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SEO Prices Survey & The Average Costs of Optimization

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:36:39 +0000

Near the end of December 2011, SEOmoz ran a survey asking consultants and agencies of all sizes and geographies to contribute their pricing models and cost structures. I’m pleased to share the results of that survey in the hopes that it will give everyone in the search industry a better idea of the range of fees and the services provided.

Do note that while 600+ responses were received, we’ve elected to share data only from those regions with 10+ responses (490 total), which include:

United States – 287 respondents
United Kingdom – 76 respondents
Canada – 34 respondents
Australia/New Zealand – 28 respondents
Germany/France/Italy/Netherlands – 34 respondents
India – 31 respondents

Many countries had 1-3 respondents and while we certainly appreciate those contributions, it’s our feeling that sharing this data could actually be misleading/non-productive as a single firm/consultant could dramatically skew the results. All the information in this blog post, the infographic and the Excel data dump are split into those 6 regions.

Top 9 Takeaways

These are my personal takeaways from the data:

Hourly SEO Costs Vary Across Countries, but $76-$200/hour is Most Common
With the exception of India (the only developing region that was well-represented in our survey), hourly costs of $76-$200 (representing three responses) covered 50%+ of all firms. It was highest in Australia/New Zealand at 62%, followed by 58.1% in the US and 56% in Canada. Granted, this is a wide range, but it provides the answer to a frequently-asked question from those seeking SEO services for the first time.
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By-the-Project Pricing is Popular and Most Commonly $1,000-$7,500
70.1% of respondents said they offer project-based pricing (the most common pricing system selected in the survey). 43% of consultancies were represented by the four price ranges: $1,001-$1,500, $1,501-$2,500, $2501-$5,000 and $5,001-$7,500. Obviously, there’s a wide variety of prices here, not surprising given that the types of projects offered may be quite diverse.
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Monthly Retainer Pricing Has the Widest Distribution
While both hourly and by-the-project rates do have a wide range of pricing, monthly retainers are certainly the most distributed of the price questions asked in our survey. The two most common were $251-$500/month (13.8%) and $2,501-$5,000/month (11.3%).
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The Death of Hands-On SEO Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
There’s been plenty of hand-wringing over the past few years from both bloggers and SEO clients complaining that consulting firms don’t provide enough “hands-on” help. Yet, in the survey, 88.5% of respondents said they offer “hands-on SEO changes to sites” and 79.1% provide “hands-on link building.” Clearly, hands-on help is still very popular.
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Inbound/Organic > Pure SEO
Pure “SEO” consultants/agencies may be fading as broader “inbound marketing” services firms (offering SEO, social, content, conversion, analytics, etc) rise. The data showed 150 respondents (25%) saying they were primarily focused on SEO while a slightly greater number, 160 (26.7%), offered a broader range.
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Web Design/Development Agencies do a Lot of SEO
The third most popular type of respondent was a web design/development agency offering SEO services. In the UK, these types of firms were better represented than either SEO-focused providers or broader inbound/organic firms.
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Employees:Clients/Month Ratio is Between 1-2
The screenshot below takes advantage of SurveyMonkey’s crosstab feature, which enabled me to look at the number of monthly active clients broken down by the quantity of employees a consulting firm has (you can only choose 5 responses at once, but the data’s still revealing).

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Vast Majority of Consultants Service Small-Medium Businesses
This may seem mathematically obvious, but it’s not always top of mind at many of the marketing conferences I’ve attended, nor the blogosphere in general. A disproportionate amount of attention is often focused on top brands, but in the world of consulting, most firms service relatively small businesses. Even those who do serve larger businesses (perhaps aspirationally) often offer services to small and medium businesses. 41% of respondents offer consulting to small, hyperlocal businesses, e.g. the restaurant around the corner.
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Though Project-Based Pricing is Most Popular, the Majority of Consultancies Also Offer Monthly Retainers and Hourly Rates
Early in my SEO career, project-based pricing seemed relatively rare (though quantifying this is hard since no formal surveys I’m aware of collected this info). Today, it was the top response, offered by 70% of the participating firms. Monthly retainer pricing was next, offered by 60%, followed closely by hourly rates (55%).

