Google Places – Great SEO Implications for Small Businesses

Small businesses that focus on getting local business should care about Google Places, a lot. What Google Places is all about is localized search, if you search for just 'Pizza,' the Google search engine now figures out his or her address and location and returns localized results. For me, sitting in Nanaimo BC, I see local Pizza restaurants when I search for Pizza. You will see Pizza restaurants for your own local community.

Google Places is a great concept; it blends two important but very distinct concepts:

• Localized search. When I search for 'Pizza' I am not interested in learning about 'Pizza.' I am probably looking for a local pizza joint!

• Reviews. We are often interested in what others in our community are saying about 'Pizza' and not in general, but with respect to my local pizza place.

Search Engine Strength

A great benefit of having your Google Places set up and then optimized is being found. Google Places listing are shown at the very top of search results. This means that your company name, phone number and website are right at the top of search results. If your prospective customer is looking to contact you, your Google Places account will provide what they are looking for.

Using smart phones like IPhone and Blackberry is getting more and more popular. Google places are also the top listings that are shown on a mobile phone. Even if you do not have a company website this can start getting your business found by search engines. Optimizing your account for all the various categories and areas of business that you can be listed in is key to having people contact you.

Reviews

This is what makes Google Places great! See reviews that have been left by people about that business to help guide you to make your decision. You are more likely to call a pizza place that has a 5 star rating from 20 or so people then one that is unrated. Reviews can be pulled in from your Google account, Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon and a few others. It's all about getting listed and getting (good) reviews, and if you should perhaps get a review that is less than favourable you can add a comment to it or take the time to solve your customers concerns.

Claim your Google Places listing today by calling Webacom Media Corporation on 1-877-376-4240 or 250-756-1846

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http://www.webacom.com/

Twitter And Business

Social networks have affected and reshaped every part of our lives in recent times, all thanks to the internet. The need to keep in touch with friends, families and loved ones has created the movement of different networks that help us make these relationships possible. Though majority of the participants/users of these networks are teenagers and youths who see and perceive the need to keep in touch with one another, the number of social network users is amazing.
 
As at December 2007 according to MarketingProfs, it reported that 1 out of every 6 people on the face of the earth would be using social media in 5 years (MarketingProfs 14 December 2007).
 
In recent times social networks have advanced from just being a means of keeping in touch to being business tools for promoting products and services. This is possible due to the viral effect these networks have developed. The long numbers of hours the participants of these social media spend on them per day shows how much people are into it. However, some of these networks have been used negatively by extremists, exposing how the use of social media can be abused. The success of these networks is what different businesses have adapted to and added to their strategies to lead them to success in the growing technological generation.
 
Growing up, yahoo messenger and other forms of email services like one box, msn , were what we got introduced to but they had their limits in focus: they were not aimed and targeted towards viral awareness and social networking. The creation of networks like Hi5, Facebook , Myspace , Nimbuzz, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkedln and a list of others where people can create profiles and send each other messages and chat in real time has given a different perspective to social networking.
 
Twitter as a social networking site, is fairly new and coming up was not fully accepted because of the concept behind it. A handful of social media participants found it a little out of the ordinary; a 140 character limitation, and concept of following (or being followed) , wasn’t popular with other social networks.
 
Apart from following up with status updates from celebrities, organizations and businesses have seen twitter as a very useful medium to promote their business, services and products. The major reason for this is the viral effect twitter has generated over the years. This is so effective that television and radio Stations also use it as a medium of interacting with their viewers and listeners.
 
The number of users as at 2008 that were over the age of 18 were 6.0 Million Users (11.1% of adult Internet users.) and in 2009 they were 18 Million Users (3.8% of adult Internet users.) showing about a 200 percent increase in number of users (About.com 11 January 2010).
 
Some of the advantages and effects twitter has had on business and advertising could be summarized as;
 
Intimacy with Customers: The 140 character medium brings both consumers and advertisers in direct and intimate contact with one another. With these updates, consumers and potential customers can know what new product or new development the company has and they can send direct messages to the company. Except if the message is private, other followers of the customers would be aware of the interaction between the company and the consumer thereby making inquisitive and potential customer want to find out the purpose of the interaction.
 
Real-time Feedback: With this new found intimacy advertisers have with their consumers, they are now able to receive feedback in real time. The creation of smart phones like the iphone and black berry with twitter application makes it possible for these entities to communicate on the go.
 
