Marketing Online: How to Get Found, Generate Leads, and Convert Customers July 21, 2010 NFIB Webinar
About Web.com at: www.nfib.com/webdotcom 2
What We Will Cover In This Webinar 1. How to Claim A Google Local Listing 2. SEO Basics 3. Website Tracking Tools 4. Using Email as a Marketing Tool
Google Local Listing Overview Google local listings are: FREE Provide valuable features for tracking search results, listening to your customers, and offering them discounts.
Google Places Google recently re-named their local business listing to Google Places.
Features of a Local Listing + Dashboard reports that come with your local listing allow you to monitor results: Look at keywords used to find you. Discover the parts of town that generate the most searches. Find the number of daily visitors who see your listing.
Features of a Local Listing Customers can also rate their experience with your business and write reviews. Printable coupons
How It Works If your business has been established in the same location for a while, then your local business listing probably exists. Google may have already created a local listing for your business based on the existing information it has about your business and the third-party information that the search engine was able to collect.
What Is Involved in Claiming Your Listing When you claim your listing, you re actually: Verifying that the listing belongs to you. Confirming verification steps, which can generally be done by phone or postal mail. Ensuring that only you control the content of the listing. We ve heard of instances of people who have claimed listings that do not belong to them in order to misrepresent their competitors.
Getting Started Go to Google Maps. (maps.google.com)
Find Your Business on the Map Enter your business name and location:
Listing That Has Been Verified
Unverified Listing
Edit Your Listing
If Your Business Does Not Appear 1. If your business listing does not appear, go back to the Google Maps homepage (www.maps.google.com) 2. Next, click on the and click on the "Put your business on Google Maps" link ( www.google.com/local/add ) 3. A blank form will load. 4. Fill out your information. 5. You will need to verify information by phone or mail
What to Do Next Once you ve claimed your listing: Verify that all of the information is correct. Explore the options that are available for customizing the information in your listing Maps and directions Hours of operation Logos and photographs Videos & more
Updating Your Local Listing Keeping your listing fresh and up-todate helps to increase your chances of being found by customers who are searching for your products/services.
SEO Enhancement The more content you include in your listing, the better chance you have for organic rankings.
Using Images Pictures are a competitive advantage even cell phone quality shots of the building, inventory and staff may help make an impression versus your competition with no photos. Upload your logo too.
In Summary Google Local Listings are a great investment, can have a good ROI Make sure to verify your listing and keep it current
Optimizing A Site What We Will Cover: 1. Overview of Keywords 2. Content & Keyword Frequency 3. Page Titles 4. Meta Tags
How Keywords Work Keywords are the singular words or phrases that customers use to search for a business. Important to know what keywords can drive traffic for you. What keywords are driving traffic for your competitors? SEO professional can help Google Keyword Tool
Google Keyword Tool
The Importance of Content Google And The Search Engines Love Text More text is better than less, but the text copy must be good and offer the end user something meaningful to read about the business.
Amount of Content While there is no magic number of words per page, target 100-250 words per page as a goal. Think about how often Google highly ranks Wikipedia pages.
Keyword Frequency How often you repeat keywords on a page is significant for SEO: Place the first instance of the keyword early within the first sentence in the first paragraph. Keywords should be repeated within the copy roughly 1-3 times for every 100 words. Use keyword phrases for internal links. Don t overstuff the page with keywords
Copywriting Tips Be specific when describing your products and services: Think like a potential customer who wants to learn about your business and why they should choose you versus the competition. Think about the questions a typical new customer asks about your products or business What is the tipping point?
Refresh Content Regularly Google rewards websites who refresh their website regularly. Utilize the website to make press announcements, sales promotions, product announcements or timely information how to s on a regular basis. A blog also helps refresh the content if properly installed. If you add a blog to a website, keep it up to date and refreshed regularly.
Duplicate Content Do NOT duplicate content from page to page. Never duplicate copy from any other website. Google knows what copy is on other sites and having content that appears on another site will not help your keyword ranking.
Using H1 Tags Each Page Should Have Unique Content and Headers Headings should be structured in an H1, H2, H3 format. Keywords should preferably appear in the H1 headers on every page most important for SEO
Example of an H1 Header
Meta Information Page Titles The page title meta tag is extremely important to the ranking process. The page title not only tells Google what the page is about, it also appears on the search results page when someone has typed in a keyword phrase. Page titles should contain the primary keywords for that page. The search engines will only display the first 65 characters so make sure that your primary keywords appear.
How the Meta Title Appears
Meta Description The meta name description does not play a part in the ranking process, but tells people about your business. The description should contain keywords
Some Tips About Meta Description Tag. The description should contain relevant keywords that people are searching for Each page should have its own unique description that describes the information found on the page A description may include a call to action
Alt Tags Alternate tags are words of copy that we can be assigned to specific images on a page. Search engines rely upon the alternate image tag to describe the pictures that can be displayed in image search results..
