You are here: Home / Archives for Tips
May 23, 2013 by

Next Best SEO – Presentation From McKinney Texas

I want to thank Debra Pope for the invitation to present to her Networking University members who attended the workshop. It took place in the area of McKinney and Allen Texas on May 14 2013.

During the presentation I covered what is known as “Next Best SEO”.  This is where business owners, who simply want the phone to ring with prospective customers or clients, have additional options besides just attempting to rank their respective websites in the search engines.  What many of the attendees didn’t realize is that their websites, or ones given them by a corporate office, may – in fact – be violating several of Google’s best practices.

We covered many of the ways in which a business can grow through the use of internet marketing, of which SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) were just a part.  We briefly reviewed other online marketing techniques such as video, pay-per-click, press releases, online classified ads, etc.

The attendees also learned that each major search engine is, or is part of, a publicly-traded company; and each wants to make ITS quarterly figures!  The goal, then, is to give each search engine’s users the best possible content in a way which is user-friendly, is authoritative and relevant.  One way to accomplish this is to rank OTHER web properties – in addition to the companies’ websites – in order to help get the phone to ring.  Several examples were included in the presentation.

Four (4) action steps were given at the end of the presentation to help any business begin to improve the chances of receiving a call, e-mail or walk-in from a first-time customer or client by SEO efforts on other web properties.  These were labeled also as “promote the promoters” strategies.

Feel free to download this PDF from the workshop:

If you are interested in getting help to promote your website or other web properties which mention you favorably (or otherwise give authority) then you are welcome to contact me.

Thank you again to everyone who attended!

Filed Under: internet marketing, lead generation, local marketing, online marketing, Presentations, search engine marketing, SEO, Tips, Training Tagged With: , , , , ,
August 19, 2012 by

Increasing Revenues By Looking At Your Business Differently

If you are looking to increase top-line revenues for your business then you can do so in a number of ways, primarily by:

  • increasing more first-time customers or clients who found you without any referrals
  • increasing more first-time customers or clients who were referred to you
  • increasing the size of the average transaction per customer
  • increasing the number of average transactions per customer
  • finding brand new revenues “hidden” within your business or industry

It is that last line item I want to discuss today in order to help you and your business become more profitable.  Some of you know that I have a background in the professional independent baseball leagues (some know them as the “independent minor leagues”).  I was a bullpen catcher, a player, a team official and a league official; and I maintain a few websites dedicated to various aspects of this subset of the professional baseball industry.  Most of these teams are operated by owners and front office staff, as well as league officials, operating under the mindset that, in order to be profitable, the teams primarily must focus on being “local, affordable, family-friendly entertainment.”  This model, however, does not work in all markets even when the owners and front office staff members are ethical, hard-working, and dedicated to make their teams successful.

In recent weeks some national attention has been given to these teams which are failing to pay vendors for months, have players living in substandard situations for minimal pay, and others which have to fold their operations due to not selling enough tickets and sponsorships.

When you have a moment, please take a look at any/all of these 3 blog posts:

Inside each of these articles may be some ideas which serve as a catalyst to help you think about new ways in which your specific business can become more profitable.

This website is called MORE THAN SEO, and it was chosen for a few reasons:

  • many business owners and executives are being sold “SEO” services multiple times each week, some of which produce questionable results
  • these services often keep the business owner “in the dark” and not explain why something is being done
  • to be good at SEO requires a mindset that often is different than an executive or owner has; and not conveying why something must be done often causes problems
  • SEO is just one way to get targeted first-time customers or clients.  Other ways include all forms of online paid advertising, social networks, social news sites, video marketing, and many more

While I love SEO because it suggests a hyper-targeted searcher can find you, it is not the only way to help you increase your profits.  Therefore I have to offer more than just SEO, hence the MoreThanSEO.com name.

By the same token, to increase profitability you may have to look at your business’ growth as being MORE THAN JUST getting another customer or client.  Here is an example:

If you run a local, hamburger established serving families with young kids then you have to acknowledge that your customers are also likely to grill steaks and burgers at home.  While you want them to come to your restaurant 100% of the time they think about red meat, it just won’t happen!

