Showing posts with label Local SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local SEO. Show all posts

6 Tips for Researching and Attracting Local Markets

6 Tips for Researching and Attracting Local Markets

If you met someone from British Columbia, Canada for the first time and they told you that they live in West Van, you might question whether they live in a vehicle or something. However, the term “Van” is used by many locals in Vancouver to describe different parts of the city. And fyi...West Van is quite posh.

Having an online business allows you to sell to customers from anywhere, at any time. But if you aren’t speaking to local markets in a language that they understand and appreciate, you’re missing opportunities to connect with that market in a meaningful way.

Likewise, there are many local advertising and tax laws, plus important government regulations to be aware of before entering into and selling to new markets.
This may be something that you wish you had the time to research. Or, perhaps it seems overwhelming to know where to start. To make your life easier, I’ve collected some useful tips and resources to help you to better understand and attract local markets. So, let’s get started.

1. Discover The Local Markets That Are Right For Your Business

Just because your business is online, doesn’t mean that you have to be all things to everyone.

So, if you’ve already been running your online store for a while, a good place to learn more about the customers who are already seeking out your products, and where they are coming from is your web analytics data.
This will help you to zero-in on your primary local target markets.

Image via webanalyticsworld.net

If you are using Google Analytics, check out the
Locations Report which can be found under Demographics within the Audience tab. In Canada and the U.S. you can look at specific regions (like States and Provinces) – and even major cities tied to your customers’ IP address.

Your goal with this data is to find out which cities or regions are visiting your website most frequently. Is there a pattern that helps you identify which cities spend more with your website? And is this because you are actively targeting these markets, or are they coming to you because of what you sell?


Check out this helpful blog post which explains
how to navigate your location data reports.

Once you have this information, you’ll be able to determine which regions or cities you need to tailor your message to through online promotions and your website.


2. Understand The Cultural Nuances In Each Market


Image via Pixabay
Most businesses already know that if you are selling your products in both Canada and the U.S., it is important to know the quirky cultural differences between the two countries.

However, as I described earlier, people from different regions in the same country might use unique words and expressions to describe a product (or a place in the case of Vancouver locals).
They also might have different habits, beliefs, or use different languages than people in another city in the same state or province.For example, in some parts of the U.S., if you order a “Coke,” your server might think that you want to order a soda. And their next question would be “what kind?” Here’s a regional breakdown of who says what and where in regards to asking for a “soda” versus a “pop” versus a “Coke."

So, it’s really important to use the right cultural language in order to speak directly to different markets within the same country. Otherwise, your message might get lost in translation.

In fact, according to this
Stanford University Business School story, “cultural biases influence purchasing behavior when information is processed in a cursory and spontaneous manner.”

In other words, when someone is in a hurry to buy something, or they see an ad on a billboard or banner ad for just a brief moment, their interpretation of your marketing message is reliant on some of their cultural beliefs.

In the case of the Stanford advertising study, many Asian American students favored one promotional message which talked about the “preventative and security” features of Welch’s grape juice, whereas most Anglo American students identified more with a different promotional message which spoke to the key personal benefits that could be gained from the beverage, such as “having more energy.”

And while you need to do your homework and research important nuances for each target market, there is something to be said for physically visiting key markets, and immersing yourself in the culture, to get to know your customers personally.

Here are a few ways you might do this:

  • Hire people as “boots on the ground” in key markets where you really want to dive deep into the local culture, climate (does it rain a lot or snow a lot and how does that impact what people do for fun or to stay connected as a community?) and history. These people don’t necessarily have to be running a physical store in that location - they could be remote or “virtual” employees who simply add an extra dynamic to your local marketing team.

    For instance, let’s say that you wanted to target the province of
    Quebec in Canada. You’d need to develop a separate local marketing strategy for the City of Montreal versus Quebec City and Rural Quebec, for example.
    So, you would need people in each location who can tell you more about the rich history of each of these regions, how the political climates differ (e.g. some parts of Quebec support the Bloq Quebecois, whereas other parts are more supportive of the NPD or Liberal party).

    In Montreal, many people are bilingual (speaking both English and French). Still, many locals will appreciate it if you try to communicate in French with them first. But in some
    parts of Quebec, people would want to access your site exclusively in French. So, that would play a role in how your craft your marketing messages.

    And Montreal is a melting pot of cultures, religions and personal beliefs, whereas other parts of Quebec are devoutly Catholic. So, although this example may sound a little crude, you could target Montreal if you sell XXX adult entertainment or toys online. But you probably wouldn’t want to target your website to the heavily Catholic populations in rural Quebec, as it may not be well tolerated.
  • Set-up a pop-up shop in each of your target cities and invite some of your best customers to meet your team face-to-face, provide feedback and learn more about your products and brand experience.

    In fact, Shopify recently conducted a retail tour of major cities across Canada (via local pop-up shops) to get up-close and personal with existing customers. The goal of the tour was to “teach” versus “sell” to customers through ecommerce best practices workshops that were hosted in a casual setting. Here’s a full description of how this concept was created and successfully executed.

3. Ensure You Are Following Local Laws And Restrictions

Following the laws for each specific market in which you are going to promote and sell your products can get tricky if you are an online business. So, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with consumer protection and truth in advertising laws which can differ across states and provinces in North America.One example in Canada is the contest laws that exist in Quebec versus the rest of the country. As this article explains, it is important to “pay special attention to Quebec” because you have to register your contest with a provincial regulator and you may have to “pay a 3% tax on the total prize value.”
Both the contest registration process and the tax payment can be a bit of a hassle. So, to the detriment of Quebec residents, a lot of companies choose to exclude the province from national contests – especially when under a time crunch to get a promotion up and running quickly.
In addition, there are different language, pricing and labeling laws across Canada and in the U.S. This Huffington Post article breaks down a lot of the key cross-border and cross-cultural challenges and differences to note.

4. Tap Into Local Government Resources For Market Data

Local government databases are an excellent source for market data about cultural nuances and consumer demographics. And since a lot of this information is free online, you don’t have to have a large market research budget to uncover great insights.

If you live in the U.S., here’s a link to a
list of available databases that you can tap into by state. And if you are looking to target Canadian consumers, here’s a website that includes links to various databases like Statistics Canada which provides census data that can be broken down by region.You can also access information from individual cities like the City of Toronto’s open data catalogue. By open data, I mean information that can be freely used and manipulated by anyone. You’ll have to do a little bit of digging (and by digging, I mean web searching) to find specific open data sources by city. But tapping into this information will help you grow your business.

