Small Business Mavericks

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Last month, Facebook announced that you could embed posts on your blog or website. Well, it seems Google+ didn’t want to be left out, so they decided to add an Embed Post feature too. Share helpful and valuable content on your Facebook and Google+ streams. Mention your followers by name, especially if they have blogs.

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Google Facebook Embedding WordPress 101

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 8, 2011

Where do you get your blog ideas ? There are plenty of places to go online to get ideas for your blog posts. No matter what industry or niche you serve, these 21 sources for blog post ideas are golden opportunities. Google Alerts. Your RSS aggregator – Do you subscribe to the most popular blogs in your niche?

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Yahoo Directory Aggregator Forums 177

Small Business Mavericks

MARCH 18, 2013

If you’re concerned that the demise of Google Reader will kill your blog, rest your eyes. In fact, I’m confident that it won’t – especially if you do these three things to increase your blog readership right now. These are not the only means you have of promoting your blog, but they are a good start.

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Google Reader Google Newsletter RSS 98

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 4, 2015

Google Analytics turned 10 years old on November 12. Google Analytics is one of the best solutions out there, and it’s free. The Best of Google Analytics. I like how the Google Analytics Blog has given us 10 ways that the program has improved our lives. Okay, so I’m half a month late. How cool is that?

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Analytics Google Metrics Statistics 70

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 10, 2012

The main reason why is because the Google Panda and Penguin updates targeted specific website issues that in effect penalize duplicate content. And one of the biggest culprits of this duplicate content issue is that webmasters set their WordPress or other CMS settings to allow Google to crawl and index tag and category pages.

Google 107

Google WordPress Small Business Issues 107

Small Business Mavericks

AUGUST 8, 2014

Google has announced that they are interested in making the internet a safer place so they are going to start using HTTPS as a ranking signal. It isn’t going to be a big change at first, because it will be a light-weight signal affecting maybe 1% of global queries, but according to their blog this will change soon.

SEO 87

SEO Google Engineering Analysis 87

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 17, 2014

Google’s Disavow Tool is like a sharp implement — if you don’t use it correctly, it makes you bleed. A Guide To Using Google’s Disavow Tool. Marie Haynes has given us help with this tricky subject on the Moz Blog. Marie Haynes has given us help with this tricky subject on the Moz Blog.

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Tools Google Small Business Process 101

Small Business Mavericks

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Blogging and branding go hand in hand like few other things online. You might say that to blog is to brand your business, or that branding online is blogging online. Every time Google updates its algorithms, the Internet changes. But what’s that got to do with blogging, or branding? What changed?

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Brands Newsletter Google Video 107

Small Business Mavericks

FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Webmaster Tools is a lot more useful now since Google quit providing keyword data in Google Analytics. If you aren’t familiar with Google Authorship, get your primer here. This is important because the fact that you can do so legitimizes Google Authorship beyond anything else. What can you do in Webmaster Tools?

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Google Tools Metrics Statistics 101

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 1, 2013

In case you haven’t heard, Google killed Google Reader. What that means is, if you had subscribers to your blog who were using Google Reader, then they either have to find another RSS news aggregrator in order to subscribe to your blog or you just lost a subscriber. It is no more. Effective today.

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Google Reader Google RSS Aggregator 98

Small Business Mavericks

MAY 8, 2013

I’ve been a big proponent of guest blogging and still am. Every few years Google updates its algorithms to get rid of bad practices that are causing harm. Google Panda and Google Penguin were two such updates. As happens after all Google updates, Internet marketers scramble to change their tactics.

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Reputation Small Business Fashion Google 101

Small Business Mavericks

MAY 28, 2013

Google+ is almost two years old. Frank Reed highlights the value that small business owners place on various social networks, including Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Interestingly, more small business owners see value in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, and YouTube than in Google+. This is head-scratching.

