Use Google Local to Provide added Value to Your Customers....

...and help with Search Engine Visibility.


I don't know if you are aware of this, but a top 10 listing in google is not what it used to be. Because of customized search, local, news, and image results organic results are showing up lower and lower on the page. Catfish recently wrote an article titled Why a Top 10 Listing in Google Continues to Mean Less in SEO that goes into more detail on the topic. So you are probably thinking, well what can I do to improve visibility. The answer is that it takes a combination paid, local, & organic search campaigns to remain visible on search engines these days. As a business owner you can take advantage of Google Local to assist with your local ranking. Setting up a Google Local listing is easy to do, and I will give you a basic overview to help your setup your listing.

Claim Your Business
If you have an established business most likely you are already listed on Google Local. Google pulls business listings from various different sources to populate their local directory. The first step in creating your local listing account is to claim your business. If you find your company's listing in the Google Local directory you can click on the "Add or edit your business link"



If you are unable to find your listing you can add your company to the directory by going to http://www.google.com/local/add You will need a Google account to add or claim your business listing.


Once you are logged into the system click the "Add a new listing" link. (If you claim your company from an existing listing you will skip this step)



Add Your Basic Contact Information
Populate the form with your company's basic contact information, and make sure you use a keyword rich description.


Tip
Include a keyword rich phrase along with your company name. This can help your SEO, and provide more info to potential customers. Note:Don't go overboard with this, because you run the risk of confusing your customers, and being penalized by Google for keyword stacking.



Give Value to Your Customers
After you provide your basic information you have the option of adding even more information to give value your customers. By doing this you can stand out from your competitors. You can add your office hours, payment options, photos, and YouTube videos. You can even add categories that your company fit into to help Google place you into their directory.


Validate Your Listing
Once you finish your listing Google will mail a postcard to the address that you provided with a pin number. You will use to the pin validate and activate your listing.

Adding a Google Local listing will help improve your local search visibility, but it's not a silver bullet for success. Your local listing along with constant paid and organic optimization will improve your chances driving targeted traffic to your website, and business location.

5 Strategies to Improve Your Online Marketing

I was in Chicago for my company's partner summit where I led a session give our partners tips to help them improve their web marketing, and to get feedback on some upcoming web programs that we are launching. The focus group was held at 7am on day two of the summit, so we weren't expecting a large turnout. The partners that did show up really enjoyed the tips, and provided us with excellent feedback. Our product syndication program was well received. We learned that one of their major issues with the web is maintaining their website. A lot of our partners don't have an in-house web person, so any changes that come up can be a long costly process. The content syndication program will allow them to focus on what they do best, and not have worry about maintaining our product info on their websites.

Below you can view the presentation & the takeaway doc that I passed out. The partners aren't web guys, so I kept everything as high-level as possible. Even though the presentation was designed for a storage reseller the concepts can translate to any industry.

| View | Upload your own

5 Simple Strategies to Improve Your Online Marketing Results

Purchasing Fact:92% of all technical buyers go online FIRST to research a possible purchase*

*According to Forrester Research

Is your website portraying the right impression of your company? With the customer now in control of the experience, they are able to gather information without interacting with you directly. Thus, your web presence is the digital representation of your company, and a poor web presence can lower the amount of online and offline sales. Here are some simple strategies to improve your web presence and increase your conversion rates.

1. Provide Your Users With Fresh, Relevant Content
Because most users stop by your website first to do research, it should always contain fresh, relevant content. This will make an impression when the user is ready to purchase. According to a recent study by Enquiro Search Solutions on technical buyers, the number one influencer of purchase is the vendor's website. Websites that contain inaccurate or fragmented information gives an unprofessional impression of your company which can lead to missed opportunities, loss to competition, and negative impact to the bottom line.

2. Present Simple Website Usability
Poor website usability is another factor that can drive away potential sales. Make it easy for the user to find what they need quickly and effortlessly. The harder it is to use your website, the less people will want to buy from you. You can improve the usability of your site with the following tips:

1. The main navigation should be easy to use.
2. Your users should be able to find what they need in three clicks or less.
3. It should be obvious how to purchase your product.
4. Contact information should be highly visible.
5. Use layman's terms. Stay away from corporate or technical terms that might be hard for your user to understand.

