Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Another “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” week in social media

Another “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” week in social media



These internet minutes are feeling even more jam-packed with the flurry of announcements and updates that have come out in the last couple of weeks. Clearly, those boys in Palo Alto (and particularly Facebook) have put their development into hyper speed. Let’s recap on what they’ve been up to.

Facebook takes on Snapchat in its next step towards world domination by...


Introducing Instagram stories


It’ll sound very familiar if you’re a Snapchat user: 24 hours of photos and videos from your life. It’s in addition to the current functionality of sharing images with your followers. They can swipe through your story at their leisure. Like Snapchat, you’re able to choose from a selection of filters or add in text and images. It’s billed as the place to share the highlights from your memories.

We said it’ll sound very familiar.

Adding in photo filters on Facebook


Before you get too excited, so far this is only available in Brazil having been launched to coincide with Rio 2016.  The idea behind this is to encourage you to take and post your photos on Facebook instead of simply sharing them on Facebook having imported them from Snapchat or Instagram (which is what we call do now). Given the co-launch with the Olympics, most of the current filters are specific to sports, a team (e.g. Team GB) and Rio 2016.

We’re hoping that the filters will be tested during the Olympics, tweaked and then released to all of us.


Allowing Instagram to be selective about what comments (if any) you can post


You might have heard of Taylor Swift barring all comments containing the snake emoji or Kylie Jenner turning off comments completely on her feed, but Instagram has now allowed ‘selected users’ (aka famous people) to trial this feature. Billed as a feature to minimising trolling for some of the most followed accounts - and preventing trolling is always a positive - it does also change the nature of social media. It’s always been real-time and unfiltered. This change allows for feeds to become curated and managed to show a particular view.



Facebook has got quite a challenge on its hands if it wants Instagram to overtake the popularity of Snapchat with the 18-24 demographic.

Apple announces its own gender diverse emoji update


You’ll remember that we talked about Facebook’s messenger emoji update before, but now Apple has announced that its iOS 10 update will include a wider range of emoji of women depicted doing sports like basketball and surfing. It’ll also show women carrying out new professional activities. For balance, we’ll also see men getting a haircut and a scalp massage which is currently shown as a female-only activity.




What do you reckon to the Snapchat vs Instagram rivalry? Who are you betting on coming out on top? Get in touch or tweet me @anthonyjohns0n with your thoughts.

Thursday, 21 July 2016

Pokémon Go: making the most of it for your local business marketing? - Optiweb







Unless you’ve been somewhere that doesn’t have the internet
or people or news, you will have heard of Pokémon Go. It is everywhere. People
are playing it everywhere (even in countries where it hasn’t been officially
released yet) and it’s had more downloads than the Tinder app.




Pokémon Go: making the most of it for your local business marketing? - Optiweb

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Digital news .2

DIGITAL MEDIA NEWS .2

This week’s news on all things social, digital and web

 socialimages

 

We love social media, digital marketing, and the online world. After all, that’s why we do what we do. Through our online travels, we come across a variety of information that can be helpful, amusing, or even shocking. We didn’t want you to miss out on this so here’s a roundup of what’s been happening lately.

 

The Twitter popularity contest: separating the real from the fake

 

So, last week, we shared the 10 most popular accounts on Twitter but since then we’ve been playing with TwitterAuditwhich shows you how many of these millions of followers are real. We thought it’d be interesting to re-look at the same top 10 and give you the run-down on how genuine their multi-million follower base actually is.

 

RankWhoTwitter handleFollowers% real
1Katy Perry@katyperry87,078,57139
2Justin Bieber@justinbieber79,883,75542
3Taylor Swift@taylorswift1375,681,01233
4Barack Obama@BarackObama73,511,54537
5YouTube@YouTube61,511,87172
6Rihanna@rihanna59,363,59638
7Lady Gaga@ladygaga58,469,56545
8Ellen DeGeneres@TheEllenShow58,184,05174
9Twitter@twitter54,393,73152
10Justin Timberlake@jtimberlake54,221,82439

 

 

Fascinating stuff, isn’t it? Have a play for yourself and find out where you (or anyone else) ranks on the scale of genuine vs fake followers.

