Internet Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘Local SEO’ Category

Reprinted from: http://searchengineland.com/google-places-gets-its-own-iphone-app-61079

There’s a Maps app on your iPhone, a Google Mobile app that includes access to Google Maps, and now there’s a third option for Google-based local search and discovery: a dedicated Google Places app. It’s just announced today and is already available in the iPhone’s app store.

The app seems to focus more on the discovery side of local than on search, which distinguishes it from the Apple-produced, default Maps app that’s more about directions and navigation than about locating businesses. It also makes the Google Places app somewhat reminiscent of Yelp’s iPhone app, and even Urbanspoon to a lesser degree.

The home screen offers nine categories for browsing, and there’s no way to access a map until you’ve reached a set of business listings (the icon in the upper right on the image above leads to a map showing those Places/business listings).

The new Places app integrates Google Hotpot, the recommendation engine that shows friends’ ratings and reviews. Just yesterday, Google announced that Hotpot is being added on the Google Maps home page. That, coupled with today’s announcement, is a sign that Google is aiming to make the Places/Hotpot experience consistent across different platforms.

You can find the Google Places app by searching for “google places” in the app store. It’s free. Google Places with Hotpot was available for Android back in November when Hotpot launched.

Holiday remnants are being stowed away for next year, the New Year’s diet begins, and 2011 is officially here.  As we all get back to work this week, I want to give you a brief update on the world of Webtyde Internet Marketing so you’re aware of all our new services we are offering to help make your company more visible online.

Local SEO

Local SEO has seen a huge change in Q4 2010.  We saw the integration of Google Local Map results into the organic results.  This means that your Google Places page (formerly known as your Google Local page) can now place in the rankings even if you DO NOT have a website.  Most local businesses have a combination of a Google Places listing AND a website that is geo-targeted, so those clients are showing the top rankings.

As a result, Webtyde Internet Marketing now offers Local SEO package services, comprised of Local Business Listings (LBL) Management services.  You can get optimized local listings created in Google, Yahoo, and Bing for as low as $29.95 /mo with a $199 setup fee for our Local Basic package.  The next two packages up in our Local SEO Local Business Management services are the Local Advanced package, which consists of creating optimized Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Merchant Circle, and Superpages with monthly management starting at $39.95 /mo + $249 setup fee. Our most comprehensive Local SEO package is our Local Aggressive with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Merchant Circle,  Superpages, Facebook, and Twitter optimized listing creations and monthly management for $49.95 /mo with a one-time $299 setup fee.

Included in your monthly management fees are monthly updates of your listings, including two Facebook posts and two Twitter Tweets per month.  Each of these packages help maintain the freshness of your listings, which we all know Google loves.  You will also receive valuable tips and recommendations which you can implement for your business to help rankings, such as requesting feedback from customers on your listings, etc…

National SEO

As we see local results taking up much of the shorter phrases in each geo-graphic location, one would wonder how you will be able to compete nationally against local companies.  It has become imperrative to have a current, well analysed keyword campaign as the base for your National SEO campaign.  Longer-tailed keyword phrases (ie: “fresh pecans” instead of  “pecans”, or “holiday candy gifts” instead of “candy”) and having more of these keyword phrases are the key to 2011 national SEO campaigns.  Plus, longer-tailed keyword phrases will send you more qualified traffic to really concentrate on getting that click-through and sell your products and services online.

We offer SEO packages with flexible initial and monthly payments to get you started without having to majorly invest your marketing budget, while seeing a great return on your investment.

International SEO

We are expanding this year into International territory.  Webtyde welcomes one of our new International clients, Profile Tyrecenter in Westland, located just outside of The Hague in Holland.  Our Local SEO and National SEO services can be applied anywhere served by major search engines.  We help create localized (or translated) content, work directly with websites of various languages, and optimized for your specific geo-graphic markets.  Because the United States is usually the first application of Google’s major changes, we offer cutting edge knowledge of search engines in most markets around the world.  Stay WAY ahead of your competition by contacting us today.  We offer conference calls via Skype.

eCommerce SEO

The eCommerce SEO website traffic and sales statistics are trickling in from our clients after the holiday eCommerce madness settles and they are looking like the best our clients have had.  Remember, folks, it’s not just about getting people to see your website, but to get them to act and purchase your products or services.  Webtyde Internet Marketing educates and empowers our clients to make the best of their Internet marketing campaigns.

Contact us today to get your campaign in full force by next holiday season.

Individual Internet Marketing Services

We now offer a variety of individual Internet marketing services for those people who just need a little help, are constrained by a tight budget, or just want to do one piece at a time.  No client is too big or too small for us to help.  Please let us know how we can help.

I have assembled an amazing team over 2010, made some strong partnerships with talented complimentary companies, and I’m looking forward to bringing you the best services so far in 2011.  Call us today to reserve your project since spaces are limited this year.  I look forward to talking with each of you.

Happy 2011!

Best Regards,
Allyson Seitzler, Principal
Webtyde Internet Marketing, LLC

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently wrote an article about how large rival websites are being greatly affected by loss of rankings in search results due to Google’s own versions of these websites.  Many businesses, such as WebMD and TripAdvisor, are being adversely affected by Google supposedly ranking their versions of these websites ahead of them.

Google created Google Health in 2009 which, like WebMD, shows results for illnesses or medical related questions.  Google Places (formerly Google Local results pages) has been developed to compete with Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other local review websites.

Large companies are clearly seeing the value of Google rankings, and the impact of not having their websites rank.

What This Means For You

What this means for you is that anything related to your business and website must be properly registered and optimized for all Google products.  This doesn’t mean you should ignore your Yelp reviews, it means you need to make sure to keep your listings current and consistent as a major factor in your local SEO and/or national Internet marketing campaign.  For Local SEO, we offer monthly Local Business Listing (LBL) Management services.  Prices start at $19.95 for monthly management of your Google, Yahoo, and Bing Local business listings and review management.  With our monthly services, clients are notified when different actions on behalf of LBL owners are recommended, such as soliciting more online reviews from your customers.  This levels the playing field for local businesses to compete with their large corporate counterparts in their local markets.

While these huge businesses fight it out with Google, you should take this opportunity to optimize your website AND your local listings to make sure Google knows enough about your business to put it in front of potential customers.

The time has come: we are now that much closer to becoming Knight Rider, and K.I.T. is going to be doing our searches online for us while we drive.

For instance, Ford SYNC is an “in-car connectivity system that allows you to make hands-free calls and control your music and other functions with simple voice commands”.  Next thing you know, car manufacturers will be installing cellular antennas, like those on our smart phones and mobile broadband-enabled computers, and they will have data connections built-in.  With a built-in data connection and voice recognition software, automotive computers will then be able to surf the Web while you drive.

This is just another reason to get your local business website and map listings optimized for search engines.  People are now searching for your business on their laptops, their smart phones, and soon, their cars.

First generation automotive GPS systems, like Garmin and Tom Tom, offered business suggestions based off your physical location and type of product or service for which you were searching.  Soon, the new search results will be pulled from Google and Yahoo/Bing and include your business reviews, your ranking in search engines, heck…even what’s on your menu can be reviewed online.

Before it was okay just to get a Local SEO Maps listing and it would be a bonus to optimize your website.  Now, you really need to have an optimized website along with your Local SEO Map listings because of the need to get your information out there.  Information is the key to ranking because you are giving search engines AND your customers  every bit of relevant information you can in order for people to find you.

Although our geo-specific and Local SEO clients have all shown very good, consistent rankings for the past several years, these last two months have been exceptionally successful.  I’m attributing the success for many of our clients to their geo-targeted website campaigns.  With Google now showing results for Local companies within the organic results, this has opened up a huge market for our clients.

We offer both Local SEO Map Registration and Local Website SEO.  Local SEO Map Registration is a service we provide that creates locally optimized Google, Yahoo, and Bing Map listings.  Businesses don’t even need a website with this service and is inexpensive to maintain with our new Local SEO Map Management service which starts at only $16.95 per month to maintain your Google Local map listing.  Our Local Website SEO service includes the Local SEO Map Registration along with optimization for your website, promoting the services you offer in your city/cities in which you do business.

An example of our Local SEO Map Registration and Management service is for a local children’s clothing store in New Orleans.  I met Karen from Mignon for Children last summer and she signed up her business for our Local SEO Map Registration services.  Her niece is in the process of finishing her website and with their limited marketing budget, our services fulfilled her business’s needs nicely.  Mignon for Children now shows on the first page in Google for many terms including “children’s clothing New Orleans”.  She signed up for our Local SEO Map Management service and never has to worry about remembering to monitor her listing.

Another big success story even before the recent Google algorithm changes was Dennis Daum Tile.  Dennis is a tile contractor located in Rocklin, CA, about 30 minutes outside of Sacramento.  Since we recently added a very affordable payment plan to help our small business clients, Dennis was able to spread out the cost over 12 months of optimizing his website with our Local Website SEO services.  We created a custom keyword campaign to target the greater Sacramento area for tile repair and installation.  Dennis chose our Starter SEO Package which includes optimizing five website pages for 15 keyword phrases.  Dennis shows in Google Local for his city of Rocklin, CA and in page one of Google for organic results pertaining to Sacramento, CA for many tile related keyword phrases.  He says he is getting several inquiries per week from his online exposure due to his successful Internet marketing campaign.

Google, Yahoo, and Bing are constantly changing in order to give the people who use their search engine to find things the best results.  Webtyde is here to help Google and other search engines find your useful information clearly and easily.  It’s all about being clear, ethical, and informative.

Please contact us if you would like to start gaining customers by getting found on the Internet.  We would love to help you.

Many of you already know how important it is to have your Google Local listing optimized for your targeted keyword phrases.  For those of you local businesses who have websites, you should be very happy if you’ve optimized them for local results because Google is now showing you in the organic rankings as well.

The listings shown by the Google Map are considered Google Local results.  Many search terms don’t end up showing a map, they just show the organic results.  If you don’t have a website and you just have a Google Local Places listing, then you’ll be missing out.

Google knows what city you are in when you perform a search on a computer.  If I’m in New Orleans and I search the phrase “coffee shop”, Google will return results for coffee shops in New Orleans.  Not only does this show organic results, it also shows the Google Local results with the map.  If you search for “coffee gifts” which is a more vague term, it will not show the local map, but it will show results related to New Orleans coffee gifts in both the sponsored results and the organic results.  This is why it is important to have a website when you are a local business.  You attract more visitors because your website has more content than just a Google Local Places page.

Our Local SEO Map Registration and Management services are great places to begin your Web presence locally if you do not have a website, but with so much of the world online, it’s vital to have as much information about your company online as possible.

Nearly half of mobile owners have made a purchase via phone
New survey shows consumers are getting comfortable with m-commerce.

Repost from http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/10/14/nearly-half-mobile-owners-have-made-purchase-phone by Bill Siwicki.

48% of mobile phone owners have made a purchase via the mobile web or a mobile app, according to a new survey by Lightspeed Research. What’s more, 48% of those who have made purchases prefer to use their credit cards for payment. While the majority of purchases were of digital products such as apps and music, the data show that consumers are getting comfortable transacting via their phones and are sharing sensitive payment information to complete purchases.

Regarding payment, in addition to the 48% who prefer credit cards when shopping on their mobile phones, 32% prefer using PayPal or a similar alternative payment mechanism, 17% prefer having a purchase charged directly to their phone bill, and 3% prefer redeeming a coupon or promotional code.

When it comes to shopping, the survey finds 78% of mobile consumers have purchased apps or games, 44% music for their phones, 39% ringtones, 31% other goods (including physical merchandise), 27% movie tickets, 22% take-out food, 16% travel items such as hotel stays or train tickets, and 15% movies and other video content for their phones.

“This research highlights that mobile phones are a viable way for retailers to reach customers. With almost half of respondents having already purchased this way, and many more researching store locations, comparing product prices and reading product reviews, the shopping experience is being completely transformed,” says Chris Urinyi, CEO of Lightspeed Research. “Retailers have a real opportunity to understand this change and reach customers and potential customers in a new way. There’s a revolution coming to the shopping experience, and it’s coming on the mobile phone.”

The survey was conducted from August 26-30 and is based on the responses of 3,905 U.S. mobile phone owners who participate in Lightspeed Research’s mobile phone panel.

In addition to making purchases, mobile consumers are actively participating in other shopping activities, the survey shows. 80% have used a mobile web site or an app to locate a nearby store, 70% to comparison shop, 65% to read customer reviews of products, and 56% to obtain more information on products on a retailer’s e-commerce or m-commerce site.

Of mobile phone users making purchases, 36% used an iPhone operating system, 19% a BlackBerry, 7% a device using the Windows Mobile operating system, and 13% other mobile devices.

See our Local SEO plans for becoming visible in your local market.

Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your business listing and/or website for keyword phrases you think your potential customers will be searching for within a local geographic area.  When people search in Google, they will not only be able to find your business by typing in the name, but they will be able to find your business when they search for terms that describe what your business offers.

1.) Affordable way to establish a Web presence

Ten years ago, businesses had to be in the Yellow Pages phone book to be seen when people were searching for a plumber or Chinese food restaurant for instance.  Now, you need to have your business registered with the major search engines.  With our Local Search Engine Registration service, you don’t even need to have a website yet to get an optimized listing in major search engines.

2.) Local results show on Mobile phones and devices

Even if you don’t have an iPhone, Blackberry, or Garmin navigation system, many of your customers probably do.  Local SEO is vital for businesses relying on tourists as a major source of income.

3.) Best ROI for your marketing money
Local Search Engine Registration service or website search engine optimization service with a local or geo-targeted keyword campaign is one of the most cost effective ways to advertise today.  Instead of throwing money on advertisements targeted towards a general audience, local SEO targets people who are in your city that are specifically searching for your goods or services.

Having an Internet presence is necessary to promote and offer services or products for any successful business in today’s world.  It’s a quick and easy way for people to find out more about your business, what services or products you offer, and why they should choose your business. We can optimize a website to attract targeted traffic on a global, national and even a local level.

Contact us today for more information.

One of our recent clients found our New Orleans based Internet marketing company in New York City on Google and decided that we could help make her NYC based fitness company become the best. After we completed her SEO campaign and launched the website in March 2010, her website is already ranking #1 in Google for several terms, both nation wide and in her local New York City market.

From San Francisco to New York City, Internet marketing is one of the best investments a company can make. The ROI on both national and local SEO campaigns is by far the highest of all marketing endeavors. Webtyde Internet Marketing offers campaigns to fit all budgets and offer flexible payment plans. We are one of the most successful and affordable Internet marketing companies in the country.

Call us today for a free website analysis to see how we can help make you #1.