Method 1: Get listed in directories

First thing, get your business listed in local business directories such as Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local and Yelp. The business directories are a great way to easily be found when people, in your area, search for keywords relevant to your business. Your business will display within search results and map listings along with being able to collect reviews and feedback from your community.

Method 2: Optimize for local keywords

Use the Google Keyword Tool to find relevant keywords to your business by plugging in phrases that you know, for certain, describe your business, products and services. Use the keywords on your website along with local search modifiers such as your city on each of the pages. Change the URL and link structure of your website to reflect the keywords for each of the pages to ensure search engines can spider your website and apply search engine optimization factors that matter to each of the pages.

Method 3: Start up a local advertising campaign

Sign up for an online advertising platform like Google Adwords and begin advertising your business to the local market. Use your main keywords and geo location to show your ads only to the local towns and cities within the radius of your business; avoid wasting money from advertising to people half way around the world. Optimize your advertising, remove underperforming ads and dump more money into ones that are providing you a significant return on your investment.

Method 4: Create local business blog posts

Write blog posts for your business blog around the topics and questions customers have within your area. Cover local news and events. Create highly informational blog posts about the products and services you offer while applying your main keywords and local search phrases to optimize your content, in search engines, for local search results. Share your content to the web and build backlinks to each of your pages to increase your search engine rankings.

Method 5: Be active in local online discussions

Get active in online discussions on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Respond to people whenever they have questions about what your business offers. Shock and awe people by randomly giving away product or services to people; this creates a lot of great buzz and may lead to your business being highlighted in local news or blogs. Be as helpful as you can so your can build authority around your brand and stand out from the rest of your competition.

Method 6: Write for relevant websites in your area

Start creating content for relevant websites and blogs within your area and industry. Share your best information with outside communities which can lead to people discovering your business and potentially becoming customers. Write for the local paper, be active on local forums and talk about your customers and the products you offer whenever someone interviews you. Try to be everywhere at once by reaching out to your local community.

Conclusion

Much of local search engine optimization is simply building an online presence through proper keyword application to your website, getting listed in directories and being active within your local community. Take all that you know about your business and transplant it online; in time, you will spend less money on traditional advertising platforms in place of online channels. Work every day to raise awareness to your local business by tapping into the power of local search engine optimization.

“Keyword Rich URL’s” – Each web page should be assigned a unique URL which uses the main keyword which you’ll be using throughout the content and web page; this keyword is one of the most important elements of on-page optimization and should not be omitted at any interval during the creation of your website. The following is an example of how your website’s URL should look:

Bad: www.yourwebsite.com/?=1234

Good: www.yourwebsite.com/keyword-rich-title.html

“Main Keyword within the Title Tag” – The title tag is the on-page element which is displayed at the top of the web browser’s window and within search engine results. Place your main keyword within the first section of your title tag so search engines and its users are more readily to find it; this improves your overall rankings in SERP’s.

“Main (Relevant) Keyword in the H1 Tag” – The H1 tag is the highest value heading tag on a web page; it tells search engines the main focus of the content and is often considered just as valuable as the title tag of your page. Apply your main keyword to your H1 tag to ensure your on-page SEO is up to par with your competition; equally so, create a headline which entices users to click through and dig into your content.

“Content worth Sharing” – The most widely used adage is “Content is King!” but that’s not necessarily so; to gain the best benefit of content and on-page SEO, you’ll need to create content which people are likely to share with others and link back to on their own site. Content should be created for the end-user in mind by providing the best quality information on the topic.

“Proper Interlinking to Inner Pages” – Each web page should have links to sub-pages which use the destination page’s relevant keyword as the anchor link. Interlinking content on your website allows search engines to dig deep within your website to index pages and apply value to each page along with search engine optimization factors which come from the use of keywords in your anchor links. Instead of a “Click Here” for your interlinks, try using the page’s main keyword.

“Keyword within Image ALT Tags” – A search engine spider does not currently have the capability to “see” what image is placed on your web page; it looks for the image ALT tag. Each image which you place on your website, place an ALT tag within the image HTML text such as: <img src=”image.jpg” alt=”yourKeyword” />.

