Late last week, Facebook announced its highly anticipated entrance into geo-locating technologies with their new pride and joy, Facebook Places. Similar to Foursquare or Gowalla, Facebook Places is a location-based mobile service that allows users to not only share where they are and what they are doing, but will also allow them to discover new places based on the behaviors and interactions of their social network.

Critics were very quick to point out the potential dangers that these types of technologies create. The fears mostly arise from Facebook’s tarnished reputation as a company that historically has ignored privacy statutes; frequently updating their privacy policy, without informing their users about the changes. Facebook Places will without a doubt act as more fuel to the fire, igniting further debate on what protections users have regarding their online privacy.

Despite having its fair share of implications on privacy, as an interactive marketing agency, we are more interested in the potential implications Facebook Places will have for the future of marketing.

Businesses typically base their marketing strategies off of informed decisions made from clear and concrete data. A large corporation chooses to invest in Search Engine Optimization, not because they “felt” like it, but because research shows that the growth rate of searches in 2009 was 46%, totaling an astounding 1.5 trillion searches per year.

Data determines everything. Fortunately, the largest strength of the web has always been its ability to provide tangible data. Facebook Places takes this data collection to the extreme. The allure to businesses is that Facebook Places records real world behavior, as opposed to just the click of a button. For the first time, businesses are able to see whether their customer’s “likes” equates to actual conversions in-store. For example, I’ve always been an admirer of rare sports cars. At the top of my list are the expensive Italian exotics like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. If I happened to come across a webpage on Ferrari with a Facebook “Like” button, chances are good that I am going to press it; however, the likelihood of me purchasing a Ferrari in the near future is slim to none. Facebook Places will allow marketers and businesses to differentiate fans of the brand from actual converting customers, more effectively targeting the users who contribute to their bottom line.

Once the data is collected, marketers will be able to tailor promotions specifically to the group or demographic that is most likely to purchase in store. Even more interesting is the prospect of offering promotions based on this in-store behavior, rewarding customers with coupons or sweepstakes entries for frequent check-ins or photo-tagging. The sky really is the limit when it comes to integrating this technology into businesses’ marketing strategies.

In addition to better targeting, Facebook Places will very likely bring geo-marketing more mainstream. Still in its early stages, the geo-location market tends to be an industry with polarizing effects on the population. The early adopters of Foursquare (all 2.5 million of them) tend to be fanatical, habitually checking-into locations such as restaurants and bars before even placing an order with their waiter. The other portion of the population couldn’t even begin to describe what Foursquare is or how it works. With over 500 million users, Facebook boasts a much larger mainstream appeal that could very likely balance out the disparity between the two polar opposites, allowing businesses the opportunity to have greater reach with their geo-marketing promotions.

So what implications will Facebook Places have on Facebook’s long-term strategy? I think the obvious answer is that of broader focus with a strategy shifting to be more mobile. With the American smart phone market continuing to grow, it would seem like the correct decision.

Google seems to excel at just about every project they undertake. So last week when they announced that they were ceasing further development of the supposed revolutionary communication service, Google Wave, it seemed to take everyone by surprise. Originally launched in 2009, Google Wave was meant to fill a void as the premier online communication and collaboration tool, allowing groups to communicate in real-time with richly-formatted text, pictures, videos, and audio. Possibly even more interesting than Wave’s failure, however is Google’s reaction and grace to a result that is so foreign to them. With nothing but huge successes in their back pocket, how is it that Google appears to be completely unconcerned with the apparent flop of their latest product?

The answer to this question boils down to one key factor, Google’s unique company culture. Google is able to attract the amazing talents and great minds because they encourage fearless thinking and risky behavior. Their CEO, Eric Schmidt, actually claims that they celebrate their failures. While relishing in your failures may seem counter-intuitive, we could learn a few things from Google’s process. They see failures, as we all should — as opportunities to learn.

Having spent millions of dollars in the development of Wave, we can safely assume that there have been countless internal board meetings to discuss how to prevent history from repeating itself with future Google ventures. Sadly, the conclusions from these discussions are unlikely to ever leave the walls of the Googleplex. Despite this fact, the Wave failure represents an excellent opportunity for those of us in the Internet marketing industry to use their misfortune as a case study. So let’s ask the question everybody wants answered, why did Google Wave fail?

Much of Wave’s failure can be attributed to the exclusive nature of Wave’s product launch. Exclusivity has been a primary tactic of salesmen since the American culture embraced and in many ways became the representation of materialism. While Google Wave is in no way considered a luxury item, the complicated invitation structure made the product harder to come-by than a limited edition Ferrari. After receiving an invitation, users were then given a small, restricted number of invitations to distribute to their family and friends.

