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Our Influence Grows!

As Summer starts, the SI team continues to grow. This month, we welcome three new faces to Search Influence!

Caroline VanDyke – Junior Internet Marketing Associate

Originally from Newport Beach, CA, Caroline came to Tulane University to study Political Science and International Development (and eat her way through NOLA). Before coming to SI, she worked on policy research for the Cowen Institute and had an article published on Huffington Post. Caroline is a current events junkie and foodie which makes New Orleans a great place to call home!

Harrison Galante – Account Associate

Originally from New Jersey, Harrison moved to New Orleans in 2009 to attend Tulane University. Before joining the Search Influence team, Harrison worked at a Local SEO firm in New York, but the New Orleans bug is a hard one to kick. He loves to travel, brew his own beer, and practice Yoga. Harrison is extremely excited to be a part of New Orleans’ budding tech scene!

Nina Hymel – Junior Internet Marketing Associate

Nina is originally from Destrehan, LA, but she just moved back to the area after attending Loyola University in Chicago. She graduated with a double major in English and Communication. Before Search Influence, Nina worked as a public relations and business development intern at ASC Communications in Chicago.

Welcome Nina, Harrison, and Caroline! We all look forward to working with you. If you are interested in joining Search Influence, visit our career page.

June 24, 2014
#Ibelievethatwewillwin #Ole! #WorldCup

As the world gathers in sport bars across the globe to watch the gorgeous and very talented FIFA team members, I’ve realized that the World Cup is kind of like the Super Bowl, just bigger, better, and hotter!

Besides the commercials and the fact that the Super Bowl is only something America partakes in, one distinguishing difference between the World Cup and the Super Bowl is the branding. While the Super Bowl has consistent branding and logos every year, the World Cup continuously changes. For example, the Super Bowl uses a consistent hashtag (#SB14) that is created by the NFL and encouraged by fans to use in the days leading up to the big night. With the World Cup, there is no consistent branding. Which is ironic since this is the one sport the world comes together to participate in and cheer on — the original football league. Which got me thinking, sports franchises should be treated just like any other business, as should the structure of their social media campaigns. The leagues should maintain a consistent brand, continue to publish content throughout the series, and encourage fans to get engaged.

1) Consistent Branding

It’s funny how one word can change your branding so much!

#football vs. #soccer
#brazil vs. #brasil

Regardless of which country a team is from, the league should constantly present their branding on a worldwide scale. T-shirts, jersey logos, mugs, soccer balls (or footballs) and of course, hashtags. The most commonly used hashtags for the World Cup is #worldcup with a 71.8% of tweets containing #worldcup in content published on Twitter. Other popular hashtags include:

#brazil – 31.5%
#fifa – 17.22%
#football – 19.09%
#fifta2014 – 13.29%
#brazil2014 – 3.8%
#soccer – 3.8%
#brasil2014 -3.8%
#france – 3.5%
#fifawordcup – 3.5%
And my favorite #Ibelievethatwewillwin

Although the league has no control over what countrymen and women are going to post or which team they are going to support, encouraging a hashtag is one way to control the branding of your business.

2) Content is king

The biggest social network participating in the World Cup is Twitter

With 645,750,000 people on Twitter, fans are just waiting for the latest tweet by a team member or the team. Publishing content to keep fans informed is key to a successful social media campaign. Publishing updates to the team’s status such as posting superstitions of the game results, or posting pregame photos, is what the soccer fans want. Don’t forget that your employees — or team members! — are extensions of your brand too. Encouraging employees to publish content and post pictures is also important to the overall brand image, and its success.

3) Keep ‘em engaged!

In addition the informational content, make sure you are keeping your fans engaged with your brand. Many brands encourage engagement by asking fans to participate in poles, questions, or even contests. One of the biggest World Cup sponsor’s, McDonalds, jumped on this bandwagon in their offline “Peel, Play, Ole, Ole” campaign.

For those businesses that aren’t FIFA sponsors, engaging with fans on Instagram and Foursquare are great for brand awareness. Asking fans to post pictures with your product, or check-in specials at locations are easy ways to increase a brand’s presence while engaging with fans.

