Who doesn't like Yelp? Search for restaurants. Read reviews. It's great. These days Yelp is used to review most all businesses. And that's useful. We're having a bit of uneasiness, though, with Yelp and its automated filtering engine. Stone has…
Google. Facebook. Amazon ... which do you trust the most? All three of these services collect information from you. Browsing history. Usage history. Personal information. They collect information to make more money; whether it be to suggest items for purchase…
Want Google to recrawl your website ahead of schedule? Great little article that shows you how to have Google visit a page or more within one day's time. Can come in very handy when something goes unexpectedly wrong.
Everyone knows that it's important. But this important? A quick read that suggests just how important it is to strive for top rankings in both SERP and PPC placement.
Does a quality site design affect search rankings? Usually, when we've discussed the value of a quality website design with clients we have focused the conversation on conversion rate, on branding, and on customer satisfaction. And those are three excellent…
It's rumored that Penguin 2.0 is right around the corner. Penguin, as you might have learned, was a Google algorithm update from early 2012. It worked to decrease search engine rankings of sites that were not following the spirit of…
Bing invites us all to 'Bing It On', offering up a cute little online comparison test between David and Goliath. We've seen the commericals and thought ... why not. I'm a Google guy. An increasingly reluctant Google guy, but still…
Google Analytics ... the world’s leading tool for website analytics. It’s a free tool that does an excellent job of website usage reporting. It details where visitors come from, how they found your site, and what they did on your…
See your site for what it is. Clear that cache. When updates are made on your site, it's not always easy to actually see them. Your browser has most likely cached the page - to improve load times - and…
In the SEO world there's always A LOT of talk about links, and for the most part, rightfully so. Links continue to be a prime indicator of authority and relevance to search engines, which makes a proper link building strategy…
"Tumblr—which is beloved by its users for its clean interface, ease of use and community."- The New York Observer "...The smart thing to be doing online these days is tumblelogging, which is to weblogs what text messages are to email…
This morning Google announced that their Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Essentially, it's just the name catching up with the practice as the 'place pages' have been around for quite some time. The reasoning behind the change is…
You spent the time and money to optimize and promote your site, and got some really great traffic and rankings out of it. Congratulations! Now you can sit back, relax and reap the benefits. Right? Not exactly. In fact, the…
Just in case you haven’t been keeping up, here's the skinny: Google retreats from China because: Google refuses to cooperate with government censors after hackers stole some of the company’s source code They also broke into Gmail accounts of Chinese…
Mention online advertising and most people think ‘banner ad’. While these types of ads are definitely popular, there is a whole online world filled with promotional opportunities, cross-marketing opportunities, and direct marketing opportunities to consider for your next campaign effort.…
While Rachel Kuptz (@girlydrinks) wrote this a while back, the advice she gives is sound and still accurate today. While we miss her here at Stone IG we do know the wisdom of her online marketing passion. This was original…
There's a great blog post (and subsequent comment discussion) happening over on the SEOMoz Blog today. The topic is one that all SEOs and webmasters have encountered at some point in time: Why, oh why, has the Google God not…
Its hard to pick up a business magazine and not see something about blogs. But what are the real advantages (and disadvantages) for a company to consider before deciding whether or not blogging is for them? Visibility - Blogs are…
Let's take a moment to debunk the myth that META tags are important for search rankings. Once upon a time it was true and somehow entered the public's consciousness, but they no longer have a significant impact on search rankings.…
If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. That's what Google CEO Eric Schmidt said when responding to concerns raised about internet privacy and recent updates to…