Countless businesses have made the mistake of entering social network only to be rejected by the community because of their false interaction with others. Although there aren’t any set ‘rules’ to using social media there are a few best practices within this article that you should consider prior to and during your use of social media for your business.

1: Share Worthwhile Content

Share content that’s valuable to the community. Avoid content that’s overly promotional or has no benefit to the end user. Find what your community wants to consume and deliver it to them. You will find that much of the information people want to consume is related to what you have to offer. Sharing content related to your business will keep you in mind when others go to look at each piece of content.

2: Listen

Listen to what your community has to offer; talk to them about the content they’ve shared and how you can best help them in their own ventures. Forget business for a moment and think about what you can offer people other than a marketing message. Try to genuinely help people with what they’re working on. Helping others without the thought of gaining something in return eventually comes back to you and your business through positive interaction with your community.

3: Remember the WIIFM Factor

The ‘What’s In It For Me’ factor should always be on your mind whenever you publish a social media update. If your message does not provide value to the end user than it may be best to forgo sending out a message at this time. Always remember that the bottom line for your community is the value that you provide; it’s an equal exchange of information between business and its community.

4: Don’t Overdo It

Don’t force your community to follow you on hundreds of social networks; pick a few that work best for your business and stick to them. Likewise, keep your status updates to a minimum to avoid overloading your community with information. Keep your messages to only that which provides value whether it’s one publish a day or a dozen but never push it to hundreds every hour.

5: Engage

Always remember that the fundamental reason people use social media is to engage with others. Don’t be caught up with publishing new marketing messages with each push. Talk to your community directly in a casual manner asking them what’s new, if they need help or simply what they’re up to for the day. In short, treat your social media interaction like you would with a best friend; casual and transparent.

Create Product or Service Tutorial Videos

Since people can’t physical pick up and touch your products or services, it’s difficult for them to coherently understand what your business offers. One way to put people in the “driver’s seat” of your products or services is to create videos around the usage and overview of your business offerings. Video lets people get an inside glimpse on how your products or services can directly impact their lives without trying to decipher cryptic web copy or web page images. Use video to put your viewers into the “owner’s mindset” where they feel as if they have the product in their hands or service at their fingertips; create an emotional response and you will convert video viewers like crazy.

Share Video Reviews and Testimonials

Tap into your business community by soliciting testimonials and reviews from your existing customers.

Marketing spin is a difficult hurdle to overcome when trying to promote a product or service; one way to get through to people is to let others do the talking for you! Get a video camera in the hands of your most loyal customers and they will be likely to share their thoughts about what you have to offer. Once the videos are online, your industry and community can see how real people are using your business products and services which creates word-of-mouth marketing potential and higher rates of conversions because the message isn’t forced and have a marketing spin.

Answer Customer Service Questions

Use Youtube as a way to respond to your customers and community by answering their frequently asked questions and concerns. Rather than shooting off an email to a customer, video lets you answer your followers out in public so others can listen in as well. The answers you provide to people may convert interested parties because they find your business to be extremely helpful where as competitors may be “dropping the ball” and staying closed up to company information to their public. Become the authority in your niche by being active on the web; use Youtube as a channel to reach people, plain and simple.

Develop an Information Database for Employees

One smart way of using Youtube for both promotion and internal usage is to create an information database for your employees. There are many instances where you will need to educate your employees on business practices so rather than explaining it to them face-to-face, you can point them to videos you’ve uploaded to Youtube. Not only do your employees learn about your business but you can also use this opportunity to brand your business and let people peer into what goes on behind the scenes at your business which adds a new layer for people to connect and follow you.

Show off the Human Side of your Business

Video lets people create an emotional connection because it pulls together sight and sound; people will see another human on the other side of the video rather than a robotic, rigid business. Create videos, for Youtube, which build trust and humanity in your business so people can identify with the people behind your business and not just your products or services. A human side of business gets people more emotionally involved and loyal to businesses because they are interacting with real people with real lives rather than being pressured to make a purchase and have no further interaction.

Conclusion

The vast majority of online businesses have yet to take advantage of Youtube for their marketing and brand building. Every Youtube video you create can become a lead generation magnet and branding opportunity which gives you dominance in a competitive niche. Tap into the power of Youtube by investing a fraction of your marketing budget toward a video camera or screencast tool and then immediately jump right into creating videos for the web.