One way to improve revenues in this example is to produce helpful content (e.g. articles, videos, images) which could give tips on grilling techniques.  Your chef could suggest a certain type of grill, grilling accessories, or suggestions for the types of plates which help maintain flavor and temperature the best after grilling.

These pieces of content could be distributed to your customers when they show up at the restaurant (QR code invitation, request to join e-mail newsletter, etc.).  You also could ask your customers to share the video/PDF/article through their e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other channels.  Embedded in the bottom of that content could be an affiliate (tracking) link where people, anywhere in the country, can click that link and order the suggested item(s).  This way friends and family members of your customers who live outside of the area now have an opportunity to put money in your pocket 365 days a year.  This is because you would earn a small percentage of their orders before shipping costs.  By giving away helpful content which does not harm your premium product/service, you can expand your awareness (leading to first time customers) AND you can start to produce some additional profits for simply directing people to a place to order relevant items.

The above example is similar to suggestions I already have made to several independent baseball team owners.  Some of them are starting to understand that they can increase profits, and possibly increase attendance next season, through giving away helpful content.  You can read the articles listed earlier and begin to look at your business differently.  Obviously, you do not want to minimize your main revenue models; so just borrow principles and ideas from the pro sports world to help you grow your business can help you to complement or supplement your current business model.

Feel free to contact me with your questions.  If you want help for your specific business then please contact me through the contact form, and we can arrange a time to help you expand your business with strategies customized to your specific needs and regulations.  Thank you for your time and you are welcome to share this post with anyone you know who might find it helpful in some manner.

Filed Under: Local Business Revenues, online marketing, professional sports, Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
July 18, 2012 by

Online Classified Ad Websites – How Any Dallas Small Business Can Use Them

Many small business owners across the country, even in Dallas (where this blog post originates), think of classified ad websites as an afterthought or not worth their time to post.  Other internet marketing tools and strategies are seen as being more interesting, supposedly having broader reach, and even seen as targeting a “low class audience”.  Intelligent business owners, in-house marketers, and marketing agencies know that these limiting beliefs can hinder their exposure to a qualified audience.

What you may not be aware of are the extra benefits which classified ads provide you, in addition to the likelihood of receiving a direct phone call/e-mail or walk-in to your store.  When you are looking to acquire new customers or clients in a local market, assuming your industry does not have standards preventing classified ad website marketing, then you can benefit your company in any/all of the following manners:

  • Direct sales of products or services in your local market
  • Announcing open-to-the-public events (either free or paid) on the event calendars
  • The links get crawled by the search engines and, if compliant with the site’s standards, can be a “supplemental” link building strategy for your search engine optimization efforts
  • Some of the classified ad websites may syndicate your ad to other websites which you do not yet know exist
  • Some markets have enterprising people create unique/customized classified ad websites which pull content from other sites.  These may target specific parts of a city or even larger homeowners associations across the country
  • Some of the sites permit the inclusion of your online videos
  • Some of the lesser-known classified ad websites can have your ad rank on the first page of the search engines for some of the lower-competition phrases.  This, of course, is on a case-by-case basis; but it still happens today because it leverages the classified ad website’s “authority” in the search engines
  • You can test out text or graphic/image ads on local classified ad websites before rolling them out as part of your paid advertising efforts
    • You can test headlines, price points, unique tracking phone numbers, specific “calls to action”, etc.
  • Some sites allow for easy sharing of your ad with the readers’ social media or e-mail lists

 

The drawbacks to classified ad website posting are the following:

  • Time consuming
  • Not sure which “add on” features for which you should pay on those sites which charge.  For example, you could pay for highlighting, bold font, etc.
  • No guarantee of a ROI
  • You think that you will look “cheap” and that your competitors will use it against you
    • This usually is a false notion, but it can be perceived that way
  • You go in with the belief that physical classified ads are worth the money and time instead of online classified ads
  • Some sites force you to learn some basic HTML skills in order to get the ad to look the way you want it to look

Most of the listed drawbacks can be overcome easily, but you need to know the benefits of classified advertising before you can counter the perceived drawbacks.

At this point you may be asking, “On which classified ad websites should I place ads?”  There are over 30 classified ad websites which permit ads for virtually any community in the U.S.  Here are a few of these top sites, each of which gets a good amount of traffic including the Dallas Fort Worth region:

  • Craigslist.org
  • Backpage.com
  • Oodle.com
  • OLX.com
  • Ebayclassifieds.com
  • USfreeads.com
  • Adpost.com
  • Classifiedads.com

An often-overlook strategy for attracting new customers is to discover local classified ad sites specific to your local market.  Let’s look at Plano Texas, which is a suburb just north of Dallas and south of the cities of Frisco and McKinney.  In addition to the main classified websites listed earlier, you can type in a likely-entered phrase into the search engines.  In this case, let’s enter “Plano Texas classified ads”.  Here is a screenshot of what this search returned in Google tonight:

Online Marketing With Classified Advertising Websites In Dallas and Plano Texas

You can see two additional websites which are worthy investigating a little bit further.  After the paid ad for Classifiedads.com, you can see two results:

  • plano–tx.ziply.com
  • www.planotexasclassifiedads.com

Of course, you can modify the search and look for results if you want to market outside of the Dallas and Plano TX area.

Determine if these sites offer free or very low-cost advertising.  In addition, you can follow some basic suggestions on how to determine if this site gets any respectable amount of traffic from your local area.  If you need help on this then be sure to contact me.

Obviously, classified ads on these types of sites are hyper-targeted, but it is best to have a balance between these types of sites,  Craigslist, and the rest of the major national classified ad sites mentioned earlier.

If you want to take this process to another level then you can do any/all of the following:

  • use tracking phone numbers (if permitted in your industry)
  • use tracking websites/domains to determine if the ad is working
  • split test headlines, calls-to-action, colors, placement of images, etc.
  • include helpful video or images when permitted
  • include phone numbers in headlines
  • test the wording of your ad and determine if “scarcity”, “invitation marketing”, humor, or if other underlying approaches work best for your audience in that specific market provided that you get enough traffic to your ad(s)
  • include phrases to help your search engine efforts such as targeting specific HOA’s, demographic groups, etc.

I hope that by reading this far that you have a somewhat better understanding of how and why online classified advertising can help you with your objective of gaining brand new customers/clients who never heard of you previously, nor were referred by any friends or family.  Again, the benefit may be passive (e.g. generating links to boost your main website’s home page in the search engines) versus direct benefit (e.g. getting a call directly from the ad or a walk-in to your location).  By properly structuring your ads and placing them on the appropriate web properties you should be taking constructive steps toward boosting your benefits and doing things which your competition is not doing.

If you have any questions or need help with any aspect of your internet marketing in Dallas or elsewhere around the country then feel free to contact me.

Filed Under: classified advertising, internet marketing, local marketing, online marketing, Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
July 10, 2012 by

Getting More Out Of Any Chamber Of Commerce Membership

An Online Marketing Strategy To Leverage Your Local Chamber Of Commerce Membership

In the upcoming weeks I will post more about how any small business or medium-sized business owner or executive can boost his or her online presence through the business’ chamber of commerce membership.  Obviously, most of the benefits from any chamber membership comes from the “real world” participation:  weekly or monthly breakfasts, attending ribbon cuttings, going to quarterly or annual luncheons, and any opportunities to meet new people coming into the area through chamber events.  The ability to gain online marketing benefit, however, is not often as obvious.  In a moment you will learn one of the many strategies you can employ to get more online exposure through your chamber of commerce membership.

This blog entry helps three parties to benefit:

  • The prospective customer or client benefits because he or she is able to find products or services in the local market which have the possibility of meeting some sort of minimum standards
  • The business owner or executive wins because he or she feels that the membership paid to the local chamber of commerce is providing extra benefit above and beyond what was promised initially; and the business has the potential to grow through acquiring new customers or clients who never heard of the business previously nor were referred in any manner
  • The local chamber of commerce wins because its website gets more exposure and, therefore, can help the chamber gain more credibility and (passively) the possibility of attracting new members

First, you will want to know why your receiving calls about “SEO” services are so prevalent.  The underlying assumption is that by ranking at the top of search engines for a phrase which have some degree of consistent demand (number of searches each month) you will receive a good degree of pre-qualified prospects to a web PROPERTY.  Please note that this does not necessarily mean that the property must be your website.  It could be an online video on your YouTube channel, a press release, a local newspaper article about your business or a page on your website other than your home page.  Also note that ranking first does NOT mean an automatic number of new customers or clients.  This is because many elements have to be in place for someone to call or e-mail you out of the blue.  Such elements include price, guarantees, reviews, your promises, ease of finding contact information and several other factors.

Next, you have to know that the search engines want to give its users the very best possible results.  This is because each major search engine is part of of, or entirely, a publicly-traded company… and they need to meet analysts’ quarterly earnings expectations!  Therefore they want you to use that one site for ALL of your “who, what, when, where, why, how” questions.  This is because they know that out of every 100 queries made through their engine a certain number of people will click one of the paid ads where the search engine earns revenue from the advertisers.  Therefore, the more queries made through that particular engine equals more revenue for the parent company!  It is a “market share” game for the search engines, and therefore each engine always seeks out the best ways to return quality results so that you stay loyal to it and not “defect” to another search engine.

Remember that in any local market, the chamber of commerce’s website tends to be “authoritative” to these search engines.  One of the reasons why is that you cannot “spam” the chamber website very easily, if at all.  If a web property which you control appears on the chamber website then it likely had to go through some sort of human approval process (assuming a degree of human control) before it can be read by the search engine robots/spiders.  This type of control process lends itself to making each link on the chamber website more “trustworthy” than most other links in your local market, and you can begin to use this your advantage.

Finally, let’s cover a trend at the time of this blog post in the world of search engines. Many people now have easy access to “spammy” links in large volume.  What you want is to never have anything deemed spammy touching your website.  Ideally, the only links you want actually pointing to your website are located on web properties which the search engines respect.  These could include helpful videos on video-sharing sites, links to your site on press releases, local newspaper websites pointing to your home page, local directory websites, endorsements from happy customers on their social media properties, and similar types of links.  One of these types of quality links is a link from the local chamber of commerce’s website to your website.

Remember earlier that you read about ranking web PROPERTIES, not just your website’s home page.  Here is where your chamber of commerce membership begins to pay off in terms of helping you in the search engines.  Let’s take a look at an example for this website on the McKinneyChamber.com website, although it applies to anyone who has a membership in most chambers of commerce around the U.S.:

Internet Marketing Services McKinney Tes

Internet Marketing Services On The McKinney Texas Chamber Of Commerce Website

Note the website link (URL) which is http://www.mckinneychamber.com/Internet-Marketing-Services/MORETHANSEOCOM

Now take a look at the query in Google for “online marketing services McKinney TX”

McKinney Texas online marketing services

Chamber of commerce sub-folder (directory) appearing in the search engines

You can see that the sub-folder (directory) for “internet marketing services” on the McKinneyChamber.com website is ranking # 2 for this query.  The first three listings are paid ads, and the Chamber’s website is the second in the “organic” results.  Odds are that the Chamber has not spent a lot of time or money (if any!) promoting this specific sub-folder (directory), yet it still ranks near the top of the results.  This is just one of many examples of where a chamber of commerce’s website has authority in the search engines.

Even though my website’s listing is not directly showing in the results, the directory listing category page on the chamber website where my listing appears is ranking well.  This is fine to me as it gives authority to this website as well as anyone’s business who meets the Chamber’s minimum standards for appearing on that page.

In order for your business to gain more exposure, you can further boost your chamber page listing in the search engines with quality links.  For example, if you write a press release and are permitted to use up to three links then consider a strategy like this:

  • a link to your website’s home page (or another page on your site which best serves the interests of the press release’s readers)
  • one of your social media properties (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)
  • the specific listing for your business on the chamber website

Please refrain from buying “spammy” links and sending them to your local chamber’s website as that will not benefit you in the long run (and maybe not even in the near term either!); and buying those links won’t help your fellow chamber members either as there likely will be no search engine reward for doing so.  Instead, whenever you have an opportunity to promote your page on the chamber website then do so.  Roughly 5-10% of your link building efforts can go to your business’ chamber website listing.  You can dedicate the other 90-95% to building quality links to your home page, “inner pages” on your website, articles, local directory listings, social media properties, videos and other helpful content you have produced for prospective customers and clients to find you.

I hope that this strategy begins to help you change how you look at your membership in any chamber of commerce around the country.  There are many more ways to leverage your membership in order to gain new customers or clients online.  If you cannot wait until the next blog post to discover these methods then you are welcome to contact me for more information; and we can discuss your strengths to increase the chances that your chamber membership will produce more customers through strategic online marketing.

Filed Under: chamber of commerce, internet marketing, local marketing, search engine marketing, SEO, Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
April 10, 2011 by

Staying On Top Of Your Online Reputation

If you own or manage any business, one which sells locally or nationally, then you likely are concerned about your reputation on the internet.  Many business owners, however, have no idea of how to monitor their online reputations and those of their competitors.  They often resort to the “ostrich” method, even when there is a serious reputation situation which warrants the executive’s undivided attention.

There are a few you things which you, the business owner, can do in order to begin to monitor your reputation both in the search engines and on the social media properties:

  • Set up Google Alerts.  You will want to set up Alerts for your business name, the names of your owners and executives, the names of key employees, any brands you own and/or product names, and generic keywords about your industry
  • You will want to search for the same things on Twitter and capture the RSS feeds for each search string.  Enter those RSS feeds into a RSS reader so that you can monitor things being said about your reputation in real-time
  • Go to any forums which serve your industry and/or region of the country.  Enter the previously-mentioned items in the search field (you may have to join first) and determine what is being said about you.  From there, set up alerts and/or get RSS feeds for the search strings in order to monitor what is being said about your reputation
  • If your business has a listing on Google Places (and many of you do already without even realizing it!!) then periodically check your Google Places listing for the reviews.  Note that Google scrapes/aggregates reviews from other sites like Yelp, Insider Pages, etc.  Follow the process to deal with negative reviews AND have a process in place to reward/thank those who left you positive reviews.  Remember that online reputation management is also about monitoring the GOOD things said about you!
  • Should a crisis situation be happening, or about to happen, then be sure to have some form of crisis public relations plan in place.  If you do not have one in place then please contact me
  • It can be difficult to monitor the recent influx of online reputation vehicles now in the hands of the consumers.  People can “Like” your page on Facebook, “Retweet” or “@” mention you on Twitter, “Check In” on FourSquare.com, etc.  You need a way to monitor all of that information in order to gain feedback, reward loyal customers, handle negative reviews, and determine which promotions/marketing efforts seem to resonate best with your customers and prospective customers

 

For local businesses, they may require the extra step of monitoring their reputations in multiple locations.  As an example, let’s assume that you operate a used car lot on the border of Dallas and Plano Texas.  Talk about an industry which has to closely monitor a negative reputation!!

The business owner would create Alerts, Twitter search/RSS strings, and all of the other items for both cities.  Since people in the area tend to search (and comment) with either “Plano” or “Dallas” – but not both at the same time – then the online reputation management process would have to be replicated for each town/city.  You also may consider doing so for “County”-related phrases.  These, of course, are all in addition to the names of your executives, products, business name, etc.

There are even more advanced things you can do to monitor and/or protect your online reputation.  If you have a concern about online reputation management and wish to have customized strategies in place – as well as a “done for you” service to handle it – then please contact me.  Additional tools are available to help you monitor what is being said online, and they can be customized to deal with businesses which operate primarily on the local level.

If you want an all-in-one reputation monitoring software which you manage yourself then you are welcome to check out this link below:

Monitor all reviews, mentions, ratings and listings about your business at LocationMonitor.com.

 

In all, monitoring and managing your online reputation is something which is worth implementing soon.  The costs are low (or even non-existent), you can monitor both the good and bad things being said about your business, and it can give you a competitive edge due to your competition’s unwillingness to implement such measures.

Filed Under: reputation, Tips Tagged With: , , , , ,
March 28, 2011 by

Why Backlinks Are Important To Dallas and Fort Worth Businesses

Having helped many businesses in the Dallas and Fort Worth area over the past 3 years, I have noticed that most of local businesses do not know what a “back link” is; and they have no idea why it is important.  With the recent Google updates (Feb/March 2011), the search engines are doing what they can to make sure that they give their users the results which they believe are the most:

  • Trustworthy
  • Authoritative
  • Relevant

Why do they do this?  Because the major search engines are all significant properties of publicly-traded companies… and they don’t want their users going anywhere else!!  They want you to trust each implicitly, so that at some point you will click on one of the ads somewhere in their network of web tools & properties.  This is how they can justify spending millions of dollars to develop algorithms and tools which they can give away for free.

With that understanding, and assuming that you know that “X” number of people use a tool like Google to search for a particular phrase (i.e. “keyword”) each month, then the next step is to play by their rules in order to be considered the most Trustworthy, Authoritative, and Relevant result which is given “free exposure” on the search engine results page (SERP).  This is how you get free, qualified traffic without having to buy it on their respective paid advertising networks (e.g. Google AdWords, etc.).

Since Google, at the time of this post, has the largest percentage of search engine users then focus on what it takes to “play nice” by their terms so that you increase the odds of getting first-page exposure for a keyword phrase which:

  • has quantifiable monthly number of searches (i.e. “demand”)
  • has relatively low competition for the phrase, on a number of levels (i.e. “supply”)
  • is indicative of someone who is ready to engage with your business or the business you are promoting (e.g. “Emergency City Plumber” is a phrase indicating that people need plumbing help and are probably willing to pay to solve the problem quickly!)

In traditional business terms, think of such a keyword phrase as an “under-served market.”  There is demand, and the supply meeting that demand is low and probably under-delivering.  The art of “keyword research” and “keyword competition analysis” comes into play here; and whenever you pay for those services you should be able to gain insights into your market which you never knew previously.

Assuming that you have found several keyword phrases which meet those parameters, then you need to optimize the content you control for those phrases.  The “content you control” could be:

  • all of the pages on your website
  • your YouTube channel
  • your Facebook business page
  • a profile on a local forum on which you participate
  • your LinkedIn profile
  • “web 2.0” pages you create
  • online press releases
  • business directory listings (e.g. Superpages.com free listings or a Dallas-specific online business directory)
  • etc.

These properties can be optimized for local keyword phrases (e.g. “Emergency City Plumber”) or for national (non-geographic-specific) keyword phrases if you sell nationally (e.g. “online plumbing supplies”).  Now that the online web property content you control is optimized “on page”, the next step is to optimize the “off page” content.

In the ideal scenario, every business and prospective customer would link to your web properties – with the keyword phrases you desire in the text of the link – from all sorts of places online.  You would love to have the Chamber of Commerce link to your main website with the keyword phrase of your choice in the text.  Then you would love to have 2000 people on a popular local (or national) forum posting your link on that forum plus dozens of related ones.  Finally, you would love to have thousands of people share links to your YouTube videos from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and dozens of blogs.

If this were to happen then you, likely, would dominate the search engines for that keyword.  This is because you would have optimized content on the page to which thousands of people would be “endorsing” with their links to it.  Even better, instead of just “http://www. whatever…”, these people would be using your desired keywords in the actual text of the link (called “anchor text”).  This would be phenomenal!

