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  • Local Search Summit at SES Chicago

    I’ll be making a very quick trip to Chicago on Monday to do a couple presentations at the Local Search Summit.

    I’ll be solo presenting with Steve Espinosa moderating on uses of Social Media for local search.

    And, I’ll be jointly presenting with Steve on Mobile applications and their importance for local search.

    Sadly I won’t have any time to spend with Mat Siltala who will be there Monday, but is leaving Tuesday AM. Perhaps a little dessert!

    And, if I had a personal jet I’d definitely go to the Kelsey Show in LA to hang out with David Mihm and Andrew Shotland. If anybody at NetJets would like to trade a couple rides for a completely unbiased review of the service I’d totally change my mind about Kelsey (ok, it might be a lttle biased).

    While we’re on the subject even if NetJets doesn’t come through I’d be happy to Yelp about a Chicago Limousine Service if I could get a ride y’know (might be worth a review on Yahoo! CitySearch & Google too).

  • Will Scott to Speak on Local Search Ranking Factors at SMX East

    President and founder of the New Orleans SEO company Search Influence, Will Scott often participates in conferences and seminars. Oct 5-7, he will be presenting at the Search Marketing Expo East 2009 on how important local search ranking factors help drive traffic to small business Web sites.

    In a recent press release announcing the session, Will Scott talks about the Local Search ranking factors – 49 of them thought to make or break local business listings.

    He also points out the increasing competition for Internet traffic and business visibility on the web. By using the local search ranking factors, companies like Scott’s own Search Influence can maximize the effectiveness of website promotion for clients. He also says that “collaboration, as in the Local Search Ranking Factors study, can help us predict trends in adjust our tactics accordingly.”

    There are negative factors that can prevent visibility too or example, more than one business with the same name or having an 800 number as the primary contact number.

    Will joins a star-studded panel including:

    SMX East is jam-packed with very current information. Some of the brightest minds in SEO will be presenting.

    Some of the presentations we’re really looking forward to (and there are a ton more):

  • Twitter: Fad or Essential Business Communication Tool?

    From those who claim that Twitter is just a fad, to internet experts who believe that the impact of Twitter is being felt in ways never imagined, the news is abuzz with reports of this social media website.

    Love it or hate it, Twitter is here to stay, with its user numbers having grown at the rate of 752 percent in 2008 alone. Facebook is still the #1 networking site in terms of numbers and user loyalty and not all businesses might need to get into the social networking sphere.

    Social Media One Hit Wonder?
    Social Media One Hit Wonder?

    But a social media presence is no longer considered ‘optional’ for businesses with an online audience. Here are some of the ways in which Twitter is changing the marketplace.

    • Source of Breaking NewsIn the recent past, Twitter has proven it’s mettle as a source of breaking news, especially with the death of Michael Jackson, and continues to be a leading source of real-time news stories.
    • New Exclusive ContentAs a WebProNews story noted, Twitter features new content, created on the fly and accessed in real time. More importantly, this content is exclusive to Twitter and not available through search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.
    • Sales Booster While Twitter has helped Dell rake in the sales, New Orleans-based Naked Pizza, has seen a sustained 20 percent of sales dollars from its Twitter presence. It is primarily using Twitter to market to an area with a 3 mile radius and has now replaced its “call for delivery” billboard in favor of one displaying its Twitter handle.

    As the article on Twitterrati notes, for any company that deals with consumers, Twitter is must-use tool simply because it’s another way to communicate with existing and prospective customers.

    Image courtesy of: keiyac

  • Six Ways To Get Customer Reviews That Boost Your Local Search Rankings

    SEO experts are almost unanimous in their agreement that customer reviews play a crucial role in boosting visibility and rankings in the local search results. So how can you use this information to leverage local search rankings for your own business?

    In a previous post, we discussed how a pro-active approach to customer service and feedback can boost your business reputation online. Positive reviews are a sign of trust, and that carries a great deal of weight in search rankings. Happy customers are an excellent source of positive feedback and reviews.

    For businesses trying to boost their visibility in local search, online customer reviews on Google Maps pages and third-party review sites are crucial to higher rankings. Although negative reviews can hurt your overall business reputation, they don’t adversely impact your search rankings.

