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Take Advantage of Google Authorship and Blogs

January 14, 2014 By Tracee Loftus

Face it people, Google is the dominate player in search engines. The noun has become a verb it is so popular. I try to take advantage of as many options as Google is going to give me to have my clients show up in the top natural search results.

One way to help Google find you is to identify yourself as an Author. If you are already blogging and contributing to online groups, it will help your identity come up in Google’s search engine results page (SERP) by going to Google’s help section on linking your Google+ profile. It is a relatively easy process as long as you meet a couple of their criteria (have a picture on G+, use byline on your articles, etc.).

Also, once you claim your Authorship, depending on who is searching for you and whether or not they are signed into Google, the results may serve up your name and contact information to the right side of the SERP adding instant credibility. Try it!

Google Calendar is Worth The Test Run

January 9, 2014 By Tracee Loftus

At the beginning of this year, I wanted to simplify everything. This idea leads to my decision to finally get with it and sync calendars with my 14-year-old daughter. Her activities have been clogging up my calendar long enough. Fortunately, she already has a Google email account. This she needed because the Android phone demanded she gets a Google account to do anything fun with games and Apps, which requires an email account. Google’s marketing web starts early, just like McDonald’s, Pepsi/Coke, etc. The strategy I use to combat such an early marketing message is to practice recognizing marketing intentions in all advertisements. We play a game to see who can name the marketing purpose first whenever we get a new advertisement.

Anyway, back to the Google calendar: Here are 7 Benefits that comes along with Google’s free online calendar:

Share your schedule – This makes scheduling easier when you can see your co-workers or families calendar to compare open times.
The calendar sync with your phone or tablet or you can use a mobile version of the calendar.
Alarms are user-friendly and they can notify you by text message directly to your mobile phone or by email. I have a daily notification of my calendar set up so I can receive an email of what I have scheduled at the beginning of each day.
The calendar makes it easy to invite other people to events and register RSVPs.
The Google calendar can also sync with your desktop if you use Apple iCal or Mozilla Sunbird. I did not use this feature as I just use the Google calendar directly on my desktop.
You can even check your calendar when you do not have internet availability with the Offline Access.
It is free!

To set up your Google Calendar, log in to Google and choose the calendar from the app menu at the top right of your screen. Simply move your cursor over a time on the calendar and start typing into the pop-up window. It really is that easy. The steps to sync this calendar with your mobile phone or tablet is a tiny bit more complicated, but not much. Feel free to give me a call or email and I’ll be happy to help you set this up. Next, enjoy the simple life!

Google SEO ’13 – Penguins, Pandas & Hummingbird

January 6, 2014 By Tracee Loftus

Google's Pets: Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird — Google’s Pets: Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird

Google SEO flashback all the way back to 2013. Do you ask yourself, “Why should I care about Google’s zoo animals?” Well, if you are in business and you want potential customers to find you somewhere on the internet, respecting Google’s algorithms are a must These animals are your guidelines in what Google wants to see to help you appear in a search in your area. Sure, there are other search engines (Yahoo!/Bing, Ask, Dogpile, etc.) but if you are asking questions like the one proposed at the beginning of the article, it would be best for you to just step in line with Google and use your creativity in other places for your business. Of course, there are those who enjoy doing it the hard way and will ignore the fact that internet searchers use Google 4 out of 5 times. Whatever your position, following are some quick explanation of the Google algorithm updates in 2013.

In 2013, Google set some very strict boundaries that sent webmasters back the drawing board to rethink their Google SEO strategies. One huge one was link devaluation, seemingly Panda’s (and Penguin’s) mission. Older sites that were built on link farms were crushed in 2013. Google had been tightening the cinch for a long and the continuous algorithm updates made clear – Google is serious about relevant links. Overall, Panda’s purpose is to bring high quality and content sites on the top of search engine rankings. Ways to appease Panda? Don’t over optimize pages, increase focus on brand awareness and social media networks.

The Penguin has a taste for relevant and original content, website SEO techniques that does not include keyword stuffing, cloaking and other “Black-Hat” SEO techniques. Penguin’s purpose is similar to Panda; both are deployed by Google to serve high-quality websites with relevant content at the top of the search engine results page. The answer to Penguin is good content. Content is still King!

One more of Google’s animals made an appearance in 2013, the Hummingbird. This flighty algorithm update impacted searches by returning results after the search engine determine the intent and contextual meaning of the terms used in a query. A lot of us type a full question in the search box. This update is intended to help deliver better results for that particular type of search, even when a particular page is not optimized for the long-tail query.

The steady basic mantra for search engine optimization / SEO is good content, make connections through the internet to get relevant links and you are good to go. Of course, there are still plenty of expert strategies to help this along.