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Tag: maps

  • Local U New Orleans: 14 Things You’ll Want to Know

    About a month ago, my team and I attended Local U – Local U Logo
    an online marketing seminar held at Tulane University. It was an extremely valuable, very energizing half-day! Various industry leaders in local SEO have dedicated their time and resources to helping small businesses learn the basics. It was more than worth the price of admission!

    Not only did I take away a lot of valuable information, but I’ve already started thinking about how I can apply the topics discussed to help Audubon improve our online presence. I’m excited to put a plan into action and work with my team to make the website even better.

    Below are my top takeaways from the day.  If Local U is coming to your city, I highly recommend attending.

    Takeaways:

    1. Does your website answer the top 10 most frequently asked questions that you hear from customers in your physical space/store?
    2. Is your NAP (business name, address, phone number) easy to find on every page?

      White Bengal Tiger NAP
      This tiger needs a nap! Too bad this type of nap won’t help your local presence!
    3. Remove all Marketing Speak.
    4. Are you consistently blogging? (Tip: Top 10 FAQs make excellent blog post topics.)
    5. Are you building links on your site to other reputable sites? Links are gold! Search engines move from link to link.
    6. Content is not just text. Content is photos, graphics, video, reviews.
    7. Future of online marketing is customer reviews. Do you have a review process built into your sales process – to both encourage reviews and deal with negative reviews?
    8. When asked what do you do on Google, 46% say read customer reviews. Reviews are social proof.
    9. If you are not talking about something on your site, you cannot rank in search for it! Create pages for what you want to rank for.

      Sea Otter
      It’s important to add enticing photos and videos. Who wouldn’t love to look at cute pictures of animals all day?
    10. There is no single Google search results page. 50-200 different algorithms at work at any given time and results are personalized. We are all seeing slightly different results.
    11. Rank for what you are best at, be specific!
    12. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. What will users find there about you?
    13. You cannot own or control Facebook. You can own and control your website. Your website is most important, at the heart of all your online marketing.
    14. Emails must be readable on all devices. 42% of all mails are opened on a mobile device.

    Lani McWilliams is the Director of Audubon Nature Institute Logo Member Services & Ecommerce at Audubon Nature Institute. Audubon Nature Institute is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the wonders of nature and educating their visitors about the natural world.

  • Google Places For Business Dashboard Update: News Roundup

    Peugeot 207 dashboard

    Earlier this month, Google started slowly rolling out the new Google Places For Business Dashboard which includes an updated interface, deeper integration with Plus, and a promise of faster updates. The dashboard is now available to all new users in the U.S. To help better understand the new features, we have compiled a great list of resources on this much-needed updated.

    From Google:

     

    From Mike Blumenthal a.k.a. Professor Maps:

     

    From Around the Web:

  • 5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

    Round 1-041. Who is Winning the Apple vs. Google iPhone Driving Directions Battle? Too Close to Call — Mike Blumenthal

    Even if you don’t keep up with the war between Apple and Google, you’re probably familiar with Apple Maps and it’s not-so-impressive emergence last fall. Well, since then, the app’s gotten its ducks in a row, and I know quite a few people that use it as their primary navigation tool. But how does it compare to Google Maps? Mike Blumenthal decided to find out. Check out this blog post to see how the two compare now that Apple Maps has matured a bit. I assumed that Google Maps was still the outright leader and was surprised by the results. Who knows, maybe I need to switch over to Apple Maps!

     

    2. The Woman’s Guide to Having it All — Outspoken Media

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of women in SEO and the tech industry in general. It amazes me how few women there are, and I often wonder how we can change that. There are several active initiatives to get girls interested in technology, and I truly hope that they can change the future demographics of the tech world. But how do we get women noticed right now? In this blog post, Rhea Drysdal discusses her idea of what it means to be a successful female in the industry and what she thinks needs to change. Drydal is currently pregnant, which adds an interesting twist to her view on the situation.

     

    3. How To Protect Your Home Business From A Natural Disaster — Graywolf’s SEO Blog

    Living in New Orleans, disaster preparedness is a necessary part of life. Most people have a plan for storms, whether it involves evacuation routes or a cabinet full of MREs and batteries. While life necessities are obviously the first priority when it comes to hurricanes or any other disasters, business owners must have a disaster readiness plan in place just in case. I once heard Chris Slaughter, WWL-TV’s former executive news director, speak on what he learned about disaster preparedness from Katrina, and I was surprised by what I learned. There are so many small details that are easy to forget when you’re not actually in the situation. I recently came across this blog post from Michael Gray that touches on the subject. It’s filled with some great tips on how to protect your home business when Mother Nature strikes.

     

    4. Zynga relaunches gaming site, loosens Facebook ties — Reuters

    Zynga and Facebook. What a tragic love story. It seems that the divorce process continues, as game publisher Zynga relaunched its website on Thursday after previously relying wholly on Facebook for online play. Users no longer have to login through their Facebook accounts, proving further division of the two companies. By the end of the month, Zynga and Facebook will officially just be friends again. Alas, not all relationships are meant to be! And it seems that Zynga might not need Facebook after all. In this article, Reuters’ Gerry Shih gives a report on what led to this shift and what it means for the two companies.

     

    5. Facebook Begins Rolling Out New, Customizable Timeline — AllFacebook

    I’m sure all of you savvy Facebook users are aware of the new changes taking place on your News Feed, but just in case you haven’t heard—or if you just want to learn more about the shift—AllFacebook, the Unofficial Facebook Blog, has you covered. Facebook’s spokespeople say the change makes for a cleaner page with less clutter, but what do you think? I like the new bigger images, but there’s not that much else that I’ve noticed really affecting my use. I’m also a little wary of the advertising suddenly melded into my feed. I guess only time will tell what this change means for users.

  • Results Pagination in Google Places View

    For a while now, Google has been showing “Related Places” AKA “The Competition in places view.

    Screenshot of Google Related Places - AKA The Competition
    Google Related Places – AKA The Competition

    While looking at the results for one of our clients who has recently opened a new office for his law practice in a New Orleans LA suburb I came across this.

    Screenshot of Paginated Google Places Results
    Paginated Google Places Results

    Clearly Google is trying to offer some alternative results for “Metairie Divorce” than our guy Will Beaumont at 3814 Veterans Memorial Blvd #302, Metairie, LA 70002 – (504) 834-1117.

    You’ll have to click through as I can’t figure out how to link directly.

    Beyond going down the page to look at the “Related Places” (AKA “The Competition”) you can now conveniently scroll through them. And, better still, hovering over your searched for phrase at the top of the page gets you this drop-down list.

    Screenshot of Select Your Competitor - Google Places Drop-Down List
    Select Your Competitor – Google Places Drop-Down List