional women in the Los Angeles area but the audience was eager to learn, ready with questions and very enthusiastic about their cause. Nothing is more gratifying than talking about something you’re passionate about with a group of people who are equally passionate about learning.
The audience took to their phones to pose questions to the panelists.
Posted in Conference Recaps | 2 Comments
Introducing Our Web-Based SEOAudit Tool
John Vantine | November 2nd, 2011
There are a tons of great SEO tools freely available on the web. I’m always trying new ones out myself, constantly on the hunt for the next tool that’ll simplify my job as an SEO. However, most of the SEO tools that I use regularly are either programs I’ve installed or browser extensions. The web-based SEO tools that I use are all for very specific purposes.
Wpromote set out to create a general purpose SEO tool that was fast and convenient. We were looking to create something that you could quickly turn to when you didn’t know much about a site, and wanted to get a basic idea of its strengths and weaknesses. And with that, I introduce to you our brand new web-based SEOAudit Tool!
This bad boy is super helpful, especially if you’re in a rush. Simply enter a URL and click “audit”. Within a few seconds, you’ll have access to a wealth of useful stats, such as the number of pages indexed in Google, a backlink count, WHOIS info, SEOMoz metrics such as Domain Authority and MozRank, Alexa rank, the number of backlinks according to Yahoo, and a whole lot more.
