All business pages will be migrated to the Facebook timeline format on March 30! Here is all the information, broken down by topic, you need to know on changes you need to make and the new options that are available to you.
Facebook Cover Image:
The most noticeable feature of Facebook timelines is the addition of a cover image. The image size is 851px wide by 315px high. This must be an image that you have permission to use and it can’t include pricing, email, phone number, or any sort of call to action.
Tabs:
You will have 4 visible tabs and the others will be accessible via an arrow expand button on the right. These can be moved around so that your most important tabs are in the front.
Pin Content:
If you have an important post that you wish to keep at the top of your page, you can “pin” it. This will keep it at the top of the page for 7 days and new content will appear below it.
Milestones:
Like personal pages, business pages have the option of creating milestones.
Admin Panel:
The Admin Panel for page admins has been updated as well. Mashable has a great article on the admin panel if you would like more information. Link: http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/facebook-admin-panel/
After performing a search, Google offers a new option to narrow down search results. Under “More search tools”, you can now select “Verbatim” to limit traffic to just what you literally searched. Google has a short explanation here which suggests that the tool eliminates spelling corrections, personalized search based on your search history, synonyms, similar terms, and words with the same stem. Basically, you just get what you’re looking for without Google’s search suggestions.
The buzz is that Verbatim search is Google’s substitute for the phased out “+”operator. Previously, this could be utilized to make sure that a specific word in a specific form appeared in the search results. Google’s intentions might be to now utilize “+” to perform some function related to Google+. Only time will tell! Read more…
The AdWords Display Network functions much differently than the Search Network. Yes, an advertiser can still use keywords to target web users, but they function in a less clearly defined manner. For display, Google takes an ad group’s keyword list and matches the subject of the page opted into the display network with the theme of the ad group established by its set of keywords. This means that individual keywords do not act alone as they do in the search network, and that no keyword-level data is available to measure the effectiveness of a particular keyword. So, instead of optimizing the keywords ads are running for, an advertiser has to resort to other targeting strategies. Thankfully, AdWords has a number of targeting options and allows an advertiser to narrow down where ads appear by layering these different options.
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Christian Oestlien, group product manager for social advertising at Google, has said that business profiles are coming soon to Google+! The social network just recently opened up to the public and traffic stats soared! Previously it was invitation only. This article refers to a 1,269% spike in visits week over week when the site fully opened up to the public.
Businesses have been trying to set up their own profiles, but only Ford and General Motors have officially been allowed to set up real business profiles. Many others have been taken down by Google. A lot of the rush seems to be because companies want to be innovative with the next big thing, but also because they’re anxious to claim their real estate. Companies are afraid of imitators setting up fake profiles in their brand names. Calm down! Google+ allows one name to be registered multiple times. This is at least how profiles for people work. That means that companies won’t run into a similar situation Netflix did when they launched Qwikster. In case you didn’t hear, the Twitter handle was already occupied by what appears to be a foul-mouthed teen. So far, the teen still has the Twitter handle and tweeted “Netflix didn’t take anything this is JASON talking”. It’ll be interesting to see what Qwikster does to establish its Twitter presence.
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The Social Impact on Search
PPI Team Members Enjoy the Event
Last Wednesday, the Prominent Placement team made its way to Park Tavern for the AiMA/SEMPO event The Social Impact on Search. We learned how Google and Bing are transforming into “social search engines” and Newell Rubbermaid shared how making their site social helped their business. We have a lot of great info to share!
Panel :
- Dave Williams, BLiNQ Media – Moderator and Event Sponsor
- Walton Norris, Google
- Mike Ching, Program Manager of Bing Social
- Bert DuMars from Newell Rubbermaid
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Stacy Williams was recently asked to speak to a group of business owners about search engine marketing. This is the final post of a four-part series based on her presentation about the most important things you need to know about search marketing today. We’ll cover tips on PPC and Mobile and Local Search.
14. Being found in local/maps/places results is critical
A Google Places verified address ranks prominently and the accompanying map occupies a lot of valuable space in the search engine results pages. Listing business locations is critical, even if it’s just an office with no business interaction. Sometimes the verification of a business address can be tricky but it’s well worth the effort!
15. Consider running PPC on mobile devices
More and more consumers are using their smart phones and tablets for search. They are in such high demand that Morgan Stanley estimates global unit shipments of smartphones and tablets to surpass shipments of notebook and desktop PCs this year! AdWords makes this easy to implement. In the Network and Devices tab you can select the types of mobile devices to target, or you can target by the mobile carrier. If iPhone users with AT&T are a valuable segment, you can target them specifically and avoid wasting money on less profitable segments.
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Stacy Williams was recently asked to speak to a group of business owners about search engine marketing. This is the third post of a five-part series based on her presentation about the most important things you need to know about search marketing today. We cover tips about PPC and Social Media today.
8. Pull PPC levers wisely
There are numerous performance-affecting levers in a pay-per-click campaign that can be pulled. Focusing on improving those that have the greatest effect can really improve your campaign. Want a hint? High quality and relevant landing pages, compelling ad copy, and keyword quality scores are three variables that can always be improved upon.
9. Focus more on PPC ad copy and less on bids
Bid management can just get you more eyes and won’t do much if your campaign lacks compelling ad copy. Focus on the disease, not the symptom. Improving ad copy can raise click-through-rates and conversion rates, and can also reduce the cost-per-click. This often makes struggling with bids less of an issue.
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Stacy Williams was recently asked to speak to a group of business owners about search engine marketing. This is the second post of a five-part series based on her presentation about the most important things you need to know about search marketing today. This post will continue to discuss tips for search engine optimization (SEO).
5. Optimized press releases work
Optimized press releases are a great SEO tool that is often overlooked in SEM strategies. By sending out the press release yourself, you can bypass the press and reach your prospects directly through a controlled message.
How can a press release help SEO and how can it be optimized? Press releases affect SEO in a number of ways…
They take up more room in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) which means that your site is occupying more of that valuable real estate and keeping the competition out.
They also are a great link-building tool for bring up your site rankings. An invaluable element of these links is that you create the anchor text linking back to your site. Having a lot of backlinks with keyword-rich anchor text is an invaluable means of attaining high rank for those keywords.
Press releases also generate brand awareness, and as a result, site traffic.
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