Masterlink Interactive Blog

MSN Adcenter has been around for awhile with increasing smaller traffic results. Bing has reversed this trend in the last year or so, but their numbers are about to jump significantly. Yahoo Sponsored Search results will cease to exist before the end of September; they will be all MSN Adcenter based ads!

Of course, most of you reading this already know that, but many of you really aren’t prepared to manage Bing results like a pro. I mean, their total piece of the market got down to less than 10%. Microsoft has taken a lot of time getting their interface right, and the old Live Search engine experience didn’t make the experience any better. The bad news is that there will be growing pains and a few bumps in the road before, during and after the hand-off process. The good news is that the interface is much easier to operate, and the traffic will be worth. The great news is that getting started like a pro is easy. All you have to do is download my walk-through, follow the steps, and “Bing!” you’re ready to start getting MSN Adcenter clicks.

All you need is a well done Google AdWords account, and a Bing Master Account. If you don’t have either of those you will need to get them. This article is really only about promoting the process of exporting your Google AdWords account to MSN Adcenter. That’s the easy part.

Of course, you probably already have a Yahoo account, and Yahoo has assured you that they will handle the conversion process to Bing. There are only two problems with the Yahoo to Bing conversion process. For starters, they use totally different match types; Google uses almost identical ones to Bing. Most Yahoo to Bing conversions will not be as successful as a Google to Bing conversion. The other problem only arises if you don’t have a Yahoo account; maybe you’re reading this after September?

Just view below or download the presentation, and see if it’s something that will work for you. I hope you enjoy it!

It’s a place for friends to connect, to catch up, to plan parties, and to upload embarrassing and political-career-destroying pictures of said parties.

So just how much, really, can businesses, products, and brands fit into the ever-expanding and evolving Facebook landscape?

Google has been trying to explore exactly that question, and has dug up some interesting numbers from a study done by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies. The gist? Those party-picture-posting people might be more interested in your business’ Facebook page than you might think:

Photo courtesy Google Retail Advertising Blog.

So while a slim majority of Facebook users don’t bother with business pages on the site, the fact that even 45 percent do (with 27 percent of users following three brands or more) is hugely significant. More than half a billion people now use Facebook, and 225 million of those willing to form at least limited virtual relationships with businesses on the site is nothing to sniff at — especially considering how carefully the free, formerly-college-exclusive networking site has had to tread about introducing both advertising and commercial interests.

So, with that in mind, perhaps more interesting (and useful) are the numbers showing why Facebook users “friend” or “like” a particular company or brand:

• 25 percent to gain access to promotions and discounts.
• 18 percent to show support for the brand.
• 10 percent simply because it’s fun and entertaining.
• 8 percent to be the first to hear new information.

In other words, draw them in with opportunity, and you’ll have their ear when it’s time to make a sale.

Regardless, it all shows just how important a robust social media element of your Internet marketing strategy has become. Tools like Facebook and Twitter allow you to control and spread your message, to give loyal customers “insider access” that creates incentive for them to repeatedly return, to explore and harness viral marketing opportunities, and to create healthy forums for feedback, customer service, and dialogue. It’s simply a great way to connect.

Contact one of our Dallas social media marketing experts for more information about how to maximize your social media presence.

When it comes to the Internet, the customer doesn’t always have to be right.

A few weeks ago, we talked about how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage your online reputation. There are just too many prominent platforms online for angry customers, nefarious competitors, or criticizing chaos cravers to take unfair shots at your business.

With the arrival of local search (where customer reviews are integrated with technologies like Google Maps in search results), this problem has become even more significant. If the first thing a searcher sees about your business is a nasty (even if unfair) review, that alone could undo all the rest of the work you’ve put into an Internet marketing strategy.

Thankfully, Google has recently made it just a little bit easier to defend yourself.

According to Google’s Lat Long Blog:

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers.

For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

Click to Enlarge

You must be the verified owner of a verified listing in order to respond. Google also posted a user guide with some tips (be nice, don’t make it personal, etc.) for responding without losing customers a little bit less precarious.

