Google+ Adds Content Recommendations For Mobile Websites Website owners with a Google+ page will soon be able to add content recommendations to the user experience on their mobile websites. Google just announced the new feature today, which blends both Google+ activity (such as +1s and shares) and search authorship to determine the best related content to show to users as they browse mobile website content. Readers will see recommendations whether they’re signed in to a Google account or not. If they are signed in, though, they’ll see more personalized recommendations that involve content that was +1′s or shared by their people in their Google+ circles. The feature works for iOS and Android, for the Android browser, Chrome and Safari. There’s a video on that Google blog post that shows best how it works, but that video is inexplicably not on YouTube and doesn’t appear to be easily embeddable. You can see it in action now by reading any Forbes.com article on your mobile device; and here’s a screenshot showing the recommendation in action:
3 Ways to Supercharge Your Content-Marketing Strategy Join us for a free, live webinar and learn how to drive revenue with content marketing. Tune in 8/4 at 10:30 a.m. PT. Register Now » User-generated content is the riskiest of all marketing strategies because of the obvious potential for negative comments. But if done right, it will pay off more than any other type of content marketing. 1. It’s naturally tempting to try to maintain absolute control over every piece of content that mentions your brand, but consumers know the difference between SEO article spam and meaningful content. “Marketers need to go beyond simply talking about how awesome they are. A recent Capgemini report highlighted the importance of Generation Y customers (born between 1981 and 2000), who are more tech-savvy than any other demographic and will become a major part of the workforce by 2020. Related: Treat Customers as Co-authors, Not Targets, and Hit a Marketing Bullseye 2. There are two great fallacies that lead to tepid results in content marketing. 3.
5 Best FeedBurner Alternatives For Your WordPress Blog In late May 2011 Google announced that they would be shutting down the Feedburner API on Oct. 20, 2012. Google has not announced that it will close down the FeedBurner service, although their recent shudown of the FeedBurner Twitter account has given many cause for concern. We’re signing off from this account. Thanks for being a loyal follower of @feedburner over the years!— FeedBurner (@FeedBurner) July 26, 2012 What’s this all about?! What does this mean for your WordPress site? Many WordPress plugins make use of the Feedburner API to publicly display Feedburner stats, interact with FeedBurner feeds, services and stored analytics. Why do I need a feed burning service? Great question! Though FeedBurner has long been the go-to service for burning your blog’s feed, it’s not the only option available. Feedblitz Feedblitz is a commercial service that handles RSS feeds and email marketing. Feedcat Feedcat is a free service for promoting your feed and measuring your audience. RapidFeeds Feedity
3 Google+ Power Users Reveal their Secrets I recently wrote an article about Google+ vs Facebook and a tribe turned up from Google+ and became rather engaged! The question that had been posed was whether Google+ was a ghost town. I received an answer. What was revealed was a vibrant city bustling with passion and people that were happy to point out the real value of Google+ The post to date has received 440 comments with some in depth contributions on how Google+ should be used. You just have to love the leverage that social networks provide to create and spread stories! Here are just three people among the hundreds who spent the time to make a positive contribution to the conversation, left lengthy comments and have provided real insights as to the power of Google+. There are many more that provided real valuable comments and feel free to read them at the post “Google+ vs Facebook” Here are their stories unedited. #1. From my experience, G+ gives back what you put into it. #2. Hi, Jeff, I’ve been on Google+ for about a year now. #3.
Forbes Editorial Calendar: 5 Lessons For Yearly Blog Planning While doing some keyword research one day for the CoSchedule blog, I noticed that the term ‘Forbes editorial calendar’ was holding an unusually high ranking. What gives? Were there really that many people looking for the Forbes editorial calendar? Want to use Click to Tweet on your blog? Curious, I did a search on my own. This is what I found: What’s so great about that, I thought? At face value, it doesn’t look like much. What can we learn from the giants at Forbes about yearly content marketing and blog planning? Lesson #1: Forbes Isn’t The Only One Who Is Pre-Planning The pre-planning and pre-publishing of the yearly editorial calendar isn’t a new, or unique, practice. For most publications, the reasons are actually very business focused, rather than content focused. Most editorial calendars are found within the “media kit” section of the website, meaning that most publications see them as tools for selling magazine advertising. Lesson #2: A Yearly Editorial Calendar Makes Sense 1. 2.
My 5 Favorite Wordpress Plugins Tomorrow night (Sunday) we’ll be chatting about our favorite blog plugins at #Blogchat. The discussion will start at 8pm Central, and if you’ve never joined #Blogchat, here’s what it’s all about. To prep for that discussion, I wanted to share with y’all my five favorite WordPress plugins. These are for the WordPress.org or Self-Hosted blogs. You can find these by going to the Plugins section of your WordPress dashboard and searching for them. 5 – Comment Luv. 4 – Akismet. 3 – Sociable. 2 – Popular Posts. 1 – Comment Redirect. So that’s my 5 favorite WordPress plugins. UPDATE: Here’s the transcript to tonight’s #Blogchat if you missed it, a ton of great info and suggestions on blog plugins, thanks to everyone that came!
