Informed Web Content

Internet Marketing Baloney-Hype: 5 Myths, 5 Truths & Many Action Steps

sdelzio — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:00:43 +0000

Promises like these are unethical, but internet marketing is effective when done properly.

Geez, it’s annoying when I see an internet marketer say something like: “Double your traffic in 2 weeks with this proven plan!” or “Get your FREE website!”

Website platforms like wwwWeb.com and www.homestead.com (also www.sitebuilder.com) are particularly guilty of trumpeting free websites when, after YOU have built your site they tell you fees are now $100 – $300 per month and if you want to move your nicely built out site, the fee is $999 or in the case of Homestead, you can’t move it EVER.

Just letting off a little steam here . . . Let me know in the comments whether you’ve been defrauded by any big-promising internet marketing offers. I will write about them in future posts. I’d love to hear what people are saying about Tony Robbins/Chet Homes’ “Ultimate Business Mastery” Summit. From a quick look, they do just what I do, but I’m personally accountable and I’m sure I charge far less.

Myth Truth Action Steps:

Master internet marketing and you “will become the trusted authority in your space, double your leads and trounce your competition!”

With solid keyword research leading to meaningful category pages on a website, supported by social media, small businesses and pro service providers stand to gain a few more calls/leads per week.

Think about using your “long-tail” keywords. “small office spaces Carlsbad,” in addition to “San Diego Offices.” Write pages for each long tail keyword.

You can get a website free! Internet marketing is free.

Web.com and others set you up free for 30 days and then it costs $99 per month and $999 if you want to move it. Webly, Wix and others keep their extension on the end, looking unprofessional. www.franklawgroup.webly.com No.

Call any of these vendors and learn how much they really charge. Expanding a website and doing social media takes time. If no time, must hire out.

“We will submit your business to the top 50 directories! You don’t know how to do it right yourself.”

The directories pick you up on their own. You can also go to the directories and build out your profile by adding photos, video and descriptions using your keywords.

Go to www.plus.google.com, CitySearch.com, Judy’s Book (see more attached) and search for your business. If it’s there, CLAIM it and build it out by uploading photos and writing more. Or go to www.ubl.org (universal business listing.com), click on “Check Visibility” and see where you are showing up. Ask your clients to give you reviews on Google Plus. Universal Business Listing will send your listing out to lots of directories for $169 per year. Changing your listing at ubl.org changes it at all directories. Worth it for me.

You must be on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ or your business will fail! A bad review on Facebook and Google+ will ruin your business!

Most businesses report they ARE NOT getting sales directly from Facebook. LinkedIn is helping small biz make connections but sales develop from lots of one-on-one follow up. Most people go on Facebook every day. Seeing your posts come up daily keeps you top of mind, but to be effective small biz should post daily. A bad online review or comment will not ruin your business. It’s just the new reality and EVERY business gets them. Often, they make the reviewer look worse than the business itself.

Make it easy and cost/time-effective by using www.hootsuite.com to post simultaneously to LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook. Watch where your traffic is coming from

You must focus on one certain guru’s ideas and follow that plan to get the most leads from the internet for your business.

You have to try several strategies and see which works best for your business. Forget “industry standards,” you have to track and monitor YOUR traffic and more.

Examine where your traffic is coming from, which pages they land on first and which pages they are most likely to leave from by adding your site to Google Analytics. www.google.com/analytics.

Free Stuff from the 4 Best Internet Marketing Gurus

The post Internet Marketing Baloney-Hype: 5 Myths, 5 Truths & Many Action Steps appeared first on Informed Web Content.

“I’m Not Very Tech Savvy:” A San Diego Content Writer Reviews Affordable Websites

sdelzio — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:01:49 +0000

Has it been tough for you to find affordable websites in San Diego?

Recently, a realtor came to me warning that she’s “not very tech savvy,” in an apologetic tone. This realtor needs an affordable website for her San Diego business.

Like many who call and email me, she was embarrassed to know nothing about search engine optimization, conversion optimization and social marketing. I worked hard to convince her that she is not “too late to the game,” or “hopeless.” Anyone can learn this stuff! I resent the marketers who imply that it’s too complex for the average small business owner to get their head around.

Even though Coca Cola has 49 million followers on Facebook and multiple websites made up of thousands of pages, small business still has plenty of time create a powerful web presence that brings in leads and establishes them as the leader in their field!

Small Businesses Can Succeed Using Affordable Websites

In fact, small business owners who:

optimize their websites for relevant, qualified keywords,
keep optimizing with regular search engine optimized, useful and relevant blog content,
use social media to keep their business name on the forefront of prospects’ minds, and
unify and streamline it all so that it isn’t overwhelming

. . . have a huge edge over their other small business competitors. Just check out your closest competitors and see how often they’re blogging, posting on Google+ or Facebook. It isn’t much! Small business doesn’t need to compete with Coca Cola, just the fellow nutritionist, electrician, attorney or veterinarian down the road. Most of these are not optimized for local search or any search whatsoever!

Where Small Businesses Get into Trouble with FREE & Affordable Websites

Three ways:

1. There are many companies that will give you a free website platform, but they run ads on it, hoping to make money through “affiliate” programs. Do you want site visitors clicking to other businesses, away from your site? No.

2. Heavily marketed on television, Web.com and others CLAIM to give you a FREE website. Sure, it’s FREE for one month and they you start paying $99 each month thereafter. You get your website up and going and then realize that hosting is $5 per month at other sites like Blue Host and Dream Host. When you call Web.com to move your site from them to a new host, they let you know that privilege will cost you a cool $999.

3. Webly, WebEasy and others are very limited and fail to tell you how important search engine optimization is. Further, your business has the extension .webly.com or .webeasy.com after it, and that’s just not professional. In fact, www.markstherapeuticmassage.webly.com or www.firstchoicemortgage.webeasy.com just screams novice. No one wants to do business with a company that’s new and untried.

My Email to the Fretting Real Estate Agent

Dear Violet,

Michelle mentioned you might be contacting me. Don’t worry about not being tech savvy. While most people won’t admit it, this internet marketing is STILL new to many! Particularly small businesses and their clients. Even if your real estate colleagues have websites, often they’re not search engine optimized or updated very often. They’re not that far ahead of you.

If you are over 45 like me, this all can be intimidating. 5 years ago I was working for print publications and was afraid of Google Docs!

I work hard to demystify the process and the online tools because most people CAN handle their own internet marketing once they get over the initial learning process. I like to think that I provide an internet marketing and social media “springboard,” leaping small businesses over the online, SEO, social media learning curve so they can take over these tasks themselves eventually and save money. You can also check out my page Small Business Web Content to get more information on how a small business gets leads and traffic through online channels like websites, blogs and social media. You’ll see there that I do the initial web pages, blog and social media posts, modeling best practices so you can take over if you want.

I am happy to help you set up an affordable, search-engine-optimized website. You have several options:

Option 1. Homestead/Intuit Websites: $150 per Month, in Perpetuity

This established and ethical Intuit company, has a site builder that designs and optimizes a search engine optimized site for $150 per month. You will see $4.99/month and even $59.99/month options, but those are not search engine optimized and so they’re basically useless. You must have a search engine optimized site or your ideal clients don’t get to you. It’s just an online brochure, untrafficked but for the people you actually send there deliberately.

The downside to Homestead’s overall fair platform is that if you decide to leave their organization, build a bigger, better CUSTOM site and go to be hosted at Blue Host or Dream Host (two I recommend), you CANNOT take the site with you. You have to build a completely new site. The other downside to Homestead is that this $150 per month option doesn’t include the crucial optimized content writing that I provide and that can run you $75 per page for web pages and $40 per blog post. Homestead’s sales reps tell you to provide all written content and if you’re not a content writer, you’ll miss a lot of search engine traffic. You should do 2 blog posts a week (but you can do these yourself).

If you write the initial drafts of your own pages and posts, I can re-write your pages, optimizing them and making them engaging and interesting for prices lower than those above. Get me a draft of a blog post and I’ll optimize and spruce it up for $25. You can toss one post a week, one a month or whatever you need to me. Fresh content posted regularly is important for search engine optimization.

The other downside to the Homestead affordable website option is that at the end of the first year, you’ve paid $1800 ($150 x 12) for a site. By the end of the second year, $3600; Year 3: $5,400. And so on . . . For $5,400 you can get a CUSTOM site made by my friends at Future Ink here in San Diego (see below). You will still need search engine optimized content (fresh blog posts and web pages), however. Either you can create it or you can pay for that. As I mentioned, I write 10 original blog posts for $400 and 10 revisions of blog post DRAFTS or even NOTES for $250 per month. My prices are low. And make sure to tell them that you need a blog on the site. That’s crucial.

Option 2: Future Ink

This San Diego internet marketing firm charges $5,000 to $10,000 or more for a search engine optimized websites, plus monthly fees for updates and maintenance. Future Ink has won many awards from reputable organizations including Forbes Magazine. They are the real thing.

Option 3: SEO, Inc

$25,000 and up for a search engine optimized website, plus $1,000 per month for updates and maintenance. These guys usually work for “enterprise” level companies, like Fortune 500, etc. (I guess this wouldn’t really be in the “affordable” category, but I wanted to give readers and idea of the range . . . .

Option 4: Custom Affordable Websites with Informed Web Content

I can start you out by writing 10 pages of optimized content and do the keyword research to organize your website based on your best (most potentially trafficked) keywords for $800. Keyword research and setting up the site navigation is time intensive as is the actual writing. Each page must demonstrate your unique selling propositions, appeal to both the emotions and the intellect of the visitor, have the right primary and secondary keywords and include “calls to action” or “coversion opportunities” like “Join Our Newsletter and Get our San Diego Relocation Tips!” More conversion opportunities are schedule appointment forms, phone numbers prevalent and invitations to follow you on Facebook and other social media platforms.

But that’s just the SEO, the written content and the site navigation/organization. For the website’s coding and design I use Ryan Gravador who is expert on WordPress but will build a site for the most reasonable prices I’ve found in San Diego: $850. The total cost of your site will be $1650 and you should probably hire Ryan to do monthly site maintenance and updates for $50 per month, if only for the first 3 months. (These are coding updates, uploading blog posts that you write, etc. Although uploading a blog post is so freaking easy it’s a shame to pay for it. That’s why I help clients learn this stuff.)

To keep the website fresh and maximize your SEO, you need to blog regularly and post announcements about those blogs on Facebook, Google+ etc. I can get you started with the social media process by setting up your Facebook and Google+ page, writing your initial 5 or so blog posts and then broadcasting them through Facebook and Google Plus.

But when I do it, I show YOU how to do the same thing so you can take these duties over and drop me all together, saving you money in the long run. Ryan and I both believe that once a site is built, of course it’s yours to take wherever you want! We’ll also help you learn how to post your own blog content, make changes to the site yourself, etc, if you want to. You’ll want to: It’s fun! To do the first 5 blog posts without drafts, set up your Facebook and Google + pages, do the first 2 weeks of social media content, I charge $600. This cost includes me training YOU how to do it yourself.

The Affordable Website Isn’t the Entire Picture for Effective Local Search

Because you have a local business, you’ll also need to get on the Local Directories. I recommend Universal Business Listings which puts you on at least 30 local directories for $169 per year. The local directories are CitySearch, LocalEze, Judy’s Book, yp.com, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Google Plus Local, etc.

Where other companies say they’ll do it for you, HYPE the advantages and charge multiple hundreds for the year, I just pass you along to the site itself: https://www.ubl.org . I don’t get a cut. I can, however, help you search engine optimize your listing there. That’s important. I charge $75 to create an optimized write up, get your photos and videos “alt-tagged” properly for SEO, etc. You then upload that to www.ubl.org (or I can do it) and they shoot the info to all the directories. Yext.com is another local search directory one-stop-shop option but it’s more expensive – $50 per month. With Universal Business Listings and Yext, if you have a change to your business or add an additional service, you don’t have to go to every single directory. You just make the change through UBl.org and they change it everywhere.

A Custom, Affordable Website through Informed Web Content Includes . . .

A site that Ryan and I build includes Google Analytics (critical for knowing where your traffic is coming from and how they are moving around on your site), email accounts, contact forms, social media integration, SEO plug ins to make do-it-yourself SEO easy, SiteMap and many conversion opportunities like “sign up for our email newsletter list and get “10 Best Resources for Relocating to San Diego!” or “10 Most Commonly Forgotten Items in a Move.” Other “conversion” opportunities or “calls to action” include the phone number prominent, the “have a question? schedule an appointment” form on every page and the links that encourage people to follow you on Facebook and Google+.

Time Involved

As for how long a website takes to build, given my and Ryan’s current workload, we aren’t scheduling to start new work for 2 weeks. After that, it takes another 2 weeks for us to get all the info from you that we need and then get the first “draft” to you. We both get 1/2 up front and 1/2 upon completion of work.

Confused about Affordable Websites? Baby Steps . . .

This is a lot of information. If I’ve confused you here, I’m sure I can clear things up when we meet and talk more on the phone. And for heavens’ sakes, don’t think you’re going to understand all of this stuff this week or even this month.

Keep in mind that anything can be learned in baby steps. Informed Web Content takes you over each hurdle slowly and with lots of phone calls and emails.

The best way to learn is to dive in, experiment, make a few mistakes, rectify them quickly and then brag to all your friends that you RULE online. When you sign on with Informed Web Content, services include listening to you have panic attacks and rectifying your issues.

If you still want to meet, do you have time on Monday? I typically meet clients at Mimi’s cafes or Starbucks where there is WiFi. I work from my home in Scripps Ranch.

Sincerely, Suzanne

To all my blog readers: please feel free to sign up for my monthly email newsletter, follow me on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter to follow along with the ins and outs of successful online marketing for small businesses. Contact me if you are ready to get started with an effective but affordable website.

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A San Diego Content Writer Considers the Uncertain Future of the Keyword

sdelzio — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:28:20 +0000

Once the currency of search engine optimization, it appears keywords may not pay their way forever.

Future of Keywords Up in Smoke?

I was concerned but not surprised to come across the article, Is 2013 the year marketers lose Keyword Research? from my unwitting mentor, inbound marketing company Hubspot, a thought leader I trust immensely.

Keywords Could Be in Trouble

Two years ago, the major search engines began encrypting the search process to protect the privacy of individuals performing a search. Google and Bing determined they would have more business if they could make those using their tools feel as safe as possible. Next time you perform a search, try to notice the “https” beginning the url, rather than just http. It’s a little hard to see here below, but look above the red line.

