DON’T BE IGNORED!

Stardate: May 5, 2018 by - Search Engine Optimization, Web Sites

Googles New Indexing


Flashback photo to Rachel and her brother, Iain, looking surly when told they were not getting what they wanted. Cute (occasionally) in children, but not for website owners who want their hard work recognized and their website displayed prominently in search engine result pages.

Google has recently changed the way they index websites and has brought down the gavel on sites that do not display well on mobile devices.

Now that people use their phones and tablets more than laptops and desktop computers to browse the web, Google has made this change to better serve their users and give them better access to the information they are seeking and that is designed to be easy for them to access.

We have looked at web traffic statistics for most of our clients’ websites and confirmed mobile users now account for over 50% of all traffic. But many of our clients still have non-mobile websites. Globally, about 17% of small businesses do not have a responsive site.

If you have a non-mobile-friendly site then you will be ranked lower than if you have a mobile-responsive website. If you have a separate mobile site, from your main website, only your mobile site pages will be indexed. This is according to multiple articles we have reviewed, as well as communications directly from Google.

So if you don’t have a mobile-responsive website, the time has come to put this on your marketing priorities list for 2018.

Besides the new Google indexing, non-responsive sites can damage your business in other ways:

  • Mobile devices are projected to reach 79% of global internet use by the end of 2018.
  • 88% of consumers who search for a type of business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours.
  • Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to desktop conversion rates.
  • 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important.
  • According to Google, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site on mobile if they had trouble accessing it and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
  • Nearly 8 in 10 customers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device.
  • 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.

Please contact John if you’re in need of a new, mobile-friendly website.






GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTINGS

Stardate: July 9, 2017 by - Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

+ Free ad from Google!*

Google My Business Listings are free and an essential component of any modern company’s online marketing.

  • Being listed gives you a boost in organic (un-paid-for) search results and therefore leads to more traffic.
  • You can set up multiple service areas if you have more than one location so your customer sees the closest location when they look for you.
  • Connects directly to Google Maps so your customers can easily find your location on their mobile devices.
  • Makes it easy for your customers to leave reviews for your business.
  • Adds credibility to your business when your business is properly listed, with hours, photos, videos, service descriptions, etc.

Google My Business Listings show on the right side of a Google search engine page.  Please see the sample listing For Halo Blow Dry Bars.

*Now, Google is offering a free ad posts which shows within your listing.  Please see the Keratin ad on the sample listing.

Ads can be up to 300 words, include a graphic, and a call to action: “Learn more,” “Reserve,” “Sign up,” “Buy” or “Get offer.”

Ads are designed to be dropped from the listing after one week, but if you want an ad to run continually, we’ve got a work-around to do so.

We manage the Google My Business Listings for several clients and are contacting them about adding a promotion.

Please contact John to set up your business listing – or to add one of these new promotional resources to your existing listing.

 

GOOGLE ADWORDS EXPANDED TEXT

Stardate: August 17, 2016 by - Online Marketing

Here’s John, enjoying his clients’ AdWords reporting on a summer day in the garden.  He says this the new expanded text Google AdWords are a really big deal.

blog adwords

Expanded text AdWords ads are the next generation of text ads, designed for a mobile-first world.  They benefit users with more information before they click an ad and benefit advertisers by giving additional control over messaging.  This can mean higher quality clicks from users with keen interest in the subject while cutting down on lower quality clicks less likely to convert to a sale.  They are also better-designed for device responsiveness and display more clearly on devices from smartphone to desktop monitor.

More bang for your AdWords bucks!

This is all fairly new, but early reporting is showing expanded text ads are getting a 20% higher click through rate.  This is mostly because they are larger and stand out amongst the older, smaller ads.  Right now, we’re suggesting that we upgrade any old-style AdWords campaigns we have running for our clients.

There’s two main updates. The headline (purple text in the graphic below) can be 60 characters, rather than 25.  You can be more compelling and precise which leads to better quality clickers.  And, the ad display text (black text in the graphic below) has been expanded from two 35 character lines to a consolidated 80 character line.

This graphic shows how an expanded text ad will display on a smartphone vs. a monitor:

cs-ad-screenshot

 

Summary – better quality clickers = better quality conversions.

Google AdWords is a specialty of John’s.  Contact him at johnp@metapix.us or 408 252-8664 with any questions.

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