Do you find yourself always on the go, having to work – literally – from your Apple iPhone? Don’t worry. Running around doesn’t mean you cannot accomplish the tasks needed to manage your SEO campaign – as long, of course, as you have one of today’s most sought-after mobile gadgets. We’ve talked before of great apps for small business owners. Now it’s time to list down great iPhone apps for those looking to continue working on optimizing their site, even while out of the office. Ego Ego for iPhone is a stat-tracking application that lets you check out the numbers and figures that are relevant to your SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. With support for Ember, Feedburner, Google Analytics, Mint, Squarespace, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vimeo, the Ego app lets iPhone users view things like daily, hourly, monthly site visits, subscriber count, number of Twitter followers, and even feed subscription totals. Ego is particularly useful if you’re managing multiple – Read the full article
Design is one thing. Development is another. The best and biggest in the ecommerce industry know the difference between the two, and so do we. That’s why here at Lakeshore Branding we focus on delivering the expertise, creative talent, technology, and savvy needed to make your ecommerce site not only look good, but drive your business. We bring value not just in terms of awesome color schemes, shiny new logos, and inspired designs, but also in terms of higher traffic, cost-efficient management, and increased revenue. We use Magento eCommerce as our platform for growth: the leading ecommerce content management system today. By leveraging the flexibility, scalability, and robust features of Magento, we are able to provide you with full-service solutions and technologies attuned to the trends and demands of the growing ecommerce industry. Why Magento? Our expertise in Magento, simply put, increases your presence online and grows your sales. Using this powerful ecommerce solution, we can develop your website with – Read the full article
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or haven’t touched a computer at all for two years, you would know by now that Microsoft has rebranded their MSN search engine to a product called Bing. It’s the company’s answer to Google, the search giant that owns a large part of the market share and which continues to lead over Bing, Yahoo, and its other search competitors. Microsoft has shown, however, that it is willing to invest and make Bing a better search product for its users. It has also spent a huge amount of money in heavy marketing spending in order to gain a bit of Google’s portion of the search space – a move that has helped Bing consistently inch upward every month. While comScore recently reported that Google still has 64.4 percent share of core searches, Bing continued to gain in April 2010 and upped its search share to 11.8 percent. Which leads to the question: should search – Read the full article
The Internet should be fast. At least that’s what Google says. In line with an announcement the search engine made last year, the speed of a website is now officially a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm. While the new ranking factor impacts very few queries, the change is still a significant development. We here at Lakeshore Branding are all for it. Indeed, the Internet should be fast. It should snap, show, and respond quickly. Whether you’re a small business owner, an Internet marketer, or an e-Commerce retailer, it’s important to understand that the speed at which your site loads can affect the level of engagement that you will have with your audience. Create a page that loads at a snail’s pace, and chances are that you’re shooing visitors and potential clients away. After all, no one wants to wait for a website or a page to load forever. So here’s a list of simple formatting tips to keep your – Read the full article
Video sharing website YouTube recently marked its fifth anniversary, and all signs point toward even bigger growth – and more video content being uploaded, broadcasted, and shared through the website. According to the recent release of statistics, YouTube enjoys an astounding two billion hits every day – almost twice as much as people tuning in to America’s three biggest prime time TV stations. The milestone, which was announced in conjunction with the anniversary, also reflects a massive growth from when YouTube was founded in February 2005. While minor glitches and copyright issues have not been uncommon, the website has enjoyed more than its fair share of sensations and successes: the viral Iranian election protests video, President Barack Obama’s YouTube interview, the massive popularity of Nike’s Ronaldinho football commercial, and – more recently – the rise of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” music video to the top of the list of most watched videos ever on YouTube. Here are other interesting YouTube – Read the full article
One of the more interesting trends in Internet marketing today is the idea of outsourcing content creation and copywriting. Here’s how it works: you run a small business, you become too busy with work, and on top of that – as though your calendar wasn’t crazy enough, as though you actually had time – you find yourself having to refresh your website or company blog with new, engaging content. You have to meet the demand for new, diverse information about your product, your brand, your industry. And you’re not even a writer by profession. One can only do so much, right? If only you can leave the writing to those who do it for a living. Enter your team of freelance writers, eager to develop content and copy for your site. They may be regular readers of your blog, looking to contribute their own content; they may be freelancing neighbors from just around the corner; or they may come from – Read the full article
The benefits of tapping experts and consultants to implement your SEO campaign are obvious. The prospects of online business have already boomed extensively, and search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial – make that ‘necessary’ – part of drawing more customers to your website. But while every other Internet marketing agency and professional SEO vendor will be ready to take you up on the challenge of implementing an effective SEO campaign, the more important question is: are you? Here’s how you know you’re ready to tap and take professional SEO help: You know it’s not a short-term thing. People say everyone can do SEO – but that’s only true insofar as ten years ago, when you could just hide keywords in backgrounds of the same color, and pay for a thousand useless links, and leave comment spam everywhere as though you just swallowed the whole can of spam. Today, there are no shortcuts. You have to realize that, to successfully – Read the full article
Marketing Sherpa, a trusted resource that publishes useful news, case studies, and best practices data about Internet and integrated marketing, recently released the new Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report. It’s a robust guide that contains research, charts and tables, case studies, and trends in today’s ever-evolving Internet marketing industry. Over 2,000 marketers participated in the surveys conducted by Marketing Sherpa, surveys which covered topics such as strategy, forecasting, budgeting, integration with other marketing channels, social applications, and social media. It is meaty: 197 charts and tables, 14 chapters, 255 pages, and results from research conducted with 2,317 business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers. The benchmark report also introduced a ROAD Map, which stands for the Research, Objectives, Actions, and Devices that businesses and marketers would have to determine in crafting and implementing a social media strategy. Because social media is continuously evolving, one has to consider this ROAD Map, which is meant to help businesses and marketers stay abreast of social media – Read the full article
