Small Businesses Gearing Up for Mobile Marketing - Slowly

Small businesses that were early adopters of mobile marketing have begun to earn tangible returns on their mobile investments, according to a study by Web.com. Even so, most small businesses haven't embraced mobile marketing yet.

Among surveyed owners of small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees), fully six in ten (60%) have a Web presence, but few have a mobile Web presence:

·  26% have a mobile-friendly website (the same layout and content as standard site adjusted to suit a smartphone screen).

·  14% have a stand-alone mobile website (content and layout designed specifically for mobile purposes). 

Even so, more than two-thirds (69%) of small business owners strongly agree (39%) or agree (30%) that mobile marketing is crucial to their growth over the next five years.

Moreover, among those 14% of small business owners with a mobile presence, 84% say they have generated increases in new business activity due to their mobile marketing efforts. 

Additional findings from Web.com's Small Business Mobile Survey, conducted by Lab42 Market Research:

Mobile search strategies are lacking

Despite rapid increases in mobile search volumes, 61% of small businesses do not have a mobile search strategy (in order to be found via mobile device).

The biggest hurdle to mobile is limited time and resources

Time and resource limitations (36%) and lack of budget (31%) are the top two hurdles that prevent small businesses from moving forward with mobile.

Moreover, 64% of small business owners are acting as their one-person marketing team—in addition to running other aspects of their business.

However, mobile budgets are on the rise: 64% of small business owners say they plan to spend more on mobile marketing in 2012, 33% plan to spend the same amount, and 3% plan to spend less on mobile marketing in 2012.

The greatest motivation for mobile is providing better service to existing customers

Asked to rank their motivations for investing in mobile marketing, small business owners cite the following top three: 

·  Provide better service to existing customers: 38%

·  Attract more local customers: 36%

·  Gain a competitive advantage: 34% 

 
About the data: This survey was conducted online via social networks, April 5- 12, 2012, among 500 owners of small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees).

Read more: MarketingProfs

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3 Backlinking Mistakes to Avoid

A strong SEO program relies on backlinks—links to your website from external sources. "Those backlinks signal to search engines how influential and relevant your business is online," writes Chris Sheehy in an article at MarketingProfs. They "trigger local citations of your business and aid in deepening your local market penetration," he notes.

In other words, backlinks enhance your online visibility and give you an edge on the competition.

But what if you're not getting the backlinks you expect? What's going wrong? Sheehy suggests you could be making mistakes like these:

You assume backlinks will simply appear. The hard reality is that you must work for each and every link. "Businesses have to commit to the notion that just as they have to be on the hunt for their next customer, so too do they need to be vigilant with their online linking," he says.

You pursue backlinks sporadically. While the occasional flood of new links might yield good short-term results, you're better off with a consistent slow-and-steady approach that demonstrates sustained value to search engines. An hour a day "keeps the competitors away," Sheehy quips.

You're trying to game the system. Some SEO practitioners use "black hat" techniques that often improve rankings—until they're caught and the site plummets to the tenth page of results, or worse. If you stick to "white hat" techniques—those sanctioned by search engines—you'll do much better in the long run..

Thus: Don't back down from your backlinking efforts. In an ideal world, people who love your product or service would automatically link to your website; in the real world, they need ongoing encouragement to do so.

Source: MarketingProfs.

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LinkedIn 4X's Better for B2B

Among three leading social networking platforms—LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook—LinkedIn is the most effective source of leads for B2B companies, according to data from HubSpot.

 

In a study of 3,128 HubSpot B2B customers in 2011, LinkedIn generated a visitor-to-lead conversion rate of 2.60%, on average. That's four times higher than the average visitor-to-lead rate for Twitter (0.67%) and seven times higher than the average rate for Facebook (0.39%).

Moreover, LinkedIn is growing faster than Twitter and Facebook. Though LinkedIn now ranks behind Twitter and Facebook in monthly user activity, LinkedIn is growing at a much faster rate than both social networks, according to separate research from Compete.  LinkedIn attracted some 28.1 million unique visitors in March 2012, up 7.3% from 26.2 million in February, and up 60.7% from 17.5 million one year earlier.

By contrast, Twitter attracted 42.0 million unique visitors Twitter in March, up 35.5% from 31.0 million visitors a year earlier. Facebook attracted 169.9 million visitors in March, up 20.7% from 140.7 million a year earlier.

About the data: Findings are based on data from 3,128 B2B HubSpot customers that generated traffic and leads from social media in 2011, collected via the HubSpot system.

Source: MarketingProfs

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What Every New Business Should Know About Google's Ranking of Names

TCG likes to share articles of interest related to the ever changing Web world ...

Google reputation management has long become one of the most important online marketing niches. It doesn't matter whether your brand is online or not; it will be Googled.

So, before you choose your brand name, you should understand the following three major facts about how Google rates and ranks personal and business names.

 

1. Some searches have an "obvious" result

Some search queries leave almost no doubt about what a Web searcher is looking for.

Based on leaked information about Google's rating guidelines, Google distinguishes among the following three types of possible search query interpretation:

That said, in some cases, even when a word has several possible meanings (and the user's intent is not clear), Google won't suggest a choice. The entire first page of search results will be dominated by one meaning of the word.

So, before you pick a particular brand term, check whether any "obvious" search results for your brand keyword exist. It is easy: Just run a quick search of a word you are planning to brand yourself with. If you find "dominant interpretation" for that search query, the first page of search results will be stacked with that meaning, as in the case of "apple":

You don't want to start a business to later find out there's no way to rank in the top 10 results for your own business name. A company named "Apple Vacations" will not rank for the word "apple," as the previous example illustrates.

