Here are a few nuggets to consider from all Internet users:

15% of Twitter users have household incomes of over [...]]]> Who uses Twitter is changing rapidly. It’s no longer marketing people between the ages of 35 and 55, rather now a group of potential consumers for your products and services with money to spend.

Here are a few nuggets to consider from all Internet users:

15% of Twitter users have household incomes of over $75,000.

18% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 to 29 years old

14% of Twitter users are between 30 to 49 years old.

15% of Twitter users have a college degree or higher.

13% of all online adults report that they have used Twitter

You can read all the demographics and review trends in this very interesting report.

The bottom-line is that Twitter is a great way to reach a very important buying market. It’s a place where your business needs to be and can connect with potential customers. If you’re not sure how to get started with Twitter please make sure to check out our Twitter Management services.

Now, [...]]]> In the last two to three years I have seen a growing trend of specialization on the Web. When I started out in business in 2001, we could do it all for clients: web design, optimization, and site promotion. The Web environment was simpler then. With the advent of e-commerce, that all changed.

Now, you really need specialist in many areas such as e-commerce, mobile website, mobile marketing, pay per click, YouTube videos, web design, and content creation. The days of one business being able to supply all the needs for your online presence is rapidly changing. Why is this so? The degree of complexity and uniqueness of each of these avenues has changed immensely over the last few years.

The best case in point is with e-commerce. As complex as shopping carts are now, and the degree of difficulty in setting up accounts and implementing credit card security you must know what you are doing to be security compliant. Add in issues such as New York state having a terribly complex sales tax situation (where the percentage is driven by zip code and not necessarily by county or city) and you add in another layer of difficulty.

In this year, I expect to see a boon in web design for smartphones and tablets. Although many websites still look good on smartphones having to pinch and drag the screen to navigate to important contact information is simply irritating. Having a great mobile site this year may be one of your most important items on your own wish list.

Specialization in search engine marketing has also been another growth area. With Google AdWords becoming so complicated, many consumers are looking to professional managers, such as ourselves, to off load the degree of difficulty and time it takes to use and understand Google AdWords for online lead generation.

As I look back over the years I’ve been in business, it is interesting to see these trends develop. All I can say is, that I am glad we chose to diversify, and will continue to do so to stay relevant to our customer base.

Our February 2012 newsletter issue, is an important newsletter about my thoughts on Google+ and the strategic actions that I feel you should take now. Although my firm does not offer client services yet for Google+ account updates or business page updates, what you should do about Google+ should not wait for [...]]]> Dear Friend,

Our February 2012 newsletter issue, is an important newsletter about my thoughts on Google+ and the strategic actions that I feel you should take now. Although my firm does not offer client services yet for Google+ account updates or business page updates, what you should do about Google+ should not wait for our services to be rolled out.

I feel that Google+ and +1′s will be extremely important to your organic search placement and warrant careful and close consideration now. In fact, there are several actions you should take within the next 30 days.

If I can help you implement these early steps, just let me know.

Best Regards,

Nancy McCord

What You Should Strategically Do About Google+ Now and In the Near Term

Much has happened just in the last month on Google.com and specifically with Google+. In fact so much so, that I wanted to make sure that all of our newsletter subscribers and clients knew my feelings about how to use Google+ and its importance for organic placement for the future.

First, let’s talk about the actions you should take immediately:

1. Tie your preferred Google account with Google+.
2. Lock down your business name as a Google+ Business page.
3. Lock down a business page with your most important short keyword phrase.
4. Link your Google AdWords program to your Google+ account user name.
5. Implement Google +1 on your blog and your website.

These important first steps can easily be done by you or by us. If you need help, please ask us for it as what will be happening with Google+ in the near future is very important to your online visibility.

Second, let’s talk about what Google+ and +1′s are:

Google+ is a social platform. It is not like Facebook but more like Facebook and Twitter combined. However, is it much more important than any of the social networks we know and use now.

You could consider Google+ like a voting and popularity network but one that has the ear of Google. Anything you do on Google+ will most certainly impact your website’s organic placement and Web Visibility in the future. Google has said as much in their releases. Google has additionally stated just this past month that it will be showing social results from your Google+ network in their personalized search results.

What this means is that for people and businesses that embrace Google+ early and start building their network now, there will be strong benefits for their updates and links. This activity will be shown in your own personal and expanded network’s search/social results.

