Google’s link spam update is primarily aimed at tackling link spam more efficiently.

Google’s algorithms are ever evolving. The newest algorithm update has come in the form of a new link spam update, that is currently being rolling out across various locations.

What is Google’s link spam update?

Google’s link spam update is primarily aimed at tacking link spam more efficiently. Google’s first endeavour to address the issue was seen back in 2016, when the Penguin 4.0 update was first released. However, this approach focused on ignoring and not counting spammy links, as opposed to broadly penalising sites.

How will this Google algorithm update affect my website?

Google have said that the link spam update will aim to ‘nullify link spam more broadly’ and warned that ‘sites taking part in link spam will see changes in Search, as those links are re-assessed by the new algorithms’. So, if you are not currently following Google’s best practice guidelines on link building, you could notice a large drop in traffic to your website in the months ahead.

How can I make sure that my site won’t get penalised?

Ensuring that your inbound and outbound links are natural is a must. Your link building strategy should always aim to follow Google’s webmaster guidelines, to ensure maximum impact. It is also important to be continually improving your site, making sure that it can naturally attract new and credible links over time.

Need an SEO Agency?

At FCDM, we have specialists in all areas of SEO, from local search engine optimisation to technical SEO. We understand that it is vital to be aware of what Google is seeking in order to gain and maintain strong organic rankings.

Continually adapting your SEO strategy is vital. Regular SEO reviews and testing should be at the forefront of any search optimisation strategy. If you need help with managing your Search Engine Optimisation efficiently, our SEO team can help you! At FCDM, we will strive to ensure that your business website achieves growth in traffic, leads and in turn revenue. Why not get in touch with our experienced SEO team today to find out how FCDM can take your business to new heights!

Instagram Reels ads will help businesses to reach much larger audiences and drive increased engagement!

Instagram have recently rolled out a new and innovative ad format on Instagram Reels. Although Instagram began testing Reels ads in a small number of locations in March, they have now rolled them out to all 80 countries. We have taken a look at some of the features and here is a roundup of Instagram’s new ad format!

What are Instagram Reels Ads?

Reels ads are essentially full-screen and vertical ads, similar to Instagram Stories ads that appear between individual Reels. Exactly like organic Reels content, Reels ads can loop and can be up to 30 seconds long. According to Instagram, Reels is now ‘‘the best place on Instagram to reach people who don’t follow you and a growing global stage where brands and creators can be discovered by anyone’’.

In essence, Reels ads will help businesses, both large and small, to reach larger audiences and help users to discover even more content from new brands and content creators.

Where will the Ads appear?

Once a user accesses Reels via Explore, Stories, feed or the Reels tab they are taken to a view that exclusively displays Reels, and Reels ads will be inserted between videos.

Instagram users can like, comment, save, share, skip and view Reels ads. The only slight difference is that they will be identified by a small, sponsored tag below the name of the advertiser’s account. Users will still have the ability to skip the ads, tap the menu on the post to hide or report it.

Want to learn more about reaching larger audiences on Instagram?

At FCDM, our experienced digital marketing team understand the mechanics of Instagram and how to use it as an effective lead generating and brand building tool. If you need Social Media Marketing expertise to help drive Instagram engagement and to promote your business more effectively, why not get in touch with FCDM today!

Maximising LinkedIn performance: New features offer a wealth of new opportunities!

LinkedIn recently announced that it was introducing some exciting new features. As many businesses continue to grapple with creating effective strategies for maximising LinkedIn performance, the professional networking platform has responded by launching new features including event ads, boosted posts, custom streaming integrations and mobile page analytics. Here is a roundup of what to expect when they are fully rolled out.

LinkedIn Boosted Posts

Boosting posts on LinkedIn will help your business to broadcast your message to a much bigger and highly targeted audience. This will be especially useful for those looking promote an event or product launch. Advertiser can choose from one of four objectives when boosting including brand awareness, engagement, website visits and video views and will have the option to select a highly target audience that can be:

Interests based – This is where users can select target audience criteria from member groups

Profile based – For this option you will have the ability to select your target audience criteria from job seniorities, job functions, or even sectors and industries.

