AuthorRobert "Bob" Nance

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Advertising Online: 6 Rules For Compelling Text Ads

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Search engine advertising campaigns need the same amount of design, strategy and consideration as traditional offline advertising mediums.  The message, the placement and the offer all need to be thoroughly vetted and tested to ensure success.  Copywriting is a skill and an art; and because of the limited amount of text allowed in most online search advertising campaigns, being succinct is vital.  The goal with these types of campaigns is to include popular keywords and keyword phrases that will bring you to the top of page rankings. Below is a list of 6 rules to help you create effective online advertising campaigns.

Rule #1:  Obey The Rules

All search engines have slightly different requirements, guidelines and rules for their text advertisements for word count and format.  Once you write a compelling ad, understand that you will have to tweak it for each of the major search engines that you intend to advertise on. Here is the general rule of thumb that with minimal tweaking will work across most advertising platforms:

Headline:            25 Characters Maximum

Display URL:       35 Characters Maximum

1st Line:                34 Characters Maximum

2nd Line:               35 Characters Maximum

 

Rule #2:  Make URL And Landing Page Coincide

Make sure that the URL you choose to display in the advertisement coincides with the message on the landing page.  If this is not the case, the search engine genies may disqualify the ad based on their rules and requirements.

Rule #3:  Use Relevant Keywords

SEO tactics fail if relevant keywords and phrases are not used.  Determine the keywords that represent your business and offerings and include those in the Headline and 1st line of text.  Remember, these keywords, for the best results, should also be reflected on your landing page.  Google AdWords Keyword tool and others can help you determine the most effective keywords for your website.  The relevance of your keywords can influence your cost-per-click, clickthrough rate, and your overall quality score.

Rule #4:  Use Proper Punctuation, Spelling And Capitalization

Proofread every word and letter of your advertisements.  Punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors send the wrong message to your potential customer base.  Take the time to review and make sure that the format, spelling and punctuation make your advertisement easy to read.    Making an advertisement easy to read and comprehend at first glance means to avoid abbreviations that are not universally recognized.  Title case is the recommended format as all caps in the text ads can cause your ad to fail the guidelines.

Rule #5:  Leave Your Business Name Out

The amount of text that is allowed in search advertising does not allow for your business name to be included.  When a customer clicks on your website however, they will see the name of your business.  It is more important to get them to your site based on the offer and keywords than it is for them to recognize the business as yours from the advertisement.

Rule #6:  Avoid Legal Battles

One of the consistent rules across all search engines for their advertising, is that unless you own the trademark for a particular product, you may not use it in your text advertising.  Instead of using name brands that are trademarked in your text ads, use a more generic phrase.  For example if you a brand name perfume, the keyword could be “luxury perfume”.  Then, you would bid on the trademarked name as one of your keywords.

Creating compelling text search ads is not rocket science, but it does take a deft hand.  Test the effectiveness of different keywords and phrases across the search engines to determine which advertisements are giving you the best ROI.  Take the time to analyze what is working, and what is not working and adapt the text as your offers and products change.

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Measuring ROI For Online Campaigns

ROI or Return On Investment is one of the most fundamental measurements in business.  Businesses of all sizes, in all industries analyze how their investments are influencing their bottom line.  The costs associated with advertising and marketing is one of the areas in which ROI is extremely important.  It is vital to understand what is working, or not working, to help shape new strategies moving forward.  Measuring ROI for your online marketing and advertising campaigns can help you determine the effectiveness of your message, keywords, placement, and if you are reaching your target audience.  Follow the steps below to help ensure that your online marketing campaigns are providing the return on investment you desire.

Step #1:  Set Goals

Setting goals is the first step towards measuring the effectiveness of your online campaigns.  What results are you hoping for?  An increase in visitors to your website by 50%?  An increase of 30% in sales?  Increase brand/business awareness?  It is important to determine and your goals and remember to make them within reach.

Step #2:  Choose Marketing Tactics

Once you have the goals of your marketing campaigns, it is time to consider what tactics you are going to employ to reach your goals.  Your marketing message, brand promise, special offers and unique sales proposition must take into account your ideal customer base.  Marketing messages that are targeted to a special niche are more effective than a generic message.

