@BasilPuglisi

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Turn Google Reviews Smarter to Win New Customers

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Google Reviews and AI

Patterns in feedback hold marketing gold. AI uncovers them for easy wins.

What it is: Theme detection in reviews for post features.

How it works: AI analyzes, you feature positives. BrightLocal’s study links reviews to higher click-throughs.

What to do this week: Scan with AI, feature one theme in a post.

Why it matters: Turns real words into powerful trust builders. Elevates visibility and loyalty.

Goal: Target 25 engagements on the post this month.

For more:
BrightLocal. (2017). Reviews & CTR Study. https://www.brightlocal.com/research/review-search-click-through-study

Quick Steps Cheat Sheet:
• Copy recent reviews from your profile
• Paste into ChatGPT with prompt “What themes appear most?”
• Identify most mentioned positive theme
• Create new post highlighting that theme
• Use customer language in the post

About the Barstool Blog
The Barstool Blog is built for small business owners who want quick advice without the jargon. I break things down into what it is how it works what you can do this week and why it matters. For deeper dives check out my #AIgenerated blogs on SEO Social Media and Workflow including ecommerce and CRM. For industry leaders my #AIassisted blog shares a monthly look into business marketing digital strategies content events and AI.

Let AI Handle Your Google Profile Updates

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AI Tools

Consistency without constant effort? AI schedulers make it happen. Set once and stay active.

What it is: Tools for auto posts and photos.

How it works: Connect and queue content. Zapier’s picks keep things consistent without daily work.

What to do this week: Connect a tool for automatic post refreshes.

Why it matters: Effortless activity boosts rankings. Supports trust with minimal time.

Goal: Schedule four posts this month, monitoring steady views.

For more:
Zapier. (2025). Best AI tools for social media management. https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-social-media-management
Plann. (2016). Social Media Scheduler. https://www.plannthat.com

Quick Steps Cheat Sheet:
• Choose scheduling tool (Zapier, Plann, etc.)
• Connect your Google Business account
• Queue 4 posts for the month
• Set posting schedule
• Monitor results in dashboard

About the Barstool Blog
The Barstool Blog is built for small business owners who want quick advice without the jargon. I break things down into what it is how it works what you can do this week and why it matters. For deeper dives check out my #AIgenerated blogs on SEO Social Media and Workflow including ecommerce and CRM. For industry leaders my #AIassisted blog shares a monthly look into business marketing digital strategies content events and AI.

Kick Off 2024 Right, Make Sure Folks Find Your Spot on Google Maps

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Most customers decide in seconds if your business is worth a click. Old holiday hours or stale photos? They scroll right past. Here’s how to grab their attention and start the year with more visits.

What it is: Your free listing on Google Maps for hours photos updates and posts.

How it works: Sign in, set your current hours, add two new photos of your setup, and post a short promo. A bar might post new year specials on taps, come grab one today.

What to do this week: Update your holiday hours, upload two new photos, and add one short promo post.

Why it matters: Accurate details stop customers from assuming you’re outdated and heading elsewhere. It builds quick trust, improves your search visibility, and drives real sales from locals as Google’s own guides confirm.

Goal: Aim for +20 profile views this month by checking your Google stats.

For more:
Google. (2015). Edit your business hours. https://support.google.com/business/answer/15300403
Google. (2017). Create & manage posts. https://support.google.com/business/answer/7342169
Google. (2013). Edit your Business Profile. https://support.google.com/business/answer/3039617

About the Barstool Blog
The Barstool Blog is built for small business owners who want quick advice without the jargon. I break things down into what it is how it works what you can do this week and why it matters. For deeper dives check out my #AIgenerated blogs on SEO Social Media and Workflow including ecommerce and CRM. For industry leaders my #AIassisted blog shares a monthly look into business marketing digital strategies content events and AI.

Responsive Design or Die: Why Your Website Must Go Mobile-First

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By now, you’ve likely heard the buzz about responsive design — the ability for a website to adapt its layout based on the device viewing it. But in May 2013, this isn’t just a design trend. It’s a business necessity.

