Google+ Local Business Pages: The Future of Local Search

If you’ve been perusing the Search Marketing blogosphere, you no doubt heard the big news from Google today. If not, we’re here to give you the skinny on Google+ Local. What it means for you, how to prepare, and how this will change the local scene forever.

Long story short: Say goodbye to Google Places, and say hello to Google+ Local. It’s long been rumoured that Google would soon integrate the two, creating a more social experience for local search. So, what’s included in the update?

Tips and Tricks to Become a Ferocious Facebook Fireball

The end of February brought another successful and informative Search Marketing Expo West, where yours truly triumphantly (and successfully, if I may brag) returned to present on another mobile panel.  The presentation was so nice, I was named twice. Enough about that, as this post isn’t about me (sad, right?). If you want to read a bit about it, check out this blog from Erica Sendros and our best buds at aimClear. We also had a newb in our midst, with Joseph Henson making his SMX debut. This isn’t about him either, but Kathy Long and our other favorite friends at Bruce Clay Inc. wrote this cool post about it.

What to Expect From Your Email Marketing Campaign

No joke, this is what my wife's inbox looks like.

I’ve sent out a few newsletters in my time at Search Influence, and I’ve had to curb the client’s expectations more than once. Email marketing can be a time-consuming, arduous process and returns what seems to be very little. While email marketing is becoming more obsolete in this social media-dominated world, it’s still worth pursuing. Your expectations just need to be adjusted (read: lowered). Below I’ll break down the different metrics, what they mean, if you should care about them and what you should be expecting out of a successful campaign.

SMX West 2011 – The Aftermath

SMX West 2011 was a complete success for our Influencers. The two newbie’s, Anthony Coleman and Rodney Hess, successfully dominated their sessions, and veteran Will Scott successfully dominated Yelp during his. You may have missed it live, but you don’t have to miss out on the great information provided there. Check out the live blogs below to get your fill of SEO info.

Anthony Coleman spoke during one of the very first sessions of the conference – Google Instant: Six Months Later.  He was the only speaker to talk about how the update affected and could even benefit paid search. Follow the link to the Bruce Clay live blog of his session to get the full rundown.

Top 5 for the Weekend

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been quite a while since we’ve done this little series, here, but we’ve been meaning to bring it back. Well, after a quiet week of non-blogging, we thought this would be as good a time as any. So without further ado, I bring you the triumphant return of Top 10… err, 5 for the Weekend!

The 5 Critical Social Media Skills You Need to Disperse

Google Places iPhone app – Not convinced yet…

Yesterday, Google announced and released its vast (almost too vast) catalogue of data on the brand new Places app.  Places can be a nightmare for anyone looking for specific businesses on the web, especially if you’re in SEO. The app is a fairly elegant solution to this problem.

At first glance, it’s a great app. It’s easy to use and easy to find and review different businesses around your city. However, Yelp did it first and did it better. Also, I’m sure they’re going to roll out an update that allows you to check-in to locations, and who really needs another one of those? I still haven’t chosen my favorite one yet and I’m not going to complicate things by introducing another.

Mayor Maker iPhone app does what the name says

Oh, foursquare! I can’t decide whether I want to dump you or go steady by offering you my class ring to wear around your neck. With Facebook jumping on the location-based check in craze, it’s just easier to do it on the app I use constantly as opposed to the one I only use when I go to the grocery store or Super Cuts. The only problem is- and my wife can attest to this- I have an absolutely horrid memory. The pile of dishes that still tower in my sink is proof. I can only remember to use the feature sporadically.

Best of the Best of Canadian Citations - Canada Business Directory

The choice of local citation sources in Canada is sparse, especially when comparing the sheer amount available for use in America. Here at Search Influence, we figured we’d do our part and help out our neighbors to the north by doing a bit of research into the most valuable directories available to them. Before we get to the list, let’s first explain a little about the method we used to rank them.

New Study Suggests Using Facebook for Business Promotion May be Ineffective... We Suggest Otherwise

A recent study conducted by software and website training company Intellimon has revealed some fairly eye-opening findings about the use of social media in traffic generation for online businesses. They surveyed over 4,000 online business owners earlier this year and the results surprised everyone, including those conducting the study.

67% of those surveyed utilize Facebook to promote their business. Of those, only 29% said the platform is an effective means of driving traffic to their site. Similarly, of those businesses using Twitter, only 27.2% found it effective.

Have you measured it?

It’s an honest question. Tons of people have. There’s nothing wrong with it. It let’s you know what you’re up against. Here at Search Influence, we do it all the time. In fact, we measure it so much that it’s almost become ritualized. So I’ll ask again, have you measured your return on investment for all those dollars you’re spending on marketing?

Many business owners are under the impression that the more money they throw at a marketing strategy, the more money they’ll get back in return. It’s a logical strategy, but if you’re not measuring your ROI, how do you know is if it’s truly working? Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there that help you measure it.