Instead of creating and managing separate campaigns for mobile and desktop, Enhanced Campaigns enables advertisers to do this within a single campaign. The campaign and budget can be modified to accommodate different devices and contexts. Bid adjustments can be made to account for devices, geographic proximity and time of day. Here’s an example from Google’s blog:

“A breakfast cafe wants to reach people nearby searching for “coffee” or “breakfast” on a smartphone. Using bid adjustments, with three simple entries, they can bid 25% higher for people searching a half-mile away, 20% lower for searches after 11am, and 50% higher for searches on smartphones. These bid adjustments can apply to all ads and all keywords in one single campaign.”

Consumers on a mobile device may require different information than someone at home on a PC. With Enhanced Campaigns, advertisers can target click-to-call and location extension ads to mobile, while serving up an ad that links to the website for a laptop user in the same campaign.

Enhanced Campaigns also features more advanced reporting to accommodate conversions. Click-to-call and app download conversion rates will be included in Adwords reports. Google issued the following example:

“You can count phone calls of 60 seconds or longer that result from a click-to-call ad as a conversion in your AdWords reports, and compare them to other conversions like leads, sales and downloads.”

Enhanced Campaigns will start rolling out over the next few weeks. They’ll be available to all users by mid-2013.

Facebook Graph Search is different from Google in that it bases results on a user’s relationship to a query, rather than keywords and links.Results are based on data shared by a business, the connections of the person searching and popularity. Every search will differ based on the strength of relationships and connections. In theory, the new Facebook Graph Search will make it easier for users to discover your Facebook Business Page. We won’t know the reality until Graph Search is fully implemented.

Facebook Likes are more powerful than ever. Pages with higher engagement including more post likes, comments and shares are at an advantage, but Page Likes will hold the most weight. According to Forbes, advertisers have spent a tremendous amount of money on campaigns to acquire Likes, but are disheartened with the ultimate ROI. The renewed focus on Likes (in lieu of engagement) justifies the money spent and ensures businesses will continue their quest for Likes. That being said, expect a sharp rise in “Like us on Facebook” contests and promos.

How to prepare your Facebook Page for Graph Search:

1. Make sure your business is listed in the proper categories. Check this by
Admin Panel > Edit Page > Update Info.
2. Confirm your business information is up-to-date, especially your location, phone number and hours of operation.
3. Grow your audience. Read our tips for improving Facebook engagement to help boost Likes.
4. Post high-quality content (material users will find valuable and want to share) on a regular basis.

Don’t overlook Facebook’s integration with Bing. Graph Search will include Bing search results and Bing ads. If Graph Search takes off, you’ll have no choice but to pay attention to your Bing rankings. Now is a good time to start optimizing your site because Bing may become more relevant than ever.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, Google’s Chief Executive employing aggressive measures to get people to use Google+ and prevent Facebook from controlling the social networking realm. Therefore, Google+ has been integrated with other Google services. Anyone who creates a Gmail, YouTube, Zagat or other Google account is automatically set up with a Google+ page.

Google+ profiles generally include full names, and users may add other details such as their location, profession, etc. They are made public by default, but the settings can be changed.

The article makes a valid point – Facebook has what Google wants. Facebook knows people’s real names, their interests and who they are friends with. It can tie their online activities to extremely personal information. By forcing users onto Google+, Google will finally be able to capture similar information and improve ad targeting.

For example, Google now requires users to sign into Google+ accounts to post reviews of restaurants and other businesses. The sign in requirements enable Google to combine a user’s personal information with their search habits, which may be a potential goldmine for AdWords.

Is it working? Google thinks so. Google reported that 235 million people used Google+ features in December 2012, up from 150 million in June. Google’s attempt to encourage Google+ account users to share updates and photos has found little success. However, Google+ still obtains helpful information about a person’s search history and interests for more improved ad targeting. They win. We get Google+.

Google does not reveal a user’s name to advertisers.
You can read the full article here.

Come February, tweets that contain URLs will be reduced to 118 characters and 117 for https links. The change only represents a two character difference, but sometimes those two little characters can be pretty important.

Twitter is making some changes to the t.co link wrapper which will extend the links to two additional characters. Ultimately, every link will take up more space in your Tweet and reduce the text in your message.

The new links won’t go into effect until February 20, 2013.

Mobile sales for Cyber Monday have skyrocketed nearly 260 percent since 2010.

What role is social media playing in the growth of mobile shopping? Almost zero. IBM’s study revealed networks like Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn only accounted for 0.34 percent of all online Black Friday sales. Even more surprising, Twitter contributed 0 percent. Social media referrals are down more than 35 percent since 2011.

However, shoppers still went to social media to discuss their shopping experiences. The IBM study found shoppers expressed “positive sentiment” about promotions, shipping and convenience at a 3 to 1 ratio on social media channels.

Is your site properly optimized for mobile?

Companies will now be able to use a business name (instead of a first and last name) to create their free business account. Users that already have a personal account can convert it to a Pinterest business account. Don’t expect much difference – the new brand pages look identical to other Pinterest pages.

Business accounts can be verified with a hidden line of code. Once the code is recognized, Pinterest will place a verification badge on a company’s profile page. A company source confirmed that Pinterest hopes to “add more tools and features” geared towards a business audience in the future.

