Last year, online marketing for local companies crossed over from slightly overwhelming to completely overwhelming.  Figuring out how to create a consistent online presence across their website, local profiles, and social networks have left many local business owners scratching their heads and not knowing what to do.

Here are 5 local online marketing mistakes I saw and how they can be fixed

1. Static website without a blog — many local companies still have a brochure website that hasn’t been updated since 2006.  We know this because the copyright date in the footer is stuck in the past.  This problem is easily remedied by migrating the website to WordPress, a platform that has the ability to manage website pages and blog postings.
2. No call to action buttons on website — when I show up on your website and I read what you do, what next?  Give me a call to action button that offers something of value that will make me give you my email address so I can get access.  If you’ve given me something useful, I won’t mind hearing from you again in the future.
3. Unclaimed or incomplete Google Places profile — this is a big one because of the role Google now plays in local company discovery.  20% of all searches have local intent and by not claiming and completing your company’s Google Places profile, you give your competitors who have an advantage when Google determines which is the most relevant and authoritative company to display in the local search results.  Claim and complete your Google Places profile to give Google as much information as possible about your company as you can.
4. Missing address or phone number on website — this still happens and not only does it make it difficult for your website visitors to contact you, but it makes it difficult for Google to associate your website with your Google Places profile.  Any valuable content that you’ve added to your website can help Google better understand what your company is all about and affect when your Google Places profile is displayed in the search results.
5. No social network presence — Twitter, Facebook, and now Google+ are here to stay.  If you haven’t yet created a profile on each social network, then now’s the time.  Even if you’re not ready to start making updates, get the profiles setup so you can at least choose a profile name that’s consistent with your company name.  Upload your company logo so there’s a simple connection to your brand.

It’s not too late to make these adjustments, and they will go a long way to help you improve your overall online presence.  People’s expectations of how companies, even local companies, present themselves online has greatly increased and those companies perceived as “getting it” will be the ones who flourish in 2012 and beyond.

Image by TehLonz

What other online marketing mistakes have you seen local companies make?

Today, the biggest online marketing challenge for local businesses is not putting up a website, it’s knowing what else needs to be established online to give the business total ownership of their local online presence.

Franchise businesses that have the power of corporate branding and messaging have a definite advantage, but they must evolve beyond providing their franchisees with a stock landing page hanging off the corporate URL with the only differences being name, address, and phone number.

Here are 11 things national brands can provide their local representatives to enable them to create a comprehensive local marketing presence as defined in Local SEO – Owning Your Local Online Presence:

1. Ditch the landing page and give reps the ability to register their own domain on a simple hosting account and install WordPress with a single click
2. Provide a branded WordPress theme that can be installed and easily customized with local imagery either taken by the rep or provided through a royalty-free repository
3. Distribute a recommended site map and keyword-rich seed content so reps know what needs to be included on their site
4. Publish a list of relevant blog topics with examples of how they can be used during different times of the year — the same topic can often be used in June and January, but with slight alterations due to the season
5. Give instructions on how to claim and complete Google Places and Bing profiles for maximum visibility for specific searches
6. Provide a list of recommended local profile sites like Yelp, MerchantCircle, and Manta where the rep can publish an online business listing
7. Distribute a walk-through of how to create a Facebook page, Twitter account, and LinkedIn profile to build out a presence in social media
8. Teach reps how to create a Google Analytics account and implement tracking on their website
9. Create training on getting started using social networks, getting followers, and posting non-salesy, value-added updates
10. Develop email auto responder capabilities that can be plugged into rep websites to nurture leads into prospects
11. Provide reps with customizable presentations that can be used for webinars for local prospects

Ultimately, a successful local online presence that captures leads and converts them to prospects requires technology, content, process, and training.  Armed with knowing exactly what they need to do, local reps can do some of the pieces themselves or can easily turn to their nephew, assistant, or an outsourcer who will have a specific playbook to follow.

Not knowing what needs to be done is what prevents many local business owners from establishing a successful local online presence, but a national brand has the resources to create and maintain the online marketing guidelines that will help their revenue generators be successful.

