Google+ to Begin Deleting Accounts and Pages on April 2

It’s been anticipated for months, but now Google has announced an official date for the shutdown of Google+.

On April 2, users of the consumer version of the platform will lose access to their accounts and pages. Starting February 4, users will no longer be able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities, or events.

Users who wish to save their content will have to download it before that date arrives. Applications like Takeout and Google+ Exporter will come in handy for those who wish to go that route. Downloaders will be given additional data starting in early March 2019.

The complete shutdown timeline includes the Google+ feature for website comments being removed from all sites by March 7, with Google+ comments disappearing from view on April 2. Google+ sign-in buttons will stop working in the next few weeks, but many will be replaced by a Google sign-in button.

The news of a shutdown date comes in the aftermath of a report from The Wall Street Journal that detailed the company’s decision to stay silent despite data from 500,000 Google+ users getting exposed over a three year period. Then, Google made it public that a bug had exposed the personal information of more than 52 million Google+ users. This sped up the platform’s demise, moving the shutdown date up from August 2019 to April 2019.

When Google+ initially announced a tentative April shutdown last December, they recognized “challenges involved in maintaining a successful product” and “the platform’s low usage” as the primary reasons behind its dismantling.

This doesn’t signal the complete disappearance of Google+ from the technological space, however. It’s only the consumer version of the platform that’s being put to rest, not the business version. “While we bring consumer Google+ to a close, we are continuing our investment in Google+ for the enterprise,” wrote David Conway, a product manager at Google. “This means that for those of you who use Google+ as part of G Suite, your accounts will remain active.

The death of Google+ has been imminent for a while, but that doesn’t make it any less inconvenient for frequent users who relied heavily on the platform. Unfortunately, the only avenue that exists for them now is to download their data and take it someplace else.

WordPress Will Usher in the Era of “Happy Publishing” in 2019

It’s been many years since WordPress was simply a site used for blogging, and in 2019 the software language of the company will finally reflect that reality.

With the introduction of WordPress 5.1, the word “publishing” will replace any mention of blogging throughout the platform. The language will be updated in wp-config-sample.php this year. So long, “happy blogging”. Hello, “happy publishing”!

Once upon a time, blogging was the central function of all WordPress sites, but the software’s capabilities have expanded dramatically, and the platform is more dynamic than ever. “WordPress is no longer a simple blogging platform,” wrote Gutenberg and WordPress core contributor Gary Pendergast. “It’s now a comprehensive publishing solution.”

WordPress is a popular and heavily relied upon open-source content management system due in part to its versatility and ability to serve multiple functions. Although it can still be used for something as simple as publishing blog content, it also allows users to perform functions like set up an affiliate shop, create real estate listings, and fundraise. Even better, these functions are accessible to people regardless of whether or not they know how to code because of the software’s user-friendly setup.

That’s not all that WordPress has in store for 2019, though. WordPress core contributor Matt Mullenweg laid out the platform’s priorities for the new year. Allowing users to opt-in to automatic plugin and theme updates, upgrading the widgets-editing areas, creating a block for navigation menus, and making it possible for themes to visually register content areas are all upgrades that WordPress expects to make within the next 12 months.

By changing the website’s language, WordPress is simply making clear what was already true a long time ago. There’s no shortage of functions that the platform can be used for, and its capabilities expand so far beyond simply blogging. Without WordPress, 32% of the web would cease to exist, and as its uses continue to grow and expand, so does the vernacular we use to talk about them.

Why Your Business Should Be On Google+

Let’s start off with a quick vocab lesson for this blog…

Google+ (G+) Google’s social networking platform.

+1 This button is often found where the social media platforms are showcased on a website. If you give a website a +1, Google will share your endorsement with friends and contacts when they search. It’s similar to the “Like” button on Facebook.
Now let’s begin! [Read more…]

What You Need To Know About Google’s Newest Algorithm, Hummingbird

What’s the buzz? Here’s what you need to know about Google Hummingbird.

So you’re not tech-savvy person, but you keep hearing all about Google’s newest algorithm, Hummingbird, and how it is affecting the future of search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re like most people, you really don’t need to understand how it all works; but you do need to know about how it affects your website’s performance. Let’s try to break it down in simple terms: [Read more…]

Understanding Google Panda: Changes To The Latest Search Engine Algorithm

Google Panda is a giant that will never be captured!

Probably the most important panda in the world right now is not Jack Black’s kung fu friend. It is, however, from a town a ways north of The San Diego Zoo called Mountain View (a.k.a. “Googleville”).

Rather than explain what we know – or don’t know for that matter – about Google Panda, we’d thought we’d share a little, er big, graphic from our friends at SearchEngineLand.com that offers some eye candy into our little friend. It’s suitable for framing; go on… you know you want to! [Read more…]

Is Your Site Getting Hits This Holiday?

If a tree falls in the woods but nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

The real question should be: if a website has great content and important information, but nobody finds it, does it make a difference?

Most businesses realize the importance of timely, accurate, and interesting content for their website, but many don’t actually take the time to see how their site performs, and, subsequently, if their content is seeing the light of day …er… computer screens. There are easy ways to learn about two important “V’s” in web world: visitors and visibility.

Search Thyself

Want to know how you are viewed on the web? Then search thyself! Search your company, your competitors, even yourself. Where are you in the results? Are you on the first page or lost in the nether region? What about your reputation? Has someone posted a negative review of your business? Or, worse yet, has that picture from the office party made it onto someone’s social network account? Those results can help you develop an effective web strategy and get in the game!

Batter Up!

Prepare your site before stepping up to the ‘virtual plate’. Just like a baseball player needs quick reflexes, good eyes, speed, and muscle, you’ll need tools to make sure your site is ready to perform. Why? You both need hits to win! Good content and a site that is optimized are a must. This very deliberate process is called SEO, or search engine optimization. Web analytics are the way to keep score (and find out about your visitors). It won’t hurt to have a good third base coach (say a certain web, media, and marketing company!) to guide you along the way. And, unlike an athlete, you can “juice” your performance by adding some well planned internet marketing too!

The first question of the New Year should be: ‘Has your site been optimized to get the most hits possible’?

Old McDonald had a site, S-E-S-E-O!

Search…and you shall be found! (Part I of LXIII)

All right. You have a wonderful new website with a cool domain name and you’re sitting back waiting for the world to come knocking on your inbox. [crickets…crickets…crickets…] How can that be? Why can’t the world find me at www.mybeautifulnewbusiness.com?

Don’t take it personally; you’re one of – oh let’s say – a billion or so websites that the great-googler-in-the-sky has to sift through to get people to their appointed rest stop on the information superhighway. But don’t worry – at some point you WILL be found. The question is, ‘when’?

Good capitalists that they are, the ‘Internetters’ discovered “SEO”. Essentially, Search Engine Optimization is the way to speed up the sifting process and get your website found by the major search engines before your business becomes another statistic. At this point you could read one of the many 500-page missives about the subject, but we’ll summarize it in a nutshell so you can venture off and see what’s right for you.

What is a Search Engine and how does it work?

The 800-pound gorillas are: Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Bing (Microsoft), and Ask.com. Also, kick in the major directories: DMOZ and Yahoo!. You go to their sites, type in a company, phrase, place, name, or college test question and, VOILA! It uses and amazingly complex algorithmic formula to find and – more importantly – rank the gazillions of websites on the internet.

How can it help my business?

Well, to start, it can find you on the internet. That means your customers can find you on the internet. That is good. Back to that ‘rank’ part: studies have found that if you’re not on the first 2 or 3 pages in search results people just stop looking. That is bad.

What is SEO?

SEO is a suite of mechanisms designed to ‘lift’ your site to the top result pages. It involves everything from listing your site with the search engines (either paid or free – another article altogether!) to optimizing your website or campaign to maximize how you’re found on the web to advertising your website.

When a search engine finds, or indexes, your website, it looks for hidden code (meta data) that tells it what to do. Look at any search results page. You’ll see an underlined blue sentence (the title) followed by 2 or three lines of text (the description). One elementary function of SEO is to just make sure that your web domain (the www.yourname.com part) and site content are in concert with your title and description. If your domain is RustyHipJoints.com and your title is ‘McDonalds’s Orthopedic Services’ and your description and site are all about ‘exercising your knees so you can snowboard at age 80’ then you’ll have a hard time in Search World. But if RustyHipJoints.com has the title ‘Avoid Rusty Hip Joints with McDonald Orthopedic Associates’ and the description and site are focused on ‘hip and joint care so that you can still dance in a Hip Joint at age 80’, you’ll have hips flying out of the joint.

But Wait – There’s More!

Maximizing your Keywords, the words or phrases used to describe your site or business (i.e.: hips, knees, joint replacement, etc.) is very important. Paid Search or Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) is what made Google rich and famous. As the name implies, you pay to have your site listed with your desired keywords, categories, or third-party sites that host Google Ads. And – believe it or not – there is “Negative SEO” for folks like Hollywood starlets and certain egg farmers who’d prefer that search engines NOT display their latest shenanigans. And, don’t even start to think about what Social Networking means to SEO (psst: go for it!).

All For One Low Price?

No. SEO costs vary all over the board from ‘beer budgets’ to ‘champagne tastes’ to ‘let’s use a bottle of Louis XIV to clean the silverware’. A basic website overhaul can run a few hundred dollars. A targeted paid-search campaign can cost whatever you want to spend, even $1 a day, but you generally get what you pay for. Fortune 500 companies can spend tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes monthly, to make sure their name appears one inch higher on your monitor than the competition.

Summary

There is way too much information for this esteemed blog. Just as there are numerous search engines, there are numerous SEO techniques. Want to learn more? Ask SPARKS!, your friendly neighborhood web, media, and marketing firm.

Or just Google it!