The same concept can be applied to web design and search engine marketing.  Don’t believe me, then check out your competition.

Tags are not free, but for just $25 a month you can create a yellow price tag that shows up on the map as well as in the 7-pack (Google’s listing of the top 7 businesses on local searches).

TIP: Google is offering a 30 Day Free Trial of Google Tags, but the offer to enroll expires on 7/23 – Visit Google Places for more details.

As you can see in the screenshot below, in addition to the standard info and Tags, Google also released a new feature called Posts. Posts allow business owners to create a custom message with their Google Local results to let the world know what may be going on with their business at that moment. Examples of Posts are:  exclusive coupons, special event announcement, happy hour specials, new products in stock, or other discounts and notices.

To see an example, check out the Place Page for Mission Mountain Winery which posted to introduce a new wine.

You can now get the word out by posting to your Place Page directly from your Local Business Center dashboard. Once you’ve logged in and are on your business’ dashboard, post an update and it will go live on your Place Page in just a few minutes.

Finally, I”m sure you’re wondering how all this affects search results. The short answer is that Tags and Posts do not affect the rank of search engine results. What they do is simply add more information about your business and give you another tool to make your listing standout when people are searching.

Contact WSI if you have further questions or need assistance.

1. SEARCH – Consumers SEARCH online.
2. SURF – Consumers SURF online.
   
3. SOCIAL – Consumers SOCIALize online.
   

SEARCH represents a Consumer to Business Conversation. SEARCH is the #1 resource consumers use when looking for a local business.  Consumers have a specific need and are initiating the process with businesses. People only spend around 5% of their online time doing SEARCH. However, these consumers are looking for information, product, businesses, etc.  Having visibility online at this stage is critical for local businesses and the return is high.  If you own a local business, it is now critical that you’re being found in search.  Here are three simple to ask yourself? If you cannot answer YES to all three, then you should quickly address any deficiencies.

• Do you have a professional web design that is setup to convert / sell?
• Are you being found for your key services and product?
• Are you measuring your results and return so that you can continually improve them?

SURF represents a Business to Consumer conversation. SURF is often overlooked even though consumers spend more than 40% of their time online SURFING.  Many people today use the internet as their primary source of news and entertainment. The opportunity for businesses is to create awareness of your brand so your business will be the one they remember when they are ready to buy. Display advertising can be a cost effective method of brand advertising. The return is more difficult to measure but the intent is to be where the eyeballs are online.  And yes, you can target display advertising locally.

SOCIAL represents a Consumer to Consumer conversation. SOCIAL Media is a very important method of marketing, sales and branding for many businesses. It does work, and is a communications medium that should not be ignored. Consumers give and get referrals through online conversations and reviews on tons of social sites like Yelp!, Google Places, City Search, Merchant Circle,  Trip Advisor and more.  Some simple objectives with SOCIAL should be to leverage social sites to promote your online referrals, create brand awareness and manage your online reputation.  A simple way to measure your return and progress is through customer reviews and referrals.

So what?  Where do you start?

The simple answer is — your website. I know that sounds obvious but I see too many businesses getting caught up in the euphoria of SOCIAL media while they neglect SEARCH and SURF. Your website is your storefront and often the first thing consumers see about you. You should absolutely have a strong web presence and be found for consumers doing SEARCH.  These consumers have a need and are looking for a solution. The return on investment is very measurable and generally much stronger than SURF and SOCIAL.

Once you have your web presence in order, then you can address the SURF and SOCIAL as part of your overall digital marketing strategy.

Here are a few simple guidelines:

• Navigation links should be clearly visible and easily understood.
• The most important information must be above the fold (the fold is the bottom of the site that is visible on your pc screen).
• There should be clear Calls To Action on every page.  What is it that you want the visitor to do next?  What if they are not sure- where should they go to get more info?  Tell your visitors what they should do next – don’t make them think about it.
• Provide multiple avenues for visitors to get information. Some people just want the highlights or a product compared to others that want to read reviews or technical specifications.
• Your visitors should be able to quickly find all the information they are looking for.

By following these guidelines, your visitors can immediately find their way around your website.  You are essentially putting them in control of the experience with a well-defined course that you have defined.

Website usability is all about giving the right information to the visitor at the right time.  The “right time” is different for each person and a good web design addresses your visitors varying needs and buying processes.

Remember, visitors will enter your site on different pages if you’re doing effective search engine optimization and they should always be able to tell what to do next (or more importantly, what you want them to do next).

Now, you will be able to manage your entire business listing in one location. is doing their best to make it very easy for every business to claim their local business listing.  But it’s much more than just a name change.  Google continues to make real changes to local search on a regular basis.  This is great news for businesses that are active online as you now have more ways to promote your local business.

Here is a recap of the new features.

• Service areas – I told you about this change last month. It allows businesses to show a service area on Google Maps without showing their address.  So if you have a home-based business or a business where you consult at another location, you can now indicate your service area in your listing.
• Advertisement for the 7pack – Want to make your listing stand out?  Google is now allowing that for $25 a month.
• Business photo shoots – With this feature you can include pictures of the interior of your business and post them on your Place Page for potential customers to see.  If you service customers at your business, now you have a new way to show them your business online – think restaurants, coffee shops, etc.
• Coupons and real time updates – Create coupons with real time information on your Place page that customers can print out or display using their smart phone.
• Customized QR Codes – This is a neat little feature that was newly added that allows you to print out a code that is unique to your business and is able to be scanned with some smart phones to take someone directly to your Place Page. You can print it on pretty much anything, like a business card for example. If you’re interested in this feature, it can now be found in your Google Analytics.  If you don’t have Google Analytics then shame on you…but contact us and we’ll get you setup.

• Favorite Places: Google is conducting another round of their Favorite Places program.  Window decals are being mailed to another 50,000 businesses around the U.S. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.
• Discreet Links – Google will now allow business owners to add discreet links on their Place Page. By adding a field to the Additional Details section in your Places account and inserting a URL you can now add things like a menu, reservation links, coupons, as well as twitter and Facebook links.

Google continues to roll out enhancements and we expect the trend to continue.  The good news is that they are giving you more beneficial ways to keep your listing fresh and make your business stand out from all the others online. Need help ?  Contact us at WSI Webworks.

SEO shouldn’t start after the website is finished. It should begin with the initial development/design of a website.  Don’t treat SEO as an after thought.

Listed below are the basic components of a SEO design plan.

Goals

Start with the business goals of the new website. Every website should have goals, otherwise it is pointless to have one. The goals for your website could be any of the following: generate sales or leads, build your online brand and visibility, showcase products or services, or provide useful information to users and clients.

Analysis

Always analyze your website traffic statistics to determine what results are currently being generated. If you’re already ranking well for certain keyword phrases or if you have pages that are performing well, then you certainly need to know that and develop a plan to ensure you maintain those results.

Keywords

Select keyword phrases that have good traffic volume and that accurately describe what you offer. More specific keywords, i.e. long-tail phrases, will bring more visitors that are closer to making a buying decision.

Website Architecture

Design your navigation to be both user and search engine friendly. Think about what you want the user to do and make sure the path is clear. Make use of clear Calls To Action throughout the site. Imagine your website is a storefront (which it really is).  When a customer comes into your store what do they see and what do you tell them?  Very few retailers let a shopper browse the store without offering some assistance, such as ‘we just got our summer line in this week’, and ‘we’re running a buy one / get one free offer this weekend’.  Think of your website the same way to optimize the experience for the visitor.

Content

Content isn’t king – conversation is king, but to start conversation, you need relevant unique content. Search engines and visitors love content. Optimize your content to be seen by as many people as possible.

Links

Use an internal linking structure with keywords to enable website visitors to find exactly what they are looking for on your website.

Inbound links

Maintain the content that is attracting inbound links on your current site. If you can’t keep the content on the redesign, then develop a plan to replace those links.

Identify your inbound links providing the greatest value and develop a plan to contact those sites and get the links changed to your new pages.

SEO planning is very important before and during the design process of any successful web design project. It can make a huge difference in maintaining and building upon existing traffic and conversion rates.

Compare this with traditional advertising and marketing, such as the Yellow Pages and you will you notice that they are expected to decrease by 1.4% annually over the same period. It’s not surprising that Yellow Books are now trying to aggressively get in the online game.

Forrester Research is projecting similar growth rates for digital advertising in their projects through 2014.  Forrester claims that interactive budgets will grow at the expense of traditional marketing.  Sixty percent of the respondents said they will grow their digital marketing budgets by shifting funds away from other marketing channels.

Newspaper and magazine advertisements, radio ads, yellow pages, outdoor and telemarketing advertisements are all expected to decline while internet  marketing is expected to grow.

Categories expected to grow the most (Data from the Forrester Research revenue estimates for 2014)

• Search Marketing : $31.6 Billion (15% annual growth)
• Display Advertising: $16.9 Billion (17% annual growth)
• Social Media Marketing: $3.1 Billion (34% annual growth)
• Email Marketing: $2.1 Billion (11% annual growth)
• Mobile Marketing: $1.3 Billion (27% annual growth)

Search marketing will be the major marketing area that companies will be investing in to market their business online.  This will be a combination of SMM (social media marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization) organic search and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising.  Overwhelmingly, companies are moving their advertising funds from traditional marketing to online marketing methods.

Leave a comment below if you require more information regarding the growth of internet marketing.

A “conversion” is a user-defined event. It can be anything you want it to be. Some common conversion events are:

• Contact form submission
• Phone call
• Request for quote
• Newsletter signup
• Online purchase

One of the goals of any Internet Marketing strategy is to continually improve the results of your key metrics and conversion rates. In doing so, it is helpful to know how other companies are doing so you have a sense of what is attainable. Google Analytics provides some useful data for benchmarking standard metrics within your industry. However, one thing they are not currently benchmarking is conversion rates.

Do you wonder how your conversion rates measure up when compared to other websites?  Check out the chart below to see typical conversion rates for paid advertising (PPC), organic search (SEO) and online shopping engines, broken out by conversion type.

The data supports what we already know – organic conversion rates are typically higher than paid conversion rates. The reason is that organic searchers are often already familiar with the brand.  They have spent time searching for specific products or services and are more likely to be closer to purchasing. However, the conversion rate for PPC is not that far off at 5.8% for lead generation (contact forms, emails, etc) compared to 7.0% for organic search.

My take away’s are:

1. PPC advertising should not be discarded. When used effectively, PPC can deliver highly targeted, relevant traffic that converts on a scale close to SEO.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO) should be the number one tactic in your internet marketing strategy.  Organic results are more trusted, provide the opportunity for much higher traffic and generally convert higher than PPC search.

So, how do your results compare?