Venerdi. Viernes. Venderdi. Frietag. What’s in a name? That which we call a Friday, by any other name would smell as sweet. Google is on the rampage again and professional social media network LinkedIn has surprisingly been making news. A few other familiar names have also spurred into action but more on that later.
NEWS
10 Day Panda Update by Google
Google has been very busy with updates this summer, their most recent one being the 
Panda 2.0. A newer update for Panda was released on June 18th, 2013. According to a Google correspondent, “In the last few days we’ve been pushing out a new Panda update that incorporates new signals so it can be more finely targeted.” Perhaps this is a method of remedying all the confusion created by Google’s updates in the first place but Google has announced that they will be rolling out updates on a monthly basis over a period of 10 months to allow marketers to gradually adapt to the updates. Read more at Search Engine Journal.
LinkedIn Sponsored Updates are shown to People That Don’t Follow Them
Up until now, LinkedIn would only show you updates from companies that you follow on their social networking site. Taking a leaf out of Facebook’s book, LinkedIn has allowed brands to share business content which may include company news, presentations and videos. Companies will be able to project the image that they want to the professional community in a more targeted manner. This targeting will be done according to the profiles of Linked In members. Read more at Venture Beat.
Favicons introduced in Google AdSense
Although a very miniscule change to the Google Ad format, the addition of the Favicon is a change which might just have a subtle influence on the way that user view the ads. They will allow the ads to become instantly recognizable. A Favicon is a small icon which will accompany a text ad usually indicating the nature of the advertisement.
Twitter: Caught in the Act of Faking Tweets
Twitter announced its new product, the TV-ad platform to a larger audience on July 23rd. The graphic that was used to promote the product however included some comments which were simply gushing over the products. These comments were unfortunately faked by Twitter in order to stir some positive reactions. The problem was that the names and identities used were that of actual people. The Twitter users were now mentioned in a graphic being seen by millions of people who had no idea about the tweet since it did not show up on their newsfeed Twitter apologized to the affected users. Read more at Venture Beat.
Google Analytics Bid Adjustment Reports
Google has recently announced the introduction of the new Bid Adjustments Reporting in Google Analytics. What this new feature will do is let you optimize your bid adjustments. After analysis of how bids are doing across devices, the marketer can adjust his bids according to users behavior and taking advantage of user metrics. The option can be accessed through Traffic Sources> Advertising> AdWords> Bid Adjustments. Read more at Google’s BlogSpot.
Google’s Volatile Behavior Confuses Users Yet Again
Google seems to be doing some tweaking behind the curtains as website owners notice erratic changes in temperature and rankings. Moz narrates their own experience of the occurrence following a tweet by Matt Cutts claiming that the algorithm changes will span over a period of three weeks. Google seems to be in the testing stage since the change in ranking spiked immediately after the change and then reverted to normal. Read more at Moz.
USEFUL POSTS FOR READING AND BOOKMARKING
Designing for Readability
One thing that is for sure when it comes to the internet is that content is king. Some website developers however lose sight of one of the most important elements of the content which enables communication with the user. Text is usually considered as an afterthought and not given much graphic importance. Readability in text is an important feature. If the text on your website is not readable or difficult to decipher amidst loud graphics, users will not stay on the page. Read tips on how to make use of typography to enhance readability at Design Shack. Tips include length, space and contrast and word breaks.
Free Image Editors
Mashable has rounded up a list of image editors that can be found for free on the internet. Although not as flexible as Photoshop, these editors are great for amateurs looking to improve their editing skills without having to shell out the extra cash. Amidst the controversy surrounding the Adobe Creative loud perhaps it’s better to try you had at these and wait for the CC issue to blow over. Image editors include Pixlr, Sumo Paint and Splash up among others.
The Most In-Demand Start Ups on the Internet
A study by LinkedIn analyzed the interactions of engineers and developers with local companies who had less than 500 employees. This year’s study predicts that the most successful of the millions that are in the running are CloudEra, DropBox, Violin Memory, Nimble Storage and a few others. Read the full list and the reasons for their potential success at Venture Beat.
