Help Desk Hangouts: Google Apps

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.

In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we talked about Google Apps for businesses with Meera, Garrett, and Harry. They showed off some of the collaborative features in Google Apps, and we chatted about how businesses might take advantage of the suite of tools. They also answered your questions in real time. Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:

How can a business owner or administrator tailor Google Apps to fit his/her needs?
With Google Apps, administrators can turn services on/off for their account, as well as customize service settings. For example, administrators can choose whether Docs can be shared outside the domain or not. Or, whether Offline Gmail is allowed for users.

What support channels are available to Google Apps users?
All users and admins can get answers to common issues and how to articles at the Google Apps Help Center. Free Google Apps accounts can ask questions on our help forum. Our Power Posters and Google Apps Advisors are constantly answering user questions. Google Apps for Business, Education, or Government accounts get 24/7 phone and email support.

Do I need a website or domain to use Google Apps?
You need your own domain name in order to use Google Apps. Don’t have one? You can sign up for a domain name during the sign up process for Google Apps at google.com/a. 


Help Desk Hangouts are hosted on the Google+ Your Business page every other Wednesday. Don’t miss our next Hangout at 11a.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 8. Look for the topic announcement on the Google+ Your Business page.

Posted by Jade Wang, Google+ Local Community Manager

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Serving mobile customers

Consumers are always on-the-go, which means they frequently search for products and services from their mobile phones. After searching on a smartphone, more than half of users visit a store in person and many of those people make a purchase, either in-store, online, or by phone.

Obviously, if consumers are searching for you or something you offer, it’s important that your business show up! The tips below will help you to evaluate your current website on a mobile device, make improvements, and measure your changes.




Posted by Abby Fromm, Google and Your Business Blog Team

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Help Desk Hangouts: SEO Webmaster Academy

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.

In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we talked about SEO with the masterminds of Google’s Webmaster Academy. Our experts, Alexi, Michael, and Matt, walk you through how Google Search works, how you can set your site up for success, and more. They also answered your questions in real time. Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:
My site used to rank really well, but now it doesn’t. What happened?
There could be several reasons that your site is not be ranking in search the same way that it did in the past. Three common reasons why this may happen are that your site has a technical problem which is preventing Googlebot from accessing it, your site violates our quality guidelines, or your site is simply ranking differently due to changes to our algorithm, which is updated hundreds of times per year. The first thing we’d recommend to diagnose your issue is to check your site in Google Webmaster Tools, a free service that gives you information about how your site is performing in Google. If we’ve detected a problem with your site, we may have sent you a message there. For a more detailed checklist to help you diagnose a change in ranking, visit our Help Center.

I'd love to learn more about the Knowledge Graph and what, if anything we should be doing as SEOs & Webmasters.

The Knowledge Graph is a way for users to see additional relevant information on searches for certain people, places and things on the right hand side of the results page. This information helps users get to answers quickly; in many cases, they may find answers to questions they hadn’t even thought to ask. It also helps people discover more about the topic they’re interested in by showing people, places or things that are closely related to their searches. For example, if you search for an artist like Leonardo da Vinci, you’ll see a short biography, some of his most famous works, and other frequently searched-for artists. Currently, there isn’t any functionality in Webmaster Tools to be included in the Knowledge Graph. Right now this is not about individual businesses but rather about generally known facts about the world.

How do you rank item detail pages where there may be many websites which have the same item for sale (with a standard "technical description")? Who rises to the top when the content is basically static?

Great question! Many merchant and affiliate sites use product descriptions taken straight from the manufacturer or from the end merchant site. While sometimes this can be appropriate, we typically recommend looking for ways you can add your own value to that page - can you provide some original reviews or recommendations about the item? If you are adding value of your own you’ll be providing a better experience for users. If you are concerned about this, check out our material on duplicate content and watch this video about our Webmaster Guidelines.

Where can I go for more information, help, or to prove my own knowledge?

