I’ve been asking myself how local governments could use their websites to help them govern more effectively and save money. The question led to this post.
Building Bridges in Communities
Reading through one of the local weekly papers in my area I noticed a large public notice announcing a public hearing for the replacement of [...]
Read more from the original source:
SEO for Government: What Does Your Local Government Web Site Offer Visitors?
This isn’t exactly news anymore, but it’s worth noting that two more reports this week confirm the idea that consumers tend to do their research online prior to buying offline/locally.
The first is a Kelsey Group study that indicates 97% of consumers use the Internet to research products or services in their local area. What specific online research tools do they use?
If consumers are starting the local buying process online, this reinforces the value of great local content, local SEO, and local visibility in general. In fact, according to the study, consumers use 7.9 different media sources for research when looking for local products and services. That speaks to the importance of being visible on a number of channels — your own site, your blog, Google Maps, Citysearch, important industry sites, and so forth. Diversity of presence makes a big difference.
The second report comes from local product search engine Milo.com in the form of a large infographic that breaks down the percent of online vs. offline buying in a number of industries. The conclusion, based on US Census data, is that less than 5% of retail sales happen online.
Advertisement: Try Site5 Web Hosting free for 30 days! 99.9% Uptime Guarantee and our customer’s love us!
This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.
Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally
Related posts:
Read more here:
Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally
Earlier in the week we looked at the importance of ‘niches’ when it comes to building profitable blogs. Today I want to extend the topic and gives the process that I tend to use when working out if I want to start a new blog in a particular niche. I hope you find it helpful.
Many factors will come into play when it comes to choosing a niche to blog about – but the following are those that I tend to pay most attention to:
I started out blogging on topics that interested me – but as I began to see the potential to make money from my blogs began to experiment with topics that I had less interest in but which I thought would be profitable.
What I discovered in creating these blogs that had potential for profit, yet which I had little interest in, was that I couldn’t really sustain them. I had little to say on the topics and when I did write something I suspect that those who read my content could tell that it was a topic that I was not passionate about. As a result the traffic did not come, I did not become known for the topic, nobody linked up and the blogs were far from profitable.
On the flipside of this – the blogs that I did have an interest in and a passion for have flourished. My interest in the topic is not the only factor that made them successful but I suspect it is a fairly important one that underlies much of the success and profit that I’ve had.
One question to ask yourself in choosing a niche is ‘What are YOU about?’ Choosing a topic that reflects you means you’ll be in a position to be able to find enough to write about and you’ll write it in a way that engages with the topic and your readers.
You can have all the interest in the world around a topic but if nobody else shares your interest you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle to build a blog that gets much traffic.
This doesn’t mean you need to choose the most popular topics going around – in fact they may not be a wise choice due to the competition also targeting those niches – however you will want to choose a niche that has some level of demand for content.
There are many ways to do research on this whether topics are popular – here are three that I use:
Ultimately you’re looking for topics that people are interested in, passionate about, want to learn more on and/or that people want to talk about and interact in a community around. There is an unlimited number of topics and ways to tap into them. Watch TV, talk to your friends, head to a local library, read a newspaper – see what people are into and you could just identify a topic worth exploring.
One of the factors that I see some bloggers failing to acknowledge in the choosing of a niche is how much competition (and how strong the competition is) in their potential niche.
The danger in choosing some popular niches is that you might be competing against some very powerful sites in those niches. While this isn’t always going to be a factor to stop you exploring a niche it should definitely be considered and it can perhaps help you to shape your niche to be something that will give you a competitive advantage.
There are a variety of ways of assessing the strength of competition in niches.
One of the simplest is to simply do some searches on Google to look at how many sites exist for keywords on your topic. This won’t give you an indication of the power of the competition – but it will give you some indication on the ’size’ of competition and it will identify some sites that you will want to be monitoring.
Market Samurai (mentioned above) is one tool that can take your analysis a little deeper. As highlighted in my recent optimising posts on your blog for SEO post it has a module that will not only show you how many competing sites there are but also how strong they are (around a number of factors). It’ll also identify what type of level you’ll need to get to in order to compete with them.
As you begin to assess your potential competition in a niche don’t be completely put off by niches with lots of strong competition. Instead as you analyse what other sites are doing look for opportunities in two areas:
Another factor that I see some bloggers neglecting in the choosing of a niche is consideration of whether the topic is one that they’re able to sustain.
This partly relates to the interest and passion that the blogger has for the topic – but it also relates to the topic itself and whether it is dynamic enough to have content written about it on a regular basis.
