Web1 Syndication » Internet Marketing

Local Search Marketing – It’s Vital For Your Business

Garrett — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:27:43 +0000

People are using Google and other search engines to find things locally these days. In fact, the internet is being used more than ever to find things for people.

We found these interesting statistics from various sources so we thought we would share them with you:

97% of American internet users use the internet to shop of which 57% characterize their behavior as shop online, purchase offline (NPD Group)
90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks and mortar purchases (proprietary research / comScore)
82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call or purchase (TMP / comScore)
80% of budgets are spent within 50 miles of the home (DMA / proprietary)
74% of internet users perform local searches (Kelsey Group)
73% of online activity is related to local content (Google)
66% of American use online local search, like Google local search to loc
61% of local searches result in purchases (TMP / comScore)
54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books (comScore networks)
35% of all searches are local (DM News)
25% of internet searches have a purely local, commercial focus (Kelsey-Bizrate)

So what do you need? First you need quality content on your website. You’ll also need lots of back links pointing to this quality content, so try submitting articles and press releases out to important websites you know of. You’ll want them going out to directories, social sites like twitter and facebook, and make sure you use keyword specific anchor text links, and categories where necessary.

This is all stuff you’ll want to keep going month after month. One or two months may get you to the top, but staying there is the key. Once you’re up there and staying there, your traffic will increase in ways you couldn’t imagine before.

Google Webmaster Tools – Have Your Impressions/Clicks Dropped?

Garrett — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:36:45 +0000

Since June 2nd, a lot of people have been saying that the Impressions/Clicks have dropped for their website, according to Google Webmaster Tools, and for no reason.

So what happened? No one really knows. A notable decrease in clicks has been reported, while no notable amounts of traffic or revenue are lost. Google Analytics even shows that traffic is normal. Is it some sort of glitch in GWT? Should anyone be worried?

Rumor has it that it’s because of Google Caffine, but there has been no official report from Google as to why this is happening. There have been reported cases of legitimately lost traffic and revenue, but most say that their traffic and revenue is the same while GWT says their Clicks/Impressions are steadily dropping by day. We feel that the reported cases of lost traffic and revenue must be a coincidence and be caused by something else.

Make sure you watch your Webmaster tools and Analytics and make sure everything is going okay for you. You don’t want to be caught off guard, reading about a glitch and then ignoring it when it happens only to lose revenue. No one knows for sure what the deal is, so don’t take any chances at all! Just keep your normal SEO operations moving and keep watching your traffic and rankings.

Your Local Business Can Outrank The Fortune 500

Garrett — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:31:03 +0000

Do you realize how easy it is for any small local business to outrank a Fortune 500 business in Google? Do you realize that you could be that small local business? Imagine getting more traffic than a Fortune 500 business site. Now, imagine what that would do for your business! It’s simple, keep reading and check it out.

The Fortune 500′s are failing. Do you know why? Poor SEO strategies. Their strategy is to spend millions a day on PPC campaigns. They’re blowing all this money on advertising that doesn’t even work. Did you know that 50% of Fortune 500 companies have zero search engine visibility? Only 25% show up in a top 50 search for their own product, service, or keywords! That’s terrible. How do they manage to even stay Fortune 500?

You can easily beat that. it’s easy. All you need is a solid Local Search Marketing plan. All you need is a good internet marketing, team and a realistic budget!

Top 7 Reasons To Hire SEO Consultants

Garrett — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:25:00 +0000

Enlisting outside help should be on your SEO to-do-list. You can’t be expected to do everything your self, and you’ll need to hire SEO Consultants just to help out a little. Here’s the top seven reasons why to hire SEO consultants.

1. You Need Specialized Expertise

Some people know certain SEO niches better than others. Some people know Social Media better, some know content generation and backlinking better. It all depends on a person’s specialties. You can’t be expected to know everything your self!

2. You Can Learn A Lot From An Outside Expert

Even if you’re an SEO expert, you can’t be expected to know everything. Having an extra brain around with extra ideas is always a plus. Some people have done things you haven’t before.

3. You Should Double Check Your Strategies Before You Start Them

While building a strategy, it’s easy to forget something, put something extra in, or just do something wrong. Usually a second or even third person to review it before implementing it can help. The outside SEO Consultants can catch any mistakes that are made.

