Focus Your SEO on Going Local with Google Places

SEO definitely helps your website bring in more sales, but going local with Google Places can make all the difference in your internet marketing strategy.

By its very nature, search engine optimization brings in more traffic to your website. But the ultimate goal of SEO strategy is really to target your audience so that they visit your website and then take the action you want them to take once they arrive.

You may have the biggest audience in the world, but if they’re not interested in your products or services, than SEO isn’t going to help you one bit. The action you must take is to come up with concepts that are relevant to your potential buying audience, create keywords around those concepts and then place them within your website. Those small changes in focus will help you draw in the right kind of traffic that’s motivated to take the action you want.

Optimize Your Website for Local Search

You probably wonder what actionable steps will make the most difference when trying to achieve search results. A great start for every business interested in improving their website traffic is Google Places.

Why Google Places?

Google Places for Business offers something that few online sites provide – action tracking (such as how many people visited your listing), map clicks with directions and data about how many times your listing shows up in search results. Places gives businesses the option to add coupons, offers, images and videos to make listings come alive for potential customers. There’s also a “place” for customer ratings and client references as well. And, Google isn’t the only site offering a specialized listing for businesses. Yahoo! Local and Bing Local are also entering this arena by offering their own versions for business clients as well.

How to Use Listings on Google Places Effectively

Google Places for Local SEO example — Example of Google Places for Business

Want to know if you’re included in Google Places? Simply search for your company name and include the name of your city. For example, if you are a pool & spa company in Hamburg, New Jersey, search for “pool & spa in Hamburg, NJ” to view the search results (see photo at right). When you hover over the results, the column on the right side of the search results in Google displays company information so that you’ll quickly know if your local data is optimized within that keyword selection. If you are not showing up for local keyword terms, then it’s time to focus on updating your Google Places listings to get the most out of your listing.

Also, categories place an important role in helping potential customers find your business. Choose the right categories for your company since you may only add a total of 5 to your Google Places listing. Also, review your competition to find out where they are ranking in search results and see how their category listings compare.

On your Google Places site, include as much information about your business as possible. Keeping potential customers up-to-date with your store hours, phone number, email, website address, videos and coupons not only builds trust, but it ensures that they always know where and how to reach you. Google Places allows up to five videos and 10 pictures.

Ask for Reviews

If you are lacking business reviews on Google Places for Business, ask your best customers to leave a brief description of their experience with your company. You may also want to have them stop by Yelp or Merchant Circle to leave reviews on those sites too. You could even create a special offer for extra discounts on return visits for customers that leave a review. Don’t be afraid to ask for customer testimonials. You want prospects to completely understand the product or service you offer, but you don’t want your page to be all about your sales offer. Let them know right up front what your customers think about your offerings.

Combine SEO Strategies for Better Results

Consider pay-per-click advertising as an additional source to combine with your search engine optimization strategies. Target your local region in your pay-per-click ad so that it matches your SEO goals for local traffic, and you’ll ultimately find that you bring in more traffic with this hyper local targeting using paid and organic internet strategies.

Here at Niche Quest, we talk alot about SEO, but more importantly, our blogs, courses and ebooks teach you to focus your website optimization on going local. The Niche Quest Formula method shows you how to optimize your website for local search because this is the one area where you can bring prospects to your website before they find your competitors first.

Learn more about how about internet marketing strategies that really work by using the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Internet Marketing. Watch our roadmap video below. After you review this step-by-step guide that includes a visual, an eBook and videos, you’ll have everything you need to get the internet marketing results you need to rank your business website.

How Local SEO Keywords Bring Leads to Your Real Estate Website

Whatever your skill level with creating and marketing your real estate sales website, the fact remains that you need leads.

You can study SEO strategies, attend countless seminars and peruse the latest guru’s blog for tips to increase your website traffic, but absent viable leads, your real estate business is non-existent. Without a fresh flow of homeowner contracts and buyer showings, there’s no action, no real estate contracts, no sales, and of course, no income.

Fortunately, local SEO keywords and search marketing will bring those new prospects to your agent or agency business. When you understand how to properly optimize your site, that traffic will increase search engine rankings until it pours in with just the click of the mouse.

When it comes to traffic, however, the reality for many real estate agents and companies is often a very different picture. Agents struggle with the challenge of promoting their listings and websites. Although the right online marketing strategy promises to help real estate professionals expand their monthly sales volume for homes, knowing where to start, especially for beginners, can be overwhelming.

