We’ve already mentioned the fact that the powers-that-be at Google+ aren’t currently allowing businesses to set up their own profiles, but this begs an interesting question; if a celebrity has shaped their personality into an image, and consequently a brand, aren’t they technically a ‘business’?
On Monday 18th July, poor William Shatner got the boot from Google+ temporarily for reasons unknown. The veteran actor, best known for his role as Captain Kirk in geeky TV cult Star Trek, is well known for his involvement in Twitter and, like many other avid social networkers, took to Google+ to try out the service. Google promptly suspended his account but refused to divulge the reasons as to why, stating only that he had ‘violated standards’. After scrutinising Google’s terms of service, experts guess that Shatner’s profile was seen as a result of a step from PR and wasn’t genuinely linked to the actor himself, causing Google bosses to stick to their guns and not allow ‘fan’ pages or business profiles to be set up on the network.
Jumping on the Google+ bandwagon in recent days, Apple have launched their free Google+ app for iPhone users, which is now available from the App Store. The mobile version of the site was already working well (well… reasonably well) for Apple devotees but developers decided that a more practical and functional application was required to improve users’ experience and sustain the momentum of the hype surrounding the brand new social media platform. And Google have worked very hard to keep up the buzz, having released a number of in-depth announcements outlining their objectives for Google+ and selling the platform as an approachable, unrestricted alternative to other social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The app enables you to publish posts much faster, manage your Circles effectively from the home screen and even offers a nifty alternative to the popular Hangout feature found on the full web version – ‘Huddles’. Although only available to those using iPhone or Android mobile platforms, Huddles replaces the group video option with the opportunity to group text instead. It seems the team at Google have really focused on gathering feedback from networkers and have created this app with the mobile users’ needs in mind, highlighting their aspirations to create a site that heavily emphasises the importance of sharing your life online as you choose.
You’re now able to effortlessly post pictures and check your streams on the go, handy for Google Plus-ers looking to truly make the most of the network. Thankfully the platform itself is simple to use, but users who have already fully explored version 1.0 have been online in the past few days to discuss minor technical issues. There has been talk of iPhone owners experiencing crashes and stumbling upon bugs in the software and there was widespread disappointment when it was discovered that the app isn’t compatible with the iPod touch at all. iPad users are able to download the software but Google have yet to release a dedicated app that takes full advantage of the iPad’s larger screen and extended capabilities. On the plus side (no pun intended), Google’s technical support team have been quick to address the problems since the platform’s release and promise further updates for the app in the coming weeks, one of which is already available from the App Store.
Alt tags (or alt attributes, as they’re formally known) are the brief descriptions that are implemented into the images that appear on your website. This SEO tutorial will explain the relevancy of alt tags and teach you how to create them.
You can bury the alt tag within the HTML code of the image that appears on your page. This incredibly simple move will ensure that the search engines have something to index and that site users have a brief description of the image if for some reason it fails to load (or if the user is using a text-only browser such as Linx). Obviously it’s important to keep the alt tag short, and bear in mind that the description has to convey the purpose of the image, not necessarily be a direct description of what it looks like. Embedding relevant search terms within the description is also a great SEO technique.
Here is an example of an alt attribute:
<IMG SRC = “photo.gif” ALT=”man walking dog”>
Note that the alt attribute itself has been added at the end of the embedded image tag. This is the standard form of the HTML.