If you can’t decide on where best to promote your ad, there is an option to select a LinkedIn audience template, with pre-set targeting options available. It is important to remember that for now, posts can only be boosted once and only events and posts with a single image can be boosted. Posts that include a document, poll, job ad or Pulse article are ineligible for boosting.

LinkedIn Event Ads

This feature is essentially a new ad format that will appear in LinkedIn feeds that will aim to highlight your upcoming event details including the event date, time and how to register. If a user’s mutual connections have expressed interest in attending the event, this will be shown in the feed, encouraging even more registrations for your upcoming event.

In addition, LinkedIn will be introducing an Event Analytics tool that will provide organizers with key metrics. These metrics will outline attendee and visitor engagement with Event posts, the number of attendees, unique event visits, the top job functions of event attendees and will even have a viewer count at the peak of a live stream!

LinkedIn Custom Streaming and Mobile Page Analytics

Custom streaming and mobile page analytics are set to be rolled out shortly too, that will aim to improve the platform’s usability. Custom streaming will enable users to live-stream with LinkedIn Live via Zoom, WebEx and OBS. integrations for Microsoft Teams is planned to be rolled out later in the year. The new mobile page analytics will bring the data from your LinkedIn page analytics to LinkedIn’s mobile app, enabling advertisers to see visitor and follower metrics and content insights.

When it comes to maximising LinkedIn performance, these additional features will bring a wealth of new opportunities for businesses who are seeking to maximise the potential of their existing digital channels. If you feel that your business might benefit by using LinkedIn’s new features to help drive engagement and generate quality sales leads, contact a member of our experienced digital marketing team at FCDM today!

Live Chat has gained immense popularity during the pandemic and the benefits of embracing Live Chat are enormous.

Live Chat has gained immense popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic and is growing at a tremendous rate. A recent study, that examined the adoption of Live Chat and messaging in 2020, found that almost 40% of millennials and Gen Xers used Live Chat and messaging for the very first time to connect with a brand. 20% of baby boomers and older were also embracing the trend and engaging with Live Chat tools. Based on the growing engagement on Live Chat, alongside customers enhanced willingness to engage online, Live Chat is becoming a crucial tool for customer engagement for all businesses and is a trend that is set to stay.

Yet, while some businesses have truly embraced this new reality and are creating authentic and impactful online experiences for their customers daily, some have yet to join the Live Chat revolution. Here are some of the key benefits of enhancing online interactions with Live Chat and why businesses should embrace it.

Boost Conversions

First and foremost, offering a Live Chat functionality ensures that visitors to your website can gain immediate answers to their queries. Unlike Chatbots, Live Chat introduces a real person who is available to respond to questions quickly and build a conversational relationship instantly. For eCommerce businesses especially, this can help to convert more website visitors to customers by speeding up the buying decision process. In essence, Live Chat allows you to hold your buyers by the hand virtually, assist them in overcoming any objections quickly, all the while instilling trust and confidence in your brand.

Reduce Operational Costs

Live Chat also offers a huge cost-saving to businesses as it enables employees to handle multiple chats at the same time. Therefore, reducing the resources needed to handle enquiries stemming from phone calls and emails. Many businesses find that they now require a substantially smaller team to handle customer service and sales query requests, thus cutting support costs significantly as a result.

Enhance Customer Satisfaction

Implementing a Live Chat option not only boosts conversions and cuts support costs but also streamlines customer support and sales processes. Having the ability to talk with your customers instantly and understand their needs, can allow you to recommend similar products and services by up-selling and cross-selling. This approach not only meets your customer needs better but can also increase the average order value. Ensuring that your customers have confidence in your products and services is paramount and by having the opportunity to instantly advise them on the right solution aligned to their needs, helps to further enhance the customers’ experience. Hence, guaranteeing your brand long term success by keeping your customers coming back time and time again.

Live Chat does not come without its challenges. By nature, it implies that your customer will receive (and are expecting) an instant response, and for many businesses this can be a cause for concern about trying to manage the volume of messages that might come from adding Live Chat to their website. For many businesses however, they know that by enhancing online interactions with Live Chat, there is no comparison, and the benefits far outweigh the challenges. If you are not using Live Chat on your website, then you could be missing out on so many benefits. There is certainly a lot to gain through enhancing online interactions with Live Chat!