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Google Engineering Small Business Forums 101

Small Business Mavericks

MARCH 24, 2014

One of the largest guest blogging networks was penalized by Google and that got a firestorm going all over the Web. Then, a real discussion on the purpose for guest blogging got started and no one is agreeing. If Google says your links are low value links, then you don’t have a leg to stand on. Valuable to whom?

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Blogosphere Small Business SEO Blogger 105

Small Business Mavericks

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Google has said from the beginning that it plans to integrate all of its services with Google+. Well, that integration is happening right now for Blogger, the Google blogging platform. It’s not as effective in terms of SEO as WordPress on your own domain name, but it’s still a blog.

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Blogger Google Domain Name Blogosphere 93

Small Business Mavericks

MAY 5, 2011

Google does that automatically for you based on your IP address, or based on your personalized settings if you are a user of Google’s personalized search features. I’m pretty certain, and I’m sure Frank would agree, that Google Places will be the main focus on Google’s local efforts far into the future.

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Small Business Google Case Study Press Release 170

Small Business Mavericks

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Friday we talked about Google Authorship. The case is by no means closed, and you should be aware that this is the way search engines will be ranking your web pages in the future – especially Google. In fact, there’s a very good chance that Google will automatically link your social network profiles to your reputation.

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Google Reputation SEO Engineering 111

Small Business Mavericks

FEBRUARY 26, 2011

» Content Farms: Did Google Go Far Enough? Thursday, Google introduced a new algorithm to reduce the rankings of content farms in its search results. The interesting thing here is that the algorithm was introduced just days after a Google Chrome extension allowing users to block content farms from their search results.

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Google Content Case Study Press Release 150

Small Business Mavericks

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

On Friday, I talked about Google’s heightened attention to quality content and how that relates to guest blogging. Since writing that post on Friday, I’ve received about 25 requests in my e-mail to allow guest blog posts on this blog. The reality is, not all guest blog offers are created equal.

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Guidelines Blogger Google Sites 98

Small Business Mavericks

OCTOBER 7, 2011

Google+ just seems to keep getting more and more popular. When you write a blog post for your blog, that’s content marketing. When you put a Like button on your blog, that’s a kind of content marketing. Google+ operates on the same concept. You write a blog post and share it on Google+.

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Google Content Marketing Questions 105

Small Business Mavericks

MARCH 19, 2013

Google likes to help new webmasters. These few suggestions Google offers won’t guarantee your website a page 1 ranking, but they do give you the basic run down on what Google is looking for from websites. It’s pretty simple, really. Small Business Mavericks has been saying the same thing for several years.

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Google Domain Name How To Guidelines 96

Small Business Mavericks

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

Google recently announced on its Webmaster Central Blog that they updated their rater guidelines, and it would be helpful to marketers to read those guidelines to get a better understanding of how their search algorithms work. Google understands that smartphones have become a regular part of most peoples lives.

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Google Guidelines Marketing Mobile 70

Small Business Mavericks

JANUARY 21, 2014

The Internet erupted yesterday when Matt Cutts said that guest blogging is “done.” My interpretation is this, Guest blogging as a link building tool only is a dead science; you can expect the search engines (especially Google) to start roughing it up a bit. I think that’s what Matt Cutts is really getting at.

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SEO Small Business Blogger Price 93

Small Business Mavericks

JANUARY 8, 2013

Share to LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. After that, start blogging. Blog every day for the first 30 days of your website’s life. But it could take longer, so make sure you blog. Next, build a Facebook and a Google+ page for your brand. If you have images, share to Pinterest.

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Sites Google Engineering How To 98

Small Business Mavericks

NOVEMBER 16, 2012

When Google announced their Link Disavow tool and Matt Cutts, Google’s web search quality czar, revealed that links from spammy article sites would no longer be a valuable ranking factor, I predicted that there would be a spike in guest blog post offers for those of us with existing blogs.

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Policies ROI Google Cost 105

Small Business Mavericks

OCTOBER 28, 2011

Well, Google+ is making that possible. Remember that Google product? With Google+ Ripples you can see who has shared a particular post and through a graphic representation view the string of shares from one person to the next. Let’s say, for instance, that you share a post from your blog. Here’s an example.

