But even the savviest small business owner can overlook the obvious which results in a BIG mistake  (sign-up for our free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter to get more secrets for winning with email marketing).

Biggest Email Mistakes to Avoid!

The list of email marketing gurus is long with incredibile experience and innovation, driving positive change. Selecting only 20 was a challenge. I’ve tried to pull out unique items from each author although common errors were reiterated across the blogs.

1. Laurie Cantus of Go2Girls has incredibly practical email and e-newsletter advice for small business owners. Her post on Newsletter Basics provides great tips on successful email marketing. The golden rule: Don’t over complicate things. Stay focused on a single message and deliver value. Fantastic advice in today’s crowded inbox!
2. AJ Kumar is co-founder and VP of Marketing at Single Grain Digital Marketing. Their blog offers a ton of great info for small businesses. He recently posted his list of seven small business email mistakes including: Failing to use an email marketing provider; Emailing without permission; Writing bad subject lines. 
3. Jamie Turner 60SecondMarketer — master promoter, author, and 60-second whiz — hosted a post by contributing author Brian Foster. Brian’s list of top five mistakes includes a one that is a critical part of any email campaign being launched today—Don’t Make Your Emails Incompatible with Mobile. Read the rest of Brian’s tips here.
4. Lydia Ramsey is an accomplished author and business etiquette expert (something we should always be aware of in email). Her top 12 email mistakes include: Not Accounting for Tone;  Thinking that No One Else Will Ever See Your Email; 10. Leaving Off Your Signature. Get her complete list at Business Know How.
5. Charlie Graham is founder and CEO of Shop It To Me. He knows email marketing having sent over 1.5 billion emails since their launch. He tops his list of seven mistakes with DON’T make your email one-size-fits-all; DON’T skip A/B testing; DON’T ignore getting dumped. Read the rest of his insightful list here.
6. Mass Transmit (great name) is an email marketing group with a host of tips and resources for everyone. Their top 10 email marketing strategic mistakes include a couple of notables — Not Having a Goal and Not Providing Contact Information. Biggies! The other eight can help you as well, read them here.
7. Carolyn Nye is the Email Marketing Manager for USAData, not a small job. She lists the three reoccurring biggies she saw in 2012 — Sending Emails Too Frequently; Ignoring Mobile Devices; Underestimating Email’s Overall Impact. You can read her full article here.
8. Position2 is a digital marketing support service. They offer really comprehensive resources on their blog and recently shared their list of 15 email marketing mistakes. They offered some unique don’ts that were right on target — No Connect Between Email and Landing Page and Not Thinking of Email as a Lead Generator.
9. Janelle Johnson is manager of marketing operations at Act-On Software and posted her list of six big mistakes on Marketing Profs. Three to note are Neglecting Buyer Needs; Blasting the Same Message to All Contacts; Failing to Adapt Messaging. As always with Marketing Profs, she offers super practical info for the small business owner.
10. Ashley Zeckman of TopRankBlog wrote an article on Effective Email Marketing awhile ago on how to improve your email marketing campaigns but the points are still valid today. She offered tips I didn’t see on many other posts so I had to include them. I’d say these are deadly mistakes if you DON’T do them:  Make Content Shareable (add share buttons) and Analyze Your Data. Email is all about ROI, pay attention to the metrics and focus on what works.
11. MailUp is an message provider — email, text, and (soon) social with a unique ‘pay per speed’ pricing model. Their blog shares the seven common mistakes they see happen. Two are obvious but not stated many other places — Sending without testing and I’m a graphic artist! (i.e. don’t over-design). Your email message or newsletter should not be created like it’s a color brochure, it just doesn’t translate.
12. OpenSesame is an online educational platform with some heady talent and some great courses. In their blog, I discovered an older post by web entrepreneur and Digital Aptitude CEO, Zeke Camusio. Once I saw, it I was shocked I hadn’t seen this listed elsewhere. I guess we assume everyone knows this these day but: DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS! If you didn’t know that, it’s shouting. My pet peeve. The rest of the post can be found here.
13. Tamara Gielen is an independent email specialist and co-founder of Plan to Engage. Her Be Relevant! Email Marketing Blog offers great tips for novices and experts alike. Her list of 12 big mistakes list includes lack of interactivity. Email can, and should, engage it’s reader. Learn her other tips here.
14. ExtraVision is a UK email service but I loved that they have tips that others seemed to overlook. The biggest being: Not complying with legal guidelines. It seems obvious but not following this golden rule can get you in trouble, fast! The the other nine tips include items like Not checking spelling and grammar; Broken Links. The complete list can be found here.
15. Bryan Taylor from Forix SEO in Portland wrote a guest post for The SEM Group with a basic list on email blunders. One point that was reiterated by him and many others our list was the big mistake of: Not segmenting your lists. The beauty of email is that it allows you to tailor message to the recipient. Keep them subscribed by respecting their interests and relevant communications.
16. John Hayes is a veteran digital marketer and contributor on many well-known sites. On the Business2Community site he posted a series of articles on Email Marketing Mistakes that are worth the read. Email is all about best practices and permissions, his #4 tip on things to avoid is The Dubiously Acquired List. If they didn’t tell YOU they wanted your news, don’t send it to them. Period!
17. SilverPop is a huge giant in the email marketing industry. While their email product might offer a little more horsepower than our small business clients need, their list of email marketing mistakes is classic. My favorite: Not Learning from Mistakes.
18. pbSmart Essentials (Pitney Bowes Small Business Resources) provide a couple of key mistakes that can really impact the success for your email marketing campaign. These include: Not identifying yourself in the ‘from’ line (everyone wants to know where the email is coming from) and NOT sending users back to your website. Be sure to include links back to content related to the email.
19. netXtra is a UK digital communications firm, their client list includes charities and non-profits as well as commercial businesses. The tips they provide address people managing email themselves which is likely appropriate to many of our small businesses. Follow their advice on a couple of big mistakes: Including every other recipient in the header and Sending an attachment (i.e. don’t create a PDF someone has to download!)
20. Delivra offers some great email content and email marketing services. Their list of articles provided some great ‘you must do this’ posts (often around what they offer) so I took the reverse spin and will say it’s a big mistake if you don’t. One was about Automated Email Messaging. Even small business owners should be sending an automated email right after an email sign-up at least saying thanks for registering.

