In the last year, we’ve seen QR codes become a regular part of our lives. Combined with mobile internet and new mobile platforms, they’ve become a powerful tool. They’re frequently used for contests, sales tracking, entertainment, transport tickets, loyalty marketing, or simply a company’s business card with its address and related information. They’ve spread quickly thanks to how easily they can be read from a Smartphone and their large storage capacity compared to traditional barcodes. Even the Spanish government’s latest budget was presented via a QR code (it was nothing more than a URL that took you to aeat.es). In this article we’ll cover various aspects of this type of code.

What is a QR code?

A QR code is what we call a two-dimensional code. It was designed by Toyota for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular in different fields.

In general, a QR code is a matrix of black and white dots that has data encoded in binary. It carries a special marker in three of the square’s four corners so it can be oriented correctly. It’s also protected by an error-correction code. When designing a QR code, two important factors have to be taken into account: density and error correction. Up to 30% of errors can be corrected with the QR error-correction system. For decoding, it uses a DES algorithm (56 bits). The QR code is usually read with a smartphone, which is what interprets that information.

Since the aim of this article isn’t to give a highly technical description, we’ll only highlight the most important parts of QR codes.

QR structure.

Finder pattern: This is simply a pattern that occupies 3 of the 4 corners so the code’s exact orientation and how to interpret the bit string can be determined.

Format information: The format the information is in, whether it’s a URL, plain text, a business card…

Timing pattern: A string of 0s and 1s used to track the alignment of the Finder patterns.

Data: This is, obviously, the raw data.

Alignment pattern: Another extra identifier used to determine the QR code’s orientation.

Version: The version we’re using, which indicates the QR code’s density.

Qr-Sozpic

Storage.

The amount of data we can store depends on three factors: the data type (numeric, alphanumeric…), the version (indicates the QR code’s density), and the level of error correction (the higher the error correction, the lower the capacity).

Version or Density

The QR version is directly related to its density and therefore to the amount of data it can store. There are 40 versions, from version 1 sized (21×21) up to version 40, which is sized (177 × 177). The higher the density, the harder it is to read from a distance. Let’s look at an example of the different densities.

Error correction

Error correction is used so that even if the QR code is damaged or hard to see, it can still be read by the scanner. The higher the level (greater data redundancy and more recoverable data), the lower the storage capacity.

These are the levels used to categorize how much data can be recovered.

• Level L: 7% of codewords can be restored.
• Level M: 15% of codewords can be restored.
• Level Q: 25% of codewords can be restored.
• Level H: 30% of codewords can be restored.

Data types

The amount of data we can encode in a QR code will also depend on the type of data we’re entering. If we enter only numeric data we can store a larger amount than if we enter alphanumeric data, since the latter has to be encoded with more bits. For example, based on the variables explained above, let’s look at what one of the most common types of QR code would look like, the 4-L (that is, version 4, error correction L[OW]):

• Numeric only: Max. 187 characters (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
• Alphanumeric: Max. 114 characters (0-9, A-Z [uppercase only]).–>Less than Twitter.
• Binary / Byte: Max. 78 characters

This is probably the most common type, since it’s enough to store a web address.

Precautions with QR codes

In recent days, we’ve seen some warnings about QR codes carrying viruses. Well, one thing is certain: no one is going to get infected with a virus by scanning a QR code. In the worst case, QR codes can take you to a website or prompt you to download a “malicious” app, from there, the situation is under your control.

A virus has to be part of an executable file, meaning part of an application that runs on the mobile device. QR codes don’t have data encoded into executables. So it’s worth stressing this point: QR codes cannot be viruses. The last known virus linked to QR codes was in Russia. The QR code linked to the download of an Android app that was able to create SMS messages, which were then sent to a premium-rate number.

It’s well known that Apple exercises tight control over the apps in its App Store. Anything related to usability, user experience, and relevant content is carefully reviewed, and corrected or rejected if it fails to meet a guideline. This blog has already covered Apple’s app acceptance process, and this time we’ll look at another aspect Apple tries to control, with mixed success: the marketing and advertising of apps published on the App Store.

