SIMS Industry Round-Up, February

Each month Max gives his industry round up at our SIMS Meetup and posts the links to interesting articles and must reads for Suffolk Businesses who want to stay a head online.

Here is February's list:

http://www.engadget.c...­
I mentioned it a couple of months ago, now Google has finally brought the ability to send money via GMail to the UK. Could be useful to provide customers and clients a new way to pay their bills.

https://goroost.com/...­
Web push notifications are now a real thing, get in early if you have a valid way to use them.

http://www.bloomberg....­
It's been a long time since Tweets showed in Google, but they're back. Will be interesting to see how they handle this.

https://blog.twitter....­
Tweetdeck has been an official Twitter tool for quite some time and if paying for Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Buffer etc. isn't for you, then this new feature could be ideal.

http://adwords.blogsp...­
This could be great for clients that don't sell online and only want leads via the phone.

http://searchenginela...­
If you're Webmaster Tools data has been slow to update lately, it looks like you're not the only one.

http://googleandyourb...­
Google now let you specify which photos appear for your business listing. Change your presences in Google My Business.

SIMS Industry Round-Up, January

Every month after Max has given his industry round up to the SIMS - Suffolk Internet Marketing Specialist's Meetup we post the list here so you can go through the articles at your leisure. Since we didn't meet in December it's a long list, but still worth a read if you want to stay ahead.

http://www.techradar....­
Windows 10 is here. If you're interested in search then it's worth looking at how deep the Cortana integration runs through the entire operating system on all devices. If you're interested in the web, then it's worth paying attention to Spartan (http://www.theverge.c...­) the new web browser they announced.

http://www.theverge.c...­
Group DM's come to Twitter along with Vine-esque 30 second videos direct from the app).

http://analytics.blog...­
Analytics implements a way to recover things you've deleted like filters. Very handy!

https://chrome.google...­
An official chrome plugin to help you pull data out of Google Analytics and into Google Spreadsheets. There are some videos of how to use it at: http://analytics.blog...­

http://builtvisible.c...­
Technical, but if you're more technical, here is a guide to microdata/rich snippets.

http://analytics.blog...­
They buried it in a generic blog post, but enhanced eCommerce is now out of beta.

http://www.shopify.co...­

https://itunes.apple....­
Shopify now have a podcast. Their range of resources for store-owners is growing and it's available to all, even if you don't run your shop on their platform (although obviously all their content is somewhat pro-Shopify).

https://www.youtube.c...­
Facebook's tutorial videos are either awesome or weird. This one shows how to block someone.

http://typecast.com/...­
Typecast, a tool to help design fonts, spacings, colours and more is now free.

https://wordpress.org...­
Wordpress 4.1 is here. As usual, you should update for security as well as the new features they are offering (which are listed in this blog post).

http://estimote.com/...­
Someone asked Sam on Facebook about Beacons (iBeacons if you're using Apple's terminology). This manufacturers site has some good examples of how they could be used, and a short video showing the setup procedure at https://www.youtube.c...­ - Note: these are for developers rather than plug-n-play devices, but they give you an idea of usage as more consumer-ready versions will appear.

http://adwords.blogsp...­
ETC (Estimated Total Conversions) is US-only but worth watching, they're helping track phone calls, visits (yes, using location data of your customers) and more for AdWords customers.

http://searchenginela...­
Pinterest are customising their search results by gender.

http://adwords.blogsp...­
For the larger (200+ orders per month), or more technical eCommerce sites that use Adwords. Google Trusted Sites is now apparently easier to sign up for. This article -https://econsultancy....­ - runs through some of the pro's and con's (athough Google do claim to have simplified the process since then).

http://searchenginela...­
Google added more filters to restaurant searches in Google maps. Make sure your details are up-to-date in Google My Business.

https://twitter.com/g...­
Following on from me recently saying that Google are pushing mobile-friendly sites as a high priroty, here's a tweet clarifying what they mean by ‘mobile friendly’

http://googleandyourb...­
Many of the services that Google are linking to make it really easy to get clients up-and-running with a pretty great web experience (we use Squarespace and Shopify and love them both). Whatever you think of Google, there are some pretty not-great domain name providers out there, so having another company in the mix that has the resources to provide the service without ripping customers off is not the worst thing.

http://googlewebmaste...­
Google have re-written their reCaptcha service and for many visitors the new version will simply involve clicking one checkbox rather than deciphering some weird squiggly words. Details of how to implement are linked on that page.

http://googlewebmaste...­
New structured data testing tool.

http://analytics.blog...­
The Analytics team are dropping support for IE9, so for those of you with clients that are running old Windows Vista machines and you're trying to get them to look at their stats, they may experience issues.

http://moz.com/blog/t...­
A technical list, but this site audit a good starting point for working with your developers.