Google Changes Will Impact Millions of Small Business Websites
Beginning October 24th, Google is making a significant change that will see the majority of small business websites affected. From this date, the digital giants are flagging all sites without an SSL Certificate as “not secure” when a user interacts with a form on the page. If you operate a small business, there is a good chance that this will have an impact on your website and spring a lot of questions and doubts about website visitors.
SSL Certificates are small files that keep cryptographic keys of a business or organisation’s identifiable details. It creates secure connections between the web server and to the browser being used. It is commonly used for websites that might require a log-in, data transfers, credit card transactions and more recently, social media browsing. SSL will encrypt all user inputted details in an attempt to have them safely delivered to the server and is essential for protecting information from hackers and identity thieves. When you come across a website with a valid SSL Certificate, you will see a padlock in the browser.
Do I need an SSL certificate?
Yes, and Google thinks so too! All websites that require the user to put in some type of data should have an SSL Certificate. This is especially true for any sites taking credit card transactions. In this case, an SSL Certificate is an absolute must according to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. By being able to encrypt and protect user data from potential hackers and identity theft, you create a sense of trust with your visitors.
How Google is taking a stand
Google will now flag up any page that does not have an SSL Certificate when a user goes to input information into any type of form. They warned site owners by sending out notices earlier this month who have not switched from HTTP to HTTPS. These warnings said that any page that did not switch by October 24th would be marked as “NOT SECURE.” Even if a user enters a website under “incognito” mode, the same message will flash up in Chrome.
This means that HTTP websites with forms with text inputs will be more difficult to find in Google searches. This change mainly focused on text input of credit card details and passwords, but it will now have an effect on those sites with search engine bars, contact forms, and login panels.
Google is making these changes to help warn website owners and visitors of the vulnerability of the web and hopes it will encourage the switch to HTTPS.
What websites will be affected by this?
A Google report last year showed that 79 out of 100 of the top non-Google websites did not use HTTPS by default, even though it is considered a fundamental security feature and a must-have. That means millions of other sites, especially those belonging to a small business, that do not have the SSL Certificate. This is usually only down to not bothering with the extra effort, as implementing an SSL Certificate is seen as just making things more complicated.
Don’t get caught out and lose potential customers! Get your SSL Certificate in place, so your visitors know their information is kept safe, giving a good sense of security and building trust with your brand. Matter Solutions are here to help sort your SSL Certificate needs. If you’re unsure where to start getting that SSL Certificate or have any questions about your site, call one of our experts today, and we will get your site safe and trusted by visitors.
All agencies want their office to be as productive as possible. Many are willing to adopt new ways that will improve this, making them a more efficient company. The answer to seamless productivity in the office may be right under your noses thanks to Google. G Suite by Google puts all of your most useful products in one handy suite that allows users to complete work easily either independently or in a team.
Work Remotely
With G Suite, not all employees have to be in the office to make for a productive workplace. Your work is kept in the cloud so you and colleagues can access it anywhere and on any platform. Whether PC, laptop tablet or mobile phone, you can pick up and share your files with anyone. Instead of sending an email attachment, simply invite others to a file to view, download, or collaborate. The latest version will be kept on Google Drive, so the latest version is available to all.
If you don’t have access to the internet, you can still work on those slides, spreadsheets, and documents with no problem.
Work Together
You can collaborate with colleagues in real time on documents with G Suite. When we say real-time, we mean as the letters are being typed. Have a question about what’s being written? Then talk about it with questions in the comments section with built-in chat. The whole team can work on the document at the same time, and all changes are saved automatically.
Schedule meetings on your shared calendars and have the e-mail invites sent out automatically. Meetings do not need to be done in the same office. You don’t even have to be in the same country! Connect with others with a click, and you can start a video conference on your PC, laptop, tablet or even your mobile phone. Screens can be shared, so everyone is looking at the same thing.
Create Amazing Documents
This Google software has everything you need for a productive agency. Google Docs is an easy-to-use word processor. You can even import your Microsoft Word and PDF files to work on. Save your work in several different formats such as .docx , .pdf, .rtf and more. If collaborating with others, use the chat function to make comments. All changes made are documented and can be seen in the revision history.
