Local insurance agencies in the US need to do more to rise up their presence in search engine listings, it has been suggested.
According to Confluency Solutions, many agencies are fading to make the most of the rise of local search by claiming listings in services such as Google Maps.
It cites figures indicating that 87 per cent of web searches carry "local intent" and notes that Google results tend to include Google Maps schedule when a local query is conducted.
As such, insurance firms would do well to glance into local search engine optimisation, the company says.
"Insurance agencies need to recognise they are losing dozens and dozens of customers every month - often more - because they aren't showing up in Google Maps and other local search engines," comments Kevin McDonald, president of Confluency Solutions.
Diana Pouliot of Google recently told the Mobile Marketing & Advertising occurrence in Las Vegas that a third of all mobile queries conducted on the search engine are linked in some way to the searcher's local surroundings, Mobile Marketing Watch reported.
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Some critics suggest that real-time search values quantity over quality but using it in tandem with pay per click and search engine optimisation can still give up positive results, it has been claimed.
Writing on Search Engine Watch, Kevin Gibbons said that real-time content is certainly on the increase in search results, with Google, Bing and Yahoo! all offering it in different forms.
For those involved in search engine marketing, the temptation could be to use pay per click (PPC) ads to bypass the real-time results attractive over the top of Google pages, he added.
However, Mr Gibbons said that using a mixture of PPC marketing and usual optimisation remains "the best way to attract the maximum number of visitors".
Companies looking to use real-time results to their advantage should therefore continue with "organic" efforts like blogging, but should ensure they encourage the content through Twitter and other social networks.
"If an online buzz is created around amazing you've written, then you'll benefit from real-time search," he commented.
Google announced in February that it had added Facebook fan pages to real-time search consequences.
The world's largest registrar of internet domain names said Wednesday that it was pulling out of China in the wake of firm new laws that allegedly will increase government surveillance of web sites.
'There appears to be a recent increase in China's surveillance and monitoring of the Internet activities of its citizens,' said Christine Jones, general guidance for Go Daddy, at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).
Jones said the new Chinese policies required every website vendor to submit photographs, business information and individually signed forms, as well as their physical address, email address and telephone numbers.
'We didn't want to act as an representative of the Chinese government,' Jones said. 'We can't let them be strong and us be weak all the time. We just have to stop it, and then we'll start offering .CN domain names again.'
GoDaddy.com, which has more than 40 million domain names under management, took the step just two days after Google announced that it was moving its Chinese-language search examination out of mainland China to avoid strict government censorship laws. The move set up a discordant clash with the Chinese government, which has already started to filter search results received from Google's Hong Kong-based Chinese-language servers.
Go Daddy has offered .CN domain names since 2005, and said it would carry on serving its existing websites. However, they, too, are required to submit the latest information or could be shut down by the Chinese government.
'We were advised that domain names of registrants who did not roll as required ... would no longer work,' Jones said.
In the most recent development in an ongoing standoff with China over censorship, Google has redirected its Google.cn assets to Google.hk, its site in Hong Kong. The move follows reports this morning that Google would declare plans to shut down Chinese operations as early as today.
Google first announced that it was considering pulling out of China in January, writing at the time that it would no longer cut search results at the behest of the Chinese government following a set of cyber attacks targeting human rights activists.
Update: Google has posted the following announcement on their company blog
“Earlier at present we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, particularly designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong …
… We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our consideration that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”
Google notes that this workaround could rapidly be thwarted by the Chinese government, and has thus setup this webpage which keeps track of which services are currently accessible in the country.
Scheduling meetings is tough, but rescheduling is still harder. We all know how frustrating it can be to try to find just the right time that accommodates everyone's accessibility and preferred working hours. Throw in different time zones and conference rooms and it goes from painful to severe. We'd rather list dental appointments.
On the Google Calendar team, we've noticed that when people converse about scheduling they say things like "I'm trying to find a time" or "let's search for a new date." We wondered what would happen if we treated calendaring extra like a search problem. Just as Google search applies ranking algorithms to return the most applicable results from the web, we hoped we could rank meeting times based on criteria important to the self scheduling the meeting.
Today we're launching the result of that trial, a gadget called Smart Rescheduler, in Google Calendar Labs. Once you enable the Lab, you can find a new time for an event just by clicking on a link. Our schedule search algorithm will come again a ranked set of the best candidate dates and times based on the calendars others have shared with you. You can examine more about it on the Gmail Blog.
Dreamsubmitting Chandigarh introduces Social Media Optimization and Pay per Click services along with linkages to advance your SEO ratings.
Every search engine optimization company is prepared with the best SEO writers who ensure that your company’s product gets the most traffic but still companies lose ratings. When you have already put in so much time, effort and struggle in conceiving a design and getting a website ready for execution, it is imperative that you get a lot of traffic to bring your work to fruition.
Among this the first is called Social Media Optimization or SMO. SMO targets at linking the website content with the social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Friendster, blogs and many more such sites, to bring in e–commerce and more economic gains for the clients. Advertisements from different companies sparkle on the side panels of these social sites. Nearly every individual who is on any one or more of these social sites becomes the target interview for the company’s site and it increases the marketing avenues of the company.
The next is called Pay Per Click service or PPC. This service ensures that your company only pays when a person really clicks on your site for information. This service has a two fold benefit. Firstly, you get to keep a track of how many persons have visited your site for how much you spent and thus you can keep roadway of exact ROI. Secondly, you get listed in top immediately, if the bid amount is kept most favorable and campaign is designed t get maximum clicks. SEO gets you in crown after sometime, but you pay for visits and get listed in top as soon as the campaign starts.
Indian SEO Services has already got recognition among SEO segment. The company is providing the cheapest SEO services without compromising on the superiority front.
Within first year of its origin, blog has got a wide client data base ranging from Asia to Europe. According to official sources, the company has deferred its web site launch.
“We are doing more then fine with our blog itself. We have got a team of more then 50 to serve our widest of client database crossways the globe. And we are not bothered to soar in our website launch. We are pretty fine the ongoing improvement of the blog.” Mr Singal said caption in press conference.
As of today, this year's Google I/O conference has sold out and registration is closed. That means more than 4,000 developers will be joining Google on May 19-20 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
Like years past, I/O will feature over 90 in-depth sessions and the chance to meet and learn from other developers, including those from the more than 160 companies that will demo in the Developer Sandbox. For those not able to attend, video recordings of technical sessions will be available on YouTube following the conference.
From now until May, Google will continue to list new speakers, new sessions, and new Sandbox participants on the Google I/O website.
We've long supposed that personalization makes search more relevant and fun. For nearly five years, we've been tailoring results with modified search. Google has announced a new attribute in search that makes it easier for you to mark and experience again your favorite web content — stars.
With stars, you can merely click the star marker on any search result or map and the next time you perform a search, that item will come into view in a special list right at the top of your results when relevant. That means if you star the official websites for your preferred football teams, you might see those results right at the top of your next search for [nfl]. Here's what the new "Starred results" feature looks like:
The immense thing about stars is that you don't have to keep track of them. You don't even have to keep in mind whether or not you starred something. Simply execute a search and you'll rediscover your starred items right when you need them. Stars sync with your Google Bookmarks and the Google Toolbar, so you can always see your list of starred items in one place and simply organize them. Even beyond the results page, while browsing the web you can rapidly click the star icon in Toolbar to create a bookmark, and those pages will start showing up in the new stars feature.
Stars in search substitute SearchWiki. With stars, Google has created a lightweight and flexible way for people to mark and rediscover web content. For people who like annotations, Google has Sidewiki, a more influential way for people to contribute and discover helpful information next to pages across the Internet.
Stars in search are rolling out in the next couple days and will be accessible globally for all signed-in users.
More than ever before, people are sharing and storing their photos online. But until newly, you had to edit your photos using client software on your computer. Google is excited to announce that Google has acquired Picnik, one of the first sites to start photo editing to the cloud. Using Picnik, you can crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without parting your web browser.
Google is not announcing any important changes to Picnik now, though it will be working hard on integration and new features. As well, Google likes to continue sustaining all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo sharing sites make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks.