You want to capture local business leads, but you’re worried about the cost.

Then why not give your business a boost with these FREE Local Internet Marketing tips.

Tip 1: Keyword Research like a Pro

Yes I’m afraid so keyword research, that old chestnut.

Why you ask; what’s keyword research got to do with my business?

Well the fact is that most visits online start with someone typing something into a search box.

You do want to improve your Local Internet Marketing right?

Then the trick is to understand what your prospects are typing in to find businesses like yours and use this knowledge to help them find you.

The following tips will get you started:

1. Start with a piece of paper and write down the phrases that people might type in to find your business.
2. Ask your friends and family for their thoughts, don’t laugh they’re only trying to help.
3. Combine the phrases with your main location phrase i.e. “Blue Widgets” becomes “Blue Widgets Bristol” and “Bristol Blue Widgets”.
4. Run the phrases through https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (with exact match selected) pay attention to the “Local Monthly Searches” and download the data for future use.
5. You probably shouldn’t target phrases with very low or zero searches.

You can use this data as a starting point for everything else, from creating site content to enhancing your Google Places listing…

Tip 2. How to Add Your Business to Google Places

A listing in the Google Places snippet can be shown above the normal search results and best of all its completely free.

You don’t even need a website.

If you don’t have a Google Places listing you should get one.

If you do have a Google Places listing you should check to see that it’s up to scratch.

Even if you’ve never added a Google Places listing Google could still have constructed one from the data found about your business online.  It will almost certainly be incorrect so you should look at improving it.

For info on how to add or modify a Google Places listing see: http://www.google.com/support/places/

Verifying the listing via the telephone is usually the best way to go unless you like waiting around.

Once you have access to the listing pay particular attention to the following:

• Follow the rules set down by Google (see http://www.google.com/support/places/)
• Ensure that your business name is correct, don’t place your target keyword(s) in the business name field (unless the keyword is part of your business name) or you may get your listing rejected.
• Ensure your telephone is the correct local number (i.e. not 0800…, 0845… numbers)
• Include your correct web address (if applicable).
• Ensure that your address is correct.
• Include your opening hours.
• Double check the Map location.
• Add images preferably your logo first (Google by default chooses the first uploaded image for display in the results).
• Add any other detail that you can to make the listing look professional.
• Remember the keywords that you came up with in Tip 1, use these as a starting point to write a decent description (don’t stuff the description with keywords or you may get your listing rejected).
• Use the categories that Google suggests, don’t use custom categories (hopefully you will find ones that match/somewhat match the keywords you discovered in Tip 1).

Also see Tip’s 3 and 4 for more on optimising your Goggle Places Listing.

Tip 3. How to Add Local Directory Listings & Citations

Local Directory Listings and Citations can get your business found on the internet.

They can also improve the results for your Goggle Places Listing.

You can find places to list your business by searching for “[Your City] Directory” in Google

Warning! Beware Incorrect Details

It’s important to both Google and your prospects that your details are correct in these listings.

You can normally fix incorrect details once you’ve found them.

Modifying the following Google searches should uncover your incorrect listings:

• [Old Business Name]
• [Business Name] [Incorrect Detail]

Another Warning! Beware Paid Links

You may find paid listings being advertised while researching the above.

Paid links from the wrong sources can be problematic and can get you into trouble with Google; if you want to look at paid listings my advice would be to consult a reputable SEO.

Tip 4. Encourage Reviews! How to Enhance Your Reputation

One of the best ways to enhance your reputation is by getting online reviews.

Online reviews are also one of the best ways of improving your Google Places listing.

One obvious place to get reviews from is Google Places itself.  In addition many of the sites found during your research in Tip 3 will also allow reviews.

There are many ways to prompt / encourage people to review your business:

• Ask your fans on Facebook / Twitter (don’t be too pushy)
• Ask for reviews on your website
• Add review requests in your e-mail signature
• Ask for reviews offline

Remember to link through to the site where you want reviews to be posted.

Warning! Beware Fake Reviews

Google doesn’t like being manipulated.

Please don’t fake / incentivise reviews, you can land yourself in trouble if you do this.

Tip 5. Local Press! Going Offline to Get Online

Getting noticed in the local press is a great way to get your company noticed.