Spreadsheets have never been easier with Google Sheets. Crunch those numbers and have all the different formulas you may need ready at the touch of a button. You’ll complete spreadsheets faster than ever.
Have a presentation to create? Google Slides allows you to work with a team of people to create some eye-catching presentations that are sure to leave a good impression.
Your Work is Secure with G Suite
Confidentiality and security are of utmost importance to many and something that Google takes very seriously. There are a few security options you can choose from that works best for your business, like two-step verification and single sign-on. Mobile management can also be handy just in case a phone is lost, or it has changed hands. Security is easily controlled from an administration console. If you ever encountered a problem, Google’s support team is available 24/7.
G Suite is the best software for productivity available. It has everything you need for your workplace while breaking down barriers and expanding your workplace beyond four walls. From small businesses to large enterprises, G Suite is suitable for most offices. Start a free trial to see how it can work for you and revolutionise the way your office gets work done!
Apple has been at the forefront of technology for some time now. Whether it is the latest tech devices or software, they’re constantly striving to be the best they can for customers. Privacy for their users has also been important to Apple. The recent launch of iOS 11 and Safari proves that after offering Intelligence Tracking Protection. But not all are thrilled with the roll-out of this new feature, as it may have an effect on many digital marketing strategies.
What is Intelligence Tracking Protection?
Intelligence Tracking Protection (ITP) aims to protect users’ privacy by manipulating ways Safari deals with first-party cookies. It is part of Webkit, an open-source browser that works with Apple’s Safari web browser. The new feature came out with the latest iOS 11 and Safari 11 update.
How does ITP work?
In the past Safari already blocked third-party cookies. The new update with ITP now looks at first-party cookies and looks at the information to block certain tracking. Not all first-party cookies are considered “bad” though. They are usually quite safe and are needed for a smooth experience. They keep information sessions open that keep you logged in, so you do not need to repeat a log-in all the time. They also allow you to add and keep things in shopping baskets and maintain website settings you have previously chosen, such as the language used. First-party cookies will also keep the information you have input on white paper download forms, like name, address, and e-mail.
Some first-party cookies have become crafty and will track users in the same way third-party cookies do. It is this activity that ITP works to block. Some of the blocks might affect marketing performance, since paid media platforms like AdWords may not be able to track user behaviour and be able to target ads. It could also have an effect on Google Analytics, prevent accurate information for conversions.
What is Google doing about ITP?
The search engine and advertising giants were not about to let that stop them. They have developed a new analytics cookie that can obtain campaign and conversion data from Safari in a way that still complies with ITP. This change is applicable to all browsers but just adapted in a slightly different way for Safari and iOS. If advertisers have their Google Analytics and AdWords accounts linked, then they don’t need to do anything differently; reporting will occur as normal. If the accounts are not linked, or the cookie is disabled, then AdWords will model the conversion based off of the last visit 24 hours previously using Safari.
The _gac cookie is essentially expanded to include AdWords in Google Analytics. With the change for ITP purposes, it will see the cookie on the advertiser’s domain, making it a first-party cookie rather than a third-party one and be in compliance with ITP. This will seamless see ad data and conversion reporting as normal.
The advertiser can opt out of the change at any time through Google Analytics, but otherwise, it is important to ensure that accounts are linked, or the cookie is enabled if you want to continue seeing accurate real-time data.
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Essentially, this limits how mobile pages are created so they can load content quicker. These web pages use less JavaScript, HTML and CSS, which allows websites to load 85% faster. This means usability is improved and it will help keep the audience on your website longer.
Sounds great! Why wouldn’t you want to use AMP? While there are many upsides to using AMP, it also comes with its negatives. There are instances where you won’t need to bother using AMP. So what are the pros and cons to AMP?
AMPs make websites load faster. This will help you decrease your bounce rate and help you increase the number of visitors to your website.
Prominent display
AMP pages show in the mobile search carousel on a results page. Being displayed towards the top of the results, as well as with a photograph, is sure to cause an increase of traffic.
Higher rankings
Google is all about the user experience. It preferences websites that can provide a good user experience. One way to do this is by having a website that loads fast. Considering AMP helps to boost page speed, it will also help to increase your rankings in Google.
