10 Local Search Tools I Simply Can’t Live Without If you were to ask me what the biggest let down in the local search industry was a year ago, I would have answered without hesitation…..tools. There are PPC tools, SEO tools, Social Media tools, and even construction tools… but local search seems to have been the fat kid picked last in gym class. That being said, Local search got a bit more popular & over the last year there was some pretty cool tools that made their way into the local search space. On top of that, since the Oct 27th Algoween Update, there seems to be a lot more coming. Here is a current list of local search tools that I simply can’t live without. Citation Building/Tracking 1.WhiteSpark Local Citation Finder This powerful tool queries Google for citation sources (business name, address, and phone number mentions) across deep Google search results and a list of competitors. 2. 3. While not a tool you would expect, the search results give you a great citation source for tracking your own business data. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Premium Wordpress Themes | Templatic - WordPress CMS Themes 10-Point Maintenance Routine for Your Google Places Visibility In the real world, bad habits tend to be pretty fun. People can’t resist ‘em, even though they generally know these habits will eventually bite. But in the harsh world of Google Places, most people don’t even know what the bad habits are. The result of neglect is your local visibility suffers—and so does your business. Not only can you maintain your visibility in Google Places by following the “good habits,” but to the extent you’re not as visible as you’d like to be, these habits also can help grow your local visibility over time. Fortunately, a good Google Places maintenance routine is pretty easy to keep. 1. 2. 3. 4. If there’s a legitimate but negative review that just sticks out like a sore thumb, you should do two things: (1) write a polite response to the review, and (2) step on the gas and ask more of your happy customers for Google reviews, so as to put the negative one(s) in perspective for anyone who’s looking at your Places page for the first time. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Street View As you gear up for the holidays, you can easily plan your vacation with the new Google Maps for desktop. With the latest updates, Earth Tours will take you on a virtual trip through cities and natural wonders in full 3D, while Street View imagery and real time traffic incidents will help to ensure smooth travels. Explore the world with Pegman Street View’s comprehensive imagery has always been a great way to preview your destination before arriving, but it's equally helpful when deciding where you want to go. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made it easier to find where Street View is available, so you can explore locations in over 50 countries around the globe. To discover a world of imagery at your fingertips, look no further than Pegman – your guide through Street View – who you can find in the lower right corner of the screen. To see a preview before you go, click on the highlighted map And for the Pegman fans out there, you know he's a globetrotter.
PLR Presentations, Webinars, Learning Center Ang, This review is seriously over-due, and for that I apologize. I am astounded at the amount of information you have provided in this WSO! I have never seen a WSO in the WF that provides this magnitude of scripts, including the powerpoints needed, to provide seminars, webinars, presentations, or even one-on-one training with clients. Wow! This is without a doubt one of the BEST ways to get clients en masse, establish authority and social proof, and teach a glimpse of what needs to be done in each one of the categories listed below in order to succeed in Internet marketing. Website creation Google Places SEO Follow up campaigns Internet marketing Social media Mobile marketing Customer loyalty Video ...and more! The work you've done in any ONE of these categories is easily worth what you are asking for this entire suite of presentation materials and scripts. The possibilities of how to use this information is endless, and my mind is cranking with some great ideas. Thanks (again), ~Kate
Check Out Incredible Interactive 3D Business Tours on Google Places Wowser, have you seen any of the 3D business tours Google has done show up on any Place pages yet? VERY cool! Google announced the Business Photos pilot program back in May. But they just started rolling it out on a bigger scale. You can read more and request a business photo shoot here. I discovered an interesting thread about the new rollout on Hacker News yesterday and tracked down a few 3D business photo shoots for your viewing pleasure below. Click arrow to go inside Gruhn Guitars – Wowser nice guitars and super high res photography! Here’s how the 3D tour is displayed on Gruhn Guitar’s Place Page – an animated image under the map. Comics Toons N Toys – Walk in the front door.Comics Toons N Toys – Detailed close up of their store inventory. Techlab Photo & Digital – Come on in, cruise around. Scream Sorbet – Arrow is hard to see on sidewalk – click to go inside. Here’s an animated video Google released yesterday promoting the service. What do you think?
Do Directories Really Matter for Local Search Rankings in Google? One or two years ago, I stood on my soap box and explained the utter importance of consistent listings of a company’s Name, Address and Phone Number (“NAP”) in high-authority directories to rank in Google Map results (also known as “citations”). Nowadays, with the blending of local search and organic listings in Google’s “local search” results, the question of directories becomes intriguing (and plausible) because it seems that a directory-strategy alone will not achieve the map rankings a business might desire. In light of the traditional focus on citations, I wanted to see if I “dug deeply” into local search results in Google if there’s any identifiable patterns among directories, what Google shows in a company’s Places’ page, and a site’s inbound link footprint. So, with some time on my hands and a spreadsheet ready, I decided to look at every item that Google Places shows in a Places’ page among Page 1 ranking and non-Page 1 ranking results. Note: Are these findings 100% accurate?
