Social Media Influence on Ranking Much Less

Way back in 2006-2007 what one did to promote one's domain on a plethora of social media platforms did, in fact, significantly improve the SEO of a given domain

Post Google Panda, not so much

it appeared to be a loop hole, one that Google saw as a threat to their business model, and Google closed much of the loop hole

For instance, in 2007 you could make a domain, share a link to that domain on Digg.com and within hours or minutes it would not only be indexed, but the link coming from Digg gave the newly created website "authority" in the Google ranking algorithm's eyes.

Flickr

adding an image to help describe your blog post did something in terms of imagery created in the human observers eyes, but Google's AI cannot "parse" the meaning of an image

but taking that same image, adding a keyword stuffed description of said image, adding tags ( also keyword stuffed ) to that image ( Hosted NOT on YOUR website, but hosted FROM Yahoo's Flickr) and "pulling" the image from Flickr (embed in your blog post the image hosted from Flickr) was one of my most effective SEO tricks

not so much now

so I'm publishing a reenactment of my previous position and now refer you to this authoritative post  on the Social Improves SEO from Stone Temple

https://www.stonetemple.com/googles-matt-cutts-understanding-social-identity-on-the-web-is-hard/


Frederick Web Promotions SEO Strategist David Bruce Jr Local Google Advertising- Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-0148 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Social Media Optimization For SEO

Even though more than a few people are learning to use social media effectively, and social media consultants are popping up like weeds; most are not incorporating Basic SEO 101 tactics and thus leaving an enormous amount of money on the table... money that's not going into the clients cash registers.

Local Google Advertising
If you, as a social media consultant, want to use your social media skills to "get your small business client" represented on social media, that's great. Every business would benefit from having a web presence, having a web presence is much better than not having one. If that local business is wanting to get more customers, more inquiries, more leads, make the phone ring to put more money in their cash registers: they need to use these two tools:

1. social media
2. web presence

But use them towards the aim of Local Google Advertising.
By itself having a twitter account for your company or your clients company (and NOT SEO optimizing it for local Google search results) is NOT likely to put much money in the cash register for your client.
Having a company Facebook page for your client and not SEO optimizing it for local Google advertising is NOT going to have that company Facebook page show up in local Google search results... just being on Facebook isnt' gonna pull that off... Having a company Facebook page CAN produce local Google advertising IF you use Basic SEO 101 Tactics.

Basic SEO
Google Ranking How and Why
Everybody wants to be #1 in Google, that goes without saying, attempting to be #1 nationwide for a broad search phrase (aka keywords, search phrases are keywords) is going to take a whole lot of work (@$100 per hour which is what our SEO/ Social Media Optimization in Frederick Md team charges)
Some social media people think it's all about creating a sense of participation within a social network community. That is ONE good reason to participate in social media but to combine social media with SEO is one killer marketing combination.

So how does one Optimize their social media for SEO?
Treat each social profile you get a profile on as if it were a page within your website's domain. The titles you use for each blog post, for each graphic or photo you upload has to be the keywords you want that company to show up in Google search results for.

The same thing you do to SEO a website can be done to SEO a social networking profile!
You've got to choose which keywords you want to be found under, and often what the business owners *thinks* he or she wants to be found under and what their prospective clients are really typing to to find what they want to purchase have little in common.
Here's a "for example"

A doctor or a lawyer or plumber or landscape company would like very much to represent to their prospective customers that they are the sole provider of said service in a geographical area.
Customers are not stupid. No one searches for lawyer, the search for lawyerS plural they want to choose from a field of companies, they are NOT looking for just one.

You're much better off getting a SEO client to do keyword research for you than a social networking consultant. We charge $100 per hour of keyword strategizing and keyword research.
Google organic search results update roughly every 6 weeks, There is a finite quantity of Google Juice available to any one site at any given time.
... therefore we advise you choose no more than 3 keyword phrases for a 6 week period

When you Google your company name you *should* also see your company twitter and company Facebook and a few other social media profiles right next to your Google listing for your company website.
Increasingly, we're finding out, where a large part of the ROI in social media is when the keyword phrases your company needs to show up in Google for is filled not ONLY with your company website but ALSO in the same Google search results page your prospective clients see your company Facebook page and your company twitter and so on and so on...

Effective Area Denial
There are only 10 open slots in any Google organic search results page, if your company occupies 4 or 5 of the 10 available... that means your competition has to fight over the few you left open.

Local SEO from Frederick Web Promotions

Fees For Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization:

Social Media Optimization: 8 hours of one on one consultation, create social media profiles with SEO ranking specifically in mind. First Hour is exploratory, we may or may not choose to represent you, we will discover if we can realistically do something for your product or service in this first hour. Fee $100.00 per hour or $700 if you live in or near Frederick Maryland  or we can do remote log in where we can both move the mouse and I can answer questions over the phone live


Google Places or Google Local Business Listing ranking
Many small businesses come to us with excellent ranking in the organic listings (sometimes called the natural search results or the main body of search results) but they are NOT ranking in the 3 pack of Google Maps. Google Maps is often the ONLY search results displayed on a smart phone. Increasingly people will start using their smart phone instead of a laptop, you need your company to rank in the top 3 or you will be virtually invisible. Fee for top 3 ranking in Google Places and one listing in the top ten Google organic listings $2000 annually

Keyword selection: one on one consultation to select effective keywords $100.00 per hour Typically our clients have a long list of keywords they’d like to be found under, we counsel you should pick no more than 3 keyword phrases, sell one thing and sell it well. You only have X amount of Google authority available to you at one time, attempting to spread a finite quantity of Google Juice over many keywords is counter productive in our experience. Every 6 weeks add 3 more keyword phrases to target, do NOT attempt all of them at once.

Managed Company Facebook Pages
Ghost write content for the supporting blogs we create, get each of them to rank in Google and create content for your company Facebook page and get the company Facebook Page we create and manage for your company to rank in Google:
$1000 to $3000 upfront: between $500 month and $1000 month for retainer fee and content creation/management. Fee’s vary depending on the competitiveness of your target market. We can hit any target, some targets are harder to hit than others. Typical Fee is $15000 annually ideally for criminal lawyers, divorce attorneys that want to dominate the local search pages for the geographical area they practice law in.

National Rankings: fees vary depending on competitiveness of the selected keyword phrase. Fees range from $14,000 annually $2000 up front, $1000 month to as much as $25,000


Regional Search Engine Marketing

785 Wembly Dr, Frederick Maryland 21701

240 397-9804

Frederick Web Promotions SEO Strategist David Bruce Jr Local Google Advertising- Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-9804 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Youtube Streamed 6.4 Billion Videos, Is Your Company There Yet?