For those keen to reap the benefits of AMP, it’s not exactly easy to implement from scratch.
If you’re not too familiar with HTML, it’s best to download the WordPress plugin. Once this is downloaded to your WordPress website, all you need to is append “/amp/” to an article page.
Already using a content delivery network (CDN)
Using a CDN for your website already? Then you won’t really need to bother with an AMP. A CDN is another way you can speed up your mobile website’s loading time. A CDN increases speeds by routing viewers to a network that is closer to their physical location. CDNs often have other features including caching rules, purging unnecessary files, and image compressors, to name a few. These features can help to reduce page loading time by up to 50 percent.
If you’re already using a CDN, you don’t need to consider using an AMP.
Increase mobile speeds manually
You can avoid having to install an AMP by manually taking steps to increase the speed of your mobile website. You won’t even have to use an AMP or CDN.
To increase speeds, try:
Disabling plugins: you can download AMP to do this for you, or you can easily manually disable plugins. You can write some dequeue commands in your theme’s function.php file to disable plugins.
Consolidating CSS files: each CSS file makes your web page load slower, so why not consolidate these files into a single CSS resource. To do this, you will need to set your website code to reference an external CSS file hosted on your CDN. Consider using CSS Minifier, which will allow you to clean up your CSS file, prior to hosting it on your CDN.
Restricts ads
Do you depend on certain types of ads to showcase your brand? You may be a bit hesitant about using AMP. Google AMP restricts what types of ads will be shown on mobile pages. Instead of displaying custom and pop-up ads, companies have to use banner ads instead, which can generate less revenue. So if you’re depending on certain types of ads for revenue, and they aren’t going to be displayed while using AMP, then it’s not for you.
Google could abandon AMP
Google, like any business, is only going to support something if it’s profitable. In the past Google has abandoned projects - does anyone remember Google Checkout? This started in 2006 and was discontinued in 2013 and replaced with Google Wallet, which was released in 2011. If Google discontinues AMP, all your effort could be for nothing.
So do you need to use Google AMP? If you’ve got a good understanding of HTML and are already taking manual steps to increase the speed of your website, it may not be necessary. On the other hand, if you’re struggling to achieve fast speeds and your rankings are suffering as a result, it may be time to consider installing Google AMP and reaping the rewards.
Do you use Google AMP? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
If there’s one thing you don’t want to hear in the SEO world, it’s that you’ve been hit with a Google penalty.
So what exactly is a Google Penalty?
Google works to make sure the best and most relevant content shows up in its results pages. It does so by constantly releasing algorithms which check the quality of websites.
There have been a few notable algorithms, including:
Panda: first released in February 2011, Panda aimed to reduce websites of low-quality, particularly websites with little or automated content.
Penguin: this algorithm was announced in April 2012, and took aim at websites violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines by manipulating the number of links pointing to its website.
Mobilegeddon: released in April 2015, ‘mobilegeddon’ boosted mobile-friendly pages in its search results.
Fred: one of the latest algorithm updates, and is still unconfirmed by Google. Released in March 2017, Fred appears to take aim at private blog networks (PBN).
How can you tell if your website has been penalised?
You may or may not get notified if you receive a penalty. If the penalty is manual, it’s likely you’ll be notified. However, if it is algorithmic, you may be left in the dark. This is why it’s important to know the signs of a penalty.
Signs of an algorithmic penalty include:
Not ranking for your brand name
Drop in PageRank
Any pages one rankings have now slipped onto page two or three
Your page has been completely removed from Google’s rankings
Other pages will rank, but not your home page
These are clear signs that you have received a penalty.
What causes a penalty?
Sometimes, people intentionally undertake black-hat SEO tactics in order to manipulate search engine results pages. For example, stuffing keywords in content, hiding keywords in hidden text, and having excessive amounts of poor quality links to your site. These techniques are frowned upon by Google and can result in a penalty.
However, often the mistake will be unintentional, and a penalty can come as a surprise. It helps to know what causes a penalty in order to avoid being stung.