 

Revelations that blew our minds this week

 

Coachella has been blowing up on everyone’s Instagram but the #BTS scoop is that most of the celebs posting pics from Coachella aren’t actually there. They’re at super-exclusive, super-secret pool parties nearby. Also, did you know that if you want to drink at the festival you have to go into a special pen which has a 2 drink maximum? Now, we obviously aren’t promoting reckless OTT drinking but, really, booze-shaming at a festival? It’s a step too far.

 

Kim Kardashian is 4 pounds away from her pre-baby weight. Do we care? No. Do you care? No. What it does show is the growing power of Snapchat in engaging different audiences online. Brands are harnessing the power of Snapchat to connect in new ways with different content and, most importantly, showing pretty impressive stats in doing so. It won’t be for everyone but could it work for you?

 

There are now 1.65 billion active users each month on Facebook.  We tried to do the maths on how many times the size of the UK’s population (63,843,856) this was but there weren’t enough decimal places on the calculator. If you’re better than us at numbers, perhaps you can do the sum and let us know the answer – we’d appreciate it.

 

Is Apple’s shine starting to wear off?

 

The headlines are stark - Decline in iPhone sales leads to first revenue decline in 13 years for Apple -  supported by all manner of troubling statistics:

 

  • Their share price dropped 7% in response to the news
  • Sales had decreased by 13%
  • iPhone sales, which make up the lion’s share of their revenue, dropped by 16%

 

Apple is now predicting that sales will decrease further in Q2 – from the current $50.6bn to $41bn – $43bn. Given that their sales are still safely in the tens of billions of dollars, it’s unlikely that they’ll be following in the footsteps of BHS (it’s been like the Woolworths trauma all over again!) anytime soon.

 

Is it a reflection on Apple? Not really, it’s down to the slowing economy in China which is the company’s second-biggest market. Tim Cook is promising us some ‘amazing innovations’ which are in the pipeline. Given Apple’s history, we’re tempted to believe him.

 

Our insider recommendation

 

 hashtagHashtags – which ones are the most effective to use? There are two really great tools you can use to figure this out:

Hashtagify.me – it’s not the slickest looking User Interface you’re likely to find on the web but it is easy to use, FREE and really helpful.

Find related hashtags to a topic, how popular they are and who the key influencers are in two clicks. It must be a good tool if it can make us overlook the design element.

RiteTag – what’s great about RiteTag is that it integrates with other tools (like TweetDeck, Hootsuite & Buffer) and has a browser extension so you can use it as you’re scheduling your posts which is really convenient. It’ll tell you if you’re chosen hashtag is popular (ie you should use it), too popular (ie little point using it as you won’t be found), not popular enough (ie it’s not something people are really searching for). It suggests related alternatives to make sure your social media is as effective as it needs to be to achieve your objectives.

Interested in getting personalised advice on how to make the online world work for you? Get in touch. We’ll be happy to answer.

 

 

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Social media marketing for £150

Courses on #SocialMediaMarketing £1400 plus


Way to busy to do a course, It's a job for a pro!

Done by us £150pm

Webdesigndevelopment.co.uk

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Reviews and testimonials.

Nothing better than a review or a testimonial.

#seoexpert 

Webdesigndevelopment.co.uk


Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Web promotion Video

7 Google changes that will make or break your SEO

Each year, Google changes its search algorithm over 600 times. Each year, there are more updates than a year before. 2015 was a rollercoaster for marketers who were trying to keep up with Google… and we can expect much more yet to come in 2016.
While many of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a major algorithmic update (such as the Hummingbird) that affects search results in significant ways.

Is your SEO strategy up to scratch for 2016?

This very question will be floating around the offices of many small to large businesses as we head into an ultra-competitive (and ultra-technological) era in organic search. Are you ready?
As always, it pays to keep on top of the latest trends to remain ahead of the curve. So I teamed up with Sam Hurley, who is the head of search at Midas Media in the UK, to write this article to explore how to stay in front of Google as it evolves at a light speed.
Let’s get in gear and dig into the most important shifts in Google shaping the landscape for search marketers in 2016 and beyond.
Featured Snippets: Be the Answer
Remember the days when Google search would retrieve ten blue links to websites? SEO was more straightforward then. Keywords in content, meta data, and inbound links.
image07Today, blue links to websites are giving way to the Knowledge Graph (their very own colossal vault of information). It’s a much more complex territory. Google no longer thinks of itself as the middleman. Google wants to be “the answer.”
image11As part of Google’s Knowledge Graph, Answer Boxes have become a prominent feature in the new Google SERPs (search engine result pages).
This is Google’s reaction to our ever-decreasing attention spans and growing expectancy of everything ‘instantaneous.’ Google measures success by how quickly they get the user from question to answer.
The more real-estate you can obtain on the SERPs; the better. It means showing up in Answer Box results is now a critical component of any SEO strategy.
image09
The optimal search marketing objective for your most profitable keywords in 2016 should be to own top positions in AdWords result, a position #1 Direct Answer Box, a local listing, a standard organic listing in top position followed by further box results lower down the page. You should also show up in images, videos, Twitter feed, Knowledge Graph, and maps, which are the features Google is increasingly displaying in search results.
You need to look beyond your website if you aim for complete domination of the search results in 2016. As Pete Meyers of Moz pointed out, SEO in 2016 is about ‘being the answer.’
Feed the Hummingbird by using schema markup to increase the changes of better indexation by Google.
image14Today, many featured snippets in Google require a more elaborate content strategy. Here’s a relatively new, accordion-like development of the Answer Box called “People also ask”:
image13Using keyword research tools, you can craft your writing in a way which answers these questions succinctly yet leads the searcher to more detailed information. Over time, Google should acknowledge and select your results over the competition, while your cliff-hanger Answer Cards can attract more clicks.
In case you want to learn more about how to optimize for the featured snippets, here’s an insightful video from Moz; Optimizing for The Knowledge Graph.
RankBrain: Machines are Taking Over
“Machine learning is a core transformative way by which we are rethinking everything we are doing,” said Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai on the company’s earnings call.
RankBrain is Google’s new machine-learning algorithm with artificial intelligence at its core, which better interprets search queries and learns from each action taken by searchers. In 2015, “a very large fraction” of the millions of queries a second that people type into the Google’s search engine were interpreted by RankBrain. The results – according to Google – were “better than expected.”
For instance: ‘gimme pizza close’ currently returns results for a kids’ TV show. What if all of a sudden, there was an influx of searchers entering this query (for example, due to a marketing stimulus) who wanted takeaway pizza close to their home? RankBrain would measure user behavior, learn from data, and alter the results to show just that.
image16Putting it simply, Google is becoming smarter all the time but this Artificial Intelligence has really turned things up a notch.
Local SEO (on-page and off), schema markup, user experience, content quality and relevancy are key takeaways here.
Structured Data: Soon a Ranking Signal
John Mueller, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, let it slip that search results with rich snippets may soon rank higher
This would make sense to Google as it would aid RankBrain in its perception of results. Google wants the webmasters to implement structured data so that there is reduced data ambiguity. All the signals point to increased importance of Structured Data in 2016, so make it one of the fundamental parts of your website audit in 2016.
To quickly view how the Structured Data appears on your website, you can use Google’s Structured Data Tool. Read more about Structured Data on Google’s Develop blog here.
Mobilegeddon: The Mobile Update
This Google update was set to debunk websites that were not mobile friendly in mobile SERPs. It produced crazed media-hype but actually turned out to be something not-so daunting. This update has had rather negligible impact thus far.
Nevertheless, while Google has given website owners ample time to improve their mobile experience, the honeymoon may soon be over. Expect search becoming more mobile in 2016, and so you want to stay ahead of this trend.
Moreover, it is still absolutely critical to own a mobile-responsive website to appease user-experience (another Google ranking factor) and increase conversions.
If you haven’t made your website mobile yet, you need to. Fast. It’s the standard of the world we live in; people expect a great mobile experience at all times and if you can’t offer that, they will leave your website pronto.
image15Accelerated Mobile Pages are next on the horizon. It’s the new open source project from Google, set to enable web pages to load almost instantly on mobile devices. Look out for its mainstream release in early this year.
You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to learn if there are issues with your website.
Secure Web: HTTPS as a Ranking Signal
One of the first questions Google asks when evaluating the quality it’s search results is: “Can I trust this website?”
Similarly to the Mobile Update, the HTTPS update turned out to be another non-event that marketing blogs built up into frenzy. Webmasters frantically switched over to HTTPS, the secure version of HTTP, in a bid to gain the competitive edge. However, not much happened so far.
However, taking note of Google’s shifts now means better preparation for the future. Google may well give the HTTPS another push soon; weighting rank signals heavily towards HTTPS websites where user data is captured, such as e-commerce sites.
Switching from unsecure to secure protocol is a large and complex job, make no mistake.
Be sure to weigh it up: if you’re an e-commerce store or apply a log-in feature, you should be running HTTPS regardless. If you own an established blog, it may not be worth encrypting just yet. Starting a website from scratch? Go HTTPS.
Bad Links: Real-Time Penguin Update

