Official Google Webmaster Central Blog – Penguin is now part of our core algorithm

Google’s algorithms rely on more than 200 unique signals or “clues” that make it possible to surface what you might be looking for. These signals include things like the specific words that appear on websites, the freshness of content, your region and PageRank. One specific signal of the algorithms is called Penguin, which was first launched in 2012 and today has an update.

After a period of development and testing, Google are now rolling out an update to the Penguin algorithm in all languages. Here are the key changes you’ll see, which were also among webmasters’ top requests to them:

  • Penguin is now real-time. Historically, the list of sites affected by Penguin was periodically refreshed at the same time. Once a webmaster considerably improved their site and its presence on the internet, many of Google’s algorithms would take that into consideration very fast, but others, like Penguin, needed to be refreshed. With this change, Penguin’s data is refreshed in real time, so changes will be visible much faster, typically taking effect shortly after we recrawl and reindex a page. It also means Google aren’t going to comment on future refreshes.
  • Penguin is now more granular. Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole site.

The web has significantly changed over the years, but webmasters should be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling websites. It’s also important to remember that updates like Penguin are just one of more than 200 signals Google use to determine rank.

For more information on the above changes and how it benefits you, contact an Onimod Global Digital Marketing expert today.

Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips to Earn More Traffic to Your Website

We’ve all heard the statistics and reports on how search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical focus point for businesses on the internet. Setting a perfect stage for customers to come in and patronize your business in the form of a great website design is not just enough to make your business successful. You need several customer attraction points that can deliver not only the right quantity of referrals to your business but will also direct targeted, ready-to-buy customers to your business.

Social media may take the lead in website traffic referral for business on the internet, but what is undeniable is that search is still the leading source of the most targeted customers on the internet.

While this fact is known to most digital marketers, many are unable to recommend the right steps needed to attract qualified leads to their clients’ businesses.

This article will explore methods your business can use to make better gains through the search engine and improve sales.

Get on Google My Business

With Google’s increasing advancement in listing businesses along relevant search results, digital marketers and business owners are seeing better opportunities to get listed and be showcased directly to their customers.

Google My Business offers businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence the ability to get their business’ opening hour, phone number and location displayed to customers in search results and on Google Maps.

What’s more impressive is the “view office” feature that allows potential customers to take a virtual tour of your office without leaving Google or their seat. This will offer businesses several benefits which include increased trust and confidence in customers that have taken the virtual tour.

Use the instructions on Google My Business by Google to get started on setting your business up for the listing.

Encourage User Review

A lot of reports have shown that users who read reviews on your website, whether the customer reviews are negative or positive, will be highly likely to consider making a purchase from your website. Even leading digital marketing experts agree that using customer reviews on your website can enhance trust and transparency in your business.

The best performing businesses have customers leave reviews on their websites so that potential buyers understand that they are dealing with trusted entities.

There are several ways to encourage your customers to leave a review on your website. Being creative and open about the process will make them feel more comfortable to share their experience doing business with you and thus encourage others to come aboard.

Take Advantage of Off-Page Optimization

Off-page SEO is an important aspect of search optimization that businesses can take advantage of and get increased presence on top search results. While most businesses concentrate most of their resources on on-page efforts, signals like links, citations, and references on other websites are very credible ranking signals that Google considers.

In a comprehensive list that tries to share most of Google’s ranking factors, Brian Dean places the off-page optimizations efforts among the signals that Google’s algorithm considers when ranking a website.

Search engines have always been a very important aspect of digital marketing. This makes it critical for businesses to get search engine optimization right.

Onimod Global offers large agency services with boutique client interaction. Let us evaluate your companies digital efforts at no extra cost. Contact us today for a complimentary evaluation of your business.

Ref: Huffington Post. Google Business. Onimod Global.

9 Must-See Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week

It was an unusually good week in digital marketing stats, with some numbers proving to be surprising and others mind-boggling.

The following nine stats in particular caught our eye:

1. The pumpkin spice cometh
Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes have become a fall tradition in Instagram marketing, and this year appears to be no different. On the mobile app, per Spredfast, there have been more than 731,000 posts tagged with #pumpkin—already, two weeks before the autumnal equinox—related to the drink and another 468,000 are labeled with #PSL. Moreover, Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes receive 493 percent more likes per photo than shots tagged with #Starbucks.

2. Halfway to $1 trillion
Advertising will grow to $548.2 billion globally this year, up by $23 billion or 4.4 percent compared with 2015, according to Carat, the Dentsu Aegis-owned media agency.

The growth is primarily being pushed by digital, which will jump far higher than the rest of the marketplace, seeing a year-over-year lift of nearly 16 percent, per Carat’s forecast. The agency, which looked at 59 markets across continents, also predicted that digital advertising will see a year-over-year boost of 14 percent in 2017.

3. A cold, hard cash unicorn
Snapchat will be a big part of that digital explosion, as it will hit nearly $1 billion in ad revenue by the end of 2017, according to eMarketer. The Venice, Calif.,-based company has shown the ad-tech world that millennials and Gen Z consumers prefer vertical video, which will drive the gains eMarketer predicts.

4. Facebook copies Snapchat
And such Snapchat success is exactly why Facebook’s vertical video ads went live one week ago today. Laundry Service jumped on the format for its clients LG, Hennessy and a few others. The agency’s CEO, Jason Stein, said that the CPM rates were three times “more efficient for vertical video than square video so far.” 

5. Catching up with Spotify
This week’s annual Apple event brought few surprises for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch fans. Though it was interesting to learn that Apple Music had reached 17 million paid subscribers, an increase of 2 million from just a couple months ago. Comparatively, Spotify has roughly 39 million paying subscribers, so Apple still has some catching up to do.

6. Podvertising
Sixty-five percent of listeners said podcast ads increase purchase intent while another 45 percent said that they’re likely to visit an advertiser’s website after hearing an audio promo, per a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Edison Research.

7. AI startups gain traction
Artificial intelligence isn’t just about Microsoft, IBM, Google and Amazon anymore. Case in point: Strike Social. Launched in 2013, the Chicago-based shop expects revenue this year to jump by three times to $100 million compared to last year. It uses artificial intelligence to drive social advertising campaigns that generate bigger engagement and, in theory, greater return on investment.

8. Facebook shows it’s good to be king—but only most of the time
Industry sources estimate the platform’s right-hand-rail ads have a CPM of $1.08, with 95.8 billion desktop impressions each month. ReviveAds, an ad-block-prevention tool, calculates 15 billion ads were blocked in Q2, costing Facebook $32.4 million in lost inventory each month.

9. Foodies win @social
Food bloggers have four times the number of social media followers compared to other categories in the blogosphere.

Ref: Adweek