Imagine – a platform of only business owners and business professionals that has over 140 million members and is growing daily; where the average income per member is $120,000 US.

And the best part? Almost no-one is using this to its full potential.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a business directory that specializes in finding businesses, talent, and opportunities. It is therefore a place to discover businesses and for others to discover you. A place to discover talent; for recruiting, outsourcing, partnering with, or consulting. In short, people who can help your business.

It is a place where you can see credentials, build a relationship first then trust. It is a place where you should be able to generate 4 – 5 leads per day for your business. 75% of your business should come from LinkedIn.

In short – you are the talent that others are looking for.

But are they finding you?

LinkedIn has a record number of searches per day for SEO, Reputation Management, Mobile Marketing, List Management, Web Development, PPC, Lead Generation, YouTube management, and many others.

Why is LinkedIn so Popular for Business?

The main reason is that it is a search engine where you can search for people rather than information. You can see their credentials, and get to know them first before you commit to anything.

You also get geographically targeted search results so you can search for local people.

LinkedIn is perfect for you if you have the skills that are searched for, or if you want to outsource to people with those skills.

Benefits of Using LinkedIn

- You can only have one profile.

- You can generate leads all over the country and even the world even if you have a free account.

- You can use apps on your profile which help you to showcase yourself and your business.

How to Use LinkedIn:

You need to have a well written and well-presented profile that is SEO optimized with keywords. It is best to have a salesletter or similar copywriting for best results. Only talk about what you do for your clients and how you do it. Your past is irrelevant, unless it shows your experience in your current position. Use apps to help you. Slideshare is a good one to use as you can upload powerpoint presentations or YouTube videos to slideshare which will then show on your profile.

Always keep Search Engine Optimization in mind as people need to find you. Also, make your email address visible on your profile.

A systematic approach to networking works best. So decide first what you’re going to offer, and make sure it will pre-close clients for you, and generate relationships with your prospects. It should help you find business, and generate value for your leads.

In our case study, a start-up business approached his target market and asked them if they knew a good accountant in their area. They had one of three responses: No, I don’t know an accountant; yes I know an accountant; or no response.

He mentioned his business only in his signature with a keyword rich sentence and a link. He contacted 100 prospects. Of those 100, 22 responded that yes, they did know an accountant and made a referral. 43 responded that they didn’t know an accountant, and 35 gave no response. He then wrote to the accountants, told them that they came highly recommended and asked if he could recommend them to others.

The results: one accountant offered him $500 to buy his list of people in his area who needed an accountant. And 21 people wrote back and asked about his SEO services. He made five sales resulting in $4300 income.

Now you don’t have to offer the same, but you need to offer something of value. This way you will build excellent relationships and trust with your prospects.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Generate Leads With Linkedin

Economic uncertainty has created the need for swift, responsive and highly secured IT infrastructures that are also environmentally friendly and more business focused. Organizations are struggling to find the competitive edge, turning to the bounty of opportunities technology provides. Cautious to jump at the latest buzz phrases and hyped solutions, many have cautiously investigated recent technology breakthroughs, many of which have one thing in common: redistribution of IT roles. There is no better time than the present to revamp technology strategy focused on hosted solutions.

Clouds are gathering…

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the major ways to secure an upper hand in today’s highly competitive market. Minutes of downtime means the loss of vital sales as businesses with prolonged data loss find themselves in a real position of collapsing. Cloud computing changes the traditional corporate data center structure that resides on company premises. Instead, systems are moved to secure outsourced data centers, either in a private or public configuration. Private clouds are dedicated servers used exclusively for a single company, whereas public clouds have multiple companies sharing the same resources. Additional research is, therefore, essential in deciding which cloud configuration best meets your needs, most importantly regarding legal and privacy requirements.

Technology departments across all industries are met with similar issues including budget cuts, personnel downsizing and mounting pressure for technology to prove its worth in answering key business issues. A great number of IT departments run with a vague, or possibly blind, vision into the future, focusing on day-to-day network upkeep and expending great amounts of money keeping core
systems operational. This approach leaves no time for innovation, process improvements or meeting business strategic objectives. Competitive advantage can be gained by moving day-to-day operations out, allowing execution of strategic initiatives.

The diverse and seemingly endless potential of cloud computing make it a very attractive solution to some of today’s most important business issues. Whether it’s upgrading data entry applications, launching new collaboration portals or overhauling demanding e-mail systems, all is possible and occurring today within the cloud. Historically, engineers of all sorts, including database, security, applications and integrations were needed on staff in order to begin new initiatives. Hosted solutions provide all that information without the heavy staffing costs. Building a partnership with a reliable IT solutions provider will deeply impact the success of your initiatives. A good hosting provider will act as a direct extension of your IT department, offering solutions to the business issues you discover in the renewed IT strategic approach. Your success has a direct effect on their success.

