Google Places – Does Google know about your business?

Tags

connecting your business, google business places, google map, google maps, google places

Google Places is all about connecting your business with local customers. As Google say themselves, 97% of consumers search for businesses near to them online.  Even if you don’t a website, having your business on Google Places makes complete business sense.

As with most Google Services, Google Places is completely free so apart from your time (and really not much is needed to set it up) your wallet is not going to be out of pocket. Quite the reverse actually as if done effectively your Google Places listing could greatly increase customers to your business.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, try putting the words Takeaways Beverley or Takeaways YourTown into Google. You should get something like this:

The red markers on the Google Map shows the business listings from Google Places (likely to be the most well ranked takeaway outlets in Beverley for these keywords). In the search results list it puts a link to each of those with a marker. Or you can click on the map to find out more information about these businesses including links to find them, contact details, photos and reviews.  You can instantly see why Google Places has great potential.

Registering is easy. All you need is a Google account and if you don’t have one registering is a simple process. If you’re not sure if you have a Google account, you will have one if you can access any of the other Google Services like Google Analytics, Google Reader, Gmail or Blogger or even You Tube.

Tip: I find that using Chrome (my fav browser) it won’t let me pick a category while filling in the form, so I would suggest using Firefox, IE or some other one instead to register with Google Places.

Once you’ve logged in or registered at www.google.com/placesforbusiness, Google will then take you though a handful of steps to list your business:

• Select your Country and type in your main business telephone number.
• It will then do one of two things. The most likely is that it will bring up a page for you to fill in with all your business details. However I have found on a couple of occasions it will bring up a listing with your number. If this is your business, you can claim it into your Google Places account by verifying it is your business. Read on to find out how.
• Fill in the details as requested. Pick as many categories (max 5) as you can find to match your business. And make sure you use as many of those 200 characters as possible in the Description field to describe your business! And use your keywords (click here to read a post about finding your business keywords). Make it an accurate but not boastful description because as we know Google likes things to be real!)
• When finished press the Submit button.

Google will want to validate your listing (to keep out the riff raff!) It will either want to call, text or post you a verification number. Do what suits you best. Just be aware if you choose the post method, they will send a postcard that looks very much like junk mail so keep an eye out for it. It can take a couple of weeks. You will need to login again once you get the verification code and type it into the verification field.

Customers will be able to add their reviews to your business and you can post status updates and offers to customers via your Google Places account as well. As it is a Google product, in my experience it makes sense to make the most of it!

So just to recap, why should you join Google Places?

• Customers can more easily find you without knowing your business name.
• The nature of a Google search means it is fast replacing traditional telephone directory listings.
• It is free advertising.
• It is linked to Google Maps so can help your business appear on the first page for local business searches.
• As it is linked, Smart phone mobile users can search for your type of business using Google Maps.
• Customers are able to easily leave reviews and recommendations of your business which help your listing to move up in the rankings.
• You are able to put your website address, contact details, business information, photos and video’s in your listing.

Here’s a link to how Google suggest you Optimise your listing to help customers find your business on Google Places and here’s a link to their quality guidelines to using a Google Places page.

HOW TO Add your business to Google’s Local Business Centre

Tags

google, google local, google maps, search

Google say it well enough themselves,

“Help customers find you on Google Maps“

Many millions of businesses and people use Google and Google maps to find other businesses every day and Google through their online Local Business Centre’s allow you to add your business FREE to their listings.

That way, when someone is searching for a local business similar to yours, you might have a better chance in ranking well in their Google Map search. Often a search in Google’s general search engine will show a small map of the local area with pinpoints directing you to local businesses, and by doing this yours could be one of them.

Like they say, it’s easy and it’s free – so why not!

1. Go to www.google.com/local and click on ‘put your business on Google Maps’
2. Either login if you already have a Google account or ‘sign up now’ to register
3. To add a new listing, fill in your business information, including your email, website (if you have one) and up to five categories, add one at time, click on ‘add another category’ if you want to another more than one.
4. As well, you can input your operating hours, business payment options, up to 10 photographs, up to five video’s from a You Tube account, plus other additional details.
5. Click submit and you’re done! As easy as that.

If you have more than one business, you can manage all your listings within your Google account and update it whenever you want.

Plus having a Google account allows you access to many other fantastic Google applications like Google Alerts, Google Analytics and the Google Reader for keeping track of any blogs you are following.

I will have blog posts about these coming soon.

