I read today over at SmallBusinessNewz.com that FourSquare has opened their business pages to all businesses big and small. In the past, FourSquare has handled all of the development of the business pages and has only done it for larger organizations.

This is a great opportunity as a small business owner to get more involved in Foursquare and promote your business. It allows you to interact just like individual users as far as checking in, posting tips, adding friends and just connecting at a deeper level with your followers.

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In my last article I talked about claiming and optimizing your Google Places Page. Today I’m going to bring things a little closer to home.

Last time I told you that there are several things you can do to improve your search results in mobile search. The second step to getting your online house in order is to analyze your very own website. Now, don’t be frightened by that notion because I’m going to share with you a few tools that will make this step pretty simple.

Your Site in Different Browsers

First, look at your site in multiple browsers. The main ones are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and, for those on a Mac, Safari. Now, look at your site on your mobile phone. Ask friends with different types of mobile devices to look at it and see what it looks like on as many devices as possible. How does it look? Is everything showing up correctly? Are all the images and formatting in place?

Update Your About Us Page

Second, take a look at your “About Us” page. Read…Every…Word. Make sure that all the information is accurate and up-to-date. You will also want to include links on that page to your social media profiles. This helps to tie your entire online presence together and makes it easy for people to find you.

Check for Spelling and Grammar

Third, check all of the pages of your site for spelling and grammar. Your website is supposed to be a reflection of your businesses and you want your business to have a professional image, right? Well, poor grammar and typos throughout your site don’t convey a lot of trust to me. One or two, here and there might be ok, but when they are on every page, no way.

A good, free tool you can use to spell check your entire site is called CheckDog.com. They will scan up to 100 pages of your site, which should be plenty for most of our readers, and provide you a report of all the likely, possible and unlikely spelling errors on your site. You will need to provide a valid email address to get the full report.

Do Your Keyword Research

Fourth, do some keyword research using Google’s Free Keyword Research Tool. We’re getting a little more advanced here but this step is still easy enough to do on your own. Find the keywords that you feel most people searching for your product or service would use. Then look at how much search volume your keyword phrase has and how much competition.

You are looking for phrases that have relatively high search volume and low competition. I know, that sounds like your going to be searching for a needle in a haystack, but I am sure you will find some gems you can use.

Optimize Your Site

Fifth, go through your site and optimize it for the keywords you found in the previous step. You may need to write some new content if you don’t already have a page on your site directly relating to each phrase you found. Each page should focus on one keyword phrase. If they are closely related you may be able to work in two or three.

Now, from an SEO perspective you need to look at a lot more data. The best, free tool I have found to do that is WebsiteGrader.com. The tool will go through and grade your site and show you how it compares to your competitors and what you can do to improve your grade.

That’s it for today. Did I miss anything? Do you have a comment or thought you would like to share? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you need help with all of this check out our SEO Plans or give me a call and let’s talk.

To your success,
Ken Partain
512-651-2963

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As you are probably aware, more and more people search the internet to find local products and services. And the fastest growing segment of search is mobile. At the beginning of this year it was reported that more smart phones were shipped during the last quarter of 2010 than personal computers. This trend is not slowing down.

Couple that with the fact that people with smart phones carry them EVERYWHERE! They are checking in on Foursquare, updating their Facebook profile, taking pictures and videos and searching for your products and services. Can they find you? If not, there are several things you can do to improve your chances of getting found. Today I’m going to talk about just one, Your Google Places Page.

Your Google Places Page

Google is on a quest to completely dominate local search. And they are giving priority in search to those profiles that have been claimed and optimized. You see, Google is in the business of selling ads around their search results. The better those search results, the more people will continue to use them. The more searches they get, the better their chances are of you clicking on a paid ad. Ca-ching! Tha’t money in the bank for Google.

When I say that your Google Places page needs to be optimized, I mean that it has a thorough business description; your company name, address and phone number are accurate and match the multitude of online business databases; it includes the brands and products you carry; it includes your hours of operation and service area; and ideally it has a short video so people can get to know you and your company better. Because people like to buy from people they know, like and trust.

Here’s your assignment for today. Do a search on your smart phone or borrow someone else’s smart phone and search for your industry in your town. For example, search for accountants in Round Rock, TX. If your Google Places page is not listed on the front page then get to work. You can claim your Google Places page here – http://www.google.com/places/.

If you need help, call me. I can help you get there. And it won’t cost you nearly as much as you think. After all, how much are you losing now to your competitors that are already on the front page?

To your success,
Ken Partain
512-651-2963

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Last week David Mihm released his latest annual report on Local Search Engine Ranking Factors.  This is a must-read for anyone who owns a small business that serves a local market, and anyone who handles the online marketing for a local business.

This year’s report includes feedback from 34 prominent bloggers and local search experts.  Each factor is graded three ways; 1) the importance of the factor, 2) whether the factor has increased or decreased in importance since last year’s report, and 3) how closely the 34 participants agreed on each factor.

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Early this week Google announced that Google Local Business Center is now Google Places.  There are lots of changes associated with this announcement and you can read all about them through the link above.

The biggest factors I see for small businesses are that you no longer have to have a physical office to add your company to their directory.  With these changes Google will allow you to identify a service area and if you work from home or you travel around and don’t really have an office you have the ability to make your address private.

That is going to really open things up for the freelancer and work at home professional.

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Recently WebProNews shared a short video interview with Brian Combs, Founder and Principal of ionadas.com.  In this short video Brian shares three things you need to do to get your company found in Google Maps.

One we have talked about here before and that is to claim your business listing in Google.  The second is to optimize your web site.  Huh! Imagine that.  And third is to integrate citation building, which is essentially having your company address information listed on your website and other internet properties such as directory listings and local business profiles.

With maps showing up in more and more searches and pushing down the top 10 natural organic results, its more important than ever for you to show up in these maps if you serve a local market.

Here’s the original video on the WebProNews site.

If you have trouble figuring this out on your own, give me a call.  I’d be glad to help you out.

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Thanks for visiting our site. I hope you enjoyed the interview we did with Kyle Hunt at Remodel Buddy, a marketing coach company for remodelers and home improvement professionals.  Below are some helpful links and additional information for improving your online presence as a contractor.

The most important thing to start with is to claim your local business listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Below are the links to do just that. Each of them are free so there’s no excuse for not doing this right away.

Google:

Here’s the link to look up your business.

Once you have claimed your listing you will need to verify your information. Google will provide you with a PIN by phone or by regular mail. Once you receive your PIN you will need to log into the Local Business Center and verify your listing.

Yahoo:

You will need to go here to sign up for your Yahoo Local Business Listing. You will need a Yahoo login, so if you don’t have one, you’ll have the ability to sign up during the process.

Bing:

You will need to go here to claim your Microsoft Map listing. You will need a Windows Live ID, so if you don’t already have one, get one of those first.

We also have our own Local Search Engine Business Profiles that are very well optimized for local search. Approximately 90% of them are on the front page of Google for their primary keyword phrases. For a limited time, we are offering a 50% discount for the first year. After that, it will automatically renew each year for $99.

We also recommend that you get your business listed in as many relevant online business directories as you can. You can find a multitude of free directories in which to list your business, but many of them will be of little value to your business.

There are also a handfull of paid directories (along with a couple of free ones) that we recommend. Below is a list of those directories along with a link to get signed up.

• DMOZ – http://dmoz.org/add.html – free
• Yahoo Directory – https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ – $299/yr.
• Business.com Directory – http://www.business.com/info/advertisewithus.asp – $299/yr.
• Best of the Web – http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcommercial.aspx – $99.95/yr.
• Go Guides – http://www.goguides.org/addurl.html – $69.95/yr.
• Joe Ant – http://www.joeant.com/suggest.html – $39.99/yr.
• Rubber Stamped – http://www.rubberstamped.org/add-url-front.htm – $39.95/yr.
• Illumirate – http://www.illumirate.com/add_your_site_exp.cfm – free
• Wow Directory – http://www.wowdirectory.com/howtoadd.php – free
• Skaffe – http://www.skaffe.com/info/addurl.php – $44.99/yr.
• Massive Links – http://www.massivelinks.com/ – $29.99/yr.
• Starting Point – http://www.stpt.com/directory/ – $99/yr.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to do this yourself you can take advantage of our Link Building Program and we’ll take care of everything for you.

Don’t forget about doing a few press releases.  The two sites we recommend are PRWeb and FreePressRelease.com.  As I mentioned on the podcast, PRWeb seems to give you a little more exposure and a lot more flexibility, but you will benefit regardless of which one you choose.

If you have your own web site already and you’re not getting the traffic you want or generating the leads you want, you may want to consider one of our SEO Plans. After all, that’s our specialty and we’re proud to say that every single site we have worked on has gotten front page placement in Google, Yahoo and Bing.

And lastly, if you don’t have your own website, what are you waiting for? Every single day people in your town are searching for your services online. If you’re not there, you’re losing money. For a very reasonable fee we can set you up with a small business website and blog of your own, one that you can add content to and edit as often as you please.

To your success!

Ken Partain (follow me on Twitter)

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Thanks to Rebecca Romo of SHA Insurance, a Life and Health Insurance Agent in Allen, Texas, for being the first person to submit her Top 3 Online Marketing Questions.

Here are the answers to your questions, Rebecca.

How do you make your business successful online?

As with most questions this broad, the answer is really “it depends”.  It depends on what type of business you are in and what your objectives are.

However, there are several things any small business can do to improve their online presence and help connect with their target market.

1. Establish a web presence.  You can do this several ways, but the most important way, in my opinion, is to have a web site that you control.  With our own website you have full control over the content of the site, how it is marketed, how well it is optimized, etc.
2. Get your business listed in relevant online directories.  There are a multitude of online directories, both free and paid, that you can list your business with.  Some of them, such as MerchantCircle, are a very good alternative if you absolutely can’t afford to build your own web site as I mentioned in #1.  We offer Local Search Engine Business Profiles that are very well optimized for local search and provide a good snapshot of your business, not to mention they are very inexpensive.
3. Get involved in Social Media and Social Networking even if you don’t have the first clue about how to proceed.  Get yourself listed with sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and slowly learn more about each one and how you can use it to connect with your target market and grow your business.

What is your favorite part of online marketing?

This seems to be a more personal question and my answer is optimizing small business websites.  I love seeing a company go from generating very few, or in some cases absolutely no leads from their website, to generating a consistent flow of quality leads because of the work we do.

Search engine rankings are not the be all, end all anymore.  With the introduction of Universal Search and Personalized Search from Google, evey single person could get different search results when looking up the same keyword phrase.  Therefore, the only true measure of how effective your optimization is, is whether or not your business improves as a result.

If you had to start marketing online again, what would you do differently?

I’ve done a few projects in the past where I just leaped out, spent a bunch of money on image stuff like logos, letterhead, business cards, etc. only to find later that the market either wasn’t there, or wasn’t willing to pay for the services we offered.

If I had it to do again I would do more market research before spending a bunch of money developing a web site and other materials.  I would start with some of the free tools available online and find out if there was a need for my idea and how big of a potential market there was for our product or service.

Then I would do everything I could to keep expenses to a bare minimum and not make any long-term obligations until the business started picking up steam.

I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts.

To your success!

Ken Partain

Follow Me On Twitter

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Here’s your chance to ask your top three online marketing questions and get practical answers that you can put to work immediately.

Your questions can be about anything related to search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, social networking, local search, etc.

I’ll be posting the answers here on my site. When I answer your questions, I’ll give you credit for the questions along with a link back to your web site (if you would like).

Please complete the form below and check back soon for your answers.

Thanks for your participation.

To your success!
Ken Partain

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I am starting to get questions from our clients about getting their business listed in the new search engine from Microsoft, Bing.  I have looked into it and it appears that if you already had a local listing in MSN or Live, your listing will carry over to the new search engine.

If not, now’s the time to claim your business listing.  Lisa Barone over at Small Business Trends did a nice post today on How to Grab Your Local Listing in Bing.  She provides a good explanation of the process and links to get it all set up.  Take a few minutes right now and go claim your listing.

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