The WebSpecialist Blog

1. Your competitors are involved in social media, and you don’t want to let them have an advantage over you.
   
   We covered this in an earlier post, but essentially, 81% of small businesses are using social media to market their businesses. If your business is part of the 19% that isn’t involved in social media, you are at a huge disadvantage in comparison to your competition.
2. Involvement in social media means more inbound links to your site.
   
   On each social media profile that you set up, you’re given an opportunity to link back to your company’s website. Even better, on most social media platforms, you can link back to your site in status updates. Every time you link back to your site from one of these social media platforms, your number of inbound links increases.
   
   Inbound links are gold for search rankings on Google. Inbound links are one of the major criteria that Google uses to determine who should rank the best. Websites with more inbound links tend to rank higher than websites with less inbound links. Thus, you want to get as many high quality, high Page Rank inbound links as you can.
   
   Google also looks at the quality of the pages that are linking to you, and may not count lesser quality links as highly as higher quality links. Luckily, social media links fall into the higher quality link category.
3. Studies have shown that companies that are involved in social media tend to rank higher on Google than companies who are not involved in social media.
   
   Since companies who are involved in social media tend to rank higher, you want to make sure that your company is counted among that number. Get an advantage over your competition by getting involved in social media and increase your odds of ranking higher on Google.

Need help in getting your social media marketing plan started? WSI WebSpecialist can help! Contact us today for help with your social media marketing plan.

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Mobile websites that function just as well as, if not better than, their online counterparts are what every small business hopes for. Yet for businesses that offer a variety of savings on goods and services, the mobile website also has to serve as their customers' personal, on-the-go deal finder. Thanks in large part to the success of sites like Groupon (where iPhone and Android users can get the 411 on the latest discounts in their area), websites that are in the business of offering savings are seriously upping their game to meet the needs of the mobile world. Take the travel website Orbitz for example.

The airline and hotel deal broker has been pushing out savings on travel packages online since the early days of online vacation shopping. Yet in order to outpace with the plethora of travel websites, each of which says they're cheaper than their competitors, Orbitz has aggressively launched a mobile website redesign that could be game changer. Released last week, the faster, sleeker mobile website has taken a page from the book of Groupon and catered to shoppers who use their smartphones to get what they want. Users of the mobile site have access to last-minute deals and mobile-only specials on hotels in a section called "Mobile Steals."

Orbitz officials say the move was strategic — a full 65 percent of mobile bookings are for the same day. Mobile Steals features exclusive savings on resorts and spas that aren't featured online. And for folks who perused flights at their laptop but waited to buy, Orbitz now has a solution for them, too. The new mobile site remembers what deals users looked at from their computer and saves them.

Orbitz's move to a fast and user-friendly mobile website is on par with the trend of businesses to have their websites speak directly to smartphone users.

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We don't really have the time or space in this here blog to discuss the theoretical reasons behind America's current obsession with zombies — especially since our business deals more with offering the best in Maryland web design and not strategies for surviving hand-to-hand combat with the undead. Nevertheless, we are qualified to talk about zombies and their grip on social media. Turns out those blood thirsty, moaning stiffs are one thing Facebook and Twitter users can't get enough of — and us mortals could even learn a thing or two.

Recently, AMC's zombie-centric drama series The Walking Dead has been heralded for having one of the best social media campaigns of the year. The show has a staggering 4,626,263 likes on Facebook and routinely trends worldwide on Twitter whenever a jaw-dropping episode has aired. Yet where the series excels is in utilizing GetGlue. GetGlue is the television addict's version of FourSquare. In other words, it's a social media site where fans can check into and then discuss their favorite shows. AMC wisely tapped the site as a one-stop hub for fans since every post about a favorite television show also appears on users' Facebook and Twitter accounts. GetGlue broke records the night of the Season Two premiere of The Walking Dead with an impressive 42,930 check-ins.

What the living folks can take away from a 2011 social media success story like this one is simple: Remember your target audience. By zeroing on the GetGlue crowd with zombie avatars for user profiles and giveaways at events like Comic Con, The Walking Dead inspired the DVR generation to watch and check into its show live. Impressive stuff... particularly during a time where people are saying television is deader than the stars of the hit show. AMC clearly knows who watches its show and markets accordingly via social media, and that's something even us non-brain-eating types can do.

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Baltimore SEO experts as well as SEO gurus across the country have been closely watching the numerous Google Panda updates. The changes have been steady and constant since the beginning of the year, with the most recent round of updates coming down just last month. It's become something of a sport to see how Google updates Panda next. Sadly, we've learned via Twitter that our Panda Watch 2011 has come to a close.

As reported by Web Pro News, Google officially tweeted on December 14th, "no major Panda updates until next year." Insiders are speculating that Google is taking a holiday break in order to avoid another Florida update that could derail the season's heaviest period of online shopping. The Florida debacle from November 2003, as you may or not recall, was an update that knocked SEO and Google on its behind, leaving web users and retailers very angry. Panda updates are expected to resume in January — this also is when Google is expected to roll out a variety of new products.

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If you're shopping for Maryland Internet marketing help, you've undoubtedly encountered folks who say that you simply must get on social media. Why? "Because everyone is doing it." Well, they may just be right. After all, even 90-year-old fictional domestic diva Betty Crocker uses Twitter.

It's true. In addition to a YouTube channel and an active Facebook page, Betty Crocker helps bakers in a jam via Twitter. #Betty911, the company's popular hashtag which fields holiday baking questions and concerns from Betty Crocker followers on Twitter, relaunches just in time for the season on December 16th. The hashtag was such a hit during Thanksgiving that it's been revived just in time for cookie baking season. Betty and her Twitter brigade solve kitchen dilemmas in real time while directing users back to the BC site for recipes, tips and — of course — products. Brilliant!