Regardless if your business is in a worldwide event that only comes around once every four years, or if it is the neighborhood corner grocery, these three tips can benefit any social media campaign.

So y’all get ready Russia! #fifa2018 #worldcup #fifarussia #USA #USA #USA

June 23, 2014
Five for Friday – Google Does the World Cup, Pinterest as the Next Big Search Engine, and Facebook Playing Catch Up!
Google revamps its algorithm, and its Doodles. Businesses are finding their audience on Pinterest more than ever before. Meanwhile, Facebook finally finds a way to mimic Snapchat, but with a catch.

1. World Cup Google Doodles – Google

If you haven’t noticed Google’s Doodles this week, here is a recap of the clever, funny, and sometimes interactive animations created by to promote the FIFA World Cup and the many countries trying for the title. Each Doodle changes several times during the day depending on the countries currently matched up. If you click on the Doodle you will also be taken to a live scoreboard of the current game. GO USA!

2. PayDay Loan 3.0 Algorithm Update – Search Engine Land

In other Google news, Matt Cutts has announced the rollout of another update to the ever-changing search engine algorithm that determines website rankings on the results page. This update is primarily focused on “very spammy queries,” which is an extension of the PayDay 2.0 update released couple of weeks ago. The types of queries and links that will be affected are pornography, payday loans, casinos, Viagra, and other similar topics most usually associated with “spammy” links and queries. It’s another great move by Google, an effort to clean up their search results and provide users with only the most relevant, and non-spam websites to choose from.

3. Four Pinterest Statistic you Need to Know – Search Engine Watch

As for any business or marketer, you should always know both where your customers or potential customers are, and how they are interacting with you online. Pinterest, one of the fastest growing and most influential sharing sites currently on the web, could give your business just the right insight about their target audiences. You should understand the following statistics before starting a Pinterest campaign:
1. Women are the primary Pinterest users, and they out-pin men every day by far.
2. What are these women pinning?
  -DIY projects, home decor, weddings, recipes, beauty, fashion, travel, fitness, photography, and many other topics.
3. Who is your competition on Pinterest?
  -Etsy, Urban Outfitters, West Elm, Brides.com., and Poketo among hundreds of other businesses.
4. When are these women pinning?
  -Between 4p.m. and 10p.m.
4. Bing Attempts to Predict the World Cup – Search Engine Land

Using their prediction technology (a combination of team stats, weather forecasts, player line up, and homefield advantage among other things) Bing is attempting to predict the FFIA World Cup! Although it is not a perfect system by any means, Bing is getting a lot of attention for their prediction technology, which certainly is the end goal. If you search for something along the lines of “world cup predictions group b” you can see for yourself how Bing thinks your favorite team will fare.

5. Facebook Launches Slingshot App – ABC News

Facebook has launched the anticipated Slingshot app, which is very similar to the already widely popular SnapChat application. The biggest difference between the two image sharing apps is that there is a “pay to play” incentive to Slingshot. In order to the see the image that someone shared with you, you must first share an image back. The reason behind this feature is so that everyone becomes an active creator of content and images instead of just viewing from the sidelines. It is a clever attempt to force engagement of its users and incentivize overall creativity. As a direct challenger of SnapChat, it will be interesting to see how Slingshot fares in this highly competitive genre of apps.
June 20, 2014
Has Panda 4.0 Got You Down?
Now that we are 4 weeks post-Panda 4.0, there is a decent amount of data to sift through and determine if a website got caught in the Panda filter.

Panda is supposed to provide consumers with search results that are helpful to their needs. This means websites that have some authority and provide a service to consumers are going to be more trusted and rank better. The better websites offer answers to consumers for what they are looking for and help them make decisions based on useful information. The content is engaging and gets people the information they need.

