North Star Web Services LLC

Monday, March 26, 2012

New Facebook Timeline Covers For Businesses

Facebook changes are coming up very soon. Make sure your business is prepared for the dramatic new look and features that will happen whether you want them or not. North Star Web Services is happy to assist you with this change if you'd like. Just call (603) 752-3089 or email info@northstarws.com for more information and prices.

Once you log into your Facebook profile account now, see your home screen carefully – there might be the invite to try timeline waiting for you at the top of the page. This is a kind of omnibus, dual-column look everyone’s going to have on Facebook until the end of March 2012.

So based on the content you’ve shared on your Facebook profile, this timeline page will show the most interesting of your stories made up of widget-like boxes in a reverse chronological order. But in the first spot there will be a profile cover – the large image banner of the user’s choice at the top of the page. User’s content can be also displayed in the apps section (can be viewed when page visitors click the dropdown arrow) and the status update box (it is where users can share new photos, links, updates, places). Mention that as you scroll down the timeline, the right-hand column for fast navigation and the toolbar at the top of the page will remain static. Some examples below:

Summarizing the changes, in the new Facebook layout we can see:

•cover photo: now the large banner image of a user’s choice will sit at the top of the timeline along with an inset of a user’s profile photo. The cover photo dimensions are 851×315 pixels (if the image is smaller than these dimensions, it will get stretched to this larger size). Here you can choose any image that is representative of your brand, still it is not allowed to use the cover photo as a fan gate replacement, meaning that you cannot include there any call-to-action, point to the like button, price or purchase information, contact info (it should be in the page’s about section), references to Facebook features or actions, such as ‘like’ or ‘share’ or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features, and similar techniques;

•real-time ticker: this new element being placed on a top right of the screen will help users see what is happening in real-time, including posts update, photo uploads, comments and friend activity, and will be able to join these activities;

•about section: in this section you can show a description of your brand’s identity, an address, and contact info. Once users click on the about link, they can unfold a map and view other basic info;

•page apps: page owners can now not only highlight custom apps but also update the app icons and names to describe the app purpose. Apps are now replaced from the left navigation sidebar to the right side of the about section. They can include likes, videos, photos, events, home, map and custom apps for your promotions, contests, games, coupons, media, and signup widgets;

•revamped friends lists: with this new feature it will be easy to see just the updates you care about;

•better news feed: it will be easy to hide updates you don’t care about from news feed and spot most interesting stories since you last checked Facebook (top stories and recent stories will be in one place);

•no more fun gates: previously page owners were able to set a default landing tab for non-fans who first visited the page to entice them to like the page and turn into fans. This functionality is no longer available as a default landing page option, because the users will now see the main timeline view instead. The app will still exist, so once linking from your website or elsewhere to your Facebook page, you can link people directly to a particular view or drop them onto the fan gate page;

•you can star, hide, and pin: this means that users will be able to modify the items in their page’s timeline, making individual stories wider by hover, highlighting them as important with the star icon, hiding them with the pencil icon or deleting from the timeline. Plus page owners will be able to pin or anchor a specific story, marketing offer, remarkable event or promotion to the top of their timeline up to 7 days.

These Facebook changes are still in a beta stage, so we can expect to see bugs that should be worked out. Right now the like button does not refresh the page once being clicked.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Social Media Posting Schedules (Weekend Warrior) - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Google Boost Now Adwords Express - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Google Service to Increase Page Speeds by 60 Percent - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Facebook Offers Tutorial for Businesses - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Thursday, April 28, 2011

New Hampshire Website Design - Recent Projects

Monday, April 11, 2011

What Google's Farmer Update Means to Your Business

I, Laura Lynch from North Star Web Services, have been watching the outcome of Google's Farmer update to their algarithym for about a month now. Several of my clients have chosen to update their SEO while others have not. Some businesses took such a big hit that they had to reduce their workforce by 10% (Mahalo). I cannot stress how important taking this seriously is! Don't be cheap, pay for the optimization that will keep you in play. www.NorthStarWebServices can help you do just that.

I came across the following article and thought that it should be shared.

Google announced what may ultimately be one of the biggest changes to their algorithm yet.

From the Official Google Blog: "Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful."

Notice the language being used. Specifically, "...reduce rankings for low-quality sites..." That means it's not only individual posts or pieces of content will be penalized for being deemed "low-quality" but entire websites. The announcement also mentions "low-value add for users" and sites that "copy content from other websites." The target? Content farms, to start. These sites exist and profit based on volume. The more content produced (often for a pittance) the better they do – or did.

To most observers and users, this focus on volume resulted in millions of low-quality pieces of content cluttering the search engine results pages (SERPs). The writers producing content for these content farms are paid largely based on views. No indexing in Google, no views. No views, no pay. No pay, no writers ... and no content.

Sites such as Yahoo Contributor Network and those of Demand Media (including eHow) fit the bill, to be sure. But one must wonder if others sites such as Examiner.com or pure user-contributor sites such as Yahoo Answers will also be affected. (Read Website Magazine's in-depth review of Yahoo Contributor Network.)

The update will also impact Bing and every other search engine. Simply put, if Google's results get better in the eyes of users, Bing and the others cannot afford to be viewed as having inferior results.

Without question, the focus is now on producing original, quality content. So-called scraper sites are doomed. But even bloggers need to be careful about posting content that could be considered "low-quality" or that which could be viewed as being a simple re-publishing of existing content. In other words, if you don't have anything original to say about an existing story ... be careful. Now more than ever, the focus seems to be shifting toward quality, not necessarily quantity.

In all, this update should be a good thing for the Web – both for users and those who work tirelessly to produce quality content.

The first priority for every business is to keep a constant watch on your analytics. Are your numbers slipping for keywords of which your site previously ranked highly? Are overall numbers dropping? Hopefully not. But there are some things that can be done to ensure your traffic does not suffer.

Be aggressive about building your user base. Search is powerful but it’s not the only way to ensure visitors to your website. Build a strong following on social networks and work hard to increase email sign-ups and newsletter subscribers.

Solicit quality inbound links. High-quality links will remain a pivotal factor in search engine rankings. Be diligent about networking with like-minded content producers and work to get links – quality links, including those with keyword-rich anchor text. In no way is it recommended to purchase links.

Produce varied forms of content. Search engines like a little variety. In addition to a company blog, consider producing video for a YouTube channel, a photo log on Flickr, or a podcast on iTunes.

Hire a good writer. This public call for quality content might warrant the hiring of a skilled writer for some businesses. Well-written, compelling content tends to attract links, garner social mentions and spread through online communities. Remember that today's skilled writer also knows how to create SEO-friendly content.

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Posted Feb 25 2011, 02:10 PM by Mike Phillips | Remove post from favorites Add post to favorites... Filed under: google, search, yahoo answers, flickr, youtube, bing, itunes, Yahoo Contributor Network, content farms, quality content, Google algorithm, Examiner, eHow, Google Farmer Update, low-quality content