Yahoo Sues Mozilla for Replacement of Firefox’s Default Search to Google

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It was announced earlier this week that Yahoo’s parent company (Oath) has decided to sue Mozilla for “breach of contract.” Oath claims that Mozilla “terminated a long term strategic agreement with Yahoo” in November. Mozilla recently launched their upgraded Firefox Quantum browser and has implemented Google as their new default search tool. It was approximately 3 years ago when Yahoo and Mozilla signed an agreement that Yahoo would be the default search engine on Firefox.

According to Greg Sterling in an article from Search Engine Land, the lawsuit “seeks unspecified money damages and interest from Mozilla, but Mozilla claims they have the right to terminate the relationship under the contract.” Mozilla’s Firefox browser lost market share to Chrome during the 3 year period with Yahoo. Mozilla blames this lose in market share largely on Yahoo search. Yahoo/Oath argue that “issues with the browser experience (speed and performance)” were to blame instead. Sterling points out that “the truth probably lies somewhere in between.”

Implications Moving Forward
Mozilla switching from Yahoo to Google as their new default search tool is huge. As if Google’s market share in search engine providers wasn’t large enough, this move will expand their share even more. The article states that “Firefox’s market share is about 13 percent to Chrome’s nearly 59 percent. Yahoo search market share is roughly 12 percent to Google’s 63 percent.” Ultimately, it will be interesting to see where Firefox’s market share goes from here, as the reactions to the upgraded “Firefox Quantum” browser appear to be positive thus far.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise and news, visit the Onimod Global Website. We look forward to hearing from you!

Paid Advertising Metrics That Matter

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There is no busier time of the year for an advertiser than the holidays. As millions of consumers are looking to purchase gifts for their loved ones, we advertisers are here competing against one another for their attention.

Digital technologies have allowed advertisers much more access into the everyday life of the consumer, which is an incredible advantage for most. However, it is not enough to simply run a digital marketing campaign unless you can accurately measure and interpret its results. So what do you need to look for?

AdWords Pay Per Click

SearchEngineLand.com has recently published an article that discusses the best measurements to analyze when assessing the value of a PPC campaign, particularly those carried out through Google AdWords. The article brings many important topics to light, and is centered around 4 major areas of concern for AdWords PPC campaigns:

  1. High Cost Per Click = low profitability
  2. Long-tail keywords are a waste of money
  3. More clicks don’t mean more conversions
  4. There is no silver bullet

Facebook

Facebook has completely dominated the market when it comes to social media advertising. With more than 2 billion active users, Facebook provides an ideal consumer base for most businesses. The platform is also equipped with many different tools to help marketers keep track of how well their campaigns are performing.

The Facebook Pixel is just such a tool. As you are setting up your campaign, you are given the option to track users with the Facebook Pixel. This allows marketers to get a more complete picture of the customer journey by embedding a tiny, pixel-sized image into the ad. A similar Onimod blog post discusses this topic a bit further with the recent debut of the Snapchat Pixel. To read the full article, please click HERE.

Another highly useful Facebook tool is their split testing option. This campaign type allows the marketer to run two of the exact same ads to two completely different audiences. This form of A/B testing helps advertisers get a better idea of who their target consumers truly are.

More From Onimod Global

At Onimod Global, our content creation team strives to consistently offer the latest industry news combined with expert insight. We have many other articles relating to this subject of paid advertising metrics, including:

For more information from the team at Onimod Global, please visit our website!

Is Blockchain the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing?

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Recent use of blockchain in cryptocurrencies is leading experts to believe that its uses may go far beyond the crypto market. This technology could be utilized in many different ways, particularly in digital marketing and advertising. While it is still early, the possibilities of blockchain have caused quite a stir in the digital world.

What Is Blockchain?

As defined by Don and Alex Tapscott, “The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

BlockGeeks released an article that breaks this definition down in many different ways. This article quotes several experts in an attempt to break down the technical jargon in a way that makes it easy for every reader to understand the concept of blockchain.

Specialist William Mougayar explains blockchain by comparing the differences between a typical Word document and a Google doc. The major difference between the two is that the Word document can only be accessed by one user at a time, while the Google doc can have multiple authors editing it simultaneously. Mougayar goes on to explain that many systems in today’s society are like that of the Word document, and the blockchain is revolutionizing this system with its Google doc qualities.