Now you’re ready for any email campaign with best-practices firmly in place. Avoid these mistakes and you’re on your way to growing your email list and small business!

Today we offer practical tips for making it right (sign-up for our free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter to learn more about controlling and improving your reputation).

Start with Team Training

One of the most important things for managing your reputation is to have a standard policy in place that all team members must follow. Train staff in the art of customer service. They are representatives of your company, they need to respond how YOU want them respond. Have clear guidelines for each of these situations…

1. Written Complaints

   A person that takes the time to find an email or physical address then writes a note to lodge a complaint, is not acting on the spur of the moment. They want to be heard and know that you actually received their communication.

   Try to reach them by phone. Actually calling a person is a powerful way to show that you take responsibility for the situation and not looking for an easy way out.

   Follow-up with a written apology and peace offering. Send along a coupon voucher or discount for the next time they use your service. If the situation warrants it, refund their money without them having to ask.

2. Phone Complaints

   We’ve all been there. Gotten or given an earful on the phone because of frustration.

   Let them talk. They want to be heard and feel better about letting their frustrations out.

   Keep calm and let them know you feel badly. Begin your portion of the conversation with a simple “I’m sorry you feel that way, I’d like to make this right.” Immediately they know you are on their side and not looking to fight.

3. In Person

   A customer in your store begins to verbally express their anger about service. This is bad (and embarrassing) for other customers and equally uncomfortable for the employee on the receiving end.

   Your employee should immediately apologize for the misunderstanding (even if they don’t think they were wrong). They should say they want to remedy the situation. Give them the EXACT words to use so they aren’t trying to figure it out in the heat of the moment.

   Empower the employee to remedy the situation on their own. Allow them to refund money up to a certain amount without asking. If a manager needs to be called, be sure someone is always available. Be sure they know you must be notified of the incident so you can provide further follow-up if necessary.

4. Social Media Reviews

   This is the tough one because once a bad review is out there, it’s pretty much there to stay. It’s your responsibility to ‘listen’ to what’s being said online and respond accordingly if you can.

   Try to respond to the customer. Twitter and others allow you to reply, blogs allow comments. Maybe look in your data base for contact information if you know the person. If you can find to reach them, make it clear you want to make the situation right.

   Focus on fixing the problem. Even if you can’t reach them, have an open mind about the complaint and work to remedy the situation so it doesn’t happen again. Then post your own comments on how you have done that.

It’s human nature to get defensive and want to tell our side of the story. However, the old adage ‘the customer is always right’ has never been more true than it is today. If you can be open to feedback, you have the opportunity to turn someone that’s unhappy into an advocate. And that should always be the goal.

We’ve been getting some great questions over the last 24 hours related to our rebranding and new platform. Thought I would include them here for both new and existing clients.

Why the change?

We created this new version of our application and rebranded the company for three reasons.

