Although Yahoo has been in the news this week because of its billion dollar acquisition of Tumblr, the company has also revealed some big changes to its photo-sharing service Flickr. The most noteworthy update is that Flickr is now offering its users a free terabyte of space. This is huge, as the Flickr blog states, “We believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no … [Read more...]

How will Penguin 2.0 affect your website? How will you measure the impact? If you’re like most businesses, you’ll check your site’s search engine rankings and make assumptions based on where it stands. The team at Fruition thinks there’s a better way. Its Google Penalty Checker tool (registration required) allows website owners to determine if a particular Google update (because Penguin 2.0 won’t be the last) had a positive or negative effect on their website. The … [Read more...]

:: Travis Bliffen, Seo Proz ::SEO is the magic of the digital marketing world. While many experts claim to know for a fact what takes Web content to the front pages of search engines, the fact is nobody actually knows for sure. As search engine providers continuously update their ranking algorithms, SEO success becomes an elusive and shifting science. So, how are you and other content creators to separate the truth from the myths? The answer is to analyze what works. The key attributes in the … [Read more...]

:: By Simon Bain, Simplexo ::We all misplace keys, phones, wallets, etc. Generally, when you lose something, it is only when you need it again that you notice its disappearance. Then, confusion, panic or fear may set in. You search high and low, retrace old steps and rack your brain trying to apply sensible logic to the situation, but often search in the most irrational of places. Did I leave my phone in the refrigerator? All sorts of crazy scenarios go through your head, and then, when … [Read more...]

:: Eric Taylor, Qwaya ::A positive brand reputation is something that will serve your business well, especially in the realm of social media. Not every brand is going to become a household name with millions of followers, but well-respected companies stand a better chance of influencing who buys from  them (and why) and to what frequency.  Developing a brand’s reputation isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, but there are many different and useful tips … [Read more...]

Pinterest has partnered up with some top brands in order to make pins more useful. The pin-boarding social network is working with companies like Anthropologie, Home Depot, Target, Urban Outfitters, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Netflix to offer rich pins, which are pins that contain additional information and allow members to discover more about content without having to leave Pinterest. Partners, for example, can include information like pricing, availability and where to … [Read more...]

Pingdom has released a study which explores the percentage of sites with a given country code top-level (ccTLD) domain which are hosted in that particular country.  According to the Pingdom research, people in Germany, South Korea, and Vietnam were the most likely to choose "onshore web hosting" (hosting your website in the country where you live or conduct business.) Pingdom examined Alexa's top one million sites to determine the percentage of sites per ccTLD that were … [Read more...]

:: By Jacques van der Wilt, DataFeedWatch & WordWatch ::Google Shopping is a great channel for Web shops, but many merchants are still struggling to figure out how to set product targets for their Product Listing Ads campaign. We've developed a successful standard operating procedure for setting up new PLA campaigns by sticking to these five simple guidelines: 1. Start Simple: Brand & Product Type If you are creating the first Google Shopping campaign for your shop, keep it … [Read more...]

Sixty-five percent of shoppers in the U.S. currently shop across at least two channels, while 21 percent of U.S. respondents are using four or five channels to shop, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. What does this mean for retailers? It means online merchants must find e-commerce solutions that meet the demands of the increasingly sophisticated online shopper. In fact, PwC reports that 72 percent of the consumers surveyed consider themselves to be either confident or experts in … [Read more...]

GoDaddy's Website Builder, which provides ready-made designs for those looking to establish a Web presence, has formed an alliance with Locu - a technology solution that enables restaurant owners to update manage their menu's and publish that information onto sites including Citysearch, Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook, TripAdvisor and OpenTable. Locu specializes in easy menu-management and has hundreds of thousands of menus from all over the U.S. pre-loaded into their database, waiting for … [Read more...]