Consumer-Centric

The most notable qualities of a blockchain, as given by BlockGeeks, are:

  1. It cannot be controlled by any single entity
  2. It has no single point of failure

This means that no one can alter or corrupt the data within a blockchain. This keeps everything honest and transparent, which as we have discussed in our article, “The Importance of Transparency in Digital Marketing”, is incredibly important to consumers. The entire concept of using the blockchain in digital marketing and advertising is to create a better experience for the consumer.

Consumers are the center of the marketing world. Without them, our efforts would be meaningless. That is why blockchain is such a game changer. It provides ways in which to enrich the consumer experience, and put more power in their hands.

While this may not bode well for major digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook, it is ultimately the consumer that we have to keep in mind when considering the future of this compelling technology.

Google My Business Posting Update: How This Impacts Search Results

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Google has recently announced that there is a “posts function” now available to businesses registered with their Google My Business program. There appears to be plenty of benefits with the addition of this function, especially for local businesses who frequently compete for higher search rankings. Essentially, this post will explain the importance of Google My Business for local businesses and how this new posting update can impact organic search results.

Google My Business Overview
Google My Business from a general standpoint is a program that gives businesses the capability to be found by visitors on the Google Maps system. In more technical terms, Google describes their Google My Business program as a “free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying business information, you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business.” Some major benefits of utilizing this tool include interaction with customers, expanding presence, information management, and mobile responsiveness. Therefore, Google My Business clearly helps local businesses increase their online visibility and is ultimately a small investment that can lead to high rewards.

Posts Function Information
With the implementation of this new posts update in Google My Business, there are multiple ways businesses can take advantage of this tool. According to an article from Search Engine Land, this update will give businesses the ability to “share daily specials, promote events happening, showcase top products, and provide more options to connect with customers directly.” Users also have the capability to add images and call to action buttons to help increase post engagement. It should also be noted that posts have the potential to show up in both the Google search and map results.

Impact on Search Results
One of the more important aspects of this Google My Business update is it’s correlation with better search results. According to a case study analysis from a Search Engine Land article, “Posting on Google My Business was found to have a mild impact on rankings and do help improve local SEO for small businesses.” It was also found that since it’s launch, posting on Google My Business has been “surprisingly underutilized by businesses and agencies,” but that pattern is expected to change soon. In the end, using this new posting feature on Google My Business appears to be a “no brainier” for any local business out there. And at Onimod Global we have been implementing this practice with some of our clients, as their organic search rankings have started to increase over time because of this feature.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

Optimizing Ecommerce Shopping Carts for Search and the Google Merchant Center

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Many organizations with Ecommerce websites are concerned with how well their products are ranking organically on Google, Bing and Yahoo. That is, without any assistance from paid advertising networks. There is no doubt that these rankings are incredibly important to the organization and their product’s success, but it is not the only factor to consider.

It is all too common to get swept up in organic search rankings and ignore other ecommerce-related platforms like the Google or Bing Merchant Center. The Google and Bing Merchant Centers help organizations by uploading their products and immediately transforming them into Shopping ads. All of these add up to generate more and more exposure for your products. These efforts also combine to create better rankings through Google, which can definitely lead to big results on your sales.

 

Data Feeds

The only way to have your products listed in Google and/or Bing Shopping is to create an XML data feed file. As defined by Google, a feed is, “a file made up of a list of products which use groupings of attributes that define each one of your products in a unique way.” Basically, it is a single file that organizes all of your product listings in a way that allows you to the display your products in the Google Shopping network through the Adwords platform.

 

Creating A Feed

Creation of a data feed is very technical. First, you want to make sure that you are using a feed format that is supported by Google or Bing, such as text (.txt) and XML (.xml). Once you have chosen your preferred format, you will then use the Merchant Center add-on and provided feed template to build out your product listings.

It is still critical to pay close attention to the attributes chosen to describe your products. All of the best guidelines are provided by Google via the Product data specification. These specifications will direct you in finding the most relevant ways to describe your products.

 

Supplemental Data Feeds

There are also supplemental feeds that may be added at this point in the data feed creation process. Supplemental feeds help to provide additional data that can be combined with existing data in the primary feed.

The supplemental feed reinforces the primary feed, and works to ensure that your product listings are displaying all of the most relevant information possible to users searching for products like yours. The more relevant your listing, the more positive attention it will receive from Google.

 

Conclusion

Good organic rankings on Google are important to every business. Ecommerce companies can better their product listings in more than just this one way. It is important to remember that the Google Merchant Center also has an impact on the ranking of Shopping ads and even organic listings.

