Studies show that mobile and local marketing strategies are currently two of the most effective tools you can use to boost local business. So, it makes sense that if you combine them together you’re going to see significant results. The question is, how can you integrate mobile into your local marketing strategy?
Below you’ll find three tips on how to do it. 1. Take advantage of mobile app ads According to statistics, over 80% of time spent on mobile devices is used on various apps. There are literally millions of apps out there and if you’ve ever used one, you’ll notice many feature pop up ads. By using services such as Google AdMob, you can get your own promotional ad featured in a third-party application. Obviously, if you want to target local customers, you’re going to need to need to ensure your ads are placed on local business apps.
2. Promotional text messages Another great way to incorporate mobile into local search is to send out promotional text messages to local customers. It helps if you already have a database of existing local customers. However, there are companies out there that specialize in helping you build a list of mobile subscribers, developing a campaign, and sending out promotional messages on your behalf.
3. Entice customers with Google Offers for Mobile If you’re just starting out with mobile local search marketing, you’ve probably never heard of Google Offers for Mobile. Basically, it’s a feature which enables you to post coupon or discount offers underneath your advertisement. This doubles the chances of a consumer clicking on the ad. Everybody loves a discount so if a consumer sees there is a special code they can use, for example, a 10% off code, they are a lot more likely to click through to see what they can save money on. This closed its’ doors in 2014.
These are just a few ways you can incorporate mobile into your local digital marketing campaign. It’s recommended you choose just one to start with so you can dedicate all your time and effort into making sure it’s a success. Don’t forget to monitor the progress of your mobile ads too. You need to know whether they are working and whether you need to change anything. If you want to get ahead of your competitors, mobile marketing is definitely a great way to go. It’s one of the most effective ways of advertising to local consumers who are looking to take action sooner than later. You just need to know what works and what doesn’t, so always thoroughly research each marketing method before trying to implement it. Otherwise, you could risk wasting a lot of time and marketing dollars.
The answer is simple – inbound linking cannot hurt your search ranking. How is this known for certain? Well, for one, if inbound were to hurt your rank, your competitors would continually link to your site from link farms. Such a scenario is beyond your control. For this reason, Google cannot penalize your site for any inbound linking.
On the other hand, you can be penalized for illegitimate external linking. It is highly advised that you not link to any website or group of sites that may be involved in shady or unethical search practices. Doing so could result in being blacklisted by Google, ultimately ruining your SEO strategy. Avoid this situation at all costs and ensure that all external links point to trusted and reliable sources.
Having been involved in the internet industry for a large part of my working life, I have spent a lot of time researching and browsing the internet and reading websites, mainly for client design research, but also for occasional personal use. The one thing that I find most disappointing is the apparent lack of thought going into website creation and it’s purpose, which in turn creates a missed opportunity for many e-businesses to become successful.
My personal perspective on e-businesses and their websites, is that if they don’t take pride in their websites and show to their customers a passion for what they do, chances are, they won’t take pride in their products, and the passion for providing good customer service will also be missing.
What you must remember, is that your website is a direct reflection of you and your business. The appearance of your site is the most important factor in determining your potential success rate. In short, if your site doesn’t look professional or pleasing to the eyes at first glance, the majority of people will assume your products and/or services to be of similar poor standard.
At the other end of the scale, you could fall into the trap of going overboard with the design and over complicate things with incorporating high costing flashy graphics. You may end up with a great looking and highly aesthetic website, but the danger with this is that your site may prove unreliable and at times may take too long to load. There is nothing worse for a customer than trying to visit a slow loading site, and most will close the browser window in complete frustration. As I’m sure you will be able to work out, this will ultimately cost you business.
The other major consideration (if not the most important) when designing a website is your content. Not just links, but content with passion, relativity, and understanding to the customer. When someone is searching for something in particular and they visit your website, they’re visiting for a reason. Your site has something they want, Whether this is your product, service, and/or information. If they are unable to obtain what they’re looking for, they move on to the next site and so on. To be able to get your visitors to stay and look around your website, you must give them a reason to. Providing them with quality content will achieve this goal.
There have been countless other lists and articles on the subject of website designing mistakes, but I have compiled my own list, from a designer’s perspective, of some pitfalls to look out for when considering either designing a website or purchasing a template. Remember that the simple, clear, informative and well-designed sites are the most successful. If you are a current e-business and your sales aren’t what you had hoped, consider the above and take some time to look openly and honestly at your site. Spending money on improving your website is a much better investment than throwing money away on trying to advertise and market a site that just isn’t good enough to sell your product or services!
