Go4it Marketing

Internet Search Is Just A Marketing Tool

Dan Keating — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000

It is important to remember that internet marketing is just a category in the overall marketing strategy of any small business. Everyone is very excited about the internet and all it may be able to do. Recently in my discussions with small business people I have found that many small business owners have forgotten that search engine marketing, Facebook, Twitter and other internet tools are just that, TOOLS.

Internet marketing tools for small business are just tools in the overall strategy of advertising, sales promotion and public relations for a business. Just because we now have the internet and thousands of people are using it does not mean that media advertising, direct response and other media sources are no longer effective. The internet has added an effective tool but at the same time it should not be the only tool. For to do that can be very dangerous to a businesses success.

As I have tried to point out a business needs to be on the first page of search results regardless of the search engine you are using. Not being on the first page in search result gives your web site no traffic so for you the internet is very ineffective. Further one must remember that the organic (free) search has one very large disadvantage. There can only be 10 to 12 businesses on the first page which are not paid ads. Therefore, in medium to large cities there is just no room for all those businesses on page one of the search engines.

Since not everyone can be on page one that means small business must use other techniques to keep and increase their business. It is here where most small business fail to utilize old and proven methods to get, keep and maintain their customers. For example because of the internet everyone wants to use email to stay in touch which is a good idea as far as it goes. Many business people I talk to do not have any method in place to gather customer names and they do not have the programs in place to capitalize on this technology. The reputation of email has lost it’s luster because so many people have mis-treated it. The consumer is inundated with direct email to the tune of hundreds of messages a day. No one wants to wade through all that. It is much worse than the regular direct mail people receive. However, if done correctly both regular “snail mail” and email can be done effectively.

There is one old fashioned customer retention program that still works but few if any business people utilize it. This program is the greeting card programs. These programs when done correctly can be the most effective customer referral and customer retention methods available.

The latest and the greatest now is social media. It is being yelled about and promoted every where. If you go to Facebook for example you will see that there are now 800,000,000 million users and still growing. And with all the publicity very few businesses use it at all and those with pages do not use them at all. Since Facebook is free anyone can p[ut up a page and it is easy to do. Doing it effectively is the key.

If you would like a free consultation to review your small business marketing strategy give me a call and I will give you my 35 years of experience of both old school and new school marketing ideas. Ideas of course are a dime a dozen. Good ones are also plentiful. A good idea is only as good as the action taken to implement it. Without action nothing is ever accomplished. We also having a small business action coaching service that is inexpensive and can increase effectiveness by 200 to 300%.

Give me a call at 970-481-7733.

Google Places Small Business Service

Dan Keating — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:03:45 +0000

Google places is a free service offered by Google to all businesses. It is especially helpful to small business and it is necessary if you wish to have a page one listing in Google.

Almost 80% of Coloradoan’s are internet users and this number is growing daily. 60% of US shoppers have researched products and services on line. 21% of all adults research for products and services on line daily. There are 240,00 internet users in Larimer County and 202,00 users in Weld County. All of these people may be searching for your product or service.

Google Places National Case Studies

Google Places allows you to get information about your product or service in front of customers at an extremely low price. If you do it yourself it is free. You can display information like the following:

Business Description
Maps
Directions
Hours
Payment Types
Download pictures of products, services, your location and your staff.
Download Videos You can actually show your product or service in action.
Testimonials and Reviews

It allows you to give your present and future customers information you do not get to do in other advertising media.

Google Places is another tool which you can use to reach for the large number of people searching for local products and services everyday.

We can set up an account for you for an extremely low price and you can let us service it every month or you or one of your staff can take it over yourselves. Why wait I can guarantee you your competetion is doing it or will very shortly.

In the world of web marketing there is nothing more important than being on the first page of Google.

We can help with:

Facebook
Twitter
Bing Business
Linkin
SEO

Call Us Today 481-7733

Google Page One

Dan Keating — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:51:01 +0000

Being on page one of Google local search gets your web site exposure to 65% of all web searches. Your web site on page one of Bing/Yahoo will get you exposure to 34% more searches. That figures up to be 99% of all web search.

