January 29th, 2010 by admin
No comments »
While our last post advised not to rely solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic, it did stress that we believe in its importance for our clients. We feel the same for Yahoo Local and Bing Local. Local search is a fabulous way to gain web visibility for brick and mortar businesses.
So, how does local search work? Google, Yahoo and Bing all offer a local search function. Type in a search term and a locale in the search box and you will usually see a map with several businesses listed next to it. For example, type in “cleaners Miami”. On each of the three search engines you will see a map of Miami at the top of the search results page with local cleaners listed next to it. These local listings are completely separate from the natural listings below them or the pay per click listings above or beside them. These listings provide addresses, phone numbers, links to websites, hours, information about services and products, photos, videos and more. They are a great way to get your business in front of prospects in addition to your website. And best of all . . . they are free.
How do you get a local listing? First you need to set up accounts with the search engines. Once that is done, you can create your listings. While it is possible to do this yourself, you may want to rely on an SEO professional to do this for you. Just like your website needs to incorporate the appropriate search terms in the right places to rank well, so does your local business listing. Local listings can be very competitive. Your SEO professional can help give you the edge you need to be at the top of the pack.
Today’s tip: Local search, when done correctly, is an important Internet marketing tool that should not be overlooked.
December 27th, 2009 by admin
No comments »
It appears that Google’s local search results for some categories – including Internet Marketing, Marketing, Advertising, SEO and Web Design – have completely disappeared globally. As a SEO/Internet Marketing company, we not only utilize and rely on traffic from Google’s local search, but also stress its importance to our clients. It is a little difficult to do either now that the search results for our categories are no longer there. Go ahead, try it. Type in Advertising Agency New York City or Marketing Los Angeles or Web Design Chicago. You will not see any local listings. Type in Florist Dallas or Dentist Boston and you will. The question is will they disappear also?
Where did Google’s local search results go? We have Googled this question and found two forums that address it:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=18b0412b6336989c&hl=en&fid=18b0412b6336989c000478bb9964569a
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=19f4b0936485546a&hl=en&fid=19f4b0936485546a000478b7db1a7347
A Google employee suggested that the local search results for terms such as Marketing and Web Design are not showing up because there is not enough local intent. This answer makes no sense because until a month or so ago, local listings for these categories did show up and they are categories you can select when you create your Google Local Business Center listing. Until these listings disappeared, local listings even showed up if you typed in SEO Warwick New York, which includes a self-created category and a small town.
The lesson. Relying solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic is not wise. While we don’t understand what is really happening with these local listings or when this issue will be resolved, we do still believe in the importance of Local Business Center Listings for our clients. However, you cannot rely solely on them. You need to optimize your site with your locale also in case the local listings for your industry disappear as well.
December 15th, 2009 by admin
No comments »
In the last two months Google and Microsoft’s Bing announced deals with leading social media websites in an effort to focus on timelier search results. Google struck a deal with Twitter, while Bing aligned itself with both Twitter and Facebook. Then it was revealed that Yahoo also joined the real-time search race by partnering with OneRiot Inc., a web search company whose results are based on the links people share through social media sites such as Twitter and Digg.
What does this mean for search engine optimization and your Internet marketing campaign? In order to reach your target audience on the Internet, you need to go where the search engines are going, and they are heading toward social media and real-time search. If you were on the fence about incorporating social media into your Internet marketing campaign before, it appears your decision has now been made for you. The importance of SEO, however, has not changed – perhaps now it is even more important than ever.
How do you blend SEO and social media? The SEO process for real-time search will still focus on optimized, quality content that matches demand. How that content is created will change and morph as real-time search unfolds. The key will be selecting and incorporating the search terms of the moment. You or your SEO consultant will need to stay on top of real-time search trends and incorporate them into your SEO and Internet marketing campaigns, including social media profiles, user names, and excerpts.
Will this new real-time content on the search results pages be relevant? The answer to that question is still up in the air. At this point in time it is not clear how the various search engines will sort out relevance from clutter or even spam. Nor do we know for sure how the search engines plan on ranking social media excerpts. Google is showing them on the search results pages and new results appear automatically without having to even refresh the page. While the question of relevancy remains, other doors open to spam and online reputation management – both very strong reasons to jump into the social media waters if you were only thinking about it before.
Though we don’t know how real-time search with the major search engines will play out, we do know that the time for real-time search is here. If you want to stay front and center of your target audience on the Internet, and make sure the information about you, your company, your services and your products is accurate and positive, you better make social media part of your Internet marketing campaign.
November 30th, 2009 by admin
No comments »
In my last posting, Want to increase website visibility? Try optimizing communications, I explained that fresh content, which is strategically crafted so it can be found by the search engines and your target audience, can improve your web presence and rankings. So, hopefully you have started adding fresh content by optimizing your offline marketing and PR tools – newsletters, press releases and articles – and posting them to your website. Now you need to start building those coveted backlinks that the search engines love so much.
The link benefits of optimized online press releases. By posting your optimized press release to your own website you are generating fresh content. Great. Now submit that release to an online news release wire service, which will distribute it to news services as well as many trade and industry websites. Those sites will index your release. Many other sites may pick it up and post it on their site. Visitors to those sites may then post it to their own sites. And so on. And so on. Voila. You have just created countless backlinks with just one release. Those links, however, do not stay forever. So you need to continually create and submit new releases. Remember, fresh content and backlinks are key.
Publish on the world wide web. Have you written any articles? If yes, submit them to article directories including a link back to your site. If no, get writing! Articles can not only position you as an industry leader, they can also lead prospects to your website door.
Remember, optimizing communications is a continual process. Follow this simple concept and you will see results.
November 30th, 2009 by admin
1 comment »
It is such a simple concept you will wonder why you hadn’t thought of doing it before. Optimizing Communications™ is merely making the most use out of ALL of your communication tools – websites, blogs, articles, newsletters, press releases – by crafting them so that they are found by your prospects searching the Internet.
Why does this help with your web presence? The more content you have out on the Internet, the more information you have for your prospects (and search engines) to find and read about your organization. AND that content will help with your rankings because search engines such as Google and Yahoo! place great emphasis on fresh content and backlinks in their ranking algorythms. While the concept is simple, the execution requires an expert hand.
To increase website visibility all of that fresh content needs effective SEO. What is SEO? SEO or search engine optimization is the comprehensive process of developing web content so that the search engines such as Google and Yahoo! will find it – and more importantly – include in response to your prospects’ Internet search. This is not something that can be done off the cuff. You need the expertise of a reliable SEO firm that will conduct a thorough keyword analysis and knows how to strategically incorporate those terms into your web content so that it will catch the eye of both the search engines AND your prospects.
Want to know how fresh content can get you those coveted backlinks? Find out in our next posting. And stay tuned to learn how Optimizing Communications™ can save you money and create cohesive brand messaging.
