By Internet Marketing Experts
Google has been allowing for web pages to be previewed before clicking on a search result for quite some time since 2010. Equally we have seen a number of changes taking place during 2011 in Local Business Listings from Google’s Places and Maps. These changes have include the removal of third party reviews, layout changes to what information is viewable and a strong focus on securing ratings and reviews.
Google Places results which provide local results before national results now received the instant preview feature too and are displayed on the first page of the search results. This is a new functionality that will further encourage and require businesses to take control of their Local Business Listings to insure local customers get the marketing information the business wishes to provide.
What is probably more important is has been enhanced with multiple layouts and provides the searcher more information than the organic results of general websites. You can hover over a Google Places listing and see everything from Maps to Videos, Photos and more in the right column. What is probably more surprising is that the ads are replaced with the preview information. The implications of the Adwords Ads being replaced with the preview information certainly has other implications that we will have to discuss separately.
The following information is provided by Google’s Instant help page:
- Before Google Instant, the typical searcher took more than 9 seconds to enter a search term, and we saw many examples of searches that took 30-90 seconds to type.
- Using Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.
- If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.
- 15 new technologies contribute to Google Instant functionality.
Let’s take a look at the information included in the instant preview of Google Places Local Business Listing.
Map
While the general search results always show a map with all Google Places Local Business Listings, if you hover over a listing you will see only the listing you are hovering over. The map links to Google Maps where you can then obtain more details including directions.
Customer Ratings and Reviews
Recent studies have shown how 6 in 10 customers make their buying decisions based on what has been posted to the local business listings. Of course this goes well beyond Google and becomes equally important to insure satisfied customers have posted positive ratings and reviews while the business manages the process of tending to negative ratings and reviews too.
Images, Photos, Videos, Coupons, Offers, Promotions
This is where the marketing content a business provides within their Google Places Local Business Listings for their local store becomes very important. Whether it is products, services, advertisements, coupons, offers, discounts, etc. Taking the initiative to secure your local business listings by claiming them and then managing them with regularity.
Street View
Probably not as well known is the panoramic photo that is provided by Google for that businesses address. You can get a 360-degree view of the area by hovering over this panoramic photo. Some street view images have one for the interior while others only for the exterior. Eventually this will play into the integration of Google Places with Google Earth.
Web Page Preview
If Google can identify a web page for the business, the thumbnail of the business web page is displayed. This thumbnail appears to be a live snapshot and is directly linked to the web site. From a marketing perspective this the first impression a prospective customer will have with the business.
Additional Details Included
Prices, Hours of Operation, Public Transport, Reservations, Menus, Feedback to Google, Report a Problem, and links to additional third party ratings and review websites. Of course not everything here is applicable to all businesses and are displayed based on the information provided from the Google Places Business Management Console.
As you can imagine the instant preview gives user the ability to “view” without having to click and this will directly impact the number the click through rate (CTR) of any individual listing. Most likely the CTR will go down in this case.
With the ongoing changes by Google to the search results page along with the Google Places Local Business Listing, the industry continues to push hard for businesses to not only manage their local business listings, but to start focusing on store level marketing and store level reputation management (aka public relations). We can expect to see more changes and requiring businesses to add the appropriate policies and procedures to include this area as part of their web marketing strategies.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009
Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-5758
http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com
By Internet Marketing Experts
Geographic Marketing is an important tool not only for local businesses looking to attract consumers through local business listings, but also for the large online companies who host such listings. Have you noticed the number of commercials being run by high-profile tier one companies and websites that are in the local business listing industry? These companies are all trying to capitalize on the local business marketing industry, and are consistently fighting for top recognition and use.
For example, you may have seen TV commercials for Angie’s List, Super Media, Yellow Book. If you add Internet advertising that includes but not limited to Google, Yahoo, Bing, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Citysearch and many others, you have to start wondering how all these websites can attract a finite number of businesses and visitors to use their website.
The other more significant question is how a business will manage their local business marketing information at all the local business listings websites.
History of Geographic Marketing and Local Business Listings
As a business, if you have not kept up with the evolution of geographic marketing you will need a quick primer to know where things started and where things are today.
- The origins of local business listings go back to the early 1990s when search engines had directories listing businesses by categories in addition to their basic search results.
- These basic business listings gave way to business directories giving the business the opportunity to add more business marketing information.
- While this evolution was taking place, yellow page (411) websites were also emerging on the web.
- Business directories eventually gave way to the idea of rating a business with companies like Angie’s List and Yelp in social communities.
- In 2007 business listings began showing up in search engines and customer ratings and reviews also were available.
In summary, geographic marketing is essentially based on an online business listing which consists of yellow pages information, business description, and local business marketing information, consumer ratings and consumer reviews.