Using Twitter to chat with your customers while driving them to your website is a delicious recipe any social media chef can master. Looking for help with your own recipe for social media success? Contact us today.

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If the unimpressive look of your website has you scrambling to find the best in Harford County web design, you are not alone. Even the big brands who have had success with the same website for years get tired of looking at the darned thing. Take, for example, the recent Google makeover. It was subtle and gradual but soon every Google product from Gmail and Google Documents to Maps and even YouTube got a hipper, fresher look. Even though Google and its jillions of apps, products and other websites worked just fine before the facelift, the brand forged ahead in the mission of creating a prettier, more design-savvy Google. But why?

The image overhaul started last summer and, according to top Google employees, the goal of the new look was to be modern and simple but packed with the company's signature power.

“We want to keep our look simple and clean, but behind the seemingly simple design, use new technologies like HTML5, WebGL and the latest, fastest browsers to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you, "said Google's digital creative director Chris Wiggins in an interview with Silicon Republic.

Sure, some critics have blasted the redesign as "hard to use" and "unnecessary." But it's hard to fault the company for trying to improve a product already so widely used and ripe for bashing. Google's goal — to strip down the image while having it all work a little harder and faster — appears to be one that they passed with flying colors. Here at WSI, we're particularly impressed with some of the changes to the Google Analytics interface.

The big thing brands of any size can learn from this very expensive overhaul is that you don't have to throw out the things people love about your website simply in the name of a makeover. Website redesigns should toss out the parts of your website that don't work while making the parts that do work even better.

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According to a recent Constant Contact survey released on November 15, 2011, more and more small businesses are getting involved in social media. 81 percent reported using social media to market their businesses. If your business is part of the 19% that isn’t involved in social media, you are at a huge disadvantage in comparison to your competition.

96% of businesses using social media marketing are using Facebook, and 86% of respondents found Facebook to be an effective marketing tool.

76% of businesses using social media are using Twitter, and 60% found Twitter to be effective in marketing their business.

45% of respondents surveyed said that social media did not take a lot of time (up from 31% from a Spring 2011 survey).

With just a little bit of time involvement in social media each day, your business can stay competitive. Don’t be left behind! Your competition is using social media, are you?

Need help with a social media marketing plan? Contact WSI WebSpecialist today to inquire how we can set up a social media marketing plan for your business.

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Remember the John Cusack movie from a couple of years ago, based on ancient predictions that 2012 would mark the end of the world as we know it? We're certainly not betting on the end of the world, but some recent year-end predictions for the coming year offer indications that a long-time squatter at the web design table may soon meet its end - and that's OK with us.

London-based SEOptimise.com's list of 30 Web Trends for 2012 is one of many year-end prediction lists which believe 2012 will spell curtains for Flash as we know it. The death of the Abode product has been rumored for years, but now it appears the end is nigh. After noting that RIM (Blackberry) and Android tablets and smartphones won't be carrying flash anymore, SEOptimise writes, "The original Flash will die finally. Abode is already working on HTML5 implementation instead. So Flash will probably be resurrected based on Web Standards." Other publications like The Register and dozens of tech blogs have also rung the death knell for Flash.

Here at WSI WebSpecialist, we're happy to see this development. We've been avoiding Flash on our clients' websites for years, based upon its incompatibility with good SEO practices.  

So if you're looking for the best in Maryland or Delaware web design, does the end of Flash mean you should reconsider your dreams of a fancy Flash website? Probably. What about those who already have fancy Flash websites? To them, we say it's time for a website redesign. New websites have to take in account the mobile factor — and considering it's incompatibility, Flash is soon to be a thing of the past.

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Social media is a fantastic way to beef up your local web optimization, and many marketers, web developers and small business owners have been keeping a watchful eye on Google+. Being a newbie in the social network world as well as a product from the innovators at Google, folks are fascinated by the possibilities Google+ has for marketing businesses. Now, after months of waiting, the first Google+ business pages are slowly starting to roll out. Here's the skinny on this potentially-powerful platform.

Exactly Like Facebook Pages Except Easier: Since the introduction of Google+ pages for business on November 7th, 61 percent of the world's top brands have adopted pages into their marketing practices. We'd guess the ease of setting up Google+ pages had something to do with that. Unlike Facebook pages, Google+ offers businesses a fast way to build pages that aren't riddled with ad solicitation and lame questions about friends and connections. Google+ pages are great for linking businesses to searches, too.

Just Like Facebook but with Less People: Although Google+ has all the makings of a great social media star, in the end it's still a Facebook world. Facebook still controls 65 percent of all of social media land, while Google+ has a tiny .05 percent. So while social media marketing might be easier on Google+, the price you pay for convenience is a smaller audience.

Social Media for SEO: Lest we forget that Google+ was created by the world's biggest search engine, and the site works exactly as such. The biggest benefit of Google+ pages is that fans can "like" your site with a +1 on Google+ as well as in Google searches. Google+ pages finally bridge the gap between SEO and social media seamlessly — that alone makes dabbling in it worth your time and effort.

By the way, we here at WSI WebSpecialist typically take a bit of a wait-and-see stance on a lot of new social platforms, only jumping in when we feel the platform offers something of clear value to us. But we actually set up our Google+ business page as soon as we could after it was released. We're still working on developing it, but feel free to check out our Google+ page if you'd like to see one example. And be sure to add us to your circles!

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