As Google's spam-fighting algorithm, Penguin, continues to make headlines, SEOs and webmasters are not only analyzing their tactics and strategies, but are also dishing out the latest information to help others avoid receiving a penalty. While SEOs and webmasters want to avoid being affected by Google's Penguin, and offer tips regarding over-optimization to help others avoid the attack, it's important to also stress the concern of under optimization.

Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a leading search engine optimization firm, announced today that the company received multiple awards from the Interactive Media Council, Inc. for 2012. WebiMax received the Outstanding Achievement Award and Best in Class award for the second consecutive year.  Read more

In yesterday's post, I opened the discussion on reframing and described what it is and the background of why it is important. Today, let's look at the tactics used and how it is relevant both at home and internationally.

Like a prediction straight out of a 80s sci-fi movie, everyone from teenagers to adults is constantly connected to one another these days via mobile phones. Over the course of the last six years, the prevalence and speed by which Blackberries, tablet PCs and smartphones have spread have become increasingly pronounced. As I discussed several days ago, the mobile market is one that everyone is trying to tap into at the moment. Yet at the same time, there are far more ways to become noticeable to mobile users than simply being SEO-friendly and active on social media.

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- (May 10, 2012) – Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a leading search engine optimization firm, announced today that the company received multiple awards from the Interactive Media Council, Inc. for 2012.  WebiMax received the Outstanding Achievement Award and Best in Class award for the second consecutive year.

Reframing has a few different definitions but in terms of PR and branding, it is considered as keeping the conversation being had with audiences (on both the macro and micro scale) on point by bringing it overtly or softly back on message. Reframing has its roots in psychology and communication relating to reframing an idea…seeing it in a different light which can translate to a new and improved approach to the idea or mood surrounding it. As an example, I wrote about this practice in the first of two pieces on the subject before on the blog back in March discussing reframing the challenge of culture when a company expands into a new country as an opportunity to excel. Here's an excerpt:

Google Penguin is changing the search optimization game for small business, according to Todd Bailey of Webimax. He shares some suggestions on dealing with the changes with Alisa Parenti on Red, White and Blue Chips.  Hear more

As my fellow writers and I have recommended time and time ago, it's a good practice for companies to use social media to supplement their other organic SEO activity. Due to the ever-increasing number of users found on networks such as Facebook and Twitter, many start-up or entrepreneur company owners are sharing their own original content effortlessly with the masses. Businesses that remain active with social media sites consistently see better traffic to their online properties than those companies that don't retweet or post status updates. It's an exciting time for small and medium-sized businesses to be sure, but many companies are finding that their success is somewhat limited and they don't know why.
 

Are you lost in your head regarding SEO, Penguins, Searching Plus 'Your World,' contradictory suggestions, etc?  It's cool.  I sympathize with business owners.  I must bushwhack my way through a series of digital pages per day on germane topics.  It can be mazelike; the further you're in, the increasingly perplexing it becomes.

Everyone who writes about SEO has recognized Google's Penguin update as the hot button issue at the moment. After a staggering 350,000 sites were affected by the company's recent algorithm revisions, the SEO community fell into a bit of disarray over the topic. Across the board, reaction to the update has been mostly negative as only a few actually notable spam and aggregator websites were impacted by Penguin while thousands of respectable businesses were hit as well. It's a subject that is generating a lot of buzz and has led to sites devoted to the subject and commentary from our own Jill Johnson.
 

Mobile marketing has closely followed the fast ascent of smartphone penetration around the globe. Developed markets like that of the US, UK, much of Europe, several countries in Africa, and across Asia and the Pacific have seen marked growth in the use of smartphones. What is most relevant to SEO companies and social media marketing professionals, however, is the fact that search behavior has grown along with the adoption of the smartphone. People are using them to conduct their internet searchers more and more thus opening up the opportunity for businesses to conduct paid search and SEO campaigns to target the mobile searchers. Now Google is looking to the developing markets in Latin America as regions ripe for Android predicting them to take off in the coming years.

"We don't accept that form of payment," says a store vendor.  "Well, looks like you don’t get my business," I say when I have no other alternatives or don't appreciate the lack thereof.  Inspiring conversions lies at the heart of marketing; it would be a terrible injustice if the marketing comes undone due to issues with accepting payments.

On this blog, I have touched on the importance of catering SEO efforts to the local context of a particular culture in many different posts. It is the underlying theme of my international SEO writing as it is massively important for brands and yet it is not done enough. When businesses expand their operations into different cultures or countries, the people that make up their audience changes based on culture, language, and the political-judicial landscape that they find themselves operating in.