Geographic Marketing is Interactive in Nature
Calling these listings a business directory does not do them justice considering all the local business marketing content, customer information and mapping information.
However, geographic marketing is not just about getting your business marketing information into these listings. It is also about essentially creating mini-websites for your business, and more importantly allowing customers to quantitatively rate and subjectively provide commentary about their experience with the business, products and services.
Local business listing websites that are social communities allow customers. Live social communities that provide location based services like Four Square, Twitter and Facebook create instantaneous feedback to friends, family and followers alike. This collaboration not only allows for ratings and comments, but the information is posted permanently.
A smart geographic marketing strategy will require a business to ask satisfied customers to post commentary and manage those postings that are negative…..at multiple local listing websites, of course.
Manage Your Geographic Marketing Process Everywhere!
Unlike the traditional yellow pages, where business information was located in a single source, the Internet lets local business marketing information be found everywhere. With so many sources, it becomes imperative for a business to stay on top of its information, description, business marketing materials and consumer reviews at multiple local listing websites.
Local Business Listing websites is defined to include search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and business directories.
If you wonder why the management needs to take place at multiple local listing websites, the answer is simple. Your business information shows up in search engine results, mobile search results, and is available to mobile application developers for mobile apps.
Every time a consumer or customer enters a search term, the search engine or mobile app will return local business listings that are relevant to that search based on its proximity to the user’s location (latitude and longitude, city, or state). Since you don’t know what source your local customers or mobile application developers are using, you need a way to manage many sources simultaneously.
Select a Company to Help
Whether we are talking about website optimization, local business listings, mobile marketing, social marketing, or geographic marketing, a business needs proper support to succeed in this new era of store level marketing.
You need a partner with experience and expertise in multiple digital marketing fields who can adapt to the progression of new technologies that will become available over the next few years.
Some key elements for a company to provide geographic marketing services include:
- Claiming your local business listing at multiple local listing websites.
- Providing both data services and business marketing services (you need both data and marketing, not just data services).
- Updating your basic business data information monthly.
- Updating and managing your business marketing information to include photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, and events monthly.
- Monitoring and Managing Consumer ratings and reviews monthly.
- Reviewing analytics of local business listings and making the appropriate changes to your local business listings monthly.
- Offering expertise in Mapping Technologies and GPS that offer mapping and navigation services based on latitude and longitude, or city and state geography.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009
Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-5758
http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com
By Internet Marketing Experts
Consumer ratings and reviews have become an integral part of every business’ public relations program, requiring many companies to develop a standard operating procedure to manage this process. Consumer ratings and reviews are posted on multiple local listing websites (search engines, communities, directories, etc.) and shared amongst these websites as well. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that this should be an ongoing process that occurs over many different online listing websites.
Understanding Ratings vs. Reviews
To help you get started managing this process, it is useful to have some background on the program. Consumers can rate a business from 1 to 5 stars quantitatively which will soon be used to rank relevant websites to a search. This numerical value can also be averaged over many ratings; therefore, it becomes important to seek out positive ratings in volume.
Consumers can also post a subjective review about a business. This is positive or negative text copy about their experience with a business’ products or services. This subjective review is kept for years and is available for future prospects to view.
Tips To Manage Customer Ratings and Reviews
For every business, there are many parts to successfully managing these rating and reviews. These include:
- Encouraging positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers
- Responding to positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers
- Monitoring listings for negative reviews
- Responding appropriately to negative reviews to build a positive reputation
Managing Positive Consumer Ratings and Reviews
It is important to implement a campaign to secure positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers. These positive ratings will in fact increase the average rating higher and effectively drown out negative reviews and minimize the need to manage negative reviews as urgently.
It is also important to engage and respond to positive ratings and reviews from loyal customers. This type of interaction will reinforce customer loyalty and helps build a positive brand reputation.
Managing Negative Consumer Ratings and Reviews
Because these ratings and reviews have permanence, it is imperative for a business to at the very last respond to a negative review explaining the situation. This will at least show prospects that you care about your customers.
You have three options when it comes to negative ratings and reviews:
- Dispute the Rating and Review and wait to see if it will be removed.
- Respond with an apology if the business was indeed at fault and explain the resolution to the situation.
- Respond with an explanation and course of action if the business has a differing opinion from the consumer.
By effectively managing both positive and negative customer ratings and reviews, you can build your company’s reputation and effectively address customer experiences on a local and individual level, which customers and prospective customers will appreciate.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road, Suite 503
Birmingham, MI 48009
Tel: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-5758
By Internet Marketing Experts
Geographic marketing is a new method of marketing a business and its website through web searches, mobile searches and social media. Geographic marketing incorporates digital tools like local business listings, hyperlocal advertising, managing customer ratings and reviews in order to promote a local store through web searches or mobile searches.
