March 2019 Newsletter

Top Of The List Attends PubCon

Three sets of three arrows for Top Of The List logo

Last week, Top Of The List’s President Beverly Mapes attended PubCon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In a 2017 study, PubCon was rated the #1 marketing conference in the world! The conference’s objectives are to drive the search, social and marketing space with timely actionable information. They achieved their objective at the latest conference! With information on everything from link building to saving money on social media marketing, we left with a bounty of information to apply to our clients’ campaigns.

One of the highlights of the conference was a presentation by Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google. His presentation highlighted the importance of image optimization, something we also touched on in last month’s Tip Of The Month.

Top Of The List's Bev Mapes and Gary Illyes from Google
Bev Mapes and Gary Illyes

PubCon was started in 2000 when a group of WebmasterWorld members held the first Pub conference in London at – can you guess it? – a pub! Since then, over 30,000 people have attended PubCon. The conference is held in Florida in March, and in Las Vegas in October. We look forward to bringing our newly-acquired knowledge and connections at PubCon to our clients!


How To Get Links For Your Business, Naturally text overlay on chain link fence

When a website links to your website, it is generally a very good thing. It means your site has something valuable to offer. Search engines continue to rank sites higher if they have good links to a site. Business owners can sometimes obtain links that their online marketing agencies cannot. In her recent blog post, Top Of The List’s Nicole Vesota offers ideas on How to Get Links for your Business, Naturally. Worth the read!


Google Algorithm Update Friends

Bear, possum, hummingbird, panda, pigeon, and penguin stuffed animals to represent google's algorithm updates

Almost every day, Google makes changes to its algorithms. Here at Top Of The List, we have friends that remind us of some of Google’s major algorithm updates. Some friends are missing, so we’re still working on getting a few more! One thing to remember is that once an algorithm is released, there are numerous versions of the algorithm released later. For instance, Panda was released in February 2012 and kept releasing more versions. Panda’s latest version was released in January 2019. Each release has the goal of making search better for everyone, although unintended consequences happen.


Tip of the Month

Treat your local listings like your website’s home page. Your listings on Google Business Profile, Yahoo! Maps, and Bing Places for Business should be treated like your website’s home page because, in a way, that is exactly what they are! When a user searches on your business name, your local listing pops up on the right side of the page with much more information about your business… or not… depending on how you manage your local listing. If you haven’t touched your local listings in a while, and local business is important to you, it’s time to revisit this incredibly important source of online marketing. Contact us if you’d like some help. We can help you make the most of this valuable property!


Just for Laughs

laughing dog

A doctor and a lawyer were talking at a party. Their conversation was constantly interrupted by people describing their ailments and asking the doctor for free medical advice. After an hour of this, the exasperated doctor asked the lawyer, “What do you do to stop people from asking you for legal advice when you’re out of the office?” “I give it to them,” replied the lawyer, “and then I send them a bill”. The doctor was shocked but decided to give it a try. The next day, still feeling slightly guilty, the doctor prepared the bills. When he went to place them in the mailbox, he found a bill… from the lawyer.


Our best for your success!

The Top Of The List Team signature