At FCDM, our digital marketing team in Dublin are experts when it comes to optimising websites to maximize the user experience. Enhancing online interactions with Live Chat, should be an essential part of any digital strategy. Why not get in touch today to see how FCDM can take your business to new heights and help you to provide unforgettable online experiences to your valued customers!

As Social Media advertising continues to become an integral part of the marketing mix, many organisations still struggle to decide where they should place their advertising spend.

Although most Social Media platforms can provide unique ways to capture your target audience’s attention, it’s important to evaluate which Social Media platforms are best for your organisation, that fully align with your advertising objectives.

Each Social Media platform has different features and most importantly, connects with a different audience. Thus, when you are thinking about what Social Media platforms are suitable for your organisation, or evaluating which platforms are still relevant to your target audiences, there are some key elements to consider before deciding on where best to place your valuable resources.

Facebook

No matter how big or small your business is, if you know who your ideal customer is, you can target them through Facebook. Facebook Advertising campaigns can be tailored to suit any budget and you will have the ability to place highly relevant ads and videos in front of your desired audiences. This coupled with the platforms ability to humanize brands makes Facebook universally applicable for nearly every organisation on the planet! Facebook also offers a variety of eCommerce features and continues to add new customisation options regularly, making it the perfect solution for retailers and online stores of any size.

Instagram

Instagram is owned by Facebook and is a more visually driven app, attracting a younger demographic. Half of users are 18 to 35 years old. The challenging part of Instagram for many organisation lies in its core focus which is visual content. For many online retailers this is available in abundance but many organisation simply don’t have ‘Instagram-ready’ products or services and can’t easily be depicted in an image. But with a little creativity and strategic planning with our experienced digital team at FCDM, you’ll find there’s plenty you can post on Instagram, regardless of your industry or service offering.

Twitter

Twitter had shifted its focus in recent years, and it has become a leading source of news for many online. 28.4 percent of global Twitter users are aged between 35 and 49. Politicians leverage it for driving their campaign agendas and media organizations break news events and top stories on the platform daily. Non-profits and NGOs also find it useful for communicating their message effectively to large audiences. However, Twitter still boasts a highly engaged B2B audience and there are several types of Twitter advertising options to help you to reach specific goals that can fit into your B2B Social Media Marketing strategy.

Pinterest

Pinterest has become the go to place for many to browse new recipes, find wedding planning tips and has even become a hot spot for DIY enthusiasts who are looking for inspiration. In fact, 77.1 percent of Pinterest audiences are female. For visually driven businesses, such as wedding dress shops, florists, chef and foodie blogs, clothing, shoes and accessories, Pinterest is the ideal location to spend some time posting. Essentially, it’s a powerful, visual search engine where users can easily “pin” links that inspire them and it can be a useful platform for generating referral traffic to your website.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows your business to gain a place in your professional community, build brand awareness and connect with a large and diverse audience. Most suitable and effective for B2B, LinkedIn boasts over 690 million professionals who are actively engaged on a daily basis. 60.1 percent of global LinkedIn audiences are between 25 and 34 years old, followed by 17.5 percent who are 35 to 54 years old. LinkedIn ads can yield high-quality leads for your business and offer larger niche targeting options, making LinkedIn an an ideal solution for most B2B companies. Many organisation also find LinkedIn advertising useful for recruitment purposes, especially for more specialised sectors where the candidate pool can be limited.

Need help evaluating what Social Media platforms are suitable for your organisation?

Understanding the differences between each platform and how you can best reach your organisation’s demographic is the key to successful Social Media Marketing. FCDM can help you to define which digital channels best fit to your organisational needs and goals, when deciding what Social Media platforms are suitable for your business.

We understand the dynamics of each and how best to harness the power of Social Media Marketing to get the most impact out of your advertising budget. Why not get in touch with our experienced digital marketing team today to start the conversation on how we can help you achieve your online advertising goals!

Responsive search ads are now Google’s largest, and most flexible search ad format that harness the power of machine learning.