This led to a situation where demand greatly exceeded supply. By the time supply increased to meet that demand, people had already lost interest. Compounding this issue was the fact that on initial release, the platform was not compatible with Internet Explorer, requiring users to install a plug-in that Microsoft refused to endorse as secure. An important detail since IE is still the largest shareholder in terms of market share for the Internet Browser market. A public release, without all the unnecessary hoops to jump through, may have contributed to a faster user adoption.

Another part of the problem was the way in which Wave was marketed. Wave is a very powerful platform that combines the functionality of email and instant messaging in a simple to use interface with real-time collaboration capabilities. It is the perfect tool for medium to enterprise size businesses to streamline communication across multiple departments and large geographic distances. The platform seems like it should appeal to everyone, but the marketing may not have communicated the unique selling proposition to the “Average Joe” well enough against competing products. Mainstream users simply may have not been able to identify what makes Wave different than G-Mail or Skype.

Another possible reason for the failure is it may have just been too forward-thinking of an idea. Email and instant messaging software have become important elements in the lives of most Americans. For many people, not being able to check your e-mail for several days incites the same feelings of anxiety and nakedness as actually leaving home without clothes. Perhaps people were simply unwilling to replace these staples of modern communication with an unfamiliar and untested piece of technology.

There is no doubt that Wave is (or should I say was) a very useful and ambitious product. It took the problems associated with communicating via E-mail and instant messaging, such as document versioning and large group collaboration, and solved them rather elegantly in a user-friendly design. The problem was clearly not in the idea, or even in the execution of the product. This failure will be remembered for the mistakes made in the marketing and promotion of Wave. Mistakes Google will not likely make again. If you are disappointed to see Wave go, I wouldn’t fret. I have a feeling we’ll see the tide come in again in the near future.

One of the most important aspects of an effective SEO strategy is the ability to research, analyze, and ultimately select the keywords that are most likely to result in success for your clients. There are a variety of free tools available on the web specifically designed to help online marketers do just this. Each tool has its own unique methodology for collecting and presenting this data. Comparing any of the tools’ results without knowing the subtle differences can lead to incorrect inferences and an SEO strategy based on misinformation.

A major difference that exists between the tools revolves around how they manage the three keyword matching options: broad match, phrase match, and exact match.

Keyword Matching Options

For those unfamiliar with keyword matching options, the default option, broad match, will return all results that contain one or more of the terms used in a search query, and in any order. The results may also include both singular and plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations of each individual term in the search query.

Phrase match is delineated by quotation marks around the search query. The results returned will contain the specific phrase used in the search query, but may include additional terms before or after.

Surrounding the search query in brackets demarks an exact matching option. When using this option, the results returned must contain the terms in the exact order that they were written, and without any other terms. Exact match should return identical organic results to phrase match, and is truly intended to be used in paid search.

These 3 keyword matching options are not solely to blame for the large variations seen when comparing data from the keyword tools. Much of this difference can be attributed to the distinctive techniques that the tools use to collect their data. Let’s take a look at how these tools collect and present their data and hopefully it will help clear up any confusion.

Google Keyword Tool

The Google Keyword Tool has a variety of helpful features meant to streamline the keyword research process. By entering terms or phrases into the search box, the Keyword Tool allows you to build extensive, relevant keyword lists from one simple interface. By default, the tool displays Advertising Competition, Global Monthly Searches, Local Monthly Searches, and Local Search Trends for each keyword. Additional options allow marketers to show the estimated Average Cost per Click, Ad share, and Search Share.

The local data that is returned is a 12 month average of all search queries in the United States using the Google Search Engine and affiliated Google search properties. Using the sidebar on the left, marketers are easily able to specify the keyword matching type (Broad, Exact, Phrase), change the category, and refine their results to contain specific terms.

Google Search Based Keyword Tool

The Search Based Keyword Tool is intended for researching keywords within Google’s Adwords network. Unlike the Keyword Tool, the Search based Keyword Tool is based solely on searches from Google.com. This factor causes the search volumes displayed to be considerably lower than the Keyword Tool. Because this tool is intended for paid search keyword research, it contains additional information on Suggested Bid and Ad/Search Share. The Search Based Keyword Tool is seamlessly integrated into the Google Adwords interface and allows marketers to add keywords to their PPC campaigns without having to login to their Adwords Client Center.

