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WebiMax Blog

Digital marketing tips and advice.

Ryan Buddenhagen

Ryan Buddenhagen:

March 26, 2012

Geo-targeting is a subject we have covered consistently on this blog, considering its prime importance for local and location-specific search. We continuously stress the value in incorporating geo-targeted search terms in on-site content and optimizing for them with a coordinated SEO campaign. Now, Search Engine Watch conducted a study to test the SEO merit of domain and site relevance to the target location. As the state of search evolves continuously, it is helpful to test certain practices in such a way and re-evaluate their worth, and the results give us some additional proof for what SEO experts have been finding in their work.

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March 23, 2012

In yesterday's post, I introduced some research from Flurry that looks at mobile devices and their rise across the world. Specifically, I addressed the meteoric rise in mobile device activation in China and how Chinese activations have now surpassed the number experienced in the US, making them the fastest growing mobile device market in the world. This is very important for SEO companies and marketers currently operating in or contemplating operating in China as they can leverage mobile to further their exposure and achieve their goals. Today, let's turn our attention to Flurry's numbers regarding app use across the globe and see how marketers can maximize them.

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March 22, 2012

We continue to cover the rise in smartphones and mobile device as well as how companies can strategically leverage the devices' associated technologies and consumer behaviors to drive more business. From optimizing your web properties for mobile browsing and mobile searching to maximizing apps, mobile ecommerce (or m-commerce) opportunities, local search for in-store shopping and utilizing social media, there are seemingly endless possibilities for mobile.

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March 21, 2012

I want to circle back to news from Google that broke earlier in the month regarding encrypted search and address how it can impact international markets. Google made a change several months ago to google.com where users who are logged in have secure socket layer (SSL) encryption added to their web searches providing an added layer of privacy. Google pushes the security and privacy aspects of the default SSL measure and calls on more companies to adopt SSL in their offerings. This move also set up the then forthcoming launch of Google Search Plus your World. A byproduct of this SSL measure, though, is that less search data is available for advertisers.  It brings the "not provided" keyword return in Google Analytics into existence and pushes SEO companies and internet marketers to reassess and adapt their practices.

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March 20, 2012

The domain landscape has been largely untouched for years now, but that is set to change come January. At the beginning of 2013, new top-level domains (TLDs) will be rolled out that expand the available domain options. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and 

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March 19, 2012

Athletic and cultural giant Nike had a significant misstep last week when they named a limited edition shoe after the drink known in this country as a "Black & Tan," a layered combination of a stout and lager beer. The company was doing so to honor Ireland in the run-up to St. Patrick's Day, however, the gesture was received as an insensitive and somewhat confusing insult. Nike did not fully understand the significance of the "Black & Tan" phrase in Ireland.

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March 16, 2012

SEO and cultureIn Monday's post, I introduced the idea of cultural characteristics and looked at power distance. Certain characteristics of culture influence the way people act and experience their world and, of most interest to those in international SEO, experience the internet. Many aspects of certain cultures have changed over time, however core elements of culture tend to remain unchanged, they only adapt to the times. As such, certain tendencies of those from a specific culture can be expected, and as internet marketers, we must cater what we do to best suit the tendencies of a certain market.

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March 15, 2012

March 14, 2012

In yesterday's post, I discussed open source mapping and how both Apple and Foursquare dropped Google Maps as their mapping provider. Both have gone to open source solutions with Apple using OpenStreetMap and Foursquare using MapBox. I finished yesterday's post with the questions -how is the emergence of open source mapping impacting the sector, and second, how would a mapping service by Apple further impact the sector and SEO? Let's address these.

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March 13, 2012

Online maps are essential to our lives. We all rely on them to some degree as they have grown in relevance and applicability over the years. Gone are the days when checking online maps was reserved for seeking answers to curious geography questions, though. Now, digital maps are integrated into our mobile apps as well as our in-car navigation, and we use them to give us detailed directions on the roadways and to search the the location of local businesses. Some of these applications of the maps lend themselves to internet marketing and search engine optimization more than others, most notably, local business searching, however they all factor into the mapping market and impact the direction the sector will take.

