Practical Ecommerce - Google Mobile Websites

If you are not currently running a mobile friendly website, then you should know that  April  21’st onwards, ranking on the mobile search results on Google will become a tough deal.

It has been recently announced by Google that their algorithm updates would affect search results significantly all over the world for smart phone users. This algorithm update would help enhance the rankings of websites which have already provided a smart phone friendly experience for the searchers, while the websites which don’t provide a similar experience, would be demoted. Therefore, thousands of websites are trying to get their webpage mobile friendly with the help of mobile website firms.

However, this smart phone friendly update of Google would only affect the search results from tablets and smart phones and not the searches performed from laptop or desktop.
This algorithm has been applied universally and the basis of real time. The algorithm update would impact the mobile phone searches along with the search results of all countries over the globe.
The smartphone adaptability of every webpage would be taken into account separately. This can be a great news for mobile websites whose ecommerce catalogues are smartphone friendly, while other sections are not so. The sections of your site which are not mobile friendly would not drag down the ranking of your website on Google.

By ‘real time’, it is meant that one can hope to see the benefits of making their webpage smartphone friendly right away. This is because when Googlebot would crawl your site and determine that it has been freshly turned smartphone friendly, then the mobile ranking algorithm would automatically be applied to those sites. This can be very good news since some of the algorithm updates are generally processed on a monthly basis or on a time cycle which is unknown, and then they are applied in batches to the algorithms.

However, one needs to be aware since real time always works both ways.  If a recent update to your webpage makes your website mobile unfriendly, the smart phone friendly algorithm of ranking would start automatically for your website whenever the site is crawled the next time.

Apart from this, the content from the Android apps which are indexed would now be ranked in the Google search results page for individuals who have android apps already installed on their phone and who are signed in to Google. Since Google does not have an access to the database of Apple iTunes, none of the iOS apps would be covered in this ranking improvement of apps.

Google has declared that their sole aim is to enhance the experience of the searchers. We all know how frustrating it is to conduct our search on a mobile and then come across a site which is so tiny that we need to pinch and zoom in and then scroll to read the text and find the links.

Google aims to transform that sense of frustration into an enhancement in its search results. Google mobile websites would lead to a positive mobile experience for windows phone and android users. This makes a lot of sense from the perspective of the searcher, and this is what has been addressed by Google.

However, from the perspective of the ecommerce site owners, this update could be a very expensive one in terms of revenue and lost mobile traffic.

Top Five Free Business Listings.

Top Five Free Business Listings.

 #1 - Google Places - http://places.google.com/business - The reason this is so powerful is Google commands 65% of all internet searches, and local searches are coming up first based on your business location address. They provide free stats, including mobile phone search, and you can tie it with your Google Adwords account. 

 The free version is a must, but depending on your marketing budget, the $25/month is a very cost effective choice, as you get additional marketing tools like a highlight of your listing, and better stats.

 #2 - Yelp.com - Most people use www.yelp.com for restaurants, but more and more business are listing their type of business on Yelp.com. Simple process of listing your business and getting on there. You can also use their additional marketing tools to test how the free version works, and you also get a weekly report.

 #3 - Facebook Pages - www.facebook.com/pages/ this isn't considered a directory but a basic listing of your business on Facebook. If you already use Facebook for your personal needs setting a FB Page (aka Fan Page) is very simple. You will need a legitimate personal FB account but you can add others as administrators. This also provides you with a free monthly reports on how well your FB Page is doing. You can also use the FB advertisement tools they offer, for additional fees.

 #4 - YellowPages.com - http://www.yellowpages.com/ not my favorite listing directory, but it is free, so I can't complain. Before the internet we had the Yellow Pages, but, when was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? It is refreshing to see the Yellow Pages finally getting more modern, but they still have some issues.

#5 - Bing Local Listing Center - Same as Google Places but not as popular in the search directory category.  Bing https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

Happy Birthday Bizwala - 13 years in business!

How To Backup Your Facebook Page

Get Ahead Of The Competition With The Help of Effective Internet Marketing Strategies

As Information Technology continues to improve, more and more people are convinced that turning to search engine sites to look for things that they need to buy is far more convenient than shopping at malls. They are likely to look for websites on top page of these search engine sites like Google and MSN. So, companies with websites on top of any popular search engines have greater chances of getting new customers that may lead to profit gains once they have successfully turned these potential customers to sales. If in a traditional marketing set up word of mouth, personalized branding and electronic commercials work effectively, in the cyberspace, Internet marketing will bring wonders for companies. Once a person has a website, the next thing to do is to optimize it so that a large number of Internet users will take notice of it. There are millions of people who use the Internet every day for their own reasons and purposes, and it is important for any company to take advantage of this number so that they can grow financially.

However, there are also a large number of SEO services providers in the market, and some of which are inefficient and ineffective. So, people should be careful in choosing the right SEO experts for them that can provide them professional work and better SEO results. Good thing Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization experts are specifically-trained to offer online businesses battle-tested SEO techniques and marketing strategies. The primary goal of these Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization professionals is to help their clients achieve a much higher Return on Investment (ROI) so that they can further improve their respective products or services. This can be achieved by the efforts of Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization experts in getting online businesses exposed at the right place, at the right time. They have an in-depth understanding on how SEO works for any kinds of businesses as seen in their well-researched market analysis on the respective niche of their clients. In this way, they can formulate their SEO pproach and technique according to the specific requirements of the market and the client.

Effective SEO does not end with helping the client achieved higher ranks on a certain search engine site, but continues with assisting the company gain sales growth. This can be done by using techniques that will help the website maintain on top even though many years have passed. And this is where Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization companies are known for. They are good at maintaining a website on higher ranks on search engine sites because they use SEO tools and strategies that are search-engine friendly and relevant. The experts from Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization firms are experienced enough to understand search engine behavior, policies, rules and other requirements.Las Vegas SearchEngine Optimization professionals also keep themselves up-to-date with the current improvements on SEO techniques so that they can provide a greater edge for their clients’ websites. This holds true in a market where advantage plays a crucial role in far exceeding other competitors. 

What To Expect From Google’s Latest Algorithm Update & How It Will Affect Your SEO Campaigns

Many SEO professionals are having doubts about the future of Search Engine Optimization as search engine sites like Google are focused on ranking websites that feature real, valuable content. The latest algorithm updates from Google are designed to eliminate fake, spam and black hat SEO practices in their site. In this way, they can provide online browsers with real content, safe and secure websites to improve the overall web user experience, promote social media interaction and build stronger ties among online communities. While this sounds good news to Internet users, a lot of SEO companies are threatened by the idea that Google is somehow killing off the SEO industry.

The Changes as they happen in the SEO Industry

SearchEngine Optimization is involved with two major processes: internal and external. Internal SEO is about 1/8 of the entire process that involves web design of a site. Web design is focused on building a site that will follow the correct practices to achieve high rank on Google. External SEO is where writing press releases, blog posts, comments, page content and articles are processed. The content contains an embedded keyword that serves as backlinks to the site. However, the latest developments are rapidly changing SEO practices as it now includes social media approaches to attain better SEO results. The most commonly known practice in SEO is white hat or black hat practices. White hat is apparently doing the right, search engine-friendly practice, while black hat is where professionals use tricks and spamming activities to attain higher page rank in the fastest way possible.

However, the gaming system has been changed, and continually changing as Google design algorithm updates according to what they want. Today, Google wants real, search engine relevant and quality content on the Internet. Internet marketers like SEO and article marketers are more alarmed than ever before, thinking about updating their websites and make sure they don’t have plagiarized content, free from any spam and broken links. Committing to black hat practices will earn them lower page rank and apparently, this does not help them with their cause which is to reach the highest position in the search engine result page. The highest position has always been the target of SEO professionals as it is where websites can get more traffic, potential customers and sales growth. And not following with accordance to search engine updates could affect the overall SEO efforts or campaign. So, this scenario could mean that the battle is on between SEO professionals and Google search engines as well as against other search engine sites. And to get a valuable content is a must, and your website can be ranked higher than it would be had you chosen to leave it alone and just go with the flow driven by the web forces.

The Penguin update, a code name for Google’s latest algorithm, is set to decrease rankings of websites that were using strategies and practices to increase their rankings in an artificial manner. This update puts a lot of emphasis on changing backlinks concept, which is now leaning toward social media shares, likes, tweets and Google 1+. Apparently, this will require you to have real connections with real people to validate the content you are circulating on the Internet. This somehow counters spammers, companies with fake accounts, fake content and false advertisements. The emphasis is now on how many people will view or follow your social media activities. A prime example is Google +, wherein you can have circles of friends and ask them to 1+ your article or blog. More likes would mean that your content is real and has value to other readers that need them. Hence, you are circulating quality, informative and relevant information on the web without spamming or using those black hat SEO techniques. This new way of linking content will definitely affect your ranking in search engine sites. The good thing is that Google+ has about 40 million users and Gmail has 193 million users, studies said in 2010. Professional SEO companies know how to make use of such figures and use it to their advantage. However, with Google being stricter and smarter than ever before, SEO professionals should be mindful of using subtle black hat techniques so that you won’t experience a dramatic decrease in your page rank. More people adding 1+ on your links or page could give you higher chances of leading the page results once a person types in the main keyword you try to promote.

These search engines want to believe that promoting content via social media networks is a great indicative of relevant content. It seems that external SEO efforts like typical social bookmarking, forum posting and traditional link building are counterfeited. Quality content, web design and video blogs are likely benefit individuals who search for it. So, you will need great optimization skills and marketing strategies to be able to conquer Google’s nail-tough requirements in exchange for a good ranking position. And in order to do this, working with established SEO companies with proven expertise wouldn’t hurt your campaign.

How do SEO Firms Adjust from these Changes?

With these new updates, a lot of SearchEngine Optimization companies don’t do much of the old SEO practice. Although it still brings outcomes, the results are not like it used to. The way things work right now is not about links anymore, but it is about the concentration of engagement on a person’s site. Social shares is not something you can fake easily, especially with these policy changes and search engine sites know who everyone is once they decide to create their social media account. No wonder Google is able to detect and identify social media users with fake accounts and immediately ban them. Although a lot of Internet marketers have been very smart about it, Google experts are just way to wise and advanced to take action ahead of them. The best way to get by with these Google updates is by creating high-quality content and lots of community interaction. It is important to create content that has compelling information, something that the readers would really talk about in forums, social media and other sites.

Rocking the Web Design Boat

Since the inception of the abacus, technology has been making improvements by leaps and bounds. In a short span of time, people were able to make the shift from smoke signals to video chats. That being the case, it would therefore be foolish for a business to not adapt to the changing tides of the recent times. One way of adapting to these changes is to have one’s own website.

For the most part, having your own website should not be much of a problem. After all, there are a number of ready-to-use templates online that you can easily make use of. This is aside from the fact that most hosting service providers allow their clients to create their own website with just a few clicks. It, however, becomes a different story if what you want to accomplish is a website that not only speaks to your clients but is also professionally made. That being the case, your best bet would be to get in touch with Las Vegas web design companies.

Before you sign up for the services of a Las Vegas web design  company, you have to make sure first that you have already settled what you want for your site. This means that you should already have an idea of what your company’s brand is about, what your budget is, and what kind of market you are targeting. All of these details would play a major role in determining what kind of design the developer should have.

If you find it hard choosing which among the Las Vegas web design  companies online you should go for, you can always do a shortcut and ask instead your friends, relatives, and colleagues for referrals. By doing so, you actually lessen the amount of time it would take to check each of the web design companies you come across with. If, on the other hand, you have the time to go through a number of proposals, one of the things that you would have to look into would be the tenure of the web designer. Las Vegas web design  companies who have been around for some time are typically those who know how to adapt to the changing needs of the market.

It is also highly recommended that you only go for Las Vegas web design  companies who have worked with a company that belongs to the same industry as you do. This is because such Las Vegas web design companies would already have a general knowledge of the ins and outs of your business. As much as possible, do not get the services of a company without seeing their portfolio as well as actual websites that they have recently worked on. Take note of their style in designing. Have them run by you the process of how the designs are made. Go for a Las Vegas web design  company who is able to involve you during milestones in the process.

Lastly, you have to check whether the web design company would be charging you by the hour, by milestones, or once the project is completed. If you would be doing it on an hourly basis, make sure that you ask for a breakdown of the activities that the company has done for the day. 

About Jonathan Remund