    If you’re worried about negative reviews, take comfort in the knowledge that search engines don’t really differentiate between positive and negative reviews. As local search expert, Matt McGee, points out, “There’s no such thing as a negative rating. There are only degrees of positivity.”

    So, how do you go about getting your customers to post reviews on Google? Yes, you could outsource that to a company that handles SEO and reputation-management for its clients. But as local search expert, Mary Bowling notes, “It helps with trust that the review is legitimate and not gamed.”

    Here are six tips on getting more customer reviews than you can handle and leveraging the ones you have to boost your local search rankings.

    1. Ask and You Shall Receive

    Taking a pro-active stance is the best approach where customer reviews are concerned. When a client or customer offers praise or positive verbal feedback, ask whether they would be willing to be quoted online and email them a link where they can post a review. You’d be surprised how many of them are happy to recommend a product or service they really like.

    2. Offer Incentives – Not Bribes

    For those customers who get a little lazy with filling out forms online, a little incentive could give them the push they need to get that review posted. Ethically, this must be approached carefully. You can offer coupons, discounts or freebies to those customers who post a review online. It should not be stipulated that it must be a positive review. If worded “leave us a great review, and you can get 20% off your next purchase,” it’s a bribe.

    You could even have a monthly draw for customer review/feedback. Mike Blumenthal offers tips on using Leavefeedback.org, a site created by Michael Jensen of SoloSEO that facilitates review creation.

    3. Complete The Sentence…

    One trick that many companies use to get customers to write a review is to give them a feedback form on the way out. One section of the form is usually devoted to asking for comments. Customers who have trouble filling that section in, are more likely to do it if you use a “complete the sentence” format in that area.

    For instance, “I love (Your Business Name) because ____________”. If this form is available on your website, you could email them and ask for feedback anytime while offering incentives for those who do give it. Always ask your customer for permission to post their comments on your website and on review sites online, along with their name (or initials) and location.

    4. Use Social Proof

    When you first create your local business listing on yellow pages, review sites and business listing sites, a blank review page could keep many potential reviews away. People are more likely to post reviews for a business that already has a number of reviews online.

    As long as they’re legitimate and you create a separate profile for each review, you can use customer reviews from your website and feedback forms to populate these sites and provide social proof for the hesitant ones.

    5. Cut Down On Negativity

    Companies have little control over what is posted about them online, but by engaging directly with your public, you can respond to negative reviews quickly and minimize their impact.

    Almost every business creates a couple of dissatisfied customers, and the more malicious ones could post negative reviews that harm your business reputation. The best way to minimize their impact is to get many more positive reviews than negative ones.

    6. Engage With Your Audience

    Don’t let the conversation online go unanswered. Respond to feedback promptly and appropriately and thank users for positive reviews posted. Contact reviewers who post negative comments with an incentive to change their review. Offer them a coupon for your products or special service that will help them change their opinion about your company.

    Feel free to use these tips to get more customer reviews. It’s a great way to improve your visibility and rankings in the local search results.

  • Twitter: Fad or Essential Business Communication Tool?

  • LinkedIn Company Profile Tutorial from Dream Systems Media

    Our colleauge Mat Siltala of Dream Systems Media (Mat was Social before Social was cool) has a nice video tutorial with some great screen shots on how to set up your LinkedIn Company Profile .

    Among the benefits are:

    • One more positive reference for your brand (reputation management)
    • Ability to show your depth with automatic pickup of employees
    • Rich text opportunities

    Mat put together a nice video and has many more screen shots of building the LinkedIn business page on the DSM internet marketing blog. Definitely worth a quick review.

    Here’s the video:

  • Now Post Reviews Directly to Facebook and Twitter

    For online businesses that depend on customer reviews to improve visibility in local search, social media engagement has become even more relevant with companies like Yelp giving reviewers the option to seamlessly broadcast their Yelp reviews to Facebook and Twitter.

    According to the official Yelp blog, any photos that reviewers upload to Yelp.com will also be included when sharing reviews for that business via Facebook Connect. Users also have control over which reviews they want shared and which ones they don’t.

    So if your local search visibility matters, let your customers know how they can share their feedback of your business with all their Twitter and Facebook friends with a one-time signup at Yelp and watch your rankings rise.

