If you own a small retail establishment, restaurant, or other small business blessed with daily face-to-face interactions with a steady but ever-evolving stream of customers, you’re probably familiar with review sites like Yelp.com and even Google Places. And, of course, you probably know about the ways that customers can share views about your company with [...]
The first time we talked about Google+ here on the Masterlink blog, it was exploding onto the Internet marketing scene. Just a few weeks later, the bubble seemed to already have popped: overall usage of Google+ dropped by three percent, and time spent on the site dropped 10 percent. So, nearly three months later, how is it [...]
Think of web content like your grocery store’s produce aisle: Even the tastiest, most colorful, most well-positioned fruits and veggies still need to be replaced from time to time. Last week, we talked a bit about how content still often matters as much or more as connecting — even in the world of social media [...]
If you want to understand how web giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon should influence the long-term vision for your business, it’s a good idea to spend some time exploring their long-term visions. This is especially true if: If you’re overwhelmed by how quickly what matters on the web changes If you get the [...]
Here’s some startling news you probably didn’t know. Apparently, good reviews from online sites like Yelp and Google make for good business (and vice versa). According to Kevin Drum: Harvard’s Michael Luca did a clever study that took advantage of “discontinuity effects.” Yelp rounds off its rating for public consumption, so a restaurant that crosses [...]
Sure, some companies can poke the grizzly bear with a stick and get away with it, but would you take that risk? According to The Atlantic: The Los Angeles Times recently flagged a troublesome trend at Google News. After an abundance of glowing coverage about the California Central Basin’s new recycled water system started showing [...]
At this rate, you’ll soon be using your phone to pick up the kids, cook dinner, walk the dog, and dream sweet, peaceful dreams. Google introduced its “Wallet” mobile payments app this week, which represents another important step forward in journey towards total, joyful smartphoneification (it’s a term) of life. According to ABC News: In [...]
A couple things have happened recently in Internet marketing land worth noticing — and understanding their implications without jumping to drastic conclusions: 1. After Google+ exploded onto the scene, raised a big ruckus, successfully built an enormous amount of media buzz, and posted meteoric first-month growth numbers, it promptly shrunk back to mortal levels. Following [...]
On their blog this week, Bing explains why, more than anything else, the search engine loves them some savory, juicy, smoked hyperlinks: You want links for a few reasons: because they alert us to your website when its new, or to new content because they are a vote of confidence in your site – quality [...]
Online retail shopping is finally starting to bounce back after tanking with the rest of the economy in 2008 — good news for any business with a commercial website. Does your company have what it needs to ride this endless wave? According to Web Pro News: comScore put out its Q2 e-commerce sales estimates, and [...]
