Ever since search engine optimization entered the collective consciousness of marketers and business owners, there has been a long-fought struggle to clinch the coveted number one organic ranking position for targeted search queries.  But, if there is anything that Google has taught us over the years, it’s that nothing stays the same, a fact reinforced by the growing popularity of the featured snippet.  Just when we truly believed that it couldn’t get better than achieving number one, along came this little feature, otherwise known as position zero.

There are many things that on their own serve a distinct and useful purpose.  However when you combine two things you can achieve synergistic results.  Simply put, a hamburger is good; cheese is good, a cheeseburger is better.  The different digital applications that your business can leverage today are growing exponentially, and integrating them into one powerful strategy is easier than ever.  Two of the most common and useful platforms are your Google My Business Page and Google AdWords, and now they can be integrated to create even more opportunities. 

For today’s consumer, local search is a wondrous thing.  No matter what type of business we’re looking for or where, a simple search query returns our nearby options within moments.  It’s a functionality we’ve become so reliant on that 30 percent of our mobile searches (the top used method for online search) are related specifically to location.  And, not only are we using these results to locate a business, we’re using them to conduct research and make purchases, making the local search results that we see powerful tools for sales and marketing.

If you’ve ever taken a road trip, you essentially have two options: the most direct way and the scenic route.  Now, no matter what your preference may be, they each have one thing in common; the destination.  Advertising and marketing are very similar.  Of course on our hypothetical road trip, the scenic route may offer better views and different experiences, but it also costs more in terms of time and fuel, and we eventually (hopefully) end up in the same place.  Taking the “scenic route” with your ad dollars can be an expensive mistake.  Avoiding unnecessary elements that consume time and money is crucial for an effective campaign that provides an ROI. 

Coincidence and context can be easily confused.  If you see someone wearing the same shirt as you, that could strike you as quite the coincidence.  However, if you’re at a sporting event and most people are cheering for the same team, seeing a person with a matching jersey may not be that surprising.  In context, a coincidence can quickly be revealed to be anything but.  The Google Display Network has brought this revelation to digital advertisers, and can be a powerfully effective tool.

We recently launched a redesigned website for a client on a newly purchased domain. We carried out all the best practices for launching a website on a new domain. Additionally, as we do for all our clients, we implemented the steps of on-page and off-page SEO.  All signs pointed in the right direction until this happened.

Have you ever had the feeling of déjà vu?  Something you’ve experienced before (or at least believe you’ve experienced before).  It comes in many forms.  Certain social situations are common. Even seeing an actor in a show you’re binge watching on Netflix; convinced you’ve seen him or her in something recently, the more often they are on the screen the more it digs at you, until finally you have to IMDB them.  Now you’re really down a rabbit hole and it’s not who you thought it was, but now you know where they went to high school, who their brother married, and…what’s that?  The shoes you were shopping for the other day?  How did those get there?  Your déjà vu just gave you déjà vu.  And it’s all thanks to the Google Display Network. 

Have you ever had the experience of spending a painfully long amount of time waiting for what should just be a simple web page to load? It's just a quick news article, after all — mostly text — so why are you watching the loading animation cycle endlessly as your phone struggles to render the content?

Last week, Google announced that they would be adjusting their page indexing algorithm to look for more HTTPS pages. This is a huge part of Google’s push for what they’re calling “HTTPS everywhere,” or, making the web more secure for everyone. Thankfully, this is a good thing for your business, and it’s a good thing for your customers.

It has become a word that just about everyone utters at least once a day. We’ve made it a verb when it is really a noun. In any conceivable circumstance it holds the answer to almost every question we can imagine. So what magical word is this? Google. Not only has this brand created a lofty place in our vernacular it is also quietly spreading its footprint across all things tech and beyond.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a significant amount of information published on a recent algorithm change by Google. On April 21^st, Google implemented a new and substantial change to its mobile search-ranking algorithm.  Search results on mobile devices are now prioritized and ranked based on how “mobile-friendly” a website is. Google just announced that mobile searches have surpassed searches on computers in ten countries including the U.S. and Japan.  As mobile devices increasingly become the most common format for users to access the Internet, it’s important that our tools for finding information account for this.

On a weekly basis, our medical clients receive numerous emails from random marketing firms with the latest Google ranking guarantee. The email usually “baits” our clients by pointing out a keyword that is currently not ranked on the first page of Google. The email then proceeds to guarantee a first page ranking on this keyword with a certain time period. These types of emails have increased dramatically as search engine marketing has become an integral piece of the overall marketing strategy for many medical practices.