How Do Real Estate Agencies Build Website Traffic and Leads?

Every actionable step with regard to your website traffic boils down to two words: keyword research.

Keyword Research Tools

In fact, researching keywords is so vital to your business that without it, your site will sit on the World Wide Web like a needle in a haystack. No one will see all the great content, pictures or listings that you diligently serve up daily or weekly.

There are various research tools, both free and paid, that you may use to learn about keywords vital to your particular business. But no matter which tool you choose, if you are targeting keywords that have too much competition, your site will never move up in the rankings. You’ll quickly learn that there will always be bigger websites, brands and SEO companies that will outrank your real estate listings for common keyword terms within the real estate industry.

So what do you to do to improve your site traffic using keyword research?

Very simple. Find keywords with low competition. This means that if you live in Florida, you probably are not going to target the term “Florida real estate agent.” The reason is that there will be many larger companies with much deeper pockets. They’ll be able to outrank your site for all major real estate related terms. Instead, as a small agent or broker in the Florida market, you’ll need to get a little creative to come out on top.

Examples of Local SEO Keywords

Let’s say you live and work in Indialantic, Florida. As part of the Palm Bay and Melbourne metro areas, there’s a lot of competition among real estate agents. As a savvy real estate agent, you know you have to build your website ranking to get your site noticed when potential clients search for agents in your area. So what do you do? You focus on local search marketing. That means that rather than targeting a broad term such as “Florida real estate.” You will target more local terms using area names such as:

Indialantic real estate agents
Brevard County Florida real estate agents
Melbourne Beach realtors
Satellite Beach real estate agents

Focusing on city + real estate, county + real estate or beach area + real estate brings you hyper local results for people that are searching for homes or listing agents in those areas. There are potentially hundreds of other combinations you may choose to rank your site in the local region. It just takes a little brainstorming and possibly mapping to figure out which local SEO terms to select.

Once you’ve drilled down and discovered these very specific keywords, you’re then ready to fully optimize your site using those terms. Make sure the keywords are included in every part of your website or blog content.

Here at NicheQuest.com, we teach you about all that you need to optimize your site for your niche. If you would like to learn more about how local SEO keywords will bring leads to your site, then join our subscriber list to receive your free e-Book to get you started today.

5 Steps to Website Success with Local SEO

Internet Marketing Strategy for Local SEO

Better local SEO ranking is not only critical for businesses with worldwide reach, but it is also effective for companies interested in reaching customers in their immediate area. Local SEO actually helps brick and mortar businesses compete against larger companies. How does it level the playing field for small business to compete against big brands? By leveraging technology to better serve potential prospects in their own communities.

5 Steps to Maximize Your Website & Gain Local Customers

When you take specific actions in small steps, you’ll find that achieving your business goals will be that much easier. Use the 5 steps below to maximize your website efforts and gain local customers for your business.

1) Take Advantage of Google Local SEO

This free service allows you to set up a local business listing with maps for directions as well as your company’s address to make it simple for potential customers to find you. You’ll also want to optimize your keywords in the business description section so that customers searching for your keywords find your company rather than your competitor’s. Take steps to ensure that your Google Place listing images match the same ones you have in your other listings. The same goes for your company’s contact information. The same information and images across all internet platforms helps with branding your business online. When possible, also include video testimonials from clients for an extra effective method of reaching your ideal prospect.

2) Set Up Google Plus for Social Media Sharing

With a Google Plus account, you’ll have a way to interact with your customers. They’ll also be able to write reviews about your products or services. Google+ provides you with the opportunity to leave comments and gain insight into what your clients need. Because Google Plus is a social media service, you may promote special offers and services to your customers. In return, your audience may share posts, which ultimately may lead to page posts going viral and gaining more exposure for your company.

3) Optimize your Website for Local Searches

Review your website to ensure that keywords and meta tags are specific to your local area as well as industry. For instance, if you are a mechanic in San Diego, use keywords such as “San Diego mechanic” or “San Diego auto repair.” These location-specific keywords help potential customers quickly narrow down the businesses in the local marketplace. Long tail keywords (descriptive keyword phrases usually at least three words long) will also bring you visitors that are more specifically looking for what your offers. Don’t forget to focus on your specialties. Always include any products or services that help you stand out from the competition.

By delivering high quality content as you optimize your website, you’ll find that you also benefit from higher search engine rankings. Your content should offer services or information that will keep your clients coming back. For instance, auto repair shops can include content such as regular tips for car maintenance or create posts that answer customer questions.