Not Too Much Panda Drama

Panda started rolling out May 19, so that’s our magic date for before and after data. When looking only at Google organic traffic and comparing May 19, 2014-Jun 15, 2014 to Apr 21, 2014-May 18, 2014, I saw a 6.71% increase for one plastic surgeon’s website. This is a respectable increase when you consider that summer is generally thought to be the start of the slow season for plastic surgery as an industry.

For this plastic surgeon, I looked at the same date range for the last 4 years. Every year, this same date comparison resulted in a minor and expected decrease of Google organic traffic. This illustrates the typical seasonality. Given that history, we’re pretty excited to see an increase from Google organic traffic going into summer.

I looked at another client’s website, this time for an apartment complex, which is up 15% in Google organic search. Last year showed a decrease for the same time frame comparison. Unfortunately, the client didn’t have Analytics data for 2012. I have always thought that summer would be a high season for his industry, but he says for his complex and his location, summer is not necessarily the busy season. I always like to see double-digit growth in Google organic traffic (that’s a no brainer), but I worry about the monthly Panda data refresh leveling things back out, which happens all the time. The fact that the site had an increase at least tells us that the site is trusted, and we are on the right path, so that’s the story to celebrate.

One of our account managers has a charter-fishing website (which I think would be super fun to work on). This fishing charter client had a whopping 115% increase, but you have to consider that this is his high season. Last year the same time frame comparisons saw a 65% increase. Even with the seasonality, I think he was a winner with Panda 4.0. He has lots of great original photos and lots of engagement – it totally looks fun to go out on his boat! And that’s a major part of what makes a quality site.

In the health industry, we have a drug rehabilitation clinic website, which experienced a 19% increase after Panda 4.0. So, the interesting part for this client is that their content is solid. We have been working more heavily on their citations and less on their content, so it’s possible this client is simply readjusting from the previous Panda. It’s also possible that clean local citations are helping the site’s quality and trust.

Magic?

I know everyone reads these posts for some super secret insight, to learn some nugget of goodness, and I will probably disappoint. The efforts of our account managers have helped our clients’ websites, some shown above, but really, as a group, we have done nothing extraordinary. If it’s an older client, we have taken the time to review all of the past years of work and get back to the basics. We fixed any technical SEO problems we found. We are also constantly refreshing content, constantly reviewing citations, and building social channels with planned content calendars. If it’s a newer client, we work on building a solid foundation of fresh content, consistent business data, and getting social.

There is no magic here, just thoroughness.

This Wasn’t Just Any Ol’ Panda Update

This Panda update is largely thought to be a significant algorithm change rather than the monthly refresh. Barry Schwartz says it succinctly, “Panda 4.0 must be a major update to the actual algorithm versus just a data refresh. Meaning, Google has made changes to how Panda identifies sites and has released a new version of the algorithm today.”

What does this mean? It means that if you look in Google Analytics and your visits took a dive towards the end of May 2014, then you need to dedicate some time, effort, and resources to your website. When there is a Panda data refresh every month, it’s not going to get better without some serious website rehab.

As a side note, most of the clients I looked at had a small bump up in first week of June. I don’t know if there was a Panda refresh just 2 weeks after the Panda algo update, but I definitely see it across a large number of clients.

The Panda Checklist

There is so much you can do to “clean your house” for Panda, but here are the first efforts I would take to tackle the Panda beast.

#1 Crawl Before You Can Walk

Start with a detailed crawl of your website. You can use whichever website crawler you prefer (At Search Influence, most of us use the Screaming Frog SEO Spider). You’re really just looking for a comprehensive spreadsheet where you can look at your website as a whole. The crawl will give you a list of pages, images, CSS files, and many other goodies.

With this list, you can sort, filter, get organized, and clean up your site.
- Review how many H1s and H2s each page has. Subheadings are wonderful. Use them.
- Check your canonicals. Make sure they are set up properly.
- See what is being redirected.
- Find what is 404ing.
- Read the meta data for each page and see how amazing or how lame it is.
With this list, you can find multiple pages on a single topic. Often enough, we find a client has multiple pages and posts on a single topic. I looked at a client two weeks ago who had 8 pages all on the #1 service she offered. Wow! I was so overwhelmed. I can’t imagine how a casual site visitor would feel (“Where in these 8 pages is the info I need?”) or how the Google bots sort this out. Confusion within your own site is absolutely a no-no. If I am confused about which page I should read, then the Google bots sure won’t know what to say about it. If they could talk and all.

