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SEO & Google’s Algorithm: How It Works | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Google is making the search engine leg race to the number one spot more exhausting than ever and with the company’s estimated 600 changes to its algorithms made annually, the finish line may never be in sight. Search engine optimization (SEO), however, remains such a crucial ingredient to ensure organizational success.

In layman’s terms, an algorithm is a recipe that instructs a computer on how to complete a given task. Google’s algorithms pertain to yielding search engine results that are relevant to the users search queries. Today, Google’s algorithms take into account around 200 factors when determining website relevancy, a pool that is consistently growing and changing.

In it’s toddler years, Google search engine visibility was somewhat easy to obtain by stuffing a website with relevant or irrelevant keywords. As the search engine evolves, it is becoming more targeted at finding these non white-hat SEO techniques and penalizing websites for these practices. Today, Google continues to release major updates to the algorithm like Panda, Penguin, and the new Pigeon that can change a website’s traffic overnight.

Now more than ever, website relevance has to be about brand building through relevant, useful content related to what users are searching for. Keyword stuffing and paid links are now replaced by content strategy and development, a task that takes time. Strong content formation includes a hefty chunk of information that is both up to date and relevant to the users search and has not been respun, republished, duplicated or crowded by keywords.

Links are still valuable however, but their value is changing. Link building, much like keyword stuffing, became one of the easier SEO techniques to achieve higher rank results. Because of this, webmasters began building links independently via paid links or article farms. In order to fight these practices, Google introduced the algorithm update Penguin to seek out websites purchasing links or utilizing other spammy link building techniques and dropping their ranking position on search engine results. In the age of Penguin, it’s important to recognize that black-hat practices of buying links are no longer going to help your website by increasing search engine ranking position; it’s now about building relevant, qualified links by influencers in your network and submitting your content to social news sites like Reddit, Digg, or Google+ rather than submitting to article farms where your content will be republished on other sites.

Outside relevant content writing and qualified link building, another of Google’s algorithms focuses on website design optimization in regards to user experience. Google introduced the Panda algorithm update to seek out websites with low quality content and poor user experience. Websites that introduced high-quality content and constantly introduced new, fresh content into the mix were rewarded with increases in organic traffic. Sites with low quality content, broken links, and poor functionality lost out with Panda and organic traffic dropped exponentially – sometimes overnight.

It becomes more important than ever to have a team of people who understand how to utilize classic search engine tools and combine that with superior content formation in a timely and consistent basis. Paid links and keyword stuffing are no longer king , solid brand building with relevant, unique content on a sturdy foundation is.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Marketing Strategy Don'ts: Twitter Edition | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

In light of the recent Baltimore Raven’s Ray Rice domestic violence tape that went public this Monday, and in response to harsh comments made by public spectators, women everywhere who have been victims of such brutality are taking a stand.  Hashtag #WhyIStayed lets women tell their true tales of horror and despair in hopes to raise awareness on a subject often hidden in the shadows.  Grievous dialogues include, I knew if I left he’d try to kill me and, My fear to leave was greater than my fear to stay, and, I figured if I could hide my bruises I could hide my reality.  DiGiorno Pizza’s twitter account also participated in the social media trend:

Of course, it took DiGiorno’s content managers a whole ten seconds to click on the hashtag before they realized the domestic violence platform they were using to sell a frozen pizza.  Since the short lived tweet the company has sent out hundreds of personalized apologies stating that, in general, the company is sorry for not looking before leaping into such vulnerable territory and DiGiorno assures it’s audience that it would never poke fun of such a social injustice.

Let’s take a look at some other companies who have used a similar, horrible social media marketing technique.

Epicurious, a website denoted to recipes and all things food, posted this on their twitter account in the midst of the April 15th Boston Marathon bombing.

    Gap really wanted to reach out to the survivors of Hurricane Sandy day seven into the storm here.

  Kenneth Cole, sitting comfortably in designer clothes and air conditioning, posted this to their twitter feed.

This NYPD promotion backfired brutally when people began hashtagging the police department’s horror photos.

When McDonalds asked it’s customers to hashtag their dining experiences with #mcstories, they received a majority response that looked like this.

  NRA posted this the same day as the Aurora movie theatre shooting, Colorado’s deadliest massacre since Columbine.

  Whether it is due to user error or just bad taste, mistakes are rarely forgotten.  One person’s failing can be representative of an entire company.  Data is spreading quicker than ever on today’s stellar information highway and even a window of twenty seconds or less can prove deadly.  It is absolutely critical to read, review, and repeat before you finalize that campaign and know your marketer!

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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iPhone 6 & Apple's Marketing Machine | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Last Tuesday Apple unveiled a new set of iPhones, along with the long awaited Apple Watch. To some, it was a monumental announcement, to others, it was more of the same i-sheep Kool-Aid. Wether you’re an Apple fan or not, there are a few things we can agree on.

iPhone 6 Brings Minor Upgrades

A side by side comparison reveals very minor differences between the previous iPhone 5S and it’s younger, sexier sister, iPhone 6.  New features include a larger screen, curvier edges and an added pay-by-phone feature called Apple Pay which we’ve seen in other phones.  Both phones are manufactured in aluminum with an 8-megapixel sensor camera and have a battery stamina that is essentially the same.

Apple: The Hype Machine

Apple is known for technology but, without a doubt, Apple is a marketing machine.  This is arguably why the company experienced an 8000% increase in profits from 2003 to 2012, according to a recent Marketing Strategy Analysis conducted by Vertygo Team, and why people decide to fork out big bucks for little upgrade bang.

Apple has been the recipient of AdWeeks Best of the Decade, Brand of the Decade, Campaign of the Decade and Marketer of the Decade awards. It was, yet again, voted as the overall winner of the 2014 CMO Survey Award for Marketing Excellence and last year it was awarded the title of “Brand of the Year” in the league of smartphones, tablets, and computers by Harris Interactive Marketing Firm. And the list goes on.

Android Caught Up. A While Ago

If one really challenges the specs against iPhones ultimate competitors of Android phablets, the data clearly demonstrates that Apple sells because of it’s name, not it’s game.  At the most basic level of graphics, iPhone 6 has finally crossed the HD threshold, however, it barely treads water when compared to the pixel-dense resolution of current Androids.  Androids have also always been a safe bet regarding their processor downlow.  Apple, on the contrary, has shed very little light on the qualifications of it’s new A8 processor, while Android companies most always rely on the trusted Qualcomm products.  On top of that, most Android cameras are in the 16MP range, which doubles even the newest iPhone’s capacity.

Great Products Sell

Apple, however, is killn’ it.

Last year Apple roped in a whopping 56% of the total profit for the entire cell phone industry, a percentage that put the company on a profit pedestal, writes Forbes contributor Tony Bradley. However, it would be a mistake to blame marketing alone in their huge success. David Ogilvy once said that “great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster,” meaning that for marketing to work the product has to be appealing and have certain qualities. Still, Apple spends less in advertising than Microsoft, Samsung, or Coca-Cola, but none of these companies have the hype surrounding their brand like Apple.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Apple & IBM: Friends with Benefits | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Apple and IBM are known rivals, so it was a huge shock when the two companies recently announced that they would be partnering together to sell more of Apple’s iPhones and iPods to corporate customers and government agencies.

As two of the largest companies, there has previously been a lot of tension and competition between the two, however Apple’s Tim Cook and IBM’s Ginny Rometty say that the hard feelings have faded away as technology has evolved and the companies have moved in new directions. IBM moved on from the PC business when they sold their division to Lenovo ten years ago, and Apple currently makes far more revenue from its iphones than they do from their Mac computers. Cook acknowledged the lack of competition and said that the product of this is, “…something better than either of you could produce yourself.”

So what are Apple and IBM benefiting from their new friendship? Although the two competitors have partnered together in the past, this time, its big. To most, it would look like Apple is getting the better end of the deal. IBM will be providing cloud functionality and services for business use on iOS based mobile platforms which would help bring AppleCare service to the business realm. However, we will also see IBM help sell Apple’s iOS devices containing versions of their own data analytics software to their clients; a mutually beneficial relationship.

Another win-win to this deal: Apple gets a huge partner without having to build and market to other companies solo. In return, IBM gets Apple’s “cool” factor, and loyal following. Companies such as Beats by Dr. Dre and Apple themselves have a certain something that IBM just has never been able to tap into throughout the years; Can you say popularity by association?

The new collaboration between Apple and IBM should worry many companies but Dell and Blackberry are letting it be known that they are not anxious at all. They argue that the bond between the two companies is not going to derail the efforts of their own companies to reinvent themselves. John Swainson, Dell’s global software business head, said in an interview with Reuters, “I do not think we take the Apple-IBM tie up seriously. I think it just made a good press release.” Companies like Microsoft however, might be a little more on edge because of their new emphasis on a cloud first, mobile first structure. What do you think? Should the teaming of these two giants be worrying for the rest of the tech companies?

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Carebacks teams up with Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Berning Marketing teamed up with Susco Solutions to get their new app, Carebacks, national press coverage before this past Memorial Day weekend.

Within 24 hours of our first press release, the Huffington Post published this story on their website. Other local news stories followed thereafter.

Susco Solutions has been hard at work developing the app, which is already available on mobile browsers and the android market. Carebacks is coming soon to iOS.

The app allows users to securely connect their credit card numbers to their profiles, and make donations to those they meet and want to help. The online transaction is then converted into a 4 digit pin number which the recipient can take to local retailers and use for the purchase of food, beverages, and every day necessities excluding cigarettes and alcohol.

This ensures the funds will not be put to misuse, and allows app users to donate in confidence. The donation can also be tracked by the user.

Neel Sus, founder of Susco Solutions is excited and hopeful the app will revolutionize the way we help the homeless and others in need.

“I can’t put into words how excited we are to reach this milestone,” said Neel Sus, Founder of Susco Solutions. “With the launch of CareBacks we now have a scalable platform which will help alleviate suffering and promote generosity.”

Carebacks can currently be redeemed at The Salvation Army, select Breaux Mart stores, select Winn-Dixie stores, Believers Life Community Food Center, select Magnolia Discount stores, select Brown Derby stores, and select Quicky’s Discount stores.

Donations made to The Salvation Army can be used to pay for shelter during the night.

“I strongly feel that this has the potential to change the way person-to-person giving works on a fundamental level,” said Sus, “But this is just the first step. We’re going to learn very quickly from the New Orleans launch, and use the knowledge as we open other markets.”

As of now, Carebacks is applicable predominantly in the Gulf Coast region, but with a growing list of participating retailers, Sus, and other members of the Carebacks team are hopeful the app will be used across the country.

Berning Marketing is proud to stand behind such a revolutionary app, and looks forward to seeing its success, as we firmly believe there must be Importance in Direction.

- Berning Marketing is a digital marketing and advertising firm specializing in digital and internet marketing & advertising, print, web design, graphic design, film, and HD video promotion and post-production. Berning Marketing serves clients all over the United States from our Metairie, LA office just outside of New Orleans by strategically implementing proprietary tools and techniques to get you the most conversions for your business through lead generation, cost-per-acquisition, and top line revenue.

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Google Grants some Users the Right to be Forgotten | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

For their next trick, Google will now make you disappear…

About a week ago, Google out of Europe created a request form regarding outdated, inaccurate or inappropriate search results to be removed by the “Right to be Forgotten.” More than 50 million people live in the area affected by Google’s potential purge, and so far Google has received over 41,000 request to have content removed (and counting).Within the first 24 hours the site posted the form’s publication, over 12,000 requests were sent to Google seeking to remove personal content. Google supervisors estimated 7 requests per-minute since the form’s availability on the site. With numbers such as these, it seems everyone is for the request application, but some specialists believe this isn’t Google’s duty.

Secretary general of the Internet Service Provider’s Association, Nicholas Lansman, stated in an interview, “ISPA has consistently argued that companies are ill-placed to make such decisions which should be made by a competent authority such as the Information Commissioners Office and it’s European counterparts.” Meaning this removal should be laser-focused on the individual requests by government authority, not a company like Google.

This makes sense, due to the fact many of these requests (sent in primarily from Germany and the U.K) tend to be more personal and require an in-depth examination to approve request. Noting that there is a fine line between individual privacy and serving the public interest. For example, a man in Germany sent in a removal request to Google only a few hours after the form was available just so happened to also pop up on dozens of search engines after attempting to murder his entire family- no word if he ever managed to fulfill his proposal, but information like this may be best left for public viewing.

The idea behind the “Right to be Forgotten” began with the European Court of Justice reaching out to improve the reputations of the Europeans Union by petitioning Google and other search engines to remove potentially damaging links from search results. Other search sites like Yahoo have also began making small strides trying to find a balance between public domain and user privacy. But how do you know which is which? The subject is tricky and there is a large gray area that needs to be considered before completely stripping all requested names from the web.

Thankfully, Google is taking some identity precautions before granting all internet-escapees a right of passage. Along with a series of questions, a copy of your drivers licenses or other photo identification, you must select the country you would like the information deleted from followed by this statement, from Google’s ‘Right to be Forgotten’ form:

“In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials.”

However, if you are an American looking for a way to get rid of your online presence, you’ll be waiting quite some time. The Google headquarters of the United States show no signs of making a take-down option such as our neighbors across the pond, and even state on their site that anything you put on the web, belongs to the public.

Beyond the in-depth questionnaire and proof of identification, Google also wants to reiterate the fact that just because your information is removed from the search engine doesn’t necessarily mean it is erased from the internet. Meaning, in a nutshell, you can run but you can’t hide!

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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MySpace Starts #TBT Campaign: Will It Work? | Berning Marketing

Myspace is giving long-time social media users the ultimate “throwback Thursday” experience.

The aged network has been trying to reach a new audience and take back their old one for almost 10 years, and are using your old, embarrassing MySpace photographs to do it.

“Myspace has been reaching out to connect past users to re-engage them through personalized experience,” a spokesperson for MySpace stated in an interview with Mashable.

The site, which hit peak popularity in the early 2000′s are now e-mailing former MySpacer’s decade old photos of themselves labeled “the good, the rad, and what were you thinking?” with a link connecting to their old profiles.

Although a humorous and enjoyable marketing approach, will the personal touch land MySpace back in the elite networks?

Right now, no one can be sure. Within the past several years, the dated social site has been redesigned, updated, lost focused, regained focused and yet none of the reconstruction of MySpace has caused any stir in their low web traffic. A disappointing ranking of 982 total web traffic as of May 2014, to be exact, that has plateaued for roughly a year.

With all of the more modern sharing networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr, there is intense pressure to keep up with the constant changes and MySpace has fallen behind to this concept. It isn’t just that the site itself is lacking in new features, but that the branding of the network is having trouble identifying its purpose. Formerly music-oriented, turned social engagement, flipped back to music-oriented, MySpace’s identity crisis could be playing a major role in the company’s failure to flourish. A flaw they’ve had since the company began in 2003.

The history of MySpace is not much of a story as it is a short chapter. Two music-loving computer nerds by the name of Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson joined forces to create one of the first big social networks. At first, MySpace was crushing it in the numbers. In 2006 it passed Google as most visited website in the U.S. which is mind-blowing if you consider Googles epic popularity today. Everyone who was Anyone had a Myspace page and tweens and teens relished in the creative freedom of choosing ones own music, fonts and backgrounds on their personalized page.

All was right in the world of Myspace until 2006 when Facebook showed up to the social network scene with the ultimate game-changer, and Myspace has been in a rapid decline ever since.

However, they haven’t given up just yet. Justin Timberlake has apparently taken up quite a bit of stock in the company (a rumored $35 million worth) and has put publicity plans into motion recently with a string of A-list celebrity attended parties and expensive advertisements.

Will all of these tactics work? Or is MySpace going to continue to be that expensive work-in-progress house that never quite gets finished? In the end it will all boil down to brand loyalty, from not only the investors but from previous users of MySpace. Maybe this time around we can keep our Ed Hardy trucker hats out of future pictures.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Marketing Changes with Society | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

It may not be the Royal Wedding, but it could be a close second. As ABC’s hit comedy-series “Modern Family” gears up for it’s second leg of a part-2 season finale May 21st the marriage ceremony between characters Cam (played by Eric Stonestreet), and Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) allows the union of the partners to become official.

Co-creator of the series, Christopher Lloyd, told USA TODAY in an article about the show’s nuptial, “Something like this 10 years ago would have made a splash. It will jar some people but hopefully the much more prevalent reaction will be ‘oh that reminds me of my wedding day.”

While the on-screen “Modern Wedding” finale has seen overwhelming positive reviews and hype on social media by fans, gay marriages and partnerships on television have long been awaiting their acceptance on TV without a controversial backlash or stereotype.

Lagging behind their cinema and silver-screen counterparts, television advertisers are finally feeling secure enough in their brands to feature gay and lesbian families in commercials. Perhaps these advertisers are realizing they have more to gain by running the advertisements than lose.

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite ad, which aired March of last year, shows a female reading her Kindle by a swimming pool side-by-side with a male attempting to read a competitors tablet in the sun. After dialogue between the two about the tablets the woman casually mentions her husband getting a drink for her, and the man replies “so is mine” while the duo turns and waves to two men standing at a tiki bar.

Inevitably, the commercial was topic of conversation and controversy for months after the airing date; some groups petitioning for Amazon to reshoot the ad, demanding that the advertisement promoted homosexuality and was too graphic for their children to see, even though the gay husband’s weren’t in the same scene together. In the end Amazon chose to keep the commercial as-is and the mainstream brand still occasionally runs the ad despite the negativity towards it.

Almost a year later, an even more disputed commercial for Honey Maid Graham Cracker featuring a gay couple bottle-feeding a baby together threw conservatives into a social media frenzy, horribly bashing the brand for it’s portrayal of “This is Wholesome” tagline promoted by Honey Maid. Calling the ad showing loving families sharing Honey Maid products together “disgusting” and “horrible.”

Amazingly, Honey Maid handled the hateful backlash beautifully as you can see in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBC-pRFt9OM

Since then, strides within other well-known brands have been reached, as JC Penny’s recent catalog used lesbian parents to promote a Mother’s Day Sale, which they will be doing again for Father’s Day.

In an article to Huffington Post, vice-president of GLAAD (Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Rich Ferraro stated “they’re no longer just targeting gay and lesbian people. They’re targeting people like my mom who wants to know that a company embraces and accepts their gay and lesbian family members, friends and neighbors.”

As advertising becomes more tailored to the consumers with each passing second, it would be more reward than risk to stick with an open-minded approach when it comes to selling a brand. Our world is getting smaller, and thinking larger, thanks to the platforms that technology has given us. The ad’s mentioned above are great examples of how pushing past cliches can lead to a more loyal consumer, the real modern families in our world.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Pin it to win it, Pinterest's Value on the Rise | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Pinterest has made it to the big league of social networks! Last Thursday the four-year old company announced it’s raised investment of $200 million that now puts the scrapbook-like site valued at an unbelievable $5 billion.

Needless to say, procrastinating college females are not surprised.

Regardless of the small revenue Pinterest generates, the site seems to be climbing in the eyes of venture capitalists. Given the risen value of 32 percent of the company from just seven months ago- we have to agree.

One of the reasons Pinterest attracts so many users is the concept of “doing” behind the network. Unlike most social media sites, Pinterest encourages people to “pin” the craft, workout, recipe, or outfit and then use what you find in your real life. By sharing the content from other boards you follow, you are allowing these great ideas to reach other people and so on, and so on…the general theme being to find something fantastic and pass it along to friends.

A Forbes article featuring a statement from the social data platform tool Sharethis mentioned Pinterest had more share activity than Facebook and Twitter users in 2013. The key to this platform’s success is the ability it has to reach beyond sheer follower numbers to focus on purchase intent and brand engagement.

Online retailer Wayfair found that visitors from Pinterest were 20 percent more valuable overtime than average Wayfair visitors in terms of revenue. As it turns out, all of the pinning has a purpose.

Not only is Pinterest taking over our screens. Now thanks to Nordstrom we can find our top-pinned items in store. In 13 participating Nordstrom retailers, shoppers can find the Pinterest logo located on the most sought-after merchandise. This is a profitable move, especially considering Nordstrom’s Pinterest has over 4 million followers.

Following the trend of selling ad’s, the social site has began transacting with brands like Kraft, General Mills, Lululemon and Gap. All of which have paid up to $1-2 million for 3-6 month commitments to run these promoted advertisements.

However, huge brands don’t get to have all of the fun. The backbone of the network is based on your average consumers like you and me. Growing popularity in the land of stay-at-home mothers, many Pinterest boards are filled with detailed crafts and intricate DIY projects that the site is creating a bit of a “supermom” stereotype. The social network allows both men and women alike to connect on a level that is unlike anything Twitter or Facebook has to offer.

Luckily, budding value of Pinterest is likely to increase as time passes. With the users continuing to pin and the advertisements beginning to roll in, the social network may soon one day become the ultimate tool for marketing. In the meantime, perhaps you can find the 87th project using mason jars and pin it to your board.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Getting Started with Local SEO | Berning Marketing | New Orleans

Whether you are a new SEO employee in your company or a local business owner trying to get on search engines to stand a chance against your competitors, this brief introduction to local SEO can be beneficial to anyone committed to entering the local market.

To begin, let’s address some quick characteristics on how search engines rely on local SEO. Basically, search engines rely on local content that release a signal to notify search engines of that location being specified and in turn, search engines read this and index, or apply, the information accordingly using a unique algorithm. There are a few key areas of local SEO that you need to focus on to take full advantage of local SEO: on-page, local profiles, and inbound links/citations.

ON-PAGE LOCAL SEO

Here are some quick, helpful, but essential on-page local SEO tips you can take advantage of to optimize your website for local SEO.

Set up NAP – for every page on your website, make sure to include your name, address, and phone number as crawlable HTML text. Avoid the common mistake of putting this information within an image. In an image, it would not be crawlable to Google and would basically not be there at all.

Create location pages – every website should include a sort of contact page that includes information on the location of your business. You can embed a Google Map of your office to the page with NAP information also on the page.

LOCAL PROFILES

A presence of quality local profile pages can be seen as one of the most important parts of a well optimized Local SEO campaign. Start with some of the big names:

Google Places

Bing Places

Yahoo Local

For each of these profiles, make sure you completely optimize them with basic information on your business (name, location, hours of operation, business description, website URL, imagery). Today, Google makes creating your local profile even easier by integrating your Google Places with Google+ page. Make sure you also choose a proper business category for your Google+ page as well.

INBOUND LINKS AND CITATIONS

Inbound links are basically what the word says – they are links from another domain going back to your site (inbound!). Citations are a little different from inbound links – they represent mentions of your business name, address, and phone number on other domains, but don’t necessarily have to link back to your website.  Here are some helpful tips to consider for inbound links and citations when doing your local SEO campaign:

Ensure consistency of your business information across the web – could not stress this point enough. Very important for the future prominence of your business on the online word. Google values consistency of your business information highly and inaccuracies can lead to problems in how your local profiles show on search results.

Build quality directory citations – you can utilize the below map aggregators to populate map data for Apple, Yelp, Bing, and Google+. (Make sure the citations are consistent with your business info!!)

Express Update

Neustar Localeze

Insider Pages

That should be a solid grasp of an introduction of local SEO to jumpstart your business. Make sure to always maintain consistency of your NAP and encourage customers to leave reviews on your local profiles. Best of luck on your long term SEO success.

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“When I grow up, I want to be just like Facebook.” -Twitter |BERNING MARKETING | NEW ORLEANS, LA

It’s that time again — the social media gods got restless and decided to change the way we use Twitter; this time, making it look more like Facebook than ever.

At first I didn’t like the new Twitter, but in the name of progress (and this blog), I tried it out. A few hours into the change, it kind of grew on me. Here’s what’s new:

Twitter’s new layout allows users to choose a cover photo which is practically identical to the Facebook profile page. Check out Michelle Obama’s page to see an example @FLOTUS

Although the cover photo feature makes the new Twitter look a lot like Facebook, there are actually a few new features that are unique to Twitter alone.

The new profile page showcases “best tweets” for all your followers to see. Your best tweets (the ones with the most engagement & interaction) are pulled and made bigger, bolder, and more noticeable.

Also on display is a user’s “pinned tweet,” which allows users to select a specific tweet to pin to the top of the profile page to best represent the user. This seems to be an extension of the Twitter bio, which only allows 140 characters.

The last new feature is “filtered tweets.” This lets users view a variety of different tweets based on photo content, video content, replies, or just plain tweets. This will allow users to revisit a specific tweet easily, based on its content.

Although the cover photo does make Twitter look strikingly similar to Facebook, some of Twitter’s features will always differentiate the two; their 140 character limit, handles, and format will always remain classic characteristics that make Twitter the unique social media giant it is.

Visit Twitter today, scroll to the top, and “Try it out.” Tell us what you think.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Be Careful What You Hashtag For...| BERNING MARKETING | NEW ORLEANS, LA

Someone call Olivia Pope. NYPD’s got a scandal on its hands.

There is no question about it. Marketing has expanded a great deal to include social media. Most companies already know this and have taken to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets to increase their Internet presence, search engine optimization (SEO), and improve their Google score.

When Vice President Joe Biden’s Instagram account became known, it picked up a whopping 122,000 followers—not only because the account posted a selfie of Biden with President Barack Obama but also because the account caught the attention of Buzzfeed, a news and entertainment site popular with the 18-25 year-old crowd.

Social media management over at NYPD was looking to get the same kind of attention. But, as the white-hat-wearing Pope would say, one can’t just send out a message—one needs to control the narrative. On April 22nd, around noon, a tweet was sent out from the NYPD News Twitter account, prompting users to tweet a picture they might have of them with the NYPD, using the hashtag, #myNYPD.

Within a few hours, the hashtag was trending on Twitter and Facebook. Users were posting photos of police brutality, violence, and abuse under the hashtag #myNYPD. At its peak, the hashtag was being used about 16,000 times an hour according to hashtag.org.

The intention of the hashtag campaign was to find and feature a few of the best photos on the NYPD Facebook page. The hashtag took—though probably not in the positive way that it was intended—and now they have quite a selection to choose from.

Looking at the hashtag campaign from a marketing standpoint, the change in the message may not be that bad. The public often dislikes the police regardless because they associate them with the inevitable: tickets, arrests, traffic, sirens, antagonizing peaceful protestors, etc.

But, it’s not like the police is a client that needs to get re-hired for a job. The NYPD isn’t a restaurant or club that will go out of business because of bad press. The NYPD will just go on being disliked as they usually are, except now, they’ll have an incredible SEO score!

According to Tory Starr from PRI.org, the tweets alone launched a global discussion on police brutality—just another progressive step the people of the Internet have taken together.

So, what have we learned from this hashtag blowup? Record the events around you—they can give you a powerful voice and instill change. Also, mass communication means that your audience may turn your message into something completely different.

The #myNYPD publicity can go either in a positive or negative direction—we’ll have to wait and see what they do about the pictures of police brutality flooding the Internet. In the meantime, maybe Ms. Pope will swoop in and save the day.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Google's 'Shelfie' Prank Becomes Latest Feature | Berning Marketing | New Orleans, LA

Following Popularity of April Fools Feature, Google Releases ‘Shelfie’

April Fools: the day for pranksters rolls around every April 1st, evoking joy or dread, depending on whether or not you’re a lover of schadenfreude. Never one to be outdone by others, tech-giant Google launched a salvo of its own pranks last Tuesday. Between transforming Google Maps into an augmented reality game of Pokémon and the invention of the Magic Hand, a device that lets mobile users text and surf the web on their tablets and phones without lifting a finger, the company made a huge splash.

“Shelfie” Prank Becomes Permanent Function

Of all of Google’s April Fools pranks, only one proved successful and “practical” enough to find a place among the company’s ever growing suite of tools it offers its more than 425 million Gmail users. A function named “Shelfie” was released in the prank onslaught, giving Google users the ability to share their custom Gmail themes with the world at large. For most people, the fact that Gmail offers 15gb of free storage and the ability to send e-mails of up to 25mb in size is reason enough to use the service, but by adding the hugely popular “Shelfie,” now referred to as Shareable Custom Themes, to Drive, Maps, and the rest of its menagerie of services, Google has tightened its grip on its users, if only slightly.

Should We Be Surprised by Its Success?

It’s hard to believe that the Silicon Valley behemoth only intended “Shelfie” to be a one-off joke. In a world where 70 billion pieces of content — from selfies, to statuses about cooking dinner, to overly emotional song lyrics — are shared just on Facebook every month, another web function that gives self-promotion capabilities to the “Me generation,” particularly one syncing with a hugely popular e-mail service, is sort of a no-brainer for added success. As a millennial myself, I plan to start sharing my custom themes, whether “My Little Pony” or “Frozen” inspired, straight away.

What custom Gmail theme are you most looking forward to sharing?

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Free Office Online: Microsoft's New Strategy | Berning Marketing | New Orleans, LA

A couple of years back my colleagues and I were discussing the importance of Google’s entrance into the cloud services space, and how their new service, Google Docs, would benefit small businesses and individuals. The proposition was simple: give us a bit of your personal information by signing up for a GMail account, and we’ll let you create, edit and share documents à la Microsoft Office. Initially, the sentiment was that such an underpowered, cloud-only productivity software wouldn’t meet the needs of consumers. That sentiment WAS correct. Fast forward seven years, Google Docs has grown and now integrates many of the features that longtime Office users crave. It has also proven to be a great aid for cash strapped small businesses and students that would otherwise have to pay for productivity software. Now Microsoft has announced Office Online, a free web-based version of its Office suite.

So why would we start a conversation about Microsoft’s latest move with a story about Google Docs? It’s simple: the technology industry’s ever-changing pace requires companies to be agile in the way they develop new products. While we can only speculate, Microsoft’s decision to make Office Online free has probably something to do with Google. Microsoft, however, was not the first to react to Google’s cloud based apps. Late 2011 saw the release of Apple’s iCloud, which offers similar document creating tools. So what does Office Online have to offer?

Firstly, it is great to see that Microsoft has learned. It no longer stubbornly sits on legacy software written in the last millennium. The company as a whole, new CEO included, has started a long yet focused shift towards the cloud and into the consumer space it once ignored. Let’s not forget Microsoft’s cash cow is its enterprise business, which provides about half of its profits, and it keeps growing. Things have changed, however, and the business known by millions for its enterprise-geared operating system and apps is now trying to be a consumer first company.

Secondly, Office Online has an actual intuitive and appealing design. The signup process is fairly easy, as all is needed is a valid Email address and personal information. Once logged in, the user is welcomed with the familiar Office 2013 design language and menu options. Some consumers find this easier to navigate as it mimics the desktop and tablet versions of the software. However, some users will find the interface to be too “bloated”, especially those who don’t think highly of Office for desktop. Personally, I think is a step in the right direction. Let’s not forget Microsoft is playing catch-up, so they need to offer a full-fledged solution to remain relevant in the consumer space.

Thirdly, Microsoft is offering five of its most important apps for free. During the late 90′s and early 2000′s, the Windows monopoly forced users to rely on Office to write documents, make presentations, draw up spreadsheets and check Emails. We are all familiar with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note and Outlook, and some of us decided to let go of them as we moved to the cloud. Now Microsoft is reaching back to those customers with an appealing offer. Too little, too late? We’ll see.

Lastly, since the introduction of Bing in 2009, Microsoft has been in the “getting to know you” business. In other words, they offer a “free” service (search with Bing, productivity with Office Online) in the exchange of our personal information. Companies then turn our input into a big data aggregate used to better develop their products or to sell it to advertisers. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this business model, we as internet users should be aware of how our information is being used. So if you’re comfortable sharing your information with Facebook, Google, Apple and now Microsoft, and you feel you’re getting a good service in exchange, you have nothing to worry about. Don’t forget to try out Microsoft Online and share your feedback with us.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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From Intern To Full Time, In No Time | Berning Marketing | New Orleans, LA

It’s that time of year again, juniors and seniors at colleges everywhere are researching businesses across the city pining for internships. Getting that foot in the door isn’t easy, and once you have it there, the work only gets harder. Here are some simple tips to landing an internship, and turning it into the start of your career.

Find local job searching sites.

The web is a big place, and can leave you feeling overwhelmed and confused when searching for work. If you know what city you’re planning to intern in, try googling local job search sites before you go to the big ones. monster.com and jobs.com have their place, but WorkNola.com, for example would be a good start.

Don’t get set on a paid internship

Of course you want to make money- we all do. But sometimes when you’re this early in your career its important to keep in mind that putting in some real work now will only help you make real money in the future. So if you find an internship that seems perfect only to find out they don’t pay, do not write it off. Explore options to receive income with another part time job first.

Your dream company doesn’t offer internships?

Many companies do not offer internships because they may not have the money for it. If you’re willing to work for free, and have your eyes set on a company that doesn’t publicly offer an internship, visit their website and get in contact with someone. Just because they don’t have an intern now doesn’t mean they would turn down free work from someone with enough drive to create a position for themselves.

Know where to look

Although online resources are always helpful, some employers like the idea of meeting in person. Find career fairs through your school or local chamber of commerce and be ready to introduce yourself to recruiters. In addition to your resume, have a little introduction prepared that states your skills and experience.

Be patient

It might take more than a few interviews or applications for you to land the right internship. Be prepared to hear no for an answer and always have several options going on. Some companies might take longer than others to reply so don’t give up. Finding the right internship takes time, planning and patience.

Kill that interview

Once you got someone’s attention, prepare. Go over your resume several times and make sure someone helps you rehearse for the interview. Be prepared to answer questions about yourself, about your experience and about your school. Also be sure to look sharp and be well rested.

Be sure to follow up with prospective employers and collect the necessary contact information during your interview. Remember to take your internship seriously as this might be your chance to prove yourself in a professional setting. Good luck!

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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Domain Authority: Is It Worth the Trouble? | Velocity Agency | New Orleans, LA

Having your online marketing efforts be successful in 2014 is a big deal. After all, web users around the globe are expected to drop $1.5 trillion this year on their favorite goods and services online. While you undoubtedly understand that great SEO, content marketing, and social media outreach are essential to your success in tapping into that huge revenue stream, you may not have heard about domain authority. If that is the case, you need to become familiar with the concept to start improving your business.

