If You’re Not Mobile Ready – You’re Unprepared

The prediction has been in the air for years. But now the stats show that people are searching on the their phones and growing speeds, with no sign of slowing down.  While 71% of businesses see the mobile value 78% of businesses are not mobile ready.  It’s a great advantage to  go mobile right now and stay ahead of your competition.  While many business owners cite cost as an issue most businesses have seen a decline in advertising expenses with the demise of yellow page phone books.  Recognizing a website is now the cornerstone of any and all advertising the shift is beginning.  While pay-per-click is still scary to most business owners investing in your organic website structure is building on solid ground.

Google News for Local Businesses

Recent changes make your Google+ page more helpful to your business.  Google used to display about 7 local businesses in its “maps” section on search results. That number will now be cut to 3 as Google gives more preference to its Google+ pages.  Google set guidelines to optimize the business pages.  Take advantage of it – give Google what it wants, don’t be the business that ignores helpful suggestions from Google.  Too busy to handle this yourself?  Inquire about my Webmaster Services.

Freshen Your Website

If your business is service related make the most of your images.  If your site is more than a few years old at that time keeping images small was the best strategy for user friendly load time on each page.  Now there are many ways to showcase your work with much larger sized images – still optimizing for download speed. There are many options to make your photos interactive (click to enlarge).  Read more.

It’s your website – your business online – grow it, make it shine – freshen it – make it work for you.

Reviews, Yelp, Google, Yahoo

Online reviews drive websites. This is such good news for website owners: clients who are happy can make a difference in your business.

But how to get reviews: ask. Attach a note/flyer to every invoice leaving your shop asking for a review.  Begin by asking clients to use their favorite review source (such as Yelp!) or ask them to find you on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps, Facebook – any place your business is listed.  Put buttons on your website with a direct link to your Google Maps/Places Yahoo, Yelp and other directory listings. Make it easy for your clients. If they are not computer savvy – ask them to email or hand write it for you – and post on your website. They will enjoy being part of the Internet, and sincere testimonials are wonderful additions to your website. All this can be simply put in a note/flyer to hand out with invoices. Include an email address – if you have a web designer send these to him/her.

You may never have heard of Yelp.com but they have been an online business directory for years. In the past year Yelp! has moved ahead of the pack in delivering reviews along side your Google Places/Maps listing – this is where the “driving” comes into the picture. The more reviews – the better for your website. Even bad reviews count – so far Google can count, but doesn’t have an opinion :)

What to do about bad reviews? Address them. See where they came from – if from Yelp – create a yelp account and go to your listing and respond to the complaint. Don’t get angry – represent yourself well, and that stance alone will go a long way in representing your side of the equation. Some of my clients have no invoice from a complainer…state that: “We cannot find a record of your visit to our business, perhaps you have confused us with another business?” The public knowsthere are customers who will never be happy – so don’t feel badly if you cannot resolve a bad review. Addressing it is the critical step to take. 

If the review contains foul language you can report to Google and it will be removed.

It is good to get people talking about your business and happy customers like to help and point others to your business…engage!

Google Instant

It’s been a year of changes to the web. Google has rolled out new ways to search, intuitive ways it thinks we’re searching, local search, Google Maps becoming Google Places with the “tag” available for $25.00/month and Google Instant.

Probably the biggest change has been what happens when you begin to type in Google’s search bar. Instantly you are seeing possibilities.  Once you hover over a website listing you’ll see preview of the website. You don’t even have to click the link.

As a web owner this has significant meaning. The sooner the user can see your web page – the more chance they will click through to your website. If you are using Flash (entire website, or slide shows, moving graphics) – you now have a lag time for the page loading, and risking it not previewing accurately.  Cluttered web pages and small tiny graphics become a blur. Keep your website design simple and bold. It will be readable on a small scale, for this preview. A simple website also will view on mobile phones will less issues. My oldest client’s website is extremely lean and trim – as browsers have evolved we have had virtually no compatibility issues and the site continues to display with speed. 

Simple web design has another plus. 2010 was the year Google owned up to what was guessed for years: how quickly your website downloads (speed) DOES matter for its index/ranking. Once again the simple website will have an advantage.

Ever notice that Amazon’s design remains old school – basic web design? It will display on phones, quickly on desktops, iPads – no conflict and speed is never an issue.

It’s a win-win design!

Google Tags

Google Maps offer a way of enhancing your listing with Google Tags.

While Google maintains this does NOT effect placing on Google maps, it certainly will make your listing, when it appears, pop. The easier you can make it for someone to click through to your website the better. You want to stand out among the Google Map listings and this will help.

The advertising fee is a flat $25.00/month. Nice to avoid the pay per click campaigns and the time spent analyzing the keywords for your website.

Read more here: http://www.google.com/help/tags/

Seems like one of the simpler advertising choices online.

Number 1 on Google

Will I be #1 on Google?

That’s everyone’s goal. Once your website goes live you will be inundated by solicitations guaranteeing your number presence on Google search.

Organic Search. This is what I do with SEO when creating a website. From page titles to keywords and content, all are components of optimizing a website for an organic web search to return your site where relevant and in your locale, if you are not nation wide.

A lot can be accomplished to achieve organic search results, and you want to utilize all tools.

People will tell you they can get your website #1 on Google maps. The fine print, which takes digging into is this:

You will appear #1 somewhere, sometime for some keyword search. Most often in their guarantee if your business category is highly competitive – that keyword will turn into long tail keywords:

auto transmission repair in Pomona, Ca

If you’re an auto repair shop that leaves a huge number of services you either, now buy more keywords for, or…don’t.  This can add up to a staggering advertising campaign.

Another point which is told later in the sales pitch is: “If after 3 months you aren’t in the top 5…”. That is the  length of time organic searches can take, and you aren’t paying for those. If you are paying $150.00/month plus $600.00 set up fee to test the waters for appearing in the top 5 places on Google maps and you don’t appear at all…that is a lot of money. Plus you already have a chance of appearing organically in your locale for free. You’re better off setting up an AdWords campaign.

No easy answers, but remember: there are no guarantees to be placed Number One on Google without paying for it – and if you want every search…that price will be quite high in most markets.

The New Google

Visit Google today.
You’ll find a handy left bar giving you more options to refine your search.

This has been in the works for almost a year. Since web designers optimize sites for search engines (SEO) we have been wondering what they were up to. This puts the results more in the hands of the user. If I know what I want I can tell Google how to refine my searches, without my changing my keyword search.

This can be a good thing for businesses. Google is now pulling from “everything” – social networking, paid, organic, images, Google Maps, videos (which can be a small slide show) from YouTube (and beyond) and discussion groups, etc..

What is helpful to “real time” searches is this handy way of NOT having to page through 10 pages of results to find what you want, or worse: give up before they find you. You can drill past the paid ads. (Though they continue to be prominent on Google.) That is the help to the organic websites (non-paying). You know who is searching for you, and while they might not get the exact keyword, this allows them to search within the search results without having to view 10 pages of results, which is tiresome.

It does mean social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is more important to drive your website. Being on Google Maps is now more helpful – you’ll notice the “nearby” button – which will allow you to find more businesses in the location you are searching. Business owners: it puts you closer to your competitors. NOT pages behind them.

This change can be good news if you are driving your website.