Google Suggest

Google Suggest isn’t exactly a tool, but I’ve found that it can be useful for identifying potential keywords. As you type a query on Google.com, Google Suggest recommends search queries based on other users’ search activities. These searches are algorithmically determined based on a number of purely objective factors (including popularity of search terms) without human intervention. The Suggest dataset is updated frequently to offer search queries that seem to be trending upwards. This feature is largely one of the reasons that you may see repeat traffic of seemingly long tail keywords. By identifying these long tail keywords and optimizing for them, marketers can capitalize on seemingly obscure keywords with little competition.

Keyword Discovery

Keyword Discovery is a paid subscription service that offers marketers the ability to see keyword data across multiple search engines. They maintain one of the largest databases of searches, (nearly 38 billion) which are compiled from over 50 different search engines. The search data shown is a record of the number of times the exact keyword or phrase has been searched over the last 12 months across all 50+ search engines. You would assume that the search volumes would be much larger than any other tool because of Keyword Discovery’s access to data from over 50 search engines, but the fact that the keyword matching option is set to exact, greatly reduces the total volume. Unlike Google’s tools, Keyword Discovery does not collect or show data relating to paid search, such as Suggested Bid, Cost per Click, and Competition. Data is collected daily, but updated monthly. Although you must pay the subscription to have access to all the features, Keyword Discovery does provide a free alternative.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is another service that requires an annual subscription to utilize all of its features. Their database is made up of 330 million search terms, collected from the major metacrawlers, Dogpile and Metacrawler, and is updated weekly. The search data they show is a record of the number of times the exact keyword or phrase has been searched in the United States over the last 365 days. As in the case of Keyword Discovery, this difference in default keyword matching type causes Wordtracker to display search volumes significantly lower than what Google’s tools show.

So which tool should you use? The simple answer is ALL of them!! If the data from several tools suggests that a keyword may be a good keyword to target, than you should feel fairly confident that it is. If your results appear to be contradicting one another for a particular keyword, then you may want to be hesitant in including that keyword in your selection. SEO professionals should never rely on one resource for research. No one tool is going to be 100% accurate and you stand the best chance at making the correct strategic decisions by using a variety of sources.

Ever since man invented search engines, there have been individuals whose sole missions have been to exploit their algorithms for their gain.  In many ways, this attitude is the foundation of search engine optimization; however there are some tactics that search engines frown upon more than others.  These tactics are typically referred to as black hat SEO tactics.

Black hat SEO tactics represent the actions that the search engines deem unacceptable and for those that are caught performing them, can represent SEO suicide.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing have all been known to severely penalize and in especially egregious cases, entirely blacklist companies that rely on black hat SEO tactics.  We at DBS understand that these unethical strategies are only favorable in the short term and that an honest, ethical approach, utilizing white hat tactics is the only strategy that will ever result in marketing success.  Despite our beliefs, many companies fall victim to the allure of these dubious tactics.   In this week’s post, we will educate you on some of the most common black hat SEO tactics.

Redirects

Redirects, when used as they were intended, are not considered black hat.  In fact, 301 redirects are the preferred way to redirect an old domain to a new location without being destructive to their linking structure.  Redirects become black hat when they are used fraudulently to acquire links.  Just last month, we ran into an instance where a competitor of one of our SEO client’s unethically utilized a 301 redirect to gain links.  Link directories often allow non-profit organizations to acquire a link free of charge.  This particular company created a non-profit, informational website to gain links.  After gaining free links for that URL, they redirected it to their commercial website.  Had they simply promoted their commercial site, they would have had to pay for these links or would never have gained them in the first place.

Keyword farms

A keyword farm refers to a website or blog that utilizes excessive keywords and hyperlinks to acquire “keyword rich” links to a parent website.  This tactic has become one of the most utilized tactics by outsource SEO companies.  For that reason, they are normally characterized by broken English and incorrect grammar.  This strategy is based on the concept that the search engines will be unable to recognize the websites as spam, and will award them the same benefits that acquiring legitimate links offers companies.

Hidden text

Hidden text has two forms and both are deceiving.  One method is to set “keyword dense” text to the same color as the background.  Another technique simply decreases the size of the text to an illegible level.  Hidden text is very similar to keyword farming with the exception that this technique is done covertly.  The benefit of this tactic is the same as above; websites that successfully fool the search engines gain many targeted keywords without much effort.

Cloaking

Cloaking is a particularly advanced technique used to dupe the search engines that presents different information to a search engine than a human would see.  There are a variety of ways to cloak and many of these techniques are still completely imperceptible to search engines.  Cloaking is frequently used in affiliate marketing to deceive the search engines.  Google’s ad network requires the domain of the display URL of a PPC ad be the same as the domain of the destination URL.  Cloaking allows individuals to circumvent this rule, and turn users who click on the ad directly to the affiliate’s converting page.