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March 12, 2012

Culture is a dynamic, living thing. This may be an exaggeration of sorts, but the point is culture is an evolving entity that impacts just about every aspect of our lives. It impacts the way we experience our days, structure our time, share with friends, work at our jobs, and - how we experience the web. Cultures adapt as time passes, but core elements of cultures can and do remain unchanged. These core elements account for cultural tendencies that exist from culture to culture influencing the way people behave and, for our purposes, experience the internet.

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March 9, 2012

Geo-targeting has been utilized to deliver location-specific content to web users in many ways for several years and is now having greater potential in the political arena. Geo-targeting itself has gone through several iterations on various platforms, but the essentials remain.

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March 8, 2012

Yesterday, I wrote a piece for International Business Times focusing on the growth of US online retailers in the EU market. Some of the figures are worth repeating to set up our discussion here today. US e-retailers had collective sales of $26.1 billion in 2011 up from $20.6 billion a year earlier. The 2011 numbers accounted for 25% of sales in that year for the Top 400 online retailers in Europe, growing from 23.4% from the previous year.

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March 7, 2012

March 6, 2012

Today's post continues from yesterday's piece on the subject. Once an organization understands the message their presence would send in their new environment, they can make strategic business decisions and take actions considering the communication value they hold.  Such actions send specific messages to the various publics in the new context, and it is the job of the decision-makers to strategically engage in actions that send the desired messages.

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March 5, 2012

March 2, 2012

local search with Google+

We have touched on Google+, its worth, applicability, and where it will likely go in the future a good amount lately, and most recently in a blog post by JWersits. Google+ is firmly carving out its own dimension within social media and will not likely look like the archetypal social media platform that we've come accustomed to seeing (not that one true standard exists, but a site that allows users to share and engage with each other in the basic ways that Facebook and others offer). With that said, it will most-likely continue to grow and increase its relevance for personal users and businesses alike, especially given its relevance for Google Search Plus Your World results.

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March 1, 2012

With Google's new privacy changes rolling out today, March 1, push pack from users, analysts, and now regulation authorities has been firm. On Tuesday, though, the resistance gained traction in Europe as well. Negative feedback in Europe came in the form of statements from the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), the French data protection authority. The agency issued a letter to Larry Page, Google's co-founder and CEO, contending that the policy changes cloud the actual ways the company uses private user information. This data is of course what Google uses to sell targeted advertising, one of the primary revenue-generators for the company and areas of competition between them and Facebook.

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February 29, 2012

Google mobile search

Research out from Google this past week sheds light on the most recent behavior regarding mobile search and activity. Google conducted a small survey of 1,000 individuals in the US, UK, France, Spain, Germany, and Japan. We have discussed here on this blog before about the explosion of smartphone use and by extension general internet usage and search on smartphones. Now, Google reports that mobile search is just shy of 100% in terms of adoption with smartphone users, with the majority searching at least one time per week. For a look across the studied countries, Japan showed the highest usage of search engines on smartphones in general at 99% of users, followed by the UK and Spain at 96%, then the US and France showed 95% usage, and 92% for Germany.

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February 28, 2012

Since the launch of the iPhone, Apple has enjoyed a large percentage of the US smartphone market continually setting new heights in the sale of the product in this market. Just this past quarter, they sold 37 million iPhones, which is over twice the number a year prior. Like much of Apple's products, the iPhone has garnered a great deal of attention from consumers and media alike and has cultivated a dedicated fan-base.

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February 27, 2012

In Friday's post, I started this look at the expansion of Google's Get Your Business Online initiative into emerging markets in India and Africa. I contended in the post that the potential economic impact is immense here. Consider the numbers. Of an estimated 8 million small businesses operating in India, there are roughly 400,000 or 5% that have websites, according to the official Google India Blog. There is obviously considerable opportunity for many more companies to get online and grow their businesses.

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February 24, 2012

SEO for online businesses in India, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana

Google's Get Your Business Online initiative is having far-reaching impacts beyond simply getting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the developed world online that do not already have a web presence. The initiative has been implemented in emerging markets as well, bringing online capability, SEO potential, and economic opportunity to specific countries in the developing world, particularly in Africa and Central Asia. I discussed Google's Get Your Business Online initiative in an International Business Times piece yesterday where I described the background of the initiative, its offerings, and the opportunity for SEO for the many new businesses that will find themselves online in these developed markets. Now, with its expansion into emerging markets, it is a promising development for several other reasons.