Some causes of penalties include:
Links: if you’ve got a lot of links, particularly on low-ranking, unrelated websites, chances are you’ll get a penalty. To avoid being penalised, it’s best not to purchase links. It’s also important to make sure the links included on your website are linking to high quality websites. Associating yourself with a low ranking, suspicious website can cause a penalty. Avoid linking to other websites that have been struck with a penalty.
Hidden text: keywords help you rank, so people often place keywords on their website in small font and the same colour as their website. This means visitors to the website won’t see the text, but Google will.
Keyword stuffing: using too many keywords, and keywords that are out of context, is a clear manipulation of Google’s guidelines.
Content: Google only wants the best pages appearing in its results, and will therefore avoid ranking pages with duplicate content. Make sure all your content is original to avoid a penalty. If you’re using a content farm, or have spun content, chances are both Google and your readers will be able to tell. While it may be full of keywords, it will read unnaturally, and therefore won’t rank. Finally, if your content is too thin, it may end up with a high bounce rate, as people will not find what they came to the page for. If this happens too frequently, Google will review your website.
Website design: your website should be all about the user. When your website has problems, it’s negatively affecting the user experience, and Google knows it. Problems your website may have that can cause a penalty can include your website going down, slow site speed, 404 and 302 errors, and a poor mobile website design.
Ads: your site may be penalised if it’s crammed full of ads. Furthermore, if you’re considering legitimately promoting your website or blog, you can consider advertorials, just as long as you use a nofollow attribute to avoid a penalty.
What to do if you’ve received a penalty
Whether or not it was intentional, you’ve received a penalty. The hardest part is often knowing you’ve received a penalty and what the cause was.
Fortunately, penalties aren’t forever, and can be fixed.
Ways you can resolve your penalty include:
Tracking backlinks: if your links are the cause of the penalty, you can manually try and remove the links.
Disavow links: if you received a penalty because of a link on a troublesome website you do not control, you can contact Google and ask to disavow the link. However, Google recommends you manually try and remove the link first.
Clean up your website: remove anything that was causing the penalty from your website. Once this is done, request a reconsideration from Google.
Create a new domain: if your home page has completely been removed from Google’s search results, the best option may be to start again with a completely new domain name.
If you’re trying to build up your website’s ranking and want to avoid receiving a Google penalty, it’s best to stick to white-hat SEO strategies. This includes:
Including relevant backlinks on your website
Having a well-designed website
Increase your brand signals by including details such as your physical address and contact number
Increase your following on social media. Just make sure you avoid buying followers, as this can also cause a penalty.
Increase your Trust Flow by gaining links on legitimate, authoritative websites.
When you’re optimising your website, it can often be easy to make mistakes.
However, those mistakes can have a dramatic impact on your website. It could cause a drop in traffic or even removal from search engine listings. When you’re optimising your website for SEO, it’s important to know what a penalty is, why you could get penalised and the best way to avoid a penalty.
What is a Google Penalty?
Google has constantly changing algorithms which scan for clean, optimised websites. It also notes any positive or negative behaviour occurring within the website. Any behaviour that is in breach of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, or what is considered ‘black hat SEO’, will attract a Google Penalty.
There have been three big algorithm updates introduced in recent years. These are:
Panda: this algorithm was introduced in February 2011, and focused on filtering the results featured in Google’s results pages. If the website was considered of low quality, it would lose rankings.
Penguin: introduced in 2012, this update focused on backlinks - how many a website had, and the quality of those links. Users would attract a penalty if the website had too many low quality links.
Mobilegeddon: in April 2015, Mobilegeddon was introduced, which penalised users if they didn’t have a mobile-friendly version of their website.
How will you know if you have received a penalty?
Sometimes, the user isn’t notified that they have received a Google Penalty. It’s therefore important for anyone with a business website to know what signs to look out for incase you have received a penalty.
Signs that you’ve got a penalty include:
Your website isn’t ranking. If it ranked before, particularly for its brand name, but now it’s not, you’ve probably got a penalty.
You used to have pages that ranked on page one, but are now several pages back.
Your home page isn’t ranking on Google, but other pages are still ranking.
What mistakes cause you to get a Google Penalty?
While it’s sometimes a simple error that causes you to get a Google Penalty, in other instances it may be caused by undertaking black hat SEO tactics.
Mistakes that can cause you to get a Google Penalty include:
Links
There are several ways links can cause you to end up with a Google Penalty. This includes:
Swapping links: if you’re exchanging a lot of links with clients or another business, you could attract a penalty. When including outbound links, always keep them natural, make sure it’s going to a high quality website, and don’t include too many on your website.
Links in a different language: this can seem a bit unfair if you’ve obtained a legitimate link. However, Google’s reasoning is users prefer a website in one language, and therefore there is no use for a link in a different language.
Footer links: placing legitimate navigational links in the footer is fine, just don’t use it to pass link juice or unnecessarily promote pages.
Hidden links: if you’re trying to hide a link, it seems a bit suspicious, and Google thinks so too. Make sure you links are visible, and never the same colour as the background.
Link building: links help get your site to rank, but it can go badly for you. If you suddenly have gained lots of links it can often be a sign of automation. Instead, gradually make changes to avoid a penalty.
Broken links: this is a big one. It’s important to make sure you keep all your links up-to-date to avoid having 404 error pages. These pages hinder the user experience, and will attract a penalty.
Malicious backlinks: this is one of the most unfortunate reasons for getting a Google penalty. Sometimes, a competitor will run a malicious backlink campaign against your website to try and get your website to have a penalty.
Content
Often, it’s the content of your own site that will attract a Google Penalty. After all, one of the main targets of the Panda algorithm was content.
So how can your content attract a penalty?
Duplicate content: if you’ve got the exact same content on numerous pages, you could attract a penalty. Avoid having several pages with the same content. This includes blog posts - don’t just copy your own or someone else’s content.
Keyword stuffing: you can insert keywords into your content, but if it’s obvious that you’re using too many keywords on the one page, you may attract a penalty.
Hidden content: this is a black hat SEO tactic that you should definitely avoid. Some people will hide content in order to manipulate keyword weighting or a theme.
Article spinning: article spinning is about rewriting an existing article and altering words, phrases or paragraphs, so you have a new, slightly different version of the content. While this can be performed manually, most article spinning is automated, is of low quality and considered unreadable. Content may often be plagiarised from other websites, and could attract legal problems because of copyright infringement.
Guest blogging: if it’s done well, guest blogging is a great way to increase traffic flow to your website. However, it’s important to always consider the Domain Authority of the website you’re writing for. You don’t want to put a link to your website on a page with a low authority, that looks untrustworthy and hasn’t been optimised.
To avoid receiving a penalty for your content, always make sure your web pages are well written with original copy all published in the one language.
Website design
If your website is poorly optimised, you can end up with a Google penalty. Here’s what you should avoid doing if you don’t want a penalty:
Too many H1 tags: you need headers to let Google know what the page is about. But using too many comes across as keyword stuffing.
Website speed: nobody wants to sit and stare at a white page waiting for a website to load. Instead, they will leave the site and look elsewhere. If you have a slow website, you’re not only losing customers, but gaining the wrath of Google as well. Make sure you follow our tips on website speed to ensure your site isn’t slow.
Website crashing: for one reason or another, sometimes your website will go down. However, this means Google won’t be able to find your website to index it. Ensure you keep track of your analytics and data to know your website isn’t going down.
Over-optimised websites: sometimes it’s tricky getting the balance right - you need to optimise your website, but not too much, or else you will make Google suspicious. Avoid introducing every SEO tactic all at once to improve your website.
Website design: Mobilegeddon was introduced in 2015 and targets those who do not have a mobile-friendly website. You need to ensure Google can detect that you have a mobile website, and that it is optimised to be user friendly.
Too many ads: it’s fine to include advertisements and sponsors on your website, just make sure they’re not the most prominent aspect of the page.
What do you do if you’ve attracted a Google Penalty?
The biggest step is often knowing you’ve got a penalty, and then finding out the cause of it. The final step is to remedy the penalty. The solution will often vary depending on the cause of the penalty. Some options include:
Manual fix: if the problem was manual, and something you have done on your website, you can fix the problem, and then submit a reconsideration request to Google. This asks Google to review your website after you have fixed the problem.