With on-site optimization, you are the master of your own domain (sorry, I couldn’t resist the Seinfeld reference). This type of SEO refers to your content and any direct edits you make to your website that influence search engine ranking. Basic on-site SEO includes the following:

Content
• High quality
• Regularly published
• Proper keywords utilized
• Top keyword(s) in URL, title and used once or twice within content
• No keyword stuffing

HTML
• Title tags contain keywords relevant to content topic
• Meta description tags explain what content is about
• Header tags with relevant keywords
• Site map

Usability
• Quick load time
• Search engines can easily crawl pages
• Not too many ads “above the fold”
• URLs kept short with proper keywords

Off-site SEO uses outside and external factors to influence search engine results. However, this type of SEO isn’t entirely out of your hands. You can exert some control by posting your links to social media, social book marking sites and SEO friendly websites. Add social media buttons to encourage others to share your content. Regularly posting interesting and well-written content is the best way to boost off-site SEO. Basic off-site SEO elements include:

Links
• High quality links from trusted and respected websites
• Anchor text to describe link
• Amount of good links
• Amount of bad links

Social Media
• Content is shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, YouTube, Pinterest and others.
• Amount of Facebook page likes and Facebook shares
• Number of Twitter followers and tweets mentioning your site or linking back to your site
• How many people have you or your brand in Google+ circles
• Guest blogging on other sites

Authority
• Search engines must deem your site as a trusted authority
• History – length of time domain & website have been in operation
• Steady stream of website visitors
• Low bounce rate

Off-site SEO requires much more effort than on-site. A hefty amount of time must be spent establishing a presence and building relationships on social networks. To encourage backlinks, it’s wise to regularly read and comment on relevant websites and blogs. This will help foster communication with other bloggers and boost your click-through rate.

Remember, none of your SEO efforts will pay off without amazing content. Fill your website with awesome content and the rest will fall into place.

Facebook users prefer shorter posts, but the opposite holds true on Twitter. Increased Tweet lengths foster more retweets, shares & responses.

Twitter caps messages at 140 characters or less, but that doesn’t mean you should utilize all 140 characters. Studies reveal that Tweets between 80 -110 characters perform the best. Therefore, marketers should aim for Tweet lengths around 100 characters.

A few Twitter pointers:

• Short tweets don’t gain much attention on Twitter. Leave the short statements for Facebook.

• Try to avoid Tweets that hit the 140 character limit. These may look a bit cumbersome and cause readers to overlook them.

• Don’t be afraid to Tweet pictures. Pictures receive high rates of engagements.

• Don’t overdo hashtags and/or links. One link and one hashtag per post maximum. If the hashtag is long, leave the link off. Don’t overwhelm your message with hyperlinks.

Discover how the power of social media can help your company build brand awareness, connect with your target audience and drive sales. Goebel Group can design and implement an ideal social media strategy to meet your unique business goals. Contact us today.

Studies show that image captions are the most-read part of any web page. Don't forget captions!

Resize images
Google penalizes websites with slower load times. There’s no reason to have large image files slowing down your website and hurting your SEO. Resize image files before uploading them to your site to ensure adding images helps your SEO.  A handy free image resizing tool is Yahoo’s Smush.it, which resizes JPG, GIF, and PNG images that are up to one megabyte in size. Images can also be resized through free image editing software like Paint.net.

Use the right file format
Use .JPG for larger full-color images and .PNG for all other images.

Save image files using relevant keywords
Change the image’s file name to include your target keyword(s). Use hypens or underscores instead of spaces in file names.

Use appropriate anchor text
Anchor text influences image SEO and factors into how your image is ranked for keywords. When linking to an image with keywords, be sure to use relevant anchor text to describe the image.

Update image ALT and title tags
Avoid keyword stuffing and don’t simply list keywords. Instead, include keywords inside descriptive phrases to benefit all website visitors. Appropriate image tagging boosts your site’s overall SEO and also sends new traffic to your site via Image Search results.

Always add captions
When readers scan your website, it’s likely they read the image captions. Options for image captions include a summary of the blog article, a call to action, memorable quotes, etc. Adding captions may cause readers to spend more time on your site and lessen the bounce rate. Again, don’t be tempted to keyword stuff.

Don’t forget, the content of your article should pertain to all of the above image SEO factors. This helps Google and other search engines determine your images to be “high quality” and not spam. It may take hours to create the perfect blog post, but image optimization only takes a few minutes and offers a wealth of SEO benefits.

Contact Goebel Group today to learn more about our Search Engine Optimization Services.

A content calendar requires more than a few words and notes assigned to specific dates, but it doesn’t need to be overly complex. After all, it should make your life easier. Here’s our quick list of must-haves for your content editorial calendar. Use this list as a simple content marketing calendar template for each element in your content marketing strategy.

Content Marketing Calendar Must-Haves

1. Topic/Title
2. Content type
3. Category
4. Intended audience
5. Call to action
6. Keywords
7. Meta data tags
8. Author
9. Editor
10. Creation date
11. Publish date
12. Publishing channels (where will this be published?)
13. URL link (post URL link after publishing to keep track)

Feeling ambitious? Why not add a little more to your content editorial calendar?

Images
Social Media

• Facebook posts
• Tweets
• LinkedIn updates

Engagement metrics (number of retweets, likes, shares, comments, page views, etc.)

Content Marketing is a critical aspect of your marketing plan. Discover how Goebel Group’s team of content experts can transform your website into an invaluable source of attention-grabbing information.