Google is Adding Larger Images to Mobile Results

Google is always up to some new stuff and their latest round of fun is a possible new format that allows their mobile search results to show larger images. If you remember back in December 2014, we saw a similar interface for the images; however, this time, the images look to be even larger and are on the left part of the teaser snippet.

Google is always looking for ways to keep the results loading speed between mobile and desktop at equal speeds. The only hangup here is Google also want sot give searchers as much information as they can before they click on a result. It is a tight, delicate dance to provide the best search engine marketing experience for both companies and users.

Will adding larger images slow the results speed down? Maybe. Google wants to know if the larger image format will be helpful to generating qualified web traffic to sites.


GIF source: http://weheartit.com/entry/12466306

Google Panda Update is Coming in Next Few Weeks, Says Gary Illyes

Google's Gary Illyes has mentioned that the next installment of the Panda update will be coming in the next few weeks. At first, SEO experts everywhere felt another shock coming on; however, after it was all explained, we can all take a nice, deep breath.

Illyes has stated that the update is merely a refresh, not a change in the algorithm. What does this mean for websites? Sites that have been a victim of the algorithm might see some recovery, assuming they did the work to fix it. Not all sites will see a recovery. If you published a website since the last update, the site will be affected by this refresh.

It is in Google's best interest, and for anyone doing white-hat SEO's best interest, that Google keep this updated frequently.

Don't worry, doomsday is not coming… yet.



gif source: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/atomic-bomb

A Super Quick Brief Reason Why Your Business Needs to be Blogging

As we've mentioned in the past, content marketing helps your business become an industry leader, if the blogging is done right. However, a concern was raised to our creative marketing agency about how much of an impact blogs had on consumer trust.

According to a survey in the US and the UK, bloggers are the third most trusted source of information behind family (first) and friends (second). In a study of 2000 people in the US and the UK this past February and March, 57 percent of them said that they look to independent bloggers & vloggers when it comes to purchasing decisions. 

So, you must be reading this blog with great trust in our Chicago SEO company because we blog. We won't abuse your trust any longer. Sorry about that.

One last thing, if your business is not blogging or doing it well, it is losing trust from consumers. Hire Integraphix to help you with your blogging! 

Twitter-Google Deal Is Going into Effect. Tweets Now in Google Search Results. For Real This Time.

Remember at the beginning of the year when Google and Twitter announced a deal that would allow tweets to show up in Google search results? Well the two tech giants are delivering on their promise and now Google is showing tweets in search results on mobile; Google has mentioned that the effects of the deal will show up on desktop searches in the near future.

Our Chicago SEO team did a test run and it looks like tweets will appear on the page in a slider format. If you search for a hashtag, or keywords that are strong enough on Twitter, those tweets will appear one at a time with the option to see "more tweets for [subject]."

The only trouble is that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for where the tweets appear on the results page; sometimes they appear at the top and sometimes they appear in the middle or bottom. Sometimes the tweets won't appear on the search results at all. Presumably, according to our SEO agency, is that you will see the tweets surrounding a hashtag or topic when that subject is trending. 

Even though social media marketing was becoming more and more of a common practice for businesses, this deal between Google and Twitter has put it on the fast track.

If your business is not taking SEO or social media for business seriously, it needs to start doing that. If you have no idea how to do that or don't have the time, then call or email Integraphix and get a free consultation.

4 Benefits of Blogging for Business

The other day, the professional copywriting team from our SEO firm was talking to a group of business owners and we were asked, "Why should our businesses be blogging? What's in it for us?"

There are four core reasons that every business, especially small businesses, should be blogging.

1. It drives traffic to your website. 

If you want to have more traffic to your website, then you are among the thousands of business owners who wish to have more traffic to their site. Let's consider the various ways that people will find your website: 

• They could type your URL right into their web address bar. However, for that to happen, they have to already know your URL, which means your business already has them. You are on their radar and they know about your business. 
• You can pay for the web traffic by purchasing some email lists, emailing the people (victims?), and hoping for some clickthrough with the emails. However, that is both tacky and sort of illegal (Google hates it, a lot). 
• You can buy Adwords and pay for high placement in search results. This is an effective method, to a point, but people only click on these links 20-30% of the time. 
• That means that organic links get clicks 70-80% of the time. 