How fashion Brands Collect Customer Information using Email
Even though means of user communication have radically changed, brands and companies are still making use of email as a marketing medium. In fact it is still one of the most effective sand popular methods of driving sales. An email sign-up form allows the brands to communicate with their customers. Some are good at this task sending immediate welcome emails or the option to continue browsing and shopping on their website. Hugo Boss on the other hand did not follow up its claim to send regular updates. Read more examples over at Econsultancy.
Strategies for Local Businesses to benefit from Penguin
The Penguin 2.0 which is a more comprehensive update allows Google to weed out spam websites that overload their pages with unnatural links. This is good news for local businesses since Penguin will allow them to rise in rankings in local searches without being buried under global and unnatural results. Some tips for benefiting from this update include obtaining local citations. These will increase in importance after this update and the more you mention your location, the more likely you are to show up in results. Guest Blogging and reviews are other ways that you can make use of Penguin. Read more tips at Search Engine Journal.
Tips for Creating Slides and Presentations
After her success at MozCon and chosen as Slide of the Day by SlideShare, Aleyda Solis explains how she was able to achieve such interesting presentations which keep the viewer hooked onto the information. She advises to tell the presentation in the form of a story where one thing leads to another. Visual indicators of elements are also a good way of making them better. See the rest of her story at Moz.
Ideas for Blog Posts for any Niche
Writers block is a very real thing and can be very irksome if you’re a regular blogger. Joe Hall shares some ideas that would allow you to write for any kind of niche when you run out of ideas. He suggests the creation lists such as top ten, How-To articles and Celebrity style. Read more at Internet Marketing Ninjas.
Using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
LinkedIn sponsored updates were mentioned above and we already have tips and tricks on how to make the best use of them. This is why you have got to love the internet. After being selected for Beta testing the feature, Sibley defines the steps to creating your own sponsored update. Updates can be added to existing campaign or created from the Ads Manager. Read How at their Hubspot Blog.
Testing the formulae for Landing Page Headlines
By analyzing three case studies of headlines on landing pages, Aagaard was able to determine which method would be best suited for them. The formulae that he included in his experiment were The ‘Question’, the ‘Benefit’ and the ‘Loss Aversion’. The question formula asks the viewer for their opinion. An example is “Would you like to get rid of credit card debt?” Benefit would promise something such a 50% discount on shoes and loss aversion would showcase a problem being avoided such as “Avoid online betting scams”. His results showed that Benefits was the most effective followed by Loss aversion and then Question. Read more at UnBounce.
INFOGRAPHICS AND VIDEO
Keywords for Subject Lines in Email
A study by Adestra shows that the word ‘alert’ has a 61.8% click through rate and a 38.1% open rate. ‘Free delivery’ follows with an open rate which is 50.7% higher and a 135.4% click rate. Words such as ‘report’ (-23.7 open and -54.8% click rate) and ‘learn’ (-35.5%, -60.8%) had a negative effect. View the infographic at MarketingProfs to understand which keywords you should use in your Email campaign.
How does Duplicate content affect search?
The Google Webmaster YouTube channel posted a video in reply to a comment asking how duplicate content such as legal requirements, disclaimers and terms and conditions affect search quality. They claimed that repetitive content is usually filtered out by Google’s search engine and it might affect the rankings of their pages/ The Google representative however said that this was not a cause for concern since Google realizes the importance of such content and only takes legal action when content is filled with unnatural links or is spammy. View the video at YouTube.
How does Google Treat Hidden Text?
Websites often break down their data into sections and put them in collapsible areas or other pages which can be accessed through the click of a button to facilitate easy navigation on a page. A commenter posed the question about how Google treats such information was posted on YouTube. The reply was that similar to the previous one where they said that unless the data is stuffed with keywords or there are 6 pages of content underneath the link, action is not taken against this practice.
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