Total Audience for Online Video Continues to Climb

Jan 12, 2010

-By Mike Shields

Despite having achieved mainstream status a few years ago, the total audience for online video continues to balloon. And YouTube’s dominance in the category seems boundless, as the site delivered more than 10 times as many video streams as any other site in the U.S. last month.

According to the latest report issued by Nielsen Online, 137.4 million Americans watched Web video in December, a healthy increase of 10.3 percent versus the same month in 2008. Those viewers streamed over 10.7 billion videos during the month, representing an increase of 11.8 percent versus the same time period a year earlier.

While the number of streams per visitor showed only marginal growth, Web video viewers are watching longer clips on average; time spent (per viewer watching online video) jumped 13.2 percent to 193.2 minutes in December.

And while Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, continues to demonstrate tremendous growth—making it the No. 2 video site on the Web—YouTube continues to account for a disproportionate amount of the video consumed on the Internet. The Google-owned property streamed over 6.4 billion clips in December, per Nielsen, while Hulu streamed almost 635 million videos. YouTube also reached nearly 106 million unique viewers versus Hulu’s 13.6 million.

Curiously, Nielsen and rival comScore continue to report audience numbers for Hulu that are miles apart in scope. While comScore’s data places YouTube far ahead of other players in the segment, it estimates Hulu’s audience to be over 43 million users—roughly 30 million users more than Nielsen’s estimates. Similarly, according to Hulu, comScore’s data indicates that the site’s average monthly streams recently topped 920 million—almost 300 million more than Nielsen tracked.

Article Source: MediaWeek.com

=====

Every car dealership needs to have a youtube video... FOR EACH CAR on it's lot

Every real estate agent needs to have a youtube video... FOR EACH HOME listed

Youtube is reported to be the second largest Search Engine... that's right: People use Youtube AS a search engine, everything you can imagine is on Youtube, probably 3 or 4 times.

Can your prospective customers find your business on youtube?

Now you prospective customer are not likely to type in your company name, they don't know who you are (nor do they care), all they want is the product or service they're looking for.

So here's what you do:

Make a video for each product, each service you offer, scratch that... make a half dozen videos for each product or service!

What happens when you are in Maryland, and looking for a Maryland Janitor?

You get this: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maryland+janitor&search_type=&aq=f

And who do you see for the top 3 videos? Our client Commercial Buildings Maintenance Inc

Now what if you were looking to get your car reupholstered and you want to find a local company that does auto upholstery, and you live in Frederick Maryland... you'd want to see examples of their work, wouldn't you?

So head over to youtube and type in Frederick auto upholstery

And who has the top 3 videos for auto upholstery in Frederick Maryland?

Our client Joe's Upholstery Shop

Frederick Web Promotions can visit your place of business and record a 3 minute video commercial for your product or service for as little as $250.00 if your place of business is located within Frederick County Maryland

And you can get that HALF OFF just for joining our Facebook Fan Page! For a limited time

Frederick Web Promotions SEO Strategist David Bruce Jr


Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 644-7530 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Social Media Optimization - Something To Add To SEO

Social Media Optimization -
A Priority For Your SEO Campaign

By Julie Ann Ross (c) 2009

Featured Video: YouTube Video Marketing - Customizing Your Channel

Social media optimization (SMO) is an imperative ingredient of your SEO campaigns. In the past, social networking sites were little more than an oddity. Today, several have received enormous ranking authority from top search engines. If you are not leveraging these sites to increase your exposure and communicate with your niche market, your search engine positions are vulnerable to your competitors.

In this article, we will describe the influence that social media optimization is currently having on search marketing. We'll also give you the rules of engagement for executing an effective SMO campaign. We'll explain what SEO social media is, and the advantage of hiring an experienced SEO consultant to spearhead your social media optimization efforts.

The Influence Of Social Media Optimization On Search Marketing

Search marketing has always relied upon exposure in the search engines to drive targeted traffic. For years, gaining that exposure was based solely upon the development of your site and generating links pointing to your site. Both are still important today. However, social media optimization has shifted the landscape of search engine marketing.

Google once maintained several disparate search platforms for blogs, videos, news, and similar types of "social" content. Each functioned as a separate search engine with its own set of natural listings. A few years ago, Google blended the listings from each platform into a system called Universal Search. Yahoo and Bing have since incorporated similar systems. Universal Search is now used as the primary index. That means blogs, videos, and news have been incorporated into the natural listings, pushing many sites off the first page. This is one of the reasons social media optimization has become a critical piece of search.

Another factor that has influenced search marketing is the increased ranking authority given to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and similar sites. These too, have quickly gained control of a significant amount of search territory.

Social media optimization preserves your current natural listings while helping you to gain even more search exposure. By using blogs, videos, and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can capture a greater number of organic positions.

Your Social Media Optimization Campaign: Rules of Engagement

There are several rules of engagement for launching and executing a social media optimization campaign. If you ignore them, your SMO efforts will be far less effective than otherwise.

First, you should do everything possible to encourage your audience to link to your site. Integrating a blog is valuable because your content can be updated over time, attracting loyal readers. Encourage readers to bookmark, tag and "Tweet" your blog posts by installing a button plug-in.

Second, link liberally as a resource for your visitors. Social media optimization is heavily dependent on helping others accomplish what they're trying to do. Once you engage your audience, help them find the resources they need by linking to them. Eventually, your site will become regarded as a resource hub, which will help you attract inbound links. That's a vital component of SEO.

Third, you must be able to identify your market. Social media optimization relies upon the connections you establish with niche communities. You need to target them properly in order to generate content and engage them. This is true whether you're engaging them through YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or your blog.

Fourth, integrate tracking tools to measure and monitor the success of your social media optimization campaign. Track mentions of your site and company. Watch your site's progress in the natural listings for your main keywords. Generate linking reports showing inbound links pointing to your domain and specific pages. Tracking your metrics is critical in order to determine whether your SMO campaign is effective.

SEO Social Media Optimization Explained

Each of the elements of a social media optimization campaign that we have described thus far dovetail seamlessly with SEO. The ongoing content creation, tagging and bookmarking, attracting inbound links by being a resource for your audience - these are essential for pushing your website higher in the search engines' listings. SEO social media optimization leverages a new set of tools to accomplish the same goal as SEO: more exposure for your site on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The challenge is knowing how to use those tools effectively.

The days of launching a basic SEO campaign within a competitive space and watching your site rise in the search engines' results are long gone. SEO has become far more complex than it was a few short years ago. This is why many companies have made the decision to hire an SEO consultant. Social media optimization has transformed SEO from a relatively straightforward strategy into a complicated science. Having an experienced hand at the wheel helps to navigate the uncertain terrain.

If you want to boost your exposure in the search engines' listings, consider social media optimization a priority.

