Local Internet Marketing: “let’s be careful out there Westchester”!

Posted on 09. Dec, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Pay-Per-Click, Retail

 

Want to get online?

Let’s be careful out there Westchester County!

 

I heard from a friend of mine this week – he owns a local jewelry business here in Rye Brook NY. Antique jewelry, unique hand-made pieces, buys gold, etc (great stuff for the holidays, by the way). I’ve been helping him with some social media marketing, and he mentioned that he’s been receiving numerous calls from an “Internet marketing company” this month.

These automated calls were getting annoying, so he finally pushed “#1″  to speak with a Rep and be taken off the list. This is where it got entertaining…

The Rep said “sure, no problem” and then proceeded to launch into his pitch;

“I’ve got some bad news, but I believe in ripping off the band aid quickly, so I’ll cut to the chase. Your business is not optimized. You cannot be found online.  Your Google listing is not set up correctly, and you’re missing a huge opportunity. Would you like to be #1?”

     ”Uh, I am online, and I’m already in many of the top positions. Have you checked”?

Clearly this person is sitting on the opposite end of a automated predictive dialer, and no real analysis is being done. In fact, I’m sure he’s not even looking at the website. This Rep then proceeded to ask for the keywords, typed them in, saw the first position listing and without hesitation – hung up! Nice, huh?

It’s practices like this that I fear are starting to give our industry a tarnished image. I urge any business I speak with to consider the marketing companies track-record and history; disregard promises and guarantees. How many years have they been in business? Are they local? Do they have any testimonials or success stories to share?

If you’re a local business you’re no doubt getting solicited by these fly-by-night companies at an increasing rate. Unrealistic claims and guarantees are being thrown at an alarming rate, so please – read these important warnings and hey – “let’s be careful out there“!

Google Updates: how they effect local search…

Posted on 28. Nov, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Optimization, Websites

This past year Google made several significant update to it’s local algorithms. Specifically, the “Panda” and Places updates, both which had significant effects on local search traffic to Internet Yellow Pages sites.

Visitors to IYPs have grown 39% between January-October:
  • 8 of top 20 IYPs saw visitor numbers grow (other 12 saw a fall)
  • Visitors to top 5 IYPs grew by 50%
  • Visitors to other 15 IYPs grew by 20%

Panda benefited larger IYPs but not smaller IYPs:

  • After each Panda update, the top 5 IYPs all gained visitors
  • The other 15 IYPs tended to see a drop in visitor numbers

This fits with Google’s stated objective of Panda – to reduce the prominence of lower quality and lesser known sites and promote more trusted sites above them.

What Do These Changes Mean for Local Businesses?

Good Points:

  • Local businesses compete with IYPs for rankings within Google; therefore a downgrading of some IYP content reduces the competition for local businesses which should result in more local business websites appearing within top 10 search results.
  • With stronger IYPs growing & gaining audience while smaller IYPs struggle, it’s bound to result in some consolidation within the overcrowded IYP sector. This will mean that local business owners can reach a bigger local audience through fewer sites, making it clearer where they should invest their marketing money and efforts.

Bad Points:

  • The power and influence of Google Places continues to grow which makes it even more critical to local businesses. In the short term, this means that good local optimization becomes more essential and competition even more intense. Long term, it puts Google in a extremely dominant position which it could use to hold local businesses to ransom.

I recommend you visit Search Engine Land’s Local column read this entire post. 

 

E-shoppers go mobile on Thanksgiving, Black Friday

Posted on 26. Nov, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Mobile, Retail, Social Networking

CNET NEWS by  

Apple’s iPhone and iPad helped make mobile devices a key driver of Thanksgiving and Black Friday e-commerce this year, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.

Online Thanksgiving shopping grew by 39.3 percent year over year, creating momentum that continued into Black Friday, where online sales grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the report(PDF).

And Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, who embraced his or her mobile device as a research tool for in-store and online bargains. Mobile traffic came close to tripling year over year, to 14.3 percent on Black Friday 2011 from 5.6 percent last year.

The iPhone and the iPad accounted for 10.2 percent of all Black Friday online traffic. The iPhone and the iPad ranked 1 and 2 for mobile device retail traffic (5.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively). Android-based devices came in third at 4.1 percent.

