You know the routine: you opt-in to someone’s list, and soon you receive a confirmation email from them, welcoming you to the list, newsletter or whatever you just signed up for. The fact that we are expecting these emails is a major reason why they are commonly opened.

All of us want our web pages to rank well, and many times we think that just putting up a wealth of great content should do the trick, but we’re here to let you know that there is a little more to the recipe than just adding words and images.

Google loves to reward pages that are technically well done with high rankings, as they feel that while you may have great content, if your user experience is less than wonderful, they’ll say no thank you and look elsewhere.

These days companies are creation visual content at an incredible rate, and the question soon arises, how and where to manage these assets? The sheer quantities of images, infographics, videos and creative web art bring into play the need for a cohesive strategy for keeping it all organized should and when you need it.

Everyone loves free, other than the people who have to pay for it. This is the unsaid truth that hides behind any “free” marketing method or campaign. There is normally, though not always, a real cost in terms of time and money.

So when you find yourself tempted to offer something for free, be sure and count the cost in each and every way you need to, in order to make sure your free content, bonus gift or other promotional label you chose to give is affordable.

LinkedIn has become a social media giant among professional and business people. The days of it being simply a place to dump your resume are long over, as LinkedIn now drives four times as many visitors to your home page as Facebook and Twitter combined.

It has probably come to your attention that headlines really do matter. We rely on them in most phases of our business these days, whether they are in the form of an ad, a blog post, a video, even an infographic. Your headline could well be the most important part of your content, as it frequently determines whether anyone proceeds any further.

Facebook is a tremendous platform for business, despite what you may have been told. Although many would have it remain the world’s largest kitten and baby photo repository, it has unquestionable uses for business, and smart marketers are making very sizeable gains by using Facebook.

Google Hangouts are a terrific platform for melding your online video marketing with your social media. Directly connected to your Google+ account, it has the advantage of being very easy to use, and fast. You can go online and create a Hangout, and begin broadcasting in minutes, and then afterward find it uploaded to your YouTube channel for you! Sounds like a perfect business medium to me.

It had to happen, and it has. The most recent Google update, named Pigeon, is focused on local search results, and it has had some rather wide reaching effects.

The stated intention of this update is to more closely tie local results with what the standard web ranking signals now are.

It’s tough enough to make sure you are fitting enough time into your day to make your social media efforts happen. It’s a tragedy if all that effort is wasted!

After wracking your brain to come up with clever and useful posts for your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ account or whatever combination you happen to work with, if nobody is moved to click on the links you’ve placed in those posts it’s just not worth the work.