4. Benefit From Collaborating With Other SEOs

Don’t you find it refreshing to work with other people? I know I do. Sometimes it’s tough doing things by your self. Get some help with a consultant and take some stress off.

5. A Consultant Can Help You Talk To The Higher-Ups

One of the hardest things to do is get approval and funding by your superiors to try new things, or do the things you already know will work. A second voice to help convince your superiors that what you’re doing is right is more than a good idea, it’s a fantastic idea!

6. SEO Is Too Much Work

SEO is a lot of work, and no one should have to bear that burden alone. With outside help, responsibilities can be delegated and the stress load can be removed so that no one person is stressing out over a lot to do. Things will also get done a lot faster.

7. An Outside Point Of View On Unforeseen Issues

It’s possible that you haven’t experienced everything yet. No matter how long you’ve been in the SEO business, there’s a good chance you haven’t seen it all. Luckily, a consultant may have seen the particular issue you’ve run in to. They’ll know exactly how to fix it and things can run smoothly!

Getting an outside consultant isn’t wrong, it’s actually encouraged. Do what you feel is right and what is needed the most for your SEO campaigns.

Site Registration Length Affects Google Rank

Garrett — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:00:40 +0000

Have you heard Google ranks sites higher if they have a higher registration period? There’s been a lot of talk amongst the SEO industry that says this is true. They’re saying that a domain they registered for ten years got indexed up to fifteen times faster than the domain they registered for only one year, and both domains had similar content as to not throw off their tests. Fifteen times faster is a lot!

The way they say it works is that Google sees people investing in long term sites and likes it. When someone registers for only one year, it’s a good chance that they’re just spamming. A ten year lease on a domain is going to show that they plan to stick it out for the long term.

Well guess what? It’s not true. They’re idiots and liars. It doesn’t work that way. I don’t know where they got this “fifteen times faster” thing, but they’re either terribly mistaken or just plain lying.

Understand, Google can’t see that information. It’s between you and your provider. Even if you put that stuff out in the open for the world, and Google, to see, they’re not looking for it. Sure, in the past they’ve said they might take it into consideration, but as of right now, they’re not even looking.

Don’t worry about investing the amount of money needed on a ten year lease, unless you’re comfortable and plan on investing in a ten year lease. Don’t do it because this guy says to, or because your provider says to, do it because you want the domain for ten years.

5 Google Chrome Extensions For SEO

Garrett — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:24:14 +0000

Previously, Firefox was the best browser for handling things like SEO because of the Firefox extensions. Unfortunately, Firefox is very bulky. There is a solution! Google Chrome is not near as bulky as Firefox, and now has a growing list of extensions. Go ahead and see for your self. Open up a website you spend a lot of time on in Firefox. Then do the same in Google Chrome. Check your task manager and see which is using more memory. Now, check out this list of SEO Extensions for Google Chrome:

SEO Site Tools – On-Page and External metrics; Social Media information; Metrics and numbering on Yahoo, Bing, and Google SERPs; Extends WMT, YSE and GA with metrics.
SEOQuake lite – Displays the Google PageRank and Alexa rank of any webpages in your browser. Also shows no-follow links.
SitezMeter – Displays traffic charts from Google Trends and Alexa, as well as ranks.
Site Information Tool – Shows information about the current page like PageRank, Alexa rank, IP info, server response headers, whois and other SEO parameters.
Chrome SEO – Includes Keyword Research Tool (Alpha Version), Highlighted NoFollow links, number of Pages Indexed, number of Backlinks, Current Traffic and Rankings, Social Bookmark counts, Cached Versions of the page, and Domain Details like DNS, IP, Whois, Server Location.

Here’s two other extensions you may find useful:

iMacros – Set up macros to fill out or do repetitious things in your browser.
Session Manager – Lets you save sessions of your opened tabs and windows, and to quickly re-open them whenever you like.

Now that Google Chrome has some SEO extensions, you have no reason not to make the switch.

