http://www.new07.org Niche Blog Reviews Covering Retirement, Business, Real Estate News, Finance, Credit and Press Releases Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:17:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-business-marketing-%e2%80%93-the-known%c2%a0future http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-business-marketing-%e2%80%93-the-known%c2%a0future#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:46:21 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/local-business-marketing-%e2%80%93-the-known%c2%a0future Continue reading →]]> The Internet has turned into a great local business marketing tool in the past couple of years.  While local businesses have not yet adopted these tools into their marketing strategies, the technologies are moving forward with or without them.  The convergence of Search, Social Media and Mobile Marketing is bringing business information with products and services into the hands of the local consumers. Having had Internet business experience for the past 16 years, I can tell you that this is probably one of the few times where we can put all the local business marketing puzzle pieces together and see what marketing tools we have available over the next 2 – 3 years.  Let’s review each one so we can see how the come together. Local Business Listings In short these are the interactive yellow pages of the Internet. Interactive because as a business owner you can update and manage these listings at search engines, social communities, 411 web sites, GPS/Mapping websites and basic business directories.  They are also interactive because consumers can post their experience they had with your business, products or services.  In order to get started you need to claim, update, monitor and manage these listings at multiple local listing websites.  Don’t have the time resources?  Don’t worry, there are companies that provide local business listing management services. Local Business Listing Marketing vs. Data Services As a business you will want to seek out companies that provide the marketing services.  The companies that provide basic data services only push your information out, but they do not help you protect your listing from being hijacked or for that matter manage your listings for marketing purposes with various types of content like coupons, events, QR codes, consumer reviews, coupons and citations.  The marketing services have a higher cost to them than the data services, because the marketing services are more effective and do more for your business. Consumer Reviews This will be the first time that most local businesses dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue will need to manage their public relations.  Consumer Reviews are not just about other consumers seeing the information, but too many negative reviews will adversely impact your website ranking position in search results.  This is no longer about just consumers posting their frustrations to a website or blog, but directly into your local listing.  As a business you will need to closely monitor these reviews and also begin to engage customers that have positive experiences to post their information as well. Local Listing Coupons and Mobile Coupons The Local business listing gives the business the opportunity of posting their coupons, offers, and discounts.  They are then available for consumers to find through web searches and through their mobile devices.  While this is not available through all local listing websites or available for free, this is in no uncertain terms the demise of the traditional coupons. Events If you promote your business then you will want to use the Events promotion tool within Local Business Listings.  You can include Specials, Events, New Products, general News, pretty much any alert you which to make the local consumers aware of so they can find it through a web search or a mobile search. QR Codes These small square bar codes will allow you to program them for consumer to scan using their mobile devices.  The code will then do whatever is programmed to them.  For example, a coupon, discount, offer, event, website link.  You can also use them on business cards, websites, traditional ads, store window, and much more. Citations This tends to add a level of complication for most businesses.  If you’re familiar with the idea of inbound links, this is very similar only this time is not necessarily just about a link, but your company name, address, city, state, zip, phone and many other aspects that are related to what is known as HCards to include your longitude and latitude of your business address.  Because this is a combination of marketing and technical expertise you may wish to get someone to help you with this item. Hyperlocal Websites that are hyperlocal give a local business the opportunity of highlight targeted advertising and marketing to geography and demographic.  While these websites are not as prominent for this purpose yet, this will change and needs to be planned for in 2011 and beyond. Having had Internet business experience for the past 16 years, I can tell you that that geographic marketing is the direction of our immediate future.  Hopefully I was able to portray to you some of the known components of local business marketing and how this local business marketing tool can be used to reach the local consumers. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Local Business Marketing – The Known

