Online Yellowpage Directories | Are they important?

 Milwaukee advertisers have a lot to choose from when it comes to advertising.

As a small business owner your phone rings with another advertising salesperson telling you that they are the best option for you,  Newspapers and yellow Page companies have had dwindling usage in what was a robust market for businesses looking to be found by potential customers.  In order to combat the loss of revenue these companies are experiencing, they have developed online local directories.  But are they as useful as their old print products?  Click here to read more....

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Milwaukee Local Advertising online tips

 Local Milwaukee and surrounding businesses need to make sure they are found on all the local search directories and engines along with social media.   Here is a great article explaining....

One phrase that has been ubiquitous when discussing offsite SEO tactics for the past decade is “link neighborhoods.” There have been countless articles, presentations and graphics describing what they are, how to identify them and how best to determine what your neighborhood is so you can focus your link building efforts there.
While most recent articles focus more on how to prevent your site from being associated with bad neighborhoods, trying to associate your site with good neighborhoods is still considered a best practice.
With the advent of local search rising in importance over the past six years, citations have been rising in importance.
There are many tools available to help you mine the citations, but it's quite easy to categorize them into neighborhoods similarly to how links exist. Let's look at some examples of citation neighborhoods, and tips for how you can take advantage of them.

Local Properties of Search Engines

The first set of sites to focus on isn’t really in a neighborhood at all but includes the sites that use the citations in different neighborhoods to verify and confirm the accuracy of their information. Specifically, Google+ Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local should all be ground zero for any local search marketing effort. Until a business has claimed and optimized their presence on these, citation generation is probably not the best use of the business owner’s time.
Tip: Claim your business listings, clean up duplicates, and fill out as much information as possible on Google+ Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local.

Large Directory Sites

There are dozens of sites in this neighborhood that have large amounts of structured citations, including Citysearch, YellowPages and Superpages. Filled with business listings dominated by data from the primary data aggregators (Localeze, InfoUSA, and Acxiom), businesses should obtain and clean up their citations in this neighborhood after taking care of listings on Google+ Local, Bing & Yahoo.
Tip: Utilize Localeze, InfoUSA and Acxiom to make sure that the information in this neighborhood of the local ecosystem is correct.

Social Media Sites

This neighborhood is rapidly becoming the number one place to generate unstructured citations and can influence heavily how you perform in the search engines for queries with local intent. Facebook and Twitter lead the way, but businesses should not overlook LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Besides making sure they have a business profile properly filled out, business owners should also work toward having people mention and tag their businesses on these sites.
Tip: On Facebook, ask your followers questions that would encourage them to respond with information that would add to your citation count. “Complete the following phrase and add to your timeline and be entered into our sweepstakes! ‘My favorite memory at [your city’s name]’s is...’”

Review Sites

Yelp is still the 800 pound gorilla in this neighborhood, but Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and Judy’s Book are all important sites as well. Also, many sites in other neighborhoods – including the search engines themselves – offer user reviews which are more opportunities to build citations in those neighborhoods.
Tip: Claim your listings on these sites directly and make sure your business information is correct and secondary information optimized.

Niche Local Sites

A true “Neighborhood” in the classic sense of the word, these are going to be sites that all revolve around people’s current locations. Think of local government sites, local newspapers, local job boards, local event and meet-up sites, local restaurant bloggers, and so on. Any and all of these generally have mentions if not full citations of local businesses, and anytime a business can get its information listed on these sites can have a powerful effect on Google rankings.
Tip: On your next press release, include your address and/or phone number to build extra citations on sites in this neighborhood. Also, make sure your information appears correctly on your local Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau sites.

Niche Industry Sites

There are tons of sites out there focused on a single industry that can be great places to obtain structured and unstructured citations. Often times, sites in this neighborhood are how-to guides, forums and other user-generated content sites that make adding citations relatively easily.
Tip: Start participating on industry sites and making sure to leave your business information where and when appropriate. Adam Dorfman, December 13, 2012

Summary

While it’s unlikely that Google has become adept enough to recognize neighborhoods when it comes to citations similarly to how they are able to with links, businesses with a wide variety of citations often tend to rank better.
As Google continues to refine its local ranking algorithm, it wouldn't be surprising to see them take a more “neighborhood” view of citations in the future; so spreading out those citations sources and going for ones in relevant neighborhoods is something all local search marketers should be focusing on now.