Step #3:  Determine How You Will Measure Results

There are a number of ways to determine the ROI from various marketing campaigns.  It is wise to test a variety of messages and special offerings through an array of channels.  Technological advancements have made it much easier to determine the effectiveness of campaigns.

Custom URLs:  Create custom URLs for each campaign you are measuring.  This allows you to track the number of visitors to your site drawn by a specific marketing tactic.  This can be used for display ads, pay-per-click advertising, marketing in social media, and direct response email advertising.  The landing page needs to be representative of the advertisement and have calls to action that will change your visitors into buyers.

Custom Phone Numbers:  This will provide similar information to the custom URLs.  If the goal of your campaign is to turn over leads to your internal sales team, having a variety of different phone numbers in marketing collateral will help you track what is working, or not working.  If you advertise across a variety of platforms including traditional media as well as online marketing, you can choose to measure the effectiveness of the message, or the placement, or both.  You can have one phone number that is dedicated to a particular online message, or one that is dedicated to a particular message that is promoted across several platforms.  It all comes down to if you want to measure the effectiveness of the message, or the placement.

Use Available Analytical Tools:  Nearly all online advertising platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitter have built in analytical tools to help you determine the effectiveness of your campaign. These are free or very reasonably priced however, there are also more comprehensive analytical tools available that help you track your ROI.

Talk To Your Customers:  Ask new and existing customers, directly, how they heard about you and found your website.  Ask them what in your advertisement spurred them into action.  Be specific with your questions and your customers will be specific with their answers.  Track these responses along with other measurements to help determine the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Step #4:  Adapt Or Stay The Course

Once you have all of the results in and they have been analyzed, it is time to evaluate how, or even if, you need to change your message, offer, or location of your advertisements.  It could be that your first try was a homerun; however, there is nearly always room for improvement.  The answer is to test/refine, test/refine.

The most effective marketing campaigns, regardless of placement, require the right message, with a compelling offer being delivered to a strong potential customer base.  The four steps above will help you determine your ROI for the campaigns and allow you to adjust, tweak and adapt them to raise your revenue.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: Austin water damage, Hyde Park water damage, Austin fire damage, Austin smoke damage, and Austin mold.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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What is AdWords Express?

AdWords Express is a new offering from Google that allows businesses to advertise in the local “map” area that is at the top or towards the top of Google search results page.  Like AdWords, businesses are only charged when a potential customer clicks on the Ad, but unlike AdWords, AdWords Express helps businesses make informed decisions on how much to budget for a successful campaign.  It can be extraordinarily effective for local businesses.

In an AdWords Express campaign, when local customers are searching for your products or services, your ad will appear above the search results as well as on Google Maps.  While surrounding businesses will be marked with a red pin, your business will be highlighted with a blue pin to further differentiate your business from your competition.

Just like with AdWords, AdWords Express allows you to set spending limits for each campaign you run, and your account will never be charged more than you budget; you are in complete control of your campaign costs.  Additionally, you are only charge when a potential customer actually clicks your Ad, not each time it is displayed.

Here are a few things you need for a successful AdWords Express campaign:

  1. A plan, realistic goals, and ability to fulfill orders.
  2. Effective AdWords Ad containing relevant keywords and a call to action.
  3. A website landing page that is directly related to the product/service you are offering.
  4. An address.  If your business has a physical location, and you receive customers there, that is the address you use.  If you work from home or have a mobile business, you can choose to make the address private.

There are some differences between conventional AdWords and AdWords Express.  Below is a chart that indicates the differences between these two powerful platforms.

                                                          Adwords Express                            Adwords

Pay Per Click                                                     x                                                 x

Full control of campaign                                    x                                                 x

Ads appear on search, Maps & mobile devices      x                                                 x

Geographically targeted ads                             local                                           global

Campaign management                                 automated                                   customized

Tracking & reporting tools                             standard                                 additional tools

Additional ad formats (display/video)            automated                                       included

AdWords Express allows you to get started quickly – within an hour, your campaign can be created and visible to your potential customers.  For as little as $50.00 a month, you can start attracting local customers to your business and increase your profitability.  Your AdWords Express account provides for prominent display when customers search for your keywords.  Remember, either choice has the potential to drive customers to your website or your local business, however, it is vital that your website function as a sales person.  Information on your landing page as well as your home page must be crafted to be relevant and valuable to turn visitors into buying customers.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: Carlsbad mold, San Marcos mold, San Marcos water damage, Vista water damage, Carlsbad smoke damage, and Carlsbad water damage.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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How To Create a Successful ServiceMaster Adwords Campaign

Effective AdWord campaigns draw visitors to your website, and then the content of your website turns visitors into buyers.  If your AdWords campaigns are not crafted well, with the proper keywords, geographic targets, or have the proper keyword matching control you won’t get the visitors you desire. Creating a successful AdWords campaign takes planning, choosing the best keywords, crafting of several ads to test, testing, and refinement.

Make a Plan

Don’t overlook the planning stage!  A comprehensive AdWords plan consists of realistic goals, geographic targets, determining potential customers’ behavior, and the budget.  At this stage it is also important to focus on what makes your products or services unique, what makes your offering unique, and how you are going to build credibility with visitors to your website.

Choose the Right Keywords

Potential customers are searching for the products and services you offer – the trick is to capture their interest and get them to your website.  Stay away from generic or irrelevant words and phrases; be as specific as you can.  What makes your service unique? Brainstorm different combinations of keywords and phrases.  Ask yourself – if you were looking for your service, what keywords would you type into the search bar?

  • Service:  Water Damage Clean Up
  • Uniqueness:  Expert Dry Out and Clean Up. No Deductible Payment.
  • Keywords:  Water Damage Home. Flood Damage.  Water Damage Removal. Commercial Water Damage. 

 Selecting Keyword Matching Control

Now that you have chosen your keywords and phrases, it is time to determine how search engines will match your Ad with potential customers.  There are four options available:

  •  Broad Match:  This is the default setting that reaches the most users.  Your Ad appears whenever a variation of a keyword appears, i.e. “Water Damage”
  • Phrase Match:  This narrows the potential reach of your Ad by showing it only when search terms contain your keyword, i.e. “Water Damage Removal”
  • Exact Match:  For even further narrowing of potential customers, this option only displays the Ad when the search term is exactly the same as your keyword, i.e. “Dallas Water Damage”
  • Negative Match:  This setting prevents your Ad from showing when a word or phrase is searched.  I.e., “iphone” – your Ad will not appear to customers who search “water damage iphone”

 Writing Ads

AdWord campaigns are comprised of three parts – the headline, the description and the URL.  Remember what makes your product unique, what your special offer is, and a compelling call to action.

  • Headline:  The headline can contain a maximum of 25 characters.  The best headlines are those that directly refer to the keywords being searched.  Make the headline relevant and descriptive.
  • Description:  The description contains two lines of a maximum of 35 characters each.  This is where you select the key details and benefits of your product or service, as well as where you place the call to action.  Keep the description as simple and concise as possible.
  •  Designate display and destination URL:  Choose the specific destination URL that promotes the product or service you are specifically targeting, not just your generic home page.

 Example of Ad .

Headline:                             Water Damage Clean Up

Description:                        Home Flooded? Expert Dry Out and

Description:                        Clean up. No Deductible Payment.

URL:                                       www.servicemaster.com/your-town

 Test Your Ads & Rewrite As Needed

Create several Ads to test their effectiveness in your campaign.  Mix up keywords and phrases; change your call to action, and then launch the campaigns.  In seven days, review which Ads are performing best and those that are not performing well, and refine!  Consumer behavior changes and so does the keywords that resonate with them.  Set a schedule whether it is every two weeks, or once a month, to review the effectiveness of your campaigns and tweak as necessary.

An effective and successful AdWords campaign takes planning, writing, testing, and constant refinement to stay relevant and draw qualified visitors to your website.  Remember that the landing page you create must do the work of transitioning visitors into buyers in order for your profits to soar.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including plumbing contractors.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for plumbers include: Oceanside plumber, Oceanside plumbing, Oceanside flood service, Fallbrook plumber, Fallbrook plumbing, and Fallbrook flood service. Push Local has shown continued success marketing for plumbing contractors with client’s currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms. 

