Google

Are Your Emails to Gmail Accounts Bouncing?

Customer Service, ecommerce, Email, Google, Marketing, Tips / By /

If you send email to Gmail users, this information is extremely important! It is about getting your email delivered to Gmail users.

Don't think it is important? Consider this: In the United States, Gmail holds a 53% market share for email clients! (Source: TechReport)

While Google has not widely publicized it, they are bouncing legitimate emails regularly. With that in mind, I asked Bard, Google's AI application: "Does google bounce email if the sender account does not have a DKIM record?"

Bard's reply: "Yes, Google will bounce emails from sender accounts that do not have both SPF and DKIM records. This is because SPF and DKIM are two email authentication mechanisms that help to prevent email spoofing and fraud. Spoofing is when someone sends an email pretending to be from a different sender, such as a legitimate company or organization. Fraud is when someone uses email to scam or deceive people.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that specifies which IP addresses are authorized to send email from a particular domain. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is a cryptographic signature that is added to an email message to verify its authenticity.

When Google receives an email, it checks the SPF and DKIM records for the sender domain. If the email does not pass these checks, it will be bounced back to the sender."

So, NOW you must have a "SPF" and a "DKIM" record in your Domain DNS. If you do not have those records created, email sent to a Gmail account will likely not be delivered.

For many years when most Domain Registrars created a new domain registration, they automatically generated a SPF record, but not DKIM records. That remains true for nearly all domain registrars unless you purchase email services through them.

Ask your email provider if your domain has SPF and DKIM records in your DNS records. It takes time to create any DNS record, so expect to be billed by whoever creates the records for you.

If you are a WebWise Design & Marketing client, and need DNS records created, we will email you about them, and explain what you need to have done.

 

The Google My Business Listing is Critical for Businesses

Google, Google Maps, Search / By /

If you do not already know, Google My Business is a free tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.

Cooks Woods Google My Business Listing“Claiming or improving your Google My Business Listing is the singular, most important step you can take for your local business if you want to maximize results from Google Search.” I wrote that in this blog post on September 8. 2017. It is even more true today.

The Google My Business concept is not new. On July 29, 2008 (Yes, over ten years ago.) I wrote a post named Google – Get Local, Get Traffic Quickly about using Google Maps Local Business Center if you want to increase local traffic.

Since 2008, its name has changed several times and Google My Business is much more robust than it was back then. In 2008, there were roughly 173 million websites online. As I write this, there are over 1.9 Billion websites! Obviously, the competition for prominent display space in Google Search results has increased immensely.

Today’s Google My Business (GMB) Listing affords businesses several opportunities to enhance their presence in Google search results and Google Maps. Here is some information directly from Google:

Manage your information:

First it is imperative to “claim” your listing. If you have not, you may do so here: www.google.com/business If someone has claimed your Google My Business listing, go to
Request ownership of a business listing.

Be as complete and accurate as possible when entering your business information. Businesses offering the most detailed and accurate information will be easier for Google to serve your listing in searches.

It’s important to enter your business hours, but equally important to update them whenever they change. You may customize hours for holidays and other special events, and it is up to you to ensure they are accurate. Don’t make enemies because of incorrect hours.

As it does with website SEO, Google uses a variety of signals to serve search results, and including relevant keywords and search phrases to your business listing will help considerably, since your business website is listed directly within your GMB listing.

Interact with customers:
Interact with customers via Google My Business Read and respond to reviews from your customers, and post photos that show off what you do. Businesses that add photos to their listings receive 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t.

Reviews are now a two-way conversation between you and your customers — be the first to know when you get a new review on your local Business Profile so you can respond right away (this is extremely important).

Photos:
You will likely be surprised how much adding even a couple photos will help the performance of your business listing. Just do it!

Q&A:
Save time by answering your customers’ questions before they ask. With Q&A, customers can easily ask a question right from your Business Profile on Google. To save time, you can pin frequently asked questions and highlight the top answers.

There is much more we could tell you about Google My Business, but the best thing I can do for you is to repeat this: “Claiming or improving your Google My Business Listing is the singular, most important step you can take for your local business if you want to maximize results from Google Search.”

Do it today! 

Your Website Should Be Secure

Google, Security / By /

For all practical purposes, Google is forcing the use of SSL and HTTPS on all websites! Prior to this, there was no need for you to purchase a SSL Certificate for your website and incur the expense of migrating your website from HTTP to the HTTPS protocol.

What is SSL

Chrome Secure treatmentSSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard security protocol for establishing encrypted links between a web server and a browser in an online transfer of data. A SSL Certificate is necessary to create SSL connection. Having a SSL Certificate installed on a web server ensures that all data transmitted between the web server and browser remains encrypted.

Google says, “Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as not secure.”

What Needs To Be Done

You must enable SSL for your website which is done through your hosting provider. The SSL Certificates (annual renewal) and implementation choices and costs vary depending on the hosting company and the plan you have. After the SSL Certificate is enabled, all links on your website needs to be migrated from HTTP to HTTPS protocol.

Please see our page, Google Says Your Website Needs to Be Secure for more details, or contact our office, 608-822-3750 or 800-281-9993 or email support@webwisedesign.com.

Have a Local Business? Claim or Update Your Google My Business Listing, Now!

Google, Google Maps, Local, Search / By /

Cooks Woods Google My Business ListingIf you have a business, you very likely have a Google My Business Listing. Your listing appears when people are searching for your business or businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps.

Claiming or improving your Google My Business Listing is the singular, most important step you can take for your local business if you want to maximize results from Google Search.

“Why,” you ask? Google says, “Manage how your business information appears across Google, including Search and Maps, using Google My Business — for free.”

The keyword in the previous paragraph is “manage.” There is little a business can control when it comes to Google. When Google makes it easy to post correct information about your business for free, and that information is displayed in Google Search results and on Google Maps, you should take advantage of it.

With Google My Business, you can:

  • Increase your online visibility
  • Show business hours and if open/closed
  • Your contact details are prominently displayed
  • Display photos of your business
  • Publish Posts just like Facebook or Twitter posts
  • Encourage reviews and interact with reviewers
  • Answer customer questions — List FAQs, or answer live
  • Let customers message you

You also can see insights on how customers searched for your business, and their locations at the time of search. You can also see how many people called your business directly from the phone number displayed on local search results in Google Search and Google Maps.

Bottom line: Claim and/or update your Google My Business listing! It is unequivocally the best and least expensive online marketing you can do.