In the traditional sense, the definition of geographic marketing is the association of data and maps, but the added convergence of local business listings, mobile business marketing, and social media makes this method of local business marketing more powerful than ever before. This local business marketing tool may come across as something for local business, but we have to remember that all business is local. National companies with multiple store locations also have to consider managing the marketing for individual stores at the store level now-a-days and not just at the national level.
We should define what we mean by local business. A local business is any sized business dependent on the local consumer for its revenue. This means you could be a national company like Home Depot, U-Haul, Best Buy, Sherwin-Williams, Discount Tire or you could be a local florist or independent store only known to your local geography within a certain city, state, or near a specific latitude and longitude on the map.
From a technical standpoint, an Internet user’s IP address is tied to GPS data (like its longitude and latitude) which are mapped to geographies around the world down to the city and street level. While all this data may seem overwhelming, the good news is that most businesses do not need to concern themselves with this part of geographic marketing. Many of the tools already have all of this information built into their software or hardware technology, so we can stay focused on how to put these geographic marketing tools to work.
The difficulty with any new business marketing tool is a business’ inability to adopt the methodology early. When it comes to technologies and the Internet, in the past, by the time most businesses are ready to adopt a marketing tool, the industry has already moved on to something new. Being an early or at least an earlier adopter of business marketing methods on the Internet and through digital devices can only benefit the business.
We have seen many signs over the past two years regarding the evolution and growing importance of geographic marketing. When companies like Google, Apple, and the investment community of Wall Street start to put $100+ million and more behind a technology, it will become part of our daily lives whether a business wants it or not. Consumers have and will be using more of these geographic marketing tools to find businesses, services or products near them, therefore, national businesses should be planning to incorporate local store marketing tools early on.
Let’s take a look at the three main tools that consumers are using to find businesses, products or services close to their geography.
1. Web searches are the first and most obvious. These are generally web searches in which a map displays nearby businesses that match the search criteria. Unlike the traditional yellow pages, these geo-listings (a.k.a. Local Business Listings) can be claimed (a requirement to use the local listing as a local business marketing tool) and updated with your business marketing information in order to meet these search criteria.
While this may sound relatively easy, managing local business listings also includes: monitoring consumer reviews; cleaning up duplicate listings; posting coupons and offers; sharing discounts; posting videos and photos; including citations; posting QR bar codes; and incorporating hyper local websites. Understanding what to start with and how to strategically use these components can be done by a professional marketing firm that specializes in this area.
2. Mobile Marketing is the next most significant geographic marketing tool in which SMS Texting, Mobile Applications, Mobile version of your website, and Mobile advertising are your key components. The starting point in this process will be with SMS Texting to get your alerts out to customers that subscribe to your short bursts of information. The reason why this is your starting point is that it will take time to build your list of subscribers.
3. Social Media Marketing continues to evolve and is also geographic in its targeting ability. Consumers are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wiki sites, Four Square, Instant Messaging and other social community tools on their mobile devices. While they use it mostly to find businesses, products and services, in the social communities they are seeking recommendations from their friends (near and far). They are also using these social communities to post their experiences with a business, product or service. For this reason you have to monitor the social communities in order to embrace any potential problem situations and work with them.
These three geographic marketing components are important to any business size – large or small – and each have their own sub-components that need to be well understood in order to succeed. Understanding the local business marketing strategy amongst them; accepting and embracing them early; and, finally planning on a 3-year return will put you on the right path of geographic marketing.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road, Suite 503
Birmingham, MI 48009
Tel: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-5758
By Internet Marketing Experts
Geographic Marketing is the key to making your business stand out to local consumers, but are you taking advantage of these great business marketing tools? Are your stores dependent upon the local geography for your revenue? If you’re not using the full power of Geographic Marketing as an additional business marketing tool to reach local consumers, then you are missing out on a significant local business marketing opportunity.
Considering that local business listings show up on the first page of search results, in mobile searches, and in mobile applications, this is a local business marketing tool you don’t want to ignore.
The only way local listings show up in these various search results is if you have managed your listings by entering your business marketing information for each store. If you’re wondering how to enter your local business marketing information, it begins by claiming your listing and seize the management of each store’s local business listing.
By no means should you think the geographic marketing process starts and ends with Google. There are multiple search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and various other business directories that are accessed by consumers and mobile application developers and provide business information for a specified search area (latitude and longitude or street address).
It is equally important to keep in mind that geographic marketing is not a one-time process. You have to manage these listings by updating your store’s local business marketing information including keywords, photos, videos, coupons, and events on a regular basis. Local listings are an interactive geographic marketing tool that can be accessed and managed 24x7x365.
