Archive for Google Local Search
The Most Important Part of Internet Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?
For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.
At its core, internet marketing is about these things:
* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads
Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.
My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.
My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.
However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.
Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.
Even though there are more sides to internet marketing than just email marketing (permission based), email has been the foundation that our business sits on.
SEO: Should the Lack of Massive Hits Concern Me?
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s inevitable that every conversation I have with prospective, or even current clients, will eventually get around to the topic of “hits”. It seems that this is a common term that the offline masses are familiar enough with to believe they have an understanding of it, and many believe that “hits” to their website should be the prime objective.
So what it a “hit”?
A simple definition is that a visitor has landed on one of your webpages, and it’s recorded in your analytics program as a visitor, or “hit”.
So should you be concerned when you’re not getting “massive hits” to your website?
The short answer to this question is NO.
It’s not difficult to attract “hits” to a website. Anyone who follows just he basics of SEO with very little or no understanding can accomplish that.
But the question really should be; should I be concerned if I’m not getting “targeted Visitors” to my website. The answer to this question is ABSOLUTELY!
What do I mean by “targeted visitors”? These are folks who are searching online for a specific product or service. A solution to a problem they currently have. A local business that can provide whatever it is that will solve their problem.
They’ve already done the research, know what they want, and in many cases have already decided to buy…they’re just looking for a place to buy.
Let’s say you own a brick and mortar shoe store and you place an ad in the local paper promoting free coffee and pastries on Saturday. Or perhaps you own a car dealership and offer $20.00 free gas and a car wash just to take a test drive.
These types of marketing strategies are used frequently by offline businesses in the hope of attracting customers, or “hits” to their store.
You might have a really busy day catering to these visitors, but at the end of the day how many shoes did you sell? How many cars did you sell? How many of your visitors, or “hits” came to your store because they were truly interested in your product? How many of these could be classified as “targeted visitors”?
I’m not saying that this is a bad promotional strategy, but most of the folks who visit your business through a promotion such as these are not “targeted visitors”, and will visit to take advantage of your free offer, with no immediate intention or interest in purchasing your product.
The same thing applies to your website. In order to get business from your website, you need to attract “targeted visitors”. Those who are searching online for your product or service already with the intent to buy.
How do you get “targeted visitors”?
In a word; “Research”. You must do some in-depth keyword research to find out what terms people are using when they are interested in buying your product or service.
Here’s the shoe store example;
If your SEO strategy is broadly focused on the term “shoe”, you’ll attract lots of 
visitors, if you can get ranked in Google for that term. But those folks may be looking for anything from shoe repair, to dress shoes, designer shoes, basketball shoes, etc. Not very targeted. Most of your non-targeted visitors will leave your website within the first 10 seconds because they didn’t immediately find what they’re looking for.
So you must dig into some keyword research to find the valuable terms that people are using that are “relevant” to your product or services.
By doing a little research and finding valuable keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, you’ll be attracting the right visitors, and you’ll be providing your visitor with exactly what it is that they’re looking for. Your chance of actually doing business with these people is much greater. A visitor who is searching for “nike air force basketball shoes” is a much more “targeted visitor”.
These folks aren’t just browsing, they are interested in that particular brand and type of shoe.
Google Changes Can Help Your Local Business
Posted by: | CommentsLocal businesses just got a tremendous boost from recent Google changes in local search.
Local businesses have typically, and should continue to make sure they’re in the local search engines such as; Yellow Pages, Yahoo local, City Search, and several other local engines.
The fact is, that most people use Google to search for local businesses.
The big change that Google has made to their search engine is that when someone types in “flowers” with no geographical location,i.e. “flowers in Toronto”, Goolge will now detect the area that the searcher is in, and provide local search results rather than international results.
Matt McGee of SmallBusinessSEM.com emphasizes the impact that this will have on local small businesses. The little guys will now have the opportunity for exposure that has never been available to them before. The Google changes also emphasize the importance of “Search Engine Optimization”. Matt says, that SEO will continue to be really important for business.
Local Search: More Consumers Used Local Search In 2008
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Local search is growing more rapidly than overall onine search.
This from a recent ComScore Inc.report. ComScore is a global leaderin measuring the digital world.
The use of onine search engines to find local businesses, products, and services, grew in 2008 by a whopping 58%! Total onine searches grew by only 21%.
The report also showed that even if the local searcher hasn’t made their ultimate decision on which company or brand name they will do business with, they have decided to make a purchase and are looking for a local business to provide that purchase to them.
This means that local business needs to develop and maintain a local online presence to even have an opportunity to get any of this business.
The comScore study measured real-life Internet browsing, buying and transactional activity of approximately one million U.S. Internet users who provided permission to be monitored from December 2007 to December 2008.
You might also enjoy; Local Search: Free,Easy, and Worth It!
Google Local Search: FREE, Easy, and Worth It!
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s happening more and more! People looking for products and services locally are using the search engines to find local businesses.
The latest estimates are that approximately 70% of households perform some kind of local search for products or services on a daily basis.
Watch Video Below for Step by Step Instructions
What is local search?
When you type in a search term, such as “musical instruments St.Catharines”, Google will display a listing of 10 local results along with information and links to their websites.
Google has just announced that it is changing it’s algorithm so that you will no longer need to type in the city or region along with the search term. They will detect your location from the I.P. address of your computer and return the appropriate results for your geographical location.
Watch Video Below for Step by Step Instructions
How can local search help your business?
Because local search will be so highly ranked in Google, you listing, if properly set up, will be at the top of the search results. This is a huge benefit over your competitors who may be only in the organic listings, and not on the first page.
The likelyhood of the searcher contacting businesses near the top of a Google search page is tenfold greater than any other position in the search results. If you’re not in this position, chances are your competitors are. Need I say more?
Now imagine if you were in the Google Local Search AND, highly listed in the organic listings as well. Your visibility is higher, and your chances of being contacted by a potential customer, greater.
How to get listed in local search.
Here’s a step by step video to show you how to list your business in Google Local.
