Category: Internet Marketing

Staying Safe at Home: A Guide for Creating a Secure Home Office

Home Business Magazine Online

With the rise of remote work, more people are setting up home offices. While working from home can be convenient, it’s essential to make sure that your workspace is secure. Below is a guide for creating a secure home office.

Choose a Secure Location

The first step in creating a secure home office is to choose a physically secure location. Select an area of your home with sturdy locks on doors and windows that are not easily accessible to outsiders. If possible, choose a room with no windows or small windows that you can securely lock.

If you need to send or receive mail, you should consider getting a virtual address to avoid sharing your home address.

Secure Your Network

Once you’ve selected the location for your home office, the next step is to secure your network. Ensure that your Wi-Fi network is encrypted and password-protected. Choose a strong password that includes upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Avoid using common words or phrases as part of your password.

It’s also important to keep all software on your computer up-to-date with the latest security patches. Staying up-to-date will help protect against known vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.

Use Strong Passwords

In addition to securing your network, using strong passwords for all accounts associated with your home office is crucial. This includes having strong passwords for email accounts, cloud storage services, and any other online tools you use for work.

Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts, as this can make it easier for hackers to gain access to sensitive information. Instead, choose unique passwords for each account and consider using a password manager tool to track them all.

Keep Sensitive Information Safe

When working from home, keeping sensitive information safe from prying eyes is essential. You should store physical documents in locked cabinets or drawers when they’re not being used.

For digital files, consider using encryption software to protect them from unauthorized access. Many cloud storage services offer built-in encryption features that can help safeguard sensitive data.

Use Antivirus Software

Another critical step in creating a secure home office is using antivirus software on all computers connected to your network. Antivirus software helps protect against malware and other types of cyber threats that could compromise the security of your home office.

Make sure you keep antivirus software up-to-date with the latest virus definitions so it can effectively detect and remove any potential threats.

Back Up Your Data Regularly

Finally, it’s important to back up all data associated with your home office regularly. This data includes physical documents stored on external hard drives or USB drives and digital files stored in cloud storage services or on local computers.

Regular backups ensure that you won’t lose important data if there’s an unexpected hardware failure or cyber attack that compromises your files.

Conclusion

Creating a secure home office requires careful planning and attention to detail. By following the tips outlined in this guide — choosing a secure location and securing your network and devices with strong passwords and antivirus software — you’ll be able to create an environment where you can work without worrying about cyber threats or unauthorized access.

The post Staying Safe at Home: A Guide for Creating a Secure Home Office appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/home-office/security-home-office/staying-safe-guide-creating-secure-home-office/

Twitter services are offline, including clicking on links, viewing images and more

Twitter services are currently not fully working right now, the issue started at about 11:50 am ET on March 6, 2023. The issues include clicking on links on tweets, to loading images, to logging into some Twitter services, like TweetDeck.

Links broken. When you click on a link from a published tweet, you’re taken to an error message page that reads:

{"errors":[{"message":"Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information","code":467}]}

I noticed this going down a bit after 11:50 and posted about it on Twitter, where else?

Home Business

I cannot embed the tweet here right now, so that is a screenshot of this tweet.

Not just links. It is not just links that are not working but also images, logging into some services, using the Twitter API and other features that may require use of the Twitter API.

Why we care. If you are promoting content or services right now on Twitter, you might want to delay those efforts until users can click on those links and fully access your tweets.

Stay tuned as I suspect Twitter is working on the issue, as there are a lot of reports complied about the issue and growing.

Twitter working on a fix. Twitter posted, saying, “Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.”

Fixed at 12:55pm ET. After about an hour of Twitter outages, it seems like Twitter has restored the issues.

The post Twitter services are offline, including clicking on links, viewing images and more appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/twitter-services-are-offline-including-clicking-on-links-viewing-images-and-more-393942

Webinar: Maximize your ROAS with first-party data by Cynthia Ramsaran

Home Business

A clear view of your customer data can drive successful campaign results. But there are many data solutions to add to the complexity and cost of your martech stack. Removing data silos and reducing latency is key, but how can you get started?

Join Snowflake, Digital Virgo, and Snowplow for an in-depth conversation on the need for transparency, accuracy, and the speed to sync its data quickly. 

Register today for “Maximizing ROAS Through Reduced Latency and Silo Removal,” presented by Snowflake.

Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

The post Webinar: Maximize your ROAS with first-party data appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/webinar-maximize-your-roas-with-first-party-data-393950

4 Affordable Ways to Increase Your Business’ Visibility in 2023

Home Business Magazine Online

In today’s competitive business landscape, it’s more important than ever to increase your business visibility in order to stand out from the crowd. However, as a small business owner, you may feel limited by a tight budget and resources. The good news is that there are many affordable ways to increase your business visibility in 2023. Below, we’ll explore some of the most effective and budget-friendly strategies to improve your business visibility. By implementing these tactics, you can enhance your business’s presence and attract more customers without breaking the bank.

Focus on fixing up your website

Having a website is crucial for any business, as it serves as your online storefront and provides customers with essential information about your products and services. However, simply having a website is not enough to increase your business visibility. You also need to ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and user experience.