Once you review your site crawl and have some action items to improve the tags and architecture (i.e. make it easier for the consumer to find what they need), you can laser focus on individual pages within the site.

#2 Am I a … Plagiarizer?!

Put your site through a content checker. There are a few out there, so try several because no single tool is the best. If you wrote your content years ago or someone wrote your content for you, it’s a good investment to check for duplication. Who knows who has scraped your content or if your writer ripped it off from some other unsuspecting website owner.

Search Influence’s Tracy Stoller, Content Lead, asks a pointed question, “Google is looking for quality content that is useful to searchers. If the content is on 40 other sites, what makes your site the useful one?

#3 Improve the Content

If you’ve discovered some redundant pages, you need to merge those pieces into a single primary page for the given topic. This is tedious, but it absolutely must be done.

If you happen to find some duplicate content, rewrite it. Sit down and knock out some new text. If you are the business owner, then you know the details of your product and service like no one else. I like to suggest that a business owner talk about the service—just talk—and record him/herself. Then, have a transcript service type it up from the recording. This usually generates the most natural and most detailed text, even after editing.

How long has it been since you updated the content on your site?

I logged into a client’s WordPress site last week and saw that the page I was on had not been updated since 2010. We have been updating their content slowly, but, clearly, we missed this one. Some topics may not have much change in four years, but we can look at how the visitors came to that page and where they went after and how long they spent on the page, and we can certainly refresh the page with this information in mind. We can rewrite with more details and offer easy links to the most often visited next page. We want to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to get the information they need.

Remember, content does not mean just text. Content is text and videos and images and calculators and quizzes and slideshows, etc. Multifaceted media on a single page creates an extremely consumer-focused experience.

#4 Take Some Pictures!

You need relevant images on your page of text. Text and images should be focused on a single topic. The image should be optimized around the same topical idea as the text on the page. If you create the image, and it’s original, that’s even better. I have combed through a client’s Facebook, Flickr, and Pinterest to grab any original images they have and reuse them on the website. If they already exist, and I have access to them, it’s one less thing I have to ask the client to do. You really need to see the impact of authentic, original images.

Really, which of these says more to the consumer?

#5 Blogging

Pages and blog posts are different animals. Pages are for the topics that are evergreen and should represent a business’ core products or services. Blog posts are for
- Commenting on current events,
- Answering specific questions that require high levels of detail (Q&A)
- Showing current trends in your industry
- Real engagement with your audience!
Paula Keller, Search Influence’s Director of Account Management, says, “We see blog posts written about specialized topics from seven years ago still driving organic search engine traffic to a website. Blogging is good for the readers who come across it today, good for the search engines as the new content publication brings them back to your site, and has long-lasting benefits on your site’s authority.“

#6 Video

Video is not entirely necessary to overcome Panda, but it is a great addition to your content. The best videos are created with some input from the client or are created by the business owner with a handy smartphone.

The best videos are instructional how-to’s or tutorials: 30 seconds on unclogging a sink, installing an ice maker water line, or one minute of an attorney educating us how to behave if we get pulled over or… (Yikes!) arrested.

When you have a video created and ready, add the video to your Google account’s YouTube channel, and embed it on the topically relevant page. Mark it up with proper schema! I would add videos at a pace that is both slow and steady – once a month, once a quarter – whatever frequency you think you can actually stick to.

#7 Consistency is The Key

Okay, so I know that local citations work is not the first thing we think of when we are considering Panda (typically thought of as strictly a content algorithm). Panda is really searching for the quality, authoritative websites. Way back at the very first Panda, Google said, “It will provide better rankings for high-quality sites.” And one of the key efforts in building high-quality sites is having clean consistent business data across the local ecosystem.