So what should you do if you discover that a competitor, or in a worst case scenario, your very own marketing company is utilizing these tactics?  When a competitor uses unfair tactics to beat you it is entirely fair to report them.  Their unethical actions give them an unfair advantage and should not be rewarded.  To report a company to the various search engines, click on the following links:

Google

Yahoo

Bing

If your own marketing company is using black hat tactics, you may want to consider finding a new SEO partner.  In the event that this happens, feel free to contact us.  We think we may be able to recommend someone.

The 1950’s marked the beginning of what we now identify as the foundation of modern marketing. In those days, calls to action were relatively simple. A “Buy Now!” or “Order Today!” placed somewhere in ad copy was all that was required to motivate users to try your product.

These days, calls to action are a bit more confusing. The commercialization of the Internet in the 1990’s led to an abundance of businesses creating websites with the goal of converting site visitors into customers. Throughout the 2000’s, businesses have expanded calls to action to not only target sales, but many other online behaviors that they feel are an indicator of visitor engagement.
Optimizing these calls to action to maximize conversions is a full-time job in and of itself, and requires many hours of trial and error to be truly successful.  Luckily for you, we at DBS want to spare you some of the laborious trial and error and would like to recommend a few handy tips that you can try on your site today to improve conversions.

Highlight Most Desired Conversion

From the moment an individual logs on to a website, they are bombarded with calls to action. Online marketers often make the mistake of assuming visitors are willing and able to complete every goal they have defined. If marketers had their way, each visitor would follow them on Twitter, Like them on Facebook, sign up for their RSS, subscribe to their newsletter, click to learn more about their services, contact them through a form, and buy their product. The fact of the matter is visitors can only perform one of the above, so your site’s conversion rates would be best served by highlighting the goal that is most important on that page. The easiest way to bring attention to your call to action is to make it as prominent as possible on the web page.

• Make It Big and Make It Bright – This isn’t rocket science; the more apparent the button is, the greater the chance a visitor will be motivated to click it.

• Move Goal Objectives Above The Fold – Visitors should never have to scroll down the page to complete a conversion. By simply moving links and buttons that result in a conversion above the fold, you greatly increase the chance that visitors will convert.

Substantiate Claims of Security

Trust is a crucial element in the seller-buyer relationship. Any action a seller can do to increase trust is bound to increase conversion rates. One of the most basic ways to earn a customers’ trust is to substantiate that your website is secure.

• Protect Your E-Store with SSL – Online shoppers are relatively savvy to the existence of Secure Socket Layers (SSL), a form of encryption that protects information sent over communication networks such as the Internet. Although many couldn’t tell you what it stands for or how it works, most know to avoid websites whose shops are not protected with it.

• Industry and Security Certifications – While SSL protects your customers from outside threats, industry and security certifications help to establish your company as a legitimate business. Use these certifications to demonstrate your company’s commitment to protecting your customers.

Validate Products and Services

Once site visitors are aware that your site is secure, the next best way to increase trust is through validation of your business or products.

• Testimonials and Customer Reviews – A 2008 Study conducted by Razorfish found that 61% of people rely on user reviews for product information or research before a buying decision is made. (Razorfish, 2008) Another study conducted by Econsulatancy found that 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know and 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009) Both studies come to the same conclusion. Consumers trust other consumers. Websites with reviews, regardless of being negative or positive, will always convert better than a site without them.

• Include a Privacy Policy – Privacy policies declare the intent of a business in collecting your personal information. Visitors are unlikely to do business with you if you either don’t display a privacy policy on your site, or are involved in any misuse of their information.

Optimize Page Speed

Not too long ago, Google announced that page speed was a factor they use in their ranking algorithm. Since then, most SEO professionals have been doing a few simple steps to improve page speed. Google places importance on page speed for the very same reasons that increasing the page speed could benefit your conversion rates. From a usability standpoint, any page that takes more than a few seconds to load is susceptible to experiencing extremely high bounce rates.

• Decrease Image File Size – Images are a very important component of web design. The problem with images is that they often account for a substantial portion of a page’s load time. Online marketers should make certain that images file sizes are optimized to be as small as possible, without sacrificing any quality.

• Clean Up Javascript and Code – Another large element to slow page speed is improper or poorly written code. A code audit to eliminate any unnecessary strings will do wonders in improving the total load time.

Utilize On-Site Promotions

It’s no mystery that promotions are an effective way to increase sales. The Internet actually provides promotional tactics used to optimize conversions that are specific to online shopping.