What else can national brands do to connect to a local presence?

Image by loop_oh

Local SEO master, Mike Blumenthal, put together an awesome infographic at the beginning of this year that clearly lays out the various assets and activities required to create a comprehensive local online presence.  The core begins with the business name, phone number, and domain name that can then be used to populate the primary local online assets — N.A.P. (an acronym for Name, Address, Phone Number which are key pieces of data for syncing local profile data), website, and blog.

Web Equity by Mike Blumenthal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.blumenthals.com.

Owning Local Web Presence in Search

The left side of the chart describes what assets / activities are help with search visibility.  The breadth of which are local directory listings which need to exist to allow links, citations, and reviews to be created and picked up by Google.  Creating local directory profiles on sites that are authoritative and relevant to your industry provide clear indicators to Google about the context of your company when determining to display your Places listing or website in search results.

Owning Local Web Presence in Social Media

On the other side of the graphic, Mike presents those components essential to owning your social media presence online.  If word of mouth is the lifeblood of many local companies, then social media is like word of mouth on steroids as it gives the business owner the ability to stay in direct contact with prospects and customers through social media updates focused on news, events, or just dropping knowledge on that companies area of expertise.

To really own your online presence, you must stake a claim on both sides — search and social — and engage in some level of ongoing activity.  The ubiquity of scale marketing which used to not be accessible to local companies is now an affordable option that can dwarf traditional direct marketing (mailers, flyers, postcards, etc.) in cost effectiveness and new business creation.

Have you fully claimed your local online presence?

I continue to be asked about Google+ pages and what businesses should be doing about them.

My recommendation is that, at minimim, business owners should create a Google+ page for their business and let their current followers know through their website and other social network updates.

If you see a significant increase in the number of followers of your Google+ page, then you know it’s a channel where your prospects and customers are gravitating towards.  If there is no increase in Google+ followers, then continue to publish in those channels where your followers are most responsive.

Here are some articles and resources from around the web about the recent Google+ update and what it means for your business:

Google+ Pages Now Open For Businesses, Brands, Places & More - Search Engine Land

Google Plus Rolls Out Brand Pages - Duct Tape Marketing

Introducing Google Plus Pages, Google Plus For Businesses & Brands – ReelSEO

HOW-TO: Create a Google+ Page For Your Company - Accelerated Online

How to Optimize Your Google+ Business Page [Free Ebook] - HubSpot

I recommend reading each of these, then creating your own Google+ page for your company.  If you’ve already created one for Facebook, the process is similar, if not easier.

Do you plan to create a Google+ page for your business?

About two weeks ago, Google released an update to the way it displays local results to give more prominence to Google Places data on the blended search results page.  In cases where Google can determine an exact match, typically for searches that include a business name and location reference, they are now displaying results like what appears below.

Notice the new look for the Places result:

1. Five images from the Google Places profile appear as thumbnails
2. A short snippet from the Places descriptions appears as “At a glance” info
3. The hours appear
4. In this case, the closest subway appears that displays the Google Maps page when clicked so you can get directions easily

Importance of Completing a Google Places Profile

In a previous on how to claim a Google Places profile, I talked about making sure the profile be completed as thoroughly as possible.  You can see why.

Both images and details are being surfaced in the blended search results, and when Google displays internal site links for your site, you can dominate most of the search results.  Mostly, this will only happen when people search specifically for your company name, but it demonstrates authority in the online world.

To make your business shine online, claim and complete your Google Places profile to take advantage of the prominence that Google now gives to its Places profiles in the blended search results.

Have you noticed the new Google Places look for your business or other businesses when searching?

Last week, Google released a highly anticipated featured to Google+ — business pages.  Now, any organization can create a presence on Google+ and use the Circle and Hangout features to connect to prospects and customers.  Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Google+ allows your to post updates about your business and interact with followers.

Does your business need to be on Google+?  Time will tell, but the first step is setting up a profile for your business and letting others know that your now setup on Google+.

