Google Alerts for the Local Online Business is a MUST!

Posted on January 29, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet | 5 Comments

Recently I wrote an article about a local real estate business. I wanted the real estate owner to comment when they saw the article. I thought it would be interesting to find out how long it would take for the owner to realize I wrote the article. Well, the owner did comment on my article, but for a different reason, and it took a very long time. Every business owner has to know what is going on out there on the web. What is being written about your business? What is being written about you? What is your competitor doing? Google Alerts emails you when something is said about you or your business.

What are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are nothing more than search results that get sent by email. It’s that simple. Let me show you with an example. Lets say you start each day by searching what is hot in real estate in your city and state. You would probably type “real estate yourcity yourstate” in your search engine. The results are going to be websites that are relevant to that group of words. If you have a google alert set for the same search, it will return all that has happened in the last 24 hours. You can pick the time frame. This is a FREE service that Google provides. Let me say that again. This is a FREE service. You can set up to 1,000 alerts.

What would the small business owner use alerts for?

First and foremost, use Google Alerts to see what is being said about your business on the internet! This is a number one! Next, have an alert set for your name. How about an alert set for each of your competitors. Then as stated before set an alert for your yourindustry, yourcity, yourstate. There are a zillion reasons to use Google Alerts. I just mentioned a few.

How do I get Google Alerts?

Go to the Google Alerts Page. It is just a matter of signing-up. They of course will need your email address. When you set an alert, you need to select the kinds of results (comprehensive is for all), how often you want the report sent, and of course the search you want done. They also have a FAQ page.

Beware!

There is a limit on how many search results they will send. If there are 100 results, you may only get 10. For that reason make your alert very specific.

What is a search engine result?

Posted on January 17, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Blogging | 1 Comment

First, Lets describe what a search engine is….A search engine is a service that goes out into the internet, gathers all kinds of information on what it finds on web pages and puts it the information in a database, or databases.

An example of a search engine would be: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.

When we talk about search engine results, we are talking about what a search engine would return when you use their free service to get results.

Here’s an example….

Let’s say we search “Expert Local Web Site Designer” in the Google Search Engine.

Google search for Expert Web Site Design

The Search Engine results….

The image below shows the results page for the google search on the phrase “Expert Local Web Site Designer”.

LaMach Web Design would be the results page of the search

Real Estate web sites see big gain in use

Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under Online Businesses by Industry, Real Estate Online | Leave a Comment

This article should be a real eye opener for the real estate industry. Two pieces of info got my attention.

Return visitors made up 47% of all web site visits. Pretty good fact. The next visitor to your site was probably there before. I guess that means there is a pretty good chance they’ll come back.

The average visitor clicked through 14 pages while they were on your site. I’m a little skeptical about this. The average is a little over 3. I guess when looking at houses, you could easily look at 14 houses in a visit.

Check your data, and compare the figures.

The proper way to use a video for marketing

Posted on January 9, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Marketing, Uncategorized, What's HOT! | Leave a Comment

Net Gun - This video is great! It’s shows a gun (like a toy gun) that shoots a net! I knew what it was and still laughed! This is What’s Hot on the internet today!

Trying to capture a top listing in the Search Engine Results?

Posted on January 8, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Marketing, Online Businesses by Industry, Real Estate Online, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

LaMach Search ResultsYou have to agree, Search Engine Results are pretty important. Every web site and blog out there on the internet is trying to do the same exact thing that you are. Getting your web page listed on the top of the search engine results page depends on a lot of things to be done right.

Since I’m all about the local business online, I want to give you an example of what the local small business web site owner should be thinking about when it comes to trying to get the top search engine results.

The Search Engine Input Box

Here’s what happens. Your customer enters words in the search engine input box, search for information on what they need. Most of the time they don’t know the correct way to enter the search information, but that’s another article. OK, so let’s use an example.

Our example will be “Martin Real Estate” Mr Martin has a web site about his business and can’t figure out why he isn’t getting the listed in the top of the search engine results page. I’m guessing he’s thinking if I create a web site and have the name Martin Real Estate on every page and in every article, I should get top results.

I recommend you think a lot about what the customer is entering in that search engine input box. Lets see, he thinks they would enter “Martin Real Estate”.

Search Box Martin Real EstateLet me stop you right here. This is not the customer you want. If they already know your name and what you do, they will not be what you want. You want the potential new customer. Ok, let’s start over. This time we will remove the word Martin. You want the person looking for real estate.