4) Keep Contact Information Consistent

As mentioned about Google Plus listings above, make sure all your company details remain consistent throughout all your social media profiles, accounts and directory listings. Your branding and reputation relies on providing accurate and relevant information including the exact address of your location, name of your company, website, email address and phone numbers.

5) Design a Mobile Responsive Website

Now more than ever, people are using their mobile devices to search online. Specific links like your Contact, Product and About Us pages should be enabled so that mobile device users can easily access information. Also note that Flash pages and PDF files are not readable on mobile devices. A mobile-friendly website or blog ensures that you don’t miss potential customers searching for your products or services.

Implement these 5 easy local SEO steps as part of your internet marketing strategy, and you’ll discover that your rankings grow while you gain new customers for your products or services.

Which of these steps have you used on your site? If you haven’t used them before, which ones do you plan to implement immediately? Let us know in the comments below.

Smart Ways Roofing Companies Promote Their Businesses Online

Roofing Company Online Business Promotion

Roofing companies looking to expand business through the use of internet marketing strategies are definitely making wise online decisions. Statistics reveal that more than 50 percent of individuals considering large purchases will conduct an internet search to investigate possible product or service providers. That number jumps up to more than 85 percent when the purchase will be made locally. This means that creating and managing an effective online campaign is vital for any business.

There are numerous avenues available for roofing business promotion, but the following three strategies help roofers effectively promote their companies online: organic traffic, YouTube and social media marketing.

Organic Traffic

One of the most effective ways to leverage the power of the internet is to increase the amount of organic traffic that visits your site. Organic traffic can be best described as visitors that you did not directly generate through efforts of direct contact. Organic traffic is comprised of visitors that conduct a general search for the services or products you provide and subsequently click on the link to your site. Organic traffic is a huge part of the promotional tree.

Proper and effective SEO (search engine optimization) is required to see any measurable results from organic searches. This means properly optimizing your website, the creation of relevant content, legitimate back linking campaigns and more. With major search engines, such as Google, constantly changing their algorithms, it can be difficult to understand all of the rules and requirements that must be met to build your page ranking — leading to better search placement. If you have not mastered SEO, our free e-book will get you on the right path. Our Niche Quest Formula course offers expert step-by-step assistance that is definitely a worthwhile investment.

YouTube Exposure

Everyone knows that Google is the largest search engine in the world, but many people are not aware that YouTube, now owned by Google, is the second largest search engine in the world. A growing number of internet users prefer to access the content they are looking for via video rather than in written form. You can create business how-to videos that are highly informative and engaging to provide individuals with relevant content that will help them deal with minor issues around the home. Videos centered on roofing material brands, products and do-it-yourself assistance develops exposure for your brand, services and products. To learn more about the benefits of videos for your business, see our post How to Optimize Videos in Local Markets Before It’s Too Late.

Social Media Marketing

This aspect of online marketing can be very broad so you will have to find ways to make it specific to your roofing businesses and the services that you offer. Social media is one of the most powerful leveraging platforms business owners encounter. When you create a profile or a fan page along with relevant, engaging content helpful to your target audience, your brand can become extremely popular in a relatively short period of time.

The most important thing to remember when marketing your business online is customer engagement. You want to engage the customer by providing useful information that entices the customer to come back to your page or site, even when they have no immediate roofing needs. When you develop a relationship of trust, you build customer loyalty, return visits and referrals that will bring new and existing customers back to your roofing company again and again.

How Social Advertising Affects Your Business

Social Advertising with Facebook and Google

There’s a battle going on between Facebook and Google for your social advertising dollars. Fortunately, businesses benefit from these two online behemoths fighting for ad market share.

So what exactly is happening with Facebook?

Well, many Facebook business pages have seen drops in their fan engagement. This decrease in fan view is mainly due to the changes in Facebook policy that essentially force business and fan pages into paying to boost their posts. Only a small percentage of Facebook fans see posts in the newsfeed these days. If businesses want their fans to see posts, they must take out ads to increase views.

While this action has upset many page owners, it will definitely weed out some of those posts that simply clog up user newsfeeds with over the top promotion and less than quality content. When pages have to make determinations about which content to promote, fans benefit because page owners are much more likely to only promote content and ads that actually bring value to their followers.

Aside from the fact that new advertising fees also make Facebook shareholders happy, social advertising now becomes an essential element for companies to utilize in their online marketing strategies.