Speedily Ignite Word of Mouth: This is what every advertiser wants; to get their ad talked about. With just an update, buzz travels at light speed throughout the twitter-verse. This characteristic of twitter is what gives it its major relevance as a major advertising tool where just a word of mouth or a status update can stir up viral attention over the world.
 
Aids with Brand Relevancy: A brand that is talked about, over the twitterverse, becomes a memorable brand. The worst thing any brand or advertiser wants is to be forgotten. This means the more the tweets sent about a brand the longer it stays in the mind of customers and potential customers keeping it relevant and updated in the mind of its followers. This makes it easy for new developments and new products to go round when it is being twitted about.
 
Companies and businesses can also use this as a medium to follow up with each other’s updates and progress since identities could be made up on twitter.
 
Many more advantages have been developed from the use of twitter so much music and shows promoters also use it as a medium of creating hype for a particular show or concert that is about to happen and they can get feedbacks from followers to know if it is going to be attended or not.
 
These advantages can be summed up to equal the fact that twitter and facebook are the most power social networking trends/tools in various industries and their uses and potentials have not been fully exploited.
 
References
 
MarketingProfs (14 December 2007) One Billion Social Media Users by 2012? [Internet], Marketing Profs. Available from: [Accessed 2 October 2010]
 
About.com (11 January 2010) Twitter Statistics [Internet], About.com. Available from: [Accessed 2 October 2010]
 
By Akerele Joshua, Vancouver Island University student taking his practicum at Webacom.

Website/Graphic Design Files - Intellectual Property – Who Really Owns the Raw Files

As many of you may know trying to obtain the raw Illustrator files or PSD for websites and logos and similar can be a huge challenge.

We take over many websites on a monthly basis and were shocked as to how many do not have proper backups of all their raw files. They go to the originating graphic designers and over 70% of the time they are completely uncooperative and either ask for extra money or worse they claim to own the Intellectual property.

I have never taken this to law courts, however in my opinion if the original graphic designer did not advise the customer they will not own the files and/or indicate an additional fee is required is being somewhat fraudulent. I know the old caveat emptor comes in but let’s face it most customers have no clue about how important this is until they want to leave.

I would love to see a judge rule that after a customer has paid for a custom logo or web design in full that they don’t own the rights to it, the designer does. This does not make any sense to me.

Business owners, be aware that this important asset for your company may not even be owned by you. Don’t allow yourself to be in this situation and ask right in the beginning for full release of all rights and all your raw files on a cd.

Our policy is simple, once the design is complete and final payment is made, you own everything. I would far prefer the customer come back because they like the service we provided versus being forced to.

I’d love to hear other comments on this extremely important subject.

How to Choose a Web Design Company

The Vital Basics You Need to Know

Years in Business - Most experienced business people know the statistics. 80% of all businesses will fail in the first five years. 80% of the remaining 20% will fail in the next five-year cycle. With those types of statistics we highly recommend a company that has been in business in at least it’s sixth year of operation. We mean FULL TIME, not a side business.

No Sub-contracting – Most businesses lose quality control when they out source. Make sure the chosen company performs all work in house otherwise you will face a middleman markup. Lets face it although we realize capitalism is what keeps us in business we stand by fair labor practices and encourage local employees. In addition, rather than dealing with one company you end up having to deal with several that leads to more of your valuable time being wasted.

A Team or a Lone Ranger – Lets face it, as the old saying goes, “two heads are better than one” still holds true. Building a business or niche website presence takes many levels of expertise, and we have yet to see any single person achieve the success a team offers.

Home Based or Commercial – This is not a slam to any home based business as in thousands of circumstances they can do a good job, however not in the web industry. We know this first hand as Webacom was a home-based business for a very short time. It wasn’t until we moved to a professional studio that we were taken seriously. Our whole goal is to help business increase their value and how many multi-million dollar home based businesses do you know of? In addition working in an atmosphere with a team generates far more creativity for your project.

Portfolio – Proof of Competence – As with most professional web design companies a fairly large portfolio is important. Any successful web company creates at least eight plus websites in any give month. That means an average of 96 a year. If they only have 10-20 websites in their portfolio how experienced are they?

Part Time or Full Time – Wholly Dedicated – Would you want your year-end done by someone that was not 100% dedicated to a full time career in accounting? Successful businesses take their work seriously and dedicate their careers to full time. If you chose a part time web master and needed emergency work, are you willing to wait until they have time off their real jobs? Most won’t - and shouldn’t - wait, your website is serious business and it’s not a part time effort.

Experience – Perhaps the most difficult subject is experience. Our own employees have changed drastically over the last five years due to changes in web technology. We now have far more staff with database experience versus in the past with mostly HTML knowledge. Here are the main categories of experience needed to create a successful website.

