Category Archives: Company News and SEO Tidbits

The latest and greatest company news and industry tidbits.

23 Essential Google Tools for Businesses

The below 23 free tools, apps and software downloads are provided by Google to help businesses, marketers and developers with SEO and Digital Advertising efforts.

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Ad Grants

Nonprofit organizations can apply to receive $10,000 per month of AdWords advertising. That’s A LOT of free exposure despite minor campaign limitations.
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AdWords Best Practices

Google’s own best practices guide makes an excellent reference tool when navigating the ever changing AdWords landscape.
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AdWords Keyword Tool

Find out how many people search Google using keywords and phrases related to your business. Research and discover new ideas.

Install Android App
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AdSense

Still one of the easiest ways to monetize your website and/or blog. AdSense displays ads on your website, blog or app.

Dig even deeper – get the Chrome extension.

Install Android App
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Alerts

Create customized alerts and receive email or RSS notification of freshly indexed content that matches or relates to the type of alert set.
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Analytics

A powerful and robust tool that provides valuable insight about your website’s visitors.

Dig even deeper – get the Chrome extension.

Install Android App
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Cloud Print

Connects your printers to the cloud enabling control from any web-connected device like your smartphone.
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Correlate

Compare and correlate search patterns with real-world trends. Companion to Google Trends.
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Custom Search Engine

DIY Site Search. Use Google to power and/or monetize search on one or more of your websites.
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Display Benchmarks

A useful tool designed to compare AdWords display campaigns with the rest of the industry. See how your campaigns stack-up performance wise.
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Domains

Register and manage domain names – includes FREE PRIVATE registration and one free domain.
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Mobile-Friendly Test

Analyze your website to see if it passes Google’s mobile-friendly test. Fear not if your page doesn’t pass, corrective tips are provided.
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My Business

Verify and manage your business footprint across Google Search, Maps and Google+. The cornerstone for your business’s presence on Google.

Install Android App
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Primer

Quick and easy interactive marketing lessons from Google on your smartphone. Learn about valuable marketing concepts whenever you’ve got a spare 5 minutes.
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Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools)

Connect websites to learn about potential issues that deal with security, indexation, structured data, links and mobile friendliness.
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Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

A 32 page PDF containing general information and guidelines for optimizing websites for search engines.
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Sites

Quickly build (one click), manage, share and deploy websites and web pages with ease. Remember Geocities? It’s like that, but a little fancier.
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Structured Data Testing Tool

Test your website’s structured data (knowledge graph, ratings, reviews and other markup) to make sure they are formatted correctly.
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Think With Google

High quality repository of marketing resources featuring consumer trends, marketing insights, case studies, industry research and creative inspiration.
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Trends

View real-time trends and explore past, present and estimated future trends for popular topics, searches and YouTube videos. Plus – embeddable charts!
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Trusted Store

Ecommerce much? Become a Google Trusted Store and get seller ratings displayed in Google Shopping and AdWords.
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Voice

Enhance the capabilities of your current phone regardless of carrier with a new number for yourself or business.

Install Android App
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Web Designer

Professional grade HTML5-based web design software available for free download.
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There are a lot more than 23 Google tools for businesses available. Please comment below with your own favorites!

Geeks Rejoice – You Can Now Star Wars Optimize Your Google Experience

1 Reply

Google recently teamed up with Lucasfilm and Disney for the Choose Your Side Star Wars experience. Where your favorite Google products become force optimized based on which side you choose, light or dark. Choose Wisely.

The Force is Hidden Within

In addition to skinning your Google apps with Star Wars-themed visuals, delicious easter eggs have also been carefully placed throughout. Check out your Google Maps Street View marker or open up a new Chrome tab to find the first of many.

And, there’s this cryptic tweet from Google:

Hint: Search the beginning. #ChooseYourSide https://t.co/W9sjR80Q05

— Google (@Google) November 23, 2015

Try searching Google for “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away,”.

Quick Guide to SEO Character Limits

SEO Character Limits Explained

Page Title Character Limit: 60

Page titles are typically not visible on the site itself and can usually be found in the browser title bar or tab. Page titles are often used by search engines as the title of the result snippet and play a significant role in search engine rankings. Page titles over 60 characters risk truncation and even replacement by the search engine.

Pro Tip! Shorter page titles tend to get more clicks.

Meta Description Character Limit: 160

Meta descriptions are also not visible on the page and will most likely be used in search engine result snippets. Although meta descriptions are no longer used by Google as a ranking signal they can affect search result click-through ratios.

Pro Tip! Don’t worry about optimizing meta descriptions for keyphrases, focus on usability – getting them to click!

Meta Keywords: Just NO

Meta keywords are no longer a weighted search engine ranking signal. The use of them is strongly discouraged.

Pro Tip! Omit or remove all instances of meta keywords site-wide.

H1+ Heading Character Limit: 70

While heading tags don’t carry as much search engine ranking signal weight as they used to, they remain an important on-page SEO element. Headings above 70 characters can look sloppy under most circumstances. The 70 character limit is merely a recommended limit, as we presently are not aware of any imposed by search engines.

Pro Tip! Avoid duplicating headings with other headings or page titles and focus on using headings relevant to page content.

Image ALT Text Character Limit: 100

Even though most industry experts agree ALT text should be no longer than 120 characters, even more concur that image ALT text should be short but sweet. Ideally making use of 5 or 6 words that are relative to the image file name as well as page content. Keeping in mind that search engine signal weight is assigned to ALT text from left to right, significantly diminishing after the 5th or 6th word. Well optimized images can also help improve search engine rankings for image search results.

Pro Tip! Make sure to avoid duplication and focus efforts on images that are displayed in the ATF (above the fold) portion of the page.

Additional On-Page SEO Considerations

Filenames: The name of the page and/or directory and image file name should relate to the page title, headings and content.

Text: The amount of text/page varies based on content type and intent. Use short, easy to read and understand headings, sentences and paragraphs. Somewhere between 300 and 500 words is often a good place to start.

Internal Linking: Not menu navigation, sidebars or footers mind you, but including ATF links on pages or blog posts that lead to internal landing pages. Internal linking helps search engines identify important pages – landing pages. It can also dilute the authority of a given page if not used appropriately.

Throwing It Back 16 Years to Napster

The Rise and Fall of Napster

Napster, of course, revolutionized the music industry and played a key role in determining how we consume music and other digital media today. Napster spawned many clones worth mentioning: Limewire, Kazaa, Gnutella, eDonkey2000, BitTorrent… It was also the reason artists like Metallica and Dr. Dre were throwing down one lawsuit after the next.

The short-lived service launched in 1999 by Sean Fanning and Sean Parker (yes, that’s the same Sean Parker of Facebook lore) withstood the RIAA and music labels until its demise in 2001. Although still in existence today, Napster is essentially a stripped-down subscription based, Rhapsody service that was formerly operated by BestBuy as an online store.

On the 15th anniversary of Napster’s launch, one writer reached out to a dozen music industry journalists and editors for their thoughts about Napster, here’s what they had to say.

I was one of the original batch of 1999 Napster users, it was an exciting time in file sharing history to say the least. I still remember the feeling of pure joy associated with having access to songs that you couldn’t get anywhere else… remixes, live cuts, etc.

Those gen one mp3s still play, but sometimes you gotta turn ’em up much like their cassette and 8-track predecessors.

Happy #TBT Napster!

Jtree

SEO for SaaS and Startups Since 2009

Category Archives: Company News and SEO Tidbits

Geeks Rejoice – You Can Now Star Wars Optimize Your Google Experience

The Force is Hidden Within

Quick Guide to SEO Character Limits

SEO Character Limits Explained

Page Title Character Limit: 60

Meta Description Character Limit: 160

Meta Keywords: Just NO

H1+ Heading Character Limit: 70

Image ALT Text Character Limit: 100

Additional On-Page SEO Considerations