Instagram!

As Instagram Surpasses Twitter, Marketers Must Take Note

By Chris Crum

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Instagram is officially bigger than Twitter, and it has the power to let marketers target audiences at the same level as its parent company Facebook. If you're not taking it seriously as a marketing channel yet, what are you waiting for?

How have you leveraged Instagram in your marketing efforts? If you haven't, what is holding you back? Discuss.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram announced that the image and video sharing service has surpassed the 400 million monthly active users mark. It has added 100 million just since December.


I will be following up on this and getting yu more information on how I will add this to my SEO marketing efforts!


More to come soon!


Joe R

Solar is gaining steam!

This has nothing to do with SEO  but it is interesting:

By RAY HENRY and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Traditional power companies are getting into small-scale solar energy and competing for space on your rooftop.
The emerging competition comes as utilities and smaller solar installers fight over the future of the U.S. energy system. While the market for residential solar power remains a financial drop in the bucket for a big utility, the installation of solar panels overall grew by more than 50 percent in 2014 and is on track for another record-breaking year at time when the traditional utility business is pretty flat.
"The whole theory is you need to serve your customer or someone will serve them for you," said Raiford Smith, a vice president at CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas, where 3,000 customers are interested in getting utility-owned rooftop panels. "I think the entire market is in a race for rooftop."
These moves may have a range of effects for customers. The utilities experimenting in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Texas could make solar more affordable for average consumers by energizing competition and driving down prices. Some utility programs may be beneficial to people who cannot afford big up-front investments, get affordable loans or find existing solar leases too cumbersome.
Smaller solar companies fear the incumbents will use their power to drive competitors from the market. After all, every time an installer puts solar panels on a home, a utility company sells less power and makes less money.
These experimental programs are one part of a bigger, yearslong battle between the solar industry and utilities. Since 2013, legislation to limit rooftop solar has been introduced in nearly two dozen states.
Some utilities like NV Energy in Nevada and PNM in New Mexico have debated charging solar customers special fees since they still buy electricity from the traditional utility system but end up paying less money to support common infrastructure. Even small fees could have big consequences since the financial decision to install solar panels can be a close call for many consumers.
Solar panels remain pricey, at least upfront.
For example, Gregg Dufort said he wanted to install panels on his Phoenix home but couldn't justify spending $25,000 on an investment that he estimated would pay off in 20 years or more. He considered leasing solar panels, but found the multi-year leases would be difficult to end if he eventually sold or rented the property.
Instead, he became the first customer this year to lease part of his roof to Arizona Public Service Co., which installed all the equipment at its own cost. APS pays Dufort $360 in annual credits on his power bills. Arizona regulators capped the pilot program at 1,500 homes. So far, several dozen homes have been outfitted. Installations on another 500 homes are ongoing or will soon start.
"Somebody had to figure out a way to do it because we had this huge untapped energy source out here," Dufort said. "And the prohibitive part of it is the cost."
APS' manager of renewable energy, Marc Romito, said the utility will use the program to test new equipment, batteries and distribution systems.
Critics accuse APS of rigging the system by undervaluing the solar energy, which lowers prices and makes it difficult for rivals to compete. APS generally faces less risk than competitors since regulators grant the monopoly guaranteed profits on all investments, including solar panels.
Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power started in July helping customers interested in solar energy analyze their electricity usage. A utility website refers customers to multiple installers, including one run by an unregulated wing of Georgia Power itself.
Regulators will be watching to see if Georgia Power uses the advantages of its monopoly electric business — for example, customer databases, advertising budgets or staff — to subsidize its commercial solar venture. So far, no formal complaints have been filed.
In Michigan, Consumers Energy is asking that it get paid a referral fee anytime it successfully connects a customer with a solar installer. It's also offering financing for solar projects through a bank that specializes in home-improvement loans.
Bradley Klein, an attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said there should be a way for Consumers Energy customers to share their electrical usage data with any solar installer, not just those selected to participate in Consumer's program.
"As these markets are opening. We want to make sure there's full and fair competition and there's not an unequal playing field," he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article36897174.html#emlnl=Midday_Business_Report#storylink=cpy

Web app?

Ever want a web app for your business? We can create one for you!

