Google Prohibits Rewards-for-Reviews

Google Prohibits Rewards-for-Reviews

Google Business Listings, Latest News, Online Reviews
By Susan Stern - Omaha, NEBRASKA -- An appliance repair shop takes 30 percent off - if you pen a Google review. A dentist office enters you into a contest, and your favorite restaurant gives you a FREE cocktail - in exchange for Google reviews."Wrong, wrong, wrong. Companies offering incentives for reviews - violate Google's Terms and Conditions," emphasizes Omaha branding consultant Susan Stern, of Stern PR Marketing.Businesses giving rewards-for-reviews are a widespread problem from Maine to California. In fact, here in Omaha this marketer has found dozens of metro-area small businesses violating Google's review policy. A quick Google image search found a plethora of inappropriate review incentives nationwide, too. Our digital marketing firm mashed a few together for this informative montage - what not to do.Google's Official Business Review…
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Google Penalizes Websites Not Mobile-Friendly!

Google Penalizes Websites Not Mobile-Friendly!

Google Business Listings, Google Products, SEO, Website Design
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Lose Website Rank if Site Not Mobile-Friendly Mobile/tablet surfing is booming (an estimated 31 percent of traffic in 1st quarter of 2014) and going up year-after-year. It's time to call your Website Designer/Marketer for a website conversation to mobile. Why? Google has given plenty of clues that it will penalize your website ranking if not optimized for cell phones and tablets. In layman's terms, Google is rolling out changes to its ranking algorithms that favor websites that are mobile-friendly and penalizing or down ranking sites that are not. Websites that are "misconfigured" can expect to slide down the search engines should content not be optimized for a smart phone or tablet according to Google's Webmaster Blog. Google Warns Sites Will Be Penalized "To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to…
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