2. 'Generally-known' does not mean 'obvious' (or 'dominant')

Some brands managed to turn very generic words into brand-specific queries. You won't see any fruit-related search results for a search of the term "apple," and you will not see any mention of the river when searching for "Amazon." So, no matter how obviously biased some results are, general knowledge does not really influence search results.

Even when a search term has no obviously dominant result, Google won't always focus on a better-known (or likelier) search result.

In other words, common interpretation will not necessarily rank higher than minor interpretation (especially if the latter is a brand name).

Here's an example: What's your instant association with the name Armstrong? Tour de France? Space? Moon?

The truth is, Google thinks neither Neil nor Lance Armstrong are what you are really searching for. Instead, it's much more probable that you are searching for flooring or ceiling products, pumps, or Armstrong Atlantic State University Savannah.

That's a good example of search results' giving you a not-so-obvious choice (because your initial intent is unclear).

But even if Google can't know what you are searching for, why does it bump weird results to the top of the page when the other two results are more obvious?

That's possibly because Google seems to favor brands and is likelier to suspect that your intent is navigational instead of informational (go instead of know).

When no dominant interpretation exists for a keyword, getting ranked in most SERPs is easier than you might think. All you need is to build a strong brand name.
 

3. Make your name and brand name stick together

You don't need to be a celebrity to become a dominant search result for your name in Google. All you need is a unique name.

However, though you may be unlucky enough to have the name of a celebrity or a common English name that may have hundreds of possible interpretations, you still want to rank on page one and promote your personal brand without creating an online moniker.

Google suggests one solution: Make your name and your brand name stick together, and you instantly become a dominant interpretation.
 

The following is from the aforementioned Google rating guidelines:

For example, Dave Jones is a common English name, and the query "dave jones" [English (UK)] can have no vital result because Google doesn't know which Dave Jones the user wants. However, the very specific query "dave jones codemonkey" [English (UK)] does have a clear dominant interpretation.

 

Picking your brand name is crucial, and it may take months to find a proper name for an emerging business. Making it Google-friendly is one of the most important criteria of a brand name now that everything is being "googled." So, before naming your business, search—a lot!

by Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is a search and social enthusiast and professional blogger. One of her recent major projects is MyBlogGuest, a free platform connecting blog owners to guest authors for mutual benefit.

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2011 was an exciting year for the web.

We saw a fast and furious transition in website development.  New products such as 1&1, Go-Daddy, and Intuit lead consumers to believe that launching a website is as easy as turning on your computer.  Oh if it were only that easy.  There are many questions and concerns that should addressed when developing a website, such as:

·         What is the goal of you website?

·         How will you measure the results of your website?

·         Who is your target audience?

·         Is your website easy to navigate?

·         Will your website be found?

·         How secure is your website and its contents?

Unfortunately we have been called in after someone has attempted to launch their own site because:

·         The site had been high jacked and turn into a Russian prescription site or worse

·         The site had been hacked and content changed or erased

·         The site had not had any hits after launching

·         Hosting costs were much higher that advertised due to “add-ons”

·         The process actually took much longer than anticipated and the result was not as expected

Time, money, and frustration would have been saved if we had been involved at the outset.  As a start-up business you only have one chance to make a good first impression.  Are you willing to risk that first impression with a “do-it-yourself” website? 

As an existing business with a dated website, how do you compare to your competitors?  Are you taking advantage of the latest technology?

Contact for a free, no obligation consultation on the best way to design and develop your website.  We know the web, it’s all we do!

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The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors

There really is a science to Search Engine Optimization. Search engines reward pages that have the right combination of ranking factors – from key words to links. Thus Search Engine Land created the "Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors.” Whether you're an SEO newbie, or a seasoned pro, you'll want to take a look.

The table separates SEO "elements" into four broad categories:

On-the-Page SEO covers content, HTML and architecture with elements like:
• Research: Have you researched the keywords people may use to find your content?
• Titles: Do HTML title tags contain keywords relevant to page topics?

Off-the-Page SEO focuses on elements related to links, social networks, trust, and personal topics. For instance:
• Quality: Are links from trusted, quality or respected websites?
• Reputation: Do those respected on social networks share your content?

Violations: highlights spammy elements like:
• Stuffing: Do you excessively use keywords?
• Cloaking: Do you show search engines different pages than humans?

Blocking: includes a few variations on an element we all hope to avoid:
• Blocking: Have many people blocked your site from search results?

Source: Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/download/seotable/SearchEngineLand-Periodic-Table-of-SEO.pdf

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2438/have-you-studied-the-periodic-table-of-seo-ranking-factors#ixzz1f8EbtHR9

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How Often Should You Upgrade Your Website? Part 6 of 6

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) used to just concentrate on a few key words and how they were utilized in your website. Today there is much more involved in developing your SEO strategy. For instance, social media is now a major component of search engine algorithms, or a simpler was to say it – it pays to be popular.

Search engines are looking for key words, key phrases, how many times your website is visited, how many cross links do you have from other websites, and where do you rank from a social media perspective. You also need to ask yourself what geographic areas you want your website optimized within. Locally, statewide, regionally, nationally, or globally? Typically the smaller the area, the easier it is to optimize your website and improve your search engine ranking.

We have seen a trend lately of companies not paying attention to SEO due to the degrees of difficulties being added to the algorithms. We cannot caution enough against this practice as search engines are still the No. 1 method of seeking info on the web. We know it can be a daunting task to keep up, which is why we offer a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual SEO of your site for very reasonable costs.

Contact TCG today for a no obligation review of how we can help with your SEO strategy.

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