So how can you drive traffic to your site since those three methods got shut down? Blogging, social media marketing, and search engine marketing. 

Blogging draws the eye of search engines to your site, which helps with traffic in two ways. 

The first way is that search engines like content, fresh content. If your business actively blogs, this adds another fresh page of content to your site for search engines to crawl, index, and like (hopefully). This enhances your chances of good organic rankings. The alternative is to update the content on your website; this is a great method but how many times can you actually update your "About Us" page? The second way is that people will read your blog posts and click to your site. In each blog post, you will include links to your site via keywords and images. By extension, you can drive traffic to your site (and blog posts) with blog posts being shared on social media. It can be tough to have social media posts worth looking at, let alone sharing, blog posts help both issues. 

2. It helps you convert all that traffic into qualified leads. 

Now your site has all that traffic flooding its pages; you have a fantastic opportunity to convert that traffic into qualified leads. How do you do this? Insert a good, lead-generating call-to-action (CTA) to each blog post. 

Your CTAs can be things like free ebooks, whitepapers/fact sheets, pamphlets, consultation meeting, trial memberships, etc. It has to be something someone will be willing to give their email up for, not something lackluster. 

If you are already writing blog posts but don't have a quality CTA, start adding that to the blog posts right now. 

3. It helps establish your expertise and authority in the field. The people who write about topics in an industry are the people who know the most about it and can share info. How many blogs about an industry are written by "rookies", at least that you see? Not many, if any. 

The best corporate blogs are blogs that can answer consumer questions. If you can create content that helps your target market, they will see you as an authority. This is helpful, nay, necessary for good sales leads. Your sales team will thank your SEO copywriting team. A card would be nice. 

Measuring your success in establishing your business as an authority can be difficult, if not impossible. You can gauge it by how many readers your blog posts get, comments, and shares on social media. 

4. It drives great long-term results. 

A good blog post can drive traffic and help establish good, organic search results for months after the blog posts was published. Our Chicago SEO company has at least half of our monthly web traffic come from blog posts that are several months old. Crazy! 

If your blog posts can rank on their own, then they can each drive traffic for days, weeks, even months after being published. 

Is a company blog something that your business needs to invest in? Then call or email Integraphix. Our SEO team will give you a free website analysis! 

For the First Time Ever, Mobile Searches Beat Desktop Searches

After many years of speculation about the survival of desktop search, Google has released the stats for last month's search results and mobile has taken over desktop.

That's right, all the rumblings about mobile search's power are coming true. Smartphones and tablets count towards the "mobile" searches, while desktop PCs and laptops count towards desktop searches. Of the mobile searches, smartphones carried more than half the weight.

This puts a new challenge on digital marketing and mobile marketing teams as it puts the livelihood of the purchase funnel in jeopardy. Instead, what we see happening are "micro-moments", dubbed by Jerry Dischler (VP
of product management at Google), which requires marketers to be present at all times.

Google has built a new ad format so that the mobile ads are more prominent in mobile search results; this is great for advertisers since it cuts down on the amount of time that people have to scroll through results, reducing frustration and increasing conversion.

Advertisers can also have the great ability to buy mobile ads with Google on-the-fly since approximately 15 percent of searches are brand new each day.

This news is not so shocking after Google's April 21st deadline for sites to be mobile-friendly or be penalized on mobile search rankings. The push to accommodate smartphones and tablets is in full-force for Google, so brands better catch on real quick.

If you are concerned about your SEO, digital marketing, or site's mobile-friendly status, then contact Integraphix, a Chicago SEO company. 

Why are YouTube Ads Much More Appealing to Brands These Days?

Mobile advertising is no longer the drag that it once was. YouTube has released reports that have given great information about the growth, popularity, and effectiveness of the ads that run on the platform.

Google has mentioned that more and more brands are advertising on YouTube, which is great, but fewer and fewer people are skipping them.

Some of the reasons, according to Google, is the quality of the creative in the ads. This has helped increase the amount of clicks by 25 percent over the past year. Overall, the amount of brands advertising on YouTube rose 45 percent.

So why are more brands on YouTube ads? Aside from their effectiveness appearing to increase, they have also been cheaper for brands to buy. The cost of an ad on the platform was down 13 percent, which was appealing to brands, not taking their newfound success into account.

Google has made tremendous strides in search quality for smartphones and tablets.

Your brand needs to expand its reach? Consider YouTube ads! Trust a Chicago internet marketing agency that knows how to create top quality creative for internet ads. 

Today's the Day! Google's Mobile-Friendly Requirement Goes into Effect

The day is upon us. The time is nigh! Is your site ready to go? 

Maybe your site is almost ready to go because you have a completely new website design or just a mobile-friendly website version of your current site being created but it was started a bit late. That is fine, you shouldn't be affected too much.

Maybe you were one of the few that was 100 percent prepared and got a mobile-friendly version of your site out well before today. Kudos to you!

Or, maybe you were one of the people who found out way too late and now you are stuck with a site that is not mobile-friendly and nothing in the works. Well, your mobile rankings will be hit. Of course, it is not too late to salvage your mobile search rankings! Email Integraphix, a Chicago SEO agency with a strong web design team and see how we can help your site become mobile-friendly, and quickly!

Is Your Site Ready for April 21st? Hint: It's About Google

Just six days from now, Google's mandate for sites to be mobile-friendly or "be square" will go into effect. This SEO update has gone with a different process than previous updates since this update came with an official warning.

Google made the announcement in March saying, "Starting April 21st, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal…" As of now, it seems that site rankings will be hit with searches on mobile devices, it is yet to be seen if rankings will be hit on desktop/laptop searches.

The change comes as a result of a major uptick in mobile searches (searche
s done on tablets and smartphones). Sites that are not mobile-friendly are a pain to navigate on those devices and so Google wants to reward the sites that have taken the initiative to be mobile-friendly; on that same not, Google is punishing the sites that are making it difficult for mobile-searchers to view the web.

A major thing to note is that sites must pass a mobile-friendly test, proctored by Google search crawlers. Also, the friendliness is determined at the page level, not site-wide. 

Google has been telling web designers and developers to make their sites mobile-responsive for years now but it was more of a suggestion, now, Google is putting its foot down. Its mighty, mighty foot.

If your site is not mobile-friendly, please email Integraphix- a Chicago SEO company and Chicago web design business. 

5 Myths About SEO That Are 100% Wrong

There are lots of myths out there about SEO, some of them have validity, while others are just wrong. Here are some of the worst offenders out there.

1. Search engine optimization is a big scam. It is sad but true that many business owners feel this way. They have been sold on SEO by not-so-honest SEO companies; they promise SEO services but deliver no results. If you are paying for SEO and not getting traffic and/or rankings after a few months (maybe not fantastic data, but it's still there) then you have fallen prey to inadequate SEO techniques. 
2. Google can figure out how which URL is the main one. Many website developers and owners like to think that creating many URLs for the same site is a good idea in hopes of having more URLs to rank for. Sure, it sounds like a good idea to have lots of optimized URLs for the same site but it is not! Google will never figure out which is the main one. Your site will suffer because of it. 
3. Google doesn't work for extended periods of time. Some people have this belief because they did SEO, it worked, then it didn't. Just because SEO stopped working perfectly after a period of time doesn't mean it doesn't work for a long time. If it stops working after a while, then something needs to be fixed. Such as…
1. Link degradation
2. Old keywords
3. Outdated content
4. Your competition is outperforming you
5. Etc. 
4. Link building doesn't work. The classic, and founding, method of SEO is not dead nor has it ever been. Old-fashioned link building is still liked by search engines and is still a heavyweight in determining your rankings. 
5. SEO and social media marketing are not connected. This is not true at all. They are heavily connected. Your activity on Google+, Twitter, and even Pinterest (somewhat Facebook and others) are monitored by Google and can even rank! Beyond that, the more activity you have on social media, the more exposure you have, the more traffic your site gets, the more SEO does for you. 

Don't fall prey to the myths that float around about SEO. If you have questions about SEO, then contact Integraphix and see how our Chicago SEO company can help your business get noticed on the web! 

Google Takes on April Fool's Day

It's that time of year again. Pranks happen here. Pranks happen there. Coworkers get annoyed. Skepticism and paranoia are off the charts.

However, even some brands get in on the action. One of the brands that sort of went all out for the "holiday" was Google.