One affordable way to optimize your website is by improving its speed. A slow-loading website can negatively impact your search engine ranking and deter customers from visiting your site. You can use free tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas of your website that need improvement and follow the recommended actions to speed up your site.

Another way to optimize your website is by incorporating keywords into your content. Keywords are the terms and phrases that customers are searching for on search engines, and by including them in your website’s content, you increase your chances of appearing in relevant search results. You can use free keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to identify the best keywords for your business.

In addition, you can improve your website’s user experience by making it easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. You can use free website builders such as Wix or WordPress to create a professional-looking website that is responsive and easy to use on both desktop and mobile devices.

By optimizing your website, you can increase your search engine ranking, attract more traffic to your site, and ultimately improve your business visibility without spending a lot of money.

Take social media even more seriously

Social media is an essential tool for any business looking to increase its visibility, as it provides a platform to engage with customers, promote your products or services, and build brand awareness. The good news is that social media can be leveraged by businesses of all sizes, regardless of budget.

One affordable way to increase your business visibility on social media is by creating engaging content. This can include posting behind-the-scenes photos or videos of your business, sharing customer testimonials, or creating how-to guides related to your products or services. By creating content that resonates with your target audience, you can increase engagement and build a following on social media.

Another way to leverage social media is by running ads on a budget. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram offer affordable advertising options that allow you to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. By running targeted ads, you can increase your reach and attract new customers to your business. Oh, and don’t forget the benefits of Google ads which, in addition to social media ads can really help to ramp up your online visibility and convert lots of customers too.

It’s also important to engage with your followers on social media by responding to comments and messages in a timely manner. By fostering a sense of community and building relationships with your followers, you can increase brand loyalty and ultimately improve your business visibility.

Connect with other companies

Building partnerships with other businesses or organizations can be a powerful way to increase your business visibility, as it allows you to tap into new audiences and build relationships with potential customers. The good news is that building partnerships doesn’t have to be expensive and can be done on a budget.

One affordable way to build partnerships is by collaborating on social media content. This can include partnering with another business to create a joint social media campaign, such as a giveaway or a social media challenge. By working together, you can leverage each other’s audiences and increase your reach on social media.

Another way to build partnerships is by hosting joint events. This can include partnering with other businesses or organizations to host a networking event or a workshop related to your industry. By hosting joint events, you can tap into new audiences and build relationships with potential customers in a cost-effective way.

It’s important to choose partners that align with your business values and target audience. By partnering with businesses or organizations that share your values, you can create a more meaningful partnership and increase your chances of success.

Get out and about in the local area

Attending local events can be an effective way to increase your business visibility and connect with potential customers in your community. Local events can include community festivals, industry conferences, or networking events. The good news is that attending local events doesn’t have to be expensive and can be done on a budget.

One affordable way to attend local events is by participating in community events. This can include setting up a booth at a local festival or sponsoring a community event. By participating in community events, you can increase your brand awareness and connect with potential customers in a cost-effective way.

Another way to attend local events is by attending industry conferences. Industry conferences provide an opportunity to connect with other businesses in your industry and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments. While some industry conferences can be expensive, there are also many affordable options available, such as virtual conferences or local meetups.

It’s important to make the most of your event attendance by bringing business cards, networking with other attendees, and promoting your business on social media. By making meaningful connections and promoting your business online, you can increase your business visibility and attract new customers.

As you can see, increasing your business visibility in 2023 doesn’t have to be expensive. By implementing the above strategies, you can improve your business visibility and attract more customers without breaking the bank.

To maximize your success, it’s important to be creative and resourceful when it comes to increasing your business visibility. By experimenting with different tactics and tracking your results, you can identify what works best for your business and refine your strategy over time.

The post 4 Affordable Ways to Increase Your Business’ Visibility in 2023 appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/success-tips/4-affordable-ways-increase-business-visibility-2023/

3 new changes to the Google Ads dashboard

In response to user feedback highlighting that the current ads dashboard can be complicated and challenging for newer users, Google Ads is presently testing new designs to improve organization and simplify the process of finding information. This trial is currently limited to a small number of accounts.

Here are the top changes:

  1. A new navigation menu
  2. Reorganized interface
  3. A refreshed look and feel

Let’s take a look.

1. A new navigation menu. The revamped design provides access to all of Google Ads’ tools and features from one more efficiently organized menu instead of the three currently in use.

Google says this feature should simplify the process of locating where you need to go and enable you to track your location within the interface more effortlessly. Additionally, there is now a “Create” button, making it simpler to establish campaigns and ad groups by clicking on the “plus” button located in one convenient location.

Academy for Ads

2. Reorganized interface. The tools and features have been reorganized to make them easier to locate by grouping related tasks together, which may take some time to adjust to. In particular, two new categories have been introduced to highlight the key elements crucial to campaign success. It’s worth noting that the adjustments have not affected the tools and features covered, and no features have been removed from the platform.

Below is a breakdown of the two recently added navigational categories:

Goals. Goals have been emphasized in the navigation to underscore their importance. The new menu category merges goals and conversion measurements into one location.

Audiences, keywords, and content. The recently introduced menu category, Audiences, keywords, and content, combines the tools used to determine who you want to reach and the methods you reach them, including Search Keywords, Audiences, Locations, and Content.

Search keywords have been consolidated with the other tools that assist in determining who sees your ads. Additionally, the four menu categories have undergone some changes, with Campaigns, Assets, Tools, and Insights and reports now being combined.

Advertisers who use standard Shopping and Hotel campaigns will find their hotels, activities, and products listed under the Assets category. As always, it’s possible to locate any page directly by searching for it in Google Ads.

3. A refreshed look and feel (Google’s words, not ours). The redesigned interface now includes more white space, which is intended to provide a less distracting environment to complete tasks. Additionally, the font has been altered from Roboto to Google Sans, which is larger, resulting in improved readability. Furthermore, the navigation has been updated with sleek new icons, and a blue highlight has been added to emphasize the current location within the user experience.

Dig deeper. You can read the announcement from Google here.

Why we care. The redesigns should offer a more intuitive and user-friendly interface that is tailored to meet advertisers’ needs. Google says that the new design is better organized, with grouped tools and features that are easier to locate, and it offers a more consistent and predictable navigation experience.

But there are some downsides.

Advertisers who are accustomed to the current interface may find it challenging to adapt to the new layout and features, which could temporarily slow down their workflow and lead to a learning curve. This could result in a decrease in productivity and efficiency in the short term.

Secondly, some advertisers may have created custom workflows or automated scripts based on the previous interface, which could break or require modification in the new interface. This could cause additional costs and delays to update or recreate these workflows.

Lastly, while Google has assured that the functionality and features of Google Ads will remain the same, there may be some unintended bugs or glitches that could impact campaign performance.

Do you have access to the redesigned Google Ads experience? Tell us what you think!

The post 3 new changes to the Google Ads dashboard appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/3-new-changes-to-the-google-ads-dashboard-393857

This day in search marketing history: March 5

Matt Cutts confirms Vince, calls it a ‘minor change’

In 2009, Google’s Matt Cutts created a video to answer many questions about a recent “brand push” in the search results that SEOs and webmasters had noticed, starting in late February.

Cutts confirmed the “minor change,” adding that Google’s ranking algorithm may be factoring trust, quality, PageRank, and other metrics for more generic queries. Cutts said it did not impact long-tail queries.

A Googler named Vince created this change, which is how the Vince Update got its name.

Read all about it in Google’s Vince Update Produces Big Brand Rankings; Google Calls It A Trust “Change”

Also on this day

Google to switch completely over to mobile-first indexing by September 2020

2020: Google said 70% of sites shown in search had already been switched over.

Google Ads significantly streamlines attribution reporting

2020: It was also dropping “Search” from the name.

Several WordPress SEO plugins are on the fritz

2020: Google Analytics Dashboard for WP, Yoast SEO and Rank Math all had issues.

SEOs on Google e-commerce category recommendation: ‘I’ll stop doing it when it stops working.’

2019: Though Google’s John Mueller suggested webmasters not put content in e-commerce category page footers, SEOs valued performance more highly.

More ‘shoppable ads’ coming to Google Images

2019: The sponsored images highlighted products that, when moused over, revealed brand, price and other details.

Maximize Clicks in Bing Ads now available globally

2019: The strategy automatically set bids to increase click volume. There were some manual control options.

Report: 51% of website hacks related to SEO spam

2019: These hacks target websites in order to try to manipulate the success of a site’s SEO campaign and boost its rankings in Google and other search engines.

Voice gaining on mobile browser as top choice for smartphone-based search

2019: Since 2018, voice had become more users’ first choice for mobile search.

Yelp adds ‘Verified Licenses’ for local providers to lineup of paid products

2019: Yelp manually checks that the business has a license and is in good standing.

Google selling Zagat to restaurant recommendations site The Infatuation

2018: Google no longer needed Zagat.

Google is extending Search capabilities to iMessage and other browser apps on iOS

2018: New extensions brought the search engine into more apps on iOS.

Bing has confirmed support for JSON-LD formatted Schema.org markup

2018: Though not yet available in the toolset, buildout of verification support within Bing Webmaster Tools was in progress.

Google’s “One True Answer” problem — when featured snippets go bad

2017: It was a problem because sometimes these answers were terribly wrong.

Google: The Mobile Friendly Update Ranking Factor Will Be Real Time & On A Page-By-Page Basis

2015: Google’s Gary Illyes answered some questions around this new ranking factor at SMX West.

Google May Discontinue Its AJAX Crawlable Guidelines

2015: Gary Illyes indicated Google would be decommissioning its guidelines.

Official: Google Compare For Auto Insurance Launches

2015: Rolling out in California to start, Google was getting into the car insurance business with lead generation.

What’s The Most Searched Thing On Google? Turns Out It’s “Google”

2015: Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes said the most searched term on Google is “Google” itself during an SMX West session.