If you’re wondering what I mean by “interactive” geographic marketing tools, keep in mind that consumers get to post their ratings and reviews about your store, your business, products, or services. As a corporate multi-location business, it is important to get satisfied customers to post their feedback in order to negate any negative reviews. If you do get negative reviews, there is a process that allows you to dispute them either as a rebuttal, an apology, or an acknowledgement. This process adds a new layer of public relations at the local business marketing level which large multi-location corporations are unfamiliar.
Let’s take a look at the five reasons why you probably want to outsource your geographic marketing services to a company with experience and expertise who can manage this for your company across multiple local listing websites.
1. You Have a Business Marketing Need for Revenue
You have to manage these listings by updating your:
- keywords,
- description and general text copy,
- photos (products, services, company),
- videos (tv commercials and others),
- coupons (discounts, offers), and
- events (promotions)
…..on a monthly basis! And don’t stop at Google, keep going to Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Local.com, Citysearch, Mapquest and many others that are quickly becoming consumer favorites.
2. You Have a Public Relations Need
Consumers have the ability to post their experience with your store, your business, products, or services to these local business listings. While it never requires a request for a customer to post a negative review, it is a smart local business marketing strategy to consider how you plan on asking satisfied customers to post positive ratings and reviews.
Reviews have a quantitative component to them and thus are open to search engines using them as another data point in the future to rank your website. Anyone posting a review can indicate one star (negative) to five stars (positive). From a geographic marketing standpoint, it is important to push for as many positive reviews as possible.
What do you do with negative reviews? You have to do something! You cannot let them sit in your local business listing on multiple websites for customers to interpret. Your options include: dispute, rebuttal, or apologize and you need an experienced local business marketing specialist to handle these responses on an individual basis.
Keep in mind that customer reviews are syndicated around the web from one local business listings website to another.
3. You Have a Security Need
Your local business listing is a free geographic marketing service provided by a variety of local business listings websites, search engines, social communities, 411 websites, business directories and more. So, what should you as a business expect for free? Probably not much, and that includes the level of security around these local business listings. The reality is that someone can hijack your listing and manage the listing either against you or in their favor. In order to avoid a local business listing hijacking you will need to ensure that you claim your listing at multiple local listing websites.
While claiming your listing is a good starting point to your geographic marketing process, you also have to consider how you will monitor duplicate listings that enter into the information system and need to be continually claimed and monitored.
4. You Have a Data Accuracy Need
Geographic marketing information about your stores on the internet comes from multiple sources and from sources over many years of selling data. We have seen many situations where business names vary, phone numbers are inaccurate, addresses and map markers showing the actual location (latitude and longitude) are not correct, and the list goes on.
Once again, this is not something that stops at Google, but needs to be reviewed, monitored, and managed at multiple local listing websites in order to ensure customers have access to the most accurate business marketing information possible. You do not want to miss mobile application developers either, as they decide randomly whose database they will use.
5. You Have a Time Resource Need
Hopefully you have learned from our discussions here that the time needed to claim, update, monitor, and manage your local listings at multiple local listings website is significant . Since the geographic marketing process does not end with your work being completed one time, it becomes a regular monthly process that has to be managed by a local business marketing expert.
Furthermore, this process is in no way entirely automated and requires experienced local business marketing labor resources in order to make decisions. For example, you are required to ensure business marketing information consistency across multiple local listing websites; analyze monthly local listing analytics to take actionable changes to your listing at multiple local listing websites; respond to consumer reviews at their origin since consumer reviews are syndicated across many different local listing websites; and more – the list goes on and on.
Ultimately, a large corporation will not have the time resources to manage the geographic marketing process effectively, and the support of experienced Internet business marketing professionals will be required.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road, Suite 503
Birmingham, MI 48009
Tel: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-5758
By Internet Marketing Experts
Geographic marketing has become increasingly more important in recent years for businesses seeking to grow their local consumer base. You may have noticed that a Google search result also shows the local map on the right side, and the local listings (aka as Google Places at Google) are part of the organic search results. If you follow the evolution of local business listings on search engines since 2007 you will find that this geographic marketing tool is invaluable to any local business marketing strategy.
The disappointing issue is that most businesses have not tapped into their listing as a local business marketing tool. For businesses that have engaged, they are only looking at Google without regard to other websites that consumers visit. For instance Yelp is a significant source for many consumers over Google.
While the industry is 3 years ahead of businesses, the businesses that are dependent upon the local geography for their revenue are unclear that they can actively manage these listings through a geographic marketing service instead of watching them passively.
