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Using Google+ Posts for Improved Web Visibility

Get going with Google+ for your business.
Get going with Google+ for your business.

Here are just a few tricks to help with web visibility when it comes to using Google+. First, it is important to know that your posts will appear in the Google.com search index. Your first line will actually appear as the title in the search results, so make sure that you consider what you’ll write first and make it work to your advantage.I’ve found more often than naught that my personal profile posts will be in the search results more frequently than my business page posts. Remember also that there is no limit on the number of links that you can add to a post, but I recommend not going link crazy. You’ll want something readable yet memorable while still being sharable for your update.

I’ve found that the Google+ community is more visual than text oriented and so make sure to use images, links — as Google will auto add the image for you, and videos.

While you are thinking of how you can leverage Google+ to your advantage, don’t forget to optimize your About page. You can embed links into your profile information so make sure to point back to important pages for more information on your website.

Google does not allow automation or scheduling of any kind to personal profiles. They do however allow automation to business pages. This unique difference assures that the voice on your Google+ personal profile is real. This authenticity is one of the reasons that I personally like Google+ but find it problematic for client’s to embrace for their own business’ web visibility. For now we don’t offer Google+ status update writing to personal pages, but do provide services posting to business profiles.

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Matt Cutts States ECommerce As We Know It Is Dead

This video from Google’s Lead Web Spam Engineer, Matt Cutts, literally quashes ecommerce as we know it. Make sure you watch this video which states Google’s view of ecommerce sites and be prepared to give up trying to get organic placement for ecommerce enterprises that are reselling products.

Watching this video from Matt Cutts is incredibly concerning and illustrates a HUGE change from Google in regards to how stores can and will be placing and thus selling on Google.com.

Here’s the hard truth from the video:

1. If you are not selling your own unique products, but rather selling someone else’s products as an affiliate or reseller, you must have unique product content on your pages and invest in differentiating yourself from other competing sites as Google will no longer allow you organic placement on Google.com. Matt Cutts clearly states the harsh reality in this video – as an issue for Google in regards to search quality.

2. If you do set up a store borrowing product content from your manufacturer you should expect to only be able to bring in sales and traffic from an investment on Google AdWords. Paying for SEO services to assist your site in improving organic placement will be money wasted if you have not addressed the most important consideration for your site’s ranking which Cutts says is the issue of duplicate content.

3. Matt states that if you don’t have the time or where with all to create unique content for your products, that you should not be posting them and selling on the Web.

With nearly all ecommerce stores picking up cookie cutter content on products this is a very huge hit from Google in regards to how store can and should sell on the Web. Will this impact stores like Amazon and big box stores like Best Buy? Certainly, but the greater impact will be on small enterprises that have made a good living from selling on the Web and have just recently seen their organic placement drop from the Google Panda update.

As I watched the video, I grew increasingly concerned that these new revelations would have serious and long term impact in regards to how small business owners will sell and promote their products on the Web. I see this as a very strong shift to move businesses into paying to play on Google by forcing businesses to get visibility using Google AdWords. As I provide AdWords services this is not necessarily a bad thing for my business, but a very strong indicator and warning to the SEO industry that Google is changing their business model significantly.

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Google Tag Manager – Changing the Way You Add Code to Your Website

You may have missed this in the last several months and so I wanted to bring the Google Tag Manager to your attention. Tag Manager is a revolutionary way to add code to your own or clients’ websites. With so many improvements and changes happening at Google, for some websites and particularly larger sites implementing code to track activity or conversions can sometimes be problematic and time consuming. Tag Manager solves these problems.

With the Google Tag Manager you simply install, just after the <body> tag in your code, one snippet of JavaScript code. Once in place you will be able to control what code is shown (in this external script file) from within the Google Tag Manager control panel.

Want to add Google Analytics? No problem! Want to add AdWords conversion tracking to two pages on your website? No problem. You can do it all not from the website but rather from the Tag Manager control panel.

With advanced rules and controls you can select what code shows on what pages all from within one location. With new AdWords remarketing features planned for 2013 now’s the time to get Tag Manager code in place on your website and migrate your account IDs into a new interface. I think you’ll find management easier and implementation of future code a snap!

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Help Me Support Legislation for Gun Control

Dear Readers,

I don’t usually write off topic on my blog, but I am so sickened by the events of Friday December 14 and the killing of young innocent school children that I cannot keep silent. Americans need to rise up to demand the control and licensing of guns.

Here’s how you can help.

Go to We The People create an account and sign the petitions you see to demand that our President work to enact effective discourse and changes on gun control and the right to bear arms.

This site is a part of the White House site. Many of the gun legislation petitions have received more than the needed number of 25,000 signatures in just a few days to demand a response from the White House on an action plan. Please join me in making a difference for our country and our children to prevent further incidents where mentally ill or temporarily deranged persons can access guns and subject our society to further terror and violence in places like movie theaters, schools, and shopping malls.

Although I am a gun owner myself, I recommend the licensing and required training of any gun owner. I recommend the total ban on automatic weapon sales and on assault rifles and military hardware to civilians. I would be willing to give up some of my freedoms to allow for a greater level of safety for our public benefit. It is shameful that we have allowed so many innocents to die just over this past year as our government has been paralyzed or held sway by lobbyists from enacting meaningful gun control reform. How many more must die, how many more families will suffer, how can we continue to allow the sale of automatic weapons to be in the hands of our populace where they can be legally used by unbalanced people?

I entreat you that your voice matters in this issue. Rise up with me and fight to demand that our government take actions to immediately prevent further violence and to protect the rights of families and children to be safe from fear in our schools, workplaces, and communities through meaningful gun control registration and legislation.

Nancy McCord
President of McCord Web Services LLC