Generating Local Traffic Part II



Last week we discussed the importance of and how to optimize listings on local directories.  This week we are going to look at optimizing your website itself for local search.

Optimizing your actual website content should also be an important part of your local awareness efforts on the web.  Optimizing titles, descriptions, header tags, body text and alt text should all be focused on the city/region for which you are optimizing by including the city/region name liberally throughout the landing page or site pages being optimized.

If your business has more than one location, but only one website, it is imperative to have a landing page for each and ensure that the information is current and has proper address tags.  The landing page will have information on each locality that is specific to that location. 

Another important step is to use a geo sitemap and a regular site map and make them accessible from the root directory of your website. 

A final note is that you have a lot of competition out there and one way to make sure there is some interest in the search terms you want to rank for is to user the Regional Interest Map on Google's Insights for Search -http://www.google.com/insights/search.  This tool allows you to see which state and metropolitan areas index high against search volume for a particular word or phrase. 

PayPal Tools



PayPal has put themselves in an enviable position on the web as of late with a 22% increase in revenues in the last year.  With mobile payments on the verge of erupting into a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years, analysts are predicting that PayPal's revenues will overtake those of eBay's Marketplace by 2014.

What make it even better is that PayPal is a very accessible partner to any online business.  PayPal recently announced some new procuts that are exciting web professionals:
  • PayPal for Digital Products - this is a micropayments solution that lets consumers pay for digital goods such as games, music and videos in as little a two clicks without ever leaving the publishers site.  This new solution will be integrated into Facebook to make PayPal the social network's new digital goods payment method, offering users the safest, fastest and most cost-effective solution for sending and receiving micropayments of under $12. 
  • Mobile Payments Library - A new functionality targeting subscription businesses that will enable pre-approved, chain and split mobile payments to be process through PayPal accounts.
  • PayPal Here - A mobile app that allows you to accept credit and debit cards, PayPal and checks anywhere you do business.
  • PayPal Fundraising Tools - PayPal offers multiple fundraising tools to make it easy to collect donations for your favorite cause(s).

Creating a YouTube Channel Part I

YouTube combines two of the hottest online marketing trends today, video and social media.  The platform receives more than 800 million unique visitors every month and more than 3 billion videos are viewed on the site every day.  YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google.  So, do you have a YouTube Channel yet?

First go to www.YouTube.com and complete the basic setup process.  Once that is complete, a business must send its username to a YouTube representative and request to have the account converted into a brand channel.  Brand channels offer features that aren't available on standard channels, like a channel banner image, side column image and video page banner.  They also provide the ability to specify demographic filters and offer user tracking.

Once your channel has been converted to a brand channel, customization is the next and most important step. During this process, the brand is starting to set the tone of the channel.  You should remember that the final channel appearance and content should be cohesive.

Next it is time to start creating content.  You can produce many different types of videos for your company from a company overview to product or service overviews, client testimonials and how-to videos.  One thing to remember is to keep your videos short.  A good video length is between 45 seconds and two minutes.  If it requires longer, think about spitting it up into a series so that your audience does not get bored or overwhelmed with information.  The quality of the video is more important than the quantity. 

Next time we will talk about how to use your videos and spread the word.

Generating Local Traffic Part I



The Internet is becoming more and more local every day.  One reason is that consumers are using their mobile devices to perform searches for local businesses more frequently.  According to a recent report, there are nearly 3 billion search queries containing local terms each month.  For companies that have a local presence, visibility on local search is proving to be essential for them.

The most important piece to local search optimization is the presence of accurate NAP data: name, address and phone number.  Search engines aggregate data from multiple sources and ultimately they should all lead back accurately to your business.  If the information is not consistent, your websites listing will be seen as less accurate and will likely be lowered in the search results, causing you to potentially miss out on the opportunity for citations(links) that come with local listings.

To optimize local business listings, first focus on developing a quality title, then add an accurate, up-to-date physical address.  Next, choose the business categories strategically.  Make sure to have a local phone number and finally undertake a campaign to acquire reviews from your customers.  The more reviews you can get, the sooner you will be on the fast track to generating traffic from local mobile traffic and regular search traffic.

One of the most important parts of building a positive local presence is the existence of directory citations.  YellowPages.com, Yelp, CitySearch and InsiderPages.com are just a few.  But citations (links) should not stop at directories.  You should also acquire them from other websites.  Finding those on a city level is not an easy task, but it is possible.  Take your time to complete profiles on the following websites or hire someone to do this for you.  It can help your local presence.

Enhance & Track Your LinkedIn Profile

You can use Applications on LinkedIn to enhance your profile.  Some of the most popular ones are to pull in your blog feed or Twitter stream, a list of your favorite books, recent presentations, community/charitable involvement and much more.  Adding these features keeps your profile fresh and interesting along with being full of information that sets you up as a leader in your industry.  The nice thing is with the blog and Twitter feeds, they update automatically, so once you set them they take care of themselves.

So now you have your LinkedIn profile optimized but how do you know it's working?  Here are some performance indicators to look for:
  1. Is your profile 100 percent complete (look at the top right side of your Profile page to find this status)?  If not, keep working until it is complete then keep going.
  2. When typing your keyword phrase selected from your optimized profile, does your profile appear in search results?
  3. Are you getting an increase in recommendations?  Keep soliciting recommendations from current and new clients.  In time, you will receive a notice of an unsolicited recommendation in your inbox.  That is a nice feeling.
  4. You should see an increase in personal messages in your LinkedIn Inbox.  The more conversations you create, the more people will want to connect with you.
  5. Watch for your profile in the search engines.  If you choose the right keyword that is not too highly competitive, you will show up quickly.

Feel free to check out my profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lesaseibert and see how mine is optimized.  Good luck in increasing your visibility and connections on LinkedIn.

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