Google bringing call intelligence and automation to SMBs, for $39 per month

Google is bringing enterprise-like automated customer service and call intelligence capabilities to small businesses (SMBs) for a flat fee of $39 per month. Today, Google’s Area 120 experimental products group announced the introduction of a new virtual agent and telephony product called CallJoy. CallJoy promises to help small businesses offer better customer service, free up…

Top 25+ Viral Videos of All Time by @gregjarboe

ADVERTISEMENT Write about the top 25 viral videos of all time, they said. It will be easy, they said. Turns out, selecting the top viral videos of all time – videos that can also teach useful lessons to marketers – isn’t as easy as it sounds. How to Define a ‘Viral’ Video? For example, if…

Local SEOs mixed, some peeved at idea of paying for Google My Business services

Over the weekend, Google surveyed small business owners about their appetite to pay monthly subscription fees for a number of potential Google My Business (GMB) enhanced features and services. Some of the suggested offerings included request a quote, automated review/message responses, booking buttons, remove ads from a profile, Google search results placement, Google Guarantee, verified…

11 Ways Get Maximum Efficiency from Your SEO Team’s Efforts by @stoneyd

Maximum effort. That’s what we expect from our superheroes search engine optimization teams. After all, maximum effort produces maximum results, right? Not necessarily. While Deadpool might enjoy giving maximum effort when fighting the bad guys, the good guys, everyone, I’m far too lazy for that. Plus, my lack of regenerative powers doesn’t give me as…

Parallel tracking goes live for Google Ads display campaigns May 1

After launching for search ads last year, parallel tracking is coming to Google display campaigns this week. The move for video campaigns has been postponed. What you need to know for display. Google is enabling parallel tracking for display campaigns running through Google Ads starting May 1. It first announced the launch date in February. It…

Bing Ads rebrands as Microsoft Advertising

First there was Microsoft adCenter. Then there was Bing Ads. Now there is Microsoft Advertising. Why we should care. The rebrand emphasizes a focus on personalization and AI. “In the next year, we’re introducing more advertising products with built-in AI, more connected to your data and your business,” Rik van der Kooi, corporate VP for…

7 Types of Social Proof to Grow Your Ecommerce Sales by @drumming

What are the strongest factors that influence your customers to buy? Social proof, first introduced by Robert Cialdini in “Influence“, is one of the most impactful drivers of consumers’ purchase decisions. As an ecommerce site, socially-reinforced trust signals can help you: Increase conversion rates. Improve the trustworthiness of your brand. Increase consumers’ confidence in transacting…

The SEO Advantages of Machine-Readable HTML5 Semantic Markup

Semantic HTML5 provides us with an opportunity to improve our websites and optimize for search engines. We can take full advantage of these opportunities by using machine-readable semantic HTML5 elements to describe page outlines. Specially-named containers can help search engines and browsers more easily identify how our pages are arranged. For example, <header> is its…