Step 1) Start the creation process by going to http://plus.google.com and click on the Create a Google+ Page link in the right sidebar.

Step 2) Select the type of organization you are.  Different information will need to be completed and will be displayed depending on the type of your organization.

Step 3) Complete basic info about your organization including your page name (use your company name here), website, business category, and privacy settings.  For most effectiveness, leave the privacy settings on the default “Any Google+ user”.

Step 4) Write a brief tagline or statement that describes how your company helps its customers.  Add an image or logo that will represent your company visually on Google+.

Step 5) Tell people in your existing circles on Google+ about your new company page, and give them a reason to start following you.  This message will come from you and not your new page.

Step 6) You’re all set!  One last thing to note, you can act as your Google+ page or as yourself when creating posts and following others.  There’s a toggle on the left side of your page that allows you to easily switch back and forth.

Are you going to create a Google+ page for your company?

The value proposition behind an inbound marketing campaign is the acquisition of new customers which means new revenue.  Along the way to acquiring new customers from your inbound marketing efforts, there are several other important metrics that can be used to measure the success of your efforts.

Number of Website Visitors

When you first launch your company website, you won’t have any visitors so you’ll need to tap into sources of visitors where your target customers are already online.  This may include search engines, online directories, blogs, forums, and social media sites.

Having a search-friendly website that is updated regularly will allow you to build out your online presence and provide Google with page inventory that can appear in search results when your target customers are looking for ways in which you can help them.  Depending on your industry, this process of increasing traffic via search can take from 3-12 months.

As the number of website visitors builds, the goal is to convert as many as possible to leads through compelling offers, call to action buttons, and landing pages.  If the number of visitors is increasing, but the number of leads is not increasing, then this can mean that there is a disconnect between the website visitors and the compelling offers.  Without clear feedback on what’s missing from an offer, the next step would be to launch another offer that may be a better fit for your website visitors.

In this scenario, there has been success in increasing the number of website visitors, but there is still a gap between the number of website visitors and the number of leads.

Number of Leads

As the number of leads increases, the goal is then to convert those leads to sales.  In industries that have a very short sales cycle, then it makes sense to contact the lead quickly to further assess their needs, and to figure out exactly how you can help.  For other industries, that have a longer sales cycle, following up with the lead with an invitation to a webinar or sending an automated email sequence with valuable information can be the next step.

If you find your leads are not converting to customers, then you may want to look at several criteria such as the characteristics of the leads as well as the product and service you’re offering to make sure they are in close enough alignment.

Besides number of new customers, the number of leads and number of website visitors are two important metrics that can be used to measure the success of your inbound marketing program.  Making adjustments over time will help ensure that your investment is ultimately converting into new revenue for your company.

Image by jayneandd

Are there other ways you measure the success of your inbound marketing program?

Last week, Google announced that it will start encrypting all searches that originate from Google.com from users who are logged in.  In addition, for these users, Google will no longer pass detailed referrer information including keywords to websites that are clicked through from the Google search results.  This announcement has ruffled feathers in the SEO world, but what does it really mean?

Loss of Data for Decision Making

In the search engine marketing world, search engine optimization specialists (SEOs) use keywords and keyword volume data to determine how people are searching online so they can formulate strategies to achieve visibility for their clients for searches that are relevant to their businesses.  Keyword data is acquired from a variety of sources — Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Google Analytics, WordTracker, SEOMoz, Raven Tools.

The idea that keyword data collection will be inhibited by Google scares SEOs as it will make planning their SEO strategies harder and more difficult to measure.  For SEOs who rely only on keyword metrics to substantiate their value, this will be a real challenge to their business.

Continue Marketing Your Content Online

For most people marketing online though, they won’t be affected.  Directional keyword data will continue to be available in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  While it’s not the most accurate source of information, it provides enough relative guidance to make informed keyword targeting decisions.

If you’re already creating content on a regular basis against a list of target keywords, continue doing so.  While you may lose some insight into the exact number of clicks you are receiving for each keyword phrase, you will still have relative measurements as not every search from Google will originate on their site from logged in users.