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February 23, 2012

The SEO and social landscapes continue to evolve, and this reality will never change. What does change though is the how - how social users connect with one another and how that can be leveraged for SEO gain. As a result, regarding this relationship SEO evolution usually, but not always, comes in response to changes in the social space. Once new platforms are used and understood, marketing potential is realized and put into action. Enter Pinwheel, the new soon-to-be-launched map-based social networking site that has gotten people talking this week. In his blog post today on SEOServices.com, JWersits introduces the site, its basics, and gives us a look at the sponsorship system that Pinwheel is looking to use for companies to gain exposure through the platform. Here, I'll continue where he left off and look at how SEO companies could potentially use the platform for marketing gain once it emerges from beta and is fully rolled out both domestically and internationally.

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February 22, 2012

Microsoft Advertising adcenter is evolving, and the latest changes move the platform closer to Google Adwords in an effort to make terminology and functionality similar to what marketers are using with Google. Ultimately, this is a good move for Microsoft, paid search, and those marketers managing pay per click campaigns and it shows that Microsoft is realistic in their understanding of adcenter's place in paid search. The reality is that Microsoft's advertising platform is second to Google's Adwords, and acknowledging this allows Microsoft to use this fact to their advantage.

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February 21, 2012

February 17, 2012

Twitter caused waves last month when they announced they would be instituting a per-country take-down policy regarding controversial or banned content tweeted by its users. Many are showing their disapproval about the restrictive nature of this policy and predicting its relative impact on its users and the future of the platform. According to the announcement coming via Twitter's blog, the take-down policy is reactive in nature. They describe it stating, "We will withhold specific content only when required to do so to what we believe to be a valid and applicable legal request."

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February 16, 2012

February 15, 2012

Operations become more dynamic when they expand into international markets, complete with new and different structures and regulations. I touched on this over the last two days regarding Google Maps in France and the Street View functionality in Germany. Essentially, nothing stays the exact same from country to country and Google, maybe more than any other company in the tech industry, is experiencing this in a big way. Just recently, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) made weighty accusations against Google alleging they interfered with the commission's antitrust investigation regarding potential limiting of access to local search engines on Android. Moving beyond this tension, Google engineer Matt Cutts made a presentation to roughly 80 South Korean government officials, lawyers, webmasters, and journalists in an appeal to allow Google's bots to crawl prominent government websites.

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February 14, 2012

In yesterday's post, I described how the initial resistance of Google's Street View in Germany could, at least in part, be attributed to the country's more private culture. Looking at its acceptance, the raising of concerns by Google Maps' audience had a considerable positive impact. Engagement to some degree did occur, according to the Time Magazine/Worldcrunch article, or at least Germans opposing the service had a vehicle to show their opposition made possible by the head of Hamburg's Data Protection Authority (DPA). In the article, the head of this authority stated that giving people the opportunity to disapprove "diffused the situation and helped Street View gain acceptance." Thus, creating a forum which allows people to voice concerns is sometimes all that is needed.

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February 13, 2012

When Google was introducing the Street View feature of its Maps platform in Germany, culture was at the root of its initial resistance. This is yet another example of technology and the internet challenging cultural norms and existing laws in new ways. German culture largely tends to be more private than others, particularly US culture. This can be seen throughout society, but most applicable for tech companies and search engine optimization experts is how it impacts their online activity. As such, Germans had one of the lowest adoption rates of social networking sites in Europe during the initial years of their existence. But in time, Germans have joined social sites in great numbers, once the technology and its impact on privacy was understood and accepted it appears.

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Need an Expert Contributor?

Ken Wisnefski is a seasoned web entrepreneur and a frequent contributor to news outlets and business publications. Ken’s vast knowledge of how to make online businesses succeed has made him a sought after consultant from businesses wishing to improve their online initiatives. Contact pr@webimax.com to collaborate!

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