Sadly, this isn’t going to happen for most businesses on either a local or national level.

This is the reason WHY you need back links.  Backlinking is a process of building links to your web content (the properties you control) which builds trust, authority, and relevance in the eyes of the search engine “robots” AS WELL AS the end user who may see the link.  The more “back links” which the search engines see pointing to your web properties, especially more than just the home page of your website, then the more “votes” you get.

But there is a catch.

It is not simply a matter of overall “votes”.  Like high school popularity, the algorithms also factor in the “quality” of those votes.  Like in high school, if you want to be deemed “popular” then it is better to get the “endorsement” of the 5 most popular kids than 50 endorsements from the lesser-popular kids.  What the search engines want to see, in addition to relevant content which is trustworthy, is:

  • Links to your web properties from a variety of types of content, not just social media
  • Links to your web properties from sources which the search engines ALREADY DEEM TRUSTWORTHY.  For example, a link from the Chamber of Commerce is good because the Chamber’s website (usually) is deemed a trustworthy site; and the search engines know that it is tough for someone to get a link on that site due to the need for human approval (endorsement) to put the link on the site
  • Content which has your link IN the main content, rather than just the sidebar or footer.  Even though sidebar & footer links are helpful, having a link in the main content is indicative of an outside side endorsing (voting for) you
  • Links from different I.P. addresses.  This reduces the likelihood that you set up a “link farm” to be self-serving.  It is deemed “untrustworthy” by the search engines when you have the majority of the links from one or two I.P. addresses… and they all point to a site on the same I.P. address!
  • A mixture of “do follow” and “no follow” tags
  • Links to promote your content on a staggered schedule.  This looks natural to the search engines, instead of 50 links appearing to your site every Monday morning!
  • Content, with your links in it, which appears to be shared freely by others because the content is good.  This is why “how to” and “tips” articles, videos, and podcasts get good rankings.  Free content that has your link in it, which is not riddled with “hard sell” messages (at least 90% good, useful content), and which gets passed around and posted on various blogs, social media pages, and forums is considered more “trustworthy and authoritative” then other types of content
  • Content, ideally, that is unique.  The search engines do what they can to reward the original creator of unique content, even if it later gets passed around
  • Content which has a mixture of straight URL’s (http://www.whatever.com) and those with the keyword phrases as the text for the link.  Again, that is called “anchor text”
  • Coming in the second half of 2011, content which appears to be shared, re-tweeted, or otherwise passed around on social media sites.  The sharing component makes the content with your links embedded in it deemed more “trustworthy”

As an example, let’s say that you are a pizza shop in North Dallas.  You have enough time to set up your website once, make one small blog post a week, and offer daily specials on Facebook and Twitter.  You also have a few links from the organizations for which you pay each month/year, such as the chamber of commerce and some sort of Texas pizza association (assuming there is such a thing!).

How on earth would you get links to help you beat out the competition for terms like “North Dallas pizza” and “North Dallas pizza restaurant”?!?

Assuming that your website, Google Places/Maps, Facebook business page, and YouTube channel are optimized properly then you will need backlinks to promote these pages.  These would come from a variety of places on the internet to help you take good content in your head, factual information about your business (e.g. address, phone number, and website), and currently-produced photos and videos which can be re-packaged to give value to the end user who sees your information for the first time.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of places to put the following content somewhere online for your business, in this case the pizza restaurant:

  • Helpful information (e.g. learning the types of specialty pizzas)
  • Your current pizza coupons
  • Your business address and phone number on GPS, mobile, and 411 directories to help people find your restaurant
  • Photos from the restaurant’s most recent event
  • Videos derived from those photos
  • Reviews from happy customers to appear on your Google Places/Maps listing
  • Local business directories
  • Press releases

Virtually all of these third-party places online can contain a back link to a page your website.