In the graphic at the left you will notice that the first three results get 79% of all click through’s and the first five get 88% of all clicks. Where do you want to be.

I can get your web site onto page one of local search.

To get the full statistical story see the slide show below.

Small Business Web Marketing— Social Media Gets More Traffic

Dan Keating — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:06:37 +0000

It has come to my attention that small businesses who update their sites regularly tend to rank higher than those who do not update. Local business web sites are usually fairly static. Once a web site is built the web site on average becomes static and the business uses it to tell people through other channels about their web site.

Statistics tell us that only the top ten web sites for a given keyword phrase (consumer search query) get any traffic to their web site through search engines. Further using google anaylitics will tell you that this is true. It takes only 20 to 30 days to see the results. Further these same statistics tell us that the top three get as high as 84% of all click throughs and the top site can get as high as 40% or more of all search click throughs.

A large web site builder named SiteKreator released the results of a study they did on February of 2011. Their study analyzed 5,000 random websites through 2010. The study revealed that small businesses who add and update their site content more often receive more traffic on a monthly basis vs sites who make less frequent updates. They also found that sites which used social media in their online strategies also received more traffic than sites not using social media.

In the study the businesses who updated their website more than five times per month have +300% more website traffic than those who do not. 300% is a significant number. Even more significant however is the number of web sites who update 5 or more times a month. Only 2% while 54% hardly ever update less than 1/2 of 1% per month. 21% of web sites update 1 times per month. Added together that is 75% update very little. The small business owner who wants to stand above the rest needs to update and the competition for rankings is very low and therefor easily achievable.

Small businesses who use and engage with social networks see a +400% increase in the visitors to their website as a direct result of using a social networking platform. That too is a significant number. Site owners who so not use social media get little or no increased ranking while if you are an adwords user you get a 150% boost in traffic. There goes the theory that Google does not reward adwords users just for using the service.

The 400% increase in traffic is the average gained by incorporating social networking. Sites with Facebook integration and usage get over 500% and if you use both facebook and twitter you get nearly 600% increase in traffic over non-users.

So if you are a small business it appears to significantly pay to become involved in social media. It can be the difference of getting to page one in the search results and if you are already on page one it will help get you there.

There is another secret to getting to page one and if you are already there the secret is the same. The secret is, get the right kind of inbound and on site links.

Also it is important to have a Google Places listing that has been verified and it is very important to have on page seo. If you would like a free analysis of your local small business website give me a call.

Dan Keating
970-481-7733

Internet Small Business Opportunity

Email Services 3.1 Million Per Day

Google Updates Search Algorithm It Can Influence Fort Collins Business

Dan Keating — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:18:13 +0000

Just a short post to update readers on Googles newest search engine adjustments. Last week they announced on their blog a new algorithm update that will influence almost 12% of all sites in their data base.

Quoted from Googles blog…”Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking–a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries–and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites–sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites–sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

This means that the saying “content is king” is now more important than ever. The content you put on your web site will be better ranked if it is original and well written. It also means that the Google sweet spot, which is the amount of keywords in your copy, is also more important. In order for your pages to rank as high as possible you need to pay closer attention to on page optimization. The sweet spot is about 5% keyword density in your body copy.

This all will become more relevant as local small business people become more web savvy. At this time local search is not nearly as competitive as national search. However, as more business people find the power of local search the atmosphere will become more competitive.

Most small businesses are to busy running their business to practice or even care about good seo techniques. That is why I specialize in small business seo consulting. You may have a nice looking web site but if it is not on the first page of local Google search, using the keywords that real people search on, then your site is not being seen and has little value. The value of a web site is it’s ability to get new customers at a low price.

I can put your web site on the first page of Google search. Give me a call and let us discuss how to do this while the competition is still low.

Dan 970-481-7733

Google and Bing And Now There Are Two

Dan Keating — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:05:01 +0000

There have been for many years only three major search engines. They are Google, Yahoo and Bing (MSN Live) AOL use the Google search engine. Now there are hundreds of search engines and directories who are similar to search engines but not as effective or efficient.

As of August 2010 Yahoo has turned over their entire search function to Bing. In the future you will see many things happen between Microsoft and Yahoo as their agreements become better known and implemented. If you go to Yahoo there is still a search function but it mirrors Bing’s search results.

Presently Search Engine Market Share Follows:

Google 66% (Includes AOL and Others)
Bing 13.9% (Bing’s Total 27%)
Yahoo 13.1%
Ask 2%
All The Rest 5%

These statistics show why SEO companies concentrate their efforts to rank in Google. However my experience with over 100 web sites shows that if you rank well in Google you will probably also be high in Bing. This may change in the future but we have chosen to concentrate on Google rankings and leave Bing until the landscape changes.

This study was done by the AC Neilson Co.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/bing-overtakes-yahoo-as-the-2-search-engine/

Google and Bing State Importance Of Twitter and Facebook

Dan Keating — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:01:59 +0000

In a recent article from the blog of Danny Sullivan the most well known SEO expert and writer comes the announcement that both Google and Bing consider the social media like twitter and face book important to SEO and page rank.

Many people including myself have found this to be true in the past. Links from both of these sites are found very quickly by the two major search engines and remain in links indefinitely. Anytime you have a link show up quickly it is because the pages it comes from have high page rank and that tyhe search engines feel they are popular and/or significant.

Danny Sullivan asked Google and Bing the following question: “If an article is re-tweeted or referenced much in twitter do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-no-followed links that may naturally result from it”?

Google’s answer: “Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article.”

Bing’s answer: We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.

The above answers suggest that if you build a social network of people and get your articles re-tweeted than that will help build your sites popularity. How much this means is still up for debate and you have to determine if it is worth the effort for your particular site. My opinion there are more important things to do to rate a site higher if Google and Bing. When those are done you can give some time to upgrading your social inter-relationships.

Danny also asked the following question: “Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?

Google’s answer: “Yes we do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life.”

Bing’s answer: “Yes. We do calculate the authority of someone who tweets. For known public figures or publishers, we do associate them with who they are. (For example, query for Danny Sullivan)”

Danny also asked the following: “Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who tweets it?”

Google’s answer: “Yes we do use this as a signal, especially in the “Top links” section [of Google Realtime Search].”

Bing’s answer: “yes”

Again my opinion is this looks like you need to establish some kind of author authority. As your number of tweets and re-tweets or the posts in facebook increases the search engines will give you and your sites more authority and assume that you are more popular thus possibly giving you increased rankings as well as increased page rank. As twitter and facebook grow they will become more important in the overall view of page and site popularity.

Remember both Google and Bing are algorithms written by humans they are not humans. They act and read mechanically and they have no ability to judge outside of the mechanical process that the human code writer built in.

Again if you have the time then facebook and twitter could help your pages become more popular and rank better especially in the organic search pages. As the statistics continue to show the top five search results in both search engines get 88% of all clicks on the page.

Google Search Offering Instant Search

Dan Keating — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:16:12 +0000

In my last post I wrote about Google’s search changes and how they are effecting the local search patterns. Google search appears now to have settled down into their new format at least here in my marketplace of Northern Colorado.

At the same time Google search has also introduced instant search which gives you instant page results and changes automatically as you finish typing in your keyword search phrase. In other words with it’s huge database Google search is anticipating what your request is and trying to give the searcher what they want quicker and better. This of course is Google searches mission in life, to give the user the most relevant pages fast.

Instant search has also added another feature called page preview. There is a magnifying glass icon just to the right of the page title. When this icon is clicked (selected) it shows you a miniature of the home page. Experienced searchers will use this in many ways. One advantage is you get an instant preview and some searchers will use this feature to decide if they wish to click on through. It is my thought that this feature is going to reduce the amount of people which click through to listing number one.

Another advantage is it will give researchers a must quicker view of where they are and if they have visited this page before. People who are trying to find a lot of information on a particular subject will like this feature. Although Google search has eliminated almost all purely advertising and junk sites this feature will total eliminate the searches desire to go to them at all.

The new page layout seems to be three paid ads at the top middle backed in light pink. The three organic searches and then the local pages. Google will bring up the best 10 local businesses in that search query. It may not be the best business but it is what Google sees using their algorithm rules. This is the place I put in a business plug. If you are not in the top ten local or national searches I can put you there.

The local business map has been moved to the upper right hand corner and reduced in size. However click the map to get a full sized one. When you click the map the full page one appears along with the ten local listings. This gives the people in the top ten a great advantage. When you click on the Title It brings up the web page in a separate page so that the local map stays on your desktop another marketing advantage. A small weakness I found is that it does not provide (yet) a magnifying glass to preview the page. If you click on the red balloon it will bring up on the map the address etc plus a photo and ways to easily get to the location another hughe advantage to the local website listed in the top ten.

The rest of the organic searches are then listed below the local listing. The ads are still below the map on the right hand side. As an aside Google search appears to me to be trying to increase the usability and the releavance of it’s local search. You will see more changes and upgrades as time passes. If all else fails Google is always trying to improve and in my experience rarely fails to do just that.

One added non feature to some people is when you use the magnifying glass the preview covers up the paid ads on the right. Google has said their research shows that users have already decided not to use ads so cover them should not cause a significant down grade to advertisers. I don’t buy that. It will cause at the least a slight reduction in click throughs although not in cost to advertisers since they are paying by the click.

If you would like to discuss moving your web business to the first page of Google search give me a call. Remember 84% or so of all Americans start their search for products and services on the web and 69% use Google search to do it. Call Dan 970.481.7733.

Google Changing Local Search?

Dan Keating — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:13:37 +0000

This will be just a short post. Google seems to be changing their local search based algorithm.
They have moved the map to the upper right hand corner of the page over the ads. Second they are now putting three organic search web sites above the local findings.

At the moment Google is doing this at random. The search pages keep changing hour by hour. In many instances local does not show up at all in certain browsers but does in others.

For certain key words where there are local sites they do not show up unless the search phrase Fort Collins is included. For other search phrases this is not true.

This looks like it is an on going thing that will take some time to resolve itself. If you are searching for something in the Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley etc you might want to add the name of the city.

The bing search engine works better every time if you put in the city. Many search phrase that have Fort Collins or other city locations do not show up. This appears to be based on keyword popularity and of course if the web site is optimized for local search. Many local web sites are not local optimized.

More later when the dust settles.

Yahoo Announces 33.8% of Search Is Theres

Dan Keating — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:11:57 +0000

Today by email Yahoo announced that the yahoo Bing merger of search data is now complete. Further they announced that the combined search traffic ” 33.8% of U.S. search queries are on Yahoo and Microsoft.” Further Yahoo states ” they have 163,000,000 search queries.

They do not state in this email where those statistics came from. In May of 2010 comScore reported that Google had slipped to 64.4% while Bing/Yahoo was at a combined 29.5% for searches in the U.S.

In October comScore reported Google increased their share to 66.1% and Bing Yahoo got a 27.9 share. Googles increase is being attributed to Google’s new instant search algorithm.

As you can see these statistics change every 30 days but as an SEO we still pay closest attention to the Google algorithm since on average they own twice as much market share as Bing/Yahoo.

The question for the SEO community is that with the new combination of Bing/Yahoo owns 30% which is therefore becoming a more powerful force.

Our research and observation still shows that if you rank highly in Google you will rank highly in Yahoo/Bing. The other way around however is not as valid. If you rank highly in Bing Yahoo you may not rank highly in Google. Therefor the concentration on Google seems a valid marketing plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc