Search Engine Optimization - Facebook Releases New, Faster iOS App - getFoundsem

Facebook Releases New, Faster iOS App

Facebook issued a massive update to its iOS app Thursday, with app version 5.0.
Facebook describes the app as being “rebuilt so it’s faster and easier to use.”
Once a template for how to design a great mobile app, Facebook for iOS has faced criticisms in the past 18 months for being slow and unresponsive.
Part of the reason behind the slowness was the old app’s reliance on HTML5. While HTML5 is a great way to build cross-platform, mobile-friendly apps and web pages, it’s not as fast for certain types of applications.
In June, two Facebook developers told The New York Times that they were working on rebuilding the iOS app in Objective-C and that the resulting app could be 2.5 times faster.
For iPad users, Timeline is finally supported on the device. We have to say, it looks great on the retina screen!
You can download Facebook for iOS [iTunes link] from the App Store. We’ll have a full hands-on look at the update for iPhone and iPad soon.
Facebook also issued a smaller update to Facebook for Android [Google Play link]. While not as far-reaching as the iOS update, the Android app now supports faster photo uploads and emoji in messages.

source: Mashable
by Christina Warren


http://www.getfoundsem.com 

Internet Marketing - Google+ Widens Rollout of Custom URLs - getFoundSEM

Google+ has started rolling out the custom URLs it first announced earlier this month to select users and brands — but the company says it may start charging for the shortened addresses in the future.
Instead of profiles being identified by a randomly assigned number string, the new wave of custom URL receivers are able to switch their profiles over to a simple, easy to find and remember URL. Mashable‘s own Google+ page, for example, can now be found at Google.com/+Mashable.
The Google+ team began notifying users Thursday morning of the option to claim a pre-approved custom URL or apply for a different one. Here’s an example of the emails users have received:
A look at the service’s updated Policies & Principles page, however, shows that Google+ users may eventually have to pay for their convenient, easy-to-use custom URLs.
“Custom URLs are free for now, but we may start charging a fee for them,” the terms-of-use page reads. “However, we will tell you before we start charging and give you the choice to stop participating first.”
Saurabh Sharma, a product manager at Google’s San Francisco office, wrote in a blog post earlier this month that the personalized addresses will eventually be “available to people and pages worldwide,” but did not specify an exact date.
Would you pay money for a custom social media URL, or is would that be an unfair charge? Share your opinion in the comments.

source:  Mashable
by Sam Laird

http://www.getfoundsem.com

Google Plus: Growth by Brute Force - getFound SEM

When Google’s new search feature “Search Plus” started favoring Google+ results several weeks ago, the change was immediately resisted by competing social networks like Twitter and Facebook. In addition to receiving negative publicity regarding the new Search Plus feature, an ongoing FTC investigation was expanded to further research the potential antitrust and privacy concerns of the new search feature. However, recent actions by Google demonstrates a firm commitment to the new feature and the Google+ social network.

During a phone call with investors last week, Google CEO Larry Page announced that Google+ has doubled in size over the past 90 days. Page also stated that the social network, which now has over 90 million users, has a high level of engagement from its users.
However, Google has been accused with artificially boosting the number of Google+ users as a result of “forcing” users to sign up for the service. Now, when a new user creates any type of Google account, the system requires that the user register a Gmail account, fill out a Google profile, and join Google+.
Google said the following regarding the recent change to the registration process:

“We hadn’t changed our Google Accounts sign-up flow in more than seven years so it was due for a refresh. We’re working to develop a consistent sign-up flow across our different products as part of our efforts to create an intuitive, beautifully simple, Google-wide user experience. Making it quick and easy to create a Google Account and a Google profile enables new users to take advantage of everything Google can offer.”

In the past, it was easy for a user to simply register for one service (i.e. Gmail) without the requirement to join Google+. In addition, the option of registering with an existing email address has now been removed.
Although Google automatically creates a Google+ account for all new users, it is easy to delete the Google+ profile in the accounts setting page.

[Sources Include: Google, ars technica, & Google Operating System]
by David Angotti

Video Search Engine Optimization - Original Content, How Much Should it Cost - getFound Sem San Francisco

You are told you should have original content on your website blog. You look at your marketing resources and you know you can't fully commit a person for original content. You think should I hire a freelance copywriter to help with the work? If there is no one in the company that has the writing skills it might be a good idea. A professional coywriter will certainly have the ability to create content for a website or blog that can capture the attention to get your brand noticed or address your target market. The next question is, what should you pay to outsource this content. It does depend on when the content is needed by, how much research is needed and what is the length of the post. You are probably looking at $50 to $200 a post.

A few thoughts to remember before you outsource your content:

Never send you content overseas. It might cost you less but you more then likely won't get great content that provides value to your readers or your brand.

Don't rely on junior people to write the content. They won't have the in-depth knowledge about the business and industry to produce content. A professional will do the research.
 
ou get what you pay for! A $5 article is a $5 article. How much effort would you put into something if you were only getting $5 for it?

Tags: search engine marketing San Jose CA, getfound San Jose CA, search marketing San Jose CA, search engine optimization San Jose CA, internet marketing San Jose CA, video seo, social marketing, video seo bay area"

Search Engine Optimization Bay Area - 45% of Daily Tweets are from Mobile Devices - getFound SEM San Francisco

Yesterday, at the 2011 Mobilize conference, Twitter’s VP of engineering Michael Abbot spoke with Om Malik regarding Twitter’s overall growth and the role mobile devices play in that growth. Prior to joining Twitter 16 months ago, Abbot led the software and services team at Palm.