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-business-marketing-%e2%80%93-the-known%c2%a0future/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/top-local-business-listing-questions-answered-%e2%80%93-interview-with-will%c2%a0scott http://www.new07.org/social-media/top-local-business-listing-questions-answered-%e2%80%93-interview-with-will%c2%a0scott#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:04:49 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/top-local-business-listing-questions-answered-%e2%80%93-interview-with-will%c2%a0scott Continue reading →]]> I have had many opportunities to chat all things local with my good friend Will Scott, and just the other day we were at it again.  We were talking about some of the most common questions we are always asked by small business owners in regards to local marketing online.  I wanted to take the time and put them down on paper for everyone.  I felt this would be a good venue to get the answers out there.  Here goes my interview with Will Scott of Search Influence . 1. What are the best ways that new to Internet businesses can go about increasing the number (or gaining any at all) citations when it comes to local listings? My number 1 recommendation would be that they make their way over to http://getlisted.org . Get Listed is a really simple tool that checks the major local search engines and tells you if you’re there. If you’re not there you can go submit yourself right from the dashboard. Once you’ve done that, go submit yourself to the major data providers. There’s a shortcut here you can get into those providers data with just 3 sources: UniversalBusinessListing.org (submits to multiple data providers) Localeze.com (submits to multiple data providers and powers many online directories. InfoUSA.com/Landing/UpdateListing.aspx (the only major not represented by the 2 above) One caveat: it’s not immediate. You must submit early in the month and then it may take 45 90 days to see full distribution. In the meantime there’s nothing wrong with hand submitting to some of the biggies like MerchantCircle, Yellowpages.com, Superpages and InsiderPages. Just be advised, your phone will ring with follow-up telemarketing. Politely decline and stick with the free listing. 2. What would you say to those who worry about receiving negative reviews? Negative reviews are bound to happen. Lots of businesses think they can play Ostrich and solve all their problems. The issue is that even if the business owner isn’t active online their customers are. As with many things the best defense is a good offense. If a business owner is proactively working to get positive reviews it’s a great defense when they find themselves with the inevitable negative. And, I think everyone understands that we can’t please all customers. No matter how hard a business owner tries there will always be that one. Just like in real life, you can’t sweat them all and the most valuable tactic is to offer good customer service so you don’t have to worry about reputation management . 3. What would you say to those who are worried their competitiors are giving them bad reviews? Forget about it see above. Seriously though, you can’t defend against it. Just monitor your reviews and other online mentions and if one crops up which looks suspect, address it head on and report it to whichever service is hosting it. It does no good to share your agitation with the site where a review is posted. Keep it factual and professional and they’ll be much more likely to take it down. We have seen Yelp reviews pulled, but it’s not very common. In the case of Yelp, reviews which don’t pass the sniff-test often face the Yelp Review Filter . 4. What are some of the best places/resources someone who has ran a business for years offline, but never online use to get started? Wow, the list is endless but just for a few: GetListed.org already mentioned above. In addition to the service, there’s a blog and links to lots of great resources. OutspokenMedia.com/blog/ Lisa and her cohorts blog almost daily. They take a very user-friendly approach to online marketing. It’s entertaining for pros and approachable for those just getting started. SmallBusinessSEM.com Matt McGee’s blog. Occasionally insidebaseball but filled with great stuff written with the business owner in mind. DuctTapeMarketing.com John Jantsch’s site. Very nitty gritty marketing ideas and execution. SmallBizTrends.com Anita Campbell and a stable of writers tracking, reporting and advising on news and info of interest. SmallBusinessBrief.com Forum from the folks at SearchEngineGuide.com. Search Engine Guide is a little technical for newbies, but there are a lot of helpful people in the forum. In all seriousness I recommend our blog: http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/ . It’s written by my team for and from the perspective of the small business clients with whom we work. And, though it’s often a little insidebaseball for newbies too, I think your blog  http://dreamsystemsmedia.com/blog/ has a lot to offer as well. Mat, thanks for asking for my opinions. This is an area where I’m pretty passionate. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Top Local Business Listing Questions Answered – Interview with Will

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/top-local-business-listing-questions-answered-%e2%80%93-interview-with-will%c2%a0scott/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/8-search-engine-related-ipad%c2%a0apps http://www.new07.org/social-media/8-search-engine-related-ipad%c2%a0apps#comments Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:10:24 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/8-search-engine-related-ipad%c2%a0apps Continue reading →]]> Aside from Twitter  and Social Networking apps, another interesting set of apps available right now on the iPad App Store are search-related. I scoured through the App Store to get the most significant of these search-related iPad apps – and found 8 of them. Here are 8 search-related apps that you might want to check out. Zillow Real Estate

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/8-search-engine-related-ipad%c2%a0apps/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-search-recipe-how-to-track-local-analytics-with-wordpress%e2%80%a6and-make%c2%a0pies http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-search-recipe-how-to-track-local-analytics-with-wordpress%e2%80%a6and-make%c2%a0pies#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:05:43 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/local-search-recipe-how-to-track-local-analytics-with-wordpress%e2%80%a6and-make%c2%a0pies Continue reading →]]> I am a big fan of food. I think about it everyday, and if things go well I even get to have some on a regular basis. So, in order to give my life some variety I like to prepare different dishes on occasion. To do so, I turn to online recipes. You can read reviews, look up anything imaginable, they are free, and the directions are usually easy to follow. That is why when I was deciding how to cover using WordPress to track Google Local analytics data, I figured a local search recipe would be the best way. Many small businesses are using WordPress as a CMS for their website, and understanding the traffic that comes from the Local business center is uber important. So, sit back and let your mouth start to water and get ready to track local…. Approximate Bake

