by CodeFuel Staff | Jun 6, 2016 | Marketing
Google is always changing its algorithm.
If it’s not making formal changes then it’s testing out potential changes. At this point, the only thing that would be surprising is if Google didn’t have some surprises up its sleeve.
Recently, Google has started toying with some new changes. Some are only in the testing phase, and some have been established.
Here’s what we know about the Google SERP updates for 2024:
Longer Title Tags and Descriptions
Marketers may soon get more wiggle room in what they can include in title tags and descriptions.
Traditionally, the title tags that Google shows in its search results have been limited to only 50 or 60 characters. Yet, in early May, some astute observers noticed that search results were showing up to 70 or 71 characters in the title tags.
That might not seem like a lot, but it’s enough to fit in at least another word or two, which may be all you need to complete the headline you really wanted.
Additionally, Google has increased the characters it allows in the meta descriptions. Sites can now include about 100 more characters in the descriptions, which is about one more line of text. Instead of two lines of text, the descriptions now include three lines.
However, some results are still being shown cut off at two lines, even if Google is processing the additional line of text.
Longer Mobile Title Tags
The rules for mobile have always been a bit different than the rules for desktop.
With the latest changes, only the longer title tags are being applied to mobile search.
However, the changes don’t transfer directly. Actually, mobile search results get even longer title tags — 78 instead of 71. That’s a big improvement over the previous 50 or 60 characters that were displayed.
This creates more opportunities for marketing on mobile, but it also presents a bit of a conundrum. Marketers can’t just write the same content for both versions of the site and expect the responsive design to do the rest. They must create content specifically for mobile and specifically for desktop — which is something they should already be doing as mobile grows more and more separate from desktop.
Addition of Rich Cards
A while back, Google introduced rich snippets, which show just a little more than the basic title and description. Rich snippets include a thumbnail of the page picture or video, and the formatting is a bit larger and more noticeable.
Now, Google is introducing rich cards, which are small boxes that look just like the shopping results in search. The rich cards include a larger photo, a short title, a rating, and a time marker that shows recency.
The rich cards appear right at the top of search results, and users can scroll through them quickly to find what they need. The purpose of these rich cards is to make it easier for mobile users to search — again, showing the dominant position that mobile has taken.
Marketers will need to create content with these rich cards in mind. Specifically, they will need to choose great, eye-catching photos for their posts and write engaging headlines.
Right now, rich cards are being used to display recipes and movies, but industry experts are sure that their use will quickly grow to other categories. It is important that marketers start thinking about how to take advantage of these changes now, even if they are not immediately affected. Having that practice will help them be more competitive when the use of rich cards grows wider.
Moving Forward
It’s still unclear whether the longer title tags and descriptions will be made permanent. Google often tests out new features before it introduces them, and it has made no announcement about these latest changes.
Therefore, the longer titles and descriptions could slip away just as discreetly as they were introduced.
In the meantime, it is a good idea for marketers to experiment with the longer tags to see what difference they make to their results. Marketers can look at their history to see if they have gotten different results since the changes were introduced at the beginning of May, or they can conduct A/B testing of their own to find out what impact the changes make — if any.
It also important for marketers to start creating content with rich cards in mind, as well as to find other ways to make search better for mobile users. Mobile is expected to continue growing, so mobile marketing will be more and more important.
Of course, Google could change anything at any time, so it is also important that marketers remain aware of the current algorithm and any minor tweaks as they occur. They shouldn’t wait until they notice a decline in traffic or search ranking before they start wondering why. A good offense is also better than a good defense.
Moving away from an over-reliance on keywords and focusing on intent-based search instead will also help you to remain relatively untouched by unexpected changes.
by CodeFuel Staff | Apr 14, 2016 | Social Media
Your Facebook page is not just a powerful tool for reaching audience members and creating exposure for your brand. It is also a powerful money-making tool on its own.
The more followers you have on your Facebook page, the more opportunities you have to increase your revenue. You just need to develop the right monetization strategy.
Here are a few of the best ways to monetize your Facebook page:
Sell Sponsored Posts
You are already sharing links on your Facebook page, so why not get paid to do it?
If you have a nice sized following, other companies will pay you to promote their products or services. Bloggers may even pay you to share their posts.
Just make sure that any posts you share offer some value to your audience. Otherwise, you risk alienating your followers and losing what you have worked so hard to build.