The fact that the coverage is offline is immaterial; lots of local papers have online counterparts.

If you don’t have anything to say, sit-down with a blank sheet of paper and come up with some ideas.

Leverage the differences that exist between you and your competition.

Find out how to write a press release (do a Google search) remember to include all of your business details in your release including; phone number, web address and business address.

Bonus Tips! 6 onwards…

Anyone can action the above tips and they are relevant to every local business (that I can think of).

The following bonus tips either cost money are difficult to implement, or require knowledge that you may or may not have:

• Build a Website
• Start a PPC Campaign
• Get on Twitter
• Get on LinkedIn
• Get on Facebook
• Start a Blog
• Figure out what your competitor(s) are doing and replicate / improve on their methods

How to Pay for These Local Internet Marketing Tips

These Local Internet Marketing Tips are Free.

If you liked the tips please share this article with your friends/contacts via the services below.

If you have any questions/comments post them below.

Will you fail because of a poor Business Name?

You want a name your prospects will identify with.

You want a name that helps your position in Google.

You want to run a website that succeeds.

Then you need to consider SEO when you’re thinking about Business Name Ideas.

Most especially you need to consider keywords when selecting your business name, because…

If your prospects search for a phrase then they are likely to identify with that phrase. If they identify with a phrase in your business name then they are more likely to identify with your business.

It’s never been essential to have a keyword rich domain name in order to rank in Google, but the consensus among SEO’s is that it helps, so why not at least consider keywords during the selection process.

The following ideas could help you find a killer business name that’s a perfect marriage between branding and SEO.

How to SEO Your Business Name Ideas

First you need to remember that it’s not a business name as such it’s actually a domain name that you’re looking for.

And as with all good SEO we need to start with the keywords.

Most essentially; you need to include you top keywords within the name, and if you’re interested in branding the business you also need to combine the phrases (perhaps along with another phrase) to create a brand.

For example ZapWebDesign.com contains the “web design” phrase and a phrase that makes the business name a potential contender as a brand; it also does what it says on the tin.

I think that the addition of “Zap” lends the above to being branded, but what about the addition of more common words like “Buy” or “Direct” would these be sufficient? Perhaps not, in the end you have to decide.

You may find that you can buy an exact match domain name (one that contains just your target keywords and nothing else). Exact match domains can be very powerful, although you should probably consider whether the resulting domain makes a great business name and brand.

Whether you want to brand or not if you want to help your SEO with a keyword rich domain name the following rules apply:

• Include your top keyword(s) preferably in the right order
• It’s preferable (but not essential) that your keywords come before any additional phrases
• Recombining several target phrases can also work well if done correctly
• Avoid hyphens; they are not great for branding purposes and maybe considered spammy
• Avoid numbers; people will end up typing in the other version
• It should be short and easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)
• If you are targeting a specific country go for the Country Code top-level domain (CCtld), so for example if you are UK based I would go for the .co.uk
• Also consider the .com particularly if you are interested in branding, as a .com can receive lots of type in traffic
• You could also consider .net or .org which are ideal for some uses
• Personally I would avoid the more unusual CCtld such as .info, .ws, .cc and .name, please note that I know some SEO’s who think these work just fine

You should also consider the above points in terms of branding which I touch on below…

How to Take Charge of Your Brand

What is a brand…?

Well it’s more than just a name, or a logo, it’s really a relationship and encompasses… well more than I’m going to cover in this article. The point is your brand is nothing without a good name

But here are some important points to consider in terms of branding:

• Be objective; think how your prospects will view your name, for example nothing offensive
• Don’t be complicated; this will confuse people and they won’t remember you, not a good idea when it comes to branding
• Make it relevant to what you’re selling; hopefully with your main target keyword(s) hint, hint
• It should be memorable, easy to pronounce and easy to spell
• It should be easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)

Warning: Prevent Possible Twitter Disaster

The Twitter username is limited to 15 characters.

So if branding and social media are important to you then you need to keep your domain name 15 characters long.