David Mihm started his Local Search Ranking Factors “to help small business owners confused by Local Search, or those strapped for time, to prioritize their marketing efforts.” Many industry leaders contribute to the Factors (including Search Influence!). It was last published in August 2013, and it reveals that citation volume, NAP consistency, and other local signals account for 16% of the ranking factors.

Our own Mary Silva, Senior Internet Marketing Associate, adds, “Consistent and correct business NAP (Name, Address, Phone, and often Website) is the key to getting your site to rank locally. If Google finds inconsistencies in your business information across the web, then your business and its associated site are considered less authoritative and not as trustworthy.”

You can clean your listings yourself, but be forewarned, it’s a serious time investment. There are tools out there to help you in this endeavor. Be sure to allocate some hours every month to reviewing those tools and taking any action to edit and update listings as you go.

Learn to Love the Panda!

If you need help getting your site back on track from Panda, we would love to help out. Just know that Panda can be your friend. The latest update shows that it’s a simple matter of some spring cleaning, getting back to the basics, and being a good citizen. We can help you get there!
June 18, 2014
5 for Friday – Twitter and Facebook Duke it Out, Social Signals’ Effect on SEO, and the Power of Nofollow Links

1. Mobile Site Call Conversions Now Available in AdWords – PPC Hero

It’s finally here! Adwords now tracks click-to-call conversions on mobile devices. This can easily be added to a specific landing page with a little bit of coding. This feature will allow you to track calls through the same venues as your other performance metrics and customize the value of the incoming call. This blog post has step-by-step instructions on how to implement this new feature on your site!

2. Google Wallet’s 2-Click Instant Buy Checkout Comes To iOS – Tech Crunch

This week Google Wallet released its Instant Buy API for iOS apps. This was first released for Android apps a year ago. This free service can be accessed with your Google+ login and stores your shipping and credit card information. Merchants can then use the information to complete the transaction. Google Wallet aims to eliminate the frustration of mobile device shopping and decrease shopping cart abandonment.

3. Facebook and Twitter Want You to Talk About the #WorldCup on Their Field – Marketing Land

Facebook and Twitter are engaged in a Battle Royal almost as intense as the World Cups itself. With yesterday’s commencement of the Fifa World Cup, these two social media powerhouses pull no stops to be become the No. 1 platform for Fifa fans to electronically engage.

Facebook’s campaign provides fan with a Trending World Cup Page. Here fans can access the latest scores, view highlights and interact with a global map to pick their favorite teams

Use #WorldCup and #WorldCup2014 to access Twitter’s World Cup landing page. Here you can create a Fifa-specific profile and choose a cover photo and profile picture to support your team. Don’t forget to include your HashFlag. Introduced during the last World Cup, these three-letter hashtags can be used by fans to unlock an image of a country’s flag.

Which social media platform will reign supreme? Only trending numbers will tell. Let the games begin!

4. Social Signals and SEO – Blind Five Year Old

While the power of social media seems encompassing, Google is currently not using social signals, even from Google+, in its algorithm to calculate search results. You might be asking yourself why you’re putting so much effort into social now. Fear not! Maximizing the potential of a Google+ listing and other social outlets does have benefits. The Blind Five Year Old breaks down social media activity to explain that its not necessarily the activity itself, but the result of that activity that matters.

5. The Hidden Power of Nofollow Links – Moz Blog

Link building is an integral part of all SEO campaigns. They can help build your company’s brand, build public awareness, increase profit and, of course, lead to more links. Links can also help build your site’s authority in the eyes of search engines. But what about nofollow links? While they seem unfathomably dreadful, this blog posts offers a silver lining and techniques to utilize those nofollow links.

June 13, 2014
Getting Hands On With The New Google My Business

Today, Google launched Google My Business. This new, more intuitive Google Places serves as a one stop shop for small businesses to do the normal Google Places work like updating business info, adding photos, connecting with customers through Google Plus posting, and staying on top of reviews. They also launched an Android app for managing Business Tools on the go (with the promise of an iOS app launching soon). Watch Google’s introductory video to Google My Business here.