Also, be careful about the ratio of sponsored posts that you share. Your audience may not be able to ID every sponsored post, but they will know if the majority of your content is paid for, and they will question your authenticity.
Share Affiliate Links
Affiliate links are like sponsored posts, but you get a percentage of the sale instead of a flat payment for the advertisement.
You choose the products you want to promote, and if your audience buys through the link you share, you get a small percentage of the sale. Affiliate marketing is a great way to build a passive income because you can get paid again and again without having to do more work.
Again, pick quality products that actually serve a need for your audience, and don’t overload your page with affiliate links. Savvy followers will ID these links immediately and may stop following you if you share too many.
Create Landing Pages
Why sell other people’s products on your Facebook page when you can sell your own?
You can create custom landing pages for Facebook that go straight to your own products or services. You can then promote these landing pages through Facebook ads, or you can share the link to your followers.
The landing pages are not separate from your Facebook page. They are located in tabs on your page.
Consider creating landing pages for special sales, specific products or services you want to promote, a special offer for your followers, and so on.
Add a Facebook Shop
You can sell products straight from your Facebook page with a shop.
You can create special iFrame pages that nest in your Facebook page. These pages can function just like an ecommerce store, and followers can buy products straight from the page.
If you don’t create products to sell, you can still add a Facebook shop for affiliate products. Display the items like a gallery on your own ecommerce shop, but have them lead to the seller when users click on the items. They will then pay the seller, and you will get a cut.
Host Contests and Giveaways
Contests and giveaways provide many benefits, including helping you to generate more exposure for your brand and opening up a revenue stream.
You can offer your own products and services as the prizes in your contests, which will help you generate more of your own sales. Your users will share links to your page or the contest to enter, and you will get much more exposure and traffic, which will lead to new sales.
You can also charge other companies to offer their products or services as the prizes in your contests. They will be willing to pay to get the exposure that your large audience offers. Plus, you’ll still get the exposure, as well, since users will share links to enter.
Explore all the opportunities for exposure from your contests and giveaways, such as asking people to share the contest on their social networks, to follow you on all your social networks, to sign up for your email list, and more. Each action would be another entry, which improves their chances to win.
Write Reviews
Writing reviews is a bit like sharing sponsored posts, but you are in control of the content.
You can charge companies for the review and then write about your real opinion of the product or service. You will be providing value for your audience while also making some extra money.
In addition to the payment for the review, you can also get the product or service for free as well as some discount codes for your customers.
As with all sponsorship opportunities, make sure you only review products or services that are actually useful to your audience.
Monetizing your Facebook page is a delicate balancing act. But if you can get it right, you can profit off that huge following you have worked so hard to build.
by CodeFuel Staff | Feb 29, 2016 | Marketing
In your quest to find more effective ways to reach your target audience and grow your business, you are bound to come across the term “buzz marketing.”
But you may be scratching your head and asking yourself “Exactly what is buzz marketing?”
The purpose of buzz marketing is to get people talking about your brand, or to create buzz. That’s it.
Of course, your ultimate goal is to create buzz and make a sale, but buzz marketing does not always include direct sales material. Sometimes, you are just sharing other people’s stories or sharing something your audience would find funny. You are engaging them and getting them to talk about what you shared, so that lays the groundwork for your other sales strategies later.
Buzz marketing content falls into six primary categories. They are:
Taboo
Nothing gets people talking more than the subjects they aren’t supposed to talk about.
When someone tells you not to do something, you just want to do it more. Think about how tempting it would be to press a button over and over again that someone put in front of you and told you not to push.
The same is true for content. If people see you talking about something that is taboo — like sex — they are going to take notice.
“Taboo” can also be synonymous with “controversial.” So if you can’t find ways of including taboo subjects into your topic area, you can find stories in which to take a controversial stance.
For example, if you write about finance, you can take a controversial stance like that you shouldn’t save for retirement or that real estate is a bad investment. Of course, you need to follow up with good information or else your readers will see through your attempts to grab clicks without offering value.
The Unusual or Unique
A house with a nearly all glass exterior is quite unusual and unique. So is a dog that has markings to look like a cheetah.
These are the kinds of things that will grab users’ attention, whether they are scrolling their news feed or are visiting your blog. They are also the kinds of things that they will want to tell other people about on their own social networks and blogs.
Try to find these stories yourself so that you are the source. That way, when these stories are shared, you are given the credit. If you are only curating the content, the original source will show up when the stories are shared.
