Month: July 2015

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Google Local Guides Impacts Your Online Reviews

Nancy McCord
Nancy McCord – explains Google Local Guides.

Quietly this past spring. Google rolled out a new program called Local Guides.  Not only did Google create a program to make a community out of people already active in their social space, but is providing perks, mentoring, and recognition for those that participate by writing reviews.

The benefit to Google is that it gets huge numbers of local business-specific, high quality reviews written by real people who have actually used the service or bought from the business. By creating its own reviewer network, Google builds a community that it can manage to boost what it wants to enhance its own relevancy in the local space. And it can use the reviews the way it wants.

Here’s one example of how Google is benefiting. Google asked all Local Guides to Level Up in March. By encouraging Local Guides that are Google+ Community Followers and offering personal encouragement, badges when you hit a certain number of reviews, and special recognition within its private global as well as local communities, it has crowdsourced business review writing in an incredibly smart and savvy way. I for one, boosted my review numbers to hit 50 – leveling up.

If you write 50 reviews and you get a special badge that appears next to your own reviews. Write 200+ reviews and you may get invites to special events, and even an occasional Google branded gift. Plus you get bragging rights.

As a Local Guide myself, I actually like the program and am using it as a way to share my local knowledge as well as to connect with other writers in my own community. I happen to think that this was an incredibly smart move on Google’s part to enlist a grassroots movement building it’s own review network that it will be able to use for AdWords and for its own search results needs.

There is cache associated with being a Local Guide and for now I am having fun with the program. If you are over 18, you can apply to be a Local Guide too. Just visit this page.

Remember Local Guides are not hired or paid by Google, nor are they Google employees. They are just helping to write about what they know and letting Google have the rights to their work.

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What Should You Watch in Google Analytics

Educate yourself on the value of monitoring your site in Google Analytics.
Educate yourself on the value of monitoring your website in Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free tool from Google. Insert a small snippet of code in your website files and statistical tracking starts immediately. Over time you can start to identify important trends that you can use to leverage exposure for your business.

Here Are the Areas I Watch in Google Analytics

1. Audience on Left > Overview
Use this page to identify the overview of what is happening on your website from total visits, unique sessions, to time on page and bounce rate.

2.  Audience on Left > Mobile > Overview
Use this page to monitor the technology people are using to visit your website. Monitor the percentage of mobile devices and desktops.  Make sure you are aware of the technology used when visiting your site so you can make sure you are catering to your reader trends.

3. Behavior on the Left > Site Content > All Pages
Use this page to identify the top visited pages of your website.  On this page I monitor my bounce rate by page of content. Where I have a high bounce rate I may want to review my content to make sure it is targeted and concise. Too high of a bounce rate may indicate that AdWords is not targeted enough for you (if you are using AdWords to drive traffic to your website) or that the reader simply did not quickly find the information that they wanted.

4. Behavior on the Left > In Page Analytics
Use this page to actually see an overlay of your own website pages with click traffic indicators and link popularity over the links and navigation of your pages. You can navigate through your entire website. I use this page to identify if I have hot sections of my website or sections that don’t get much attention.

If you need help understanding what is important on your own website and how you may be able to improve site traffic, make sure to review our services for site evaluation.

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Why I Like e-Newsletters as a Business Outreach

E-newsletters can be put to work for you.
E-newsletters can be put to work for you.

I take time each month to write an e-newsletter and have found over the years that for me personally it is an excellent way to continue to connect with existing customers and potential new prospects. For my business needs, an e-newsletter has simply not gone out of style.

I have found that many businesses have never tapped into the power of e-newsletters and want to let you know why as a business owner you should.

1. It is less costly to build sales with existing customers than new customers.

2. With a monthly newsletter you put your name with your “face” in front of your existing customers on a regular basis. Reminding them why you matter and letting them know of any new services or programs you offer.

3. An e-newsletter is a great way to showcase a new product, mention specific features and benefits or simply establish yourself as an authority on a topic.

4. It is easy to grow your subscriber list. Make sure you cover what you do with email addresses in your online privacy policy by stating that if you are contacted by a prospect by email you will be automatically adding them to your email list. Assure that if they ask to be removed from the list, you do so right away or use a subscription service with self management features.

5. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times a new customer has said to me, I have been getting your e-newsletter for a while and now that I need X services, I thought to call you first. I find that my e-newsletter makes me approachable. I will have subscribers frequently send me a personal note with a question. All of which I will respond to personally.

E-newsletters really work for my own business, if you are not using one, I feel that you are missing a golden opportunity. Take a look at our online information about e-newsletters to find out more and to learn how easy we can make it for you to get started with one.

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Mobile as an Important Aspect of Your AdWords Strategy

Save money by allocating it in AdWords where it works best for you.
Save money by allocating it in AdWords where it works best for you.

Showing your Google AdWords ads on mobile is an important part of your overall Google AdWords strategy, but how much should you spend in mobile for best results?

For all new AdWords programs, I recommend the following plan to determine just how important mobile is for your overall strategy.

1. Start out at the same bid for mobile that you spend for tablets and desktops, but watch over the next weeks to month where that puts you in regards to average page position.

2. If you are in position two to three, keep your bid where it is unless you start to see stronger conversion activity in the mobile space.

3. If your conversions are strong in mobile move your bid up by adding a positive bid adjustment for mobile from the settings > devices tag. Move slowly and test your account, but let your adjustments run long enough to have good statistical data – like 30 days.

4. For location specific businesses like doctors, dentists, lawyers, and other similar professions mobile may be your single most important space for conversions. For many of the accounts we manage now mobile accounts for all lead conversions. But consider your demographics! For areas where you will have younger customers, mobile will be stronger. For areas where your customers will be older desktops will be stronger. If there is an immediacy with a search such as animal ER mobile will own your conversion numbers.

Looking for a PPC manager in Fredericksburg or Spotsylvania, Virginia? We arrive in town on July 28th and our offices open on August 3, 2015.