About The Author
With 20 years in marketing, advertising and 10 years in internet marketing, Rostin Reagor Smith is on the cutting edge. Combining Social Media Optimization with more traditional SEO and SEM methods, RRS is a consulting firm specializing in enhancing clients' online presence and managing their public relations online. SEO, SEM and ORM, Online Reputation Management, are combined in this successful formula. www.RostinReagorSmith.com

Maximize your ROI (return on investment) with Expert Keyword Analysis from Frederick Web Promotions

Call David Bruce Jr @

240 397-9804

Schedule a consultation today!

Keyword Research Analysis Fee for your small business: $500.00

Become Our Fan On Facebook and Get Half Off: Keyword Research Analysis for Facebook Fans: $250.00

Frederick Web Promotions on Facebook

Frederick Web Promotions
785 Wembly Dr
Frederick Maryland 21701
240 398-9804
davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com
http://www.frederickwebpromotions.com

Frederick Web Promotions SEO Strategist David Bruce Jr

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 644-7530 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Blogs Generate GoogleJuice

GoogleJuice, what is it


A quick Google Search Returned these interesting definitions

Hacker Slang: google juice

A hypothetical substance which attracts the index bots of Google.com. In common usage, a web page or web site with high placement in the results of a particular search on Google or frequent placement in the results of a various searches is said to have “a lot of google juice” or “good google juice”. Also used to compare web pages or web sites, for example “CrackMonkey has more google juice than KPMG”.
http://www.answers.com/topic/google-juice

now this is also interesting: search Google for "what is googlejuice" and "what is google juice"

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=what+is+googlejuice%3F&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&oq=what+is+googlejuice%3F&fp=b36c7832dbb01be6

surprisingly they are different:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=zFgkS-fKLcexlAebqdSACg&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAgQBSgA&q=what+is+google+juice%3F&spell=1

I like this one:


Definitions of google juice on the Web:

• (Trust, authority, pagerank) trust / authority from Google, which flows through outgoing links to other pages.
  www.onlineseoblog.co.uk/seo-glossary/
  
• is jargon for the ability or power of a website to turn up in Google searches. A website that commonly turns up as the first or second entry in a ...
  www.shortopedia.com/I/N/Internet_slang

And I like this one too, especially since it is from Google itself:

Google Juice - What Is Google Juice?

Google Juice is a slang term for PageRank. One of the ways Google determines the relevancy of things you search for is by looking at all the backlinks, ...
google.about.com/od/g/g/google_juice.htm - Cached - Similar

I posted this blog post because I know what Google Juice is, my industry knows what it is, but our prospective customer base does NOT know what Googlejuice is...

Next Concept that our prospective customers need to learn (that is if we are to sell our services to them that is) is

Google Bomb

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=what+is+a+google+bomb&aq=f&aqi=l1&oq=what+is+a+google+bomb&fp=b36c7832dbb01be6

A Google bomb is when a group of people attempt to cause a target web page to become the #1 search result for a chosen search phrase

Every good Search Engine Optimization specialist tries to make his web pages become the #1 search result for the relevant search terms. A Google bomb is different, because it is usually a group of people trying to make a web page the #1 search result for an irrelevant or abusive search phrase. 

Definition Source: http://www.tech-faq.com/google-bomb.shtml

So why am I including this second phrase?

Because what we do is get paid to improve a company websites position in Google

Frederick Web Promotions SEO Strategist David Bruce Jr

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-9804If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

External Blogs Improve Google Ranking

Improve Google Ranking

Off page seo using external blogs.
external blogs, extra websites to improve the Google ranking of a main website.

It's not about what you do TO a website that gets it to rank... it's what you do FOR a website, and the place you do that FOR is NOT on the main website.

You want a website to perform in Google Search Results?

You create EXTRA websites, external ones that LINK TO the main site.

SEO is the art of getting your site to PERFORM in Google. the "O" in SEO is a leftover from the days back in the paleolithic ear of Search when it was discovered that you could "Optimize" a site to get Google to "like it better"

The team at Frederick Web Promotions performed an empirical test using one single blogspot.com blog (like this one) and one single wordpress.com blog with one post each and tested to see how much, if any, improvement in the ranking of one of our local Frederick Maryland SEO clients.

BT Martin Contractors internet advertising campaign

We had a client who is a remodeling contractor, they did both home remodeling and commercial remodeling. They already had a decent website but that site did not "Perform" in Google searches. By that I mean there were certain keywords that our client needed to show up in Google search results for.

The client did well in Google for "home remodeling", they wanted to start showing up in Google searches for "general contractors".

For home remodeling + the geographic areas they sought work for we easily secured for the client. The new target of "General Contractors" however, they were ranked #271 for.

Not good

So we went to work... didn't do a damn thing to the original site (the main site), what we did do is to create a blogspot blog (just like this one) and a wordpress.com blog (similar to this one) and loaded them up with articles on "being a general contractor"... both "extra" blogs linked TO the main site.

That's it. No Other tweaking or fiddling with or adding code to or optimizing the main site.

What happened during and after the test?

Opening salvo: one blog post to each of the 2 "new" (extra or external) blogs, moved the main site up from #271 to #171 in less than a week.

Added 4 posts to each blog... We're on the first page of Google search results for "general contractors... several times.

Don't take my word for this, go look for yourself, Google it

Google "frederick maryland general contractors"

That was the local search results for their home county, Frederick Maryland

Now try it Statewide: Google "maryland general contractors"

If you wanna get fancy, let's try "frederick maryland home improvements"

Maximize your ROI (return on investment) with Expert Keyword Analysis from Frederick Web Promotions

Call David Bruce Jr @

240 397-9804

Schedule a consultation today!

Keyword Research Analysis Fee for your small business: $500.00

Become Our Fan On Facebook and Get Half Off: Keyword Research Analysis for Facebook Fans: $250.00

Frederick Web Promotions on Facebook

Frederick Web Promotions
785 Wembly Dr
Frederick Maryland 21701
240 397-9804
davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com
http://www.frederickwebpromotions.com

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 644-7530 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Why Does My Site Not Rank Well in Google?

Is your company website buried in the back of Google?

There are many reasons for a website to not perform well in Google search results. Some of those reasons could be from a web designer's lack of knowledge as to what Google will penalize or what Google will like.

Other reasons can be from associating your url with certain "bad neighborhoods" in Google or engaging in deceptive practices. Search engine optimization is a skill divided into on-page modifications and off-page promotion. A common mistake even talented web designers make is to write for the wrong audience. Ultimately a website will have to perform well to a human audience, but if the code underlying the webpage is not written for Googlebot in mind, very few people will ever get a chance to view it.

Webpage creation in 2 stages.

Crafting a functional webpage that's pleasing to the eye and incorporates Shakespearean isn't likely to turn a profit if Google's algorithm doesn't award your work of art with decent positioning in search results pages. I'm of the opinion that webpages should be crafted to get the page to perform in Google search results first then after it's located where the most eyeballs can see it, reworked so it performs to a human audience.