Google Search Now Serving Up Cocktail Recipes With Drink Ingredients & Directions

2015: The new cocktail recipe search feature worked on both desktop and mobile for a number of cocktails.

Bing Listens: New Site Serves As A Suggestion Box For Bing Users

2015: Bing was looking for feedback from its users, launching a virtual suggestion box.

Spotted: Google Knowledge Graph Ad Tests New Google Shopping PLA Display

2014: This appeared to be the first instance of Google Shopping powering Knowledge Graph ads.

Go Deep: Product Listing Ad Campaigns That Just Focus On Top Sellers Get Short Changed [Study]

2014: A significant amount of PLA revenue came from single-conversion SKUs and those conversions had a higher return on ad spend.

Xbox One Gets Bing Web Search

2014: When you searched with “Xbox Bing,” you would receive results from the Bing marketplace as well as relevant items from the web.

BrightEdge Uses SEO Patents As “Sword,” Sues Searchmetrics

2014: BrightEdge sued rival Searchmetrics using multiple SEO patents that were granted last year.

Google’s Cutts: We Don’t Ban Sites Critical Of Google, But Here Is Why We Do Penalize Sites…

2013: Matt Cutts answers “Does Google use a set standard for manually removing webspam?”

Google’s Matt Cutts Awarded Patent On Detecting Hidden Text & Hidden Links

2013: A new Google patent was awarded, named Systems and methods for detecting hidden text and hidden links.

Google Maps App For iPhone Upgrade Adds Local Icons, Google Contacts & More Countries

2013: The changes included improved search for local venues, integration with your contacts and the addition of new countries. 

Web Spam Archive Tool Saves Google’s Live Spam For More Than Just Recent Results

2013: This tool allowed users to flip through more than 2,000 examples.

Flush With New Cash, Structured Data Engine FindTheBest Ready To Make Its Move

2013: Company created a “data platform” that could manage enormous amounts of data, synthesize and present that information in a user-friendly way.

Google “Search Plus Your World” To Launch Beyond US? Likely, As Secure Search Set To Expand

2012: It also meant that search marketers could expect the percentage of “(not provided)” data to greatly increase.

Google Sent Over 700,000 Messages Via Webmaster Tools In Past Two Months

2012: That was more than the total number of messages Google sent in 2011 and almost more than what Google had sent since launching Google Webmaster Tools message center.

Keeping Up With Google: Bing Launches New “Search Quality Insights” Series

2012: Bing announced its “Search Quality Insights” series to provide a more behind-the-scenes look at its search engine. 

Google Enables Cross-Platform Local Search (As Carrot To Relinquish Your Privacy)

2012: Google was enabling people to gain access to PC search histories on their mobile browsers (Android, iPhone). 

Google Faces “Innovator’s Dilemma” As It Prepares Response To Siri

2012: Google delivered a mobile-optimized version of its PC experience. Siri is more task oriented and “transactional” than Google Voice Actions.

Bing & Yahoo Soon To Support Canonical Tag

2010: Bing said canonical tag support should be in place by the end of March or early April. Yahoo said they were rolling out support of the tag, but cautioned that Yahoo will only use it “as a hint”.

Bing, Yahoo Discussing Future Of Yahoo Site Explorer

2010: Yahoo and Bing were in the midst of discussions to decide the future of Yahoo’s popular Site Explorer SEO tool.

Bing Maps Rolls Out Its Largest Image Update

2010: New aerial and Bird’s Eye imagery across many countries on several continents.

Yahoo Updates Desktop Search Marketing Tool

2010: Upgrades to bulk editing, campaign transfer, keyword research and more.

Yahoo Gains AT&T, Loses T-Mobile Search Deal

2010: T-Mobile swapped Yahoo for Google as the default search engine on the T-Mobile portal.

Google Touts Wisdom Of Crowds For Financial Help

2009: Google announced TipJar, a place where people could submit answers to the question, “How can I save money?”

Inquisitor Debuts On iPhone

2009: A very nifty search tool from Yahoo for the iPhone.

Why Do Lawyers From Utah Hate Search Ads?

2009: Utah, for the third time, was trying to regulate keyword advertising by proposing new law.

Google Adds Page Load Time To Quality Score Algorithm

2008: If your destination URL was a very slow loading page, then Google would give you a poor “load time grade.”

Oops! Google’s SSL Certificate Throwing Out Scary Warnings

2008: Google: “some web pages containing the AdWords Conversion Tracking code snippet presented visitors with a browser message indicating a Google server certificate had expired.”

Google Debuts “Search Within A Site” Search Box Feature

2008: Google: “This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site.”

Matt Cutts & The Search Community Interview

2008: Questions included how Cutts became the face of Google for webmasters, how other Googlers were aiding him, and the struggle in demonstrating that he was not the final answer at Google for SEOs.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Feature, Data Sharing & Audio Ad Charting

2008: Users could now compare their site’s performance to industry benchmarks, though only if they agreed to share their data to help produce such aggregate benchmarks.

Yahoo Celebrates Its 13th Birthday; Will There Be A 14th?

2008: Spoiler alert: yes.

Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com

2008: Goodbye, Ask.com.

Pew: Cellphones More Important To Users Than Internet, TV, Email

2008: And an increasing number of consumers were using their mobile phones for things other than voice communications, including accessing mobile internet content.

Google Testing Yellow Background Color Behind AdWords Ads?

2007: Those ads typically had a light blue background color.

Google Rises To UK’s 2nd Biggest Ad Earner

2007: Google UK had earned $1.6 billion (£825 million) in 2006, putting them ahead of Channel 4 but behind ITV

Local Shopping Search Stalks E-Commerce

2007: A number of companies were seeking to make the online-offline shopping connection.

Pandia Offers Custom Search For Search Information

2007: Pandia offered a free custom search called the Search Engine Detective, a meta search engine which let you do specialized searches for anything search engine related.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< March 4 | Search Marketing History | March 6 >

The post This day in search marketing history: March 5 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/search-marketing-history-march-5-393889

Brave Search adds AI Summarizer feature

Brave Search has introduced Summarizer, a new AI-powered feature with similarities to Google’s featured snippets and Perspectives SERP features. It’s also like what BingGPT is doing, generating answers to questions in near real-time.

Summarizer provides concise answers (generally two or three sentences), with one or multiple citations, to user search queries.

Brave’s Summarizer answers are based on search results found on the web. This is a key point Brave called out in their announcement:

  • “Unlike a purely generative AI model, which is prone to spout unsubstantiated assertions, we trained our large language models (LLMs) to process multiple sources of information present on the Web. This produces a more concise, accurate answer, expressed in coherent language.

What it looks like. Here’s an example of a search for [how many days until Christmas]:

artificial intelligence

Brave’s Summarizer tells me:

  • “There are 305 days until Christmas 2023. This means there are 43.57 weeks, 7320.0 hours, and 10.89 months until then!”

This answer also includes three original sources (which I’ve annotated in red). Those numbered citations aren’t clickable. Hovering over them will tell you the website this information came from. Searchers will have to click on the websites below the summaries.

Interestingly, Brave doesn’t simply pull the information from the top 3 organic search results. Citation 0 was in 10th position; Citation 1 was 4th position; and Citation 2 was the top organic result.

Summaries are shown for 17% of queries. Brave said that using web results helps Summarizer provide real-time, up-to-date information to searchers. But Brave also noted that summaries are only being generated for about 17% of queries – though Brave plans to grow that number “in the near future.”

Brave’s result snippets also get summaries. Brave Search will also be highlighting (i.e., bolding) answers as opposed to bolding keywords on searches. Brave said:

  • “…our AI models are also able to replace the already query-dependent snippets (result descriptions) with a summarized version of those snippets, highlighting the answer when possible. This can be viewed as a summary of a single source (such as a press article), as opposed to the main summary where multiple sources are considered and aggregated to create a more comprehensive answer. The summary at the top of the results page and these special descriptions co-occur, so users will see the overarching summary as well as snippets with highlighted answers.”

Here’s a before and after on a query for [what happened in east Palestine ohio]:

Brave

So instead of just bolding keywords from the search query, Brave is trying to actually provide full answers in result snippets. And as Brave notes, queries can trigger both these summarized snippets, as well as the Summarizer.

Why we care. Although privacy-focused search engine Brave trails far behind Google and Microsoft Bing, it may be worth your time to explore Brave’s Summarizer, to test examples of how it works on various queries. While this particular feature won’t change any of your search strategies, as Google and Bing evolve their AI chat features, Brave may provide some inspiration to the larger search engines.

Available now. Brave Summarizer is available today for all users on desktop and mobile. Users can opt out under Search settings.

Now at 22 million queries per day. As of last April, Brave said it passed 12 million queries per day. Now they are seeing 22 million queries per day.

While that’s solid growth, for comparison, we know DuckDuckGo dropped below 100 million queries per day in April 2022 and was unable to get back above that mark again before they stopped publicly sharing their traffic data. And for an even bigger comparison, an estimated 8.5 billion searches are conducted on Google every day. So that means Google sees more queries in a day than Brave will likely see in a year.

The post Brave Search adds AI Summarizer feature appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/brave-search-summarizer-ai-feature-393859

This day in search marketing history: March 4

Sheryl Sandberg named Facebook Chief Operating Officer

In 2008, Facebook announced Sheryl Sandberg as its new Chief Operating Officer.

At the time, Sandberg was Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations, responsible for online sales of its advertising and publishing products. Sandberg joined Google in 2001.

Sandberg would join Facebook on March 24, 2008 and be responsible for helping the company scale its operations and expand its presence globally.

Why the change?

“For me that is part of the excitement,” Sandberg said. “I’ve loved being part of the process of helping to build Google. The opportunity to help another young company to grow into a global leader is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Sandberg would remain COO of Facebook, later Meta, for 14 years. She announced her departure in June 2022 and officially transitioned out of her COO role by August.

Read all about it in Facebook’s New Chief Operating Officer, Ex-Google VP, Sandberg.