• First, we wanted to make sure our technology stays current with changes in the industry. Social media, reputation management and blogging are becoming increasingly more important for how to get found online, and the rise of these strategies are needed to provide insights and direction to help our customers.
• Second, our customers continue to be overwhelmed by all of the exciting industry updates and there really aren’t any cost effective solutions and enough companies helping the smallest businesses out there. We feel it is essential to provide more for less and try to help as many businesses as possible.
• Third, we created a simpler but more robust platform. In combination with the prior two reasons, this created an opportunity to rebrand the business. We felt it was important to be able to help our clients with both Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-For-Me solutions that expanded beyond just SEO. We also wanted a brand that conveyed moving our clients  “up” and elevating their online presence. Therefore, UpCity was born!

Did DIYSEO get bought by UpCity?

No. This wasn’t a purchase. Creating a new platform provided us an opportunity to rebrand the business. We’re taking the same core focus of DIYSEO but expanding it help businesses get more free traffic and convert that traffic to revenue through education and insights.

What is Pathway and how is it related to UpCity?

Pathway is what we call our technology platform. Companies can leverage Pathway for a low-cost DIY or “do-it-yourself” option. Small businesses can work at a self-directed pace to understand how visible you are online and learn techniques for SEO (search engine optimization), social media, blogging, and local listings management. Business owners who choose this method get a first-hand education as they work, in a guided, step-by-step way, to complete tasks that will increase their online marketing impact. The more you use Pathway™, the more experienced you become as your own digital marketing professional. Alternatively, we offer a DIFM or “do-it-for-me” option. If you’re too busy running your company to master the Pathway™ platform yourself, we offer several low-cost plans that let you focus on your business, while our experts put Pathway™ to work on your behalf.

- FOR CLIENTS ON THE DIYSEO PLATFORM -

As a DIYSEO customer, do I get access to the new UpCity platform automatically?

Unfortunately, all DIYSEO customers have to request to be migrated to the new platform at UpCity. We’re using a new and improved billing system and need to get new credit cards on file. It takes less than three minutes to enter in the billing information and request the migration. Go to http://www.diyseo.com/account/migrate if you haven’t already to request your migration. We’ll then follow up within 5 business days and all of rank history, task history, etc. will be on the new UpCity platform.

How does it work if I signed up for an DIYSEO Annual Subscription?

If you have an annual subscription at DIYSEO, you will have the opportunity to convert that to our new promotional annual rate of $99 on UpCity. You will be able to apply the annual amount that you paid and take into account the number of months you’ve been on the subscription. For most customers, this will produce a credit on your account. You can then redeem that credit for some of our Do-It-For-Me services where we optimize your site on your behalf, or you can opt for a refund. Example: a client buys a $399 annual plan on October 5, 2012. As of January 10, 2013 that client requests to be migrated to UpCity. The client has used approximately two months of that annual plan or $66.50 ($399/12 x 2 months of use). When deducting these months the unused portion of the DIYSEO annual plan is $332.50. Upon upgrading to UpCity, you’ll get 12 months on the improved platform for $99 leaving a balance of $233.50 which can be used for services or be refunded. A summary is below:

$399.00    annual plan

- $66.50     2 months of plan used at $33.25

$332.50    unused portion of annual plan

- $99.00    annual rate available until Jan. 31

$233.50      final credit available for services or refund

How does it work if I signed up for a Monthly Subscription?

If you are a monthly DIYSEO subscriber and request to be migrated to UpCity, you will get the next 30 days for free on the new platform and will be charged $9.99 going forward if you want to remain a monthly subscriber. You can opt to lock in a full year of the platform for only $99 (that’s only $50 more than our previous DIYSEO monthly rate). You now get twice the product for 20% of the cost! We’re not sure if this pricing will be available after January 31, your so best bet would be to secure it now. Go to http://www.diyseo.com/account/migrate if you haven’t already to request your migration.

How does this work if I am a Jumpstart or Do-It-For-Me client?

If you are one of our Jumpstart or DIFM “Do-It-For-Me” clients, we will continue to provide the same great service via UpCity. We would love to migrate you to the new platform becaise we can now track all tasks that we do on the new system. Please go to http://www.diyseo.com/account/migrate if you haven’t already to request your migration. Feel free to email us at doitforme@upcity.com if you have any questions.

I can’t login, what’s the problem? 

DIYSEO customers won’t be able to login to UpCity.com until their account has been migrated and we send out your user name and password.  Please send in your request to be migrated by logging into your DIYSEO account and filling in the information here.  DIYSEO customers can continue to access and use their DIYSEO accounts by going to www.diyseo.com/login. After your account is migrated to UpCity, you will no longer be able to login into DIYSEO.

Can I sign up for UpCity with a different credit card?

Yes. Feel free to use any credit card you would like.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email us at info@upcity.com!

What’s been happening this week in the world of inbound marketing? Plenty. In addition to the continued trend of all those awesome end-of-2012 and 2013-trends roundups, we scoured the web and uncovered dozens of valuable gems covering everything from local optimization to integrating social and SEO. Check them out below!

Did we miss anything? We want to know about your favorite inbound marketing resources, too — so hit us up with a comment!

Search Optimization

1. Want to know how search optimization can possibly work for you? Look no further. Leucabiz.com offers up some incredibly simple coding tips to help you SEO your site with ease.
2. There can never be too many tutorials on search optimization. Why? The game is always changing, everyone has a different perspective and you can almost always learn something new. Check out this great search engine optimization tutorial from BusinessBolts.com.
3. So you’re implementing some SEO tactics. But how can you make sure they’re successful? WattBot has some solid tips for ensuring the success of your SEO campaign.

 Social Optimization

4. It’s not over yet! We’ll still be reading 2012 roundups and New Year’s resolutions for most of January. Fortunately, many of them are packed with solid info, like Cheryl Burgess’ list of 14 experts’ New Year’s resolutions on social optimization. See, we told ya it would be good!
5. SEO and social go hand-in-hand: One can be used to boost the other. ReachLocal offers a few tips for using social to drive SEO.
6. Did you know you can actually SEO your Facebook brand page? As Google continues to include more social content in its search results, SEO for your brand’s social networking presence is increasing in importance. Plumb Web Solutions suggests seven simple and time-saving tips to improve the search-engine friendliness of your Facebook page.

Local Optimization

7. Broad SEO is critical, but in some cases, local optimization can provide a bigger benefit. Check out Ruben Xavier’s thoughts on the subject at NewAffiliateMarketingTips.net.
8. Semantic markup is a great way to boost local search momentum. Michael Scotty offers five easy ways to improve your semantic markup for local search at LocalSurgeMedia.com.
9. Some key trends emerged in the local search field in 2012, many of which will influence the direction marketers take in 2013. Ted Paff shares the most influential local search trends at Blumenthals.com.

Email Marketing

10. Lackluster email marketing campaign? You could be missing out on major profits. Don’t take it from us; Take it from Cara Olson, Director of Digital Direct/eCRM at marketing consultancy DEG. Check out Olson’s expert insights at MarketingLand.
11. Despite what you may have read, email marketing isn’t dying. Erin Griffith says it’s time to face the facts: It’s not going anywhere, so it’s time to do it smarter.
12. What can we learn from Pinterest when it comes to email marketing? Turns out, quite a lot. Optify’s Jennifer Wong tells us how a Pinterest-style email marketing design can help drive click-throughs.

Mobile Optimization

13. Are you testing your mobile campaigns? Tsk, tsk. Daniel Burstein evaluates the results of the 2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report at the Marketing Experiments Blog. If you’re not testing, you’re not the only one. But you should be.
14. If your website isn’t yet optimized for mobile viewing, you must read this how-to post by Tammy Lam on the Intuit Blog, complete with an infographic by Column Five.
15. The Verizon Small Biz Blog wants to know how mobile technology has improved your business. As customers increasingly rely on tablets and smartphones to access info on the fly, how are you ensuring you’re reaching that audience? What are you waiting for? Share your story! (Bonus: Be sure to click through to the link identifying three small bus trends – YouTube marketing makes the short list!) And…don’t forget to check out their latest roundup with great posts for small biz!

Content Marketing

16. We love roundups. (Naturally!) Few things are more satisfying than big lists of content marketing tools. Check out Kari Rippetoe’s favorite 26 content marketing tools to use in 2013 at Online Marketing Institute.
17. Does content marketing have a bad reputation? Wait a minute…read what Tom Bishop has to say over at KnowledgeVision.com.
18. Remember what we said about roundups? Yeah, we really do like those. Here’s another worthy one: Andy Crestodina describes his essentials for the content marketing utility belt at Orbit Media.
19. Can content marketing help your brand connect with social consumers? Of course. Cas McCullough describes how to make that happen.

Conversion Optimization

20. The Daily Egg identifies seven crazy conversion optimization mistakes you may have been making in 2012 – and which you should leave behind in 2013.
21. Bobby Hewitt of Creative Thirst nails down the most valuable takeaways from Econsultancy’s “Conversion Rate Optimization Rate Report 2012″.
22. Bryan Eisenberg gives away his best tactics in “Conversion Optimization 101” with tips on planning social media landing pages.

Reputation Management

23. Everyone knows that Yelp is one of the major contributors to a company’s online reputation. McKremie takes a look at how to create a reputation management strategy for Yelp.
24. Looking to enhance your brand? You can’t do it without a solid reputation management plan. 60-Second Marketer Jamie Turner tells us how to get it done.
25. Don’t have time to adequately manage your online reputation? Check out Online Reputation Booster’s two-minute audit. That’s right: Two minutes.

I’m extremely excited to announce that we have rolled out a new and improved version of DIYSEO and have rebranded the company to UpCity!

UpCity represents the future of the business and the foundation for how we help our clients elevate their presence online. Search engine optimization and internet marketing have become more complex throughout the past several years. UpCity takes a different approach by providing education and insights and making it easier to navigate through this chaotic world. The UpCity platform ultimately increases the amount of free traffic our clients receive via search engines, social media and local sites, and will provide a step-by-step, simple approach to help convert this traffic to revenue.

What’s new?  UpCity maintains the same DIYSEO focus around helping our clients get free traffic from search engines but also provides the following enhancements:

• Additional optimization and insight around social media, reputation management, blogging and mobile.
• Significant expansion of our local optimization curriculum.
• Ability to earn points and rewards which provides a fun and engaging experience as you progress through the platform.
• Much easier to add more sites and manage them under one email address.
• Expanded panel of online marketing experts that are available for your questions via our Ask An Expert area in the UpCity Help Center.

What’s next?

Existing DIYSEO clients can migrate their account to the new UpCity platform and take advantage of our new low rate of $9.99 a month until January 31st. Follow the links below for next steps.

• Read this Overview to learn more about UpCity and the migration detall.
• Click Here to claim your new low rate and make your migration request.
• In order to receive this special reduced rate, you will need to migrate your existing DIYSEO account to UpCity. We will then move all of your historical reports and task history to the new platform.

New clients can sign up for a Free Trial here and also take advantage of our Launch Promotion of $9.99/month promotion. We look forward to helping you navigate this world of online marketing and helping you get free traffic and converting it revenue.

Our entire team feels extremely fortunate to be working with our small business clients and we are excited to bring a cost effective yet robust solution to the small business community. Welcome to UpCity – The Launchpad for Small Business Success!

Thanks to the wonderful team at UpCity for their dedication and hard work and making this new platform possible! Makes working at this company an absolute joy. Another big thanks to our investors and board members. It’s an amazing group of people and truly appreciate your support.

Thanks again,

Dan Olson

CEO | UpCity

There are many ways to create mobile sites, from custom-designed to simple off-the-shelf solutions. We want you to be up and running as fast as you can (subscribe to the free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter for other time-saving mobile tips). The clock starts now…

Start by…

First look at how your web site appears on a variety of smartphones. What about maps and navigation. Hard to find your business? Does the content read okay in a single column with short headlines? How about your competitors? If everyone in your house has the same phone, it’s worth borrowing a friend’s phone to see how it displays on other devices. Note what you like and don’t like.

Minutes 1 -3: Determine what mobile solution meets your needs.

We’ve listed three leading website mobile converters. They all have slightly different features but have the common benefit, they make it incredibly easy to create a mobile site.

bMobilized — A quick and basic website conversion. Easy peasy! There’s no annual contract and you can cancel anytime. Cost is $9/month. They will mobilize your site for you for a one-time fee of $199. Super-affordable with a 7-day free trial so you can check it out.

Duda Mobile — You may have heard of Duda Mobile when Google partnered with them last year. Duda is incredibly easy with a series of templates to choose from. You’ll definitely want the business version at $9/month (the individual version with 10 pages is free) which comes with your own mobile domain — m.yourname.com. They also offer a ‘Hire a Pro’ version which they will build for the fee of $499 for the first year and $86.40/year after.

Mobify — This is a slightly more sophisticated solution, it’s recommended by many if you are running an e-commerce business. The basic plan is free but has limited features. For the business rices run at $995/month but that gives you ad integration, cloud storage and more. If you hope to sell products from your mobile site, this is probably the way to go.

WP Touch — WordPress PlugIn 

If you have a WordPress site, download the  plugin. This automatically makes your website mobile ready.  You can customize and modify the mobile application without changing your regular website theme. Be sure you have WordPress 3.1 or higher.

Minute 4: Sign up for your service or download the app.

Minute 5: Bask in the glory of your new mobile site!

Now that you have your site ready, spend the next 30 minutes customizing it and having some fun. Be sure to post your news to your website telling your customers that your mobile site is ready to go. Now that wasn’t hard, was it?

Here are the MOST important things to do with Facebook for your small business (sign up for our free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter to get more tips on social media basics).

The Difference Between Facebook Buttons

Start by understanding what each of the Facebook icons do. The buttons on your website should be directed at two basic things:

1. An icon that links to your Facebook business page.

On your home page, the standard Facebook icon should link to your Facebook page. Your Facebook page allows web customers to learn more about your you and, hopefully, ‘Like’ your business.

Note that if someone likes your business it does NOT mean your updates will automatically go to their newsfeed. Facebook feeds have gotten to be a very busy place. In order filter out some of the noise, Facebook has set criteria in determining which of your ‘fans’ will see your information as reported this past November by TechCrunch.