• If you go to com.google, you will see the Google's site completely reversed. 
• On Google Maps, you can play Pac-Man on the maps. 
• Google Maps is also warning people that Australia will be in the Northern Hemisphere by 2055. 
• Ingress, Google's AR game, has also caught Pac-Man fever. 
• Google Japan has done something very unique; they launched a Party Horn keyboard See in the video on the top right. What does it do? It lets you type letters by determining how hard you blow. 
• They also produced a Teddy Ruxpin-esque stuffed Panda that has search capabilities. It is called Google Panda. Get it? 
• Google Chrome launched an extension that lets users capture a reaction selfie with whatever content they are viewing. 
• Google's email service, Gmail, has launched a Smartbox by Inbox by Gmail by Google, that's a mouthful. It is apparently the email inbox that we've been missing all our lives. See the video on the bottom right. 
• Do you miss the screeching and scratching of dial-up? Well Google Fiber has launched a dial-up mode so we can all relive the sounds of those beloved 56k modems. 

So brands like to have some fun with days like today. Even our Chicago SEO company has had some adventures today. The social media marketing team plastic-wrapped the cars of our copywriting team. Fun. 

Does your business want to capitalize on great moments of opportunity to increase brand awareness? Then email Integraphix and speak with our Chicago marketing agency. 

Google's New Tool Helps Brick & Mortar Stores Succeed Online

Instead of brands that are based in brick-and-mortar locations finally have a reason to celebrate about ecommerce, Google's Local Inventory Ads. The ads strive to direct web traffic online consumers to local stores carrying the products they are searching for. This is a huge move in the search engine optimization world.

The tool was launched last year and so it's still somewhat new to brands but it seems to be helping them already. One brand that is experiencing benefit from this internet marketing tool is Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores.

What happens is really neat for brands; so when you search for something, for example, "Washing Machines", Google will have ads on the side or top of page, like Adwords, with ads for the product you're searching for. When you click on "Shop on Google" you are directed to a page with listings for all of the products that stores have paid to list under this section, pertaining to your search. You can see which stores are carrying your product, what their price is, and how far they are located from your location (determined by IP address).

So now stores have a bit of leverage on online stores advertising on Google. While the purchasing process of online is easier, it requires no driving or even getting dressed, the ability to immediately own a product and not paying for shipping will win every time.

Sears's spinoff company has been running these ads that utilize location and tell consumers where to find the product nearby for some time. In fact, they have seen 122 percent more visits to all of their 1,240 locations because of this service. Sears has reported a 16 percent increase on inventory ads versus their other online advertisements.

This tool works brilliantly with mobile advertising as well. Shoppers can check out where's the best place to purchase something while on the move to purchase it. It is the best search ad tool so far.

Does your business need to increase its conversions and click-through rate? Then email Integraphix about digital advertising. Our Chicago SEO firm can help your business establish a powerful presence online. 

The Power for Instagram for Food Trucks at SXSW

At SXSW Interactive, food trucks have become a bit of a staple for goers to enjoy. Food trucks have seen a resurgence in popularity across U.S. cities, especially here in Chicago as they are finally legal. At the SXSW festival, food trucks line the streets and sell their innovative recipes and twists on traditional food items, fitting with the innovative theme of the tech, music, and films at SXSW.

Every food truck promotes via social media marketing at SXSW; all of them using their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram profiles to generate buzz. Instagram creates a great platform for food trucks to promote themselves since it is visual and mobile based. With the support of hashtags, attendees can quickly view the different foods being offered by tapping on the different hashtags.

As a Chicago SEO firm that has visited the SXSW festival in prior years, we have spoken with many attendees who tend to skip the food trucks since their lines can grow to hours long. However, the lines this year have grown even more due to the stepped up presence on Instagram and more people flocking to SXSW.

Using Instagram allows the food trucks and restaurants in the area to connect with customers, even when they are not near their locations. Yes, that is true of all digital marketing other times as well, but it has a profound effect at SXSW since attendees can quickly move to their locations at any time.

However, the social bug has not bitten every SXSW attendee when it comes to finding a cure for their growling tummies, some still use the old-fashioned nose, eyes, and tastebuds. They smell, look for visual confirmation of good scent, and taste to confirm it was worth the purchase.

Is your business in need of better social media marketing? Then email Integraphix, a SEO company in Chicago with over 25 years experience in marketing. 

