Greg Sterling says, “Google parent Alphabet Inc. announced financial results for the fourth quarter of last year. The company reported $26.06 billion in quarterly revenue, which was more than financial analysts had expected. However adjusted earnings per share of $9.36 were below expectations. Overall year-over-year revenue growth was 22 percent. Ad revenues were $22.4 billion, representing 17 percent growth. Despite these figures, the stock was down in after-hours trading. Paid clicks were up on Google sites and network properties, 43 percent and 7 percent respectively. But CPCs were down... [...]

Clare McDermott says, “No longer the domains of ultra-early adopters and video gamers, virtual reality and augmented reality are poised to take off in the coming 24 months. “We see qualities in VR/AR technology that can take this from niche-use case to a device as ubiquitous as the smartphone,” Goldman Sachs Research wrote in its Virtual and Augmented Reality report. More consumers are expecting to see the power of virtual reality too. According to Greenlight Insights 62% of consumers say they would feel more engaged with a brand that sponsors a VR experience and 71% of consumers think... [...]

Kerry Flynn says, “Remember the days when we talked about how Facebook and Snapchat are competing for these things called views? Yes, we cared about the overall number of three-seconds versus one-millisecond of time people spent on the apps. Forget about those meager numbers. Facebook wants your eyes to be glued for much longer than three seconds. Why? Television has more dollars. On Thursday, Facebook announced longer videos watched through will be given a higher priority in the ranking of the News Feed. Hidden within a jargon-filled, 411-word News Feed FYI (a blog dedicated to publishers... [...]

MOZ team says, “When it comes to choosing a reputable company to manage your SEO, there’s both a right way and a wrong way to go about the hiring process. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand identifies common pitfalls to avoid and advice to take when it comes to selecting an agency or consultant to optimize your site for search engines. SEOs, take note: there are great ideas here for how to market yourselves to clients, as well!”. How to Choose a Good SEO Company for Your Business or Website MOZ  [...]

Sonia Simone says, “Last week, we talked about how to really understand who is in your audience. This week, we’re shifting into what kind of message they want and need from you. Brian kicked off on Monday with a piece of classic marketing advice (exemplified by a classic American comic film): It’s not enough to just know your audience. You also need to put their interests and desires ahead of your own. That might sound impossibly idealistic — but in fact, it’s pure pragmatism. On Tuesday, Beth Hayden gave some specific thoughts on how to do it, by creating extraordinarily generous... [...]

Mimi An says, “Over the past few years, Google has made a lot of changes that can be challenging for modern marketers and SEO experts to keep up with. Recently, Google started indexing according to mobile search results, cracked down on intrusive pop-up ads, and removed right-side ads. What do all of these changes have in common? Google has been making changes to its algorithm, search engine results pages, and policies based on user behavior and preference. They’re observing what users are doing and making the search engine work more intuitively for them. This is great for the frequent... [...]

Shubhomita Bose says, “It’s a question every business owner has to ask himself at some point: what price do I sell my product at? Truth be told, pricing is tricky even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs. Price your product low and you might receive a lot of sales but less profit. Price too high and you will end up attracting a niche audience that expects top quality. It’s a fine balance, really and determined by the product you’re trying to sell. How to Price Ecommerce Products Depending on your situation, you may at times want to mark-up your products lower or higher. A simple formula... [...]

Heather Ripley says, “Today’s entrepreneurs are well aware of the importance of online reviews. Those few words, usually written by total strangers, can give your business’s online reputation a huge boost — or plunge it into a one-star muck bath you’ll spend days or even weeks recovering from. The truth is, it’s absurdly easy to share your opinion, and most people do it when they’re either very happy or unhappy. Since the whole world can read those reviews, you need to keep a sharp eye on them and act quickly if you see something damaging. Paying attention, in fact, is... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Technical search engine optimisation (SEO) describes the efforts of a webmaster to ensure their website is compatible with search engine guidelines, and can be indexed and ranked for keyphrase searches accordingly. Whilst marketers perhaps best understand the implications of getting SEO wrong, it is often developers that implement technical SEO decisions. Although technical SEO is not as time consuming as ongoing optimisation such as link building, get it wrong and you can scupper the search performance of your website fairly quickly (indexing issues occur upstream of quality... [...]

Tina Moffett says, “Over the course of my career–as a marketing analytics practitioner and as a Forrester analyst–I’ve tried to tackle some of the most pressing questions around measuring marketing’s effectiveness. I’ve seen a recent surge of marketers using the metric “engagement” being tossed around as a way to measure marketing success. When I start to question what they mean by the term “engagement” and how they measure it, I’m often met with a flurry of answers, including a running list of metrics–such as likes, shares, or time spent on site–that... [...]