LinkNow Media Blog Tag: LinkNow

Google My Business Finally Welcomes Video

The turn of the new year saw Google introduce a lot of changes to the operating systems of a variety of its platforms. This included increasing multiple new languages to its Maps platform as well as moving one step closer to infinite scrolling on their main search engine through the adoption of a ‘more results’ page. However, it is clear that the developments and changes did not stop there. Google My Business has now got in on the act and it appears that the option to upload videos to a listing on this site has finally arrived. The ability to add a video to a local listing via Google Maps has been in place since August 2017 but January 2018 is the first time that this option is showing up inside of the GMB dashboard. An official announcement from a Google My Business representative confirmed the development and the ability […]

Twitter: An Incredible Tool to Rehabilitate Your Business’s Image

Twitter is a social media that was launched in 2006 and quickly became one of the most important and popular sites on the web. With 330 million active monthly users worldwide, you probably already know that Twitter is a good way to reach out to potential customers and build an engaging brand presence. But did you know that Twitter is also one of the best ways to manipulate your search results and maintain better control over the content that clients see when they search for your business? SearchEngineLand reports that obtaining a Twitter search carousel takes up a massive amount of vertical space. If you have negative reviews or contributor’s pages jockeying for space on your search result, you know the value of gaining control over what displays on search pages for your brand or business. But are there other ways to use Twitter to increase the reach of your […]

How Can I Get my Website to Rank Higher in Voice Search Queries in 2018?

If you’re a small business owner, you know the importance of getting your website out in front of potential customers. The Internet has upended the field of marketing, and successful companies are devoting at least 40% of their marketing budget to web and search marketing. But building an online presence for your business is hard work. One algorithm changes and suddenly your website drops in search rankings. The most important quality in search isn’t technical brilliance. It’s your ability to adapt. With that in mind, here’s the next thing you need to focus on. It’s a sea of change from previous search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. And it’s the future of search. What is Voice Search? Voice search refers to any technology that allows users to conduct Internet searches via voice recognition rather than typing. When we talk about Voice Search, we mean several searching technologies that big players such […]

You Can Now Add ‘Services’ to Your Google My Business Page

If you’re not a search engine optimization geek then you may not have noticed, but Google now allows businesses to add lists of services to their Google My Business (GMB) pages. The rollout appears to be happening quietly but also pretty quickly. We’ve tested a few GMB listings for our clients and it seems like about half of them have the option to add service menus. If this change sticks around, expect it to reach most of the North American GMB community in a few days. The change was reported on by various search engine marketing industry blogs over the last week. At LinkNow Media we’re always trying to find new ways to improve our clients’ local search rankings and we expect this will be a great tool moving into the future. What’s Changed? Have you ever performed a search for a laundromat near you? Go ahead and do it […]

“The Shed at Dulwich”: How a Fake Restaurant Soared to the Top of TripAdvisor (And What it Means for Your Business)

The most interesting soft story in reviews for 2017-2018 is without a doubt the curious case of The Shed at Dulwich. Over the course of seven months, Oobah Butler, a 27-year old freelance writer who works for Vice, managed to transform the shed in the back of his garden into the hottest and most exclusive restaurant in London. The problem? The restaurant didn’t exist. To uncover how Butler pulled off his scheme, we’re going to look at TripAdvisor and how gaming the system with fake reviews was the key to creating The Shed at Dulwich hoax. It All Starts With a Well-Designed Website Journalists have devoted many words to The Shed at Dulwich. I’ll be offering a bit of a recap of some of these points. It seems that Mr. Butler got the idea for his hoax after he was paid to write fake reviews of restaurants on TripAdvisor for […]

White-Hat SEO: How Playing by the Rules Can Help You Win

If you want to make sure that your website ranks well on Google without facing any potential penalties that could end up hurting your brand, then you need to look take a close look at white-hat SEO. If you are unsure about what white-hat SEO really is and want more information about how this approach can help take your business to the next level, then don’t worry because we at LinkNow Media are here to help explain everything you need to know. The first thing that you need to understand about white-hat SEO techniques is that they are the most legitimate means of increasing your business’s visibility, and any dividend that you obtain from this endeavour will enhance your site’s online ranking capabilities without the risk of any penalties being incurred. One of the biggest concerns that many business owners have about adopting white-hat SEO techniques is that if they […]

Waze Launches Waze Local Advertising

Waze Local: A Powerful New Weapon for Your Arsenal At 6:30 a.m. this morning, I was packing lunch for my two daughters when my phone started buzzing like a hive. SearchEngineLand broke the news that Waze Local had finally launched and the blogosphere took notice. I was so distracted, I almost added my keys to my morning blender smoothie. Readers—this is a big deal. I Don’t Get It. What’s So Exciting About Waze Local? Waze Local is an advertising tool platform that small businesses can use to transmit their locations to users of the Waze app. At LinkNow Media, we’re always trying to stay on top of the latest developments in search engine optimization and search engine marketing. When we hear about a new ad platform, we get excited. Waze Local was in beta for most of the last year, but now it’s open to anybody who wants to promote […]

Finding the Right Keywords for Your Small Business’s SEO Strategy

There are plenty of small businesses across the United States who shrug off a search optimization strategy thinking that it’s only for major brands and multi-national corporations. While there’s no question that big companies have huge teams of people working tooth and nail to make sure that their website appears within the top results of a Google search, that doesn’t mean you should roll over and let them take all your business. No matter the size of your business, it is essential to have an SEO strategy. When you take the time to invest in an SEO strategy, you are making sure that your business gets exposure 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gaining new customers in your area actively looking for the services you offer. People trust the results search engines give them. If you search for pizza in your area, you are most likely going to […]

Are Yelp Ads Giving Your Business Enough Bang for Your Buck?

At LinkNow Media, one of the questions that we receive most commonly from our clients is whether it is worth advertising with Yelp? In the past, the answer to this question may have been a resounding yes, but in recent years there has been growing concerns about the tangible benefits that can be gained from doing so. This article will assess the pros and cons of Yelp and provide our readers with a detailed breakdown about whether Yelp should still be the go-to option for small and medium sized businesses in the U.S. and Canada. One of the biggest issues about Yelp paid subscriptions is that more and more users aren’t sure if it is providing any more leads than their free listings. Again, we will look at the validity of this statement and assess what’s what. So, What Are Yelp Ads and Can They Help Your Business? To put […]

301 Redirects

Have you ever clicked on a link to a website, only to see that link change in your address bar as the page loads? That’s a redirect. So, what is a 301 redirect? And does that mean there are multiple kinds of URL redirects? In fact, there are five types of redirects: 301, 302, 303, 307, and 308. But we’re here to focus in on 301. This redirect ensures that online traffic will reach the most recent version of a URL. Let’s say you created a page for your spa’s amazing manicure services, but then updated it and made an entirely new one. What’s going to happen to your backlinks then? If you don’t have a 301 redirect in place, they’re just going to take potential clients to an error page. By now this is starting to sound pretty important. But how do you work with these redirects? Behind the […]