Google Places Gets an Update

July 29th, 2011


Last week, Google made a big update to its Places Pages and even more additions are expected to come! Why the sudden change? Google is trying to keep the focus on itself and focus on reviews made by Google users instead of other review sites. Before the update, Google Places showed snippets of reviews from Urbanspoon, Citysearch and even Yelp. As you can imagine, these other local-centric sites weren’t too happy.

Placing a stronger emphasis on customer reviews and business details will help owners reach out to locals. If you’re still not maximizing the use of local business directories, here’s what you’re missing out on (and you can definitely expect that number to grow):

- Local searches grew by 14 percent from last year.
- About 61% of local searches result in a purchase.
- At least 20% of online searches have local intent.
- 53% of mobile searches have local intent.

This update is important for small business owners because it means that you’ll have a better opportunity to marketing and analyze customer interaction with your brand. In their own words, Google describes the new Places as an “ongoing evolution”. Is your business ready for it?

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Video Marketing for Your Business

July 27th, 2011

There’s no better way to describe your brand than capturing it with video marketing. Although SEO content has the magic touch, video is the only way to bring your brand personality to life and engage customers in a way that words can’t.

Marketing your website through video is about making a more personal connection with the customer. This is a crucial point where they can learn more about what you have to offer and decide to buy from you, learn more or leave. Most small businesses are using social media but video is a channel that is under utilized. Don’t you want to get ahead of the game?

Nowadays, people are more interested in consuming video content online. According to comScore stats,  the average person watched approximately 15.9 hours of online video per month (in May). That’s a lot of content! And top sources include YouTube and Facebook, where you can make your video channel completely accessible!

And of course, the best thing about videos is that they can be SEO optimized. If your video ranks well for certain terms, you can take advantage of top and first page result rankings if there is few or no competition in your niche. Video results also stand out amongst text for website results when people search for keywords.

Check out these helpful resources if you’re interested:

- Why Your Site Needs Video
- Small Business News: Video Marketing Guide
- 4 Inspiring Small Business Video Successes
- Online Video Offers Low-Cost Marketing For Your Company

So, what are you waiting for? Contact us today about video marketing for your small business!

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Is It Possible to Have Too Much Content?

July 25th, 2011

Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as having too much content (and we’re talking about onsite content here). Effective SEO strategies are linked with quality content but people may often mistake that for just adding more content. Notice how quality gets left behind?

This is becoming more clear as Google Panda updates are rolling out. The goal is to weed out pages that are not helpful to consumers. So, how do you explain this to a client who wants 50 pages of content put up simultaneously?

Content, Search Engines and Customers

Dumping a ton of content in a single move looks suspicious to search engines because they are aware of many things: the quality of your content, the potential of its usefulness and in the end, it helps them uncover your motive (black hat or white hat SEO). I think that making this move gives off a hint that this is a one time thing and that your site won’t be updated frequently.

There’s only so much content that customers can digest without being completely bored or disinterested. As a consumer, when was the last time you sat down and made time to read more than a handful of pages on a website?

Consistency and Quality over Quantity

The next time someone urges you to add massive amounts of content at once, it’s important to let them know why it’s not a good idea. (And no, it’s not because you’re looking for an excuse to not do work!) SEO content strategy requires a consistent schedule and more does not mean that you will rank any better. If anything, posting too much content that is not useful to users can actually hurt your rankings nowadays.

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Would You Pay With a Tweet?

July 21st, 2011

Would you post a Tweet in exchange for a whitepaper, ebook, song or any other digital good? That’s the exact idea behind Pay With a Tweet. With this “social payment” system, consumers “purchase” by tweeting about a certain “product”. By doing so, they create more buzz surround their purchase amongst their personal social network. If others are interested, they will do the same and further spread the promotion of your business. It’s a win/win situation for both parties!

So, does this really work and why would people click links anyway? A recent article by Dan Zarrella shows that accounts that tweet a lot of links are correlated with a high number of followers. And more links = more chances of clicks, which will help bring you more traffic. It’s no wonder that viral marketing comes to mind with this type of promotion. People will go click-happy over free things, especially if what you’re selling is good.

How exactly? The band, The Teenagers, have used this to start their own viral promotion of a new single by asking fans to pay with a tweet. Who doesn’t like free music?! But this service is also works outside the entertainment industry. Besides selling content, you can also get creative, as the site suggests: trial runs of your service, a sneak peak of an ad, or even samples your portfolio.

Pay With a Tweet also works with Facebook so you can pay with a Facebook update. What do you think and have you tried this free service yet?

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Carmageddon & More for Your Targeted Email Campaign

July 18th, 2011

If you live in or around Los Angeles, CONGRATS – you’ve survived Carmageddon! All weeklong, businesses big and small tried to capitalize on this event, from JetBlue’s limited $4 flights to local Pasadena eateries advertising $4.05 specials.

This email above from Amazon is just another example of a retailer trying to solve a problem customers faced this weekend: finding a source of entertainment. They are also doing a clever job of targeting by relating to the customer and relevant events that are happening around the. It makes sense that most people would try to avoid the freeways this weekend so retailers tried to entice them to do other things that didn’t involve traveling far. Or in Amazon’s case, involving any travel at all!

Why Choose Email?
Email has been and continues to be a strong source of marketing for businesses. Studies show that since last year: more emails are being sent, email unsubscribe rates have dropped and bounce rates have also declined.

Take a look at column one in this chart and you’ll see why other small business owners use email marketing campaigns: owners felt that email marketing was cost effective and that it had a high rate of response and sales in comparison to other marketing methods.

The Goal of Targeted Emails
In the end, you’ll want to remind customers that you have a solution to their problem. Establish a clear message (the shorter, the better) and make it easy for the customer to respond or take action.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of email marketing for your small business, make sure to contact us today!

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How Will You Be Using Google Plus?

July 15th, 2011

Facebook vs Google

In the battle of the giants, which one will reign supreme? Like vs Plus is a site where you can show your brand loyalty and cast your vote. After all, you can’t both Like and +1 everything, right?

Even if you’re tired of hearing so much on Google +, it’s important to stay connected so that you can adapt in the fast paced world of social media marketing. Here are some more ways you can use Google +:

- Chris Brogan shows us that we can blog with Google +. This basically consists of sharing a video/picture or some other media content and quickly following up in your own post with comments and links.

- Since business profiles are not allowed yet, you can take this opportunity to be innovative and show a personal side. Creating a personal profile associated with your business will allow you to socialize in a niche community and showcase your expertise.

- In a way, Google Circles reminds me of communities and groups on LinkedIn. Creating and organizing different Circles will allow you to network with different groups of people without worrying about keeping matters separate. (For example: connecting with clients, partners, employees, and friendly competitors… frenemies, anyone?)

- Watch out for Google Sparks. This is a section where you can receive personalized news articles and other information based on your interests. I see where SEOs can use this feature to their advantage by utilizing the right keywords.

Google + is more extensive than other social media platforms right now but it doesn’t necessarily mean that users have the time and knowledge to use them all. Let’s just see where all this potential can take us – after all, we’re talking about something that’s less than 3 weeks old!

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What Ice Cream Flavor Would Your Blog Be?

July 13th, 2011

nullMmm mint chocolate chip, vanilla or even… bacon? Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching too much of the Food Channel, but have you ever thought of your blog in terms of ice cream? The types of different  flavors are countless and customer demand is limitless!

People learn and like things through experience, so you can maximize user experience by giving your customer what they really want. When visitors come to your website or blog, you don’t want them to be bored by just a one dimensional site. You know the ones I’m talking about, just text to no end for the sake of having content. That would be very vanilla…

What are some things that make your blog stand out? Is it your knowledge of hot industry topics? Infographics, user polls, personal stories or interaction with readers? Ultimately, these are the things that will help you establish credibility in your community and industry so that users will come to you when they need a product/service you provide.

Nowadays, people are interested in something new that will really catch their attention. This is where social media and video marketing come into play. Think of these as the sprinkles and tasty toppings that go well with your ice cream blog. You don’t want this content to overpower your blog, but just enough to make your content a little more interesting.

And everyone likes free samples! So of course, you can do the same with your content – whitepapers, downloads and email newsletters are a great way to entice your customers so that they come back for more of the real thing.

It’s amazing how you can make sugar, ice and milk turn into something that’s so much more. Like ice cream, blogs are a great thing. So, when it comes to your blog, don’t just think of it as a blob of words. Mix it up with different components of content to make it a blog that people actually want to read!

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Life After Google Panda Updates and Link Building

July 11th, 2011

link building

Love it or hate it, link building is still an important part of SEO after the massive Google Panda updates.

The quality of your inbound links is becoming more important as Google Panda updates have shown us.  Although these updates are aimed at getting rid of “content farms” and lower quality links, many people’s rankings have been hurt by the recent Google Panda 2.2 updates.  For example, many people who used to rank well for certain phrases using article submission sites have now seen drastic drops. Of course, you know Google is already preparing version 2.3!

Because of these updates and changes to Google’s search algorithm, quality links have become increasingly important. Overall, the point of these updates is to help you recognize and ultimately remove low ranking on site pages and off site content in order to improve user/customer experience.

And with the debut of Google +,  you bet that social media activity is becoming more important in determining your search engine rankings! Back to my point of link building – it’s crucial to continue your efforts on a consistent basis. Here are a few good link  building resources that are sure to be helpful.

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Coming Soon: Google + for Businesses

July 8th, 2011

Google sure likes the aspect of exclusivity when it comes to their new products, don’t they? Well, it seems to be working well for their latest project: Google +. Invites for exclusive trial accounts for Google + quickly exceeded “capacity”, as not everyone who was invited was lucky enough to score an account. I guess we’ll just have to wait! And for business accounts, it looks like we’ll have to wait even longer! Information Week reports that business users will have to wait until later this year.

Here are a few tidbits about Google +:

- You can easily organize and share with the different people in your life by placing them in different Circles
- Concerned about privacy? You should know that Google intends to make all Profiles public and searchable.
- Confused about the new vocab? Facebook has Likes and Google + will use Google + 1.
- If you’re interested in group video chat, Google Hangouts will be your new favorite thing!

What do you think about Google + and are you excited about it or do you think it’s just another social platform?
Make sure to check out Social Media Examiner’s in-depth guide to using Google +.

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Is Video Chat the Next Social Networking Trend?

July 6th, 2011

facebook video chatEveryday, social media networking is becoming more personal. So, does video chat sound like a good thing? Facebook thinks so as they unveiled their new joint venture with Skype today.

Video isn’t a new idea but Apple fans still went crazy over the FaceTime feature, which was the selling point of Apple’s iPhone 4 last summer. For now, there are many one on one chat services but look for group video chats and conferencing in the future. This way, businesses can really get into the game of using video chat as a communication tool.

I don’t expect to be using video chat anytime soon but I think it can be a helpful tool if utilized properly. Other critics pointed out that Skype and Google Video Chat have been around for a long time, so this new feature wouldn’t necessarily be considered “groundbreaking” on Facebook’s part.

What do you think of video chat from the perspective of the consumer and business? I could see this being useful to complement webinars, Tweetups and other social networking events.

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