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Google Plus Direct Connect for SEO

Just watched a great hangout on setting up Google + badges and connecting your website to your Google + business page.

Big Whup, you say? You’ve already got the Google + button on your site, you don’t need no stinkin badge?

Well, yeah..you do.  Here’s why.

Google Direct Connect.

Once you install this badge to your site and link it to your Google + business page (doesn’t work with personal accounts as of now…bummer), you are automagically added a brand new search feature known as Direct Connect.

To see what this is, just go to Google and start your search with +’keyword’, e.g. +cat. Here’s an example of what you’ll see.

google direct connect

According to Jenny Murphy over at Google, the keywords being pulled in for use are contained in the Title of the Google + business page. So make sure you optimize those business page titles, people.

Another cool feature of this is that once you click on one of the ‘plus’ results, you go right to the Google plus business page, where you’re presented with a pop-up to follow that page. Nice.

google popup notification for google plus circles Installing the badge on your site is pretty simple, it just requires a few lines of code. You’ll have to sign up for a Google + platform account first, then get the code from the Google + Platform developer page.

As long as you have the Google Plus button already on your site, all you need to do is add one more line of code:

<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/{plusPageUrl}"></g:plus>

		

	

	
	
Posted in Google.

	
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			By David Pavlicko		
		– February 2, 2012
	


	

	

	
	



	
	
How to Force a Refresh in Google Chrome

	
	


This one is for all the developers who are still pulling their hair out because they can’t get Google Chrome to refresh the page.


I’m thinking that this mostly applies to sites that have an ‘expires-header’ set, but I could be wrong. Regardless of what the core issue is – you just want to refresh the damn page, so let’s get right to it.


Forcing Chrome to Refresh a Page


Step One – Open Up Dev Tools (ctrl + shift + i) or hit f12.


chrome dev tools bar


 


Next, click on the ‘network’ icon inside the dev tools bar, then look for the gear at the bottom right of the dev tools.


chrome network settings gear icon


You are so close to solving this nightmare now. Click that gear icon and you’ll be presented with a bunch of options (many of which are supremely cool, but let’s not worry about all of that now).


disable cache option in chrome dev tools


Click the ‘Disable cache’ box under the Network heading – on the right side of the page.


Reload the page - Hallelujah! You’ve just refreshed your cache for this page.

		

	

	
	
Posted in Google, Web Design.

	
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			By David Pavlicko		
		– January 16, 2012
	


	

	

	
	



	
	
Protect Your Reputation Online AND Offline

	
	


Review sites are everywhere on the internet today – local business directories such as Google Places and Superpages and social apps like UrbanSpoon and Yelp, and of course –  those strictly negative review sites like complaints [dot] com and RoR (I refuse to link to these sites). If you’re a business owner and you’re not actively monitoring your reputation these days, take a moment and do a quick search for your business name on google, then do it again and add review afterwards….or better still, see what Google’s autocomplete adds on it’s own.


Reviews, Scams, Complaints – oh my.


Even if everyone of our customers love us, that doesn’t mean the reviews being posted about your business will always represent that. It’s ridiculously easy to leave an anonymous complaint on any of these ‘review’ sites, and there are a lot of businesses that have taken the low-road and done just that to their competitors. If you’re one of those scumbags, just know that karma is a b*tch.


If the complaints are legitimate, however, then it’s time to pony up and get to work fixing that reputation before it does your business too much harm. Because unlike those days of old, nothing gets forgotten on the internet. Respond as best you can, and if that doesn’t work then go about producing a ton of content to bury those review sites past the first page of results.  It’s tough (and costly) work, but it can be done.


Offline Actions Can Lead to Online Nightmares


So the good news, if there is any,  is that you can control the visibility of those review sites on the internet to some extent – or at a minimum, at least post a response to their complaints.


But what do you do if your idiot employee does something ‘offline’ , like enter ‘lady chinky eyes’ as a description for a customer on a pizza take-out receipt?




This has got to be every business owner’s nightmare. How do you ensure that this won’t happen to you?


You can’t, unfortunately. But you CAN be pro-active about instituting a positive workplace for your employees, and help them treat your customers the way they should be treated – with respect and gratitude.

		

	

	
	
Posted in Social Media.

	
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			By David Pavlicko		
		– January 13, 2012