Most common mistake is too many keywords.

What are keywords?

Wikipedia says Keyword may refer to an Index term, a term used as a keyword to retrieve documents in an information system such as a catalog or a search engine

How many keywords is too many for your meta tags?

They answer is... it depends.

Consensus in the SEO community is that the more pages, the larger your site is, the more keywords and keyword phrases you can safely use without tripping Googlebot's algorithm and identifying your site as a possible spam website.

Too many keywords can be just as harmful as too few. Less is more when it comes to the META tag. So how do you choose which keywords to keep? How many keywords should you include?

From TechKnows:
Ideally, your keywords tag should have ten or fifteen words, twenty at the very most. You may repeat your three most important keywords once, if you like, but repeat them more than that and the search engine is likely to ignore them, or, worse, not list your page at all.

From wikipedia:

Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.
Keyword stuffing had been used in the past to obtain maximum search engine ranking and visibility for particular phrases. ..Google no longer gives good rankings to pages employing this technique.


Jill from Highrankings.com offers this "Figure about 3 or so phrases per page. But be careful of just creating junk pages so you can add more keywords.

Matt Cutts the head of spam control at Google has a prime example of too many keywords on his blog here:

Moral of this story?

If you want to utilize all of the great (relevant) keywords you dreamed up, make an additional webpage within your site to maximize the benefit, help prevent alerting Googlebot's spam meter, and ensure your site's content is diversified among the keywords you want to target.

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce Jr

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-9804 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Google Canonical Tag Doesn't Work

Google Supplied Code Doesn't Work With Google Supplied Blogger

Google tells us to use a certain code, they even provide us with that code syntax.
They specifically say "use this and you'll be alright", Matt Cutts went on WebProNews and told us "do this".

Well I did "do that", just as Google described, I tried it on Google's own blog platform: Blogger.com

umm, one Google hand apparently doesn't know what the other Google hand is doing?

I added this line of code:

(link rel="”canonical”" href="”http://www.northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com”")

to the head tags of http://northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com

(I had to use parenthesis instead of brackets to get the code to show up in this post, if you're trying this substitute brackets <> in place of what I have up here (code) )

and got the following error message when it failed to save within blogger control panel:

From Maryland Search Engine Optimization

More WebProNews Videos

Umm... Little Help Here?

This isn't the first time Google provided code didn't work "out of the box", and Yahoo does the same thing with Yahoo Site Explorer

The "fix" is to add a forward slash and a space to the end of the line of code. If you are familiar with PHP programing (I'm not) you'd know that.

Google's provided meta tag string that we're told to insert into our bloggers head tag (look at my screen shot and you'll see said verification string above the offending canonical code) and that code is provided BY Google for use on another Google product

... and it doesn't work out of the box

the fix is to edit the ass end of the line of code, put your cursor just before the end tag (>)

add a space

then add a forward slash (/)

that looks like this:

doesn't work

so we end up with

NOT (you gotta have that SPACE before the / or you wont be able to save it and you'll just be frustrated and muttering curses to the Google engineer!!

enjoy and kick your competitors ass in the search ranking war!!!!

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce Jr.

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 315-1515 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Twitter For Business Explained

Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People

Don't understand what all the Twitter fuss is about or why you might want to use this social networking tool? You're not alone, but you may be missing out on useful information and professional connections. Check out our quick and easy guide on how and why to get started with Twitter.

I wanted to write an article detailing the benefits and pitfalls for small business owners wanting to explore twitter, many are curious as to how this micro blogging platform could help their business advertising efforts.

Most business owners know they *should be on twitter* but don't have the foggiest idea how or why

... I found this article on CIO while doing my research and felt I could not write a better one so I'm republishing this here. I wish I'd written it, but I couldn't do better if I tried so here goes:

By C.G. Lynch

Tue, February 03, 2009 — CIO — Twitter remains a very nascent social network, so if you don't know how it works or what it does (or you haven't even heard of it), don't feel bad. In fact, you're still in the majority. But we're here to help you reap the benefits of Twitter with this quick get-started guide.

Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), a senior Forrester analyst who researches social media and who pens a blog on Web Strategy, says that while Twitter doesn't release exact numbers, he estimates that three to six million people use Twitter, compared to 150 million for Facebook.

Here is an (appropriately) short explanation of Twitter: Twitter is a free service that allows users to publish short messages of 140 characters or less. These messages are read by "followers" — people who make a conscious decision to subscribe to your messages and have them delivered to their own Twitter home pages.

Each message you post is known as a "Tweet." In the social media and social networking industry, Twitter facilitates a process known as microblogging or microsharing. Every user is identified by putting an "@" sign in front of their name (for instance: @cglynch).

Joining Twitter has value for many people, but it can also be a waste of time if you don't understand how the medium works and how best to utilize it. We take a look at suggestions from social networking gurus to help you determine if adding Twitter to your daily tech diet is in your best interest.

Do You Belong on Twitter?

The Wild West view of social networks proposes that you should just try them out and see whether or not you like them. But in a world where most people already belong to existing social networks (such as Facebook or LinkedIn), on top of using long-established technology like e-mail and text messaging, allocating time for another outlet should be considered carefully.

"Think about why do you want to do it," Owyang says. "Do you want to join because there's buzz about it [in the media] or because President Obama is on it? Especially now, you need to spend your resources and your time well."

Twitter should be place where you want to share common interests and ask insightful questions, and, ideally, read the interesting answers you get back, says Laura Fitton (@pistachio), who runs Pistachio Consulting, which advices people and companies on how best to utilize Twitter.

Though some people use Twitter to keep people in their personal life updated, Twitter has developed a business following. People in a particular industry (say engineering, software development, or public relations) often use Twitter to keep up with news, opinion and happenings in their field, for example. Once you get going with Twitter, this information will come to you. More on that in a minute.

What You Can Gain and Share With Twitter

If you found this post useful subscribe via RSS feed and via Email to ensure you get the latest posts.

If many Twitter evangelists looking to broaden the service's demographic had it their way, they might want to change the site's official branding a bit. When you go to Twitter to sign up, it says, "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

"The best way to make the most use of it is not just answer what are you doing now," says Owyang. "Instead, answer: 'What's important to me?' That changes the conversation and makes value. It takes away some of the minutia and shows you want to talk about something that's more useful and interesting."

In other words, the "I'm running to the store" messages might not be as compelling amidst the noise of Twitter messages as "I just read a book on [insert some topic that's interest to you]." If you have room in the 140 characters, state an opinion or analysis of it.

It's about "what has my attention right now?" Fitton says. "The point of Twitter is what do we have in common or having some kind of shared experience."

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Twitter No Show and You Advertise?

