Bayview Marketing

Link Building ABC’s

Edward Haskins — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:11:31 +0000

Link building on your website can be hugely instrumental in winning favour with Google. A good set of links helps the major search engines trust that your site is an important authority in your category. This is especially important when it comes to local search engine marketing. By the time a customer is using local searches, they are ready to buy. You want to be at or near the top of the page of search results that come up for that person who is ready to give some lucky merchant their business.
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There are different ways of building links that work very well to increase your rankings and organic traffic. Anyone who is well versed in SEO (search engine optimization) is familiar with the following types of links:
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Contextual links – Google loves these, and they are a great way to build organic traffic. They are the hyperlinks found within bodies of text. When someone is looking for information on your topic, they click on a link that is built into what they’re reading and go straight to your website. This can happen when you submit articles to article directories or other websites, or issue online press releases.
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Conversion links – these are considered the best for local search engine marketing. By the time customers are using local search, they have made the decision to buy. A properly placed and nurtured conversion link will likely equate to a sale for you.
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One way links – one way links are very valuable resources. When another website is linking to you without getting anything in return, the search engines think you must be very important in your chosen field or industry. This carries a lot of weight in the internet world, and will help you climb the organic search ladder. One way links from good sources are desirable things.
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In your excitement to build up your website exposure and traffic, don’t just start adding links like mad. There’s a best way to do everything, and link building is no exception. If you fill your website with a ton of links but have little content, your site will be considered a link farm. Your page rank will drop, not rise. Reciprocal links are not always good, either. If you are linking to a web page that is of a lesser quality in the search engine’s eyes, it won’t help you one bit.
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Usually, gaining some excellent links for your site requires permission and negotiation with the other site owner. Sometimes, a trading of links can be done, but know what and who you’re getting involved with to ensure it’s the best thing for you.
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Though you may be eager to get started with all this, do keep in mind that it will take some time for these links to build momentum. They will though, don’t get discouraged. Monitor them for effectiveness, so you know which ones are helping you and which ones it would be better for you to remove. Stay with the process and over time, you’ll have only top quality links and traffic coming to your site.
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Yelp! Me If You Can, My Sales are Down

Edward Haskins — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:59:11 +0000

Ever had that feeling? Sales were coming along pretty good, but then everything just sort of stopped, or worse, started dropping? It kind of feels like all the energy has gone out of your business, like you could use a little help to jump start it back to life.
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Yelp! I Need Somebody
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Yelp may be just the thing to give your sagging business a boost. It’s an online review site that specializes in local information. They advertise themselves as a, “City guide made up of real reviews from real people”. In market-eze, that means lots of free word of mouth advertising. By lots, I mean 13 million in the month of August, 2008 alone. Sounds great so far, right? Well, it gets even better.
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The Yelp credo is to make the consumer’s experience as fun and engaging as possible. People like to use their site. It’s local search engine meets social networking, with messaging, subscribing to favorite reviewers, inviting friends and of course, reading and sharing their experiences regarding local merchants. There’s a lot of energy on their site, and a ton of potential customers from your local vicinity. Also, people place a lot of trust in the reviews that are on there.
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Whether a review is good or bad, it cannot be removed, or even moved to the bottom of the page. Not all reviews submitted get posted, though. If they are coming from a competitor trying to bad mouth you, or are obviously written by the business owner to promote his own product, then the posting will not be made public. However, honest opinions and experiences from real consumers get published no matter what, unless they are obscene.
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Yelp does caution business owner not to get too distraught if they receive a less than favorable review or two. We all know that there are some people that nobody can make happy. You should watch for repeated patterns when reading the comments of disgruntled customers, however. If the same complaint is made each time, it should send you a signal that there’s something you may need to change or improve. View it as constructive feedback.
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It would seem that the whole Yelp experience is positive for both customers and the local businesses that they’re looking for. To assist you with inviting your clientele to participate in leaving you a review, you can put a Yelp badge on your own website. The badges are customized and free.
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You can also enhance your Yelp business page with a photo slideshow, announcements that you want to let the public know about, and a feature of your favorite review. What’s more, (and perhaps the most fun of all!) you can advertise on your competitor’s page if you purchase ads and become a sponsored search result. Did that perk you up a little?
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So, now you have a plan of attack for your slumping sales. Enjoy the experience along with the benefits of rising sales.
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Demystifying PPC’s and Why Local’s Good

Edward Haskins — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:07:37 +0000