This article will lay out Apple’s guidelines for using its brand correctly. We won’t include all of them since there are many — we’ll just highlight the most notable ones.

Introduction

The introduction itself makes it clear, as if it were article 1 of the constitution:

“Important: Apple’s approval is required. Apple should approve all video, print, or other materials with any visibility before distribution or publication, for both marketing and advertising purposes. Send your initial concept or final version by email as described below. The response will take about seven business days; not receiving a response from Apple within this period does not mean the materials have been approved. You can send Apple materials that are still in development for review, but final versions must be approved by Apple before distribution or publication.

About the Apple and Apple Store badge. You must not use it in the following situations:

• Don’t use the App Store badge in general promotions for your company or for any other products you offer. The badge must be associated only with an app that is available on the App Store.
• Don’t use the badge if the medium it needs to appear on can’t reproduce it clearly and in high resolution.
• Don’t turn the badge into the main message or graphic of the design. It should take a secondary place relative to your main message and your app or company’s own badge.
• Don’t use the iTunes logo.
• Don’t use the Apple logo on its own.
• Don’t animate, rotate, or tilt the App Store badge.
• Don’t modify the badge’s design.
• Don’t refer to iOS. Use the correct product names.
• Don’t use graphics or images from Apple’s or the App Store’s website.
• Don’t use the App Store badge as part of a compatibility message. Include a list with the names of the products compatible with your app.

Product use. You must not use it in the following situations:

About the App Store icon. You must not use it in the following situations

• App Store icon
• Only use the App Store icon when including a group of media icons of the same shape and size.
• Never use the icon in place of the App Store badge in marketing communications, even when the available space is limited.

Conclusion

Apple wants to convey a sense of control, not only over the mobile app business, but also over how its brand is presented in each and every one of them — even when that’s next to impossible. Either way, these serve more as recommendations when designing a marketing campaign for a new mobile app. Mobile marketing is something that will be talked about a lot in the coming months.

At Sozpic we’re against “not-so-transparent” and fraudulent techniques when we take on a web positioning project. Peace of mind is worth more than shortcuts, since it’s unacceptable to see your website sitting on page 34 of Google’s results because of poor SEO management.

The reasons are clear: Google is dedicating a lot of effort and resources to fighting webspam. Traditionally, SEO experts and/or spammers have used the same excuse: “I can’t control the links pointing to my website, so links from suspicious sites can never penalize me”, and that was true up to a point. Today, Google has rolled out a tool to disavow links pointing to your website. First of all, I want to make clear that under normal circumstances there’s no need to use this tool. The reasons you might consider using it are: because you’ve received a warning message from Google, because you’ve been penalized by the latest version of Google Penguin, or because you’re being attacked through “bad SEO”. Below, we’ll look at each of these:

You’ve noticed a significant drop since the latest Google Penguin algorithm update.

April 24, 2012, the date Google launched its “Google Penguin” algorithm, which aggressively went after every offender: everyone who had built networks with the sole purpose of fraudulent link building, using anchor texts designed purely to profit from fake links. If this was done artificially and you’re aware of it, the best thing you can do is try to invalidate those links, not only because they can affect your search engine rankings, but also to avoid tarnishing your brand’s image by being associated with a site considered spam. If you can’t resolve the problem, Google’s new tool can be very useful.

You’re suffering a “negative SEO” attack.

Certain companies or organizations carry out what’s known as “negative SEO”, which consists of placing links on a series of fraudulent websites with anchor text designed to associate you with unwanted keywords. With a detailed analysis, we can examine the anchor text and determine where that attack is coming from.

Instructions for using the tool

The system is very similar to robots.txt: it’s simply a text document that indicates where you don’t want to receive links from. As with any interpreted machine language, the hash symbol (#) is used for comments.

