Hey Everybody! Welcome to a brand new edition of your favorite weekly update; The Friday Catch-Up.
We gather all the big news stories related to the internet marketing world and bring you the updates every week so that you can stay informed about how the internet is rapidly evolving, from the comfort of your home. This week’s news seems to be dominated by Google (as always!) and looking at the way things are accelerating their progress, rest assured, we’ll be hearing a lot more in the coming months.
So sit back, relax, grab a nice warm cup coffee and read on.
News and Updates
Google Adds Some Updates
Google has recently added a report which enables you to view which resources you have been blocking from the GoogleBot along with updating the render and fetch tools. The company announced early morning that a new report is to be launched within the Google Webmaster Tools which will be called Blocked Resources Report. This report has been launched as an update to aid webmasters in recovering images, JavaScript and CSS that the GoogleBot is unable to reach due to blocking. Along with other updates to some of the webmaster tools, Google seems to be strengthening its game. Read more here: Search Engine Land
Google is now Flagging Sites that have Broken Security Certificates
To prevent the numerous phishing attempts made by many online threats, Google will be boosting the ranking benefits that are availed on login pages and may very soon be flagging sites that have broken links for their security certificates to make the internet a safer place. Gary Illyes from Google explained how one can secure their site for Google’s HTTP Algorithms that almost 0.5 percent of all security certificates that are present online are broken, and Google may be experimenting to find a possible solution for the matter. Read more here: Search Engine Land
Alibaba Values Snapchat at $15 billion
The Alibaba group has recently invested in Snapchat Inc. and is now offering a deal that amounts the value of the messaging service at $15 billion. This piece of news was extracted from the numerous escalating evaluations for major tech start-ups. Alibaba is a famous network that can be called the Chinese e-commerce giant, and it has invested $200 million in the messaging service known as Snapchat, valuing it at $15 billion which marks a significant increase for the service. Read more here: The Wall Street Journal
Posts worth Reading
Ecommerce Personalization or Dating?
There has always been a remarkable analogy between loyal ecommerce customers, marketing for long term, and dating someone you hope to marry someday. Marketers should think about building customer relations in the same way as they think about developing healthy personal relationships, because personalization can give them the upper hand when it comes to their competition in the market. Let’s think about the way you would interact on a first date and compare it to the way you may interact with your spouse; a first date majorly requires and consists of getting to know one another and a simple conversation with your spouse will be based on years of shared experiences. This can be used effectively to treat your loyal customers and improve your customer relationships significantly. Want to know how? Take a look: Practical Ecommerce
Promoting your Content on Instagram
It started out as a simple idea that will improve upon the sharing of images and photos among your friends, which has become one of the most widely used and popular apps in a mere 10 years. Yes people, we are talking about Instagram! The app has been growing rapidly and announced almost two years ago the achievement of the one million active users milestone, without much hassle. Only six months ago, statistics revealed that Instagram now has over 150 million active users, and the number continues to grow. Do you want to get yourself known on Instagram? Find out how to gain popularity on the social media platform here: Search Engine People
Designing Landing Pages That Guide Users to Take Action
We rely on a variety of signals and cues from our physical environment in order to travel from point A all the way to point B in the real world. Well designed signage can prevent us from losing our way, helping us reach our destinations fast and in the most economic manner possible. So that makes good signage equal to a great tour guide, and great tour guides inform people. Well designed signage has the potential of informing people; where they came from, where they are at the moment, and where they’re headed. Read more here: Unbounce
#TBT: Using Throwback Thursday in your Marketing
While most of us have obviously come across the hashtag #throwbackthursday being used as a marketing campaign, you might not have much experience in using it yourself. Primarily used for social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, these posts can help in livening up your marketing campaigns and drive some great results. But only if you know how to use them; find out how to go about the process by reading more here: Hubspot
Ridiculously Powerful: Ad Targeting Strategies for Facebook
The Facebook audience can be targeted in numerous ways with different ad strategies and formats, along with many targeting parameters as well. Developing a sound Facebook marketing strategy gets your service or product through to the eyes of a very specific yet highly motivated segment of your audience. Follow this link to see the five most ridiculously powerful strategies for marketing on Facebook and gaining active clients, click here: Search Engine Journal
The Battle of the Brands: Nike and Adidas Study for Explosive SEO Results
The fiercest of competitors like Adidas and Nike have come up with a compelling study of the different kinds of approaches that can internationalize your website and have given lessons on what could go wrong in your international brand campaigns. Fundamentally speaking, there are only two domain infrastructures that you need to consider for your brand and both are equally valid as options that can help in delivering exactly the same amount of SEO benefits. For more information, read more: Search Engine Land
Cause-Based Marketing Trends to watch out for in 2015
2014 could be explained in marketing terms as the year of fundraising through storytelling and we witnessed a number of great campaigns that gained popularity throughout the twelve months. Now, with 2015 is finally in full swing, eight entrepreneurs sat together and shared their top predictions for 2015 in terms of socially minded storytelling in light of the biggest brand stories that caught our attention last year. Take a look: Mashable
Marketing’s Dynamic Duo: Search and Social
The community editor of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land, Lauren Donovan, welcomed Ellen White to the stage as she started out a session by explaining how the organic SEO team of the agency works. Her explanation basically elaborated on how their SEO team creates recommendations that are purely based on analytical data. They explained the importance of backing up your social media and SEO strategies with cold hard facts. Read more here: Aim Clear
Free EBooks for Web Designers and Website Owners
Creating a website is a long, tedious, complicated and extended process that requires a lot of due diligence, and the work doesn’t end with the release of your new website. There are many processes of checking, analysis and building that will require some consideration from website owners and creators, along with abundance of base knowledge. EBooks can be a great element that can help introduce new concepts and there are many available on the internet that can help web designers and developers a great deal, completely free of any cost. Follow this link to find amazing and informative new eBooks around the internet: One Xtra Pixel
Infographics
Tips for Sending Better Emails
Like all other channels of marketing, email is one that continues to evolve. It’s always up to marketers, professionals and sales representatives to stay on top of all these evolvements, and your emailing strategy should always be based on relevant and current data. To help you create the best emails possible, check out this infographic that gives you all the tips and tricks of effective emailing. Take a look: Hubspot
Elements of a Successful Creative Pitch
You get only one shot to stun the audience with your service, product, or simply an idea. But more often than not, the knots in your stomach keep you from rocking your presentation. You can prepare your audience effectively by setting up the stage for your idea and including elements that help in getting the right message across. If that is not enough, you can always check out this great infographic that shows you what the real elements of a creative pitch are that can make it highly successful: Marketing Profs
Internet Speeds by Country
As the world of the web continues to accelerate in its evolution, not all of us enjoy the same leverage over the internet as people that reside in countries with a faster internet speed. That’s right; the speed of your internet highly depends upon the region of the world you are located in. Follow this link to find out the relative speeds on countries by their geographical locations: BrixCreative
Until next Friday!
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