I think it is a good time to temporarily hand over the reigns of your web business to an expert who can update and optimise it ready for your return and the inevitable increase in visitors throughout September.

Now is the best time to make sure all the various working parts of your online business gel together to ensure your websites and blogs are operating at the top of their game. A great way to re ignite your business through out what we hope will be an Indian summer eh?

Maybe you just need a revamp to make the website fit your brand better

There are five main areas where I think we need to concentrate on:

1. The Look & Feel – Does it look professional?
2. Content Creation – Do people love to read & share your content?
3. Search Engine Optimisation – especially off page which gets neglected all the time.
4. Social Connectivity – Facebook and Twitter are you getting the best from them?
5. Membership, Squeeze & Sales pages – Really ramp it up now, it’s easy!

Design:

Is you site easy on the eye, is it looking professional? Or does it need a makeover? A premium theme such as Catalyst is SEO friendly right out the box and is highly customisable which makes rebranding a breeze.

Content:

Do you need help with content ideas and inspiration? Is you content being read and shared enough by your current followers? Is your content bringing in new readers?

SEO:

August is a great time to start an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) overhaul. Is your sitemap up to date, are all your Meta tags, alt tags etc. in place. Or have they been neglected. Do you have a regular link building campaign in place to help hold your hard worked for rankings? Are you taking advantage of all the latest off page SEO tactics?

In my opinion this is the most neglected part of most online businesses. The guys who consistently see results are on this ALL the time!

Social Connectivity:

Are you taking advantage of all the social networks, do you have a plan to expand and
leverage your efforts? Facebook & Twitter just get bigger and bigger but the strategies for using them and getting the best out of them change on an almost monthly basis. A Facebook page for you business is essential and it is now easier than ever to create welcome pages with video for maximum impact.

Membership, Sales & Squeeze:

Or maybe you want to create a membership site or some squeeze and sales pages. It has never been easy to integrate all the tools necessary to set up a membership site with multiple paid levels. Sales & Squeeze page are now more or less point and click with Optimzepress.

Take advantage of the downtime in August to get your website ready for September.

Check out my services page or contact me here TODAY!

Google Places is a free service provided by Google to help connect local businesses with their local communities (customers). Placement in Google Places takes no more than ten minutes and doing so will list your business in search results and Google Maps when local users search for keywords related to your business within your area. Getting listed in Google Places is a great asset for building your local search engine optimization; this article will share a step-by-step guide for getting listed through this service.

Step 1: Sign up for a Google Places Account

Getting listed in Google Places requires you to sign up for a Google account. Google accounts are free and only take a few moments to get together. Add in your basic account details and confirm the account before you get started.

Step 2: Search for Existing Listings

Upon signing up for Google Places, you will be given the option to search for an existing listing for your business in the area. Fill in the forms to list your country and business phone number, click next and either confirm or continue on to fill in your business information.

Step 3: Fill in your Basic Information

Add the basic information about your business which includes:

• Country
• Company Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Website
• Description
• Category

To improve our local search engine optimization with Google Places, fill in the description field with a keyword rich description of your business that lists the products or services you offer. Add a category that perfectly fits your business to ensure that it will show up for the keywords that are relevant to your business.

Step 4: Fill in Services Area and Location Settings

If your business offers some form of on-site delivery or service than select the ‘yes’ option to add in details of where your business operates within the local area otherwise select ‘no’ if you are a brick-and-mortar type store where customers come to you.

Step 5: Set the Hours of Operation

Add the hours of operations of your business; do not lie in order to have people contact you, be honest with your listing. If you are an online business than you could technically set your time to always available otherwise set ‘I prefer not to specify my operating hours’.

Step 6: Select Payment Options

Check off the payment selection boxes for the types of payments you can process at your business.

Tip: In the event that you do not have a wide variety of payment processing options, you could consider signing up for online accounts such as Paypal to handle these different payment options.

 Step 7: Add a Photo to your Listing

Optimize your listing by adding the maximum 10 quantity of pictures for your business. Recommended photos may include the store-front, products you offer and the employees of your business. Try to fill in as many pictures as you can that represents and personalizes your business.