Set Up Your Company's Twitter Profile

This is the first in a serise of posts on How To Use Twitter For Business. I'm collecting a huge database of relevant articles on how social media has made conventional advertising almost obsolete.

The US Post Office says it's volume is down by roughly a third... it seems there is lot less print/ junk mail being sent, I'm of the opinion that as advertisers, we are spending less on print ads because they just aren't working; if print worked meaning put money in your cash register, you'd be doing it MORE not less

The first step for your company's Twitter profile will be selecting a user name. As is the case when you search for available Web URLs, your company name may already be taken by another user, either as a hoax account or because the person blogs about or follows the company closely.
Experts say Twitter has a good track record of giving back your trademarked name if someone has taken it, so contact Twitter if someone has taken your company name already.

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In general, the more personal a company's Twitter account appears, the better. Traditional mediums such as corporate websites, advertisements and promotions typically lack the sort of human feeling that Twitter users crave, says Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd), a social media analyst who writes the /message blog.
"It's not a forum to throw up press releases," he says. "They should be real people who are real representatives of companies. To remain personal, you need to be able identify the individual or individuals doing it."
While Eliason's Comcastcares Twitter page has a company logo, it also features his picture and a very humanizing trove of information, including ways to contact him directly, his personal and family blog, and other Comcast employees who operate on Twitter.

Frank Eliason (above) runs the @comcastcares Twitter page. Analysts (and Eliason himself) credit his willingness to give the page a personal touch as helping make it a successful place to interact with customers.

If you have a page with multiple people who share the responsibility of updating it, you should devise a way to make it clear who is "on the desk." Jetblue lists this information in the bio section of its Twitter profile. Other companies' reps put initials or some form of identification at the end of a tweet.
All Twitter profiles have a field for a URL. While it might be tempting to insert your company's homepage, this might not be a good use of the space, Fitton says. Instead, you should link to a custom page on your website that explains why you're on Twitter and what you hope to accomplish by being there.
Dell provides one of the clearest examples of this method. Most of its Twitter pages link back to dell.com/twitter, where the nature and purpose of its various Twitter pages are displayed. Dell lists some of its pages as clearly promotional in nature, while others dedicate themselves to community building and discussion around Dell products.
On your company's traditional home page, you might consider creating a widget that lists your latest tweets, to send traffic from your company site to your Twitter page.
"People say businesses need to be conversational on Twitter," Fitton says. "But my overall rule is you have to provide value."

read the rest...

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-9804 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

If your company isn't blogging you do not exist

Get your company a blog or 2 NOW

Advertisings effctiveness is being called into question these days, the recession is forcing businesses of all types reevaluate the return on investment or ROI for each dollar they spend.

Is this gonna do me any good?

That question is in the back of the mind of virtually every small business owner when it comes time to renew their expensive Yellowpages ad or the bill is due again for the newspaper advertising that isn't doing them any good.

Real Time Tracking

Most advertisiers just "stick it out there" without any method of tracking which ad garnered this response and which ad garnered that response.

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If you think your industry got hit hard... consider the plight of the real estate industry.

Maryland real estate agents typically spend thousands of dollars per month in conventional advertising

Consider this your wake up call!

Last Sept I went to a Internet conference in LA and listened to a great Internet coach, Tracy Repchuck. I heard loud and clear what she was saying - if you're not blogging you may as well hang up your shingle. From the pit in my stomach I knew she was right. I just got stuck in excuses since 2006 (no time, what's the big fuss, it's a fad, blah blah blah). I'm sure you've got them down pat like I did, right?

Now is the time for you to stop this ridiculousness. Like, right now!

I got serious about figuring out what Active Rain was all about in January of 2009 (and it makes me queasy thinking about all the time I wasted on excuses for 2 years) and all the missed opportunities)

I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. Seriously Clueless. So I made 'the' call to Brad Andersohn and he talked to me for a very long time. (Hint -make 'your' call today) I understood the concepts of what he was saying - I just didn't know how to make it happen, smoothly. He gave me excellent advice - just get started, jump in and make mistakes.

Who cares if you suck at first? (he didn't tell me that - that came from me) And trust me, I sucked for sure. When I look back at my first 30 or 40+ posts I have to chuckle cause they're so lame! The good news - I can go back and clean them up when I've got time (see there's that time excuse again!) Am I the queen of the time excuse or what? (note to self - stop allowing time to control you).

"Social networking is empowering the consumer, but the majority of agencies aren't getting it," said the report, which acknowledged that the advertising industry continued to be sceptical about using social networks to advertise. from the UK Telegraph

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Website Advertising or Marketing

Conventional Advertising Simply Does Not Work.

What is your ROI, Return On Investment with print ads, yellow pages, magazine or newspaper advertising?

What does it cost you versus what extra work it generates?

Article Directories with High Page Rank
For getting a new site off the ground in the serps there is nothing as effective as article directories. This is not true with every niche if the niche already has a zillion articles published but if your niche is not represented in the article directories you just cant beat the boost given to your site from article directories.

If you’re competitors are not using article marketing and you are… it’s a slam dunk. If they are then it behooves you to match them.

I write for Googlebot and “pretty it up” just in case a human “accidentally” “stumbles upon” my article.

Computer generated articles:
below is an example of an article NOT written for human consumption, it’s purpose is solely to get Google to see the keywords associated with the author of the site’s target url.

I found it because a substantial portion of this “article” was “scraped” from my site!!
I was checking on MY backlinks and discovered this.. I just had to post it as an example of horrible writting (from a human journalism point of view) but perfect example of writing exclusively for the algorithim:

Website Design Cost Frederick

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Services. What a touchy area! There’s been so much voodoo ... Baltimore Maryland Web Site Design; Maryland Web Site Design; Washington DC Web Site Design Often times when you're finding file on it's knotty at best to sort the sapience from the poor support. One way of looking at it, a newly developed counsel location we don't much have a significant database on the precise search fame you we're looking for, however we're getting there. An understandable adva.

A Maryland web developer, Way Cool Web Design provides search engine optimization (SEO), content management systems (CMS), hosting, & the full service list you expect from a ... It took a abundance of brain authority for us to sift through everything on and capture a couple of the top best sites for you to visit. Deciding on the best sites can be a hard job. When we created this website we knew that we needed to be accelerated in providing you the highest quality file for, we believe we have .

websitepipeline offers custom website design and development services ... html coding, search engine optimization, copy ... talk to the representative that services the Walkersville, MD ... Sifting through the junk to find the best sites is often times difficult. This is why we designed this search location for you. One of the neatest things about the web is that you can quickly and comfortably find whatever you're looking for. It is the cause we did this location.

Internet Services. Domain name registration Does your ... Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Web Site Promotion ... Often times when you're finding file on it's knotty at best to sort the sapience from the poor support. One way of looking at it, a newly developed counsel location we don't much have a significant database on the precise search fame you we're looking for, however we're getting there. An understandable advantage is that net busines shop fronts have on absolute-globe stores sto.