Hopefully you can understand the value that a firm or service that offers intelligent backlinking for your business.  No matter whether you do it yourself or hire someone, be sure to develop links based on the factors I mentioned earlier.  Hopefully the links are made intelligently and any helpful content (e.g. tips and helpful videos) are quality enough to offer the viewers a reason to share the content.

Thank you for reading this far!  Good luck with your business and future links.

Filed Under: Backlinks, SEO, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
February 19, 2011 by

Local Small Business Online Marketing Typical Conversation

Here is a short animated video describing a typical conversation between a local small business owner who is confused and frustrated with not getting enough new customers, but he is also confused about the basics of internet and online marketing.  An internet marketing consultant answers his typical questions on a “birds eye view” level and addresses some of his biggest challenges about increasing the size of his business.

The video touches on search engine optimization, search engine marketing, video marketing, online paid advertising, online event marketing, and much more.  If you have any questions then feel free to contact MoreThanSEO.com through the Contact form; and you are welcome to share this post (or the actual YouTube video) through e-mail, your social network friends lists, LinkedIn, or by any other means which you communicate with friends who are owners of local businesses.

Filed Under: Tips, videos Tagged With: , , , , ,
February 8, 2011 by

Using Google For Online and Internet Marketing In McKinney TX

If you are a small business owner and wish to have some basic ways in which to better understand how to gain new customers and clients online then this video may help you.  It shows you how to use the free internet tools in Google (without even having to sign up for a Google account) to give you better insight into what your prospects are seeing and what web properties they likely trust.

The video uses the rather basic example of internet marketing for the term “McKinney TX pizza”; and the techniques shown are applicable to any small business around the country.

If you like the content of the video then all I ask is that you share this video with your friends, colleagues, social networks, or anywhere you believe that people you like may benefit from the content.

Thank you, and please feel free to use the Contact Form if you need any help; and please send me your questions as I will use them as topics for future videos and podcasts.

Filed Under: Tips, Training, videos Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
October 29, 2010 by

Online Price Incentive And Coupon Marketing Strategy Video

Here is a quick video designed to give any local business owner or executive a “bird’s eye” view of what strategies are available to help you take coupons and price incentives or discounts in the real world and transfer them into the online world.  Assuming that your business uses coupons, discounts, free consultations or price incentives to get more customers or clients, then you now have a resource to give you a possible competitive edge.

You are welcome to leave comments on this post, forward or share it with those whom you believe would like the information, and you can contact me through the contact form.

Filed Under: Resources, Tips, videos Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
October 27, 2010 by

Get The Most Out Of Your Dallas Internet Marketing Firm

If you live in any top U.S. city, such as Dallas, and you are considering hiring an internet marketing firm here are some helpful tips to make sure that you get the most out of your expenditure:

  • Make sure that the firm gives you a complete keyword research AND competition analysis breakdown of your industry.  This also includes on-page optimization factors from those currently on the top of the search engine rankings, number of inbound links to those competitors, how many searches per month the keyword phrases are entered, and the quality of the inbound links to your competition
  • Make sure that the Dallas internet marketing firm (or any other serious firm) gives you an estimated cost-per-click comparison.  This helps you to determine if it is cheaper to use a service like Google AdWords for a particular keyword phrase, or if it is better to pursue a SEO strategy for a particular phrase
  • Ask the firm if it follows a “promote the promoter” philosophy.  Not only should the firm create links on other authority sites linking back to your main website with the appropriate keyword(s), but they also should be creating links to the original links.  “Promoting the promoters” will make you look like a good member of the community in the eyes of Google, and it should help you improve your overall quality traffic
  • The firm always should customize a strategy based on your specific industry, geographic area (if necessary), and work with you to “get inside the head” of your ideal prospects from many different approaches.  These could include pain-removal benefits which your business offers all the way to what is entertaining for your future customers/clients

There are other factors which come into play in choosing a reputable internet marketing firm; and these four factors should be toward the top of your list to help you grow your business.

If you wish to discuss any of these then you are welcome to use the contact form on this site.  Thank you.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Next Page »