BroadVision Marketing Blog

Local SEO is not a magic wand that will bring droves of customers to your door. But, done right, it will bring people to your website.

Casey Meraz is the founder of Juris Digital & Ethical SEO Consulting. In a recent post on Moz, he made this statement:

Topics: Google, content marketing, website traffic, attract customers, inbound marketing, SEO, social media marketing, local SEO

Is Google+ worth the time that small businesses would need to set it up and be active on it? Much of what I read said that this was the perfect time to get involved. Given the changes this social media platform experienced mid-May 2013, it is a good idea to go see what Google+ is all about and how your business can get in on the ground floor of what might be a golden opportunity before you dismiss it.

Just the analytics

The network now has 190 million people visiting plus.google.com each month, as well as 390 million logged-in Google account holders using its features monthly in at least one Google product. It has one of the world’s most powerful data centers at its disposal. A major drawback in the past was has been that men made up 64.18% of the users with women only accounting for 27.87%. With 41 new features Google Plus is now morphing into something that makes greater use of what Google does best—anticipate the needs of its users, show them relevant news and information, and help them manage massive amounts of data. My bet is that more women are going to start using Google+ in the future since several of those new features are Pinterest-like in nature.

Christopher Null has this to say in his May 2013 article Does Google+ matter for small businesses?

For small business owners, you can be forgiven if you find Google+ to be a confusing waste of time, but it still makes sense to create a Page for your company and keep it reasonably up to date with at least one post every week or two. Why? Because even if Google+ doesn't do anything for overall SEO, it’s at least one more place that helps with your overall visibility on the web.

Topics: Google, internet marketing tip, inbound marketing agency, BroadVision Marketing in Petaluma CA

The fight for SEO takes place with every blog post, every website page and even goes on Off Page. Off Page SEO is a hot topic this season. There are many articles being written about it. The first thing I learned is that I already knew about Off Page SEO by another name—Backlinks. Oh I see, I hear you saying if you haven’t been following this new incarnation of one of my favorite subjects from last year. To clear up more confusion backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links and inward links. Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages outside your website by getting links back to it. These backlinks act as a vote on the content of your blog. The more and better votes (links) you can get on your webpage the better it will rank in search results. That leads to your site getting closer to page one on a Google Search.

Are backlinks the plague?

Sounds important? Yes, it is; but for a short time everyone ran from backlinks like the plague because of Google’s Panda and Penguin which were looking very suspiciously at backlinks. The reason why Google zeroed in on these is because for a time people were buying backlinks by the barrelful from places that would sell you 1000 for $5 in back alleys and in the dark. Yes, you knew you could get knifed that way; but everyone was doing it and for some time it was a great way to get on page one. That tactic is now strictly black hat SEO for many reasons. For one, the links were of poor quality. For another, they were from spammy sites. You can get your website deindexed by Google if you do that now.

So are Off Page SEO links something to stay clear of? Absolutely not. But they are harder to get than paying someone $5 for thousands. You need a strategy, but then you know that you need one for On Page SEO as well. Here are some ideas I picked up for your Off Page SEO strategy as I researched the topic.

Ram Shengale in Off-Page SEO For Beginners | Social Media Today February 2013 made several suggestions I liked. Here are two of them:

Topics: Google, internet tips, off page seo, Panda, Penguin, Inbound marketing agency in CA, BroadVision Marketing Petaluma CA

A business blog is the anchor to which all your other social media platforms are tied. It’s your blog that goes on your Facebook Fan Page and you tweet about. These in turn get passed around by others who in turn come to your website to read that blog. Furthermore when the search engines are aware of the information in your blog, strangers will search for some keywords and find themselves on your business blog. That’s powerful stuff.

Topics: Google, WordPress, Corporate blog, Business Blogging, blog, Facebook, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Being Social"] [/caption]

Do you see yourself as Mr. or Ms. Business Blogger, along the same lines as the  “Cherry Ames, Companion Nurse” stories by Helen Wells? Writing a business blog is a good step in the right direction, but if no one reads your blog, you have just wasted a lot of time.

How do you get that great article you wrote out there? Blogging and social networking are both parts of the same strategy. You have to go out and promote your blog by being social. There are many different ways you can use to get your word out. We are just going to look at four.

• Twitter is a quick way to let people know that you are in business and that you have a live website, as opposed to one that is static where nothing new is ever going on. You can tweet about your new post in such a way that people will be interested in reading about it. Remember that no one wants to be sold on social network. They do want to learn things and be entertained. If you are offering information, make that obvious in your tweet. Oh yes, it’s a good idea to put out around 10 tweets on various subjects a day and then spend some time actually on Twitter to show that you are a real person.

Topics: Using Different Media, Google, Corporate blog, Social network, Helen Wells, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Blogging, Twitter

One of the greatest things since sliced bread in the business blogging world is using multimedia. This week you have seen me use some of the ideas that I have written about. Today I have a video for you because words sell and video helps.

[kkytv id="livzJTIWlmY" width="600" height="385"]

 

• Adding video and photos to your website and blogs can have a major impact on your sales.

• Unless you are aiming for an amateur look, create videos that look professional or you can find something like the one I found on YouTube. These will enhance your image.

• Remember that photos are not free. When you search using Google and select images, go to the funny gear looking thing on the upper right. Click on that and go to advanced settings. You will go to a page that at the bottom has a place where you check mark that you want images that are free. Click search and see what is left. Not satisfied? Try Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ using the attribution license and be sure to attribute. Try PublicDomainPictures.net: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/;  or Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/free-results.php?searchby=sandwich+generation&searchtype=free.

• You can also purchase photos and graphics, often for reasonable rates.

What sort of multimedia are you using? How has it worked for you? What would you like to know more about?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

Related articles

• WordPress' new version 3.3 gives multimedia and mobile some love (venturebeat.com)


• My Mini-Gallery At Dreamstime (richbystockphoto.wordpress.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Videos, Multimedia, Photos, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

When it comes to business blogging (or any blogging for that matter), content is king of social media. You can save money by writing from your own experience and you can build your business at the same time.

You want to create original content full of your sage advice. You also need to keep your blog fresh with more and more of this original content. Of course, it is always great to have a guest blogger who has a different approach to add to the originality of your site. All these are clues in how to reach your audience.

What you want is to create posts that are not only original, but also give in-depth answers to your clients’ questions. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

• Be sure you use your keywords constantly. If you want clients to find your answers, you have to improve your blog’s search-engine-optimizationability (yes, I just made that up). If you are writing about eye care, be sure you talk about eye care. If you are focusing on homecare services, house cleaning or Rolex watches, you want to use key words as often as possible without sounding silly.

• If you are a local brick and mortar business or if you are a national chain, it is always best to blog to a particular region. Talking about clients or using testimonials with a particular area mentioned is always a good way to tag your community. In doing this, if a person in Fort Worth is looking for a house cleaning service, your site will come up in the search.

• What you don’t want to be is a blogging commercial. People don’t watch television to see nothing but commercials. No one will read your blog if it is one long commercial for you. You don’t want to promote a product, service or your business in every post.  One source I read suggested that you use a mixture of 75% information and 25% promotion.  It’s worth an experiment. You can always tweak your percentages depending on the success of the experiment.

• Along those lines you want to vary your posts. You can embed videos from YouTube or link to cartoons and comics. There are always occasional funny stories or cool illustrations, maybe even with one of your clients as long as you don’t violate privacy. Guest blog posts are a super addition and so are graphics or charts. Info graphics are becoming a popular item.

Blogging is one of those bread-and-butter items of social media that will keep you in front of your clients, prospects and search engine.  Yes, content is king.

What do you think is the most important aspect of business blogging? How are your blogging efforts working for you?

For more information please refer to our new guide: An Introduction to Business Blogging.

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

Related articles

• What is a business blog anyway? (marketing.yell.com)

• What's stopping you writing a business blog? (marketing.yell.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Web search engine, Rolex, User-generated content, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging

Keywords—you know you can buy lists of them or buy help sorting out what yours are—but what are keywords really, what‘s the deal with them,  and how can you figure out which ones to use?

Defining keywords, keywords define search

People use keywords all the time. When you put what you are searching for in Google or the other search engines, you are using keywords. Search engines go through enormous data bases and send you results by listing sites that apply to the words you “googled”.

Topics: Google, Web search engine, WordPress, Uniform Resource Locator, Keywords, Kevin Sinclair, website, Marketing Plan, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by HRC via Flickr"] [/caption]

What is your Facebook marketing strategy? Do you have one? You need a good strategy in order to make sure that you continue to grow and increase your page’s engagement activity.

When do you practice patience and when do you decide that you need to make some changes because you are not having the success you were expecting? Was your goal really realistic? Did you set a length of time that you were going to wait to get those good results?

Topics: Using Different Media, Google, YouTube, Fansite, Google Calendar, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Twitter, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="193" caption="Google search"] [/caption]

Now that you have decided to write a blog for your business, you go on line and ask Google to do a general search on your product. What’s this? There are millions of blogs on the internet and it looks like millions about your product. One look at the competition and you are tempted to head for the hills.

But don’t do that. You can compete if you spend the time to create informative blog posts. This is not just a business whim, but a strategic point of your marketing campaign. If you want to be successful, you have only to take the time and effort to write content about your product. Before you start you might want to spend time answering some questions that will help you develop your strategy and actually help you write.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Google, Google Search, Customer, readers, social media strategy, product, informative posts, brand awareness, blog, clients, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Branding, Blogging