Full article here

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

 

Why Yellow Pages Will Be Dead in Five Years

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Nick Stamoulis

Let me start of by saying that I do have a Yellow Pages listing for my SEO company, Brick Marketing. It costs me about $50 a month for the profile on the Yellow Pages website. It’s a good way to help with my local link building, get a FEW additional local visitors and YP.com is a very trusted domain, so that helps uphold the value of my link portfolio. A few months ago, I got a phone call from a Yellow Pages representative asking me if I was interested in upgrading my account. Was I super interested? Not really, but I thought I should hear the representative out and see if I get could a few more links and visitors in more regions for a little extra money each month. The numbers I heard had me floored—and not in a good way.
In order to upgrade from just a city listing to a county listing, I would need to hand over

Click here for the rest of the article from Search Engine Journal

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Successful PPC Ads

Trying to get position online against other Milwaukee advertisers can be tricky, here are some tips to building the best ppc ad copy to beat your competitors.

So much technical work goes into your online marketing that you may get lost in the minutiae. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that creative advertising still matters.
A great example: ad copywriting, which plays a crucial factor in your company’s success. Nowhere is this more evident than in PPC advertising, where you have little time to capture the attention of a potential customer.
Stop dwelling on “audience targeting” and all of the technical settings you can use. It’s far more important to write ad copy that resonates with your customers.

Full article here

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Brookfield Wi Dentist Marketing tips

If you are a dentist, you might have noticed by now that the number of patients checking Yellow Pages and calling you afterwards has drastically dropped. There are a few exceptions such as places with limited access to Internet.
Instead, it has been replaced by on-line channels such as Google, Yahoo, Yelp or other specialty directories. But what happens when patients go on-line and look for a dentist? How do they select the provider of their choice and how do they book an appointment? The following dental marketing tips will help you get a better grasp of the on-line behavior of patients:

• First and foremost, you need a website! But the era of just having something up and running is over. Besides having a beautiful, informative and engaging dental website that adds value to your patients, you need to make sure it will be viewed by enough prospective patients.
• You need engaging and reliable content on your website to educate your patients, before and after their treatment.
• You need to be at the top of the search engine results. When someone looks online, they rarely go beyond first page of Google, and most of the time they select one of the first three results. You need to be among them. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a series of techniques including on-page optimization, link building, setting up the proper analytic and submission tools such as Webmaster Tools, etc that help you improve your rank in search engines. The better SEO you have, the more visitors you will have to your website.
• You need a Google Places Page. You have to build it and manage it constantly. In local searches, Google shows the results from Google Places and they are becoming more important every day.
• Build and manage your on-line listings on Yelp, Super Pages, Online Yellow Pages and other specialty directories. Patients check your reputation on-line in those channels.
• Build your reputation. You might want to ask your patients to spread the word.
• Sometimes there are negative reviews on-line; you might want to check on-line reputation management solutions.
• Engage in social media! Your patients are on Facebook; they use Twitter and LinkedIn and watch on-line videos. Be in those channels, be active and add value to them.
• Set up a blog and engage your patients with new updates on the practice, the area or the industry.
• Have an on-line newsletter and send it to your patients regularly. They deserve to be informed.
• Make videos and educational material and put them up on the internet and your YouTube Channel. You can ask Video Marketing experts to spread the word.

Being a dentist, your time is probably limited. You might need to have your front desk take care of some of these tasks or ask for professional help. The good thing about professionals is that they know their job and won’t waste your valuable time.

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Do Milwaukee buisnesses need a middleman to advertise online?

 Nice article from Searchengineland.com regarding advertising online and the different ways an SMB may use a middleman to market their business.  I have to agree with this article but disagree in the fact that he see's automation in the future.  I think that SEO, Local, and Social media is changing so rapidly that the need for constant monitoring would be required by somebody other then automation if you want to continue to be successful.
Full article here

Having worked in the local search space for a while, I am often asked how is it that SMBs are so slow in adopting self-serve systems in their online advertising. And indeed, in the age of Internet advertising, when anyone can purchase keywords on search engines, is there really a need for a middleman anymore?

by  Hanan Lifshitz

While an important function of these middlemen is to convince the local plumber or dentist to spend their hard earned money on online advertising, they also help guide the SMB owner through the planning phases of the ad campaign, explaining the various options and helping to optimize the campaign.
In this post, I will review a number of local search platforms, from the traditional to the new, and examine the complexity that is involved in advertising on them.
Print Yellow Pages, the forefathers of SMB advertising, are relatively easy to understand – in order to gain visibility, an SMB has to purchase a large ad on the first page of his category. Pretty straightforward and simple:

Online Yellow Pages have added new features to their offerings, but the concept is still mostly the same – visibility is determined by size and placement of the SMB’s ad:

Local Search Sites such as CitySearch have added yet another level of complexity with features such as performance advertising that require some additional explaining.

