Pinterest is creating buzz all over the internet. This relatively new social networking site is based around its users sharing (“pinning”) images and videos from all over the internet. These images are pinned with a link to the source website embedded within them, so when a Pinterest user clicks on the image, they are taken to the website the image came from. Fellow users can then reshare (“repin”), comment upon, or “like” what has been posted, creating yet more backlinks to the original website.

Pinterest’s use as a source of backlinks is clear, yet many webmasters do not know how best to harness the power of this social media site. They are missing out! Pinterest is driving immense amounts of traffic, moreso even than Twitter, and its user numbers are expanding at an impressive rate. Ignoring this network means you are missing out on traffic, visitors to your site and potential customers.

So, how should a business promote themselves using Pinterest?

There are actually two stages in Pinterest self-promotion. The first is to create a Pinterest account for your business. The site is still invite-only, but invitations are relatively easy to come by. Once you have an account, create “boards” (like folders, themed and personalized) for different aspects of your business or website. Some examples might include:

• artistic photos of your best-selling products (linking the product page)
• photos of customers in the process of using your products (also linking to the product page, these are valuable backlinks)
• aspirational photos – many people are using the network to post pictures they find which fit their ‘ideal house’ dream, or ‘perfect wedding’. Think creatively and build an aspirational board for your business too.
• Don’t just self-promote. Like anywhere else on the web, you need to provide value to your visitors, so make your Pinterest account irresistible by filling it with wonderful content: from your own site and elsewhere.

The second stage is to make your website “pinterestable”, by which I mean encourage your site visitors to pin your images or videos.

If you already have links on each page of your website to “tweet this”, “like this on Facebook”, “+1” etc. (and you should have!), then add a “Pin this!” button too. Making it as easy as possible for your site visitors will increase the likelihood of them sharing your page. The “Pin this!” button can act like a call to action, reminding readers that they can share your page.

Additionally, make your images compelling. Whereas some users might pin a page purely for the quality of the writing, Pinterest’s focus being so strongly on the visual means that many users pin images purely for what they look like, regardless of the rest of the page. Making sure that every page of your site, and every blog post, has an image that people are likely to adore, and want to share with their friends, vastly increases your chances of getting “pinned”. If the image is really great, then it will be repinned numerous times, creating multiple backlinks to your website.

Having a website which users want to share on Pinterest presents you with a wonderful opportunity. Easy, good quality backlinks, as well as new visitors to your website, are within reach with just a little thought and planning. Ignoring Pinterest’s potential, on the other hand, will mean you are missing out. Early adopters always do the best on social networking sites, and although latecomers can still make an impact, the sooner a business owner can learn how to take advantage of a new form of social media, the better they tend to fare.

Normally you might expect to see a 7 pack box at the top of the results page and a map with the place markers, however in this case the results are a bit different.

In this result there is one organic listing right at the top followed by a kind of large version of the 7 pack which takes up much of the page.

For businesses that have reviews they are also showing a snippet of a review, any rating they might have and a link to their place page. Also the map appears on the right hand side above the paid advertising and scrolls up and down with the page.

At the very bottom of the SERP are 5 more organic listings, including the one at the very top makes for just 6 organic spots instead of the normal 10 you would expect to see.

I suspect this is just a test they are running and that the results will return to what we have been used to lately. Google is constantly trying to improve it’s user experience and this is an interesting look into the direction that they are considering.

Google SERP testing

Even though we were dog tired after the long drive in from Raleigh yesterday I was glad we got up early to visit, they have a really great group of local business people and a fun but professional meeting.

“We already know that Facebook is the web’s biggest time sink. If you look at the average amount of time (according to Nielsen) users spend on the social network, Facebook is a clear winner over sites such as Google or Yahoo. Now, according to comScore, Facebook is also first when it comes to the total amount of time users are spending on the site.” Read the rest…

Lets say that you are a house painter in Raleigh and you’ve had a website created, but you can’t make it off page 4 of the results. When I look at the meta descriptions in the code of your website I see this in the meta keywords tag:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”house painter”, “raleigh”, “cary”, “apex”, “nc”, “quality”, “professional”, “house painting”, “painting”, “painter”, “house”, “interior”, “exterior”

You might look at that and say, “Hey Mike, that looks fine to me whats the problem?”

You have to think like a search engine to understand why those are not the proper keywords to put in the tags for a house painter in Raleigh. Think about it for a minute… what do the single keywords “quality” or “professional” or “NC” or ‘exterior” or “painting” have to do with House Painting in Raleigh? That’s right, nothing.

