Local SEO: 5 Tips for Local Business Owners

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Nowadays, any business can (and should) have their own website.

With all of the resources out there, it’s easy to get a website up and running quickly.

That’s the easy part.

But how do you really get your website seen? Especially when you’re running a local business?

The answer lies in search engine optimization.

It’s a process of driving traffic to your website organically (unpaid) from the search engines.

For your local business, it’s highly beneficial to concentrate your resources on the local community.

Here are some useful tips to go local on SEO:

Use your location in your body text, keywords, and metatags

When creating a page in your website always includes your local location along with the type of business you are running.

For example “Bike Shop Los Angeles”. Google easily detects these keywords in their algorithms making your website visible on their search engine. Use the keywords strategically especially when creating blog posts and articles.

Register in local search engines

The big search engine is Google. Be sure to register your business in the local listings. Also be sure to do the same with Bing and Yahoo. They don’t have quite the same amount of traffic but it’s still valuable to do.

Local Directories

Yellow pages has an online version which serves as a directory for local businesses. Be sure to get listed there as well as the huge amount of other directories. Just search for your industry + directory.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and others are important in the search results. They’re also free to use and can help you build your brand. Be sure to fill out your information correctly in all of these places so get the most Google-juice possible.

Reviews and Testimonials

Ask your clients or customers to write something about their experience with your services or products. You can use popular review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Merchant Circle and more to get your business more popular online. These are increasingly important as people are looking online more than ever.

Bottom line – Do everything you can to make sure you’re getting the most out of the available resources to get found online. By doing just a little bit, you can see huge results!

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Content is King – Why Google Loves Content

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There’s an interesting new infograph that was recently published by Brafton.com showing the relation between content and search. This should be nothing new to anyone who’s trying to market their business online.

Content is what people are searching for. Content is what answers peoples questions. Content is what leads to purchasing decisions.

And now with the added layer of social media, people are sharing that content with their contacts. But there’s a catch – it’s got to be quality content! Search engines and real humans are not going to share bad content.

With that said, take a look at the graph below and think about how you can apply it your online marketing efforts. Of course, if you need to know where to get started, pulling quality content out of you and marketing it online is one of our specialties!

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Brafton's Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

8 Powerful Marketing Benefits of YouTube

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People go to the internet for a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because they want to find information that will help them solve a problem. Google has made a fortune by providing links to information they think would help.

But guess what? YouTube has now become the second largest search engine after Google. What does that mean? It means that people are going to YouTube not only to find answers to their problems but to see them. Instead of reading the information, they would rather watch it.

What does that mean to you? In a nutshell, if you have a business, you have to have a presence on YouTube! There are some amazing benefits to doing so. Here are eight powerful reasons:

1.       It’s Free – Besides your investment of time, making and uploading videos is completely free to do you YouTube! Are the Yellow Pages free? No! Is a billboard free? No! But YouTube is.

2. Content is Powerful – In the online world, content is king and that would make video content the king of kings. Like I mentioned before, people would much rather watch something than read something – especially online.

3.       Potentially Viral – If your video is creative or funny or informational enough, it has the potential to go viral. That means that potentially thousands of other people will be sharing your video with their people. That’s exposure to your business to an infinite amount of people.

4.       Global and Local Audience – Based on the key words you use, your video has the potential to be seen around the world. This means you could have new clients or customers overseas! Have a local business? Not to worry. You can target local searches as well and become the go-to person in your region.

5.       Demonstrate Your Expertise – By giving away great tips, you will literally show your viewers that you know what you’re talking about. For many potential clients or customers, it often comes down to choosing between two businesses. Your business is going to stand out if you have a video showing them why you’re good.

6.       Selling for You 24/7 – Making a video is like creating a virtual sales person. You make the video once, load it up, and then let your video sales person go to work for you around the clock. Every new video you make is another full time sales person. There’s no limit to what you could do!

7.       Give Them a Face – Having a video gives the potential client a face. It shows them you’re really a nice person that knows what you’re talking about and how you can help them. Camera shy? No problem! You can make a powerpoint video and still show your stuff. Just be sure to give your viewers a head shot in your intro.

8.       Video is SEO Friendly – This is a big one. When someone searches for something online, very often a video will come up in one of the top spots in the organic search. If this is your video, this is huge because it stands out above the other links. It then carries with it all of the above listed benefits.

With all of these benefits the question is, why wouldn’t you do YouTube marketing? Of course if you need help getting kick started in your video marketing efforts, we know some great people who can help you!

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