Changes For Users New and Old

All new businesses to Google will start in Google My Business. As for current Google Places users, a blog post from Google earlier today said, “We’re also upgrading current users of Places for Business and the Google+ Dashboard to this new experience.” For those who just sat through and are still cleaning up the mess that was the upgrade to the new Google Places, don’t worry! You won’t have to go searching for which dashboard your listings are in or anything like that. It seems that Google My Business is a mostly superficial change that has already happened and just means a newer looking dashboard and a few extra features and controls (like easy access to Youtube, AdWords, and Analytics).

Quick & Easy Editing

These new features are pretty awesome. From your dashboard, first you’ll see the area for easily managing the individual aspects of your primary business information where previously you would have navigated through an “Edit Business Details” button. Connected to the bottom of this dialogue, there will be a blue box that allows you to edit the business information needed to get your profile to 100% complete. Google My Business has succeeded in using minor dashboard edits to make major usability improvements.

Streamlined Sharing

The next box is a basic G+ Share box for social posting to your business page. Share texts, photos, links, videos, and events easily all from one location. Side note: I recently found out, thanks to a post from Mike Blumenthal, that there is now an easy way to connect your business’ brand page to a location. So, if you have been posting socially from a Google Plus brand page for your business, you can now easily transfer that engagement into your verified local page.

New Data & Graphs

Next, you’ll find the Insights Tool. Here, you can see how many views your G+ page has gotten over a period of time, how many clicks occurred, and where they went (either looking for Google Maps driving directions or directly to your website). The next feature (and my favorite addition to the Google My Business dashboard) is the reviews section. When you click into “Manage Reviews,” you’ll see your Google reviews as well as other business reviews from around the web. If you click “Analytics” at the top of this page, you can see a really streamlined graphical representation your review information or “Rating Stats” and where your business’ reviews come from.

Additional Tools

You will be able to see other tools like Google Analytics (if you have it installed on your site), YouTube (if you have a channel connected), and AdWords Express (again, if you use it). If you don’t use the above tools, they will still appear at the bottom of your dashboard with the option to “Get Started” if you want to use them! You’ll also see a place to “Join a Google Hangout” at the very bottom of your dashboard. All in all, the new Google My Business looks looks both beautiful and user friendly, presenting a new way to manage businesses’ online reputations through Google.

June 11, 2014
5 For Friday – Bing Turns 5, Google+ Pages Merge, & MySpace Misses You!

1. At Five Years Old, Bing Has Come Far Yet Has More To Grow – Search Engine Land

Can you believe the little guy is already 5 years old?! Microsoft’s search engine has made some solid strides over the last five years, gaining more of the search market share, and taking Yahoo’s 2nd place rank. While Google continues to dominate, Bing has been challenging users to make the switch, but it looks like the only share they’re gaining is from Yahoo.

Although they will probably never match Google, Bing’s success as credible search platform has lead to partnerships outside of Microsoft, putting search into services and apps, including third-party apps. With the progress they’ve made so far, it’ll be interesting to see where they’ll be in 5 more years.

2. Google Now Allows Brand Pages to Become Google+ Local Pages – Local U

Google has released an update to Google+ that will finally make it possible to merge a Google+ Local page with a Brand page. After Google Places began integrating Google+, many businesses were confused and frustrated when realizing that they were unable to integrate their existing Google+ Brand pages with their verifiedLocal page.

The problem has been solved with this recent update, and businesses are now able to merge all of their local data with their Brand page. This will allow for all of the local features to also be integrated, which include reviews, business information, and the map. This article give specifics about the changes to your pages when making the switch.

Google+ still has a several other kinks that they need to address, but this is a step in the right direction and will bring some much needed relief to many business owners (and marketers!). Happy merging!

3. Press Release Rankings: Slammed by the Panda? – SEER Interactive

Since the release of Panda 4.0, press release agencies have seen a severe drop in traffic, which has everyone questioning the value of using them for SEO marketing efforts.

The algorithm update has primarily affected the press release sites’ rankings in search results, specifically when used to manipulate the search results with irrelevant content. This means that the press releases most affected are spammy and were being used as a way to game search results while not providing any useful information for the searcher.

The good news is that press releases are still a very valuable marketing tool, when used for the right reasons (to announce timely and newsworthy information). This particular impact of the Panda update on press release sites is just another way that Google is cleaning up search results, proving just how important it is to always produce the most relevant and useful content for your business.

4. How to Grow Your Google+ Fan Base to 1,000 Followers & Beyond – Search Engine Watch

It’s pretty clear that Google loves their products and wants you to use them. All of them. And the more active you are, the better. For Google+, not only is it important to be active, it’s important that you engage and build up your fanbase—follow and be followed. This article shares some great tips and tricks to get started on building your fanbase and to create and maintain engaging content for your followers.

5. Myspace Is Embarrassing Users With Old Photos to Win Them Back – Mashable

Remember that old Myspace page you had 10 years ago? Neither do we. If you’re one of the lucky people that has access to or even uses that old email account, Myspace wants to remind you by sending you old embarrassing photos. While these admirable marketing efforts probably won’t make you go back, it will, at the very least, drive more traffic to their site so that you can laugh at those photos…and then delete your account.

Image sources:

“5th Birthday Cake” by Andy Eick

“Giant Panda” by Chen Wu from Shanghai, China

“Myspace Ruined My Life” by Bill Alldredge

June 6, 2014
Yelp Adds Videos — But Not Necessarily For Reviews

A couple of weeks ago, Yelp leaked to Business Insider that they will soon allow users to add 3-12 second videos to their reviews. When I initially heard this, I was thrilled, because I have been waiting for this feature for some time now.

However, when I learned that these videos are intended to simply to add more media to the reviews (in the photos section) and not actually stand as reviews themselves, my excitement waned.

Rather than video reviews, what we are getting is a way for Yelpers to capture the atmosphere of a venue or more likely, selfie videos of them stuffing their faces at their favorite eatery. Yelp’s mobile product manager Madhu Prabaker explained the purpose of adding the video as “a reward for businesses that go to great lengths to achieve a certain ambiance, whether by having a certain lighting or the music at just the right level.”

Was anyone else as let down as I was when they heard this? I feel as if this new platform change is being wasted on the business aesthetics such as atmosphere and showcasing products, where pictures were doing just fine. The photo capability has been around for years—nothing new there.

What I see as the future is a full video review platform where consumers can turn the camera on themselves and tell us how they feel about the businesses they interact with. There are plenty of platforms out there to help SMB’s solicit reviews such as DemandForce and Customer Lobby, but there are no pure play platforms dedicated to helping users generate video testimonials. However, this functionality could ultimately rid business owners of the demon that is the Yelp review filter. (Business owners with less than stellar Yelp reviews, you know what I am talking about.)

What’s With The Filter Anyway?

Yelp’s justification for not showing certain reviews has always been that they appeared to be less than trustworthy. What could legitimize a review better than a video of the person posting it?! No more having your real user reviews taken down and your competitors’ employee-generated or otherwise fake reviews staying up. Real live video testimonials from your customers would become the gold standard for authenticity on Yelp.

While this version of Yelp videos may help to drive new business by showing a scrumptious plate of food or even a clean car that just went through a car wash, I believe that Yelp is missing out on a huge opportunity. According to SO Media, Video has 400% higher engagement rate than static content. That means that a video testimonial will most likely bring on an action, whether that is a like, comment, or share leading to more significant actions like phone calls and getting directions.

So, How will Adding Video Effect The Yelp Review Filter?

One can only hope that allowing customers to add videos to their reviews will serve as positive reinforcement that their opinion of your establishment is a credible one. One can only hope…

If Yelp factors the use of rich media (namely photos and videos) into review filtering, it hasn’t publicized this. Will they start giving these media reviews priority?

Industry experts have consistently pointed to the importance of users having a profile picture, connections, and several reviews as the keys to success in building an optimized Yelp profile.

