TUGTSBMS Part 3: Local SEO/Google Maps

In part 2 of our “The Ultimate Guide To Small Business Marketing Strategies” we discussed social media strategies.  More specifically, how to automate social media.  Part 1 detailed how most small businesses can set up a decent wordpress site so that it stands a chance to rank in the SERPS for their services when potential clients/customers search.  The third installation of our guide completes the trifecta so to speak for an online presence.  Today, we discuss setting up your “google my business” page and optimizing correctly.

Why do I need Google My Business?

So far, we have discussed two strategies (read: services) that online marketing agencies can sell you.  If you have been beat over the head with numbers and fees and you are struggling to find the value in “local SEO” then let me break it down for you.  Google My Business is your best bet to generate quality leads for your business. Creating and ranking in the local 3 pack puts your phone number in front of potential clients and customers that is the closest option above the fold aside from paid ads.

The local 3 pack also provides a great option for a mobile user to call your business with one click, the ease of use allows for customers to easily contact you when a problem arises.

For the duration of this guide we will refer to Google my business as “GMB” for short.

2016 Local SEO Guide Directions (Not in PDF form)

Step 1.

Go to http://www.google.com/mybusiness to set up your business profile.

You will now search for your business name in the search bar. If your business isn’t already listed you can select the option to input your business information, which will look like this

 

Something important when adding your business information is the box at the bottom

If your business is doesn’t have a physical location (usually service niches) OR you don’t want customers to know your local (home office) address. This is important because the information will be listed in the 3 pack when you rank.

Regardless of when you input this information, you will need to fill out the business information completely.

Follow the prompts and request the post card to be sent to your address provided.

Important Tips-

Remember your exact address that you input. This sounds silly but we are talking about the differences between using “street” and “st” or “road” and “rd”.

You will also need to enter a physical location regardless of whether or not you want customers to visit you at that location. In order to prevent people from SPAMMING with lead generation businesses that rank and generate leads solely from the 3 pack, Google requires you to verify your business through the use of a mailed postcard. If you can’t receive mail then you cannot verify the business. In this instance, just use your home address or an office that receives mail.

If you have a special instance that you are not in that physical location and need additional options to get the GMB verified then email me at sszeliga@simplebutwell.com and I will walk you through those options.

Step 2. Build Out Your Business Profile

You will now be taken to your very own GMB page and be able to add important information related to your business. The page will look like this

Click the “edit” button on the top right to start to add your information.

Add your website info

In the contact information section you will have the option to add your website. I would highly recommend that you get a website if you do not already have one. It doesn’t have to be special or expensive but you need someplace to help optimize this listing. Your website allows you to write additional content in regards to other services that you might provide that you can’t add to the “category” section

Add your introduction

The introduction allows you to add some content based on the services that you provide. Here is an example that can give you some ideas

I like to list the services that are provided as well as utilizing keywords that a potential customer/client might be searching for when looking for help. I would highly recommend doing some keyword research before this point to understand what types of keywords are generating search volumes that could help to add new clients to your business.

Step 3. Adding Photos

This is probably the most time consuming step but also one of the most important. You can and should be uploading photos of yourself in this section

The first section allows you to upload an identity photo and a logo if you have one. After uploading those photos, you will add photos of you providing services at work. These DO NOT need to be actual photos of yourself, but if you have them and are a legitimate business there is no reason why they shouldn’t be uploaded.

Important- these photos need to be uploaded from your computer Don’t have photos? Here is how we can get around that problem.

We use https://pixabay.com and create a free account. You are looking for photos that require no attribute and are free to use

Do a search for whatever business services that you provide and find a photo. In this case, I searched for “seo”.

Save and Rename Your Images with Keywords

After downloading the photo, I will rename the file to include keywords of the services that I provide as well as the location. This is important as you can also utilize these photos for your website. I usually will name them as {Service + Location} such as seen above.

You could also save some images that include your brand name in the file Ex. Simple But Well Marketing Solutions Seo Utica

Because you need to add multiple photos/images I would save them as a mixture of each technique.

Step 4. Optimizing and Geo Tagging Photos

This step will require you to go to your Google+ page rather than the GMB page so open another tab and then go to Google+

You are looking for the photos section; the photos that have been uploaded should appear in this section

Click on the photo and you will have some options to edit.

On the right hand side you can add captions as well as locations. I like to add a small caption containing keywords that the business would target.

The next step is to geo target your photos so that they are more specific to your location. Click on “add a location”

Enter your location and then selection “drop a place mark” and the “save”. You will now see the location with coordinates instead of the “add a location” tag.

The final step is to add a comment at the very bottom in the box. I usually will add a small comment that includes the keywords we have been optimizing the page around.

Repeat this process with all of the photos that you upload, continue to geo target them as well as add new keywords related to services that your business provides

Final thoughts and tips

I can’t stress enough how important it is note the EXACT address that you use for your GMB page. Be sure to add at least three photos for each category that the GMB page suggests. This is usually only a problem for non-legitimate businesses, take the time to take some pictures and add some trust behind your business. If you are a local lead generation business then you will need to take the additional steps that I suggested and find related photos online, download, rename and then geo-tag them to the correct locations.

After these steps have been completed you will simply wait for the post card to arrive and follow the steps listed to verify the business. Congratulations, you now have a live GMB listing that is crucial to generating more leads for your local business.

This post first appeared at TUGTSBMS Part 3: Local SEO/Google Maps to learn more Simple But Well Marketing Solutions

from http://www.simplebutwell.com/tugtsbms-part-3-local-seogoogle-maps/

TUGTSBM Part 2: Social Media

In the first part of this multi-part series we covered setting up a website for your small business and how to optimize it correctly to get a head start in ranking your services in the organic results.  Part two will discuss social media strategies for a small business owner with an emphasis on time constraints.

I don’t have time to post on Facebook, twitter etc…

You are right, if you own a small business then it’s safe to say you should be focused on one thing and one thing only and that is running your business.  In most cases, that is why small business owners neglect to set up a website as well.  They just don’t have the time to effectively market their business and end up trying to decide which avenue to pursue; social media or a website.

The bad news

Unfortunately, as I move farther away from strictly focusing on SEO and more towards a holistic approach to marketing it has become apparent that you can’t ignore either.  You potential customers/clients/audience all hangout in different areas and you need to be in those areas as well to get noticed.  Sure, you can run a successful business from word of mouth (and I know someone who has with using zero marketing) but in 2016 and beyond if you don’t attempt to have a presence online then you can bet that your competitors area.  If this happens, you are leaving money on the table.

The good news

We have been using a system that works to simplify the process of social media marketing and it is easily something a small business owner (or us) can set up.  It’s nothing new, but recently has had a push to implement and we jumped on the bandwagon.  After testing and tracking, the SEO benefits are huge as is the presence that you business builds online.

Enter the IFTTT network

IFTTT stands for “if this then that” and is a completely free service for anyone to use.  We haven’t even begun to scratch the service on the uses of IFTTT for a small business and that’s ok, for today we will cover the most simple use possible.

Step 1: Claim all your social profiles

A good start is to set up all your social profiles

• google+
• facebook
• twitter
• blogger
• wordpress.com
• tumblr
• youtube (connected to google+ and blogger
• about.me

All these pages should have your logo, business information and anything else relevant that a potential customer would be interested in learning about you.  We won’t be using these pages to update the world on what you had for breakfast the previous day so keep that in mind.

Step 2: Interlink the profiles

Almost all of these web2.0 and social profiles allow you to add additional links.  Add as many as possible for each profile, in the event that you can only add one link then utilize your business website.

Step 3: Create your IFTTT account and add recipes

Once you enter IFTTT.com then you will create your first recipe.  Essentially what you do is create an action and then a re-action (IF THIS THEN THAT).  Your first step will be to grab your attribution link from your wordpress RSS feed (of your business website).

It’s safe to say that most people are using the Yoast SEO plugin, in the advanced settings you will find the RSS tab.  Edit that tab as shown to include a link back to your website as seen.

Once this is set up properly we have taken care of duplicate content issues on the web.  The attribution link basically says

Here is some content, I didn’t write it I got it from here

and provides a link back to your website.  As you can see, this will allow you to begin to build back links back to your site from your social properties.  This is something that can help build brand relevance and pad your anchor text when building back links.

Create your first recipe

Click on the “this” clickable link and it will bring you to an option where you can enter a trigger channel.  Enter “feed” and then click the RSS icon

Choose the option “new feed item” and then enter your website feed url.  In most cases, this will be your domain.com/feed and then select “create trigger”

After this you will have a selection of web 2.0 properties that you can select.  I go alphabetically down the list starting with blogger

Find the blogger icon (the orange one with the “B”) and select it and click “create a new post”

This will bring you to the options for creating a post

 

Note: I usually will delete the link to IFTT in the body as well as the IFTTT in “labels”

after you have done this, create the recipe and repeat for all other social profiles that you have created.