A number simple exercises to help assess the sustainability of a blog (depending upon the type of blog you’ll be developing):
Got the picture? Really it is about doing a little analysis of the topic to see if there is enough in it to keep producing new frequent and regular content. If there’s not enough – perhaps consider either another topic or a different format for your site (blogs tend to do best when they’re updated but you could create a more static site).
This won’t appeal to everyone as not all people want to monetize their blog but if it’s a goal to make money from your blog then you’ll want to assess the potential for profit before you start.
There are a few ways to get indications on whether a niche will be profitable – including:
Previously when I’ve covered the topic of how to choose a blog niche I’ve stopped after exploring some of the above points. However there are almost always a number of other factors that individuals bring to certain topics that can make those niches more sensible choices.
I guess ultimately it comes down to looking at what you have at your fingertips that you will be able to leverage to help you get your blog up and running and working really well.
There are many factors that might come into play including:
This list could quite easily go on and on. Essentially you need to do a bit of a SWOT analysis of the topic and see what strengths and opportunities that you uniquely have that will help you to get a leg up into this topic.
My last advice on choosing a niche for your blog is to take your time and don’t act too hastily. While you don’t want the process to drag out too long – I look back on the 30 or so blogs that I’ve started over the years and wish I’d taken a little more time going through this process. I went through a phase where I impulsively started a series of blogs that I quickly knew were not right for me – if I’d only given the ideas a little time to breath I might have discovered before I started that perhaps there were better ways to use my time going forward.
So take your time – share what you come up with with a trusted friend or two – do a little research into the topic and then, when you’re ready and are in a good position to make a decision – ACT!
Also keep in mind that you might need to go through this process with a number of topics before you find one that fits for you. You’re unlikely to find a topic that fits all of the above criteria perfectly – but hopefully something will stand out to you a little to help you make an informed decision.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
How to Blog: How to Choose a Blog Niche [6 Tips]
Bloggers have a distinct disadvantage.
When someone hires an expert in — oh, let’s say marketing — that expert can dispense the same information she did for the last client.
And the client before that one. And the one before that.
Not bloggers. Blogging is about breaking down everything you know into bite-sized chunks so that people can learn it all over a period of time. If they look back through the archives, they can often see the entire breadth of your knowledge.
Then one day, your well runs dry.
This is a scary moment for any blogger. It’s not like running out of inspiration or having writer’s block. This is when you’ve said it all. Your blog contains absolutely everything you know.
And let’s be fair — it’s a lot of knowledge. But you simply don’t have anything new to say.
What do you do?
I’m always amazed by how few people continue to educate themselves on their topic after they’ve become an acknowledged expert in it.
Hey, everyone knows me as the number one guy on naked mole rats! Clearly, I know everything there is to know!
But as an old coach of mine used to say, you’ll never know everything there is to know in your field of expertise, and there’s always something new to learn. People make new discoveries and innovations every day. You have opinions about those innovations. You agree or disagree with them. You try them or manage to take them a step further.
Of course, if you don’t find out what those discoveries and innovations are, you don’t have anything to say about it. No wonder you’re stuck for posts.
Actively pursuing new knowledge about your area of expertise has a side benefit: it provides more value for your clients. You may find the inspiration for a new ebook or web course to help newcomers understand and benefit.
New knowledge could be the next big thing for your business — if you go out and find it.
Doctors are one of the few professions actually required to update their knowledge of their field of expertise continually. If a doctor doesn’t know the latest innovation in surgery, his next patient might die from the lack of that knowledge. That’s a huge incentive for the doctor to always be learning and for the patient — and the medical board — to insist on that continual education.
No one is going to force you to attend conferences or read books or take courses, but you’ll be much more respected as an expert if you continually update your knowledge. Your client’s life may not be on the line, but their business, their financial goals, and their happiness probably is — at least, their happiness with your products and services.
Well, you may not have heard about this gizmo called the internet, but it’s pretty handy for that sort of thing. It seems silly to mention using the internet to upgrade your knowledge on an online blog, but shocking numbers of people don’t use it for this particular purpose — even those who practically live online.
Libraries are an awesome (and free) resource for new knowledge too, and so is your local bookstore. Go pick up some new literature and get someone else’s perspective on what you do.
Magazines and trade journals, of course, are terrific for more recent innovations and information. Find ones that focus on your area of expertise and stay on the lookout for new ideas that sound interesting or innovative. Once an article grabs your attention, go do some independent research on that topic and find new resources to pursue.