I personally believe that video will soon become an important part of this conversation of what a truly optimized Yelp user profile is. While I understand that photos might not have been a large piece of the puzzle in the past, I would contend that the rich content in user videos will be of much greater influence in helping build authority and the perception of local business leadership.

Why Are Your Reviews So Important?

We’ve long known the importance of having a Yelp business profile. It’s so important, in fact, that according to the Boston Consulting Group in 2013, a business who even has a basic and free Yelp profile will make on average $8,000 more in annual revenue than a business without a Yelp profile. And this is where Yelp gets its leverage. It’s also a great reason to be so selective about which reviews they show.

As the video feature rolls out only to Yelp Elite users this June, we will have to wait until it makes its way to new users to really see how it effects the review filter. The reason being, Yelp Elite user reviews always show up when posted. The filter’s most negative impact comes to those newer users, without perceived authority on Yelp.

June 4, 2014
The Mullet Model: Why Your Business Should Be On Thumbtack

Thumbtack is making life a whole lot easier for consumers and for businesses. Unlike Yelp and Angie’s List, Thumbtack has found a way to connect businesses and their potential customers in order for them to make a deal. With their most recent round of funding, the tech company will have $30 million to help them become a leader in localized markets. Jonathan Swanson, one of the cofounders, describes the easy to use platform as a mullet business, “it’s very simple on the front, but very complicated on the backend.”

How Thumbtack Works

Businesses can bid on, and acquire, new customers based on the specifics of a job, and consumers are able to hire professional service providers effectively by getting an “introduction” that includes a businesses’ custom quote, customer reviews, and profile. Consumers fill out a detailed form regarding what services they need done (see the mullet form below), and then, as a business, you can “bid” and contact the potential client based on the fit. One of these “introductions” can cost anywhere between $3 and $25, based on the size and cost of the job. From there, the customer can compare other local professionals and decide on the best pro to handle the job.

Customer Form:

How Thumbtack Can Help Your Business

There are hundreds of services available for hire on Thumbtack, and you can find new customers that fit well with your business. The website’s reinvention of the Yellow Pages covers all types of services, from painters and tennis instructors to web development and Swahili translation. You can proactively find and acquire customers in your area, who already have a high intent to purchase. The local services market is worth over $6 billion, and Thumbtack provides a good platform for small business to earn their share. Thumbtack has lots of momentum behind it, and it’s free to sign up, so you can start discovering new customers now.

Customer Request:

Business Custom Quote:

June 2, 2014
5 for Friday – Google Changes Its Logo, Apple Buys Beats, Internet Trends Report and More!
1.Google Made the Slightest Change to Its Logo and Users Still Noticed – Mashable

Google changed its logo and chances are, you probably didn’t even notice. The nerds did, though. Here’s a GIF of the logo, before and after.

2.Apple Confirms It Will Buy Beats for $3 Billion – Mashable

Apple confirmed the largest acquisition in company history – they will buy Beats Electronics and Beats Music for a cool $3 billion. No big deal, really.

3. Lawyers Sue SEO Firm For Violating Google Guidelines – Search Engine Land

A Michigan law firm is suing its former SEO company for allegedly using “spammy” techniques violating Google’s guidelines. I’ve been with Search Influence since October 2013 and have already seen changes in industry best practices, so it’ll be interesting to see what this means for SEO companies moving forward.

4. The Most Important Insights From Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends Report – TechCrunch

TechCrunch breaks down Meeker’s 164 slide report into 52 more digestible nuggets. Here are the 5 I found most interesting:
- Mobile now accounts for 25% of all web usage
- Internet advertising grew 16% this year
- Music streaming is up, sales are down – sales fell in 2013, while streaming grew 32%
- Photo sharing up 50% over 2013 in just the first half of 2014
- 84% of mobile owners use their devices while watching TV
5. 7 Essential LinkedIn Marketing Stats: When to Post, What to Post and How to Improve – Search Engine Journal

An interesting read about the third-fastest-growing social network. Don’t believe me? LinkedIn sends nearly four times more people to your homepage than Twitter and Facebook. Combined.
May 30, 2014