In case you’re not familiar, PPC stands for pay-per-click. It is a common form of online advertising that is very effective in the quest for sales.
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Local PPC 101
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If you use a computer to do internet searches, then you’ve probably seen PPC’s. When looking at a page of search results, there is a list of text ads that appears down the right of your screen. They’re located under the heading of ‘Sponsored Listings’. They are always text ads, and the advertisers using that space have placed the highest bid on the keywords that you used for your search. That space to the right of the organic search results is prime advertising area. People (at least in North America) read from left to right. The PPC’s are located in such a way that your eye gravitates to them after you reach the end of reading a line in the regular search results.
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Pay per clicks have actually become the most popular form of online advertising, offering the best return on your investment. Properly set up and run, your business can do extremely well with these ads. They improve your website’s presence, your client base and attract your local target audience. Your advertisement gives them exactly what they’re looking for in the location that they want to buy in.
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Some Pros of Local PPC’s

•    You only pay for the ads when people click on them
•    Using good ad copy and keywords, you get razor sharp targeting of your local audience
•    You can have the ads set to run only when you want them to in order to take best advantage of prime surfing hours
•    Your campaign can be set up and running in a day or less
•    You have control over the direction of the click. When someone clicks on your ad, you may send them to your website, to a splash page or anywhere you want
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There are a lot of good reasons to use PPC’s as part of your local search engine marketing plan. They have proven themselves effective in drawing in sales time and again, which is how they’ve become the top online advertising venue.
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If there is anything close to being considered a downside, it would be the possible expense and time investment. Your PPC campaign needs to be monitored to make sure that your ads are running optimally. They need to run at the right times, using the right keywords along with some very precise, killer ad content. If you can do that, you won’t have any problems, except maybe having to hire a staff person to help you with all the incoming new business. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
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The Long Arms of Yellow

Edward Haskins — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:05:42 +0000

Have you ever looked into Internet Yellow Pages? I mean, really looked. Their reach to consumers is amazing! They not only have services available for your computer, but for pretty much every other form of communication, as well.
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What does that mean to you, the business owner? It means a ton of potential business and sales conversions. Over 19 million people visit the Yellow Pages site every month in the U.S. alone. That’s a ton of exposure. Since this is a company that is best known for finding local information, it’s a great chance to capture as much of that figure that represents your local market as possible.
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The rippling reach of Yellow Pages now goes from the book we all know and have used, to the internet, television and mobile devices. There is even a downloadable tool bar that enables consumers to look for your business using ten different types of searches. What’s even cooler is that a listing can go viral. A person could send your listing from their computer to a friend’s email that they use on their cell phone or iPod. That person can then send a text of the information to another friend, etc. These are modern times and Yellow Pages seems to be really trying to keep up.
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What people get when they do a local search is what you would hope for. Your business listing includes your address, phone number, maps, directions and reviews. Customers can even do a search for businesses according to popularity in the category they’re searching.
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What you the merchant gets is a high quality, targeted customer, who is likely more than ready to purchase. That’s one of the big benefits of using local search engines in your marketing plan. By the time the consumer wants to deal locally, they have made their decision to buy.
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There are some self-proclaimed experts that think Yellow Pages is on its way out. What many won’t point out is that they are the directory used by many of the big players, including Google and AOL, just to name a couple. Not only that, but they have a higher percentage of new and longer viewings per page, and a lower percentage of bounces. In other words, they are reaching more people and holding them there longer. Let’s face it, Yellow Pages has been around long enough that they’ve become something of an institution, and consumers trust them. They also think of them first when they want to locate a product, service or specific business.
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Currently, Google is outranking all the other local search engines, but considering how feature packed Yellow Pages is, it’s a wait and watch situation to see if the long arms of Yellow will reach farther than the big G.
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Google Maps Delivers Local Customers Right to Your Door

Edward Haskins — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:36:03 +0000

Have you ever used Google Maps for directions when going on a trip? Most people have, or are at least aware of Google’s powerful mapping technology. What not everyone knows however, is that they’ve developed some exciting features to help businesses boost contact from the customers in their own towns and cities.
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Current purchasing trends seem to be indicating that people are starting to return to doing their shopping locally, from neighboring merchants. Trust can be suspect when dealing online these days, and folks are starting to pay better attention to supporting their local shops. After several years of internet buying, people now need a way to find the products and services that are available in their community. Google Maps to the rescue!
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Using local search engine technology along with their mapping system, Google Maps brings your customers to you. They are considered the number one tool for local rankings. People can search by business name or category to see a list of nearby establishments, along with all listed pertinent information.
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What Google Maps Shows Your Potential Customers About You