E-mail is the number one communication medium used in the 21st century workplace, and it grows more complex on a daily basis. It is an integral workflow component and is an excellent means for automating communication, increasing information flow to customers and employees, without the need to drain employee time sending reports and updates. An increased number of applications have been developed specifically to integrate with the company messaging system, some of which automatically generate bills, and others send out vital project warnings and notifications. Without expertise for each one of its many parts, integration opportunities may be lost, leaving businesses in danger of lost internal and external communication, which translates into poor customer service and decreased profit.

Overwhelmingly, the cloud has been a proven success for replacing traditional business e-mail environments. Software costs, server replacements and constant applications training make it an expensive system to maintain. Again, time spent tending to IT infrastructure takes away from valuable time streamlining old and costly systems. If you don’t become more efficient, your competition will.

One mid-sized organization was faced with a difficult situation. Operating on an aging Microsoft Exchange platform, the mailbox database had grown to its maximum size without the possibility of adding additional message stores. Three servers that were the backbone of the Exchange system were approaching 10 years in age and experiencing hardware malfunctions. An expensive investment in hardware and software seemed like the only answer. However, IT management realized the benefits of a Microsoft Exchange hosting solution, and therefore sought out a reputable hosting provider to address their growth issues. After careful planning and execution, local servers were migrated to the outsourced data center, and the results were nothing short of impressive.

Within the first month of the transition, help desk calls dropped by more than 10 percent, and e-mail availability became higher than ever, greatly attributed to the team of systems experts at their disposal. Critical systems updates and maintenance were performed regularly by the new Exchange hosting team, and key performance indicators were actively monitored. Discrepancies were resolved immediately. Such dedication and proactive response time would have been impossible to do with the previous e-mail infrastructure and company IT staff.

Transitioning to the Microsoft Exchange hosted service eliminated the need to purchase brand new servers or invest in the latest software upgrades. No longer will the company be faced with huge, unexpected hardware replacement costs. Instead, the fixed monthly hosting costs help keep the IT budget balanced and funds spent more wisely. Packaged with the Microsoft Exchange hosted solution was an e-compliant archiving system and a leading anti-spam solution; one more way the company saved money.

All the technology endeavors translated into better service for the customer. Now, the business stands strong with a robust, adaptive e-mail system and comprehensive electronic audit trail. The tier four data center where the e-mail service resides has been a welcome addition to the company disaster recovery plan. Capping out the many benefits is the approximately $50,000 saved annually along with lower carbon emissions through retirement of old servers.

As technology leaders and innovators, we must avoid the trap of judging success on traditional measurements, such as network uptime and backup reliability. Instead, creating an IT strategic plan with input from company executives opens our eyes to new possibilities. Technology can be a true business enabler, and cloud computing is one way to yield measurable business results, molding information technology into business technology.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Technology Solutions: Cloud Computing

A website’s title tags are very important for several reasons:

1) The title tag shows up in search results as the blue link, and a good one helps the site get more clicks and visitors from
search results.

2) Title tags are a crucial SEO element that can help the website show up higher when people search for the words in it.

3) Title tags show up when web pages are shared on social media sites like Facebook. This is important because social media mentions are now a ranking factor in Google search results.

So if you have the time to optimize one thing on your website, title tags are it.

Here are some of the top mistakes and missed opportunities I’ve seen in title tags. Avoid these and you’ll be ahead of the game. You’ll rank higher in search results and entice more people to click on your site.

9 Signs of a Bad Title Tag:

1. “Home” or “Home Page” in Title Tag

It may be logical or helpful to the website owner, but including “Home” or “Home Page” does not help visitors or search engines. All we really care about is what the page is about, and what it offers us. Why take up space with this non-information? You surely don’t want to rank for the terms “home” or “home page.”

2. Domain Name in Title Tag

Including the domain name (like example.com) in the title tag is redundant and takes up prime SEO real estate.

If a searcher cares what site they’ll be taken to, they can look at the green URL that’s visible in the search result before they click. And web pages are automatically going to rank very high (at the top unless something is wrong with your SEO) when people search for your domain name, whether it’s in the title tag or not.

Put another way – Is it more important to tell people your website address, or to tell them about what you offer and show search engines a keyword?

3. Too Long

Search engines display only the first 70 characters (about) of a web page’s title tag. The rest gets chopped off and replaced with ellipses.

4. Too Short

Short and sweet can be nice, but you might as well use all the space available to tell people and search engines about the web page. Making your title tags close to – but not exceeding – 70 characters is a good way to get the most out of your title tags and optimize your chances of showing up for different keyword searches.

5. No Keywords

The purpose of your title tag is to tell people and search engines what your web page is about. If it doesn’t include keywords, you’re doing it wrong.

6. Just the Business Name

I know it’s tempting to make your title tags be just your business name, especially on your home page. But your business name is 70+ characters long or contains several of your important keywords already, you should really include more so that you’ll be found – and clicked on – by people who aren’t familiar with your business yet.