Twitter's Gameplan for SXSW

Social media giant, Twitter,  plans on doing several things at the famous SXSW Interactive fest. One of their main objectives is to promote the site's video capabilities, which allows users to share easier than ever before, better advertising opportunities, and an autoplay option (possibly).

The past year, video has been on Twitter's mind and has consumed a lot of their efforts. They worked hard on launching their native video service, which impacted both social media marketing and search engine optimization efforts for brands, as well as keeping up with other social media companies. One of the events that sparked Twitter's efforts was Facebook's purchase of LiveRail in 2014, since Facebook wanted to improve their video service.

Until this year, Twitter's approach to video has been a little confusing, allowing multiple services to play video for Twitter. Now, it doesn't matter where the video was produced nor on which device, it will all be seamless and uniform. Now, with Twitter's native video platform, users can shoot and upload video directly to Twitter. Also, in efforts to create a better video experience digital marketing teams and general users, Twitter purchased SnappyTV; this allows lets media companies broadcast content quickly and sell ads with that.

Twitter is still working out an autoplay feature, allowing videos to begin playing as users scroll through their feeds. 

Connect with your customers via social media marketing and engaging video! Email Integraphix- a Chicago SEO company - about digital marketing services and advertising. 

How to Get Your Audience to Give a Hoot About Your Digital Campaign

One of the most challenging parts of creating a successful campaign for digital marketing is generating consumer engagement. When your consumers don't give a hoot, they don't engage.

So how does a brand generate engagement from its consumers with social media marketing? Answer: by making consumer feedback part of the process and be heard!

When you make the consumer part of the process, granted, it has to be for something fun/worthwhile, then you will see their interest and willingness to engage will increase.

Let's look at one fantastic example of "making the consumer part of the process" from Lay's, the beloved brand from Frito-Lay. The past few years, Lay's has run the digital marketing campaign called, "Do Us a Flavor"; the highly-orchestrated creative internet marketing campaign has allowed consumers to submit their ideas for a great (or, rather terrible) potato chip flavor. The four best ideas (determined by user votes) are turned into flavors. From there, consumers purchase the chips and give their feedback; the winning flavor from that group is then turned into a real flavor and available for mass purchase for one year.

How wonderful is that? Not only is the consumer a vital part of the campaign, and more than just a purchaser, but the point of the campaign is worthwhile and fun! It matters that your campaign is worthwhile, otherwise, you still won't get any engagement. It is a delicate balance.

Does your business desire better engagement with its audience? Then email Integraphix - a Chicago SEO company - about how to create a campaign that makes consumers want to engage and can generate worthwhile ROI! 

The Art of Going Viral with Video ft. President Obama

This past Sunday, Feb. 15, was the deadline for people to sign up for healthcare coverage. While this is a priority for many people across the country, millennials have been elusive and have proven to be a hard demographic to appeal to with this message.

President Obama wanted everyone, especially millennials, to sign up for healthcare coverage. There are two great ways to connect with this powerful demographic: social media marketing and viral videos; so, to connect with Millennials, the President utilized those mediums, especially the video part. Obama and Buzzfeed Motion Pictures created a video to promote Healthcare.gov. 

The results that speak of the video's success are still being calculated; however, the popularity of the video is tremendous, having been watched 15 million times in its first eight hours. By the end of last night, the video surpassed 42 million views.

In the video, we see President Obama doing American-Millennial things like taking a selfie on his iPhone with a selfie-stick, blaming Obama for something (you know the sarcastic phrase, "Thanks, Obama."). However, the point of the video is hidden in his speech practice that is done in front of the mirror.

Obama is no shy person to social media, using it heavily in both Presidential campaigns and for other efforts, such as his Reddit AMA, chats with YouTube stars, and other creative projects.

Does your business need to reach a difficult demographic with its marketing? Does your business want to improve its social media presence? Then email Integraphix and our Chicago creative marketing team can help you strategize! 

YouTube is on the Radar for FOUR Startups

Is change in the air? Or, rather, on your computer screen? YouTube, the world's most popular video platform & an emerging influencer in search engine optimization rankings (it's owned by Google, hence the reason), could be challenged by four different startups.

So what are these "Davids" who are looking to take down "Goliath"?

1. Victorious. Founded by Sam Rogoway, Michael Todd, and Bing Chen, this mobile-first platform allows creators have a house for their content, including their own apps. You can also interact with other users and fans as well as show off the content. This platform makes money by having in-app purchases, e-commerce, and standard ad formats. 
2. 5by. Founded by Greg Isenberg, the mobile app recommends content to users (the content is divided by categories) due to the ratings they give on previously watched videos. Users of the app can share and chat about videos with other users, privately. The app makes money by brand sponsorships and highlighted videos. It has since been bought by Stumbleupon. 
3. Vessel. Founded by Jason Kilar and Richard Tom, former execs from Hulu. This app hosts premium shows from publishers and creators. Those who use the service get dibs on first-look content. The company makes money from subscriptions and brands can purchase 5-second pre-roll for videos. 
4. Pluto TV. Founded by Nick Grouf, Tom Ryan, and Ilya Pozin, the platform operates much like linear TV. It curates videos from many publishers and puts them into 100+ channels for viewers; viewers see their choices in an easy-to-use guide. This platform makes money from pop-up ads and interstitial videos. 

The internet changes constantly; one day, some company will be top dog and another day, a new guy on the scene is making a name for itself. This is why it is so important to be ranked on Google search results-- your website can be lost in the depths of the websites if it is not being promoted. Does you website have SEO services? 

Email Integraphix and see how our Chicago SEO company can help your site be noticed on the web. 

Who Won the Social Media Battle Between Facebook & Twitter During the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl on Sunday night attracted record viewers and was the most mentioned Super Bowl in history. Not to mention its popularity on Twitter but it was also a huge hit with Facebook as well. According to Facebook, 65 million people engaged in conversation.

The game was a terrific background for the two social media giants as they tried to get into good relationships with marketers. Twitter has already been a terrific platform for brands who wanted to join conversations; despite having fewer users, Twitter was actually the better place to discuss the game and its infamous ads than Facebook was.

Between the two, Twitter is the more popular place for live social commentary. However, Facebook has made some progress in being a go-to place for discussions like Twitter has. Facebook features trending topics, like Twitter, and they even setup a a hub for Super Bowl conversations. Both platforms have their pros and cons.

Marketers, such as our Chicago SEO company marketing team, engage differently on Facebook than they do on Twitter. Here's a list of comparisons between the two & how they performed on Sunday night (with things related to the Super Bowl).

• Facebook had 265 million posts, comments, & likes. 
• Twitter had 36 million tweets & 2.6 billion impressions. 25 million more tweets than last year. 
• Both were buzzing with chatter when the Patriots sealed the win with the interception. Facebook had 1.36 million comments per minute. 
• Twitter had 395,000 tweets per minute talking about the interception. 
• The halftime show had 3 million tweets; Facebook had 1 million people per minute discuss the show. 
• Half the Super Bowl ads featured hashtags, Facebook was only mentioned 4 times. 
• Top 3 performing moments on Facebook were the win, halftime show, and the 3rd quarter touchdown for the Seahawks to take the lead. 
• Top 3 performing tweets on Twitter were the final interception, the victory, and the final moments of the halftime show. 

Social media marketing is a big deal for days and moments like the Super Bowl. It is a big topic for people to comment on and give their input, don't let your brand miss out. Does your brand need great digital marketing? Then email Integraphix and see how our Chicago SEO company can help your business capitalize on big moments, or, simply have a presence on the web! 

Is It Time to Update Your Site's Content

When was the last time you changed your site's content? Even if it was just a page or two's worth? If you cannot answer this question, or without a long pause to think, then it is likely time to produce fresh content for your site.

Search engines and humans alike prefer to see fresh content vs. the same, stagnant content on your site. A site that sits with the same content on it for a year or more is a site that will struggle to truly succeed at search engine optimization.

Refresh the existing content now and then and make sure to generate new content a couple times a month, such as a blog, news, updates, etc. This is why an internal blog is great for SEO, search engines like to see that fresh content. Also, you can use this opportunity for images and more substance for search engine crawlers to index and grab when someone does an internet search related to your business.

Do you need this done, have questions, or require internet marketing services? Then contact Integraphix, a Chicago SEO company.

Notice Anything Different About Google's Logo on MLK Jr. Day?

