Research: who uses Facebook?

Fully 71% of online American adults use Facebook, a proportion unchanged from August 2013. Usage among seniors continues to increase. Some 56% of internet users ages 65 and older now use Facebook, up from 45% who did so in late 2013 and 35% who did so in late 2012. Women are also particularly likely to use Facebook compared with men, a trend that continues from prior years.

Facebook users also have a wide variety of friends on the network:

• 93% of Facebook users say they are Facebook friends with family members other than parents or children
• 91% say they are Facebook friends with current friends
• 87% say they are connected to friends from the past, such as high school or college classmates
• 58% say they are connected to work colleagues
• 45% say they are Facebook friends with their parents
• 43% say they are friends with their children on Facebook
• 39% say they are connected to people they have never met in person
• 36% say they are Facebook friends with their neighbors

This information is provided by Pew Research - Jan 2014. For quality SEO and web design click here.

Research - who uses social marketing and 4 traits of facebook users

This research is made available through PEW Research, a non-profit organization.

#1  As of September 2014:

• 71% of online adults use Facebook
• 23% of online adults use Twitter
• 26% use Instagram
• 28% use Pinterest
• 28% use LinkedIn

#2  Fully 40% of cell phone owners use a social networking site on their phone, and 28% do so on a typical day.

Here are some strictly Facebook statistics ....

#3 Facebook users are more trusting than others

#4 Facebook users have more close relationships

#5 Facebook users are much more politically engaged than most people

#6 Facebook revives “dormant” relationships

Learn more about social marketing our our web site - click here.

Is Google+ alive or dead?

A chorus of tech journalists are reporting that Google is phasing out its social network, Google+.

Where did they get this juicy nugget of information? Well, they made it up. And I'll tell you why. But first, let's look at what the press is saying and compare that with reality.

Repeated news media claims that Google+ is on the verge of extinction appears to be a delusion caused by a social media paradox called the "majority illusion."

The press has been declaring the imminent death of Google+ since 2011, but this latest fantasy proclamation of Google+ coming to an end was triggered by two events.

The first event is that the official date for phasing out the photo tools that were integrated into Google+ came and went. Google replaced them with the more consumer-friendly and separate Google Photos.

The second is that Google announced a few weeks ago that a Google+ login would no longer be required for using YouTube and other Google services.

When Google launched Google+ four years ago, the strategy was to link or integrate nearly every consumer-facing service to Google+, so Photos and Hangouts were built in from the start. Later, a Google+ account was required to use Google Play, YouTube and other Google services.

It was a radical strategy of universal integration, but non-Google+ users didn't like it. And after the departure last year of Google+ chief Vic Gundotra, Google began the slow and gradual reversal of the integration strategy.

Google+ chief Bradley Horowitz said the decoupling changes are being made mostly to improve Google+. He wrote in a Google+ post this week that "We think changes like these will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google+." 

Learn more about social marketing at our web site - click here. 

SEO: Three essential terms to know about Google that benefit your online business

These three terms describe how Google identifies and sorts the content of billions of web pages that just keep growing in number - every day. You want potential customers to find you, so take the time to learn these three terms. They are the foundation of any SEO effort that's done correctly.

How does “Crawling” benefit my business?

Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google index. A googlebot is a software that travels the web and reviews almost all of the existing web pages and files on web servers.

They use a huge set of computers to fetch (or "crawl") billions of pages on the web. The program that does the fetching is called Googlebot (also known as a robot, bot, or spider). Googlebot uses an algorithmic process: computer programs determine which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch from each site.

Google's crawl process begins with a list of web page URLs, generated from previous crawl processes, and augmented with Sitemap data provided by webmasters. As Googlebot visits each of these websites it detects links on each page and adds them to its list of pages to crawl. New sites, changes to existing sites, and dead links are noted and used to update the Google index.

Google doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, and they keep the search side of their business separate from our revenue-generating AdWords service.

Where does "Indexing" take place?

Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page. In addition, Google processes information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes. Googlebot can process many, but not all, content types. For example, they cannot process the content of some rich media files or dynamic pages.

How is "Pagerank" determined?

When a user enters a search request, Google servers search the index for matching pages and return the results Google believes are the most relevant to the user’s request. 

Relevancy is determined by over 200 factors, one of which is the PageRank for a given page. PageRank is the measure of the importance of a page based on the incoming links from other pages. In simple terms, each link to a page on your site from another site adds to your site's PageRank. Not all links are equal: Google works hard to improve the user experience by identifying spam links and other practices that negatively impact search results. The best types of links are those that are given based on the quality of your content.