As concerns about online privacy and security increase for a company like Google that has mountains of data about what people are searching for online, expect further revisions in their policy.  As long as Google’s mission remains “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” businesses and consumers will need to evolve along with Google.

Image by Kapungo

How do you think Google’s recent announcement will affect your business?

A website is a dynamic representation of your company online.  It’s your homebase for people to learn about you and your company, your area of expertise, and how you can help solve their problems.

While it’s likely that you will have a higher level of interaction with prospects and customers on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, your website is where your best content originates and gives you a mechanism to convert your website visitors to leads.

Here are 8 situations when you should add new content to your website:

1. When you receive testimonials or positive reviews from your customers
2. When you receive any press mentions or coverage
3. When you launch a new product or service
4. When you are appearing at an upcoming event as a presenter or exhibitor
5. After you give your presentation, post the slides
6. When you add a new member to your team
7. When you publish an article in a trade journal or magazine
8. When you’re trying to target a specific keyword phrase for SEO purposes

What Type of Content to Add

Websites that have an integrated blog section have an advantage because a blog is designed for timely, topical content.  Plus, blogs can be subscribed to and blog postings easily distributed through RSS feeds and social bookmarking sites.  So most content updates can begin with a blog posting.

When you want to add content that is more persistent and needs to reside within a particular section of your website, then creating a new web page makes the most sense.  Here you can provide as much detail as possible.  You can still leverage the blog posting to summarize and let people know that the new page exists.

Add content to your website on a regular basis, and you will give it a dynamic feel that will keep people interested in what you’re doing and what you have to say.

Image by Search Engine People Blog

What are some other times when you should add new content to your website?

Selecting the keyword phrases to target with your SEO efforts is a critical part of kicking off any new SEO project.  Pick the wrong keywords and you’ll have minimal impact on your website visibility because either no one’s searching for those keywords and thinking about the type of solutions you provide or those same keywords are targeted by hundreds of other websites.

Here are 3 ways that will help you identify which keywords are the right keywords for you to target.

Listen to your prospects and customers

Think about the conversations you’ve had with prospects and customers.  How do they describe what it is you do?  Most likely, they aren’t using technical or industry jargon, but are expressing their needs in terms of a particular outcome or resolution.  If you’re a divorce lawyer, it’s obvious to target the keyword phrase “divorce lawyer”, but so is every other divorce lawyer.

Instead, think about the specific issues your clients are asking you to resolve.  It might be child custody or property issues.  Phrases your prospects or clients use when describing their problem to you are a good indicator of the types of phrases their typing into Google when beginning their research.

Identify search volume and competitiveness

Once you have identified five to ten target keyword phrases, use the free Google AdWords Keyword tool to find the approximate monthly search volume and competitiveness.  This data is provided through Google’s paid search business, but it serves as a good proxy for what keyword phrases are being targeted for SEO efforts.

The idea here is to select keyword phrases with maximum search volume and minimum competitiveness.  Not enough search volume or too much competition, and your SEO efforts won’t generate any results.  While there aren’t any hard and fast rules about which keywords to select, start with those keywords with at least 1,000 searches per month and a medium level of competitiveness.  Depending on how specific your keyword phrase is though, you may need to choose a search volume less than 1,000.  If you can dominate position one on Google though, this may be sufficient.

Perform competitive research

After refining your keyword selection and having a good idea of the overall volume and competitiveness, use those keywords to run searches on Google to get an understanding of your search competition.  Look at the first page of results and look at the companies that appear there.  Are they your competitors in the real world?  If not, then you either need to refine your keywords or you’ve successfully identified an opportunity to provide the most relevant information to people searching those keyword phrases who are in need of the services you provide.

Selecting the right keywords is one of the most challenging parts of SEO, but these 3 ways to figure out which keywords are the right keywords can help you make a more informed decision on which to base your SEO activity.

Image by Abulic Monkey

What other ways do you use to identify the right keywords?