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The general consensus amongst industry professionals on the Web is that tech jargon, or any jargon, for that matter, is bad. Some professionals seem to use industry buzzwords as a way to intimidate clients; often, clients will agree to actions or projects that may not be truly beneficial to their business for fear of requesting that a specific term be defined. Other times, it’s believed that those who use buzzwords come across as ignorant; clients may feel as though the individual in question is hiding behind a smokescreen, relying on such terms to sound more knowledgable than he or she may actually be.

Many professionals bemoan the prolific use of jargon in the marketing and technology industries especially. “I don’t see the buzzword craze stopping,” says Brett Good, an executive with staffing firm Robert Half International in a USA Today interview. “In some ways, it’s almost becoming filler, like ‘um’ or ‘ah.’… It’s something that’s just been built into the lexicon of American business.”

On the other hand, it’s important for any digital agency to understand the terms and phrases exclusive to a client’s industry. In an agency like RepEquity, client work can involve multiple industries, from other technology companies to health care to e-commerce. By taking the time to study each client’s arsenal of work terms, communication between the two firms will not only improve, but the digital agency can more accurately meet the client’s goals in a concise and effective manner. Continue Reading…

Asking if an associate or friend is “online” is a thing of the past. You rarely hear: “Hey – are you on Facebook?” Instead, you’re more likely to end a first date or a networking event with a “Hey – I’ll Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn you.” Assuming that your acquaintances aren’t searching for you online is naïve and could even be harmful. Statistics show that many companies will do extensive online research on a potential employee before they’ll extend an offer. Back in June of 2010, we reported that nearly 70 percent of college graduates Google themselves to see what Google returns, an act that is no longer considered vain or unimportant, but a necessary step in monitoring your public persona. Even if you’re not a celebrity or big time government official, we still highly recommend caring for your online reputation. Below, we’ve made it simple: Online Reputation Management in three easy steps.

1. Your identity is already online – make sure you have control.
Just because you don’t actively participate in the online community, don’t assume that your identity is safe. It’s not uncommon for individuals to make fake accounts using real names to post slanderous statements, viruses and worse online. By claiming pages using your real name, you begin building your online brand, be it personal or professional, giving credibility to your name and taking steps in the right direction toward a positive online reputation. Create profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter (if you haven’t already) as well as LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other social media networks. If you’re a business owner, claim the company’s pages on review sites like Yelp, Google Places and foursquare.

If you’re willing to spend a few dollars, we highly recommend buying your name as a domain name (think joesmith.com). That way, if you do ever decide to start a blog or a personal website, you can circumvent the difficulty of obtaining a relevant URL. Using websites like GoDaddy or Domain make the process simple and inexpensive. Consider buying several variations of your name and nicknames while you’re there. Continue Reading…

Google’s Panda algorithm update, of this past February, has certainly had a significant impact on search results and made headlines across the web – from the NY Times to a variety of blogs. The original Panda update, which launched on February 24th, altered about 12% of results in the United States. A subsequent update, launched on April 11th, changed around 2% of rankings in the U.S. Google release around 500 search improvements per year but most are minor tweaks; so what gives with the recent changes and why have they been so dramatic?

According to Google “site quality algorithms are aimed at helping people find ‘high-quality’ sites by reducing the rankings of low-quality content.” Low quality sites, known in the industry as content farms and/or scraper websites, produce or reproduce unoriginal or redundant content in order to game the rankings and drive traffic to their respective sites. From the Google perspective, there’s quite a bit of low quality content distracting the end user.

At RepEquity, as mentioned in previous blog posts, ‘black hat’ or low level content network building does no service to our clients or our business. Instead, we aim to create and support a brand value to our client and the web community at large. In essence, a professionally produced integrated communications digital strategy should not be at all susceptible to Google’s algorithm changes. In case you are though, feel free to browse these questions by Google Fellow Amit Singhal:

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According to online security company Arbor Networks, Google now represents an average of 6.4% of all Internet traffic, and with Internet traffic volume growing at 40 – 45% per year, this is a huge share. Google posted revenue of $7.29 billion for its third quarter, representing a 23% growth from the same period last year. Google now has $33 billion in cash on hand, which is $11 billion more than it had at its disposal last year.

So we know Google traffic is growing along with internet traffic, in fact according to Google 20% of all queries are new each day. From, the World Cup, to Paul the Octupus, to the earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti, to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – search now presents a snapshot of the past calendar year in a way that the traditional news report cannot. Maybe the main takeaway here is that while Google has created new economies of scale for many industries and commercial operations, it’s also changed the way we look at the world around us.

And as 2010 winds down, Google produced a sort of ‘Year in Search’ video, proving that what people search for is one of the best ways to take the pulse of the planet:

One of the most critical elements of the SEO game – and I say “game,” because it really can be fun, in an SEO-dork kind of way – is staying on top of, if not ahead of, the latest changes in the Google algorithm. With so many variables at work, it’s a massive challenge to assign blame or credit to specific tactics on a micro-level. But as SEO pro Mike Moran points out on his blog, attempts to decipher the past miss the point:

If you can identify an idea that might improve the searcher experience, you can bet that Google thought of it, too. Instead of waiting for them to implement it, perhaps you should be working to make things better for your customer and then waiting for Google to figure out the next turn of the algorithm crank.

That’s a great insight, and a big reason why the process really can be fun. It’s about predicting behavior. It’s also at the heart of RepEquity’s “Don’t be black hat” philosophy. While there’s obviously a lot of careful and clever machinations at work in any serious SEO shop, it’s always important to come back to Mike’s central question: is this good for the user? This is the case for two reasons, really. First off, the point of a well-rounded digital strategy should be to ensure a positive experience for the user. That goes without saying, and has clear merit in its own right.

But we shouldn’t overlook the more Machiavellian payout for developing conventions that produce an end result that is good for Joe Public: you begin to think like one of the engineers in charge of improving Google’s algorithm. And when you think like Google wants you to, you can get ahead of the game. Sure, not every new strategy you implement will become part of the secret sauce, but some inevitably will.