  • Secret of Successful E-Mail Newsletters

    Many clients ask what the point of an e-mail newsletter is and how it can help them grow their business.  Will people read it?  Will it clog up potential customer inboxes? How much is it?

    There are several reasons I recommend e-mail newsletters. Not only do they provide free information, they are also one of the least expensive and most effective tools to draw attention to a site.  Below are some additional advantages to implementing a company e-mail newsletter.

    Stay in Touch
    Stay in Touch

    Stay in contact – Keep your business top of mind to your customers so that when they need a service you provide, they will contact you.  Newsletters serve as a reminder to customers to come back to your site.

    Develop relationships and trust – You become familiar to your subscribers. Familiarity encourages return visits and establishes customer loyalty.

    Promotional tool – A great way to communicate new products and announce new services.  Specials or discounts are a way to attract customers back to your site.  Offers entice subscribers who may not necessarily need the service but will be prompted to act during a special.

    Increase site traffic – Again, good to send out when launching a new product or service.  Gives subscriber a reason to visit the site, helping drive additional traffic .
    Set specific delivery time – Complete control of when information is disseminated.

    Trackable – Use the newsletter as a research tool to see what people read about most and what they are most interested in hearing about.  Research will allow you to write a newletter for a specific target audience.

    Provides immediate results – Real time statistics and data provide you with the information needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the newsletter.  Tweak future newsletters from that information.

    When developing your newsletter consider the following:

    • Content has to engage readers.  Articles should be more informative and less like an advertisement.
    • Keep articles brief.
    • Use images to attract reader’s attention.
    • Use links and provide URL’s as additional resources.
    • Frequency is key. Stick to a regular schedule. Try to send out same time every month or week.

    So if you are looking for a cost efficient way to target and reach a large group of customers or potential customers, consider an e-mail newsletter.

  • Declining Web Site Traffic?!

    I have most recently become a fan of “ProBlogger”, Darren Rowse. His website problogger.net contains rich insight and useful tips that can be used by both a blogger newbie up to a more seasoned one. I have found that his suggestions transcend to Internet Marketing and are easily applied to one of our favorite topics – increasing site traffic.
    We always want our clients to have a steady increase in website traffic, the reality is that there will be occasions when a dip may occur. A recent post published by Rowse offers explanations and suggestions to better understand declines in blog, or in our case, website traffic, 6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining [And What to Do About It].

    I found this post especially helpful as I am always monitoring my Client’s website traffic and I don’t ever like seeing lulls occur. So instead of fretting when I see a dip I can use this post as a check off list. There will be certain factors that we can take control of and improve to boost traffic and others that will just have to run their course before we can once again increase site traffic.

    Image courtesy of:

  • Score More Brownie Points with Your Facebook Page

    Facebook far exceeds the other major social networking sites in popularity and value, because it has the most loyal users, states a new social media study by Anderson Analytics. According to the news report, Facebook members were the most loyal among regular users of the four major social networking service (SNS) destinations – Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn being the other three.

    Staying Connected
    Staying Connected

    Facebook is used by many people to share photos, post updates and keep in touch with family and friends, especially by the older population. The site launched Fan Pages in November 2007 to give brands and celebrities an official presence on Facebook.

    Many companies and celebrities use Facebook to create profiles or share widgets for brand-building and promotion. Fan pages of celebrities like Barack Obama and brands like Coca-Cola and Nutella now attract millions.

    Facebook is also helping brands and celebrities promote their pages by introducing features and widgets like the “Facebook Fan Box,” that can be embedded into web sites allowing businesses and celebs to better interact with their fans.

    Social media experts recommend fan pages as a cost-effective way to engage with raving fans of your business. But to work well, they should ideally be setup professionally, kept interesting, and updated regularly with useful content and promotions that keep users coming back for more.

    Social media experts like Mari Smith and Dan Schwabel recommend that businesses can earn more brownie points and attract more fans to their Facebook page by

    •    Being authentic and engaging
    •    Offering fresh and exclusive content
    •    Getting a vanity URL
    •    Controlling your page
    •    Holding contests and promotions
    •    Engaging with fans
    •    Promoting your causes
    •    Buying social ads

    Image courtesy of:  rebuildlakeshore.com