A new report on the Q4 2009 is reporting a 111% increase in average small business search spending.  More and more businesses are turning online to find new customers and this report maybe demonstrating that many businesses are finding their stride online.   Of course, search engine marketing may not be for every industry, but you can see in the chart below who the top spenders are.

Here are some other highlights from the report:

Continue reading “Big growth in Video, Search Engine Marketing for Small Business – New report” »

Small business owners we talk to love to embrace the do-it-yourself attitude, so we thought it would be a good post to present the basics for do-it-yourself online marketing for local businesses.  We often here: “Why should I pay someone if I can do it myself?”  Of course, that’s usually if we had all the time in the world.  Unfortunately, Local SEO can become time consuming very quickly, especially due to the complexity of the fragmented local search market.  However, it is possible for owners to work on a little bit each month to improve their rankings on Google Maps for Local SEO, or improve their Yelp profile (Online Reputation Management) to reach new traffic, or add fresh content or a blog to their website (Search Engine Optimization) in order to improve their Google Search Rankings.  Part of the do-it-yourself marketing strategy is to prioritize your efforts based on what you’re trying to achieve and the amount of work that goes into each effort.  Many of our customers seem to ask a lot of the same questions, so we wanted to put together this list and prioritize it for those that are just getting started. Local SEO in the context of this article is the activity of updating your company’s business listings  and content (on both local search sites and your website) in order to improve your rankings on sites like Google Maps, Yelp, and other local sites and search engines.  After you have mastered, Local SEO, then you can start tackling Social Media Optimization (SMO), but that’s for another time.  Here we go, hope you’ve had your coffee today! Continue reading “How to improve rankings on google maps; Top 10 tips for Local SEO” »

There are literally hundreds of SEO tools out there today, so we are often asked what tools are the best.   Realistically, it depends on what you’re goals are and how much time and effort you’re willing to put in.  Local Search Marketing and Local SEO can be very time consuming depending on the competitiveness of your industry and area.  For local businesses, that targeting could also depend on your type of business.  A dry cleaner may only want to target a neighborhood, while an auto dealership may be targeting a city or even a whole county. Since chatmeter is a tool for local businesses, we thought it would be best to share some of the tools we find most useful for local SEO and we’ve narrowed the list to some of the easiest to use tools as well.  As you can see, this is grouped by functional goals as well. To be successful in local SEO, you often need to implement many of these to reach the most valuable real estate, that first page of the search results.  These tools are separated into Listing Management and Website Optimization. Continue reading “Local Search Marketing and SEO Tools / Services” »

Small business owners that I work with continue to have mixed feelings about Yelp today.  Many wish it would die off along with online reviews, but it seems that Yelp and customer reviews are here to stay.  Yelp had over a 60% increase in traffic in 2009.  Furthermore, the recent rumors of a potential acquisition (Google and Microsoft) along with a $25 million new investment have provided greater validity to its business model.   Inc. magazine recently published a great article about the Yelp model, along with its benefits and challenges included.  In addition, with AT&T’s announcement of Buzz.com (soon to be released consumer site that allows customers to create favorite places and share positive, brief comments with friends via their social circles, like Facebook), the world of online customer reviews will continue to grow as well. Forbes just provided some greater insight here. Buzz.com is set to launch in the next couple months.  Small businesses must continue to stay on top of their reviews and continue to encourage new ones in order to properly manage their online reputation. Yelp has had a very busy couple months. Here are some of the key points: Continue reading “Keep an eye on Yelp’s Growth: Key for Reputation Management” »

As a small business owner, it can be difficult to keep up with the number of changes going on across all the different local sites, from Google Maps, Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Citysearch, …not to mention all the local sites in your town that keep changing as well.  However, in the last month alone, Google Place Pages has undergone a frenzy of important changes.  This posting will get you up to speed on what’s new and what you can do to improve your profile, increase your ranking on Google Maps and other local SEO strategies for the small business.

• Enhanced Listings
• Reviews added from local media, bloggers, and unconventional review sources
• Special Announcements and messaging

Continue reading “Google Enhanced Listings – January Updates” »