But it’s not all about mobile browsing. The value of individual orders also increased, while the number of items purchased decreased. Home goods, for example, saw an average order-value increase of nearly 16 percent, while the number of items per order dropped by more than 6 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the report’s other key findings:

  • Sales on mobile devices surged year over year, to 9.8 percent from 3.2 percent.
  • Shoppers using the iPad accounted for more actual purchases per visit than shoppers using other mobile devices, with conversion rates reaching 4.6 percent for the Apple device versus 2.8 percent for overall mobile devices.
  • Mobile shoppers demonstrated a laser focus that surpassed that of other online shoppers, with a 41.3 percent bounce rate on mobile devices versus a rate of 33.1 percent for shoppers on other computing gadgets. The bounce rate records how often people jump from one site to another looking for the best deal on a particular item, rather than browsing around through various items in a more leisurely fashion.
  • Shoppers referred from social networks generated 0.53 percent of all online sales on Black Friday. Facebook led the pack, accounting for 75 percent of all traffic from social networks.

The gains in online shopping come amid a push from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to offer better online experiences.

And while stores like Macys offered “doorbuster” sales to bring more customers into its brick-and-mortar locations (and ostensibly spend more money in them), a greater number of people appear to be splitting their purchasing between online and retail.

The National Retail Federation estimates that as many as 152 million Americans are expected to shop this weekend, up from last year’s 138 million.

 

The 3 most important questions from Google: Who are you? What do you do? Where are you located?

Posted on 05. Nov, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Maps, Optimization, Retail, Websites

From Brewster to White Plains, Greenwich to Rye; if  you want your local businesses to be found online, I always start by explaining the importance of telling the Search Engines ”who you are, what you do, and where you’re located”…

From a local search optimization point of view, it’s essential for local businesses to include local terms (aka “geo-modifiers”) in their site content and link building activities. Google needs to know where you’re located and which areas you serve in order to return your business as a search result for a relevant, local search.

Some fantastic local SEO tips researched and included in last weeks “Locals Only” column. Specifically;

  • How do searchers go about their search for local businesses?
  • Do most searchers use local modifiers or not?
  • Do searchers expect to get local results for a generic, non-local search term?

This panel consists of 1,250 “local consumers” based in the U.S. (broad mix of ages, gender and location). We received 1,081 responses to this survey; this findings include:

  • 60% of searchers said that local listings with a photograph grab their attention more than standard listings.
  • The survey also shows that 17% of searchers never use a local modifier in their search terms, with this percentage rising to 21% among younger searchers. However, older searchers are more inclined to add a local modifier to their search terms — 63% usually do.
  • People generally use street names when they’re looking for a specific business — i.e. they know the business name and its location but they are looking for contact details, driving directions or some other specific piece of information.

Read the entire article here.

 

Local Business Ad Budgets: 2012 Considerations

Posted on 21. Oct, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Social Networking, Traditional Media, Websites

Despite the rough economic climate in Westchester and the rest of the U.S., small businesses still understand the value of advertising, and in particular online marketing.

According to BIA/Kelsey, total small business ad spending for online media increased to almost 40% of total ad spend in the fourth quarter of 2010, up from 22% in the third quarter of 2009. By 2015, it’s estimated that 70% of small business marketing budgets will go to digital/online media (mobile, social, online directories, online display, digital outdoor), performance-based commerce (pay-per-click, deals, couponing) and customer retention business solutions (email, reputation and presence management, websites, social marketing, calendaring/appointment-setting).

In this weeks “Locals Only” column, Stephanie Hobbs discusses some “Considerations in planning your 2012 small business ad budget“. These include:

  • Mobile websites. They have a lower bounce rate and higher customer conversation than traditional websites, so moving forward with creating a mobile site will reap additional rewards down the line. More on mobile here.
  • When considering third-party advertising partners such as Yellowbook360, business owners should be careful in who they choose. Criteria that needs to be considered includes the company’s history & experience, contractual requirements, special incentives and their network/ad distribution across the Internet. And watch out for those crazy “guarantees and claims” out there!
  • While social media has received well-deserved hype for its ability to create new connections between local businesses and their customers, Yellow Pages continue to provide strong and reliable leads to local businesses.

How Kitchen/Counter-Top Contractors Can Benefit from Online Marketing

Posted on 10. Oct, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO

The process of recovery from the recession has been slow for countertop fabricators. Successful investor Warren Buffet now sees signs of recovery in most parts of the economy, with the exception of housing. However, Buffet projects improvement in the housing market starting by the end of 2011. More optimism comes from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, which projects an inflation-adjusted 3.5% annual growth rate for the home improvement industry in the next decade.

Amidst these encouraging signs, countertop fabricators need to be prepared for recovery with an up-to-date marketing plan.