• Free Shipping – Shipping fees are one of the few disadvantages of shopping online. When you remove it from the equation, visitors will be enticed to use your service or product to fulfill their needs. If free shipping is something you offer, display it prominently on your website as well as in any PPC ads you may be running.

• Free Trials – Another disadvantage of online shopping is the physical distance between you and the product. This distance is one of the major barriers in the online buying process. When shopping online, shoppers lose the ability to physically interact with the product. To mediate this, some companies utilize free trials; allowing customers to try before they buy.

Integrate Web 2.0 Functionality

The great thing about the modern Internet is the amazing functionality integrated into websites. Programmers have developed a number of features that help to alleviate some of the uncertainties of buying a product online.

• Collaborative Filtering – Collaborative filtering is the process of compiling historical sales data and integrating it into a system that automatically recommends products based on the composition of similar customers’ check out carts. These systems are often labeled as “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought” or “You Might Also Like”. While it is clearly no small project to integrate this type of technology into your website, the benefits in the long-run greatly offset any initial investment.

Choose Images Carefully

As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

• Product Photography – Having no images, small images, or low-quality photography can seriously hinder your conversion rates. In the case of bad photography, visitors assume that the quality of the photography is a reflection of the quality of your product or business. If the images are abnormally small, visitors have difficulty understanding what they are buying. Simply by increasing the size of images, A/B tests have shown that larger images can result in increased conversion rates.

So what are you waiting for?  Quit reading and start optimizing for more conversions!

Do you like TV? Of course you do. How about the Internet? I know, stupid question.

So what could be better than surfing the Internet on your TV? Well here comes Google TV, the seemingly obvious fusion of two of America’s favorite information avenues (Or preoccupations depending on whom you ask). Of course, this is not an entirely new concept. Devices and services like WebTV have been offered in the past as subscription services. So how will Google change the game on Internet TV and make it truly huge? The key is information.

Your information to be exact. What you search for, what you shop for, what blogs you read, what news you seek out; your information is Google’s cash cow. If you don’t already know about the increasingly personalized services Google offers, and are unaware why they offer them, let me give you an inside look.

Here is the most basic. Do a Google search for recliners and you might notice a La-Z-Boy ad at the top of your search results. The portion of the search results where the La-Z-Boy ad is displayed is reserved for Pay Per Click ads. Pay Per Click ads are rather intuitive. The business that is responsible for running the ad will have to pay Google for every user’s click of their ad.
But here’s a more subtle example that most people are completely oblivious to. Next time you send an e-mail in Gmail or open an e-mail that has information unique to you, watch the ads being served in your Gmail window. You may be surprised to see that the ads served relate to the content contained in your email. Google knows by leveraging your interests and compiled search information, they will be able to serve more relevant ads that are specific to your interests. The better relevance ultimately results in more clicks and more money to line Google’s pockets.

It doesn’t stop there, Google has services like Google Health that allows you to gather your health information and medical records in one place, or Google Desktop, which allows you to search and index your computer. These are only a few of the many products offered by Google that give them access to your information.
Whether you consider Google’s trend towards personalization as a positive or negative is a matter of personal opinion. What isn’t an opinion, however, is that the concept of online privacy will become a hotly debated topic as the Internet continues to evolve? We are already beginning to see this development in the news. Recent changes to Facebook’s privacy policy created a vicious backlash amongst its users and sparked the interests of media outlets from around the world.

Regardless of the controversy, Google TV, and other services like it, are bound to open up new avenues for Google’s Adwords content network and how they leverage the information they track about your searches and interests. It would also open up much more information tracking about a given user’s personal habits. Are people more inclined to click Kleenex ads during Grey’s Anatomy? Who knows? Chances are, Google probably does.

Before you start thinking of how everyone is out to get you, think about the awesome features Google TV may bring. Google TV will apparently run on an Android operating system. Imagine being able to use your favorite apps on your TV or easily sending info back and forth from your TV and your Android phone using “swipe” technology. Another possibility may be the ability to watch the news and immediately browse for the truly up-to-the-minute reports on how BP continues to turn the Gulf into a free source of motor oil.

All of this is just scratching the surface of how awesome an experience this fusion can truly be in the hands of Google. With Sony and Logitech already onboard to ship TV’s, Blu Ray players, and Google TV-capable companion boxes to BestBuy this Fall, we should all be able to experience this for ourselves very soon.