Input - Real Estate Thats better but guess what, you just became competition with a whole lot of real estate web sites. If your customer happens to be on the east coast, do you want to compete with real estate people on the west coast. No! You want your local customer. Now the question becomes, what is my potential new customer going to type in that all important input box to find my web site? He is going to add city and state information.Your customer doesn’t want results from all over the world, he wants results from your area. Here’s the new search

Input with Location Information This is what your potential new customer is going to type in. Is he typing the words in for you? NO, he is typing the words in for what he wants. You have to think like your customer.

How do the top search results get listed?

Ok, you want to get back to that. The Search Engine takes the search word, or phrase that you type in, and tries to find the web page that is most relevant to those words. In the above search we have the following words and groups of words: real, estate, yourcity, yourstate, real and estate, real and yourcity, real and yourstate, estate and yourcity, estate and yourstate, yourcity and yourstate, real and yourcity and yourstate, estate and yourcity and yourstate, and the one important one, real and estate and yourcity and yourstate. The job of the search engine is to return the web page that is most relevant to those words or group of words. It’s a computer program. It doesn’t have a brain. It does what it is told to do. The reason I bring this up is because the top result may be from a web site that is best at Estate and yourcity! This example is really oversimplified. It is much more complex than what I stated, but, it shows you whats going on with the seach engine.

Your Job is to own the words

What I mean by that is, you want to make sure the search engines know you are the one who knows the most about every word in the search. You want to own the words. How you own words is very complex, and no you can’t buy them. The best way to own the words is by writing about them. Your content should be about those words. It is not easy.

Conclusion - and what should Mr. Martin do?

At the very least, Mr. Martin should realize his web site is about Real Estate, HisCity, HisState. That is what his web site is about. Know I ask you. How many of you have your city and state on every web page? I’m only talking local here! National has other problems!

Now go out there and determine what your customer is going to type in that input box, and try to own the words! Let’s get LOCAL.

Thinking of starting a local online blog?

Posted on January 8, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Blogging, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Have I got a great deal for you. How about a guide that tells you everything you need to know about starting a blog online. This guide comes in the form of an ebook. Here’s where you download the “Money-Making Niche Site” ebook. It requires Adobe Reader which just about everyone has.

WHO wrote this online blog guide?

The book was written by Caroline Middlebrook of Making a Living Online web BLOG. I warn you this is not a couple of pages. This guide is 39 pages long. It is a true guide for starting your own blog online. The guide contains everything from starting with nothing to tips on what kind of content to add to your BLOG.

The local business online Niche Web BLOG?

What I like is the guide is about Niche web BLOGS. When we think of niche web sites and the local small business, the business actually has two keyword niches they are trying to dominate.

Thank you Caroline. You did a fantastic job, and I can’t wait to read your next ebook.

Online advertising vs traditional advertising

Posted on January 4, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Marketing, Online Business Advertising, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

These articles are plentiful anymore. You get tired of reading them after a while. I did see something in the article that caught my eye.

The line that says “One report says that while the average weekly use per person for print yellow pages is down from 2% in the 1990 to 1.4% now.” Who uses the actual book anymore?

OK, so the readership is down, so you get less return per dollar spent. I’m sure the price of the ads are coming down too.

I read an article the other day that stated the Yellow Pages think they’ll do fine because they have the sales team to get the ads sold. I really wish they would have said something like we’ll do fine because our product is a much better value.

I hope they don’t think the online yellow pages is any better. Ever try to find something? The entire site is built around what is good for them.

Content is king……..but!

Posted on January 4, 2008
Filed Under Local Internet, Local Online Blogging, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Ran across this building products web page today. Content is absolutely king but I gotta tell ya! I did not read this web page. This is a great example of what NOT to do on a web site, or blog. You have to make your pages readable, and inviting.

Separate your paragraphs and don’t be afraid of using the bold and italics capabilities.

Let me know if anyone can actually read that page without getting lost. Maybe it was done just to get search engine responses. NOT the way to go either!

Predicted shift in business advertising

Posted on January 3, 2008
Filed Under Local Online Marketing, Online Business Advertising | Leave a Comment

Read this Article discussing how local business will start to shift the advertising dollars away from from the Yellow Pages, local TV, and newspapers. Also mentions how businesses are starting to wake up to what is happening online.

The reason stated for the shift is online marketing is Easier to track and it costs a fraction of the price of print and broadcast.

UFO’s are easy to find with Google Earth!

Posted on December 31, 2007
Filed Under Local Internet, What's HOT! | Leave a Comment

Great video of some strange UFO type items seen using Google Earth. The video shows the actual site and then the location coordinates. My kind of video…….short, sweet, and informative. Heres the Google Earth Homepage.

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