Search Engine Optimization- Local Organic Search Ranking by Frederick Web ... ... Frederick Web Promotions, is amazingly adept at Google search engine placement. ... Narrowing your choices down to the best sites isn't always as easy as it could be. Finding the most powerful and informative involves yet patience and perseverance. The main help that the web storekeepers hold over traditional retail outlets businesses is lower costs of online companies. One way of looking at it, a recently cr.

... ... Frederick Web Promotions, is amazingly adept at Google search engine placement. Local Organic Search Ranking by David Bruce Jr of Frederick Web Promotions ... Detailed test all over the net resulted in this location about for you to click to. The continued explosion of net marketing way that traders become more familiarity in providing goods and services. That's where this location comes into the picture.

How to Dominate Google Rankings ... ... Maryland Search Engine Optimization. Website/ Blog creation and search engine placement for any size business. One of the neatest things about the web is that you can quickly and almost always quickly buy whatever you're looking for. It's taken us quite a while to sift through all the file we found about and choose the best places for you. It took an incredible extent of mode and perseverance to compile this file on to choose the best links for you t.

Frederick, MD, affordable search engine placement Frederick MD and many other ... Advertising, SEO & Search Engine Optimization Frederick Maryland. ... Serving ... Detailed test all over the net resulted in this location about for you to click to. The continued explosion of net marketing way that traders become more familiarity in providing goods and services. That's where this location comes into the picture.

Search engine optimization is probably the best single tactic for building brand awareness and sales and is the reason we hired a staff of SEO gurus,

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Maryland Internet Marketing

Maryland Internet Marketing Consultant David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

If you just stumbled upon this blog and like it please subscribe to my RSS feed and subscribe to Advertising Secret Weapon via Email to make sure you don't miss the latest posts!

How Many Google Penalties Are There?

During the course of optimizing websites for the search engines and striving to attain the numero uno spot for competitive keywords, many webmasters run into various kinds of penalties from the search engines that affect the organic rank of their websites.
How Many Kinds of Search Engine Penalties Exist?

A member of the WebProWorld forums reported that there are 3 major kinds of penalties:

1. -30 penalty
2. -950 penalty
3. Index Exclusion

However, there has been a lot of debate on whether the drop of a website’s rank by 30 or 950 spots in Google is really a penalty for adopting shady SEO methods or is it just because some of the major ranking elements that were holding the ranks of a website high just got devalued in the Google algorithm update tossing the ranks badly.

It is reported that a -30 penalty affects the whole domain whereas the -950 penalty only affects some specific URLs for some specific keywords only.

Tedster, a member of the WebmasterWorld forums stated in his post about the -30 penalty as:However, there has been a lot of debate on whether the drop of a website’s rank by 30 or 950 spots in Google is really a penalty for adopting shady SEO methods or is it just because some of the major ranking elements that were holding the ranks of a website high just got devalued in the Google algorithm update tossing the ranks badly.

It is reported that a -30 penalty affects the whole domain whereas the -950 penalty only affects some specific URLs for some specific keywords only.

Tedster, a member of the WebmasterWorld forums stated in his post about the -30 penalty as:

“When this penalty situation was first noticed, it worked in a very odd way. Every search that would normally bring up a url from that domain now showed that url on the top of page 4, position #31 precisely — and this was even true for a search on the domain name itself.”

Positioned at #31 for even a search with the domain name? Now, that sounds like a penalty. However, Tedster goes on to say:

“The penalty has mutated a bit since then — the domain name search, for example, is apparently not always penalized today. Also, the depressed position is not consistently at #31, but every search is still pushed down by about 3 or more pages.”

Now this makes it harder to determine whether the drop in a website’s rank is due to a penalty or for any other reason.

Regarding the -950 penalty, Tedster says that:

“Think of this as an “end-of-results” phenomenon, rather than any specific number of the penalty. What we see is a URL that was previously top ranked for a certain search now showing up on one of the last pages of the SERPs. Most of the time this only affects specific searches — on other searches that same URL can still be first page. The low ranking sometimes comes and goes with various new data pushes from Google. It’s a very odd thing to be #1 and then #896 and then #1 again!”

For both these kind of penalties, SEOs and webmasters associate shady optimization practices to be the key reasons for it. Some say, this is because of keyword stuffing, some say this penalty occurs due to “too many occurrences of semantically related phrases”, while some others say that these penalties are because of faulty and apparently shady link building practices, commonly known as BLOOP (BackLink Over Optimization Penalty)Regarding the -950 penalty, Tedster says that:

“Think of this as an “end-of-results” phenomenon, rather than any specific number of the penalty. What we see is a URL that was previously top ranked for a certain search now showing up on one of the last pages of the SERPs. Most of the time this only affects specific searches — on other searches that same URL can still be first page. The low ranking sometimes comes and goes with various new data pushes from Google. It’s a very odd thing to be #1 and then #896 and then #1 again!”

For both these kind of penalties, SEOs and webmasters associate shady optimization practices to be the key reasons for it. Some say, this is because of keyword stuffing, some say this penalty occurs due to “too many occurrences of semantically related phrases”, while some others say that these penalties are because of faulty and apparently shady link building practices, commonly known as BLOOP (BackLink Over Optimization Penalty)

So what is this BLOOP?

there is a school of thought that getting too many links within a short span of time and with similar anchors can raise red flags with Google since it may look to Google that those links have been acquired unnaturally by means of automated scripts or link building software.

A member of the Webmaster World forums reported in this thread that:

“A new site that gets like 20 links per day, then all of a sudden gets 2000 in one day, well then there’s tom foolery going on there and the penalty gets slapped. Once that penalty is slapped, over time it will go away.

Try to avoid any anomalies. Slowly ramp up your linking strategy.”

This sounds like a plausible explanation for such penalties since Google has always stood against websites that are engaged in practices for manipulating search results.

Another kind of penalty that is known to exist is the Index Exclusion penalty or a complete ban, this is a kind of penalty, which when imposed on a site simply throws the site out of the Google index. Index exclusion penalty usually occur with websites that severely violate the quality guidelines of Google and adopt black hat methods such as cloaking and doorway pages.

How do you avoid being penalized?

read the rest of this article...

and Hire a Seasoned Vetran of Local Search Engine Marketing Battles

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If you have a business you need a facebook page

Facebook isn't for your kids (not anymore)

If you have a small business, you need a facebook page... and you need it right now.

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Don’t look now, but the number of Americans over 35, 45, and 55 on Facebook is growing fast. In the last 60 days alone, the number of people over 35 has nearly doubled. Developers and marketers may want to think about how to serve this group of new users.