When I searched “landscapers, San Diego,” Google reassured me that when I went to the websites listed in the search engine results, those companies couldn’t get any of my information.

Encrypted search protects searchers’ privacy but also strip away the words a searcher used to get to your site, leaving site owners with less information about their marketing efforts. While the analytics on your site may determine that the browser came from Google or Bing, you won’t know the exact words they used to get from there to you. What are we left with then?

Keywords, R.I.P? This Content Writer Says . . . Not Yet

Not quite yet. Keep in mind that despite these alarm-ringing articles and the fast changes to internet marketing, Google still turns on keywords quite a bit. We’re certainly not giving up using keywords anytime soon. There are still lots of unencrypted searches going on (again, when you search, try to watch for the presence or absence of that “s” at the end of the “http”).

At the same time, maybe it’s time to start considering other aspects of successful internet marketing, putting time and energy there.

Preparing for Change: Website Analytics Now a Must

While we may start losing track of exactly what words are bringing visitors to our sites, those of us with analytics will still know where visitors are coming from (Google, Facebook, an ad) and we do know where they’re landing.

Last spring, I attended a search engine optimization seminar held by UCSD and one of San Diego’s pre-eminent SEO firms, SEO, Inc. There, John Lincoln, director of social media and consulting, explained how he was pushing everyone on his staff to become certified in Google Analytics. This means going through Google’s free (but time consuming) training, something for which no small business owner has the time or the bandwidth.

The webmaster, however, is another story. It’s his or her job to analyze your analytics and report back to you. The bottom line for the website owner is that if you don’t have analytics on your site now, it’s time to set that up. And then what?

Use Analytics to Separate Your Hard-working Pages and Posts from Your Slackers

Analyze pages and posts. Business owners that know which of their blog posts or services pages are getting the most attention through organic search can consider placing a PPC ad leading to that offer to boost the page’s success further. Make sure you have lots of conversion opportunities on those pages and posts!
Separate and experiment with your offers. Break your business products or services into self-contained offers, putting each offer on a separate landing page and then testing which gets the best traction and response.

If you don’t have analytics on your site or you’re not accessing it, call your web developer. WordPress sites accommodate a simple plugin that gets Google analytics on your site in under an hour. Once you know which of your pages draw the most visitors, where they come from and how people proceed through your site, you boost your internet marketing power exponentially.

Use Quality Content to Prove Your Dedication to Product/Service Support

Fresh, relevant content on your site that covers lots of aspects of your niche will be key. When consumers are looking to buy, they want to know there will be solid support throughout the lifetime of their product or service. Set yourself apart by providing free, helpful content to support your products and services. (A bigger site also gets you more credibility with the search engines as well.)

Content, in the form of an active blog or specific product and services pages, provides lots of opportunities for you to see which pieces get hits and which don’t.

Knowing which content gets attention also helps you understand what level are your prospects on. Do they respond best to titles that convey simple information or to intricate even esoteric information about your product or services? Peer into the mind of your ideal prospects by writing up lots of content and then following the success of each through analytics. The more narrow you can hone each page or post, the more accurate your market insight.

Demonstrate Your Availability and ACCOUNTABILITY with Social Media Integration

I’m still hearing, “I don’t have time for social media!” 15 minutes a day is all it takes to post something relevant to your industry.

Social media, like internet marketing isn’t going away. People take breaks at work by going on Facebook several times a day. A recent study showed that people who identified themselves as “invested in social media” spent 3 hours a day on their different channels. Basically, they’re hanging out with friends, for much of the day. I am pushing everyone– clients who are doctors, electricians, massage therapists–everybody to at least get a Facebook page and Google Plus presence.

If your clients “like” you on Facebook, your posts have a decent chance of crossing their “desks” (attention span, really) once a day. Constant reminders will help them remember your name for their friends and family, and even for when they need additional products and services. 15 minutes a day, you can, and should afford.

Informed Web Content: Internet Marketing for Small Business

Still squeamish? See our Affordable Social Media Springboard for Small Business offer. We set you up, get you rolling and we’re here when you need us, but after we model excellent search engine optimized web page, blog and Facebook/Twitter/Google Plus writing and SEO best practices, you can do your blog posts, email newsletters and Facebook posts yourself and save!

Have more complex questions? Feel free to call us at (858) 248-0667. We are happy to answer all your internet marketing and quality web content questions. When you work with Informed Web Content, you not only get content writers, you get internet marketing experts. Feel free to contact us if you prefer to type out your question or if you need a quote. We’ll always keep you up to date on what’s working online.

The post A San Diego Content Writer Considers the Uncertain Future of the Keyword appeared first on Informed Web Content.

Christmas Alert for Business Owners with Kids: Google’s Santa Tracker Rocks!

sdelzio — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:33:04 +0000

Christmas Alert: Santa hired developers!

After splitting with NORAD on their joint Christmas Eve Santa radar, Google now has its very own Santa Tracker. BUT since there are three days left before Christmas, the Santa Tracker home page has a village you can wander through accomplishing various Christmas missions. The page is right and left scrollable and the clickable icons lead you to fun and seasonally-themed APPs.

In The Googster’s own words: “On Christmas Eve, we’ll be proudly showcasing a preview of Santa’s dashboard—the technology that powers his sleigh . . . We’ve received this special preview from one of Santa’s many developer elves . . . “ See?

First, through a website texting feature, Santa asked me several questions about what my kids wanted, where they lived, what their nicknames were and more. He then put all the info into a voice message that rang through right to their phones. (“Hello Molly. This is Santa calling.” Whoops- sent during school hours). Then I went through the process for my significant other just to give myself a laugh thinking of him picking up the phone to Santa. Santa did tell me first that he had a legal team and I had to check off I understood what was involved. Oh well. If you can’t trust Santa . . .

Santa’s Village also included several games that involve elves dropping wrapped presents into chimneys and sleighs. Going on a long car trip? Throw the kid an iPhone or Droid and have him or her explore these little, holiday themed games. It looks like there’s lots more, but I should be working and I need to get some stocking stuffers yet!

Two Small Gifts from Informed Web Content

Not to throw cold egg nog on the holidays, but I stumbled across a review of the book, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” written by a palliative care nurse and thought it had some good seasonal messages. I have the bias that my clients won’t have the regrets the world’s arbitrage lawyers and repo men do. I’m hoping that going through these and recognizing the meaningful choices you’ve made already will add to your happy feelings over the holidays.

The top 5 regrets were:

I wish I had lived a life true to myself and not the expectations of others.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had made more time for friends.
I wish I had let myself be happier. (“Let”? Apparently getting into a habit of chronic unhappiness is common.)

Negative Online Reviews Dampening Holiday Spirits?

They’re part of EVERY business’ life these days. Clobber the negative ones, sending them down the list by asking your clients for reviews on Google+ and Yelp. This is the first line of defense for companies large and small. A completed review enters their name in a drawing for an iPad, Kindle HD or any other must-have toy for grown ups.

Download, customize and print these requests for Google+ and Yelp Reviews from our website. After you put in your practice name and the details of the sweepstakes you’re running for all who submit a review, you can print them out and hand them to your clients and customers.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Suzanne

No related posts.

