Learning Center

Important Local Business Listing Attributes – A Look Inside Your Business Title Links and Citations Categories Reviews and Ratings Photos / Videos Other Attributes Your Business Title Your business title is an important factor for ranking well in the Local search engines. Having a title that remains consistent across all data sources is very important because it helps the search engines establish trust in the existence and location of a particular business. If you call your business “Joe’s Pizza” in one directory and “Joe’s Chicago-Style Pizza” in another directory, there is a chance that Google and the other search engines […]

Everybody wants to be #1 — 1st in line for the movies, 1st to buy the latest and greatest from Apple, the 1st place team in the league and of course, 1st on the search engine results page. Being in the 1st position is certainly a great way to drive new leads and make more sales, but with so many places to be 1st on a search engine like Google, which is best and how do you take advantage of each of them? There are 3 important sections on the Google Search Results Page. Showing up in all 3 of […]

New Enhanced Feature: Google Tags What are tags? Local customers already search Google for the products and services you offer. By creating a business listing, you can make sure they can find you. When you add a tag to your listing, you can highlight what you most want your customers to see. For example, you can add a coupon for new customers, highlight a video overview of your store, or even link to your menu. You decide what what’s most important about your business and make sure it stands out. Signing up and selecting your tag takes just minutes. All […]

Increasing Google Page Rank Through Online Reviews You’ve got a local business listing on Google as well as hundreds of other popular search engines and web directories. It’s been optimized for all the right keywords. You’ve even started a blog and social media pages so that Google sees you’re constantly putting up fresh, new information. All these things have helped move your local listing up in Google page ranking, and you’re getting closer and closer to that coveted number one spot. But you need that extra push to get you to the top. It’s time to focus on online customer […]

Great article we found on a highly esteemed site in the SEO community, www.seomoz.org “As of yesterday, both Bing and Google have confirmed (via an excellent interview by Danny Sullivan) that links shared through Twitter and Facebook have a direct impact on rankings (in addition to the positive second-order effects they may have on the link graph). This has long been suspected by SEOs (in fact, many of us posited it was happening as of November of last year following Google + Bing’s announcements of partnerships with Twitter), but getting this official confirmation is a substantive step forward. In addition to […]

Just when you thought you had a handle on your local online marketing efforts, along comes Google and changes the game. Right now, rolling out across the world, is Google’s new local search results format. And although the principles of a good online local marketing campaign haven’t changed, the new search results and ranking system may change the way you focus your efforts. Old vs. New The old search results didn’t feature much in the way of business information because most of the search results page was taken up by the map. What you got before was the business name, […]

Penalties and Ethics: The Dangers of Writing Your Own Google Reviews Ten to fifteen years ago, if I wanted to find a dentist close to my home, I would have picked up the phone book, flipped to “dentists” and tried to discern why one phone number would be any better than any other phone number and usually ended up closing my eyes and pointing. The fact is that phone books were useful for finding a list of services, but gave you no context for the quality of those services. So you were stuck with whoever’s number you happened to point […]

The Advantages of Online Marketing Where is the first place you turn when you need information on products or services? – the Internet. That’s where your customers turn as well. So you need to be able to create an online presence that they will see and easily find when they need to find you. That’s why you need an internet marketing campaign. In the past, when people would think about internet marketing, they think about banner ads and spam, but today it’s much more than that. Internet marketing encompasses a number of tactics and strategies and includes specific advantages for […]

There is no doubt that right now small businesses are having a tough time building their businesses. The slowdown in the economy means that everyone has less money to spend, and that can mean big losses for small businesses. At times like these it can be tempting to want to cut “extras” from your small business overhead like company picnics, NBA box seats, the flat screen in your office for “research,” and more. But the one part of your budget you don’t want to cut is marketing. Although it can be tempting to cut your marketing budget, losing your marketing […]

Which Social Networks Benefit You the Most? Brands, marketers, and small businesses are poised to spend more money on social media marketing this year than ever before. The simple fact is that social media marketing is big business, and your company can gain a lot from leveraging social networks to increase brand exposure, conversions and new customers. But not all businesses are the same, and not every brand requires the same outcome to be considered successful. With that in mind, steer clear of self-proclaimed social media gurus who will give you cookie-cutter advice that you don’t need. The true effectiveness […]

Your Small Business Still Doesn’t Have a Website? When the McDonald brothers started serving burgers out of a small establishment in southern California in 1940, people came by to try a burger because they had heard about the new restaurant from their friends and co-workers. When customers discovered they could get a cheap burger and fries quickly from the McDonald brothers they wanted to share their new find, so they told their friends. The McDonald brothers didn’t need a website – the internet hadn’t even been invented yet. But times have changed. In a recent Discover Card poll of small […]

Internet marketing is so much bigger than just ads you see on Google or social media.  There are other major strategies that companies can use for internet marketing.  Small businesses can learn how to tap into these resources to direct traffic, increase hits and increase sales. When a potential customer types a keyword into Google you want your result to be as close to the top of the list as possible.  Implementing search engine optimization (SEO) can help your unpaid search result end up higher in the list. Pay per click advertising can be used if SEO isn’t effective enough.  […]