Search engine optimization is a particularly challenging concept for businesses to comprehend. SEO’s inherent nature can contribute to the confusion. Search engine optimization is an ever changing science with best and worst practices being based somewhat on speculation. The search engines go to extreme lengths to protect the significance of variables used in their page rank algorithms. It is only through shared knowledge and combined experience that we as Internet Marketers can attempt to decipher the importance of ranking factors. Local search optimization best practices are continually changing, but I think it is fairly safe to assume that worst practices will remain fairly constant. So without further adieu, I present the 7 factors SEO experts agree are most detrimental to your local search ranking (1 being least harmful…7 being most harmful).

1) Multiple Locations on Company’s Contact Webpage

This practice has the potential to seriously confuse the search engines. Search engines use your company’s contact page on your website and compares it to their local business listing, as well as other web pages crawled from across the Internet. Multiple addresses on one contact page will prevent the spyders from creating a correct business profile. Best practices would indicate that businesses should create an individual landing page for each location on their own website. Each location’s unique local business listing should then link to the specific landing page that it is associated with.

2) Negative Ratings

I’d have to disagree with the experts on this one. Negative ratings give local business listings a hint of credibility. I become suspicious when browsing business or product reviews with no apparent negative reviews. No matter how well the product is made or how stellar your business’s service is, chances are someone has had a bad experience. I would argue that reviews, regardless of being positive or negative, are beneficial and help your listing stand out over listings without any reviews. In the end, there doesn’t appear to be any harmful effect of negative ratings on local rankings, but an abundance could certainly hurt your conversion rates.

3) Local Business Listing without Local Phone Number

Local phone numbers should always be included in local business listings. (800) or toll-free numbers don’t hurt, in fact, there is actually some indication that they may benefit you as the primary phone number in the local business center, but there should always be a local phone number listed. Without one, you will likely not rank as high as your potential.

4) Multiple Listings with Same Business Name

This is a factor that will cause the search engines to identify you as a spammer. As a spam listing, the search engines will merge the individual listings into one. In the event the search engines overlook the duplicate business names, you will likely experience a negative effect where the strength of your business ranking is spread between multiple listings, effectively chopping your local search optimization efforts down at the knees.

5) P.O. Box without Local Address

A P.O. Box in and of itself is not harmful to local rankings, but a P.O. BOX without a local address can be detrimental. Think about the purpose of local search. The idea is to provide local solutions to individuals searching for information. A listing without a physical location does little to help these individuals resolve their needs. If you are not of any help to these individuals, than why should you be included in the top local listings?

6) Multiple Local Business Listings with Same Phone Number

This is similar to #7 and may even rival it for potential harm to your local search optimization efforts. Imagine you are managing the local search optimization for a restaurant chain that happens to have 5 locations around the Louisville Metropolitan area. You create a listing for each restaurant, but use one common phone number for all 5 listings. The search engines will likely at some point become aware of the duplicate phone numbers (either through a competitor reporting you as spam or just by routine database pruning) and will attempt to merge all 5 listings. After merging, customers who seek information about your business will only see the 1 listing in the local search results, meaning the chance of someone finding your business has in an instant decreased by 500%.

7) Multiple Local Business Listings with Same Address

If the search engines discover two records with the same address your listing(s) are at risk of being deleted. Duplicate listings are defined by Google as spam and go directly against their guidelines. Spammers commonly abuse this feature, associating their business’s name with SEO friendly keywords. Spammers know that having a popular search term in their business name will get them top priority in the local directories for that term. Google, as of recently, has been on a mission to rid their listings of duplicate content. It is likely Google may simply merge the listings, but the possibility exists that they may delete both listings entirely, leaving your business high and dry in local search.

Original Study found at http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

After the past two weeks that we have blogged about podcasting, it only seems appropriate to follow our “Building a Podcast” Part 1 and Part 2, with Part 3. This week’s blog post will cover the publishing and promotion of your podcast, a step that makes your stream accessible to your customers and others on the Internet. This step is potentially the most difficult, but is essential to the success of your podcast. After all, it’s not much of a podcast if others aren’t able to locate, listen, or subscribe.

There are literally thousands of hosting solutions available to podcasters. If your business already has a website, then it is likely you already have a dedicated host you can use. If not, then you will need to do the following:

1. Register a domain name

2. Find/Buy Web hosting

3. Start a blog

4. Create an RSS feed

Acquiring a domain name requires you to select a name of a web site that is not yet owned, where you can host your blog. Normally, you will need to register for the domain name and pay a fee, often annual in nature, but there are a few easier options. Wordpress is a very reliable service that allows you to register and host a blog in a few easy steps. If you bought hosting through someone else, check and see if they offer one-click Wordpress installation. Blogger is another free service that will register a domain name for you to use. The downside to using Blogger is you are left with a difficult URL for your viewers to remember:

yourpodcastname.blogspot.com

To avoid having to memorize a difficult URL, you can get free server space from Our Media. For more information on Our Media click here. More information on Wordpress can be viewed here. For additional information on Blogger, click here.