Latest Google tips

First things first

Before you focus on off-page factors such as backlinks and social mentions, you should make sure that the on-page factors of your web pages are correct. On-page optimization is very important if you want to be found for the right search terms.

The content of your web pages must be relevant

There are several things that you can do to make sure that your web pages will be found for the right search terms:

• Make sure that your web pages are relevant for particular keywords and search terms. Focus on one or two key phrases per page.
  
  
• Modern search engine algorithms can determine the topic of a website. While it is important that a page is relevant to a keyword, it is also important that the site is relevant to the topic.
  
  Use different words to describe your products and services. If your website is relevant to a topic, it might be also found if the searcher uses a keyword that does not appear directly on your pages.
• Use your keywords in the titles of your web pages. That shows search engines that the web page is relevant to that keyword.
• Use the key phrase in a heading tag on your web page. It sometimes helps to have the targeted keyword in the page URL. The images on your web pages should contain related keywords. 
• The content of your web page should contain the keywords for which you want to be found on search engines. Do not write content for search engines but create useful web pages that help your website visitors.

It is important that your keywords appear in the right elements on your web pages. If you use the keyword too often, this can look like spamming.

From Axandra

From Joe.....

If you need content we have two content writers that can help you!  If you need help blogging or doing social media, we have three people who can help you!

Do you need help with your web page being compliant with multi platform capable? We can update you!

More to come soon!

Joe

guest blog from Randy Rundle

How Do You Market Your Business in Today’s World…?

Efficient marketing to customers in today’s world is critical to the life of your business and making your business grow and prosper. Unlike the old days when the radio and the newspaper were the too main choices, today there are literally dozens of ways to keep in contact with customers and make contact with new potential customers.

Here in lies the problem. If you are like most business owners your expertise lies in the product you sell. You started your business to market and sell a product that you are passionate about. If customers and friends talk to you in person they will have little doubt you “know you stuff” concerning the products you are offering for sale.

But as more and more of your customers depend on the internet and social media to not only stay in touch with friends and family but to shop for products and services they need, you as a business owner need to be involved in online marketing.

But if the Internet and social medial is not your area of expertise what then? That is where Joe Rossini comes to the rescue. Joe and his company Rossini Management Systems will manage you presence on the Internet and social media. Joe can tailor a special package designed just for your business to help you to establish a presence on the Internet and on social media. Current customers will find you and new potential customer will become aware of you and your company and what you do best.

Some of the best referrals come from current customers who know you and your business. They value the personal relationship they have with you and are willing to share that with their friends and family. Most often those referrals are shared online thru social media.

With Joe’s help you can continue to do what you do best and at the same time have an established presence on the web and social media.  That will help your business grow and prosper well into the future.

