Google adds Affiliate Extensions to Adwords
October 26, 2016: Last week, Google announced that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can now add a new kind of extension their Adwords campaigns called “Affiliate Extensions.” This is significant for two reasons: first, mobile searchers – after beginning a search session on their devices — are increasingly consummating their purchases in physical stores, and second, because […]
LinkedIn Endorsements peer recommendation feature gets an update
October 24, 2016: LinkedIn’s popular Endorsement feature is getting a revamp, according to an update posted to LinkedIn’s official blog. The mechanics of this update are somewhat complex, at least for those not familiar with the intricacies of Hadoop, SQL, and distributed key-value storage systems. But the beneficial effects for LinkedIn members are easy to understand, […]
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Etailers: please avoid these common site errors in Q4
October 20, 2016: Q4 is here in earnest, and etailers will soon be fighting a pitched battle for the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers. In this hyper-competitive environment, if sites don’t load fast, if navigation isn’t smooth, and if products don’t stand out, sales will be lost. But even small errors represent lost opportunities […]
Google Podium (AKA Google Posts): what marketers need to understand
October 19, 2016 What is Google Podium? Google Podium (also known as Google Posts) is a limited beta program that Google has been running since May of 2016. Podium is an unofficial name (Google calls the program “an experimental new podium on Google”). Operationally, Podium provides participants (“verified individuals”) preferred, “above the fold” real estate on […]
Digiday: Major publishers doubling down on SEO to replace lost Facebook referral traffic
October 17, 2014: An October 11th article by Lance Moses published on Digiday.comillustrates the recent steps taken by four major publishers – Rodale, Time Inc., the New York Times, and Thrilllist – to beef up their SEO presence in the wake of Facebook’s recent algorithm changes, which increasingly promote content from friends over content from publishers and […]
Discovering conversational keywords and phrases for Hummingbird and Rankbrain
October 13, 2016: The advent of advanced search engine algorithms – including Hummingbird and Rankbrain – has made it necessary for content marketers to look beyond their traditional, keyword-centric content strategies toward “conversationally-oriented” words and phrases. In this article, we’ll show you where you can begin mining such words and phrases. Why conversational words and […]
Adobe: email is still the “alpha channel”
October 12, 2016: Email is a relatively ancient communications channel – in fact, the first email message was sent in 1971 – 13 years before Mark Zuckerberg was born. But in 2016, it turns out that electronic mail remains a surprisingly strong channel, according to Adobe, whose second annual survey of U.S. based electronic mail […]
3D social networks get real
(Update 12/12/2021: It turns out that this article, originally published in 2016, correctly identified Facebook’s overarching intention to dominate future social media activity in the 3D space. In October, 2021, Facebook rebranded itself “Meta,” noting that “3D spaces in the metaverse will let you socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what […]
Google: 3 steps to better mobile conversion rates
October 7, 2016: Mobile surfers and shoppers are impatient. When sites or apps are slow to load, they’re quick to bail out and choose another site or another app. But it’s not just slow site performance that causes mobile users to abandon sessions: they’re also turned off by landing pages that are confusing, unfocused, or just […]
Calendar integration comes to Google Maps
October 5, 2016: As we noted a few weeks back, Google’s Maps product is quietly becoming a killer marketing platform. Last week, Google announced that entries from Google Calendar would soon be used to inform Maps. This development has real potential for businesses of every size and stripe, but especially for local businesses not already providing […]