3. Develop and Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
According to Marketing Sherpa, 98% of B2B buyers search in Google, so if you apply proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques you have a better chance of being found in search engines by potential customers. Contrary to popular belief, SEO is not a trick that you play on search engines in order to rank higher. Optimization is defined as organizing your content to provide the most relevant experience. Search Engine Optimization is not an overnight process. It takes time to prove to the search engines that your content is relevant. Here are some techniques to improve your overall SEO:

1. A unique 6-13 word page title that contains important keywords from the page content.
2. Description meta tags that match the body content.
3. Keyword phrases that users apply to search for you.
4. Link important pages throughout your site using a keyword phrase rather than a product name (ex. Disk Based Backup Solution rather than REO® 9100).
5. Stay consistent in the way pages are linked and the phrases used.

4. Increase Conversions with Landing Pages
Whatever the marketing activity might be, landing pages provide users a custom experience and keep them focused on the offer at hand. The goal of the landing page should be to convert users into customers. If you are able to get more conversions with the same amount of marketing spend, then you will deliver more net business and lower your cost per lead. This cannot be achieved by just dumping users to the homepage of your website, they will get distracted and navigate elsewhere. Here are some tips for successful landing pages:

1. Start with a clear call to action.
2. Include document downloads; white papers and case studies are preferred over product literature.*
3. Keep your lead forms short and concise. Only include the fields that are vital to helping your sales team spot qualified leads.

*According to Marketing Sherpa

5. Use Web Analytics to Measure Your Site's Effectiveness
Web Analytics are essential for measuring the success of your web marketing and refining your process. With analytics, you are able to determine which keywords customers use to find your site, what pages customers find valuable, and what online campaigns are successful. There is a variety of web analytic solutions on the market, but if cost is an issue, consider starting with Google Analytics; their solution is free, and easy to use. Web analytics can be a little overwhelming, but it is important to remember to measure what matters. Measure metrics that are going to help improve business. High web traffic may look good on paper, but it doesn't mean anything if your site has low conversion rates. Every company has a different set of metrics that they find valuable, so it is important to sit with your team and decide which metrics are important to your business, and which metrics should be omitted.

I have the SEO Blues

My Buddy Ray Catfish Comstock, from Business Online just wrote a new song The SEO Blues if you deal with SEO on a daily basis you could relate. I spent a good portion of this week working on our SEO, and I know most of the points in the song hit home.

Wow I must be in a promoting mood, but that should tell you something about good content it begs to be spread. You feel like you are doing a disservice to your fellow man if you keep it to yourself.

When it comes to viral marketing you can't fake the funk. If you want your message to spread it has to be something that your audience can relate to, and would want to share without you asking them to.

With that said make sure to pass this to all your friends regardless if they like SEO, post it on your twitter, myspace, facebook, linkedin, Wiki, and blog ;o) hahaha!

I guess that makes me a New Media Douchebag LOL

Happy Spring!

Research the voice of your user

My original plan was to finish my recap on OMS, but I feel that this is an important topic to touch on.

The success of your company depends on how you are able to align your business to the needs of your audience, The best way to do that is to make sure it's in a way that they understand. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well it's harder then most people think because they don't take the time to research their audience. The easiest thing you can do is tap into your current customer base. You already won them over, and they will be happy that you value their opinion. Find out what they like or dislike about what you have to offer, and how can you do it better. Too many companies don't do this because they are scared of negative criticism. If we all agree that everything should be about the user, they should be the first person you turn to when you need feedback. They are the ones buying your product. Not only do you have to listen to their needs, but you also have to put it in a way that they understand it. On Saturday I got to hear a session on Business Intelligence by Doug Lenos, and he said you need to harvest the voice of the user. Well how do you do that you might ask. When you are doing your keyword research you need to find out what types of keywords that your users are searching on to get to your site, and use those keywords to write your copy. You don't want to make it hard on them, because you would have lost them before they even got to your door. The reason why this topic is fresh on my mind is because I had a friend come up to me and ask me to help him do some research on a product that he wanted to buy. I sure no sweat, and spent an hour or so on google, and sent him a whole list of links to check out. He was shocked to see that I was able to find so much "useful" information. He was shocked to hear that all I did was search on google. I asked him what resources did he use when he was researching, and he said google. Then I asked him what keywords did he use. The keyword phrases that he used were very broad. He told me that he didn't spend much time, and was hoping to find something rather quickly. He also told me that not once did he go past the first page. When I told him what phrases, and techniques that I used he said he would have never thought of that. This is a perfect example of how end users search. If you do your homework, and research what keywords and phrases your customers are using to get to you and provide them with relevant information you will get them every time. Sometimes I forget that figuring out keyword combinations is what I do, and this is not something that the average user does.