The Remarkable
There are inspiring stories all around us. Find them and share them with your audience.
Tell your audience about the single mother who became a successful entrepreneur or the elderly woman who became a body builder after she started lifting weights at 60.
Find stories about the remarkable in your niche to inspire your audience to do something similar — by using your products and services, of course.
The Outrageous
Remember when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs to say that Beyonce should have won instead of her? So does everyone else in the world.
Outrageous stories like these get people talking. “Can you believe it?!”
What are the outrageous stories happening in your niche? What about the outrageous stories that are relevant to your audience? Find them and share them.
The Hilarious
Make people laugh and you will get them telling all their friends about it.
Here’s the perfect place where you can make your own content instead of relying on what other people are doing. Create funny videos. Put together some funny memes. Tell funny stories.
Even if your product isn’t especially fun or exciting, you can still find ways to make it funny. Just look at how the lawyer dog meme made the law funny. Do something similar for your brand.
Secrets
Every business should be able to share secrets that will improve the lives of their customers. What are yours?
Do you have a secret for making money faster? For quitting smoking with ease? For looking like a celebrity?
Promise to share a secret and then follow through. If you share something effective, you will get people talking.
Creating buzz-worthy content is just part of the equation. You then need to market it effectively to make sure that people see it so they can talk about it and share it.
CodeFuel offers tools that position your content on the right channels and in the right format so that you get more traffic and more sales. With the right placement, you can engage more customers, which will encourage them to share your content and spread your reach. The more customers are talking about you, the better a position you will be in to engage customers and increase your sales, ensuring your long-term success.
by CodeFuel Staff | Feb 21, 2016 | Marketing
Identifying the influencers in your niche is important for many reasons.
You can follow those publishers to get a handle on what stories are trending, how your competitors are successfully reaching your audience, and when the best times are to share stories.
You can also follow those publishers to get ideas for your own content, such as by taking alternative viewpoints, writing about a related subject, or exploring a more narrow focus of a subject.
You can also work to build partnerships with those publishers so that you can grow your influence.
First, you need to find out who the top publishers in your niche are.
Results will vary by niche, but we have rounded up our picks for the top 10 US online publishers across categories.
The New York Times
The Gray Lady has long been the top newspaper in the country, and it has handled the transition to online publishing with the same authority.
The New York Times continues to offer the same high quality of content even among a sea of listsicles and celebrity gossip. Yet it also finds ways to stay relevant and engaging, maintaining a strong social media presence and staying on top of breaking news.
Wikipedia
Wikimedia proves that the lowest common denominator can sometimes result in the best content.
Though the site is written and edited completely by volunteer users online, it has high standards for quality and its community ensures that it meets them.
Anyone may be able to write or edit an entry for Wikipedia, but anyone else can (and will) come along to quality check it and make corrections as needed. The site proves again and again that what users want is reliable and quality content.
Demand Media
This publisher shows that even content mills can be successful if they are operated right.
Demand publishes sites like eHow, Livestrong and Cracked, and it gets content from an assignment database. It recruits thousands of writers and editors, who are added to an interface and are able to choose from generated topics.
Topics are created around keyword research, and headlines are generated according to formulas designed to get the most traffic. It’s a formula that works since eHow alone gets 50 million visitors a month.
Huffington Post
The Huffington Post started as an “Internet newspaper,” and it has grown to become one of the most visited and shared sites on the web.
Not only does the site share hard news, but it also invites bloggers from around the web to share their content for greater exposure. Bloggers are not paid for sharing their content, and the site gets the benefit of viral views.
Web MD
It’s a popular joke that if you check your symptoms on Web MD, you’ll convince yourself that you’re dying.
But the joke exists because the site is a juggernaut. It is the go-to source for medical information by people around the world.
Martha Stewart Omnimedia
Martha Stewart is the name in home decor and baking, and her sites are the first that many people visit to get tips and tutorials.
Even her legal troubles weren’t enough to tarnish her image or stumble her business. Her authority in the home and kitchen has been so well-established that it cannot be shaken.
Salon
Salon is the place that people go when they want more than just the hard news. It’s where they get in-depth analysis and commentary about the impact that the news has on politics, society, and more.
Salon also offers up interesting personal pieces and essays.
Conde Nast
For travel information, Conde Nast is one of the top publishers. It includes a variety of travel magazines that cover different niches.