At Masterlink, we believe strongly in mutual benefit of these sorts of online conversations, and offer a full suite of online reputation management services that ensure you a reputation that’s accurately reflective of your sterling business.

Facts and strategies are cheap in the search engine optimization (SEO) world, as one day’s success-certified SEO formula is the next day’s waste of code.

Last week, we talked briefly about how Google’s increasing emphasis on local search could dramatically change SEO. Specifically, we showed how the page placement of local search results (the Google map, local listings and user-ratings) could sometimes push otherwise perfectly optimized websites further down in the search rankings. Worse page placement could equal less incentive to spend a bunch of time and energy getting such a page to the top.

Amazing how rapidly things can change.

SEO watchers around the web noticed this week that Google has already started experimenting with different page placements of local search results. According to Mike Blumenthal’s Understanding Google Maps & Local Search, some of the tinkerings include:

1) The Places listings are BIGGER and look like the organic results except they have a map pin.

2) As you scroll down the MAP scrolls with you. So even when you are at bottom of page in the organic listings the map moves down and shows on right.

3) ONLY 7 (purely) organic listings show and in this instance most are directories or assn. Only 2 are Dentists.

4) To get on the top TWO screens you need to be in local. Most of the organic are 2 screens BELOW the fold.

5) Reviews are more prominent

6) Link to Place Page is marked as such, instead of just “More Info” which means better branding and name recognition for Google Places

7) It’s pulling meta description from the site – just like organic.

PLUS it adds some snippets from reviews on the Place page. So best of both worlds and BIGGER!

Click to Enlarge

In this format, the best-optimized websites are back on top… at least, of course, until Google decides to experiment with placing the local search results in a different spot. Or perhaps mix in a variety of placements, based on the importance of local search to that particular query. Or at least until a new, innovative way of organizing and accessing information emerges.

Two points:

1. As always, fundamentals matter the most when it comes to SEO, and an effective, well-designed site that gets shared around by clients and customers will grab the attention of the search engines one way or another.

2. Even if Google and the other search engines tinker with the placement of local search results, don’t expect them to ever minimize the importance of local search. It’s here to stay, even if the algorithm and factors the search engines love most might change.

It’s something we’re watching very closely, because local search can have huge implications for your company’s Internet marketing strategy. Stay tuned…

Search engine optimization around location increasingly matters. Here’s what you need to know:

What is it?

It’s optimization for searches that take into account location—of both the searcher and the local business—as well as other, more traditional searching factors. According to Google, 73 percent of all online activity relates to local content. Each of the major search engines now routinely mix local elements in with regular search results.

What’s led to its development?

The rise of smartphones and mobile web usage. The growing integration of web-usage into all areas of life and business. The demands of a more web-savvy public.

But also just the basic mission of the search engines: as we talk about often at Masterlink, their primary goal to get you the best, most accurate, most valued-by-the-wider-web-community information possible at any specific place or time. And if such best possible information can be tailored to your current location, then they’re going to try to get you that as well.

How does it work?

So let’s say while out on the town you get an urgent craving to slurp down some spicy green curry—Google is waiting, wok in hand. Search for “Thai food in Dallas,” and you get a result that looks something like this:

Boom: Directions. Prices. Reviews. Phone numbers. Links to websites and access to menus. Everything a customer could want short of a ticket to Bangkok.

But even if your office location doesn’t really matter — say, you’re a Dallas web design and Internet marketing company working for small businesses all across the city as well as nationally — location SEO still matters. Why? Trust. Familiarity. Community pride. The fundamentals of good business are still, well, fundamental. And customers and clients will still value the ability to meet you in a concrete location and build that business relationship.

How does it change SEO?

Look back at that Thai food listings. Let’s say you owned a local tom yum shop, and had worked really hard over the past year to get your site listed at the top of the search rankings. Suddenly, with the local business results occupying the top of the page, your well-respected, well-linked, well-optimized site might find itself in the middle of bottom of the page.

