Google+ Key Features

Circles: You share different things with different people. But sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life.

Sparks: Remember when your Grandpa used to cut articles out of the paper and send them to you? That was nice. That’s kind of what Sparks does: looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share. Grandpa would approve.

Hangouts: Bumping into friends while you’re out and about is one of the best parts of going out and about. With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time. Let buddies know you’re hanging out and see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until we perfect teleportation, it’s the next best thing.

(Taken from http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)

The key differentiator of Google+ is the ability to segment your friends into different groups. Yes Facebook does already have a group facility, but Google+ really focuses on this as a core part of the platform. Their introduction into Circles video is below (FYI, we feel these videos are a little slow in terms of their tone and content. Normally Google do great videos, this unfortunately isn’t one of them!):

Google+ for Business

So what does Google+ mean for you and your business? Well Google have said that a range of business tools will come online later this year. Google’s product manager Christian Oestlien said:

“Right now we’re very much focused on optimising for the consumer experience, but we have a great team of engineers building a similarly optimised business experience for Google+. It’ll include things like rich analytics and the ability to connect that identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis like AdWords.”

At SMEketing we’re not yet sure how Google+ will incorporate itself into businesses, but we’re thinking that the use of Circles to segment contacts could be a very useful feature, as could the ability to create ‘Hangouts’ (aka conference calls) with specific Circles. The fact that it looks like Google+ might make it easier for business to communicate with their customers could be a key benefit. For many B2B organisations, Facebook has never really took off as a communication and engagement platform, so Google+ could be the filler to fill this gap.

It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with Google+. Certainly it has more media coverage and initial take up than their previous soirees into social media, but whether or not people will start moving from Facebook to Google+ is something we will have to wait a little longer to find out.

If you’re not on Google+ yet, send us an email to info@SMEketing.com and a member of the team will ping you over an invite.

However, this wasn’t just some minor tweak. Taken from the official Google Blog:

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking–a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries–and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites–sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites–sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

So basically, Google are saying that they want to reward websites with high quality, unique content which offers value to site visitors. This is what we’ve been preaching at SMEketing since we started – content is king!

For now, Google are only launching this new change in the US, but you can be sure it will soon roll out over their other Google sites – including the UK soon. Fingers crossed high quality sites will see their position boosted whilst we’ll see a reduction in the number of spam sites, such as content farms, in the search results.

If you need help with SEO, be it creating high quality content, optimising your website or building high quality links, please get in touch today for a free consultation or written proposal.

Fixed Costs: The cost of search engine optimisation will stay the same, irrelevant of how many clicks and visits your website gets. Compared to pay per click (PPC) advertising (such as Google AdWords), where the more clicks you get the higher the cost

Cost-effective Customer Acquisition: There are no fees required to have your website included in the natural search engine results. This makes it especially cost effective if you can rank well for quite competitive terms that would have cost a lot to bid on in PPC advertising. If you’re currently paying a lot for certain keywords in your PPC advertising, think how much you could save if you could get these clicks for free in the natural search!

Repeat Business: Studies have shown that customers gained from natural search results tend to be higher quality than those from other paid sources. These visitors stay on your site longer, have a higher chance of converting and are more likely to return to you again for further purchases.

Emphasis on Unique Content: Most search engine strategies will include a content strategy – a plan to create and add unique content to your site on a regular basis. Not only do search engines like this, but visitors do too. Fresh new content will provide a feeling of trust and authority to your visitors and will encourage them to buy. Blogs (like this one!) are a great way of providing new information in a format that helps your SEO efforts.

Credibility: If you’re well known in your industry, yet aren’t showing on the first page of Google for your main keywords, won’t that create an air of suspicion? To keep your brand perception at the required level you need to ensure you come top of the search engine results.

Improved Website Standards: Focusing on SEO will also force you to focus on the architecture and navigation of your site. Your site must comply with best practices in order to gain high rankings. This in turn also improves the usability of your website, giving your vistors a better user experience, making them more likely to turn in to customers.

To find out more about SMEketing’s SEO services - click here, or contact us for more information. Call 023 8083 7271 or email info@SMEketing.com.

Remember to follow us on Twitter  – @SMEketing!

So if you’re running a small business, your website must be found on Google to have a chance of connecting these targeted, high quality visitors to your website.

There are two ways to get visitors from Google.

• Using Google Adwords
• Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

These two methods come under the term “Search Engine Marketing” or “Search Marketing.” Google Adwords is a way of sending high quality visitors to your website immediately, by paying for it. SEO will provide a stream of free, high quality visitors to your website but can take up to a while for the best results to come through.

Both types of search marketing can be used to ensure your website reaches the visitors that you want to connect with.

What is Google Adwords? Google Adwords allows you to place small text based advertisements of your website on Google. Here’s how it works: You create text ads and choose keywords you think your customers would use to find you. Those text ads are displayed when someone types in one of your keywords. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad’s link and visits your website.

What is SEO? SEO is a way of ensuring your website is accessible to Google and has the best chance to rank higher than other websites that offer similar products/services. The theory behind SEO is simple: Ensure your website follows the Google webmaster guidelines to make it accessible. Create a website that is the more relevant to what you are offering then your competitors. Think about the keywords your customers would use to find you and use those words in relevant places throughout your website. Make it a high quality website so that other websites will link to you. I recommend that if you have invested in SEO (and I always advise that you do) you should also run a Google Adwords campaign until your SEO results appear.

Ensuring that your website ranks high in the Google results is vital to receiving high quality and quantity leads. You need to make sure your small business website is working as hard for you, as you are for your small business.

Managing a SEO and PPC campaign takes time, patience and a thorough understanding of the process. If you want to take advantage of the benefits of these solutions, but just don’t have the time or skills, contact us at SMEketing. We have experience in running campaigns for a variety of organisation, all who are now reaping the rewards!