Russ Jones says, “There are a handful of data sources relied upon by nearly every search engine optimizer. Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) has perhaps become the most ubiquitous. There are simply some things you can do with GSC, like disavowing links, that cannot be accomplished anywhere else, so we are in some ways forced to rely upon it. But, like all sources of knowledge, we must put it to the test to determine its trustworthiness — can we stake our craft on its recommendations? Let’s see if we can pull back the curtain on GSC data and determine, once and... [...]

Kate Leggett says, “In today’s world, customers decide how customer-centric a company is. Good customer service should capture the fundamentals of a great experience: ease, effectiveness, and emotion Looking ahead, Forrester sees 10 trends for 2017 that customer service professionals should take into account as they move the needle on the quality of service that they deliver: Here are six of them: Customer service organizations address a smaller volume of simple voice-based customer contacts as they mature their self-service, automated engagement, and digital operations. Trend No.... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “What Facebook wants, it usually gets, and despite the general belief that attention spans are increasingly limited, the world’s largest social network is apparently intent on encouraging long-form video. Here’s what brands creating video content for Facebook need to know about the changes Facebook is making to accomplish that. It’s changing the way video completion rates are factored into News Feed ranking In a blog post, Facebook product manager Abhishek Bapna and research scientist Seyoung Park explained that Facebook is changing the way it factors... [...]

Brian Clark says, “Back in the 1940s, psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel conducted an experiment. They showed study participants an animated film consisting of a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion. The participants were then asked to simply describe what they saw in the film. Before you keep reading, take a look at it yourself. I’ll be here when you come back. So, what did you see? Out of all the study participants, only one responded with “a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion.” The rest developed elaborate... [...]

Alhan Keser says, “Personalization in the digital space is just like sex in high school. Everyone is talking about it, but few are doing it. While the technology has been accessible for years, strategy has been slow to catch up. Let’s find out why. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three years, you’ve heard that personalization is the “must-have” strategy for any serious online business. And the intent to adopt it is certainly there: According to a study by Clearhead published in December 2016, over 60 percent of online retailers have the technology to perform... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Which online ad creative elements capture consumers’ attention? What types of online ad formats are most seen by visitors to content websites? To find out, Australia’s Fairfax Media conducted an eye-tracking study with 100 consumers who visit content sites regularly. Half of them were shown the desktop version of the Sydney Morning Herald, and the other half were shown the mobile version. The researchers presented a range of different advertisements on the website pages and tracked eye movement/gaze. Participants also engaged in an ad-recall exercise as well... [...]

Emma Koehn says, “Global social media engagement grew 21% over the past year and businesses can now pitch to an audience of 2.8 billion people through social media. Social media management platform HootSuite and digital consultancy We are Social released their Digital 2017 report this week, finding that social media penetration in Australia jumped 14% in the past 12 months and 16 million Australians are now engaged on at least one social platform. Engagement on mobile is growing at a faster pace across the rest of the Asia Pacific, with a 25% increase in active social media users, or... [...]

Jill Schiefelbein says, “In this Dynamic Communication interview, author Jill Schiefelbein chats with Jay Baer, president of Convince and Convert and New York Times bestselling author, who gives a tip that can help you GROW your business. Perfect for entrepreneurs, small businesses, sales teams, marketing teams, content creators and more. Why should you give away free information as a business content marketing strategy? What marketing strategies work to grow a business? How do I use content marketing to increase sales? Learn the answer to these questions and more in this video with... [...]

Shelly Banjo says, “Investors cheered a fourth consecutive quarter of sales increases, and maintaining a full year of gains helped quiet concerns that without PayPal Holdings Inc., the subsidiary it split from in 2015, eBay would be left for dead. It’s no time for self-congratulatory pats on the back, though. Growth initiatives touted by eBay management during its earnings call last week, such as ramping up millennial-focused TV advertisements and making it easier for consumers to find new stuff on its sites, just aren’t aggressive enough to match eBay’s grand ambitions... [...]

Antony Maina says, “A Content Delivery Network, also known as a Content Distribution Network or simply CDN, is a collection of global servers that caches and delivers content such as JavaScript files, videos and images. When you request a web page for example, content on that page is delivered by the closest server rather than the origin server, thereby hastening loading time. CDN Management software dynamically calculates the distance from the nearest server to the requesting client and delivers content based on those calculations. This comes with a host of benefits, including: Accommodation... [...]