If you are looking for a template or a custom designed website, be aware of the above and be prepared to ask your chosen designer or template provider questions to ensure that your hard earned money doesn’t go to waste on an inferior design, which contains any of the above. Asking questions won’t cost you a penny, and in doing so could actually save you a lot of money over the long term. Getting your website right first time is vital in terms of saving money and time. The earlier your website is up and running properly, the quicker you will be able to reap the rewards of a successful e-business.
The prime mistake Newbies make is to put their website name into the Anchor Text. Unless your website contains your keywords this is a waste of a perfectly good link. Remember that Google puts a very big importance on those Anchor texts and they should always use your keywords.
The second mistake is trying to put every single keyword into your anchor text and give that to everyone. There are two mistakes with this technique. Google assigns weight to each word in anchor text so if there are a lot of filler words (common in long sentences), they will “dilute” your target words.
According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research and Gartner Group, e-commerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customers click- away caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long to load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately costing you business.
Make sure you include proper META tags in the HTML of each page of your website. META tags are HTML code that enables the search engines to determine what keywords are relevant to a specific site. About 80 percent of all website traffic originates from the eight major search engines. It would be a good idea to make sure you’ve done your homework and fully understand how to optimise your web pages prior to designing your site. This will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
Be cautious when selecting your background and text colours. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. Always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Your site should be nicely organized and uniform throughout. Keep in mind, colours affect your mood and will have an effect on your visitors as well. Bright colours such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colours such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colours such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would be to use colours based upon the type of effect you’re trying to achieve.
Your main page should specifically let your visitors know exactly what you’re offering. How many times have you visited a site and never figured out exactly what they were selling? If your potential customer can’t find your product or service, they definitely won’t waste a lot of time looking for it. They’ll go on to the next site and probably never return. They’re visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your site offers. Whether it is information, a product or service.
Design your site to be easily navigated. Place your navigation links together at the top, bottom left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links. If you are planning on using graphic buttons to navigate your site, keep in mind that with each graphic you add to your page, it will take that much longer for your page to load. If you only have a handful of navigational links, using graphic buttons will be fine. If you have over six links, it would be wise to simply use text links to keep your load time down.
If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if not properly used, can make your site look unprofessional. Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to view your content. This can be very irritating and cause your visitors to leave. If you must use frames, offer your visitors a choice. Frames verses No Frames. Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other page on your site down to four. Keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than your main. Always have good navigational links on every page and place your company logo on each page.
Design a quality e-book to give to your visitors. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. If you can create a web page, you can create an e-book. The focus of your e-book should compliment your website. Simply write about your passion. If your passion is sales, then you could share some of your knowledge and experience by designing your e-book to provide a complete sales training guide. If your passion is a home-based business, you could write an e-book about how to start your own home-based business. If you’re writing about your true passion then you shouldn’t have any trouble coming up with something to write about.
Having been involved in the internet industry for a large part of my working life, I have spent a lot of time researching and browsing the internet and reading websites, mainly for client design research, but also for occasional personal use. The one thing that I find most disappointing is the apparent lack of thought going into website creation and it’s purpose, which in turn creates a missed opportunity for many e-businesses to become successful.
The importance of anchor text with respect to a linking strategy cannot be overstated. Backlinks are a huge part of the search engine algorithm. When initiating a linking campaign, it is vital that external sites link using the appropriate keywords and terms in the anchor text.
Almost always, linking candidates will use the company name as anchor text. This does not provide any type of description of the target company’s products or services. Sure, it may be great for branding purposes, but it isn’t usually needed. In most cases, companies already rank very high (if not first) for searches that incorporate their brand.
Here is an example using our company “Topratedsearch”:
Most people will link simply using the terms “SEO”. This is alright, but it does not describe the company’s products or services, nor provide any context. By adding the word “ Expert” or term “Services” (i.e. “Topratedsearch SEO Experts” or “Topratedsearch Local SEO Experts”), you may be able to drive additional traffic if you use what is called LTK (Long Tailed Keywords).
These LTK’s are where you can normally gain some bonus traffic, so from our usual ‘Topratedsearch SEO Experts’ we can then go to ‘Topratedsearch SEO Experts in Stockton on Tees’ or ‘Topratedsearch SEO Services in Teesside’. Just play about a bit with your words but DONT overdo it!!