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Content Writer Alert: One More Nail in SEO Article Marketing Coffin

sdelzio — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:20:31 +0000

SEO Article Marketing Goes Here!

This year, Marnie Pehrson, founder of article directory Idea Marketers.com, deleted 3 million articles that hopeful internet marketers had posted to her site over the past 13 years.

In case you’re not familiar with “article marketing” strategy, many search engine optimization companies depended mightily on sites like ezine articles.com, goarticles.com and more for backlinks that would boost their clients’ rankings. They would write industry specific articles containing backlinks to clients’ websites, hoping that with the power of the million-page directory behind them, the specific article would also come up high in search results, giving it lots of “link juice” or credibility with Google.

The tragic flaw, however, inhered in the fact that neither SEO specialists nor their clients were professional writers. The quality of the articles was poor. More, however, these low quality articles DID work for a time, egging the writers on. Blame fickle Google for being slow to realizing that most of the content contained nothing web browsers really wanted. Once clued in, Google’s used its Penguin and Panda updates to slam that coffin lid.

No More SEO Article Marketing? Now What?

Pehrson, who, to her credit, tried to keep the quality of articles high by creating various filters, now believes “creating unique, quality content and placing it on blogs and web sites that relate will always be a viable method of promoting yourself online.” Where the article directories once ruled SEO, now they torpedo it. Keep your content on your blog! And remember niche, niche niche, even to the point of being the LOCAL plumbing expert or the LOCAL self-defense class.

Pehrson also believes that writing quality niche posts for other sites is smart marketing. Otherwise known as “guest posting,” articles with an even tighter focus than the blog you submit your guest posts to can siphon the specific traffic you need. Pehrson explains, “Our survival as business owners depends on our ability to truly connect with our audience and serve their specific needs.”

Translation: think of their questions ahead of time and write up solid answers. Check out Peep Laja’s excellent post, “Are You Providing Answers to Magic Questions?” (If you check out his About page, you’ll see that he is using some kind of photo/video hybrid for his profile. The Harry Potter era with the otherworldly newspapers that have those active photos is here!)

Need Quality Content for Your Website?

Content writer Suzanne Delzio and her team can write quality web pages, blog posts and more that get your website found by your ideal prospect. More, we’re happy to model your first search engine optimized, high-quality blog posts, publicize them through your social media channels and show you how to do the same. We want you to learn this stuff. Keep your marketing in-house when you use Informed Web Content! Call us at 858-248-0667 or contact us here today!

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5 Main Takeaways from “100+ Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions 2013.”

sdelzio — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:27:56 +0000

Even Content Marketing has it’s own soothsayers!

. . . because 100 is just too many!

Visual Content de-thrones the written word.

Great news for photographers; a little scary for writers. Nonetheless, plenty of marketing experts believe written content MUST expand, particularly for brands that need to tell their stories better by illustrating their unique selling propositions and marketing messages through helpful, engaging content. One photo does not a “how-to” make!
This said, one expert did mention that putting words and pictures together to tell a story or provide helpful information creates a “warm atmosphere . . . a home run.” Makes sense to this content writer . . .

Rise of the NICHE social media site.

This implies the fall of Facebook, an inevitability many of the 100 content marketing experts agreed upon. Wow! A social media site that focuses on hiking in California or my favorite guilty pleasure, Celebrity Ghost Stories, would be awesome. But for now there’s:

CareZ: for the social philanthropist
Dogster/Catster: for the networking pet owner
My Last Wish: a new iOS APP that connects people around the world based on what they want to do before they die
UnTappd: for the social beer connoisseur
Athlinks: for those who marathon, cycle, swim and otherwise push themselves to achieve physical goals while they’re NOT watching Celebrity Ghost Stories.

Facebook kinda did turn into a kid-bragging niche, a sin for which I am guilty as well.

Demise of the Infographic

They cry is unanimous: “death to infographics!” What did the little infographic ever do to them? Underwhelm, I think. This mish-mash of cut and paste and a few words just didn’t prove itself an exciting enough story-telling vehicle.

Brand Journalism Goes Hardcore?

Could the content marketer’s dream quote, “every brand a publisher”morph into “every brand a freaking New York Times?” Perhaps. Consider this quote from John Earndardt, director of corporate communications at Cisco:

“I think more companies will move towards Cicso’s model at www.newsroom.cisco.com/take-share-engage where we produce great technology content from brand name journalists about the topics we care about. We then ask other outlets (bloggers, media and more) to syndicate this content on their sites. We aren’t driven by eyeballs, others are and we are happy to provide quality content (we only ask for citation). Nissan is also doing great things at www.nissannews.com and Intel at www.intelfreepress.com.”

Maybe great for the big guys, but small business is still mostly trying to tell its own brand stories.

Content Marketing Cannot Be Spam Baloney Used to Impress Google.

Yes we all learned this with the Google Panda/Penguin updates, but analytics have revealed that web surfers respond only to content with solid value. As Evan Scott of Terrain Strategic Integrated Marketing explains, “if [Peter] Drucker is right that innovation and marketing are business’ two main functions, then . . . marketing without innovation is snake oil; innovation without marketing is hobby.” A chilling quote for both the innovators and the marketers if you ask me.

The funniest quote came from Doug Kessler, creative director and co-founder of Velocity, but you have to be something of a content marketing insider to get the last line that made me LOL.

“Slideshare romps. Lame infographics die back – find new bandwagon * Facebook starts slide; niche social networks rise-rethink social strategy * Marketing automation market consolidates- prepare for content marketing platforms * Google sucked into world’s biggest anti-trust case – SEO playbook changes * Internal content teams grow; skills gap widens – invest in talent * CMI bought by major player; Pulizzi buys NY Jets; orange retired as a color.”

Will you be watching as Google gets sucked into world’s biggest anti-trust case? Surely, that process is overdue. Maybe it’s in the works right now.

What do you think? What are your content marketing plans in 2013?

This article did get me excited about content’s future (again), however. Particularly when Six Estate Content Director Katie McCaskey reminded me that, thanks to Apple’s iBooks program, eBooks will surge again and the business blog is NOT dead, “because a solid blog with original, niche news is a centralized place for all marketers to build their brand through content.” Barbra Gago, head of Global Demand Generation at TIBCO even proclaimed that, “sponsored content will thrive as the #1 advertising engine.” Nice!

Ready to start a content marketing program in your business? Informed Web Content can help! Where do-it-yourselfers appreciate our Social Media Springboard package where we model the first blog posts, and then publicize them through social media channels and more, those who don’t even want to deal with creating their own content can depend on us to deliver the blog posts that pinpoint their clients’ pain points in cogent and engaging prose. Feel free to call us at 858-248-0667 or contact us today!

The post 5 Main Takeaways from “100+ Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions 2013.” appeared first on Informed Web Content.

Small Business Owners Need This to Get Reviews on Google+ and Yelp

sdelzio — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:40:29 +0000

Drawings Prompt Customers to Overcome Inertia and Get that Great Review up on Google+ and Yelp

Small businesses must get to the top of Google+ Local (formerly Google Places) and Yelp directories to land on the first page of search engine results and therefore get the most clicks and traffic. Reviews are a huge part of making it into the first ten listings, and yet many businesses are reluctant to ask for them.

