New York Times published a report on Google+ on last Friday - that highlighted that Starbucks and The Economist use Google+ in order impact their search efforts rather than just for being socially active and visible. According to Alex Wheeler, the vice president of global digital marketing Starbucks, while posting something on Google+, they think more about how would the post relate to search efforts.   Starbucks has around three million Google+ followers; while its Facebook page has got 36 million 'likes'. Starbucks often updates its Google+ page in order to achieve good search placement and ...

Are you struggling hard to figure out how you should market your business with the help of social media channels? Why not try Google+? It's a great option today to market you business - around 50% of companies today have rated Google+ as an important means contributing to their business marketing. This social channel has significantly helped 15% of marketers acquire substantial customer base in 2013.   Google+ till date has attracted 500 million registered users. With its high impact on and integration with Google assets such as Google search, it is no wonder, becoming a valuable marketin...

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, recently announced that Google has crashed one more 'link network' in the line - 'Buzzea'; a French network.  He  confi rmed this on Twitter. Google has taken this action on Buzzea, for not following Google's quality guidelines                 . The addition to this announcement was that the next target for call out by Google would be German link networks! Matt hinted this upcoming action on Twitter - “today France; Germany soon."   This is the latest call out in a long number of link n...

Are you aware of Google authorship? It is nothing but a way to link whatever content you create with Google+ profile. It allows your content to appear in Google search results with the headshot image (your photo) next to it.   When your article or blog content displays your photo besides it, it leads to an improved click through rate - which is ultimately helpful for your personal branding. In the form of author rich snippets, Google enables you to add extra information. The only requirement is your Google+ profile. As a part of search results, your snippet would display the number of people y...

It’s natural and common that people link between their sites. However, Google’s dial is way high for link networks; and thus, optimizing links between your sites anymore could make you appear to be a network.   Google has called out removal of another link network - which is popularly being known as Anglo Rank.   Matt Cutts - the head of search span of Google - announced Google's action against another link network via a couple of tweets. To put it simple - Google has taken action against “several thousand” link sellers that were part of a link network that bought and sold links that pass Page...

It's a totally unexpected PageRank update for Webmasters - before the year end! No one had expected a new Google Toolbar PageRank update after the recent one in February, 2013.   Toolbar PageRank is the ‘simplification of real PageRank' – which is a complex algorithm. Google usually throws a new PR update on quarterly basis.   Here is the list of earlier PR updates from Google: 4 February 2013 7 November 2012 2 August 2012 2 May 2012 7 February 2012 7 November 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 January 2011 April 2010 Dec 31, 2009 30 October 2009 27/28 May 2009 June 200...

Google has rolled out the old manual action viewer in Google Webmaster Tools. There are reports of the new manual action alert - 'image mismatch'!   This manual action is for those images on your site that appear differently - on your site and in Google search engine pages. When the images on your Website do not match what Google is displaying and indexing on the search result pages, the 'image mismatch' manual action comes into picture.   Manual actions are nothing but the penalties from a human reviewer at Google - who has determined certain Websites violating Google's guidelines a...

Google+ had started supporting hashtags in the month of May; however the company recently announced that Google Search will now allow its users to search for Google+ posts by using these hashtags. Now when you can see a little bit of Google+ in every product of Google, no wonder the Google+ hashtags too are making their way into other Google products.     Hashtags are basically useful in Google+; they enable you to find and manage the posts that use them. So if you now enter your search query on Google for a hashtag, you may see the latest feature to the right side of the regular sea...

A number of advertisers have been advertising by adding certain visual informative elements to the search ads along with the features such as product listing ads, media ads, and image extensions; that appear only in response to some branded product queries. Google has now announced its experiment with enormous banner advertisements associated with brands. Introduction of banner advertisements is a significant change for the company and such ads may lead to generate more traffic to the respective advertisers compared to that through traditional advertising. However, this would take the desired ...

Google uses PageRank, an algorithm to rank various websites in Google web search engine results. It’s a great way that measures the importance of Web pages and used to occur at the interval of three months since 2009. However, it has been eight months after the last update occurred; Google Toolbar PageRank Update is not seen. According to Google, there won't be any more Google Toolbar PageRank update this year.   Matt Cutts, the head of Google search spam, declared on Twitter about not pushing out the new Google Toolbar Update this time.   In late 2011, Google users observed an update to the q...