The how’s and why’s of backlinks and SEO

Tags

backlinking, backlinks, inbound links, incoming links, pagerank, reciprocal links

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is about more than having a good set of keywords on your website.  Backlinks are an absolutely vital way of letting the search engines know about your site, thus affecting your search engine rankings and sadly it’s something that many website owners are unaware of.

Backlinks, often referred to as inbound links, are links from another website back to yours.  For example, having my website address (URL) on this blog (see blogroll to the right) is providing an inbound link back to my own website.  The search engines use a website’s backlinks as one indication of its’ popularity and credibility and this therefore affects that website’s search engine ranking.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is about more than having a good set of keywords on your website.  Backlinks are an absolutely vital way of letting the search engines know about your site, thus affecting your search engine rankings and sadly it’s something that many website owners are unaware of.

Backlinks, often referred to as inbound links, are links from another website back to yours.  For example, having my website address (URL) on this blog (see blogroll to the left) is providing an inbound link back to my own website at katproductions (as is this link).  The search engines use a website’s backlinks as one indication of its’ popularity and credibility which ultimately affects that website’s search engine ranking.

Many factors determine the value of backlinks to your website search engine ranking but the best backlinks come from other established websites that are relevant to your own industry and credible themselves. And it also helps if the page that your weblink is on has a good ‘PageRank‘.

“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page, used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting…” to each webpage, it is what Google uses to determine the importance of your webpages. Wikipedia

The theory goes that having your backlink on a page with a high PageRank will give that link to your website a higher weighted value therefore helping push up your search engine rankings for that page. However, if that highly PageRanked page has many backlinks on it to other websites it can effectively dilute its value, almost like it has to share out the value of its PageRank amongst all the links on its’ page.  You can find out more about this here and here as it can get fairly complicated.

All we need to know is that another website’s PageRank can add value to your inbound link.

If you want to find out what the PageRank’s are for the pages on your site either install the Google PageRank toolbar onto your browser or try this tool, Whats my PageRank,  I can’t be sure exactly how accurate it is but for the sites I tested it seemed accurate enough.

How do I find out how many backlinks my website has?

Most search engines provide a method for determining the number of backlinks that your website has.  For instance on Google, try typing link:websitename.co.uk into the search box. Google seems to show much less backlinks than another search like Yahoo.  Try Yahoo’s Site Explorer by typing your web address, http://www.webname.co.uk into the field at the top, then click on the Explore URL button. This seems to show the largest number of backlinks back to your site.

If you’ve installed Google’s PageRank toolbar and click on the PageRank icon while on any webpage, then select BackLinks from the drop down menu, it will show you Google’s list of backlinks for that page.

Another nice little online tool is Backlink Watch. This tells you how many backlinks your site has, what the anchor text is on each backlink, and how many other external links (to other pages or websites) there are on that particular webpage. Speaking of anchor text, this is the text that the link is behind, the most commonly used anchor text for a link is ‘click here’.  If you do a search for the words ‘click here’ it will show you all the websites that use this anchor text.  It doesn’t mean anything to anyone but shows you the power of having keyword driven anchor text.  So for example, if possible rather than have someone put ‘click here for katproductions’, see if it can be ‘click here for web design services from katproductions’. That way your backlink is working hardest for you.

It’s true you can pay to have backlinks created for your website. Although, I would be wary about anyone offering to get your business hundreds of backlinks in a short period of time.  The worst case scenario is that your web address ends up on hundreds of purpose built ‘link farms’ that the search engines don’t like and potentially your website could be penalised for, that is to have your search engine rankings severly compromised or worse still totally removed.

However, in saying that there are many good search engine optimisation companies around who will create a backlinking strategy for your business and who have dedicated staff finding suitable and valuable backlinks for your website.  It seems that the search engines value a more organic growth of backlinks and are likely to be suspicious if your backlinks increase hugely and suddenly overnight.

How do I get backlinks to my site?

First and most importantly make sure your website has quality content that people want to link to. After all there is no point going to all this trouble just to have people leave as soon as they arrive!

Then to get backlinks I suggest using a variety of sources.  First make sure that you’ve submitted yourself to the Google and Yahoo search engines.  Then do a couple of searches to find some credible website directories like DMOZ, Thomson Local and so on.  Many of these will allow you to register your business free of charge.  Then try putting some of your keywords/key phrases into a search engine and see which websites your competitors are listed on or even try your competitors’s web address using the ‘link’ techniques mentioned above. Find out whether you should be or can be listed on these as well. Or it may be that your business works with other similar or complimentary businesses and there may be opportunities to have your web address on their websites. Though beware of having too many reciprocal links, sometimes they can end up effectively cancelling each out out.

