Was Google’s “Mobilegeddon” all smoke and mirrors?

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Google

It’s been two months now since Google released it’s latest “Algorithm” that has changed mobile searches on smartphones. The vast majority of websites today are not mobile friendly and do not meet Google’s standards. If you’d like to test your web site for to see if it is mobile friendly please plug it in here and check for yourself.

Google’s Mobile Friendly Test Site!

There are several great articles which describe Google’s “Mobilegeddon” of which I have provided links for in this letter:

Google’s New Search Algorithm Stokes Fears Of ‘Mobilegeddon’

Google has made a giant change that could crush millions of small businesses

Mobilegeddon: how Google’s new search algorithm affects business

“The change is only taking place on Google searches made on smartphones. The results will favor websites deemed “mobile friendly,” giving them higher rankings than sites that are only optimized for desktops and laptops.”

This is an excellent article:

Post-Mobilegeddon Update: Is The Impact As Catastrophic As Predicted?

It is my desire to make as many people aware of this so they can take advantage of this situation. Just think! Shear statistics state that 85% of web sites today are not mobile friendly. I believe it safe to assume the same about your competitors.

If your web site is not “Responsive” / “Mobile Friendly” give us a call today so we can explain what you’d have to do in order to comply with Google and beat your competitors to the rewards!

Landing Page Spam in Google Analytics

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A client of ours recently contacted us asking if their website had been hacked. She is familiar with Google Analytics referral spam, however seeing spam or adult/porn landing pages seemingly found on their website, concerned her.

In the ‘Behavior’ > ‘Site Content’ section under the ‘Landing Page’ report we found the following ‘landing pages’ listed. (Google defines a landing page in this report as “pages through which visitors entered your site.”):

  • domination.ml
  • redtube-talk.ga
  • guardlink.org

  Continue reading →

Image Optimization in SEO

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Behind your page title, image captions get read more than full page content.

Behind your page title, image captions get read more than full page content.

There is an SEO value to pretty much everything that you do on your website. You may not realize it, but adding images, and doing the accompanying SEO legwork, can help generate loads of traffic from Google Images and other image-based search engines. It’s not enough to just drop a picture on a page. Would you create a page and not title it?? That same regard should be held when talking about images.

Image optimization is simple. It’s a simple practice that’s also simple to accomplish and the results can be through the roof. It’s so beneficial that we here at the Orion Group, ensure that every image uploaded to any website that we manage for SEO or internet marketing, is optimized.

For the noob, there are four areas of concentration that need to be addressed when concerning yourself with image optimization: file name, file size, alt text, and descriptions/captions. Continue reading →

What does Google’s Mobilegeddon really mean?

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Hello!
This is Bill from the Orion Group. I am reaching out to as many people as I can to explain, in layman’s terms, what Google did on April 21st of this year. Some of you may have heard about Google’s “Mobilegeddon”. The title is most accurate because what Google did was literally pull the rug out on the entire internet affecting every website that exists today.

For those of us who do not understand, here is what Google did.

Why is this important?… because Google does not play around and make such announcements just for fun.

Want proof this is happening?

Image3

 

All of this is because neither site was optimized to “mobile friendly” status before the algorithm update by Google.

Does this not make one think that if such a large percentage of web sites are not responsive, and only those that are will be shown in mobile search results, then we better get going and update our web site? We need to take advantage of being part of the small percentage of sites that will show up in mobile search results and capitalize while others are still playing catch up. In essence, the entire internet is starting over and only the smartest of companies that understand all of this will take advantage of such a small pool of competition showing up in mobile search results.

This is a chance that may never come around again. In order to rank higher in mobile search results and NOT be doomed to losing that traffic all together, you have to have a website that is mobile-friendly. When will Google say that they will be doing the same thing in Desktop and Laptop searches? It’s a scary thought but Google is scary.

I believe Google is forcing the entire internet to do it their way. It purifies searches and it will cost advertisers a lot more money as the field of viewership will be so much narrower for a while.

So, while you may have been putting off redoing your web sites for years, there is now an opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. When the wagons went west in the search for gold, it was the first ones there that got richest the quickest. Now this can be said for having a responsive, mobile-friendly website. If your business values mobile traffic, why wouldn’t you want to be able to cash in on being the only ones who come up on the mobile search results with little to no competition around you for the foreseeable future?

How can you tell if your current website meets Google’s definition of mobile-friendly? There’s an online tool for that. Visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/, paste or type in the URL of your website, and click Analyze. Does your site pass? If not, then it’s HIGHLY likely that your site is NOT showing up in mobile search results.

This was a collaborative effort by Emma Edgar, Adam Kuhn & Kevin Barnes

If your website is not mobile-friendly, Orion Group can help.
Call 262-820-9520 for a free consultation.

Mobile-Friendly: Responsive vs Mobile Websites

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Mobile friendly website comparisonWith last month’s release of Google’s new ranking algorithm that lowers non-mobile-friendly websites in a mobile search, people have been running to get their site mobile-friendly.  But for those out there who have yet to make the switch, the options for turning a website “mobile-friendly” can be confusing and frustrating, especially for those who aren’t familiar with web design terms.   Continue reading →

How To Encourage Customers To Leave Feedback For Your Business

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image of positive feedbackBusiness want more engagement with their customers. Good feedback on websites increases visitor engagement, web traffic and increases time visiting the site. This helps search engine rankings and the ability to be found on Google. It helps to foster sales, creates new opportunities, and attract loyal customers that will support businesses for years to come.

Customer engagement like feedback has already helped companies like Netflix or Amazon grow rapidly.

The most important part about engagement, however, is that it can show you where you should take your business next. Feedback, which is one of the most valuable types of engagement you can have with your visitors, can do just that.

The problem is giving your customers the means to leave feedback. You don’t want to require it from them, but you do need a way to encourage and retrieve it. Continue reading →

Adding a Puerto Rico Business to Online Business Directories & Major Aggregators

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What do Localeze, InfoGroup, Factual, Acxiom …. and Yahoo Local have in common? They don’t seem to support Puerto Rico based businesses. For a typical United States ‘mainland’ client, we would use our standard tool set to publish and/or correct online business listings, however, for companies doing business in Puerto Rico, this IYP correction task gets more complicated. Continue reading →

3 Red Flags In Your Digital Strategy

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Digital Strategy Red Flags

3 Red Flags In Your Digital Strategy

First and foremost lets be clear on one thing, simply having a Facebook page for your business is not a digital strategy.

Many small to mid-sized business owners who aren’t as immersed in their company’s online marketing don’t understand this and this lack of realization adds to their concern of why they aren’t getting the attention or conversions they want in the digital space. Digital is all-encompassing and succeeding in digital isn’t a hobby. It all boils down to actually having a clear strategy, or roadmap, to be able to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

So, say it with me now: I will not set goals without creating a strategy to reach them in the first place. Great. Will there be bumps in the road? Inevitably. That’s why our overall strategies also need to be constantly monitored, adapted, and analyzed along the way. Continue reading →

Running PHP From Windows Command Line

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php-windows
Since PHP is a server side scripting language, a lot of development using PHP is done on a live web environment. However, PHP does allow you to install it and run scripts on your local machine with no web access needed.

Running PHP from Windows command line can be especially useful when trying to rapidly develop custom scripts, or to read and modify local files. In the example, we will use a custom PHP iterator. Download it here.

Continue reading →