Website Tracking Tools What We Will Cover: Tool Sets That Every Website Owner Should Have: www.google.com/analytics www.google.com/webmasters/
Google Analytics A free tool that tracks actual behavior of your users. Communicates visitor behavior by: How many visitors the site receives daily/weekly/monthly. What keywords visitors are using to find your website. Which search engines send the most visitors. How long visitors stay on which pages. Where visitors are coming from down to the city. You can even annotate Google Analytics based on certain dates so that you can track the results of your changes.
Bounce Rates Additionally Google Analytics will give information on how people are reacting to your site by providing bounce rate information.
Bounce Rates Bounce rate displays the percentage of people who leave after landing on only one page. This will alert you to address specific pages and test various copy, images and content that people find interesting and want to learn more. Determine if they are abandoning any part of the shopping process.
Google Webmaster Tools Another free Google tool. More oriented to the site as Google sees it.
Google Webmaster Tools Goal of webmaster tools is to give feedback to the website owner that would make the end user experience better. Download time Ensuring all pages are accessible Keyword analysis Additionally it will assess the download speed of the site and rank the site compared to other sites on the Internet.
How It Works for SEO It also will flag problem areas within the site that the site owner may otherwise be unaware of: Malware (malicious software that may be on the site.) Broken links within the site. Pages with missing or duplicate page titles. URL addresses that can not be crawled or accessed by search engines. Content that can not be indexed.
Email Marketing What We Will Cover: 1.Email Campaigns for Generating Loyalty 2.Economy of Newsletter Campaigns 3.Suggestions for Email Campaigns 4.Segmentation of Your Lists 5.Email to Convert New Customers 6.Email as a Sales Tool 7.Building Your Customer Base
Using Email to Maintain Loyalty One of the easiest ways is to build and maintain a loyal customer base is with an email newsletter on a regular basis. Communicating regularly with your customers is a proven effective method to generate positive brand recognition and develop loyal patrons.
Using Email to Maintain Loyalty Loyal customers not only think of you when it is time to buy, but are also likely to refer you the next time they know someone who needs your products or services. Email marketing is a quick, inexpensive, and efficient way to connect and communicate with your customers.
Economy of Email A newsletter campaign is much less than the cost of an advertising insert or a direct mail letter campaign Customers request your emails through opt in requests, so your target audience is already qualified and interested in your offering.
Economy of Email Email newsletters can be used creatively to keep the customers interest and incent them to buy from you. A great place to start building a base of customer emails is through your website. The better email marketing programs offer a feature to automatically collect and email addresses on your website.
Suggestions for Emails 1. Offer special discounts to your existing customers 2. Give your customers VIP treatment through early bird notices before items become available or on sale to the general public 3. Make heard-first-here announcements about new products or services 4. Include write-ups about your award-winning products or specialized services 5. Share tips and tricks that help customers get the most out of your business offerings 6. Share customer success stories about your business
Email to Convert New Customers Email is also a great tool to entice new customers People will often opt-in on your Website to get an informational piece They are not ready to buy but once they get to know you, they may become a customer
Segmentation of Lists You can segment your lists Prospect list allows you to send specific series to non-customers. Existing customer list. Some email programs have ability to send trigger emails based upon purchases.
Email as a Tool to Drive Sales Email Newsletter Can Increase Your Sales A recent poll from RetailMeNot.com and Harris Interactive reveals that 30% of online shoppers will not make a purchase if they cannot find a coupon for that store.
Email as a Tool to Drive Sales
Building Your Customer Base
Marketing Online - Valuable Resources Attendees will receive these Valuable Resources: 1. Get the scoop on Claiming Your Local Business Listing on the Search Engines. It s free, easy, and vital for your business. http://www.web.com/blog/internet-marketing/claiming-your-local-business-listing-on-the-search-engines/ 2. Make your website search engine friendly with Search Engine Optimization: 7 Proven Steps (Plus a Bonus Tip!). http://www.web.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/search-engine-optimization-seven-proven-steps-plus-a-bonus-tip/ 3. Redesigning your website? Check out 6 Steps to Minimizing SEO Impact During a Website Redesign. http://www.web.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/6-steps-to-minimizing-seo-impact-during-a-website-redesign/ 4. And, Want to Build and Maintain a Loyal Customer Base? Try Email Marketing. http://www.web.com/blog/internet-marketing/want-to-build-and-maintain-a-loyal-customer-base-try-email-marketing/
Build Your Business Online With Web.com Need help building your business online? Web.com provides a total Website & Online Marketing Solution Contact: Web.com (866) 736-2011 nfib.web.com www.nfib.com/webdotcom 5 6
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