I’m certain others perusing the data will find other interesting takeaways (hope to read some of those in the comments).

*References http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-pricing-costs-of-services

Adam Regiaba

Googles New “Search Plus Your World”

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:06:01 +0000

A few weeks ago Google announced the launch of Search Plus Your World, whichdeeply integrates social sites (especially Google+) into the Google search experience to make it more personalized.

While Google claimed that the socialization was rather broad-based, the lack of inclusion of Facebook & Twitter along with the excessive promotion of Google+ raised eyebrows. While the launch was claimed to be social for personalizing results, the Google+ promotions appeared on queries where they were clearly not the most relevant result even when users are not logged into a Google account.

Google+ Over-promotion

A couple weeks ago when Google announced Google Search Plus Your World competitors collectively complained about Google over-promoting their own affiliated websites.

Twitter was perhaps the loudest complainer, highlighting how Google basically eats all the above-the-fold real estate with self promotion on this @WWE search.

It is no surprise that folks like Ben Edelman, Scott Cleland & Fair Search chimed in with complaints, as this is just a continuation of Google’s path. But the complaints came from a far wider cast of characters on this move: the mainstream press like CNN, free market evangalists like the Economist, Google worshipers indoctrinated in their culture who wrote a book on Google & even ex-Googlers now call into question Google’s transparently self serving nature:

I think Google as an organization has moved on; they’re focussed now on market position, not making the world better. Which makes me sad.

Google is too powerful, too arrogant, too entrenched to be worth our love. Let them defend themselves, I’d rather devote my emotional energy to the upstarts and startups. They deserve our passion.

The FTC’s Google antitrust probe is to expand to include a review of Google+ integration in the search results.

Facebook & Twitter launched a don’t be evil plugin named Focus On The User, which replaces Google+ promotion with promotion of profiles from Facebook& Twitter.

For the top tier broad social networks framing the idea of integrating promotion of their networks directly in the search results is a natural & desirable conclusion, but is that just a convenient answer to the wrong question?

Whether Google ranks any particular organic result above the corresponding Bing rankingin Google’s now below-the-fold organic results is a bit irrelevant when the above the fold results are almost entirely Google.com. But is the core problem that we are under-representing social media in the search results? According to Compete.com, Facebook & YouTube combine to capture about 16% of all downstream Google clicks. Do we really need to increase that number until the web has a total of 5 websites on it? What benefit do we get out of a web that is just a couple big walled gardens?
If Facebook is already getting something like 20% of US pageviews & users are still looking for information elsewhere, doesn’t that indicate that they probably desire something else? Absolutely Facebook should rank for Facebook navigational queries, but given all theirnotes spam, I don’t like seeing them in the search results much more than seeing a site like eHow.
The he said / she said data deals are also highly irrelevant. What is really needed is further context. Before Google inserted Google+ in their search results the Google+ social network was far less successful than MySpace (which recently sold for only $35 million). If social media is added as an annotation to other 3rd party listings then I think that has the opportunity to add valuable context, but where a thin “me too” styled social media post replaces the publisher content it lowers the utility of the search results & wastes searcher’s time. Further, when those social media results are little more than human-powered content scrapers it also destroys the business models of legitimate online publishers.

User Privacy

Ahead of Google updating their privacy policy Google has directed a large portion of their ad budget toward ads about how they protect users online.

What better way to ensure user privacy than to allow them to register their accounts under psydonyms? The real name policy on Google+ was part of what made Google want to stop providing referrer data for logged in users who search on Google. This has had a knock on effect where other social sites are framing everything, requiring registration to read more of public user generated content& sending outbound traffic through redirects.

Google’s new privacy policy allows them to blend your user data from one service into refining the experience (and ads) on another:

If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We’ll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you’re searching for and get you those results faster.

Google & Facebook’s war (against) user privacy is catching media and governmental attention. Microsoft highlighted some of Google’s issues in their “putting people first” ad campaign & the blowback has caused Google not only to publish PR-spin ”get the facts” styled blog posts, but to launch yet another ad campaign.

EU regulators have asked Google to pause their privacy policy changes.

*References http://www.seobook.com/focus

Adam Regiaba

Take Google Maps Indoors : A New Advancement In Google Maps

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:14:43 +0000

Some malls and airports can be just as tricky to navigate as a city you don’t know. Google Maps for Android now has help, in the form of indoor maps that locate you within a few meters, whatever floor you’re on, and show you the shops, facilities, and other things you’re looking for.

You don’t need to do anything to bring up the indoor map, other than make sure your Android is running the latest Maps version (6.0 at the moment). When you’re in an indoor location mapped out by Maps, zooming in on your location brings up a detailed map of your surroundings, with points like restrooms, stores, and luggage carousels pointed out and easy to tap for information. Google says that it can follow you up and down escalators and elevators, but then again, GPS signal location inside large concrete structures can be if-y.

Google Maps is great for getting from Point A to Point B, but what happens after you get to Point B? With the latest version of Google Maps for Android (version 6.0) you can start enjoying that Google Maps goodness indoors.

Sample image shown above courtesy of Official Google Blog.

Mall of America in Minneapolis before and after, with a floor selector

San Francisco International Airport before and after, with 3D tilt

Make sure to visit the blog post linked below for more details about retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan that are currently partnered with Google on the project.

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

Adam Regiaba

How to Sign Up for Yahoo & Bing Advertising

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:33:09 +0000

Below is a list of free pay-per-click tools, contact info, and other informational aids made available by the major search engines. These are meant to help augment your PPC campaigns.

In order to sign up for Yahoo Adwords you now also need to sign up for Bing as well. Yahoo and Bing are now launched and manipulated from the same platform and you can sign up yourself here at the Microsoft AdCenter - https://adcenter.microsoft.com/ You may contact us direct if you need support for free.

Key Differences Between Yahoo Search Marketing & Google AdWords

You’re probably tired of reading about cultural differences between the two search marketing leaders, Google and Yahoo. Does Semel have better hair than Sergey? Does Yahoo really hire people based on softball prowess? If you’re actually using the search marketing platforms, or for that matter, interacting with Googlers or Yahoos to accomplish a marketing-related task, none of this matters. Let’s run down some of the most impactful real-world differences between the two search marketing platforms, in the wake of Yahoo’s Panama rollout and some recent Google AdWords updates.

The user interface

In both Google and Yahoo!, advertisers can see overall campaign information like CTRs, clicks, average CPC and overall costs. In Yahoo!’s dashboard tab (the default campaign information screen), advertisers see a graphical display of the last two weeks of account activity. The dashboard also alerts advertisers of various account events like payment notifications, editorial review information, bulk upload information and incomplete campaign notification to name a few.

Google has recently introduced an “account snapshot” screen (see screenshot below) that is similar to Yahoo!’s dashboard screen (Google’s snapshot is currently in beta and does not appear in all accounts). The snapshot also has an alerts section that notifies advertisers of billing events, disapproved ads and maintenance events (like campaigns ending) and has an announcement section for new Google products and services. In the graphical display, it has tabs that can be clicked for cost, click, impressions and CTR information (in Yahoo! advertisers select from a drop down menu). Advertisers will certainly benefit from the UI competition between two search engines.

It’s worth noting, in Yahoo, the default date range is a two week period. Other date ranges will hold intrasession but once a session is completed, the system will revert to the two week default period. In Google, if a different date range is selected, it will hold through to future sessions.

Usability issues

Google’s interface tends to be easier to navigate than Yahoo’s. Yahoo’s interface requires more clicking and can take more time to complete account related tasks. For example, in Yahoo, advertisers cannot set unique bids for multiple ad groups on one screen. Advertisers need to go to each ad group to make bid changes. Also, Y!SM pages can also take slightly longer to load. This can take up some time if you’re changing pages frequently.

Editorial review

Both engines, have manual and automatic review processes. Most terms go through a manual review process but some terms are automatically reviewed. In Yahoo!, whether ads are manually reviewed depends on two factors: 1) search volume & 2) term sensitivity. So, low volume and not so sensitive terms (for example snow glove) are usually automatically reviewed. On the other hand, high volume and high impact terms (for example trademarked terms, pharmaceuticals, etc…) are usually manually reviewed.