5. Evaluate Local Payment And Shipping Options


Image via
Pixabay

Another challenge for doing business across borders and with different local regions are variances in taxes and shipping rates.


For example in Canada, each province
charges a different sales tax rate. So, it’s important understand what each of those rates are and when to apply them to the products to that you sell (you might be exempt for certain products).

Luckily, if you use Shopify as your ecommerce platform, you can easily set-up the taxes for different countries and regions using the Tax Settings feature. Shopify keeps that information up to date (so you don’t have to stay on top of all of the changes) and automatically applies the rate to whatever countries or regions that you add into tool. Here’s a link to the
manual to help you get started.

In addition, you should consider offering free shipping to customers wherever you ship your products – even if it means cutting into your margins a little bit in certain regions. That’s because
studies have shown that the cost of shipping is a big deal breaker when it comes to shopping cart abandonment rates.

For more stats and details on how to resolve this issue, check out this blog post about
how to choose a shipping strategy for your online store.

Keep in mind that if you cannot offer free shipping to a specific region or country, then it’s important not to show those customers the free shipping option
that is available to everyone else on the site. It’s definitely a turn-off to know that other customers are getting a better deal. See the next section for more details on local marketing strategies.

6. Tailor Your Marketing Strategies For Key Regions And Cities

Once you have all of the data and resources you need to identify your top target cities or regions, how you should speak directly to each market, and what you can and cannot do to sell to them, it’s time to build a local marketing and website targeting strategy.

While I could spend an entire blog post writing specifically about local marketing strategies, here are a few ideas to get you started:


Landing page for Florida residents




Landing page for Colorado residents
Images via Barilliance
  • Create locally targeted landing pages for key markets. The screenshots above show how an online store displays two different promotions (one for Colorado residents and one for Florida residents) based on their visitors’ geographic location.
    To explain this concept further, here’s a link to a guide from Moz.com on the importance of geo-specific landing pages and what to consider when building your own. To do this with Shopify, you can either create a separate page for each market, or use Landed – a third-party partner app.
    Likewise, you can work with Shopify partners like Visual Website Optimizer or Optimizely to help you geo-target specific content areas on your homepage. While this will require a bit of time to set-up, it is worth doing in order to provide a tailored experience for your local customers.
  • Segment your customer email lists by location and customize your content to increase conversions. Again, this could mean letting specific locations know that they can get free shipping (or other promotional discounts) while excluding this information from other local market lists.

    This informative post from the Shopify blog
    explains how to segment your email list and the best email marketing tools to use.
  • Geo-target your digital ad campaigns. Many ad platforms let you geo-target (meaning to deliver an ad online to a specific geographic location) right down to the postal code. This can be especially useful if you are trying to drive customers to a local retail store via mobile advertising.
    Just like the email strategy described above, you can create targeted messages and creative that will resonate with each local market. And if you are focusing on paid search or SEO, make sure you target regionalized keywords in addition to developing location-specific creative.
    Check out this overview from SiteSpect on how to leverage geo-targeting to increase engagement and conversions.
  • Target location-specific events like the weather or local holidays. You’ll have to do research on what the key events are in each of your biggest target markets.
    But the information you uncover can help you to tailor specific promotions and offers associated with those events – like a sale on rain gear if it has been raining non-stop for a number of days in one location. Or if people in Quebec, Canada are planning to celebrate St.-Jean-Baptiste day.
  • Continue to track everything in Analytics to see if your local marketing strategy is working or if it needs refining. Here’s a simple guide to making the most out of your web analytics data.
Researching and developing local marketing strategies can seem overwhelming if you sell to a lot of markets online. So, if you are just getting started, it may be worthwhile to begin by researching and testing your strategies in just one or two markets.

Then, once you have developed a set of best practices (and perhaps learned from some mistakes), you can put together a plan to roll out your strategies to other markets that you have identified and properly researched – one step at a time!

Local Business Citation Cleanup Guide


5 Steps Citation CleanUp Strategy

Here's My 5 Steps Citation CleanUp Strategy, You can use on Your Local SEO Project.

Step 1: I started with a Automated (BrightLocal) and Manual Citation Audit to Identify all Inaccurate Citations.

Step 2: Based on the Citation Audit, I Identify listings with incorrect NAP and Capture data in Spreadsheet.

Step 3: When I get complete list of Incorrect citations, I try to fix Inaccurate citations by claiming. When Claiming not available, I reach directories support to modify the business information. Some Directories take 3-4 emails to amend the information.

Step 4: I monitor emails, inconsistent citations and save notes on work spreadsheet. If I receive no updates from directories I emailed, then I do a follow up email or another round of citation cleanup.

Step 5: I send the final report with everything that has been done to my client.

Note It, in some cases there might be listings that would be uneditable, so the only option might be for them to be removed.

Outreach Email Template

Hi There,
I represent the "local business". I need help claiming the listing. The profile is already claimed but we don't have the login info.

We need to update the business information. The current information is wrong and needs to be updated right away.

Please use listing@localbusinesswebsite.com if you need further information.

Thank you,
Company Representative Name

14 Things Every Local Business Website Needs in 2017

14 Things Every Local Business Website Needs

A lot of small businesses don’t have a website, or if they do, they don't pay attention to the site. If you just starting out to create a website for your business or want to update/add features to your existing business website, Then This Guide Is For You. I've Crafted a List of Must-Have Features for Small Business Websites. From Choosing Domain Name to Displaying Trust Seal, Here Are The 14 Must Have Features that will Effectively help you Market Your Small Business Website Online in 2017.

Let's start with Statistic, If we have a look at the Clutch’s Small Business Websites in 2017 Survey, We'll get an idea about United States Small Business Website Status.

Small Business Websites in 2017: Survey
  • 29% of small businesses do not have a website. In 2016 This were 46% small businesses.
  • Of the small businesses that do have a website, 79% say their website is mobile friendly.
  • Only 58% of Midwestern small businesses have a website compared to the Northeast (72%), the South (73%), and the West (77%).
  • Low-revenue small businesses (those earning less than $1 million a year) are about 30% less likely to have a website than higher-revenue companies.
  • High-quality web content and increased mobility are top website priorities in 2017.

It’s time to think about your business website. Take a deep breath.

The very first question you should ask yourself when you set out to Create or Update/Add Features your Small Business Website is: What Features Should be on my Website?

Answer is Simple, You should include As Little As Possible, But As Much As Necessary Information to Accomplish your business goals for the website, and Deliver Right Message To Your Website Visitor. Your site will be more complex if you use e-commerce feature, or if you rely solely on internet marketing for your business leads and sales.

