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Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

SEO for Mobile Platforms: What Strategy is Right For You?

January 31st, 2012 No comments

NASHVILLE, TN – These days, it’s common for people to search for information on their mobile phones. It’s so convenient to search for restaurants, stores, and services on mobile devices while we’re out and about. For users with smartphones like iPhones and Androids, our telephones are essentially pocket computers. So should we be tailoring SEO content to a mobile platform?

On December 15, 2011, Google introduced their smartphone Google-bot Mobile. It is Google’s hope that by indexing smartphone content separately, users will have better search experiences on their phones. The blog post, written by Yoshikiyo Kato, says:

“With the number of smartphone users rapidly rising, we’re seeing more and more websites providing content specifically designed to be browsed on smartphones.”

Smartphone Images

Image Courtesy of DigitalTrends.com

In a Search Engine Land article about mobile searches in 2012, Michael Martin explains how users may want different information from searches across different platforms:

“The intention of inputting a search term on a desktop, feature phone, smartphone, or tablet can mean different things for the same keyword. For example, when typing in the term ‘tacos’ on a desktop I may want information or recipes; but on a feature phone, I may want to call a local taco shop; on a smartphone, I want directions to a local taco place, and on a tablet, I want to check reviews or what different items on the menu look like.”

For your business, it’s relatively easy to provide all this information to your potential customers. Having a variety of content, such as recipes, directions, menus, reviews, and photos, can be important on a mobile platform (and on a stationary computer).

A study by the group Meditative shows that images and reviews draw in your user’s eyes. For iPhone users, the study revealed that positive reviews on the Google Places app made a huge difference in which listing got clicks and which did not. While you need to register to see Meditative’s eye-tracking report, Search Engine Land breaks down the basics in this article.

Ryan Jones at Search Engine Journal doesn’t believe you need a different strategy for mobile SEO. Since our phones are just little computers, Jones thinks it’s easier just to design your website to work well on all devices – including phones, tablet computers, and traditional desktops and laptops. Jones writes:

“If you want something that is really native to a device, an app is definitely the way to go. Apps can access multi-touch features, rich media, in app purchases, gps, camera, and other aspects to provide a truly unique experience that a website cannot.”

My favorite websites that I frequent online all have apps. If your business could benefit from a mobile app, brainstorm ideas that would entice your customers, entertain them, or practically inform them about your business. Maybe your pizza place could commission an app to let users create their own pizza. Your personal training business could create a personalized workout app, complete with a nutrition and exercise routine.

While mobile screens are smaller than traditional computer screens, apps can give users a tailored experience on a smartphone. Apps with in-app purchases, such as the photography app Hipstamatic, drive users to their website with extended packages and the ability to purchase photography prints. The Pinterest app is just as useful as the full website for users to share things they like.

Focus on how your customers will find you, and keep up your tireless SEO endeavors. If you believe your business needs a separate mobile site, or even an app, evaluate what’s best for you and for your customers.

But no matter which form of technology is accessing your website due to your SEO efforts, all SEO strategies require three things to be successful, as outlined by Mater Google’s CEO Ali Husayni, who says:

“SEO takes the following three things: expertise, hard work, and patience. On average, our clients see the best results within six months to a year after we start a project.”

Master Google client CariniAir.com recently saw their site rise to the top of Google Places and other search result areas after working with us. Doug Cooper, the VP of Marketing for CariniAir.com, was thrilled with the results.

“Finally achieving the top spot on Google Maps for our most important keywords is a dream come true. Everyone at Carini Heating and Air is very excited and grateful to Master Google for their continued hard work and persistence,” Cooper says.

Popularity: 1%

Guest Blogging Tips: Four Ways to Maximize Link Building

January 2nd, 2012 2 comments

SANTA MONICA, CA — I know that we all thought we were done with hearing about “making a list, and checking it twice,” but when considering either having or being a guest blogger, ’tis the season to make a list of steps and goals along the way. What should that list look like? From targeting a market, to joining a group that shares blogging opportunities, planning ahead of time will make it easier to decide what to post and where to spend your time maximizing link building, an important search engine optimization tactic.