If you have gone on Google today, then you should have noticed something special going on with its logo, it is a special edition logo in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Today, you will find the latest, and one of the coolest, Google Doodles for the holiday. It is Martin Luther King Jr. arm-in-arm with some fellow civil rights activists with an American flag and silhouettes in the background.

The idea that Google creates special page designs for holidays is nothing new; we even see them create special logos for birthdays, movements, etc. It is smart digital marketing from the search engine giant.

The doodle, or logo, was designed by Ekua Holmes, who has a unique style for her art. Her art features news clippings, photos, intriguing colors that all contribute to making powerful messages in her art.

Does your brand need to have impressive presence online? Then try online marketing. If you want to be found on Google search results, then consider search engine marketing such as search engine optimization.

Contact Integraphix to find out how we can help your business get seen on the internet.

Twitter to Launch Autoplay Video Feature, a Win for Social Media Advertising

Social media giant will be giving us a late Christmas gift this year, however, the wait was worth it: autoplay video! This is a great day for social media marketing as well as search engine optimization since both are often tied together.

The last year, Twitter has been working out how it would construct its built-in video system, if it decided to implement it. This new feature would give Twitter users and digital marketers a way to create great footage within the app. If you attended the CES 2015, then you likely saw this being shown. 

In a previous blog (seen here), we talked about this being in Twitter's plans and the possibility that the videos would play when users scrolled over them. This is the setup that Facebook has and it has shown to be a lucrative and efficient way for some good ROI that both consumers and brands love.

Video has proven that it is great for social sharing and is being embraced by many companies, including search giants Yahoo & Google, as well as social media giants Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

Twitter is not newbie to the video scene, they own Vine and have implemented other cool formats like GIF support in recent years. Twitter's new video feature will operate differently than what we see elsewhere. 

How will it be different?

• 6 seconds to impress- Viewers will get a 6 second preview of the video, enticing them to click and watch the full thing. However, this is not limited to the first 6 seconds of the video, so digital marketing agencies must choose their 6 seconds wisely. 
• No sound at the start- The autoplay will not have sound until the viewer clicks to watch the rest of the video (we see this with Facebook's autoplay feature). Of course, this means that advertisers will not pay until consumers click. 
• There will be a good length of time- Videos will be given the option to run up to 10 minutes. Of course, any one of our Chicago SEO specialists will tell you that the average user only watches for about 30 seconds. 

Does your business want to have a better presence on social media? Then contact Integraphix-- a Chicago SEO firm with extensive, proven success with social media. We can help you build videos that will delight the Twittersphere. 

How to Fit Press Releases into Your SEO Strategy in 2015

Press releases have been a staple in the world of promoting a business for many years. When the Google Panda and Google Penguin updates happened in 2011 and 2012, they wanted t

o deliver better quality content and connections with that had frequent content updates; press releases were a perfect way to embrace that new feature of Google's search algorithms.

Press releases are still beneficial for search engine optimization in 2015, despite the constant evolution of the press release. One change to note is that releases do not carry the big authoritative weight that they once did, you can thank the businesses that used them solely for self-promotion for that. In order for them to be part of your 2015 plan for digital marketing, you have to understand the whole scope of things.

The benefits of press releases

• The natural link building- It can be a hard task to get the quality inbound links you need for good SEO. They can take a lot of time and can lead you to being banned from search engines if you are not careful! A press release is a quicker way to accomplish this; however, you have to be able to write quality content. Submitting press releases can help connect you with hundreds of news sources, which can lead to many links. 
• High-quality sources- These are authoritative sources, good ones. A lot of the sites your release will be published on should be high-quality. You will not be getting backlinks from random blogs or discussion forums. 
• Great keyword and brand recognition- As long as your press releases are written in-house, you will have the ability to connect your business with keywords that are helpful and effective. If you are a hotdog establishment, then you can publish press releases that feature your brand name and hotdog related keywords. 
• Referral traffic. Organic traffic is wonderful but referral traffic is delightful as well. As long as your traffic is quality, you're doing well. Yes, quantity is big too. 
• Reputation management. This is crucial if you want to defend your business from attacks, especially false ones. 

Is your company looking for more exposure online? Contact Integraphix about SEO services for your website or blog. We have flexible packages to match your budget.