In order for your site to rank well in search results pages, it's important to make sure that Google can crawl and index your site correctly. Their Webmaster Guidelines outline some best practices that can help you avoid common pitfalls and improve your site's ranking.

Google's Autocomplete features are designed to help users save time by displaying related terms, common misspellings, and popular queries. Like google.com search results, the keywords used by these features are automatically generated by Google web crawlers and search algorithms. Google displays these predictions only when they think they might save the user time. If a site ranks well for a keyword, it's because Google has determined algorithmically that the page content is more relevant to the user's search request.

Follow this blog to receive automatic updates by clicking the button in Google+ Followers in right column.

Cheers, Steu

Ezwebmanifesting - web design and SEO services with satisfaction guaranteed

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This article can be distributed if the content is kept entirely as is including the links.

Online Marketing Stats: use this research to your advantage - 7 Key Points

#1 Nearly half (46%) of people say a website’s design is their number one criterion for determining the credibility of a company. (NewsCred)

#2 71% of companies planned to increase their digital marketing budgets this year, by an average of 27%. (Econsultancy)

#3 Internet advertising will make up 25% of the entire ad market in 2015. (Social Fresh)

#4 Videos on landing pages increase conversions by 86%. (Social Fresh)

#5 63% of millennials (born between 1981 and 2000) say they stay updated on brands through social networks; 51% say social opinions influence their purchase decisions; and 46% “count on social media” when buying online.  (leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal)

#6 Not all content has to be original. 48% of marketers curate noteworthy content from third-party sources weekly (this post is an example). (Design & Promote)

#7 34% of Fortune 500 companies now maintain active blogs – the largest share since 2008. (Forbes)

Search Engine Stats: five important numbers to show what is trending

#1 Consumers Prefer Mobile Browser To Apps For Local Information
Source: BrightLocal
While local businesses have alternative ways to be found in local search apps and vertical or specialized directory apps, the survey data here argue that consumers want to access local business websites on mobile.

#2 Yahoo Loses Market Share As Some Firefox Users Return To Google
Source: ComScore
The February US search market share numbers are out. It appears that a portion of the gains that Yahoo made since November as a result of its default search deal with Firefox have been lost as some number of users return to Google.

#3 Google Overtakes Traditional Media To Become Most Trusted News
Source: Edelman Trust Barometer
According to survey data search engines have overtaken traditional media as the most trusted source of news globally. Last year search engines were just behind traditional media but have now overtaken them.

#4 Google Still Doing At Least 1 Trillion Searches Per Year
Source: Backchannel
How many searches does Google handle per day, month or year? The company is notorious for not regularly sharing such figures. But we now know that it remains at least more than one trillion, the first update since Google last shared over two years ago.

#5 Google Tops Satisfaction Index, Yahoo Sees “Lowest Score Yet”
Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
The survey measures consumer satisfaction across a broad range of business and product categories including “e-business,” which covers ‘internet portals and search engines.” With the exception of 2007 Google has won the category every year since 2000, although its scores have fluctuated. The survey asks 70,000 customers about their experiences with products and services.

Internet Marketing: 9 facts to know, do smart & mobile marketing

#1 85% of people would rather provide an email for an ebook vs. paying with a tweet
Source: Unbounce Tweet This Stat! 
When you are putting your marketing strategy together this is important to consider because you want to collect emails for your newsletter distribution.

#2  Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links
Source: Content+ Tweet This Stat! 
This proves the value to your brand of having a quality blog. Do it up even better by using blogger which is run by Google to stay in the news feed of the world's #1 search engine - Google.

#3  Producing enough content is one of the biggest challenges for marketers
Source: Content Marketing Institute  Tweet This Stat! 
This is no mystery to anyone wants serious inline marketing success. Don't give up and stay creative.

#4  The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing ($143) is about half the average for outbound marketing ($373)
Source: EConsultancy Tweet This Stat! 
Inbound marketing is getting links to your site or blog from quality sites. PageRank is a factor, get links to your content from sites with a higher PageRank that your site has.

#5  Mobile commerce will account for 24% of global eCommerce by 2017
Source: Fact Browser Tweet This Stat! 
There is the proverbial writing on the wall. You better have your content done in responsive manner so you are optimized for mobile marketing.

#6  Google’s +1 button is used 5 million times a day
Source: Huffington Post Tweet This Stat! 
Not bad for a business that has been around for a few years. G+ is just going to get better and better. Be sure to have a presence there. It's easy to do. Remember myspace? Trends change and G+ is here to stay.

#7  There are 2.7 billion “likes” per day on Facebook
Source: Digital Trends Tweet This Stat! 
Facebook is a serious content for your marketing efforts.

#8  64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line
Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey Tweet This Stat!
If you are not so good with subject lines - creating them. Send me an email, I will provide you with a couple of ideas.

#9 39% of marketers have no strategy for mobile email
Source: EConsultancy Tweet This Stat! 
Remember, marketing email doesn't mean sending hordes of email. If you are just sending out a few marketing emails a day, make them count.

Internet marketing - 8 statistics to bring you insight and enhance your marketing

#1 Text messaging users send or receive an average of 35 messages per day.
(Source: Forrester Research ) Peer-to-peer communication through text messaging has become of core part of society's communication infrastructure. Is there is any possible communication that your customers and prospects would like to receive via text message? 
Tweet This Stat! 

#2  By 2016, more than half of the dollars spent in US retail will be influenced by the web. (Source: Forrester Research ) Commerce is shifting more and more online. Make sure that you have a method to easily sell your product or service online.
Tweet This Stat! 

#3  20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw there.
(Source: Ipsos ) People are influenced by, well, other people. Use paid and organic marketing on Facebook to influence the conversion actions that drive your business.  Tweet This Stat! 

#4  88% of adults in the US have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-reader, and 19% have a tablet.  
(Source: Pew Internet ) The cell phone is the dominant communication tool in the United States, but information consumption is fragmented. Optimize your digital marketing for all of the screens and devices used by your target audience. Tweet This Stat! 
 
#5 About 1 in 3 bloggers are moms.
(Source: Nielsen ) When looking for blogging expertise, look no further than the mommy bloggers. Everyone has influence and expertise you can learn from and leverage. Tweet This Stat! 
 
#7 73% of smartphone owners access social networks through apps at least once per day. (Source: Lightspeed Research ) Social is mobile. Make sure that content you're sharing on social networks -- like your blog articles and landing pages -- are optimized for mobile devices. Tweet This Stat! 

#8 The click-through rate on triggered messages is 119% higher than “Business as Usual” messages.
(Source: Epsilon and DMA ) Using personalized and timely lead nurturing with marketing automation is an important strategy for improving the overall performance of your email marketing and customer generation.  Tweet This Stat! 

SEO: 3 easy steps to improve your seach ranking results

In the last two weeks I have been swamped with calls from people offering me SEO services. Naturally, I talked with them to see understand their services and prices. My disappointment was hearing fees ranging from $99 - $199 a MONTH, without a guarantee. 

Here are three easy steps to measuring your SEO. It makes sense to decipher what your SEO dollars are returning to your business.

#1 Don’t base SEO results on finding the name of your business in search engines

Obviously, your potential new customers don’t know the name of your business, all they know is a service or product they want to buy or use. I have seen too many people get excited about finding their business name in search engines, paying for that kinda result is a waste of money.  Honest SEO results translate into people finding your business based on the description of your offering(s) AND your geographic location.

#2 Make a list of words/phrases that describe your services and/or products

Making a list of attributes of your product or service is an effective method to identifying your SEO strategy  Included in those should be geographic terms. To assist in your efforts make use of the the free Adwords tool in Google or Bing. Adwords are terms that can be purchased, by anyone, so that when someone searches on those purchased Adwords - an ad appears at the top of the search page page. 

I don’t suggest the use of buying Adwords as an SEO strategy. But, researching terms in the Adword databases will help you understand what words/phrases people are using to find products like yours.

Assuming you have compiled your list of attributes, along with selecting some terms from Adwords, the next step is to build that SEO material into the content of your web/blog pages and your meta tags. Once you have given Google about 45 days to digest your content, search it using your SEO material. Is your business displaying on the first page of the search results?  Taking that step is the only authentic method to validating your SEO dollars are accomplishing some results.

NOTE: Bing takes much longer to digest new content then Google.  For sake of ease, I suggest trying your SEO results on Google first and Give Bing 120 days for new content digestion.

#3  Use organic SEO methods for long lasting, beneficial affects in search engine marketing


The organic method means not purchasing Adwords, not buying clicks (users that visit your pages), or buying back links to your web site. Organic SEO relies solely on SEO material in your pages and adjusting your meta tags accordingly.

When you use organic methods in your SEO, as outlying in #2 above, you are putting an SEO strategy in place that will last through all the renditions of the software updates which make Google and Bing what they are - search engines.

Some examples of organic SEO results (don’t use the quotation marks) ….

Google “seo ashland oregon” and my company, Ez Web Manifesting, is the second or third result.

Google “placer mining consulting” and Gold Tower, goldtowner.com, is displayed at top of first page of search results.