A code noted by most reputable SEO companies, the Dublin Core was developed as a set of metadata elements that describe a particular resource, through the use of a limited group of base text fields. The idea behind Dublin Core was to create a digital library system that could cross different domains and platforms but always convey the same classification information. Its implementation makes cataloguing webpages easier and
The Simple Dublin Core is made up of the following fifteen rudiments, known as the Metadata Element Set:
Title – the designated name of the resource or page
Creator – the individual, company or service that created the resource
Subject – to describe the content of the resource
Description – a text description of the resource or page
Language – describes which language the resource is in
Publisher – describes which person, organisation or service made the resource available
Contributor – describes who contributed to the resource
Date – the date that the resource was created (or in some cases, made available)
Source – where the resource originally came from
Type – the categories and/or purpose of the resource
Format – self explanatory
Identifier – usually a set of numbers that apply to a system, ensures the resource is recognisable
Relation – a way of referencing to a resource
Coverage – most importantly covers where the resource came from
Rights – describes rights held over the resource or page
The Dublin Core is flexible in that these elements can be repeated and presented in any order you choose. Qualified Dublin Core comprises additional refined elements including ‘Audience’, using which you can specify which users would benefit from the resource’s contents (or who the resource was intended for).
The world is fast changing. Everything is slowly technologizing and more importance is being place on the world wide web. Every business should have a website, but what’s the point in having a site that’s ready to go… if no one knows it exists? Here are the very basics of SEO, factors that all businesses should be aware of.
You need to know where you are in regards to competitors. If you start your SEO and have no idea of your previous statistics, you won’t be able to monitor your progress or truly understand what your efforts are resulting in. Tools like the SEOBook toolbar come as an essential when analysing a website. You should also regularly check your traffic and where users are coming from so you can assess and judge what other areas you wish to focus on.
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This tutorial will show how to create simple umbrella as shown below:
Open Illustrator and create a new document, then select the Elipse tool and with holding shift draw a perfect circle. Now select the Direct Selection Tool and click on the bottom center point of the circle then hit delete to create a semi-circle (this is your umbrella frame). Now lock that layer and create a new layer above. Select the Pen Tool and your are going the have to create the first two sections of the umbrella.
Firstly, click on the top center of the circle, then click and hold on the bottom left of the circle, now drag the mouse until the curve matches that of the circle then let go, click again onto the end point you just made to reset the curve. Now while holding shift, click and hold horizontal about a third into the semi-circle and drag the mouse to make and nice curve for the bottom of the umbrella. Once done, let go and click again on the point to reset. then simply join this shape to the starting point at the top middle of the circle (dont worry about this curve as it will be hidden by the next shape). Your shape should hopefully look something like this:
Once your first shape is made, copy the shape and flip horizontally then move to the right side of the umbrella, now you just need to create the middle section. Lock this layer and create a new one above then similar to before use the Pen Tool and starting at the top, just left of the center create your point and create curves similar to the example by joining up to the points on the previous shapes. This could get a little tricky so you may need to practise with the Pen Tool first, and you can always use the Direct Selection Tool to click on a point and edit the curve if any look a little off.
Once the umbrella shape has been created, unlock the layers and delete the semi-circle, now add the same gradient to each shape, depending on the colour you want for your umbrella, simply create a gradient with a lighter to slightly darker colour balance, in my example to lighter red is #af0e0e and the darker is #771313. Then adjust the gradient angles on each using the Gradient Tool to suit, I used an angle of 160 for the first shape, 2 for the middle and 22 for the right one.
Now your umbrella is created, simply select the Rectangle Tool and draw a narrow grey stick for the pole, then draw another small, black one for the handle top. To make the handle itself, select the Elipse Tool and makesure only the stroke option is selected, in black, with no fill. Then match the size of the stroke to the width of the handle. Now select the Direct Selection Tool and click on the top center of the circle and hit delete, then join this to the bottom of your handle top and use Pathfinder to join the handle and pole together.
Place the handle under the umbrella and put in the bottom center, now simply create the umbrella top using the Elipse Tool to create a small narrow oval and place under the umbrella with just the top showing just like in the example and you are done.
Google Adwords has just anounced about showing “Top v Side” performance in the segments section. Whilst managing Google Adwords account it is very important to distinguish that average position metrics are not very accurate, because it shows the average position of the top and right hand side ads. Top v Side segmentation will help to understand which ads are performing better shown on the top slot or right hand side, whilst taking into the account relationships between the conversions, clicks and other KPI metrics.
Top v Side segment is available in campaign, ad group, ads and keyword level. To start using Top v Side segment click on the “Segment” button and select “Top v Side”
Happy analysing!
Matt Cutts is the figurehead of Google’s Search Quality group. A well-known professional within all SEO circles and an important source of information for SEO companies, Matt specialises in explaining how to gain better visibility within Google and writes hugely popular blogs on the subject. He is also known for his candid interview manner and insightful opinions into the development of Google, and speaks about the company with an intriguing and honest detachment.
Matt’s background is diverse. Having studied Computer Graphics and Movement Tracking to Masters level at the University of North Carolina, and completing further degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Kentucky, Matt decided to move into the search industry and was quickly picked up by Google as a Software Engineer. He worked within the advertisements engineering group at the company and was also involved in the development of SafeSearch, a platform that allows parents to monitor search results safely, before transferring to the search department of the firm. Matt is now responsible for Google’s Webspam team and is known for his passionate campaigns against link spam.
He has published useful tips on all aspects of search engine optimisation, most notably the Google Webmaster Guidances, and this advice is widely accepted as the best practice by SEO experts. Without Matt’s blog and presence within the industry, SEO consultants would have had a hard time understanding the workings of search engines.
If you’re just beginning your journey into social media marketing, it is important to know things that should be done. However to keep your campaign operational and running to the best of its potential you need to know what not to do.
1- Don’t focus heavily on marketing your own company, the majority of social media marketing is the social aspect of it. Make sure your focus is on creating new relationships and building on them.
2- Don’t just use one social media site; make sure you spread your name on as many sites as possible. The titans of social media are obviously: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. If a social media site is relevant to your company, then make sure you are on it. It’s important to check if people on that site are talking about what your business offers. If they are not then it isn’t the type of site where your business will thrive.
3- Don’t try and “outshine” your competitors. This can greatly harm your business, so instead, focus on your customers. Remember that your advertising your business to customers and not your competitors, so treat your social media strategy the same.
4- Don’t follow the crowd. Just because your competitors are doing one thing, doesn’t necessarily mean you should also do it too. To get your blog, website or profile noticed as much as possible, you will need to give your viewers a reason to come and read your information, if you offer something that is unique, then viewers will visit, and continue to visit in the future.
5- Don’t forget to update regularly. If your blogs or profiles become out dated, visitors will lose interest and unsubscribe to your profile, blog or site. To retain their interest, set deadlines for blog posts and profile updates and make sure you stick to them. Consistency is key.
Indisputably the world’s greatest social network, boasting 400 million users from around the globe, Facebook is clearly a good place to start if you’re looking to advertise online and wish to target specific demographics. Ever since the developers realised the potential of the site, Facebook has been running an ad platform similar to that of Google’s Pay Per Click service, but it seems that the performance of such ads is falling in relation to their cost-per-click.
In a report published by Efficient Frontier, a leading digital marketing platform vendor, the actual average cost of purchasing the Pay-Per-Click ads on Facebook has risen by 22% in a quarter. This is likely to be due to the demand for such ads as more and more businesses are discovering the potential of targeting precise audiences via the social media giant, although the report also confirms that companies are only spending approximately 5% of their entire advertising budgets on Facebook. This figure naturally rises to around 25% if the company are pushing a short-term promotion. Anyone familiar with Facebook will also know that there is limited ad space available, which could also be a contributory factor to the price rise.
The report also suggests that particular markets such as the entertainment industry are more inclined to spend a larger portion of their advertising budget on Facebook.
These findings indicate that companies need to consider Facebook advertising sooner rather than later, as eventually it could become too costly. The actual conversions gained from acquiring Facebook fans are not always as effective, either. It seems that SEO companies should consider Facebook as a useful advertising medium but place more weight on constructing solid PPC campaigns within search as a priority.