For example, if you were searching for a local business that sold widgets, how likely would you be to click on a search result that just said a generic business name like “Jones & Jones, Inc.”? You probably wouldn’t waste your time clicking on a search result that doesn’t make it clear the company is in your city and, or that it sells what you’re looking for. Because the title tag doesn’t make it clear what Jones & Jones sells, or where they’re located, search engines are less likely to rank that result high in search results.

7. First Few Words Aren’t Important or Eye-Catching

Research shows that people scan search results quickly. Searchers pay the most attention to the first few words in search results, and the first few results on the page. This heat map shows you where people tend to click in a page of Google search results.

Make the first few words of your title tags count by including the keywords you think will be most relevant to searchers. Or write something that will catch people’s attention. Put your best foot forward, and cut the meaningless fluff.

For example, I searched for “cat toilet training” and found this search result. It did catch my attention and make me read the whole search entry to see if it was really what I was looking for. But many people would just skip it, and focus on the search results that mention their search terms right up front.

8. Doesn’t Include Geographic Location – if Location is Important

If you have a physical retail location, or if you want to target customers in a specific region, you should make it clear to searchers and search engines where you’re located. Include your neighborhood, city, state, or county – whatever makes most sense for your business – in your title tag and in other website content.

9. Too Many Keywords (spammy looking)

If your title tag is just a long string of keywords, it might rank well for those keywords, but the real, live people searching for those words will probably be less likely to click that result.

Here are two examples of keyword-filled title tags in a search result:

Example 1

Example 2

Kristina is a community manager for AboutUs.org who talks with a lot of website owners who are trying to promote their business online. Have a question? Kristina Weis, @KristinaWeis.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts can guide and assist you in link building strategies that will increase your website’s visibility on the internet. The following categories of backlinks give an excellent overview of the wide variety of options available for improving your site’s SEO ranking.

Links from Multiple Domains

While your link building strategies should focus on volume, your plan should not be to get most links from a single site. Instead,
work towards just a few links from many sites for best results.

As search engines rank sites, they consider how relevant the content is to the keywords and search terms. When you get links from multiple domains, you demonstrate that many sources find your content useful.

This is critically important when you develop additional backlinks from authoritative domains.

Deep (Ingrained) Links

Instead of directing links to your site’s main page, use links directly to specific pages of content or images. These are known
as deep or ingrained links, and they show that you have important information throughout your site, not just isolated on the home
page.

Using deep or ingrained links adds to your ability to use important keywords for greater ranking in search engine results. You can spread these words throughout your site as appropriate, which will ensure a user-friendly overall appearance.

Links to Local Sites

If your link building strategies don’t include neighboring customers, you are missing out on a large opportunity. It is exciting to develop international backlinks, but it is the locals that will keep you in business.

Obtaining authoritative links from local sources is far easier than from nationwide or internationally renowned experts. Nearby
specialists enjoy building their communities by working with neighboring businesses. SEO rankings will climb when you include
local authorities such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Better Business Bureau for your state. Consider local organizations,
libraries, museums, and similar sites as well as your local government agencies. Directories like yellowpages.com and superpages.com are also excellent options. You might have to pay a fee for the service, but this tends to be very low. Some of
those you approach will jump at the chance for a quid pro quo linking relationship.

Links to Authoritative Domains

Sites classified as authoritative on a subject are those that offer expertise in a given industry or specific field. For example, nytimes.com has extensive, reliable, and accurate information on events relevant to New York. Its strong reputation as a source of specialized knowledge lends it authority on New York news.

Link building strategies that include government and university websites lead to high ratings, as these are accepted as authorities on their subject matter. They can be easily recognized by their .gov and .edu domains, for example IRS and California State University.

Authoritative domain links lead visitors to extensive amounts of quality, well researched information, and they often contain
additional links that lead to good sources for further exploration.

Linking through Anchor Text

The strongest and most popular tool available today is linking through anchor text. For best SEO ranking results, be sure to make this part of your link building strategies.

They work by turning your text into hyperlinks, so as readers go along, they can click on an interesting keyword. The link directs them to the page you specify, which makes your keywords even stronger, improving your site’s ultimate ranking.

Grow Your Rankings with an SEO Expert Today

Higher rankings mean higher traffic to your site, which results in more business for you. Don’t delay in designing and implementing your link building strategies. Begin with the five ideas listed here, and consider a professional SEO expert for
even greater success.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Top 5 Link Building Strategies for Your Site

Make no mistake – online video marketing is the “next big thing.” However, there are a ton of misconceptions about it floating around out there. The end result is business owners that are hesitant to jump onboard and who don’t think they have what it takes to use online videos as a marketing tool.

Chances are you don’t know these 6 things about online video marketing. And, until you understand them backwards and forwards,
you’re really missing out!