What have we done here?

Essentially we are managing the content posted on your branded properties through one channel, your RSS blog feed.  What this means is that anything posted to the blog will get syndicated with your attribution link back to your blog site.

This alleviates the headache of posting separately to your social media accounts and builds your presence online.  In order to get the most out of this system you really need to focus on creating good content for your audience and show your authority.

Final thoughts

After setting up your social properties you can focus on providing relevant information to your audience.  While this method won’t increase likes or build followers directly, it is a step in the right direction for most small business owners.

 

 

This post first appeared at TUGTSBM Part 2: Social Media to learn more Simple But Well Marketing Solutions

from http://www.simplebutwell.com/tugtsbm-part-2-social-media/

The Ultimate Guide To Small Business Marketing Strategies

The goal of this series is to explain in detail the essential steps that each small business should be taking to ensure success with online marketing.   I get a lot of questions in regards to SEO, social media and other online strategies.  To be honest, after focusing on lead generation it has really become apparent that all of these strategies are important in 2016 and beyond.  While no two strategies are the same, there are definitely some checklists along the way that need to be covered at minimum to give your business the best chance to succeed online.

It starts with a website

Regardless of SEO being a part of your strategy, your business needs to be online.  Why? So that people can learn about your business/services at their leisure and then make informed decisions.  Websites build credibility, especially for service niches (think roofing, plumbing etc) when there are so many fly by night companies offering terrible work for cheap on craigslist.  You wouldn’t believe the number of lead generation phone calls that I listen in on that sound like this

I called this guy that I found on craigslist and they never fixed the roof and won’t call back

After someone has been burned by going the cheap route they certainly aren’t going back to the free advertising platforms like craigslist.  For those of you that are in service niches then consider this as well, a potential customer that is looking for credibility through a website is also someone that takes the work they need performed seriously…AKA quality leads vs. bottom feeders.

What does my site need?

To be honest, most businesses don’t need much when it comes to a website.  A simple, clean looking site that loads fast is sufficient.  Depending on the industry, you might want more creativity but most people just want to know how to contact you.  The absolute bane of my existence are restaurant websites that don’t have easy access to their menu.  If it were up to me, all restaurants would have their menu as the homepage and that’s it but I digress.  That brings me to the next point that is a MUST for your site, responsive to mobile and tablet devices.  This is something that most great wordpress themes already offer and there is no reason to not have this feature unless you want to piss off every mobile customer you have.

On-page optimization

As a general rule of thumb, your keyword (the main service you provide + the location you service) needs to be included within the following

If you have a site built and are looking it over, you should be asking about these items and verifying that your keyword is included within those four items.  If it isn’t, ask your developer to make the necessary changes.  There are a lot more things that can and should be done that are well beyond the scope of this series but for most businesses this is sufficient to get started.

If you don’t have the keywords that you would like your potential customers to find you included as mentioned above then it is safe to say they won’t be finding you at all.

Clear calls-to-action

The most important thing that your website needs to do is to communicate to the visitor exactly what you want them to do.  In most cases that is either picking up the phone to call you or filling out a form to receive a quote.  Make sure that your website has a prominently displayed phone number, email address or form so that you can capture information and sell your services.

Content length

As a rule of thumb, take a look at the number of words that the number one ranking website for your term has on page and do that plus more.  If you are struggling to find content to add on your pages consider adding testimonials from customers.  This builds trust, relevance and beefs up your homepage content so that it can compete with those higher authority sites that are on the first page stealing your traffic.

What if I already have a website?

If you already have a site and it isn’t ranking then usually something is wrong with the on-page keys that have been mentioned above.  Local business keywords can be very competitive but if you create a site with the tips that I described above then at the very least you should be ranking in the top 50.  Heck, I’ve got domains with a blank wordpress install that are ranking in the top 50 WITH NO CONTENT OR SITE SET UP.  If you aren’t in the top 50 and your site is older than 6 months there is most likely a problem.

Schedule a site audit

You will need someone with experience to perform a site audit such as the one that I performed in that link.  There is no reason that a legitimate business should not be ranking in the top 50 when most competitors have weak back link profiles.  Reaching page one might take some work, but not the top 50.  If you need think you need an audit call 315-292-3375 for a free consultation.

Part two of this guide will cover social media set up…..

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