Graphic Designers - Experienced with all current trends including vector graphics and current design programs.

Website Developers – These are the people that take the designs from the graphics department and slice and format the custom website for content.

Database Programmers – If you need to sort and quickly retrieve large volumes of information, whether those are photos and images or SKU numbers and information for your product line, you'll want to have that information stored in a database. A database built by the right person will be scalable and allow you to maintain your inventory levels in real time.

Content Writers – Most business owners feel they can create their own text, however we have rarely seen any that have been successful. Formally trained post-secondary writers will increase your profits substantially. 85% of all websites fail to make a profit and that’s because of bad content.

Search Engine Optimization – Just as important as good content, your website profitability is seriously affected by your search engine marketing plan. Search Engines change their algorithms all the time and it requires a full time expert that understands all the new trends from social networking, video and photo marketing, link building strategies and more. It's critical to have solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site if you want it to be found.

3D Animators and Flash Animation – Yet another extremely difficult expertise. While the Flash introductions to web pages are disappearing rapidly, we now see Flash as a much more integrated part of people's websites sitting side by side with other elements. Most commonly, streaming video as seen on YouTube is displayed as a Flash file, many online games and interactive experiences are still done in flash as well.

A relatively new trend is 3D modeling for use on the web. Google Earth utilises 3D modeling applications to add additional layers of depth by allowing users to create 3D buildings. There are also virtual 3D environments such as Second Life that enable you to interact with other users on a more 'human' level. Wal-Mart, Sears and Ikea are just a few examples of companies that have invested in these new forms of online marketing.

Domains – Who owns your domain? Have you checked to see if the designer registered it in your own name? If not, you better check as we have seen new customers that have had to use lawyers to gain the right to their own domain. That’s not all, in the last month two businesses almost lost their licenses as there were changes in their industry that required an update to the website. In both cases the web master could not be contacted.

Hosting – Website hosting is critical to your success. If your website is down and you need it for a presentation or a trade show can you imagine the embarrassment and losses? Understanding servers is one of the most complex tasks and whoever is managing it better be an expert as it can effect your communication with your clients through E-mail and whole array of other risks from hackers to identity thieves. Is your data safe?

IT Department, Friend of a Friend, Your Children – We all love our children, family, friends and of course the IT person we hired to manage our computers. First web design IS NOT the same field as IT. It’s often confused with computers. Although we display our websites on computers the working behind them is vastly different from working with computers. Please, all respect to IT departments but if you read the proceeding you will know your education was computers, not web development and marketing.

We also see it time and time again, one of your children or friends just graduated and one small portion of the course covered perhaps a single web design. Next thing you know Dad or Mom wants them managing their website, after all these are our brilliant children right? Wrong, as with any discipline it takes years to get good at it. Would you really go to a dentist to get a root canal with only partial training? The same hold true with custom web design and marketing.

The list provided only covers the basics and we sincerely hope it educates you on how to make perhaps one of the most important decisions for your business.

Social Media Marketing Seminars – Chamber Expo 2010

Webacom was honored to recently work with the Nanaimo Chamber Expo as a guest speaker for the Ask an Expert on Social Media Marketing seminar. If you need a guest speaker, training or implementation strategies on social media please contact us, socialmedia@webacom.com.

Every seat was filled and about twenty five more attendees stood in this filled to capacity venue. Quite obviously people are very interested in social media.
Two other panelists joined us, Nola Dunn, Marketing Director, Woodgrove Centre part of internationally based Ivanhoe Cambridge, a large shopping mall conglomerate and Paul Larson of ClearlyNanaimo.com, a Nanaimo based directory.

Woodgrove Centre was invited as Webacom recently worked with them on a Facebook social media campaign utilizing a video contest. The full case study on this social media video contest is here. http://webacom.com/news/case-study-woodgrove-centre-social-media-marketing-campaign.html

We found the mass majority of attendees eager to learn and we quickly ran out of time. The need to train businesses of all sizes is really important as most attendees were not using social media or did not know how to use it correctly. One of the more important questions was “What is the starting point for Social Media?” This varies as it is dependent on time and the type of business services or products they sell, it’s best to meet with a Webacom Social Media Consultant. Webacom suggested to start with a blog using Blogger, Wordpress or the best idea is to drive traffic to your own website, thus having your blog directly on your site. It needs to be named /blog so search spiders can find it.

Here are a few social media statistics to back up why we made our recommendation:

Percentage of Companies using specific social media Channels and/or Blogs who have acquired a customer from that channel.