1. YouTube is the World’s Second-Largest Search Engine

How much time do you spend making your website “Google-friendly”? Why do you work so hard on it? Because Google has a tremendous reach. Heck, the word “Google” has turned into a verb that’s used day in and day out, all over the world. Need an answer? Just Google it!

But how much time are you spending, marketing through YouTube?

Did you know that YouTube gets more than 4 billion video views every single day? Yes, that’s “billion,” with a “B.”

And, don’t fall victim to the myth that getting exposure on YouTube is nothing more than a crap shoot. With just a few mouse clicks, you can optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags – and even create your own optimized “About Me” and “Channel Description” areas – so that you’re more likely to pop up in a search. You can even take it one step further and organize your videos into different “Playlist Categories” that – you guessed it – have keyword-based names. That way, you’re optimized from top to bottom!

2. There’s More to Online Video Marketing Than Just YouTube

As powerful as YouTube is, it’s not the only horse in this rodeo. There are plenty of other video sharing sites where you can upload your creations and share them with your target audience.

A great way to make the most out of your online video marketing efforts is to look for sharing sites that are specific to your niche. Some searching may turn up video sites that are go-to resources for people interested in your niche – or that make it easy for people to find videos, without navigating a sea of irrelevant YouTube videos.

3. Longer Doesn’t Equal Better

Lots of people avoid creating online videos because they think they have to talk for hours on end to get their point across. But great videos come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I’ve seen great videos that kept my attention for a full 20 minutes. I’ve also learned a lot from videos that are 2 minutes long. The length of your videos will be determined by what you’re talking about, and how long you can realistically engage your viewers.

And, if you still don’t think your videos are long enough, look at it this way – When you turn on your local newscast tonight, odds are that the lead story will be 1 and a half – 2 minutes long. If a reporter can squeeze all of the facts into a minute or two, so can you!

4. You Can Succeed With Online Video Marketing Even if You’re Camera Shy

Sure, giving your target audience a chance to see and hear you (and, thus, prove that you’re not some kind of slimeball or scam artist) is one of the great perks of online video marketing. However, if the thought of getting on camera has you crawling under the bed and trembling with fear, that’s OK. You can still use online videos to your advantage. To get yourself comfortable, do voiceovers instead of being in front of the camera. Just make sure that you don’t sit there and read verbatim off PowerPoint slides. The last thing that you want to do is bore your audience to tears!

And, really, no one expects you to have the on-camera charisma of Walter Cronkite anyway. As long as you can speak clearly, avoid the dreaded “umms” and “uhhhs,” and look confidently into the camera, that’s good enough. Instead of looking at the camera and envisioning the thousands of people that are going to be watching it, just pretend like you’re talking to a trusted client. That way, you’ll feel like you’re having a one-on-one conversation – and your fears will subside.

5. Most People Make Excuses About Online Videos, Instead of Taking Action

In the online video marketing world, the excuses are never-ending. You don’t have the right equipment – You don’t have the time to upload things – You think your voice sounds funny – Your hair doesn’t look good on camera – You don’t know how to write video scripts.

Luckily, all of these excuses make it easier for the people who actually get out there and do it! If you embrace online video marketing right now – while it’s still relatively new – you’ll be able to jump out ahead of the pack and become one of the “Joneses,” instead of always trying to keep up with them!

6. Creativity is More Important Than Budget

Don’t have a Spielberg-esque budget to blow on sets, lighting, and post-production? No problem! Sure, big companies like Doritos, Volkswagen, and Geico are making a huge splash in the online video world – but that doesn’t mean that your videos have to compete with theirs.

Instead of worrying about dollars and cents, come up with creative ways to get the job done – like turning your living room into a “studio,” having a kick-butt script, or using inexpensive editing software to come up with awesome animations. Remember, at the end of the day, the goal is to create online videos that your target audience will learn from, will remember, and will want to share with their family and friends!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

6 Things You Don’t Know About Online Video Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article

Since customer relationship management (CRM) connects to all aspects of an organization, purchasers must know the intricacies of their own businesses as well as the products and vendors available to them. That’s why we divided this guide in two parts: Know Yourself and Know Your Requirements.

I. Know Yourself

Buying CRM starts with the question, “Why do I need a CRM solution?” Many CRM projects fail because that question is never asked. With that in mind, here are four steps that will help you provide an answer and prepare your organization to evaluate CRM solutions.

Step 1. Look At Your Business

Develop a thorough understanding of how your business really works. Not how it should work or how you assume it works. Take this opportunity to map your business processes, their dependencies, and how changes to those processes can affect others. Begin with processes that aren’t working well. These will correlate with areas of your business that can be improved and help you identify
those that can be addressed with CRM. Process mapping will also reveal processes that work well. These processes may not need to be changed, but changes to other processes could affect them.

The evaluation that accompanies process mapping requires total honesty, which can bruise feelings. The objectivity of a third-party consultant can help minimize the dissension this might cause. A consultant can also reduce the internal resources needed to conduct process mapping.