Google Local Search Goes Mainstream

Garrett — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:23:18 +0000

Google Local Search has finally gone mainstream. We’ve all heard Google talking about it for some time now, but it has become a reality. The best part? It works great. The worst part? It’s underutilized. Not near as many businesses are using it as should. It’s set and forget, so why wouldn’t a business want to use it? Well, I don’t suggest forgetting about it once you set it. Really, you’ll want to go back and check out the tracking graphs and other statistics that are presented to you.

Google Local Search isn’t something that will replace SEO for local businesses, but it is necessary for the big picture (of marketing). It’s really easy, all that a business needs to do is set it up, get verified, and then come back to check the reports. As you can see from the image provided, this client site has received a lot of traffic just through Google Local.

Site Speed Incorporated Into Google Algorithms

Garrett — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:22:13 +0000

A lot of blogs around the net have been talking about Google incorporating site speed into their PageRank and search rank algorithms. Well, this is a good thing. Why is it a good thing? Users like fast sites, so naturally Google should like fast sites. How many times have you left a site because it took too long to load? Google is removing those from top of the search rankings to save searchers time and effort finding exactly what they need.

This is something that has actually been in effect for weeks. Google never mentioned it because they said that less than one (1) percent of websites have been affected so far. This is because site relevance still holds the most weight in importance to Google search rankings. Not only that, but site speed is only one of over two hundred (200) different algorithms running to decide a page’s search ranking and PageRank.

Wondering how fast your site is running? Check your site speed with this Firefox plug in or go to your Google Webmaster Tools and go to Labs and then Performance.

8 iPhone Apps For SEM

Garrett — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:01:01 +0000

Checking ranking and other reports on the go is important. Here’s eight iPhone apps to check on your SEO and Social Media campaigns.

5 iPhone Apps For SEO:

WordPress – Handle your WordPress blogs on the go.
iSEO – SERP analyzer, inlinks analyzer, and a list of web directories.
PokeSEO – Check the Google PageRank and reported backlinks for your domain or a competitor’s. Not currently available in app store (because they’re doing a total make-over).
AnalyticsAPP – Instant mobile access to Google Analytics that is easier than checking with your browser.
Elite SEM – Calculator for CPM, CPA, CPC to CPM, and CPC to PPC. Also includes DMA lookup.

3 iPhone Apps For Social Media:

Tweet Deck for handling all of your Twitter accounts. You can run multiple accounts from one Tweetdeck, and it syncs with Tweetdeck on your computer so you can have the same set up on the go as you do in your office, or at home.
Tumblerette for any Tumblr blogs you might have. Works with one account, but one account can have many blogs under it.
Facebook for any Facebook Pages you may be running.

Many of these are also available on iPad.

6 SEO Tactics For Amateurs And Pros

Garrett — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:29:19 +0000

Make Sure Your Website Is Found

Here are six aspects of SEO that are not often discussed out in the open. These tactics are good for those who either are amateurs wanting to learn SEO for their own website or pros who just need to make sure all their bases are covered. These tips are also great for those who want to hire an SEO company, as these are tips you will need to make sure that the potential SEO company in question is doing.

1. Love SEO: If you’re doing SEO for your self or clients, you need to love what you do. Without having a passion for SEO, it won’t go anywhere. This is something that applies to anything and everything you do in life.

2. Be Nice: Trash talking other SEO’s is not the way to go. If anything, it just makes you look ridiculous and immature. Name calling and trash talking is for grade school. No one will take you seriously if you act like a twelve year old. Treating people with respect is paramount.

3. Link To Others: Linking out to others for free is kind and useful. Obviously this isn’t something you should focus time on, but if you know of something appropriate to link to, do it. Small favors like that usually get returned, and when you’re doing a lot of small favors for a lot of people, suddenly you’ve got a lot of small favors coming back.

4. Write More: A lot of SEO has to do with the content, so being able to write is key. Even if you’re writing little bits every day, the more you write, the better you get. The better the content, the more Google loves it.

5. Set Up Mini Sites/Blogs: This goes with the above. The more you’ve got out there, the more Google will see, the more tools you have to use. Also, this will help you get better at writing, or at least give you motivation to.

6. Converse In Social Media: Getting involved in social media is very important now. Jump into your niche, know who’s talking and what they’re talking about, and talk to them. Get to know everyone, including the competition. “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” Facebook, twitter, and anything else you can come up with – It’s all important.