•    Your address and contact information, website address
•    Your location on a map and directions
•    Hours of operation
•    Methods of payment accepted
•    Reviews of your business
•    Coupons and specials
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It goes without saying that Google Maps local search gets a mind boggling amount of traffic. They’re Google, after all. Local search is very focused however, so the traffic that is viewing your listing is targeted. The people reading the details, directions and reviews of your business are the ones who are ready to buy. They just need to be able to locate you, and find out a bit about you before finalizing a purchase. Google Maps local search takes care of that, informing and delivering customers to your business.
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The local search concept is not as old as the internet itself. It has sprung from a strong need for localized search filters. The web is about making money and keeping the flow of business going and growing, so it makes sense that local search engines came to be. They promote localized business and industry to help keep communities financially strong.
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With a properly constructed, placed and managed listing, your business can be part of the process. Be aware that there are ways to get it right if you want the best possible advantage. It’s not just about having a mundane name and address presented to potential customers. There is a matter of good content, along with some search engine love that draws people to your listing. Get it all right though, and Google Maps will deliver local customers right to your door in a steady stream.
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Yahoo! Local Opportunity

Edward Haskins — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:32:20 +0000

What It Is & How It Works
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Yahoo! Local is Yahoo’s answer to Google Maps. It’s that company’s local search engine service, providing consumers with information about nearby businesses. It also is ripe with opportunity for the business owners themselves.
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A high ranking on the Yahoo! Local searches can put your business in one of the coveted top positions. The highest ranked listings are always considered prominent (naturally!) when their category is searched. If you’re using this type of marketing, that’s where you want to shoot for in the placings. While consumers have access to the information and maps accompanying all the listings, it is human nature to gravitate first to the top of the list. If you aren’t there, your competitor is.
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Yahoo! Local wants to promote quality and connection between consumers and businesses. To that end, they have stepped up their spam catching capabilities, and have added a feature whereby consumers can edit listings. If someone knows that a business has moved, for example, but the address hasn’t been changed, they can go to Yahoo! Local and add a note with the new address. This will help the next person looking for that business. In that way, it is an interactive local search engine. People can also leave reviews that help others to learn more about the products and services they’re looking for.
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What all of this means for business owners, is that they’d better be in the listings to get in on the opportunities and claim their share of the local market.
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Some Elements of a Great Yahoo! Local Listing
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The most important thing you can do is to make your listing as robust as possible. Consumers are now querying differently than ever before. They are being more specific and using long tail keywords when doing their searches. That’s one of the reasons that businesses need to ensure that their listings are precise and properly categorized. The target audience is targeting their queries. You want to make sure you’re there for them to find.
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In a nutshell:
•    Make your listing detailed, interesting, keyword rich and very precise. Ensure that your listing is properly categorized for correct and optimum exposure
•    Have your business listed in various search engines to boost prominence with the local searches. Local search engines have greater trust in a listing when the same source is published across several domains
•    Upload photos and logos. This will help consumers to feel that your establishment is trustworthy
•    Make sure that you are using targeted, higher revenue ad campaigns
•    Use tracking URL’s to monitor your campaigns
•    Always keep your listing(s) up-to-date
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With some initial effort to set up correctly, a merchant’s Yahoo! Local listing can be a golden opportunity to draw customers with little further effort. Seems like such a perfect way for businesses to claim local customers and sales.
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Increasing Sales Conversions with Customer Review Sites

Edward Haskins — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:21:21 +0000

Are you using customer reviews to enhance your marketing? If not, do you know why you should?
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In these modern, high tech times that we live in, almost everyone heads to the world wide web first when considering a purchase. Typically, they do general research on the product or service they’re looking for before using local search engines to find a nearby merchant. As information overwhelm and security issues have grown, more people are choosing to deal locally when it actually comes to buying. They want relaxed, trustworthy transactions. That’s where customer reviews can be a tremendous help, both to the consumer and businesses.
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Customer reviews are just that, an endorsement or disgruntled note about a customer’s experience with a company and/or their products. They can be likened to a background check before a purchase.
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Unbiased peer reviews provide the following benefits for consumers:

•    Gives them a sense of you and your products and service
•    Establishes trust
•    Opens communication, gives them a voice and a chance to respond to sales and service

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This isn’t just about what customer reviews can do for customers, though that is of prime importance to establish loyalty and reputation. Reviews can increase your sales conversions dramatically.
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It is estimated that nearly 80% of shoppers in the U.S. put more trust in businesses with peer reviews. Think Amazon and eBay if you need a couple of examples. Also, note the word, peer. People place the most trust in reading how other shoppers liked a company over an expert’s view. This is a confidence builder for your business, as well as free word-of-mouth advertising.
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Customer reviews will also catch and hold a consumer’s attention while they’re looking for a place to make their purchase. Everyone’s in a hurry these days, and it’s too easy for them to click away from your site or listing to move on to the next company. People are interested in reading real reviews. They will stay on the site or listing to do so.
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Another benefit of having reviews is their affect on your page ranking in local search engines. A certain percentage of positive reviews can give you a higher rank. This fact gives a lot of credence to maintaining your very best level of customer service at all times. Happy customers come back. Through the use of positive reviews, they bring others with them. Each reviewer becomes a salesperson for you.
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So, there you have some pretty excellent reasons for using customer reviews. Treat your customers well and encourage them to leave a review. Then watch your inquiries and sales rise.
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Capturing Your Share of the Local Market