Furthermore, users are increasingly likely to look for more narrow results when it comes to location searches. So instead of “Thai Food in Dallas,” check out “Thai food in Plano.” The results change. A site perfectly optimized for a larger, more competitive area might get missed by more specific searches.

What can I do?

We’ll talk more extensively about this in the coming weeks. But here are some basics:

1. Register

The obvious first step is to register your business (even if you don’t yet have a website) with mainstream search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Also make sure your business is listed on directories like Yelp and Citysearch, plus more traditional paid listings like Superpages.com and Yellowpages.com.

2. Spread the (Your Own) Good News
After registering, ask your best clients to write reviews. Ratings and reviews are one of the first factors clicked on by searchers.

3. Experiment. Have Fun With It. Just Don’t Forget About SEO Basics.
Since location searching is still relatively new, there’s plenty of space for exploration about what boosts rankings. But the game hasn’t completely started over, and all the standard elements that search engines love still matter the most. The location-specific elements are just a new twist on an ever evolving marketing arena.

Here’s your new search engine optimization strategy:

1. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
2. Build a smart, effective site that highlights this value.
3. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
4. No, really, build a great company.

Here’s why:

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Google had made a small tweak in the search algorithm, referred to as “Mayday”, and that such tiny changes in the formula could mean significant drops in search engine rankings for companies that focus more site optimization than on what the site actually offers to customers and clients.

Apparently, it happened as expected.

According to Web Pro News:

Google’s recent algorithm update, nicknamed “Mayday” by webmasters got a lot of people riled up, as many claimed it seriously affected their rankings, and potentially their revenues.

[…] Here are a few samples of reader comments from our previous coverage of the update:

“In conjunction with the drop in Google traffic, I have seen a matching drop in clicks out from my site to other sites. So it’s real, and it’s not been rosy to deal with.”

“Every time they make an improvement something else goes wrong.”

“Yes I have worked hard trying to rank and it keeps changing. Decided to go to other methods and forget about Google and their ranking.”

[...] One reader offered some sound advice:

“Never forget the first rules in SEO: It changes all the time. So, Google has made a change, which is not the first one. Do the basics right and you will have a sound long-term strategy.”

In an interview with the site, Google SEO liaison Matt Cutts says: “We’re trying to spot what are the signals of quality, whether for pages or for sites, that really are going to be good for users. [...] So part of what ‘Mayday’ addresses is trying to say ‘How do we return the best sites—the sites we think users are going to like?’”

We agree, and say as much often here at Masterlink Interactive: Focusing your web site’s SEO too much on a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves. Quality sites that visitors love will thrive in a rapidly changing search environment.

This doesn’t mean that understanding the more complicated ins and outs of SEO isn’t important. Quite the contrary—the right tweaks can mean the difference between first page and third. SEO is constantly evolving, and someone (like us!) a little bit obsessed with following and figuring out the industry can benefit your company in a big way.

But web design quality is primary, and a site built solely to please the search engines is bound to fall whenever their algorithms get tweaked. We help you build sites that your customers and clients value, and it’s that element that the search engines are working endlessly to make sure matters most.

Contact us to develop a customized web design, search engine optimization, and comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

If you noticed a slight change in your Google-driven traffic this past week, it may be due to a small tweak the search engine made in its algorithm — one that brings up an excellent point about web design and Internet marketing.

According to SearchEngineLand:

Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.

However, sometimes a Google algorithm change is substantial enough that even those who don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the algorithms notice it. That seems to be the case with what those discussing it at Webmaster World have named “Mayday”.

[...] This change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.

This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database.

Our favorite Google webmaster Matt Cutts posted a YouTube explanation of the tweak as well, describing it as “…an algorithmic change that changes how we assess which sites are the best match for long tail queries.” Cutts calls the change a “quality win,” and the goal, he says, should search relevancy, not search rankings.

They both highlight an important guiding philosophy about web design: obsessing and designing your site around a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves.