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Tips, Tricks & Techniques To Create a Servpro AdWords Campaign

Effective AdWord campaigns draw visitors to your website, and then the content of your website turns visitors into buyers.  If your AdWords campaigns are not crafted well, with the proper keywords, geographic targets, or have the proper keyword matching control you won’t get the visitors you desire. Creating a successful AdWords campaign takes planning, choosing the best keywords, crafting of several ads to test, testing, and refinement.

Make a Plan

Don’t overlook the planning stage!  A comprehensive AdWords plan consists of realistic goals, geographic targets, determining potential customers’ behavior, and the budget.  At this stage it is also important to focus on what makes your products or services unique, what makes your offering unique, and how you are going to build credibility with visitors to your website.

Choose the Right Keywords

Potential customers are searching for the products and services you offer – the trick is to capture their interest and get them to your website.  Stay away from generic or irrelevant words and phrases; be as specific as you can.  What makes your service unique? Brainstorm different combinations of keywords and phrases.  Ask yourself – if you were looking for your service, what keywords would you type into the search bar?

  • Service:  Water Damage Clean Up
  • Uniqueness:  Expert Dry Out and Clean Up. No Deductible Payment.
  • Keywords:  Water Damage Home. Flood Damage.  Water Damage Removal. Commercial Water Damage. 

 Selecting Keyword Matching Control

Now that you have chosen your keywords and phrases, it is time to determine how search engines will match your Ad with potential customers.  There are four options available:

  •  Broad Match:  This is the default setting that reaches the most users.  Your Ad appears whenever a variation of a keyword appears, i.e. “Water Damage”
  • Phrase Match:  This narrows the potential reach of your Ad by showing it only when search terms contain your keyword, i.e. “Water Damage Removal”
  • Exact Match:  For even further narrowing of potential customers, this option only displays the Ad when the search term is exactly the same as your keyword, i.e. “Dallas Water Damage”
  • Negative Match:  This setting prevents your Ad from showing when a word or phrase is searched.  I.e., “iphone” – your Ad will not appear to customers who search “water damage iphone”

 Writing Ads

AdWord campaigns are comprised of three parts – the headline, the description and the URL.  Remember what makes your product unique, what your special offer is, and a compelling call to action.

  • Headline:  The headline can contain a maximum of 25 characters.  The best headlines are those that directly refer to the keywords being searched.  Make the headline relevant and descriptive.
  • Description:  The description contains two lines of a maximum of 35 characters each.  This is where you select the key details and benefits of your product or service, as well as where you place the call to action.  Keep the description as simple and concise as possible.
  •  Designate display and destination URL:  Choose the specific destination URL that promotes the product or service you are specifically targeting, not just your generic home page.

 Example of Ad .

Headline:                             Water Damage Clean Up

Description:                        Home Flooded? Expert Dry Out and

Description:                        Clean up. No Deductible Payment.

URL:                                       www.servpro/your-town

 Test Your Ads & Rewrite As Needed

Create several Ads to test their effectiveness in your campaign.  Mix up keywords and phrases; change your call to action, and then launch the campaigns.  In seven days, review which Ads are performing best and those that are not performing well, and refine!  Consumer behavior changes and so does the keywords that resonate with them.  Set a schedule whether it is every two weeks, or once a month, to review the effectiveness of your campaigns and tweak as necessary.

An effective and successful AdWords campaign takes planning, writing, testing, and constant refinement to stay relevant and draw qualified visitors to your website.  Remember that the landing page you create must do the work of transitioning visitors into buyers in order for your profits to soar.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: St. Charles water damage, Geneva water damage, Batavia water damage, St. Charles fire damage, Geneva fire damage, and Batavia fire damage.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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10 Most Common Pay-Per-Click Mistakes

Since we manage a number of Servpro PPC campaigns, I have noticed that other franchises often make silly mistakes with their pay-per-click programs. Lack of testing, click fraud detection and mistakes while creating PPC ads are a few amongst them. Fixing all these mistakes could mean thousands of dollars worth savings every month or an extra revenue up to 70%.