Actively pursuing new knowledge won’t just make you a better businessperson — though that’s reason enough right there. It’ll also pretty much guarantee that you’ll never run out of blog topics ever again.
About the Author: For new knowledge that makes you a better businessperson — and that helps you hit the bullseye of success for your freelancing career, check out Men with Pens — or better yet, grab the RSS feed here.
MIssed this when it came out a week or so ago, but it’s worth posting about after the fact a bit. The Small Business Success Index reports that social media adoption among small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the past year. From reading the release, I gather that “adoption” means a business is actively using social media, as opposed to just having a placeholder profile page.
Here are some of the other findings:
Small business owners use social media to attract new customers:
Small business owners still have concerns with social media:
The study is sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland Smith School of Business.
Advertisement: Try Site5 Web Hosting free for 30 days! 99.9% Uptime Guarantee and our customer’s love us!
This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.
More Small Businesses Using Social Media
Related posts:
View original post here:
More Small Businesses Using Social Media
Some days it feels like the universe is trying to tell you something. Today that something was that social media marketing (SMM) is the future, and yet, it is not what professional marketers might traditionally expect. Here are four lessons I learned today that advanced my understanding of SMM on the Web today:
|
If any of the above points whet your appetite, grab a fork and let’s dig in!
Certainly the economic recession hit most industries in the last year, and marketing didn’t escape unscathed. But now that recovery is underway, businesses are ready to grow instead of simply trying to survive. That means the marketing industry is in a position to grow, for the very reason that marketing efforts help businesses grow. However, marketing has come out on the other side of the economic storm a changed being. What else could have affected such a change but social media?
Social media was around before the recession hit, but in the past 12 months social networks and sites have exploded and What If I Didn’t Use Twitter. The promise of Twitter includes:
|
If you’re familiar with the benefits and challenges of social media marketing, you may already be involved in or are planning your entry into the social media space. In that case, you should be aware of how social media marketing is different than traditional or even other Internet marketing channels. Unlike other marketing efforts, social media shouldn’t be relegated to a single team or department within your organization. Social media should be considered a “cross-discipline” undertaking.
Social media is more of a frame of mind than a series of tasks to accomplish. Social media can be a tool used for customer response, consumer research, promotions and incentives, and getting attention for just about any launch or announcement. For a business, social media encompasses transparency, speedy customer service, and a megaphone. Restricting social media efforts so that they don’t reach across an organization is restricting the potential effectiveness and opportunities of social platform.
As I mentioned before, the rules of marketing have changed in the past year, in light of social media and social networks. Not only that, but the rules of social media marketing have evolved as well. In 5 Ways We Could Improve Social Media Together, we find concrete ways to improve your SMM efforts to meet the changing expectations of social media users. So what should businesses be doing with social media?
One of the trickier characteristics of social media is that it will continue to change, and users and businesses will adapt to the change in order to use it to its full potential. It’s true that social media requires continuous time and resources, but the alternative is letting your business be left behind.
Reading Up on Social Media Marketing’s Next Chapter was originally published on BruceClay.com, an SEO services company.
See more here:
Reading Up on Social Media Marketing’s Next Chapter
Here’s a screenshot that the folks in Redmond won’t like:
How about that? “Results 1-3 of 3 for review us on bing“. And yes, you’ll get a lot more results if you try that search using Google, Yahoo, or Yelp.
Bing might be gaining search share, but it’s way behind on having SMB’s asking customers to write reviews there.
Advertisement: Improve your website rankings and traffic in just 15 mins/day! LotusJump will show you how to do your own professional-grade SEO. Find Out How Today!
This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.
Anyone Wanna be Reviewed on Bing?
Related posts:
View post:
Anyone Wanna be Reviewed on Bing?
This is one of the most common questions small business owners and new bloggers ask. Blogging is uncharted territory. What should I write about? How often do I need to write? How long should a blog post be? Good questions all, but I’m focusing on the last one in this post.
First, though, I need to share my perspective on what a business blog is. This is how I described it at the GetListed Spokane event earlier this month:
It’s your chance to be real, to be yourself, and to be part of the conversations that are already happening online. It’s your voice, but only with more legitimacy than your main business web site offers. I love Jeremiah Owyang’s quote in this blog post:
The corporate website is an unbelievable collection of hyperbole, artificial branding, and pro-corporate content.
There’s a lot of truth in that, I think. And blogs can provide the opposite — more believability, less artificiality, more real content. So keep that in mind as we get back to the original question.