Edward Haskins — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:02:36 +0000

How are you increasing business from within your community? Understandably, your answer may have something to do with print or broadcast advertising. You might even have a website to help promote your brand. Hopefully, your marketing methods include a professionally placed local search engine listing. If not, you are missing out on an important revenue building resource that I urge you to consider.
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Why Local
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The enormity of the internet has its pros and cons. It’s great to be able to access information from any part of the world, but it can be overwhelming for a consumer looking to make a purchase from a nearby business. Enter the local search.
Local searches are rapidly increasing in popularity. In fact, it is estimated by some small business experts that this method of online searching will see an almost 400% growth by 2010. Why? Focus, speed and a reduction of the frustration that comes with trying to sift through millions of results, are the biggest reasons.
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When someone uses a local search engine, they are presented with detailed listings of products and services in the town or city where they live and do business. There are reviews of businesses, coupons and specials, as well as additional features such as directions and maps to help online searchers find exactly what they need locally. Consumers who the local search sites are usually highly targeted and motivated customers ready to make a purchase. They’ve done their researching and tire kicking, now they want to figure out where you are so they can get that product or service they want to buy. Of course, if you are not listed, customers won’t find you. They will however, find your competition if they are listed.
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How It Works
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Taking advantage of this advertising medium is best done by someone who knows the ropes of the different local search engines. There are new ones popping up all the time attempting to get in on the ground floor of this hot, new market. Some work better than others, and you should take precautions against having an association with the spam listings that one of the major engines is now plagued with. As that type of situation is likely to get worse, at least initially, you’re better off to hire the services of a local search engine pro, rather than trying to blindly find your way through the mire of bad sites to find the golden ones. There are a few people out there that have an astounding knowledge of all the different engines, and their expertise can make the difference between a good listing presence and a failed one.
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Much like a stock trader, a savvy local search optimiser keeps current with industry news and trends of the local market engines. If a program turns bad, the professional knows to pull that listing and move it to a higher yielding, clean list. You’ll also want any updates made in a way that is professional and local search engine friendly. Done properly, this method of marketing your business will pay for itself many times over. You won’t be able to wipe the smile off your face.
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So the questions remains: How are you increasing business from within the community? Don’t lose one more lead or sale. Capture your share of the local market now.
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So, What the Heck is “Local Search”?

Edward Haskins — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:05:12 +0000

If you’ve ever looked for something online, then you are familiar with what a search engine is and does (at least basically), but are you aware of local search engines? Do you know what they are and how they can help your business? If you are wondering what the difference is between a regular search engine and a local search engine, it’s quite simple.
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What a Local Search Is
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You already know what you need to about regular searches. When someone wants information about a product or service and they use a regular search engine, the listings that come up may be from any part of the world. For example, if you type the word widgets, into a Google browser window, you will get listings of websites from several different countries, including the U.S., New Zealand and Norway. Great for researching on a broad basis, but not so good for locating a business in your neighborhood.
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Local search engines provide a way for people to find local businesses and services. If you are looking for widgets in your town, you would use a local search engine, such as Internet Yellow Pages or Yahoo! Local to find a nearby company that carries them. Look for widgets and you will see only listings of places where widgets are available in your area. It’s a focused way for consumers to find a place to purchase. See, pretty simple.
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Listings usually provide detailed results of product and contact information, including your address, phone number and website address. People now use the local search engines the way that they used to use the Yellow Pages book. It is a growing field that is constantly updating and adding features to enhance the visibility and promotion of local business communities.

How Local Search Benefits Business
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Local search engines are a relatively new medium, and a natural evolution of offline advertising. They enable customers to find your company quicker and easier by using features such as Google and MSN maps. Customers can even read reviews about your company, and access many types of fast-paced advantages meant to attract targeted customers who really want to do business with you – once they find you. Considering 68,000,000 people in the United States alone did online Yellow Pages searches last year, you should be ensuring that your business listing is included and up to date in your local search area.

If you’re concerned about searchers not bothering to call, don’t be. More than 60% of that 68,000,000 telephoned the businesses that they located online. That’s a staggering number of potential customers. What’s even better is the fact that 86% of that 60% were conversions. They purchased or expressed intent to purchase in the near future because people use local search when they’re ready to buy. They’ve already done their research using regular search engines.
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This type of business increases over time. The longer you are listed, the more clicks through to your website you’ll get. More clicks mean more sales. According to the Kelsey Group in a 2005 report, 70% of American households make their local purchasing decisions via the internet. The number of people who decide to join the online world increases each year, so the percentage is undoubtedly much higher now. That, if for no other reason, should be enough to convince you to give this form of marketing serious consideration.