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Google LinkedIn Social Media Examples 93

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Remember when blog comments were about building links and traffic? That was the early days of blogging. Then Google decided not to count blog comments for links. That pretty much shut down the blog-commenting-as-linkbuilding game. But blog comments still hold value. Just about everybody was doing it.

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Comments Brands Small Business Sites 98

Small Business Mavericks

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

So you Google “pizza wayzata minnesota.” ” If there is a popular pizza joint in Wayzata that is getting a lot of +1s on Google’s new social platform Google+, the search engine could tell you that in the SERP. Thanks to the Google Operating System blog for pointing this out.

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Google Data Badge Engineering 93

Small Business Mavericks

MARCH 26, 2015

Recently, Google’s official blog said, “ It’s time to put America’s small businesses on the map.” I took out the links in that quote, but the numbers are backed by research and you can find it in the original blog post. I don’t think Google is being altruistic here.

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Google Small Business Engineering Reputation 70

Small Business Mavericks

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Conducting research for your blog articles and other content marketing initiatives is one of the most important activities you can perform. The search engines – Use Google and Bing to search for topics. Better yet, use Google Alerts and other notification tools to keep you in the loop. You don’t want that.

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Small Business Notification Forums Research 98

Small Business Mavericks

MARCH 1, 2012

Google made 40 changes to it’s search functions during February. A record for Google apparently, even if many of the changes are very subtle ones. This is one area that Google has worked hard to improve, and for many small business, the results have been very encouraging. So what changes have Google made to local search?

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Google Small Business Compete YouTube 98

Small Business Mavericks

APRIL 14, 2012

I checked out the new look on Google+ and, for some reason, my first reaction was how ‘Facebook’ it looked. When it comes to Google+, I do wonder how social it really is. They claim that 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, big numbers, but still not a patch on many of the other social media sites.

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Google MySpace SEO Fashion 107

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Everywhere you turn, you can hear someone talking about a blog. Whether they are writing a blog or they are reading a blog, one thing is for sure. Blogs are wildly popular. Blogs are like websites, but you have social interaction with your viewers. Many blog sites are free and easy to use, too.

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Marketing How To SEO Small Business 105

Small Business Mavericks

DECEMBER 8, 2015

It’s safe to say that business blogging isn’t going anywhere. Google still likes fresh, original content, and writing a blog is the best way to feed solid meat to the most popular search engines on the planet. While blogging isn’t going away any time soon, it is constantly being changed in its total form.

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Blogger Engagement Advertising Engineering 70

Small Business Mavericks

APRIL 26, 2012

If you thought Google’s drive to remove spammy sites from search results had slowed, think again. Matt Cutts has published an article on the Google Webmaster Central blog alerting everyone to new update that’s about to be released.

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Google Engineering Small Business SEO 101

Small Business Mavericks

JUNE 10, 2015

Neil Patel wrote a great blog post at Search Engine Journal about why some websites rank well in Google even though their pages aren’t optimized. Google has enough information to compare other results on pages 8, 9, 10, and 11, and if your CTR is well above other comparable sites, you’ll move up.

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Google Content Journal SEO 70

Small Business Mavericks

JANUARY 18, 2016

You don’t have to search hard for people online these days who talk about the difficulty of reaching your core audience with blog content. Does Blogging/Social Media Work? “How do I build a platform and make money with my blog?” Google has changed its search algorithms thousands of times.

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Marketing Conference Social Media Questions 70

Small Business Mavericks

MAY 8, 2011

» Do You HAVE To Blog Every Day? One of the things that you’ll hear often among professional Internet marketers and SEOs is that you should blog every day. Obviously, if you blog every day, then that will cost you more in ghostwriting services than if you blog once a week. You should blog as often as you can.

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Small Business Case Study Press Release Adwords 170