Online Marketing Strategy

Google Business Profile (GBP) services might have more to do with local rankings than previously thought, according to recent tests from Sterling Sky (Disclosure: I work at Sterling Sky) and Whitespark.  Specifically, adding pre-defined services in GBP seemingly impacts local search rankings.  Before this finding, you could do little with GBP to influence local search results beyond location, categories, reviews and keywords in the business name. Now, you can add GBP services to the list of key local SEO factors to prioritize. Since when did GBP services matter? GBP services didn't majorly impact local rankings back in 2019 when we conducted the initial test. At the time, Google was slowly and silently adding pre-defined services to plenty of GBP categories. But when we retested this in 2022, the results were substantially different. Whitespark's Darren Shaw conducted a similar test with positive...

May 29, 2023 CANADALAND #888 How To Save News Media From Our Tech Overlords The ad tech giants, Meta, Google, and their ilk, are, well, giants. Is Cory Doctorow the David to this Goliath? Will his plan to take down the giants work? Subscribe Listen Download Jesse Brown Host & Publisher Bruce Thorson Senior Producer Tristan Capacchione Audio Editor & Technical Producer Annette Ejiofor Managing Editor, Podcasts Big tech critic Cory Doctorow lays out a four-part plan to save the news media from big tech's stranglehold. The plan: create a comprehensive new privacy law, open up the app stores to true competition, return to the internet's founding principle of true end to end delivery, and finally, splinter Meta and Google into smaller independent competing companies. Would it work? How close are we to any of this? Host: Jesse Brown Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Mana...

By Nick Prevenas, University Communications May 15, 2023 A significant international ranking has once again placed the University of Arizona among the world's best universities. UArizona is ranked No. 95 out of more than 20,000 global colleges and universities in the annual Center for World University Rankings, released Monday. UArizona also ranked No. 48 among U.S. institutions and No. 25 among public colleges and universities. The ranking places UArizona among the top 0.5% of universities worldwide. The number of faculty members who have been awarded major academic distinctions contributed to the university's showing. "We are grateful to see the Center for World University Rankings recognize the university's outstanding academic and research achievements," said University of Arizona President  Robert C. Robbins . "The university provides an ideal environment for internationally ren...

A handful of tactical search features were announced in conjunction with the other AI-driven announcements from Google Marketing Live 2023. Yes, there is more AI coming to elements within search campaigns, but advertisers should look fondly at additional elements like better brand controls for broad match and better asset insights. Brand restrictions for broad match. Google has been quickly improving broad match over the past few years and a new brand restriction feature should help advertisers feel more comfortable with the match type. Similar to the announcement with Performance Max last year, this feature will help to leverage broad match with the brand traffic specified by the advertiser. This feature will be applied at the campaign level which should make testing a breeze. Google AI in Smart Bidding. Smart Bidding has always been, well, smart. It is getting even smarter by implementing a deeper integration of large language models (LLMs)into bidd...

Advertising Disclosure Advertising disclosure: Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products or services we review (also where and how those products appear on the site), this in no way affects our recommendations or the advice we offer. Our reviews are based on years of experience and countless hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. The business landscape has forever changed with the meteoric rise of eCommerce. Shopify, a leading eCommerce platform, supports roughly 4.4 million sellers worldwide. For over a decade now, Shopify has provided extensive B2B solutions, helping online sellers build, run, and scale their digital shops. With its widespread usage in 175 countries, Shopify has facilitated over $496 billion in sales to date. These numbers unequivocally demonstrate that eCommerce marketing is not just a strategy but a necessity for businesses worldwide. Having an intuitive,...