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Category: News

5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

1. Dusting The Website For Spring: Optimization and SEO Cleaning — SEOmoz

How long has it been since you spent some time cleaning up your website? I’m sure for many of us, it’s been far too long. In this post, Scott Wyden Kivowitz gives some great tips for dusting on-site and off. A cleanup might be exactly what you need to increase your web presence. A good deal of the post focuses on social media and the benefits of linking your website to your various accounts. When it comes to off-site initiatives, social media is important once again, as you want to make sure you’re active on your accounts. Overall, this article has a lot of great advice when it comes to the little things you can do to get your website out there!

2. Facebook To Add More Support For Emoji Within Status Updates, Comments — AllFacebook

According to AllFacebook, the “Unofficial Facebook Blog,” the social media giant is fully embracing the popularity of Emojis. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent addition to your status bar, where Facebook now asks how you are feeling. Apparently this was only the first step. Comments are now Emoji-laden as well, and Facebook is adding new support for the animated addition. Unlike most Facebook changes, the presence of Emojis seems popular with users, who are apparently grateful for an additional way to express themselves—especially such an adorable way. I’m sure you can all expect to see many more cartoon cats on your newsfeed in the upcoming weeks.

3. Hipstamatic Battles Instagram With Oggl iPhone App — PC Mag

Apparently Hipstamatic is making attempting to regain lost popularity with a new product called Oggl. Could this possibly be enough to replace Instagram in our hearts? As a latecomer to the iPhone, I’ve never used Hipstamatic, as Instagram was already the go-to photo app by the time I switched from Droid. Maybe this makes me biased toward Instagram, but I don’t foresee a big shift. Apparently Oggl allows you to edit photos after you’ve already taken them. The same filters and lenses from Hipstamatic are still available, though. According to this post, it seems like the makers are marketing the new venture as a more art-focused app (Oggl is NOT for selfies!). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if edgy marketing can overtake Instagram’s immense popularity.

4. Instagram Now Lets Anyone Tag You [Or Brands] In Photos, Adds Them To “Photos Of You” Profile Section — TechCrunch

In case you missed, it, last week Instagram launched photo tagging. I know what you’re thinking: “It’s about time!” There’s now even a Photos Of You section, so you can keep track of pictures you’ve been tagged in. I’m still trying to decide if I like this switch, as I kind of enjoyed Instagram’s focus on photos rather than people. In this post, TechCruch’s Josh Constantine explains how this signals a new emphasis on identity for Instagram. (He has another interesting blog post linked on this page that further examines the issue.) He also tells you exactly how to use it, in case you’re interested!

5. Google Removes Related Searches – Blind Five Year Old

For those who haven’t noticed, Google has removed the Related Searches feature from Search. For many of us, this was an important tool when it came to keyword research and will be sorely missed. In this post, Blind Five Year Old owner AJ Kohn, who’s pretty upset about the change, laments Google’s neglect of SEOs. It’s really interesting to hear his take on why Internet marketing matters, and how individuals working in SEO actually benefit Google. According to the post, it’s SEOs that are “demystifying search,” to help websites, which helps Google in turn. In fact, spurning SEO may end up hurting Google in the long run.

May 10, 2013
What Local U can do for Your Business

Local U brings together the brightest minds in Local Search.

With Local U just around the corner, I’m getting really excited about the opportunity it’s bringing to New Orleans. While there are so many things I love about the this city, it’s not necessarily known for its booming tech industry… yet. Local businesses could use a technological boost, and that’s exactly why I’m so eager to have Local U in our city. This informative event brings together some of the top players in local search to give entrepreneurs an introductory training session in Internet marketing.

Local University will take place at Tulane’s Lavin-Bernick Center on May 7, from 8:30 am – 1 pm, featuring tons of great speakers and topics. It’s extraordinary to have so many great minds come together to share their wisdom. Experts in the field such as Mike Blumenthal, Mary Bowling, Ed Reese, Aaron Weiche, and Mike Ramsey will all be there, as well as the lead Consumer Support staffer from Google Places.

I see local U as the perfect way for anyone who is managing their local online marketing, or managing those who do, to learn practical tools they can use for any current or future enterprise. There’s no better way to spread the word about your business in this day and age than online, and this conference gives you the know-how to do just that. I know a lot of people who have no idea how to clean up their reputation online or connect with clients through social media, and they often don’t know where to turn to harness these skills.

With sessions like Getting Social Online and Going Local with Google, individuals who have never previously taken an interest in search engine optimization, local search, or even social media can learn how simple techniques can maximize their online presence. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing your business online, make sure to sign up now!

See you at the conference!

Click Here to Sign up for Local U New Orleans!

