local search – Page 4

This Glossary of Local Search Terms Is a Lifesaver

Last Updated: April 10, 2015

Think back to the last time you spoke with your Internet marketer or read an article about SEO. Did you find your head swimming in tech jargon? Did you feel like you needed the Rosetta Stone to translate half of what they were talking about? Don’t feel bad. The world of online advertising can be somewhat insular and, because it’s so complex, it’s almost as if a whole new language has developed around it.
Thankfully, the experts at Moz recognize the effect that SEO-speak has on the average consumer. They put together a comprehensive glossary of local search terms to help small business owners better understand what their marketing providers are talking about.
Some of the terms, like algorithm and visibility, are widely used and already familiar to the majority of Internet users. However, many of the other terms in the glossary will be new to readers. For example, do you know what long-tail keywords are? How about rich snippets? Structured citations? You get the idea. The glossary even identifies important brand names to know, including Google AdWords, Acxiom, Localeze, SuperPages, and Picasa.
Do yourself a favor and bookmark this glossary. Try to commit some of the most popular terms to memory and keep it handy for the next time you find yourself talking to a local search marketer.

For Businesses, Facebook Is Now Pay to Play

Last Updated: March 16, 2015

If you’ve been paying attention to our blog lately, you’ll know that Facebook is starting to replace Google as the destination for local search. That’s because it’s easier to ask your Facebook friends for personal recommendations than it is to comb through Google’s search results looking for a seemingly well-reviewed business. If you think about it, it’s a logical reaction against the overwhelming amount of information that comes from a Google search. Plus, the feedback you get from Facebook crowdsourcing is often much more reliable because it comes from people you actually know and trust.

That’s why Facebook ads and promotions are so popular right now. Local businesses are taking advantage of how many ready-and-willing customers are right there, searching for a plumber, electrician, or handyman for their latest project or emergency. But Facebook is smart, and it now wants you to pay for that advantage.

Sites, They Are A-Changin’

Just like all other marketing platforms, Facebook is rapidly growing and changing. We’re all taking advantage of Facebook as much as we can until it fades out of relevance and a more vital, effective platform comes along. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Facebook was a small site populated only by college students. Then, Facebook opened its doors to everyone over the age of 13. Soon after, companies and organizations were allowed profiles, and advertisements quickly followed.
Now, Facebook is swimming in content and status updates, and it has realized how much money there is to be made in advertising. As a result, Facebook has significantly limited the “organic reach” of business Pages—in other words, they’ve restricted how many people a Page’s content will reach for free. This forces businesses to pay for sponsored ads and “boosted” posts in order to reach their fans and followers. (When Google rose to power, it did a similar thing by launching AdWords.)

Small Businesses Are at a Disadvantage

But here’s the kicker: Most small business owners aren’t well versed in the complexities of paid online advertising, so they’re at quite a disadvantage with this new restriction. And even if a business owner is somewhat familiar with paid advertising from working with Google AdWords, they’ll face some confusion because Facebook’s model is substantially different from Google’s.
The difference is that Google uses a CPC (cost-per-click) model, while Facebook primarily uses a CPM (cost-per-impression) model. CPM is based on how many times Facebook shows the ad to a user, rather than how many people click on it. Facebook’s advertising options also allow you to choose an “objective,” but your ad will only perform well if you optimize correctly for that objective. That means, in some cases, you can choose a CPC model if it makes sense to do so; however, you’re all but guaranteed to spend a lot more money. At the same time, if you stick with CPM but fail to target the proper demographic, or fail to write an ad that’s compelling, you will still spend a lot of money and get dismal results.
And these are only the basics! It gets much more complicated as you dig deeper.

Grabbing Attention Is Hard

Aside from the payment models, sponsored advertising also presents another difficulty: creating effective ads. This is particularly important if you’re paying for impressions, because you want the people who see your ads to actually be affected by them. Many small business owners are exceptionally skilled at their trade but don’t necessarily know how to create attractive, eye-popping ads or how to write powerful calls to action.
Even if local businesses are able to figure out which payment model works for them, they face a whole new battle in creating ads that will stick in people’s minds—and that’s before even worrying about generating new leads!

Act Fast, Be Smart

While Facebook’s new pay-to-play model may seem like a giant hurdle, that shouldn’t stop you from using it. The reality is that Facebook is the most fertile ground for local advertising these days.
But while it’s crucial to get in on the ground floor of Facebook advertising while it’s still relatively affordable, don’t be too hasty. Make sure you do plenty of research and know exactly what your plan is before putting down your company credit card. If you don’t have a plan for ad messaging, testing, rotation, and bids, then you aren’t ready to do it yourself.

Don’t Be Afraid to Call for Backup

If that all sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. The time-saving alternative, of course, is to hire an advertising professional. This decision might even save you money. The reason is simple: By specializing in online advertising and doing it all day, every day, professionals have gotten really good at it. In this case, “really good” means driving down the CPM and making your dollars work harder for you.
As a prime example, take a look at what Prospect Genius achieved with the last campaign we ran for ourselves. We spent less per Page “Like” than 99% of other Facebook advertisers. Why? Because we eat, sleep, and breathe online marketing. By doing it every day, we’ve reached a level of expertise that, according to Facebook itself, 99% of other people have yet to reach. In fact, by the time we ended this campaign, we drove that cost-per-Like down even further to just $1.65 over the life of the campaign!

Whether you decide to advertise on your own or with a professional, make sure you aren’t missing out on the endless possibilities that an effective Facebook advertising campaign can create for your local business.

Facebook Is the New Google

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Facebook isn’t just for stalking your old classmates anymore. In the past few years, Facebook has evolved into a hub for exchanging information—everything from political opinions to diet tips to breaking news—among friends, coworkers, and relatives. People even outsource their own questions, asking trusted friends who they recommend for local doctors, dentists, hair dressers, repairmen, contractors, and so on. That means local businesses and service providers have a unique opportunity on Facebook: They can take advantage of this crowdsourcing trend and promote themselves right on Facebook, where people are already looking for info about them.
In fact, Facebook is slowly replacing Google as the go-to resource for local search. People used to turn to Google to find local appliance repairmen, plumbers, landscapers, and the like, but there was no way to know whether these professionals were actually reliable or not. Hence the uptick in crowdsourcing on Facebook. Now, people realize it’s much more easy and effective to ask the people they know and trust for their personal recommendations—instead of taking a gamble on the business that happened to have the best ranking on Google.

Optimize Your Facebook

To take advantage of this new opportunity, you must make your Facebook presence as appealing as possible to prospective customers. Here’s what you need:

Page “Likes.” A Facebook Page without fans is like a restaurant without patrons. People passing by will not go in because the restaurant is empty, implying that it’s unpopular. In other words, more “Likes” on your Page will give your business more credibility.
Reviews. Customer reviews used to just be nice to have. Then, they became integral in attracting new customers. Now, they’re a vital part of your local search rankings on Google. You simply must get your customers to leave reviews on your company’s Facebook Page.
Page activity. Your Page is a showcase for your company’s personality and expertise. You should be posting status updates, uploading photos, and sharing helpful articles on a consistent basis (at least a few times a week), otherwise your audience will see no value in following your Page.
An attractive profile. Your company’s description should be well written and captivating. Your profile picture and header should be unique, high-quality images that are relevant to your business—not grainy snapshots of your own face. You want Page visitors to see how professional your team really is.
Regular engagement. To show your audience that you care, you should be interacting with them regularly. When they comment on one of your posts, respond. When they leave a review, good or bad, thank them for their feedback. This is your chance to hear what your customers and prospects are thinking and to let them know that you’re listening.

What You Can Do Yourself

There are many aspects of social media marketing that you can take care of yourself. Maintaining a presence on Facebook is something that’s entirely within your abilities if you have the time and energy. Here are some of the Facebook tasks that are pretty DIY friendly:

Sharing status updates. It only takes a minute to share what your company has been up to for the past few days.
Uploading photos and/or videos of your work. Smartphones make it super easy to take photos and videos, and the Facebook app makes it even easier to upload them straight to your timeline.
Sharing links to relevant articles and/or blog posts. If you come across an item online that you think your audience would appreciate, it takes almost no time at all to copy and paste the link on Facebook.
Interacting with your audience (e.g. posing questions, replying to comments, etc.). As soon as you get a notification that someone has commented on a post or left you a review, take a quick moment to read it and respond. It’s also easy to engage with your fans simply by asking them about their plans for the weekend or an upcoming holiday.

What You Should Leave to Us

Of course, having some extra time on your hands isn’t always enough to make an impressive Facebook presence. If you really want to promote your brand and put yourself in front of local prospects, then you’ll need to consider some more advanced strategies. However, advanced strategies call for advanced expertise. The below tasks require the kind of experience you can only find at Prospect Genius:

Promoting sponsored ads. We have years of experience working with paid ads. We use those countless data points to identify trends and help your ads get the most visibility and highest conversion rates possible. Plus, since Facebook uses a CPM model instead of CPC (in other words, you pay for ad impressions instead of clicks), you’ll need a team that knows how to set up your campaign so you aren’t hemorrhaging money.
Implementing a “Like” campaign. Again, since we’re able to draw on our wealth of experience with paid ads, we know how to test and rotate ads so they drive the most “Likes” to your page.
Continuously sharing content. Even if you have the time to post on Facebook, you may not know exactly what to say. That’s where our SocialStream package comes in handy. Our professional writers will add a certain number of blog posts each month to your LeadTrax™ site, and our production specialists will share them on all of your social media accounts. It’s the best way to share useful, high-quality content with your audience on a consistent basis.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Social media is a lifestyle. It’s not a one-and-done campaign. Maintaining a solid Facebook presence requires lots of repetition. You need to be continuously active on your account. Your activity can’t just last for one month and then taper off, or else you’ll miss out on countless potential fans. If you don’t think you’ll be able to maintain consistent activity on Facebook, then you should seriously consider calling for reinforcements. Our professionals will give you plenty of valuable content to share and can even promote your brand through sponsored ads. You can’t afford to ignore such a vital (and mostly free) advertising platform… Give us a call and start coordinating with our team today!

Here's Why You Should Get a BBB Accreditation

Last Updated: January 30, 2015

In a recent blog post on LocalVisibilitySystem.com, Philip A. Rozek highlights several reasons why business owners should get accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Titled, “BBB Accreditation: Boring But Bumps Your Local SEO,” the post lists eight significant advantages that come with an accreditation from the Bureau.
Some of the advantages are more technical and have to do with the valuable, high-quality link that comes from your listing on the BBB website. Other advantages are easier for small business owners to wrap their heads around. For example, according to Rozek:

BBB accreditation adds credibility to your business (as many consumers put a lot of stock in the BBB as an objective resource).
Your BBB listing may serve as an extra platform for customer reviews.
The BBB website ranks very well for search terms containing business names.
The “BBB Accredited Business” seal is a symbol of quality that prospects will immediately recognize upon visiting your website.
The contact information on your listing serves as an accurate citation from a credible site (and good citations are key to local search rankings).

At Prospect Genius, we encourage all of our clients to get a BBB accreditation. We will happily add the accreditation seal to your LeadTrax™ site once it’s official. Our goal is to maximize your lead generation success, and getting this accreditation is just one small thing you can do to help us make that happen.

"Local Search Puzzle" Pieced Together in One Simple Image

Last Updated: January 7, 2015

Having trouble understanding exactly what goes into your site’s local search rankings, no matter how many times your account manager attempts to demystify it? This should help.

Linda Buquet, a local search specialist and community leader of Local Search Forum, recently posted this illustration that simplifies the “puzzle” of local search. As the image shows, the four main components of local search are:

Google (reviews and Google+)
On-page SEO
Citations
Backlinks and social signals

Let’s break those down.

1. Google

This first component is fairly self-explanatory. The state of your business’s Google+ Local page, as well as your number of customer reviews, will contribute to your ranking. The more optimized your listing is, and the more (positive) customer reviews you have, the better your ranking will be.
Prospect Genius optimizes your listings for you, but only you have control over how many reviews you get.

2. On-Page SEO

Your website’s pages must all be optimized to appeal to Google’s search algorithms. The content must be deemed “valuable,” i.e. targeted at specific search terms, fully relevant to those search terms, and generally informative.
All of Prospect Genius’s LeadTrax™ sites are designed to fulfill this component.

3. Citations

“Citation” may not be a word you’re familiar with in the context of local SEO. It refers to all of the instances in which your business name appears alongside your contact information (e.g. address and phone number). Accuracy and consistency are crucial. Citations most often come from online directories and Internet yellow pages, but they may also occur in newspapers, magazines, local blogs, and social media posts.
Several of Prospect Genius’s packages, including Directory Dominator, Core, and Premium, will add your business info to numerous directories, thus ensuring accuracy across the board and driving up your citation score.

4. Backlinks and Social Signals

Backlinks are also commonly called “inbound links.” They refer to links that exist on one website and link to your own website. A high number of backlinks will drive up your local search ranking.
The same goes for social signals, which are data points that tell Google how appealing your website is on a human level. If lots of people are sharing links to your website on social media and your company’s social media account has lots of “Likes” or followers, then those valuable social signals will boost your local search ranking.
A handful of our packages, including Core, SocialStart, and SocialStream, will set you up with Facebook and Twitter accounts, thus setting you on the right course to gain more social signals.
Need further clarification? Don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an e-mail!

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This Glossary of Local Search Terms Is a Lifesaver

Here's Why You Should Get a BBB Accreditation

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