Content speaks for itself. It speaks for a company. It speaks to the people. Most business websites are sorely short on content. Sure, they have sales content and information about the company, but so few today are actually putting out high-quality content about relevant topics that make their websites more of a resource. Today, people want to trust a company before doing business with them and content is the easiest way for them to understand that you know what you’re doing. It’s not just about having information for visitors to see in order to convince them that you’re an expert. It’s also about…

There are two frames of mind amongst search marketing professionals when it comes to major updates such as the Google Penguin update last year and the upcoming Penguin 2.0 algorithm update. Some start to panic as they’ve seen these algorithm updates force companies to make major changes. In some cases, companies have had to close down because adjusting was just too much to bare. The other perspective is that these changes bring the game of optimization more in line with quality over quantity, strategy over brute force, and perhaps most importantly, art over science. That’s what’s expected with…

The internet. It has become such an integrated part of our lives that many do not spend more than a few waking hours without being connected in some way. We post to Facebook, check our emails, visit websites, read the news, and generally connect throughout much of our days. How does this translate into actual activity on the internet every day? It means that there are over a hundred thousand websites launched. It means that we’re spending over 3 hours a day on social media. It means that there are more minutes of video watched every day than the entirety of a year’s worth of television shows produced….

So, you’re considering building a new website. You have an idea for a product, you’re starting a new company, or you’ve been charged with taking your 2002 antiquated website and modernizing it. The challenges you’ll face are many. The list of consolidated resources are few. There are schools dedicated to helping people to develop a website but you simply don’t have the time to go back to school. There’s nothing to worry about. Pixaal has a checklist for you. Granted, it doesn’t actually show you how to do any of the things you need such as creating a site map or deciding what sort of buttons you need,…

If there’s one word I hate using in marketing, it’s “engagement”. The term has been so overused and abused since the rise of social media that its meaning has become distorted. It’s defined in different ways and means different things to different people. Thankfully, the moves by search giants like Google and Bing as well as social giants like Facebook and Twitter have brought in at least a little uniformity to we should look for when trying to harness engagement. First and foremost, websites today must be engaging. That’s not to say that they have to be interactive; heavy websites that make people…

There was a time when the search engines rewarded content of all types. If a website syndicated content from elsewhere on the web and exposed it to their audience, it wasn’t as good as unique content but at least it didn’t hurt. Some of the content would be de-indexed as duplicate but the overall health of the domain itself was not harmed. Today, it’s harmful. Websites that are taking a lot of content from others and posting it on their own websites, even if they link to the original source, are finding that their overall rankings are dropping as a result. It’s one of many changes in the string of content…

Having the cleanest homepage on the internet has often been attributed to much of Google’s early success. Before they were the search engine, they competed against Yahoo, Microsoft Live, Alta Vista, and other portal sites that had ads, news, and just about everything else that one could fit onto a single website. Google’s was clean back then and remains clean today. Every now and then, they do some promotions. Today, they used the most visited page on the internet to display a simple message: “The playground is open. The new $199 tablet from Google.” The ad linked to a page that offered a special…

It is important to keep your blog readers and website visitors interested in the information you share. Coming up with creative and eye-catching ways to grab the attention of online users is extremely crucial in having people visit and return to your site. Infographics are a great way to visually share data on a website or blog and they will keep your community interested in what you post. This infographic from Diyblogger comes to us via Used Cars Long Island and explores “The Infographic Life Cycle”. Click to enlarge. Hat Tips: Kia Vallejo…

The online lyrics industry is one in which “few thought [adding value] could be done,” according to Rand Fishkin. But a new website, Crackerize.com, has entered the scene and is bringing new meaning to old rap songs. Crackerize.com provides a platform for users to register as members and submit their interpretations of rap lyrics. With the tagline “rap lyrics translated into English,” Crackerize.com takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to re-interpreting lyrics which are often difficult to comprehend. For example, the site “translates” the title of Nelly Furtado’s hit song…

Welcome to the digital era, where we have bid farewell to old marketing tools. Now brands successfully promote themselves by using social media platforms, especially with the help of Facebook pages. If you are a social media enthusiast, you might be familiar with the marketing tactics used by brands over social media networks. As of today, the ultimate gauge of a company’s social media marketing skills is how many ‘likes’ they have on their Facebook page. Almost all of us are aware of the ‘like’ button introduced by Facebook and its significance. Not merely an expression of a user appreciating…