All Businesses Can Take Advantage of Local Business Marketing Tools
First of all, a local business is not a small business. While we have discussed this in more detail, we have to keep in mind that national chains with local presence are also dependent upon the local geography for their revenue. So, it doesn’t make a difference if you’re as large as a Home Depot store or as small as a local restaurant, geographic marketing will benefit any size business as long as you can claim the store listing related to a specific state or city that is related to a certain latitude and longitude.
Secondly, the fact that local listings are included in organic Google search results is a telling sign that this is related to both Business-To-Business (B2B) as well as Business-To-Consumer (B2C) models. If you think that B2B won’t have its customer posting ratings and reviews, then you are in for a surprise. B2B businesses that seek revenue from the local economy should equally be tapping into geographic marketing tools like a B2C business.
Customers Decide To Do Business Based On Search Results
Google search results not only display regular organic search results, but they also include local business listings (and the associated business marketing information) that are relevant to the requested search or are located near a specified city, street address, or latitude and longitude. Local listings are showing up above fold and tend to show more results than the organic website results.
Local business listing results are also interesting in that they show quite a bit of business marketing information to a local customer or consumer. Of course the basic information like business name, address, phone number, telephone number, website link and location on the map is pretty standard. If a business has offers, videos, photos are provided as a link. The number of customer reviews and the average star rating is also prominent to the person searching. Translated, this means the local customer or consumer can quickly see from the business marketing information provided if they want to even click on your local business listings or call you.
Geographic Marketing Optimization Becomes Important
Businesses now have two geographic marketing tools that need optimization: their website and their local business listings. Since the local business listing is effectively the interactive yellow pages of the 21st century, businesses need to stop passively watching and actively engaging with their local business listing by implementing appropriate business marketing tools and information.
It is important to remember that mass production data submission services are only a small part of the overall marketing strategy. You now have to look into more details like regular changes to photos, videos, offers, discounts, promotions, events to keep the local customer engaged and willing to click on your listing.
Part of any effective geographic marketing process requires that you first claim your local business listings, followed by their initial update. Once this is complete, you then have to consider monitoring and managing the local business listing just like your website.
You will find that local business listings can actually be a website, but it is probably better to use them as supporting business marketing tool to your primary website. In order for you to show up in the search results, you have to be sure the local business listing has all the right information about your business, products and services.
That is then followed by adding local business marketing information including photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, events and other information that will help the local customer decide to do business with you.
Managing your geographic marketing tools also includes managing customer reviews and engaging with them not only to secure positive reviews from satisfied customers, but to ensure positive public relations with any customers that are less than satisfied.
Finally, the geographic marketing optimization process includes watching the local business listing analytics (separate from your website) and making decisions about how to tweak your listing.
…and did we mention this goes well beyond Google? A variety of other websites are included such as Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, Local.com, Merchant Circle, Citysearch, Map Quest and many others that include search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites, and business directories.
Outsourcing Your Geographic Marketing Process
There are generally two types of companies that provide geographic marketing services. The first are those that provide “data” only services, which really doesn’t help you much since they don’t get involved in the claiming process. The second provides geographic marketing services, but be careful here since some of them are not well staffed to do anything beyond Google.
Seeking assistance for geographic marketing services is no different than seeking professional help for your website’s search engine optimization. You will not only need to have professional help in the optimization of your local business listings, but you will also need someone to monitor for duplicate listings, customer reviews, updating your marketing information, and analyzing the analytics.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road, Suite 503
Birmingham, MI 48009
Tel: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-57587
By Internet Marketing Experts
Geographic marketing is a uniquely effective opportunity for business marketing teams to fully optimize their local business listings online. Many businesses have gone down the path of claiming their local business listings, but we have seen two distinct problems. The first is that while the local business listings have been claimed, they are only claimed at Google Places. That doesn’t necessarily benefit the overall geographic marketing process on the web, which we will discuss further.
Let’s discuss briefly why there is more to geographic marketing than Google Places. You will find that there this is a closed loop circle that begins with customer using Google Places to search for a business, product or service. Once they have experienced doing business with you, they go to other websites to post their review about your business, product, or service. The other websites then push these reviews into your Google local listing for future customers to see. You can see this requires that you manage your business marketing tools and local listing at other websites.
The other is that no other local business marketing tools associated with the listing have been utilized. Geographic marketing is a multi-faceted operation, and requires updating and using many different local business marketing tools online. For example, for many business listings, we find no coupons updated, no customer reviews disputed, no events, no videos, and no photos. Essentially the listing was claimed, but from a geographic marketing standpoint, it is not being used for local business marketing purposes or to support reputation management problems.
Undoubtedly, businesses that are interested in creating a geographic marketing strategy have claimed their local business listings, but have found that their time resources are limited in order to manage the business marketing tools and listings at Google Places let alone managing the local listings at many other websites, searches engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and general business directories.
This doesn’t include the frustration they may have encountered in the claiming process that could have led to an anxiety to do anything further with the listings or their geographic marketing strategy. Changes we have see with Google Places and Bing Local during 2011 would scare anyone from spending anymore time with this process.
Here are a few items to consider when creating a geographic marketing strategy that includes multiple local business listing websites, search engines, social communities, 411 websites, and GPS websites:
- Claim your local business listing at more than just Google Places
- Updating your business listing with local business marketing materials (coupons, offers, events, discounts, promotions, events, photos, videos, map marker location, business information, and much more)
- Removing or Claiming duplicate listings
- Responding to existing customer reviews (particularly negative ones, but you can also thank positive reviews too)
- Securing positive customer reviews from satisfied customers
- Monitoring your local listing for new duplicates and customer reviews
- Managing your local listing with online business marketing tools like local listing analytics and tweaking your local listing monthly with new business marketing information.
There is of course another reason to stay on top of geographic marketing tools like local listings besides the consumer reviews. Local business listings show up not only in web searches, but also in mobile searches, mobile applications, and some GPS applications (for searches based on a specific area, latitude, or longitude.) Thus, mobile application developers decide which database they will use for their mobile application. If a business only concentrates on Google Places, but the mobile application developer uses another website, then you would be missing out on potential business despite your geographic marketing efforts.
You see, when it comes to successfully implementing geographic marketing strategies, local business listings are the interactive yellow pages of the 21st century. They are also one part of your total Geographic Marketing strategy.
Consider the following as part of your Geographic Marketing components:
- Hyperlocal Advertising
- QR Code Marketing with Content Marketing and Social Media
- Consumer Ratings and Reviews Management
- Mobile Location Finder Application
- Broadcast Data Services for wide distribution
- Analysis and Analytics with data Interpretation for actionable steps for ongoing improvement
As a company who has claimed your local business listing as part of your geographic marketing strategy, you are heading down the right path, but time resources, expertise, and experience will prevent you from using this interactive marketing tool to truly benefit your business and reach the local consumers. Geographic marketing services can support your business listings for as low as $2 per day per location. Do not be fooled by the lower cost data only services as you will get what you pay for.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution.
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
330 East Maple Road, Suite 503
Birmingham, MI 48009
Tel: (866) 501-5758
Fax: (866) 501-57587
By Internet Marketing Experts
I think it is fair to say that Google Plus Project, otherwise known as G+, has exploded onto the web marketing scene in a very short time. Statistics around the web indicate that in the first week, 35% of all new links shared on Twitter were related to the G+ Project.
At first glance everyone seemed to be declaring that the Google G+ Project would be the end of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Skype. I cannot imagine that G+ would have the ability to knock these behemoths down. Certainly not in the short term and long term the other communities fulfill other needs that G+ will not be able to. What I do believe the critics are missing is the effect on web marketing. Perhaps these critics are not web marketers, but more likely either seeking attention through competitive propaganda or have an inability to adopt and adapt to new changes within the Internet industry.
Certainly Google’s G+ Project will eventually change the web marketing world. Since this is Google’s own product, they will prefer social tick marks through the +1 Button over those coming from Twitter, Facebook and social bookmarking. You cannot help but see that this will impact organic search results. Web pages that generate many +1′s will probably populate earlier on Google search results than those websites that do not.
I will avoid detailed discussions related to the features offered through the Google G+ Project in this discussion, which include sharing Photos, Chatting, Hangout, Spark, Huddles, and Instant Uploads. As a web marketer, all of these other features are social community add-ons that mimic the likes of GoToMeeting, Skype, Flickr and others. None of these will necessarily affect web marketing in terms of search results; only make more features available for Google to allow for Adwords advertising on Google web properties versus on the Google Ad Network.
What Is The Need for Google Plus Project?
First and foremost, if we go back many years when Google got it’s start, part of their objective was to be the world’s information source. To that end, any information including communications, are fair game to be pooled under one roof for better accessing, interpretation and availability based on content relevancy. Information from social communities certainly falls into the process of aggregating information and in line with Google’s objectives.
Secondly, a few years ago if you logged into your Google account, you had the option of commenting on web pages in search results. I think it took one comment to realize that nothing we did would have an effect on website rankings, because the comments were only relative for our own account. Now why would I comment on web pages if my comments are not shared with anyone? Exactly! So, the comment we had on our own website is no longer there and the Google Plus Project seems to have replaced this feature more effectively. Now, all comments, ticks, etc. are shared with people in our community. Certainly seems to be more effective for web marketing.