When we are marketing our product a lot of the time we don't take the time to view it from the eyes of the user. I guarantee you this: If you take the time to research the voice of your user, and align your business around them you WILL be rewarded.

Ease of use for your users should come first...

Even if it means it takes a bit of work on your end.

Yeah I know it's been ages since my last post, but when you are a busy marketeer sometimes personal blogging takes the backseat. With that said on to my topic.

One of my biggest pet peeves is a site that is hard to navigate. If I can't get what I need within 3-5 clicks I feel like I am wasting my time. In a world where everyone is trying to get things done quickly and efficiently you can not afford to have a website that is hard to use. Being a designer I understand the need to have a website that is well designed, but if your design makes your site hard to use then your site is worthless.

Here are my top 5 tips that will improve your users experience on your site

1. Have a good Navigation Structure
Your nav bar is how your user moves through your site. Take the time to make sure that your navigation scheme is orginized which makes for fast travel through your site If your website is large you might want to consider putting like items into sections and having a sub nav.

2. Develop a Sitemap
Other than assisting in the area of SEO, your sitemap is a place that users turn to when they need to find something in a hurry or when they get lost. Organize the links in a way that's easy to follow.

3. Make it easy to get back home
I know this seems like a no brainer, but I still run across sites that make it hard to get back to the homepage. I don't think just making your logo a link back to the homepage is enough. Also at the very least sdd a link in your nav that goes back to the homepage. You might want to consider adding a breadcrumb trail to your site. Breadcrumbs are becoming more popular they help the user understand the hierarchy of your website. It also gives them a way to jump up to higher levels of your site.

4. Allow the user to search for what they want.
This is a big one for larger sites, but consider adding an internal search feature on your site. This will give the user another tool to find what they are looking for. Adding a search bar is not hard, and very inexpensive. Sites like google will allow you to have a search bar on your site in minutes by just adding a bit of code that they provide to your website.

5. Ask for feedback
Just like a car it's always good to fine tune your website. Have some outside users go though and QC your websites navigation and usability. Give them a list a things to find and see if it takes them more then 2 clicks to find it. Take their feed back and use it to improve your process.

Freebie! Make a custom 404 page
I couldn't cut the list down to 5 so you get one for free. No one likes getting the ever so hated "page not found" page. To fix that create a custom 404 page. Have your 404 page redirect to the sitemap, or provide a group of common links. This way you will help those users that get a bad link or try to access an old page find their way.

I know there are many more areas that I could cover, but I feel that those are some of the major points. If you have those points covered you know that your users will have a good experience on your site, and be able to find what they need with ease.

Asking people to add a link to your site will increse your site popularity

If you see a site that that has a product or service that would work well with your product or service you might want to ask them to link to your site. The owner of the site might ask for you to link to their site in return or have you pay a fee. Link Building or Co-operation is a good way to increase your site popularity. You can also send link request to blog owners that talk about topics related to your industry. Below is an example of a link request to a blog owner.


Steve,
I really enjoy reading your Web Marketing Blog, and I feel that you are an excellent asset to the Web Marketing community. I am a subscriber to numerous internet marketing related blogs and I feel that your content is top notch and extremely knowledgeable.

I noticed that you link to a lot of industry related blogs, and I wanted to know if you could link to my blog garyware.blogspot.com. Since we talk about a lot of the same topics it might be a benefit to your readers to get multiple points of views. It would be a privilege to be linked to your site, and in return I will link back to you

Thanks,
-Gary Ware

How popular is your site?

According to Shari Thurow's Book Search Engine Visibility. The key to ranking well on search engines like google is to have a site that is easy to navigate, full of keyword rich copy, and a site that is popular. Well the first two are easy to test, but the popularity aspect can be a little bit harder. So here are tools to help

Link backs
If people are linking back to your site then they must like you. Also the more people that link to your site the more relevant your content is for search.
If you type link:www.YourSite.com into google you will see all the sites that link to yours

Popuri.us
This site gives you your page ranking on various search engine sites.

Update (4/12/2007)
Big thanks to My web marking professor Steve Eisenberg for recommending This Link Popularity checker. It allows you to compare your site to 3 of your competitors.