SEO

Don’t Lose Your Place – Claim Your Google Places Page!

Google, Google Maps, Marketing, Search, SEO / By /

If you have claimed your Google Places page, please feel free to skip the rest of this. If you have not claimed your Google Places page. Do it! Better yet, talk with the people you trust most with your web presence about why and how. That may be someone on your staff, your webmaster, or your web marketing people. Oh, by the way, if they haven’t been telling you to use Google Local Business Center (before it morphed into Google Places) for the last few years, you should ask them why not.

Why is claiming your Google Place Page important? On April 20, 2010, while introducing Google Places, they said, “One out of five Google searches is related to location.” Seven months later, the frequency of local searches has surely grown.

Google says, “More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, so it’s important to make sure your business listing can be easily found on Google.com and Google Maps.” They obviously believe it, as demonstrated by their blog post, “Place Search: a faster, easier way to find local information.”

After you claim your page, you may enhance the Place Page for your business by adding photos, videos, tags, hours of operation, coupons, and even real-time updates like weekly specials. One of the “features” is “ Reviews by Google users” which presents a compelling reason to “claim” your business Places page. Business owners that claim their listing may respond to negative (and positive) reviews. Here are some guidelines for managing your listing.

When is your Google Places listing displayed? Your listing will display when someone does a search on Google Web Search, Google Maps, Mobile search, 1-800-GOOG-411 voice directory search, or Google Earth. On any of these services, a search directly for your business name and city, will most likely display your listing. If your listing is well crafted, searches for your business category or services will trigger a display of your listing.

There is a lot more to be said, but I’ll just close, by telling you, this is the most important local business search-related action you can take. Google Places is free, and you can easily claim and enhance the listing yourself. Invest a little time, and do this today!

Learn more about Google Places, and remember, Don’t Lose Your Place!

As always, feel free to post a comment or question, or call John at 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750.

Effective SEO as simple as one, two, three….and four

Google, Marketing, Search, SEO, Web Design / By /

Really good Search Engine Optimization is a complex process. That said, effective SEO can be as simple as one, two, three….and four. Do four reasonably simple things, and you can see your rankings in Google Search Page Results, aka SERPS, improve considerably.

So you want your web pages to get found well, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money or time to make that happen? Well, look no further.

If you have a webmaster, provide him or her with a title for each of your pages. The “title” should use keywords  describing the content on the page (that is, keywords that potential visitors would search for hoping to find what you offer). Also provide your webmaster with a good headline (that is similar to, and contains the same keywords as the title) for each page. And of course you need some text describing what you offer. Obviously, that text should contain the same keywords near the start of the first paragraph. Your webmaster should be able to take it from there.

If you maintain your own website, then you should pay attention to this list.

  1. Title tag
  2. <meta> description tag
  3. Page header <h1> tag
  4. Well-written text

For those of you who don’t know what those four items are, I’ll describe them.

1. The <title> tag defines the title of the document.

The title element does the following:
Defines a title in the browser toolbar (displayed at the very top of your browser)
Provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites
Displays a title for the page in search-engine result

2. The <meta> description tag provides a description of the HTML document (your web page). The <meta> description will not be displayed on the page, but Google will display (most of the time) the information in search results, and just as, if not more, importantly uses it as one of the “signals” in determining how highly your page will rank.

3. The header <h1> tag contains the “headline” for the page (also used as a Google “signal”)

4. The first sentence of the first paragraph should contain the same keywords. (also used as a Google “signal”)

As I said, basic SEO is as simple as one, two, three….and four. Do remember to do them for each of your pages. Of course there is much more you could, and should, do. If your webmaster isn’t doing those basic four things for you, tell him you would like to pay him or her for doing so, as it does take some time to do it right. In this case a little time and or money spent will reward you with higher search rankings.

Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages – Triumvirate

Ads - Pay-Per-Click, Google, Marketing, Search, SEO / By /

Talking about Pay-Per-Click, Google Ads mostly, search results and landing pages is pretty much a daily thing around our office. Accordingly, it makes sense to talk about it here.

Years ago I had the opportunity, thanks to Andy Lewis, to be a part of a Webinar for "The National e-Commerce Extension Initiative" named "Maximizing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign."  We concentrated on Google Ads when it was still known as AdWords. Why? It is my humble opinion that for most, a limited advertising budget is a reality. Google is the 500-pound Gorilla, and if you are going to feed web advertising money to anyone, it should be Google with over 72% of U.S. searches reported for February, 2009 according to Hitwise.