But If Your Goal To Get A Simple Website Up And Running, There Are Only A Few Elements That Are Absolutely Essential On Your Business Website.

14 Features Every Small Business Website Needs


1. A Simple, Memorable Web Address


Don't make things complicated. Your domain name is like your brand. It should be easy for a user to type it into a Web browser or an e-mail address.

I always recommend the .com domain as users are conditioned to type that extension when they enter a Web address. For non-profits or organizations, I usually recommend using a .org domain for branding purposes, but also recommend having a .com version of the domain in case a user accidentally types the .com address.

I also suggests avoiding dashes (which can cause SEO headaches) and numbers (which can cause confusion for customers).

2. A Clear Site Description


Someone who stumbles upon your website shouldn't have to do investigative work to figure out what, exactly, it is that you do. That means clearly stating your name and summing up your products or services right on the homepage.

Tell people this is the right website that they have been searching for, A Clear description of Who You Are and What You Offer will attract the visitor's attention immediately within 2-3 seconds, and encourage them to stay on your website longer.

3. Easy-to-find Contact Information


You wouldn't want to lose a customer to a competitor just because you made it difficult for them to get in touch with you.

Not every online visitor has the patience to click through every page on your website to find the contact information.

The best place for the contact information is the top left or top right corner of the home page. It is also a good practice to include contact information in every page of the website in the footer or side bar or even in top right corner, which helps the visitors to find it more easily.

You should also be sure to include several ways for them to contact you -- phone, e-mail, and a standard contact form, are all good options. Forbes also suggests including your address, and even a link to your location in Google maps.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is to force only one way to reach them. The point is to make it very easy for users to communicate with you on their terms.

4. Display Customer Testimonials


Some people don’t realize how important a customer testimonial can be. Testimonials help build relationship for the business for first time visiting consumers, and you want your business to look the best, don’t you?

The Importance of Testimonials:
  • According to Nielsen research, “92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer, and 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know.”
  • 88% have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business (vs. 85% in 2013)
  • 39% read reviews on a regular basis (vs. 32% in 2013)
  • Only 12% do not read reviews (vs. 15% in 2013)

For many businesses, it's ideal to have a website page devoted to testimonials where all of them are visible, but it doesn't end there. They're particularly valuable on website pages that drive important conversions, where your potential customers are making decisions.

It's well worth your time to select the testimonials that best complement the conversion you're trying to achieve. Depending on the content and format of the testimonial, it can achieve different goals at different stages of the sales process.

By choosing testimonials that address potential customers' questions and concerns at a given point, you're using social proof to guide them down the sales funnel.

Testimonials aren't only for your website, though—you can also share them on social media and incorporate them into emails, blog posts, ebooks, print materials, videos, broadcast ads, and beyond. Hey - if they're the most effective form of content marketing, then why not use them?

5. Include Several Calls-to-Action On Your Website


Calls-to-Action Tell the online visitors literally what you want them to do with clear tones of commend. For instance, you may want them to call you now for free quote, or sign up to your exclusively online coupons, or add products to the online shopping cart, etc.

Call-to-Action act like you Suggesting your site Visitor to Perform an Action -- Lile Contact You, Subscribe To your Site, Share your Site or Buy Something, for example.

If you’re creating a website to gather leads or interact with potential customers, make sure you’re clear on what you want your prospects to do.

Want your customers to call you or buy your product? Ask them. Want them to contact you? Show them where they can do it.

Overall, inviting people to call or buy your products is important. Some people may not even realize it’s an option unless you specifically tell them that it is an option.

6. Fresh Quality Content


Your website is your first impression on a customer, You want to give them what they're looking for, and perhaps even give them a reason to keep coming back.

Fresh Content is Critical for Your Website Search Ranking. You can keep your content fresh by incorporating a regularly-updated blog or connecting in your social media feeds.

By Fresh Quality Content, I Mean:
Fresh
-- Fresh can mean a lot of things. It can mean content that is relevant to a current issue or about a current event. It can simply mean up-to-date. It’s important to make sure that the information in your content is current and accurate - one of the many reasons Cascade Server’s Broken Link Report is so helpful. Since you’re not the only one updating your content, you need to make sure that when others update theirs, it doesn’t create broken links on your site.
Quality
-- Quality can feel subjective, but everyone has read content that was clearly not quality. Quality content is accurate, well-researched, targeted, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and intentional. Intentional content serves a purpose - it tells a story or imparts knowledge to the reader. Nothing is worse than finding a piece about a topic you’re interested in, and realizing it doesn’t actually give you any useful information.
Refreshed
-- Great content is either timely or timeless. Meaning it has the freshness of being current or the freshness of being content that transcends time. With information and technology advancing at an exponential rate, it’s getting harder to create timeless content, but periodically refreshing your content can keep it feeling timeless. As we mentioned before - a blog about best SEO practices is more of a timely piece which will need be rewritten as standards change, whereas a guide for creating a content calendar can be timeless with only minimal updating.
Value-Add
-- Quality content adds value. Once you know who your audience is, and what you want to achieve with your content, you have to make sure you’re giving something in return. True value is also original. Think of what only you can offer, or an angle that no one else has approached. Unique content is essential as more and more marketers are utilizing content marketing.

7. Know The Basics of SEO


Your website won't do you as much good if no one can find it. Become familiar with the SEO Basics to make your website more Accessible by Search Engine.

You don't need to Use Mysterious, Ninja, black hat SEO types to rank well on the search engines. Simply make sure your website's User Experience is Good and Properly Accessible by Search Engine.

Good User Experience Means:
  • Design For End Users’ Perspective.
  • A Clear and Functional Website Architecture.
  • Intuitive Visual Presentation.
  • Responsive Design.

Search Engine Accessibility Means:
  • Ensure site meta titles and description are descriptive, yet Concise.
  • Use alternative text for all of your site images.
  • Use a clear and proper heading structure and avoid empty headings.
  • Provide descriptive link text (i.e. Avoid “click here”).
  • Don't rely on JavaScript for things that don’t need it.
  • Avoid mouse dependent interaction.
  • Use standard web formats when possible
  • Provide transcripts and captions for video.
  • Declare the language of your site and pages.
  • Allow multiple ways of finding content (i.e. search, a site map, table of contents, clear navigation, etc.)
  • Use text instead of images when possible.
  • Providing useful links to related and relevant resources.
  • Ensuring URLs are human readable and logical.
  • Presen a clear and consistent navigation and page structure.
  • Avoid CSS and other stylistic markup to present content or meaning.
  • Define abbreviations and acronyms.

8. A Secure and Reliable Hosting Solution


While most business owners see the value of creating awesome website and content, the importance of selecting a reliable web host often takes a back seat. In my experience, most small businesses end up making a wrong choice in the beginning because they do not properly evaluate their needs.

Choosing A Secure and Reliable Hosting Solution is a major consideration when launching a site; remember that without a web host - how can anyone view your site! Figuring out which web hosting provider and level of service you need can be mind boggling. This can be especially true for Small-Business starting out who may lack technical experience in this area.

It is imperative that you go with a secure, trustworthy hosting company to keep your online information safe and your content up and running. It is also very important to keep your content management system updated in order to stay one step ahead of the hackers.

Choose a hosting company that occupied with latest server hardware, technology and infrastructure and support high level of performance & reliability.

9. A Responsive Website


Smartphones and tablets are driving an increasing amount of web traffic, and the numbers are only going to grow as mobile devices become cheaper and more mainstream. Andy Chu, director of Bing for Mobile, says 70% of task completion happens within one hour on mobile sites, meaning that people are often browsing on the web with intent — they're looking to do something, buy something or go somewhere. If someone searches for a restaurant on his smartphone, he's likely to eat at that restaurant within the hour, says Chu. So your website better be readable on handheld devices.

Until two years ago, designing for the web meant designing for a computer, now it means designing for anything with an internet connection, referring to laptops, tablets and smartphones, all of which have different screen sizes. So, how can you do it? Responsive design.

Why should I care about Responsive Design?


Here're 15 Facts to help you Understand Importance of Responsive Design
  • 80% Of Internet Users Own A Smartphone Gadget (Smart Insights)
  • Mobile Devices Will Drive 80% Of Global Internet Usage and 60% of Digital Ad Spend Will Be On Mobile By 2018 (Zenith)
  • Mobile-influenced Offline Spending Already Over $1 trillion (Forrester)
  • 48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine (Google Research)
  • 68% Of Digital Media Time Is Now Spent On Mobile (comScore)
  • By 2018, 80% Of Email Users Will Use A Mobile Device To Access Their Email Accounts (Email Monday)
  • Tablet devices account for the highest add-to-cart rates on e-commerce websites at 8.58%. (Smart Insights)
  • 68% of companies have integrated mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy. (Salesforce)
  • 71% of marketers believe mobile marketing is core to their business. (Salesforce)
  • Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead. (MicKinsey & Company)
  • 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important. (Wolfgang Jaegel)
  • 91% of mobile users say that access to content is very important. (Wolfgang Jaegel)
  • 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. (CMS Report)
  • 88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours. (Nectafy)
  • 40% Of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent (Google Mobile Moments Study)

Responsive website design enables you to use fluid widths, so that your website layout will adapt to the screen on which it's being browsed. You can enter HTML code so that your sidebar takes up, say 20% of the screen width, and the remaining 80% is reserved for the body of your website. Layouts are adjustable and images are scalable to make for a better web experience on myriad devices. https://parvezweblog.blogspot.com is good example of site with responsive design, so you can see for yourself.

Need Help Design a Responsive Website? Contact Us.

10. Clear Website Navigation


A Map is useless without a legend and a website is useless without clear navigation. Make sure you use easy-to-understand and logical names for the various pages of your site — Service, Products, Contact, About, FAQ, etc. Being cryptic or clever will just be a turnoff for users.

When developing your navigation strategy, you should consider a call to action. Ask Yourself, What is it that you want people to do on your site? Place an order? Email for a quote? Become a member? Come to your brick-and-mortar store? Call to speak with a customer service rep? Make your goals clear and obvious.

11. A FAQ Section


People have a lot of questions. As you hear concerns from customers and receive feedback via email, gather up the most frequently asked questions into a list and write clear and concise answers. Try to address common customer concerns, questions or objections that customers have. Questions often raise about your services, warranty, specifications, pricing, company history, your accreditation and cancellation policies.

Then Create a Page or Section called FAQ in your website and display all the answers you wrote. By creating a well-structured, planned and thoughtful FAQ page, you can develop a very useful piece of content for your site, and a standalone selling tool – one that is often overlooked, and just as often – not developed as effectively as it could be.

12. Social Media Integration


There are a lot of social platforms out there, and you should promote your presence on them on your website, because social media is critical part of marketing your business. Some of the popular social media are Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Foursquare.

Integrating these platforms into your website will help boost your site search ranking, improve your business' footprint on the social media and build your following across numerous social platforms. Is it worth it to maintain a presence on so many social platforms? Yes — as long as you actually maintain your online presence, you'll keep your brand top-of-mind and keep users engaged. Social media is not going to leave us anytime soon and its worth the investment in time — it does make a difference.

Ways to Make Social Media Work for You:
  • Pick the proper social media platforms related to your business.
  • Do not over promote your business.
  • Write individual posts for each network.
  • Have personality to your posts.
  • Measure your results and act accordingly.
  • Engage with the community.
  • Give your content real value.

13. Add a Sitemap


Sitemaps are organized lists or flow chart diagrams that shows connections between web pages, web page trees, and website content. A visual sitemap is a very effective method for both planning and communicating ideas about a website’s structure. Pages and content are typically organized in a hierarchical tree with root and parent pages at the top, deeper and more specific child pages toward the bottom, and subject matter distributed horizontally.

There are basically two main types of sitemaps; the HTML sitemap that is primarily built for human site visitors and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) sitemaps designed for the search engines. The HTML sitemaps are basically lists of links to all the pages in a website, just like a book’s table of content. In most cases, this kind of sitemap lists pages hierarchically based on the categories and their location on the site. You can use a website mapping tool to create sitemaps of this kind so that your visitors can quickly find the information on your website and search engines bots can thoroughly crawl the content.

On the other hand, XML sitemaps are principally meant for use by search engines. This sitemap is mostly a string of codes to directly communicate with the search engines regarding parts of the website that should be crawled. Note that the XML is a language that is understood by the search engines, which makes it ideal for this purpose. This type of sitemap is highly recommended for sites with complex content. Some websites cannot be easily accessed from the homepage because of some formats like Ajax or Flash that search engines have difficulty crawling.

It is recommended that you include both HTML and XML sitemaps because they serve different targets and purposes. You stand a high chance of improving your SEO with sitemaps because they increase internal linking as well as create a content-rich web page. After using a website mapping tool to create sitemap, place it on the homepage and ensure it is at the footer of all the other pages.

