http://www.sitepronews.com/2009/10/26/does-google-pagerank-count-anymore/

I definitely understand the group’s concerns. As spokeswoman Denise Pesich said, “We want to make sure that whatever the girl is doing is integrated into the program that she’s studying, we want to make sure we are in the development stages of a technological platform that will integrate it and be fair and equitable for all girls. But more importantly, it’s girl safety at its core.”

However, everything Ms. Pesich noted absolutely can be achieved in a digital marketing campaign, as long as best practices and the right technology platform are used. Here’s how:

• Create an online form in which the customer has to input his or her contact information, including email address and perhaps cell phone number, as well as order information such as what kind of cookies and how many boxes. The form should be sent to a database for cookie campaigns. In this fashion, no personal contact information for any girl or troupe is ever given out.
• To make sure that sales are attributed fairly, the orders can be sorted via zip code or city that the purchaser inputs. Thus, each sale would be credited to the scout troop that is local to the buyer.
• If revenue is supposed to go toward a specific program for a certain troupe or individual scout, then instead of having a generic online form for the entire Girl Scout organization, the Scouts’ website should first ask a potential buyer where he/she resides. Then the buyer should be served up a form that was created for the troupe closest to his/her location. This way the form would earmark that order for that particular troupe’s coffers.
• Have a messaging system in place that, once the cookies have come in, will notify customers that their orders are ready, via email or SMS (whatever method the customer chooses). This message can also specify the time and place where they can pick up their goodies, perhaps in front of a local supermarket or another public place. Since the orders are sorted by locale, it will be easy to give each consumer the proper pick-up location–outgoing messages too can be sorted according to zip code or city. Troupe leaders and parents can hand out the boxes along with, or instead of, the girls themselves.
• The Scouts can save customers’ contact information and, come next cookie season, can send out an email or SMS message asking if they’d like to pre-order their Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

The preceding can be used for both pre-orders (the traditional method of hitting up friends and neighbors and asking them to order what they want) as well as for the buy-in-bulk method (in which troupes buy loads of boxes and then sell them at public places). As a consumer who doesn’t personally know any scouts, I’d love the latter–that way I don’t have to worry about driving around supermarkets and shopping centers trying to find a cookie table.

Meanwhile, I think Wild’s dad was on the right track with the online video commercial. After all, 700 boxes were sold before it was yanked! Such an ad could be created by an entire troupe; this would make a great project, as would creating the order form. And if using the right platform, the advert could be distributed to the top video upload sites with the same technology that handles the online sales form and order notification messages.

Too bad this isn’t happening already. I’ve got a hankering for Samoas and Lemon Chalet Cremes!

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me”

What if you suddenly need to look up a local business? With a smartphone, no matter where you are you can get online and start searching for it. Many technologies already offer to search locally; they can even show where you are “right now” on an interactive map, and then show the businesses around you that fit into the category you are researching.

How great would it be if a customer enters your office or store, and says he just found you on the web via his mobile phone while driving around? This possibility ought to encourage you to market your site locally on the web.

Start going this road before everyone else, because soon it’s going to be really busy. People are going to search the Internet with their mobile devices more frequently, especially for something local. Before long, it might be too late for you to get in on the action.

In order to start marketing locally for cell phones, here is a list of major resources to help you work with the top three mobile search engines:

http://mobile.yahoo.com/go: This includes local listings arranged by distance and ratings, pulled out from the Yahoo Local database.

http://www.google.com/mobile/: Google’s local solution for mobile devices, which offers local search results for particular device models.

http://www.livesearchmobile.com/: Live Search Mobile by Microsoft provides click-to-call listings of local businesses.

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”

Previously I suggested that you include your phone number on your website, but many companies make one mistake: They place the number as an image, not as text. I suggest adding phone numbers, (and local addresses) as text, because it makes you much more easily found on the web. For example, imagine if a former client only has your number, or only remembers part of your address. Your business can still be found on the web by using this information in a search query.

Another tip I want to expand on is testimonials. Positive reviews of your services or products should be in the most visible area of your site. In addition, it would be more effective if you link to an external authority resource, such as a review site, where there is positive feedback placed for your company. This will indicate credibility and openness to potential clients. There are plenty of local review sites out there, and you can ask your current customers to leave feedback on them. (I’ll be giving a list of these kinds of sites at the end of these series, as promised.)