Our experts mentioned a bunch of incredible resources available to you. Here are a few links to get you started:

• Webmaster Academy
• SEO Starter Guide
• Webmaster Help Center
• Webmaster Help Forum
• Webmaster Help YouTube Channel
• Webmaster Central Blog
• Webmaster Guidelines
• Some great videos to check out

As mentioned in the recording, our Help Desk Hangouts will be occurring every other week moving forward. Be sure to join us for our next Hangout at 11 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, July 25th. Look out for the topic announcement on the Google+ Your Business page.

Posted by Toby Stein, Google+ Community Manager

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Help Desk Hangouts: Mobilize Your AdWords Campaigns to Connect with More Customers

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.


In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we discussed mobile advertising using AdWords with Googlers +Dori Storbeck, +Courtney Pannell, +Adam Grunewald and +Jeffrey Cheng. The group shared reasons for advertising on mobile devices, best practices for creating mobile campaigns, and a few tips particular to mobile ads. If you missed it, you can watch the full hour-long Hangout on the Google Business YouTube channel (check out the video description for a minute-by-minute breakdown):

Here are a few of the questions you asked us to answer during the Hangout:

If I have a separate campaigns for targeting mobile vs. desktop, how should I determine what to bid for mobile?
There are significantly fewer ad slots on a mobile search result page than on a regular search result page, so setting competitive bids can be key to getting the visibility that comes with one of the two top positions, which are frequently above the organic results. We generally suggest you bid more aggressively on a mobile-specific campaign to help secure one of the top slots.

Since there are only two top ad slots above the organic results on mobile, aren’t the bids too high for small businesses to compete?
Currently there isn’t as much competition for certain types of businesses on mobile devices since many advertisers may be focused on targeting computers; savvy small business advertisers can take advantage of the fact that the mobile sphere might not be as saturated as the desktop sphere for their product offering or service right now.

If I use call extensions, can I allow users to click-to-call OR go to my website, or can they only click-to-call?
You have the option to choose whether we show links to your website and your phone number or whether we show only the link to your phone number with your ads.

Wait, so you’re telling me I have to create a new mobile-specific campaign and a mobile-friendly version of my website? That’s just way too much work, I don’t have time.
It’s actually really easy to do! You can quickly duplicate an existing campaign using AdWords Editor - a free program which you can download here. Just make sure to change the device targeting options so that your original campaign targets computers only and the copied campaign targets mobile devices only. We also have a great resource which can help determine whether your website is mobile friendly and even help create a mobile version of your site for you.

To learn more about how to get your mobile campaign started, visit our Help Center or check out the AdWords Community forum. And remember to tune in to the live stream of our next Help Desk Hangout on Wednesday, July 11 at 11 a.m. PT — topic to be announced on the Google+ Your Business page!

Posted by Dori Storbeck and Courtney Pannell, Global Online Advertising Associates

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Webmaster Academy: A Primer on Search Engine Optimization

If you have a website, you probably want it to be easy to find. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is “the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines” (Wikipedia). While the most important thing to do is to always focus on providing your users with a great experience, here are some great optimization tips to get you started:

Optimizing Content
If there’s one thing to remember, it’s to make sure your website has high-quality content. Your content should be concise, relevant, and unique. Remember to use words that users would search for, which you can find more data on in Webmaster Tools.

Improving HTML
Make sure that your website contains all the proper HTML tags necessary for search engine crawlers to understand each page. Each web page should have a relevant title (created with the <title> element in HTML) that concisely describes that page’s content. Images should have alternate text (the alt HTML attribute) because Google is much better at understanding text than looking at pictures.

Relevant Publicity
While Google pays attention to everything on your website, it can also learn a lot about your site from other websites. Consider sharing your website with other communities online. Don’t know where to start? See if your local chamber of commerce website lists local businesses. Google uses external signals like these when evaluating your website.

Because doing all of this can be a daunting task, many businesses hire search engine optimizers (also called SEOs). Just like with anyone you hire, before bringing on an SEO make sure to complete your due diligence - here are some tips to make sure you are bringing on a great fit that abides by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

While search engine optimization can seem overwhelming at first, remember that it’s all about creating the best website for your users. A comprehensive list of SEO best practices can be found in Google’s SEO Starter Guide. For more information about how to build a great website that performs well in search, make sure to visit the Webmaster Academy.

Posted by Garen Checkley, Search Quality Team

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Learn from other AdWords advertisers in the AdWords Community!

Since its launch in mid-February 2012, the (still-new) AdWords Community, has been a place for for all kinds of AdWords users (from small businesses to bigger advertisers) from all over the world to come together and exchange ideas, advice and stories with other AdWords users. It's really inspiring to see people sharing their best practises, pointing each other to resources, and enthusiastically helping those who need it.

I’d like to share with you a few comments from our members on their experiences with the AdWords Community:

NehaGupta: “I am happy to be part of Google AdWords Community. I love to discuss about Google AdWords as much as I can as I believe discussions always bring something knowledgeable. Perfect platform for me. I am really excited spending more and more time here instead of Facebook. Everyday I’m learning new things and also trying to take part in conversation by replying answers asked in the forum.”

PPCBossman: “Hundreds of advertisers flow in and out of this Community on a daily/weekly basis and we all roll on as if it's just another day. ...There are great days where lots of problems get worked out, new advertisers are learning and members are achieving personal goals here within the Community. Just as any real life situations, we also have some down times too. ...I have had the most amazing experience here in the last few months, made some great friends, learned a ton and helped a few people along the way as well. But I keep coming back because I know that this Community, Visitors and Members alike, are here for me and guess what, they're here for YOU too! (for the full post click here)

David-nationalp: “I'm here because I'd like the ability to have some input into the direction that Google AdWords goes, understand what's going on in the PPC world, and be able to learn/share knowledge of Google AdWords.”

But the AdWords Community is more than just user discussions; you can find insightful articles (so called “AdWords Wikis”) written by expert users. You can learn more about the some of the community members, such as the Top Contributors, and what it takes to become one. And you can get some reassurance that the Google AdWords Community team is not just a bunch of robots. But instead of taking our word for it, why don't you go and find out for yourself! If you'd like, go ahead and leave us a comment by clicking on the "new message" button directly on the forum.

We are looking forward to see you in the Community!

Note: Currently, the AdWords Community is also available in the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Italian.

Posted by Zuzana S. Moran, AdWords Community Team

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Help Desk Hangouts: Business Photos

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.


In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we got a tour of Business Photos, a way for local businesses to display beautiful interior photos on Google Maps. Business Photos gurus Aubrey and Derek guide us through some businesses already on board, show us how to sign up, and answer questions, live. Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:

How do I sign up as a business owner?
The best way to sign up for a photo shoot is to go to the “Get Started” page on our website to find a Google certified Trusted Photographer in your area. Contact them directly to schedule a photo shoot. If there is not a photographer in your area, request a photo shoot here to help us expand our program to your city.

Which categories of businesses are eligible?
A wide variety of businesses can be apart of the Google Business Photos program such as restaurants, retail shops, salons, auto repair shops, auto dealerships, dental locations, and much more.

What if the I remodel my business after I’ve had photos taken?
You are welcome to contact a Trusted Photographer and coordinate an updated photo shoot, but it is up to the individual Trusted Photographer to decide the cost.

How do I sign up as a photographer?
If you are interested in becoming a Google Trusted Photographer, please apply on our website. A Recruiting Coordinator may be in touch with you depending on the demand of photographers in your city.

Be sure to join us for next week’s Hangout at 11 a.m. PDT Wednesday June 20, when we discuss Webmaster Academy SEO. We’ll be taking questions early next week on the Google+ Your Business page.

Posted by Jade Wang, Google+ Local community manager

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