Friday Catch-Up: Accelerating Progress

Hey Everyone! Guess whose back? That’s right! And apparently we’re bringing out the wine too!

This week has been a rollercoaster ride for the internet marketing industry and the online world, and what could be better than a brand new Friday Catch-up edition to enlighten you with the most happening web events! This week, Google took most of the spotlight in our news section, while Facebook crept in from behind. Take a look at what has kept the internet busy this week:

News & Updates

Google Test their Mobile User Interface

Tech giant Google has been testing a new mobile user interface to enable navigation through mobile search results. The latest look experiments with a new set of loading effects when a user is navigating through their search results. The ecommerce world is expected to become much denser in 2015, and it is only natural for companies to try and keep up with the fast pace of progress, read more here: Search Engine Land

Google Claims that Link-Building is No Good

John Mueller, Google’s Webmaster Web Analyst, has recommended that you don’t concentrate on link building, and that if you do, it may cause more damage to your website than good. He was captured saying this live on Google+ Hangouts Friday morning, suggesting that webmasters avoid focusing on link building because that can take your attention off of other more important things. To read the complete transcript, follow this link: Search Engine Land

Facebook’s New Product Ads

Most businesses usually sell multiple products, but if you own a business that relies heavily on a lot of advertising, the variety can generate some challenges that you will need to overcome. Facebook recently introduced Product Ads as a solution that has been designed to enable businesses to promote multiple products or their entire inventory across every device their customers can use. Businesses can now showcase many products and Facebook’s audience gets to discover a more versatile range of products. Read more here: Facebook for Business

Post Worth Reading

Pinterest as an Advertising Platform

Pinterest bounced back into the social media scene in 2011 becoming the latest toast of technology but it was usurped by many mobile-friendly social media startups like Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat. The social network may not be grabbing the same amount of attention anymore; it still has steadily and quietly developed its audience and business prospects over the last few years. Read more here: Com Score

10 Tech Women You Need To Watch Out For

Females are severely underrepresented in the tech world, and everyone is aware of that fact. Women partnering with ventures amount for merely 4%, and only 10% of all companies have a female founder. But fortunately enough, the industry is starting to identify this problem and a considerable amount of progress and development has been made, albeit very slowly. This number includes ten women in the tech industry right now that are performing exceptionally and doing some very influential work. Read more for proof that women really do run the world: INC

Using Psychology to Create Resonating Campaigns

Social media is not always all about getting reshares and likes; it is essentially about building long-term business relationships with your prospects. Human relationships can easily be classified into three broad categories, namely: Authority relationships, exchange relationships, and communal relationships. An authority relationship can be simply described as one where an individual has clear power over the other. E.g.: Employer–Employee relationships. Exchange relationships are based on equal give and take and are sustained only as long as both the sides continue to make efforts to stay together. E.g.: rewarding Facebook users is a good example of a give and take relationship. Communal relationships on the other hand, have a deep bond based on mutual trust from either side. It does not depend on bribes or incentives in order to survive. E.g.: the relationships we share with our closest friend. If you want to learn how to use psychology for your own advantage, read more here: Unbounce

12 Interactive Ecommerce Product Pages

You must always look for ways to encourage the easiest journey from product pages to checkout. That being said, you have to look at things from the customer’s point of view as well, instead of only relying on the conversion rates. When dealing with customers who know exactly what they are looking for, this becomes exceedingly true. But when you are promoting a particularly new product with innovative features that may be very hard to demonstrate to a customer, you need some tricks that can do the magic for you. Read more and find out the most interactive ways to design a product page that drives your customers to make that purchase and take a look at the best interactive designs on the internet: Econsultancy

Are Voucher Codes really important For Ecommerce?

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that voucher codes are a currency. People like Mark Pearson – the founder of My Voucher Codes – recognized this industry as a lucrative business and turned his £300 website to a £60 million business in only eight years. Recession-generated businesses often tend to perform really well when they start to capitalize on the moods of their prospects. Read more here: Smart Insights

Finding Your Audience and Building a Community

Communities work better for promotional purposes because they are built on relationships, and the early stages of any new project require all the strong connections you can avail. The community you choose to grow and flourish in will be your very first group of brand advocates that will second the effectiveness of your products. They can help you spread the word and even help develop your business. But finding the right community and getting to know your prospects is never an easy task, read more about how to find your audience and making your presence felt within any community: Buffer Social

10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Business Meetings

Like everyone else on this planet, one of the top priorities during business meetings is appearing exceptionally smart. And this can be very difficult to achieve sometimes if you start to daydream about your next holiday, slice of bacon, or a nap. In case this ever occurs, it is always a good idea to have a few tricks up your sleeve that you can fall back on. Follow this link and find out the ten best tricks you can pull during meetings to look and sound incredibly smart: The Cooper Review

Important Marketing Trends of 2014, And the Promise of a Better 2015

The 2014 Holiday season has finally been wrapped up and it proved to be a great year for Online Shopping in the US. The season witnessed some strong growth and progress and many marketers are now dedicating their time in reviewing what worked effectively this season and what didn’t. There were many lessons that were discovered for the next holiday season and 2015 is expected to witness an even more massive development of the industry. Take a look: Marketing Land

Using the Partner Gallery Feature in Google Analytics

The central driving force for all online services and tools is undoubtedly Google, but as a matter of fact, even when you have great tools at your disposal, you will still require some guidance, support and having your questions answered. The partner gallery feature that incorporates Google Apps and Partners both was created keeping this fact in mind. Searching for easy solutions to everyday and routine issues has become a whole lot easier with Google Analytics. Take a look: Search Engine Journal

Going Naked For High Landing Page Conversion Rate

You can always find many effective ways to boost your landing page conversion rate, and the best way to ensure that your prospects stay at the landing page is minimizing their options. The term Go Naked here is exactly that. You don’t need to literally take off your clothes for a high conversion rate, although it may help too (in almost everything). The real explanation of going naked means stripping your landing pages of navigation options so that the clients can solely focus on the important things on that page, like the offers and the fill up forms. Read more here: Relevance

Infographics

Paid Media Investments Yielding SEO Value

Advertisements are drivers of sale. Period. And with so many modes and variations of it, one is bound to get confused about the most deteriorative and the most constructive results. This week’s whiteboard Friday proves that paying for your media- content, ads, graphics and more, can help you yield some very positive benefits. Take a look: MOZ

US Social Commerce

The social media commerce industry saw some huge advancements the previous year. Mobile device services took full advantage of mobile ecommerce and other areas excelled as well. At this point, businesses need to be looking out for essential points that could help them drive their businesses to success in 2015. Take a look at this great infographic that explains what you need to look out for: Dr. 4Ward

Google’s Cat & Mouse SEO Game

Take a look at this great infographic that sheds some light on how Google has approached Google Algorithms to make SEO harder than it ever was, Interested? Follow this link: SEO Book