At the end of the process mapping exercise, you should have a list of processes and activities that can be improved with CRM. The mapping exercise could show that your business isn’t ready for CRM or that the problems it faces can’t be solved by CRM. This is valuable information to have. Making the jump to CRM too early or for the wrong reasons will result in frustration and dissatisfaction.

Step 2. Pick The Right People For The Team

In addition to executive leadership and IT, enlist a group of front-line users to participate in the selection process — and listen to them. Not only will this ensure that you understand what users want and think is important, it will help accelerate adoption among their peers once a solution is chosen. Too often decisions are made about CRM applications without input from the people who will use them.

Step 3. Know The Regulatory Environment

It’s also important to take into account how information systems impact your ability to satisfy compliance requirements in your industry. Regulatory bodies vary in the restrictions and procedures they mandate for how data must be stored and managed. Solution delivery methods such as software as a service (SaaS) may not be appropriate in certain industries because they rely on a shared services model.

Step 4. Understand How The CRM Delivery Model Will Impact Your Budget

On-premise CRM software requires companies to own or lease the technology infrastructure — servers, storage, backup and recovery, and networking capabilities — and to provide the personnel who maintain it. There are also software license costs, maintenance fees, and integration expenses. Cloud-based SaaS software uses infrastructure provided by the CRM vendor, and while there may be integration costs, the software licensing expense is paid as a monthly subscription per user.

Certainly, smaller, cash-strapped companies often use the cloud. Likewise, larger companies with IT resources frequently use on-premise. But there are many exceptions to that general rule. More and more large companies employ cloud-based applications because they shift hardware requirements and the installation of patches and updates to the vendor. Conversely, smaller companies in fields where regulation makes the cloud problematic elect on-premise solutions.

Now You Have A Framework

The first four steps give you a framework to make a CRM selection that addresses your problems while creating a minimum of new ones. The framework includes:

* A list of processes and activities you need to improve

* A CRM decision-making team that includes users

* A knowledge of the regulatory constraints that may influence your decision

* An understanding of how the CRM delivery model will affect budgeting

II. Know Your Requirements

What is a good CRM solution? A solution that fits your business. Features are part of the equation, but more important are business considerations such as stakeholder interests, budget, support, integration, and industry demands. You also want a vendor that will work well with your organization over the long haul.

Step 5. Integration Requirements

Whether you plan to use CRM as a departmental solution or across your entire organization, integration can add significant cost and delay to a CRM implementation. So it’s wise to make ease of integration one of your preliminary criteria. Even if you have no immediate plans to integrate, a solution that’s too rudimentary or too complex to integrate with existing systems will almost certainly cause problems eventually — problems that will be expensive to fix.

Step 6. Support Requirements

No matter how adept your staff, they’ll need some degree of help with the CRM product you choose. Knowing their level of sophistication will help you determine how much, which is important since levels and costs of support vary from vendor to vendor.

Use your social network to find peers who have employed support from CRM vendors. They can be a source of unvarnished opinions about this important area. When you’re comparing vendors with similar capabilities, how they stack up in terms of support — cost and responsiveness — can be a deciding factor.

Step 7: Vertical Market Requirements

Are you in an industry that collects unique forms of customer data or in which customers negotiate a specific, non-standard path to buying? If so, there may be CRM solutions tailored to your industry. Purpose-built CRM applications have been created for insurance, real estate, agribusiness, non-profits, and others.

Companies such as resellers or distributors may need to manage tiers of customer relationships with direct customers, partners, and customers who buy from partners. These companies often buy CRM and find it ineffective. A related technology, partner relationship management (PRM), could be a better option for these businesses.

If your market does have unique demands, don’t forego a look at horizontally targeted CRM systems. They’re often more flexible than purpose-built solutions and, with the right customizations, may work better for your organization.

Step 8: Feature Requirements

Good CRM solutions have the same basic features. And features that are rarely used shouldn’t drive purchase decisions.

Feature selection is where the process mapping exercise proves especially valuable. In that exercise, you identified business problems you needed to solve or activities you wanted to improve. Look for features that map to those areas. For example, if you want to incorporate social media into your CRM strategy, look for a solution that can link with social networks to offer an expanded view of the customer relationship.

Listen to your front-line users on the selection team. Allow them to identify things that will make their jobs easier and use those ideas to guide decision-making about features.

Step 9: Financial Requirements

By now, you probably have several solutions in mind. It’s time to decide which of these is most affordable. As stated earlier, costs will vary depending on the delivery model. For example, on-premise software may carry an annual maintenance fee of 22 percent or more. Assess the full initial cost of your CRM candidates and their projected annual costs. Solutions that don’t fit your budget can be scratched from your shortlist.

Step 10: Vendor Requirements

When you think you’ve found the right CRM solution, examine that vendor’s track record — and do it independently. Vendors cherry pick their references so they may not reflect the majority of buyers’ experiences. Again, social media can be useful here. Ask whether a CRM implementation was genuinely transformative and, if so, what role the vendor played in that. You should also learn
something about a vendor’s financial stability. Once you’ve made your selection, you want to be sure the vendor will remain in business to support you in the future.

Getting It Right

The road to buying a CRM solution contains multiple decision points where your business requirements intersect with what the market offers. Take the time to make informed decisions. Even if your company decides against implementing a CRM solution, the evaluation process can improve efficiency and be the catalyst for a more customer-centric approach to business.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Buying CRM: A 10-Step Guide

Experts squawk about Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube, designing websites, and a whole litany of online and social media possibilities, but not all of them make sense for every single business. When it comes to local advertising, small business owners must seriously consider how to concentrate their efforts. While we all must utilize the internet and social media to some extent, what will be most effective for one owner, may be a waste of time for another. By reflecting on some key issues, devising a successful local advertising strategy becomes less about what everyone else says and more about what you truly want and need.

Before you embark upon any online advertising initiatives, you must decide whether you are going to do it yourself, delegate someone in house, or out source it. All of these are perfectly valid options, but you need to consider whether you have the technical expertise, time, and money to support your decision, whatever it happens to be. Initially, it may be difficult for you to gauge your resources and exactly what this undertaking will require. Defining what you hope to achieve with your online presence may clarify things.

We are conditioned to believe expansion and growth is always the desired outcome, but local businesses can also remain a certain size and be quite successful. Are you focused on growing your business, maintaining your current client base, or both? Do want to provide basic information, foster interaction, launch a new but related enterprise, or all of the above? Take a moment to quantify the current state of your business and articulate your true feelings about it. Next, envision where you would like your business to be this time next year. If the tomorrow you dream about looks a lot like today, that is perfectly alright, but then you will fashion an online presence that supports that goal and not one that strives for something you do not want and cannot manage.

Before you establish your accounts, build your sites, and fill out profiles, explore your options by tooling around, and imagining how you would use it to bolster your business. What would you actually enjoy doing, and would your clients respond to it? Twitter is an excellent example of a social media tool that can be an amazing way to cultivate a relationship with new and existing clients. It requires a certain level of commitment, however, if you expect it to help your business. Are you willing to put the time in or would it simply be another chore? Would your tweets be purely professional and, if so, what would they say? Do you see your clients following you, responding, and retweeting your updates? If you can imagine a Twitter presence that adds to your professional life, by all means, tweet away. If, however, it seems extraneous or just does not seem like a good fit, then right now, Twitter is not for you and there are plenty of other online outlets for local advertising.

Some aspects of your business’s online presence are non-negotiable. At this point, every local business should have a website. How complex or sophisticated that website is, however, can vary. At the very least, it should provide critical details such as a description of your business and contact information. On the other end of the spectrum, your website could also host a blog, a library of information, links to other resources and articles, staff bios, and more. If it is exciting to you and makes sense for you business, then make it happen. A well-crafted online presence will pay off, but only if you care enough to invest in it properly.

Facebook is quickly becoming a non-negotiable component for small businesses, as well, in part because it is projected to have 1 billion users by August 2012. A large segment of those users are turning to Facebook instead of Google when searching for services and products. It also has taken the concept of word of mouth to another level. Everyone has a vast network of friends, family, and colleagues to either recommend or enquire about businesses. Just like with your website, however, your Facebook page can be as simple as you want, but keep in mind that local companies who make the most of what it has to offer are seeing results. By interacting with their current customer base, they are fostering a sense of community and loyalty. An active presence also means they are more likely to be noticed by familiar friends and new acquaintances alike.

Review sites are another part of the internet that you cannot opt out of, and you ignore at your own peril. Sites such as Yelp and Citysearch provide an independent space for your clients to submit feedback, both positive and negative. Since it is all user generated content, you cannot remove yourself from these sites, but they usually provide a forum for you to respond to reviews and report ones that violate the site’s guidelines. By being an active participant, you can monitor and manage your reputation. You can also gain valuable insight into your business that helps identify sources of professional pride and areas for improvement. Like Facebook, review sites are often a deciding factor when it comes to patronizing a business, and being highly rated and recommended can be a significant boon.

As you can see, you cannot escape local advertising through social media and the internet, and, if you are willing to invest the time and energy, you can make a tremendous difference in shaping your online presence. At the end of the day, however, small business owners should be focused on their business and not preoccupied with following every social media trend, especially those that are not right for them. Before you dedicate resources to a facet of online advertising, take a moment to carefully consider what makes sense for your business. After all, you know it best, and advertising should be a reflection of your business’s true nature and an investment in its future, whatever that might be.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Local Advertising: Devising an Online Strategy That Suits You

Even though there are numerous search engines available on the internet we all know that Google is the one that counts when it comes to rankings. This means that if you want your website to be successful you need to aim your SEO campaign at Google, but how exactly can you do this if you struggle to understand the complexities of the subject?