Read more here

It’s that time of the year again – are you ready?

Posted on 01. Oct, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Food & Dining, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Mobile, Pay-Per-Click, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail

Local businesses have less than one-month to prepare for the upcoming spike in online search, researching and buying.

As discussed here last year, certain local service and retail type businesses need to be optimized and visible by November to capture their fair-share of increased online activity. And here’s a new statistic; Google states “44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices this holiday season“

 

So, it’s not just about being visible – it’s now about being “mobile ready“. Google recently announced the importance of websites being optimized for mobile, which includes incentives such as higher Quality scores in AdWords programs.

Most businesses experience ups and downs throughout the year; some cyclical, some triggered by one-time events.  The holiday’s of course are a biggie. Changing seasons, one-time events and increased competition are also factors. Thinking 30-days ahead of the predictable trends and positioning yourself  “ahead of the curve” will ensure you remain competitive. At the same time, you’ll capture additional new customers and gain market share.

Now stop procrastinating and get that campaign going!

What is SEO? A nice, simple video now explains…

Posted on 19. Sep, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Optimization

To view more of our favorite videos, check out our YouTube favorites here.

 

 

Local Online Success: “it’s a journey, not a destination”.

Posted on 05. Sep, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Business-to-Business, Classified Sites, Coupons, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Maps, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Reputation Management, Retail, Social Networking, Traditional Media, Travel & Transportation, Video, Websites

To achieve a high-level of online visibility and internet marketing success, local businesses need to consider multiple factors…  

 
So what’s the definition of “online success”? For most local business owners – it’s a visible, productive presence across search engines and the increasingly more fragmented local Internet. Strong, relevant visibility will enable a website to act as the marketing tool it should be, and its success can come in several forms; including phone calls, contacts, and on/off-line sales. 
 
It all starts with the “foundation” – aka the website; one that is both user and mobile-friendly (why? check out these recent findings). A properly designed and optimized site and domain name has replaced the local phone number as the “hub” of all marketing and advertising efforts. The domain name in particular should be properly formatted and included in all online and offline promotional efforts, including yellowbook ads, newspapers, billing statements, business cards, vehicles, store fronts, direct mail, creative media and promotional items. The website itself should be locally optimized and contain embedded video, images, relevant title tag/meta descriptions, and other search-engine friendly elements. A “call-to-action” statement will help drive conversions (or actions): give visitors a reason to take the next step and not hit their browser’s back-button!
 
And speaking of search-engine friendly elements, the ongoing off-page optimization of your site is critical. Specifically, a strong network of inbound links from authoritative sites will all act as “votes of confidence” for the search engines. Strategies include distribution and syndication of videos, blogs, press releases, and inclusion within IYP’s, local maps databases, directories and Google Place Pages. Without this important off-page piece of SEO, you’ll most likely never see top ranking or first-page placement for your most important keywords.    
 
Search engine marketing (pay-per-click) campaigns will ensure you maintain high visibility for the literally hundreds of keywords and keyword combinations that SEO cannot address. You’ll want to work thru a provider that can manage your campaigns across multiple search engines to effectivly reach your entire market. Use of landing pages and multiple ad groups will help maximize conversions. Also, make sure reporting includes all forms of conversions, including phone calls.
 
Lastly, these most basic requirements of online success need to include social media. These days, an active presence on Facebook, Twitter and more recently Google Plus will not only give a businesses more places to be found, but will help in overall optimization efforts (social is now a factor within search engines algorithms). Blogging, video/photo sharing and online ratings/reviews should also be considered important online social elements.            
 
In summary, it’s important to realize there’s no quick-fix. This should be thought of more of a ongoing process, which most often should be left to a professional firm or agency. One place to start to learn more are on free online seminars. And remember, watch out for anyone making those unrealistic promises and claims!   
 

Attempting do-it-yourself SEO? Some fantastic tips…

Posted on 25. Aug, 2011 by in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Optimization

21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Courtesy of  

Businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. (Yes, actual printed books!) See our What Is SEO page for a variety of articles, books and resources.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such asyourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing.Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta tag, as no major search engine today supports it.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Begin with foundational links like trusted directories. (Yahoo andDMOZ are often cited as examples, but don’t waste time worrying about DMOZ submission. Submit it and forget it.) Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area — the Chamber of Commerce, local business directories, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too. Create great content on a consistent basis and use social media to build awareness and links. (A blog is great for this; see below.)

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, useblog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there.

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