Tuesday, June 25, 2013

SEO Strategy for Smartphones - It's TIME!

Many people think that if you have an SEO strategy for your website then that is the same as a strategy for your Smartphone/mobile device. In fact, that is not true. And now Google has announced they will be changing their ranking system to According to +Bryson Meunier  on marketingland.com:
All this changed with Google’s announcement of smartphone ranking changes on June 11. According to Google, in the near future they will start demoting sites within mobile rankings that provide a poor user experience to smartphone searchers, starting with any sites that exhibit any of these common smartphone configuration errors:
•Redirecting smartphone traffic to the homepage when an equivalent landing page for mobile does not exist
•Redirecting Googlebot smartphone to a website optimized for feature phones
•Serving a 404 or soft 404 to smartphone users if equivalent page for smartphone does not exist
•Having smartphone landing pages that are excessively slow
•Marketing your app through app interstitials on the way to Web content
•Having links on your smartphone site to a desktop experience and vice versa
•Serving videos that are impossible to play on a smartphone to smartphone users

No more free lunch for your sites' mobile capacity!  For more on this topic, check out the full article here:  http://marketingland.com/what-do-googles-smartphone-ranking-changes-mean-for-marketers-48611

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Twitter Trick I Just Learned!

If you are like me and admin for multiple Twitter accounts and don't want to keep making up email addresses for them, I just checked out this blog and tried this and it worked! You do have to have a gmail based email account though. http://www.labnol.org/internet/one-email-for-multiple-twitter-accounts/9492/

Friday, June 21, 2013

What I'm excited about today...

Instagram Video! Facebook has really been fighting back after losing some ground lately. The first announcement, that they would be doing hashtags, was huge and now Facebook-owned Instagram will be allowing video! The implications for Vine and for Viddy are going to be pretty significant. On a side note, I wonder if people are getting a little overwhelmed with all the different methods of communicating and sharing out there. It seems every week brings another new "cool" way to share your life! Have you tried Instagram video and what are your thoughts for other video sharing apps out there?

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Hashtag has taken over!

We all know how much fun hashtags are personally (#bestdayever, #mysoniscrazy, #thisconcertrocks) but many people don't realize how effective a hashtag can be to promote an event and subsequently your business/you! 

One of the most amazing examples of this was the entry of Hillary Clinton to Twitter this past week with this tweet:
Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton 10 Jun
Thanks for the inspiration & - I'll take it from here...
 
Within HOURS the #tweetsfromhillary hashtag had gone viral and she has over 400,000 followers at last look.  This was a funny response to the hashtag #textsfromhillary which was a satire of her based on her pictures.
 
Another example (closer to home) is how quickly the hashtag #nmfire began to trend on Facebook once the fires broke out.  It became my way of searching for the latest information.
 
And now, finally Facebook has had to join the trend!
 
 
Starting next week Facebook will begin rolling out hashtags to their users! 
 
By creating a hashtag for your event, company or you personally, you can begin to brand your organization (#fridaysatbistroluis or #watermatters or #monsantoisevil as examples).  Don't Instagram, Twitter or  Facebook without it and soon enough it will become a term synonymous with you.  Just make sure you pick the right hashtag since it may stick with you.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Google Analytics

I have become obsessed with Google Analytics.  It is the best way to monitor your website and learn HOW people find you (traffic sources), WHAT they do when they get there (bounce rate, etc), WHY they are there (search terms), and WHO they are (demographics).  It's also an excellent component of your SEO strategy as you can track words and phrases and their impact.