1. Understand the Importance of an Inbound Link. Inbound links are one of the key components to quality SEO, because it tells Google that your website is trusted and important. More links make you an authority. To further understand the anatomy of a link, see the full explanation in a recent article by Andrew Pitre on HubSpot’s blog. And remember, not all links are created equal.

“If you were to get an inbound link from a domain with lots of its own inbound links, like the New York Times, for example, you would get more authority transferred to your domain than if you got a link from my friend Brian’s blog,” Pitre says.

2. Target Blogs With Keyword Research. If you’re looking for a guest blogger, please skip ahead to the next step.

For the writers: what do you want to write about? Think of words or phrases that you currently want to be found under in a Google search. Search for these keywords on Google and determine the list of websites that you wish to write for. To further expand your horizons, use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which will give a thorough list of the keywords from the previous month that relate. Another Adwords column also displays those keywords’ popularity for the last month, a very valuable tool in deciding which sites are worth your time.

Another option is signing up for a service like WordTracker.com, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google. WordTracker’s function is like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, in that it helps you find and evaluate keywords.

3. Join a (Free) Service Like Blogger Link Up. BloggerLinkUp.com is a website that connects blog writers with website owners who need blog content. Each week, a newsletter is sent out with lists of requested blog posts, and writers wanting to be a guest poster. The form is the same, whether you are a prospective guest blogger or a website in need of a guest blogger.

4. Make Yourself Uncomfortable With Your Guest Blog Efforts (Within Reason). What makes you uncomfortable about writing or hosting a guest blog post? Change can be scary, but we need to try every serious idea we have at least once, urges Cathy Stucker, the founder of BloggerLinkUp.com, in a recent post.

“The problem is that too often we don’t try a second or third time (or even a first!) with marketing activities which seem difficult,” Stucker says. “I was terrified the first time I gave a speech. But I got up and did it anyway. You can, too.”

So, forget your fears, and remember, the worst thing that can happen with new content is that, well, you don’t receive any at all. Go get it.

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Popularity: 3%

Strategies to Get You to the Top of Google in 2012

December 29th, 2011 41 comments

Santa Monica, CA – Happy Holidays to all of our wonderful subscribers (and soon to be subscribers). We hope that you have found this blog to be a useful source of information and advice. As you know, it’s almost another year, and you might be putting another SEO strategy in place, which is why now is the time to act on the newest innovations that the New Year brings. Beware of staying stagnant with your SEO strategies, advises Ali Husayni, CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google.

After all, as we mentioned in January of last year, SEO changes as Google’s search engine does, which makes it all the more important to stay with the trends. And not to fear, Husayni still remains optimistic that no matter how it continues to evolve, SEO works and will continue to work in the foreseeable future, even with the added features introduced by Google+. Here are some of the changes in SEO that experts expect to see in 2012.

Unique Content, in Real Time: While Google’s search algorithms continue to emphasize the performance of a website, it is even more important to provide new content, especially content in real time. Content that encourages feedback is timely, every time, according to marketing strategist David Meerman Scott, during a recent interview with Socialnomics.net.

“Social media gives us the ability to communicate instantly, yet most marketers have not developed the communication skills to address real time,” Scott said. “Marketers have been trained with a campaign mentality, spending weeks planning, designing and executing in a sequential manner… [using a] new mentality, infrastructure and workflow to meaningfully participate in real time,” Scott says.

Spend more time not only thinking about your target audience and what kind of content they need, but when they need that content. Timely content encourages engaged feedback from viable sites, which helps your Google ranking, according to Husayni.