Google’s John Mueller (almost) confirmed the real-time algo update will be released in early 2016.
This will be welcomed as a god-send for many webmasters and marketers feeling the long, drawn-out brunt of the link-based, algorithmic Google ‘penalty’ known as Penguin. Searchmetrics reported that Google has already started rolling out new quality updates in January this year.
The fresh update to Google’s algorithm means more immediate positive ranking results should ensue if you rectify any detrimental assets i.e. low quality links, spammy anchor text and ratio of exact match (providing the rest of your website is solid). There’ll be less waiting for severe drops in rankings to become elevated.
On the other hand, it will become just as easy to get slapped with an algorithmic debunk in rankings if you are breaking Google’s Quality Guidelines, whether you are aware of them or not. Most penalties and filters are automated if your website gets flagged for violation.
Watch your step where links are concerned – now is an appropriate time to investigate your link profile with a keen eye to ensure there are no loose ends. Know your risks if you are engaging in old-school SEO tactics. Google has become very smart in detecting spam.
Check out the actionable link building strategies for 2016 Sam Hurley shared “from experience” in my interview with him on Search Decoder.
Google My Business and Local Results Shake Ups
Aligning mobile search with local results; a Google study indicated that local searches lead 50 percent of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day.
In addition, the rise of voice search means that search queries are more in tune with location now than ever:
The need for local visibility is undeniable and Google have recently made these positions especially coveted…
image17For example, local search packs in the SERPs now show only three listings instead of seven.
In addition, local businesses have welcomed the new Google My Business, which replaces the failed Google+ Local experiment, and provides a hope for better, integrated management of local listings.
Lastly, Adwords Ads are continually taking up critical room above the fold on both desktop and mobile devices. On mobile in particular, not owning a top 3 ad position for a sales-focused query simply means – you’re not going to get a look in.
Spot the organic:
image19Businesses are increasingly confronted with a choice to pay for Adwords if they attempt to dominate search results and be ‘top of mind’ on their most important keywords.
Is your SEO set to break or make? What other critical Google changes are seeing on the horizon that will affect SEO in a major way?

Friday, 29 January 2016

14 most important SEO tasks in order of priority



SEO can be overwhelming for any number of reasons.


Between local considerations, seeding the right content in the right
places, and various other on-page and off-page factors, it’s tough to
know where to begin even when it comes to basic SEO essentials.


What makes things even more difficult is that you can’t just start
anywhere and chip away at your work. If you want to see the most
success, it’s important to prioritize the SEO tasks correctly.


Although it’s not always publicized, prioritizing SEO tasks is
actually one of the things we see companies’ mess up most often. If you
do certain SEO tasks out of order, you’re going to spend a lot of time
and use up most of your resources to finally meet your goals.


In some worst-case scenarios you actually won’t be able to meet those
goals because you started with something advanced and skipped the
basics (without even knowing it!)


Although there isn’t an exact order to follow, it does help to split
up the most common SEO tasks into categories, starting with the highest
priority first…


#1 SEO priorities

Identify and remove duplicate content.


Nothing kills a website faster than duplicate content
issues. It’s confusing for Google bots so you won’t get any good
visibility, and even if readers did somehow make it to your website,
duplicate content is seen as spammy. Get rid of this immediately so you
can start with a clean slate.


Check navigation and UX factors.


You have to make sure your website is easy to navigate and everything
is cohesive. This has to do with the architecture and design. If you
send people to a website that is confusing, it’s far too easy to
click-away.


Make sure you have a responsive design.


In the past this may not have been such a priority, but mobile
compatibility is crucial. According to Google, more searches now take
place on mobile than on desktop, so you have to make sure your site
looks good on the small screen. The biggest and most basic way to do
this is through a responsive design.


responsive design


As you may have noticed, all of your top priorities for SEO have to
do with on-page tasks. Keep this is mind if more ideas pop-up in the
future. You don’t want to be sending traffic to an unfinished or poorly
optimized website because that traffic will immediately click away (and
likely never return), so this is a crucial step to understand.


#2 SEO priorities

Setup Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.


