New Infographic: Are Local Reviews Killing Your Business?
Local ratings and reviews can make or break a local business, and it’s no secret that a steady stream of reviews from important sources like Yelp, CitySearch and Google Places is critical for a successful Local SEO campaign. But just how important are local reviews? What can you do to prevent negative reviews? How many customers go online to research a product or service? How many reviews do businesses in the #1 position of Google Places have on average? Find out these answers and more in the Infographic we’ve just released on reviews and their impact on customers and Local SEO....
read moreDigital Marketing Institute Interview with SEO Expert
From my recent interview with the Digital Marketing Institute on trends and best practices in SEO for Small Business. Enjoy! Interview with SEO Expert Keith Fleming Keith Fleming, president of 540 SEO, draws upon years of SEO experience to offer his anwers to these frequently asked questions. A lot of people believe SEO is unnecessary or doesn’t work; do you have any examples or success stories that SEO does work? There’s no question: SEO does work if used properly, but you must have the site’s fundamentals in place first. A site with thin or duplicate content will have huge problems...
read moreThe Right Way to Delete a Google Places listing
Ever wonder how to get rid of an incorrect Google Places listing? There are lots of opinions on how to accomplish this task, but a lack of documented guidelines from Google. Read an account of the right way to do it: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/the-right-way-to-delete-a-google-places-listing
read moreGoogle Offers hits Portland, OR
Portland Business owners — rejoice! Google Offers (a product similar to Groupon and LivingSocial) has been rolled out to Portland, OR area businesses as part of Google’s Beta test of Offers. Portland is actually the first city to participate in Google Offers, so this is an excellent opportunity to try out the service. Similar to Groupon, businesses create an offer and Google takes over from there — marketing your offer to the massses and driving customers to your door. Also like Groupon, you get paid upfront (it’s not clear if there payment terms like Groupon, I...
read moreGoogle Drops Tags
Well that was quick. Apparently the “10’s of thousands” (that’s what Google says) of businesses who signed up for Google Tags wasn’t enough, so Google is killing Tags as of April 29, 2011. Word is they are pushing Boost ads as the preferred alternative. From their blog post: We’ve made a decision to shift our efforts toward other present and future product offerings for local businesses, and will be discontinuing this trial. To that end, we’ve now halted new signups and will be working with existing participating businesses over the coming weeks to help them...
read moreGoogle Tags
Ever wondered what the small yellow flags are in some of Google’s Local listings? Google Tags, and you can try them free for a month compliments of your friends at Google. For $25/month, Google lets Small Business owners “tag” their local listing with an offer, update, photo, video, reservations or menu link. See example below of a landscaping business promoting a pricing special. As Local Search gets more competitive, and more and more businesses have claimed, optimized and promoted their Google Places listing, edges like Tags can make the difference in getting noticed...
read moreAbout Us
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