Proper search engine optimization (SEO) must start with the right keywords, if you are not using the right keywords your website will have trouble making it to the first page of the search engines.

The more appropriate keywords to use in the example above would be: “house painting raleigh nc”, “house painting cary nc”, “raleigh nc painter”, “raleigh nc house painting”, “residential painter raleigh”.

These keywords are far more focused and relevant to a website for a Raleigh House Painter and help the search engine spiders more easily determine what your site is about.

It’s these little SEO mistakes that are costing you money and causing your website to languish unseen in the search engines on page 4, 5, 6, 7….

That’s why it’s important to work with someone that knows what they are doing, because the little things count big.

Popular sites like YouTube realized the direction things were going and capitalized on it. Now, videos are becoming one of the primary ways sites convey information from news to how-to pieces. In fact, videos will often lead the search engine results page.

With this in mind, a video could be a huge magnet for potential site traffic. For instance, Google has a search specifically for videos. If you know how to properly optimize your video for search engines, you’ll be able to pull in traffic like no amount of text could ever get you. There are three main areas you have to get right in order to get the best ranking for your video.

The Title

It should be fairly obvious that a good title is key to getting traffic. The first goal of a title should be search engine optimization. Some people insist that it should be something grabbing and eye catching, but unless you have people browsing your site locally they may never even come across the video if it doesn’t rank highly in search engine returns.

It should be loaded with your intended keywords. This is also a great opportunity to include your local business name. Most local browsers will be searching for very specific keywords and you want to make sure you utilize that. Since they likely occur less frequently in searches, you have a better chance of showing up on the top if you use them.

The Description

Since search engines are multi-faceted, they do not just pull videos based on the title. An accurate and appropriate description is important as well. Much in the same way you wrote the title, with impetus on the keywords, the description should be brief and to the point. It should not be a transcript of what happens in the video.

Again, your primary concern is relevant keywords in high density so that the search engine ranks you near the top. If you are trying to attract local customers, it would be wise to include a short description of the business if the video does not require its own description.

The Tags

Tags are one of the most important and yet neglected aspects of SEO. They are single keywords, sometimes in a limited number, that search engines use to pull your video during a search. There is no secret to writing good tags, they simply have to be the absolute most popular search terms for the subject your video addresses.

If your business is specific to one area, including that area in the tags means browsers will get returns on your video if they are searching that specific area. For example “house painter in raleigh” or “raleigh collision repair shop”

There are more ways to increase video ranking in search engines, but these top three strategies are the ones you should focus you efforts on. You want to have solid keywords and high keyword density as well as keeping things brief. Most users will only spend a few seconds reading title and description, so don’t pour your efforts into making them. For a local business fighting for visibility, an optimized video can bring plenty of viewers and new traffic to your site.

You might find success with methods like social network marketing, building a fan base among people with similar interests. Or you could get a following via RSS feeds from blogging. But there is one method that many people overlook which has the most potential to get your business some additional traffic: SEO.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a multi-faceted method of optimizing web content in order to draw in traffic from major search engines. Since search engines have become the single most popular way for users to navigate through the countless websites out there, ranking highly can bring you a great deal of visibility.

You can gain web presence through SEO by ranking higher in search engine returns for videos, images or website text. SEO can also be used in article marketing which can link back to the main site. All of these methods work for different kinds of businesses and they should all be taken into consideration when you’re hiring someone for SEO marketing, which we’ll discuss in just a minute.

First, you need to know why SEO works to bring in traffic and what makes it important enough to invest in. It is obvious that SEO can bring you more traffic from search engines, but what isn’t obvious is why. Search engines do not just look for a specific word used over and over and rank that site the highest. They are much smarter than that.

Some of the bigger ones, like Google, are very smart indeed. They use crawlers to search the web for the content of pages and determine relevance. This process is referred to as crawling, spidering and numerous other titles, but they are all the same and impossible to trick for long. This brings us to why you need a professional to do your SEO, and not just any professional.

There are ways of trying to get around crawlers such as spamdexing, keyword stuffing and link farms. These methods are known as black hat and not only are they completely unprofessional, but they are a great way to get blacklisted by search engines. That means that you will certainly not rank higher and you might not even rank at all.

In is important that you hire someone who understands how to properly optimize a website using acceptable methods. You want a Raleigh NC search engine optimization consultant that has proof of having sites ranked well on search engines and not just someone who claims they can optimize your site.

