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Author: news

SEO 

How to project SEO traffic levels and avoid saying, ‘It depends’

news

Have you ever had this conversation with someone from upper management? Boss: “If we implement your recommendations, how will this impact traffic?” You:  “It depends.” Boss: “If we create a new content project, will it generate a lot of traffic? You: “It depends.” “It depends” is the typical response by a search engine optimization specialist (SEO) to questions about traffic projections and is a top response that infuriates management. As any SEO knows, you can’t predict with any accuracy what a change will do to your traffic, since there are…

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World 

Report: Social media sentiment not predictive of offline brand outcomes

news

The conventional thinking is that social media conversations about brands are representative of broader consumer sentiment in the overall market. However, new research from Engagement Labs finds online discussions and sentiment are not necessarily predictive of offline brand outcomes. Among other things, Engagement Labs sought to answer the question, “Can the social media tip of the [consumer conversation] iceberg predict what is a much larger conversation happening in real life? The answer apparently is “no.” I spoke with Engagement Labs’ Chief Commercial Officer Brad Fay about the research. He indicated…

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World 

Kabbage Teams Up with Ingo Money to Disburse SMB Loans Within Minutes

news

Mobile lender Kabbage has partnered with push payments innovator Ingo Money to speed up disbursement of loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) accounts in real-time. The team-up, slated for a summer launch, is welcome news to SMBs that need fast loan payouts for their additional working capital. By leveraging Ingo Money’s “push payments in a box” platform, Kabbage can make the funds available to business debit cards or wallet accounts immediately. Whereas loan application and approval from financial institutions take weeks, online lenders like Kabbage has reduced the entire process…

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Social 

Twitter Gets Rid of 70 Million Fake Accounts in May and June, Cracks Down on Trolls

news

Twitter has been aggressively suspending false accounts in a bid to curtail the spread of fake news. The company’s massive crackdown on trolls and bots have resulted in one million dubious accounts being deleted or suspended per day. According to the Washington Post, Twitter has been coming down hard on fake accounts, trolls, and bots since late last year. The purge of these accounts was reportedly brought about when testimonies from Google and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter revealed that millions more Americans were exposed to fake news…

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Marketing 

Snapchat and Amazon Could Be Teaming Up on a New Visual Search Tool

news

Snapchat is seeking to expand its horizons and utilize its camera to go beyond social media with a new visual search feature. This novel search capability and a team-up with Amazon could open a new revenue stream for the company. According to reports, a new Snapchat version for Android smartphones includes a secret code for a new “Visual Search” feature. This new feature, dubbed Project Eagle, can allegedly utilize Snapchat’s camera to send a barcode or product image scans to Amazon. The retail powerhouse will then display the results of…

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SEM 

SEMPO Membership Meeting – Chicago SES 2004

news

Barbara Coll welcomed us, well there are not too many of us here. She started with SFO Regions (Search/Find/Obtain) is just starting, search is really early in the stage. She explains that Search marketing, to be taken to the next level requires education of corporations, consumers and channels. SEMPO has educated the media publishers, the press, the members, and the advertisers. SEMPO does it providing a “huge” amount of materials on the site. Recognition for search marketing this year was huge; Google IPO, MSN Investment, Large Agency Adoption, Advertisers expected…

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google 

Google Search Algorithm Update Currently Mild

news

Since the roll out of the Google Speed Update – the SEO community has been on high alert to see what type of impact it has on the overall mobile search results. The deal is, I’ve been tracking it for the past couple of days since it began rolling out and the chatter is mixed. I’d classify the chatter as mild and the tools themselves show a mix. Here is some of the chatter from the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread: Anyone seeing any ranking changes now that this speed update has…

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Bing 

Bing Ads Bans Third-Party Technical Support Services Companies

news

So we just had Google AdWords announce banning payday loan ads and now Bing announced they are banning third party online technical support services to consumers. So those who have technical support companies directed at consumers can no longer use Bing Ads to promote their business. Why? Bing said “because of serious quality issues that can impact end user safety.” Bing added, “this policy change reflects Microsoft’s commitment to lead the industry in providing a safer experience for all of our end users, including populations most vulnerable to online scams…

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Latest News 

Microsoft Now Has a Free Version of Teams, Takes on Rival Slack

news

Microsoft is gearing up for its yearly Inspire event and has drummed up interest with the announcement of a free version of Microsoft Teams. The Teams platform has been around since 2016 and 200,000 companies are now using it. However, the lack of a free version or a freemium tier and the $60 annual fee made it inaccessible to freelancers and small businesses. This oversight may have been costly, as small and medium businesses comprise more than 90 percent of businesses worldwide. Unlike Microsoft, Slack has had a free version…

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Marketing 

2018 Will See Continued Decline in Facebook Use Among Teens

news

Is Facebook losing its cool factor? That seems to be the sad truth as the social media giant lost around 2.8 million young users last year. eMarketer’s 2017 forecast stated that for the first time ever, Facebook would see a drop in users. The research firm estimated that there would be a 3.4 percent drop in US users aged 12 to 17 years old. However, the reality turned out to be much worse, as that young demographic actually saw a 9.9 percent decline in users. That’s about 1.4 million people. Based…

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