What is Google+? | The Ultimate Guide for Businesses Readers Tip: If you have a specific question about Google+ that isn’t answered in this ultimate guide or if you’d just like to keep up to date with some of the latest Google+ and digital marketing developments, we’d recommend adding the author of this guide, +Paul Goldston, to your Google+ circles: UPDATE #3 – Jun 20, 2013 - While most of the strategies and tactics in this article will not really change too much over time, the actual Google+ interface has already been re-imagined three times since the original version of this article was written. This update works to reflect the most recent interface changes. Furthermore, this particular blog update includes any functionality changes that are relevant to businesses using Google Plus. These include: Google+ content recommendations plugin for mobile blogs and content piecesRelated #hastagsStream updates UPDATE #2 - Mar 18, 2013 - Some really cool updates to Google+ have been added into this ever growing blog post including: What is Google+?
How to Solve Keyword Cannibalization - SEO Tips Keyword cannibalization isn't an issue that's in the SEO forums much, nor is it something that many SEOs feature prominently in site reviews (at least, from my experience), but it can be detrimental to potential rankings for several different reasons. First, I'll illustrate how keyword cannibalization happens. It typically starts when a website's information architecture calls for the targeting of a single term or phrase on multiple pages of the site. Many times this is done unintentionally, but results in several or even dozens of pages that have the same keyword target in the title and header tags. Client: I want Google to know my site is about "Plaid Checkered Pants" so I made that the title of every page. Here's the problem: Google (and the other search engines) will spider the pages on your site and see 4 (or 40) different pages on the site all seemingly relevant to one particular keyword (in this example - "snowboards"). So what's the solution? BTW - No making fun of my robot guy.
How to Increase Participation in Your Twitter Chat or Any Online Community Interaction and participation. It’s something many community sites and managers struggle with and focus on increasing. Engagement is the lifeblood of many online communities, and yet, so many struggle to reach that ‘critical mass’ of participants. When #Blogchat started in early 2009, participation wasn’t an issue. If you think about it, you see this in a lot of online communities, especially knowledge-based ones. What started happening is that I would talk to people that follow #Blogchat, and when they told me they lurked, I would invite them to participate. ”#Blogchat is so much better when more people participate so we can all learn from each other!” I hated hearing that. That’s not to say that smart people can’t and shouldn’t participate, but I wanted to communicate to everyone that they should feel comfortable participating. But if your community only has interaction from the experts and newbies, you’re going to be ignoring everyone else. 1 – Encourage involvement from lurkers.
How to Use Google+ Local to Get New Customers Google+ Local is a powerful tool for small businesses targeting local customers because it combines customer reviews and local search into one platform. Yet, many small businesses still aren’t sure how to take advantage of Google+ Local. Let's take a look at two key ways small businesses can use Google+ Local right now to get new customers. Use Google+ Local to Increase Local Search Visibility According to Google, 20 percent of all Google searches have local intent and 40 percent of Google mobile searches have local intent. Google's universal search. Several factors determine how well your Google+ Local page ranks in both the Google universal search results and Google+ local search results, but that is a topic for another discussion. For now, focus on making your Google+ Local page as informative and appealing as possible. Google wants to provide searchers with the most relevant and useful results possible. Use Reviews to Turn Clicks Into Customers Summary
Commas After Inc., States, and Years | Grammar Underground with June Casagrande Commas After Inc., States, and Years Proofreading is very different from reading. At least, for me it is. In that mode, I can read a whole article twice and learn nothing from it. Interestingly, the other mode doesn’t quite work the same. And that’s unfortunate because the minute a misplaced comma or other typo catches my eye, it automatically flips a switch in my mind, turning off the brain engine that reads for substance and powering up the part that scrutinizes form. Then it’s hard to get back into whatever I was reading. The most common errors that do this to me have to do with commas. It was March 14, 2009 when Widgets, Inc. moved its headquarters from Flint, Mich. to Detroit. I guess if we’re being technical, the comma choices in that sentence aren’t really errors. It’s an instant prejudice that will color my perception of the source forever. Here’s where the commas in that sample sentence fell short. Compare: My wife, Mary, works in entertainment with
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Google+ Local Bible for SMBs If you're a small local business, having a Google+ Local profile is imperative to putting your brand – quite literally – on the map. Google Places was recently replaced with Google+ Local – a merging of Places and Plus that serves up your Google+ Local listing in Search and Maps results on mobile devices and traditional browsers. Whereas Places was a static listing, Local is dynamic and social. A well-optimized Google+ Local page can benefit your digital marketing strategy in the following ways: Outrank your competitors in local search.Build the authority of your brand through +1's and user reviews.Drive traffic to your website.Convert more visitors into leads and clientele. Quick stats about local mobile use: 50 percent of mobile search is local.61 percent of local searches result in purchases.50 percent of smartphone shoppers use a GPS/mapping app to find a retail location.Only 33 percent of advertisers have a mobile optimized website (Read more mobile statistics for local business). 1.