2. An icon that allows people to share your content.

A Facebook ‘share’ button on a blog post or article allows people to share your content to their Facebook page. This will go into the individual’s newsfeed and be seen by their friends and colleagues. The ‘Share’ is synonymous with ‘Recommend’ buttons.

How to Use Them for Your Business

1. Icon that links to your Facebook page.Liking you on Facebook is a bit of a popularity vote. The more people that like you, the more credibility for your business. As noted, this doesn’t mean that they will receive all of your updates but it’s a start. What you post on your Facebook page has the chance of showing up in their feed. Special offers, products tips, new releases. All of those things work.

   Place the the icon near the top of your homepage (above the fold) so it’s easier to find and click on when someone lands on your site. For other webpages on your site, you may want to place the icon in a less conspicuous place, such as the footer, to leave room for more important information at the top of your webpage.

   Ask for people to ‘like’ you. Gather a tribe. Start small, you can determine how to maximize your followers later.

2. Icons that allow people to share your content.Sharing content is a big win because your business is exposed to people’s circle of influence, these are folks who might never have heard of you otherwise. Funny images, practical tips and giveaways are a slam-dunk. Think of your audience and what your customers find of value. If they like it, they are more likely to share. This is how things can go viral and you can gain your business much greater exposure.

   There are a whole host of social plug-ins you can add to your website. If you want to use them depends on how advanced your goals are for social media, learn more about Facebook Social Plugins installation and how you use them.

Don’t Lose Them

You’ve worked hard to get visitors to your site and you want them to visit you on Facebook, but you don’t want to lose them. Make sure that Facebook icons open in a new window so they can stay on your site. Most importantly, always drive any Facebook traffic back to your site.

Be Engaged

It’s great that you’ve added the Facebook icons to your site. The next critical factor is being involved on Facebook. There’s nothing worse than sending them to a dead zone.

Getting your site ready for Facebook and engaging customers is just the next step in your small business success.

While we compile our lists in no particular order, this time I’m going to list the big guns and industry leaders at the bottom as honorable mentions. Not because their content and blog aren’t valuable (they are incredibly so), but because most of you have heard of them before. We wanted to shine the spotlight on other experts in the small business SEO field.

The world of SEO is rapidly changing, get the latest news from movers and shakers in the field (subscribe to the free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter for more small business search info).

1. Steve Webb of Web Gnomes — A personal favorite and not just because of the gnome! They offer really practical SEO advice for small businesses in language that’s easy to understand. In their own words, “they give back”, freely sharing knowledge and advice. Note how they effectively link to others in the industry that are worth reviewing. Link love at it’s finest.
2. John Battelle’s Search Blog — John is a veteran SEO consultant with a fresh voice. A man with wit and personal insight not always found in the world of SEO blogs. We love that his personality shines through — that he really has great things to offer doesn’t hurt either!
3. Kristi Hines of Kikolani — Kristi is an expert on all things SEO but her service and passion is really writing. The beauty of this is that her posts are incredibly easy to read. She has a host of guest bloggers on her site (carefully selected and knowledgable) and you can find her guest blogging at leading industry resources. Just where does she find the time?
4. LinchpinSEO  — A web design and SEO company that provides services to almost all aspects of web marketing for small (and larger) businesses. As content specialists, they clearly ‘walk the walk’ with unique posts that don’t seem just to be regurgitated across the web, often with client highlight. BTW – their infographic designs are awesome.
5. Search Engine People — One of Canada’s leading SEO firms. They focus on all aspects of SEO. Their blog and social media offer practical advice and are a great example of how small businesses can use these strong inbound marketing process to help grow the business.
6. Nick Stamoulis of Search Engine Optimization Journal — Nick is the founder of the well-known SEO firm (with another awesome blog), Brick Marketing. He blogs on a variety of topics around search, be sure to check out the SEO Journal article categories in the right rail. There’s practical advice for every small business owner.
7. Tom Demers/Ken Lyons of Measured SEM — This dynamic duo are co-founders at Measured SEM. This SEO agency is well-known in many SEO circles for their contributions to leading SEO blogs such as Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Journal. They work directly with their small business clients to help targeted marketing campaigns. We like their weekly round-ups, too!
8. DigitalSherpa — A content and social media marketing specialists that are focused on small- to mid-sized businesses. In addition to a blog with great resources, they offer a full line up of tools and services that will help get traffic to your site.
9. Ann Smarty an SEO Consultant | Blogger | Content Expert — Ann is well-known for her writing at Mashable and Search Engine Journal (see honorable mentions below) on all things SEO. Her blog at SEOSmarty isn’t as robust but we wanted to highlight her here anyway—check out her guest blogging resources around the web! Ann’s knowledge is incredible but it’s her writing style and no-nonsense approach that will keep you reading.
10. Ross Hudgens of SiegeMedia — Ross gets a nod on our list as a well-known SEO expert and really knowledgable guy. He started his own company, Siege Media, not so long ago so we though we’d send a little PR his way. He shares that he was tired of same old SEO, he’s working to help businesses find their own voice online.
11. Aaron Wall of SEOBook — Aaron and his team are well-known leaders in the SEO training and education world. His round-up of SEO tools is particularly helpful to our small business clients. The team writes a hefty blogs on all thing search.
12. Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival — Becky lives and breathes small business and help rural entrepreneurs learn and grow. Becky lives by the motto of “bringing promising technologies to the regular everyday small business people of the rural world.”
13. Small Biz Technology — A team of experienced writers contributes to this valuable resource. They educate and train small business owners on technology that matters. From Anti-virus reports to videos on Email Newsletter Sign-ups, there’s something for everyone.
14. Matt McGee of Small Business Search Marketing — Matt is always on our ‘best-of-the-best’ list because of his practical approach and incredibly helpful tips for small businesses. Under the umbrella of SEO, he is also a leader in local search and news editor of the leading industry sites Search Engine Land and Marketing Land.
15. Will Scott of Search Influence — Search Influence is one of the top five local search companies in the US. We love that their mission is “… to help small business succeed online” and they do this with custom solutions across the search spectrum. Their blog is manned by a talented team of authors.
16. Matt Cutts from Google — Many business owners will recognize Matt’s name, he’s head of Google’s Webspam team. While his blog is not specifically directed at small business, he’s worth following and reading. After all, without Google, where would we all be?!
17. SmallBizTrends — This powerhouse of writers and experts offers everything a small business wants to know about marketing and management. As a series of small business verticals, I encourage you to sign-up for one of their many newsletters, you’ll be glad you did. “Small business success … delivered daily.”
18. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing – I’ve written about John before but can’t write this list without including him. What can I say, he is a champion of small business owners everywhere and simplified, manageable marketing plan.
19. Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl — Todd is a veteran SEO consultant that has managed to thrive and grow in the ever-changing world of SEO. From technical complexities to content development to heatmap tracking, Todd’s services are not often matched in the world of SEO writing and services.
20. Open Forum by American Express — This compendium of resources focuses on small business needs and marketing. Don’t let the big brand name fool you, it’s a really great powerhouse of news and industry information. (You don’t even need a credit card!)

Honorable Mentions to the industry giants. If you’re ever looking for authoritative voices and help with your SEO issues, these blogs likely have an answer:

SEOmoz | Search Engine Land | Top Rank Blog | SEO.com | Mashable | Search Engine Journal | Search Engine Watch | Search Engine Roundtable

Treat yourself to an hour a day of education. Follow just a few of these experts and save yourself hours of trying to figure it on your own. Enjoy!

Optimized local search is a critical marketing for every small business owner with a local address. Without properly completed business profile pages on all search engines, you’re missing a huge opportunity to get free traffic to your site and store  (subscribe to the free UpCity Daily Tips newsletter for more tips on optimizing your site for local search).

Step-by-Step

Building out a Bing Business Page is incredibly easy. We’ll keep it simple with the basic steps.

1. Go to the Bing Business Portal site and enter the name of your business with zipcode. If they don’t have information on you, add your business. If they do, claim your business.
2. On the next page you’re be given a page with multiple tabs to fell out all the information on your business.
   • Details page allows you to complete basic information
   • More Details tab provides options for specific information such as hours, business tagline, and more
   • Profile is where you specify specialties based on the business category you selected
   • Mobile offers details for a creating a mobile site (as Jayson DeMers noted in his excellent Bing visual roadmap on SEJ — this is a bit “perplexing”)
   • Photos section allows you to add up to nine images

Take time to do these pages as completely as you can during this first pass. As we all know, it’s tough to find time later.

1. Preview your page. Edit, preview, repeat!
2. Request verification. If via mail, your postcard should arrive in about a week. The SMS text option is immediate. Once you get your PIN, log back into your site, enter it and you’re live!

Local Optimization Tip

Search engine local profiles are much, much better if they are consistent across the web. That means your Bing information should be the same as Yelp … should be the same as DMOZ … should be the same as YellowPages … etc. Local directory spiders pull business information from everywhere and slight variations in your address or phone number, can create multiple listings for your business.

So now that you’re Bing ready, start using that local profile to your advantage. Complete special offers and feed in your other social media. When users are in your area, searching for deals on Bing, you’re there to be found.

Search Optimization

1. Afraid you’re making a major SEO blunder? Entrepreneur reveals the top five deadly sins of SEO and content marketing. (Hint: Don’t try to undertake this vast effort alone.)
2. Have you heard about the Fiscal Cliff? If you’re not already sick of hearing that term, Search Engine Watch joins the “Fiscal Cliff” bandwagon and talks justifying your investment, achieving ROI and avoiding a fall from the SEO Fiscal Cliff.
3. Using WordPress as a website platform? You’re not alone. But using an established platform or template doesn’t negate the need to focus on SEO. Ghacks.net offers five tips for maximizing SEO with WordPress.