And then we get to what many regard as the most effective form of local online marketing – search advertising. Search Engines have opened a whole new spectrum of options that make it far more difficult to understand and manage local ad campaigns. There is constant discussion on what SMBs should do to rank better (a couple of weeks ago, David Mihm posted his second volume of Local Search Ranking Factors – 27 experts analyzed and evaluated 49 criteria). Many SMBs may think that if they appear “first” on Google Maps in a certain relevant search, their job is done… However, this is often far from true.
Take for instance the following searches, conducted a few minutes apart, and the results they generate.
Search 1: plumbing contractor los angeles

Search 2: plumbing contractors los angeles – note that “The Best Plumber I Ever Had”, #1 from the previous list, is nowhere to be found.

Search 3: cheap plumber los angeles

Search 4: emergency plumbing los angeles, ca – and here is “The Best Plumber I Ever Had” again…

There are many more possible searches in this category and it is very likely that each of them will yield different results. Small, seemingly insignificant variations of a keyword (e.g. from singular to plural) or a geographic modifier (adding “ca”) can change the content of the 10 pack. This inherent complexity has bred a whole new class of companies like ReachLocal, Yodle and Webvisible, that help SMBs effectively manage such campaigns.
Looking at the development in the local advertising industry, from print to online, and even within the online world, it is clear that if anything, local search advertising services are getting more complicated. It is ironic that the question of whether mediators are still required in this industry has intensified in parallel to the ever growing complexity of online advertising. A complexity that for now, for the majority of SMB owners, can be overcome only with the help of… a middleman.
Being a big believer in self-serve, I predict that one day these complicated ad services will also be automated into systems that mask their complexity and enable users (SMBs) to simply enter their needs and budget and get the right solution. However, that will take some time and until then, the middleman will remain a critical component of this eco-system.

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

How to Advertise for Your Plumbing Business In Milwaukee

Plumbing contractors in Milwaukee and surrounding areas are looking to find new ways for people to find them.  Out, or on its way out is Yellow Pages, Newspapers and other traditional media.  With the internet exploding as the go to media for pretty much anything, Plumbers need to find a way to get themselves a better representation so they are found better by local customers.  Still, some traditional media needs to be done to be found.   Here are a few good ideas

The plumbing industry is fairly saturated in a large number of geographic markets, but the target market of plumbing businesses — anyone with a home, apartment complex or office — is so vast that there is always room for new entrants. You can gain a foothold in the plumbing industry by applying innovative, cost-efficient advertising techniques to make your company stand out from established competitors, and by offering first-class customer service.
 by David Ingram, Demand Media

Step 1

Create an eye-catching logo and slogan. A good deal of plumbers do not utilize these time-honored advertising techniques, and those who do can gain a competitive advantage in picking up new clients. Consumers may subconsciously associate businesses with logos and slogans with higher quality and reliability, while associating others with a generic brand image.

Step 2

Use your personal and business vehicles as advertising media. Paint your logo, slogan and contact information on the sides and rear of your vehicles. Use as few words as possible when advertising this way, and make sure that passers-by and other motorists can clearly read your contact information from a reasonable distance to maximize its effectiveness.

Step 3

Pass out service brochures and promotions to apartment and office complexes. Try to secure as many partnerships with apartments and offices as possible, as this can lead to long-term growth opportunities. Offer price discounts to these large customers in return for frequent business.

Step 4

Send promotions via mail to homes in your area. Direct mail campaigns can be most effective when the advertising message has a high degree of relevance to a large number of recipients. In the case of plumbing services, virtually every home in your community is a potential client, making direct mail a highly effective technique.

Step 5

Invest extra money into searchable advertising media. Pay extra for premium listings on search engines, and foot the bill for quarter- or half-page color advertisements in local telephone books and business directories. Place advertisements in local newspapers and general-editorial community magazines as well. Think “wide, local reach” when choosing advertising outlets. Remember that your target market consists of every single home, office and apartment complex in your area.

