1 – Your CMS

Without doubt, Bing is growing in market share, and it is becoming increasingly worth the effort for news suppliers to get their websites included in Bing, as well as Google News (for details on this, check our feature, “How to submit to Google News”). As with submissions to Google News, suppliers will need to get some essential preliminaries in place, which we have summarized in our “What to do before you set up a news feed” feature. The four most crucial preliminaries are:

Publishing regular news articles via a news feed is a reliable way to generate traffic to a website, particularly if the site is accepted by Google News. For sites that rely on Google News as part of their SEO strategy, Google has announced the introduction of a new tag to highlight their best content.</p> <p>Publishers have been invited by Google to use a new 'standout' tag, indicating which of the content on their site is the best. Google has asked that the tag only be used seven times in a week to avoid abuse and says any site exceeding that number, "may find that its tags are less recognized, or ignored altogether."</p> <p>Google hopes the tag will not only be used for promoting a site's own content and commented, "Standout Content tags work best when news publishers recognize not just their own quality content, but also the original journalistic contributions of others when your stories draw from the standout efforts of other publications. Linking out to other sites is well recognized as a best practice on the web, and we believe that citing others? standout content is important for earning trust as you also promote your own standout work."</p> <p>The number of external tags that can be used is not limited and the tag is seen as a further attempt by Google to identify the best content available on the web. Although Google's search algorithm is constantly being updated in its effort to eliminate poor quality sites, extra assistance from real people using the web can only be an advantage.

When trying to get a foothold on the blogging ladder, many fledgling bloggers may struggle to find their ?voice?, and consequently find themselves either writing in a range of different styles, or merely imitating the style of some big name blogs. Of course, although imitation is the highest form of flattery, it is not going to help in getting your blog noticed. A well-defined image and target audience will help to get your blog off the ground.</p> <p>Who are you Writing For?</p> <p>When defining your target audience, it is always a good idea to work out what it is they want to read, and perhaps most importantly, what makes them click a link on a webpage and start reading content. The answers to these questions will depend on whether your blog is written for business or pleasure, and indeed whether it is for business clients, or general customers. The level of knowledge of the target audience is a vital consideration to make before tapping away at the keyboard, especially if you are blogging about highly specialised technical subjects.</p> <p>Is There a Wider Appeal?</p> <p>If you define your target audience, the next step is to think about the potential for people outside of your target group, and the possibility that they may find your blogging pertinent. Striking the happy medium between specialised information, and wider appeal is key to successful blogging.

An army of Facebook users took to the social networking platforms to complain bitterly about the changes made to the layout of Facebook this week. The changes almost look like they were planned to coincide with the opening out of Google Plus to the general population, and keep Facebook in the spotlight ahead of its newer rival. Whether this holds true remains to be seen, but the timing could not have been more convenient.</p> <p>A Hybrid Experience</p> <p>Facebook?s new layout combines some of the favourite elements of the other platforms. Facebook?s hallmark status updates remain almost centre stage, with a Twitter-like feed appearing in the top right of the screen, replacing the omnipresent chat bar. Even Google Plus is imitated, with the appearance of popular stories favoured ahead of the previous strict chronology once used on Facebook</p> <p>Storm in a Teacup?</p> <p>Although a backlash about Facebook changes is nothing new, in fact, Facebook users tend to be quick to rail against any changes; it shows how passionate the average user is about this platform. Businesses that are not already aware of the massive potential of using social media platforms such as Facebook would do well to consider including these in their next campaigns. The users of Facebook and Twitter tend to check their feeds many times a day, and could be seeing your products when they do.<br />

Anyone visiting Google over the past couple of days may well have noticed a bright blue arrow pointing to the top left hand corner of the screen. This understated tactic is designed to announce the fact that Google?s own social media platform ?Google Plus? is now open for business. Following a successful 12-week beta testing period, Google Plus is now available to anyone wishing to join, rather than those who have been invited. This should address one of the biggest early issues with the platform, which was the limited number of users, especially compared with Facebook or Twitter.</p> <p>Will the Circles be Unbroken</p> <p>Google Plus?s model for social media revolves around the idea of social ?circles?, comparing your online relationships with your real life networks. Rather than everything you put on a social media site being visible to all of your friends, or indeed anyone who knows your account name, your social, work, and family circles can remain separate, or entwined like a giant social Venn diagram.</p> <p>Hanging Out</p> <p>Another of Google?s innovations is the idea of mobile video ?hangouts?. Hangouts allow users to take part in online group video chats, with new features added following the trial, including the ability to make hangout chats public. This feature is thought to be a key enticer to the service, especially for celebrities or businesses using Google Plus. Will this new service from Google prove successful? Time will tell if they can encourage users to take their social networking to a new hangout.<br />

AOL is in the process of investing more than $500 million to expand its company. Its latest move is to seek third party ad-serving and content distribution deals to maximise its investment.</p> <p>The company wants to distribute content taken from some of the sites it has acquired, such as Techcrunch and the Huffington Post and it is pursuing partnerships to take forward its plans. AOL has already entered into an arrangement with RealNetworks to supply news and entertainment content and it is seeking similar deals to further expand its reach.</p> <p>AOL's communication director for Europe, Amir Nazemi, said, "We?re looking to distribute our content as widely as possible by increasing our traffic organically and also by taking our content and ad platforms outside of the AOL network.</p> <p>?We may find partners that are interested in just one aspect [such as sourcing our content] of the AOL proposition or we may find others that want both [sourcing the AOL content as well as using its ad serving platforms].? </p> <p>The company wants to increase its ad-funded revenues, as its subscription revenues have declined since the early days of the internet when it dominated the US market. It has consolidated AOL Music, FanHouse, and its other European websites and it is also being speculated that, following the recent exit of Yahoo's Chief Executive Carol Bartz, AOL will shortly attempt a takeover of Yahoo.<br />

Video content is fast becoming the most effective marketing tool on the internet. Visitors find them engaging and will often distribute links to their friends and followers. Search engines are rapidly evolving and are promoting video articles in search results. Until recently though, video was restricted to companies with big budgets. Not anymore!

Infographics are becoming increasing popular additions to quality written content. Infographics offer a visual interpretation of the information contained in written content enhancing the user experience of your site and encouraging them to spend more time on that page or on the rest of your site. Moreover, they can help generate links to your site as they are more likely to be shared across a visitor's social network than straightforward articles.

Feature Articles go beyond SEO and traffic generation: they educate and inform your visitors giving your site real authority. They are written by content writers who specialize in your industry and who are able to draw on a wider range of data and information than our Publisher Articles.