Google’s goal is to get searchers the best, most accurate, most valued-by-the-wider-web-community information possible, and is constantly tweaking its search algorithm to weed out any emerging SEO gimmicks that undermine that aim.

So let’s say you own a Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas. You can’t just put “Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas” a thousand times on your site and hope to come out on top. Google values more than just keyword volume. They want the companies at the top of their rankings to be valued in their communities (and to have websites that reflect as much).

Similarly, our SEO goal isn’t to artificially boost your company’s presence on the web. It’s to help you highlight and draw attention to the excellent services you already provide.

So from your initial web design to the implementation of your on-going Internet marketing strategy, we take a more nuanced, comprehensive approach to interactive marketing and SEO.

This means aspects like:

• First and foremost, a quality, adaptable, customizable web design (view our web design portfolio here).
• A content management system supported by our Dallas staff that allows site owners to quickly and easily make changes.
• A MarketMaster™ interactive marketing plan that maximizes results by anticipating and meeting your unique needs.
• A social media marketing plan that both engages your customers and site visitors in a meaningful way, and boosts SEO via link building.
• An Internet marketing strategy built around social media marketing, pay-per-click services, online reputation management, email marketing, blogging, link building, conversion optimization and web analytics services.

Think of it like a school lunch cafeteria. If you fill up all the kids on cake first, you can’t expect them to stick around for the green bean casserole.

In other words, order matters when it comes to web design and search engine optimization (SEO). As you probably know about SEO, both what you see on the page and what is going on behind the scenes in the source code matter.

On the page, the place where you’ll usually have the most important keywords and anchor text links is in the main body content. In otherwords, that catchy content just below the logos, headlines, and navigation bars that reaches out and pulls visitors further in. It’s there that it’s easiest to creatively and seamlessly target your site around specific keywords and phrases as part of an overall, comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

In SEO, remember these two basic rules:

Rule No. 1: Higher on the page in the source code is better for stuff that you want Google to notice. Search engines will eat whatever is put in front of them first.

Rule No. 2: If a web page has two links that take you to the same page, only the anchor text (an important signal for search engines) of the first (highest in code) link will be counted.

Here’s why this matters:

Let’s say you run a auto body shop in Dallas. In your site’s body content, you put in an anchor text link for “Dallas auto body repair” (the term for which you expect most potential customers to search) which, if clicked, takes the visitor to your “services” page. It fits your content, and it’s more specific than a more generic search term like, well, “services.” But since there’s already a link in your navigation bar (and therefore higher up in the code) to the “services” page, the “Dallas auto body repair” link won’t get counted by Google. That smart, well-researched search term (”Dallas auto body repair” ) won’t help your SEO as much as it could.

Make sense?

The typical code order for a basic four-section page goes like this:

1. Top bar (navigation, logos)
2. Side bar (links, more navigation)
3. Main body content (catchy, keyword-heavy content and anchor text links)
4. Footer (more navigation)

So in theory, if you flip the main body content and the top bar, you avoid these link conflicts. Google will index your more descriptive, more tailored links from the body content. Similarly, by paying attention to code order in your web design process, you can better control which links on different sidebars will be indexed first.

It sounds simple, but it can amount to a fairly significant overhaul of your site’s code, so the best time to do it is during a major site website redesign, or during the initial development of your website.

Contact us about coding options or a more detailed explanation about how to do this with our expert Dallas website designers. In a competitive SEO market like Dallas, every little bit can help your business stand out.

It’s a bit of a paradox—the web tool that has made social information sharing easier than ever has been under increasing fire from users for being largely unwilling to restrain those flows of information. But Facebook has, in fact, been gradually eroding its default standards for user privacy, and the people are upset.

According to WebProNews:

Since Facebook announced its plans to take over the web, there has been a lot of talk about privacy concerns, and about deletion of Facebook profiles. There is also concern about the lack of openness in Facebook’s Open Graph initiative. Others are just bored with the social network. Whatever the reasons, an increasing number of people seem to be interested in deleting their Facebook profiles.