Disavow links: if your ranking is being negatively affected by links that are out of your control, you can ask Google to disavow links. Google will not take these links into account when assessing your website.
Remove links: You can’t just rely on disavow alone. Try and see if you can get some links pointing to your website taken down.
Change domain names: sometimes, it’s not an option just to wait out the penalty. If your website isn’t displaying on the search engine results pages, you could be losing business. If this is the case, the best option would be to make an entirely new domain name.
Now you know what can attract a penalty, it’s best to avoid implementing these on your website. However, if you have already attracted a penalty, clean up your website, follow the Webmaster Guidelines and you should be able to fix your website.
The G Suite apps are a great alternative for workplaces to use instead of Microsoft Office. The G Suite includes the Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs and Calendar. These apps have many benefits, including allowing for multiple people to work on one document at once or invite people to tasks. It can keep people connected, no matter where in the world they are.
Like everything online, the G Suite apps - such as Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos - have limits on its storage space. It can be very frustrating trying to use these apps to their full extent once your storage is full. You will be prevented from doing a multitude of tasks, including syncing or uploading folders on Google Drive, or even receiving emails.
If your storage is full and you’re wondering how this happened and what you can do now - don’t worry, we’ve got the answers for you.
What is G Suite’s storage limit?
Each G Suite user can store up to 30GB of content for free. This is shared between Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos.
What takes up storage space?
If you’ve hit your storage limit, you’re probably wondering what is taking up all that space. Items that take up storage space include:
Google Drive: Items in your “My Drive” take up storage space. This includes PDFs, images, videos, and even items in your Trash.
Gmail: All your emails and attachments, including those stored in Spam and Trash. Remember to empty your spam and trash folders to save on storage space. If you’re receiving a high quantity of large attachments, save these and delete the email.
Google Photos: If photos and videos are stored in “original” size, they will be taking up storage space. To save on storage, you can change the size of your photos.
Some apps may also store what is called “hidden data” in the Google Drive, taking up storage space. To find out if you’re storing hidden data, visit drive.google.com, click “Settings” under the cog on the top right-hand corner, and select Manage Apps. If you have any hidden data, this will be listed under the app.
What doesn’t take up storage space?
Fortunately, there are some things in the G Suite that don’t contribute to storage. This includes:
Google Drive: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and files in “shared with me.” These files take up space in the owner’s Google Drive.
Google Photos: Photos and videos stored in “high quality” size.
What to do when you run out of storage for G Suite?
If your storage is full, there are a few actions you can take to manage your storage. You can clear space in your accounts by deleting files in Google Drive, deleting emails from Gmail, and deleting photographs from Google Photos. Another option is to buy additional storage from G Suite.
Option 1 - Clear space
The more cost-effective option is to try and manually clear space. There are a few ways you can do this:
Google Drive: Delete any large files you no longer need. You can list your files from largest to smallest. Next, place unwanted items in the trash and permanently delete them. Remember they will still take up space if you leave these items in the trash. Within 24 hours, you will notice you have increased storage space.
Gmail: Search for your largest messages in Gmail. Click the checkbox next to the messages you want to delete, and select Trash. Then navigate to your Trash folder. Double check that you want to delete all these messages - once permanently deleted, you won’t be able to recover them. Once double checked, select the messages you want to delete, and hit Delete Forever. It’s important to note messages sitting in Trash will automatically be deleted after 30 days, and cannot be restored. Always make sure to check your Trash folder to avoid accidentally deleting an important document.
Google Photos: If you don’t want to delete unwanted photographs, you can store your photos and videos in “High Quality”, as this does not take up storage space. Also consider using resources such as YouTube to store videos.
If you want to keep all your documents, your best option is to purchase more storage. Extra storage is available to be purchased on all G Suite apps. If you’re using G Suite Business or G Suite Education, unlimited storage is included, and extra storage is unable to be purchased.
There are a few things to keep in mind when purchasing extra storage:
This storage is only available to you: You can’t buy storage for others, share it, or transfer it to another account.
Data ownership: Documents stored within extra storage comes under the same ownership rules as the rest of your account. Google does not own your data. The same policies are in place for extra storage and your account.
