4 Ways to Lose Business in Google Local Search

I've seen a number of businesses get high up in the Google Local Search results because they do a lot of things right. But I've seen far more of them get great visibility simply because they screw up fewer things than the guy down the street.

When people type a local term into Google, you want to be the top business in the area. You probably already set up a listing, so that your business shows up locally. But you may not like the visibility you're getting.

If you avoid some common pitfalls, chances are you'll outpull the nearby competition. Avoid these 4 local-visibility killers:

1. Not having a website is the surest way to lose local business. I looked at several hundred #1 local listings across the country. 93% of them had websites. My advice is quick and simple to implement: just slap a site up there. It doesn't even have to be very good. Just have someone get the website up running. Make it pretty later.

2. You lose easy visibility if you don't include a picture next to your local Google listing. When you're editing your listing, you have the option to add a thumbnail-sized photo next to it. If you have a photo, you stand out from all the businesses that don't. Why don't many businesses bother to add the photo? They're idiots. It's quick and easy visibility.

3. You repulse customers if you don't keep an eye on your reviews. Customers can write you reviews. Not only does Google give you a boost if you get positive feedback, but customers see those reviews. Many people don't know that one of those reviews gets excerpted and shown beneath your listing. You can't control which one gets excerpted, and there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to it (Google won't say). To avoid having a negative review displayed for all to see, you need to check your reviews occasionally and drum up as many positive ones as possible (from your customers), so that the chances are small of a bad one being displayed.

4. Without "Local Business Ads" you're probably losing out. It maybe isn't a good option if you're in a super-competitive market and are just starting out. But in most other situations it's a good idea. That's because if you have paid local ads in addition to your local listing in Google (free), you get an extra marker on the map. You can even put your custom logo in that map marker. You can't have either of those benefits unless you get the local ads. There are specific ways to do this (I don't have room to describe it here), but the point is if you're not totally strapped for cash, you can quickly and easily get a leg up in Google Local Search results.

Phil Rozek just showed you what not to do. But he'll also show you 3 no-cost solutions you can use this afternoon: just go to http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/ to find out 3 ways to get a quick boost in local visibility with no hassle and no money spent.

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How to List Your Local Business Online

If you are operating a business in your local area, you would want it's popularity to rise so that you can work towards gaining more and more reputation and customers from your area, so that you can beat the competition. You can use several ways to make sure that you are on the top in your local area; one of the ways could be advertising. You need to learn how to list your local business online because it's a medium that will be around for a long time and it is growing rapidly today.

In this article, I plan on telling you about the various methods of advertising you could use, as well as methods to list your local business online.

If you are operation a local business, I am pretty sure that your advertising budget will be really small, and you would look to find out the methods by which you can advertise without going over your limits. You would also want your advertisement to be effective in the sense that it would reach out to all of your targeted consumers. Well, the first method you could use is by advertising in newspapers.

Printing ads in the newspapers can be relatively easy and cheap. You would just have to go at the newspaper agency and give them the details of the advertisement that you want to place in their newspaper. Another option that you could utilize would be through the flyers. However, you should take care with them because if their circulation is not in the right area, you wouldn't benefit from them at all.

You could also benefit from the yellow pages directory in this regard, but the thing is that not many people pay attention to yellow pages or the newspaper ads or the flyers these days. More and more people are now spending time online, which gives you even more of a reason to start listing your local business online and getting the potential customer leads from there. In this way, you would be spending less amount of money on the advertisements and will gain more because the internet has a lot of target public.

The internet can be the most affordable deal for you, and also the most wisest choice, which is due to the fact that a lot of people, about 78% in total, search on the internet for the products or services that they want to acquire, and they would go around buying from the dealer available nearest from their house. In this way, if you list your local business online, you would get a lot of hits per day because there would be a lot of people in your area that don't even know that you are running this local business, and just because they searched on the internet for it, they would come to you and buy the stuff that you are selling.

You don't need your website to be real colorful or anything. Just put on a simple website, and make sure that you apply SEO or Search Engine Optimization on it, so that your website appears on the top of the list among the others in your competition.

If you want to learn how to list your website yourself visit Small Business Secrets

If you want a top small business company to manage your internet promotion visit CT Local SEO.

