Google Places For Less Informed Dallas Internet Marketers

Posted on February 9, 2011 by mike

Hello, my name is Mike Stewart, a local Dallas Google Advertising Expert who specializes in Google Places Local Search SEO, and I am writing you just to let you know how wonderful an advertising vehicle Google Places is. It literally is your business card on the web, except that you can get it free and there are no limits to customizing it. You can even receive phone calls from new prospects and existing customers. Clearly, there is no end in sight to this remarkable tool. It even helps people find your business location on internet and mobile maps. Why some people do not use it, and especially those in the Dallas area, is simply stupefying. However, it may only be because nobody has told these people about the multifarious benefits of joining Google Places.

Perhaps the best thing about it is that membership is free, and one can get started right away, by simply going to the Google homepage and then clicking the Business Solutions link. You should be able to find Google Places on the lower left side of the screen. It is important to take your time with the setup, making sure that you enter all your information so that people can find you easily, or even contact you directly from the Google website. They can also contact you from their Gmail console, another Google concoction that is certainly transforming the way people are using VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol to seamlessly make phone calls on the Web. No actual phones are needed, only noise-cancelling headsets equipped with a microphone which are preferably meant to work with a computer whether it is a desktop or a laptop.

The Google product developers have a very good reason for creating Google Places. It is not just about revenue and monetizing “the new yellow pages.” However, what most people do not know is that since the mighty giant is a search engine of the highest order, your listing in Places by default also makes your enterprise visible to search engine spiders on the Web. These spiders number in the thousands and all they do; day in and day out is collect and archive information for the Information Superhighway. No doubt, these automated search bots are nice and turn into your friends by allowing indexing of your business information and thus far, joining Places is one of the best ways to accomplish this. One thing about these bots is that they are equipped with a sprinkling of artificial intelligence, which enables them to discern content-rich Web pages through their so-called algorithms. The last word is simply a fancy way of saying programming the spiders to not be a fool and fetch only information that will provide the most benefit to Internet surfers. Make no joke about it; the bots are getting more intelligent on a daily basis. They are just like Internet routers, which eventually learn to figure out the best way to go.

As an SEO consultant for many years, I know for a fact that the bots stumble when they find a video or a picture online just like they do with word content and links to other web pages. This is because they have been programmed with a bias for text or words. One quick solution is to make sure you religiously put keyword rich tags on your videos and pictures to help the mighty bots, which by the way, do not get any remuneration for the work that they do.

Within a short amount of time, I have attempted to give you some basic information about how someone like myself, a Dallas Google Advertising Expert who specializes in Google Places Local Search SEO, can help you gain a better understanding of search engine techniques. This is just a drop in the bucket, and there is so much more to learn. There is no doubt that if you hire an expert like me, your business is just going to fly on the Web, soaring like an eagle above your competition. Why wait when you can be part of Google Places for free today.

(if you are already listed on Google Places but are having trouble ranking at the top of these search results, or ranking multiple times in Google results, feel free to shoot me an email to mike (at) smbseo (dot) com and I will give you some practical advice on getting your business to the top. Mention this blog post and I won’t charge you… so long as you take my advice!)

Dallas SEO Consultant Explains Blended Organic Place Search

Posted on December 14, 2010 by mike

Google’s New Local SEO: Place Search

Good news small businesses, if you have focused on holistic SEO, Google has swung its local search engine results rankings in your favor.

Bad news, if you purchased some $150.00 per month or other monthly plan for “Guaranteed First Page Rankings” you are probably feeling some pain right about now… Hopefully these big changes by Google will end the scamming by so-called “Google Maps Local Search Optimization” providers claiming to provide a monthly service that includes claiming your listing on behalf of your business and then providing some sort of continued support for the listing. So what exactly do these scammers provide?

Google recently merged local and organic search engine results in a more blended layout, called Place Search or PlaceRank. Previously search engine results for Google Places or Maps and Google’s Organic or Natural search engine results have been separated. Google’s 3-pack, 7-pack, and 10-pack of listings have been replaced by this new blended local listing results that combine the Places rankings and Organic search engine optimization. The new results pages look just like organic results but display much of the content from the previous map listing search engine results directly on the search results pages, content such as the “A, B, C, D Pinpoints”, citations from local IYPs and Directories, prominent reviews with a link to the PlacePage, and also the websites meta-description. The geo-centric map has been moved from the top left to the top right side above the Google AdWords sponsored pay per click ads.

The ranking factors have not changed, they have just been merged in a combine score and the local rankings have shifted towards both local search optimization strategies such as directory listing optimization, reviews and UGC (user generated content), but also combines organic SEO efforts including on-page optimization, such as meta-titles and descriptions, and offline authority or branded term query traffic volume (how often do folks search for your business name on Google?)

If you had been practicing holistic local search engine optimization, content strategy, social media interaction and promotion, you would remain constantly prepared for these kinds of “winds of change” with Google’s algorithm. A local SEO service like SMB SEO can help you stay ahead of the shifts in local search.

My clients get a healthy dose of article and blog content, combined with pay per click or ppc management for AdWords and AdCenter campaigns, on-page SEO, link building, and all the transparent measurement tools offered including web ranking reports daily, Google Analytics, Woopra Real-Time Analytics, Call Measurement eand Tracking, and AdWords reporting directly from Google. My agency even does advanced analytics segmentation so we can separate traffic sources from Country, Device (mobile vs pc) and multimedia vs local IYP vs social etc…. great stuff let me tell you.

When you stick to a holistic approach you don’t have to worry about losing your single spot on the page. In many cases our clients dominate search engine results and show up many times on the first page of Google.

I have always said that there are not shortcuts to online marketing success, and with these big shifts by the #1 search engine, if you hire an agency like SMB SEO to handle your Dallas Internet Marketing efforts, you will be impressed with our results, expertise, and value.

To find out more information on our Google Places OptimizationLocal Search Strategies just call 214-267-9553.

Google and the Future Death of Yellow Pages

Posted on September 26, 2010 by mike

Ask any small and medium-sized business how they get new customers quick and easy, they will tell you it is about “being in the right place at the right time.” For many decades the battle for this prized position was waged in the pages of yellow pages phone books across America.

In the year 2000, after leaving high school, I joined Verizon Information Services sales at the TCC. My job responsibility was to call on small businesses across the country to sell yellow page ads from VIS’s conveniently centralized call center located near Dallas TX. Most of the accounts the TCC handled were small, typically spending less than $100.00 per month. The bulk of these “advertisers” paid for listings that were enhanced with bold font, red color, or in multiple categories. Just about every business NEEDED the presence in the phonebook to find new customers and retain old ones. Since then the TCC’s book of business has dramatically shrunk. One way to tell how irrelevant listings in phone books are now is the decline in yellow pages mail fraud. The TCC mailed renewal notices with rate increases to the majority of the small accounts that it sold. As GTE/Verizon’s mail-out procedures also permitted companies to scam businesses with “fake bills” for yellow pages advertisements. This phonebook scam business is now about as successful as advertising the opportunity to receive large sums of money from a Nigerian diplomat.

Small businesses no longer care whether they are represented with listings in the phonebook as they did in the past.

“Just because your business is relevant today, does not mean it will be relevant tomorrow”

Long gone are the days when being in the phonebook was do or die. Businesses literally timed “grand openings” around the date of yellow pages deliveries. The TCC, at what is now called SuperMedia, is rampant with sales fraud. What was once a “cash cow” in mail-out renewal revenue for the Verizon Yellow Pages, is now the epicenter of Yellow Pages fraud. The cancellation rate for listings is greater than that of those that advertise with display ads. Even Verizon has admitted that people no longer use the “white pages” directories, yet yellow pages publishers seem to somehow think that means they still want the yellow version of the bulky recycle bin ready paper weights. Considering that Verizon is now in a battle with bankruptcy trustees over the Verizon/Idearc spin-off stock fraud scam, I am sure things are going to get interesting very soon.

Today, people naturally assume that “Google has killed the yellow pages.” I must clarify to you that this is simply not true. Why you might ask? The yellow blood of the phonebook business is on smartphones and those that possess them.

SMART PHONES KILLED THE YELLOW PAGES

Don’t get me wrong, yellow page directories will still have a place with rural populations, pint-sized versions, and opted-in delivery magazine styled publications with incentives (like Groupon) for subscribing. Fancy gimmicks won’t win you the hearts of small businesses.

Mobile browser based search applications is a booming business. And for good reason, mobile answers where via convenient geo-location based applications and devices. The challenges of picking up the right directory with the proper local scoping are no more.

I believe the most viable local advertising company is the one that embraces the fragmentation of local search (although Google Places, and sooner than later Facebook Places, which uses Bing Maps, will monopolize the space if it secures mobile check-in properties) and makes it easy for businesses to interact with online communities, manage reputations, promote on the fly, and build a list of fans and advocates. The challenge is how do you go about eating an elephant like this? We all know the answer, one bite at a time. The real challenge is remembering where you left off. You can’t win overnight. The tools required are nothing like chainsaws and hacksaws, they are like scalpels, sensors, and precision measurement devices. Unlike traditional yellow pages ad buying, new media is effectively measured. Results are transparent. Pricing is ‘in line’ with performance. Having the biggest budget no longer wins the battle. I find it humorous that so many of your local category killer companies are struggling to adapt.

One of the key challenges for large media companies, such as traditional yellow pages publishers like SuperMedia and DexOne, is attention to detail and strategy. It must be a challenge to have to compete with small independent search engine marketing experts like SMB SEO. First off, independent marketing consultants work on behalf of a client, not the client and the clients competition. Putting the client first and focusing on the client provides a strategic advantage. Knowing what marketing messages to share, such as events, promotions, and work load makes a difference. I suggest that if your internet marketing company is focused on outsourcing fulfillment activities to India, you might want to reconsider who it is you hired to provide your search marketing services.

So, what is next? Systems! I am building the “World’s Best” small business advertising system to manage not just local search, but IT functions, HR functions, communication, marketing, software, hardware, payroll, point-of-sale, work-flow, and much more. I don’t have a name for it just yet, so I will just call it my “SMB SEO Toolbox” or “SEO in a box.” I know it doesn’t really have a great ring to it, but slapping a great name on an upcoming idea would be putting the cart before the horse.

You see, fancy gimmicks, catchy names and so-called guarantees only get you so far. I wouldn’t bet the farm on that as a business model. Sure you might win over a few dumb schmucks, but sooner or later they will realize that the service they were sold does not match the service they are receiving. Why is that?

Search engine marketing without analytics is dumb
Search engine marketing without website landing page optimization is dumber
Search engine marketing resellers who markup clicks on Google are the dumbest.

Yellow pages companies have traditionally been pretty good at traffic. They have never been known for doing a great job “servicing” customers. Yellow page companies don’t focus on servicing as much as selling. I often suggest to my clients to consider buying traffic from sites like YP.com, SuperPages.com, Local.com and the like, but never hire them to provide a service. Never hire them to build your companies website or manage online advertising beyond the web property that they own and drive traffic to local businesses from.

I am looking forward to this coming week. First, I can’t wait for my follow-up meeting with the folks at CorePlus to discuss this enterprise level centralized virtual desktop ( I must say, big long fancy names like this one might help them sell a few seats! ) idea. Secondly, go Cowboys… let’s hope you can finally knock off a win against the Houston Texans, I am sure it will be a Civil War of sorts.
Cheers,

Mike

smbSEO is sponsoring the DFWSEM.org meeting on May 19th, topic is LOCAL SEARCH!

Posted on May 13, 2010 by mike

smbSEO is sponsoring the DFWSEM meeting for May 19th. Topic is local search. I couldn’t be more excited! See ya there!

We are sending out invites to select local business owners this week. If you didn’t get one, you can view it here:

DFWSEM.org invite for Local Search Marketing Panel on May 19th

For more information on this local search marketing training in Dallas, go to www.DFWSEM.org! Just click here.

*EDIT:
here is a picture from the event!

Small Business Guide

to Local SEO Search Engine Optimization

If you knew there was going to be a war between your business and your competitors, would you wait to prepare?

I recently had a lengthy discussion on Facebook (of all places) with a sales rep at one of the largest yellow pages publishing companies in the United States. She was defending the value of print yellow pages. At the end of our lengthy discussion, I saw that she failed to comprehend my argument about local search and usage of print yellow pages. I made a comment that it is a challenge to “sell” phone book ads in rural markets where smart phones like the iPhone and Droid are widely purchased. I told her that in rural markets usage of print yellow pages is still heavy. I hate to say I told you so, but after selling phone book ads for over 9 years, I can tell you that if your small business is still investing the majority of your advertising dollars in phone book ads, and you are in an urban or suburban market, you need a serious wake-up call!

The war between small businesses to rank at the top of Google search engine results is now upon us. If you are late in preparing for this war, it is time to catch up! With more and more businesses planning on using local search to acquire new customers, it is imperative that you work with a local search engine optimization and marketing expert before it is too late. Decline of print usage will increase at an astounding rate thanks to mobile browsers, decreased costs for internet access, and continued success of geo-location search results by search engines like Google.