Uncomfortable Asking for Yelp or Google+ Reviews? Take These. We Made Them for YOU.

Download all four pages from our dropbox (and if your browser comes up with a warning box, please know that we’re too busy writing to infect any files with viruses.) The MSWord format allows you to tailor the text and offers to your business.

Small Business Request for Customer Google Plus Reviews Front

Small Business Request for Customer Google Plus Reviews Back

Small Business Request for Yelp! Reviews Front

Small Business Request for Yelp! Reviews Back

The asking part is right in these four Microsoft word doc downloads. We left them in MSWord format to make it easy for you to pop in your business name and your offer. We’ve highlighted the areas you need to change to make sure you don’t miss any. Get it to them before the holidays even! Everyone wants a free gift, either for themselves or for a friend.

We put four on a page so that you can print them out front and back (preferably on bright paper), cut them into 4 and hand them out easily. You just cut and replace the yellow parts with your very own business name, offers and contact information. Easy!

Front:

Back:

This back part can remain untouched as they are simple instructions and not branded in any way.

Still Uncomfortable Asking for Yelp and Google+ Reviews?

Recast your request in your mind. Instead of thinking that you’re ASKING for something, realize that you’re GIVING them opportunity to enter a drawing to win an iPod, Microsoft Surface (I want it!), Xbox 360, a year’s worth of massages, dog food, teeth cleaning and more.

Did you wince at the mention of an expensive prize? If you’re not willing to spend a few hundred on this marketing campaign, you may as well stop reading now. Research has shown that customers need something worth hundreds in order to remember and then expend the effort to write a Google Plus or Yelp review for you.

On the other hand, do you think $400 – $600 is reasonable for 10 Google + or Yelp reviews? We do. It only takes five Google reviews to win some traction in the Google+ Directory rankings (gotta get in that first 10!). Further, as we’ve mentioned in other posts, having regular Google+ updates is doing wonders for local search engine optimization for businesses, including Informed Web Content! If you’re not as engaged on Google Plus as you are on Facebook, now is the time. Also, in the versions I’ve included below, I’ve included a small reward for everyone posting a review. Make it a win-win-win!

Have you asked for reviews before only to get no response? Ergh!

Why Customers Have Failed to Leave Google+ and Yelp Reviews Before

Many fans of a business want to help their favorite service providers and vendors. When they leave your doors, they’re determined to head home and write up that review. But three things get in the way:

interruptions (in our over-scheduled society),
intertia, and
intimidation and/or lack of familiarity with Google+ and/or Yelp

This post gets you past all three.

Use an “Enter to Win” Drawing to Start Accruing Those All-Important Google+ and Yelp Reviews

Have questions about this process? Feel free to contact us or call us at (858) 248-0667, or Skype director Suzanne Delzio @suzanne.delzio. We’re always on Skype and email. Don’t forget our other Free Internet Marketing Tools like this one. You can get our Business Blog Start Up Kit, the workbook that teaches blogging best practices while getting your very own blog DONE!

If you need to put your small business’ unique selling propositions and marketing messages into ideal form on your business website, know that at Informed Web Content, we are experts in sales website copywriting and SEO copywriting. In the meantime, get hopping on those Google+ and Yelp Reveiws!

The post Small Business Owners Need This to Get Reviews on Google+ and Yelp appeared first on Informed Web Content.

Should Small Business Owners Be Allowed to Blog?

sdelzio — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:30:02 +0000

Small business owners who are not veterinarians missed a firestorm in the online veterinary communities when Jed

NO BLOG FOR YOU!

Schaible, DVM, published, “Why veterinarians shouldn’t be allowed to blog” in Veterinary Economics Magazine.

While most readers here aren’t vets, Dr. Schaible brings up some big concerns all small business owners and marketers have:

Is blogging’s return worth the time and effort expended?
Aren’t small business owners already over-extended?
Don’t the complexities of keyword research make effective blogging impossible for small business owners?

In the current environment of social media hype, I give Jed Schaible credit.

Social media techniques became marketing crack-cocaine to our novelty-loving brains, but too many business owners have found they fall short of expectations. And this is coming from a search engine optimized content writer!

I’d like to make the case for why all small business owners should use social media first by addressing Schiable’s excellent and honest points and then by explaining the unique opportunity even the smallest businesses have for leveraging inexpensive blogging and social media tools.

Schaible Anti-Blogging Point #1:

“Rank is tricky. If a veterinarian writes a post about overheating in dogs, that article should help them rank online for those search terms, right? Not so. There are so many pet-owner-targeted sites out there—eHow.com, VetLive.com, etc.—that no independent veterinary hospital will ever rank well enough to generate web traffic.”

Wow. TRUE . . . to a point.

Go to Google and type in “site:www.ehow.com” and you’ll get this page:

The line right under the search box is grayed out, possibly to make it less noticeable. It tallies the number of pages eHow has, and even these mid-forty eyes aren’t so bad that they can’t read 3,980,000 pages. No local veterinary website can ever get nearly four million pages on the web. No way.

And Yet . . . Google Ranks Small Business in a More Sophisticated Way

It’s not as simple as website size, however. Based on location and the individual’s previous web surfing habits, Google may decide to send results that originate from sites the surfer has been to before or from the surfer’s geographic area (local search). If eHow is across the country and a surfer has never been there before, it’s possible eHow won’t even come up in the search results. Take that, EHow! Also, if the surfer types in his or her city or neighborhood, Google and the other search engines return “local” results and EHow doesn’t stand a chance.

The best strategy for small business to make it to the first page of search results is to aim instead to take up as much search result “real estate” as possible on that first results page.

Focus on local search (using neighborhoods and city names on your website, blog posts and directory listings).
Optimize and build out Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local and other directory entries
Use longtail keywords the big guys ignore

So Schaible is right: no small business can compete with the huge publishing sites out there on specific search terms But the small business willing to stumble into the blogging and local directory arenas CAN outrank their own small business competitors who just aren’t ready to take these steps. Further, as explained below, blogging has just as much to do with client relationship management and word of mouth marketing as it does with getting to the first page of Google.

An Overview of the First Page of Search Results

The image below reveals results of a search for “Encinitas Veterinarian.” (Apologies for the tiny letters, but you can search “Encinitas Veterinarian” yourself to get the full view. At the top is the PPC or pay per click, paid ads.

Next comes Dean Crowe, DVM, BUT it’s not actually his website, just his Yelp review page. He managed to get 19 Yelp reviews, most likely with a promotion like “give us a Yelp review and we’ll enter you into a drawing for a year’s supply of dog food!” Those are perfectly legitimate and even fun for clients! All small businesses should take advantage of Yelp’s huge size by getting their listing on there and building it out as much as possible. Here’s a great article to guide you: “Yelp Help: The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing YourBusiness Page.” And don’t forget the photos! Review Trackers found that those searching Yelp for local businesses spend 2.5 times more time on a Yelp listing that included photos than on a listing without photos.

Don’t think our golden child, Dean Crowe, DVM, got all those reviews naturally. Do what you have to in order to stack up your own Yelp reviews. Find all the text you need in this Informed Web Content blog post: “Steal These 5 Requests for Yelp, Google Plus, CitySearch and More Reviews.”

