DoMoreBiz! Blog

Local Internet Marketing

Administrator — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:33:00 +0000

Once upon a time, SEO experts had “magical” writing skills to help merchants, business owners, and vendors get their websites to show up on the first page of search engine results.   Once upon a time, it was quite simple - place a few keywords in strategic places within the page content with the correct keyword densities and the search engines would place that website on the first page of Yahoo, AOL, and others.

Then along came Google! They developed new algorithms that were much more discriminating and placed a greater emphasis on not just page content but backlinks or links pointing to your website.

Today’s search engines analyze and determine word patterns that people are looking for and then deliver relevant content in the form of search results. Sure, the location and frequency of keywords is still very important, but now there is much more.

Here’s how SEO works now;

Much of what determines the ranking position of any particular page is due to what happens off of the website pages, in the form of links from other websites. Getting those links has become the hardest part of SEO. For example here are 2 backlinks to our client sites;

Florida Condo Association Lawyer

Fort Lauderdale Felony Attorney

When the search engines find this page and these links, they begin to equate the landing page (after you click each link – try it) with the keywords you clicked on.    Increasing the number of links to your pages is critical in order to improve your search rankings. Think of SEO this way- if your content isn’t good enough to attract good, natural links from other websites, it doesn’t matter how “optimized” that content is, your website will not appear on the first page of the search engines.

There is a second alternative - paying someone to add backlinks to your articles and website.   Let’s look at two of our clients and their SEO results.

Mr. John Contini is a veteran, Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer known for handling high profile civil and criminal cases such as murder, wrongful death or civil rights violations.   His website, JohnContini.com, has been operational for almost 4 years. Mr. Contini started with a basic html site and then upgraded to a content management system using Joomla, a world class open source content management system.   Joomla enables people with little if any programming skills to add pages to their website by typing and then clicking save. As a result, Mr. Contini’s secretary can now add pages when needed and his website has over 200 pages, many of which are still to be optimized.

However, the search rankings for the JohnContini.com website are still not high enough to generate the additional business he is looking for. In spite of a well optimized site, Mr. Contini’s market is extremely competitive with respect to criminal law and related searches.    Instead of being the first few listings in the search results he often finds himself on the bottom of the first page or on the 2nd page. There are over 30 other well optimized Broward County criminal lawyer websites, many using in-house, full time staff to improve search rankings. Most of the lawyers are all chasing the same keywords such as “Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer” and “Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney”.

To address this problem, our new strategy for Mr. Continni’s website was to find other keywords which have significantly less competition but are still searched on a regular basis, such as “Fort Lauderdale Felony lawyer”, and “South Florida Felony attorney”. We also began a new backlink campaign for his website which involves creating hundreds of links pointing back to his website.   To create even more backlinks, we are arranging for Mr. Contini’s website to permit website visitors to leave comments about his articles.   As other visitors reply to his posts many additional backlinks will be established.

Our second example is the Jay Steven Levine Law Group, a Florida Hurricane Lawyer.    The Levine Law Group specializes in Florida Community Association law and Florida Homeowners Association law which involve representing condo and home owner associations. Their website was built by DoMoreBiz less than 90 days ago yet they are already seeing 1st page listings and in some cases they are the first listing on the first page.    Their website only has 25 pages of content at this time but they have the capability to quickly and easily add pages themselves using a built in blog.

How can a client’s new website, so recently opened, rank in the top 3 positions on Google whereas a 4 yr old website ends up on the second page of most search engines?

The answer has to do with competition for search terms. The second client is in a less competitive area of the law and therefore there are substantially less competition for their important keywords. There are only 3 or 4 well optimized law firm sites for the Florida condo lawyer vs. 30 or more for Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer, John Contini.

As more law firms come to learn that a lot of business comes from the Internet, the increased competition may negatively impact the website rankings for our Florida community association law firm, but for now this client is in an enviable position.

Summary

In today’s Internet environment, content is a very important facet to successful SEO. You should always strive to use the same keywords you select for targeting by web searchers in each and every article. Use those key words in the title whenever possible and throughout the articles.

Create your own links from one page of your site to another. Then get focused on a daily basis to add links from other sites back to your site. Make sure to use your keywords for those links such as "Local Internet Marketing” rather than just a link.   In other words Rochester Lasik Doctor is superior to http://www.robbinseye.com.

DoMoreBiz! - Tips to Collect Email Addresses

Administrator — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Here are 19 tips on how to collect and use email addresses.

This is critical in today’s digital world. Use email to stay in front of your prospects so that when the time comes that they need your products or services your business is fresh in their mind.

Put a fishbowl on your counter and provide a contest or giveaway of your product - then announce it to your newsletter or on your blog. Add the cards you collected.
Include a newsletter or blog sign-up link in your signature line on your emails.
Send an email to your address book asking them to join your list.
Join your local chamber of commerce or other resource, email the member list (if it's opt-in) about your services and provide a link to sign up to your newsletter.
Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
Create a Facebook group or corporate page - invite people to it, then periodically post a link to your signup page.
Trade newsletter or banner space with a friends business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter or on their website.
Include opt-in forms on every page on your site.
Popup windows - When a website visitor leaves your site, pop up a window and ask for their email address.
Place an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter or a free offer (we offer a free website evaluation).
Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
Offer "Email only" discounts and don't use those offers anywhere but email.
Telemarketing - If you've got people on the phone, don't hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
Invite people who get your emails forwarded to them to join your list.
Tradeshows and networking events – Scan the business cards you collect with specially designed software (biz card reader) and add them to your list.
Create a Facebook Fan page where people sign up as a fan.
Post your email sign up link on Twitter as your initial post.
Maybe you have a postal list that does not have emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
Provide a free download of a PDF on your website and require a sign up.