Are you blogging? Did you know that a blog is probably one of the most effective SEO tools available today? Search engines love blogs because they update content frequently; they are specific to their areas of expertise; they are well-categorized and sorted; and they know the subject matter. If you have the time and resources, start blogging. This will help your business website get more traffic, show your local audience your great expertise in what you do, and will eventually result in more sales.

There is another thing to consider: The more local you are, the more successful you are. When it comes to choosing the right keywords for local optimization, remember that “California plumbers” is not as good as “Los Angeles plumbers,” which in its turn is not as good as “South LA plumbers.” The point is that the more targeted your marketing is, the more sales you’ll be making. Think how you would search for anything local, and optimize your campaigns accordingly. Cities are better than states, large neighborhoods are better than cities, etc. And some people search locally with zip codes, so why not add an optimized page to target these people as well?

Think carefully when you choose the local keywords for which you will optimize your pages. The keyword suggestion tools I referenced earlier will tell you that “things to do in Denver” would have about 10 times more searches than “Denver tourist attractions.” Many sites miss much traffic by targeting the wrong keywords.

And to make sure that each locally-oriented page that you have created is indexed by search engines, add those links to your sitemap with different link anchor texts.

Social media sites can be very useful in online local marketing. People always try to find someone local through these sites. So if you are represented in many social networking sites, you get local traffic to your website from these pages. The same rule applies to local discussion groups and communities. They all contain highly-targeted traffic that you can effectively use in your favor, with almost no competition and with no budget.

Next time we’ll talk about mobile local search marketing. Until then,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
http://www.seomanager.com/

If you missed my previous posts about local search marketing strategies, you can find them here and here. After you get caught up, check out the following additional suggestions.

Create a directory—or better yet, a portal—devoted to your location. You can base it on your own site or have it as a separate resource. If your marketing budget allows it, you might want to consider buying such an existing portal. This solution is great even though it takes time and can be costly. It will allow you to drive targeted traffic to yourself easily. And then you can sell to this audience all day long.

Create a newsletter about local news related to your niche, as well as news about your own business. This will definitely increase conversions or revenue. Even a monthly newsletter can bring great results—there’s no need to bother the people on your list too often.

A great idea is to always include your local data in your signatures. And I don’t just mean email signatures, but also in blog post signatures, forum signatures, signatures used when you write articles for external resources, etc.

The web is increasingly moving towards video. People like watching information rather than reading it. So it’s time for you to get involved. Start making videos about your local business, place them on your own site, and also promote them through a good number of video resources available on the web. (A comprehensive list of video-sharing websites can be found here.) By the way, a little-known fact is that video results in the general search results page (SERP) are clicked much more than the text results, no matter what position they take on the page. Little video windows do stand out from boring texts, and that alone attracts people to click on them. (Read more about this fact here.) Because of this, it may be worthwhile to use a solution that posts a video to all major sharing sites at once.

One more interesting trick you can use in local marketing: Offer a locals-only discount. This is especially good if most leads you get are locals anyway. They’ll feel special and that will increase their signup chances for you. When I planned to go to Sea World in Orlando, I was pleasantly surprised that there is a permanent discount to Florida residents. Of course, I purchased the tickets right away.

More strategies are coming soon! Until then,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
SEO Consulting

I bring this up because the decline of newspapers marches on. Never mind my optimism while writing a previous post showing ways that papers can boost business with digital messaging campaigns. It might be naiive to think publishers can grasp these simple truths while their heads reel from bad news heaped upon more. We’ve got eMarketer saying that U.S. newspaper ad revenue declined 16.4 percent to $37.9 billion in 2008 and will drop to $28.4 billion by 2012. And according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, newspapers were the top news source for only 35 percent of those surveyed in 2008, as opposed to 45 percent in 2007; meanwhile the Internet became tops for 40 percent of respondents in 2008, from 13 percent in 2007.

I still believe that what I posted earlier rings true. Especially after reading a recent Time magazine piece about the need to generate revenue from content, which ultimately will be the only way papers will survive. Time tried to figure out just how publishers can get consumers to pay for content when they’re used to free news online. As I said in that earlier post, it boils down to offering consumers something valuable and unique that they can’t get anywhere else.

Having a branded website is a good start. Consider that the top 10 newspaper web sites saw a combined 16 percent year-to-year growth of unique visitors in December, according to Nielsen Online. Most notable was the Los Angeles Times’ 73 percent growth and the Daily News Online Edition’s 99 percent growth. My advice to smaller local papers: Let the big national/international sites grab the majority of readers looking for free online content! Instead, promote the fact that you offer unique, valuable information that denizens of your city can’t get anywhere else.

Once you’ve got the visitors, though, you must engage them. There are many ways to do so, and the same methods can be used on both the paper’s website and print editions.

One idea: Advertise a short code and ask readers to text in a keyword (such as the paper’s name or city) in order to sign up for promotional messages. Or, more importantly, to sign up for premium content. Indeed, a publication could make use of a premium SMS service and generate revenue from readers who are willing to pay for an exclusive interview, or a first preview of a major news feature. They might especially be willing to subscribe if some of these messages included coupons. (After all, coupons are why lots of people take only the Sunday edition of their local paper.)

To the uninformed, I’ll admit, texting still has the aura of “young”; despite older generations’ increasing adoption, SMS marketing might not appeal to those whose readership is above a certain age. Email subscriptions offering the same type of content would also be beneficial, and might be more palatable to old-school publishers (and their readers) who aren’t digitally savvy. In this case, there should be a subscription form on the paper’s website, and a link to that form from the home page.

Digital messaging offers both branding and a firm way to measure ROI. That’s something newspapers these days need to strategize and survive. By adding premium content, newspapers offer consumers information that they want, that holds unique value, and is delivered the way that’s most convenient for them to be reached. Oh, and they’ll generate revenue too.

There are many good offline strategies for your local presence online. Since local businesses are getting more offline leads rather than online (for now; this tendency is slowly changing in favor of the Web), you might use the following methods to drive online traffic.

Local events: Monitor significant events in your location. Then act fast with SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click advertising) campaigns in order to benefit from the buzz they create, which makes people search for information about these events online. This will move traffic towards your business’ site.

Business cards, posters, and other printed materials: Add your website address along with your physical address. Be creative enough to intrigue people and make them want to visit your website for more information.

Most-visited place in your area: You should advertise/promote your website at busy places like the local mall. Offer to sponsor some events put on at the mall. Keep in mind that the mall has a site as well, and try to work with mall management to get your URL posted on its site.

Current customers: Do you promote your website to your current customers, and encourage them to share your site’s URL with their friends and families? One way to do this is to run an online referral program, or by offering online-only redeemable coupons.

Talk about your website to your suppliers or partners: Think how can they help in your online marketing. Some could add a link to your site on their “partners” or “clients” pages, for example.

Local newspapers and magazines: Send them press releases with news about your business, including your website’s URL. These papers also have websites that publish news, which could result in backlinks that drive traffic to your site.

Until next time,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
Business Web Directory

Let’s start with your business name. Does it say where you are located? If you operate nationwide or worldwide, it’s not important, but what if your location is valuable for your business? Which name would help you more: “Angel’s Flowers” or “Burbank Angel’s Flowers”? If it doesn’t harm your style and image, try to make it easy for anyone to understand your location right from your name.

If you are unsure of what keywords are most used to find your business, utilize keyword research tools and find a handful of terms that best describe you company’s goods or services.

Obviously, add your location and contact information wherever possible on your website. A footer area would work well for including your business address and phone number.

Also, add your business information to all the major search engines; general, niche and local directories; maps; classifieds; and local portals. (Later I will give a list of all these websites with their descriptions.) Now, for some secrets on using these sites as part of your local marketing campaign.

First, don’t just submit your website—keep it current and constantly update your information if possible. Moreover, in the title (and description and keywords) include your local and vertical (industry) keywords in order to be found quickly by prospects.

Most yellow pages and local directories list sites and businesses in alphabetical order. In this instance, there is no need for heavy SEO: Just change your title to something that starts with a letter that comes earlier in the alphabet, and you’ll have a priority over other sites. It is even better to start with a number, since these usually come earlier than letters in listings’ order.

It might also make sense to pay for priority placement (a.k.a. featured listing) on these sites in order to gain more traffic and leads.

Try to get a separate directory listing for each of the closest cities in your area where you could provide your services. Sometimes you will not qualify for separate listings for certain cities, so it might make sense to have different titles and different phone numbers and addresses for each such listing. You can even use P.O. box numbers as a solution. I also suggest that you create a different website for each location and optimize it locally. If your services are global, creating separate entities would help as well, while you can use a single toll-free phone number for all your units.

Next is more of an “offline” strategy, but it does have one online marketing advantage…. Remember the No. 1 real estate principle of “location, location, location.” It’s vital for your local business. If nobody can find your office or shop, no matter how hard you market it, your efforts might not pay off. So make sure you are located closer to busy areas of town, even if it’s expensive to do so. As for an Internet marketing advantage: On online maps, your listing will be more visible and will have more chances to be clicked on.

Current local directories use a system of ratings in order to provide more value for searchers. These user ratings are vital for your business. There is a way to lightly influence the rankings. First, you can ask your relatives, friends, and even colleagues to write some positive feedback for your entry. You can ask your clients to leave some comments on the local sites as well. Also, you need to respond to anyone with negative comments and try to resolve the issues raised there. This will show that you care.

You can also offer discounts and coupons within your listing(s)—perhaps ones that consumers can get via text-message (SMS) or email. This will attract them to your item rather than someone else’s, especially in this economy.

We will continue with more local marketing strategies in upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
Business Web Directory

This series will include:

• An explanation of local web marketing and its advantages.
• A number of strategies that you can implement for success in local search.
• Offline neighborhood assistance in your online initiatives.
• Ways of finding and using effective local keywords.
• Mobile solutions for local marketing.
• A list of local search engines and directories to which you might want to submit your website, in order to get more local exposure for your online business.

As you can see, this topic is broad and requires a marketer’s devotion. In turn, the benefits to be reaped are great if you seriously work on it.

Let’s start with the definition of the term. Consumers in the past found local businesses through print yellow pages and other means. While those mediums still exist, local search engines, specialized directories, and web-based “yellow pages” are becoming much more popular.

Some interesting facts about local search:

• According to comScore, approximately 1.3 billion local searches are performed each month in the United States.
• ComScore also says that 82 percent of online users are conducting local searches.
• The top five local search sites are reaching about 55 percent of the general Internet audience, according to ComScore.
• The Kelsey Group estimates that the sector generated $3.4 billion last year, and that the market could grow to $13 billion by 2010.

Local search can be an effective part of your online marketing plan. Why?

• It is a good traffic source that many marketers forget to utilize; the competition is not as strong as in the general search area.
• In many cases it’s completely free (or at least cheap), and this cost effectiveness increases your ROI.
• It results in high conversions, especially when your business is truly local.
• It is indeed relevant.
• It helps you to dominate your local market while increasing brand awareness locally and online.
• The number of locally-concentrated sites and blogs will only increase, so it’s good if you are represented on all maps and local sites as early as possible.

I hope these arguments will encourage you to take the local search seriously. Get ready for upcoming posts! Next up: A discussion about exact local search marketing strategies, which can help you to beat your online competition big-time.

Until then,

Shavkat Karimov, Internet Marketing Manager, mobileStorm
“Every problem comes with a solution”
Business Directory

I write lots of articles on search engine optimization, Internet marketing, and even website usability. All these tips can help bring your website to top positions in search engine rankings, and also increase conversion rates and revenues. However, it is always useful to get information directly from the source and compare your knowledge with it. Luckily the search engines are kind—and smart—enough to provide us with such information. They want to help us out in our SEO efforts, and this in turn benefits them, since better-educated webmasters will play the game fairly.

Recently Google published its “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide,” which outlines all the SEO basics and even gives hints on how to make your website Google-friendly. Though the guide is filled with promotions of Google’s (mostly free) services, there are real-life examples of SEO best practices. For someone who doesn’t know much about Internet marketing, especially its technical elements, this can be quite helpful.

One critique: “Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to both crawl and index your content.”

But don’t take my word for it. This information is available for free and you can download it here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Another great new addition is Google’s Webmaster Help Forum, a place where you can ask questions and get answers quickly from other website owners—or even Google employees. This forum is at: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en

If you were wondering about how your web resource could become a Google-friendly site, most of your questions might be answered here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8522

Finally, important stuff about Google and webmasters’ interaction can be found on this page of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

While Google brags more than 70 percent of all searches in the world, other smaller search engines also try to offer guidelines to website owners and webmasters. Below are three useful links provided by Yahoo.com, Live.com, and Ask.com:

• Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html
• Live Search Webmaster Center Help: http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters
• The Ask Website Crawler FAQ: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml

Happy learning!

Shavkat Karimov
Internet Marketing Manager
mobileStorm, Inc.
Every problem comes with a solution
Business Web Directory