The Week in Search & Social for July 14

Everybody here is still buzzing (a subtle joke for those of you with memories back to 2010) about Google+.   If it gains enough momentum, there’s no question that + could be a game-changer on many fronts.  In case you’re wondering, Google has asked that business not try to establish + accounts just yet…we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as they open the floodgates.

PPC

• Launched: Radius Targeting for Bing and Yahoo! Search – Advertisers now have the ability to set up radius targeting in their campaigns on both PC and mobile devices in all adCenter markets.
• How to Acquire Demographic Insights from Your Remarketing Campaign – Learn how to tease demographic clues from your retargeting placements.
• 6 Examples of Google+ Advertising – It’s safe to assume that ads will be coming to Google+, which means Google will be able to follow you from social, to search, to surfing.

SEO

• 7 Google+ Data Points that Could Change SEO – how Facebook’s new competitor might impact search results. One thought? Circles may be used to identify influencers.

Analytics

• Digging Into Web Analytics a Low Priority for Businesses – 44% of marketers are not at all or only somewhat involved in analyzing website performance. A sparse 7% say they are fully engaged with Web analytics, and just 6% report they are very effectively using Web analytics for measuring online activities.
• 7 High Converting Places to add email signup forms: A list of places you should consider adding an email sign up box – including end of blog posts, top of sidebar, etc.

Link Development

• Visual.ly Makes Infographics Easy – See a collection of the best infographics from across the web and sign up for the beta infographic creation tool
• Yahoo to Shut Down Site Explorer by End of Year – With Bing now powering Yahoo organic search results, Yahoo no longer feels the need to offer this widely popular tool and are encouraging user to check out Bing Webmaster Tools.

Social Media

• Six Ways to Socially Reward Your Customers – This explains different ways to thank, engage, retain and grow your current fan/follower base. Suggest using badges, contests, and members only coupons to keep your fan base happy and engaged.
• How Google+ Affected +1 Button Adoption – With the recent launch of Google+, it appears as though many of the top sites on the web took the +1 button a little more seriously, adding it to their site.
• How People Are Using LinkedIn – This infographic of LinkedIn usage offers some great insight, including the stat that 67% of users check their account several times per week or more.
• Top 10 Facebook Apps for Building Custom Pages & Tabs – With many fan pages now “fan-gating” or only displaying content to fans, this article briefly explains iFrames and 10 Apps that help create new facebook tabs. They have them ranked 1-10 with Wildfire taking the top position.

Local Search Engine Optimization

• Google Offers Rolls Out In NYC and Promises Expansion to Other US Cities – San Francisco and Oakland went live as well.
• What Will Google Plus Google Places Equal? – How Google+ Could Become A Killer Local Marketing Channel.
• Google’s Locksmith Spam Problem Hits The New York Times – While not as deep as the Times’ recent articles on JC Penny’s SEO Tactics  and floral industry SEO it nevertheless casts Google — again — as unable to keep up with the tide of SEO spam.
• Reviews: Google versus Yelp – With Google’s strong push in major cities for Places, reviews are being driven in almost spam like quantities, quite opposite from Yelp.

B2C

• Why Christmas in July is a Bad Retail Idea - Analysts and researches have not seen any incremental increase in sales for retailers offering Christmas in July promotions. However the number one reason not to run this promotion deals is due to the retailers return policy for the simple fact that some items can’t be returned after the holiday season if they were purchased in July.

Web Design

• Google +1 Button Javascript problems – Google’s +1 Button may conflict with your sites existing javascript.
• HTML5 Form features – New features in HTML5 to ease form creation and extend the capabilities of your forms.

Mobile

• NFC Support Discovered in Google+ App – Support for NFC (near-field communications) was recently discovered inside the Google+ Android app. Though not officially announced by Google, this could open the door for unique G+ feature such as Check-Ins.