14. Add a Trust Seal


For any website that sells a service or product online – whether it be a service or physical good, there are two primary ways to increase transaction volume. One is to increase website traffic (By Organic or Paid Search Engine Results), getting more potential customers into your sales funnel. The other is to increase the conversion rate, getting more revenue and more customers from your existing traffic base.

A trust seal can increase your website conversion rate. Comodo Prepared a Survey showing a 78% of online shoppers said the presence of Trust Elements, such as Trust Seals, would dictate if they’d trust a website.

So, What is a Trust Seal?


A Trust Seal, sometimes called a Secure Site Seal, is something you’re likely already familiar with if you’ve ever noticed small badges displayed on a website footer or sidebar, Particularly on Small-Business Website.

A trust seal is a seal granted by an entity to website or businesses for display. Often the purpose is demonstrate to customers that this business is concerned with security and their business identity. The requirements for the displaying merchant vary, but typically involve a dedication to good security practices or the use of secure methods for transactions or most importantly verified existence of the company. Trust seals can come in a variety of forms, including data security seals, business verified seals and privacy seals and are available from a variety of companies, for a fee. A Trust seal can be either active or passive. Most seals are validated when they are created and remain so for a specific duration of time, post expiry of which the business/process has to be re-validated.




The function of most trust seals will depend on the company who issued the seal. Some of them indicate trust scores, ratings or sales stats of the websites that show visitors how safe the particular business is. Others indicate the presence of SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer), meaning the site connects over HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) and data transmitted between a visitor’s browser and the server is encrypted and can't be theft by third party.

Here are Different Types of Trust Seals:
  1. Security Seals
  2. Privacy Seals
  3. Buyer Protection Seals
  4. Business Identity Seals

Example of Trust Seals for Small Business Website can be showcase of your Business Accreditation, Certificates, Brand or Trade Association Badges and Awards that show You and Your Business is Legitimate with Notable Achievements. This also includes Privacy Seals and SSLs (Secure Sockets Layers). This helps users feel more secure when browsing your website and filling out personal information about themselves. Even if your business is only asking for something as simple as an e-mail address, adding this kind of trust elements will increase the likelihood of a user providing that information.

Example of Some Trust Seal for Local Business Website Can Be

Conclusion


Above 14 Things are Extremely Important and Must Have Features for Every Local Business Website. So, if you’re running a small business website, consider straying from what people say is right and try out what actually works for small businesses.

How to Improve Your Local Businesses Yelp Ranking

Are you wondering How to Improve Your Businesses Yelp Ranking? If you run a local business like Restaurant or Home Services, Yelp should be an essential centerpiece of your local business internet presence.
yelp

Yelp was founded in 2004 by former Paypal employees, Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman, at the startup incubator MRL Ventures. It was initially an unsuccessful email-based referral service, but was re-launched on the basis of unsolicited online business reviews in late 2005. Since Then, Yelp continues to be the go-to resource for millions of visitors looking for information about local businesses.

Some Interesting Yelp Facts
  • Average monthly unique Yelp visitors: 142 million
  • Number of Yelp monthly unique desktop visitors: 79.5 million
  • Number of Yelp monthly unique mobile visitors: 78.9 million
  • Number of Yelp monthly international (non-US) visitors: 31 million
  • Number of claimed local businesses on Yelp: 2.1 million
  • Number of local advertisers on Yelp: 90,000
  • Yelp total revenue for Q1 2015: $118.5 million
  • Number of Yelp reviews (cumulative): 77.3 million reviews
  • Percentage of new Yelp reviews from mobile: 35%
  • Number of deals live on Yelp: 80,000,
  • Number of food orders Yelp is generating weekly: 10,000
  • Number of daily calls to businesses generated from the Yelp mobile app: 200,000
  • Number of daily directions to businesses generated from the Yelp mobile app: 200,000
  • Largest reviewed category on Yelp: Shopping (23% of reviews)
  • Largest age group in US on Yelp: 35-54 (36.4% of reviews)
  • Largest education level demo in US on Yelp: College (60.2% of reviews)

Is your business doing all that it can to attract new customers from the ever-growing audience on Yelp? Whether you’ve been active on Yelp in the past or you’re starting a new business, this article will help you Improve Your Businesses Yelp Ranking.

Get Started on Yelp

Let's first go through the process of claiming a Yelp listing and filling out your business information.

If your business is relatively new, the very first thing you’ll want to do is see if it has already been listed on Yelp. Chances are it already listed on Yelp, If listed follow this steps to claim your business listing.

So go ahead and search for your business’s name. Once you find it, click the link that says “Work here? Claim this business.”

Claim Your Business on Yelp

Take time to create a complete profile. Fill out all of the information fields including location/address, hours of operation, detailed business description, website address, and contact information. Enhance your profile with pictures. When things change (like seasonal hours or adding/eliminating services), make it a priority to update your Yelp profile.

If your business has not been listed on Yelp yet, go to: https://biz.yelp.com/signup/new

For more information on creating your business account on Yelp, be sure to visit the Yelp for Business Owners section of the site.

Here’s how to take your Yelp presence to the next level.

#1: Immerse yourself in Yelp—read the profiles of your competitors
Before you start fiddling with your own Yelp profile, I highly recommend you first get a lay of the land.

Search Yelp for your direct local competitors and click through to their profiles. Take a close look at those with 4+ star ratings and those with 3 and below.

Try to distinguish the differences between those who are thriving on Yelp and those who are not. Do their photos set them apart? Does their website link lead to an impressive site or one that turns traffic away?

Can you start to see patterns in the types of things mentioned in their reviews? Try to pin down what your local market values highly and what prompts them to leave a poor review.

Learn from all of your snooping around and leverage your competitive research to ensure your own success on Yelp.

#2: Start with the essentials: Complete your business’s Yelp profile
The first step to getting your Yelp presence on track is to ensure you’ve got the essentials nailed down. Having a fully featured profile that gives visitors all of the info they seek is a must.

Be sure to complete these essential pieces of your Yelp profile:

  • Name and category: You’d be surprised how many businesses leave a typo in their name or mis-categorize their listing. Double-check this. It’s the most important piece of your listing!
  • Detailed address and phone number: Include your street address, along with any important notes about landmarks or cross-streets. Recently changed address? Update your contact info right away.
  • Include the link to your website and menu: This is crucial for converting more visitors into customers. If a Yelper clicks over to your website and likes what they see, they’re much more likely to become your customer. Restaurants: Make sure your website has an online menu. That can be linked here as well.
  • Quality photos: Nothing hurts your Yelp profile more than a blank photo area. Populate this with quality photos. More on this in a moment.
  • OpenTable.com reservations: Does your restaurant take reservations via OpenTable? You can connect this here.
  • Important info: Be sure to accurately fill out all of the info here, like your hours, price range, parking info, outdoor seating, etc. This info can make or break a customer’s decision to choose your business over the competition.
  • About your business: Although this tab is somewhat hidden behind the Reviews section, it’s important that you fill this out thoroughly. This extra info could be the tipping point that convinces customers you’re what they’re looking for.

#3: Create a strong photo gallery
Most businesses on Yelp only have a couple of poorly shot photos, usually uploaded by visitors. Some businesses don’t even have one photo posted. This is a huge opportunity for your business to stand out!

Hire a professional photographer to shoot a handful of engaging photos that inform visitors about what they’re in for when they visit you. Show off your décor, your food (or products) and the overall customer experience.

Important tip: Include a photo or two of the front of your business, or what your customers will see as they drive by and approach. This makes it tremendously easier for new customers to find you and walk in.

#4: Recognize the value of your customer reviews
We all know that positive reviews on Yelp add a tremendous amount of social proof for your business, not to mention increase your all-important star rating. But customer reviews actually hold much more value than that.

Positive reviews can be leveraged outside of Yelp. You can grab some of the best quotes and feature them on your website, citing the reviewer’s first name. This reinforces the social proof when visitors take that extra step to check out your website.

Believe it or not, negative reviews present a valuable opportunity for you as well. Whether you agree with the critique or not, negative reviews bring up points of concern about your business that you may have overlooked. Use this constructive criticism to improve your customers’ experience.

#5: Respond to reviews
I’m surprised more people don’t take advantage of this incredibly valuable tool Yelp has provided business owners. You, as the business owner, can publicly respond to any review placed on your business profile.

Now, before you start firing away at every bad review that comes your way, stop and consider a more strategic approach.

If you choose to respond to a comment, do it calmly and respectfully. The key here is to show that you care. Thank the reviewer for their feedback, and point out things they may not have been aware of, or explain how you plan to fix or improve whatever it is they were complaining about.

Respond to positive reviews as well! Thank them for coming in and for their kind words. Use this as an opportunity to highlight the hard work you’re putting toward a great customer experience.

The bottom line is, your visibility as the owner within the Reviews section will do a lot to set you apart from your competition—mainly because nobody else is doing it!

Yelp provides advice and info for business owners regarding responding to reviews here.

#6: Track and use metrics in your Yelp dashboard
Now it’s time to really dig in and take your Yelp presence up a notch.

Business owners on Yelp gain access to detailed behind-the-scenes metrics about their business’s performance on Yelp. These metrics were overhauled and improved in March 2012, so if you haven’t logged in recently, you should definitely take a look.

Here you can gather key insights about your Yelp presence. You can track the amount of traffic your Yelp profile receives and also see how many times your business showed up in search results on Yelp.

Tracking “User Actions” gives you an even closer look at how visitors are engaging with your business on Yelp. Actions include things like clicks to your website, mobile check-ins, photos uploaded, etc.

You can use the info gathered here to inform your decisions on things like “When is the best day of the week to run a special?” or “How important is having a mobile website for my visitors?”

#7: Try running a 'Yelp Deal'

if you want to both drum up new business and improve the visibility of your company's listing in Yelp's search results, consider running a "Yelp Deal." Basically, Yelp Deals function like Groupon or Living Social deals. You can offer a discount that Yelp users claim through the site (for example, a $20 gift certificate for $10). Yelp then promotes your profile to a wider audience in an effort to generate revenue via deal purchases, resulting in greater visibility for your company.

Although Yelp keeps 30% of the discounted price, Yelp Deals make your listing more attractive to visitors, and could prove to have a solid return on investment, especially when you use your Yelp metrics to guide the timing of your Yelp Deals.

#8: Take advantage of Yelp’s additional resources
You can find quite a bit of helpful resources on the official Yelp for Business Owners section as well as the Business Owner’s Blog, where you can stay on top of the latest tools as they become available.

You might consider advertising your business on Yelp. While I firmly believe you can find great success on Yelp using the free techniques described above, purchasing advertising placements on Yelp brings a few interesting benefits, like:
  • Removal of competitors’ ads on your business page 
  • Enhanced photo slideshow 
  • Video on your profile
Closing your Business Yelp account?
There are some very simple steps that you can follow if you want to close your Yelp account.
  • Login to your Yelp account. 
  • At the bottom right corner there is a link called “FAQ”. Click on this link. 
  • You will then have the option on clicking on “How to close my account?” This can be found in the Help section of the website. 
  • Click on the words “Click here” that are highlighted in blue. You will be sent to a page that has a form for you to fill out about closing your account. This form will be sent to the Yelp support crew once you have filled it in. 
  • Select “Help me use Yelp” then “Close my account”. Then you should write a short message about the fact that you would like o close your account. When you have done this you can click on the “Send” button and the information will be sent to the Yelp Support team. 
  • Go to your email account associated with your Yelp account. You will receive an email notification at the email address that you specified during the sign up process. Click on this link. If you are unable to click on the link simply copy and paste it into the URL. This link exists to confirm the deletion of your account. Once you click on that the process will be complete.
What do you think? Has your business found success from its Presence on Yelp? Let us know in the comments section below!

Make Your Cleaning Services Business Stand Out From the Crowd

It’s no secret. competition is booming in the business of cleaning services. But that doesn’t mean that your small business can’t be extremely successful. Don’t throw in the towel just yet. There’s room for everyone, you just have to make sure you get to it first!

The good thing about cleaning is that it works like Mother Nature, it’s inevitable. People are always going to need it, mess happens, and it doesn’t just disappear on it’s own.

That’s proof enough that the business makes sense, but the challenge is how do you rise above your competition? How do you get clients in your area before another company does?

Like most companies, cleaning services work best when you build a good rapport with your customers, so that they will return to schedule regular cleaning services.

First, let’s look at simple and effective ways to engage people to notice your small business, and by that we mean, doing a little more than taping flyers to the community mailbox.

Keep your website updated
This will probably be the most important tip, although they all play a crucial role in building your online presence. Having a website that is current gives your company that much more credibility to potential customers.

There’s nothing like visiting a website and noticing that the last time the company posted was in 2013, it makes you wonder if the company is still in business.

Since the wide majority of customers are browsing from their mobile phone or tablet, your website should be mobile and tablet friendly.

List Your Business on Local Business Directory
business listing sites increase your company's online exposure and help improve your local search ranking results in major search engine.