In the document, we’ll need to indicate whether we want to “disavow” a link or an entire domain. Example:

As you can see, one link is used per line; if the goal is to disavow an entire domain, you need to prefix it with “domain:” before the domain in question.

Step 1: Go to the link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

Step 2: Select the website you want to work on. Step 3: Select the .txt file mentioned above and upload it.

Step 4: Whenever you want to make a change to it, you’ll need to download it, edit it, and upload it again.

Conclusions

Although this is an extremely powerful tool that will change many concepts once thought to be certain, you need to be extremely careful with it and do nothing if you’re not sure whether you need it or how to use it, since it can seriously harm your domain. Obviously, identifying harmful links requires a careful audit. Depending on how you intend to use it, you’ll follow one procedure or another, which we’ll refine in future articles.

Nowadays, nobody doubts the usefulness of Google Analytics in the world of Online Marketing. Website administrators have been able to better understand the profile of the users visiting them, segment, monitor traffic, and even improve their website’s usability. Many professions have emerged around this tool, such as SEO manager and UI engineering. In the offline world, gathering this kind of data costs millions of euros and is almost always based on distant approximations or statistics.

Google Analytics was born in 2005, revolutionizing the world of web statistics. For unknown reasons, Marketing departments in Spain and Latin America took many years to adopt this powerful tool, even though, by then, the web was already an essential element for marketing products and services.

Today, exactly the same thing is happening: the mobile applications are an extremely important element in many companies’ marketing, their commercial potential is almost unlimited, and nothing is done to monitor user interactions or how they handle information. The options offered on mobile are very similar to those offered on the web.

Indeed, Google Analytics for mobile applications has existed since 2011, for both iOS and Android. It’s an extremely powerful tool that Sozpic integrates into applications where understanding the customer, their preferences, and how they interact is essential. Google Analytics for mobile applications shouldn’t be confused with the Google Analytics mobile app, which was released a few months ago and simply lets you check the data obtained from Analytics, whether web or mobile. Nor should it be confused with the statistics offered by Google Play in the developer console, since these only refer to downloaded applications.

New Mobile App Analytics

The new Mobile App Analytics is designed to measure the entire lifecycle of the mobile application (from the moment the user discovers the app until they uninstall it). This allows for the creation of more useful and engaging user experiences through decisions based on data gathered at each stage of the application’s lifecycle:

Below we’ll see the sections that will be available in the new reports, but they will only be available for applications using SDK v2.0.

New and active users: Shows the number of new and active users the app has, as well as the number of people who delete it.

Traffic Sources: Shows visitors coming from Google Play, other parallel app marketplaces, or advertising campaigns like AdMob, with which there’s a close relationship (I’ll write about the new AdMob another day)

Different information about the mobile device: You’ll be able to get data such as the device model they use, the operating system version, the screen resolution they use, and the language it’s set to. As well as how often it’s used. Data that lets you get to know your potential user better.

User behavior: Just like web-oriented Analytics, you can check the new user-to-returning user ratio, as well as how often the application is used and the engagement level of each segmented group. This new visualization is very interesting and useful, since it shows at a glance visitor loyalty and how to interact with the application.

Flow : Shows the screens and paths users take when using applications. There are differences from web Analytics; for example, different colors are used to represent different interactions.

Bugs: You’ll be able to detect bugs and when they occur. This is very useful for developers since it lets them know exactly where the problem is.

App ecommerce : Shows the number of purchases and the revenue generated by purchases in the app. A useful feature that will give a boost to online stores in mobile applications. Unfortunately, although AdMob is integrated for advertisers (meaning they can see the traffic that results from their ads), it still isn’t integrated for publishers (meaning a website that shows ads in its mobile app can’t tell when an ad was clicked).

In summary, this is a major change in what Google Analytics offers. Google is betting heavily on mobile. Steps are being taken toward optimizing the mobile experience. Google has already published its “mobile style guide” anticipating what mobile SEO will become.