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Local Internet Marketing - How a Small Business Can Dominate by Using These Internet Marketing Tips

Small businesses that are on a very tight budget can find out quickly that implementing local internet marketing techniques can give them the biggest bang for their buck. These techniques that I am about to discuss can be very easily implemented and tailored for any small business. There is a big misconception regarding marketing on the internet. Most small businesses are not aware that latest marketing mediums can pin point your requested audience. Marketing agencies are now using tools like geo-targeting and mapping software to ensure you maximize your advertising budgets.

One surefire quick local internet marketing technique is using the Pay Per Click model of advertising. Pay per click is also known as PPC is where you purchase clicks from a list of keywords you are requesting. Each surfer that clicks on your advertising is sent to your website of choosing. These clicks can range between .01 cents to as high as $15 per click. The costs are determined by how much your competition is willing to pay for that particular keyword. There are highly competitive keywords such as weight loss and insurance that are proven to be very costly. So to ensure you maximize your return on investment than you should be more specific with your targeting. Marketing middleman companies like Google and MSN allow you to pick the target audience you want. So if you are an accountant then you can pick keywords such as CPA or Tax Returns in your list. Then continue to narrow it down by picking what city, state, or country you want the users to be from. This is a surefire method for local internet marketing.

Second method of local internet marketing is posting to online classifieds internet marketing websites. I live in a fairly large metropolitan city. There is a wide and variety of internet marketing channels that I can use. The prices for this type of marketing are fairly cheap. They can be ranged from free and the highest I ever seen is $200 a month. A good free method is posting to Craigslist.com. Posting ads on Craigslist is the largest free internet classified marketing method you can implement. Depending on the size of your local city, there is a potential for tons of local leads that are ready to call your business on an ongoing basis. Typically, paid classifieds are purchased on a monthly basis. Try to see if there is a local newspaper in your city. More than likely they will also have a website. Find out if they sell marketing space for small businesses in the area.

Third method of local internet marketing is searching for blogs and forums that discuss issues and news regarding your local area. Do a quick internet Google search by typing "Your City+Blogs" or "Your City+Forums". Do not be surprised if you see plenty of articles and postings about your local area. There is always some local citizen complaining about the city government not taking care of something. Or maybe there is an upcoming fall festival that is getting noticed. Find out the contact information of the website owner and call or email them. Just say you are willing to purchase advertising space on their website. Once I used this technique and received thousands of visitors for nearly pennies.

As you can see, local internet marketing can be a highly effective tool in getting your business promoted. Research has shown that nearly 75% of all visitors to a website started their initial search from a search engine. So therefore you should ensure your website is optimized to achieve very good keyword rankings. To ensure this is done correctly then a business should seek out a local internet marketing expert. A good expert in local internet marketing is Business Online Coach (http://www.businessonlinecoach.com/ ). Sign up for their free daily email course and download the free marketing guide book today.

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Blogging For Local Business Owners - 3 Key Reasons Why You Should Do It

Blogging for local business is creating a buzz across the globe, with many new internet marketers and local business owners wondering what all the fuzz is about. Alongside will it actually work for an SME. This article will give you just 3 reasons why this should be a major part of your online marketing in lancashire or Texas.

Let's get the facts straight blogging is a fundamental part of the new social media phenomenon and is spreading the globe. Blogs started off as an online diary. Yet within a matter of months business owners saw the advantages of being able to connect with their audience in an easy way without having to know all this HTML stuff.

1. SEO and getting ranked

Blogs are full of content and that is what Google love. More relevant content and Google will visit your site. This means for your key words you will stand a much better chance of being ranked on either page one or page two. With the various plugins to a blog now available this actually makes the whole process a really easy thing to do. Blogs are designed to be posted on so this is a sure fire way of adding more and more content. Let's say you post one article a day relevant for your market every day of the year. Yes I know that is probably unrealistic. Yet if you did that you would have a site with over three hundred pages of content. Imagine how that would improve your search engine ranking positions rankings.

2. Market Research

Because of the interactive nature of a blog people are likely to come along and interact with you. Some might even leave the odd comment. Due to the slightly anonymous nature of blogging you often get more honest comments as well. This is live market research that costs nothing. Which for any business owner is vital to ensure marketing success?

3. Ease of Use

If you can type in word you can blog. Actually never a truer word has been said, Heck even the New York Times has a blog. Though you might not want to do it yourself and you can set your own blog up. It is really inexpensive. Many hosting companies now have Cpanel which often means there is a one click installation. I know that may sound scary trust me it isn't. I have taught many boomers how to get their first blog on line and many business owners who needed a low cost way to get online and test a market out.

Whatever you want to do on line a blog can accomplish this. Why not test it out tonight?

Denise Oyston is a Online marketing Consultant Lancashire and is unique in having a sales and marketing background. If you've enjoyed all the useful information you read here about Online marketing ,you'll love everything else you find at Onlinemarketinglancashire.

You can also get a Free Onlinemarketing 7 part course At her blog Najedaonlinemarketing.

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Effective Internet Marketing Strategies for Local Business

The internet allows you to reach consumers all over the world, but a business owner should not discount the business that comes from your own backyard. Local business is very important to those who own stores as well as those that provide services. It is important that your internet marketing strategy properly addresses your local business as well.

More and more consumers rely on the internet in order to find out information. You need to set up your website so that it contains the information that a local customer would find valuable. Your hours of operation should be easy to locate on the site. You should also include detailed directions on how to arrive at your business. You can even set up interactive maps and direction finders to enhance the user’s experience. All of your contact information should be provided as well.

When you are working on getting your website recognized, you need to pay attention to search engine optimization. You will want your business to come up in the search results for your local area. Your website should contain keywords that are related to what your business does and where you are located. A website that is tailored for Boston residents would need to have a Boston internet marketing strategy and utilize Boston SEO. Likewise, a website that is tailored for Boston would need to have an internet marketing strategy that is targeted towards Boston. There are many ways to ensure your site is search engine optimized. There are also experts in the field that can help set up your site in order to get the best results. You should also look to see if there are sites that your link could be placed on. For instance, does your town have a website? Does the chamber of commerce have a listing of local businesses online? How about local radio or television station websites? Do they have a sponsorship option? Your goal is to get your website shown to as many local people as possible in the hopes they will turn into your clients.

You will also want to ensure that your website name is included in all of your local marketing. It should be printed on business cards, flyers, menus and price lists. You should include your website link in all emails you send and on all invoices or receipts you pass out. Once you have an effective internet marketing strategy that targets the local consumers, you should notice an increase in your local business.

Natalie Aranda writes about marketing. You will want your business to come up in the search results for your local area. Your website should contain keywords that are related to what your business does and where you are located. A website that is tailored for Boston residents would need to have a Boston internet marketing strategy and utilize Boston SEO. Likewise, a website that is tailored for Boston would need to have a strategy that is targeted towards Boston internet marketing. There are many ways to ensure your site is search engine optimized.

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In A Global Economy, Local Business Still Stands Out

Even though many companies have "gone global", offering services and products irrelevant of geographic location of their offices or their clients, the market for local business seems to have weathered the global phenomenon, in fact, many consumers still look to a local business first to provide them with what they need.

The Face to Face Difference. In a society where people are becoming more and more reliant on email, IM's and texting to talk, and where social media sites have replaced having coffee with friends, when it comes time to find a local business contractors, many people still feel the need of face to face business transactions. Especially when that business will bring a contractor into the home or office of their client, making a connection on a personal level helps to establish the trust needed for both parties.

Whisper Down The Lane. Married with the idea of using local business for an added personal touch in their business transactions is the reliance on word of mouth advertising when choosing a local business to work with. No matter how much money any company spends on marketing and advertising tools, it is the word of mouth advertising that still reigns supreme in the world of business development. It can make a small company that has performed well for their local clients and can also be devastating for the largest company that has failed to fulfill their business promises.

Keep an Ear Out. For a local business looking for leads, keeping their ear to their local market through surveys or marketing tests can give them effective leads that their sales team can go about turning into new clients. Prospects can be found via email marketing, auto-responders from websites and even from advertisements, web and print alike. Doing regular due diligence in their target market can be highly beneficial to their business. Locally, this obvious interest in their clientele can not only build brand awareness for their company but can generate that ultra-powerful word of mouth advertising that will build their bottom line over time.

FinditLocal411 is a community resource for Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana businesses. We are committed community members looking to help build the businesses and families around us. Get seen on FinditLocal411 (http://www.finditlocal411.com/) - the ultimate one-stop resource for all things local, including local business reviews and coupons, classifieds, events, and deals! If you're looking to get noticed in the Michiana area, we can help.

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