Google recently announced that Responsive search ads will officially become the default ad type for Google Search campaigns in Google Ads. Responsive search ads are now Google’s largest, and most flexible search ad format that harness the power of machine learning to help create enhanced marketing messages for your target audiences.

What are Responsive Search Ads?

In simple terms, Responsive Search Ads can adapt to show more text and more relevant messages to your customers. Unlike traditional search ads, Responsive search ads offer a much more flexible search ad format. Whereas traditional search ads allowed for the creation of headlines and descriptions to create 1 static ad text, with a Responsive Search Ad, you can add up to 15 different headlines and up to 4 different descriptions.

Responsive Search Ads: The Benefits

Responsive Search Ads give your business the best opportunity to be competitive in the ever-changing realm of search marketing. In essence, Responsive search ads adapt to different device sizes and show multiple headlines and descriptions that ensure that your potential customers are continually seeing the most relevant data that resonates with them directly.

Responsive Search Ads boast many benefits and Google uses machine learning to automatically test different ad combinations and learn which combinations perform best. Google test a combination ad copy variations, headlines and descriptions and put the best combinations together, to ensure maximum impact and increased exposure, based on the user’s specific search query.

Need a Google Ads Agency?

At FCDM, we have a proven track record in managing effective and profitable Google Ads strategies for our clients. For many of our clients, Google Ads have become the key growth driver and by harnessing the power the Google Ads platform, we can help you to reach your online growth potential.

If you need a Google Ads Agency and are ready to outsource your Google Ads campaign management to a trusted Google Certified partner, feel free to get in touch today on +353 1 5253188 to discuss how FCDM can help take your business to new heights!

Google My Business can play a pivotal role in helping to grow your audience and engaging them in a more meaningful way.

Google announced recently that it has now started to roll out an enhanced performance reporting feature for Google My Business. The new reporting feature will be available within your Google My Business profile under the insights section and will be a valuable tool for many businesses for tracking how user have found their Google My Business listing and what actions they take on finding it.

The new metrics that will be visible will provide information on the number of calls and messages that you have received within a 6-month timeframe and the data is now displayed by month. The enhanced reporting feature will now also allow you to view the search term that the user had entered to find your Google My Business listing in Google Search, in addition to Google Maps.

According to Google, in the enhanced performance report, you can monitor specific profile interactions such as:

• Calls: Number of clicks on the call button on your Business Profile.
• Messages: Number of unique conversations through messages.
• Searches: The queries people used to find your business. Search queries display whenever your Business Profile shows up for a particular query.
• All interactions: A summary of all your total interactions.

Google have advised that ‘the metrics provided in Performance reporting will evolve over the coming months to include new data that has never appeared on the Google My Business Insights page’.

Google’s industry leading strength has always been its search function but features that are linked to Google search, like Google My Business should be equally valued. These tools can play a pivotal role in helping your business to grow your audience and engaging that audience in a more meaningful way.

If you are looking for an experienced digital marketing agency, who are Google Accredited Partners and can help your business by continually updating your Google My Business listing, we can help you! Contact our experienced team today to find out how FCDM can take your business to new heights!

Twitter has launched ‘Fleets’ that allows users to post content that vanishes after 24 hours.

Twitter explained recently that ‘Fleets are for sharing momentary thoughts – they help start conversations and only stick around for 24 hours’ in a bid to help people feel more comfortable joining a conversation online, whatever it may be related to.

Fleets can include text, photos and video content and is now available at the top of users’ home timelines on Twitter and on the sender’s profile. Twitter detailed the features of the new app addition in a recent statement in that “you can now Fleet text, share reactions to Tweets, photos or videos in Fleets and customise your Fleets with various background and text options”.

Unfortunately, there are currently no special effects or Augmented Reality tools for Fleets, however Twitter did advise recently that stickers and live broadcasting are coming soon.

Although Twitter has been extremely slow to develop this ‘Story’ like feature and has lagged behind the other Social Media giants in recent years, it would seem that there an appetite for Twitters new Feature among current fans, with uptake and use surging since its release. Twitter also announced recently it was also working on a new, live audio feature for the app, called Spaces, with testing to resume shortly. The exciting new feature will allow users to talk in public group conversations, which will be another innovative way to keep engaging users on the app.