Google controls around 70% of all searches performed on the web. Google is the leader of search. In 2007 Google launched a big change in its algorythm (the factors that determine how search engine results are populated on search engine results pages) called Universal Search. Universal Search was essentially the beginning of blended search engine results. Google’s maps or local listings became a common result for consumers who search on Google. Internet Yellow Pages sites, like YellowPages.com, have been declining in usage since their own search engine optimization efforts can not account for the fact that Google is displaying 10 or 7-packs of local listing results, instead of results from Internet Yellow Pages sites.

With search engines specializing in local business searches, the yellow pages are quickly becoming an aged advertising, marketing, and business tool. Instead, millions of Americans are turning towards the internet to find local businesses instead of flipping pages in an oversized bulky phone book that you never asked to receive.

If you are just getting started with local search engine optimization, here are a few tips and words of advice to incorporate local search marketing to your small business marketing mix:

First, Create or Claim Your Business Listing on Google Maps-

Go to www.Google.com/Local/Add and create or verify your businesses listing. Often times the listings are originated from yellow pages directories who, like Google, typically obtain the information from Acxiom or InfoUSA. (at one time the yellow pages companies had a distinct advantage (monopoly) due to access to phone company listing information)

Include the following bits of information in your listing:

- your website address

- your categories or areas of service/practice and products

-try to include keywords in your company name or title

-make sure the address you use is also on your websites pages

- avoid the use of a toll-free phone number

- fill out a general business description that contains keywords related to your industry

Listing verifications are performed by Google via phone or snail mail.

Free listings from Yellow Pages websites also can help get you listed in local search results. It is not necessary to advertise on sites like SuperPages.com, YP.com, or Local.com. Google does not give you credit for investing extra money on these sites. Most of the clients whom I have worked with over the years do not get a significant amount of calls or clicks from these internet yellow pages sites. Local search is extremely fragmented with many different sites.

If you want to also increase your rankings on Google Maps, it helps to have ratings and reviews on the following sites:

Your businesses ratings and reviews on sites like Kudzu, InsiderPages, Yelp, CitySearch and others makes a huge difference on whether or not you rank at the top. This is called CITATIONS. I often recommend to clients that they create an offline buzz to these sites for client reviews.

After you create your Google listing, you should next create a listing on Yahoo Local by going to http://local.yahoo.com and then Bing Local by going to http://www.bing.com/maps/ for the Bing Local Listing Center.

If you are having trouble ranking on Google Maps, or want additional help setting up your local listings, you can get your business listing optimized for local search by SMB SEO, starting at just $299.00 one-time.

Just a word of caution: Do NOT allow companies to claim your listing, unless they do so under an email account created for you or by you. There are many scam artists who are charging clients as much as $100.00 per month just to setup a local listing.

When SMB SEO sets up your listing, we also submit it to 7 or as much as 21 different local search directories. This service is called local directory submission and optimization. It is a key component of local search engine optimization.

Cheers!

Mike Stewart

Director of Search Marketing and the Dallas Google Guru

Services

Price of Local Search Engine Marketing SEO in Dallas for Small Businesses

Budgeting for local search engine marketing can be a challenging task. To most small business owners, understanding the costs and prices for internet marketing is not something that is shared or transparent. Most traditional internet advertising agencies tightly hold rate cards for Local SEO from businesses. Prices are not broken up by services provided. We have taken the confusion out of pricing local seo.

SMB SEO offers the following local search engine optimization services in our monthly search marketing retainer depending on our client’s individual needs and local search internet marketing challenges. No cookie cutter product solution. We specialize in a holistic search engine marketing approach. At smbSEO we believe that search is a verb, an action. It takes this fundamental holistic approach with many actions to rank at the top of search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com.

We also help our clients rank high on sites like YouTube and Yelp.com. We offer reputation management (a fancy word for Reputation-Based SEO) and paid search engine marketing, which is also known as pay-per-click marketing.

What makes smbSEO different from most traditional Dallas internet marketing firms is our transparent pricing and simplified fee approach. We offer an affordable monthly retainer that has no contract term length (such as a yellow pages publisher that requires you to pay for the advertisement for 12 months.)

Here’s our local search engine marketing rates:

SMB SEO Pricing Details:

-Local Directory/Map Listing Insertion: $499.00 for 21 local search sites (help with Google Maps ranking)

Local listing optimization is the process of optimizing local listing profiles on sites such as Google Places (Google Maps), Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, and other important local search directories. This process combined with the proper citation (ratings and reviews) influence and further optimization of these profiles helps ensure that your small business ranks under local search results (such as: Lewisville Tx Family Lawyer, Pet Waste Removal Dallas, or Bail Bonds Dallas. )

See our local listing optimization service page for more information, just click here.

(can be included in retainer)

-Website in WordPress or Joomla CMS: $1500.00 to $3000.00+ (basic website, extensive detailed graphics extra)
(normally not included in retainer unless stated otherwise)

WordPress and Joomla are the top 2 website content management systems on the planet. A couple of advantages of an open source content management system include the large community of contributors (plug-ins, extentions, and overall number of developers on the platform,) ability to evolve (the internet changes everyday,) and the fact that being locked in to a proprietary content management system by a single website development or website hosting provider is the old way of building a website.

-Video Production: $1000.00+ (filmed the last 2 weeks of the month, 5 day turn-around)
(normally not included in retainer unless stated otherwise)

We work with graduates or students with the Dallas Art Institute who are well versed in Video Production. Our Dallas Video Production services are affordable to small businesses. We also optimize videos for YouTube, Hulu, and MetaCafe video distribution and high rankings. Our videos also show up in Google search engine results pages for common local queries that your customers search for everyday.

-Article Writing: $45/400 word or $60/800 word article
(included in retainer up to 5 articles per month)

We provide expert search engine optimized copy by experienced local SEO copywriters. Sites that do not have a scheduled, effective, frequent content strategy do not rank as well. Content is the key to building the online authority your site needs to rank high on search engines. SEO Copywriting is a skill that many bloggers are not familiar with. You have to focus on blogging and content. But in reality your content or blogging strategy must be monetized. SMB SEO takes SEO Copywriting to a different level with content distribution services via social media, article, press release, and search engine distribution methods.

Our Press Release writing services are separate. Slightly higher cost per word than traditional copy writing, but not as expensive as most advertising agencies.

-On-Page SEO: $100/hr
(included in retainer)

-Link Building: $100/hr
(included in retainer)

-Video Search Engine Optimization: $100.00
(included in retainer)

YouTube video search engine optimization (VSEO) is about helping your videos rank at the top of search engine results and Video distribution channels like YouTube.com, which is the most popular video destination on the internet.

-Advanced Call Metrics: $100/url/month and 12 cents per minute (includes call tracking, recording, routing, voicemail, web chat etc)
(not included in retainer)

-Ghost Blogging: $60.00/ post
(included in retainer)

-Logo Design: $500.00 (includes more than 20 different design choices)
(normally not included in retainer unless stated otherwise)

Logos……. but with options!

-Pay Per Click Campaign Build-Out: $100.00/hr (includes AdWords, MSN AdCenter, and Yahoo Search Marketing accounts)
(normally not included in retainer unless stated otherwise)

-Pay Per Click Management: $299.00/month
(included in retainer)

-Social Media Profile Setup: $250.00 each one time fee each. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.com, Flickr, etc
(included in retainer)

Additional Services Offered in SEO/PPC Retainer:

Monthly On-Site Changes
Keyword Research
Blog Articles
Linking Articles
Local Business Listings
Logo Design
Website Design
Check WebRanking 3 times per week
PPC Build
PPC Management
Ghost Blogging
Ghost Writing
Reputation Management
Crisis Management
Social Media Setup
Social Media Posting
Social Media Linking
Online Promotions
Analytics
Conversion Optimization
Website Content Writing
Images and Image Search Optimization
Website Banners
Video Refurbishing
Video Blogging

* Not all services available every single month. Client receives approx. 10-15 hours of service every month. SMB SEO reserves the right to end this agreement. Deposit required to begin services. All services are month to month with 30 days notice for cancellations

Maps & Local Listings

Optimized Local Search Services make the Internet smaller for your business.

smbSEO’s optimized local search listings are for High Google search rankings. When a customer is looking for “what” you do – “where” you do it, they find you.

Optimized Local Search Services by smbSEO

The are included in our monthly SEO retainer.

	Pick 7	Pick 14	Pick 21
	Specialized businesses in suburban sized areas (under 200,000 pop.)	Typical businesses in suburban sized areas	Competitive businesses and/or larger cities (200,000 plus pop.)
One-time Fee (No renewals)	$299+tax	$399+tax	$499+tax
Number of Comprehensive Business Listings	Top 7 Local Search Destinations designed to optimize for Google.	Top 14 Local Search Destinations designed to optimize for Google / Yahoo! / Bing.	Top 21 Local Search Destinations designed to optimize for Google / Yahoo! / Bing / Facebook