As you may or may not be aware, Google and other search engines (yes, there are still others, more or less) are altering their approach to search to deliver "personalized" and local search results. This means if someone searches for "wood stoves santa fe," they get Santa Fe listings for wood stoves at the top of the page, rather than national listings. People are searching like this more and more, and the major search engines are changing how they deliver results based not only on the inclusion of a locale in the search terms, but also based on the searcher’s IP address, which tells them where you are. Theoretically, if you searched for "restaurants paris", you would get different results if you were in Paris, Texas, than if you were in Paris, France. Waaay different. If anyone can test that and get back to me, please do.

Also, as we’ve talked about here earlier, Google assigns greater relevance to regularly updated websites that contain focused content. As a business owner, you can benefit from these changes by blogging, and by listing your business on the major search engines’ local search listings.

Google Local Search

If you go to Google’s search page, down at the bottom you’ll see a link that says "Business Solutions." That link takes you to a page with links to a number of useful applications (including Google Analytics). The one we’re after is called "Local Business Center". Click on that and either sign in, if you already have a Google account, or create an account. Follow the instructions and you’ll have soon created a listing. Before your listing goes live, you’ll need to validate your listing by phone or US mail. If you select the phone option, you can elect to have them call within 5 minutes, and your listing will appear the next day.

Yahoo Local Search

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to navigate to the add-your-listing page, but once you’re there, you can begin the process of creating your listing. They have pre-defined business categories, and do not allow your listing outside of those categories. Also, you will have to create a Yahoo account, such as a Ymail account, if you do not already have one.

Microsoft Live Search

I’m not sure this is really a major search engine in terms of use, but it’s a Microsoft application, so you it’s hard to ignore. At Microsoft’s search engine, www.live.com, you can click on "More" above the search bar and click on "see all" on the dropdown menu that appears. That takes you to a screen that includes a link to "Local." And then… I got lost. Just go here and click the button to add your listing. Again, creation of an account is necessary (e.g., a Hotmail address), and again, you can validate your listing by having them call you or mail you validation information.

Tags: Google Analytics, Local Search

I continue to be amazed at how many business owners are perfectly happy with static brochure websites. Well, maybe not exactly happy with them, because they’ve certainly noticed their website is not a source of revenue. But they’ve decided they can’t expect much from the Internet and their brochure website will do. Unfortunately, static websites give back very little in return for whatever time or money was spent to create and launch them. They’re like a car with nothing under the hood: OK if you want the neighbors to think you have a car. Not much good for taking you somewhere.

Blogging is the answer for businesses interested in attracting business online, but it’s a new idea to many business owners, and they have reservations which are not entirely without merit. There are three issues most business owners struggle with relative to blogging: time, talent (writing ability), and reluctance to fall for the "next big thing," only to be disappointed once again.

Time

Uncertainty about the time required to support a blog continues to be the number-one concern of people considering blogging for business. It’s a legitimate concern, but there are ways of managing the issue. First, blogging is not like publishing a newspaper: it doesn’t have a carved-in-stone publishing schedule. While it requires a commitment to do it, you have the flexibility to back off when necessary.

That said, the benefits of blogging (primarily search engine traffic and customer engagement) are greater if you post 3-4 times per week than once a week or once a month (at which point you’re not getting much benefit because you have an essentially static blog). A commitment to use a certain amount of time per week for blogging is important. It’s also important to understand that blogging is a foundation for attracting search results, and it’s a far more effective means of doing so than any of the techniques commonly prescribed by SEO firms at a cost of several hundred dollars per month. That makes it a valuable activity, and understanding that is a basis for making it a priority.

See a related post from a couple of weeks ago about how to find time for blogging.

Talent

Writing talent is not as important as you might think. Blog posts are not essays for your high school English teacher. Your main goal in crafting each post is to share some of your knowledge which will solve a problem for people in your market. It doesn’t have to be a big problem: it can be a pretty minor annoyance. As long as you focus on your customers and their problems, any awkwardness or "irregularities" in your writing will likely be perceived as endearing personality quirks. Yes, you should spell-check your work, and maybe have someone read it to make sure the points you intend to make are clear. Beyond that, don’t worry about it.

We’re not falling for this one

Your mama didn’t raise no fool. You’ve seen internet fads come and go, and you’ve even jumped on one or two bandwagons, just before they ran into the ditch. We understand that kind of reluctance. But let’s look at how people’s online behavior has shifted. First, virtually everyone considering any kind of "significant" purchase, from pipe tobacco to an automobile (with an engine under the hood), goes to Google to figure out what their options are. Second, Google’s algorithms favor frequently updated, focused content. Third, people search online even when they intend to buy locally. You can take advantage of these trends by blogging, attracting your share of search traffic when people search for goods and services you provide. It’s really that simple.

Let’s do this like we mean it

The point is, if you’re going to use the web as part of your marketing strategy (and it’s hard to think why you wouldn’t, now that Google is the first place more than three-quarters of people in the US look before they make a planned purchase), then use it in a way that is productive. Blogging is a proven, cost-effective means of attracting customers to your business. Blogging takes time (probably less than you imagine), but you get something in exchange (more business). And cost-wise, there is no better bargain in business marketing. Once you’re in the swing and blogging becomes a habit (and you start realizing additional business), you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

Tags: Blogging, Google Analytics, Local Search

You would think that a company that puts many thousands of dollars into its website would want to track website results to find out how many unique visitors it gets, where they come from, what content is most read, and dozens of other useful bits of information that have the potential to inform smart decisions about the company website and provide clues about how to increase its effectiveness. If so, you would often be wrong.

Many business websites have no analytics packages installed, other than whatever the webhost might offer as a standard package. In many cases in which an analytics package is installed, there is no regular monitoring of the data or any attempt to use it to guide decisions about the site. Why is this? There are probably far more reasons than I am aware of, but here are the big three that I hear again and again:

We don’t get any traffic.

Understood that it can be demoralizing to look at evidence that your website or blog is not drawing the crowds you’d envisioned. However, looking closely at the data can give you clues about why that is the case, and perhaps clues about how to build on the traffic you’re getting. Of one thing I’m certain: not looking at the statistics because they aren’t what you’d hoped is a good way to make sure they stay that way.

We don’t have time to look at the data.

I have to admit this one usually finds me with no response, often with my jaw dropped, searching for socially acceptable words. People find or make time for what they consider important. If information that can help your website become a more effective marketing tool isn’t important to a business in a recession…

We don’t want to spend money on an analytics package.

Google Analytics is free, and it should be considered the bare minimum in site analytics. When you think you need even better information (along with other assistance in increasing site effectiveness), there are packages available for a fee, such as those offered by Hubspot and Compendium, which should be considered investments, if you are truly serious about increasing your site performance.

If you’ve heard other "reasons" offered for not utilizing analytics, or if you have particularly good responses to the ones above, please share them here. Maybe, with your help, I won’t be sitting there with my mouth open next time I hear one of them.

For more posts in this series, see the “Bad Websites/Good Companies” category at right.

Tags: Business, Google Analytics, Marketing, Web-based Applications