Step 6

Place coupons in community business publications. Take advantage of opportunities to place promotions in coupon books sold by direct marketing companies and youth organizations, such as sports teams and Scout troops. Place promotions in coupon-circulars as well to increase your advertising exposure and take advantage of the circular's established delivery system.

Full article

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers.Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Why Content Marketing is a Great SEO Strategy

 Content marketing is a great SEO strategy – even better than link building. Shifting your strategy from search marketing to content marketing is increasingly leading to higher search rankings and more organic traffic.
Some tests in May that looked at the impact of Google+ to organic search performance produced some interesting results. I analyzed two sets of clients I was working with and categorized them as:

1. Websites with strong social profiles.
2. Websites with weak social profiles.

What this analysis showed was:

• Websites with weak social profiles saw a 19.5 percent reduction in organic traffic.
• Websites with strong social profiles saw a 42.6 percent increase in organic traffic.

Google is now valuing authorship, natural links, and social signals far more highly. So the next natural step is content marketing

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Google is now valuing authorship, natural links, and social signals far more highly. So the next natural step is content marketing.
Full article from  Kevin Gibbons, Search Engine Watch 

 click here


Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site

Free advertising online?  Really? Yes, Milwaukee small businesses and business anywhere can market their website online for free.  Does it work, yes.  Now, if you have the time you can get yourself found a little easier online.  Now, of course there are SEO companies and PPC companies that want to charge you an arm and a leg to market your business.  I'm not telling you that they don't work, you get what you pay for of course.  The issue is that most PPC companies are out of the price range of most small to medium businesses.  And the jury is still out on if you get what you pay for.  I posted an article about how their churn rate is still unbelievably high, here is the article. 
  It's safe to say that if your churn is high, your customers aren't too happy with your results.  You also have  out of date media companies like the yellow pages and Newspaper companies throwing their hands in to make up for their loss of revenue.  If your budget is low, here are a number of ways to help get your website in front of people that are looking for you.


 30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site 
Carrie Hill, June 26, 2012 Search Engine Watch

Are you looking for ways to market your small business website with a limited budget?
Whether it’s with established sites such as Google and Facebook, or newer outlets like Pinterest, there are plenty of options available to promote your site.
There are at least 30 ways to market your website with a time investment and no credit card required. Some of these are oldies but goodies, while others are newer and exciting avenues you may not have tried out yet.
Here are 30 things you can do today to get started marketing your website for free.

 Click here for the full article

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

Google Search Options Get Horizontal in New Test

 It may be just a bit of a minor facelift but I think that this article is correct.  Over the past year and a half Google has been working on including all of its properties in search and I think this is being done to be sure there is enough room for the integration.  I also feel that it will help in its overall look on tablets.  Here is a link to the full article from Search Engine Watch and Miranda Miller, June 21, 2012




Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.

At&t Internet Advertising

 Question about people thinking about having At&t internet advertising manage your online advertising programs.  If your butcher asks for your business to fix your furnace would you have him do it?  Its the same thing.  Honestly, for the last 100 years At&t has been banking on people paying for an ad in their yellow page directory.  Making big money on little investment.  Businesses were paying $1,000 to $20,000 per month to pay for a directory that gets published 1 time a year.  Sure it worked at the time but imagine how much the yellow page companies like At&t banked on that.  Now that yellow page usage has gone down to almost nothing in usage (yes I know some people still use it but come on, really), they have to make up for the loss.  Google is Google, Yahoo is Yahoo, and Bing is Bing.  At&t has no secret partnership with Google and neither does any other company.  It is a totally even marketplace.  At&t seems to have a ton of third party companies doing their SEO and PPC programs also (orange soda, Marchex and so forth) and a huge payroll.  So think of this very simple factor.
 If you give At&t $1000 per month to do your say, SEO, first they have to take out their portion, next, they hand it over to their third party Orange Soda, they in turn have to take out their portion, finally what is left of your investment goes to your campaign.  How much is left?  Who knows, but At&t in turn thinks that if they throw you a discount on their Yellow page print products and Yp.com product.  Whoopie do.  Save your money.  PPC?  Well, First you will need to give them their cut, then Marchex takes their cut, and finally Google and the other search engines take what is left.  Go directly to the source, Google adwords is simple but time consuming, if your time is valuable then find a local company or an independent contractor to do it for you at a flat fee.  This way you will know what your spending and where it is all going.  


Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.