Once you have created and registered a blog, you will need to create what’s called a RSS feed, so listeners can subscribe to your podcast and be updated in real-time to any new entries or podcasts posted on your blog. Wordpress has an interface that is user-friendly for posting new episodes and creates the podcast feed for you. To create an RSS feed that is podcast-enabled for the other web hosts, I suggest using Feedburner. This is also a free service and it adds great features to your feed, including subscriber stats. Blogger by itself uses what is called an Atom feed, which is the wrong kind of feed format. Feedburner converts the feed to a podcast-ready RSS format and is available for download here.

After recording and editing the audio, the next step is to upload the video to your web host’s servers. This is where the file transfer program, FileZilla (Mentioned here in Part 2), comes into play. Luckily, FileZilla offers a tutorial on their Wikipage for your convenience. The file transfer program takes the MP3 audio file and copies it to the host’s servers. Be cognizant of the file name before you upload. You will need to set in place a naming convention for your podcast episodes that users will be able to understand.

The last step to creating a podcast is writing your show notes. Show notes are essentially an outline of the content in an episode of your podcast. These notes should provide, at a glance, a summary of the contents of an episode. Well-written notes will help entice new visitors to subscribe as well as optimize your blog for the search engines. Links to relevant resources, a captivating title, and a mild density of popular keywords should help increase your blog’s search engine ranking.

In many ways, creating your podcast is the easy part. Promoting your podcast and getting people to listen is a much more difficult task. Developing an email list, submitting press releases, making your blog SEO friendly, and social bookmarking are all ways to promote your podcast. Consider using some or all of these strategies to maximize your listenership.

Podcasts are a great way for businesses to interact with their customers. They provide a vehicle for extending product information, asserting expertise in an industry, and resolving negative publicity. The next time someone mentions how Twitter is the ultimate business promotion tool, consider how much information you could promote in a 20 minute podcast.

Last week, we posted Part 1 of “Building a Podcast” on our blog, which explored the benefits of podcasting and outlined the steps one should take to prepare for a podcast. When talking with others, it seems that one of the largest factors stopping people from creating a podcast is the perceived technical difficulty. This common perception is wildly inaccurate. Almost anyone has the skills needed to produce a podcast and the equipment required can be purchased for cheap.

At this point, you are probably wondering, what type of equipment do I need? Surprising to most, the equipment required is fairly minimal:

• Computer (PC or MAC)
• Internet connection
• Microphone
• Audio Recorder/Editor
• MP3 encoder
• iTunes or Windows Media Player
• File transfer program

Computer

Minimum requirements for your computer to podcast include a sound card, 512 MB of RAM, 2-3 GB of HD space, and in/out or microphone/headphone jacks. Fortunately, almost any computer produced in the last 10 years should come standard with these features. Programs your computer may not have right out-of-the-box include an audio recorder/editor, MP3 encoder, iTunes/Windows Media Player, and FTP program, although, most of these programs can be acquired legally, for free on the Internet.

Audio Recorder/Editor

Audacity is a free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems. It is available for download at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/. In addition to the free download, they also offer free tutorials on recording and editing audio using Audacity. Click here for the tutorials!

MP3 Encoder

Once you create your podcast, you need to convert it to MP3. LAME is a program that works with Audacity to convert your audio to an MP3 format. Digital audio files are typically large in size. Converting your audio to MP3 makes the file size smaller and easier for others to download and listen to. You can “a href=” http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3”>download LAME here from Audacity’s site.

Podcast Player

Many of your fans may use iTunes and Windows Media Player to download and listen to your podcast. You will want to download both to verify that your podcast plays correctly on each player. You can download iTunes by clicking here. Windows Media Player can be downloaded for PC by clicking here and for Mac by clicking here.

File Transfer Program

Once you’ve recorded your audio and converted it to MP3, you will need to upload it to the Internet. A file transfer program allows you to do just that. FileZilla is a free, open source FTP solution available for both PC and Mac. You can download FileZilla by clicking here.

Microphone

In addition to the computer software, you will need to buy a microphone or headset to be able to record your podcast onto your computer. There are a lot of nice microphones available for cheap that can be purchased at your local electronics store. However, it is safe to assume that the nicer the microphone you buy, the better the sound quality your podcast will have. This would be the one place where you might invest some money. Simply, plug in your microphone to the mic jack and you are set to record.

Next week, we will finish up our three part Podcast series with learning how to publish your podcast, and making it accessible to others on the internet.

At the rate that modern technology has been advancing, it has become increasingly more difficult for businesses to stay up-to-date with the next, best way to promote your business.  Most recently, the more traditional forms of promotion have been superseded by a constant barrage of Social Media.  Networks such as Facebook and Twitter are now being utilized by big businesses to stay in touch with their customer base.  In all of the hoopla about social media, I can’t help but feel that some tried and true means of promotion are being underutilized, maybe even ignored.  Enter Podcasting.  Our previous blog entry, “What Are Podcasts?” described a podcast as a digital audio or video file available for download to either a computer or digital audio/video player.  Just like social media, podcasts allow businesses to connect one-on-one with their customer.  In the following weeks, we will be detailing a 3-part, step-by-step guide to podcast creation and will hopefully help you answer the question, “Should I be using a podcast to promote my business?”

The beauty of a podcast lies in its ability to target a specific niche or community.  Broadcasting, a precursor to podcasting, implies “broad” and is distributed to the masses with hopes that your target audience is listening.  Podcasting on the other hand, implies “pod,” which if you know anything about whales or dolphins, implies a small community.  Just to clarify, whales and dolphins have nothing to do with the actual origin of the word podcasting, but I’ve found it highlights the major advantage of podcasting very well.  An additional benefit of podcasting over broadcasting is its cost effectiveness.  Whereas broadcasting requires that you pay based on the reach of your messaging, podcasting requires only that you pay for a domain and web host.

The first step in executing any successful promotion is plan, plan, plan.  I’ve never been one to use trite quotes in my writing, but in this instance one couldn’t be more applicable.

“Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”

In fact, plan to “plan a lot”.  For every 20 minutes of recording, you can assume many hours went into the planning.  There are a few important questions you need to answer before you can decide if podcasting is right for your business.  One of these questions is already somewhat answered for you.

• What are you going to podcast about?

If you are podcasting for a business promotion, we can assume that you will want to discuss topics related to your business.  I typically recommend that people choose areas of interests that they consider themselves to be experts on or have a particular passion for.  Quite conveniently, most businesses ARE either experts in their respective industries or desire to be.  It’s also safe to assume that they possess a certain extent of passion for their work or else they never would have gotten involved in their industry.  It seems as though business promotion and podcasting were made for each other.  Other questions you should ask yourself in the planning stage include:

• What is the goal of my podcast?

Is it to create an additional stream of revenue?  If so, what will your show offer that listeners deem important enough to pay for?   Is it to open up a line of communication with your customers or potential customers?  Is it simply to promote your product?

• Is there demand for the information I will provide?

Podcasting is great for reaching small, focused, and underserved topics of interests, but you need to make certain that your topic isn’t too niche.  In a similar respect, you need to ensure that your topic is not too broad.  Making the mistake of choosing too broad of a topic, will leave your target audience disinterested in the verbal filler unrelated to their interests.  Still, choosing a topic that is too niche, will alienate and exclude potential customers who don’t share similar of interests.  Finding the balance between the two is a major contributing factor to podcasting success.

• What will the format of my podcast be?

Format, in this instance obviously refers to the structure of the podcast and not the file type.  What will the length of your podcast be?  How often will you produce a podcast?  How will you present the information?  Will you record in real time or edit the podcast in post using audio editing software?  Recording on the fly requires a decent amount of skill and is not recommended for someone just starting out, but the advantage is it can save you loads of time.  Editing in post allows for a much more professional final product, but it also requires a lot more time and a bit more technical know-how.  The possibilities as to how you deliver your information are endless, but listeners appreciate some consistency in your delivery.

With the basic questions out of the way, it’s now time to start aggregating and planning content for your podcast.  My advice is to create an outline of the topics you would like to discuss.  Your podcast should without a doubt, consist of both an intro and an outro.  You may have a section for announcements where you discuss recent developments about your podcast.  You may choose to have a news section where you inform your audience about industry trends or recent business gossip.  Consider using guests occasionally.  Interviews with leading professionals in your industry are a great way to get people to tune in.  In addition, engaging with the listener directly is always a great strategy for success.  Asking listeners to email you questions and allotting some time to answer those on your show keeps listeners and potential customers, personally invested in your brand.  Lastly, you should consider staying away from scripted shows.  They sound too rehearsed and take away any hint of personality in your podcast.

The amount of effort devoted to planning a successful podcast will exceed the expectations of most.  Invest the proper amount of time and we promise you will stand a chance at creating a traffic-driving, community-stirring podcast.  Next week, we will pick back up where we left off and jump headfirst into the tools and equipment required to record, edit, and upload your podcast to the web.