One apparent difference is that on Google, ads go up on Google.com until they’re manually reviewed and then they’re placed on the entire Google network. On Yahoo!, ads go up on the entire network and then are manually reviewed.

Trademark issues

In Google, in the US, advertisers can bid on trademarked keywords, but can’t use trademarked terms in ad text (in Europe, advertisers can’t bid on terms or include trademark terms in ad copy). In Yahoo!, regardless of trademark, advertisers can’t bid on other companies’ (in other words competitors’) URLs or company names. In Yahoo, there are exceptions for resellers (affiliates) and non-competitive information sites. The Y!SM rules are as follows:

1) For resellers: the advertiser must sell or facilitate the sale of trademarked product or service. So, if you’re a Nike reseller, you can’t bid on Reebok terms.

2) For information sites: the advertiser must provide A) substantial information about the trademark owner or its products and services, and B) can’t sell or promote competitors’ products or services. (i.e. consumer reports).

As a general rule, it’s up to the advertiser to ensure the keywords selected do not violate any trademark laws. Trademark owners should contact the appropriate search engine if they have concerns regarding ads appearing for their trademark(s).

Customer service

At both companies, calls are routed to different service reps at different service tiers. Generally; the service received depends on how much advertisers are spending with the search engines. Obviously, the more money spent, the more service accorded to the advertiser account.

It’s worth noting the service you get sometimes depends not on the service tier but with the actual person you’re dealing with. Keep in mind; sometimes it’s in service reps interests to be helpful. At some search engines, promotions are based on how well reps work with customers.

Here are a couple of customer service suggestions:

1) Informal alliances are beneficial so make an attempt to find good people to work with. If you call a search engine frequently, ask if you can talk to whomever about your questions and concerns every time you call. If you’re pleasant and make it easy for service reps to help, the answer more often than not is yes. In many cases, we’ve established informal relationships with the search engine simply because we’ve found good people to work with.

2) If you’re not getting the service you want, call again and talk to someone else.

In the next article, I’ll address the different matching options in Google & Yahoo!. Not only do the features have different names but the technologies and algorithms behind them function completely differently. Stay tuned.

* References http://searchengineland.com/key-differences-between-yahoo-search-marketing-google-adwords-11112

Adam Regiaba

5 Ways to Increase Your Google Page Rank

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:42:31 +0000

Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are Links pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have the higher your PR will be.

1. Join forums, forums are a great way to achieve links to your website. In most forums you are allowed to have a signature and in your signature you can put a link to your website. But another important note to look on is making sure the forum is somewhat related to your website. You will still get credit if it’s not, but if it’s related to your website than you will be accomplishing two tasks at once.

You will be advertising for your website (bringing in targeted traffic) You will also be building your websites presence.

Your websites presence is very important to your survival. The more people see, or hear about your website the more credibility you will have and this increases your chances of having these visitors come back and possibly become leads.

2. Submit to search engine directories. Search engine directories are a good way to get a free link to your website. They also increase your chances at being listed higher on popular search engines like Google, and overture.

Most search engine directories allow you to submit to their website for free. This will allow you to increase your web presence by being listed on another search engine, and it will also be a free link.

Remember the more links you have the higher your PR will be

3. Using ezine ads (or newsletters). Creating an ezine will probably be the most beneficial step you can take to increasing your web presence. When you create an ezine you will be able to keep visitors coming back to your website for more by using signatures and giving special deals.

Ezine’s will also allow you to increase your back links. By creating an ezine you can submit your information about your ezine to an ezine directory. This directory will than link to your website(thus giving you a free link).

4. Creating and publishing articles. Articles are an easy source of generating new traffic. You can include your signature in your article. This will bring in more traffic from article submission directories.

Your signature usually consists of 4 to 8 lines. Usually the first line would be the title of the website that you are trying to advertise. The last line would be the link to the website and the lines in between these would be a sales pitch to draw your viewers into your website.

5. Links from related websites. Gaining links from related websites can be one of the most frustrating tasks you can attempt.

They are very easy to find, but can be somewhat difficult to obtain links from.

To find related websites, all you have to do is go to a search engine… say Google… and type in your subject. Maybe your website is based on ford mustangs.