Until next time

Visit Randy's web page at http://www.fifthaveinternetgarage.com/

Google Is Implementing A Major Change On Tuesday

By: Chris Crum | Staff Writer

Google is continuing its efforts of driving nails into Flash's coffin. In June, the company announced it would start automatically pausing Flash in Chrome in an effort to save the battery life of users' computers and improve performance. The company announced this week that this functionality will begin rolling out on Tuesday, September 1. With this in mind, there are some things that advertisers need to be aware of.
Are you happy to see Flash on the way out or is Google going overboard? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Over the course of the past few years, Google has been giving advertisers tools and encouraging them to use HTML5 for their ads so they can reach more audiences across devices. There are several ways that advertisers who use Flash can transition to HTML5.
For one, Google announced back in February that AdWords would begin automatically converting Flash to HTML5, but this only works with eligible campaigns. Google talks all about eligibility guidelines in a help document here. They actually have a tool called Swiffy, which helps you test whether your ads can be automatically converted.
Advertisers can also create HTML5 ads with Google itself. It has an AdWords Ad gallery that lets you create a Lightbox ad from existing HTML5 templates and get custom ad ideas on your site's content and style. You can also download Google's Web Designer, which is a free HTML5 authoring tool for building ads for uploading to your Google Display Network campaigns.
Additionally, Google's DoubleClick Studio lets you browse HTML5 templates and build your own ads using the company's richmediagallery.com template database.
Finally, you can simply upload your own HTML5 ads.
"Whichever tool you choose, we recommend you take advantage of our best practices for building compelling display ads so you can reach prospective customers across all the browsers and devices they use," Google says.
You can find those here.
As September 1 approaches, Google is urging advertisers to identify any Flash ads in their account that aren't eligible for automatic conversion and to convert them to HTML5. The deadline is approaching.
Advertisers can see in their AdWords reports whether or not ads were converted. Just segment the ad table by devices. If you see mobile or tablet impressions for a Flash ad, it was converted. Google noted when it first announced automatic conversion it would begin providing a notification on all converted Flash ads in late 2015.
Google doesn't allow Flash ads that don't support the clickTAG variable, which is the tracking code Google assigns an individual ad and allows it to register where the ad was displayed when it was clicked. It says that on any click, the ads should redirect to the URL specified in the clickTAG argument, and there should be any other redirection in between. Note that the variable name has to be spelled exactly like "clickTAG" with the upper-case TAG and no space.
Google has been doing everything it can to help phase out Flash for years. As mentioned, this is only the latest nail in its coffin. Early this year, the company announced that it is now defaulting to the HTML5 player on the web for YouTube embeds, moving to iframes. Additionally, it announced the deprecation of the old style of Flash embeds and Flash API.
Additionally, on the organic SEO side of things, as a result of Google's mobile-friendly update in April, Flash content can now cost in you in search rankings.
As the company tells webmasters in its mobile SEO guide, "Avoid common mistakes that frustrate mobile visitors, such as featuring unplayable videos (e.g., Flash video as the page's significant content). Mobile pages that provide a poor searcher experience can be demoted in rankings or displayed with a warning in mobile search results."
Google has of course been warning against this for years.
All the way back in 2013, the company said this in a Webmaster Central blog post: "Many websites embed videos in a way that works well on desktops but is unplayable on smartphone devices. For example, if content requires Adobe Flash, it won't be playable on an iPhone or on Android versions 4.1 and higher."
"Instead of using a proprietary video player or putting content in unsupported formats, we recommend using HTML5 standard tags to include videos or animations," Google says. "For animated content rendered using Flash or other multimedia players, consider using HTML5 animations that work across all web browsers. Google Web Designer makes it easy to create these animations in HTML5."
Of course, Google isn't the only one encouraging people to move away from Flash. Bing is also moving to a more mobile-friendly search environment. Facebook's security head recently called for the death of Flash after recent vulnerabilities came to light, and last week, Amazon announced that it is no longer accepting Flash ads (also as of September 1).
Last month, we looked at a report from Sizmek, which found that advertisers are still running a ridiculous amount of Flash ads despite the fact that they default to static displays on mobile devices, which likely means fewer clicks. You can read about that here.
Are you still using Flash in any way? For web content? Ads? If so, what is keeping you from moving on? Let us know in the comments.

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow Chris on Twitter, on StumbleUpon, on Pinterest and/or on Google: +Chris Crum. View all posts by Chris Crum

SEO or paid search what is best?

In the long term, SEO is better because it delivers lasting results( By Axandra)

Paid search marketing is great because it provides quick results. You will get the first visitors minutes after the launch of your paid search campaign. Unfortunately, you won't get any more visitors as soon as you stop paying.

To achieve high rankings in the organic search results, you have to develop good web pages and good links that point to your site. It takes much longer to get high rankings with SEO. Fortunately, most websites keep their rankings for a long time.

In the long run, SEO is a much better value than paid search marketing. If you have a business that is meant to stay, SEO is the way to go.

In the short term, SEO is better because you are forced to improve your website

If you use paid search marketing, your website will get visitors because you pay for them. With SEO, you get website visitors because your website is good.

If you use SEO to promote your website, you are forced to optimize your web pages: the content, the usability, etc. Although this requires more work, your website and your revenue will benefit greatly from these changes.

Google AdWords is better if you need immediate results

Paid search marketing on Google AdWords and other sites is great if you have the money and if you need website visitors now.

If you want to get high rankings that last without paying for every single click, use SEO to promote your site. In the long run, SEO has a much better return-on-investment.

I believe in a total philosphy, submit to the search engines and directories, do pr releases, write blogs, do social media and maybe yes do some paid Google Adwords.  Together put all of it into the mix and you have or should have success!

More to come!