Perhaps not the last reason, but certainly another important reason, would be related to anti-spam. Google has always sought out ways to reduce spam in the search results. So much so, that it has made it more difficult and complicated for businesses to rank legitimate information and websites (this is also known as job security for web marketers!).
Spammers have infiltrated social communities and found ways to get their information indexed through these communities and/or impacted search engine results for their websites. Since most popular social communities are not as good as Google in terms of anti-spam, one would expect Google to take a pro-active role. Content in the project can be better monitored (aka controlled) to minimize spam, fraud and less reputable websites.
G+ and Web Marketing
The +1 button is available through web search results now and also through other social communities, blogs, etc. A Google +1 button plugin is available for WordPress blogs and eventually, this will be as wide spread as other sharing tools for Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, etc.
Since these “social activities” are taking place on Google, it is hard to imagine that the number of +1 button clicks a given page gets would not have an effect on the organic rankings! Not only is the +1 button included on every post within Google Plus and on content publishers’ websites, but it’s literally sitting next to every single search result that Google returns. Does anyone doubt that this will affect search engine ranking position (SERP) results?!
It would be similar to doubting that star ratings on local business listings won’t affect search engine results that come through the local business listings. Let’s get realistic. As of November 2010, Google was able to marry a website with a local business listing and display average star ratings for a website based on the results in the local business listing. Star ratings are quantitative and therefore mathematical! Still don’t believe this will affect SERP?
If we believe that the number of +1 clicks will affect SERP and also display accordingly to content relevancy to my G+ community, then the more people in my community, the more people I can effect with +1 clicks.
Yes, I realize if we were to hire a bunch of people from a third world nation for 50 cents per hour clicking away at our client or our own websites, we could affect SERP, but let’s move away from that thought for a moment because that loop hole could get closed very quickly based on geographic IP addressing.
However, it does mean that the more people you have in your G+ community, the more people you can impact. Rather than thinking about third world nations clicking away, think about indiscriminately creating the largest community you can possibly think of using– every community you already belong to, every email address you have, every connection you can get your hands on. Now that may have a much bigger impact for anything you +1!
Early Adoption and Adapting To Change
Once again, the Internet shows how quickly a technology can enter the market and how rapidly people will migrate to it. Early adoption is the name of the game in the world of Internet technologies. Adapting to the changes in the industry is a must and everyone else will be left behind. If the past 20 years has not shown us that businesses need to jump on board sooner rather than later, then you will undoubtedly be left behind.
The G+ user population will grow extremely fast, given the interest, Google’s reach and resources, and the need businesses have for their website’s SERP. Perhaps this will become the “Facebook for Business”!
It will be interesting to learn how well businesses will be able to keep up with all of the changes, given the growing “to do” list. G+ on the short term will add a host of additional “to do’s” and the number of marketing outlets to manage. G+ will also be too important to ignore.
Article Contact
Melih Oztalay, CEO
Smartfinds Internet Marketing
Direct: (248) 568.2241
melih@smartfindsmarketing.com
330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009
http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com
By Internet Marketing Experts
No doubt by now you would have heard of the black hat search engine optimization (SEO) tactics JC Penny’s pursued in order to be ranked well for various search terms particularly in planning for the 2010 holiday season. The news was uncovered by the New York Times in quite a bit of detail.
Their investigation found thousands of unrelated web sites in the retail industry were linking JCPenny.com. The process was done by linking very specific keywords and based on the detail of these links someone planned this process. While JC Penny’s SEO company was apparently fired for this incident, I find it difficult to believe that someone at JC Penny would not have known about this strategy.
Let’s start from the beginning and take a look at linking strategies post Google going public in 2004 and serious algorithm changes that took place in 2005 and beyond. There are a number of data points that Google monitors about a website and the individual web pages within the website. Ultimately it is about a web page, not a web site, therefore, any page can become ranked and any page can become an entry point for a visitor. This would then require you to re-think the call to action if your home page is no longer the entry point.
This first begins with how relevant a web page is relative to the search. This would include your Title tag, the meta Description of a page, and the visible text. The three parts have to work together in order to show a certain level of keyword density on a topic. You will notice I did not say anything about meta keywords as those have become less important over the years since companies can hide what they are really about in the meta keywords versus what they are displaying to the rest of the world.
The next major point would be about the web pages importance. This is determined through the number of web pages linking to your website or web pages. The more links the better. At least that was the original thought until website owners decided to buy links cheaply without doing any work. These links have several sub-components including if the site that is linking to you is relevant to your topic and if that web page itself has any importance.
The process of trying to cheat yourself into the top of a Google search is considered “black hat” optimization or SEO. Google has different ways of monitoring this process and is generally successful in locating the problem situations. Although, JC Penny’s situation was not caught until much later. Websites caught in this act are de-listed from Google and need to clean-up their act in order to get back into Google.