Although you may not use it right away, getting setup with these
tools is crucial to being indexed quickly and accurately. It can help
solidify your website as real.


Make sure you’re being indexed.


You have to double check that Google is indexing your site, meaning
they’re crawling your website and you’re therefore showing up in SERPs.
To check this, visit your Google Webmaster Tools account and click the
‘Google Index’ tab to see the total number of pages Google has indexed.
Make sure it seems right!


Complete preliminary keyword research.


Understanding which keywords you want to target can help you learn a
lot about SEO if you’re unfamiliar, but it also sets the stage for many
of the other items in the next three sections (content creation and back
linking, most notably).


Create local search accounts.


The sooner you can setup local search accounts the better. This is
definitely more of a priority if you have a local business looking to
attract local customers, but it’s so easy to do, that every type of
company should get involved as soon as possible.


where's good for steak search


Start creating quality content frequently.


You want to be consistently putting out great content. This not only
gives you more options for Google to index your website, but it helps
show credibility and gives readers a way to engage. Start getting a good
rhythm going with high quality articles. That’s all you need to do at
first.


#3 SEO priorities

Create audience personas and get creative with your content.


Once you have a good content team and schedule in place, you can
start to really bring your content to the next level. This involves
creating personas to better understand your audience, writing on
keywords/ topics that are trending, and getting more advanced with
infographics, interviews, video, and more.


Create relationships with influencers.


You want to start getting your name out there in your niche
community. This is how you will eventually earn natural links and
hopefully get some great social shares out of the relationships.


Edit your title tags.


As you published content you likely wrote whatever headline you
wanted, which is fine at first, but eventually you should go back and
optimize your title tags. This will help you categorize your pages and
make sure that you’re sending the right people to the right pages. Visit
this article to learn more about title tags.




how to write title tags Google Search


#4 SEO priority

Start working to build backlinks.


It usually surprises people that this would be so far down on the
list, but remember that SEO is not about backlinks—it’s about readers.
Focus on creating relationships, quality content, and understanding your
audience first.


Utilize SEO tools.


There are many different SEO tools out there that can help you with
different aspects of your SEO (usually best used for data). This is a
priority #4 because which tools you want to use and for what reasons can
get tricky, so it’s best to focus on this after you have the basics
down.


#5 SEO priority

Follow SEO industry news and blogs.


This is incredibly important, but following the latest news and SEO
blogs can be a little bit overwhelming if you’re a beginner. That’s why
hearing about the latest and greatest new tactics is probably better
handled after you’ve been in the trenches with all of the items in the
last four categories.


The takeaway

Of course this is not an extensive list. There are hundreds of little
things you can do to improve the SEO of your website, but above are
some of the biggest and most important tasks. What needs to be done will
also depend on your company – industry, size, goals, etc. – but this is
a great place to start. In the meantime, let us know what you would
change or what you would add to the list in the comment section below.



By

Saturday, 23 January 2016

How to unconnect people on Linked In.


“A healthy professional life starts with healthy relationships,” a prudent tagline on LinkedIn’s Connections page reads. But what happens when professional relationships go sour, like when you fire a problem employee or you’re no longer satisfied with a vendor’s work, and you no longer want to be associated with them on LinkedIn?

When a romantic relationship fall apart, it’s time to break up. When a career connection tanks, it might be wise to disconnect from them on LinkedIn. Think of cutting ties with someone on the 400 million-member social network like the professional version of Facebook’s “Unfriend” 

Here’s how to remove a connection from LinkedIn’s website on a laptop or desktop computer in a few quick clicks, should the need ever arise:

1. Go to LinkedIn’s home page.
2. Enter the first and last name of the person you wish to disconnect from in the search box at the top of the page. The connection’s profile will appear below the search box. Select the person’s profile.
3. From the connection’s profile page, scroll down to the blue rectangle icon that reads “Send a Message” and hover your cursor over the down arrow on the right side of it.
4. A drop down menu will appear. Scroll down and select “Remove connection” and you’re done.

2. Navigate to the profile of the person you wish to remove as a connection.
3. Tap the Menu icon on the top right corner. (It looks like three white dots.)
4. From there, select “Remove Connection.”

As with Facebook, when you remove a LinkedIn connection, the person won’t be notified that you’ve disconnected from them. However, it’s not hard to figure out, should they search their LinkedIn connections and see that you no longer appear on their list of connections.