You should make sure you have a listing on the following local business directories:

  • Google My Business
  • Yelp
  • Bing Places
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Angie's List
  • Merchant Circle


Create a listing for your cleaning service on classified websites
Online classified advertising can be a very effective marketing tool for certain small business types, however it’s not for everyone, cleaning service can certainly benefit from it. It shouldn’t be your only marketing tool.

It’s proven effective for products and services that are local, specifically, for businesses that need to operate locally, like cleaning services.

Use Google Adwords
Place your ad directly on Google with Google AdWords. This would be the most effective way to show at the top of search results.

Be seen by customers at the very moment that they’re searching on Google for the things you offer. And only pay when they click to visit your website or call.

Post videos online
Create how-to videos related to your service. Provide relevant information that people often search like: “How to remove tough stains from your carpet” or “How to clean windows and mirrors without leaving streaks”. Link your website to your tutorials, and advise your audience to contact you for more information.

Share your videos among multiple social media platforms like facebook, twitter, google+, etc.

Being a small business owner may also mean you don’t always have the time to invest in online advertising and social media marketing. Services are available which are committed to helping you build and protect your small business internet presence.

How To Properly Use Schema Markup For Local Business?

How To Use Schema Markup For Local Business?
How To Properly Implement Schema Markup For Local Business Website To Improve Search Visibility?

Today I Came Across Quora and Found a Question About How To Use Schema Markup For Plumber and HVAC Business Website To Improve SEO?

I answered the question and I thought It would be great, If I publish my answer here at my Blog.

Google's search result pages support Semantic Markup that allows local business owners to provide information about their business by using schema.org vocabulary. By providing with a mix of required, recommended and optional properties with values for the https://schema.org/LocalBusiness class, a business can now provide Google with information about things like the business's name, address, telephone number, physical location and hours of operation in a machine readable way.

This also called structured data markup, and can be eligible to appear in two categories of Google Search features:

Rich Results Snippet: Structured data for things like recipes, articles, and videos can appear in Rich Cards, as either a single element or a list of items. Other kinds of structured data can enhance the appearance of your site in Search, such as with Breadcrumbs, or a Sitelinks Search Box.

Google Knowledge Graph Cards: If you're the authority for certain content, Google can treat the structured data on your site as factual and import it into the Knowledge Graph, where it can power prominent answers in Search and across Google properties. Knowledge Graph cards appear for authoritative data about organizations, and events. Movie reviews, and movie/music play actions, while based on ranking, can also appear in Knowledge Graph cards once they are reconciled to Knowledge Graph entities.

Google has supported the provision of local business information with schema.org since April 08, 2014, but this is the first time they've published prescribed property specifications for Local Business.

You can provide structured data markup in your HTML and AMP pages. Google Support Following Structured Data Markup Formats:

Microdata: Microdata is a WHATWG HTML specification used to nest metadata within existing content on web pages. Search engines, web crawlers, and browsers can extract and process Microdata from a web page and use it to provide a richer browsing experience for users.

JSON-LD (Google Recommended Format): JavaScript notation separate from the body of the HTML itself. Markup is placed inside a script tag in the head of the HTML page. The markup does not have to be interleaved with the user-visible text, which makes nested data items easier to express, such as the Country of a PostalAddress of a MusicVenue of an Event. Also, Google can read JSON-LD data when it is dynamically injected into the page's contents, such as by JavaScript code or embedded widgets in your content management system.

RDFa: RDFa (or Resource Description Framework in Attributes) is a W3C Recommendation that adds a set of attribute-level extensions to HTML, XHTML and various XML-based document types for embedding rich metadata within Web documents. The RDF data-model mapping enables its use for embedding RDF subject-predicate-object expressions within XHTML documents. It also enables the extraction of RDF model triples by compliant user agents.

How To Implement Schema Markup For Local Business Website To Improve Search Visibility?


Make sure your Plumbing and HVAC Business Contact and Geographic Information is implemented correctly on your website should be the first step when it comes to implementing schema markup onto your website.

The Local Business section of https://schema.org/LocalBusiness has a variety of categories that businesses can implement as part of the footer or contact page of their website, including address, phone, fax, operating hours, and even accepted payment types.

Microdata Example For Plumbing Service

The microdata schema markup is displayed via div tags and isn’t displayed on the live version of the website. The div tags designate the information that applies to the chosen schema markup:

<div itemscope="" itemtype="”https://schema.org/Plumber”">
<span itemprop="”name”">ABC Plumber</span>
<br />
<div itemprop="”address”" itemscope="" itemtype="”http://schema.org/PostalAddress”">
<span itemprop="”streetAddress”">123 Main Street</span>
<span itemprop="”addressLocality”">Phoenix</span>,
<span itemprop="”addressRegion”">AZ</span>
<span itemprop="”postalCode”">85001</span>
</div>
Phone: <span itemprop="”telephone”">555-555-5555</span>
<a href="http://googlemapsurl.com" itemprop="”maps”">URL of Map</a>
</div>

In this example for an Plumber’s Business, the only information that is displayed on the public-facing side of the website is the information between the span and div tags. Visitors won’t be able to tell that a business is using schema unless they view your website source code.

The ‘itemprop’ in the span tag identifies the schema markup property for that piece of information. All available properties are shown on Home - schema.org in their applicable category.

JSON-LD Structured Data Example For HVAC Contractor

Below is an example of a common JSON-LD syntax which can be used to define a single HVAC Company Business Information:

<script type="application/ld+json">
     {
     "@context": "http://schema.org",
     "@type": "LocalBusiness",
     "address": {
  "@type": "PostalAddress",
  "addressLocality": "Phoenix",
  "addressRegion": "AZ",
  "postalCode":"85001",
  "streetAddress": "123 Main Street"
  },
   "description": "This is your HVAC Contractor Business Description.",
   "name": "ABC HVAC Contractor",
   "telephone": "555–555–5555",
   "geo": {
 "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
 "latitude": "40.75",
"longitude": "73.98"
     },
 "sameAs" : [ "http://www.facebook.com/your-hvac-company-page.",
"http://www.twitter.com/your-hvac--company-profile",
"http://plus.google.com/your-hvac--company-profile"]
   }
</script>

In this example for I created an HVAC Company schema markup by JSON-LD Format.

Once you have your markup/code placed on your website, go ahead and test it with Google Structured Data Testing Tool.

If you have little or no web development experience, it’s easy to run into error when trying to customize the code examples with your own business information. In this case, i advocate you to hire an Professional Consultant.

If you enjoyed the article, please share.

Again Google Local 3-Pack Makeover!

Google continues to update the display for local search results in the Local Pack by removing the website, directions and call buttons from listings, and replacing with an image.