Prevented from purchasing extra space: If you work for an organisation who has provided you with a G Suite account, the administrator may prevent you from purchasing or renewing extra storage. To purchase additional storage, make sure your administrator enables the “individual storage” service for your organisation.
You can let the storage expire or cancel your subscription, which will result in your storage going back to standard levels. You will be able to access any existing data, but will not be able to add any new data.
Purchased storage may take 24 hours to be added to your account.
Now you know what takes up storage, what doesn’t and what you can do once your storage is full, you should be able to seamlessly manage your G Suite storage.
Google My Business has posted that it is testing out a brand new feature. This feature will allow businesses to directly chat with customers and answer their questions.
Google has sent some businesses emails inviting them to participate in the pilot. Only those businesses who have received this invite will be able to test the feature at this time.
Customers who find a business listing on Google will see a new “message” button, which will initiate the chat. The button also includes information saying the business’ typical response time.
This is a screenshot Google My Business has published, clearly showing the new "message" button:
It is important for businesses to ensure they provide a phone number that can also receive SMS notifications. If you are wanting to have this feature, make sure you can be readily available to respond to customers. It will definitely be bad for a company’s reputation if there is a long response time. If your response time becomes too long, you risk being suspended from the pilot.
If you don’t want to use SMS, you can also use Google Allo, which can be downloaded from the Android Play Store or iOS App Store. Just make sure you use the same number you use on Google My Business.
If you are a part of the pilot, there are a few things to avoid when talking to customers. You should avoid talking about sensitive information, which includes:
Credit card numbers
Government Identification numbers
Login credentials, such as passwords.
If you decide the pilot isn’t really for your business, you have the option to leave at any time.
What do you think of the new feature? Let us know in the comments.
Provided you have an AdWords professional set up your Google AdWords account, Tag Manager and Analytics, managing your AdWords account can be done in 10 minutes a day, or if you don’t have that kind of time per day, approximately an hour on the weekend. Obviously you’re not going to be able to dominate your industry with this limited time, but you will be better placed to receive leads and sales, provided you follow this simple guide:
Monday:
1. Is your CTR (click through rate) above 2%? - At one stage CTR was the primary indicator of the health of an account, if it was above 2% then it meant your ads were exciting enough that they caught a decent amount of potential clients’ eyes. Recent research still connects high CTR with high Conversion Rates, the idea being if people are excited to click your ad, then that excitement seeps through to the website, provided the UX is quality.
2. What position are you in? - If you’re average position is 4+, then you’re likely not being seen, at least not often enough to provide a decent CTR. While you might think you’re being frugal and only paying for cheap clicks, not only do the Ad Extensions on your ads not show, but it’s likely your website has been opened alongside every other link on the SERP and a decision has been reached well before they even view your site. Increase your bids to sit in positions 1,2, or 3.
Tuesday:
1. Does your Ad Text address the KeyWords? - Any decent AdWords Professional should have set it up so that the KeyWord is wholly relevant to the Ad Text, however, unless that person has been working with you in your business for months, it is unlikely he/she will have the experience that you have with your clients. Ensure that the Ad Text addresses your customers needs.
2. What are people typing in? - If you haven’t seen this, you need to, it is now your best friend:
1. Review Search Terms - The highlighted Negative KeyWords in the Search Terms Report from yesterday need a quick review and a deep think. Why? Because you might need to add more. - There’ll be the obvious Negative KeyWords, they’ll jump out at you because you’ll wonder what in the hell caused this particular person to click on your Ad. After all these years I’m still amazed at the variations of seemingly innocent KeyWords that someone has somehow magically turned X-rated with their Search Term.
- There’ll be ones that you need to think strategically about, like location based Search Terms. An obvious example might be that your service only covers Brisbane, and someone is searching for the Sunshine Coast. A less obvious example is that maybe you sell a product that historically your clients seem to be only from your city. It could be they are only from your local area. It could be that the product you sell is the type that makes clients want to trust the supplier.
2. Implement Negative KeyWords - Many people take the easy way out and make Exact Match Negative KeyWords for the entire Search Term. If you can figure out the Core* Negative KeyWord, you will eliminate wasting more money in the future. *For more information about Core Theory, contact Sam on 07 3117 2300.