The more that any organization can integrate themselves and their products and services with Google, the better. By creating and implementing a data feed through the Google or Bing Merchant Center, Ecommerce vendors can give themselves a leg-up on the competition, and help themselves to achieve better rankings and sales through the major search engines.

4 Common SEO Myths That Marketers Should Reject

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When it comes to the best search engine optimization (SEO) practices, it can be difficult to know what methods are currently working and what is not. Search engine algorithms on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others are frequently changing and this factor makes it challenging for marketers to adapt. There are numerous myths floating around about what a “good” SEO strategy consists of. Listed below are four common SEO myths that all marketers should be aware of.

1. Stuffing keywords is the way to go
The method of stuffing keywords is both outdated and falls into the “black hat” side of SEO practices. Search engines these days (Google especially) are more focused on rewarding legitimate organizations trying to drive real traffic to their sites. Don’t confuse implementing rich keywords in good content development compared to “stuffing.” An article from Entrepreneur describes keyword stuffing as “having too many keywords stuffed into your domain, this will be viewed as a spammy tactic that Google can pick up on.” Ultimately, the practice of keyword stuffing not only destroys credibility, but can ban sites from being shown on search engines at all.

2. The security of a site doesn’t affect rankings 
Regardless of the other benefits a secure site offers, many marketers and organizations either don’t believe or realize how important having an SSL certificate is for optimization purposes. According to an article in 2014 from Google’s Security Blog, “security is a top priority at Google, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.” Other search engines like Bing and Yahoo have adapted this practice as well. In general, secure sites (SSL installed) are starting to become the norm online and do have important implications when it comes to optimization and higher organic rankings on search engines.

3. Blogging isn’t that important for SEO
This is one myth that appears to be going away soon, but is still present among organizations who aren’t in touch with today’s digital environment. Maintaining a well kept blog in general will only increase online visibility and fuel your SEO. Google and Bing’s algorithms reward valuable and fresh content for specific search queries. The major SEO factors of blogging consist of relevant content production, attracting internal/external linking, expanding of keywords, and many more. Regardless of the industry, maintaining a well written blog is one way to increase your organization’s SEO presence and appear ahead of competitors in the search engine results.

4. “Having a contact at Google will get me on the first page”
Some organizations actually believe having a contact at Google will help their site rank better for relevant searches. Although knowing a Google representative is very beneficial in regards to the Google Partners Program and latest information, Google doesn’t staff employees to help businesses with their SEO. According to the Entrepreneur article, “this is the fascinating component about Google; you have to follow the latest trends to make sure your SEO strategy aligns with Google’s constant algorithm updates.” Moreover, if an agency or marketing professional claims to have a contact at Google relating to SEO and first page rankings, they are lying.

Contact Us: At Onimod Global we know that organic search engine optimization or SEO, is absolutely vital to achieve long term search engine visibility for your website. Years of experience in SEO is the core of our strategies. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic and natural rankings on major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Check out Our Work to see what SEO solutions Onimod Global has to offer!

The Impact “Black Hat” SEO Practices Can Have On Reputation

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In today’s digital world, ensuring that your company’s website is highly optimized for search engines and ranks well organically for relevant search queries is a high priority. According to Search Engine Journal, “70% of the links search users click on are organic.” Another intriguing statistic they mention is that “75% of all users never scroll past the first page of search results.” The importance of effective SEO practices is invaluable and cutting corners can have a lasting effect on a company’s reputation. This post will explore what “black hat” SEO practices are, the importance of “white hat” SEO, and the impact unethical SEO practices can have on any organization.

SEO Basics
Search engine optimization (SEO) in essence are a combination of techniques used to increase search engine visibility for relevant search queries with the ultimate purpose of driving traffic to a website. There are many components of SEO that involve “on page” optimization like paying attention to title tags, content, meta descriptions, keywords, and internal link building. There are also “off page” optimization tactics like blogging and utilizing local directory sites. Ultimately, increases in online visibility and website traffic are two of the most important functions that effective SEO strategies provide.

What is “Black Hat” SEO?
The term “black hat” SEO refers to finding loopholes in search engine algorithms to climb organic rankings as quickly as possible. According to Webopedia, black hat SEO is “the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques, and tactics that focus only on search engines and not human audiences, and usually does not obey search engine guidelines.” Organizations that participate in black hat SEO use practices such as duplicate content, excessive keyword stuffing, hidden content, link farming, page swapping, and the creation of doorway pages. Use of these black hat SEO practices can lead to an organization’s website becoming banned from search engines. It should be pointed out that most black hat SEO users are typically seeking quick financial returns, therefore being banned from search engines over time isn’t a huge concern. Ultimately, when seeking an increase in online visibility and a highly optimized website for search engines, “black hat” SEO techniques should be avoided at all costs as the reputation of your organization can become destroyed.

