QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

If you don’t already have an easy-to-update website for your business check out this video.

Update your website for more leads | Episode 17 Local Knowledge Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

I often dive deep into specific topics as I did this past Friday when I blogged about how to Re-write your website title for better local search results. That’s just one important part of Local SEO. There are many others. But what are they?

Below you’ll find a short video which provides a great overview of search engine optimization by Senior Vice President Stephanie Leffler of Network Solutions featured on MSNBC’s Consultant Corner.

Stephanie discusses SEO practices like your website ‘title tag’, incoming links to your website, and many other useful SEO topics like the importance of creating text based content for your website in order to attract search engines.

Enjoy the video

Julian, ed LOCALNa8ion
Where you are is where it’s at

Search Engine Optimization Basics Video Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

If you’re trying to attract free traffic from search engines to your small local business you need to optimize your site for local searches. This practice is generally known as local search engine optimization (Local SEO).

My tip today focuses on one specific but very important Local SEO technique…

Website titles

The website title is the text that appears at the very top of your web browser window when you visit someone’s website. It’s also what people see on search engine results pages like this.

Click to view larger image

Here’s an example of a local search someone might type into Google.

Local Search example

“Florists Charlotte”

Your website title should include descriptive words that read well, include your location, and includes the major search keyword/s or search terms for your business. While your business name is nice, it’s generally the least important part of your website title.

Guess what 98% of the small business website titles start out with?

The business name.

Think of it like this. Is a banner you make for your front window that says 50% Off – Spring Sale going to attract business or the one that says George’s Hardware?

Your website title is like a banner about what you do for both people and search engines.

Good Local Website Titles

Let’s take a look at the top 5 search engine results from the local search example I used above, ‘Charlotte Florists.’

1. Charlotte Florists, Flowers, Local Florist Shops – North Carolina (NC)
2. Charlotte florists and gift shops
3. Charlotte Florists – Flowers Charlotte NC – Starclaire House Of …
4. Port Charlotte Florists – Flowers Port Charlotte FL – Port …
5. Charlotte Florists – Flowers Charlotte NC – Gallery of Flowers

Notice a theme?

The winners on this list lead with their city and then their common search keyword/s or search term/s.

How to do it

Get out your pen and pad or favorite word processor and start working on a new website title. Keep your new title under 70 total characters and include your major town/city first, your keyword next, and if there is room, your business name. A pipe, one of these | is a great way to visually separate information in your website title. Use this tool to count the number of characters in your new website title so you don’t feel like you’re back in Kindergarten. Here’s an example I just worked up.

Charlotte Florists, Elegant Charlotte Flowers | Mary’s Botanicals

I included the location city and two major search terms in my title and snuck in a business name in 65 total characters.

1. Charlotte Florists
2. Charlotte Flowers
3. Something additive and descriptive “Elegant” for the people reading my title
4. Business Name

Want some more examples of what to do with your website title? Check out SEO expert Aaron Wall’s video on how to write great SEO website titles below.

Julian, ed LOCALNa8ion
Local Internet Marketing for Small Business | LOCALNa8ion.com
——–

Re-write your website title for better local search results Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

Getting your business listed online should be this easy

I’ve written here on LocalNa8ion in the past about the importance of listing your business on Google, Yahoo! and other local directories. This simple act is the cornerstone of local small business marketing on the Internet.

The only problem with this can be the five to fifteen minutes it takes to get listed on every directory you want to list your local business on. Some directories are more complicated to sign up with (but worth it) like Google, who uses a verification process when you claim your listing on their Local Business Center. I don’t think this time investment is a big deal considering the upside you receive in improved local search engine results and findability, but clearly from the performance of most small businesses today. IT IS.

We are not getting it done. 

Why?

Most small businesses don’t realize how important this step is, how to accomplish it, or simply haven’t found the time to do so. 

To address this problem we need simpler solutions that require less expertise and time.

Sounds good right?

There is good news.  There are services that accomplish this very thing and some of them are even low in cost. I still recommend and use UniversalBusinessListing.org as a way to get your business listed in one-easy-step for a very lost cost ($30 to get listed on 25 local Internet directories). That’s a good value.  There are still problems with these services though, chief among them that they sometimes create duplicate listings which later need to be deleted.

GetListed.org

Screen shot of GetListed.org

I’m happy to report that there are new tools to help with getting your small business listed correctly online. GetListed.org recently came online and it looks to be a terrific tool. 

“We hope this tool will help small business owners become aware of the free opportunities to market their companies online, and alleviate some of the confusion many of them feel when it comes to the search engines,” commented Sexton.