Google Enters the Social Advertising Arena

This past December, Google announced +post ads as a means to create additional engagement across multiple platforms. These ads draw video and photo content from Google+ profiles to serve on the display network for Google properties.

The latest move on Google’s part truly demonstrates how social advertising should be part of every online marketing strategy. Their expansion of +post ad offerings to Google Hangouts means that sites may now create +post ads to include Hangout on air event promotions directly through the ad itself. The ad may feature video from recent events without viewers needing to be there to participate.

With Google supplying a platform for social media advertisements, business owners will need to consider how to add this very viable social media provider to their advertising strategy.

How Does Facebook & Google Affect You?

There’s no doubt that social media is an effective method for increasing website traffic and ultimately your search engine ranking. If you want to make an impact within Facebook and Google, you will need to use Facebook or Google+ ads to reach your audience more effectively.

If you are a beginner just starting out, don’t allow social media concerns to overwhelm you. Create your pages and provide valuable content that your followers or fans will want to share. Link your social media accounts to your website or blog so fans can find you at all your online locations. As your business grows, you will eventually need to use ads on both platforms to increase engagement.

Begin increasing local traffic to your business today by getting our free e-book to learn more about the Niche Quest Formula and how it will help your site get noticed online and in the real world.

By following our informational steps in both our course and blogs, you will easily learn how to develop your site with a focus on local SEO and then build customer engagement to your website and social media pages.

How to Increase Website Traffic with Pinterest

Pinterest is fast becoming a phenomenon and obsession for many internet users. Its growing popularity makes it one site that you should consider in your SEO tool arsenal to increase website traffic. With just a few simple steps, you can use this service to increase website traffic quickly. Get started with optimizing your Pinterest page with the following three tips:

Use Your Business Name
The first action you should take to increase awareness about your business is to include your website link in your Pinterest profile. This step will ensure that your website name is in all of your posts. Simply log-in to Pinterest, go to the “settings” button and then click on “edit profile.” The form already has a website section where you can add your link. See screenshot below:

By adding your link, you’ll be able to garner traffic and send it straight to your website. At this juncture, you should also probably consider opening a Pinterest page as a business. Pinterest will ask you to validate the business page, which allows the service to verify your identity thus inspiring confidence in users visiting your pins.

Mention Your Website URL in Pictures and Descriptions
In other Nichequest blog posts we’ve discussed the importance of optimizing your blog images, pictures and videos. On Pinterest, it’s not any different. You’ll be able to maximize your traffic by adding your website to the alt tags in each pin and then including that information in the description. The benefit of adding your website to pins is so that anyone re-pinning your images will have your website information right in the pin description and on the image. Your website link makes it easy for users to click on through to your offer, landing page or blog, and it adds to your linking strategy as well.

Post Product or Brand Info on Pins
Posting your products on Pinterest is a smart move. It creates instant authority for your brand, products or services. Images can relate to your actual products or industry and then link back to your website. The cuter, bolder pictures command the most attention to Pinterest users so look for innovative and inspiring images that will encourage viewers to re-pin and also click on your site links for more information. This step also allows you the opportunity to offer deals that will interest potential customers. Diversity in offers will help you reach a broader audience and gain new followers. When you appeal to a wide variety of groups, you will be growing your presence and reach at the same time.

Increasing your website traffic with Pinterest is a choice you make through smart marketing and the constant renewal of your feed. If you use your feed right, you are going to make a lot of new friends on Pinterest and gain customers at the same time. If you work hard at it, most of your traffic can come from this very popular website that brings people and ideas together in one place.

Do you include Pinterest in your online marketing strategy? Please share your results with our readers in the comments section below.

Five SEO Methods for Beginners

If you’re completely new to the world of building websites and using SEO methods for traffic, the whole process can be quite overwhelming. Actually, it can be downright intimidating, especially for total newbies to the online world.

You might not even know what the acronym SEO stands for. And Google analytics, well, it sounds like something your old boss might use when you’re called in for an employee evaluation. Don’t even get me started on what it means to rank and drive traffic. Sounds like quite a lot of hard work!

Certainly, there is work involved. When you’re first figuring out how to bring customers to the beautiful new website or blog you just published, it does take considerable time and effort to learn the basics. But it’s really no different than when you first learned how to use a computer.

Remember that first brand new Apple or PC? You flipped the switch and instantly began exploring all the endless possibilities that your software would allow. Over time, you learned right where to point and click, and before long you were able to quickly navigate your computer and the internet to boot.