“If you want to be on the 1st page of Google make an effort to create content that will get the users involved in a conversation,” says Husayni. “Respond to every comment you get on your website. Be nice and offer guidance. When other users see how responsive you are, they will visit your website more frequently as well.”

Focus on User Quality, Not Quantity: This much is still true regarding users: if your site is getting good reviews from users, it will improve your Google ranking. If it’s getting bad reviews, the reverse. But remember, more clicks don’t necessarily mean more customers or higher customer satisfaction rates. Encouraging good reviews by interacting with customers is more important than ever, according to a Fall 2011 Constant Contact Survey study. Sixty percent of responding businesses reported that they enjoy engaging with all customers and prospects who post comments on social media platforms, whether those posts are positive or negative. Consumer feedback can lead, of course, to a higher customer retention and satisfaction rate.

Social Media Continues to Increase in SEO Importance: It’s true that social media is one of the factors influencing natural search rankings for Google. So, more than ever, you must consider social media as part of your SEO promotion strategy. Try to get inbound links from bloggers. If you release a new product, you want to have someone influential twitter about it. Be sure you have a Facebook presence. 

Targeted Websites: Be aware of how your target audience does research and try to entice viewers like more traditional marketing strategies. SEO companies like Master Google note that Google is looking for those sites that are valuable to users. You also need to find the online communities that your target consumer frequents. This will let you reach viewers as a group rather than individually.

The Rise of SEO-Led Marketing Campaigns: Increasingly, all marketing will be driven by SEO. Radio, TV, and print advertising will all be part of SEO campaigns to educate the users about products and services. There is an audience that traditional media reaches, but you have half the chance of reaching as many of them as you would have 10 years ago, according to Paul Gillin, a respected social media marketing guru and Author of The New Influencers. After all, in the last eight years, we have gone through a shift in consumerism. We begin with a search engine, as Gillin points out in his forum at the SuperGenius Conference.

“We used to go to a library and browse, now we expect it to be there,” Gillin says.

With a search engine’s place established by expert after expert, SEO ranking is at the heart of the campaign, rather than being an afterthought, and that is the new normal.

Geography is Even More Important Than it Was Last Year: Google Pages is increasingly part of Google’s search engine results. Google is also working on ways to incorporate the user’s location into results. As more and more people use GPS-enabled phones for searches, geographical considerations will play an even bigger role this year.

© 2011 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google are credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this document is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Popularity: 15%

SMM, SEO, YouTube: Where Should We Spend Our Online Marketing Budget?

December 20th, 2011 3 comments

Christmas lights, shopping bags, and endless family gatherings… it is a season full of fun, and distractions. Here at Master Google, we think that the end of the calendar year is the perfect time to plan your marketing budget for the new year. So, what’s the smartest budget choice in 2012?

Since marketing is all about getting to those wanting your product, no matter which marketing tactic(s) you choose, the web is the place for prospective buyers to find reviews and information.  A recent Pew Research Center Poll shows how consumers decide where to eat and what to buy:

• 51 percent use the Internet

  • search engines – 31%
  • specialty websites – 17%
  • social media – 3%

 • 31 percent read newspapers

  • printed copies – 26%
  • newspaper websites – 5%

 • 23 percent take the word of friends/family/reputation

 • 8 percent watch local TV

Let’s take a look at just how effectively SMM, SEO and YouTube reaches target audiences.

The Skinny on SMM:

Its use is on the rise, and the cost is nearly nil for initial output, which has made it more popular. It’s viable, too, according to a Fall 2011 study done by email marketing provider, Constant Contact. After surveying just over 2,000 small businesses, they found that 81percent of them use some form of it. The most common SMM remarks were that it is “easy to use,” and “works with my customers.” Facebook was cited as the number one tool, followed by Twitter, LinkedIn and video sharing.

What to Know About SEO:

SEO works, when used effectively. Effectively is the key word, pun intended. When looking at the Google keyword tool in AdWords, for instance, many changes have taken place, with the addition of everything from mobile apps to Google+ features. The questionable accuracy of keywords, as researched in our current AdWords-Focused Article, puts SEO up to scrutiny. In light of these worries, SEO expert Ali Husayni gives us assurance of the continuing stability of SEO as a viable marketing tool, as highlighted in our recent interview.

“SEO, and Google SEO in particular, are still very solid marketing tools for any small-, medium- and large-sized business,” Husayni said. “We do realize that, since Google+ has been born, SEO has become even more complicated, but at Master Google we’re staying at the top of the game.”

Now, let’s move to the often-talked about, seldom-understood potential of YouTube.

YouTube’s Place in Online Marketing and Media:

The face of the media is changing, and Paul Gillin, a respected social media marketing guru and Author of The New Influencers, stresses the importance of being bold with the new opportunities presented by being able to target an audience. Using traditional media is limited, after all, according to Gillin’s forum at the SuperGenius Conference.

“We are seeing a collapse of mainstream media because it’s based on an economic model that is highly inefficient,” Gillin said. “If you’re interested in selling wedding gowns, in the past, you had to market to 100 percent of the population, instead of the one percent looking for a wedding dress. Now we can reach those people directly.”

Why is this industry expert a proponent of YouTube? For one thing, I found Paul Gillin there. (Fun side note: have you heard of Justin Beiber, the song Friday by Rebecca Black, Antoine Dodson, or Auto-Tune the News? They all have YouTube to thank for their fame.)

As for the smartest budget choice in 2012, we at Master Google say a healthy dose of all three. If you have any questions regarding your marketing, please contact us directly. Happy marketing, and happy holidays.

Popularity: 3%

SEO Expert Sets the Record Straight Concerning Google and SEO

November 9th, 2011 1 comment

ORANGE, CA-There’s a lot of information swirling around on the Internet about search engine optimization. It becomes hard to distinguish who’s right and who’s just plain missing the mark.

Owner and founder of Master Google, Ali Husayni, is setting the record straight about at least one source of information.

On October 31, Jason Hiner—TechRepublic’s Editor-in-Chief—wrote an article about Google’s newest algorithm update, named Panda. He cited SEO as one of the main reasons for which Google revamped its page ranking system. Hiner claimed that SEO merely helps Web sites get ranked as high as possible on Google search results, regardless of relevancy to the searcher’s query.

“As a result, the sites that land at the top of Google search results have become more about which sites are best optimized rather than the ones that have the best and most relevant content,” Hiner wrote.

Husayni refuted the ungrounded assumption, saying that he’s simply confusing SEO with black hat SEO.

Black hat SEO breaks search engine rules and regulations. It is unethical. According to Husayni, the difference between black hat SEO techniques and Master Google’s SEO efforts is clear: Master Google has morals.

“Optimization, fresh content and encouraging other sites or people to recommend our clients’ Web sites are all valid business practices,” Husayni said. “They are even approved by Google.”

“Google needs SEO companies to better understand sites,” he added. “In essence, we are enhancing the ability of Google crawlers to index and understand sites.”

Hiner also stated that social media platforms were threatening Google’s relevance, forcing the search engine to launch Google+. “Social media has been replacing traditional web search for many different kinds of information gathering…” he said.

But Husayni said, “It cannot.”

“Social media is what it is and it will certainly help your search results, based on what your friends or circles suggest,” he said. “But it cannot and will not replace Google as a search engine.”

Husayni said that there are several reasons Google has nothing to fear, one being that a social media platform cannot index every site or page. It’s also susceptible to spam, just like other search engines, he added.

However, Google did need to add Google+ to compete with rivals, like Facebook and Twitter, Husayni asserted.

“It was essential for Google to start generating money through ads placed on social media sites, especially after the enormous amount gained by Facebook and Twitter this way,” Husayni said. “They also sought to customize their search results based on social connections. In theory, this will return much more relevant results.”

Hiner went on to say that Google’s Panda update caused “collateral damage,” weeding out sites that actually have good content and still ranking spam higher.

Husayni, on the other hand, thinks that the update has done wonders for Google searchers, achieving the exact results it was intended for.

“Panda was a powerful update and it cleared the air from content farms and base sites, those that spammed searchers with lots and lots of content or duplicated text,” Husayni explained.

Despite Hiner’s opinions, Husayni thinks that Google is stronger than ever, with SEO being a valid contributor to their success.

“There is always going to be manipulation,” Husayni said. “Some people are going to use frowned-upon techniques to boost their site’s ranking, but that is black hat SEO. I hope that Master Google’s honest SEO services will raise the standards of the industry.”

For more information about how the experts at Master Google can improve your Google ranking using ethical techniques, be sure to visit www.mastergoogle.com. For inquiries or to set up a free consultation with Ali Husayni, call Master Google toll free at 1-877-932-6559.

Popularity: 4%

Breaking Another Record in Google SEO Traffic

October 19th, 2011 1 comment

Master Google team is proud to announce achieving another record in bringing organic traffic to our site using organic SEO. On October 18th, we received a total of 246 visitors searching on Google and finding us.

The most searched for keywords yesterday included free SEO, Master Google and Google SEO Blog.

This brings our total search visitors in the past month to 4,955. Our current Alexa ranking is 27,588. This is much better than most SEO companies world-wide.

Some of our clients also achieved a breaking record last month including:

www.immigrationman.com
www.drpamelali.com
www.aeortho.com
www.arubavilavacationhomes.com

Popularity: 2%

Top Four Reasons People Are Reluctant To Spend Money for SEO

September 13th, 2011 9 comments

TAMPA, FLORIDA—Almost every person seeking search engine optimization services with Master Google is initially skeptical and reluctant to invest—a trend that Ali Husayni says has stayed the same since he joined the industry in 2004.

“Many businesses see their competition ranking better than them, but they’ve tried SEO a couple of times and it’s failed,” he says. “So they often abandon the whole project, thinking no one can get them there.”

Husayni has built his top SEO business by convincing those skeptics to give him a chance to get them there, delivering on his promises and converting them into long-term clients.

Husayni provides professional SEO and website services, including optimization, inbound-link building, Google+ SEO and keywords analysis. He hears the same anti-SEO objections over and over again and has developed a retort for each one.

SEO Is Relevant For Every Business
A lot of small business owners do not see the value of SEO and make the mistake of assuming that it does not matter for their business.

“Americans performed 15.5 billion searches in 2010, and around 80 percent of customers research a product or service before making a purchase,” Husayni says, whose free SEO services include a site analysis. “So it doesn’t matter if you are offering dog grooming services, consulting or selling exotic cars, you want potential clients to be able to find you.”

As one illustration of SEO’s relevance, he says being found at the top of Google search results in the orthodontic field, depending on location, can increase yearly income $50,000 to $300,000.

SEO Produces Results…Over Time
Another objection Husayni hears repeatedly is that SEO does not produce results because they worked with an SEO company for six weeks and there was no change in the search engine results.

“If people expect huge results in a very short period of time, they are bound to be disappointed,” he says. “Search engine optimization is an ongoing process that takes time, especially if the website has been in trouble for bad SEO practices in the past.”

While some clients see results quicker, significant results take around three to nine months, although that is influenced by the client market and strength and the client’s background, according to Saeed Khosravi, the operational manager at Master Google.

Husayni gets his clients to the top search engine results though, and he fully guarantees his work.

Here is what one of Master Google clients, Paul Kariniemi, a co-owner of Retrofoam of Arizona says about his experience: “With all the used car sales types out their pushing SEO on business owners, I must say it’s been refreshing to deal with true SEO professionals who deliver real, quantifiable results.”

Return On Investment Is Significant
Some people look at search engine results page rank to gauge whether the SEO is working, while others attempt to measure the return on investment in other ways, wrongly concluding that the investment does not pay off.

“We can precisely measure the increase in site traffic within the time the client signs up for SEO,” says Husayni, who shares free website optimization tips on his blog. “The bottom line is higher ranks on Google result in more targeted traffic which translates to more sales.”

Master Google provides clients with weekly ranking reports as one tool to track changes in keyword ranking on Google and other search engines. With the correct system in place, businesses can measure their campaign success based on the sales calls they generate from the Internet. SEO by far has the best ROI compared to other forms of advertisement.

Eagan, MN orthodontist Jennifer Eisenhuth had been with two SEO companies prior to Master Google and neither company could get her practice past page two of Google search results. After signing up with Husayni, she saw new patient exams from the Internet go up 500 percent from year to year, with new patient revenue from Internet case startups more than 400 percent during the same time frame.

Not Every SEO Company Over Promises And Under Delivers
One of the biggest obstacles to signing up new clients is that they have usually had bad experiences with other SEO companies before coming to Master Google. Some of them might have fallen prey to black hat SEO, techniques that exploit SEO Google guidelines and bring harsh penalties from search engines when discovered.

Two examples of these bad techniques are keyword stuffing and link farming. Keyword stuffing is creating content consisting of keywords and nothing else, no relevant content or meaningful text. Link farms are sites that sell businesses link space. These pages often have no real content and contain hundreds or thousands of links to other sites that are totally unrelated.

“I understand that a lot of business owners have been burned by SEO companies before, which is why I show them similar businesses in similar markets that we have helped,” says Husayni. “Then, I ask them to contact those people and hear for themselves what we did for them.”

Matthew Smillie, who owns Aruba Villa Vacation Homes, says other SEO companies let him down but that Master Google did what they said they would. “I highly recommend Ali Husayni’s company,” he says on the testimonials page on the Master Google website.

Husayni offers a free SEO consultation to people who are interested in finding out how they can SEO their site. Even though the testimonials alone practically sell his services, Husayni also offers clients a 100 percent money-back guarantee if he does not deliver on the results he promised.

Popularity: 5%

Our Resident SEO Expert Has Article Published in Prestigious Orthodontics Newsletter

August 6th, 2011 7 comments

Tampa, FL — Our resident professional SEO expert, Ali Husayni, has had an article published in the July issue of The McGill Advisory, a prestigious monthly publication geared toward orthodontists and dentists.

Husayni’s article explains how dentists and orthodontists- or any business, for that matter- can create a successful Internet search engine strategy for themselves.

“Every year, more dentists and orthodontists who have websites see how significant a role the Internet plays in attracting new patients,” says Husayni. “I felt that by providing some information on SEO link popularity and other SEO-related topics, it would be helpful to practices who are interested in bolstering their Web presence.”

Furthermore, Husayni knew the information he provided might also help doctors determine whether providing quality SEO services for themselves was a task they could tackle alone, or if they needed to turn to a SEO consulting firm to achieve their goals, he says.

“Sometimes providing a road map for SEO services has the opposite effect of giving a business owner the confidence to try making some changes and improvements on their own,” Husayni says. “Sometimes it actually shines a light on how much you don’t know about SEO, and provides the tipping point that prompts you to turn to a professional.”

Either way, Husayni is happy to provide the information, he says.

Husayni’s article shares information about recent changes in Google’s algorithm that might affect business’s website rankings. Here at Master Google, we help clients stay abreast of their sites’ rankings by providing weekly SEO ranking reports.

The article also covers information on Google’s anti-spam strategy, and it sheds light on the difference between “black hat” and “white hat” SEO techniques. It also explains what it could mean if your website is ranked on Page 1, but drops off the first page unexpectedly, as well as what fluctuations in your site’s rank might mean.

“The only thing not changing with SEO is that it’s always changing,” Husayni says. “It is my hope that the article makes that point clear to dentists and orthodontists and prompts them either to be diligent in keeping up with those changes as they handle their site’s SEO, or to partner with a qualified SEO provider to handle that task for them.”

The McGill Advisory costs $20 per issue for individual issues, or $227 for an annual subscription. Dentists and orthodontists interested in subscribing to The McGill Advisory can contact the publication for more information, (888) 249-7537, or visit their website: www.mcgillhillgroup.com.

© 2011 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.
-end-

Popularity: 2%

Google Places Is Where You Need to Be

August 1st, 2011 30 comments

Gmail, Adwords, Analytics, Google+, Places, Images and Videos are only a handful of services Google offers the business world. Small and yet successful businesses have long used these tools to further succeed in their ventures.

But Google also poses a big challenge for everyone who wants to gain business from them. It’s way too complicated.

Google adds new services way too often- sometimes faster than business owners can learn about them. Yet, many of its important features, such as its standard search, change drastically over time, making it difficult for companies to stay up to speed. Even JC Penny and Walmart couldn’t predict Google’s behavior and lost a great deal of business as a result.

One way to approach this obstacle is to identify which of these services is vital to your business and use it to your advantage.

Without a doubt,  Google Places (combined with organic SEO) is the most important for small businesses. Why? Because if your site is among the top five listings on Google Places, your customers will find you. It won’t matter if you don’t know how to use Adwords, Analytics, or Google+.

Being seen at the top of search results is equivalent to purchasing a large, eye-catching ad in your local Yellow Pages that everyone owned 10 years ago. If your ad was the first, your phone would not stop ringing.

If your business is listed high on Google Places, you will witness firsthand Google’s power to send customers your way. In a survey we performed, our clients that appeared on Google Places showed an increase of $45,000-to $274,000 in their annual revenue compared with when they didn’t show up on Google Places. On average, they spent just a small fraction of that money promoting their site. No other advertising method can beat that.

Now, the question is how to get on Google Places. Or, if you are already there, then how do you improve your rank to reach that number one spot?

If you are not listed, the first thing you ought to do is register your business with Google. The steps are simple and are explained in this video: how to get on Google Places.

If you are listed but you’re not at the top, then you need to improve your business’s reputation online. Here is the blueprint for accomplishing just that:

1- Get your customers to write positive reviews for you on your Google Places page. If they search for your business name along with the city you are listed under in Google Maps and then click on the letter associated with your business, a window will open at the top of your listing on the map that has a rating stars link. Clicking on the rating stars will get you to the reviews page. If you don’t have any reviews yet, then there will be a “write a review” link in this window.

2- Add the +1 button to your site’s pages and encourage your friends, family and customers to +1 your site. This will improve your site’s ranking on Google (for those who +1’ed your site’s page and those in their Google+ circles).

3- Improve your site’s link popularity. This means running a campaign that gets you natural, quality links from related Web sites. Since this is going to be the most important factor in helping you rank better on Google Places, I’ll explain it in greater depth in an upcoming article.

Keep your questions in mind and stay tuned.

Popularity: 17%

4th of July Gift: Free Links From Our Blog

July 4th, 2011 49 comments

Updated: July 8th

Those FREE SEO clients who are going to receive a free link from this page are as follows:

http://wayfarersandpathfinders.blogspot.com

https://garinwebhosting.com

https://goodluckjohnathan.info

http://worldcup2014.co.in

Original Post:

First, happy 4th of July to my family (in the US), friends, co-workers, partners and clients – well, at least the American ones. Second, as a 4th of July gift, we’re going to feature 5 sites that have ranked better after receiving our Free SEO program. We will link to these sites from this very page helping them to rank even better.

All you need to do is to write a comment (in the comments section) and explain your experience with our Free SEO program. If you include a video testimonial, your chances of being featured will increase.

Popularity: 5%