The short-term benefits of black hat SEO do not make any sense to the longevity of a business. It is better to focus your attention on developing real links from reputable websites and communities mostly using Content Marketing with articles, news releases, documents (e.g. Powerpoints), Videos, and Social Media. Aside from the obvious benefits of Content Marketing being a credible linking strategy, the benefits for brand reputation, brand credibility and brand awareness include:
• Traffic from Search Engines
• Traffic from Non-Search Engines
• Owning more search results using 3rd Party website where your content is distributed
Linking strategies are labor intensive and take time. This process also requires three types of linking that include:
• Direct Linking to website home page
• Direct Linking using targeted keywords
• Cross Linking distributed content
• Deep Linking inside of your web pages
This is one reason where Pay Per Click advertising using Adwords becomes beneficial in order to generate short term results while the organic results are being executed through content marketing.
While we can continue to talk about JC Penny’s debacle using cheap black hat optimization tricks that has back fired, as well as, linking strategies, let’s focus a little on the New York Times article itself.
You will notice I am not linking to that article in this writing. Frankly, I refuse to! I do not wish to add a link giving that article any further importance on the web because within the article it is linking directly to all the black hat optimization websites. I am sure I could write an article strictly on the ethical linking policies required by major publications, however, we’ll see if we can get the point across in fewer words.
As an owner of a web marketing agency I took the time to read the entire article meticulously to understand what was written. Mind you I have over 17 years Internet experience with two successful companies and my knowledge is quite deep.
What I am surprised at, considering the writer’s newly gained knowledge about linking strategies, is why would the New York Times setup active links to the companies providing such horrible service from this article (meaning coming from nytimes.com domain) and give them any value, benefit, and support?
In this case:
• Page 1 all the links in the last paragraph to black hat optimization link building farms
• Page 2 link to SearchDex who was fired by JC Penny
• Page 3 links to TNX, cookingutensils and Cocaman.ch who are engaged in these black hat linking building schemes
Why would the New York Times support these companies with links to their websites? Are they planning on helping them further with their business by helping their ranking position? Afterall, NYTimes.com, as a domain, has a lot of power and links to websites from NYTimes.com will only help the destination website.
What ethical policies are in place at the New York Times when it comes to linking to a website?
Of course I submitted this question to the New York Times and am currently waiting on a reply, which will be posted here should it ever arrive.
The Internet is a living breathing marketing tool that has no end point. You cannot perform a certain amount of work and expect the work to provide you millions of dollars next week nor will the one time work or expenditure give you longevity. As a business you have to plan on continued web efforts using all facets of web marketing, which is a multi-directional strategy.
Afterall, something that came up in a client meeting recently, “We will stop your optimization efforts when the search engines stop changing algorithms and technologies!” Yeah, that will be the day.
Certainly your time resources are limited and our team can assist with a deep understanding of organic marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), local business marketing, proper adword management, social media and many other Internet marketing strategies. Local Business Listing Optimization Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing, a Internet Marketing agency.
By Internet Marketing Experts
Local business listings give your business the opportunity, for free, to make coupons, offers, discounts, photos, videos and more available to local customers. You can be as big as a Target and as small as a florist to take advantage of local business listings. As long as your business is dependent upon the local economy for your revenue, local business listings is an important local business marketing tool.
Local business listings show up in search results, in mobile search results and also in mobile applications. For this reason it is important that you to claim, update and manage your local business listing at multiple local listing websites, search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and business directories. There is more to this than just Google.
If you have started to work with your local business listing, here are some tips for the holidays:
- Add photos about your business, products and services
- Add videos about your business, products and services
- Update your local listings keywords, categories and tags
- Create a coupon highlighting holiday specials
- Link to a menu of holiday events and offers
- Update your holiday business hours
- Write a post or add an event to engage with your local customers
These interactive yellow pages are important in your business marketing toolbox and you will have to watch for customer reviews as well. While you are in the process of updating your local business listings, you might as well start planning how to get satisfied customers to submit high ratings and positive comments about your business. You may wish to include:
- Displays cards asking for high ratings and positive comments at checkout or at the front counter.
- Make a laptop or computer available for customers to add their comments to your listing while they are in your store or office (if appropriate)
- Have cards ready to include with any purchase or perhaps with your invoices that you send out.
Customer comments are important not only for your business listing now, but also in the future. Get a start on managing the customer reviews sooner rather than later!
Certainly your time resources are limited and Local Business Listing Optimization Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Additionally, this cost-effective service may eliminate your need for yellow pages advertising and its costs. Let the experts with over 16 years of Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.