Here is a list (since we all love these lists don’t we?) which consists of 10 most common mistakes committed by some franchises with their PPC (paid search) advertising campaigns.

1. Bidding Broad – when setting up your campaign it is extremely important to avoid any kind of laziness. In order to attract maximum traffic every industry has a giant keyword but there are lots of other keyword variations being searched. If you want to lessen your pay per click you should focus more on “long tail keywords”. In addition, your ads will be amongst the highest rankers if the keyword matches closely. Convert your 100 keywords into 200 by taking a look at your own web statistics to discover exact keyword variations used by people to search your product.

2. Geo-targeting – Even though what you sell is popular over the state, it is a psychological thing that people in general are more interested on seeking a local provider or at least a company which recognizes “their city”. Google and also some other search engines let you geo-target your PPC ads city wise. Create ads that include your city name in them. This way you will definitely get a greater click through rate (CTR) and consequently a lower CPC. Moreover, right from the beginning your visitors will be informed that you “recognize” and serve their location. One more “mistake related to geo-targeting, I have seen some franchises that have their ads displayed everywhere. If you don’t set-up geo-targeting, Google will automatically set your ads to display across the entire country.

3. Avoiding Display Networks – All paid search engines, be it Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. distribute your ads to a network they have. Unfortunately, most of these networks don’t refer quality traffic. This in particular is true Servpro franchises – display clicks are wastage of money. You want consumers who are vigorously searching the search network for your service. The moment you sign up for Google Adwords, you automatically get placed in their display network. You need to opt out of each campaign, do this from the settings tab; by doing this you won’t have to pay for wasteful clicks.

4. Being Common and Boring – I have noticed many marketers go online to search a keyword, take a look at advertisers who are also competitors and produce ads accordingly to blend in with the “community”. Silly but true! Whenever you plan to generate a paid ad, first look at what all is being said by the advertisers and then come up with an idea which is unique yet relevant. It is tough but you have to realize what your unique qualities are and why people should opt for you. Just remember that it should be what your target market needs and cares about.

5. Not Bidding for Your Name – We have had great success with ads and campaigns tailored to the franchise name and cities that our customers serve. These terms are great because a homeowner may have been referred to these names by an insurance adjustor or neighbor that has had a water or fire damage.  Another benefit is that these terms are usually significantly less than the service terms of water and fire damage.

6. Lack of “Exact Tracking” – You should be capable of tracking every single visit to your website from PPC advertising through the exact keyword, ad group and campaign used. In order to do so you can combine your PPC campaigns with website analytics software or set variables such as “yourcompany.com/Keyword”. This is the only way to determine the efficiency of each keyword used to get traffic.

7. Paying for Negative and Worthless Keywords – Some search engines like Google let you report keywords for which you don’t want your ad to be displayed. If you are paying for keywords that are a “broad match” you will notice loads of visits from people who have typed your keyword along with another word like “Servpro jobs” or “Servpro stock” or “water damaged iPhone”. These are the visitors who are willing to pay $0 for your product or service; you don’t want to pay money for them. You don’t want to pay for visitors who are looking for ways to fix their iPhone. Make sure that you make use of “negative keyword folder” to prevent these worthless clicks.

8. Not Making use of Keywords in Ad Copy – Add keywords to your ad copy as they are the reason you are serving the ad. This makes your ad more relevant and also the keyword will be highlighted in bold. Simple!

9. Not Calling Google – Ok, I agree that it’s not nice to tell on someone, but my dear friends everything is fair in love and business also you have to play fair, you have complete rights to raise your voice when you notice a competitor employing bad techniques. You will see that on Google PPC result page some competitors have created various accounts and placed two ads simultaneously. This is against Google’s policy. Call Google and inform them if your competitor is going against the search engine’s rules and policies. You will be surprised to see how promptly they take care of the situation.

10. Keeping away from Brand Name Keywords – Unfortunately, there are many companies that don’t know how to take advantage of their competitors. How can this be done? Bid on their company/brand name. Just imagine…anybody who searches your competitors can instead become your customers easily. Why not make you ad turn up under those keywords? What if they saw their radio or TV ad and are looking especially for the competitor’s name? So the main thing is, bid on the brand name of your competitor. The ROI on these keywords is usually excellent.

If you’re interested, we can create a turn-key campaign based on all of these best practices. Please feel free to contact us anytime at (877) 690-6467.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: Austin water damage, Hyde Park water damage, Austin fire damage, Austin smoke damage, Austin Servpro, and Austin mold.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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How to Build A Local Online Presence

How to Build A Local Online Presence

You need to plan a well-conceived inbound marketing campaign to get your company found in search engines by local, qualified prospects that are searching for the products or services you sell.

Besides being well-planned and strategic, your plan needs to be comprehensive. It needs to cover every opportunity that there is to get found. On Google, there are multiple ways and many options you need to consider so you don’t waste your time, effort or budget.

The 4 main search marketing techniques are Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization, Local Directories and Map Marketing.

For the purpose of time, I am going to summarize the options and techniques that are involved with each of these tactics.

Pay-Per-Click

This can be very effective if done properly or a colossal waste of money if done incorrectly.

There are two main types of pay-per-click advertising: search and display. Search advertising primarily involves text-based ads that are shown in particular geographic areas when a particular search term is searched. Over-simplified, the search ad prices are based on how much advertisers are willing to pay for ad position.

Display advertising is a very effective brand building tool. These ads are placed on websites as text or graphical ads where a viewer may be enticed to click on a banner advertisement. These ads work well for products and services that are not urgent but are on the mind of the website visitor (think pool tables or kitchen remodeling) but is not especially effective for “on-demand” searches where a service is needed immediately (think dentists or water damage repair). These businesses will be needed when your house becomes flooded or you lose a filling. At this time you’re going to search for your city/dentist or your city/water damage, etc.

One last point, with pay-per-click, you are only limited by your budget. You can select as many terms and as wide of a geographical area that you would like to cover.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Similar to pay-per-click but these listings are free, meaning there is no cost when they are clicked.

SEO is free but takes longer to materialize. To start a campaign, you need to define the keywords for your efforts. This is done by mining your industry’s keywords to discover effective keyword phrases and adding local terms, like your city (San Diego Dentist or Austin Water Damage).

After you decide on your keywords, you need to optimize your site. This includes editing the Meta titles and descriptions, H1 tags, Alt tags on the photos and corresponding URLs.

In addition, you’ll want to have keyword density on each page. If you have assigned a certain page to be about Austin Water Damage, you’ll want to mention this phrase on that web page.

Another important aspect of SEO is backlinking; after your site is optimized “on-page” or on the site, you need to tell the web about your site.

To learn about web pages, Google has robots that “crawl” the internet. These bots record everything about the site, from the title and URL, to how many times a term is used in context.

During their crawls, they also count how many other websites link back to your site. If you have an online article with your link, or a blog comment or a social media link, then that tells Google that your site is about XYZ keyword. 

Directories and Maps

To round out an effective local online strategy, you need to have local directory listings in the most popular directories and map marketing. With the advent of Apps from Apple and Google it is even more important to list in every directory possible. The smartphone companies pull data from popular local directories include Google + (formerly Google Places), Yahoo!, Superpages, Yellowbook, Citysearch and Yelp to name a few. Ideally, these directories will have your website, your current contact information and any offers that you have.

For businesses that rely on foot traffic, maps are crucial. You need to list your business location with MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, Google Maps, and Urbanspoon.

With a proper plan and business strategy you can create a fairly comprehensive plan by completing the tasks shown. The plan will help you gain multiple opportunities to be found in search.

With all of the items mentioned, you’re well on your way towards out-optimizing the competition. Really that’s what it’s about – as long as you get ahead and stay ahead, it’s a great place to be.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: houston water damage, spring water damage, houston fire damage, spring fire damage, houston mold, and spring mold.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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Google Places is Now Google+ Local

Now, you could argue, and some will, that forcing local business owners on to Google+ is yet another sign that Google is putting way too much emphasis on their desire to become relevant in social media, but the fact is, it’s still very much Google’s world that we play in.

The most frustrating aspect of this in my opinion is that it took so long. I’m guessing a lot of local business owners jumped in and built brand pages, so now what?

If you’ve created a Google Place page, as I’ve been advising as part of any local search plan, then you may already be aware that Google has moved your page onto Google+.

If you’ve got a Google+ account you can find your page through either local search or through the Local button that now appears on the left sidebar when logged into Google+.

If you don’t have a Google+ account, well, I guess you’ll get one now if you still want to play with Google.

Google has already flipped the switch and is showing these new Google+ Local pages when you conduct local searches in Google and on Google Maps. While you can still gain access to and edit your Places profile pages through the Places login, my guess is that will give way to Google+ profile editing at some point.

Here are some things to note:

Clean up your profile.

Now is the time to clean up your profile

When Google moved the pages to Google+ it made a mess. A bit like moving anything does, I suppose. Go jump in and choose and edit your profile image and banner image. Right now Google is either picking from photos you uploaded or simply using a map.

You might want to add some things to your profile as some of the customization you may have done previously could be lost. Add links to your page.

Check out the reviews

Google purchased the restaurant rating service Zagat a while back and it appears they intend to inject the Zagat ratings system into the entire review process.

Visitors now have the opportunity to rate your business using a point scale. Not sure how this will translate over into the services of a plumber or insurance agency, but it’s certainly worth noting.

Reviews that came over from your previous page are very messy now. You, as the page owners, have a period of time to clean this up. When you first sign into Google+ and find your page you’ll be able to tell Google+ if you want all your photos and reviews from your Places page to be moved and be attributed to you or remain private.

So, now any reviews that you had previously will simply show up as anonymous Google user. Seems like if you really didn’t have much going in the way of reviews, this is a bit of a do over.

It will be interesting to see how much more emphasis Google puts on reviews.

Here’s the bottom line in my view. No matter how you feel about this rather forceful move, Google looks poised to make it a significant part of the Local Search landscape and you can’t ignore that. My guess is there will be plenty of tinkering, adding and tweaking in the weeks and months to come. You can bet advertising and offers will move into this somehow.

Now is the time to get in there and claim, prune, decorate and otherwise take control of your Google+ Local offering.

Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: Fallbrook Fire Damage, Oceanside Fire Damage, Camp Pendleton Fire Damage, Temecula Fire Damage, Fallbrook Mold, and Oceanside Mold.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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Are You the Leader or the Laggard?

 

Are You the Leader or the Laggard?
We Can Take You from Laggard to Market Leader – Guaranteed!
The Push Local Biz program is an effective online marketing solution that pushes multiple online listings to the first page of Google.
Our multi-product approach includes local organic search marketing (clicks and calls are free), Adwords pay-per-click and pay-per-call platforms, local directory listings (Yelp, Yahoo, YellowBook, etc.) and map marketing (MapQuest and Google+).
    • It’s free for 30 days – Our goal is to drive business before you pay.
    • Our service is an investment where you have a guaranteed return.
    • Competitive knowledge gained from ongoing Servpro marketing experience.
    • No need to manage – We already know the best keywords, techniques, settings and ads that drive restoration business.
    • No contract – Too much business? You can cancel at any time – for any reason.
    • Affordable – No set-up fees, only $299 a month.
    • Less expensive than any employee – More valuable than most employees.

 
Free Competitive Analysis – Request your custom competitive analysis report; it will provide you all the marketing intelligence on who is currently dominating your market, and the keywords they are using to drive business. We will also provide detailed recommendations that will help you capture market share!
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Push Local specializes in online marketing for small businesses including Servpro Franchises.  Our services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, map marketing, and local directory submissions.  Some of the organic terms we go after for Servpro franchises include: Fallbrook Water Damage, Oceanside Water Damage, Camp Pendleton Water Damage, and Temecula Water Damage.  Push Local has shown continued success marketing for Servpro franchises with a number of clients currently ranking number one for their targeted organic search terms.  

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