Local Business Promotion 2013

It is amazing how many so-called SEO companies are falling by the wayside since Google is getting more sophisticated with respect to identifying legitimate entities and individuals rather than online sock puppets and other irreputable business models.

It seems more and more companies are being penalized for all of the automated and spammy linking techniques that may have worked a few years ago, but can actually get a website penalized today.  The whole machine generated linking thing was always suspect, so we would at times wonder why we are manually creating good content and posting them up to single locations on the web while others were blasting thousands of duplicate copies using tools that would complete that distribution in a matter of seconds. 

Google sure has its hands full with the spammers, but is gaining the upper hand with new tweaks to the algorithm. Panda 2.0 and other iterations to the search ranking algorithm is giving more credence to reputable sites with social followings and legitimate business locations. 

As we have always done everything manually, it is  becoming easier to help local businesses rank in this manner and beat out competitors while not jeopardizing their hard won gains in organic search traffic. 

At the end of the day, Google does not want to look bad for serving up a given URL, so in the interest of having their search results be more reliable and relevant, they have to weed out all of the bad apples and try to surface legitimate local businesses.

Those Pesky Calls from Google?

I am sure many of you have recently received that automated message that announces: "Your Google Listing needs to be updated" or some such.  In this day and age, it is amazing that phone spam still works or is even still allowed for that matter as it is disruptive.  This automated message then goes on to connect you to some voicemail in the U.K. or connect you with a live operator in the Phillipines or India.  They are trying to get at your personal information and also sign you up for spammy services which will just cost you more time, frustration and money not to mention giving your credit card number out to operations like this.    Google does not phone businesses up in this manner and someone posing as Google will eventually get slapped by the FTC - although their jurisdiction to stop such culprits offshore is limited.

Don't fall prey to all of the so called online experts that have surfaced recently, but trust your local business marketing to a local company that is a real business and has been helping businesses in the GTA increase their leads and sales online.

Call Webmad for information on web design and increasing your visibility locally and get your business found online.

Online and Video Marketing for 2013

Online marketing continues to evolve day by day and minute by minute.  Some positive trends for 2013 include more mobile friendly websites and also video marketing.


Video marketing does not need to be complicated, but having videos in addition to images and text will help give those people who prefer visual cues over text a better way to engage with your brand.
Videos are easier to watch than to read alot of text for many people.

Youtube and other video sharing sites are showing increasing viewership, so it may be time to get your business on board.  Contact Webmad to see how we can help you produce videos and market them for your business or brand.

Web Design Affected By The Penguin

In the last year, it seems the web spam team is back in the saddle at Google, wildly turning their knobs and dials to see how they can shake up search engine rankings.

For the most part they are fighting a tough battle against spammers around the world, while small businesses wonder how to get noticed online. Collateral damage is what occurs to good websites when Google turns a know a little too much in one direction.

Google and other search engines have always faced the challenge to serve up the best possible results while sticking to their mantra that "if you build it well, they will come".

As of today in May of 2012, that is still wishful thinking. The only way that works is if you are Amazon, Wikipedia or another gigantic brand who gets "brand points" from Google and an automatic pass to the front of the line. In one way this makes it even harder for small businesses to compete with big brands.

However, as with any algorithm tweak and change, if the foundation of a website is correctly done, then as the swings occur, different parts of a solid website may become more valuable.

There were times when rich media was preferred, optimized images and of course the good-old-standby, text. Nowadays, the text on a webpage needs to do more than drone on and on about the positive virtues of a particular business, but get a little more detailed in terms of exactly what makes that business better and how their product or service will actually benefit the reader (in 8 seconds or less please).

Writing is then more of an artform as the title must hook the reader to read paragraph one. The first paragraph must in turn, then get the reader to look at paragraph 2 etc.. Time on site is an important metric, so the more engaging a page is, the better it looks in Google's eyes. So the newest Penguin update from Google has killed hundreds of thousands of pages online while causing others to settle.