Last week I met with several representatives of one our largest clients, and discussed mostly Ads and Analytics for the better part of the afternoon. In both cases we talked about Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages at length. Why? Having high placements in Google Ads or Google organic search results is directly related to those three powerful terms. They rule this world as surely as many of the Triumvirates of history.

The importance of Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages, is a simple concept, while not difficult, that is complex in implementation when done correctly. The good news is, you don't have to spend in inordinate amount of time working on your Ads campaigns to get some immediate results. Very simply, just make sure your keywords are in your ad copy and on your landing pages (prominently). If you do that, you will see your Click-Through-Rate, aka CTR, improve as well as your placement.

If you, or your search professional, spend the time on your landing pages to write keyword-relevant "Titles," meta "Descriptions," Headings, and content including the keywords that potential visitors would using when searching for your product, service, or information, and you write quality ads, as well as conducting ad-variant testing, you will be rewarded with increased, targeted, self-qualified traffic. Serious keyword research, a knowledge of how Google likes your pages coded, and knowing how to write and place that code is part of what will take your Ads campaign to another level. Of course a thorough knowledge of Ads and your analytics program is necessary as well if you want optimum results. To that end, unless you have a lot of spare time, working with a search professional who has experience and successes on their resume is essential.

One of the cool benefits, is that, the time you, or your search professional, spend on your "landing pages" will eventually manifest itself as higher rankings in Google's search result pages, aka SERPs. Google sells relevance. Make sure your site search strategy, both PPC and organic, includes relevant keywords, ad copy, and landing pages.

By the way, WebWise would like to be Your search professional! Contact us today!

Keywords, Ad Copy, Landing Pages - The Triumvirate!

Google – Get Local, Get Traffic Quickly

Google, Google Maps, Marketing, Search, SEO / By /

If you are using Google Maps Local Business Center, you can stop reading. If you are not using Google Maps Local, and your potential customer’s search terms include the name of the city, town, villiage, state, or geographical description of where your business is located, keep reading.

Often, searchers narrow their search results by adding one or more location-specific terms to their search. For example, the search term, “auto dealer lancaster wi” yields the following.

SERP for auto dealer lancaster wi

Who benefits? You get more visibility. The user gets more relevant results with less work. Win, win! Obviously, if you are in a rural area, there normally will be less competition. Consequently, rural business will generally have even better visibility. Even if you don’t get the click that time, it is still branding, branding, branding.

The position of where Google displays the map and listings varies from query to query. Sometimes, you’ll find it directly below one or more “Sponsored Links.” Other times there may be two or three organic listings above it. Or, there may be a video link above or below the Local business results.

So, how do you get listed? It is easy. You may already be listed. Google pulls your address and other information from public data. If you search for your business, and click on the “Directions and More” link. (see example above), you find more info and you will notice an “Edit” link. In the bubble on the map, you will see “Are you the owner?” and a “Claim your business” link.  You’ll need a Google Account, which many of you have. If you don’t have one, you can sign up and follow the instructions here. Note: The street address you enter will be shown in the Google Maps search results.

So, why should you use Google Maps Local?

  1. It gets results.
  2. It is free.
  3. It is easy to use.
  4. Oh, yes. It just plain gets results.

The bottom line is, you get a highly-visible link that most users will notice and click on before they click on Adword advertisements or organic listings.

Bonus Thought: You can safely bet that Google will continue to very aggressively push Google Maps and related advertising in the mobile hand-device market.

Don’t wait. Get Local, and Get Traffic Quickly!

I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed

Google, Search, SEO / By /

How many of these emails have your received, with promises of #1 rankings, yada, yada, yada? Surprisingly, even Google gets them.

In Google’s Webmaster Help Center, they say, “Amazingly, we get these spam emails too.”

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

We get them, and frequently some of our clients forward them to us, asking what we think of the offers, and why don’t we, “offer the same guarantees.” We don’t because no one can do so honestly. But, don’t take it from me. I am happy to concur with, and tell you, what Google writes about them.

Google says you should, “reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for ‘burn fat at night’ diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.”

Those of you who have the need or desire to peruse Google’s Webmaster Help Center, likely know all of this. For rest of you, here is a list of the headings in one article.

  • Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
  • No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
  • Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.
  • You should never have to link to an SEO.
  • Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
  • Choose wisely.

The bottom-line is, people or companies you can trust don’t send out unsolicited email promising the Holy Grail.

As Google says, “chose wisely.” The fact that you are reading this means you have chosen, or are close to choosing, wisely.

Thanks for your time!

Read more on Google’s Webmaster Help Center.