Also on this day

Google launches new Google Analytics 4 home page

2022: Google said “the Home page surfaces information that’s relevant to you based on your behavior in Analytics.” 

Google and Bing halt all ad sales in Russia

2022: The platforms already had suspended ads from Russian state media. As the conflict in Ukraine intensified, they were stopping all ads from serving to Russia-based users.

Microsoft Advertising’s Ad Creator extracts site images for use in ads

2022: Ad Creator and its built-in photo editor could help advertisers that didn’t have access to a design team save time.

Google My Business report shows how people found your business

2021: You could now see device and platform breakdown in your Google My Business performance reports.

Google Ads mobile app adds custom and performance insights notifications

2021: The updates could help advertisers keep tabs on the metrics that are important to them and notify them of significant performance changes.

Microsoft Bing updates search results interface to make it more visually immersive

2021: Microsoft Bing updated recipe results, similar-looking items, expandable carousels, infographic panels and local answers design.

Most local SEOs making at least $60,000

2020: Half of those responding to a survey said they had been working in the industry for more than a decade and 11% had been working in local SEO for 20 years or more.

Video: Ginny Marvin, our Editor-in-Chief, on the Periodic Tables of PPC

2020: Marvin also discussed her career, PPC versus SEO, natural language in search and some controversial topics in Google Ads.

Google My Business boosts visibility of business offers in Google Posts

2019: Google allowed up to 10 unique offers in the local listing carousel.

Google Ads API now out of beta, v0 will sunset April 30

2019: The production-ready v1 of the Google Ads API was available and ready for use.  

Google lobs invective at EU Copyright Directive

2019: Google’s SVP of Global Affairs Kent Walker urged changes in language ahead of ratification.

Google Agrees To Complicated Worldwide “Right To Be Forgotten” Censorship Plan

2016: Google would ensure those within a country where a RTBF request was granted could not find censored content, regardless of what Google edition they used.

Google Posts is now experimenting with Business Cards in search results

2016: Experimental feature allowed local businesses to promote specific content, which could be shared directly from the “card carousel.”

Google Adds 19 Animal Sounds To Search

2016: Searching for [animal noises] would bring up a carousel of animals with a speaker icon next to each one to listen to the sounds/noises that specific animal makes.

Google’s Candidate Cards Being Tested For Businesses?

2016: A local business was spotted using the equivalent of Candidate Cards to add content directly into Google’s search results.

Search In Pics: Google AMP, SMX & Androidify Station

2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

How Google Made It A Little Harder To Reach Google.com From Outside The US

2015: Google said the change was meant to help local searchers, but did the Right To Be Forgotten play a role?

Google Tests Search Results Listings Without Descriptions

2015: Google tested how searchers would react to not seeing a snippet description in the search results.

Google Launches AdWords App For Android

2015: This was the first time Google had launched a native app for monitoring and managing AdWords campaigns.

YP Launches New Local Search Marketplace For National Advertisers

2015: YP built ypSearch Marketplace, a paid-search, bidded marketplace that tapped into the company’s 80 million monthly users.

Bing Saves, Search Bookmarking Feature, Now Public Beta

2014: The feature let searchers save URLs and searches to their personal Bing/Microsoft account, in order to build an index of their own saved searches.

New Video Shows Microsoft “Assistant” Cortana In Action

2014: Cortana was intended to help users discover and search for information as well as providing Google Now like personalization and “predictive search” capabilities.

Microsoft Says Goodbye To “Scroogled” Ad Campaign

2013: Microsoft’s “Scroogled” ad campaign, which attacked Google over paid inclusion in shopping and Gmail over privacy, was coming to an end.

Google Test: Auto-Completing Search Queries

2011: This auto-completion was happening on long-tail terms where Google Suggest had stopped giving suggestions.

PPC Data On “Farmer” Shows Traffic Quality Improvement

2011:  Revenue-per-click was showing a modest improvement.

Google Shows Your Latest Tweet As Search Snippet … In 10 Seconds

2011: Google was showing a user’s latest tweet as the snippet. It was even keeping links from the tweet active in the snippet.

Google Hotpot Places A Bet On Las Vegas

2011:  The company announced a local marketing campaign aimed at upping usage of Google Places and Hotpot. Google gave away 10,000 free Las Vegas Monorail tickets.

Google Releases First AdWords API Upgrade Of 2011

2011: Features included the ability to run reports across clients, better filtering, improved geo-targeting, and the ability to deploy and measure “experiments,” or A/B split testing.

Google, Microsoft Cooperate To Invalidate Broad Online Mapping Patent

2011: Google and Microsoft joined forces to fight a common foe: a small company in Texas that held a potentially sweeping mapping patent.

Bing Travel & Kayak Announce Partnership

2011: The two travel search engines announced a formal partnership to provide searchers with more comprehensive results.

Blekko Offers New Linkroll Widget & More Publisher Tools

2011: The Live Link Roll was a widget that displayed a site’s most recent inbound links “as they happen in realtime.”

CBS Buys Clicker Video Search Guide; Lanzone Becomes CBS Interactive Prez

2011: Clicker raised roughly $19 million from investors.

Big Trends (Hint: Mobile) Emerging In Online Advertising’s Next Frontiers

2011: The concept of “local” as a meaningful way to segment audiences was gradually becoming obsolete.

Google Wants Feedback On Buzz

2010: Google was asking for user feedback and ideas for its Google Buzz product, and had set up an ideas forum using Google Moderator.

How Wikipedia Turned PPC / Paid Search Into SEM

2010: How small changes snowballed into an entirely new meaning. Related: Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?

Eye Tracking Study: Users Largely Blind To Real-Time Results In Search

2010: 73% had never heard of real-time results before participating this study.

Google Testing (Annoying) Expandable Ads

2009: Expandable ads are those annoying banners/graphics that expand and cover up the actual page content.

Google Spending Millions On Newspaper Ads To Notify Authors And Publishers Of Book Lawsuit Settlement

2009: Google planned to spend up to $8 million on newspaper and print magazine advertising to alert copyright holders about the settlement.

Google Health Makes It Easier To Share Medical Records

2009: Two new tools would help users share their medical information with trusted friends, family members, or medical providers.

Google Shakes Things Up By Adding Earthquake OneBox

2009: Google added an Earthquake OneBox result for a search on [earthquake].

New Coupon & Deals Search Engine Launches

2009: Offers.com entered an already crowded space of coupons/deals sites.

Google Tests Additional Search Box Within Search Results

2008: Google’s “Search Within A Site” search box feature.

Google: Not American’s Most Admired Company (But Almost)

2008: Google ranked at number four while Microsoft ranked at 16. Yahoo did not make the list.

Yahoo onePlace: Think Of It As MyYahoo For Mobile

2008: Yahoo announced a new mobile application called “onePlace” that appeared to be an elegant, highly customizable mobile bookmarking system and RSS reader.

IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine

2008: Ask.com was being refocused to build out an engine that answered questions tailored to women searching on health and entertainment.

YADAC: Yet Another Debate About Cloaking Happens Again

2008: Some cloaking history plus an honest plea to get past this stupid, stupid issue.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< March 3 | Search Marketing History | March 5 >

The post This day in search marketing history: March 4 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/search-marketing-history-march-4-393842

Business Storage in Calgary: 6 Tips to Store Your Items for Maximum Space

Home Business Magazine Online

Do you dread working in your cramped office? Are things all over the place, disorganized and distracting? It’s no way to spend your days, considering you most likely spend most hours in the office.

One of the causes of cramped offices is the lack of adequate space. The solution is working on your office storage. Below are some tips to guide you on business storage for the maximum use of space.

1. Invest in Storage Solutions

The lack of proper storage solutions makes you place items haphazardly without order. There are storage solutions that can make the process easier and more organized.

Storage boxes are great storage solutions. They come in various sizes and shapes, and you’re sure to find the ideal one for the items you want to store. It’s best to label them for easy retrieval of what you need.

If your office space isn’t large enough to store all your items, consider investing in business storage in Calgary. There are units for sale and for lease. Choose one big enough to store what you have while factoring in the need for storage space in the future.

2. Reduce Aisle Spaces

Warehouses are one of the solutions some businesses have adopted, especially those handling many goods at once. These warehouses use aisles of racking systems for storage.

The disadvantage of this arrangement style is that there tends to be a lot of space between the aisles, which wastes floor space. Therefore, it’d help to reduce the width between the storage isles.

Knowing the square footage of your warehouse or storage room will help you know the width to adopt. Be sure to factor in traffic flow and room for box retrieval from the aisles.

3. Adopt Vertical Storage

Most businesses adopt horizontal storage, leaving vertical spaces empty. Don’t fall victim to the same. Instead, maximize your vertical storage.

Do this by building shelves on your walls, leaving enough space in between for storage. Alternatively, adopt stacking as a storage solution. You’ll place storage boxes on top of each other, utilizing the ceiling height to the maximum.

As you adopt vertical storage, it’s crucial to set up ladders for accessing the boxes and shelves at the top. You want to avoid accidents during retrieval.

business storage
Depositphotos

4. Add a Mezzanine Floor

In some situations, your office floor space might be small, and you can’t seek off-site storage solutions. In this case, it’d help to add a mezzanine floor. This floor adds more storage space to your business.

By definition, a mezzanine floor is one between two floors. It’s an ideal storage solution, especially with a tall ceiling height. All you require to do is find a suitable height to build it. It doesn’t have to be half the ceiling height; you can have it in a corner. The choice highly depends on preference.

As you adopt a mezzanine floor, ensure you consider its load-bearing capacity. It should be able to hold the weight of the items you’ll store on it. Ensure you add enough columns and beams of the right size. It’d help to have a qualified contractor build this floor for you.

5. Use Under-Utilized Spaces

Like in most homes, there are spaces you aren’t using. These can double as storage space instead of them lying bare.

These spaces differ from office to office but include the area below the staircase, countertops, bottom of storage shelves, and area around the office refrigerator.

It helps to add shelves in these spaces, whose length depends on the available space. Where adding shelves isn’t an option, adopt vertical stacking.

6. Reduce the Size of Your Furniture

Businesses invest in many resources like furniture to provide a conducive environment for workers to fulfill their responsibilities. This furniture includes working desks, office, and lounge chairs.

Although functional, office furniture may occupy a lot of space, especially larger and bulkier kinds. It’s best to reduce the size of the furniture to maximize space. Evaluate each and identify the right size, considering the needs of your workers. Your workers can give you valuable feedback on what works for them in their daily routines.

After reducing the size of the furniture, you’ll have a lot of business storage space.

Conclusion

Business storage is crucial in not only keeping company documents and assets safe but also making the office look presentable to clients. With this in mind, the discussion above gives tips to maximize space for better business storage. Implement these tips to improve your storage system.

The post Business Storage in Calgary: 6 Tips to Store Your Items for Maximum Space appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/success-tips/business-storage-calgary-6-tips-store-items-maximum-space/

Grow Your Financial Services Firm with These 6 Proven Strategies

Home Business Magazine Online

The success of all businesses, big or small, depends on how well they can manage and distribute their finances across all departments. Some business owners are well equipped with financial management skills while others aren’t, and this is an opportunity you should utilize.

As a financial advisor, your primary focus is to help entrepreneurs and individuals alike manage their finances to achieve their lifelong goals and objectives. However, you must also concentrate on your firm’s future to stay in business long.

You can do this by implementing effective strategies that’ll help you grow your firm and reach new markets. That said, here are six proven financial advisor tips and techniques to help you grow your financial services firm:

1. Analyze Your Client’s Journey

Analyzing your client’s journey is one of the most effective financial service strategies you should implement. This is because each customer has different goals, which you must note, along with their savings, investment plan, and other areas they may need advice on.

Analyzing their journey will also help you make your business customer-friendly and have a greater chance of retaining existing customers. It allows you to personalize services for each client, increasing satisfaction.

2. Optimize Your Service Website

Another effective strategy is optimizing your service website to streamline your customer experience. Because most things are done online, clients will likely spend more time on your website than at your physical address requesting services and making payments. You must ensure it’s accessible and easy to use with a friendly user interface. Regardless, you must still make your physical location as hospitable as possible for visiting clients.

Your website may be your top priority marketing asset, and its speed, clarity, and landing pages must be ideal for engaging your visitors. Ensure that your site’s layout, colors, content, and customer interactions are user-friendly and appealing, as these will affect user experience.

Business Person working at financial services firm
Depositphotos

3. Automate Your Processes

Now that you’ve created a functional website, chances are more leads will keep flowing, and you’ll need the right tools to make your work easier and more efficient.

Process automation will ensure everything runs smoothly, from invoice processing to trading, reporting, rebalancing, and interactions with clients and within your team. However, it’s vital to note there are some things, like client experience, that you can’t automate. Automating other workflows gives you enough time to improve your client’s experience and provide exceptional services.

4. Build an Active Online Marketing Strategy

Creating an online presence is crucial to generating more leads and reaching a broader customer base. However, you must be active and interact with your online audience across all platforms and channels. Some of the online marketing channels you may want to consider are as follows:

  • Social media marketing: Most consumers search for products and services on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Therefore, consider opening a business account on the relevant platforms to market your services.
  • Email marketing: Another marketing strategy to utilize is email marketing through regular newsletters. It gives an exceptional return on investment (ROI), as many people use emails to communicate.
  • Pay-per-click marketing: Pay-per-click (PPC) is another marketing strategy you may want to consider. Setting up and launching a campaign is relatively easy, and you can manage your spending. You typically pay every time a visitor clicks on your ad. PPC marketing has a relatively high conversion rate, especially if your ads are correctly targeted to the appropriate audience and bear a resonating message.

You can use these online marketing strategies to grow your financial services. You can also invest in mobile marketing, educational videos, and content marketing.

5. Focus on a Specific Market Niche

Marketing your services is one of the battles you’ll encounter as a financial advisor, especially when you want to expand your business. Offering a range of financial services like bookkeeping, business broker, and tax preparation services is an excellent way to reach broader markets but not a perfect strategy for differentiation.

Therefore, identifying and carving out your niche is a good strategy for growing your firm. It helps you differentiate yourself better from competitors and focus on providing financial services you’re well conversant with.

6. Consider SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps you tailor your website to get higher rankings in search engines whenever a visitor uses specific keywords to make a query. It’s an excellent approach to driving organic traffic to your site.

Remember, most online experiences start on the search engine, and you’d want to capitalize on this to ensure anyone searching for financial service providers finds your site. It’s also worthwhile to focus on local SEO to get a significant share of the customers in your area of operation.

Conclusion

A financial services firm can bring you reasonable profits with the right strategies. However, it’s good to note that success may not always come overnight. It usually takes several months or years of hard work to build a sizable customer base that can generate constant revenue. With determination and diligence, you’ll surely bring your dreams to reality.

The post Grow Your Financial Services Firm with These 6 Proven Strategies appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/growing-a-business/how-to-guides-growing-a-business/grow-financial-services-firm-6-proven-strategies/