The New Google Place Search and Your Local Website

Do the Major changes in the Google Local Search results make having a website necessary?

If you are small business owner and frequent the Google Local search results, you probably noticed that the infamous Google 7 Pack has disappeared.

It has been replaced with what Google is now calling “Place Search”.  I have spent the last 48 hours doing extensive research on this new local search platform and have read countless blogs from other Local Internet Marketing experts around the blog sphere.

Although this is so new it is difficult to make any hard predictions, one thing has become very clear to me as well as many other experts around  the web.

First of all, if you have been fortunate to show up in the Google 7 pack without having a website, you may find yourself out of luck moving forward.  In fact, when I promote my Local Search Domination system one of my selling points has been, “You don’t even need a website to get top rankings!”.  I am currently working with my website designers to take that out of my promotional material. Why?

It seems that one of the major changes Google made, was integrating local business websites with their Google Local Business listings. I have noticed that fewer and fewer of the non website businesses are coming up in the new Google Place Search results. In fact, many of the small businesses that had strong locally focused websites and weak business listings are now ranking higher in the results page.

Why is Google placing a higher emphasis on you having a website and a business listing?

This may be because in Google’s attempt to eliminate Map Spammers, they have started to discount business listings that do not have a website. For years Google has been fighting these spammers that register multiple business listings with no website. For the time being these spammers should disappear. Unfortunately, all the small businesses that relied on traffic from the Google 7 pack without a website may be hurt also.

I think what Google is saying to small business owners is, you need to have a website attached to your business listing  if you want to rank high in their local search results. It will probably make the title tags in your website more important than the title in your local business listing. Google hates when businesses stuff their business listing name with keywords and this may eliminate that problem. (This is just my theory based on 2 days of intense digging)

The new Google Place Search results show a much more detailed listing than the old 7 pack listings. Not only do they link to your website, they are including your website title tags as well as your meta description. There are also links to reviews, your place page. They have also  grabbed an image and your address from your place page.

google place search listing

The New Google Place Search may have serious implications for small business owners that for whatever reason still do not have a website.

If you are one of those small businesses that does not have a website and were relying on the Google 7 pack for traffic and new customers, you may want to rethink your internet marketing strategy.

If everything remains as it is right now, it will be important to have a locally focused and well optimized website, as well as a optimized local business listing. It looks like many business owners that have a website are starting to show up in the Google Place Search results in much higher positions.  The business listings that have been getting good traffic without a website may soon see their local business listing drop out of the Google results.

What should you the small business do next?

If you do not have a website, get one! Not just a website, a locally focused and search engine optimized one that targets your local market.

If you already have a website, take a good hard look at it. Is it designed for your local market? Is your address and phone number on every page? Are you targeting all of the cities in your local area? Is it optimized properly with the right title tags and keywords? If not, it is time for a redesign!

Claim your Google Business listing! Do not just do it on a whim, do it right! Go to http://www.findmyphoenixbusiness.com/localsearchfreereport.htm and download my Free Local Search Report. There is a lot more involved than just claiming your listing and my free report goes into great detail about doing it right.

Pay very close attention to reviews. Reviews of your business are becoming more prominent and you better be paying close attention. You need to encourage your customers to leave positive ones and you need to handle the negative ones professionally. If you are showing up in the Place Search results and have a slew of bad reviews, it could destroy your business!

I will stay on top of this major change in local search as things begin to become more clear, but you need to take action right now if you want to be ahead of the curve and claim your top position in the New Google Place Search results.

If you would like to discuss your options please contact Jeffrey Taylor – Director of Search Engine Marketing at LocalGoldmine.com

Jeffrey Taylor is a Phoenix Arizona resident and 15 year Search Engine Marketing expert specializing in Local Search Marketing for Small Business.

Get Your Home Business On Page One Of Google

Three Simple ways to get your web pages on the first page of Google!

I love when my blog readers ask me questions. It helps me find new topics to write about. I have been getting a lot of questions about Search engine rankings and how to get their web pages to show up on the Google first page rankings.

Now, I could easily write a book on the subject, so I want to break it down to its simplest form for this post.

First of all, getting ranked on the first page of Google used to be a very difficult task.  Almost impossible for the average online entrepreneur.  Keep in mind, it is still very difficult if you are targeting extremely popular keyword phrases.

BUT… it is actually easier today then it was 3 years ago.

I want to show you exactly how you can get your web pages positioned on the first page of Google and the other top search engines.

There’s many different strategies you can use, but they all come down to 3 basic principles.

Step 1. Keyword Research

It all starts with keyword research. You need to decide which specific keyword phrases you want to target. Do not guess what you think people are typing in the google search bar. This is where the importance of proper keyword research comes in. You will waste a lot of time and effort without the proper research.

It does not do you any good if you are targeting keywords or phrases that nobody is using. Being on the first page of google is not going to drive traffic to your web pages if nobody uses the keywords in their searches.

Common Keyword Research Mistakes

  1. They guess and assume what keywords their customers use when searching the search engines.
  2. They choose keywords that are too broad.
  3. They choose keywords with too much competition.

Check your search term for competition.

Go to http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-popularity-checker.shtml and type in the domain names of your competition to see how many sites are linking to them. This is important because if your main competitors have a link popularity over 1,500 it may be tough for you to break into that niche and you may want to reconsider.

Don’t get frustrated, you can try different variations of your search term and do the process again until you find a main keyword search term you can dominate.

