Six SEO Tips for Small Business Owners

For businesses owners with a website and an online strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) is an important factor. If much of your business comes from local customers then local SEO, which helps businesses be found in a specific geographic market, should be part of your web strategy.

If you're seeking the greatest stream of web traffic in the ever-changing search engine scene, there are some non-technical ways to take advantage of local SEO. In addition to hiring an SEO professional like Scott Pierson from The Executive SEO, try to increase your rankings through a combination of simple tasks, some of which Scott recommended in our recent meeting.

Here are six tips to get you started:

1. City and State Info

Include your business city and state in your web site's title tag, alt tags and in your website content.  Ideally, your landing page should include the name, address and phone (NAP) of your company and it should match your Google+ Local listing.

2. Blog

To become a local authority and to be found online, write/blog about the subjects your target audience wants to know about. To strengthen your local strategy, include blog posts and press releases that focus on local business transactions and community events your business is involved in.

3. Inbound Links

Quality links that point to your site will strengthen your online presence.  Remember to link back to your site from social media sites, when you guest blog or comment on a blog.  Ask your business partners to post links to your site on their Resources page and do the same for them.

4. Claim Local Profiles

One of the best ways to optimize for local SEO is to completely  fill out your local profiles on sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, Bing and Yellow Pages(to name a few). For an $84 fee, Moz Local (moz.com) will ensure that your business listings are correct and consistent  on sites and directories that factor most in local search engine results.

5. Use Location-Based Hashtags

Increase your relevancy and visibility for local audiences by using location-based hashtags. Use your business' and your target audiences' neighborhoods, cities or towns (#Milford #Devon or #Bayview, for example) in your posts so your content will be found by your local market.

6. Reviews

Periodically ask your clients to favorably review you on Google+. A steady flow of positive reviews will go a long way in building your SEO.

Staying current with local SEO is a challenging but important task for entrepreneurs. If you're overwhelmed or not getting results, enlist help from an SEO expert to advance your local SEO strategy.

Tips for Using Pinterest for Business

If your business hasn't jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, now is the time. Pinterest is growing faster than another social media network according to a recent report from ShareThis.  Pinterest grew at 58% in 2013 outpacing Twitter and LinkedIn.

The ShareThis report states that Pinterest has surpassed email for online sharing. This means that consumers are now "pinning" things like articles, photos, recipes, etc. to share more than they're emailing links.

In addition to a growing user base and an increase in sharing, Pinterest can also give a boost to your SEO.

Check out these tips to help you get started on Pinterest or maximize your business' current efforts:

1. Create a Business Pinterest Page 
Unlike a personal Pinterest Page, a business Page offers valuable analytics to help you understand what's working and what's not.  Pinterest also offers educational information to help businesses build a community and drive traffic to their Page.

2. Complete your Business Profile
Use all of the 160 characters to describe your business and what you'll be posting on your Page. Include keywords to boost your Pinterest SEO. Under Account Settings you can set up connections with your other social media accounts to easily make your Pinterest posts visible on your other networks. And don't forget to verify your web site so that your Pinterest visitors can see your web address and click through to it.

3. Describe Your Pins
Use keywords and hashtags in each pin's description area to optimize them.  Use up the 500 characters allowed and make your text relatable, fun and relevant.

4. Link Every Pin
Add a link to your web site to every Pin you post. These "back links" can increase your Google rankings and they're a smart and easy way to drive traffic to your web site.

5. Fill your Boards
There's nothing worse than clicking on a Pinterest board with only one Pin! Before you make a board public, be sure to add lots of interesting images and links.

If you sell products, Pinterest is a great tool.  But consider Pinterest, even if you have a service based business.  Think of Pinterest as a way to post relevant web site links with interesting photos that entice people to click!

Pinterest shouldn't be used for the sole purpose of promotion. Use it to offer your audience useful information and to build your business' brand and the lifestyle associated with it.

Five Tips on How and Where to Find Useful Content for your Blog and Social Media

 

I hear it all the time: how can I consistently come up with content for my blog and social media sites?

 

If you're looking to attract prospects and customers, useful content that includes potential solutions will help you develop a reputation as a reliable resources and expert in your field.

Content marketing can be challenging on many levels, from producing quality content that appeals to your target audience to developing enough new content on a regular basis.

Plan and create content based on what you think will entice your audience to engage.

Daily Business
As you go about your typical work week, keep a list handy where you can jot down content ideas that cross your mind. So many things, such as work challenges or mistakes, can make for great content if you're on the lookout.

Your Clients
How are you solving customer problems? You offer tips, suggestions and techniques regularly- how can you turn that information into a blog or a post?

Poll Your Social Media Followers

Ask your social media followers and blog readers what type of information they want to learn more about.

Google Alerts
Set alerts for words or topics related to your industry or niche. By monitoring the news and other sources, you can find new ideas and inspiration.

Twitter

Use your Google Alert words in a Twitter search. Twitter Hashtags (word or phrase with the # symbol in front of it) are a good way to find trending information on specific topics.

Share your sources of inspiration for content!

Twitter Trends: Are You Marketing with Hashtags?

If you're a devoted Twitter user, you know all about hashtags. If not, you've heard of them and may be wondering what the buzz is all about. Twitter's hashtag or # symbol can be used to highlight keywords or topics in your Tweets. You can insert hashtags anywhere in your Tweet.

People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize Tweets and help them show more easily in a Twitter Search. For example if you search in Twitter on #jobs, you will see all the recent Tweets that have include that hashtag and are relevant to the word "jobs". Hashtags help other Twitter users find information on a particular topic.

Check out www.hashtags.org to find out which hashtags are searched on the most. Or create your own hashtag. For example, come up with an original hashtag associated with an upcoming business event. All interested and participating parties (attendees, speakers, moderators, event organizers) can use this special hashtag in their related Tweets and it provides real time feedback and information for anyone who searches on it.

Hashtags are in commercials, print ads and now they're even painted on football fields. Incorporate hashtags into your tweets to be noticed, collaborate with others and to reach a specific audience.