“White Hat” SEO
Opposite of black hat SEO, “white hat” SEO refers to optimization practices that comply with search engine guidelines and are referred as ethical strategies. Webopedia defines white hat SEO as “strategies, techniques, and tactics that focus on a human audience opposed to search engines and completely follows search engine rules and policies.” Organizations that implement white hat SEO practices involve human generated content, internal/external link building, using quality and keyword rich content (not stuffing), and back linking. In general, the use of white hat SEO techniques is what every organization/agency should be implementing to ensure the best and most effective optimization for search engines.

“Negative SEO” and Impact on Reputation
It’s no surprise that the use of malicious SEO techniques can have a detrimental impact on an organization’s reputation. The need for high organic rankings on search engines (Google in particular) is critical in a digitally dominated marketing world. Some organizations will even implement malicious “negative SEO” practices on their competitors with the intentions of destroying search engine rankings. According to an article from Entrepreneur, “negative SEO practices usually consist of flooded duplicate content, creation of fake social profiles, and pointing spammy and low quality links to a site.” It’s almost sad to think that some organizations would use these tactics to hurt their competitor’s rankings, yet Google mentioned that “negative SEO” practices aren’t unheard of. In the end, although search engines are constantly evolving and countering “negative SEO” practices, it’s essential as an organization to frequently monitor your website and seek assistance from experts.

Contact Us
At Onimod Global we know that organic search engine optimization or SEO, is absolutely vital to achieve long term search engine visibility for your website. Years of experience in SEO is the core of our strategies. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic and natural rankings on major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Check out Our Work to see what SEO solutions Onimod Global has to offer!

Why Digital Marketing Expertise is Critical for Startups

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With the rise in the number of startup businesses, how can you ensure your startup will succeed and stand out from the competition? Many startups claim to implement digital marketing practices, yet most don’t invest enough time and money, and have little or no knowledge of effective digital marketing strategies. According to a startup study from Profoundry, “71% of the startups researched did not have a documented digital strategy in place.” This post will explore the importance of digital marketing for startups and ultimately why outsourcing may be the best option.

Because of the increase in startups across the globe, it’s no surprise that online presence can “make or break” the success of a startup. Brand awareness and customer acquisition are two of the main benefits that effective digital marketing strategies can provide. Listed below are a few introductory steps to internet marketing that every startup organization should implement to start on the right track.

Beginning Steps

1. Website Development:
Depending on what the product or service is, it should typically start with the creation of a professional website. Without this, everything else that follows becomes difficult or unfeasible. Although a decent investment is required when outsourcing to a developer, it is worth it in the long run. Unprofessional websites or not having one at all is setting your business up for failure. Check out Our Work and see what website development solutions Onimod Global has to offer.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Having a website is one of the first steps for startups, but if it is not optimized for search engines how will it drive traffic? Ensuring that your startup’s website is highly optimized will require a lot of SEO knowledge and time. There are many components of SEO that involve “on page” optimization like paying attention to title tags, content, meta descriptions, keywords, and internal link building. There are also “off page” optimization tactics like blogging and utilizing local directory sites. Click Here to run a free scan and see how well your website currently ranks online. Ultimately, outsourcing SEO efforts to an experienced agency is your best bet to increase online visibility for your startup and rank well for relevant searches.

3. Social Media Marketing:
Once your website is fully developed and optimized for search engine visibility, social media marketing is the next step to follow. Creating accounts on as many social media platforms as possible (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus) will only benefit your organization by creating more visibility. According to Statista’s Report in 2016, “89% of startup owners indicated that social media initiatives have greatly increased exposure for their businesses.” A presence on social media not only increases exposure, but it also has the potential to increase SEO, develop a loyal following, and can even establish thought leadership within your industry.

Why Outsource to an Experienced Agency?
This is a typical question that most startups have, and why should an investment to an advertising agency be made? The answer is pretty simple – knowledge and experience. One of the worst moves a startup can make is investing money into their marketing budget without having any knowledge of where their customer base lies and how to effectively generate leads/conversions. A lack of internet marketing knowledge is one of many reasons why today’s startups fail in a digital world. Outsourcing to an experienced agency like ours ultimately ensures success and a positive ROI for your startup in the long run.

