Make sure you’re landing page is attractive and relating to your main search phrase. A good colour scheme should be used, one that the colours complement each other in. Have some user interactivity on your home page through elements such as video, forms, buttons, and expandable images. You should also mix up the content to include images such as graphs and charts to give the potential clients evidence of your companies capabilities. It’s important that when using images and video, you are strategic in where you place them on site and the density of them in relation to content.

Ranking well won’t count for a lot if people aren’t staying on your site. The first step to more sales is lowering your bounce rate which more often than not increases conversions.

Google+ has been around for around 3 months and is starting to finally figure out its true identity. A lot of the basic Facebook features have been copied by Google+ until the two social networks were very similar. If this had remained the case, it would have meant very bad news for Google+ as no one would choose the new social network when there’s no reason to change (because it’s so similar) and because all their friends are still on Facebook.

So why would people change now? It’s because of the recent updates from Facebook. The new timeline feature that is set to arrive soon has got a lot of Facebook users kicking up a fuss. This is over the privacy issues that the update has. The ability to browse through your online history with ease, yeah that’s good for your own use but not many people like the idea of other doing it and with no option of opting out of the update, Facebook users might just start migrating.

In a Wall Street Journal poll, 87% of people don’t like the coming updates. This is a massive percentage of the 3,000 asked and has got a lot of people thinking about the real possibility of user migration. But why migrate to Google+? Twitter is a good alternative, although it’s designed purely for the social enthusiast on the go, restricting tweet lengths and only showing one picture shows just how in depth Facebook is in comparison. Google+ is almost like another version of Facebook and when Facebook release Timeline, Google+ will be an older version that (at the moment) people claim to prefer.

There are speculations however, Facebook has over 800 million users and there are a lot of people that don’t think this user base is about to e lost. Other people speculate that it’s regardless of the functionality, Google+ is still too young and has only amassed around 28 million users and although this is good to say it was only released a few months ago, it’s still nowhere near the vast users Facebook has.

As mentioned, the idea is to instil more confidence in online buying and this is done by displaying a badge on certain sites that displays grades on an etailer’s customer service, shipping and overall quality. This is so that people can clearly see whether the seller should be trusted or not.

In order to apply for a Google Trusted Store badge, you must have a proven track record of good sales and the ability to resolve customer issues with haste. All Google ask for is a stream of data from the seller.

A surprising element of this new service is that there is a kind of money back guarantee from Google. Basically if there is an issue and the seller fails to resolve it, if you contact Google then they will coax the seller into an immediate resolution or a possible refund. This is known as the ‘consumer purchase protection’ and you have the option to sign up for it or not, it is free though.

It’s unclear as to how this service will develop as speculations fly around about possible AdWords, Checkout and Wallet integrations but Google is holding their cards very close to their chest. Stating that it is too early to be thinking about that kind of development and they need to see how the service plays out first.

Whenever Google release an update or a new service, there’s always those who speculate from the “what’s in it for them?” point of view. Some people believe that if you sign up for the consumer purchase protection then Google will be keeping a record of all your transactions and be able to use that data in targeted advertising. At this moment, it is unclear as to what the future holds for Google Trusted Stores although it is believed to be a great addition to the many Google services.

This can be done with any route Google is aware of. While in the 3D view, users can pause it at any point and even select legs in the journey to jump to and carry on from. The 3D view may not be available unless you have the Google earth plug in, although this is quick and easy to download. Once the plug in is installed, just go to maps and get directions for a journey and next to the directions, there should be a little ‘3D’ button. This new 3D view is a very nice addition to an already favoured service and is sure to generate a lot of new found interest.

Factors that influence the rankings differently for each user are things like the sign in status of social networks (Google+, Facebook, Twitter and etc.), the area in which you live, the browser cookies, social search, online presence, PPC campaigns and now even the time of day that the search is carried out. Not only this but there’s an array of signals that people don’t even know about.

Search is becoming very different and difficult to rank in because of all the factors that go in to it with the adapting algorithms. It’s important that an SEO company optimise for all the different factors ensuring that they rank well for every individual.

It’s important to optimise the Meta content of your web pages to include the right keywords and give an impression of the page. However, this is changing with the boom in social media marketing. With all this competition, it’s even harder to get your links and adverts followed through the social path. A method around this is optimising the Meta descriptions for pages you know you’re going to be sharing through social in a slightly different way than before.

When you share a link in a social network, the Meta description of the page is grabbed and displayed next to the link. So if there’s a page you know you’re going to be sharing across different social networks then you should alter the meta content to be more of a user friendly a advert that’s going to persuade users to follow your link when shared. Lower the keyword density and use more inviting terms in the content.

Obviously if you’re linking to your home page or another major page then you shouldn’t change the Meta too much as you still need to benefit in the rankings, but it’s worth thinking about tweaking in a few areas. However if you have blog posts you want to link to then these are perfect as it’s not a main page and you have the chance to write a good persuasive advert.

