One thing is for certain, Google continues to give personalization and social interaction a much larger role in search through the use of rich snippet mark up and author tags. If you don’t know what any of that means, here’s an explanation:

You may have noticed that personal images are now appearing directly in search results. If you search the term internet web marketing, for example, somewhere on that first page you’ll see my website with my mug shot next to the listing. This image is taken from my Google Plus page and can be set up for your website or blog as well.

Also in search results, we’re beginning to see customer reviews – complete with gold stars – along side the listing. This is similar to what you see next to Yelp or Citysearch listings as they appear in search.

It is very evident by the application of these features that Google is trying to give a more personal touch to search. This poses some good opportunities for you to stand out among your competitors in search and capture more consumers, even if your listing is not in the first position.

In the case of local listings, lets use air conditioning contractors in San Diego as an example,  Google shows the rating from both the website and Google Places, giving the listing a double whammy. What a great way to stand out from your competitors.

Not all web properties will be able to take advantage of these new features and Google is still testing their applications, which means it all may work for some websites and not at all for others. To learn more about rich snippet mark up and author tags, click on the links I’ve provided.

That part of Google should not change; however, Google will be incorporating a technology called Semantic Search, which will take known attributes about the keywords used and deliver those results within search results. For example, if a consumer types in a phrase such as “Death Valley,” Google will render information that it knows about Death Valley, such as elevation, average temperatures, tourist information and links to additional resources. These results will appear at the top of search, which may push organic results further down the page. In another example, you can type in a question like, “Who was the first President of the United States?” and Google will render a list of websites that may or may not have your answer. With semantic search, Google will not only provide the answer directly in your results (no need to go to a website to find it), but will give you details about George Washington such as date of birth, place of birth, year of death, major accomplishments and links to additional information.

Semantic search is a step closer to artificial intelligence as algorithms try to understand a users intent, even without being provided the specific word. Bing tried this with a partner called WoframAlpha. The project never really went anywhere, but that hasn’t stopped the industry from pursuing better and quicker ways to deliver results to an increasingly information hungry and impatient world.

What does this mean to you?

I’m not entirely sure what this means yet, but if Google is providing more information in search results, then business listings and websites will be pushed further down the page, making them less viewable by the consumer. It’s important to remember Google’s objective is to give consumers the best information in as few clicks as possible. Well, sort of.

Google is a public corporation and as such, in the business to make money for its shareholders. Google has been slowly losing market share to its competition – Facebook, Yelp, Microsoft, and now Apple with Siri search. In the case of Facebook (and Yelp), which surpassed Google in the number of visitors in 2010, consumers remain on those platforms for longer periods of time. When a consumer uses Google, they search for specific websites that have the information the consumer requests, thereby leaving Google for the web property. With semantic search, consumers can get much of that information immediately in their results without moving onto another website, keeping them on Google longer and thereby giving them more time to view advertisements. Google derives the vast majority of their revenue from advertisements such as Adwords and Adwords Express.

The update is scheduled to roll out within the next few months. When it comes, many internet marketers stand to lose a lot of money. How much all depends on the degree of the update, which Google has stated will be the biggest change to their algorithm they’ve ever had.

The Need for Promotional Diversification is Greater than Ever

If you rely on Google for much of the traffic to your business, what does all this mean to you? Many consumers search Google specifically for a local business such as a salon, HVAC contractor, fitness club or restaurant. Google still wants consumers to find you so chances are the update may not be as severe for local business listings as it will be for internet marketing professionals who create monetized web properties for specific income streams.

The changes may also be another effort by Google to push businesses to advertise with them. It wouldn’t be the first time. If advertising becomes more important, it may be prudent to consider a new Adwords campaign. Alternatives also include Yelp marketing, Facebook ads and promotions with other social media platforms, which Google has acknowledged are becoming more and more important for determining a site’s authority within its own search results.

Diversification has always been necessary for sustainable profits from internet traffic. As a web marketing consultant, I am accustomed to weekly Google algorithmic updates, changes and issues and therefore, prepare my clients appropriately. Google still remains the elephant within the search marketing industry, however, and regardless of how this update impacts business, I’m sure visibility within Google will still remain a top priority for my clients.

Simply put, digital marketing is the future of sales.  But I almost hate to use the word ‘future’ because if you haven’t yet noticed, the future is here. Nobody uses the phone book anymore; magazines and newspapers are going out of business; broadcast media is too expensive; cold calling is no longer effective and networking is just too slow. Companies are going online to find customers.  Why?  Because that’s where the shoppers are.

