WebiMax Blog

Kenneth Wisnefski was featured by The Washington Times recently, in an article in which he discussed the popularity of mobile shopping apps and their prevalence and usefulness to shoppers on Black Friday.

On behalf of everyone here at WebiMax, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

With the 2012 Holiday shopping season officially beginning on Black Friday, consumers have begun to seek out product reviews and price comparisons in order to find the best deals for this year’s “must have” items and according to recent market research conducted by Adobe, search engines and social media will be the most effective tools for shoppers this season.

In early 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google was exploiting little-known functionality within Apple’s Safari browser which allowed the search engine to install cookies even with Safari’s privacy settings set to disallow them.  Google was quick to respond to the accusations with a company spokesman issuing the following statement to WSJ in response to their article:

Since Apple first announced plans to develop its own proprietary mapping application earlier this year, Google Maps supporters were skeptical of Apple’s ability to design a more accurate and effective global mapping solution.  Following the release of the iOS 6 mobile operating system in September, many Apple users expressed frustration with the new Maps application.  Within a matter of days, the backlash was evident in the press, as well.  Numerous technology review sites, blogs and even tech and business news outlets were discussing Apple Maps and its lackluster user experience.

Throughout this year’s Presidential campaign, Twitter played an instrumental role.  Both candidates expertly utilized the network and kept voters engaged by addressing major issues and promoting their public appearances.  As our own social media expert, Mike Stricker pointed out in a comment on one of my previous posts; Barack Obama was even responsible for generating the most re-tweets in history for a political message on Twitter.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I can taste it already.  Can you?

At first glance, DuckDuckGo appears to be one of the most unlikely contenders to ascend to Google’s position as the world’s top search engine, but in reality, it may actually stand a pretty good chance in due time.  The small, privately-held company based outside of Philadelphia in Paoli, PA has grown rapidly and garnered substantial attention from the public and press without a multi-billion dollar ad campaign, but instead by simply offering an interesting alternative to the competition.

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak at the fourth Agile SEO – South Jersey Meetup of 2012 at the WebiMax HQ in Mt. Laurel, NJ and thanks to the great audience and my fellow presenters, Ryan Buddenhagen, Chris Countey and Bill Slawski (who offered a thorough SEO audit to one of our attendees), it’s safe to say that this was one of our best meetups yet!

There was an excellent piece in the Atlantic last month about the power of “dark social.” Dark social is, essentially, the links to your site that you can’t account for. That is, you don’t know where your visitors are coming from. When looking at your analytics, you have to keep in mind just how limited you are. In many instances, a majority of your sites views won’t come from a specific referrer. There is no referrer data if someone comes from a dark social source, such as instant messenger or email.

Of all the popular social media companies out there, Facebook always feels like the most troubled. It also has more users than any of its competitors, so criticism is easy to come by. Ever since it's lackluster IPO, the company has been scrambling to come up with a way to reassure investors that they are worth the billions they were valued at. Responding to market pressures, Facebook has aggressively pushed the message that they are focusing their energy on becoming a mobile service first and foremost. As more and more users access the internet primarily through their phones, Facebook is rushing to change the way they operate in order to meet the needs of changing demographics.

New York and New Jersey are still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Sandy. When it's all said and done, weeks and months will pass and the monetary cost will be astronomical, which is to say nothing of the lives lost.

Tonight at 7pm EST, WebiMax presents the fourth Agile SEO - South Jersey Meetup of 2012 and we have a lot in store for our attendees!

In recent years, mobile Internet usage has increased dramatically and smartphones, tablets and other mobile computing devices are now the primary point of connectivity for a rapidly growing mobile demographic.  For Internet marketers, reaching this massive user base is essential in creating more effective campaigns.

Every SEO wants the "perfect" link profile, amongst other things.  Many digital marketers hope to one day achieve a solid link profile consisting entirely of high-quality, high-authority pages from well ranked, reputable domains.  However, a majority of websites, at one point or another, have received a less-than-desirable link or two.  Despite the occasional (and virtually inevitable) flaw in an otherwise pristine link profile, there is one important fact that all SEOs must remember: A few bad links don't necessarily equate to bad rankings.

Earlier today, I read an article posted on Reuters.com discussing the impact of Twitter on this year’s historic Presidential election.  One quote within the article that particularly stood out was:

The results are in and Barack Obama will remain in the White House until 2016, but after participating in the most costly campaign to date, what really gave the President the advantage in the polls?

Ken Wisnefski discusses Obama's last-minute Twitter interactions during Election Day 2012 and how social media impacted his campaign.

Although this year’s election has been the most expensive in US history to date (with a total price tag of over $2 billion), the most significant platform utilized by both Romney and Obama to enhance their visibility throughout the campaign may, surprisingly, be the most cost effective, as well.  Social media first proved its worth in the political arena during President Obama’s groundbreaking 2008 campaign.  The usage of YouTube and Facebook to connect with a vast, diverse audience had undeniably helped Obama pull ahead in the polls and capture coveted demographics in crucial swing states such as Ohio.