1. Create Content That Isn’t Time Sensitive

Putting good quality content on your website that won’t go out-of-date in a few weeks or months is an easy way to boost search engine optimization. By making the content you use useful now and in the future you won’t need to remove it and replace it over and over again – you can simply add to it on a regular basis.

A website with very poor content or very little content is an SEO no-no if you want good search engine rankings so get your typing head on and create some content that people will be glad to read now and in 10 years’ time.

2. Think About Your Customer’s Needs

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about the actual words they may type into the search box in order to find your website. Then check how popular these words are with an SEO keyword tool, such as the free one supplied by Google. One of the quickest and easiest ways to achieve good SEO is with good keyword selection. Then all you need to do is include your SEO keywords in your website content.

3. Do Some Guest Blogging

Google loves links so the more quality websites you can create guest blog posts for the better your SEO campaign will be. Make sure that the guest blogs all link back to your website and that they are relevant to the subject of your website. You should also make sure the content is top quality so that readers want to follow the link you provide.

4. Links, Links and more Links

As the above tip points out Google loves links – but only when the links are genuine and they link to and from other authoritative sites. You run the risk of blacklisting your website and ruining a good SEO campaign by either purchasing links or blogging on unrelated sites and linking back to your site. There are loads of other SEO techniques available so don’t go down this route.

5. Create an Informative Video

Informational videos with backlinks to your website are another great SEO tool. Businesses can make a short video explaining what they do, who they are etc. while vendors can demonstrate their products if appropriate. If you can, distribute your video over multiple platforms then watch as your Google rank increases.

6. Update Your Website on a Daily Basis

If you can add content to your website on a daily or bi-daily basis, Google and the other big search engines start to recognize your site as an authority in its niche. By changing your choice of SEO keywords on a regular basis as well you will begin to rank highly for a good selection of keywords and eventually the majority of keywords related to your site’s topic (or your business) will get your website noticed and ranked among the leading sites.

If you don’t have time to create new SEO oriented blogs on a daily basis, hire a blog writer to do it for you. On-going content creation is one of the easiest SEO techniques to master and one that will improve your Google rank over time.

7. Concentrate on Your Article Titles

A simple SEO tip that many people forget, revolves around the wording of their content or article titles. A lot of search engine spiders/bots initially read the first few lines of a webpage to determine the topic of the content. If you can include your top-ranking keywords in the title of whatever you’re writing, it will help your site’s SEO no end.

8. Avoid Flash-based Websites

Flash websites look lovely and stylish and expensive, but they don’t sit well with Google or your SEO efforts. It takes a number of sophisticated tricks to make Google notice Flash websites and so it makes more sense to use another platform, if you want to improve your rankings.

9. Use Article Submission Sites

Article submission sites are a great SEO tool as they distribute a single article written by you to hundreds of article directories with the aim of getting it published and noticed. The articles you submit can be published for free but any websites that choose to publish it have to include your bio and a link back to your website. Most article submission sites do charge for the service, but they can cut months off your SEO campaign.

10. Hire a Professional SEO Agency

The nine SEO tips mentioned above are quite simple to put into place but they take time, effort and patience. Not everyone has an abundance of these qualities so it may be worth hiring a professional SEO agency to do the work for you. Of course this will cost you money but if it gets your business website onto page 1 of Google within a few weeks it’s definitely a price worth paying.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Top 10 SEO Tips for a Better Google Ranking

The term blog is short for web log, which started out meaning a personal online journal. Back in the late 1990s when blogs first emerged, they were usually filled with personal posts about the owner’s daily life, thoughts, and problems. They have since
evolved into invaluable online marketing tools. Blogs are now a “must-have” resource for any online business.

So jump into the 21st century and read below to see why your business demands a blog!

1. Corporate Headquarters – Every company needs a home-base or corporate headquarters, so to speak. A blog would be the hub of your business and establish your online presence.

2. Easy to Manage – The choices available to you when creating your blog are limitless. With widgets, plug-ins, templates, etc. it is one of the easiest and quickest ways to build an effective, powerful website. You will be amazed at the things you can do with your blog, even if you are technically-challenged.

3. Customer Interaction – A blog encourages customer interaction by allowing people to post their comments, opinions, questions, etc. This will enable you to provide more effective customer service. It will also enable your customers and visitors to get to know you better which in turn will build trust and credibility. Your blog will become an active community attracting more and more subscribers, followers, etc. by building relationships.

4. Cost-Effective Marketing – Research has shown that businesses with a blog have reduced marketing costs. Not only are the costs lower with blogs, but the results are much more successful. Blogs do generate more customers at a lower cost!