Google “roofing contractor jackson county” and Rogue Valley Roofing Company is listed on the first page of search results. 

Google “universal pipe clamp” or “universal plastic pipe clamp” and Kwik Block has results from their web site and YouTube video on first page of search results.

My SEO services are guaranteed; a money back refund to you.  And, you pay a one time fee for a specific period of time.

I am intending these #seotips help you in your #onlinemarketing.

Steu 

Steu Mann has over 15 years of experience helping businesses improve their online business presence. His web site is Ez Web Manifesting. Google him using the terms (without quotation marks) "Ez Web", "SEO & Web Design Ashland" where you will locate his organic search listings. 

Using Windows 10? Microsoft Is Collecting What You Do Online And More

More than 14 million devices are already running Microsoft’s Windows 10 after its global launch on Wednesday, but it’s unclear how many of their users read the company’s Privacy Policy and Service Agreement before downloading. Tucked away in the 45 pages’ worth of terms and conditions (effective August 1) is a substantial power grab: The company is collecting data on much of what you do while using its new software.

From the moment an account is created, Microsoft begins watching. The company saves customers’ basic information—name, contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics —but it also digs a bit deeper.

Microsoft is collecting ...

- your words and phrases - much like a keylogger.
- Bing search queries and conversations with the new digital personal assistant Cortana
- contents of private communications such as email
- websites and apps visited (including features accessed and length of time used)

Ummm, Microsoft is taking on the qualities of Google with even more zest.

Read the full article at Newsweek - click here.

Online Marketing: Is Social Media Working For You?

Social Media (SM) is an important tool in marketing any business when it's done right. And, SM is here to stay so this is the first post in an ongoing series of SM.

SM can go wrong is you are not careful. In the paper today there's a story of a news station that asked viewers to tweet what they are glad is over in 2014, since today is the last day of the year. It backfired. Viewers ended up mocking the station and the news casters too. (read story).

What is Social Media (aka social networks)

There are a slew of social media providers. The top ones in USA are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.  Those four are also free to use. There are many social networks that started free but now you must pay. For example Ning.com; however, there are no ads in that one like you see in Facebook or Linkedin. Click here to view an entire list of social media sites in Wikipedia.

How Does Social Media Work?

The old school  term is networking. Nowadays, it depends on what SM tool you are using in how to best put it to work. Keep in mind that SM is ALWAYS morphing with updates and new technology. I am going to focus here on the top four that I already mentioned. One key thread in these four is that they are use your email account(s) to garner people to link with you.

FaceBook
The basis is friends. When you share a post it is distributed to your friends. Depending on how they have set their "viewing settings," they may or may not see your post.  There are also communities, but I have never used them or participated in them.

Twitter
The basis is followers. When you send a tweet it is distributed to your followers. The idea is the more followers the more exposure. In the old days you could just sign up an account without much fuss. Today, when you setup a new account, you have to pick a scad of people to follow. That means you begin by being on the receiving end of their tweets.

LinkedIn
The basis is contacts. You can do a short post or a longer article, which is a recent change. LinkedIn is revamping its structure. Now when you do a short post it is distributed to your contacts but you can never see it or manage that post.In the other SM you can see your previous posts. Plus, in the new feature of a longer article, you can see that/those under the Profile menu. Obviously, Linkedin wants users to start doing longer articles. There are also communities here and I have used them somewhat but not had much success.

Google+ (G+)
The basis is circles.  From your email account you connect with people and place them into one or more circles. For example, I have a business circle, a client circle, and so forth. Blogspot.com is Googles free blog, when you make a post there, you select what circle will automatically receive it. Or, you can sent it to the general public. There are also established communities, some open and some need an invitation, where you can make relevant posts to that community. I have had a lot of success in G+ communities.

Common Feature in those four:  The link in your post, hopefully it is to your blog or web site, and works to boost your page rank.

I will go into those four in more detail in future posts. I think it's important since those are here to stay and they contain millions of potential viewers of your products and services.

Measure Your Results

The best part of any serious effort in life is measuring your results. Here is a simple, free, and easy way to track the results of your social marketing.

#1 Use the Chrome Browser.

#2 Install  free add called "Social Analytics" after you have installed Chrome. You can find this by googling "Chrome add on social analytics".

Now when you visit a web page, that add-on will automatically show you how many people have shared the page in the top four social networks. If you have a blog, go to the blog post to see the results for that specific post.

I hope this has been helpful to you in marketing your business.  To get automatic updates join my Google+ circle in the right hand column of this post. Receive my free SEO Tips booklet here.

#socialmedia #onlinemarketing #seotips