For the most part, that is a good thing as automated tools and other black hat promotional methods were being used by far to many entry level SEOs, whereas slow and steady will win this race and build a long term, sustainable business. Hope you have not encountered the penguin on your website. For more advice, website design and optimization, contact Webmad Internet Marketing and Design.

QR Codes Bring the Offline World Online

Does your business use QR Codes yet to drive traffic to your website? QR Codes or quick response codes are now sprouting up everywhere around town including local restaurants, magazines, newspapers, real estate signs and other places throughout the offline world.

Many companies are improperly implementing QR codes and sending traffic to their non-optimized website. This leaves a user pinching, squeezing and scrolling to find content on their desktop website instead of viewing a mobile optimized version of the main site.

Learn more about QR codes and how they can help your business, along with how easy it is to have a mobile optimized website to increase conversions to your business by mobile visitors.

Google Plus offers Business Pages

Google is not being outdone by Facebook and has launched business pages on Google Plus. Time will tell if the social platform can compete with Facebook, but Google maintains it is not really about competing with Facebook as much as allowing existing Google services users to connect by giving them their own platform.

In reality, competing with Facebook must certainly be on their minds in addition to their magnanimous reasons for doing so.

Social media has certainly evolved to contribute to the ranking signals Google uses to rate websites, so it should also be included in the ongoing promotion of important websites and pages.

SEO Oakville 2011

SEO report from Oakville Ontario Canada for June 2011

As the weather turns from freezing to muggy and hot overnight, the Oakville area managed to escape some of the severe storms that spawned tornados recently.

Another source of tornadic action online has been the recent Google Panda update.
Google is getting better and better at weeding out machine generated and useless content from quality content that will benefit readers.

Why does Google constantly tweak their algorithm? In order to remain the dominant force in search. Bing has made inroads recently at the expense of Google by taking away an additional sliver of the search engine pie, but Google still remains the leader. Google is leveraging many resources toward the coming explosion of smart phones and mobile technology,

The confluence of mobile and local search is all but a foregone conclusion as more and more consumers snap up Android phones, now the largest mobile operating system that is - you guessed it - owned by Google.

Oakville Ontario is home to over 170,000 residents and many businesses still believe that the only way to get attention for their brand or service is to put an ad in the newspaper.

Old school technology is being replaced by new ways of doing things whether we like it or not. See the current demise and closings of hundreds of Blockbuster Video stores across Ontario and Canada. All three Blockbuster locations including the store near Monastary Bakery and the one on Westoak Trails are closing their doors with a firesale of dvds. Online video, Netflix and other more reliable and cheaper sources along with pirated videos have made the video store a loosing business.

While the video stores go out of business, video views on Youtube (also owned by Google) are booming. With the new televisions that make it easy to combine facebook and youtube with tv viewing, Youtube in high def is now a feasable full-screen alternative to regular television programming or dvds.

What does all this have to do with SEO in Oakville for 2011. Everything! The message is that local businesses need to embrace the new forms of connecting with their audience through all of the internet channels where their customers may be. From facebook and twitter to Youtube, blogs and of course websites, businesses need to take their online presence more serious than ever.

Here is to getting more Oakville residents and visitors to find your business, service and product offerings in 2011 and beyond using the power of the internet.

Visit Webmad online for more on Oakville SEO.

Mobile Marketing Trends in Canada

Mobile marketing is the new online frontier. Google has committed to mobile ahead of desktop applications as the future of marketing. The mobile ad space is still cheap in relation to Adwords prices and the reach of the mobile advertiser is very targeted.

SMS marketing or text message marketing has become quite popular in Canada due to high open rates. Instead of a low open rate for emails, over 92% of text messages are opened.

The holy grail of marketing is to market to a customer where and when they need your product or service. With the new smart phones offering a wide variety of apps, an advertiser can geo-target advertising to a customer when they are in the vicinity of the offline store.

New services such as Foursquare in the States are offering check-in bonusses for loyal customers of a local business with the most loyal customer being promoted to online Mayor.

By combining a game element with local search and mobile marketing, targeted advertising just got a lot more interesting for primarily offline businesses.

Webmad Internet Marketing and Design builds mobile websites and connects offline businesses with online targeted traffic.