Over the past six months we have seen numerous tests in the pack display. Today we are seeing a widespread (re) appearance of the snack pack type display that shows images instead of the click to call icon.

Previously this display was exclusive to restaurants and hotels but today (anyways) is being seen across most types of retail and service industry results. Although NOT on lawyers or doctors.

We have seen this style before but the rollout today seems more broad based. A test? The new normal?


The imagery persists across the local finder requiring at least two clicks in to get to driving directions or click to call….. the rabbit hole appears to be getting ever deeper.


Here is a comparable screen shot taken last week that shows the same search result and comparable screen :


Whether this is the new normal this week or not, it clearly demonstrates Google’s desire to:

  1. Keep searchers at Google and
  2. Force them into the Local finder.

This has plusses and minuses from the local business POV. It makes it harder for users to take immediate action and but it provides users with a greater range of choices from which to choose. The former hurts those ranking in the 3-pack and the latter helps all the others. What it does for any given businesses traffic is unclear.

Obviously this design offers up significantly more choices to the user and in doing so moves away from the idea of “the 3 best” companies that is implied with the 3 pack. If this were tied to the horizontal local finder that you now see in the Google iOS app, the idea that the listings are more equal would be even further reinforced.

Like with most recent changes this one, if it is a real rollout, seems to offer a mixed bag for the merchant and plus for Google and a few more steps for the searcher.

A Little History: Three, Ten, Seven, Three

In 2006, Google launched the One Box. In terms of local listings, this was also known as the very first “3-Pack.” This box was a blessing to many wishing to receive local business information quickly.

In January 2008, Google began to unveil its new 10 pack. The 10 pack was a godsend to many SEO professionals offering local listing services to their clients, as they could prove real ROI (“Look, you’re being highlighted by the Google Gods!”).

By October 2009, the 10 Pack was cut to the lucky 7 pack (Lucky for some, anyway!). Many local SEO professional saw this as a challenge, but not one that was too difficult to master. Google has been very straightforward from the beginning, explaining what was expected of local businesses in their online presence in order to appear on the new 7 pack.

In 2015, after a long, strong run, the 7 pack that local SEO professional have grown to love and master was replaced by what is now known as the Google Snack Pack.

How To Dominate The Google Snack Pack & Local SEO

If you don't have a Google Local SEO Strategy to Get your Business Found on Google Maps, You can follow My Local SEO Strategy. Adopting My Local SEO strategy will help your business flourish locally. Whether you are a local brick and mortar retailer or a national brand, starting at home is an excellent way to get your feet wet with Local SEO and become a local authority. I always advise clients that before you worry about your visibility around the world, take the top spot in your home city and scale up from there.

So how to do you get started? Get ahead of your competition and stay there with My 4 Phase Local SEO Strategies.

1. Full Citation Audit: The most important part of any Local SEO Campaign is ensuring NAP consistency, which is why MY every single Local SEO Campaign starts with a full audit. Without this crucial step (that most cheap competitors skip), you’d be throwing money down the drain.

I put every campaign through this extremely detailed, time intensive process. I record correct and incorrect citations, avoiding any duplication of efforts. This results in a fully detailed report, including a road map on how to repair incorrect citations most effectively.

2. Local Citations Building: Local Directory Citations are the bread and butter of Local SEO. With MY careful, manual submissions, I make sure you are in the BEST directories for your niche and market. This is not just a standard list of directories. Every single campaign is different and I leverage 3 strategies for determining which directories to submit to for that particular client.

Strategy 1: Ego directories – The most popular, traffic dense, authority directories.

Strategy 2: Competitor directories – I take your specific keywords and find out what citations are important not only in your industry but your specific SERPs.

Strategy 3: Competitor review directories – I scrape competitor review directories to find Google trusted directories.

I claim all the most important directories where possible, and provide detailed instructions for all others that should be verified by the client (some require a phone call for verification or other methods). Only live profiles are delivered, including all login info.

3. Rich Media Citations: Anyone can do plain old directory submissions, but to make them count, I beef them up with geo-tagged photos and videos, plus citations and links from rich media sources.

Video: I create straightforward, Animoto style video slideshows, with music, pictures and text. These videos are optimized to the fullest extent, including geo-meta data. I then submit these videos to the top video hosting sources, creating high authority, legit links and citations.

Photos: Here, you provide ME with 10, ideally relevant & branded images. I optimize, upload, and again optimize, including geo-meta data. I then submit these images to the top image hosting sources, creating high authority, legit links and citations.

4. Social Citations: Social Media Today brings together the news, trends and best practices around enterprise social and digital marketing. I make sure you’re ahead of the game and rounding out your citation profile by getting you awesome Social Citations.

In this phase, I create careful, manual Social Citations Submissions, adding all media and content which again results in high authority, legit links and citations. I submit to powerful & authoritative social media sites.

Need Help? Contact Me.

Change The Way People See Your Dental Practice


Change The Way People See Your Dental Practice



Did you know, Google offers a unique tool that allows people to tour the inside of your dental office, before walking through your doors?
Over half of prospective patients will research dental offices online before deciding to book an appointment or request a consultation. They want to know where you’re located; what it looks like inside and out; what other patients have to say about their experience through online reviews; and how to get in contact. With so many other businesses in the area, it’s essential to meet people’s expectations by appearing in their search results. People need to see a business appear online with active postings and updated content in order for them to feel confident enough that a business is in fact up and running.  
What are the first steps?
Having a well designed website is a great start. However, for small business owners like: dental offices, walk-in offices, and other physician practices that offer services for health and well-being, it may not be nearly enough to get patients through your door.  
Google My Business gives you the resources you need to connect with photographers in your area who can help you create a 360-degree virtual tour of your business. Prospective patients will have the ability to get a virtual tour of your dental practice with a simple touch of their finger. From their mobile phone, tablet, or any other way they stay connected online. When your business appears in search results for “dentists in the area” or “dentists accepting new patients,” you can invite them in with indoor Street View directly from Google Maps and Search. It’s the most effective way to inspire trust and confidence. Give people the opportunity to experience your business before they arrive.
What’s the added benefit of signing up for Google My Business? It gives businesses insightful information available all in one place, on your own Dashboard. Log on to your secured business profile and see how many times your business appeared in search results with views, or how many people requested directions or called with the number of clicks.  
These are essential tools for kick-starting any small business. New business owners may not always have the time to invest in building the virtual side of their business, which is why services like Airi exist. They’re committed to building and protecting your internet presence, so you can put more time into face-to-face interactions with your clients, patients or customers.