May 6, 2013
5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend
1. HTML5: An Essential Weapon for SEOs – Search Engine Journal

The new HTML5 is set to receive a major upgrade and there are 5 key SEO innovations coming :
1. Nofollow’s little brothers and sisters
2. Alt-text gets some much needed support
3. Identifying the most important links on your page
4. No more Flash for videos
5. AJAX gets search engine friendly
2. Which Finds the First-Ever Website Better, Google or Bing? – Search Engine Land

May 1, 2013 was the 20 year anniversary of CERN making the Internet available to anyone. Using today’s technology, which search engine do you think would be able to find the site considering that neither engine existed back then?

This is what the world’s first website looked like.

3. The Complete Guide to Reconversion – SEOmoz

Getting new customers is great for any business, but the real challenge is retaining your existing customers. This 5 chapter guide explains why it’s important to focus your energy on remarketing and reconverting.

4. University Study Shows Happy News Leads to More Twitter Followers – Marketing Pilgrim

Keeping your tweets positive and informational will lead to an increase in followers. This article highlights the do’s and don’ts of tweeting

5. Meet Vine’s Most Creative Stop-Motion Animator – Mashable

Twitter launched Vine on January 24, 2013. On January 25th, Khoa Phan created his first vine…and the rest is history. Check out his creative and colorful stop-motion vines in this article.
May 3, 2013
New Influencer Faces – May 2013

We are excited to announce new additions to the Search Influence team!

John Breerwood has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Born and raised in New Orleans, John attended Louisiana State University where he received his bachelor’s in English. He received his Master’s in Creative Writing from New Mexico Highland’s University. Before joining the Production team, he was an English composition instructor and college radio DJ.

Elena Jambusarwalla has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Elena moved to New Orleans shortly after graduating from Louisiana State University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in English and Mass Communication. Before joining the SI team, Elena worked as the Associate Editor of Baton Rouge Parents Magazine.

Alexandra Stoicof has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. She attended The George Washington University in Washington D.C. where she received her degree in International Studies and Geography. After graduating, she worked for The World Bank and is now a freelance cartographer alongside her job at Search Influence.

Mary Silva has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. Born and raised in New Orleans, Mary is currently a Marketing major at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business. Mary will graduate next spring and plans on continuing to pursue a career in online marketing. Prior to working for Search Influence, Mary worked at Tulane’s Executive MBA program as a marketing assistant.

Susannah Bunch has been hired as a Junior Account Associate. Native of New Orleans, Susannah attended the University of Alabama where she received her degree in Human Environmental Sciences. Before making her way back to New Orleans, she worked as an Event Planner in Destin, Florida.

Mac DeLaCruz has been hired as a Junior Web Developer. He made his way to New Orleans after leaving his home state of New York. Mac graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor’s degree in English with minors in African Studies and Computer Science. Before working at SI, he spent six years as a Computer & Printer Support Specialist.

Shane Kretzmann has been hired as a Web Developer. Originally from Minneapolis, MN Shane moved to New Orleans in the early 90’s. In 1996 he started the city’s first Cyber Cafe; Realm Of Delirium, pioneering the industry in Louisiana. As a result of Hurricane Katrina he moved to Connecticut where he worked as the Web Service Group Manager for The Walker Group. Shane has since moved back to New Orleans and recently worked with Force Multiplier Solutions where he was part of a team that wrote software used in city bus stops today to alert riders the ETA of their bus.

Annette Golemi has been hired as a PR & Marketing Associate. She is from Mandeville, LA and attended Louisiana State University, where she received her undergraduate degree in public relations. Following graduation, she moved to Austin, TX and worked at a local public relations agency for one year before returning home to Louisiana.

May 2, 2013
5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

1. Bing Places For Business replaces Bing Business Portal – Small Business Search Marketing

Bing has made some significant changes in its local business listing management platform. Bing Places will replace the old Bing Business Portal, and along with the name change comes a simpler system that strips away much of the non-local search functionality that previously existed. Learn more about the update and decide whether you think this is a good move for Bing.

2. 10 Inbound Discoveries That Will Disrupt Marketing Forever – HubSpot

HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report has been released, and they’ve distilled the findings down to the 10 biggest discoveries. More than 3,000 marketing professionals from all over the world participated by sharing their thoughts on everything from strategy and organizational alignment to channel and budget management.

3. How to Build an Online Community for Your Business – SEOmoz

Building a better online community around your business has a number of advantages. This author urges you to focus on the hard work of attracting the right kind of customers to your community rather than chasing the latest algorithm updates.

4. Top Google Website Optimization Resources – Search Engine Watch

All of the best tips, guides, tutorials, and resources that Google has offered on SEO are all here in one place. You can find everything from beginners guides to some advanced programming concepts that will help you become an optimization expert.

5. How Dynamic Search Ads Can Take Over Your AdWords Account With Devastating Effects – Search Engine Journal

Dynamic search ads became a hot topic when they were recently added to all AdWords accounts. Advertisers expecting to increase profits simply by using DSAs on standard settings should think again. Here are some tips to make the most of your dynamic ads.

April 26, 2013
5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

1. Back to Basics: Meta Descriptions 101 – Search Engine Journal
If you haven’t looked at your meta descriptions in over a year or 6 months, it may be time to refresh your meta data. Meta descriptions are the ones that will show up in search results, so they should sound coherent to humans. Read this refresher on meta tags.

2. Thinking about adding 10,000 pages to your site at once? Take caution. – Search Engine Land
If you are adding a large number of pages to your site, it is better to do so in stages according to Google’s Matt Cutts. Adding them in batches may be better. Releasing thousands of pages at once may cause Google to manually review your site for any suspicious behavior.

3. Want to learn how to segment out your image search in Google Analytics? – Blind Five Year Old

Google image search, universal image search, Bing image search. How do you keep them all separate? AJ Kohn from Blind Five Year Old walks you through the process of setting up filters for image searches in Google Analytics. Read and implement.

4. Foursquare emphasizes its local search in its latest app update. – Search Engine Land

Attempting to take on Facebook and Yelp, the social check-in company rolls out its 6.0 update for its app. With local search as the primary focus of the new update, Foursquare users will see nearby recommendations and discovery features. Check it out.

5. Are Facebook fans really worth it? – Mashable

According to a Syncapse report, a Facebook fan is valued at $174. The study takes a look at Facebook fans versus non-fans and analyzes their spending behavior along with their brand loyalty and several other factors. Would you agree with their estimation?

April 19, 2013
5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

The Holy Grail Of Internet Marketing: Owning The Whole SERP — Search Engine Land

Search Influence’s very own Will Scott gives a brief how-to on the essential methods of owning your search engine results page. The main points he hits in the post are the importance of branded SERP ownership, branded AdWords campaigns, branded organic results, Google+ and local optimization. But the “real win” of owning the whole SERP is obviously taking over your non-branded ranking page. One of the more surprising tidbits for PPC naysayers is “It may seem crazy to pay for clicks to your site, especially if your site shows up in the first position organically, but the data shows that having both the first and “zeroth” positions increases clicks by up to 89%.” Now, that’s a big increase!

How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy — SEOmoz

This informative post briefly touches on the importance of content marketing (it’s the future!) before moving on to some examples of companies that are doing it right, with “it” being what the author calls “phenomenal content.” What these examples all have in common is that they are bite-sized and easily sharable examples of content that is pinpointed to the intended audience. Probably the most useful thing in the post is the detailed step-by-step content strategy.

How to Use Pinterest to Build Trust and Loyalty — Social Media Examiner

We’ve already talked about why your business should be on Instagram, and these reasons also apply to Pinterest (and maybe its smaller, more bro-tastic counterparts like Gentlemint, Manteresting, and Dudepins). And now with analytics for business profiles, you can get data about how your followers are interacting with content. But how do you build trust and loyalty among those followers? This post is a great how-to. Main takeaways: tell your company’s story with humor and portray it as fun and friendly; recognize your loyal customers; make your boards a resource for your followers by including useful information; verify pins have valid, working links before sharing them.

After You Read this Article You’ll Forget It (at least the first half) — Copyblogger

This post telling you how to enhance your content marketing is itself great content marketing. What’s not to love? From the click-bait title down to the excerpts from his book, the author has made a great point about the usefulness of illustrations in your content and promoted his own product, making this whole post an example of how to do it.

How to Create and Promote Successful Social Media Giveaways (and build SEO Links) — Search Engine Journal

The title of this post really says it all. This is a fantastic step-by-step guide to setting up and executing a giveaway. Any business can benefit from the added exposure, but as the post mentions, you can also use this as an opportunity for link building. When you add the giveaway to an existing page on your site, the value of that page increases, even after the giveaway is over and you remove the code.

April 12, 2013
5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

1. The Marketing Value of YouTube – SEO MOZ

The author here discusses the impacts YouTube can have for your product. YouTube is a great resource if you are looking to build your brand. It is important that you put up quality videos over the quantity of videos. Check out the article for some great information if you are looking to build a presence on YouTube.

2. Google Places Is Being Updated To Google + Local – Search Engine Journal

This talks about the transition from Google Places to Google + Local. The post describes how this should make the process easier to use, faster updates, and integration with Adwords (Express) and G +.

3. SEO & Keywords: Think Conversions, Not Rankings – Search Engine Watch

Here the author talks about how rankings should not be the ultimate goal when it comes to SEO services. The author lists 4 steps you should take to produce stronger SEO results in the long run.