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-search-recipe-how-to-track-local-analytics-with-wordpress%e2%80%a6and-make%c2%a0pies/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/google-tests-hotel-price-listings-on-google%c2%a0maps http://www.new07.org/social-media/google-tests-hotel-price-listings-on-google%c2%a0maps#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:42:36 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/google-tests-hotel-price-listings-on-google%c2%a0maps Continue reading →]]> Google Maps is a pretty useful tool for conducting local search on business establishments, directions and yes route maps.  It’s been getting wide usage and yet Google seem to have not capitalize on its monetization potential especially from local search advertising. But this perhaps might change soon, as Google has started testing out a new Maps feature that shows hotel prices for selected local hotel listings. The new feature will let you enter the dates of your planned stay in a hotel in your search phrase. Google Maps search engine will then display real prices on selected listings and as you click on  a specific price, you’ll see a list of  advertisers who have provided pricing information for specific hotels. To avoid issue on search results relevance, the pricing information will be labeled “Sponsored.”  Of course you can click through to reserve a room from the advertiser’s site. Hence, a faster, more convenient way of planning your next trip, thanks to Google Maps. Now for those who are concerned that this might affect the ranking of hotels in Google Maps, Google was quick to explain that  this would not be the case. Business listings are still ranked based on their relevance to search terms and other factors. Google is currently testing this feature with selected advertisers only and is visible to selected users as well.  It’s availability to all Google Maps users will be determined by how the testing will push through. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Tests Hotel Price Listings on Google

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/google-tests-hotel-price-listings-on-google%c2%a0maps/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/my-%e2%80%9ccouch-talk%e2%80%9d-local-marketing-interview-with-chuck%c2%a0reynolds http://www.new07.org/social-media/my-%e2%80%9ccouch-talk%e2%80%9d-local-marketing-interview-with-chuck%c2%a0reynolds#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:20:37 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/my-%e2%80%9ccouch-talk%e2%80%9d-local-marketing-interview-with-chuck%c2%a0reynolds Continue reading →]]> For those of you that do not know Chuck , he has a great deal of experience with geo games as well and other geo apps, local search and marketing, and is not only a marketer but a heavy engaged user of all the services he talks about. I wanted to interview him about businesses using local social networks such as FourSquare, (because he is a very active user) and help share some insight to those business owners wondering how to use.  You can follow Chuck Reynolds on Twitter here. Local Marketing For Small Business Couch Talk, Yelp & Foursquare from Chuck Reynolds on Vimeo . Matt Siltala, owner of Dream Systems Media shares his love and passion for SEO and all things social on his Internet marketing blog . Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . My “Couch Talk” Local Marketing Interview With Chuck

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/my-%e2%80%9ccouch-talk%e2%80%9d-local-marketing-interview-with-chuck%c2%a0reynolds/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-marketing-with-hyperlocal-blog-and-news%c2%a0aggregators http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-marketing-with-hyperlocal-blog-and-news%c2%a0aggregators#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:09:01 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/local-marketing-with-hyperlocal-blog-and-news%c2%a0aggregators Continue reading →]]> Last year I did a short post on building links via local blogs . Looking back at that post I think it is quite limited. Those resources are so much more than just link building tools. Learning to find and build contacts with local journalists and bloggers will benefit you in plenty of ways (yes, it may take quite some time but it is well worth it in the long run). What should I do with these resources? ( If you are a local blogger or a local journalist ) Subscribe to each of them to make sure you cover all major events in the area; ( If you are a local blogger ) Submit or claim your listing there to increase your content distribution, visibility, and traffic; ( If you are the owner of a local business ) Track news and build connections with local bloggers to get covered by them (run contests, sponsorships, promote your events, etc); (If you are a link builder) Connect to local bloggers to get links when you need them, etc Tool Sources of local information How to track local updates How to promote your local resource Reach Placeblogger Blogs Register to add places and blogs to favorites Submit your local blog here Universal Outside.in Blogs, news resources Subscribe by RSS (bottom of the page) Register your site with Outside.in for Bloggers Universal Patch Local media Register to follow events, subscribe by RSS feed Apply as a local editor here ; Add your events here US: New Jersey, Connecticut, New York Every Block government Web sites, blogs, local media iPhone app, email alerts, RRS feed To get covered or included, contact the team feedback at everyblock.com US: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington, DC “Local” Twitter search Microblogs RSS feed Follow and make friends with local influencers on Twitter Universal (Below are some details on each one) 1.