Google officially announced the Penguin update is one of over 500 annual updates to their search algorithm, however the problem is the amount of sites that were wrongfully flagged. Last year when the company released their Panda Update, over 40% of websites were wrongfully penalized. Read more

Google launched a major update to their search engine algorithm, titled the Penguin update on April 24th. The Penguin update targets websites and businesses that Google has identified as over-optimized and penalizes them for trying to trick their search algorithm and increase rankings. This update is predicted to impact 3% of all search queries.  Read more

Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a leading search engine optimization firm, announced today that the company launched PenguinWatch.com, a Google search engine update resource center.  Read more

While it's important to hire an SEO company that's committed to working for you, since the release of Google's new algorithm, Penguin, it's crucial more than ever that you select an SEO company that is following organic SEO practices.

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ-- (MAY 7, 2012)-- Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a leading search engine optimization firm, announced today that the company launched PenguinWatch.com, a Google search engine update resource center.

In the world of online marketing, there's a particular crowd of internet users that have provided advertisers with quite the dilemma for years. While office-bound white collar workers and Generation Z teens are exceptionally active when it comes to interacting with web-based ads, it's been the mobile user market that has eluded many marketing firms for so long. According to a recent Pew Research study, an increasing number of people are interacting with news and media via a combination of mobile devices and home PCs or laptops. Despite this rising trend, the number of users that interact with ads on their smartphone or tablet PCs is still relatively low.

Since Google's initial deployment of the now-infamous Panda Update in February of 2011, the online marketing industry has undergone some substantial changes and made the SERPs more hospitable to white hat SEOs.  In all of its subsequent revisions, Panda was altered to further reduce the likelihood of low-quality content taking precedence over relevant pages in organic search results.  Panda had essentially made Google a more effective search engine, but when the Penguin Update was released in April; the intent was obvious: To make over-optimized pages a thing of the past.

The success with which "The Hunger Games" film harnessed social networks, en route to becoming 2012's biggest blockbuster, underscores a growing threat to billions of dollars in movie-advertising revenue on which broadcasters rely.  Read more

In social media, reach is of the utmost importance. With the various social media sites available, each site is competing with the next, aiming to gain the top spot on the popularity chart. Each site provides different features to captivate users and influence them to join that site. The latest social media site, Pinterest, has made great strides of its own.

Despite the immense popularity of social networks, often times many companies find that their social media listings only get visited by a handful of people on a regular basis. Every SEO company these days strongly recommends that its clients actively participate in media sharing on networks such as Facebook or Google+, but these agencies usually end up only getting mixed results themselves when performing social media campaigns. While one could try to chalk up this whole situation as being a consequence of market saturation, the fact remains that most faltering social media listings are a result of low audience capture.

New chapters in the case for social media marketing seem to be made on a monthly or even weekly basis. The medium has allowed for the close communication between businesses and their various audiences, including their valued customer base. Facebook revolutionized the business transition to social media, Twitter followed, and now the likes of Pinterest and Google+ are vying for their social relevance and value. Each brings a different element to the table as so they should, in order to differentiate themselves from one another and offer separate functionality. Talking to social media experts and search engine optimization consultants who integrate SEO and social media efforts into integrated campaigns, there are many valuable ways to engage with audiences in the social space. Now, the latest innovative use of social media is to use it not only to track what customers are saying about beloved discontinued products but also to ask what it is they want back - and then deliver on what they find out.

Google does pioneer many innovative features on the web from their Maps offerings down the line, and their Google Translation has been assisting users for six years now. But, it has been announced that Gmail users will be able to utilize an auto-translation feature to translate text to their language of choice from now on. The email feature uses technology pioneered for the Google Translation service that has been continuously refined through the years. These two features are an example of how Google uses its search technologies to advance other areas of service. Google Translate accesses hundreds of millions of human translated documents online and looks for patterns to make highly educated guesses regarding the nature of the content to be translated, its context, and what the most appropriate translation would be.

When business owners hear the term "online marketing," many people immediately think of the more overt advertising that they see when surfing the web. Banner ads, PPC links on search results and pop-up ads are certainly all very common tools used by internet marketers. Yet many companies have been relying on more SEO-oriented techniques to get their brand's name recognized by internet users. This change of pace isn't due to lackluster results from PPC, but rather a repurposed focus on trying to elevate organic search results over paid efforts.

Are the newspapers getting more digitally savvy?  Most news organizations view marketers and large content-pushing entities as the 'competition.'  Where are you reading that story, from the pages of the New York Times or from Mashable?  If you're used to reading online, it's likely you've heard of Mashable and use the site to find the latest news, even though it may have been published elsewhere first.