Once you determine your niche to conquer you must now analyze the traffic your search term is receiving. It does not matter if you found a niche to attack if nobody is searching for it. No traffic means no leads! The topic you have chosen to go after must have traffic for it to be effective going forward.

This where you can now use the Free Google keyword toolto not only see what kind of traffic it receives but also get a list of alternative search term phrases.

Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and enter your keyword phrase.

Powerful Keyword Tool: One of the most powerful and time saving keyword tools I have ever used is a program called Micro Niche Finder. It is $97 to buy and it has literally saved me hours of work.  It uses the google keyword service, but digs in deeper by telling me the competition and gives me great suggestions, and is simply a great way to get all work done in one sitting.

You will find yourself using this tool almost everyday as you explore new niches and search for low competition, high traffic search terms.

Step 2. Create your Content – Now you take the list of keyword phrases that you have chosen from your research and create your content around these phrases.

People search online for content relevant to what they are hoping to learn about or buy.  Search engines are the vehicle that people use to find content. That is why Google is one of the biggest companies in the world. They provide a fast and easy way for people to find stuff.

Simply put, Google is a place where Searchers and Internet Marketers meet online.

Internet Marketers are driven by profit motive and strive to get searchers to come to their web pages. We are constantly trying to learn what searchers are searching for. Meanwhile, searchers are trying to find what they want and we must work  to make them find us in their search.

All content is discovered when searchers type keywords (search terms) into the google search bar. These keyword phrases are what determines what google will place on the results page.  Since everyone is different keyword phrases will vary.

Some people will simply put a few keywords in the search bar, while others will type questions. Finding out which keywords people are using is the key to you determining how you will target your markets. The fact is, most people will type in a 2 – 4 word query when using the google search bar.

You can create articles, blog posts, Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, or videos. They idea here is to create good, quality content that will get read or watched.

Use the keyword phrase in the title, in the description and in the body of the content.  Do not overuse your keyword phrase or it may be looked at keyword stuffing by google and hurt your rankings.

STEP 3: Distribute your Content

I will be putting up a post on Social Bookmarking real soon because it is a powerful way to get your content distributed to a lot of powerful web sites and get great exposure.

Now that you have your keyword driven content, you need to do is get it out on to the internet.

If you are writing a keyword driven article you should post your article in several article directories.

You can create a squidoo lens or  a hubpage.

If you are posting to your blog make sure you are using pingbacks so it goes out immediately.

Another often over looked place to spread your content  is posting a link to it in forums.

With videos distribute them to several video sharing sites, Youtube should be the first place and post the video on your blog.

If you have a traditional web site and added a page, make sure there is a link to it on your homepage and work on getting backlinks to it from other websites.

Make sure you are using anchor text for your keywords on your back links. go back to my post on How to use anchor text in your back links

Keywords are your guiding light to generating traffic to your web pages. The internet does not work without keywords and your ability to center all your marketing around specific keywords being used by your target markets and effectively getting seen by google for these keywords will determine your success or failure.

The process of finding your niche and the surrounding keywords is the starting place for all your marketing going forward! If you are looking for more advanced training on this subject go to Step Ladder Marketing System Right now!

This is a simple formula to help you get started and start getting your web content on the first page of google. If you have additional questions or comments please feel free to add to my comments section.

Jeffrey Taylor

Home Business Marketing Tips on Youtube

I just finished a 6 hour live Youtube training seminar about marketing on Youtube. My brain is a little fried right now but I wanted to share a quick little tip regarding your Youtube channel.

First of all, youtube has made a lot of great changes to the channels and they are really serious about being a true social networking site and not just a place to upload your videos.

Before I give you a great tip, here are a few facts about Youtube you need to know if you are ready to start using Youtube as a serious social networking site.

Check out these statistics and decide if you want to be a part of this massive action:

In November 2009 171 million people viewed 12 billion videos on Youtube in the USA alone!

Youtube dominates the video market – 40% market share – next is Hulu 3% (November 2009)

The average online viewer watched 12.2 hours of video that month

The average duration of video is 4 minutes – keep your videos short and sweet. People have a short attention span.

Youtube is now the 2nd largest search engine behind Google. – Make sure you optimize your videos!!!

Youtube is not just teenagers anymore!

Here are some demographics!

53% male 47% female
Median age 33
47% married
69% college educated
Median income $74,000

OK, I think you get the point!

Here is a great Youtube marketing tip I picked up that I want to share with you today.

If you already have a Youtube channel you are probably directing people to it using the simple link.

http://www.youtube.com/yourchannelname

http://www.youtube.com/earnmybusiness is my channel.

This is what we usually put on our webpages, blogs, and social media sites as the link to our Youtube channel.

If you want your Youtube channel to receive page rank and show up in the search engines you must make this change asap!

http://www.youtube.com/user/yourchannelname

http://www.youtube.com/user/earnmybusiness

The web address with /user/ in the name actually gets the page rank. Even though they both go to the same place if you leave out /user/ your link is not getting any back link juice from google.

I have noticed in a lot of my other pages I skipped the /user/ and am updating my links right now. You should do the same.

As I pour through my extensive notes from the 6 hour Youtube seminar, I will be adding more helpful tips about taking your Youtube channeland videos to a higher level. So stay tuned.

Also, check out my Youtube channel and become a subscriber. I will subscribe back. More about the power of that later.

So get to work and get the page rank you deserve with a simple tweak!

See you soon!

Jeffrey Taylor