• There’s not enough people on it – Although there has been a massive 30% increase in Google+ users since it’s public release, the majority of people’s friends are still on Facebook and unwilling to make the transaction to Google+. Most people would prefer to have the option of talking to all their friends, rather than a select few that made the move to Google+.
• Facebook’s Smart Lists – Google+ came in to the field with a fresh and unique take on friends known as circles. Google+ circles allow the user to specify with which circles they share their updates and can see a feed of different circles. Facebook took this idea, only they did it better in a lot of people’s opinions. Friends Smart Lists on Facebook seems to be a lot more simplistic to use and this is one factor that users love.
• Google+ has an outdated interface – Google+ has a lot of similarities to the old Facebook in terms of the user interface. Whereas Facebook have just massively updated their interface, Google+ is still using their original one. A lot of people will prefer the fresh new interface that Facebook offers.
• Google+ is susceptible to spam – On Facebook, you are required to be friends with someone before you are able to tag them in a post or on a picture. This is not the case with Google+ and so it’s easy to spam people and clog up their notifications.
• Humans are lazy – Nobody wants to scroll for ages and this is exactly what Google+ (sometimes) forces us to do because the news stream isn’t condensed enough. Unlike Facebook, Google+ has an extremely long and open news stream meaning that each post takes up more of the screen in comparison with Facebook. This is causing us to have to scroll for while before we can truly see what’s going on with our friends and family. This is something us humans just don’t like doing.
• Facebook’s News Ticker – One update which has seen a lot of positive influence is the new News Ticker. This is a small box in the top right corner of the Facebook news feed that allows you to see what is happening at that very moment as in who’s commenting on what and what music people are listening to. This is a massive update and Google+ are going to struggle with competing against it.
• Businesses partnerships with Facebook – Facebook has numerous high profile business partnerships (Netflix, Zynga, Nike, Spotify and more) that offer services to the Facebook user.  Google+ has CityVille (a popular Zynga game) but that’s pretty much it. A lot of users will remain on Facebook because of the scope of services they can use.
• The ‘fresh start’ image Google+ has won’t last forever – One reason why the users have boomed on Google+ so much is because it’s a fresh platform and there’s a lot of people that are tired of Facebook and the problems they encountered (sometimes known as “Facebook fatigue”) although when you think about it, Google+ is going to encounter the very same issues and that will slow user registrations down.
• Google+ is too similar to Facebook – When you put two social networks together with very similar functions, only one has all your friends on it, which are you going to choose? The choice is obvious to a lot of people and this is something Google+ needs to do about. Google+ still has the chance to break off from the crowd and be different, many believe doing this will stand Google+ at a greater chance of realistically taking on Facebook.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Google+ though. Although it’s similar to Facebook, it doesn’t have all the ‘killer’ functions that Facebook have recently introduced and this could work in it’s favour. Not everyone wants to use complicated apps and features that do a million and one things, a lot of people just want to be able to socialise and share with their friends. Google+ does a great job of keeping these aspects very simplistic and easy to use.

Google+ have just released an update to their iOS app that is thought to help drive even more traffic their way. The app has a number of functionality updates that should improve the overall user experience. The update contains improved usage of the +1 button, the addition of hangouts using the iPhone 4 camera and a renamed messenger (formally known as Huddle) that allows users to communicate through font as well as sending a receiving images.

The recent updates from both social networks are really heating up the competition leaving Twitter seemingly in the dust. Twitter will most probably announce something soon in order to combat the other social giants.

One large update is the use of buttons with Facebook. Before there was only a ‘like’ button although now there’s a selection of different buttons referring to different mediums. For example you’re also able to mark that you have ‘read’ something (maybe a book) or ‘ate’ something. The list doesn’t end here either, the expansive list will be able to transform virtually anything you do into a social action that is shared with everyone.

In addition to this, another of the larger updates is the introduction of ‘Facebook Timeline’. This is basically a complete redesign of the Facebook profile that allows you to view what you and your friends were up to and talking about weeks, months and even years ago. It’s essentially a method of filling in your life story.

Facebook is also introducing media with the conjunction of Spotify and Netflix services. Spotify has teamed up with Facebook in order to provide a social music experience unlike any before. It will allow your friends to see what music you’re listening to, listen to it themselves with one click and spark up conversations about the song or artist. Netflix works in very much the same way although this is with TV programs and films. It allows you to specify the actors and provides a channel for open discussion.

The list of the new Facebook updates goes on. A lot of money has been poured in to this and you should expect to start seeing these changes very shortly.

But what does this mean for Google+ in terms of users? There’s a lot of speculation as to how this will affect the numbers. In the first month of field testing, Google+ accumulated a mass of 20 million users. Although this phenomenal growth is impressive, it died down soon after that. It has been predicted that the open release of the service is going be a massive boost to the numbers on the site.

Now that Google+ is open to everyone, only time will tell if the social network will regain the momentum it had earlier in the summer. It’s also thinking about the different social media marketing options that may become available to various internet marketing companies.

There are already key signs as to what can be made possible through Google+. Research and testing on the social media options has commenced and is underway already with a lot of SEO companies.