]]> http://www.new07.org/social-media/local-marketing-with-hyperlocal-blog-and-news%c2%a0aggregators/feed 0 http://www.new07.org/social-media/an-extremely-nifty-guide-to-reviews-and-local%c2%a0search http://www.new07.org/social-media/an-extremely-nifty-guide-to-reviews-and-local%c2%a0search#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:00:12 +0000 cgseo http://www.new07.org/business/an-extremely-nifty-guide-to-reviews-and-local%c2%a0search Continue reading →]]> There is one area within the “Local Search Sphere” that brings a wide amount of debate when it comes to ranking impacts, importance, and ethical dilemmas. That area is reviews. Dah dah daahhhhhh. ß Scary Movie Sound So, in an attempt to put light on a fairly clouded subject, this post will focus on following… How reviews effect local search rankings The future of local search + reviews A list of review sites that currently get picked up by “The Engines” A 6 step review strategy for your business. How Reviews Effect Local Search Rankings In this section I will be calling on information from David Mihm’s 2009 Local Search Ranking Factors as well as my own experimentation and thoughts. There are no doubts that reviews effect ranking factors on the major search engines, as well as a number of IYP’s (Internet Yellow Pages). This issue has a very high “agreeance” among local SEO’s, and I have seen certain amounts of reviews move companies up the rankings with all else staying the same. Mary Bowling of SeOverflow stated that, “ Yahoo Local has said there’s a threshold for the number of reviews and that once you reach that threshold, the reviews begin to factor into your rankings. Of course they will not say what that threshold is. For [Google] Maps, more reviews help you to rank better, and even one review is helpful, and gives you an edge over businesses with no reviews.” Many Local SEO’s don’t like that this is the case, and both sides of the issue have good ammunition for debate. Reviews are a very good trust factor to prove the validity of a business, but they can be semi-easily fabricated by guys with black hats and dark sunglasses. At this current time, and for the foreseeable future, reviews affect rankings. So, instead of fighting this, I have chosen to embrace it, and look at ways to promote real reviews of local businesses. Not only do reviews lend a helping hand when it comes to ranking factors, but the number of reviews works as “eye candy” to people searching for local businesses. Let ’ s look at the following example… If a business has no reviews, then the link to the Places Page says “More”. If Google has a single review associated with the business, then the text changes to show the number of reviews. The review count is the last part of the listing that users see They are surrounded by white space It is the only means of comparing businesses at a glance Consumers generally trust online reviews for finding more information on a local business. Reviews can also be used to your favor with Google’s Other Places You Might Like Tab as pointed out by Andrew Shotland. Now, a little nugget for businesses that show up with a 3 pack or less. When a business has 5 reviews or more listed, the “review stars” a.k.a. “five  eye candies” make their way to the listing. All of this adds up to show that businesses with reviews stand out, and can lead to an increased Click-Through-Rate. When I shop…I shop reviews, my mom shops reviews, and I even caught her dog reading reviews on a local Petsmart. Now, one of the things that seems to bring varying opinions amongst the local community is the ranking weight given to different review sites as they are picked up by search engines. I am not going to shed light on this issue. I will save those thoughts for a different occasion. Review sites that currently get picked up by Search Engines First and foremost Yahoo, Bing, and Google have their own review systems for consumers to leave feedback. The following is a list of places that the search engines gather reviews to include in their own results. Yahoo – None Bing – Citysearch, Judysbook. Google – Across most industries (SuperPages, City Search, Insiderpages, Judysbook) This is a basic list of some of the most generic review sites that show up well in industries across the board. Google pulls reviews from 100’s of Industry specific sites like demandforce for dentists, and urbanspoon for the food industry. Just recently it was announced that they would pull reviews from local blogs and news sites as well . So, with Google and Bing pulling information from other places, what are they doing with it? The Future of Local Search + Reviews Sentiment Analysis is the next phase of Local Search, and I believe we will see this evolve throughout the rest of 2010. A few month’s ago we saw the following pop up on Places Pages, and a similar list on Bing’s Listings as well. This shows that Google is now analyzing the ratings, and keywords found within individual reviews in order to rank businesses on price, atmosphere, service, and many other factors. Now, why would this information be useful to a Search Engine? With businesses properly categorized, they would be able to return listings based on searches like “Italian restaurants with great atmosphere” or “dental office with great services”. Instead of this information being returned by optimizing keywords for the SERPs, the search results would be based on user generated content. This will also increase the percentage of local boxes being displayed in the results. So, when the engines begin this, you had better have a good understanding of what your reviews say about your company, or clients. If you don’t, you might find yourself ranking very high on a term like “dirtiest restaurant in New York City”. A review strategy for your business The following is by no means all you should do. This is the basics and contains a very broad scope to a subject that needs a narrow and specific focus. But, these steps are important and serve as a great starting point for any business. 1. Do not fabricate fake reviews or the Local SEO gods will beat you like a red headed step child and drop you from visibility (No offense to any red headed step children). I consider fake reviews one of two unpardonable sins. The other is hijacking a listing. 2. Look at every review about your business found on the search engines. Then, do a search for the following “your company name” + phone number. This will show you every listing that is indexed on your business. It will also allow you to see what reviews are saying (and reveal a fair amount of citations in the process). From here, the wonderful Miriam Ellis wrote a guide on her SEO Igloo Blog entitled Edit, Remove and Respond To Reviews – Tools For Conflict Resolution in which she identified the process of fixing a tainted image. Now, understand that it is important to follow up on negative reviews, but you don’t need them all removed. No business is perfect, but showing that you are “aware and care” is as close as you can get. 3. Find a way to thank those who have left reviews. Many site have profiles where you can send the reviewer a message, or at least respond to the review. Do so, and in the process you could ask them to follow you on twitter or facebook, and ultimately create loyal customers who can be called on in the future for helping with your online reputation.  4.  Look at the review section of your industry competitors on Google and Bing, and find out which sites reviews are gathered from . If you didn’t catch the hint up above, Citysearch and Judysbook are showing in both engines. This means that a single review on the mentioned sites could help you on more engines than one. 5. Choose a few sites that you want to promote as the place for customers to go to leave reviews. It is important to not put your eggs all in one basket. I have seen 30 Google reviews disappear that took a client months of work to generate. The company was only explaining how to leave reviews on Google. If they had been able to give directions or links to multiple review sites, then only a few might have been lost. 6. Come up with a review campaign that fosters legitimate feedback . Look at the guidelines for each review site to make sure you are acting in accordance with their expectations. Some review sites ask that you don’t reward people for leaving reviews, others say that offering something is a great tactic. Use your best judgment, and I would love to hear what you are doing to promote honest feedback of yours, or your client’s businesses. Reviews are such a vital part of local search and like me, they are gaining weight as time goes on. Businesses that monitor what is being said about them will be able to learn from honest customers, and have a good understanding of what the outside perspective of their company is. Not only will they be able to ultimately rank better for different searches, but they will also be able to improve on business practices based on the customer feedback. So, the time has come for small businesses to manage their online review reputation, or manage to find themselves with nothing but a bad Click-Through-Rate and a link begging for “More”. Mike Ramsey is the owner of Nifty Marketing , a Local Search consulting company hailing from Burley, Idaho. His twitter handle is niftymarketing and he is a proud husband and father. Mike is also teaching a social dance class if anyone is interested. Yes, his wife talked him into it.         Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . An Extremely Nifty Guide to Reviews and Local

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