The next 9 entries are Google + Local (formerly Google Places) results. Google+ Local is a directory of local businesses that’s now linked to a business’ Google Plus page. Research has shown that most surfers click on one of the first 7 to 10 listings. Therefore, it’s important to build out a Google+ page that will win Google’s respect. To do that, check out this article: “The Essential Guide to Google+ Local Pages.”

Two of the Google+ Local results are Banfield and VCA, the big chains that many consider impossible to compete with. When you’re talking local directory results, however, keep in mind that most of your competitors are small like you are. You can get ahead of them simply by adding a few photos and building out the “about” section with your product or service category and your neighborhoods. After all, the very fact that you’re reading this article puts you ahead of 80% of the small businesses out there. As on Yelp, after optimization, the big goal for Google+ Local is to get reviews.

A smaller, stand-alone practice, The Drake Center for Veterinary Care, made it to the third spot with just a big FIVE Google reviews.

Five is the magic number of reviews that begin to earn Google’s respect (and rankings). Any small business can pull that off! But more, a quick check reveals that while the Drake Center for Veterinary Care did manage to get those five, it ALSO optimized it’s Google+ page with descriptions and photos. Magic numbers: 10 photos and 5 videos. The Banfield or VCA franchise may not have enough of an “ownership” feel for the veterinarians and their staff to take this kind of initiative.

If you don’t have a Google + Local listing and page yet, get on it. It doesn’t have to be perfect right off the bat. Just fill in as many fields as you can and upload some photos. Google runs the show and they’re giving lots of credence to their baby, Google Plus.

Directories Beyond Google Plus Small Businesses Need

67% of all web browsers start a search on Google, but Bing is gaining on them (15%) and Yahoo is holding steady (13%). Much smaller, more specific search engines make up the remaining 5%. Marketing experts are predicting a steady uptick in the percentage of Bing’s share.

That means, in addition to a Google + listing and page, you need to put the same information into directories:

Yahoo Local
Bing Local
Axicom
InfoUsa
LocalEze
Judy’s Book
CitySearch
YP
YellowBook

Just write your business information once, save it to a file and paste it into each directory’s appropriate filed. Marshall your photos, get them in an easy to find place and upload them to each site. While you could depend on Yext or Universal Business Listing submitting to hundreds of online directories for you, we just don’t like the fact that if you stop paying either service, ALL entries disa-freaking-ppear. Many veterinarians and small business owners discovered too late that they never owned the website that was part of AT&T’s all-in-one internet marketing services, meaning that they would be on the hook for monthly fees to AT&T for life—a crock if you ask me. They didn’t OWN their internet assets. When you do the work yourself, that free listing stays up there forever.

If Google + or Yahoo Local listings and PPC show up at the Top, Should Small Business Even Worry about the Search Engine Optimization Benefits Blogging Brings?

Yes. Small business must focus on first page search engine results REAL ESTATE over RANKINGS.

Let’s go back to our “Encinitas, Veterinarian” search. Coming in at #10, the first entry that gets on the first page of Google strictly because of competent local search engine optimization is Coastal Animal Hospital.

But #10! Who cares about a #10 listing when browsers will have to scroll down to get there?

In a strange turn of events, many web surfers have trained themselves to click only on the organic search options. They trust neither pay per click ads NOR Google Places listings which generally come above local search results. In fact, this habit of scanning beyond PPC and the local directory listings has won itself its very own term: “Ad Blindness” or “Listing Blindness.”

So Coastal Animal Hospital HAS achieved something, after all.

A quick phone call to their office confirmed our suspicions that, yes, they get a respectable number of phone calls from the internet. And why did it beat out its competition?

It has:

a total of 24 pages, better than a competitor’s 6 -10 that includes the standard: “about”, “services”, “contact.”; they can get even bigger with blogging. Each blog post is a new page!
meta tags written with the location mentioned;
lots of nice photos, some of which have alt tags containing Encinitas and veterinary or veterinarian;
a decent site map and well organized navigation.

While that doesn’t seem like a lot, these elements beat its competitors for the search term “Encinitas veterinarian.” It’s like that old joke about two campers running from a Grizzly bear. Knowing that the bear can reach speeds of 30 – 40 mph, the one camper says to the other, “it’s useless for us to run!” The other camper says: “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you!”

You don’t have more pages, videos, photos or backlinks than eHow, you just have to have more than your competitor. You have to update your website more often than your competitor, too, and the easiest way to frequently update your website is through blogging. I hope these two sentences help you to see that the playing field is more level than you expected!

Business blogging does not help small business move higher in the local directories, but thanks to ad-blindness and listing-blindness it DOES help small business get to the top of the local search engine results, particularly if competitors don’t expand their websites on a regular basis with regular blog posts. Blogs can help a small business earn ideal, even if lower down, real estate on the first page of the search engine results.

Don’t Forget the Other Marketing Goals of Small Business Blogging

Keep in mind that Google rankings aren’t the only game in this Social Media Town.

A clinic’s blog post title, “How to Prevent Our Dogs from Overheating during Impending Indianapolis Heat Waves,” not only is optimized for local search (with the inclusion of “Indianapolis”), the announcement that it’s up on the blog gets posted on Facebook and Google + (Google’s version of Facebook that’s connected directly to the directory listing) where it goes to followers feeds. Some clients read it and share it, sending it along to their friends who are also dog lovers. If it’s really hot outside, those dog lovers will want to feed their friendships with other dog lovers by sending this veterinarian’s helpful post along to them.

With this blog post, the clinic has given clients an opportunity to build bonds with their friends. And Friends are Facebook’s primary reason for being. This post on Facebook and Google + also helps clients build their identities (to themselves and others) as serious dog advocates. The clinic usefulness in client friendship building/maintaining and identity creation earns it goodwill and gratitude.

To me, this is the true value of social media: the genuine, useful building of bonds. Facebook and Google+ have become press release distribution sites. Your followers? Your free public relations team. The more you blog and your posts are forwarded to friends, the more your small business’ name comes to the forefront of people’s minds when they have an issue you can solve, and the more phone calls and walk ins you will get.

Schaible Recommends Small Business Owners Skip the Blog

To be helpful, Schaible exhorts: “Skip the blog and stick with news. Create a practice news center—it’s much easier to write and tends to have better keyword density. When you stay focused on practice news, you tend to write more about new products and services you offer.”

I couldn’t disagree with this more. Particularly if you’re going for creating solid relationships with clients, reducing attrition rates–which in the veterinary industry can be as high as 20% per year—and spreading the word of your good work to friends of clients, you must deliver useful, helpful information about client issues and problems. Internet marketing research has proven conclusively that the small business focusing on its special offers, new staff and/or products fails to win as many clients or as much traffic as the business that supports its products and services with helpful tips. While I don’t want to frighten you, a saying in the marketing circles at this time is: “Every brand a publisher!”

It’s Not Too Late to Start Blogging and Using Social Media to Increase Revenue and Reach!

Folks, so many of your competitors are NOT blogging, NOT promoting helpful information through Facebook, Google + and other platforms, a glaring opportunity exists. Social media facilitates slow but steady conversions built from blog posts, Facebook customer service, resources recommended on Google Plus and more.

Jed Schaible Anti-Blogging Points 2 & 3 (They’re Kinda the Same)

2. “SEO takes practice. Veterinarians might not know how to create SEO-optimized posts with the correct keyword density, best practices for linking, and proper use of appropriate tags. An article could be well written, but without SEO-friendly optimization, the article is simply lost in space.”

And

3. “Blog topics count. Rarely do veterinarians know how to do keyword research to determine what topics they should write about to increase visits to their practice. And without keyword research, article-ranking success is rare. More effort and more articles have to be produced to realize the same benefit as a targeted optimized campaign.”

Here’s the solution: Write 500 words on a topic that means something to your clients. Make a list of the top questions they ask each week and write on that. Blogger Marcus Sheridan took his pool services business to the top of Google simply by answering the most common questions his clients asked. Keep in mind that he owned a pool service, he wasn’t a mathematician or an SEO wiz. This method’s success went to his head to the point that he now calls himself, THE SALES LION.

Titles can even be: “What’s the best age to get my male puppy neutered?”, “How long before my pool starts forming algae?” or “Which Foods Are Most Filling?” depending on your industry. That’s right: make the question itself the blog post title. People are typing exact questions into the search engines! Chances are: if your clients are asking the questions you hear every day, hundreds of others have the same questions. It’s just how humanity works. This said, there are also paid tools that will bring up the questions most asked on any topic. WordTracker has this capability. If you’re working with an SEO firm, ask them to find the most popular questions for your industry.

Google wants quality blog posts with meaningful, helpful information. It will respect you more if you’re lame at picking your keywords, but strive to genuinely connect and help clients. We also sense there could be a possibility that Google will move more toward an anti-keyword-optimized ethic in the future.

Really want to do the keywords yourself? Okay: download my Business Blog Start Up Kit from the home page of Informed Web Content and read pages: 28-31 or thereabouts. You can also read these 2 blog posts: Where to Put Keywords in pages and Posts and Keyword Density and Placement in Pages and Posts, A September 2012 Update. SEOMoz Keyword Research for Beginners guide is helpful as well.

Jed Schaible’s Last Objection to Small Business Blogging: Time Constraints

“And finally … your time is too precious. If you’re a good writer, you shouldn’t waste your time entertaining a small audience on your own website—you should be writing for external publishers. And by doing so, you’ll generate links to your website.”

My first objection: a “small audience.” Hello. These are your clients, your revenue stream, your word-of-mouth sales team. Don’t denigrate them. You only want a nationwide audience if you’re determined to write a book or become a niche expert on something. Which leads me to . . .

My first agreement: IF you are a good writer, sure, write for external publishers and don’t forget to demand a link back to your website when you do it! This practice raises your reputation and your website rankings.

If reporters aren’t banging down your door and you’d like to be a resource for your area or specialty and/or get reputable backlinks, sign yourself up with HARO or Help a Reporter Out. Alongside its pitch for free publicity for small business owners, it advertises: “Reporters! Qualified Sources . . . On Demand.” A listing there is $19 per month and worth it. It’s free service is worthwhile as well, however. At no charge, HARO sends along daily emails that list reporters’ needs. In my HARO email today, three from the dozens of queries from reporters include:

advice on pet healthy stocking stuffers;
how safe are mobile banking apps, and
opinion on whether Elmo is doomed.

If you do connect with a reporter on a mutually useful topic, the reporter’s publication will usually link back to your business. Backlinks from big reputable sources like newspapers and magazines are “backlinking gold.” The more and better backlinks you have, the more credibility Google gives you. In short, higher rankings!

But Again: Time Constraints

I get it. I own a small business myself. Every hour I spend writing blog posts and feeding them out through Facebook, Google + and Twitter is an hour I cannot charge a client. As small business owners are apt to say, “It’s great to own a small business! I get to choose whatever 100 hours a week I work!”

All I can do is tell you what I do: I take one day every two weeks to write blog posts. I store them up and then schedule them to post throughout the two week period. The good thing is, once I get on a roll with blog posts, I generally find I have several things to say. While I may have one long post like this one, I break off other topics into smaller posts. I do the hard stuff—the writing and researching—and then have my assistants broadcast through Facebook and Google +. If I weren’t in the blogging and SEO copywriting business, I would probably pass some of the blogging duties to my assistants. I have been remiss in getting guest bloggers, but that’s in the works!

Still Curious About Effective Small Business Blogging and Social Media?

Learn by doing with our Social Media Springboard. Blogging is the heart and real meaning of social media. Informed Web Content can get you up and running with:

Business Social Media Policy Set Up
Editorial Calendar Set Up & Scheduling
Content Idea Generator Set Up
Keyword Research

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

First 5 Optimized Blog Posts

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

Promotion of Initial Blog Posts on

Facebook, G+ and Twitter

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

Small business owner take it from here. Not only do they have optimized blog posts, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter updates, they’ve learned how to do it themselves!

(But we’re here when you need us!)

We also do search engine optimized sales copywriting, keyword optimized web content with keywords inserted into meta tags, page titles and more. If you’re not ready to take the plunge yet, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Happy Blogging!

Weighing Schaible’s Bold “Why Veterinarians Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Blog”

The post Should Small Business Owners Be Allowed to Blog? appeared first on Informed Web Content.

Weighing Schaible’s Bold “Why Veterinarians Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Blog”

sdelzio — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:46:04 +0000

NO BLOG FOR YOU!

When Jed Schaible, DVM, published, “Why veterinarians shouldn’t be allowed to blog” in Veterinary Economics, he articulated concerns many have been sitting on for a while. In the current environment of social media hype, I give Jed Schaible credit. His take is right on the money for a significant number.

Dr. Schaible brings up some big concerns not only veterinarians, but all small business owners and marketers have:

Is blogging’s return worth the time and effort expended?
Aren’t small business owners already over-extended?
Don’t the complexities of keyword research make effective blogging impossible for veterinarians and small business owners?

Social media techniques became marketing crack-cocaine to our novelty-loving brains, but too many veterinarians and business owners have found they fall short of expectations. And this is coming from a search engine optimized content writer!

I’d like to make the case for why a portion of veterinarians and small business owners should use social media first by addressing Schiable’s excellent and honest points and then by explaining the unique opportunity even the smallest businesses have for leveraging inexpensive blogging and social media tools.

Schaible Anti-Blogging Point #1:

Wow. TRUE . . . to a point.

Go to Google and type in “site:www.ehow.com” and you’ll get this page:

And Yet . . . A Veterinarian CAN Get First Page Real Estate by Focusing On Local Search and Local Directories

The best strategy for veterinary hospitals and small business to make it to the first page of search results is to aim instead to take up as much search result “real estate” as possible on that first results page.

Focus on local search (using neighborhoods and city names on your website, blog posts and directory listings).
Optimize and build out Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local and other local directory entries

So Schaible is right: no small business can compete with the huge publishing sites out there on specific search terms, BUT the small business willing to stumble into the blogging and local directory arenas CAN outrank their own competitors who just aren’t ready to take these steps. Further, as explained below, blogging has just as much to do with client relationship management and word of mouth marketing as it does with getting to the first page of Google.

An Overview of the First Page of Search Results

Don’t think our golden child, Dean Crowe, DVM, got all those reviews naturally. Do what you have to in order to stack up your own Yelp reviews. Find all the text you need in this Informed Web Content blog post: “Small Business Needs This to Get Reviews on Google+ and Yelp!”

