Social media activity is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site. As a marketing tool, posting on sites such as Twitter and Facebook can help you mitigate possible deviations in your organic search results and create a deep connection with your customers. Of course, many other companies recognize this as well, making it often difficult to stand out in a crowded social media landscape.

Fully understanding the capabilities of different social media platforms allows you to maximize your use of them. One example is with Twitter Cards, which allow you to add rich media, calls to action and other addition content to your tweets. Twitter followers can view this content and click on links without having to leave their feed. This leads to an integrated Twitter experience that is more pleasant for customers can cuts out the steps between them and your content.

Twitter offers eight different types of Twitter cards that you can implement by adding some simple meta tags to your page. Choosing the right type of Twitter card for your content can go a long way in helping them be as effective as possible.

The eight variety of Twitter cards are:

Summary Cards: They provide information about your web page including a title, description (such as product information) and a Twitter handle. They also include can include a thumbnail image or a larger image.

Photo Cards: These cards act much like Summary Cards but instead of having a small thumbnail image, the photo is larger. This is perfect if you want to make a picture the focal point of your tweet.

Gallery Cards: You can take photo tweets to the next level with Gallery Cards. Instead of just having one photo embedded into your Tweet, Gallery Cards let you have up to four.

App Cards: If you sell apps, an App Card is a must. Any time someone posts a Tweet about your app on a mobile device, the App Card automatically embeds a link into the tweet to download it.

Player Cards: Add audio or video into your tweets with a Player Card, which lets people listen to or view media content directly from a tweet.

Product Cards: Much like Summary Cards, Product Cards let you put basic information into a tweet; however, they offer the ability to add product information such as price and availability.

Lead Generation Cards: With one click of a button embedded in a tweet, users can send you their email address to get further information about your goods and services.

Website Cards: Unlike Summary Cards, Website Cards are designed to draw traffic to a home page or other specific landing page.

Need help implementing Twitter cards as part of your Twitter campaign? Turn to the experts at eVisible for help. Our social media marketing services are catered to the individual needs of our clients. We’ll review your business and goals and come up with a social media campaign that drives visibility and leads to sales.

Keeping up-to-date with the latest changes to Google’s algorithms is critical if you want to run an effective search engine optimization campaign. Google recently announced a major algorithm update that can potentially have a major impact on your SEO – especially when it comes to local SEO. Here’s a look at some of the key elements of the update (which has been dubbed “Pigeon” by some in the media):

Local Listing Packs appear to be going away. A glance at recent queries shows that far fewer SERPs than before include a local listing pack. Also sometimes known as a “Google Seven Pack,” these are the seven local businesses with contact information and a map showing a location that come up as part of the first page of a search. According to MOZ Cast’s SERP feature graph, the number of local listing packs fell from 12.1 percent of queries on July 23 to 3.3 percent just four days later. If you rely on local results to drive customers from their search results to your business, this could mean a short-term loss of business.

Traditional website ranking signals mean more for local results. While standard “SEO” elements have always played a role in forming local results, there was previously a certain separation between what impacted local SERPs and general SERPs. Not anymore. The Pigeon update appears to place a greater emphasis on SEO factors including backlinks and domain authority in determining local rankings.

Local directory sites are ranking higher. Sites such as Yelp have seen a significant boost in their rankings with the algorithm update. In fact, some search results have nothing but local directory listings on the first page. Make sure that your business is listed with the top directories in your industry and that the listings are complete.

Local carousel placements are untouched. Having a high-quality photo on your Google+ profile can help you to attract customers.

Working with the experts at eVisible can help you deal with Google’s algorithms changes. Contact us today and we can provide you with a consultation based on your unique situation and come up with a search engine optimization strategy that fits your needs.