• Twitter: 41%
• LinkedIn: 41%
• Facebook: 44%
• Company Blog: 46%


As you can see the blog has the highest percentage of customers that have obtained new business from blogs. Quantity of articles is directly proportional the total lead generation it creates. Were not at all saying to use a blog only, however it‘s a great way to start. Imagine thousands of dedicated readers over a period of time educating and engaging them about your products or services.

A video transcript of this seminar is being edited as the whole event was videotaped. If you would like a link to this important video please let us know and you will be one of the first to view this event on Social Media Marketing on You Tube. socialmedia@webacom.com

In conclusion we feel there is dire need for businesses to adapt to proper social media marketing and other relevant media’s like mobile, viral video, websites and search. Our concern is many business owners are sticking to what they know, traditional media and our fear is they will become less competitive in both the local and international market place.
If you need training, consulting, speakers, social media tools and how to leverage with your current marketing please contact us, socialmedia@webacom.com.  

Social Media Marketing versus Search Engine Marketing

As most of us know a lot of the business buzz these days is social networking. It's amazing how viral this term has become in a reasonably short period of time. The reality is most business owners don't understand how to use it. All they know is, "everyone’s doing it and I need to be part of it".

As a full service advertising agency that creates social media campaigns on the likes of Face Book we couldn’t agree more, if used correctly.


We recently had a client ask us if the CEO of the company should simply use Twitter instead of the news feed on their website as in his opinion it was much easier for the boss to post news in this format. We were surprised. Why? Because they thought all you need to do is Tweet as its easy, no formatting etc. This is how we responded:

First, although Twitter is easier to use on the surface, it’s much more than a place to simply post a bit of news. What I mean is you need to understand what kind of tweets are correct for business, re tweeting, setting up hyper links to read and track the rest of the story etc. As you can appreciate a 140 character sentence isn’t enough to share much and this is why most people that tweet regularly hyper link and much more.

If you look at the Webacom Twitter you will see all the links that go to our website. http://twitter.com/webacom. I have only scratched the surface as to how to use Twitter and the primary intent is to gain dedicated followers and engage in discussions etc. In the end this is not going to be easier for your CEO and although Google does crawl Twitter you’re always best to start with getting search traffic to your website first as that’s far more important initially.

The point I’m getting at is people are so concerned with SM that they forget the most important fundamental for websites and that’s BEING FOUND IN SEARCH ENGINES.

Consider these facts from Google Canada 101:

Canadian data only
• 24.5 million Canadian users are online
• Average user spends 44 hours each month
• Average usage days per month, 25.4 days
• Search popularity in Canada, 3.5 Billion, yes let’s stop and rethink that number!!! Get this, that’s Canada only, one month only, July 2009. That’s 143 searches per person in Canada in one month. Search is the #2 most popular activity on the web, second only to email.

Where does your website rank in Search? Are you in the top ten, twenty?

Most of the action if you will is in the top ten search results, yet over 80% of websites are not optimized correctly. So here we are all excited about engaging in SM, yet the most important aspect of the internet SEARCH, is not being used.

In conclusion I really can’t imagine how many billions of dollars in lost opportunities are happening on a daily basis just in Canada. Yet, these so called social networking gurus all claim you must spend money left, right and centre on SM, yet they don’t even understand the basics of SEARCH, what a shame.

Check this out yourself, take a keyword, not your business name as that’s easy to find, a keyword that someone may type relevant to your service or product and see how your site ranks.

Would you like a free search evaluation, email Jay at j@webacom.com.

Corporate Identity/Reputation - Search Engines

Have you googled your name or your business? Many consumers are using this powerful method to find out what kind of reputation an individual or a business has on or off line.

You can simply type the persons name or company or both. You can also add a word like "complaint" with the search word. It's amazing what you can find, BUT be aware the comments are not always true, however if there are a lot of complaints it could be an indication of what type of person or company you are considering working with.

Check yourself using your own name and business and see the results.

If you are a corporation you should have a Blog to allow people to tell you what they really think about your company. When you look at what was required years ago like hiring a marketing company to call your clients and get feedback was often time consuming and costly. You are able to get feedback quickly and efficiently.

Many corporations are concerned with public access to comment on any given company due to negative comments. If you use the Blog correctly though you can respond to any comments showing you are proactive about dealing with a complaint. This can actually help your company.

You can use your Blog to get ideas as well, perhaps new products or services. Either way a Blog can be crucial to your reputation.

Some corporations need help with negative feedback and search rankings showing less than flatering subjects about your company. New services are available to help you keep your reputation untarnished.

We have only covered a few subjects concerning this very important subject and we ask if you would like to see services offered to protect your business and/or a seminar to educate you about what you can do.

Looking forward to your comments. J

Google Revealed!

Most of us have heard of "Google," but what is it and how can it benefit my business? Google, a popular search engine, is a tool for finding resources on the Internet. It uses technology known as “spidering” to scan web pages for instances of keywords. As well as information, you can also locate products, services, news, maps, and images.

Google was originally a Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin who first met in 1995. On September 7, 1998, Google Inc. opened its doors. Google has become the largest search engine in the world offering the most relevant search results. Google reported record revenues of $1.38 billion for the quarter ending June 30, 2005, up 98% from last year.

Google Toolbar: This allows users to search outside of Google’s home page and displays important website information such as page rank and back links. A free download is available at www.toolbar.google.com.

Google Page Rank: Google Page Rank (or PR) is simply an indication of the number of websites that link to one another ranging from 0 to 10. Is Google Page Rank important to your business? Well, it is a good indicator of how important Google considers your site to be.

Getting Listed: A manual site submission may be made at www.google.com/addurl. Multiple submissions won't improve the likelihood of your site being added or accelerate the process.

How do you get top rankings for your keywords?

· Target Marketing: In order to raise your ranking, target more than one keyword. For instance, if you sell computers, you should NOT optimize your site for the keyword "computer" as it’s too competitive. Try keyphrases like “computer repair” or “computer networking.”

· Content: Sites that contain multiple pages related to a specific topic increase the likelihood of being 'found'. The more educational information the better, try creating a “Newsletter” page that is updated monthly with articles related to your industry.

· Linking Strategy: Also known as a popularity contest, link building is and should always be an essential part of the process. All search engines find new documents by following links. Google values links more than any other search engine and the more the better. Try surfing the web to find relevant websites and request reciprocal links.

By using the proper strategies, you will find that Google is a very powerful sales tool.

Website Confusion – What’s a Hit?

Website Confusion – What’s a Hit?

Facts About Website Hits, Visitors and Page Views
Based on reading many articles in newspapers, advertisements and hearing from salespeople we constantly see the use of the term “hits” relevant to how well a website performs. The reality is many people do not understand what this means and as a result the general public is lead to believe that “hits” is a huge factor with any given website. This is totally misleading and were hoping to educate the general public as to what’s important and what’s not.

The Real Definition Of Hit Is...
A record of every file sent to a browser by a Web server. Note: we didn't say every page sent...we said every file sent.

Every image in a page is a separate file. When a visitor looks at a page (i.e. a page view), they may see numerous images, graphics, pictures etc. and generate multiple hits.

For example, if you have a page with 10 pictures, then a request to a server to view that page generates 11 hits (10 for the pictures, and one for the html file). A page view can contain hundreds of hits. This is the reason that we measure page views and not hits.

Another example is if you loaded a Web page with 999,999 tiny graphics under a headline, and had one site visitor last month, your site would have had one million hits. Hits are not a reliable way to measure website traffic.

Additionally, there is a high potential for confusion here, because there are two types of 'hits'. The hits we are discussing in this article are the hits recorded by log files, and interpreted by log analysis. A second type of 'hits' are counted and displayed by a simple hit counter. Hit counters record one hit for every time a webpage is viewed, also problematic because it does not distinguish unique visitors.

Considerations – What Information Should You Use
Don’t ask your web agency how many hits your website is getting; it’s useless.

To better understand the general interest in your site, start by asking for the number of "unique visitors." The only downside to this statistic is that it measures people who arrived at a page on your Web site--that's it. They could have landed and left within seconds, but they're still unique visitors. In other words, you could have 100,000 unique visitors and still have no site interest.

That's why it's better to know the number of unique visitors and the average number of page views per visitor. That is far more meaningful than "hits" or "unique visitors" alone.

Whenever an organization wishes to print website statistics it should always be “unique visitors” and “page views”. If a website receives 1000 visitors per month and shows 4000 page views the average visitor is looking at four pages. This is what really counts.

As you can appreciate most of the general public is led to believe that “hits” is actually visitors and it’s simply not true. There are some people/companies that are deceptive when advertising their website traffic stating well over 1 million hits or what have you. This is simply not right and the general public needs to know. My guess is most are being honest and simply don’t know the difference and that’s why we felt this was important to share.

Sincerely, Jay Somerville, President, Webacom Media Corp.