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...
By now, you’ve heard about Google +, and if you’re like many local business owners, you’re trying to get a good grasp on what it means in way of SEO and promoting local business. In way of numbers, it’s no surprise that Google + is growing quickly as they continue to promote and make it easier for people to provide links to invite their friends to join the network. Google also continues to add features...
As Google continues to beef up its online product offerings – Google+, Google Places, and now a hotel-specific search, review and referral system being rolled out – opportunities for small businesses to use cost-efficient local advertising and highly tailored, location specific search engine marketing are better than ever. And in many cases, these advanced SEM techniques will be offering potential customers a valued service just by delivering information. Some sources suggest that of the roughly two...
Most local business owners are often confronted with the teething problem of how to gain maximum exposure for their business online. Online marketing is a sphere that is mostly dominated by the big wigs with the most resources. In such a scenario how does a local business compete and gain a foothold without being dwarfed by the hot shots in the industry? In this article we shall provide you with valuable SEO tips for your...
Local business keyword phrases, which always usually include the city and the service that the business is located in and provides, are worth an inordiante amount of money in terms of ranking for them as compared to other types of search terms with the same low number of search queiries per month. There seems to be a never-ending market for providing local business with Internet marketing services. Most people that run business in fields like...
Let us assume that you have a restaurant and you have been operating in your area for a couple of years. You already have your regulars who come into your restaurant and enjoy your food every so often. But times are rough and you want new customers. How do you go about doing that? There are the tried, tested and traditional ways of getting posters up, distributing fliers, and advertising in the local paper. However, if these...
The topic of mobile internet and mobile search is becoming more and more popular as technology and accessibility develops. Marketing specialist no longer foresee that mobile revolution will happen in the nearest future, but instead claim that this revolution is happening right now. The statement is proved by various statistics and trends showing the tremendous growth of mobile devices and mobile internet usage. Google itself claims that more and...
Local search is where many businesses are losing out on a lot of potential traffic and consumers. As fewer people turn to their phone books today, and go to their search engine with specific needs in mind, it is important for your business to appear in those results. If you are not optimized for local search, you may as well be sending customers to your competition. Take a look at...
For over 100 years, telephone customers have been receiving printed directories of phone numbers, addresses, and advertisements relating to local business and individuals. Though the separation of Ma Bell caused an increase in the number of disparate yellow page brands, one company still holds the rights to the “real Yellow Pages”: AT&T. Millions of people all over the world are familiar with the tomes that get dropped on our doorsteps every three months or so. Though...
Online business people and marketers know the importance of Search Engine especially Google in their life. I hope everyone have noticed the changes Google bring in his organic search results couple of weeks back and if you don’t let me give you a quick one line overview of that, Google now started to show places results in search engine that means if your business is not registered in Google places...