A new search algorithm was revealed on the 15th birthday of Google - Hummingbird! This algorithm is specially designed to receive more precise and faster query results; and this why is named 'Hummingbird'. Unlike most of previous search algorithms, this one is totally based on semantic search. It emphasises on user intent versus individual search terms. The announcement of this new algorithm quite stirred both worlds; technology and SEO. It is currently influencing around 90% of the worldwide searches via Google.   Hummingbird brings to you a lot of improvement in Google search with some ...

Google keeps changing its search algorithm every year and this change could be approximately 500-600 times. However, most of these changes are minor. Google also calls out the major update that seems to significantly affect the search engine results. One of these major updates is Google Penguin which was very first announced on April 24, 2012 (Penguin 1). All those Websites that seem to violate the rules and regulations of Google Webmaster have to face significant drops in their search engine rankings after this Penguin update.   Here is when the immediate next Penguin updates were releas...

Are you a small business yearning for a robust online presence? Are you eager to reach your potential customers by securing top positions on popular search engines? That's where the magic of SEO comes into play. However, we understand that for many small in-house businesses, SEO packages can be quite costly.  Affordable SEO Company in Melbourne Webplanners, a leading SEO firm located in Melbourne, dedicated to crafting customised marketing and SEO strategies tailored to suit businesses of all kinds. We take pride in offering affordable SEO services specifically designed for small businesses al...

This is the digital Web world and almost everyone looks on Internet for whatever to check out or purchase. Internet has become the largest and easiest platform for both, buyers and sellers. So when customers are taking advantage of being online, why not take the same advantage as a business? No matter how small scale your business is, you can always create your strong presence and reach larger mass and largest markets. Being online and performing search engine optimisation can take your business site to the top rankings of search engines. This ultimately ends up in grabbing maximum number of c...

Many small business owners can't afford professional SEO services and look out for cheaper alternatives to market their products and services for gaining more publicity and traffic online. However, SEO is much more powerful than any other online marketing alternative and thus, hiring professional SEO services has become quite essential for small businesses too. There are many companies in market that offer SEO at low costs.   Unlike only search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and advertising involve great costs. Thus, investment is must while opting for professional SEO servi...

As a small business starter, you might not be able to afford being online and pay for SEO. However, search engine optimisation is one such process that enables your business to make and grow its online presence, as well as generate greater leads in return to your investment. Hiring an SEO expert becomes a necessity of any business at some point of time in order to grow business online.   How much you should spend on SEO is a difficult decision to make but there are some firms that offer highest quality services that suit your pocket. Market Strategy and Webplanners is a leading affordable...

today’s Web world, every business should be online. No matter you own a small business house, a medium sized business factory, or a large corporate, most of your potential customers are looking for you online. By making most of your online presence, you can reach a larger market and attract more number of customers than existing ones. Being online, when paired with perfect search engine optimization, drives great traffic to your business site and helps you generate greater leads.   Webplanners is a leading professional SEO service provider across Melbourne, Australia. We specialise ...

Every business, small or large, must have a Website. No matter what business you do; even if it's not Web-based, having online presence of the business is always essential. Website is nothing but the most visible part of your business's online presence. It is a tool that lets people know about you, and see what products and services you offer.   In this digital business age, most of people look on the Internet for whatever they need to see, check, or buy. This way, Web becomes the biggest channel to attract and manage your prospective customers. There are endless possibilities of marketin...

Internet marketing has become one of the most popular and effective marketing tools today. A number of small business owners and large corporate have been using this technique since years. Search engine optimization is the base of Internet marketing process and choosing the right professional SEO service provider is highly important for any business.   There are thousands of competitors in any kind of business who also seek online presence. You are just one of this crowd. Great SEO makes your business stand out in a crowd online and in turn, generate greater leads. However, optimizing you...

Getting descent traffic to your business site is all about promoting your site; otherwise if not promoted, how can your site get a number of visitors? If you are not getting good and consistent traffic to your site, you are ought to follow a basic line of rules.   Promoting a site can be free or paid but it is advisable to use free promotion tools in the beginning and then switch to paid ones. You can start submitting your site to a variety of ad networks. Ad networks enable you to get good quality traffic to your site and convert most of the visitors into prospective customers.   So...