Local Web Marketing
It is essential for Local and Small businesses to claim online listings for their brand. Google Places, Bing, LinkedIn, Yellow Pages, Localeze, Yelp, FourSquare and hundreds if not thousands more online listing, branding opportunities are available on the web. Since the Panda Update internet marketers are likely rethinking linkbuilding initiatives and staying away from low quality directories and spammy, unethical linking practices. Reputable directories and business portals can be a great area to focus on for building links. December is a good month to keep an eye on Business.com for a 50 per cent discount on the yearly $299 directory submission package. Hopefully a number of you caught the article on Search Engine Journal promoting the 50 per cent discount from the BOTW directory on Cyber Monday and submitted your site to the directory. If not, next year remember, remember the month of November.
Promo codes are pretty easy to find online in just a couple searches, but if you are looking to get more than the average 10 to 20 per cent off there are a number of savvy ways to get some high quality links for free. An internet marketer that is willing to put some time into writing Guides for Work.com can gain quality links directed at their web properties, as Work.com guides are republished by Business.com. Google Knol is an online hub that has been under the radar for years, the link equity that flows within that property is likely overwhelming.
Perhaps one of the best documents I have come across in regard to local search engine ranking is David Mihm’s yearly Local Search Ranking Factors where search professionals weigh in on possible positive and negative factors that drive Google’s Local Search algorithms. The document is a must read for those interested in local and small business marketing.
Since I got involved in search marketing, aggregation and auto generated content has always intrigued me and I have finally taken the advice of Eli Aloisi from a post in Bluehatseo and purchased a PHP and MySQL book, although I probably wont crack it open in a coffee shop sporting a strawberry pink bandana. Looking for links to include in this post I was surprised to find a resourceful, promotional article about Google+ within Yahoo News. The article was published on PRweb and republished by Yahoo news. While on the topic, it should be noted that while getting accepted into search engine news feeds is a tough nut to crack, having your content distributed by Google and Yahoo news can send a flood of visitors to your site… Holy analogies batman, am I writing for SEO by the Sea.
97% of consumers search for local businesses online. Google Places for business is a free local platform from Google. In a release from the Google Blog Steve Grove, Head of Community Partnerships, Google+ noted:
“We want to help more organizations, politicians, artists, celebrities, athletes, media companies and nonprofits use Google+ to share and interact with each other – and with Google+ users.”
-Connect with your community on Google+
In early November, Google+ rolled out business pages. Placing your business with Google Places as well as initiating Google+ for business is a great place to start in your local web marketing endeavours.