+1′s are Google’s versions of votes. If you like a page, like an ad, like a blog post, like a Google+ comment, you vote it up using a +1. What is crucial to understand is that a +1 is tied to your Google+ activity. These +1 votes will impact your visibility and placement on Google in the new Google Search Plus Your World results.

Third, let’s talk about Google Search Plus Your World:

In mid January, Google rolled out an important change to their search index. They named it Google Search Plus Your World. In my industry we call it Search Plus. Google stated that they will be using activity, updates, Google+ activity, and +1 activity in the search results that they deliver to your personally and to those in your Google+ network.

What is interesting is that even if you are logged out of your Google account, Google is still tracking your activity. Of additional importance is the announcement that the social related results that will be shown in the Google.com index are personally selected for you and WILL contain Google+ activity across your Google+ social network.

That means if you start building your network now, your information and website could be appearing in search results for a very broad network of readers and potential prospects. As this activity comes from your personal network, just like a word of mouth referral, links to you and your profile will most likely carry more authority and legitimacy in the eyes of potential clients. Everyone weights a reference by a friend about a business more than a written review found randomly on the Web. This will be the real impact of Google+ and +1′s in the very near future.

Fourth, why should you take the actions mentioned on this page now:

Based on this new focus for Google, you need to start flowing through search and social activity into your Google+ and +1 bank. If you don’t have accounts, Google can’t tie the activity to you specifically.

If you wait to tie up your business page and top keyword phrase named Google+ Business page, you may find that someone else has tagged it; locking you out of words and phrasing that will be very important to your Google presence in the very near future. Even if you do nothing yet with these new accounts, they will be tied to you so that when you do want to use them you can.

Fifth, why is this so important?

All of these actions to take and the information in this newsletter are important is because the business that is driving this action is Google. As Google owns 65% of the online search market, to be positioned well on Google means taking full advantage of what Google considers important. It is very important to understand that Google+ is not Facebook. Google considers Google+ and +1′s integral to the new face of search and how search results are shaped and delivered. Do not be fooled into thinking that this is just a social network. These new Google offerings are very important and should be embraced quickly and completely for your future organic placement benefit.

Don’t wait beyond 30 days to take the actions we recommend. When Twitter first came out many clients did not move into the platform as they considered it just a time drain. For the clients we work with that embraced Twitter early, many have networks of followers well over 2,500 active users; allowing for some serious marketing action and site promotion. Our recommendation is that Google+ is by far the most important new technology to have come out in the last three years. Don’t miss your opportunity to start now so that you can take full advantage of the future possibilities.

About Our Future Services

My firm does not offer Google+ updating services yet, but will when Google allows for the scheduling of status updates. For now keeping your Google+ page updated is done manually without any automation tools – by Google’s design.

We do however offer Google+ account set up and Google+ Business page set up as well as +1 implementation on your blog and website at our hourly rates of $80 per hour. If you have done set up yourself and we manage your Google AdWords advertising account, make sure to send us your Google+ information so we can tie your accounts together.

To get into our work schedule for set up, implementation or our Google+ services waiting list please contact me today.

I found the article [...]]]> I read with interest an article in the Washing on Post on Sunday about how Doctors are combating online reviews by requiring patients to sign that they will not review the doctor or their services online in exchange for keeping the patient’s email address private from third party marketing use.

I found the article troubling, as I have used online reviews to select a doctor before and routinely review a physician online before scheduling an appointment. Of issue was what almost appeared to me to be blackmail – “don’t share your experience or we’ll sell your email to spammers”. Worse yet, was the closing paragraph where one physician reviewed stated that he/she routinely goes online and writes glowing fake reviews about themselves.

The importance of legitimate online reviews for both physician review and even for Google Places simply cannot be downplayed. As reviews become more important for online businesses and localized search results become more predominant in search results on Bing.com and Google.com I am expecting the search engines to roll out this year an authorization tie in to one of your social profiles to afford legitimacy. In fact, I feel that in light of this article clear identification and legitimacy of online reviews is overdue.

As to businesses and the physician in this case requiring a patient to sign away review rights for services to be provided, is simply draconian and worthy of boycott.

First, here’s a graphical image from TechCrunch and LiveStream that explains the concept of EdgeRank.