With Twitters new Features and their ongoing improvements of the platform, it remains to be an important app in the Social Media sphere, helping businesses to keep their conversations going online. If you would like further information on how Social Media Marketing can help your business, feel free to get in touch today with our experienced team!

In today’s digital landscape, businesses need to commit to incorporating more video content into their digital marketing strategies.

It is true to say that content is the nucleus of any digital marketing strategy and everything else revolves around it. To engage your target audiences, you need to continually create compelling and thought-provoking content and in today’s world however this can be difficult to achieve using the more traditional methods like blog articles and imagery.

More businesses than ever before now realise that just posting written content will not help them tap into the true potential of digital marketing. With the number of mobile users increasing with each passing day, businesses need to commit to incorporating video content into their digital marketing strategies, in order to continue to engage with their ever changing target audiences.

Why is Video Content so Essential?

Impactful video content has proven to be a valuable resource to help increase conversion rates, build trust with audiences, and help to improve organic rankings on Google.

Video content can provide your website visitors with all the help that they may need for taking the next step to booking or purchase. Additionally, when users spend more time on your website, this is a signal to search engines that it has high quality content.

What type of Video Content should you invest in creating?

Customer Testimonials

Video testimonials can really help build trust which is the key to customer loyalty. Posting short video testimonials to YouTube and sharing it on your social media platforms will help to build brand value and drive engagement.

Behind the scenes

For some businesses, it’s important to try and connect with your target audience on an emotional level and creating some short, behind the scenes videos can provide a glimpse of your businesses culture and operations. Video snips that show the inner workings of your business can help you develop your USP, no matter how big or small your business is.

Product demos

Before buying a product online, most of your potential customers nowadays want to see it in action. Creating short product demo videos, can help to show your products in the best possible manner. A video production company can help you cover all the bases like using the correct lighting and sound elements, to ensure maximum impact of your videos and present the product professionally.

Need Help Promoting Your Video Content?

When you have your Video Content created, the next step is working towards incorporating it into your digital marketing strategy, this is where FCDM can help you!

So, If you are looking for an experienced digital agency in Ireland, who can help you to promote your Video Content online and develop a winning content marketing strategy, why not contact our experienced team today to find out how FCDM can take your business to new heights!

Building valuable online customer reviews in today’s digital world is vital and we have compiled some top tips on what your business should be focusing on.

It’s no secret that online reviews can have a significant impact on if potential customers will make a purchase from a business. Hence, building online reviews from your customers can make a huge difference to your businesses bottom line. Here are some top tips on what your business should be focusing on.

Focus on the platforms your customers are most likely to use.

While having positive reviews on any platform is a great boost, make sure to focus on the platforms that are most relevant to you and your customers. Facebook and Google reviews are broadly applicable across most types of goods and services.

Ask customers for reviews.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to customers and ask them for reviews. Follow-up emails asking for a reviews are very common and effective. Ideally, these should be sent after the customer receives their purchase or makes their first visit. Make sure to have a direct link to the page where your customer can review the product or service easily.

Another great way is to put out a small display on the shop counter or waiting room table, like a tent card, that reminds your customer to leave reviews after their visit.

Respond to your customer reviews.

Responding to reviews will show your customers how much their opinions are genuinely valued. Remember, when it comes to online reviews, you will have to open yourself up to criticism that will come in both positive and maybe sometimes negative forms.

When responding to negative reviews, focus on addressing the complaint and take responsibility. If the complaint is about an unavoidable circumstance or something that is actually the customer’s fault, try to seed your response with information on options available to mitigate the problem for other customers who might encounter it.

With positive reviews, be sure to thank the customer, invite them back and use the opportunity to talk up your products and services mentioned in the review.

Do you need help with encouraging online customer reviews?

At FCDM, we continue to assist a large portfolio of retailers around the globe to adapt to the changing digital landscape by maximising online sales opportunities, in order to meet the changing needs of their diverse customer base. We are Ireland’s leading digital agency and are passionate about driving continual results for our clients.

We are always interested in meeting with new businesses who are looking to grow. Contact our digital agency team today to discuss how we can take your business to new heights!