The easiest way to add a newsletter sign up form on your website is to use a hosted application like iContact. Within the user interface is an application that will allow you to create an easy to use email sign up form.

We have tried all of the popular email sending programs and iContact is the best one at the lowest cost. Click the link below for a free trial.

Make sure you subscribe to our DoMoreBiz! Tips for Making More Money Blog.

Online Local Marketing | For less than $.01 per day!

Administrator — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:43:00 +0000

Online Local Marketing | For less than $.01 per day!

The KISS principle in action – Keep It Simple Stupid

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people that spend thousands of dollars on a website but don’t promote it. I certainly understand that in many cases it boils down to what you can afford.

This might be the simplest idea ever to generate local leads and sales from your website.

Online Local Marketing | Tools To Help Generate Local leads and sales.

Administrator — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Advanced Web Ranking and Advanced Link Manager Review

In order to generate leads and sales from your website it is critical that you are able to track your progress with regards to both keyword optimization and also link building. This is the basis of what Online Local Marketing entails.

These two issues are very important as they effectively determine your search engine rankings. Since it is impossible to generate leads or sales without being on the first or second page in the search engines, a science has emerged with respect to getting sites ranked for certain keywords. For example, if you are a dallas based insurance agent, ideally you’ll want to rank number one in Google whenever a search include the word “Dallas health insurance”. (click the liink and look for customhealthplans.com as they are a client of ours and rank at the top of the page).

In order to engage in proper monitoring of your keywords, you need the right tools to check your keyword rankings on a periodic basis. We use two tools from a company (Caphyon) that have become invaluable in monitoring our client’s search engine rankings as well as measuring link popularity or the number of links that point to their website.

Share Content with over 50 Social Networks

Administrator — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Check out this new application we are installing to our client's websites. It is called Add This and it allows a visitor to re-post your content to over 50 social networks. So let's say they are at your site reading your latest blog post or other article, with a single click they can repost your content to over 50 social networks including Facebook, MySpace and other.

It is offered as a plugin and is easy to install in many of the top platforms like Wordpress, Joomla and others. Below is a video you may be interesting in watching regarding this application;

10 Essential Steps to Getting Quality Local Leads from Your Website

Administrator — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:08:00 +0000

Part I of II.

In these tough economic times, effective marketing is more important than ever to stay competitive and remain profitable. Local Online Marketing is one of the most affordable, high traffic arenas to “mine for business”. How would you like to get quality leads from your website that can easily be turned into sales?

Sure the Economy is in the toilet but that is no reason not to position your company to take advantage of Local Online Marketing. In order to generate leads from your website, everyday, follow these steps;

1. Define Geographic Key Phrases or Search Terms and Use Them on Your Website

Suppose you are a “criminal lawyer” and want to get more cases, and your website is up. And ready to go. Determine what keywords phrases or search terms describe your products or services. This step is critical in order for the search engines to recognize EXACTLY WHAT YOU DO OR SELL. Google offers a free tool that will show you how often certain terms are searched. Here it is;

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal or search Google External Keyword Tool.

This tool will give you an idea of how many times certain keywords are searched. For example: “criminal dallas lawyer” is searched 6600 times per month (must be a lot of trouble down there!).

Next, “marry” your keywords with city or regional locations. For example:
If you offer Lasik surgery and you are based in Rochester NY your keywords might be Lasik Surgery Rochester, Lasik Surgery Rochester NY, Lasik Doctor Rochester, etc. Figure out exactly what terms people are searching when looking for your products or services.

Once you determine 5, 10, 20 or more keywords you can begin to incorporate them into your website. You should use them to optimize page titles, meta tags, site content, internal links, and external links with the key phrases that describe your product or service. (we will define these terms and explain in detail in a future post) These will help attract targeted search results and bring your business new customers. In other words – USE THESE KEYWORDS ON YOUR WEBSITE.

2. Write Content that Communicates Your Location and Your Keywords

We see sites constantly where Google has no idea that the business is based in Miami. No wonder they have not gotten a single lead from the Internet! Why? Because the site might only use the word Miami on a single page and in some cases it can be a page that the search engines are not able to find or read. Local businesses can maximize their search visibility by crafting content written with geo-specific key phrases. In other words – your articles or site content MUST use your keywords.

3. Build Links with Local Sites

Increasing links back to your website boosts search engine visibility. This will insure you are found on the first page of Google when someone is searching for your product or service. This is a critical step in generating leads on a local basis. You can hire a company like ours to add these links or you may be able to do it on your own.

Use your community connections to initiate:

* Links pointing to your website in a local directory or classifieds site like craigslist.org or backpage.com
* A link in the local Chamber of Commerce directory
* Links to your site in the blog roll of local bloggers
* Partnering with non-competing local websites to exchange links

Whenever possible, request the link back have one of the key phrases you are targeting. This is called anchor text. So a link for a Fort Lauderdale Lawyer would look like this;
Fort Lauderdale Criminal lawyer

4. Get listed with the local directories for Google, Yahoo! and Bing. I recommend that a professional do this for you, but, if you are not willing to spend the money I suggest you do it yourself. Adding 10 new links pointing back to your website will have a significant effect on generating local leads and sales.

Since Google, Yahoo, and Bing often include local businesses above other listings in their search results, local businesses can often leverage their geographic edge to get top listings.

Online phone book sites offer paid options that are worth exploring, as well. Another approach is to ask your clients or customers to post comments about your business on local Internet listings to boost credibility and awareness.