Of course, Conde Nast also publishes magazines like Vogue, so it has its finger in quite a few jars. It has become a giant in the online publishing world just as it is in print.
National Geographic
National Geographic has long been a trusted source of information for scientific, historic, and sociologic issues.
Like other print institutions, it has handled the transition to digital publishing deftly. The magazine has a strong online presence, including on social media.
Buzzfeed
Love them or hate them, Buzzfeed is an undeniable force in online publishing.
Buzzfeed popularized the listsicle format, and it has had unparalleled success with it. You can find lists on everything from toys you may have loved in the 90s to the weirdest places to visit before you die.
Online publishers across niches have tried to copy what Buzzfeed does because it consistently gets viral traffic for its stories, and it has an amazing social media presence.
Study these online publishers to get ideas for your own content marketing strategy, including topics, writing techniques, and marketing ideas. If you get even a fraction of the traffic that these sites get, you’ll be very happy indeed.
by CodeFuel Staff | Jan 11, 2016 | Marketing
What were the top apps of 2015?
Nielsen, the same company that produces statistics for TV viewing, has released a list of the top smart phone apps for 2015 based on the number of average unique users.
Perhaps not surprisingly for many, the entire top 10 consists of apps put out by Facebook, Google, and Apple. The list reflects the growing influence of both social media and smart phone usage.
Nielsen also said that the use of smart phones grew to 80 percent in the United States at the end of the third quarter of 2015. ComScore still shows smart phone penetration at 78 percent, but the difference is negligible. It is important that online marketers embrace mobile marketing if they are to continue to be successful.
Here’s a look at the top 10 apps and Nielsen’s findings:
Facebook
The Facebook app had the most average unique users, coming in at 126.7 million.
That’s 8 percent more people than were using the app last year.
Marketers already know that Facebook is a great way to reach customers, but this data shows that marketers should also be targeting them through the mobile app and not just the main site or even the mobile site.
YouTube
Parents already know how great the YouTube app is for the phone. But many others use the app to watch music and catch up with viral news.
The app draws in 97.6 million average unique users, which is 5 percent more than last year. YouTube continues to show that it is a force to be reckoned with in digital marketing.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook made waves when it required users to access their messages through this separate app instead of offering it as an option.
Yet users quickly adjusted, and there has been little discussion about it since the change was made.
Likely because of the required change, the Facebook messenger app saw the most year-over-year growth, at 31 percent. The app has 96.4 million average unique users.
Google Search
Google is already the search king, but the app has made it easier for people to perform a quick search without having to open their phone’s browser and type in the search engine’s URL.
The Google search app had just over 95 million average unique users, which was an increase of just 3 percent over last year.
Google Play
Google Play is the app store for Android users, and it is the place to get movies, TV shows, games, music, and more.
It’s not surprising that the app was one of the most popular for the year. It had 89.7 average unique users, which was 7 percent more than the previous year.
Google Maps
Google Maps quickly toppled Mapquest after it came out, and most people use it as their de facto GPS locator.
That’s partially due to the fact that when you search for a business or other place on Google, it provides the directions through Google maps. You have to copy and paste the address to get directions from a different provider.
Google Maps had 87.78 million users this year, up 8 percent.
Gmail
Not surprisingly, Google products dominate this list.
Google has become the authority on the web, and most products that it introduces succeed.
Gmail was one of its early offerings, and it has continued to be one of the top providers of free email. The app has 75.1 million users, which was up 4 percent from the previous year.
Instagram
Instagram exploded onto the scene when it was introduced, and it has become a mainstay in social media.
The app had 55.4 million average unique users, which was up 23 percent over the previous year.
Apple Music
Everyone loves to listen to music on their smart phone or to stream it through their car stereos.
The Apple Music app had an average of 54.55 unique users, which was up 26 percent from the previous year.
Apple Maps
Finally, Apple Maps came in at Number 10, with an average of 46.4 unique users.
The app grew 16 percent over the previous year.
By paying attention to the trends in app usage, you can identify new advertising strategies for your brand. These apps cover the market, so you can reach every niche with one or more of these apps.
In addition to in-app advertising, you can look into mobile marketing on other websites that are popular among users.
It is important that you do not put money into the mobile version of a site when the app is more popular. For example, most people access Facebook through the app not by entering the URL on their phone.
Make sure you understand the audience you will be reaching and how that compares with your other options when putting together your advertising strategy. Working with a consultant can also help you identify the right advertising opportunities and create the most effective campaign.
