local online business

How to avoid pitfalls and reap the rewards – a ‘how to’ guide for local websites

10th April 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

With the marriage of Twitter and Foursquare on the cards, it has, once again, thrown light on a sticky patch that many local businesses encounter, especially when creating their presence online; just HOW do you reach the local populace whilst using global online platforms? What is the point? And why, oh why, do you need a website…?

In our mooching around the Internet, as well as our growing customer base of local, national and global businesses, we have come up with 10 pitfalls in to which local, online businesses can tumble.

Flailing about in the dark is no fun, especially when everyone else on the top side is winning new customers, and seeing old ones return.

Now is the time to grasp the mettle, and understand what is undermining your online, local presence…

#1 It is not ALL about YOU…

Commissioning your website is very exciting but, it can place some businesses in a position whereby they think their online presence is only about them. Although your brand is important, but when it comes to social media, more is a distinct advantage.

Link with other businesses, blogs and the like that are in harmony with yours. If you sell sea salt, for example, look to food based social media shares and the like. Think beyond your own brand bubble!

#2 It is not just about what you sell…

Yes your products and services are the very thing that makes you a business; yup, we all need or want things in our lives, and you have one of those things. But, following on from point 1, think outside the box – who, what or how else can your product be linked to other business, news events and so on?

Take care – linking with news events is great BUT, makes sure you are not pushing the boundaries or sensitive material. It can back fire and, unless you have a suave, fast-acting PR department then you could be sunk without a trace.

#3 Not all people will know what they want…

Some businesses will tell you that people come to them when they know they want their product or service.

Mmmm… might be true but, you could be alienating a group of buyers early on in the process who are in the market for a product like yours but, they miss your site because your SEO etc. is all geared toward the ‘sure-thing-buyer’.

#4 Local signals can reap rewards

We have touched on this many times in recent blogs and, it seems we are not wrong!

Various data-crunching companies and agencies have been analysing 2014 data from various search engines and it seems that local signals are slowly beginning to emerge as the must-have search term.

If your business has a local presence, then you need this somewhere on your website, social media profiles and so forth. If not, you could be missing a trick.

#5 Local signals go beyond your website!

It pays to spend some time checking out pages such as Yell.com and other local listing sites as all these combined create a stronger force when people search for a business, product or service in a certain area.

The Google My Business page might be worth a look at too, or Bing Places for Business.

#6 Your Home Page

Go to it now. Is it really doing its job?

Just it give a clear, succinct paragraph or two about what it is you do, and why the customer needs YOUR business to do these things? Do you have a tagline that explains what it is you do?

Are you sure it is cutting the mustard?

Mini quiz; which websites are these from?

‘live a life less ordinary’
‘Think different’
‘melts in your mouth, not in your hands’

*scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers!

#7 The rest of your pages

Think value.

With this in mind, go to page that talks about your window cleaning service… does ‘call for more information’ really give the customer any value? Nope. They will navigate away to another competitor who will tell them that they “are in the area of so-and-so on Tuesday and a 3 bedroomed semi-detached costs £12 to have windows and doors cleaned”.

#8 One mention of a city, town or village is not enough…

If you determined to win the local business title online then you need to mention your location, county etc. more than once… and this just not mean putting your address on there.

Don’t go too far the other way and over stuff pages but, if your location is key to your business then this is priority information to be included on pages, metatags etc.

#9 Title tags should be 65-70 characters…

…. Or they don’t fit. So, when you search the Internet and you get the business heading, the tag line underneath falls off the end of the gap the search engine has to display results. Looks messy and people are missing key information. Guess what they do?

Yup, that’s right. They hit the next listing down.

#10 Update key information

Just like you don’t use old business card with the old phone number on, you would be amazed at the number of websites that do not have current, up-to-date contact information, addresses etc. on them. Hence, if you are a local business, then you need to ensure that they key information is right (and don’t forget all those other places where your address, phone number etc. is registered too!)

Local businesses are thriving in the global place that is the Internet – are you?

Mini-quiz answers… how many did you get right?

‘live a life less ordinary’ – Not on the High Street.com
‘Think different’ – Apple
‘melts in your mouth, not in your hands’ – M&Ms in the US, or Minstrels here in the UK

10 steps for better search results local businesses – Part 2

16th March 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

In the first instalment of optimising your website for a local audience, we looked at 5 steps: keywords, optimisation, Google Local, local business listing websites and consistency.

Get these 5 steps right and in place, and your website could feature more prominently in local search engine results, perfect if people through the door is part of your business.

Is buying local becoming more important?

Buying locally source food is something that, in recent years, has become not only trendy but also more genuine; consumers are realising that food that has not been in plastic packaging on a plane for 13 hours before it hits the supermarkets, is not the only good quality, well-priced produce on offer.

And it seems that consumers are not just looking at local food but local retailers of other items too. Finally, it seems, we are getting fed up of the ‘same old-same old’ from the hyper stores, and once again looking for the unique, quality items are a great price from local businesses.

And so yes, NOW is the time, with campaigns like ‘small business Saturday’, to trade on the local-ness of your business. You could gain more customers, more fans. more shares, more success – and we all want and need a bit of this kind of action.

Like everything, it takes effort and a smattering of know-how, this in this instalment we cover from steps 6 to 10, the remaining 5 steps that consolidate your presence online, in a local sense.

Step 6: ‘genuine’ reviews

We hinted at this with the local website listings etc. as some of these sites will be review based. However, to expand this point a little further, Google along with other major search engines have hinted in the long and distant past, that genuine reviews are welcome, forming a positive basis for some nice social signals.

However, bribery is not a good idea. On your website, simply ask people to ‘tell us what you think’ or rate it with stars. For WordPress, there are all kinds of review plug-ins and what-not that make it easy for customers to leave a review. If you think people can’t or won’t be bothered (because you can’t be when you shop!), then you really need to change this view.

We are all connected, every second of the day (or so it seems) with the online world, thus people can and do leave reviews, good ones as well as the not so good. So, ask people to rate their shopping experience etc. – if nothing else, it proves your website is alive!

Step 7: social profiles

We have talked about social media a lot, and how, if done right and used well can add value to your website. But, you need to make sure you are not only taking full advantage of them but have also created the right kind of social profile.

What can happen, is that we are faced with “yet another” profile form to fill in; bit bored of writing the same stuff, we skip a few boxes, promising that we will come back and fill them in… but we never do.

So, you know the ‘edit profile’ tab on various platforms? Go back NOW, and open it and fill it in and remember: complete the bit that says where your business is. For those that are on the high street, naming the village/town/city is an obvious one to complete.

(And don’t forget step 5 Consistency)

Step 8: start building local links

Before you scuttle off and buy links, you need to know this is no-no. It is such as a no-no, it deserves to be shouted from the tallest building in your town – do NOT do it. Search engines can spot them a mile off, sniff them as soon as they hit your pages and your website is blacklisted, doomed to the bin from which it is very, very difficult to escape.

In this sense, we are talking about building local links. A great way of doing this is to get involved in some of the local groups of social media, as well as other similar businesses.

If you have great content on your website, that you are updating regularly, and that it of interest to them, then you could have a fruitful relationship beginning to form.

Try this: type in {your location} + blog, and you will have a list of blogs all linked to your town or local area. This could be a great start to some local links…

Step 9: Go mobile!

This doesn’t mean hitching up a caravan on going on tour but, is something we have talked about many times before… and we think it is worth going over old ground. It really is that important.

There are 1 million more mobile devices activated EVERY DAY across the world than there are babies born. This may seem an unbelievable statistic and we have no idea where it came – genuinely, we found it on the internet, so it must be true – but, regardless of its authenticity, it does spell out something we have long suspected: more people are using smart phones and other mobile devices, and this figure is growing.

Whether mobile phone ownership gazumps the daily birth rate is neither here nor there. If your website is NOT mobile ready, then you are missing a huge chunk of the population…

If you are already mobile-optimised, then take another look and make sure all those local contact details are obvious; pay close attention to the ‘contact us’ page.

Step 10: get analysing

Now that you have done all this, you need to monitor, assess and review if this is having an impact and, if so, how much. Of course, being flooded with more enquiries and an increase in custom is all well and good, but as with all things internet, the effects are not always immediate or obvious.

When we are busy, the hard/boring/uninteresting stuff can be shoved aside. We all do it, with different things.

Analysing who is coming to your website and from where, along with other useful information is not too difficult to come by, providing you know what you are looking at, once you have the data in front of you. No one is an expert on everything, so if you need help, just ask.

There are various options online, as you would expect, some that you pay for and some that are free. You can also take advantage of Google Analytics, but again, it all seems a little complicated. However, once you become accustomed to it, know what you are looking at (sort of), what you are looking to see improve (sort of), Google Analytics can be quite helpful.

Paid for software can be easier to fathom, but when money is tight, you may not want an additional monthly fee.

