You already know that.  Many small business owners know they need to market, but are lost as to how.  They are often given a tool, but do not really understand the power of that tool and give up on it before it really has a chance to help.  This is how I feel about Google +.

Google Plus is an Awesome Tool

Google is integrating Search with Google +.  What does that really mean for your business?  If you have people in your Circles (even if you are really sure who they are) and those people do a search for something you have written or posted about then your post comes up in their search results (if they are logged in).  Think about that for a moment…

If I was looking to make a purchase of a product or service, and I saw someone that I know form my Circles talking about that product or service then I would be way more likely to click on that Search Result and read the post.  I already trust this person so I give that piece of information way more credibility than the next one that is by someone I don’t know and will likely not build a relationship with.

I just did a search for Ipad4 and received 60 personal results – all from people in my circles that I highly trust.  Thinking of this from a business owners point of view – this is the most powerful search tool ever released.

We buy from people we know, like, and trust!

With Google combining Search and Google Plus ~ this has suddenly become a tool that cannot be turned down if you are a business owner.

Google + Offers Free Hangouts

This is a feature you will not find anywhere else.  A Hangout is a Video Conferencing System where up to 10 computers can “Hangout” together and discuss, learn, train, etc.  The uses are limitless.  Just yesterday I watched a recoded Hangout that taught how Klout is useful for small businesses.  I have participated in Hangouts where people in my circles are providing valuable, free information.  How can you use Hangouts to market your business?  Leave your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.

Mobile friendly sites also need to be optimized just like traditional websites.  Keywords and content play a large role in mobile website optimization just like they do in regular websites.

What is the difference?

People using mobile devices often times search with shorter keyword phrases, and they do not want to look through the entire site to get to the right answer or to find the information.

There is a thing called a mobile sitemap.  This is a tool that will get your website listed in the Mobile Search Engines (yes mobile devices access a different search index).  You must get your mobile website into the mobile indexes – and a mobile sitemap is the easiest way to do so.  It is important to only include the pages that are included in your mobile website.

For a tool to create your mobile sitemap use MadSubmitter (free tool).  Simply fill out the form and the tool will scan your website for mobile friendly pages.  The drawback is that you will have to manually update this sitemap when new information is published.  If you are using WordPress you are in luck.  There is a Mobile Sitemap plugin that will automatically keep your sitemap up to date when you publish new content.  It is a “set it and leave it” plugin – my favorite.  Got to love WordPress!

Dotty Scott

Google just announced an update to their search placement algorithm.  This update has to do with the quality of the user experience and the layout of your website.  Google’s goal is to provide the closest natch to what someone is searching for highest in the search results list.  Our goal is to be in the top 3 for our search terms.

Best User Experience – Ads above the fold?

One complaint that Google gets from searchers is that they can’t find the information on the site that Google served to them.  It is buried under a multitude of ads.  Although ads provide an income for the website owner – they do nothing to help the searcher find your information.

This update is designed to rank websites with too many ads (how is that determined?) lower than websites with no ads.  This will help to improve the user experience when they look for information.

What does this mean to you?

It means that business owners need to provide the most important information first – always keep users in mind.  Do not clutter your website with promotional AdSense, or anything else that makes it hard for the user to find your information.  Google cares – and so should we.

Dotty Scott

Most business owners think that website optimization (SEO) happens by magic on their website.  Website optimization is so much more than your website.  It includes:

• Onsite Optimization
• Off site Optimization

Website owners naturally think that the optimization performed by an expert ON their website is way more important than the off site optimization.  They are wrong.  I have seen some extremely poorly optimized site perform really well in the Search results.  The reason – Off Site optimization.

What is SEO?

Every January I sit down and go over all my clients – where did they come from, what marketing methods are working, which ones are not working, and plan out my business for the upcoming year.  My website has always been a steady 20% of my business.  It is not because of the search engine optimization I have done to my website.  It is everything else.

Just because someone contacts you from your website does not mean that it was just your website efforts that earned your placement in the search engine results.  There are many things a business owner can do to earn higher placements.  All the small things add up to better placement.  Here is a list of things I have done that helped to boost my search engine placement for my website.

Website Optimization Ideas

• Guest blog posts
• Social Media participation (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, BizNik, Google Plus)
• Fan Page for business
• YouTube and informational/educational videos
• Article databases
• Forum posting
• Testimonial writing
• Blog commenting (not comment spam)
• Press Releases
• Using SlideShare
• Creating profiles on various websites
• Directory Listings
• Social Bookmarking accounts
• Blogging
• the list goes on…

Anything you can do on other websites that points back to your website is helpful and worth the time and effort.  Over time all these various activities grow and accumulate.

SEO is not a quick fix – it is not something that can be accomplished in 1 month.  It is an ongoing project – one might say never ending.  It can reap huge rewards in the future – think of it as making deposits into a savings account that earns 20% interest.  20% of my business comes from Search Engine Optimization.

What is Website Optimization

It is:

• Increased sales
• More clients
• More phone calls
• More dollars
• More business

Dotty Scott

In this live workshop you will be actually creating a blog post, or web page content.  I will teach you:

• How to choose the right keywords for your topic
• Where in the post or page to use them
•  How often to use them
• The science behind Keywords and Search Engine placement

There is a specific method for creating well optimized content – it is NOT hard and I know you can learn it too.

Come to the Workshop on October 27th 2011.  You can register here.

Dotty Scott

Having a targeted, content filled, website with quality SEO is a game changer for Realtors.  Buyers start their search online, so who do you think they are going to call?

Search Engine Optimization for Realtors

 Off-Site Optimization – Link Building

[intlink id="local-search-for-small-business-owners" type="post"]Search Engine Optimization[/intlink] ~ People want to get their sites listed on the first page of Google  – organic ranking for their main keywords.  I often get asked how to keep or get a site on the first page of a search engine.  Here are a few tips or strategies for On-Site Optimization:

• Use your keywords in the title of your page or post
• Have the keyword repeat in the first paragraph
• Use your keyword in links
• Include an image with your keywords in the Title and alt text
• Have other posts that support the main keywords
• BLOG
• Focus your content

Search Engine Optimization also includes Off-Site Optimization:

• Creating links coming into your site ~ Local Directory Listings
• Creating links coming into your site ~ Posting articles
• Creating links coming into your site ~ Squidoo and HubPages
• Creating incoming links ~ Get more Reviews

I hope you can see that it is all about gaining more incoming links.  Anything and everything that you can do to get a one-way link coming into your site will help your overall SEO ranking efforts.

Dotty Scott

I often get business owners asking, “Why should I have my business on the Internet?” There are many reasons but the most important reason is your bottom line. Weigh the cost of Phone Book Advertising, Magazine, TV or Radio Advertising against the cost of having a website. The Return on Investment is mush higher with a website and Internet Advertising.

More and more people are turning to the Internet to find services instead of having bulky phone books. According to Internet World Stats  73% of all North American citizens use the Internet. ABC News conducted a survey of online users – 47% of Internet users make purchases online. If 73% of your customers are using the Internet to get information and make purchasing decisions, and 47% are actually making purchases, then you need to be represented on the Internet.

Companies that do well with local search results are service based industries. With people moving into metro areas they need to find new service providers and are turning to the Internet to find and compare services that are available in their new location.

Two Types of Internet Advertising

The first type is paid advertising through a company like Google. Google’s paid advertising is called AdWords and is known as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. The concept is simple – you define your best keywords (through keyword research) then bid on the keyword phrase. When someone types in your chosen keyword phrase then your website will come up in the listings for that customer to click on and go to your site. The cost of this type of advertising is industry specific meaning that is varies by industry.  Keywords can sell for pennies or well over $50.00 per click.  For business targeting the local market it is possible to take a costly keyword like “Web Design” and put a city or area behind it and get a much better price on the keyword. 

The second type of Internet advertising is called Organic placement – these are the sites that are listed in the main area of the search results page. The goal is to get placed in the top half of the first page. There are many variables that come into play for the search engine to decide who gets prime placement. It is all based upon relevancy of the phrase typed in by the searcher to the websites listed. Some factors are:

• Keywords in the title of the website
• Keywords in header tags
• Keywords listed in the text of the page
• Keywords in the URL
• Keywords bolded or emphasized on the page
• The Keywords in the text of inbound links
• How many inbound links
• The PageRank of sites that are linking to your site

That is a short list of considerations made by the search algorithms – but all of those items are in control of the owner of the website.  They should all be taken into consideration when optimizing your site for organic placement in the search engines.  This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Dotty

1. EzineArticles

2. GoArticles

3. WebProNews

4. ArticleDashboard

5. SearchWarp

6. PubsACS

7. ArticleBase

8. Isnare

9. Buzzle

10. ArticleCity

11. IdeaMarketers

12. Site Reference

13. Article Alley

14. Web Source

15. Amazines

16. Submit Your Article

17. TheWhir

18. Excellent Guide

19. Directory Gold

20. Articles Factory

21. SelfGrowth

22. ArticelCity

Here is an article on submitting content for Network Marketers.

Dotty