I have made this mistake myself and regretted it afterwards…

Another Warning: Legal Issues

Please note that (assuming that you’re UK based) you need to complete all of the normal searches at Companies House to ensure that you’re not treading on anyone’s toes. You also need to check the sensitive words lists also found at Companies House see: Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C and for Trademark infringement.

Ughhh I hate legal stuff; I’m not a lawyer OK so the above may not be an exhaustive list and also the above comments / links only relate to the UK.

Business Name Ideas! Speed Up Selection with Excel

You can use Excel to speed this all up, for example:

=CONCATENATE(A2,B2) joins the content of cells A2 and B2 together, you can add more cells to this formula if you wish.

=LEN(B3) shows the number of characters in the resulting cell (this example assumes that the complete name is compiled in B3) this can help ensure you don’t exceed the desired character number.

Now check the resulting names by searching your favourite provider.

Other Business Name Ideas!

Has anyone got any comments in terms of the rules they follow when sorting through potential Business Name Ideas? If so I would love to hear about them…

Google has launched (and is now rolling out) a new social addition to its search results a Plus 1 Button, the button will allow users to recommend sites and share these recommendations with their friends.

Similar to Facebook’s “like” functionality it looks like we will start to see more and more reliance on the personal preferences of an individual surfer (and their friends) in the search engine results.

The recommendation will (where appropriate) influence the ranking within the organic search results.  The impact will be seen within the context of similar / relevant searches, even then the results are unlikely to catapult a site from zero to hero so no need to panic.  In short the likely impact will be to make certain sites more visible.

The company has used social clues from the likes of Twitter and Flikr to impact the results for over a year so this is part of a trend.

The feature will be extended to websites in due course.

I wonder how long it will be before someone link baits “Google Plus 1 Button the Death of SEO”.

What are your thoughts; obviously the button puts another tool into the arsenal of the search spammer.

Please note this post is completely incorrect, I wish it was near April so that I could at least it was an attempt at a bad joke.  What it does do is remind me of how easy it is to attribute the wrong cause to a given occurrence in the search engines, which provoke comments like “My rankings have dropped why is Google punishing me?”

I am afraid I too have fallen into the trap of adding 1 plus 1 to come up with 5.

I noted in the post that the images were shown in Firefox with “Search Preview” turned on it is in fact this very add-on that adds these adverts. As stated in the following detail “For some search terms, this version will insert sponsored links into the Google search results (labelled as ‘SearchPreview Sponsored Links’).”

Source: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/189/

It’s an excellent add-on BTW great for establishing if a given site is worth looking at before you visit it.

Other cringe worthy points are:

“I have not seen this before and I cannot find any reference to this in the Adwords help”

[JM] And why would it be.

“It doesn’t appear in my other browser so am assuming that this is a test.”

[JM] No you dunce it’s an add-on Firefox not IE.

Searching on Google today I noticed the following when I typed in “Bristol web design” Google are now showing a “SearchPreview Sponsored Link” below the main PPC results, obviously this is a development leading on from the implementation of “Google Instant”.

SearchPreview Sponsored Link Bristol Web Design Full Screen

And here’s a close up:

SearchPreview Sponsored Link Bristol Web Design Close Up

NB: Images shown in Firefox with “Search Preview” turned on.

I have not seen this before and I cannot find any reference to this in the adwords help https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/search.py?hl=en-uk&query=searchpreview&ctx=en-uk:searchbox

It doesn’t appear in my other browser so am assuming that this is a test.

Google recently launched “Google Instant” a new enhancement to Google search that shows results as a user types in a search query.  The new functionality allows the user to see content much faster than before; the user will be shown results before they have finished typing in their search term and before they have even pressed the “search” button.  Google argues that this functionality will enhance the user experience as it allows users to modify their results on the fly, formulating adapted search terms influenced by the search results and predictions that appear as they type their search terms into Google.   

The most important part of the new functionality (if you are interested in SEO) is the smart predictions functionality, as Google puts it: “Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.”

SOURCE: http://www.google.com/instant/

Rather importantly the search results that Google Instant shows depends on individual personalisation settings (http://www.justinmarch.com/blog/google-search-engine-results-influenced-personalisation/) and where Google thinks a user is physically located.   