My answer: As short or as long as it takes to say what you need to say.
1.) There’s no perfect length for a blog post. It’s like the idea of keyword density in SEO; there’s no magic number for keyword density on a web page, and there’s no magic number for how long your blog posts should be.
2.) A variety of blog post lengths is a good idea. For me, the most enjoyable blogs to read are the ones that offer variety; the ones that offer the unexpected. I think a blog is easier to read when there’s a mix of short posts, mid-length posts, and long posts. Too much of one type of post can be monotonous for the reader, and invites the reader to start tuning out.
3.) It’s natural to have posts with different lengths. If you believe that a blog is conversational in nature, then think about your blog posts as individual conversations. Important question: Is every conversation you have the same length? Of course not! You have conversations that last 10 seconds and you have conversations that last 10 minutes (or longer). This is how we communicate. So, if you’re trying to be natural on your blog (and you should be), your blog should have a mix of blog posts, some short and some long.
I’m going to use this blog as an example to answer the question, How long should a blog post be?
Short Blog Post
How to Choose the Right Category in Google’s Local Listings — the main point of this post was to share a link with my readers to Mike Blumenthal’s Google categories tool. Aside from a quick explanation of why categories are important, I didn’t have much to say. The results:
Paragraphs: 4
Words: 135
Medium Blog Post
Alerts on Place Pages? I Want More From Google — the point of this post was to share a list of things I wish Google would add to its local business Place Pages. It was written when Google announced that business owners could post alerts on their pages, and I had seven other ideas of my own to share. So it needed more depth than the post above, but I didn’t need to write a novel. The results:
Paragraphs: 6, plus a list of 7 items
Words: 448
Long Blog Post
Why Reputation Management Matters for Small Businesses — this post was written to expand on one of the concepts in my SEO Success Pyramid. I knew I had a lot to say on this subject and, to be frank, I also wanted to write the type of blog post that others would link to, and that would have a shot at ranking highly for a term like “small business reputation management.” The results:
Paragraphs: 26, plus three lists
Words: 1,538
SEO: number one ranking for “small business reputation management” on Google (not signed in), Yahoo, and Bing
This last post — the long one — also received a very healthy 29 comments, which is often another benefit of the occasional long blog post.
I consider all three of those example blog posts to be successful, because they accomplished the goals I had for them. If you’re a new blogger, keep this in mind:
Your turn: What are your thoughts on how long blog posts should be? If you’re a marketer, what do you tell clients who ask about this?
Postscript: Having published this post about 25 minutes ago and now just going through my feed reader, I’ve discovered Glen Allsopp’s excellent and related article, Bloggers: This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be, in which he examines the average length of posts in the top 5 blogs across various industries.
Advertisement: Try Site5 Web Hosting free for 30 days! 99.9% Uptime Guarantee and our customer’s love us!
This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
No related posts.
See more here:
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
When I found a to-die-for pizzeria hiding in plain sight across the street from my apartment building, it was bittersweet. Obviously, first-class New York style pizza in my backyard is a total win. But at the same time, I was bummed that Tony’s Pizza wasn’t showing up on the online search radar.
Just last week Paula was lamenting the loss of a printer in the area that had closed its doors. For years the company relied on word-of mouth advertising, which flourished thanks to friendly staff and competitive prices. Unfortunately, the company had some serious SEO issues — they’d claimed no local listings and had an all-Flash site. For all they were doing right in the store, the boat couldn’t stay afloat during last year’s economic storm.
And here’s another one. This morning Susan sent out this tweet:
She’d run across an artist’s work online and, interested in buying her work, she searched for the artist’s site. But being a patron of the arts wasn’t in the cards for Susan today, as she hit a wall when the artist’s pretty site was also pretty unusable.
…Another one bites the dust.
Okay, so you get why I become frustrated watching awesome small businesses folding due to a lack of understanding. But here’s where we take it to another level. I had my understanding of Internet marketing objectives taken to an exciting new place on today’s episode of SEM Synergy. From the show:
Susan: It used to just be […] if the content was right, it was the best answer. Now it’s, if the content is right and other people agree that it’s right, you know, links, then it was the best answer. Now it’s, if the content’s right but everybody else has the right content too, and everybody else has links too, so are you going to give it to them as fast as possible, which is where site speed comes in. Are you going to give it to them when they’re on the go, which is where mobile comes in. Are you going to give it to them in multiple ways so that different kinds of learners can learn it, which is where engagement objects come in. It’s becoming more complicated in the areas of attack, but the core is still are you delivering the best answer.
Bradley: And then the social media aspect, which is are you ready to talk about this subject with the people who want this information? Are you going to be authoritative, are you going to stand on your principles and really think about what the questions are asking?
My response (paraphrased): Whoa. You just turned on my light bulb! I see how the puzzle pieces fit together. Does everybody know about this?
No, everybody does not know, so let’s not keep this info all to ourselves. Spread the wealth. Tell your family dentist. Tell your cousin who owns a book store. Tell the organic avocado farmer you visit at the weekly farmers’ market. Send them this blog post. Send them to the Google Local Business Center. Say something! Spread the word!
Thanks to today’s guest Des Odell, director of Bruce Clay Australia, for spreading the word on the podcast. Check out Bruce Clay Australia to learn more about the SEO training classes coming up in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and to read the recently released SEO Factors & Trends Report. Plus, be sure to check out BCAU’s newsletter article on the the state of the Australian search market!
Turning On the Lights — SEM Synergy Extras was originally published on BruceClay.com, an SEO services company.
Read the original here:
Turning On the Lights — SEM Synergy Extras
If you’re in the Tri-Cities area, Spokane, Seattle, or even Portland, I hope you’re making plans to come out to Learn About Web next week in Kennewick. It’s happening on February 18th, and you can use code LAW0208 to register for only $89 through Friday.
I’ll be giving a presentation on my SEO Success Pyramid and then doing a session on SEO and Local Search later in the day. Craig Sutton and Doug Waltman are speaking, too, on topics such as User-Friendly Web Design, Blogging, and Social Media. Oh, and all registrants will get a free copy of my How to SEO Your Site in 60 Minutes e-book.
We’re also offering detailed site reviews for no more than 3-4 attendees, and that only costs an extra $50 — a fraction of the regular consulting rate you’d pay.
If you live in the Tri-Cities area, you may see our TV commercial on-air this week. Here’s how it looks:
Hope to see you next week. Visit www.learnaboutweb.com for more details.
Advertisement: Improve your website rankings and traffic in just 15 mins/day! LotusJump will show you how to do your own professional-grade SEO. Find Out How Today!
This is a post from Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business Search Marketing.
SEO & Social Media Workshop – Next Week in Tri-Cities
Related posts:
The rest is here:
SEO & Social Media Workshop – Next Week in Tri-Cities
En esta parte podrás poder cualquier cosa sobre ti ó sobre tu sitio, una pequeña introducción ó algo que desees hacerle saber a tus lectores. elsonar.es
SEM Synergy this week will be live, and Bruce Clay will be talking to callers and answering questions on the show! People that hang out in the WebmasterRadio.FM chat room during SEM Synergy each week (and really, why aren’t you there?) know that I’m asked “Is this live?” about once per episode. How excited am I to be able to say “YES!” this time around?! SEM Synergy , our weekly radio show and podcast here at BCI, is actually going live for a very special reason: our 100th episode! (Pay no attention to the episode count on iTunes. It’s a little thrown off because the episode from SES San Jose 2008 was eaten alive by technical issues…) In the 99 episodes that have happened since the first show came together in April 2008, we’ve been privileged to interview some of the SEM industry’s most respected authorities — privileged not only because our industry’s experts are fun, witty and beyond bright, but they’re also exceedingly generous with their time and knowledge! (And if you needed more proof of the SEO community’sgenerosity …) I mean, I’m always amazed when I consider the SEM Synergy library is chock full of brain nuggets from the likes of Avinash Kaushik, Matt Cutts, Vanessa Fox, Danny Sullivan, Bryan Eisenberg, Tamar Weinberg, Michael Gray, Marshall Simmonds, Dr.
Look out, Big Apple. Search Engine Strategies is coming to town
Moderator: Matt Van Wagner , President, Find Me Faster Speakers: Meagan Rochelle , Search Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Nicholas Ward , Product Manager, Range Online Media How many people are using Bing Cashback, Matt asks? About a quarter of the audience raises their hand. The rest are interested to find out how it might work for them.
The first big search conference of the new year, Search Marketing Expo West , is just around the bend. SMX West takes place March 2-5 in Santa Clara, California. Bruce Clay, Inc.
I’m a day late in climbing out from under the ever-piling heap called my feed reader — but hey, if Punxsutawney Phil can claw his way to the surface today, I can too. Here’s the search news from over the weekend through today, with a special focus on local and mobile news. Local Events Added to Bing Maps The Local Events application in Bing now features event listings