View our digital marketing expertise at Onimod Global  and see how our experienced agency could help fuel your next startup endeavor!

Contact Us: At Onimod Global we are a full scale digital marketing agency that serve our clients’ needs in website development, SEO, SEM, Social Media, E-Mail Marketing, and much more. Feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us Page and see what digital marketing solutions we can provide for you.

Client Website Launch: Midwest Solar Control

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Midwest Solar Control (midwestsolarcontrol.com) is the Midwest’s premier 3M Authorized Prestige window film dealer offering the highest-quality products in the industry. In need of a new website and better SEO presence, our website development expertise at Onimod Global has taken Midwest Solar Control to the next level.

Objective:
To build Midwest Solar Control a highly functional website from scratch with engaging content and an enhanced SEO presence. At the same time we wanted to ensure device accessibility through Responsive Web Design. Midwest Solar Control didn’t just need an appealing website, they needed to showcase their window film expertise and generate as many new business leads as possible.

Onimod Global’s Strategy:
We implemented an effective Website Development and SEO strategy to develop a highly responsive website. We built a robustly designed and developed website that empowers Midwest Solar Control to attract clients and create a user friendly experience.

Old Website:

Current Website:
Chicago website design agency


Massive Upgrades:

  • Enhanced on-page Call to Action Tools
  • Enhanced SEO Presence
  • Custom Design
  • Increased Security
  • Mobile Responsive Upgrade
  • Custom Back-end for easy client-side updates.
  • Clear Navigation
  • Enhanced on-page Menus
  • Advanced Firewall
  • Job Application Portal
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
  • Full-width Image and Transparent Headers
  • Redesigned News section


Contact Us: If you’re an organization like Midwest Solar Control seeking an upgrade in website development or any other digital marketing services, feel free to reach out to our expertise at Onimod Global on our Contact Us page. Also be sure to check out our other work by viewing our Case Studies!

5 Ways To Improve Your Ecommerce Business

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It’s not much of a surprise, but the ecommerce market is continually on the rise. According to Statista, “from 2010 to 2013, total U.S. retail ecommerce sales increased from $167.3 billion to $263.3 billion. In 2014 that number jumped up to $304.1 billion.” Although this article was published two years ago, the trends tell us that the ecommerce market will continue to boom as many organizations are integrating ecommerce platforms to account for the demand. Listed below are a few ideas that will help improve any organization’s ecommerce business.

Prioritizing SEO:
As the ecommerce market continues to grow, the direct result is more organizations “fighting” for first page search engine results. Therefore, ensuring that your ecommerce site is highly optimized is very important. SEO and ecommerce essentially go hand in hand with one another. Some aspects of SEO to pay attention to are using rich keyword phrases, placing your site on directory listings, having a secure site (SSL installed), and frequently checking up on site speed.

Monitor Competition:
If you’re seeking to gain a competitive advantage in terms of ecommerce, paying close attention to competition is key. This involves researching prices, marketing tactics, and anything else competitors are doing that works. Being competitive with pricing is especially important due to the amount of options that are out there in the ecommerce world for related products. Although high profit margins are extremely important, having insufficient pricing can make or break ecommerce success.

Social Media Engagement:
With millions of users, the potential for finding consumers through social media in today’s market is huge. Many consumers enjoy the engagement that social media has to offer. Spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Google Plus can be rewarding in the long run. Creating engaging content, interacting with customers, and even sponsoring some posts are all good starting points to reach possible customers.

Mobile Optimization:
Due to a massive presence of mobile traffic, optimizing your ecommerce site for mobile devices is essential. According to Digital Commerce 360, trends are showing that “mobile devices will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile will jump from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018.” This shows the importance of mobile optimization and how if it’s not a priority for your ecommerce business, the chance of becoming irrelevant in the future is likely.

Blogging:
Related to SEO, having a blog and consistently producing content can exponentially increase ecommerce site traffic. Using relevant keywords in posts and frequently sharing on social media platforms are two aspects of effective blogging. Also be sure to add multiple call to action links that will direct readers to landing pages on your site. It’s clear that blogging takes time, yet time is the only drawback of blogging. Search engine algorithms like Google and Bing reward engaging and relevant content, therefore there’s no reason any ecommerce organization should avoid blogging.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. Check out our Case Studies and see how our clients like Vipply and Rent Letters are excelling in ecommerce.