Here are the latest stats on Facebook’s US audience gender and age demographics, according to the company:

Facebook US Audience Growth, Last 180 Days

Looking at Facebook US audience growth over the last 180 days, it’s clear that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption amongst users 35-65.

The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55 - there are now nearly 1.5 million of them active on Facebook each month.

The biggest growth in terms of absolute new users over the last six month came amongst users 35-44. Over 4 million more US women 35-44 and nearly 3 million more US men 35-44 used Facebook in March 2009 compared to September 2008.

Facebook just went through another change and from a business point of view this is a very important change. Now Facebook offers RSS feeds, over the past year the number of 'applications' being able to 'write to' facebook has grown, but now YOUR facebook page can transmit and not just receive.

Pages are now a part of News Feed
From now on, posts from Pages you are a fan of will show up in your News Feed. You can hide their posts by clicking the ‘x’ in the top right corner of the post. If you would like to see posts from Pages you connected to in the past, click here. (copied right of my facebook's new *face*)

MySpace and Facebook have been battling for supremacy and from a small business owner point of view Facebook just crushed MySpace. From where I sit MySpace is for the kids with body piercings and tatoos, any website urls posted to a MySpace page get obfuscated at best or simply erased at worse. MySpace does not want you to use your Myspace page for your business (unless you are in the music industry). I have a MySpace page (http://myspace.com/localgoogleguru) and I keep it just so I can capture an potential audience I might otherwise not have access to, but Facebook is getting me more clients than I can keep up with!

MySpace offers 'vanity urls', in other words my original MySpace website address was http://myspace.com/123456 and the vanity url is http://myspace.com/nameIchoose now.

Facebook does not offer vanity urls, but MY facebook page skyrocketed my search engine rankings in ways I never imagined it could.

Addenda: Facebook did retract their postition on vanity urls and I grabbed mine, after giving it some thought I choose my full name rather than /localgoogleguru so my facebook url is now http://facebook.com/davidbrucejr and it did skyrocket to the top of Google: Google my name, David Bruce Jr

Before and After

Before Facebook, if you typed my name into Google you saw my more famous kin on the first few pages... One of my distant relatives owns a patent for the typeset every newspaper press uses, even today. Another of my kin was ambassador to England- kinda hard to out rank those people... Google shows 28,200, 000 websites that are about my name and my name sake(s)

Results 1 - 10 of about 28,200,000 for David Bruce Jr.
Google David Bruce Jr

The first two entries in Google are about my famous inventor relative, the third is someone with Bruce as a middle name
Guess who is number 4?

Facebook did that for me!!
And I've only had a Facebook page for 2 months

Here is the Google Entry for David Bruce Jr:
David Bruce Jr. - Washington, DC | Facebook
David Bruce Jr. (Washington, DC) is on Facebook. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.
www.facebook.com/people/David-Bruce-Jr/1329852113

That number string is my Facebook account number (1329872113), if Facebook allowed vanity urls mine would be www.facebook.com/people/LocalGoogleGuru

I have a North Carolina client I do search engine marketing for, Stuart M Edwards owner of Camo4x4s, a North Carolina Hunting Videographer. His Facebook page also managed to make Stuart easier to find in Google

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Stuart+M+Edwards&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f

http://www.facebook.com/people/Stuart-M-Edwards/502463246


I'll be posting on developments with Facebook from the perspective of a local small business owner in coming articles





Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

73 percent of small business would rather do taxes than SEO

The study revealed that 59 percent of small businesses with Web sites don’t currently use paid search marketing, and of those, 90 percent have never even attempted it. Surprisingly, seven in 10 small-business owners who participated revealed that they would rather try to do their own taxes than start a paid search marketing campaign

read more | digg story

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Fundraise for 501c3 Non Profits

Raise $1000 month for the Free Mobile Health Clinic

If you just stumbled upon this blog and like it please subscribe to my RSS feed and subscribe to Advertising Secret Weapon via Email to make sure you don't miss the latest posts!

"A Mission of Mercy" is a traveling health care/ dental care clinic serving Northern Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania.
With 4 stops per month is Frederick and a few in Baltimore "A Mission of Mercy" provides health care to those that slip through the safety net.

The Un insured
The Under Insured 

=============+

My current secret weapon besides using blogspot blogs?

Raise money for a local charity in your area.

You want something from me? Donate to my favorite charity through Facebook and I'll teach you how to do what I do.

I charge $97 for a complete step by step "

How To Become a Local Google Guru" report on one of my other advertising/ web promotions blogs.

Here's how the offer breaks down:

You can see how well any blogspot blog I make for a client instantly ranks in Local Google Search Results. 

If you want me to show you exactly how to get a Blogger.com blog set up for Business Purposes and get that blog to skyrocket to the top of Local Google Search Results

Donate to A Mission of Mercy using FaceBook here

Call David Bruce Jr. NOW 301 363-8206

davidbruce@frederick.com

http://frederickwebpromotions.com

Follow me on Twitter

Local Google Guru - Changing Gears for 2009

How to be a Local Google Guru

When I first started doing free lance Business to Business Local Internet Advertising where I live in Frederick Maryland my thoughts were to keep my efforts local.

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What I did was to offer Frederick Maryland small businesses that did not have an existing website a blogspot blog like this one to use as a company website. It wasn't until I approached Frederick's City Cab Company that I learned the best use of a blog for business promotion.

City Cab already had a company website, they had several actually; Limousine Service, Sedan Service, Advertising from a Truck (rolling billboard ad truck).

Blaine Young, one of the owners of City Cab Frederick let me do SEO on his existing sites, since I seemed to know what I was doing he let me make him a couple business blogs. I was in bad shape financially and didn't charge him much, so he paid me to do it.

At that time no one in the entire state of Maryland was using blogspot blogs in lieu of conventional websites. There were a few journalism type Wordpress blogs, but blogspot was considered to be more of a toy than a serious business Content Management System (A Wordpress blog IS a serious CMS).

They don't know Google the way I know Google...

While experimenting (full disclosure- I did this on City Cab's dime) with Blogger blogs I learned how to get a blog to OUTRANK a conventional website.

Everyone was surprised, I was, our competitors were... The consensus in the Search Engine Optimization field was that a blog would temporarily gain rank in Search Engine Results Pages, then degrade (loose rank) just as quickly as it skyrocketed past a conventional site.

Well... I found a way to get around that. The problem for me was that no one wanted to take a chance on it, I mean who was I?

Joe 'flash in the pan'?

Everyone thought it was just a fluke, no one wanted to believe that little old me, a guy down on his luck (didn't even own a car, went to sales calls on a bicycle) could out perform the large (expensive) glitzy web design bureaus (I don't even know how to spell bureau with out spell check)... yet here we are?