And so there we are, 10 steps to making your website appear in local listings, near the top. For many businesses, this is important to them and, increasingly for customers, it seems that local is beginning to outweigh ‘cheapness’ too, with more people taking time to find the right product at the right price… and if it is just down the road, all the better.

Let us know how you get on… [email protected]

10 small steps to better search engine rankings for LOCAL businesses – Part 1

13th March 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

Steps 1 to 5 of how to rank better in terms of being a local business (steps 6 to 10 to follow on….)

Let’s starts this two-part article with a rhetorical question –

would you like MORE customers?

(sits back, makes more tea and dunks another biscuit)

Of course you do. Anyone running their own business would like more customers because, after all, that is what makes a business. And makes it successful.

Lessons in hard work:

Running your own business is hard work
Running your website is hard work
Attracting new customers is hard work
Maintaining this attraction so customers come back, is hard work

Add in to this mix the need for your website and online presence to be constant, consistent and up to date and you can be forgiven for thinking it is simply all too much.

But you are not the only local business to be in this position. Every day seems a struggle to get everything done but, we carry on regardless because at the end of the day, we are our own boss, we make the decision and the risks are acceptable.

Keeping on top of search engine optimisation (SEO)

A bit like keep the plug hole in the sink unblocked, staying on top of SEO updates and the like, will prevent a backlog that, all of a sudden, needs a professional or a lot of YouTube-video-watching in order to rectify it. Keeping that plug hole running clear and free from blockages stops that expensive call out to a plumber.

Keeping on top of your SEO as a local business also sees you outshine your competitors online thus, we have created 10 small-ish steps to improving your search engine rankings so that local customers find your local business…

Step 1: research you keywords

HOW will people find your local business? If you are a florist in Watford then you need to say so; if you are a speciality butcher and delicatessen in Newport, South Wales, then you need to say so.

However, we need to be careful that the obvious isn’t hidden in plain sight so take a moment or two to think about how, and what language your customers will use to find you. Google search terms are becoming a little more detailed in how they interact too, hence if a place is often known by its initials such as ‘New York City’ as NYC, it is beginning to tie these two search terms together.

You would be amazed at the number of local businesses that do not list their locality or location.

Step 2: optimise your website and content

What can happen with this step is people go from the sublime to the ridiculous; in other words, from not much content, to overstuffing every page with every keyword that they think hits their business. This looks awkward to both your customer and search engines, so stop it (if you are doing it) and don’t do it (if you are thinking of doing it).

High quality content all over you website is a the way forward, along with other soft technical such as keywords in meta titles etc. along with the other background stuff.

Some experts suggest that a ‘frequently asked question’ page is also a good for both customers and search engines too thus, if it is time to upgrade or revamp your content, then why not consider and FAQ page?

Step 3: Google Local

You will no doubt have come across these rather handy location maps when you have been searching for a business, supplier, etc. and getting your business on Google Local is an external activity to your website, but will obviously link to it, but is a great way of people being able to find your local business.

Think how you use Google… only the other week we were in a place we didn’t know, fancied a nice pub lunch, typed it in to Google and hey presto!, we found a delightful pub by the canal. Ignoring the sub-zero temperatures and the gathering rain clouds, we had at least 10 minutes of sunshine by the water’s edge and quite a nice lunch… all helped by the fact the local pub was on Google Local, and so in the corner of the tablet screen, the map bobbed up and away we went. It wasn’t far off the beaten track but you would not have known it was there otherwise.

Step 4: Local business listing websites

There are many different types, and trying to make sure you are on them all can be a bit like herding cats BUT, that said, if you do manage to list your business or update some of the information that already exists, it sends ‘good signals’ to both your prospective customers and the various search engines.

We typed in some key search terms and came up with these…

Really Moving – type in your local area, and local removal firms pop up… if you are a removal firm, are you on here?

Trip Advisor – in many ways, Trip Advisor is infamous for negative reviews that some businesses say are uncalled for, unnecessary and downright lies but, many customers are still using this website. Take a moment to surf around and you will see that the vast majority of customers are leaving helpful reviews (not always positive!).

There are many more review, business listing and location type websites, some better than others but take some time to have a look what is local to you and, more importantly, what people are using… but don’t forget to keep an eye on them, and respond appropriately to both negative and positive reviews.

Step 5: Consistency

One issue (among others…) that seems to crop up for local businesses online seems to be a lack of consistency when it comes to business listings etc. When people talk about brand, this is the kind of thing they mean.