With Google subtly shifting its algorithm toward mobile performance and smartphone adoption skyrocketing, “mobile-first” is no longer optional. If your site doesn’t work on phones and tablets, you’re not just losing traffic — you’re losing trust, rankings, and revenue.

📊 The Mobile Reality Check

– According to Pew Research (May 2013), 56% of American adults now own a smartphone.
– Google’s own data shows that over 60% of mobile users are more likely to abandon a site if it’s not mobile-friendly.
– More than half of all local searches are being done on mobile devices.

And here’s the kicker: mobile search is expected to overtake desktop search in 2014. That means we’re just months away from a complete flip in how your audience finds and interacts with your brand online.

💻 What Is Responsive Design?

Responsive web design (RWD) allows a single website to dynamically adjust its layout and content based on the screen size and orientation of the device. That means:

– One site works across phones, tablets, laptops, desktops
– No need to build or maintain separate mobile sites
– Better SEO, user experience, and conversion rates

It’s also Google’s officially recommended configuration for mobile websites, according to a Google Webmaster Central Blog post from 2012. In 2013, that recommendation is turning into an expectation.

🔍 Why It Matters for SEO

Google isn’t just favoring mobile-friendly sites — it’s punishing those that are not.

– Bounce rate, page speed, and mobile usability now affect rankings.
– Sites with responsive layouts tend to outperform their mobile-only or desktop-only counterparts.
– Search results are beginning to highlight mobile-optimized content — pushing unoptimized pages further down.

If SEO is a priority (and it should be), responsive is no longer “nice to have.” It’s critical infrastructure.

📲 The Business Impact

Beyond SEO and traffic, here’s how going responsive helps:

– Improves brand perception — A mobile-ready site shows you understand modern user expectations.
– Boosts conversion rates — Easier navigation = more actions (calls, purchases, form fills).
– Reduces bounce rates — Visitors stay longer when they’re not pinching and zooming.
– Saves development time and cost — One site, one codebase, one team.

🛠 How to Get Started

1. Audit Your Current Site
   Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to see how your site performs.

2. Evaluate Your Platform
   If you’re using WordPress or similar CMS, many themes now come fully responsive out of the box.

3. Work with Mobile in Mind
   Prioritize load time, navigation simplicity, and button size. Assume most users are tapping — not clicking.

4. Don’t Forget Email
   Marketing emails also need responsive design. If they’re unreadable on mobile, they’re deleted in seconds.

🧭 Final Thought

Mobile-first isn’t just a development principle — it’s a strategic mindset. Your audience is mobile. Your competitors are going responsive. The algorithms are watching. If you’re not adapting now, you’ll be invisible later.

Responsive design isn’t a trend. It’s survival.

Sources:
– Pew Research Mobile Technology (May 2013)
– Google Mobile Ads Blog
– Google Webmaster Central Blog
– Mashable, Smashing Magazine

The End of Google Reader & the Coming Content Shock: What It Means for Your Digital Strategy

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Google just dropped a bomb on the digital community. On March 13, 2013, the company announced it will be shutting down Google Reader by July 1st. For many marketers, journalists, and SEO professionals, this is more than just the end of an RSS feed aggregator — it’s a wake-up call.

In a world where we build our strategies around tools we don’t own, the removal of a major content distribution channel isn’t just inconvenient — it’s risky.

☠️ Google Reader Is Dead. So What?

If you’re not familiar with it, Google Reader allowed users to subscribe to RSS feeds from blogs, news outlets, and more — essentially creating a custom newspaper. While its popularity has declined in recent years, many digital marketers still relied on it to track industry news, competitor updates, and trend data.

But Google’s explanation was simple: usage has declined, and we want to focus on fewer products.

Translation: If it’s not profitable and scalable, it’s gone — even if it’s part of the digital marketing foundation for thousands.

This move shook content strategists because it marked another shift away from open platforms and toward walled gardens controlled by big tech. Sound familiar?

🚨 The Warning Beyond the Shutdown: Content Shock

Not long before this news, thought leader Mark Schaefer introduced a powerful idea:

“Content Shock” — the moment when the amount of content available vastly exceeds our capacity to consume it.

Think about it. Every company is now a publisher. Every employee is a micro-influencer. Every tweet, status update, blog post, infographic, and podcast is competing for the same limited attention span.

When Google shuts down a platform like Reader, it doesn’t just kill a product — it consolidates content consumption further into platforms they control (like YouTube, Google+, and Search), amplifying the volume and the competition.

The result? Only the best content survives — and even that might not be enough.

💡 What This Means for You

If you’re a brand, blogger, publicist, or digital strategist, this should spark some serious questions:

1. Are you building audiences or borrowing them?
   Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube own the audience — you just get to rent space.

2. Are you diversifying your distribution?
   Don’t rely on one platform or method. Newsletters, downloadable assets, and yes — even your own website — need to become central again.

3. Are you prepared for the noise ahead?
   As content continues to explode, the real battle won’t be if your content gets published — it’s whether it gets seen at all.

🛠 Action Steps You Can Take Now

– Re-evaluate your content syndication tools
  Alternatives like Feedly, Flipboard, or even Pocket may offer new opportunities to reach niche readers.

– Double down on owned media
  Email lists, blogs, and branded content portals are back in fashion — not because they’re trendy, but because you own them.

– Segment and personalize
  The era of mass messaging is dying. Use data to deliver content they want, not just what you want to say.

– Quality > Quantity
  In a world of Content Shock, publishing every day might not help. Publishing something worth sharing might.

🎯 Final Thought

Google Reader’s death is symbolic. It’s a reminder that we don’t control the platforms we rely on, and it’s a warning about where digital strategy is headed. As content volume increases and human attention plateaus, the winners won’t just be the loudest voices — they’ll be the ones who built lasting relationships, offered real value, and controlled their own channels.

The question isn’t whether content marketing still works. The question is: are you adapting fast enough to keep it working for you?

Sources:
– Google Official Blog: A second spring of cleaning
– Schaefer, Mark. “Content Shock: Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy.”
– Feedly Blog
– Mashable, The Verge, TechCrunch (March 2013 reactions to Reader shutdown)

Google AdWords, Part 2 [Internship]

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As you read in the Google Adwords part one, pay per click (PPC) is one of the options Google offers as an advertising feature. However, PPC is not the only feature. Cost Per Impression (CPI) is another online advertising tool that Google offers. CPI usually is in the form of a banner ad on a website and advertisers pay for every time their ad is displayed. CPI is different from PPC because CPI is only when the ad is displayed on a website, not clicked like PPC. Cost Per Mille (CPM) is the most common marketing practice used on the internet. CPM advertising is the way a marketer can be more certain about the revenue they generate from their website traffic. When the amount paid for every thousand earning impressions served, this is said to be CPM or CPI.
Some of Google Adwords advanced features include location options. In the previous Google Adwords article, it talked about setting your location to make your ads visible to a certain area. Advanced location options allow a marketer to reach people viewing pages about your targeted location. This will help because you will not only be seen in just your targeted area anymore. The only catch is that this feature is only available for certain campaign types that have “all features”. The good news is that you can switch your campaign type whenever you like.
Google had recently been trying out a new feature called Google Email Subscription Ads. This allows companies to buy ads that automatically fill in a newsletter slot. This allows users to sign up more easily for email subscriptions or other free newsletters. A cool feature on this allows your Google email address to be displayed next to your ad.
A new revolutionizing feature that Google Adwords set up is calling Pay Per Call (PPC). Pay Per Call is simply the process of an advertiser paying the publisher every time their phone number is clicked off a Google search page. This is another good way a marketer can establish their advertisements and see how their PPC option really works.
Google offers many different features for businesses to choose from. Google Adwords is a great beneficial step for your business to take. The set up is easy, and Google is kind enough to show you a step by step process. Even though Google is testing out some features, it’s easy to see that they are thriving and will go into good use.
Read: Google AdWords Part 1
Sources:
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/advertising-internet-advertising/2646-1.html#axzz29NUBY4iJ
http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1722038
http://www.crunchbase.com/product/google-adwords-2
http://paypercallexchange.com/mobile-marketing/google-mobile-adwords/
 
The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Why use Google AdWords? – Part 1- [Internship]

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Google logo
Ever search something on Google and wonder what makes the first search result better than the next? With a little help from AdWords it can help you achieve a higher rank in the search results. AdWords bid on keywords that will help trigger their sponsored ads. How much they bid is one of the things that determines their position on the page of search results. The more their ads are clicked, the less they have to pay for each click.
Google AdWords is Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertising platform. This tool is used to direct traffic to your website. Every time your ad is clicked in the PPC option, the advertiser pays the website owner on the terms that the agreed on. The budget can determine how often ads can appear on Google. PPC’s content usually takes form in advertisements such as sponsored links or ads. They appear either above your search results or along the side.
There are many beneficial factors when taking using the AdWords tool. When someone clicks on your ad, this will take them to your website where they can learn more about your business and make a purchase.  Advertising on Google can direct more traffic to your website as you are using the most widely used search engine in the world.
When you first come across Google AdWords, you’ll want to narrow down your audience and attempt to target just your customers. Google AdWords allows you to narrow down your audience by choosing from hundreds of languages, and specific cities and regions. For example, if you own a furniture store in New York City, you don’t want your ads to be seen in Colorado. Set your campaign ads to be read in English throughout the New York City area. Making your ads visible within a ten miles radius of the city or using the zip code targeting can’t hurt either.
After you targeted your audience, you then want to create your ad that will appeal to them. You want your ad to stick out like a sore thumb. In a world full of furniture stores, you want someone to click on your website instead of your competitors. In order for the searcher to click your ad, you want to be able to provide them with the one they think provides the most beneficial information or drives the highest value. In order to make an ad the most effective for your website, you want to choose keywords that are relevant. Choose keywords that relate the most to your site, service or offer. For example, if you are a business that sells furniture, your keywords might include couch, futon, or recliner. You’ll also find it useful to create long tail keywords, like NYC furniture store, or park slope furniture store. The long tail keywords use more terms to narrow your target and often have less competition.
There are a couple of types of keywords, one being negative keywords. A negative keyword is a phrase or word that prevents ads from appearing when a searcher types it in. For example, if your business sells furniture, but doesn’t sell bed frames, you would add the negative keyword but put a hyphen before it like so –bed frames. This eliminates your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches. Another type of keywords include exact match. You want to use exact match when you are using keywords that are exactly what a customer would be looking for when searching on Google. Exact match means that the ad shows for searches only when the search query is exactly the same as your keyword. When using exact match, chose your keyword and put it in square brackets. When someone is looking to buy a love seat, and you own a furniture company, you may want to use [love seat] as an exact match.
After you created your ad, you want to set a pricing. Set your daily budget and cost per click up. You can spend to as much or as little as you want. The average cost per click with Google AdWords is around $3.50 per click but in some cases skyrockets to $20. A useful feature on AdWords lets you change your budget at any time. When you are finally all done with setting up your ad, you want to launch the campaign.
Signing up for Google AdWords can be a good move for your business. It can direct traffic straight to your website which can mean more purchases. Google AdWords generates more visitors, followers, and customers. When you have an effective ad on Google’s search results page, your website will see a whole new world. The tool is one of the best advertising options when you want to track ROI and be able to reduce or grow on the fly. While there is still a lot of other options, using the PPC campaigns in Google AdWords can be a great source for new business.
Coming In Part 2 – Google AdWords, Advanced Options, CPM, Newsletter, Calls, DisplayNetwork
Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

How Exact Match Domains Have Weathered the Penguin Storm

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Exact match domains have always had the added advantage of direct-type in traffic, giving them certain immunity to algorithm updates. Once an EMD is linked to a website, the webmaster’s behavior has more to do with rankings. Penguin sought out sites with too many exact match anchor text links, but the outcome had more to do with who can get away with it and to what extent. For EMDs, exact anchor text makes up part of the natural link profile.
Brand based anchor text is natural, i.e. www.brandname.com, brandname.com and brand name. When your brand is your exact match domain name, your website is not going to set off those same red flags for your exact match keywords. But, what you’ve done with your link profile beyond that is what does come in to play with Penguin. Is the rest of your link profile diversified with partial anchor text, long tail, and a nice mix of click here, visit this site and straight http: links? That’s most likely what sets apart the ones who were impacted by Penguin and those that were not.

Tier 2 pages

What have the exact match sites done with their tier 2 pages? Chances are, most have targeted different keywords for those pages and not focused on as many brand anchor text links. Natural links to tier 2 pages often contain the title tag. Take a look at your back link profile and look how others linked to those pages. That’s a good indicator of what natural linking to those pages looks like.

Meta Data

Another issue any site could run in to is over-optimized title tags. So, if you repeated your keywords in your title tag in a spammy way, i.e. red shoes, cheap red shoes, not only does that page come across as spammy because of the title tag existing on it, but if a user linked to your site with the title tag, that appears spammy, too.
Keep in mind, if you keep on playing with your title tags, you set off a spam alert. If your title tag is webmaster tools compliant, don’t tweak it. Spammers will often watch if their title tag adjustments results in higher or lower rankings and if they drop, they will go back and revert the changes. This is when you get in to trouble. Your server records the file date every time you make a change and Google uses that data to make an evaluation.
Many exact match domains do continue to rank well in Google post Penguin, but no site is immune to future updates. Moving forward, don’t assume that because your website was not affected that it won’t be. We’ll always be left guessing what the next problematic issue will be.
 
Source:

Theresa Happe works with Buy Domains, a leading source of domains for sale, including available and exact match domains.

How to Budget for Marketing

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Whatever it is, the budget you put in place for your marketing for the year ahead will shape the results you achieve. Now is the ideal time to define your marketing approach and the budget that will support it. In a recent Toluna survey of businesses, 40% of businesses surveyed stated that they did not feel that their marketing budget met all their marketing needs.
In tougher times, the marketing budget is often the first thing that is cut. Yet it is commonly known that companies which consistently market themselves in a recession perform better than those that don’t. So:

  • How can companies budget better to create the results they want?
  • What can companies do to budget effectively for the year ahead?

Fit your strategy around your target market

Strategy is everything in marketing.  But a separate strategy for your marketing and your sales approach will not deliver the best Return On Investment (ROI). Now is the best time to review your marketing approach in 2011 and identify what worked – and what didn’t. Then, apply this important data to your overall sales and marketing strategy. Which markets are you trying to reach? Which audiences do you want to grow in the coming year? Match this with your marketing approach and plan your marketing spends in careful stages, so that each part of the plan flows from one stage to another. Use inbound marketing technology to track the behaviour of your target markets and ensure that you are using the most appropriate marketing channels to reach them.  This will help you get more from your budget in 2012.

Track your ROI on marketing spend

Your marketing data from the past year will provide a valuable insight into what will work over the next 12 months. So carefully track the ROI you’ve gained this year and identify the activities that have created the best results.

Be ruthless in assessing what is paying you back and what is proving to be a drain on your resources

Would these areas work better with a different approach, perhaps using inbound marketing to accelerate results and make them more profitable? You can also use inbound marketing technology to closely assess and analyse the exact payback from each area of your marketing plan – and feed this knowledge into the year ahead. Put a plan in place for tracking your ROI. Inbound marketing allows you to do this continuously and consistently, letting you to adapt and refresh your marketing activities accordingly.

Create a cross-channel marketing budget

Are you currently using all the appropriate marketing channels? Did your approaches in 2011 feed across the different channels to maximise results – or did you only focus on a couple of areas?
Recent research suggests that companies using social media or “collaborative Web 2.0 technologies” are achieving higher profits. (Source: McKinsey)
Are you one of the companies missing out on a better marketing ROI by neglecting or misusing social media and other technologies?
By using inbound marketing you can connect up all your marketing channels much more effectively, making it easier to retain any potential customers – whatever stage of buying cycle they are at. You can create a cross-channel presence that reduces the cost of building a receptive and responsive brand profile. This approach also makes it much easier to budget for the year ahead. It gives you a core strategy which then feeds out across all the channels – bringing you a better ROI for 2012.

Adapt and update

While it is important to develop a clear strategy to get the best from your marketing budget, it is also important to continuously review and analyse your results. More conventional marketing approaches have traditionally made it quite hard to view the results as you go along. But new inbound marketing technology allows you to view the impact of every single aspect of your marketing approach – as it’s happening. Use this invaluable and on-going insight to adapt your strategy and ensure you make the most of your budget throughout 2012.

What is the secret to budgeting right for marketing in the year ahead?

Everybody wants to make their marketing budget work harder. So how can you ensure you do this in the months to come? Focus on your target market and what they’re doing. By using inbound marketing technology you can get closer to buyer behaviour and demand. You can use this insight to create more meaningful connections by building relationships across all the different marketing channels. This enables you to accelerate the relationships you build with your prospects. Instead of waiting for months to view the results, you can see who’s responding – and adapt your strategy to meet the demand there and then.  This ensures that your marketing spend is continuously matched with where it is most effective and that it feeds right back into your company’s sales and marketing strategy. Create your strategy, use advanced inbound marketing approaches to maximise your marketing impact and assess its impact while it’s live. Keep it consistent and targeted and you can look forward to a better ROI on your marketing budget in 2012.
Author: Sookie Shuen is the community manager at Tomorrow People, a leading UK inbound marketing consultancy. You can read more of Sookie’s content on inbound marketing by subscribing to the Zoober Inbound Marketing blog here. You can also find her on Google+ and Twitter.
Sources:

Google Places for Your Service Industry

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An innovative business known as PlumberSEO.net has found a way to use Google Places for service industry networking. While they specialize in working with HVAC contractors and Plumbers, PlumberSEO helps those in their industry take their businesses to the next level with effective online marketing with social media, SEO, map optimization and many other internet marketing tools.

Find a Plumber and More

It used to be that when you were looking for a plumber, electrician, roofer, or any other type of service contractor, you picked up the yellow pages and almost always went with the one that had the most impressive ad, the most credentials, and the most well-known company brand name. In today’s world, very few people still use this traditional method of printed resources, instead, they head to the web to look for the best options for service contractors in their area. One of the ways in which Google has made this search easier for consumers is by adding Google Places.

Check out this quick video to get familiar with Google Places if you require a bit more in-depth understanding.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpZan96KHOM]

Now when people look for service contractors in their area, they commonly head to Bing, Yahoo, Google, or other favored search engines as well as to social media sites where they may ask friends or family if they can suggest a contractor in the area.

A recent survey of 2,000 consumers revealed the 86% of the surveyed use the internet to find local business, 74% of those cited search engines as where they go when seeking a local retail or service industry contractor.

Local businesses that are not showing up on page one of search engines are missing major opportunities to grow their business as most people tend to decide their choice in contractors from page one of search engine results.

How to Manage Google Places

Google Places isn’t without its own flaws. However, most of these are user related and may just require a bit more of an in-depth understanding of how Google Places works. If you have had any issues you may want to check out this video for some helpful tips if you find you need help troubleshooting.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/GooglePlaces]

In addition, be sure to check out how to Optimizing Your Google Places Page to get the best results for your business.

[polldaddy poll=6238017]

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources: