Dream Systems Media Blog

A lesson in Repurposing Content -

I heard an English teacher once say that “Every modern love story is a copy of Shakespeare.” She used Westside Story as an extreme example, stolen from Romeo and Juliet. She went on to challenge us to find a theme that Shakespeare did not cover. But there are those who argue that Shakespeare himself stole content. Who did Shakespeare steal stories from? Well, no one really knows at this point. But if he did borrow some ideas, does that constitute stealing? He took stories and themes and reworked them so eloquently that they became his own. Taking a peak at what people have done in the past and building upon their thoughts and ideas can be a healthy exercise. Adding to the conversation is a good thing. Further, those that we can identify with and build better thoughts with may even thank us. …or not. Matt Cutts may just consider me more of a pest than a pest control guy. I concede. But thanks Matt Cutts for the original Pac-Man Pie Chart idea.

General Google, Google Webmaster Tools, matt cutts, pest control, Pubcon, Romeo and Juliet, Search engine optimization, Shakespeare

Well there have been a bunch of busy bees in the Google local search hive. Local has been under the knife a few times. From reset data, to cool visual effects. These are today’s changes in Google’s local blended results.

The New Gray Google Map Marker

Less intrusive, less eye catching, more interactive.

Rolling over the this gray marker will change it blue for pay per click (PPC)  ads on the right, or red for organic listings on the left. Scrolling over markers in the google map section highlights the respective listing markers in the PPC and organic section. You will also get a nice snippet for the local organic listings. No snippets for PPC. It’s also interesting to note that the listings have moved the once red-pins-now-gray-pin to the right of the blended results. Google also removed the triangle pointer they once displayed for the top listing.

Google, Local Marketing Google, Google Maps, Houston, Houston Pest Control, Local search (Internet), Pay per click, pest control, pest control guy, Phoenix Pest Control, Search engine optimization

UPDATE:  Good discussion going on over on Google Plus about this:  https://plus.google.com/115671137696411026556/posts/SKAvdpzTzu9

Maybe I am late to this, but I just noticed a new thing with Google Places. Has anyone seen this before today?  I have not seen anyone talking about it or making mention of it yet.  Anyway,  after you click on the website it has a box pop up that asks you: “Is abcwebsite.com the correct website for this business?”  Looks like they are trying to finally improve the way they link the websites to the Google places pages.

Also, perhaps this will be good to weed out spammer companies like putting weird landing page websites as the place page buiness website instead of the actual page.  (Why do that anyway, seems dumb)

Google Google, Google Places, spam

Introducing the new Google Adwords button.

How will Google Adwords +1 Button change Internet Marketing? Does it affect PPC? Will it help or hurt CRO? Can it really increase CTR? What’s the Math?

In a recent email from Google Adwords was the following notification:

In the coming weeks, your search results and ads on Google will include a +1 button, which users can click to recommend your ads. You don’t need to make any changes to your account in order to take advantage of them. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.

That time has arrived.

Google, Industry News, PPC +1, AdWords, Clickthrough rate, Google, Google +1, Google Plus 1, NoIndex, Organic search, Pay per click, pest control guy, Quality Score

Announcement:

Retiring the position preference setting

In early May, we’ll be removing the option to set position preferences. Learn more about what this means for your campaigns.

Google, Industry News, PPC, Sales and Marketing Google, pest control guy, PPC

I saw this question posted yesterday by Jay Thompson on a post he’s trying to get removed from Google:

“I don’t know how long it will take Google to de-index the post, but it should get de-indexed at some point (and if an SEO wizard is reading this, tell me what, if anything, else I can do to get it de-indexed). Below is a screen shot of my WordPress backend showing the post is set to noindex/nofollow.”

It is in reference to this page: http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/a-follow-up-to-my-lones-group-v-rothamel-article/

Since I know a thing or two about SEO, I thought I would help this guy out, and answer his question. I have used the nofollow command in the robots.txt to remove as well as going into my Google webmaster account (removal request tool) and removed pages that way (a site got hacked and I had to request a ton of pages get moved – so trust me, I know it works)

Google Google, SEO

Ok, been saving my comments about Google Instant, but got a SERP “instant” result today that was to good to keep to myself. I missed the Sundevils game last night, so I wanted to check out the score this morning. I go to Google and start typing in …. well, see for yourself.

Instant Google Search for Arizona State Sun ...

Just what you want your little kids seeing when they go to Google and check out the scores too huh??? But even more annoying? The “Instant” SERP image result (of these two girls paying swords with their tongues) is almost 3 years old. (look at the arrow) nice job on this Google.

Trash results

Rants Google, Google Instant

If your visits from Google are down today, there may be good reason!  I Twittered upon something amusing this morning, but this also stinks too, because it really does make me wonder if the referrals will be less today because of this Google mix up.

Thanks to a tweet by @coplandmj I woke up to an interesting problem Google seems to be having.  Every result in the SERPs are telling searchers “This site may harm your computer”.  I have seen this before on a few sites, but not EVERY SINGLE ONE.  I did a random search for SEO Blog and had to screen shot it for those who may miss it – check out all the SEO Blogs that may harm your computer – LOL.  I wonder how long this one will take to fix, and what the story behind it is.

This site may harm your computer Google Error

Google Google, google error, google mistake

Ok, so like me, I’m sure many of you iPhone users out there have been reading the hype about the new Google Voice Search feature of the Google App for the iPhone. I have seen a few stories zip through to me via Google Alerts, but until now I didn’t really pay any attention to them. This morning I decided to download the Google App and give Voice Search a try to see how it works for me. Here is what I found.

Google App Install:

It’s as simple as all the other apps you can download from Apple, simple click on the Apps icon on your iPhone and either search for Google or just go to the Top 25 Free Apps page and it’ll be there, it almost always is…and yet it is FREE. Click on the App, click on Free, click on Install, and bang…the download begins. After a few minutes you’ll be in Google App heaven ;o)

Google Google, iPhone

Hello and welcome to my first Dream Systems Media Blog post. My name is Andrew Melchior and I’m going to be posting to this blog on a daily (I hope) basis. To start I’m going to give you a little background on who I am and what I’ll be doing here at DSM.

I got started in the online industry back in 2000 when I launched my first ecommerce website and it was fast moving from there. After launching that site I quickly became inspired to learn as much as I could about internet marketing so I dug in deep and began reading all I could along with testing and applying what I learned. I also had the chance during that time to begin working with some ecommerce consulting companies like Prosper, Inc. In doing this, I got the chance to literally work with over 1000 small .com start-ups and this gave me the ultimate learning and proving ground to apply different strategies in. Fast forward to 2008 and I am now part owner in literally 16+ different ecommerce, blog, and service based sites, DSM included, and will be working in DSM to help acquire clients and service them toward helping them reach their goals. I am very confident we’ll be able to do just that and also know that the clients we have will not just be satisfied, they will be amazed at what we can do for them.

Andrew Melchior, Google Andrew Melchior, Google