Today’s free advice has to do with improving your search engine results. There’s a whole lot of things that go into how well your website is optimized for search engines, which is why there is a whole field of marketing devoted to helping your website achieve higher results. We’re going to focus on one piece of this today. One that your business needs for non-SEO reasons as well.
Take this QR code. If you scan it, it will bring your phone to a review for Davis Advertising. Now, there’s several different places we could review your business. We could have created a QR for Yelp, (Although Yelp doesn’t allow for mobile reviews, unless you go to a non-optimized site.) The problem with directing a customer to one of these specialty review sites is that in order for the customer to leave a review, the customer needs to be logged into that specific site. As not all customers are members on review sites, the odds of the customer getting through a review for you, and then taking the time to sign up to the service to actually leave the review, are slim.
That’s what makes the QR code above perfect. It asks the customer (you, if you scan it!) to leave a review on Google Places. Google scrapes other sites to get reviews, but also allows for customers to review directly on the Google Places page. With more than 50% of the smartphones sold being Android devices, and with many non-Android devices still being signed into at least one Google service, the chances are very high that the customer that scans this QR is already logged in as a Google User. That means no annoying login screens, or sign-up screens. It’s as simple as, click the number of stars, write the review, and get on with your life!
As we’ve discussed previously, word of mouth reviews are now living in your social media sites. Increasing the number of reviews that show up when customers are searching for your type of business increases the likelihood that new people will do business with you. On top of the fact that people do more business with existing, established businesses that have reviews about them, Google gives higher precedence to pages that have reviews. Active reviews increase your SEO, and make your website stand out more.
So, by using a QR code like the one found above, you can:
Increase your SEO.
Add reviews for your future customers.
Show existing customers you care about what they think.
Reach a more technology driven demographic.
For help creating your custom Google Review QR code, like the one above, contact us.
I had a discussion with a peer yesterday regarding the importance (or lack thereof) of Google Page Rank. I'm a firm believer that Page Rank us fairly useless. Here's a blog a wrote on the topic a few months ago regarding Google Page Rank.
Why? I’ll tell you why...
You can’t track Page Rank.
Typically, the most accurate Page Rank data is months old. Unless you can accurately and frequently get new data for a metric, it’s pretty much useless. Page Rank has nothing to do with SEO rankings.
A website can have a Page Rank of 0, and still garner organic rankings and search traffic.
Page Rank does not take social results into account.
So, what should you do? Don't worry about Page Rank. Instead, worry about creating engaging content, promoting it via social media, and converting those content readers into leads and customers.
We typically don’t use this blog to promote things. It’s bad form. So, please forgive us for it this one time.
On Thursday, June 2nd, there is a Social Media and E- Marketing Summit occurring in Marlboro, MA. We don’t feel bad promoting this one event on our blog, because it goes so hand in hand with what we talk about on here a couple of times a week, and if you are a local reader of our blog, this event will certainly be something worth visiting. It’s happening at the Marriot Courtyard at 75 Felton Street, in Marlboro, MA. Tickets are on sale, and you need to pre-register for this event NOW.
The topics being discussed are Social Media 101, the Power of Video, the Latest in Mobile Marketing, Understanding Website Analytics, Email Marketing, and Leveraging Social Media for your small business.
For those still on the fence, let me help make it even easier: It goes from 7:30 until 11:45, so it won’t take up your entire day. Basically, come in, learn, and go do it on your own.
While you’re there, if you have any additional questions about any of the information covered, our Senior Account Executive Mike Ivas will be available to schedule one-on-one consultant appointments, that will personalize all of this new material and help you custom tailor it to your specific business needs. So be sure to keep an eye out for him!
Thanks for reading while I shamelessly promote this event! We’ll get back to the practical advice for your advertising needs next post.
Last week Google launched an upgrade to its search engine, adding social results for users signed in with their Google accounts. In addition to traditional website search results, searchers will start seeing results from their friends on Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.
Where's Facebook?Facebook won't give access to its social data as they want to compete with Google to be the leader of search in the coming years. Because of this, Google has tried to work with just about every other social platform to make the search more social.
For a better understanding of these changes, check out this video from Google:
With this new take on search, rank is officially dead as a metric for companies to obsess over. It doesn't matter if you rank high for a certain keyword -- Google is scaling personalized/social search.
What Does This Mean?
It means that everyone who searches on Google will see a different set of results, based location, search history and connections across major social media platforms.
It also means that companies need to be more active on social media. The number of connections you have on different social media platforms now directly correlates to the number of people you can possibly reach through Google search results.
What Should You Do?
Stop worrying about whether or not you have enough relevent keywords crammed into each page on your Website. Instead, focus your energy on creating rock solid content, and dispersing it through the different social media channels.
After you read this blog, type the letters “PRE” into Google today, and see what pops up as suggestions. You will see President’s Day, and President’s Day 2011. Google’s suggestions change based on what people are currently searching for, and so it is a safe bet that if you do the same experiment in June, you will have a completely different list of suggestions.
What does that mean to you? It means that you need to be set up to capture all of this extra traffic, that’s what!
Create a custom landing page, with President’s Day specials. Make sure that the page is titled appropriately, and that your meta data and page content are geared towards capturing the attention of search engines on this holiday. Creating additional pages for each holiday is always a good idea, since it keeps your page fresh. Do not simply change the graphics on your homepage to suit the sale; chances are this will not get picked up by search engines.
If you run a lot of Google Adwords campaigns, add President’s Day into your description for this weekend. I am not suggesting completely changing all of the ads, but incorporate “President’s Day” into the text under your ad, as well as adding a couple of new keyword combinations.
Lastly, remember to answer your phones, and greet your customers appropriately. Every customer should be welcomed with a “Happy President’s Day”. Even if you do not do any special pricing in your line of business for this holiday, simply mentioning it implies that the customer is receiving a better deal. I know this last part has nothing to do with SEO, it’s just sound business advice.
For over 60 years Davis Advertising has been the stand-out ad agency in Central Massachusetts. In 2007, riding the wave of great success we opened a second office in Greenville, South Carolina. Davis Advertising brings the talents of over 50 marketing professionals together to create the kind of strategic thinking that sells. You can’t move a product until you move a person and the advertising we generate has proven extremely effective in doing just that. Davis Advertising creates marketing that stands out from the crowd, conveys a message that hits home and sells your product or service. So contact us today and get the small town service you want with the big-city creative and capabilities you deserve.
