NEW YORK, NY - There has been a great deal of chatter on the Internet about Google's Mobile First indexing endeavours since March 2018 when it was announced. I was just explaining this to a client yesterday who happens to not yet have a mobile friendly website. Rather than giving a long explanation of what it is and why it is important, I could probably have simply forwarded this message I received from Google this morning letting me know that one of my sites will be used in … [Read more...]
Google to Combine Paid Search Ads with Content; Who Needs Organic Anyway?
NEW YORK – Google loves ads, especially when ads are just as relevant and helpful as organic search results. Think about it like this; if you owned Google, imagine a day where your search engine results were just as accurate, relevant and helpful as any of the other organic search results. You could literally have an entire page of results, which were all paid for through your auction system, and users wouldn’t think anything of it. People would just continue to “Google” … [Read more...]
Solution for Domainers Who Develop, Have Traffic, Experiencing Revenue Declines
NEW YORK, NY - Anyone who develops website properties can tell you that the best website business you can possibly have is one that isn’t completely dependent on search engines and has a true following. However, there are two factors at play here; one, being, if your site is only receiving traffic from search engines, Google in particular can put a very real-hurtin’ on you in a minute; the other, point two, is that if your site doesn’t have direct advertiser relationships … [Read more...]
Rand Fishkin: If I Could Go Back to 1991 and Get Any Name, I Would Grab Porn.com
NEW YORK – Rand Fiskin, the original founder of Moz.com, has gone out on his own new venture called “Spark Toro”, using the domain name, SparkToro.com. Lucky him, he’s fairly accurate when he said it is a decent name you can easily remember, proven to me by the fact that I did not need to go look it up (again); I did in fact remember it a day later as I write this article, but in full disclosure, I typed it in Google’s search box yesterday while watching the video and I … [Read more...]
Google Finally Taking Action Against Callers Claiming They Are from Search Giant
NEW YORK - If you run a small business, especially a brick and mortar business with a physical address you are likely being solicited, potentially multiple times per day, by different companies often over robocalls from companies who claim they are Google. Often these calls are regarding your Google listing or Google Maps placement which is being reported to you as being inaccurate and out of date. To unsuspecting businesses this can be alarming and tricky to detect as … [Read more...]
Overstock.com Marketing Expenses Sour $40M After Google Algorithm Changes
NEW YORK – It sort of makes you cringe just hearing the title. According to BuzzFeed.com, the retailing giant Overstock told investors during an earnings call that the company has experienced serious difficulties with a Google Algorithm update it was hit with last year, calling it "very disruptive" to its business; the SEO Community called it "Fred". Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said that sales and marketing expenses grew 105% to $77.2 million this quarter from $37.6 … [Read more...]
More Bad News for Monetization with AdSense; Introducing Lazy-Loaded Ads
NEW YORK – According to a discussion from users over at Webmaster World, it has been found that Google is now utilizing ‘lazy-load’ technology to only load AdSense ads when they are in a user’s actual device view-point. Not only have I personally noticed continual drops recently, but a frustrated colleague who has been monitoring his website decline in AdSense revenue called me up yesterday and pointed out this forum thread detailing the find - which I finally had time to … [Read more...]
Ad Revenue Down? Here’s the Latest Things That Could Be Affecting Your Revenue
NEW YORK – You might say that declining ad revenue is becoming a typical part of the business; if you feel like you are constantly trying to find new ways to build both revenue and traffic on your domains while increasing the number of channels and ad networks you rely on, you’re far from alone. Publisher revenues are being squeezed across the board, and while sometimes you might even feel that the more web traffic you build, the less it pays out – you’re probably correct in … [Read more...]
Got Traffic? There’s a New Sheriff in Town
NEW YORK, NY – If you have become accustomed to following my Internet ramblings, you’ll have heard me talking about overall declining Google Traffic and the heavily improving Facebook referrals I see while monitoring websites. Today, I figured I would share an example with you, because often ‘images speak louder than words’, and while I find myself with some extra time today, why not share a screenshot? If you are not yet focusing your efforts on Facebook and are still … [Read more...]
Wouldn’t You Gladly Give-up a Little Bit of Privacy for So Much Better Security?
NEW YORK, NY – Imagine a World in which you allowed, or even specifically created your own little environment where all of your private communications and discussions could be monitored and recorded; all day, every day, till the end of time. Sounds like something you would never do? Welcome to Google Assistant; ready to help you wherever you are. Your one Assistant extends to help you across devices, like Google Home, your phone, and more. Who owns Google these days … [Read more...]
This Take Action Social Movement Platform Just Might Launch gTLDs into “Dot Space”
NEW YORK, NY – Every once in a while I see a real stand-out domain in the new gTLD space and that's what happened last night when I came across an organization called HARNESS, with its address (Harness.space) being utilized in a great way, and to an audience likely to not care much what-in-the-world the ending dot is; it’s the organization that matters, and its purpose. While passionate lovers of this organizations' mission won’t care either way what the new dot address … [Read more...]
Google’s Got Something Facebook Doesn’t; Weather-based Campaign Management
NEW YORK, NY – The war is on as Google and Facebook aggressively fight for businesses ad dollars, yet for the first time in a while, Google’s got something Facebook probably has not even thought about (yet) and that’s Weather-based Campaign Management. Facebook likely has better targeting with people’s true interests due to the ridiculous of amount of data people share with Facebook, but this weather based targeting sounds pretty interesting. Now you can increase or … [Read more...]
If I Had Just Started With Domain Names Today, I Don’t Think I Would Make It
NEW YORK, NY – When I started in this industry it was the year 2000. The Internet looked very different than it does today, and people were just starting to get acquainted with Google. Search engine optimization was a lot easier to do with most people not having even heard of the term “SEO”. Back then, as a website owner, you were able to take advantage of certain techniques which could easily put you ahead of the majority. Compared to today, there was little competition … [Read more...]
False Narrative: The Never Ending Battle to Steal Your ‘Free and Open Internet’
NEW YORK - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is suggesting that Facebook pay news organizations for the stories posted on its platform. How typical. Rather than news organizations having to innovate to keep up and remain relevant, competitive and profitable, just steal from others innovation. There has been a lot of buzz lately about fake news stories being found on Facebook and Google and traditional media is passing the blame onto these websites for allowing people to share and … [Read more...]
The “Super Secret” to Appraising Your .com Domain Name for 2018 and Beyond
NEW YORK, NY - There have been many changes over the last five years when it comes to Internet domain names. I will say that this pertains to the average domain (web address), not so much a super-premium domain name, but your average .com two or three word domain name. For the most part, pricing has gone down, for whatever reason. Some changes you may have noticed such as: The EMD Penalty: Where Google will not simply rank the domain at the top of search for its exact … [Read more...]