You go to Google and type in ford mustangs, than you look around for pages that are somewhat related to your website. After you have done this (which should be very easy) you have to contact them in some way to get your link posted on their website. This can be the most difficult task because a lot of webmasters ignore e-mail’s from people requesting links because they don’t see the importance of it at the time. Some other reasons could be that they are rarely online, or they delete spam mail and sometimes delete their important emails in the process.

Important note: When looking for link partners don’t just link with websites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. Link with anyone and everyone you get a chance to. If you link to someone that has a page rank of zero, this will not hurt your page rank. It will only increase it because you are getting a link back to your website. Google doesn’t look at your back links page ranks to determine what yours is going to be. It simply looks at how many back links you have.

So if Google one day decided to link to a website that was just created and this website has a page rank of 0 and has a domain that goes something like this: mywebsite.geocities.com it’s page rank wouldn’t increase even though Google’s page rank is 10, it’s rank would still be zero because it would only have that one back link.

*References http://www.webpronews.com/steps-to-increase-your-google-page-rank-2004-06

Upfront Consultants Reviews

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:16:15 +0000

Reviews for Upfront Consultants

See what our current clients are saying about our services!

Dan A.

Santa Ana, CA

1/18/2012

★★★★★

After I spent nearly $6000 in funds on other SEO and reputation management services and not really getting close to the results that I desired, I had all but given up on having a company professionally handle my website and SEO needs.I found out about Upfront through word of mouth and, at first, I was pretty sure that they would be like all the others. They weren’t, and I’ll happily scream that fact from the highest hilltop! I am at a loss for words when it comes to saying just how satisfied and pleased I am to have made the decision to give them a chance to prove me wrong.

Upfront helped me save the integrity of my business and my reputation. I will whole-heatedly remain indebted to them for their help, and I will always recommend this company. These guys are understanding, friendly, and they are consummate professionals.

Lenny U.

Irvine, CA

1/5/2012

★★★★★

I was very cautious at first because I got robbed 3 times in a row by other SEO companies claiming they were going to get me first page placement. What I like about these guys is they didn’t talk about placement but they talked about getting me CALLS and that’s what i wanted in the first place and that’s what they delivered. When I found upfront I found a home for my business on Google, thank you keep up the good work…or else, jk

Mike V.

Cliffside Park, NJ

1/1/2012

★★★★★

Finally a real SEO company!

Dean V.

San Jose, CA

12/19/2011

★★★★★

It has been a long journey with Adam and his team but I have to say, at the end of the day they came though. Thay did a great Job on building my website! They finally got me placed on the first page of google for an extreamly competative market. Not an easy task at all! They have spent several hours with me on the phone to make what I needed work. In all, for the first time in my horendouse online marketing experiance, I am satisfied! Thanks guys and keep up the good work!

castronovo l.

Oceanside, CA

Updated – 11/10/2011

★★★★★

following up , i am ranking on top first page of Google in my city .. great job upfront consultants and i will definitely recommend this company to anybody that i know that are looking for SEO

10/18/2011

i am very satisfied with the results so far, my business http://www.monste… was nowhere to be found on google places … the company i used before told me that there was too much competition in my area and will take a very long time to be seen on google places (like close to a year)…so i found upfront consultants and tried the local listing optomization and within a month i was ranking 8 on first page of google which was amazing since other company told me it will take forever.. and just recently i did an upgrade in my seo package and my phone has been ringing like never before…
not only do they have effective seo process they also provide great customer service… i highly recommend them.

Ahmi C.

Oceanside, CA

10/24/2011

★★★★★

great company , friendly, professional, and good at what they do… i am so glad i found upfront consultants.

Sarah B.

Richmond, VA

4/5/2011

★★★★★

I had a good experience with upfront consultants, I had built my own google local listing but wasn’t really getting calls from the listing. I heard about this company from a friend and decided to give them a call since I had heard good things from my friend who is also a small business owner. They were able to take my listing and move it to the first page when people searched for my type of business. I have received a steady increase in business and have decided to let them now build me a website, and if this works as well as every thing else I have done with this company, I’m expecting a really well made website. I’m happy with their work thus far

Dylan W.

Costa Mesa, CA

Updated – 4/4/2011

★★★★★

After searching online and get fairly frustrated, I happened to come across Upfront Consultants in Newport Beach, Ca. I needed help with a google listing, and some general questions answered about a website. Arthur was able to answer my questions in a timely and professional manner, and price quoted was considerably less than their competitors. I would highly reccommend Upfront Consultants to anybody looking to post a business on Google, or with design and development of a website.
Dylan and Mary W.
Costa Mesa, Ca.

Cathy R.

Manhattan, NY

4/3/2011

★★★★★

Upfront Consultants is the real deal! With so many SEO & Internet Marketing imitators out there, it is awesome to find one that not only prides themselves with delivering results time and time again, but also with holding focusing what makes the most sense for the client. I get calls everyday now and I got rid of the Yellow Pages. I am finally getting a return on marketing! Upfront is my first choice every time when recommending a SEO or Internet Marketing Company.

Katy C.

Tuscaloosa, AL

3/29/2011

★★★★★

I was really impressed with the service I got from Upfront Consultants. They built me a new website and got me on the first page of the google search results pretty quickly, which has really brought more business to my store. They told me how much more business I would see from the new website and SEO but I really didn’t believe them. I really was skeptical since I have had calls about this service before and some of my girlfriends had been ripped off by other companies. Upfront really over delivered what they originally promised and I am so happy that I gave them a chance. The change in business is very noticeable and I have done really well with this investment. It’s payed for itself several times, I’m just really pleased.

Kevin W.

Dallas, TX

3/21/2011

★★★★★

I used Upfront Consultants recently for my website. I was really happy with the new design and they had a really competitive price for what they offered me and they were really good at keeping me in the loop about what was going on. I would recommend them to any of my friends or clients.

Adam Regiaba

Invite Your Facebook Friends to Google Plus

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:41:41 +0000

Here’s an interesting way to get everyone you know from your Facebook social graph into Google Plus:

By Adam Regiaba

Sign up for a Yahoo! Mail email account, and import all of your Facebook contacts. Click “Contacts” at the top, and then “Import Contacts”. The allow Facebook to access to your Yahoo! address book.
Log in to Google Plus (http://plus.google.com) and click the link for your “Circles” (https://plus.google.com/circles).
Click “Find and Invite”, and then click Yahoo! Import your Facebook friends to the “Suggestions” section.
Drag everyone into the appropriate “Circle”. See screenshot below.

9 Reasons to Switch from Facebook to Google+

When people ask “can Google+ beat Facebook?” they’re misstating the question. It’s not about one site versus another site. Google+ is bigger than that. The reason Google calls it the “Google+ Project” is that Google+ will become a central part of Google’s whole identity. It will reshape the company. So the real question is “can Google beat Facebook?” Put that way, the contest seems a lot more even.
Facebook, of course, has a huge head start, but there are good reasons for people to seriously consider dumping Facebook for Google+.

1. Integration with Google ServicesThe biggest wedge Google has for driving people toward using Google+ is integration. That is, Google will build Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search to Documents to Video (YouTube). Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of almost all Google products; this lets you monitor all Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service you happen to be using. Millions and millions of people use Google’s free services (Gmail, Docs, Search, etc.), and with Google+ bound so tightly to them it may start to seem silly to jump out to some other site (Facebook) to do your social networking.

2. Better Friend ManagementGoogle is right that the “Circles” concept is more in line with the way we make friends in real life. We have many different kinds of friends, and we interact with them and communicate with them in very different ways. Facebook’s Groups feature lets you form ad hoc groups of friends, but compared to the way its done in Google+ it seems cumbersome. After all, Facebook’s Groups feature is pretty new; it was “built on”, while friend “circles” are the bedrock of the Google+ platform.

3. Better Mobile AppIf you’re an Android user, you may find that getting content from your phone to your social platform is easier, cleaner more functional with the Google+ mobile app. The app is already great, but Google will seek more and more ways to make your Android phone a seemless appendage of your Google+ social platform. Google hopes to use its huge Android user base as a wedge against Facebook, whose mobile app, while nice-looking, is a little clunky to use.

4. Easier to Find Stuff to ShareGoogle+’s Sparks feature is another important differentiator from Facebook. Spark is Google leveraging its search engine to do something Facebook can’t do—give users an instant wellspring of relevant information to share with friends. Because Facebook has no search engine, its users must leave the site to find shareable data or wait for their friends the share it with them. The question “how do I find stuff to share” is immediately answered with Sparks.

5. You Can Get Your Data BackFacebook is notorious for its poor stewardship of personal data. You are forced to make certain parts of your personal data “public” for example, and It is very hard to permanently delete your Facebook profile. Google, on the other hand, makes it possible for you to pick up all the data you’ve banked at Google+ and walk away. This is done through a Google+ tool called “Data Liberation.” With just a few clicks you can download data from your Picasa Web Albums, Google profile, Google+ stream, Buzz and contacts.

6. Better Photo TaggingWhen viewing photos in Google+ you can “tag” the people in them similar to the way you do in Facebook. You draw a little square around a person’s face, then type in their name in the box below it (or choose one of the names Google+ guesses). But there’s a big difference in the way Google handles the privacy aspect of photo tagging. When you tag someone, you see this note: “Adding this tag will notify the person you have tagged. They will be able to view the photo and the related album.” Facebook, on the other hand, does not make an effort to warn people the they’ve been tagged (possibly in an unflattering or compromising photo) and give them an immediate chance to remove the tag.

Also, Google has wisely decided to shy away from using facial recognition software, which Facebook now uses to automatically identify people in photos uploaded to user albums.

7. Strong Group Chat FeaturesGoogle+ has Facebook beat in the area of chat. Forming ad hoc group video chats using the Hangouts feature in Google+ is easy, and forming ad hoc groups for a little chat seems like a natural and fun thing to do in a social networking setting. Similarly, the new Huddle mobile app makes it easy for mobile (Android) users to start up group text chats. Facebook simply doesn’t offer these tools.

8. Safer Content SharingPrivacy advocates have long called for social networking sites to let users assign a privacy level to each piece of content they share, instead of using a pre-set list privacy settings to govern all shares. Google obviously heard those calls, and built the capability into Google+. For instance, when I share an article or upload a camera image, Google+ gives me choices of which friend circles I’d like to share that content with. Advantage Google+.

9. Google Is a Better Steward of Your Personal Data

Running a social network is all about responsible stewardship of users’ personal information. Facebook is a young, fast moving company that has proved itself to be cavalier in its movements, lacking in respect for user data privacy, and accident prone. Google on the other hand, is a far more mature company that is, I would argue, seen as more trustworthy than Facebook. For the most part, Google has lived up to its “Don’t Be Evil” slogan. Which company would you rather have as the steward of your personally identifiable information?

Adam Regiaba

How To Remove Bad Google Reviews

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:03:34 +0000

There are several ways you can combat bad reviews
by Adam Regiaba

1) Push Down The Bad Review

Google will only show five or six reviews on the first page of any local Business Listing. If you will generate five or six positive reviews, it will move the bad review to your second or third page. Most people will not necessarily look that far inside your listing before making a decision. But, and this is a big “BUT, ” if you happen to ask for too many reviews that are positive too quickly, Google will push your company listing down in their own rankings. When Google sees several reviews in a short time of time, it sparks a spam reaction. Spread your positive reviews out over 2 or 3 days or a couple associated with weeks. Be patient.

2) Apologize to the Individual and Make Reparations (if possible).

You ought to be willing to apologize for a mistake and make things right with the person who posted the bad review. And the only way you’re going to achieve that is to listen on their concern, apologize where appropriate and provide a reasonable solution. If you handle yourself properly, you’ll be surprised at how easy it can be to get a poor review removed. If you don’t handle yourself correctly, you’re going to make a bad situation worse.
Before you decide to initiate contact, put yourself inside mindset of a issue solver. You’re goal is always to make the reviewer feel better about you and your company without making them feel bad about posting their review. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Contact the one who posted the review and tell them that you saw their review on Google and you want to find out what happened and make things right.

2. Play their complaint until they’re complete talking.

3. Paraphrase precisely what they said and apologize for what went wrong.

several. Let them know the amount of you appreciate them bringing their concern for a attention and ask because of their suggestion on you skill make things right.

5. Keep going on their suggestion before you decide to move onto step 6-8.

6. Ask them if they would be willing to help edit or remove their own review.

3)Flag The Review!

Is a review inappropriate according to Google? Read their rules and regulations about reviews and see if this review violates their rules. If it will do, you can click the “Flag as inappropriate” switch. If it does violate Google’s rules, they will remove the idea. This takes time, so to wait and be persistent.

4)Mark it as Not Useful.

Under each review, Google asks, “Is This Review Helpful (Yes / No). ” Google do not remove the review when enough people say, “No, ” but if 10 using 10 people indicate the review was not helpful, many of your readers will discount the review and basically pay no attention to it. Ask your customers and friends to rate poor reviews as not helpful.

5) Respond Publicly as Owner.

Google will allow you to respond directly to reviews posted on your listing just like any other directory. For example, in the event you get a bad review on Insiderpages or TripAdvisor, you have ability to respond to the bad review directly. You can respond in anger. You may respond by making an excuse. You might also respond with an apology and a solution.

Adam Regiaba

How Does Google AdWords Work?

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:02:33 +0000

by Adam Regiaba

Google AdWords helps you connect with potential customers looking for products and services like yours. You’ll pick keywords related to your products and services, and choose how much you’d like to spend on each click on your ad. Your text-based ads will appear in search results and on Google’s content network based on your bids for keywords.

You can view the full article here http://www.wordstream.com/articles/what-is-google-adwords

Adam Regiaba

Internet Marketing Consultants

Adam(Upfront Admin) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:14:46 +0000

Are You Looking for an Internet Marketing Consultant You Can Trust?

Not only does Upfront Consultants have years of internet marketing experience, we have been trusted to help hundreds of companies small and large. Upfront Consultants expertise in online media consulting, search engine marketing, and business blogging is why we have grown over %300 in the last year!

When deciding on the right internet marketing consultant for your next marketing campaign, trust someone who’s authored a book, spoken at dozens of conferences, and helped thousands of businesses like yours achieve success. No inexperienced account managers, no poorly executed campaigns, and no excuses–that’s what you’re entitled to and that’s what Upfront Consultants provides as an internet marketing consultant.

Internet Marketing Consulting Services

Upfront Consultants offers a wide variety of consulting options for company clients. Your company benefits from having access to our internet marketing expertise; you decide how you use it and when you need it. You get the benefit of adding a world-renowned internet marketing consultant to your team without the expenses associated with hiring full-time staff or engaging an internet marketing firm.

Phone consultations – you pick the hours needed and you decide when to use Upfront Consultants internet marketing expertise.
On-site consulting – have Upfront Consultants spend time with your company, evaluating your projects, providing expert advice and making your next internet marketing project a success.
Remote web consulting – using the latest desktop sharing technology, Upfront Consultants can provide one-on-one advice by showing you his recommendations using his desktop browser. Alternatively, Upfront Consultants can present to dozens of your employees at the same time, using a remote video interface.
Retainer based consulting – if you know you’ll need Upfront Consultants expertise for an extensive period of time, you can hire Upfront Consultants on a monthly retainer basis.
Anyway you want it – have something else in mind? That’s the beauty of hiring an internet marketing consultant, you can decide how best to use our skills. Tell him what you need and he’ll work with you.

Don’t trust your next internet marketing project to just any marketing consultant. Ask them how their credentials stack up with and compare their results with Upfront Consultants track record. Your company’s success is the most important thing; Upfront Consultants understands that the right advice is the difference between success and failure.

Contact us today with your website URL for a FREE in-depth Local SEO Ranking & Suggestion report on your website.

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How To Remove Bad Google Reviews

There are several ways you can combat bad reviews by Adam Regiaba

How Does Google AdWords Work?

Internet Marketing Consultants

Are You Looking for an Internet Marketing Consultant You Can Trust?

Internet Marketing Consulting Services

Contact us today with your website URL for a FREE in-depth Local SEO Ranking & Suggestion report on your website.

There are several ways you can combat bad reviews
by Adam Regiaba