Matt Cutts and other Googlers de-activated their accounts soon after the Open Graph initiative was announced. Remember, you don’t have to delete the account to de-activate it. Facebook makes it very easy to stay. In fact, if you go to delete your account, they will try to guilt you into staying by telling you which of your friends will miss you.

Matt Cutts, we will miss you! Matt is apparently not alone. Search Engine Land discovered how there are a growing number of people searching for how to delete their Facebook page. If you currently start a search on Google typing in “dele” Google Suggest shows “delete Facebook account” as its top suggestion:

Google suggests you delete your Facebook account

“Delete Facebook” also shows as a growing search phrase in Google Trends:

"Delete Facebook" rising on Google Trends

To see just how much and how quickly Facebook has eroded their default privacy settings over the past few years, check out this nifty infographic from Matt McKeon on The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook.

This presents obvious problems for personal Facebook users, for whom privacy usually matters. Open access to pictures, likes and dislikes, comments, wall postings, and status updates to the entire Internet could make anyone uncomfortable.

But should these privacy concerns matter to businesses, whose sole purpose of Facebook use is usually to pass along as much information about itself to the general public as possible?

There might be some times you’ll want to restrict information. Let’s say you have a photo album of an office party that you only want friends, fans, and colleagues to see. Or perhaps you’d like to write a note to all your “confirmed” customers—to whom you might only have connections via Facebook rather than email—without sending something out to the entire web. For the most part, Facebook still gives you these options.

But in the end, it’s just a matter of how much you want to share, and with whom. All users can opt to tighten up access to their profiles. Except for certain gaps in privacy options, it’s Facebook’s default settings that bother people the most.

So the best practice for social media for businesses on Facebook  is to keep anything you want partially private off the site in the first place, and open up the rest for all the Facebook (and beyond) world to see. The site still provides unprecedented Internet marketing opportunities. As WebProNews also points out, Facebook is still the place to reach people (and monetize them!):

“…the point is, Facebook is giving users a lot more reasons to use it, and in some cases it’s not really even a conscious decision. See the recent South Park episode for a good illustration about how Facebook continues to suck more people in. Facebook is where the people are online.”

That’s worth repeating: Facebook is (still) where the people are online. And for businesses, that’s the point.

Talk is dominated by Google when it comes to search engine optimization. It makes sense - even despite Bing’s recent surge in market share and Yahoo’s ability to stay in the game, Google still dominates the industry, responsible for almost 66 percent of all searches.

But Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL still matter (that remaining third makes up a hefty piece of the pie), and the logarithm that decides who’s king of the search engine mountain changes for each.

So do we optimize sites for each particular engine? Should you choose a specific search engine, and aim solely for rankings success there? Does one approach fit all?

Here’s how we look at it:

SEO matters in Dallas Internet marketing. Links matter. Keywords matter. Real-time and mobile-friendly web design and search elements increasingly matter, as search engines get better and better at giving you multiple ways to refine your queries. And so we’re following the SEO evolution as close as anyone, and are helping pioneer many of the techniques that are working across the industry.

But at Masterlink Interactive, we’re not obsessed with SEO gimmicks. Instead, we build smart, customized, diverse, dynamic sites that embody sound SEO fundamentals and are still (much, much more importantly) inviting, attractive, and functional for your clients. And our results prove that building that way will pay off in search engine rankings as well. For all search engines, our approach is similar — we research your business, industry, competitors, and associated keywords, and then craft a customized SEO plan for your business that attracts a new base of online customers.

Our sites are the kind that attract links organically (because they’re actually worth sharing). We recommend blogs that we keep your site fresh, linked-to, and full of long-tail keywords. And we understand that SEO is just one aspect of a comprehensive interactive marketing strategy that we’ll help you employ.

Sure, there are a bag full of search engine-specific tricks and tweaks we’ll tailor your site around to keep it ranking high. But the sites we build succeed across the search engine spectrum, and are backed by the in-touch, savvy service needed to keep up with the ever-evolving SEO landscape.