These days it is quite common practice to use social networking type websites to help with your backlinking.  For example, submitting online articles, a Facebook Business Page, a business blog, a Twitter account or a social bookmarking account, like Digg or Delicious, will allow you to create a profile about yourself and/or your business thus providing the link back to your business website.  And providing that you actually make use of these accounts, it can be an extremely successful way of telling the search engines that you are most definitely in business! Plus there are many many other benefits in utilising these as well – but that’s another blog post!

In addition to having your own accounts with social networking sites, it is also very useful from a backlinking point of view to read other related blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts, forums and so forth and post comments on these.  As well as this adding another backlink for your website, and providing you post geniune comments (and not blatant hard-sell ‘come to my website’ type messages) you will also better your own online credibility within your industry, and you might even have a bit of fun or learn something new doing so.

It is a win-win situation.

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlink

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1151743

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-build-backlinks-article-16.php

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356

Don’t underestimate your keywords

Tags

keywords, search engine optimisation

The key to a successful online presence and an effective search engine optimisation strategy is by having relevant keywords. Very simply put the best keywords are those that most accurately reflect the words and phrases that your online visitors will use to search online for your website.

By creating your own list of relevant keywords you’ll find it easier to tap into your pool of online customers. You’re likely to find that your website traffic will increase and it will be far more targeted and therefore they will be far more likely to want to engage in a relationship with your business.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE KEYWORDS?

Typically keywords are words and phrases that people type into search engines to find goods, services and information. Much research tells us that most people when searching use more than one word to find something on the internet, and that they will keep refining their words until they come across a page of search engine results that gives a list of website links that satisfies what they’re looking for. If this is the way that you search online it is more than likely that your customers are using this very same process too.

HOW ARE THESE KEYWORDS USED?

Once you have a good list, your keywords will contribute to your websites search engine optimisation and ultimately help shape your online strategy. There doesn’t seem to be any hard and fast rule about how many keywords that you should have but I normally suggest to clients that a good start is to create a 20-30. Your keywords can then be used to help build your website’s text copy, provide relevant search engine optimisation tags within your website’s code, help to develop social networking content like blogging, tweets and other online commentary.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engines use keywords from your website text content and specially tagged code to establish a ‘theme’ that helps it to rank each page of your website. Amongst other indicators, the strength of your ‘theme’ combined with relevant and credible back links leading back to your site will establish your rank within the search engines for your keywords. Most often a web designer/developer would implement the search engine specific tags within the site’s code that is unless your website’s content management facility allows you access.

You can see any website’s meta-tags by clicking on the View or Page menu’s in your browser then selecting the option that says, ‘source’ or ‘page source’. The code will open in your text editor.

The tags to watch out for are:

Title tag: looks like this <title>words in here</title> Currently the most important of the in-code optimisation tags. The title tag is revealed in the very top blue bar of your internet browser. Typically organisations use this field to simply state their business name. Ideally place 2-3 of your most important keywords/keyphrases here providing they are relevant to the information displayed on that page.

Meta-tags: These are placed within the code of your website. The meta-tag ‘keywords’ will simply list the keywords relevant to the individual webpage they are on and the meta-tag ‘description’ will retain a 1-2 sentence statement about your business and the content of the individual page that utilises 2-3 of your keywords. The search engines prefer that the description is informative and not hard-sell.

Alt tags and link ‘titles’: You’ll know if a webpage has these enabled by running your mouse over any on-page links, menu links or images and having a small yellow rectangular box appear with text inside. Not only do these help with search engine optimisation by listing relevant keyword(s) but provide sensible non-visual navigation cues for website accessibility.

H1 tags and Bolding: As well as making it easier for visitors to digest chunks of text on your website, using headers and bolding of words helps the search engines to determine better the ‘theme’ of your page and therefore helps with your search engine rankings. H1 to H6 are simply six standard ‘codes’ that web designers/developers will use to create section and paragraph headings.

Text Content: Your list of keywords will be crucial in helping you create the text copy for each of your webpages. As well as providing useful information to visitors the search engines will read the text on your website and look for any similar keywords that are used frequently in a natural and organic way. Search engines are very clever in recognising when a website has simply listed all their keywords over and over again solely for cheating the optimisation process and they will either ignore it completely or black list the page from their results.

Online presence outside of your website

Your keywords can also help better your online presence outside of your website. Here I’m talking in terms of social media and social networking. For example, if you’re registered with LinkedIn, the online business networking directory your profile should be littered with your main keywords. If you have a business related blog or use a micro-blogging tool like Twitter, your list of keywords can help shape your blog topics. Or if you say use Facebook for business, again these have opportunity for relevant keyword placement, and providing all of these social media sites link back to your own website, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much they can help with your search engine rankings.

SO HOW DO YOU CREATE A USEFUL LIST OF KEYWORDS?

Getting together a list of keywords isn’t difficult but to be successful does require a small amount of time spent researching and refining the words. Let’s take for example a local website that sells DIY hardware.

I have found that typically when first asked to provide a list of keywords a business will send a list of between 10-15 singular words that they feel are relevant to their business. In this case, I may have received a list that said ‘hammers, nails, fences, paint, screws, timber, tools, drills, lights, bulbs, bathrooms’.

Imagine for a minute if someone in a search engine simply types ‘nails‘ what kind of website is likely to be thrown up in the results. A quick search reveals mostly website’s about fingernails, nail varnish and nail care. Nothing at all on the first page about fencing or building nails. And let’s face it, the majority of us won’t go past the first page of search results before refining our search.

So immediately we can see that unless you’re an corporate multi-national who’s very image is ‘nails’ or your business operates in a very unusual and niche industry, then your website isn’t going to do well with singular words.

The first step in creating your keywords is to make a generic list, then think about the journey that someone will take to find your business online – a journey that can often take days of online research as opposed to impulsive offline purchasing.

Gary Reid from Search Works, (taken from a recent .net article) says that the first type of search is called ‘navigational’ where a search query will include a brand name, a web address or a company name. The second type of search is called ‘informational’ where highly generic phrases will be used for example ‘fence palings’ or ‘concrete nails’.  And the final leg of the journey is called a ‘transactional’ search where typically 3-5 word phrases are used to really narrow down the search, for instance, ‘white porcelain door handles’ or ‘brand model colour size location’.  The key is to have a list of keywords that represent each stage of this journey and that are specific to each page of your website. It’s worth noting that the search engines when evaluating your webpages don’t like to see too much repetition.

Once you have a list the next step is to ask friends, family and customers for their input. There is no harm in asking customers how they found you or what they might do to search for you online (if they didn’t know your business name).  More often than not when I help customers with this part of their keyword creation, they find that outsiders to their business will use different words to the jargon that they use on a daily basis. So it is really important to make sure that you’re using the words that your customers would use and not simply what you assume.

The next step is to take this bigger list and try these out in a search engine to see what type of results that you get.  This is excellent for many reasons, you’ll instantly see what works and what doesn’t as the results will either show your type of business or not. Once you start finding keywords that work, you’re likely to find your online competitors and can then look at their websites and see what keywords that they’re using by looking at all the optimisation factors as listed above.

Again you can see any website’s meta-tags by clicking on the View or Page menu’s in your browser then selecting the option that says, ‘source’ or ‘page source’.

Now that you have a pretty good list, you can also make use of many online tools to check your keywords for popularity and frequency of use and for suggestions as to alternative but useful keywords that you may not have come across. For example:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
http://www.seotoolset.com/cgi-bin/checktraffic.cgi

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

I’VE GOT A LIST OF KEYWORDS SO NOW WHAT?

Set about having all the search engine optimisation tips above implemented. Look at your website content – does it need an overhaul, do the words need rewriting? Have your web designer/developer add or refresh the ‘tags’ that need improving if you’re unable to. Look at ways you can expand your web presence past your website through social networking alternatives and use your keywords to help with the content of these. Take time to review your list once in a while, keep checking that they’re relevant to your business and that they’re working for you.

Have Google Analytics installed on your website, it’s an excellent tool and will provide some feedback on keywords used to find your site and it’s FREE.

As Gary Reid said, ‘blindly optimising for a set of keywords is a quick way to waste time and money’. Certainly in today’s economy making use of inexpensive marketing techniques is crucial and having smart keywords will definitely go some way in helping to avoid wasting time and money. Particularly for small businesses it will help in quickly targeting your online marketing efforts so those very important customers who are out there really searching for you and your business will find you and not your competitors.