Just as PageRank is to Google.com placement, EdgeRank is to Facebook placement in a reader’s News Feed. In other words, your EdgeRank on Facebook will determine if a fan sees your updates in their News Feeds and where.

First, here’s a graphical image from TechCrunch and LiveStream that explains the concept of EdgeRank.

The formula for Facebook's EdgeRank.

The bottom-line is that when you have more comments, likes, and tags on a Facebook Business Page wall post, your EdgeRank will be higher. Additionally new news is preferred over old news. If your EdgeRank meets a certain threshold, your post will be show in a subscriber or fan’s News Feed. There appear to be not only EdgeRank numbers for posts but for whole Facebook accounts.

Here’s one free tool that I have found that allows you to check your own Business page’s EdgeRank.  Most of the pages we work with that have under 100 fans but more than 80 fans will have an EdgeRank that is about 12 to 15 or average. The free interface is quirky and you may have to refresh the page several times to see your numbers, but this tool will give you a general idea.

Can you ever really know your “real” EdgeRank. Most likely not. It seems this number is like Google’s PageRank (not to be confused with Google Toolbar PageRank) and is secret and a part of the special algorithm that racks and stacks sites.

So what can you do to improve your Facebook EdgeRank?

• Post regularly on Facebook.
• Post four to five times a day on Facebook.
• Post shareable items that are current events or trending topics.
• Move away from an all about me focus.
• Actively work to engage readers.
• Start a log sheet of all fans when added as Facebook will hide their names once added.
• Use your list of fans to interact with @messages.

If you have additional suggestions or thoughts on Facebook EdgeRank, make sure to click comments and let me know!

Here’s just one important example. My business name used to be McCord Web Design. I incorporated over four or five years [...]]]> Google is now changing your title in the search results. In fact they may or may not pick up your specially crafted meta tag title at all. I find this troubling and annoying.

Here’s just one important example. My business name used to be McCord Web Design. I incorporated over four or five years ago and now our name is McCord Web Services LLC. Just this past week in the Google index, the title of my website changed in the Google index from my careful crafted title to “McCord Web Design”! I don’t and have not used that name in years! Additionally there is no code on my entire site that carries my old name. Sheesh, I hate that. You can’t correct a problem like this or even complain about this issue to Google.

If this has happened to you, just be sure that in time it will go away. Bing did the same thing (created its own website title) several years ago and is now showing the real meta titles in their index. So annoying as it is that Google has done this, most likely this will eventually go away.

So, in the meantime, know that any references you find in the Google index to McCord Web Design, are really McCord Web Services. Good grief Google stop tweaking my code for your index!

The Google Webmaster Central [...]]]> Just this past Friday, Matt Cutts, a key engineer at Google, announced an algorithm update for Google that is biased against ads. Although this update doesn’t have a name yet (and it will soon), it is a filter to remove websites from Google’s index that are top heavy on advertising.

The Google Webmaster Central blog spoke in-depth about the algorithm. You can read the full article from this link. Here’s what Google says about the change:

“In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we’re launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a web page and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.”

“We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads. “

Google again is reasserting that content is key to relevancy and thus to organic placement. With too much ”stuff” above the fold (what is visible on your screen before you have to scroll), you will now be dinged by Google in the search results. Take heed as you don’t want your website or blogsite that is even heavy with images to be caught in the filter.

Introducing WP-Touch, this [...]]]> The future for web traffic is in mobile and tablets. I don’t think anyone in my industry could disagree. Based on a growing use of handheld tools to access the Internet, now there’s an easy to use WordPress plug-in that takes your WordPress website or blog and makes it instantly mobile-friendly.

Introducing WP-Touch, this plug-in takes your blog and converts it based on a mobile stylesheet into the perfect readable option for smartphones or tablets. There are nice configuration options for the display to iPad users, but once installed smartphone users can still opt to see your blog the desktop way or the smart mobile way.

To the right you can see a screenshot of what a smartphone user will see when they visit your blog once the plug-in is installed. The posts are now set up by date, comment and share counts are noted and there is a link to view the full blog post. At the very bottom of the screen your reader can toggle to see the blog or website the regular desktop application way.

This WordPress plug-in is a smart and easy way to make sure that you are mobile-friendly. Check it out by visiting the plug-in author’s page.