Take the First Step for SEO Success

And in the same way, that’s how it is with local search engine optimization and traffic building. You kind of have to dive in and start. Not wait until you thoroughly learn every single detail. Part of the beauty of working online is you may learn as you go. There’s no hard and fast rule of how to get where you want to be. In many ways, you simply have to take that first step.

Now that’s not to say that there isn’t a process to follow. There are fundamental rules for creating sites and then having them rank with the search engines. And that’s what I want to talk about with you today.

What is SEO?

SEO or search engine optimization helps you modify your website content so that potential customers find you among the hundreds, and possibly thousands of other businesses, in your local area. As you are writing content for your website or blog, there are specific techniques you can use to put you far ahead of your competition. You know, those guys that just throw up a website with a brief list of their services along with an address and phone number. Those are the types of businesses that sort of build it and think that hundreds of customers are just going to pour in. You can see more about this Field of Dreams website building point of view in our previous blog about the subject.

For now, let’s look at fundamentals of local SEO so that you can begin putting these techniques to good use on your site.

5 Beginning SEO Methods for Your Blog Posts

If you are just now developing content or already have it published to your site, there are a few tweaks you can complete to ensure that your pages are fully optimized for your target keywords.

1) Blog post URL should use your keyword and be relevant to content of blog.

For example, in this post we’re using the keyword “SEO methods.” As you can see in the example below the permalink or URL address includes the full title of our post (highlighted in yellow).

2) For main keyword, use H1 tag appropriately in the body content. The following pic comes from this post, and I’ve highlighted the keyword:

3) Main Keyword should also be in title, body text and meta description. Here’s a snip from the title and first paragraph of this post with keyword highlighted:

4) Avoid using duplicate content.

5) On all images, add keyword in the alt description. See example:

There are plenty of other advanced SEO tactics to use to rank your site especially for high competition keywords. But as beginners, if you stick with these 5 steps, you’ll ensure that each page of your site is fully optimized for Google and the other search engines.

Any questions? Leave us a comment below.

Need New Customers & More Profits? Try Amazon Local

When you decided to build an internet presence with your website or blog, did you know that it would take time and effort to really help it reach its full potential? To connect with local customers in your home community, you need the latest tools to help you meet your marketing goals.

If you sell or market a product or service, then Amazon Local is one of the tools that you should definitely consider as part of your local marketing strategy.

Websites are Not a Build and Forget Kind of Tool

Hopefully, you aren’t like many small business owners, who take the Kevin Costner Field of Dreams approach that “if you build it, he will come.” That’s an interesting notion but not a realistic picture of what it takes to get new customers and ultimately make money from your website efforts.

Focusing on actionable steps is really the only way to build website traffic and grow your search engine ranking. The Niche Quest Formula teaches you step-by-step how to create a blog and bring customers to your virtual and real world locations. Online tools such as Amazon Local further help you to quickly reach your goals.

How will Amazon Local Help My Business?

According to Amazon, there are over 215 million active users on the site. Imagine harnessing the power of the Amazon brand to bring credibility to your business. That’s what happens when you use Amazon Local to offer potential customers your product or service.

Amazon sends emails to customers in your local area and features your special promotions to these potential clients. Here’s an example of what customers receive by email:

But that’s not the only way that potential customers learn about your offerings. Visitors to the Amazon Local website may input a zip code to pull up special offers. That means they may use the site to obtain offers in their home zip code. There’s even potential for using the zip codes of areas where you’ll be for an extended period such as on vacation or traveling for business.

The customer site features category offers for:

Restaurants, Bars & Pubs
Entertainment & Travel
Shopping & Services
Health & Beauty

As you can see, there’s plenty of room in these promotional categories to cover a wide range of small businesses including yours. Customers may also download the Amazon app for Android or Apple devices.

Why Use Amazon Local?

Amazon is very clear in their business website about the benefits of using this product.

Find new local customers
Increase company revenues
Customer-focused service
Brand enhancement

The potential to vastly expand your customer base with tools such as Amazon Local is huge. The brand lends credibility to your business as it brings new customers and the opportunity to build repeat customers for the future.

A majority of your prospects and existing customers are probably already using the Amazon platform. Local promotions further enhance the strength of your product, service or website offers. And as we teach in the Nichequest Formula, targeting specific local keywords helps you reach the local customer as you build your website traffic, rank and sales.

Have you used Amazon Local for your business? We’d love to hear about your experience so please share with our readers in the comments section below.