Rather predictably this has led many to make (er) predictions about the future of SEO including Steve Rubel, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital who argues that “Here’s what this means: no two people will see the same web. Once a single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results. That’s what made search engine optimization work. Now, with this, everyone is going to start tweaking their searches in real-time. The reason this is a game changer is feedback. When you get feedback, you change your behaviors.“ he goes onto state that “Google Instant means no one will see the same web anymore, making optimizing it virtually impossible. Real-time feedback will change and personalize people’s search behaviors.”

SOURCE: http://www.steverubel.com/google-instant-makes-seo-irrelevant

I agree with some of what Steve is saying here, I think that how people use Google will inevitably change as a result of Google Instant, however I don’t see the change as being negative to either the user or to good SEO’s.

Google Instant will affect SEO (but it won’t kill it)
It’s important to understand that good SEO is about improving more than the ranking for a given keyword it’s about improving the level of targeted traffic across the board for a range of phrase, along with increasing onsite conversion rates.  The fact is that good SEO starts with keyword research and that will never change the fact that the keywords themselves get more or less diverse is somewhat immaterial.  It maybe that that searchers will tweak their queries in real time but they aren’t going to completely switch focus mid search and end up purchasing a holiday in Mexico having started with the intention of sourcing a carpet fitter in Bristol. 

Articles about the death of SEO misunderstand what search engines actually are in that a search engine by its nature will always want to discover the most relevant results possible; otherwise it will become of little use to its users and will soon start losing market share. 

Fundamentally if user behaviour becomes impossible to predict this will not only destroy SEO but it will also make the Google Adwords system unworkable.  Since Adwords is itself based on predicting what users type in (and since this is the way in which Google monetorise itself) I just don’t see them continuing with a system that effectively flushes their company down the toilet.   

I think that Matt Cutts (Google’s anti-spam and SEO spokesman) put it best when he wrote: “The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen.”
SOURCE: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/thoughts-on-google-instant/

So what else can we expect from Google Instant:

Google Instant will continue to predict search (just as badly as Google did in the past)
None of the search engines have ever been that good at determining user intent and this seems set to continue see: http://mashable.com/2009/08/11/funniest-google-suggest-results/

Google Instant won’t disrupt Google Rankings
Google Instant won’t disrupt Rankings, just to clarify this for all the SEO fraidy cats, as Google themselves put it “No, this change does not impact the ranking of search results.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

Google Instant may lead to shorter search terms
Over the years there has been a steady increase in the number of words used within a search query, it seems likely that Google Instant may halt or reverse this trend and lead to an increase in the lower number 2-4 term searches.   Potentially searchers may find that less is more settling on the results provided by the 2-4 word searches rather than continuing to type in a long tail search term.

Google Instant may annoy users (or it may just be ignored)
Aside from the inaccurate predictions it would be interesting to know how many people will actively use Google Instant.  Google Instant will not appear when people search via iGoogle, use the Google toolbar or search via a browser’s search box.  It also occurs that many people are not trained typists and stare at their keyboards when they are typing, making the new functionality rather redundant in this instance.  Upon surfing the web it also seems to me that many users are actually annoyed by Google Instant, will this make a significant number of people turn it off or move over to BING, only time will tell?

Google Instant will disrupt Google Impressions (and may alienate Google Adwords Users)
Impressions are the number of times an advert has been displayed to web users, as Google Instant displays the results on the fly as the user types them in, there has been some concern that each change in results will count as an impression.  The reason why this is important is that the cost and performance of a Google Adwords Account is partly based on the Click Thru Rate (CTR) the higher the CTR the better.  

Google has clarified how Google Instance judges when an impression has occurred: 

“When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:
    * The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
    * The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
    * The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

It does look like the number of impressions is set to increase which will be of particular concern to those inexperienced users using the Adwords system.

Google Instant will not lead to partial phrases appearing in Google Analytics

To clarify the most concerning point in terms of where users simply have to pause for 3 seconds for an impression to occur:

“The keyword analytics sends is not the partial one but the predicted query. If a user was typing “web metrics” but got the search result she wanted at “web met” with the predicted term being “web metrics”, then you will see “web metrics” in your Google Analytics reports.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

Google Instant may boost Google’s profits (and alienate Google Adwords users)
As well as skewing impression data, it would seem that more generic searches containing fewer words are more likely.  Adwords accounts have become harder and harder to set up and I can well imagine the costs associated with generic broad match phrases in particular spiralling out of control for the inexperienced Adwords user.

It’s been ages since I last wrote a post, have been a bit ill and am about to go on hols, so thought it would be a good time to write a short post on DMOZ (ODP – Open Directory Project).  I am still seeing lots of comments in forums claiming that a DMOZ listing is the be all and end all of link building and a must have link.

DMOZ is a Submit & Forget
Essentially Dmoz is and has been for a long while a submit and forget site, sure it’s still on my list of places to submit too but once I have submitted I move on.  I don’t go back and check if the link is present yet I just move on and get on with my life.

This from a post I responded to on the Sitepoint forum:

“Submit to Dmoz and forget it, move on, do other things, play with yer kids, get a life, many more fish in the link building sea.

This is the third post (on different forum) that I have made today alone about Dmoz, will stop eventually and let people obsess in their own little groups.

Speaking as an EX Dmoz editor and person who despite Dmoz listing still achieves good SEO results.”

Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4397972

DMOZ has been going through some difficult patches for a while now see: The Life and Near Death of DMOZ so the submit and forget advice is perhaps more relevant than ever before.

The need to keep updating your business site, and participate in the on-line community grows as Goggle launches a major new update to its main search page today.

Here is Googles’ official line:

A lot of these options have been present (but somewhat hidden from view) up until now:

The new design really pushes the options making the Google SERPS look similar in style to Yahoo or Bing.

One of the most notable additions is that Google are now pushing the so called social search and real-time search results (see the screenshot below) which details a search for Gordon Brown (the morning after the night before) and shows the relevant Twitter updates.

New Google search for Gordon Brown shows Twitter updates

What this means for businesses:

• Businesses will have to update their sites and offsite content so that they appear under as many filters (options) as is reasonably possible including blogs, videos etc.
• Businesses will have to participate in the online community; it’s getting harder and harder to ignore Twitter by the day.

So what makes an Ethical SEO Company Ethical? Perhaps one can find an Ethical SEO by searching for “Ethical SEO” in Google or perhaps by searching for “Professional SEO” the reality is that these are often just words, targeted because they have a relatively low level of competition when set against the number of historic monthly searches.

Now I’m certainly not saying that the companies that rank for the above phrases are in any way unethical or unprofessional the fact that they have selected these phrases at all is to their credit.  And yes I get the hypocrisy; this post including the title tag, page title and content are obviously focused on optimising it for the phrase Ethical SEO Company.

What I’m trying to get at here is that Google has no way of telling how a company operates or conducts itself, it simply returns the best results that it can given the available parameters.  Broadly speaking (and greatly simplified in order to explain my reasoning) there are 2 factors that dictate how search engines rank pages:

1. Onsite/Onpage SEO (Which can include Domain Name Selection as well as Optimised Title Tags, Internal Links, Visible on Page Text, Page Titles etc).
2. External Inbound Links (that are pointing at the site pages hopefully, but not always from relevant, respected or trusted websites)

The first factor is completely in the control of the webmaster in question; all it takes is knowledge of SEO to put the content in place to fulfil this part of the site optimisation.  The second factor is the external links coming into the site pages, to put it simply Google and the other search engines look on these links as one site voting for the other.

In an ideal world a company would set up a website, call themselves an Ethical SEO Company and create the onsite content that makes web site owners want to link through to them. In reality most companies (even ethical ones) will find it difficult to achieve this type of inbound link. Most companies have to build quality content and even then work on building links to their site.

So what makes an Ethical SEO Company?
Answer: “Some of the Above”

To find out what makes for Ethical SEO have a read of the following pages, these are Guidelines set out by the Search Engines to tell webmasters and site owners how to follow (or should I say how not to break) the rules:

Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html

Google Webmaster Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

Bing Webmaster Center Help:
http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters

Dmoz Guidelines:
http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/

If you want to hire an ethical SEO then do some research, you have been told that the company you have contacted is ethical (and they may well be) but don’t just take their word for it, understand what you are paying for.

“Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to “help” you.” SOURCE: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291