As many small to medium businesses begin spending less money on the yellow pages and move their marketing strategies towards online, local search marketing is a must know! Learn about Google Places (previously known as Local Business Center and google maps) and all its cool new features. How to optimise for a local market in other ways online. This presentation was created for an Australian market.
2. Format for the evening 6pm – Welcome 6:05pm –7.10pm – Speaker – Yvette Adams 7.10pm – 7.20pm – mysunshinecoast.com.au 7.20 – 7.30pm – handylocals.com.au 730pm – 8pm – Leg it home for State of Origin!
3. Our MC… Yvette Adams Award winning entrepreneur. Owner/director/franchisor of The Creative Collective. Works with start-ups through to large corporates locally right through to internationally to create online and offline success. Mum of 2. Career aspiration to be a DJ. http://www.thecreativecollective.com.au http://www.Twitter.com/creativecollect
27. Example Place Page Posts Specials: "Free chips and salsa today from 4-6. We'll even throw in free guacamole." Posted 3 hours prior to the start of Afternoon Special Events: "Come to "Anything Goes - Poetry or Prose " Today from 7:30 pm to 9:45 pm." Posted 4 hours prior to the event, linking to the Facebook event page. New products: "Have you checked out our newest pastries? they are so tasty!"
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31. What’s possibly yet to come (it’s in the US) America already has: A new, simple way to advertise : For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags . Business photo shoots : In addition to uploading their own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which Google willl use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. They've been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating. Customized QR codes : From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business. Favorite Places : Doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the U.S. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.
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33. STEP 3 – Optimise your website with local terms if you are targetting a local market How to position your business better to a local market
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35. STEP 4 – Encourage reviews and mentions on other sites (also known as citations) How to position your business better to a local market
38. STEP 5 – Get listed in local directories How to position your business better to a local market
39. Local Directories Many available – both free and paid Directory listings from websites specific to your city are a great way to help you achieve some local pull in Google maps. A quick and easy way to find some local directories is to search for {name of city} + directory on Google. I’ll be introducing you to two great local directories later tonight.
48. Global review sites Yelp City Search Bing Local BOTW Local Brownbook.net infoUSA Superpages Insider Pages Local.com iBegin Yahoo! Local Feel free to contribute any citation or local directory sources you’ve found to be useful on our Web Wed Facebook group or linkedin group. Sharing is always encouraged!
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50. Don't count on customers tracking down your listing on Yelp, InsiderPages, Ezlocal and others. Add links to your website for each profile and further encourage customers to go leave reviews. See the below picture in which a doctor integrated links to his Yelp profile on his own website: To encourage reviews…link your business profiles on your own website/social network pages
Now make sure you fill out everything. The more information you include the better it is for your business. This includes adding as many photos as you’re allowed and adding yourself to as many relevant categories as possible (up to 5). Also make sure the address you use for your Google Local listing is the same address you have listed on your website. Note (added April 21, 2010): Google Local Business Center has changed its name to Google Places .
Now make sure you fill out everything. The more information you include the better it is for your business. This includes adding as many photos as you’re allowed and adding yourself to as many relevant categories as possible (up to 5). Also make sure the address you use for your Google Local listing is the same address you have listed on your website. Note (added April 21, 2010): Google Local Business Center has changed its name to Google Places .
Google Places allows business owners to further refine how customers locate and use their services. If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve. And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF6Myrky_Pc&feature=channel Google has finally added options for business owners to set their service areas, as reported a couple weeks ago by Matt McGee . Today it officially rolls out, again , along with a re-branding of the Local Business Center , now simply called Google Places. The service area is great for those businesses that work from a home address they would rather not display, or businesses that serve multiple areas from one physical location, which is very common in larger metro areas (think plumbers, landscapers, remodeling contractors, interior decorators, etc..). Up till now many of those businesses targeting multiple cities had to resort to obtaining unique addresses and phone numbers in those other cities, often through UPS box addresses, a practice Google now frowns upon. The question is , how are rankings influenced by these new service area settings? Will a business located in “ City A ” , yet services the adjacent “ City B ” to the north, be able to rank for City B search queries when all its citation sources mention City A? It ’ s too early to tell and for some of my clients that this is well suited too I ’ m a little hesitant incredibly hesitant to make any changes as they already rank well. Perhaps the next fresh client becomes the guinea pig.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.
Five Reasons to Create a Facebook Fan Page for Your Small Business Traffic Good SEO campaigns all share a common focus: improving your ranking in the Google search results. More generally, a good SEO campaign should seek to improve your rankings at whatever sites boast the highest traffic. At the moment, Google is by far the most used site for local searches. Ninety percent of local consumers use search engines and 65% of the time that search engine is Google. In fact, Google has consistently been the number #1 visited website since September 2007, when it passed Myspace.com . That is, until the week of March 13, 2010. During the week of March 13th, 2010 Google was the second most visited U.S. website. The first? Facebook. According the CNN, which cites the web analysis firm Experian Hitwise, “Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic that week, while Google received only 7.03%.” The article further notes: Facebook’s year-over-year growth far outpaced Google’s that week. The number of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google’s traffic climbed just 9%. It’s impossible to ignore Facebook’s explosive growth. With more than 400 million active users , half of whom log on to Facebook in any given day, Facebook is poised to play a substantial roll in the future of local business search. Structure your current SEO campaign for Google optimization, but make a Facebook fan page for your small business right now; it may become the focal point of your online marketing strategy in the not-to-distant future. Facebook Fan Pages are Cited in Google Maps Last week, our Local SEO Guru, Jorge , stumbled upon a Google profile for an Ace Hardware in Villa Park, IL that included detail citations for Facebook and Twitter links. The Google profile has not been claimed by the business owner, which means these details were deemed important and collected by Google’s web crawler. If Google thinks a Facebook Fan Page is important, it is, and you should too. Facebook Fan Pages Rank in Organic Search Results For a long time Facebook pages were private, hidden from search engine results. Now fan pages, and even many user profiles, are public and can be found in search queries: So, why is this important? Any website found in organic search results has been indexed, read and filed away by Google, if you will. When Google reads these fan pages, it sees your business name, address, description, links and keywords. Reaffirming these details on your fan page will raise your stock in Google’s eyes and give you a boost in the local search rankings. Instant Credibility At EZlocal, we provide a space on business profiles for a link to your Facebook fan page. When a prospective customer follows that link to the fan page, they will see you have an established fan base. They will see that you have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fans. That builds instant credibility. Sure, having a normal website is helpful, but it only tells people what your business is about. A Facebook fan page tell people what your business is about AND that it is well liked. Build an Interested Following Perhaps the greatest reason to create a Facebook fan page for your small business is so that you can build a fan base, a contingent of people who like and use your product or service. These people want to hear from you. They are excited when you post a coupon or announce a sale. They may even recommend your business to their friends. Keep in mind, the average Facebook user has 130 friends . When a person becomes a fan of your small business, 130 people who like and respect them get an update in their friend feed. Perhaps of few of those people then become fans and your business’ name starts popping up in more and more updates. Does this snowball effect always lead to a large fan base of customers? No. But, if you don’t create a fan page, you never have the chance to find out.