Since Abbot joined the company a little over one year ago, Twitter has seen exponential growth. Last summer, Twitter had just over 60 million total daily tweets and that number has increased to over 230 million daily tweets. Amazingly, approximately 45% of the 230 million daily tweets originate on mobile devices.

While discussing whether Twitter is concerned regarding the additional traffic the iOS integration will provide, Abbot indicated he is confident Twitter can handle the traffic volume:

“During the last nine months, there’s been more infrastructure changes at Twitter than there had been in the previous five years at the company.

One of the highlights of Abott’s interview was when he stated Facebook “sucks at everything” and indicated that Twitter is not focused on what its competition is doing. Abbot said Twitter is committed to keeping their service simple and providing users with an optimal experience. He believes that Twitter’s success is due to the simplified, easy to understand nature of the service.

[Sources Include: All Things D & GigaOM]

By David Angotti

Video Search Engine Optimization - Social Bookmarking Strategy Tips? getFound Sem San Francisco

A recent study found that the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon accounts for 50% of all traffic derived from social media , surpassing even Facebook as the leading source of traffic. While we have to take these numbers with a grain of salt—StumbleUpon exists solely to share links, while Facebook is the central hub of most users’ online social lives—this data lends credibility to the value of social bookmarking sites as part of your social media marketing and content promotion campaigns.

A social bookmarking strategy, when handled correctly, provides a lot more value than just a few credible links. It can help drive traffic, increase brand awareness and build your online presence. Here are 3 tips for developing a social bookmarking strategy:

1. Promote everything, every time
The crux of a strong social bookmarking strategy is consistency. Every time a company blog post or article goes live, you’ve got to submit to all of your bookmarking sites that day. You want to give all of your content a fighting chance to be found by your target audience, so cherry picking which days and which content your submit undermines your own efforts.

2. Find niche social bookmarking sites
Just because they may be smaller, that doesn’t mean they can’t be valuable. Large social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit cover dozens of topics and cater to a vast audience. A niche social bookmarking site allows you to submit your content and know that it is being presented in front of the right audience. For instance, in the SEO world, two big niche social bookmarking sites are sphinn and SERPd. When submiting Brick Marketing blog posts to these two bookmarking sites, other SEO and Internet marketing professionals are going to be reading them.

3. Make your content shareable
You don’t have to be the only one that submits your content to social bookmarking sites. By incorporating social bookmarking buttons into your blog and website, you are encouraging your audience to share your content with their own social network. The search engines look at social signals like this (how many people are sharing your content) to determine how valuable a piece of content is and where it will rank in the search engines. Every share counts!

by Nick Stamoulis

Tags: search engine marketing San Jose CA, getfound San Jose CA, search marketing San Jose CA, search engine optimization San Jose CA, internet marketing San Jose CA, video seo, social marketing, video seo bay area"

Video SEO - Does Twitter Help Your SEO - getFound SEM, San Francisco

Twitter is one of the Big 3 of social networking (alongside Facebook and LinkedIn) and a valuable component of any social media marketing strategy. There are probably hundreds of blog posts out there telling site owners to get a Twitter account because they are “supposed” to. But what are the real benefits of incorporating Twitter into the online marketing mix? Can Twitter actually help your SEO or is it just another place to make noise and hope someone notices?

Here are 3 ways Twitter affects your SEO:

Social Signals
Both Google and Bing have admitted that social media signals are being incorporated into the search algorithm as a ranking factor. While we can only speculate as to how important social signals are, it’s probably save to say very much so. Bing patterned with Facebook to create a more personalized, social SERP and Google launched its own social networking platform. I doubt the two search behemoths would do so if they weren’t assigning some value to social signals.

So how does Twitter play into this? Content shared on Twitter can be indexed by the search engines and actually rank in the search results. The more time a piece of content is Tweeted and reTweeted, the more important it becomes in the eyes of the search engines. Just like your site thrives off of quality links, so do social signals.

Author Authority
Author authority is why it is important to take the time to actually build a Twitter profile and connect with real, human users. The search engines know that when they announce a new ranking signal, the spammers come out of the woodwork and try to manipulate it. If Google says reTweets are important, you can bet that black hat companies are creating hundreds of dummy accounts that exist solely to reTweet their content. Author authority aims to put a stop to that.
The search engines don’t just look at how many times your content is being Tweeted, but who is doing the Tweeting! How long has that person been active on Twitter? Who are their followers? What kind of content do they usually share? They want to make sure that spam profiles don’t artificially inflate the popularity of a piece of content. Having a dozen real profiles Tweet your blog post or article is worth much more than having 100 bots do the same.

Brand Awareness
If you think the only goal of SEO is to rank number one, you’re missing the bigger picture. Of course you want to rank well, but SEO is also designed to increase your overall online presence and brand awareness so your target audience can more easily find you. Twitter is a great way to increase your brand awareness. It allows you to connect with your customers in a new and personalized way. When someone Tweets about your brand/products, they are broadcasting your message to their social network as well, increasing your reach.

by Nick Stamoulis

Tags: search engine marketing San Jose CA, getfound San Jose CA, search marketing San Jose CA, search engine optimization San Jose CA, internet marketing San Jose CA, video seo, social marketing, video seo bay area"