Step 8: Add a Video (optional)

A video can help make your business listing stand out but it is optional so you need not add one if you don’t have a video for your business. However, if you choose to add a video you can easily create on using inexpensive HD video cameras and free video editing tools otherwise hire a freelance video producer within your area.

Step 9: Add Additional Details about your Business

Add any additional information that applies to your business such as if you offer handicap parking, brands of products you offer, monthly events and more. Use this opportunity to include keyword rich activities which people may be interested within your area such as ‘Local Workshop’ and more.

Step 10: Submit and Apply for a Pin

After you have completed your basic listing, you will confirm your address so Google can send a pin number via post card to your house which confirms your listing in Google Places. Time for deliver on the pin code takes 1 – 2 weeks. Once the pin has arrived, log into your Google Places account and add the pin; you are done!

Conclusion

Congratulations. You are one step closer to being found in your local area using local search engine optimization techniques and Google Places. The entire process of adding your business in Google Places takes less than ten minutes with the exception of waiting for your pin to confirm the listing. While you wait, prepare your business and work on other local SEO elements for your business so it can efficiently rank on search results.

UPDATE: They have now added an app to you Aweber account that makes this soooooo much easier.

Click here to check it out >>

Building your mailing list is an essential part of your online business, actually any online business. If you are not grabbing your visitors or customers email addresses when they visit your site you are literally leaving money on the table. If you have their email address you can market to them again and again.

If you use Aweber on your site to build your mailing list and sell products on your website using Pay Pal keep reading because this will definitely be something you want to set up, and soon!

What I’m talking about here is a technology that is little known among the masses and is totally underused. It is called “The Aweber Email Parser”

So what is it?

If you are familiar with the inside of your Aweber account you probably would of noticed the menu item titled “Email Parser” under the “list settings” tab. When you click on that tab there is a page full of third party services such as Pay Pal, Wishlist, and 1Shopping Cart. I will explain further in the video below where I show you exactly how to set it up.

An “Email Parser” is a technology which allows us to integrate our Aweber email campaigns with other services so that when a transaction is made with that service, a subscriber can be added to your list automatically.

For example, you might use Pay Pal to sell products or services on your site. You can user the email parser process to automatically subscribe these customers to your list when they buy.

Before this technology was available we would have to get the customer to jump through extra hoops once they had bought the product via Pay Pal to actually get them on your list in Aweber by filling in extra forms etc.

Not any more! And here’s how in this 7 minute video….

How cool is that!

If you need any help or advice on integrating other services let me know and I will create another video for you.

Actually if you have anything you are struggling with ( WordPress, Aweber, Optimizepress, Catalyst, Pay Pal, Wishlist Member or just general online business.) and you would like a video tutorial recorded especially for you leave a comment below or send me an email and we can discuss it.

A blog can be a powerful tool to promote a business, products or services. Blogging allows you to connect with a community and exchange feedback which improves your business and practices. I want to share a few of the great ways you can use your blog as a platform for business and promotion.

Write a Tutorial about your Product – If you include instructions with your products or services than push them out onto the web. Even though you may be afraid that competitors will steal your documentation, you’ll actually be doing your community a great service, build excellent search engine traffic and solidify yourself as the authority where as other competitors are too afraid to share their best secrets.

Answer Community Questions or Comments – No doubt, your business constantly receives questions and comments from your community. Instead of passing these questions off to a file you leave at work go ahead and write about them on the blog. Not only will you be able to gain great search engine traffic from people searching for answers but you’ll also have resources to point other customers to which saves you time answering questions!

Talk about a new Product Release – If there is a new product or service being release at your business than create a blog post. Although not everyone will find direct value in the post if they aren’t your customers you can still excite others that have been waiting for a new feature, product or service from your business!

Highlight a Great Customer – Have a customer that’s been with you for years? Highlight them by sharing a small story about them on your blog. If your best customers have businesses of their own than consider writing about the business and share part of the wealth; doing so will create a great connection with your customers because it shows that you care more than just making a sale.

Share Reviews and Feedback – If a customer leaves a great testimonial than share it with the rest of the community! Likewise, if you receive great feedback about a bug or some kind of improvement from your community you can show how you plan to implement these improvements with a new blog post. Reviews can be a great way to share what others have to say about your business and it doesn’t come across as forceful marketing.

Connect with other Bloggers – Connecting with other bloggers to extend your network can help promote your product when there is an equal exchange of value between two parties. If another blogger thoroughly enjoys your products, they’re likely to write about your business on their own blog. Compliment their great words by writing about them on your own business blog.

Share Exclusive Discounts and Promos – Hold a contest, exclusive event or a gift back to your community while pushing out a new blog post. Customers love when there are ways to interact with your business such as participating in a poll in exchange for a prize. You could also use your blog to push out new coupon codes to ignite sales in new and old products. Don’t be too promotional on a daily basis else people will have no reason to regularly read your blog because they see it as a one-way stream of value (going only to you); always try to share information that’s not just trying to create sales for your business.

Do you have any other ideas on how to use your blog to promote your business? Please share your thoughts below…

Hey I’ve just watched this new video from Mari Smith and needed to share it on my blog immediately because it kicks **se. The video is only 11 minutes long and well worth a watch. The final 6 minutes has some awesome marketing tips you can use on your own Facebook pages today!

The new Facebook upgrade gives our businesses some new marketing tools. Here’s what you’ll discover:

• How to create a call to action visible to all your visitors
• How to reorganize the links in the new navigation
• What you should put at the bottom of your navigation list and why
• How the new iFrame features can help your business
• How to use Facebook Ads to drive readers to specific tabs
• How you can create a free ad for your Fan Page

Video source: Social Media Examiner

Interaction is key to your success when using Facebook for your business. Below are just 8 quick and easy ways to get your brand noticed out there.

Tag Your Friends in Status Updates

If you have a product or service with a sales letter, squeeze page or video, post a link to them via a status update and integrate your friend’s name. You need to be creative with this and not over do it. Us the @ symbol in front of your friends name in your status and this will tag them.

Tag Your Friends Photos

This works well if you have market influencers in your friends list and is good for brand recognition. Upload a photo with your product or offer, add a promotional description and then tag as many friends as you can in that one photo.

The names then show up on your pictures and will appear on your friends profile for all of their friends to see. Even if their security settings disable the public showing of tagged photos they will still see they have been tagged and open it up.

Tag Your Friends in Notes

Facebook notes can be used in a variety of ways. If you have a blog you can import those posts into Facebook so they show up as notes. Notes can sometimes go viral very quickly (depending on the content). But again tag your friends in these notes. Remember not to over do this.

Comment on Your Friends Walls

Interaction is what Facebook is all about. Be a good friend and write on your friends walls.  A bit like the old fashion “popping next door for a cup of sugar”. Stop by and spark up a conversation.

Comment on Group, Fan Page and Event Walls

This is where Facebook comes into its own for us business owners. If you target your niche, you can join groups, “like” fan pages and events. Once you get involved you can discretely mention your product or service on their walls and everyone else who is following or liking them will see your post.

Slip this into overdrive without leaving your homepage, you can tag the group or page or by using the @ symbol. Then it no only appears on your profile, news feed and friend’s news feeds but it will also show up on the page that you tagged. How cool?

Like Status Updates on Friend, Fan Page and Group Walls

We have a choice here.  You can like status updates by using your personal profile account or you can create a brand and use that. When you “like” from your profile, you friends know what you are up to. When you “like” from your business page you are now promoting your business. Yes you can now like a status while you are using Facebook as your business page. Again this is very powerful.

Create a Group Page and Keep Adding

Once you create a group you can add as many of your friends to it as you like, without asking their permission. Obviously an easy way to promote your business or service and give you immediate exposure. Make sure the group is interesting & compelling, if it rubbish they will leave.

Create an Event Page and Keep Inviting

Again once you create an event you can invite all your friends. Make the name compelling (think blog headlines). Then send everyone an invite that will appear as if by magic in their inbox.

At the end of the day what this boils down to is using ALL of Facebooks features to the max to get the most out of it. We have a powerful networking tool here which is only going to get more powerful. Take advantage of it now.

Although this posts mentions 8 quickies, these “quickies” make up 90% of all the content of all the training that can be bought via eBooks, membership sites, and videos out there. They just package it in a clever way and make it sound more interesting.

If you have any strategies that you have used and have found successful please share them below in the comments