According to Google, 97% of consumers search online when researching a product or service. And they’re not all going to your website.  Many are going to Google Places.  A whole lot of them are checking online customer reviews in places like Yelp, Angie’s List and City search. They are tweeting about their experience.  They’re asking their friends in Facebook, Linked In and Google Plus for recommendations.  They’re checking for a nearby salon, café or other business on their mobile phones. They’re checking daily deals and holding on to the coupons you’ve provided to them in your blog or email blast.

Digital marketing is everywhere.  If your sales strategy does not have a digital marketing component to it, then how much business are you losing to your competitors?

A Digital Marketing Campaign that Drives Sales

So then, how can you use digital marketing to take your business to the top of your industry?  More importantly, how can you use all the digital marketing components together to create a winning strategy that will drive consumers to your business?

SEO: Your website is your base camp for your digital marketing campaign.  Among other things, you can build backlinks to your web properties to show popularity. This will help it rank high in search results, but you also want a website that is not only pleasing to the consumer, but one that provides them the information they need to purchase your product or service.

Online Direct-ories: Google Places is important because it is usually the first thing consumers see when they search for a local business on the Web. Google Places is an online business directory. You can optimize your listing to help influence consumer buying decisions. Directories are all over the Web.  Get your business listed in Yellow Pages, Superpages, Info Group, Yahoo Local and others.

Customer Reviews: Are huge for consumers. Everyone wants to know what your customers are saying. Our clients continually boast about how much business they’ve gotten because a consumer read one of their reviews online. Engage the consumer here and help influence their buying decision. Know how to respond to negative reviews to attract even more customers.

]]> http://internetwebmarketing.org/digital-marketing/feed/ 3 http://internetwebmarketing.org/what-is-this-thing-called-love/ http://internetwebmarketing.org/what-is-this-thing-called-love/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:00:52 +0000 Admin http://internetwebmarketing.org/?p=1475 You can file this post under “relatively meaningless topics that impact my life how?” But sometimes things just stick in your craw and compel one to voice their opinion. This one goes out to all those who dabble with Google Places.

Search Google for most local businesses and you will see a map to the right of the page with these red, well, we will call them ‘things’ for now as they are the subject of this post. Running down the middle of the page there are seven local business listings labeled A through G. This is Google’s local business listings or Google Places. Each one of them comes with a profile that you can update. You can upload images, video, coupons and all sorts of good information to help the consumer choose your business over others. To the right of each listing there are more ‘things,’ but these are grey, unless one hoovers over one of them with the mouse curser, then it turns red like those in the map, but for the moment, none of that matters. What really matters in my space at the moment is what we call those ‘things.’

I have heard them called a number of things such as stick pins, labels, place pins, pin markers and the worst of all, red pin heads. Why do I immediately think of a vaguely disturbing clown when I hear the term red pin head?

Now, they kind of do resemble a stick pin, but as we know, Google loves to regularly surprise us with changes and updates to its interface. No sooner will we decide to call them stick pins, will Google change their look altogether to something resembling nothing remotely similar to a stick pin. So we need something a little more generic.

It turns out the best solution just happens to be the most practical, and in fact, the very name I’ve been giving them for years now. Won’t you join me in calling them Place Markers? Let’s put an end to the foolishness. No more red pin heads. No more map placement markers. I dream of the day that Google users across the world will speak with one voice when referring to the place markers in Google Maps. Indeed, such uniformity puts us all closer to happiness throughout the world. It begins with you, Google User. Today, it’s place markers. Tomorrow, world peace.

And by the way, in case you were wondering, the placement of the comma in the title to this post is correct syntax.  Benny Hill watchers will get the reference.

The problem, as I see it, lies in the method of promotion.  Mobile phone marketing gurus teach business owners to build lists of cell phone numbers.  They urge business owners to find customers and prospects to “opt-in” to their marketing campaign, thereby subjecting themselves to text message and recorded voice advertisements.  Texting or sending recorded voice messages is considered spam by cellular providers and will get the sender in a lot of trouble if caught.  Hence, marketers need to get permission with an “opt-in” procedure.  I’m not sure about you, but I cannot think of one reason why I would opt-in to anyone’s junk via text or recorded message.

We consider our phones sacred and personal.  Send a junk text to our phone and you’ve invaded our private space – and have probably created an angry customer.

The argument in favor of this method urges that people opt-in to email messages all the time in order to receive a gift or important information.  This is true, but our phones are different than email.  We consider our phones sacred and personal.  Send a junk text to our phone and you’ve invaded our private space – and have probably created an angry customer.

Where mobile phone marketing is important for business owners is in search.  Most of us have a Google or Yahoo application on our phones to search the Internet – perhaps even a Yelp application.  Here’s where business owners need to concentrate their marketing.  Being able to search for businesses on a handheld is like having the Yellow Pages in the palm of your hand.  Business owners should be sure that their websites are mobile phone compatible.  They should concentrate on coming up high in mobile search results, even consider an Adwords campaign specifically for mobile devices.

Indeed, consumers will be increasingly using their handheld devices as mini laptops and business owners can certainly increase sales by keeping up with mobile technology.  I wouldn’t advise sending ads via text, though.  Rather than gaining sales, you may end up losing customers.

The problem for many of you is that Google makes so many changes to its search algorithm and format that it’s hard to keep up. Afterall, you have a business to run and probably don’t have the time to stay up-to-date on such changes. For example, have you seen the latest one?

Image A: New Format for Google Places as of November 2010.

About a year ago, Google updated its local places listings to a new format. For most of you, it looked pretty much like image A; information gathered from both your Google Places page profile and your website, among other things. But Google never seemed quite comfortable with this format. For many categories they continued to show the old format with listings bunched together as you can see from image B. In fact, lately it seemed as though more and more industries and markets were going back to the old format (B).

Enter the Newer New Format
Just a few days ago, Google updated its format once again (see image C below). One of the most noticeable changes is the place markers, which correspond to the same place markets in the map to the right, are no longer red, they are grey unless you mouse over them, at which point they turn red again.

Image B: Old Google Places Format

The layout is a little different as well. The map at the top is smaller. The location data is to the right of each listing rather than directly underneath. And as far as the merged format, it looks like Google has completely done away with it, using a hybrid of both the new and the old formats.

When the consumer hovers over the double arrow on the right, an image of the business website used to appear.  As you can see in image C, now the consumer can still view an image of the website, but also other pertinent information from the Places Page such as images and location on the map.  This gives a much bigger advantage to the businesses that have completed a full Google Places profile.  Put your best images here for maximum conversions.

Image C: The Newer New Google Places format as of a couple days ago.

Your dashboard (the place where you log in and make changes to your profile) may have undergone some updates as well, but we have yet to see any wide-spread changes in this area so we’ll keep you posted.

I’m not quite certain yet as to the algorithmic changes that may have accompanied this format change. In other words, the mathematical and statistical information gathered by Google spiders that determine where you rank in search continue to have a lot to do with your location, relevancy and popularity in your market area. We’ll keep an eye out for changes in this all-important area of search.

Finally, it appears these changes are not a test, which Google does often, but are a broad update. If you don’t see them yet in your market, I expect you will soon. No need to get used to them, though, as I’m sure more updates are on the way.

Your marketing strategy is the most important part of the business planning process. The marketing strategy will address the tactics your company will employ to generate enough sales revenue for growth and success.

A solid marketing strategy serves two primary purposes. First, developing your marketing strategy will help you thoroughly think through the venture from start to finish. You will catch weaknesses before implementation and come up with new ideas to capture customers for your business.

After your strategy is completed, its second primary purpose is to serve as a road map, keeping you on the path that will lead you to your objectives. The marketing plan is not a set-it-and-forget-it document. You will refer back to it regularly to make sure goals are met and tasks are completed. You’ll make adjustments as new technology is introduced into the market place and you’ll dump tactics that aren’t working in favor of new ones – as long as they are consistent with your overall strategy.

Following your marketing strategy and achieving the objectives within will not guarantee your success, but it’s an enormous step in the right direction.

Marketing Strategy vs. Business Plan

A marketing strategy can be a portion of your business plan. While your business plan incorporates areas that do not directly impact your sales such as financing, company structure and operations, the marketing strategy’s objective is to help your business grow by capturing customers and driving sales. Your marketing strategy will most likely be the largest chapter in your business plan. It is certainly your most important.

That being said, I have not created a business plan in years. I do not have a business plan for my current business. I have a marketing plan, but not a business plan, and I do pretty well. My marketing plan contains my company objectives and sales tactics. It shows me exactly what I do to create more sales for my business. At this point, that is all I need. If I decide to go public with my company, then certainly I’ll have a professional business plan made.

Remember: No business person ever became successful by planning. Success comes from doing.

Many business consultants and teachers emphasize the importance of a strong business plan and marketing strategy. They often point to weak planning as the major reason for failure in business. I disagree. I think many entrepreneurs plan too much. Businesses fail because they either do not drive enough sales or they don’t make enough profit on the sales they make.

No one was ever successful in business by planning. Success is achieved only by doing. Planning is an important part of the process, but do not become consumed by it. You need to recognize when to put an end to the planning process and get out there driving new business.

We like to plan because it’s an exciting process and full of so much hope. Let that hope and excitment – and perhaps fear – propel you to success.

Often, the successful entrepreneurs are the ones that are always making sales, even during the planning process. They recognize that they do not have a business until there is a consistent stream of customers purchasing their product or service. Every business I have started has always begun with customers. I had the customers before I even had a plan in place.

The plan will happen, but if you want to be successful, go get customers.

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind while creating your 2012 marketing strategy:

1. If your marketing strategy does not include a digital marketing component to it, you are way behind and already losing customers to your competition. See Web Domination PRO. It’s everything you need to promote your business online.
2. Do not become overly consumed with planning. Remember: No business person ever become successful by planning. Success comes from doing.
3. Your marketing strategy should not be so rigid that you cannot try new ideas and incorporate new advancements in your industry. Make sure it has the flexibility to allow for change if things are not working.
4. That being said, be careful not to deviate from your marketing plan in favor of the latest and greatest idea. In my business, for example, so called “internet marketing gurus” come out with hot new marketing products almost weekly, claiming that their system has beaten Google. We’ll, nobody beats Google, at least not for long. Don’t fall for this stuff and stick to what you know works.
5. Involve your team members. If you want your employees to buy into your new ideas, make sure they take part in the planning process. They will be more committed to reaching objectives if they are their objectives. Let them take ownership.
6. Make sure your marketing plan includes tactics for generating new business as well as retaining old business. It is much less costly to retain an existing customer than it is to find a new one. Don’t forget about referrals.
7. Review your marketing plan regularly. One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make in planning is forgetting about their plan. Don’t spend time and effort creating a plan, just to stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Schedule regular review sessions.
8. This bears repeating: Take the necessary time to create your plan, but don’t belabor it. Get it done and get selling. That’s your quickest way to success.

There are hundreds of online customer review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Urban Spoon, City Search and Merchant Circle that allow users to rate and review businesses. On these sites, users have almost complete freedom to post what they want, regardless if the claims are true or not. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and the hundreds of other social media platforms allow users even more freedom to post negative comments about businesses and individuals.

How would you like “[your business] is a scam” or “[your restaurant] made me and my family sick” sitting at the top of search results when consumers search for you by name?

If a competitor or former employee really wanted to destroy your reputation they could post comments on thousands of blogs and online article directories. There are plenty of automation tools that allow users to post hundreds of articles at a time, thereby creating a huge negative online footprint in just a matter of minutes. They could even create an entire website dedicated to trashing your company. Good luck trying to get in touch with Google or Yahoo to have the site removed. In fact, because these posts most likely have your name attached to them in the title, they will rank amazingly well in search results, even above your own website.

So how do you protect your online reputation? If the comments are not true and you know who posted them, chances are you may be able to file a lawsuit. Check with an attorney, but you may need to prove damages as well.

Customer review sites are unlikely to remove the comments even if you ask them to, but most allow you to respond. In a very professional tone, address the comment as slanderous and point out all the other good reviews you have. The tendency is to lash out at the person who made the negative comment, but this would be a mistake. Remember, your response to negative comments is for other readers, not the original review. They want to see how you handle criticism. I address negative reviews in detail in my Web Domination PRO program.

If the comment is a blog post, web article or web page that shows in search results, the best you may be able to do is push the bad stuff further down the page so nobody sees them. Few people go past page three in search results so optimizing your own blog posts, articles and web pages to rank above the negative comments may be a good solution.

A big part of my consulting is managing your online reputation. Contact us for details. There are ways to remove, hide or address all the bad stuff people are posting about you online; however, if your company really does suck, no amount of damage control is going to help.

Finally, you can always make a You Tube video explaining that a competitor or disgruntled former employee is posting negative remarks about your business online. Let viewers know that you have tried to handle the situation fair and professionally. Of course, if the claims are true and your business really does suck, no amount of damage control is going to help.

I had contacted Google because of the drop a couple of my clients experienced in Google’s search results.  One of my clients went from the #1 position all the way down to the 6th page for his primary keyword!  Yikes!  When I reported the issue to Google’s support team, I was given this exact response:

“Your dashboard incorrectly displaying ‘Active’ for your listing is due to
a technical issue and we’re working to resolve it. Your listing should
show as ‘Needs Action’ because there are some changes we’d like you to
make, in order to match our quality guidelines, before reincluding your
listing on Maps.

Specifically, we need you to either hide your location and specify a
service area for your business, or to change your address to an actual
business location that is customer-facing. Currently, your address
leads to a residential location. These do not meet our quality
guidelines, which can be viewed here: Google Places Quality Guidelines.”

That email turned out to be wrong, completely wrong.  It turns out that Google has no problem with the home office as indicated in the above email.  The reason why my clients dropped in search results is directly due to a new algorithm change by Google.  If you perform a search for a local business, say a general contractor, salon, plumber or dentist, you may notice that your search results are tightly focused around the city center, much more than they used to be.  For example, a search for dentist San Diego, will render results all below the 8 freeway.  Most of the listings are pretty close to downtown.  Prior to the change, businesses all around the county were listed in the top 7 results. Google, then, is now favoring businesses that are much closer to the city center.

Many of us in the online consulting business believe that the change was way too dramatic because there are certainly businesses that could be more relevant, but a little further away.  And what about contractors?  if you hire a contractor to come work on your home, does it really matter to you if they are 5 miles away or 10?

We’re not sure if this change will stick or if Google will loosen up a bit.  My belief is that Google will gradually ease up on the importance of location somewhat, but not entirely.  Unfortunately, if your business is far from your city center, there is little you can do at this point to get your listing to the top of search results for your area, unless you move downtown.

“to the huge review, however The definitely supporting the modern Zune, as well as houp this, plus the fantastic evaluations some other folks have drafted, will allow you to determine whether it is the right choice for you.”

Other than the fact that I’m kind of diggin’ the phrase “houp this,” the comment is clearly spam and has been deleted. Every now and then a comment gets through my spam protection and I have to clear out a few posts. Not a big deal, really. Most bloggers accept a little comment maintenance from time to time, especially as the blog becomes more and more popular. My real problem with the comment is that it was clearly generated with spin software.

Let me briefly explain: Linking hundreds of articles to a particular web page can make it seem popular to the search engines, which gets it ranked well in search results. The problem is that most marketers believe they will not get credit for all that popularity if the articles they submit are all duplicates.  And writing hundreds of different articles is just too much work for the lazy internet marketer, who more often than not, is looking for an easy way to make a quick buck.

When an industry starts to lose respect for its own product and works almost entirely to game the system rather than provide a credible service, then we’re in for big trouble.

They overcome this problem by using spin software which creates hundreds, even thousands, of unique articles by replacing random words with synonyms. The articles are essentially the same, but with different words. Their hope is that Google spiders will crawl their content and see each article as unique, even if it is incoherent to the human reader.

The problem is that auto-spin software stinks. They generate unintelligible comments like the one left on my blog. When an industry starts to lose respect for its own product and works almost entirely to game the system rather than provide a credible service, then we’re in for big trouble. The most recent example is the mortgage meltdown in 2008. Mortgage brokers, investment bankers and investors stopped caring about the value of their products and the consequences of their actions, leading to a crisis that almost brought down the world economy.

Now, I certainly do not believe spammers are going to bring down the world economy, but marketers are doing the same thing by saturating the Internet with garbage; articles that are either poorly written and submitted merely to provide a backlink, or are written somewhat clearly, but provide no substantive content.

For years I have been urging webmasters and marketers to clean up their content. Mostly, I get ignored. As early as two years ago I warned the Internet community that someday search engines like Google would start to tighten the screws on those contaminating the Web with their “space junk,” and there is evidence that they now may be taking note. Nothing would make me happier.

Even when the grammar, usage and sentence syntax of articles finally gets cleaned up, we’re still going to be faced with the problem of thousands of marketers writing authoritative articles about subjects they know nothing about. Hopefully, the search engines will come up with a way to keep that in check as well. Or, should I say; Ideally, this seek locomotives is designated to occur upwards among any resolution on to retain who around view likewise. Houp this.