General Info

Facebook Places service has now finished

August 30, 2011

Facebook has removed Facebook Places, an app for location-based offers, almost one year after it was released, due to the fact that the service was not being used as much as Facebook had originally expected. On the other hand, now Facebook is re-focusing its efforts on the Check-in service.

Facebook is currently upgrading its “check in” tool; this will mean that you will be directed to your status, where adding content is possible. With this upgrade, Facebook’s intentions are to add more user content and relevant discussions, letting its users to be more socially interactive instead of only informing where they are.

Although Facebook Places and Facebook Deals has ended, businesses will still be allowed to offer deals (coupons and discounts) through the “Check In” tool.

To learn more about how Social Media and Facebook can help your business contact Studio8Search on 01865 842525.

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Facebook removes Daily Facebook Deals

August 30, 2011

Facebook Deals were released in April 2011 as a trial programme. Facebook’s main objective was to offer online discounts and coupons from local business across five American cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco (and recently Charlotte, Minneapolis and St. Louis were added).

After testing Facebook Deals for four months, it was announced last week that Facebook will not be continuing to offer this service. Earlier in the same week another setback was announced: the killing of Facebook Places.

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses”.

To other online discount industry leaders such as Groupon and LivingSocial this has come as good news as it reduces significantly the extra pressure the social network giant was putting in their business.

Daily Facebook Deals should not be confused with Check-in Deals, which are, at least for now, alive, although changed to survive to the removal of Facebook places. Announced in November 2010 to work with Facebook Places it allowed you to find and check-in from bars, coffee shops, restaurants and supermarkets through an app in exchange of free items, coupons and discounts etc.

To learn more about how Social Media and Facebook can help your business contact Studio8Search on 01865 842525.

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The benefits of QR codes

August 25, 2011

QR Code is an abbreviation for Quick Response Code. It is 2-dimentional barcode, created by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota in 1994. Originally designed to track parts of the car manufacturing industry, this technology has now been incorporated into many offline and online marketing campaigns.

When read by a QR code reader on a smartphone, the phone’s browser will be directed to the programmed information embedded within the QR code. This information can be a web address, a phone number, a business card, or a video. You may also want to use a QR code for a special promotion or viral campaign through your offline marketing such as signs, magazines, displays etc.

For marketers, this is a huge opportunity to attract customers to their business fast through online and offline channels. Mobile tagging of QR codes is considered the fastest way at present to link tangible items to the digital world. Sharing business information has never been so easy!

The good news is that the use of QR codes is free to everyone and easy to use. O generate your own free QR code visit http://studio-8.co.uk/search/qrcodes/ or talk to the team on 01865 842525.

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Google buys Motorola’s mobile phone division for $12.5 billion

August 16, 2011

Google revealed today it is to buy Motorola’s mobile phone division that is responsible for the development and manufacturing of smartphones, tablets and accessories. Google brought the division for $12.5 billion (£7.7 billion), paying in cash $40 per share, which represents a bonus of 63% over the price of last Friday.

With this acquisition, Google expects to boost its operational system Android and strategy to grow stronger within the smartphone market, as one of their major problems is related to the lack of mobile phone patents. Motorola Mobility holds 24,500 patents.

To Motorola it represents an important deal, sales have plunged in the last years, as Apple, HTC and Samsung have taken the lead, offering more attractive smartphones.

The deal might be completed late this year or early 2012, as it is yet to be approved by shareholders and regulatory agencies and in addition, Mobility will be kept as a separated company.

To discuss your mobile site call 01865 842525 to speak to Studio8Search.

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Google: a giant monster that never stops growing

August 16, 2011

When Microsoft released Bing, Google accused them of stealing Google’s search results. This week’s attacks have come after Google complained that Microsoft, Oracle and Apple were ganging up on it to stop Android through the use of “bogus” patents, which those companies apparently overpaid for, in Google’s esteemed wisdom.

There has been a huge criticism on Google’s power to continuously copy, expand and dominate someone’s business. Just observe the recently created Google+ and how it is attracting millions of users, some people say copying Facebook’s “Like” button, or Google’s coupon tool similar to Groupon offers.

What saves Google is that really, it isn’t too different of other companies. There were mp3 players before iPod, as well as touch screen mobile phones before iPhone or Internet Explorer before Firefox, Chrome and Safari. This is going to be a continuous battle which we are sure we haven’t heard the last of!