Ranking high in search engine returns has great benefits national businesses, but can be difficult because of the volume of sites out there. For local Raleigh NC businesses, ranking higher in local searches is much easier and can be tremendously beneficial. Having your website content or article marketing content optimized for search engines is one of the best ways to increase your web presence and gain your business even more visibility on the internet.

But keep in mind that there are a large number of companies out there all striving to be at the top of Google returns. That means you need to understand how to maximize your ranking and just what that ranking means for your business.

The Google 7-Pack

You might not have heard of the Google 7-pack, but the odds are that you have had more experience with it than you realize. Google has transcended being just a simple search engine. Now, they have incorporated everything from shopping to global maps and they use these powerful features to return locations, descriptions and reviews of companies to anyone searching for just keywords.

If a search has relevant location information in its return, Google will put up a map like the one below and seven locations that a user might find valuable. These seven listings are what is known as the Google 7-Pack and it is valued by every company who manages to get a spot there.

Tips for Getting Listed

Google probably already has information on your business if you have a website, but getting on the 7-Pack requires that you start up an account with the Google Business Center and fill out some very basic information. Google hasn’t made public what they value in their listings and the odds are that they never will, but there are some general tips that can improve your chances.

1) Get your listing and fill it out appropriately. The listing for Google Business Center comes with several fields that are easy to fill out. Avoid using keywords in the Title so you do not get in trouble. The Categories section should contain the best keywords for your business, so research is recommended. Be sure to fill out every section properly and completely.

2) Get customer feedback. Google wants customer reviews because they know having reviews draws in more viewers. Obviously, your odds are much better if the reviews are positive.

3) Outside site rankings. Directories, especially ones like the Better Business Bureau, can help tremendously with Google rankings. The 7-Pack is reserved for the top businesses within their categories so Google want to be sure you have plenty of solid feedback from reliable sources.

The Google 7-Pack may only seem like a convenience for browsers, but for business owners it is a fantastic boost to advertising. Getting rated highly on a Google search is phenomenal for business, but being listed in the 7-Pack is even more powerful.

But landing in the 7-Pack is a constant battle. It requires that you continuously keep on top of your keywords and reviews to stay in the spot. If you should manage to get into the 7-Pack, you will have to keep up the business in order to stay there, but the benefits can make the extra work worthwhile.

Even if the product is inferior, big companies draw in people with expensive advertisements and professional logos. Regardless of how big and successful these companies have become, though, they likely started out small and found success by making the most out of the money they spent.

What is an Internet Advertising Consultant?

The name alone tells you most of the story, but there are some nuances to internet marketing that an internet consultant handles. Too many small business owners try to tackle online marketing themselves and it has the potential to hurt business if poorly executed. Many local businesses with a good product lose sales because of poor marketing.

An internet advertising consultant covers several areas from attracting customers with professional appearances, optimizing your site to bring in more search engine traffic and increasing visibility through marketing techniques. The internet advertising market is one that is constantly changing and is subject to different fads every year making it nearly impossible for someone who is not completely dedicated to the job to keep up.

What does an Internet Advertising Consultant do?

The internet is so prolific in the modern world that not utilizing it for advertising and sales means your business may never reach its potential. Plenty of local businesses in Raleigh, NC alone have gone from trying to snag walk-in customers to pulling in order all across the country thanks to their websites. Even if you’re only interested in keeping your business concentrated in the local Raleigh, NC market, you can still benefit from hiring a consultant to improve your brand marketing.

They increase traffic by optimizing your site’s keywords so that you achieve better search engine rankings, they take advantage of popular new social media marketing and they can even help to set up a lead capture system so that even casual browsers are more likely to buy. If you don’t know much about those methods of advertising, or if you’ve never heard of them at all, you can already see why an internet consultant can take your business where it hasn’t been before.

How will an Internet Advertising Consultant help my business?

While it is important to know what an internet advertising consultant does, it is just as important to know why you need their services. In today’s world of search engines, most companies with online business pull in customers through search engines. If you want to be ranked high in the results for keywords matching your company’s product, you need to have your site optimized properly.

Some people take this to mean you need to use keywords as often as possible. However, doing that might not get you any business, instead you might get blacklisted by the search engine for spamming. A popular new trend is social marketing and it can pull in a good number of customers, especially in a niche market. Finding people in groups on Facebook or following a product on Twitter can help you locate and attract customers who might not know about you, yet.

A lead capture system is a bit more complicated, but it essentially allows you to use affiliate sites to funnel traffic to your sales site. It’s not something a novice can typically handle, so hiring a consultant can actually save you a lot of time and money in the long run.