Offliners, you are LOSING THOUSANDS on your offline deals! Click here to find out why... I believe I could potentially double (or triple) my offline earnings in 2012 if I apply what's inside this course. I'm just saying that's what I believe the potential is after my full review of this course. This course hit home with me and that's saying something, as I've trained World Ranked offline commission salespeople for over 30 years. It's simple...if you want to learn how to get what your services are "really" worth and how to calculate it out with ease, then I would encourage you to immediately click the buy now button now. The Spreadsheet Calculators alone is worth far more than the pittance you'll pay for this WSO. And...the Mindset & Methods section gets my high five with its honest straightforward talk on how to justify your pricing strategy through proper mindset and the methods needed to achieve "premium" pricing on a regular basis. Let's face it, if you don't ask, you don't get and the clients who pay the least are generally the ones who complain the most and who wants that?
Is Google drowning business? The launch of a pages function for Google+ allowing businesses to create a profile on Google’s social media and identity management service is welcome. What jumps out immediately is there is no integration with Google Local, meaning that businesses will have to create another online profile and learn the nuances of it. Right now big and small businesses are being confused by the proliferation of online tools and the problem is made worse by advisors maintaining you have to be on each service actively talking to your customers. That’s nice for a corporation with unlimited funds and resources but a tough ask in the real business world. By adding another service – that doesn’t integrate with Google’s myriad of services let alone outside platforms like WordPress, Facebook and Twitter – Google is making it hard for businesses to allocate the time and resources to the online world.
The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories As a local business, attracting new customers can be a major challenge. Quickly disappearing are the days when people go to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses. Today, people are turning to the internet as a way to find trusted business recommendations. One way local businesses can get found is through inclusion in online directories. Adding a listing to these online directories is easy, but if you only list in a few, you're really missing a huge opportunity to get found by online searchers. Download our free SEO guides here to learn more about how to use local SEO for your local business. Every individual directory that you submit to is another chance to get found online, so it's important to make sure you're listed in every directory possible. Making sure that you have a presence everywhere your potential customers might find you is critical to any local marketing plan. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2012 and has been updated for accuracy.
The GUARANTEED Offline Marketing Strategy for Easily Landing $5,000+ Deals Quote: Hi Gil, What OfflineCoach is referring to is that I am not providing a "How to do [XYZ]" type of product. (i.e. How to Setup Mobile Sites, How to Do Google Places Marketing etc.) So if you are looking for that, it's not this. What this training focuses on is how to take your existing ideas / strategies for offline marketing (for example--website rental model) and apply some unique tweaks to them to make their perceived value MUCH higher in the minds of a business owner and get them to pay you for years to come (for even the simplest strategy). Allowing you take even a simple strategy that would cost you $5 to setup, and structure it in a way that a business owner is more than happy to pay you $500, $1,500, etc. per month for...but there's a strategy behind how to do it. This training does have step-by-step instructions, so no worry there. Nothing to lose. ~Dexx
New research showing which of the Google Places gets the most clicks Not number 1? Don’t despair. There are things you can do. Where you are in Google Places matters, as we would expect, but if you’re not on the top, there are things you can do to get your fair share of the clicks, thanks to this great study from “Mediative” that is revealed in their white paper called “Eye Tracking and Click Mapping Google Places.” Their study involved 12 participants who came to Mediative’s eye-tracking research lab in Toronto, Canada and 90 online from whom Mediative tracked actual clicks. The question they were asked was: “If you are in [city] looking for a tatoo artist. Now for the test I’m showing the results here in one picture as opposed to the 9 they provide because for me it’s easier to make sense of the data and results when they are side by side. Note what stands out visually and what would capture your attention as a searcher. Click on the image for a larger view. And the take-aways 1. 2. TAKEAWAY 2: Get as many good reviews as you can! 3. biz@katandmouse.com
A Local Search Marketing Tactic That’s One For The Books Some commonplace, traditional promotion methods provide significant SEO benefits for local search marketers. However, many managers expend more time and energy focusing upon elusive technical tricks. Here’s one local SEO tactic that businesses should consider: write a book. Way before the advent of the Internet, there have been many business owners who wrote books to gain more attention and renown from the public. Yet, for others who were already well established into being successful businesspeople, it was a chance to demonstrate what they’d learned over the years and to become known as the definitive experts in their fields. Fast forward to the present and printed book may also be sources that Google refers to in assessing the relative popularity of businesses. How Citations May Be Used From Google Book Search Citations may be mentions of a business’s name and address in text on webpages or in social media status updates. And, of course, they are doing this.