Social Optimization

4. Should our schools be teaching social networking to students? The Independent thinks so, making some good points about teaching proper social media etiquette at a young age.
5. Did you fall into the “Google+ is a passing trend” school of thought? Well, it turns out G+ isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Really – even The Wall Street Journal says so. But it’s not necessarily due to popularity, rather Google’s determined tactics which essentially force users to join.
6. This wouldn’t be a worthy new-year roundup without a shout out to the many articles rounding up the best of 2012, whether a focus on the best applications, most popular social networks and so forth. One we found particularly intriguing is Digital Trends’ hit list identifying the top social network moves of 2012, proving once and for all that social media is in it for the long haul. Accomplishments include Facebook finally going public, Instgram’s rapid rise to the big leagues and more.
7. Few things are more important than knowing you’re getting some sort of ROI from your social media efforts. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution: Google Analytics. Search Engine Watch breaks the process down into five steps.

Local Optimization

8. It’s 2013: The year the default number of items in a list post became “13.” To honor the beginning of this lucky-number year, Search Engine Land offers up a 13-step checklist for optimizing semantic markup to boost local SEO efforts.
9. Is Foursquare conquering the local search market? Small Business Search Marketing discusses why Foursquare just might be the next major local search player.
10. Among ClickZ’s 10 digital marketing predictions for 2013 is mobile’s influence on the local search market. The rise in the use of smartphones is making local search marketing a major point of influence for advertisers.

Email Marketing

11. How can email be a viable marketing channel today, when our inboxes are cluttered with endless amounts of spam and we rarely have time to read the important messages, let alone a sponsored advertisement from a mailing list? That’s exactly the question Arshiya Khullar ponders in a post for Pitch On Net, reaching out to three leaders in the digital media space for their opinions on the future of email marketing.
12. Pitching via email? Check out these five tips from Young Entrepreneur Council at Business2Community on making your next email pitch a winner.
13. Email marketing isn’t just for the business-to-consumer markets; it can be a useful strategy for reaching B2B customers as well. ClickZ offers up eight strategies for using email as a business-to-business marketing tool.

Mobile Optimization

14. Is mobile part of your 2013 marketing plan? Mobile Marketing Watch features an infographic demonstrating the top things on the mobile marketing wish list for 2013.
15. Now that the holidays are over, is your mobile advertising campaign over, too? Mobile commerce is growing rapidly and doesn’t have to be limited to the peak shopping season. Fast Company talks about planning your mobile commerce strategy throughout the year.
16. Adblock Plus is a newer app which helps mobile users block – you guessed it –mobile ads. Will it change the face of mobile marketing in 2013? In a post for Venture Beat, Oxygen 8 Group’s James Harrison offers his predictions.

Content Marketing

17. Content marketing has been on the shortlist of small to medium-size businesses throughout 2012. Brafton outlines the most important content marketing takeaways from 2012.
18. Content marketing is important. You get it. But many small and medium-size businesses struggle with implementation due to time or budget constraints. Find out what other SMBs struggle with in relation to content marketing at 1to1Media.
19. Remember when SEO was the only thing that mattered? Then content marketing came around and now the two go hand-in-hand. Mashable investigates the way the rules of SEO have changed within the content marketing landscape.

Conversion Optimization

20. All your content marketing, social media and local and mobile advertising efforts are meaningless without conversion optimization. CRO is one of Unbounce’s favorite topics and they hit the mark again with this roundup of 16 fresh conversion resources you shouldn’t miss.
21. Most marketers are amazed the first time they’re introduced to heat maps. Who would have thought we’d ever have such a sophisticated insight into the way visitors respond to our web pages? But more importantly, how can we turn this information into useable data? ConversionXL outlines 19 things we can learn from those numerous heat map tests.
22.  Could usability and accessibility be hurting your conversion rates? Without getting feedback from your visitors, you could be turning them away with simple – and easily fixed – mistakes. Multilingual Search investigates the ways usability and accessibility could be influencing your conversion rates.

Reputation Management

23. Reputation management is so crucially important, one college is even offering students free tools to manage their online reputations. Check out the story at Chief Information Officer.
24. Getting by with the bare minimum in reputation management? The U.K.’s Real Business talks about what true reputation management entails and how to avoid BP-esque blunders.
25. What happened to Instagram? The company has faced the brunt of criticism in recent weeks. Read what Direct Response’s Rich Gorman has to say at Virtual Strategy magazine.

Did we miss something really incredible? Call us out if we did in the comments below.