Friday:
1. Review Google Analytics - For the first two to three weeks, use this time to browse Analytics, explore the account, take notes if something intrigues you. Be careful not to freak out at the volume of information, below is information about what to focus on for AdWords, but it is a boon for your own knowledge to see what is happening with the information in the Analytics account.
2. Let’s say we’re three weeks into the campaign and you are familiar with your Analytics account, you’ve followed the Daily Steps and want to know how to ascertain if the account is improving. Your AdWords Professional should have set up Conversion Tracking on some level and if they were particularly savvy (like us here at Matter Solutions), they would have also set up numerous Goals in Analytics through Tag Manager for things like Phone Number Clicks and Form Submissions. Essentially the Tag Manager would report to Analytics when someone clicks the phone number on your website, or submits an enquiry.
If you still are unsure of where to go in Analytics, check this out:
Once there you will see what I call my Key Performance Indicator(KPI):
And my Lead Performance Indicators (LPI):
If your LPIs are healthy, Bounce Rate lower than 40% and Pages/ Session in keeping with the information on your site, then your KPIs should be healthy as well. If your KPI is unhealthy, check your LPI.
If you have a high Bounce Rate, optimise your Landing Page, or your Final URLs in your AdWords account.
Simple!
I must reiterate that this only works if you have your Account set up by a Trusted AdWords Professional. A solid foundation is an absolute must in order to ensure this strategy works. If you have not had your Account set up by an AdWords Professional, then there is only one step you should follow:
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a great strategy for organisations to increase the visibility of their website, and therefore increase profit.
With everyone competing to get on that all important first page of Google, it’s easy to see why SEO can be its own worst enemy:
Adaptability
Whatever Google says, goes. Google updates its algorithms frequently, often up to 500 to 600 times each year. While majority of these are minor, there are some major updates, such as the new Penguin algorithm. This means companies are forced to come up with new SEO techniques. Back in the day, SEO used to be all about keywords. Not anymore. Having to come up with a new strategy can often mean people will abandon ship and forget about SEO all together. This causes a lot of marketers to claim “SEO is dead”. While it does change, it’s still alive and well and playing an important role in marketing strategies.
Quality links
Your website will feature higher on Google if its content is full of links, whether that be to your own content or external. This created a major problem. Rather than having good quality links, it became a numbers game, and those with the most links ranked higher. Google then altered its ranking algorithm to take this into account. Now, if you fill your content with a ton of links that aren’t relevant, it might actually hinder your Google listing. Make sure you’ve got backlinks that are right for your website by making sure they are:
Relevant to your audience
From a trusted website
Be from a variety of sources
Not be a paid link.
Content Explosion
Because of the need for backlinks, there’s a need for additional content. This means there is more content to compete with when trying to get your post to that coveted number one listing on Google.
It also means you should avoid duplicating content. It’s tempting to write about the same topic so you can link back to your own site. This means that you’re competing with yourself for Google’s rankings. Google is only going to rank one of the pages on page 1. The website with more SEO content such as back links and social media authority will inevitably rank higher.
Mobile Websites
So you’re using the latest techniques, your article is full of backlinks, but it’s still not ranking on Google. Why? Google knocks down websites that are not mobile friendly. If you’ve only got a desktop website, say goodbye to a good listing. People searching for your site using their mobile or tablet will only be able to reach the desktop website, rather than one optimised for a mobile. This will make the website more difficult to use, and result in the customer leaving the website quickly.
Expecting results instantly
SEO isn’t like some miracle product that proclaims to work instantly. Achieving results with SEO takes time. Not seeing immediate results can cause some clients to abandon ship. If an SEO team uses the wrong techniques to try and get results quicker, it can often backfire. Google won’t put you on the first page overnight. It takes time to recognise changes to your website and alter its rankings. If your competition is well established and has been in the industry longer than you, it will take time for an SEO team to catch up. So next time you see someone promising next day results - don’t believe them.
So SEO might not be dead, but it is easy to see how it can self sabotage and work as its own worst enemy.
Articles about Google Changes Will Impact Millions of Small Business Websites