You have a business name, a logo and a tag line – e.g. Locally – strategic thinking, creative web design – boom! Job done… keep using it.

Don’t decide to change it when you list it on Yell.com (Locally – really good web design and stuff), or on a local business directory (Locally – really good at all things website and stuff).

All these ‘descriptions’ need to be the same, over and over again… this might be ‘boring’. On that Friday afternoon when you were “doing the admin”, it might have seemed fun to add or embellish your business description… but it does impact on how all the search engines look at you.

These changes and differences in descriptions and tag lines could be damaging on your online search results.

Before you head on over to part 2, why not take some time to go through these 5 steps with you local, online business?

Shall we blog?

29th September 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

Like an over-excited puppy, you created a blog on your website because that is what brings traffic in (all the research said so…) and you started with gusto, creating blogs that you faithfully published every week and then…

(whistles, looks at watch)

(carries on whistling, admires hair in mirror)

…nothing.

(Disappointed sigh)

**Why as a local, online business, you should be blogging**

It’s all about content. It’s all about thriving and surviving in a competitive market place and even though you think that your local customers are just fab, you all need to sharing your eggs around your basket. Relying on one market for business, local or otherwise, is the ‘putting your eggs in one basket’ thing, hence where there are fluctuations in the market place they hit you hard, their impact magnified. Being in business is all about looking for the next thing, improving, creating and selling whether that is a local butchers with award winning sausages or a local foot clinic.

Your customers’ tastes change as they influenced by marketing, opinion shifts and budget constraints; they are busy people too so booking online for a foot treatment is great – unless they don’t find your website. We live in a 24 hour world, where we spend the majority of our time in front of different screens, from our smartphone to our tablet, then mooching around on the laptop for the next big thing.

But, people search the web differently too. They may think they have an ingrowing toe nail but how do you know? They hop on the web and do some research and guess what? Google (or any search engine) will note their location and you, wrote a blog or two on the perils on ingrowing toe nails. Google likes the look of your blog, as people have been reading it and liking it or sharing and guess what? Your website bobs up in front of their very eyes and, better still, they can book online and you have a new customers booked in for a consultation on Wednesday afternoon at 4.30pm.

Imagined if that happened once or twice a week; that’s 8 customers a month that you may not have had before…

“So I’m blogging for survival then?”

Sounds a bit melodramatic but yes and, well… er, no.

There are, the last time someone counted 164 million blogs – but that number has probably fluctuated up and down several zillion times since the man in the back room started his tally chart.

The vast majority of these blogs will have less than a 1,000 visitors a month and represent a disaster zone. Why?

You blog for months and months, seemingly for little reward and it is human nature that if you slog your guts out for months and months on something you find stressful and difficult, another tiny little thing to add to your already busy day, you will stop doing it. Fact.

How to avoiding failing at blogging…

Creating content it is GREAT! But do you market it?

If you don’t, you are not promoting yourself or your business hence you will not extend your readership passed you mum and your sister. Their ‘liking’ or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook is great, but you need more likes and shares and comments and readers…. So promote it!

And don’t forget it is not just promoting new blogs; promote older ones too. If there is an article in the news on the importance of cutting your toenails properly and you wrote a piece on it a few months, promote your blog with some well-placed hashtags.

You have permission to jump on the bandwagon.

You will then find, possibly, that people will read some of your other podiatry diatribes on the ingrowing toenails, bunions and athlete’s foot and learn something; people like being informed, hence your blog starts to gain authority with an increased following.

The next step is to start linking your blog with other authoritative sites; the ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours approach’. Again, this is all about building a reader base so why not try your hand submitting a ‘guest post’ to another site, with a lovely link to your own blog? And then, ask someone to do the same for you – they write a post for your site, and your share links and readers back and forth.

Avoid: plagiarism and replicas

What does not go down well is nicking stuff from other people or simply writing a blog that says the same as everyone else’s. This can be a bit stuff as there is only so many ways and times you can take about a subject and, if it is current and in the news headlines then a blog on it simply adds you voice to many others.

Nicking someone’s stuff that they have possibly spent hours crafting is not only morally slightly-dodgy, but can earn you a penalty point from Google and other search engines. Before you know, your blog and website has disappeared without a trace and it is very hard to get it back in Google’s good books again.

The lesson is thus…

Creating content and posting it regular is great – once a week is fab
Promoting it via your social media platforms is also great
Keep promoting older blogs too
Advanced bloggers also look to guests posts and links with like-minded blogs and websites
Keep doing it!