4. Indecision 2.0: Are Apps Taking Away Your Power to Decide? – Mashable

Are we too dependent on social media to make simple decisions we face on a daily basis? I sure hope not. This is an interesting article about different apps that can help you make decisions you are not comfortable making, or if you just want some help making a decision.

5. Google On Developing For Google Glass – Search Engine Round Table

This post has an informative video on how developers can develop apps for Google Glass. In this article, it lists four key developer guidelines from the video to help you better understand the process.

April 5, 2013
5 for Friday – Links, Stories, and Posts for Your Weekend

5 Ways To Pay For Twitter Exposure – Crazy Egg

We’re all used to the ads on Google and Facebook, but paid campaigns on Twitter are still unfamiliar for many businesses thinking about a paid advertising campaign online. Here are five different methods to get your tweets seen by more people.

Digg Banned From SERPs (Updated) – Search Engine Journal

Here’s a doozy for you! Last week, popular social bookmarking site Digg.com disappeared from Google’s SERPs! Read for the full report from Search Engine Journal.

Three Easy-to-Make Content Marketing Blunders – Blue Glass

Here are three big content marketing blunders that companies may find themselves falling into. This is a good guide if you find yourself getting stuck.

How Quick Sprout Gets 176 Comments Per Blog Post – Quick Sprout

This is an interesting and engaging article on how and why blogger Neil Patel gets comments on his blogs. His methods are tried and true and it’s interesting to watch him prove his points in the comments below!

Local Search Optimization, It’s All About Timing – Search Engine Journal

Enhancing your local search presence is one of the most important things a business can do to begin to build authority in the eyes of search engines, including Google. Here’s an easy guide for anyone looking to enhance their local search presence – no SEO knowledge required!

March 29, 2013
5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

1. Who is Winning the Apple vs. Google iPhone Driving Directions Battle? Too Close to Call — Mike Blumenthal

Even if you don’t keep up with the war between Apple and Google, you’re probably familiar with Apple Maps and it’s not-so-impressive emergence last fall. Well, since then, the app’s gotten its ducks in a row, and I know quite a few people that use it as their primary navigation tool. But how does it compare to Google Maps? Mike Blumenthal decided to find out. Check out this blog post to see how the two compare now that Apple Maps has matured a bit. I assumed that Google Maps was still the outright leader and was surprised by the results. Who knows, maybe I need to switch over to Apple Maps!

2. The Woman’s Guide to Having it All — Outspoken Media

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of women in SEO and the tech industry in general. It amazes me how few women there are, and I often wonder how we can change that. There are several active initiatives to get girls interested in technology, and I truly hope that they can change the future demographics of the tech world. But how do we get women noticed right now? In this blog post, Rhea Drysdal discusses her idea of what it means to be a successful female in the industry and what she thinks needs to change. Drydal is currently pregnant, which adds an interesting twist to her view on the situation.

3. How To Protect Your Home Business From A Natural Disaster — Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Living in New Orleans, disaster preparedness is a necessary part of life. Most people have a plan for storms, whether it involves evacuation routes or a cabinet full of MREs and batteries. While life necessities are obviously the first priority when it comes to hurricanes or any other disasters, business owners must have a disaster readiness plan in place just in case. I once heard Chris Slaughter, WWL-TV’s former executive news director, speak on what he learned about disaster preparedness from Katrina, and I was surprised by what I learned. There are so many small details that are easy to forget when you’re not actually in the situation. I recently came across this blog post from Michael Gray that touches on the subject. It’s filled with some great tips on how to protect your home business when Mother Nature strikes.

4. Zynga relaunches gaming site, loosens Facebook ties — Reuters

Zynga and Facebook. What a tragic love story. It seems that the divorce process continues, as game publisher Zynga relaunched its website on Thursday after previously relying wholly on Facebook for online play. Users no longer have to login through their Facebook accounts, proving further division of the two companies. By the end of the month, Zynga and Facebook will officially just be friends again. Alas, not all relationships are meant to be! And it seems that Zynga might not need Facebook after all. In this article, Reuters’ Gerry Shih gives a report on what led to this shift and what it means for the two companies.

5. Facebook Begins Rolling Out New, Customizable Timeline — AllFacebook

I’m sure all of you savvy Facebook users are aware of the new changes taking place on your News Feed, but just in case you haven’t heard—or if you just want to learn more about the shift—AllFacebook, the Unofficial Facebook Blog, has you covered. Facebook’s spokespeople say the change makes for a cleaner page with less clutter, but what do you think? I like the new bigger images, but there’s not that much else that I’ve noticed really affecting my use. I’m also a little wary of the advertising suddenly melded into my feed. I guess only time will tell what this change means for users.

March 22, 2013