To find out more on how you can grow your business online and get yourself found in Google talk to Studio8Search. Call us today on 01865 842525.

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Google+ Users Soar Amid Social Network Clash

July 19, 2011

The battle for social network users is heating up with research estimating the number of Google Plus users is rocketing.

A study released this year found that the new service could have almost five million users in the US alone – up from 1.7 million users a week ago.

Google is currently limiting the number of people who can use the service, as it tries to fix any bugs within the system.

The search engine’s product allows users to limit which friends information and updates are shared by allowing you to group your friends in “Circles”.

However, Google has a great deal of catching up to do if it is to match Facebook, which last week revealed it had reached 750 million active users.

To discuss your own social media strategies contact Studio8 today on 01865 842525.

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Need a Local Business? Well Search officially Rules!

July 14, 2011

When Internet users look for a local business, search is the winner according to research from Local Search Association.

The majority of 18 to 34 preferred search, as did those aged 35 to 54.  Among older users of 55+, yellow pages

are still used as the first point of call to find a local business rather than search engines like Google. However,
this statistic is likely to decrease as more and more older users become internet savvy.

Studio 8’s SEO team can optimise your website for Google Places and local online search results.
Why not contact us for more help and advice on local search optimisation.

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New gTLDs

June 24, 2011

A fundamental change to the way brands, consumers and SEO companiesNew gTLDs connect on the Internet is among us. Icann, the power accountable for Internet domains, has agreed a plan to expand the 22 currently available domains (.com, .net, etc.) to permit trusted brands and organisations to apply to own and operate their own gTLDs (generic top-level domains).

Business leaders must assess, understand and weigh the strategic prospect to own their own .brand domains. The cost and effort of applying for a .brand domain is significant, (£115.000) but a failure to act now may result in unnoticed, online competitive issues in years to come.

For many years, search engine optimisation specialists have said that search engines such as Google have used the global (e.g., .org or .com) and country-level domain (e.g., .de or .co.uk) on a website to affect the ranking of search results within the search algorithms. Search results for  “apple iPod nano” from a trusted .apple gTLD will be perceived as trustworthy not only by Google but also by searchers scanning a search result page.

Websites with mature SEO strategies will take advantage of the gTLD changes to drive traffic for their direct online channels. One thing is certain, there will be SEO winners and losers and more businesses will  need to employ SEO agencies.

For more information or how to set up a new gTLD, contact Studio8 on 01865 842525.

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Googles top ranking factors

June 7, 2011


SEO professionals from around the world participated in a poll to vote on what they consider to be the 5 most important factors the Google algorithm considers when ranking a site.

Using your keywords as the anchor text from external links (73%)

We always knew that using your keywords as the anchor text is important but didn’t realise that so many other online marketing experts felt this to be the most important factor.

External link popularity (71%)

This was voted to be the second most important ranking factor. Your link popularity refers to the quantity and quality of the back links.

Diversity of link sources (67%)

This is a very important area to focus on. It is no good just to get back links from directory sites or blog comments – you really need to diversify your back links methods. Use the many 2.0 sites – article sites – high profile sites – rss promotions – blog comments etc.

Keyword use anywhere in the title tag (66%)

The title tags are a very important area for your onsite optimisation.

Trustworthiness of the domain based on link distance from trusted domains (66%)

This is the fifth most important ranking factor. It means that Google “trust” your domain in order to get higher rankings.

To discuss optimising your website with Studio8Search call 01865 842525

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Launch of another Mobile Website!

May 19, 2011

We’ve just launched another  mobile sites for MB Locksmiths of Kidlington –  http://www.oxfordlocksmiths.com/

If you’ve ever tried to view a website on your smartphone you’ll know how frustrating it can be constantly rotating your phone, zooming in and out on pages and trying to find the information you need.

There are now an estimated 2 billion mobile phones in the world and smart phones are now outselling PC’s! We truely do live in a Mobile World and it is that reason that businesses now understand that a mobile website is vital to compliment your pc/laptop website and ensure your audience stays with you at all times.

Mobile websites are unique to Apps in that they do not rely on different operating systems in order to function correctly – therefore if you have one customer using Android and another using Apple’s operating system – they will both be able to access your information.

Go mobile now for new business and revenue possibilities.

We from studio8search would be happy to discuss you mobile website.

01865 842525

Info@studio8search.com

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