5. Value and Education – Because of regular postings and fresh content, your blog will educate your visitors as well as add value to their visit. For example: if you own an online jewelry store, you can add posts educating your visitors on jewelry. How it’s made, the value of the different gems used, the quality of the workmanship, how to take care of your jewelry and much more helpful information can be given to your customers. This will also help establish you as an expert so people will continue to come to you for help and information as well as for the products and/or service they need.

6. Free! – One of the best things about an effective blog is you can get one for free. You do not have to pay a professional web designer hundreds or thousands of dollars to create your business headquarters. Blogger and WordPress are two of the top blog providers.

7. Social Connections – A blog allows you to stay connected with your social sites more effectively. You can also allow your visitors to share with their social pages as well. With social media plug-ins and widgets, your visitors can simply click a button to share your site with all their followers, fans and friends. All these social connections could spin a pretty big web of customers.

8. Business Connections – Through your blog, other online business owners can find you more easily, thus increasing your chances of forming business connections and alliances. Joint ventures with other business owners can help get both sides more exposures, leads and sales.

9. Higher Traffic and Sales – Higher traffic and sales is a goal sought after by every online business owner. Having a blog on your site can help you achieve this goal by the more effective marketing results it can create. Your marketing is more efficient, your site is more valuable and educational, your online presence is much more announced and your networking circle is always expanding. This should all lead to more traffic and increased sales.

10. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Good blogs consistently provide fresh and updated keyword-rich content. This is exactly what Google and the other engines look for in a site. Blogs also increase your chances of getting more quality inbound links. This is another thing the search engines like. As your blog grows and gets more visitors, the importance of it will also grow. This can help you in the search engines as well. Overall, a blog will more likely do better in the search engines than a standard website.

There are many more benefits to blogging than what I have mentioned in this article so if you are not already a blogger, you need to seriously consider becoming one. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much it can benefit your business.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The Top 10 Reasons You Need a Blog

Everyone, from a corner coffee shop to an enterprise cloud provider, benefits from good SEO. But how do you get “good” SEO? Few people even understand the concept of search engine optimization, let alone what makes “good” SEO. You can attempt to go at it alone, but it will ultimately cost you more money in man-hours than it would have cost you to outsource.

Although many business owners consider themselves Internet savvy, the learning curve for optimizing a business for search engines and social media is always expanding. The better choice is to hire an outside firm to handle SEO, but how do you know if you are getting reliable service? To make it simple, we’ve broken down the top 10 things to look for before hiring an SEO company.

1. Transparency – A good SEO professional or firm will have no problem explaining to you exactly how his or her services work. You should know exactly how much time will be spent working on your SEO needs. The person you hire, should also reveal to you the techniques used to boost your website or business’s exposure online, rather than hide it from you. The goal is to help you become more informed so you can perform basic maintenance SEO without the help of a professional. They should fulfill all of the recommendations made by Google for companies looking for SEO.

2. Strategy – The company should have a strong grasp of overall SEO strategies and how to adapt them to your business and your needs. Don’t hire a company that is stuck on a single marketing strategy. Performing on-page optimization is a necessary part of SEO, but that’s only part of the entire process. Find a company that can provide you with a complete range of SEO services.

3. Reporting – Your chosen SEO professional should report back to you on a regular basis concerning the tactics being used to market your business. If there is something you don’t understand, you should be able to ask questions without being told to let the professionals handle it.

4. Experience – Experience is a key factor in determining which SEO company to hire. The Internet is constantly changing, so the longer someone has been providing SEO services, the better the chances are that he or she is staying ahead of the latest advances in search engine algorithms and social media trends.

5. Structure – An SEO professional should be structured and professional. No one wants to hire someone to do SEO work who does it “on the side.” Instead, the person or company you hire, should be structured and abide by deadlines.

Furthermore, you should have no problem contacting him or her when you need to, and phone calls should not take several days to return.

6. Budget – Be upfront about how much you are willing to spend, and demand a clear budget, broken down into itemized expenses. While you should expect to pay for good SEO, the company or person you hire, should have no problem revealing exactly how much of your money is being on marketing your business, and how much is paying for professional services.

7. Promises – Run away if you are promised top results in a search engine. While the goal is to give you the very best ranking you can get in your market, no one can realistically promise you a #1 ranking or fast results. It could happen, but it’s more likely that it will take at least six months to start seeing the long-lasting results of an SEO campaign.

8. Ranking – If the company’s good at what they do, you should see their pages high in results for SEO-related searches. Ask for examples of previous work they’ve done to prove their ability to achieve high rankings for you.

9. Testimonials – An SEO firm should be able to provide you with a list of satisfied customers, as well as testimonials from those customers. Ask for some references that you can contact personally to ask questions about previous customer service experiences.

10. Interest – Any company you work with should treat you with the same respect and priority that it treats bigger companies and more expensive clients. You should never be shoved aside for someone else with bigger pockets, so make sure that the company you choose shows genuine interest in helping you before you sign on the dotted line.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

10 Things to Look for in SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article