What is Domain Authority, and How is It Calculated?

To put it simply, your domain authority is a numerical score assigned to your website based on a number of factors. After running these factors through a complex scoring algorithm, your site is assigned a domain authority score out of 100 based on its authority in popular search algorithms, like Google PageRank.

How your domain authority is calculated depends on the service that’s doing the calculation. Generally, checkers will combine your total number of quality back-links, the number of rooted links, and any links your page uses from known authorities on various subjects. Just like popular search engine algorithms, domain authority checkers also take into consideration the relevance of your content and the amount of traffic flooding your site.

You need to keep in mind that your domain authority score has no impact on how you’ll appear in search engines. Instead, it’s an indication of how effective your web marketing efforts are. Why? As you’ve seen, your domain authority is simply a score that’s calculated based on your relevance, back-links, and the like; in other words, it’s completely dependent on the success of your SEO efforts.

Steps to Improve Your Own Domain Authority

Having said that, you might think that there is little value to your domain authority other than its use as a metrics tracking tool. However, you need to consider this: the higher your domain authority, the more likely it is you’ll place high in search engine results. Facebook.com, for instance, has a domain authority score of 100. That means anytime the site publishes a new piece of content, whether it’s an overview of a new app or news on the changes to their privacy policies, it is likely to shoot to the number one spot in Google results, ahead of any other listing resulting from a search for “Facebook.” If you want to improve your domain authority, you should focus on your SEO efforts overall, but there are a few specialized tactics you can take to grow your score:

Improve Onsite Content

Improving your onsite design, content, and functionality is a sure step toward an improved score. Keeping your interface clean, streamlining your design to improve your loading times, and keeping your links numerous but relevant, a key factor in any domain authority calculation, will go a long way in bringing that score up.

Combine Content Marketing with Social Media

61% of web users say that content marketing makes them more likely to buy from a company online, which is great for your revenue. However, content marketing can also have an impact on your domain authority. Quite simply, the better quality of content you write, the better chance you have of it being shared across social media, thereby building more links. By building your own presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other popular platforms, you further improve your chances of building these quality links.

Unlike other metrics, your domain authority score cannot easily be improved, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important for you to try. In general, better marketing efforts, whether in your content production team or through social media, will yield a better authority score, and that will go a long way in helping you get noticed online.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.

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What Facebook's Acquiring of WhatsApp means for Online Marketing 2014?

At the end of February 2014, it was announced that social media giant Facebook would buy WhatsApp, a social messaging company, for a whopping $19 billion USD. The move came as WhatsApp hit the 450 million user mark and estimates showed that it would continue to gain around a million additional users a day. For Facebook, the most popular social media platform in the world with over 1.4 billion active users, buying the world’s most popular messaging app is just another step on the way to their domination of the way people communicate in the Internet Age.

What the Acquisition Says About Social Media in Marketing

If Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp proves anything, it’s the importance social media plays in the business marketing sphere in 2014. Keep in mind, of WhatsApps 450 million and growing user-base, 70% use the application on a daily basis. On the other hand, only 62% of Facebook users use the big blue social media giant daily. For Zuckerberg and the rest of the Facebook team, WhatsApp was poised to draw significant marketing revenue away from them. Keep in mind, 70% of businesses say they’re going to spend more on social media marketing in 2014, and Facebook doesn’t want that spending going anywhere but to its coffers. Zuck and the gang have taken a time-honored approach to competition in business: if you can’t beat them, buy them.

Why You Need to Keep Using the Expanded Facebook

With this purchase, Facebook proves it understands the pivotal role it and other social media platforms play in the online marketing game. Just in case you aren’t clear on what the purchase means to you, think of it this way: Facebook now controls a bigger portion of the social media playing field and is playing an increasingly important role in successful online marketing with social media. You need to continue to take steps to please the powers that be. Here’s why:

Social Media is the Fast-Track to Online Recognition SEO, content marketing, and the like are all insanely effective when it comes to successfully building a presence online. However, you first have to draw people to your neck of the internet. By building a presence on social media platforms, places you know billions of people visit daily, you can skip over the part where you have to wait for people to come to you.

Social Media is Like an Acceptable Link-Farm In the past, to build links to your site, you would have to rely on link-farms. Of course, then Google came in and rightly labeled that a black-hat SEO tactic. However, link-building remains an important part of generating more traffic to your website online. By creating high-quality content and sharing it on social media, you can effectively generate your own organic link-farm. Think about it, if your content is good enough, your followers will do the work for you, sharing your links far and wide.

Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp consolidates an already gigantic social media empire. While it doesn’t necessarily change the playing field for marketers, power plays such as this demonstrate how keenly aware Facebook and its ilk are of their centrality going forward into the Internet Age.

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Berning Marketing is a New Orleans based communications and production company specializing in crafting marketing campaigns and turnkey productions with clients in retail, government, financial, energy, hospitality, medical, and defense across the United States.  Berning Marketing also works in all forms of media including television, radio, print, outdoor, and online marketing assuring quality in style and execution.