Seach, Social & Content Marketing Blog

Once you post a website, you are a publisher (whether you really wanted to be a publisher or not.)

That statement is not news to those of us living and operating in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online marketing world, but it is becoming more and more known throughout the three-dimensional business world. The question is, are you a boring publisher? Are you publishing web content with self-serving, lackluster and outdated copy, photos, videos and  graphics that even your own mother doesn’t care about?

One of the key factors to consider when developing a local search marketing campaign is prominence. In a post on LatLong back in December, Brianna Brekke, Senior Strategist for Google Places confirmed, “There are a variety of factors we take into account to provide you with results that match your local search, and three of the primary signals are relevance, prominence and distance.”

As a busy mother and business professional, my time is extremely limited. Each moment throughout the day counts. My guess is that your time is just as important to you! Google sure “gets” this concept and therefore acknowledged our need for speed online by folding this factor into its algorithm for ranking search results. In 2010, Google stated, “Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. But faster sites don’t just improve user experience; recent data shows that improving site speed also reduces operating costs. Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed — that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings.”

So you have set up your company website with all your products or services, and you keep hearing that you need a corporate blog, but you have no idea where to start. First, ask yourself the question: why do you want or “need” a blog? Then, create a plan and start the content development process!

Facebook’s Terms of Service have expanded and later simplified over the years just as their promotions guidelines have changed. As a brand that uses Facebook it’s essential to become aware of both and have someone on your staff stay up-to-date with the changes as they happen. I discuss this topic a bit more in my book, “Facebook for Business: A How-To Guide” (available in the Vertical Measures store).