A smaller, stand-alone practice, The Drake Center for Veterinary Care, made it to the third spot with just a big FIVE Google reviews.

Directories Beyond Google Plus Veterinary Clinics and Small Businesses Need

That means, in addition to a Google + listing and page, you need to put the same information into directories:

Yahoo Local
Bing Local
Axicom
InfoUsa
LocalEze
Judy’s Book
CitySearch
YP
YellowBook

If Google + or Yahoo Local listings and PPC show up at the Top, Should Small Business Even Worry about the Search Engine Optimization Benefits Blogging Brings?

Yes. Small business must focus on first page search engine results REAL ESTATE over RANKINGS.

But #10! Who cares about a #10 listing when browsers will have to scroll down to get there?

So Coastal Animal Hospital HAS achieved something, after all.

A quick phone call to their office confirmed our suspicions that, yes, they get a respectable number of phone calls from the internet. And why did it beat out its competition?

It has:

a total of 24 pages, better than a competitor’s 6 -10 that includes the standard: “about”, “services”, “contact.”; they can get even bigger with blogging. Each blog post is a new page!
meta tags written with the location mentioned;
lots of nice photos, some of which have alt tags containing Encinitas and veterinary or veterinarian;
a decent site map and well organized navigation.

Don’t Forget the Other Marketing Goals of Small Business Blogging

Keep in mind that Google rankings aren’t the only game in this Social Media Town.

Schaible Recommends Veterinarians Skip the Blog All Together

It’s Not Too Late to Start Blogging and Using Social Media to Increase Revenue and Reach!

Jed Schaible Anti-Blogging Points 2 & 3 (They’re Kinda the Same)

And

Really want to do the keywords yourself? Okay: download my Veterinary Blog Start Up Kit and read pages: 35 – 41. You can also read these 2 blog posts: Where to Put Keywords in pages and Posts and Keyword Density and Placement in Pages and Posts, A September 2012 Update. SEOMoz Keyword Research for Beginners guide is helpful as well.

Jed Schaible’s Last Objection to Small Business Blogging: Time Constraints

IF you are a good writer, sure, write for external publishers and don’t forget to demand a link back to your website when you do it! This practice raises your reputation and your website rankings.

advice on pet healthy stocking stuffers;
how safe are mobile banking apps, and
opinion on whether Elmo is doomed.

But Again: Time Constraints

Finally and most of all, I object to his characterization of your pet owners as a “small audience.” Hello. These are your clients, your revenue stream, your word-of-mouth sales team. Don’t denigrate them. You only want a nationwide audience if you’re determined to write a book or become a niche expert on something. If that’s the case, get yourself on HARO.

Still Curious About Effective VeterinaryBlogging and Social Media?

Learn by doing with our Social Media Springboard for Veterinary Clincis. Blogging is the heart and real meaning of social media. Informed Web Content can get you up and running with:

Clinic Social Media Policy Set Up
Editorial Calendar Set Up & Scheduling
Content Idea Generator Set Up
Keyword Research

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

First 5 Optimized Blog Posts

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

Promotion of Initial Blog Posts on

Facebook, G+ and Twitter

(See how it’s done and you can take over!)

Veterinarians, office managers and staff can take it from here. Not only do they have optimized blog posts, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter updates, they’ve learned how to do it themselves!

(But we’re here when you need us!)

http://veterinarycommunity.dvm360.com/service/searchEverything.kickAction?sortType=recent&as=30809&includeBlog=on&widgetId=3536

No related posts.

The post Weighing Schaible’s Bold “Why Veterinarians Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Blog” appeared first on Informed Web Content.

6 Aspects of a Quality Content Piece that Make It a Natural Link Magnet

sdelzio — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:48:48 +0000

Quality content attracts the natural links Google respects!

In their attempt to provide all the answers in small spaces, many business bloggers link out to relevant sources. Not every reader wants to go into detail on a subtopic, so writers give them the option of exploring further off-site. Make this need for outside information work for your business by creating quality content that other bloggers and business owners rely on.

Thanks so much to John Doherty of Distilled Media for his post on SEO Moz “What Kind of Content Gets Links in 2012?” for inspiring this post. Here I add a little of my own experience to his thorough research with the much larger SEO Moz website.

How to Create Quality Content that Draws Backlinks Naturally

Germane Topic Choices: Keep the topics as close to the bone or central subject as possible. For SEO Moz, their top winning topic with 4200 backlinks is: “On Page/SEO Optimization,” in other words, their exact business. In the number 2 position is “backlinking” with 3500 backlinks. Both topics are absolutely central to a SEO firm’s mission. Similarly, Informed Web Content’s most back-linked topic is “blogging.” Much of web content is blogging, after all.
Posts with Lots of Comments: It makes sense that posts that draw lots of comments also got the most backlinks. People mostly comment on controversial or unusual topics. For SEO Moz, the most commented upon posts were “white hat/black hat” issues–those sure to get people’s ire up. Encourage comments in your blog posts and social media content and consider broaching sensitive topics that engage the emotions.
Photos: The picture worth 1,000 words . . . People online are in scanning mode. If the photo can sum up the story well, others seem more willing to link to it, perhaps because the photo stops them in their frenetic searching and slows them down enough to read some text. Once they read some text, they often go on to read more. The photo acts as a hook. While I include photos in all posts, I don’t have a good comparison. For SEO Moz, however, posts with more images got 30% more links than those without images.
Links Going Out: Doherty only found a slight correlation between the number of links leading to other sites on a post and more links.
Post Content: Text? Video? Images? All Three? While I find that I get more links from longer content that’s broken up well and illustrated with good photos, Doherty discovered that video posts got more links than all other types, including text, video and image combined. Yikes! What does that mean for quality content writers? Word people!

As it turns out, SEO Moz’s very popular Whiteboard Friday, a short video appearing every Friday skews the data significantly. Doherty admits that this piece of high quality content has developed its own brand and audience. Therefore, people return for reasons other than search engine results. It has a following, people are already engaged and want to participate.

Post Length: Yay! This word person is glad that longer posts got more links than short ones. Short posts often come across as unsatisfying, even low quality. I know when I’m writing about a topic I long to tell the whole story so the reader can have a comprehensive understanding. Posts that are 200 – 300 words are just advertisements in my mind. I always shoot for 600 words, but often end up with 1,000, as in this post! (And it doesn’t seem over- long, does it?

Google is on the Side of the Quality Content Writer

Google lets the masses determine the top search engine results by measuring natural backlinks. It’s a good strategy, after all, since researchers have proven that the wisdom of the crowd is always better than the wisdom of the very smartest, single individual in that crowd. (Curious? Read more in New Yorker financial columnist James Suroweiki’s amazing The Wisdom of Crowds.)

The crowd backlinks to a website when it finds quality content worth sharing. One, four or even nine people can have the same bias; they could all be friends or co-workers. 1,000 readers? Not so much. The 1,000 go for quality content.

As content writers, we at Informed Web Content follow Google’s guidelines, which luckily for us, means meaningful, quality content—just the stuff we WANT to write. Trust Informed Web Content to get you started with some SEO optimized posts and/or web and category pages, complete with the mini-advertisements known as “meta tags.” We can also get a cache of posts written for you so can start attracting links and moving your site up through the competition! Contact us today for a free, 20-minute consultation. We love learning about new businesses!

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