The business model I use is to create a set of blogs, a themed series of connected blogs, the net effect is to have Google identify my main site as a Frederick Maryland Portal or Frederick Maryland Authority Site.

It's obviously effective or you wouldn't be reading this.

While on my Quixotic Quest someone on Facebook asked me if I could get multiple rankings (4, 5 or 6 out of the top 10 search results) for his site, I responded,

Sure I can get multiple Google Rankings for your company website

Then I found out he was targeting the entire nation

...I'd not tried that... I didn't know if this technique would work in that venue.

For example I found it child's play to get a local mom and pop store to the #1 spot in Google/ Yahoo/ MSN / AOL. But some business have more competition than others.
the Moving industry was one of those toughies, so is Real Estate, Doctors, Lawyers, any industry where big enough money is involved for the heavy hitters to pay us super geeks what ever we ask.

I'd not attempted to get a site to rank nationwide or worldwide.

Well I'll be damned!

Google this:

Local Google Advertising

I'm #5 out of Results 1 - 10 of about 30,500,000 for Local Google Advertising.



Maryland Internet Advertising

(for complete results go to another of my blogs here: http://localfrederickwebpromotions.blogspot.com )
As of this writing I'm at #3, #5, 7, 8,9 & 10 out of Results 1 - 10 of about 9,220,000 for Maryland Internet Advertising.




SOoooo, since I now command the mighty Google as if I was a Lion Tamer, the focus of this blog is to teach people exactly how to use Blogspot blogs to dominate your local internet advertising market the way Frederick Web Promotions can.

The next few posts are going to be in the "How To" category.

I'm NOT going to tell you everything... not for free any way.

What I am going to do is teach you enough to make a dollar or two in YOUR local market, whet your appetite for more and offer for sale a Full Report for $97 on Step by Step instructions where I take you by the hand and show you, with videos, email support, hell you can even call me if you get stuck!

But... here's where it gets even better... I got a Christmas deal for you:

You *Could* buy the Step by Step Report (that comes with how to videos, email support and PHONE support) for $97 (and I'm told that is way under priced considering I'm setting you up in your own local advertising consulting business) OR... You could donate just $25 to my favorite charity via Facebook and I'll give you the report for FREE!


I purposely left this for last... How'd I do with the moving company ranking?

Google this:

move to frederick maryland
Results 1 - 10 of about 499,000 for move to frederick maryland

As of this writing I'm currently at: #4, #7,8 and 8

What good is that?
If I get YOU to take up FOUR of the top ten, what's that leave the competition?

If almost every where they click they all lead to YOU.. what's that say about your companies credibility?

If Google thinks that highly of you... shouldn't your prospective customers think highly of you too?



Call David Bruce Jr. NOW 301 363-8206

davidbruce@frederick.com

http://frederickwebpromotions.com

Follow me on Twitter

Simple steps to Maryland Internet Advertising

Link

Simple Steps to Maryland Internet Advertising

As a local small business, you're not going to be able to
knock that directory out of his number one spot, but that
also means your competitor isn't going to be able to do so
either.

Google's SearchWiki Distorts Results?

One of the latest in new products/ services search engine juggernaut Google™ recently rolled out is a personalized search modification they call SearchWiki.

What is SearchWIKI? Basically SearchWIKI is a customizable search engine. It’s estimated that nearly 80% of internet users interact with a search engine before any other website every time they log on to the Internet.

End users of Google know what they’re looking for and we need a way to help THEM find it.

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Have you ever done a search for a moving company, say in Frederick Maryland? What the public is irritated with is the top ten results for a local business or service almost never display a local business or local service provider. Typically what Google returns as a search result is ten listings of moving company directories, NOT Frederick Maryland moving companies.

Why is that?

Simple, the online moving company directories are better SEO (search engine optimization) webmasters than the local web design guy who created the moving company website.

I don't know about you, but if I wanted to find a company to clean my widget, and all Google showed me was widget directories I'd be PO'ed too.
What happens is the better SEO webmaster is outranking the local guys and is offering the local yokels to pay up if they want to be on the first page.

I'd much rather search and go straight to a local company than click on a half dozen company directories, who wants to go through that many hoops? Isn't the point of the Internet to save time?

So how does searchWIKI change all that?

You don't like a search result? You can make it never show up on YOUR google search again. Really. SearchWIKI is customizable, you can personalize what comes up when you search. This amounts to your being able to "Vote" for the sites you want in Google!

How does this distort search results for those of us in the Search Engine Optimization business?

The other day I had the pleasant discovery that my main website ranked #1 in Google for the keyword phrase I coveted the most:

Local Google Advertising

Call David Bruce Jr. NOW 240 315-1515
davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com

http://frederickwebpromotions.com

Follow me on Twitter

Are you following up your existing customer base?

Do you have a way of enticing your hard fought customers into coming back more often?

Are you capitalizing on the database you already worked so hard to establish?
What is typed onto the cash register receipts you hand to your existing customers?

Change your cash register and credit card terminal receipt to
read, "For Preferred Customer Discounts Sign Up At: (your
website)"

This strategy is awesome because it does two major jobs when it
comes to marketing.

1. It captures all your current customers because everybody
reads their receipt, and everybody wants to be a preferred
customer to get discounts. It also captures all walk in traffic that
actually BUY something. Which leads us to:

2. A list of nothing but BUYERS of YOUR product. No tirekickers or
browsers, buyers only!

Now you've made a client for life and there are tons of other
methods to help them, and generate a great living for you as
well.

Studies show that most people do NOT buy the first time they surf for and find a company website.

It takes up to seven visits to get someone to get off their duff and get out their credit card or pick up the phone to call a local business.

Put yourself in the place of your intended customer:

The baby is crying

The dishes have still not been done

The husband still did not pick up his socks from the bedroom floor

And the phone is ringing...

OK they found your site, but they may not have time to read it all!

So what do you want them to do now that they found you?

Just let them close the browser window or click away to surf another topic of interest to them?

NO

What you want them to do is to get on your mailing list.

Then you can 'work on em' over time, at the very least they won't be able to easily forget about your product/ service.

Not very easily... they ASKED you to send them more information, didn't they?






************************************************** *
Mr./Ms. Local Frederick Maryland Small Business Owner

My name is David Bruce and I am a local e-commerce
business consultant.

I know your time is valuable, as is mine so I'll get right to the
point. If I could show you an unused asset that you ALREADY
have that could make you thousands of dollars, would you be
willing to speak with me for 15 minutes?

This free consultation can save you as much as 50% of your
entire monthly advertising budget AND bring you brand new
customers at the same time! The best part is that you already
have it, so the cost to implement this marketing weapon is
minimal.

Please call me at 301 363-8206 at your earliest convenience to
schedule a free "no strings" consultation. I promise you, it will be
worth your time.

Yours in business,
David Bruce
Frederick Web Promotions