“The search engines rely on so many different providers for their Local business data, it’s hard even for experts to keep track of where it’s all coming from,” said Mihm. “This tool really puts the power in the hands of the business owners and helps make sure the engines provide correct data to people searching for these businesses.” David Mihm and Pat Sexton of GetListed.org.

GetListed.org takes the form of an informational tool that allows you to see what’s happening with your listing in one easy step. GetListed.org empowers you by giving you the information you need in a digestible format. Here is a list of their frequently asked questions. 

I can’t emphasize enough how useful this product is in terms of saving you time and reducing complexity in managing your local business listings. It increase the chances you’ll get listed correctly on as many local directories as possible and it can even help identify if your local listing has been hijacked by another company!

Try GetListed.org today.

GetListed.org | Improve local search results for your small business Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

I searched for myself on Google and found nothing.That message was written on a coaster under my delicious golden amber beer at Outback Steakhouse.

Do you find yourself lamenting the same thing about your local business?

With today’s economic crisis it’s become more important to reach new customers. At the same time you need to dramatically cut your spending. I have great news for you.

Today, it’s possible to cut ad spending in traditional local media like print Yellow Pages and Newspapers while still increasing your overall marketing exposure and sales leads.

Wait, did you read that right?

You can cut back on ads and still increase your marketing exposure.

Let’s look at an example scenario.

Local business owner Jane spends $1,000 a month on a Yellow Pages ad. She used to see great results from her ad but over the years, especially in the last five years or so, the ad just isn’t pulling in new calls like it used to. More and more, when Jane asks her clients how they found her, they answer in a one word, two sylable reply.

“Goo-gle”

Jane can take a hint. She invests between $1,000 to $5,000 in a new online marketing strategy and web site. This includes getting a clear picture of who her existing and desired customers are and then building a web site that speaks to that target market with appropriate:

- messaging
- design
- local search engine optimization (local SEO)

Jane’s new site will be her star sales person. It will have all the current information about what Jane sells and why she’s different (and superior) to her competitors.

This new site will let Jane, a typical resourceful business person keep her web site up-to-date with information on specials, sales, new products and services and other useful information.

For Jane, it won’t be any harder to update her new web site than it would be to write an email on today’s web-based email programs like Yahoo! Mail or AOL mail. You open a web browser, you sign in, you type, you format your text (bold, color, etc.) and you click on the ‘Publish’ button just like you’d hit the ‘Send’ button after composing an email.

Along with the relevant content and local search engine optimization on her new web site these frequent updates to Jane’s site (let’s say once every two weeks) will position Jane’s web site ahead of 90% of her competition on search results pages on Google and Yahoo!.

The targeted leads that Jane receives from Google and Yahoo! won’t cost her anything. Once she’s done paying for her new web site with the money she saved from cutting back on her Yellow Pages ad she’ll be way ahead of the game. As time progresses Jane will save more and more.

If Jane hired an experienced online marketing agency or consultant and invested $3,000 in her new web site she could expect to make up the cost of her new online presence in three short months. Over the year of her annual Yellow Pages contract she’ll keep 9 months of what she was spending on her old Yellow Pages ad in the bank. That’s $1,000 a month X 9. Nine grand.

Jane can do a lot with $9,000.

How about you?

For the vast majority of small businesses, the Internet remains a HUGE untapped source of buyers.  These buyers are using Google, Yahoo! and other search engines to find local products and services. To maximize your sales to these buyers your goal is to get your web site listed towards the top of organic search engine rankings.

The Organic, or natural search engine results are the main results for web pages and links after you’ve performed a search.  For local searches on Google, this includes search results that appear on a map, often referred to by search engine marketers like us as the ’10 Pack’ – so called because of the number of local businesses appearing in the map search. We’ll take a look at a picture of this in just a minute.

In the field of search engine marketing we use the terms organic or natural search results (which don’t cost anything) to distinguish from paid search ads that appear along the top and right side of the organic search results. The majority of people using search engines refer to the organic search results.

Here’s a look at where organic and paid search listings appear on Google, and you’ll also notice the 10-Pack Map listings (click on the picture to see a large version).

CLICK PICTURE to see an example of Local Search Results on Google

Your local media rep from the Newspaper and Yellow Pages will tell you that independent studies have proven that businesses of all sizes that cut back on advertising during recessionary times do poorly and fail in greater numbers than businesses that increase their marketing exposure.

If you follow this wisdom you should go buy more ads and make them bigger too! That’s what the old media companies are hoping anyway. But you don’t need to do that. I worked for the largest of these Yellow Pages and Newspaper companies over my 20 year career and their argument doesn’t hold water anymore.

With the options available to you today online it’s now safe to go find your biggest knife and start cutting traditional ads.

Then you’ll take a portion of your savings and invest them in the one-time cost of a modern web site and online marketing plan, along with the training to make your web site your new star sales person. You’ll pocket the rest of the money.

If you’re not the self-help type, then you can hire an expert to perform this work for you – like Local Na8ion. As with any purchase, the informed buyer (that’s you in this case) is the buyer who gets the best deal and the best available product and service.

Help yourself

Perhaps the most important step to maximize savings and local search engine rankings is to make sure your new site is one you can update yourself without technical knowledge. This means you don’t have to pay a programmer every time you want to update your web site, and every update you make to your site means better rankings on search engines.

The web site publishing software your new web site runs on should be mainstream, with tons of people using and supporting it. You should be able to go to your local book store or library and find a selection of books on how to use the software. You should be able to search on Google for the software and find thousands of companies ready to help you. 

Many a nightmare story has been told about small business owners that set up a ‘Free’ Microsoft or Yahoo! web site only to find out that these companies dummy down their offering and rarely update their tools. You don’t get locked into one company with one solution. 

With today’s leading web site publishing technology, specifically using content management systems like the one we recommend, WordPress, your web site updates are as easy to publish as an email. WordPress is mainstream in that it’s used by millions of large institutions, companies, and individuals. You can buy WordPress for Dummies and many other mainstream publications to teach yourself about the application. WordPress has a community of developers and service providers that are expert in its workings and can provide you with services that run the gamut from customization to training. Here at Local Na8ion, we’re just one example.

If you’d like to learn more about why we recommend WordPress for small business, you can watch our video podcast, Local Knowledge.  If you’d like to see what this looks like for yourself tune in here to our upcoming video podcast Local Knowledge and we’ll show you exactly how easy it is to perform an update using WordPress. Stay tuned!

- Julian, ed Local Na8ion

I searched for myself on Google and found nothing Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

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In episode 13 I say “Hi!” to viewers who have been with us for our first 12 episodes and “Hola” to our new YouTube viewers.

First, I will catch you up on what I have been doing and then…

I figured I’d name our show since I’m in it for the long haul:

Local Knowledge. That’s the name! The World’s First Video Podcast dedicated to Local Internet Marketing.

…and finally I discuss how our next sessions will cover the topic of web design for small business (on a shoestring budget of course).

Julian Seery Gude
ed, Local Na8ion
www.localna8ion.com

Episode 13 Where in the world is Julian | Episode 13 Local Knowledge Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

The first is being found online when people go looking for what you sell. This is the first part of your “findability.” The second part of findability is for another post but to sum it up, it’s about saying and giving the buyer the relevant information they need to complete their search and ultimately select you as the provider of the solution or product they seek. The two together, being found by buyers, and saying the right thing to them at the right time, are your findability. Findability with your web site is what produces sales. When you think of online outreach I champion a targeted niche approach, when it comes to people seeking you out it’s better to think in terms of casting a wide net.

The main tool you should employ for being found, is Local Search Engine Optimization. The goal is to get your business listed higher in the natural, or so called organic search engine rankings. The vast majority of your efforts should be spent on Local SEO because that’s how the vast majority of consumers find you online.

The other way of increasing your local online findability has to do with appearing in myriad online directories and guides. While these products are used far less than search engines to locate providers of products and services they still represent an important market of buyers for you and shouldn’t be ignored.

These local online directories and guides include web sites like YellowPages.com, entertainment focused directories like CitySearch, newer local directories with a social media slant like Yelp, or specialty directories that cater to your industry or niche (like a restaurant or hotel getting listed in Zagat or Trip Advisor).

Surprisingly, getting listed in these online directories and guides does more than just the obvious step of getting you in said online directory. It also improves your organic local search engine optimization!

First, getting your business listed in the online directories lets people find you in searches. That part is as simple as it sounds. If you’re not in the directory you can’t be found. So the goal is to get listed. Second, all of these directories have the potential to link back to your main web site. That is if you’re in the directory and you bother to edit your listing to include your url. When you do, BINGO, it allows buyers to click on the link for your web site and find out more about you. Congratulations, you’ve just used an online directory listing to increase your chance of a sale.

Third, the link from major sites like YellowPages.com, Yelp.com and others also creates a link that raises the link popularity of your web site on search engines. Link popularity remains one of the most significant ways that search engines like Google and Yahoo! rank the importance of your web site, and therefore it’s relevance and position in search results. The more links from legitimate and highly ranked web sites, the more impact the link will have on your search engine rankings. Guess what the search engines think of big sites like Yelp.com, CitySearch, and Superpages.com? Right, they’re legitimate trusted sources of information on the web and due to that their legitimacy it high.

None of the benefits I’ve cited require you to purchase an ad of any kind. All you need is the free listing in order to be found and for the online directory and guide to provide you with the SEO “Google Juice” to drive your own web site’s natural search engine rankings higher.

It stands to reason then that your goal is to get listed in as many major and legitimate online directories and guides as you can. True. The problem is how much time it takes to set up your listings. This shouldn’t stop you from getting your listings set up.

Today, there are better ways to get your business listed in local online directories and guides and I’ll cover that in my next post!

Julian, ed Local Na8ion

Cast a wide net with local online directories Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

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We will give you three simple-to-implement tips that can rocket your site to the top of Google’s local search results. In episode 8 of Local Na8ion’s video podcast (run time 12 min) we detail how we used these exact methods to move Linda’s Cleaning Service – a house cleaning service in Wellington Florida – from page four of Google Local search results to page one. This didn’t take months, it took days.

We discuss

1. Using your city name in your URL (your web site address)
2. Putting your location information on your web site
3. Adding your business to Google’s Local Business Directory

Yes, you can do all of these things in 28 minutes, even if you’re not a techie!

Subscribe via iTunes or our regular RSS subscription!

Corrections: apologies on our typo on slide 6 of the presentation (your NOT you’re – Yes we know the difference!). Would have taken 2 hours in video processing time to fix. Also, Linda has been in business since 2002 – not the two years I reported. Damn, I’m getting old.

Background: Linda’s Cleaning Service is my mother-in-law Linda’s local small business in Wellington Florida. Since Linda’s daughter Shannon (my beautiful wife and partner in crime here at Local Na8ion) and I are both web marketers it’s no surprise that we work on her site for free – and yes – Linda sends her cleaners to our house once in a while for free as well. Will market for cleaning!

Julian, editor Local Na8ion – where you are is where it’s at

Episode 8: 28 minutes to better Google Local search results Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

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Epsiode 7 (8:58) In this session we tackle (gasp) PLANNING. Not only that, we try to make it fun. Really! When it comes to a marketing plan, it’s best to think like Steven Covey of 7-habits fame – “begin with the end in mind.” Having a solid plan will greatly increase your chances of success and our simple plan takes just three easy steps: research, act and measure. This is part II in our Real Life series featuring my friend’s new local business FloridaFireFitness.com.

Watch the video below or download a copy for your iPod Video.

Any business can use our plan to hit the ground running while not wasting time you don’t have or making your marketing plan unnecessarily complicated. Enjoy the show and please let us know what you think!

You can download our free spreadsheet file template (.xls) featured in our video Podcast to use for your own business marketing plan by following this link.

Background

We started the series with part I on SuperBowl Sunday with the video Podcast Applying our three-phase local online marketing program where we outlined how we’ll follow the progress of FloridaFireFitness.com as we implement Local Na8ion’s three-phase online marketing method (create, publish, connect). Following our three phase method we will create relevant local content, publish it on the Internet using state-of-the-art online publishing methods, and finish by connecting with local buyers using the most effective online marketing techniques – everything from local search marketing to blog marketing.

My friend Ed and his partner are Fire Fighters by day in Palm Beach County Florida and on their time off they help people stay fit, strength train, run a faster mile, or you know… how to muscle a 280 pound man on to a stretcher for emergency transit to the Hospital. They have a practical and unique personal fitness approach that can work for young and old and the beginner to the advanced.

Episode 7: A simple marketing plan Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

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Episode 3: Here at LocalNa8ion we endorse WordPress as the best content management system for the small to medium sized business. Not just for your blog, but for use in publishing your main web site.

It’s FREE, easy to use and update, has more built-in Local SEO Goodness than any comparable product, and you can use it to power your regular web site, not just a blog.

That’s why Local Na8ion runs our web site and our Local Marketing Blog for SME’s on WordPress and others like The New York Times and other prominent media and content companies publish all kinds of content on WordPress.

Did we mention that WordPress has an active community of over 10,000 contributors? They’re busy year-round making new theme designs that you can use on your site (most are free to use) along with adding specialty features and functionality (called plug-ins in WordPress) that do everything from power a job board, help you run a newspaper, or make the SEO goodness in WordPress even better.

Simply put, WordPress is an amazing tool.

We Recommend WordPress for Small Business Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -