International Search Engine Marketing Blog

It appears that online reputation management is now an official marketing niche. Agilis marketing originally mentioned the emergence of this market nearly one year ago on this blog. We continue to fine tune the strategies utilized when helping new and existing clients. Included below are a few common suggestions that almost any business owner can implement on their own to improve their online reputation throughout the internet.

Review websites are easy places for individuals to register and places information on any company. It is important to act proactively on the most common sites, post basic information, and respond to comments whether negative or positive. There are many places where consumers read reviews about a company’s products or services, but a handful is more commonly visited. Please keep in mind that specific industries often contain niche sites for businesses. As an example, any owner of a travel or tourist related business will certainly want to register at Trip Advisor. Regardless of the industry, these are a few key sites to place business information:

Google Reviews:

The simplest way to add a review is to type in your company’s name and location. Unless it is a brand new business, it is likely there are already reviews from others about your company. Take the time here to add a review and ask a few others to do the same. Make certain not to overdo it and that the reviews are realistic. If the business is newer a webmaster might first need to register their business with Google’s local listings. Still, even if it is an older site, it is smart to register it through this system since it will allow addition of information visitors may not find otherwise

Insider Pages:

This is a widely popular site where reviews are often siphoned from and displayed in the search results or on other websites. It is important with online reputation management to ensure that there are reviews and positive ones. The addition of a few at this hub is recommended.

Yelp:

Yelp is well known for its local listings. Therefore, it is especially important to place commentary here if your company serves a local market. Travelers as well as locals commonly visit this site directly to learn more about a restaurant before eating there. Thus it is smart to include a detailed review at Yelp that appeals to a business’ target audience.

While these are certainly a few key places to register, please remember this simply a primer in online reputation management, managing reviews and placement of those reviews within the search results is crucial. This primarily focuses on ensuring positive reviews are at the top of Google whereas negative search reviews, such as those often found at Rip Off Report, are hidden deep with the search results.

This post is a slight departure from the typical topics. Since Google is the primary search engine the individuals practice SEO and SEM techniques it is possibly of value to know what else the company offers. A few of their new Google tools are more related to traditional online search than others. However, the common thread among all of them is that they offer a unique way to find information that either did not exist or formerly cost money to access.

It surprised me to see that such little advertising went into GOOG-411. As one might imagine it provides the same information that paid 411 services do, only it is free. Simply dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and their automated 411 information system does not cost one penny. What makes the service unique, aside from the cost, is that it provides more information than traditional 411 services. Lately, it is the norm to also receive text messages with a business’ phone number if one desires. Now a person can also receive detailed business information about the company as well as a map with its location. If your phone is already GPS enabled than not only do you have the telephone number for a business, but you also can end up receiving turn by turn directions to reach its brick and mortar location.

Google health is an incredible tool that I did not even realize existed till working on this piece. It allows for central storage of all your medical information in one place. Google addresses privacy concerns from the onset because it hardly requires mentioning how sensitive health data is for patients. Presently this tool allows individuals to put all their medical information in one place. The company also partnered with CVS and other pharmacies so that prescription and drug information is automatically downloadable and linked to an account if one desires. Thus not only does this tool store information, but it allows for easier updating of the details. While I cannot predict Google’s future plans for this tool, it has the potential to drastically evolve doctors and patients access to medical information. Rather than filling in a medical questionnaire at each new doctor’s visit, and possibly forgetting some details, one could simply allow a doctor access to their medical profile. The possibilities for this feature are countless and potentially beneficial to all parties.

Another tool that is more directly relevant for our audience is the search based keyword tool. This Google feature is a variation of the traditional keyword tool that allows business owners to discover new keywords phrases that the other tool possibly overlooked. During the development of a keyword list, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should not take advantage of both this supplementary offering and the traditional AdWords feature, to further develop a SEM campaign. Of course there are numerous other new Google tools available, but it seemed worthwhile to highlight a few of them. It is truly amazing the technology and access to information that the company is developing. I find it exciting to see such developments taking place that help everyone better organize information.

After taking a family trip from the east coast to the west I started to understand the travel value behind SEO and all other forms of search engine marketing to any company whose target audience primarily consists of tourists. There are many people who rely solely on the internet as a means of determining where to spend their time and a company with no internet presence has little chance of over seeing these tourists’ business.

It is important to make it clear that despite the headline of this post marketing on the internet encompasses much more than simply showing up at the top of the search results for a particular phrase or as indicated: travel SEO. In fact, dependent upon the target audience of the marketing campaign, other promoting elsewhere on the internet is more profitable.

Before the trip, my father created a list of top tourist sites based primarily on recommendations from tripadvisor.com and the majority of places we visited were on that list (restaurants included). After jokingly giving him a hard time for creating such a list in the first place, I thanked him in the end since my family ended up enjoying an excellent vacation. The marketing takeaway gleamed is the value the internet has upon influencing tourists’ decisions while traveling to an unfamiliar destination. Thus it is important not only for a company’s site to appear at the top of the search engines, but also for it to appear at the top of major well known travel sites such as the one my father utilized.

All that said, one of the most common venues tourists utilize is a search engine, such as Google, when selecting a skydiving location or a restaurant to eat at after a day of activities. Hence the value of ensuring your company has a site that is optimized to appear at the top of the search engines. The same strategies are utilized with a travel SEO campaign as with any other. However, as part of the entire search marketing campaign it is crucial to hire a marketer that understands the value of other online sites that tourists frequent and help ensure that your company is listed near the top.

This study will take a look at Coral Gables that specializes in providing Miami bail bonds in much needed and often unexpected situations. This website is an example of one that utilizes smart search engine marketing in order to attract clientele. It appears as if the website’s marketing goes beyond basic SEO principals. Of course the site has top listings in the SERPS, but it well beyond that in ensuring that visitors end up contacting then rather than a competitor. We will explore the ways in which is done.

First, it is important note that this Miami bail bonds company also utilizes PPC advertising so there are both natural a paid listings that appear in the results pages. Thus, http://www.coralgablesbailbonds.net/ appears in multiple places on the front page. This in and of itself adds confidence when someone from afar is selecting what company or person they can entrust. However, it is important that we go beyond simply what is seen on Google’s pages, but also look at the website itself.

When viewing the site, you will notice that there are both a toll free and local number located at the top right thus making it simple for anyone with a question to call. As many business owners know, a call where someone asks a simple question as often an excellent time to convert a person who is simply shopping around into one who selects your company. The only critique I offer is that, I would advice placing the toll free number above the local number since most people prefer toll free number even when making a local call.

The site does an excellent job at answering to common questions before a visitor even asks. “Why Choose Us?”, does exactly that both in text and with a small visual image. “Who We Are!” complements this question by providing details about the company and its history. Additionally, the company’s location is clearly apparent by utilizing the Google map insert to show the businesses physical location. This only adds further comfort to the rightfully initially suspicious internet surfers, who is pondering whether to do business with a company they might never heard of previously. Luckily, I cannot speak firsthand about the Miami bail bonds process. I can say that this site does an excellent job utilizing search engine marketing to lead the prospective customers to the site and then encourage that individuals contact Coral Gables with any questions.

If you want your firm’s site to appear at the top of the search results you found the right place. Recently, a number of lawyers asked Agilis about utilizing “law SEO” in order for their legal websites to appear at the top of the search engines. As a result of the number of inquiries about the search engine optimization services provided to law firms, it seemed worthwhile to provide additional information for attorneys that are interested in marketing a new or existing site on Google and the other search engines. There are a number of lawyers Agilis Marketing assists in obtaining and maintaining top search results. Feel free to contact us to request more information or receive a free SEO evaluation of a law website.

We assist general practice attorneys as well as those who specialize in particular areas, such as DUI or divorce lawyers. Essentially, Agilis creates a new site or takes an existing one and place it at the top of Google’s search results. Thus if you are a DUI Lawyer in Miami, Agilis can make it so that your website is the first one people see. Additionally and unlike many competitors, since SEO is in a saturated marketplace, the company decided to put our own skin in the game. We offer money back guarantees if results are not delivered as promised and accept all credit cards for further protection.

Basically, if you are a lawyer looking to utilize SEO to bring in new clients we want to talk. Perhaps our company is not the right fit, and if that is the case there are numerous suggestions that we can provide on how you may wish to market your firm. As the owner of the company, I wanted to personally invite any lawyer who is looking to personally contact me for more information. I am interested in focusing on this particular niche of search engine marketing and am excited to work with firms and attorneys who are seeking to generate new business leads through the internet. Please simply ask that the contact for is sent to myself, Brent Yorzinski, when filling out the form using the link earlier. Also feel free to reach me directly at 1-866-SEO-1169 ext. 701 to find out if I can assist you. I sincerely look forward to speaking to you and helping out your firm if appropriate.

With these difficult economic times completing SEO work on budget that does not break the bank is increasingly important. More and more people are deciding to do the work themselves rather than going with an outside firm. I fully encourage this. Primarily because once most individuals or companies do the work on their own they later decide to hire a professional local or international SEM company. Nonetheless, I wanted to provide visitors with some tips and advice for those who decide to do the work themselves, this way they are not left wondering if their efforts are in vain.

Tip one is to create quality and unique content. While most visitors likely already heard this a million times, few people actually implement this properly. The content should be within one link from the homepage if at all possible. Each primary page of the site should contain at least 250 words of text. A site should contain at least eight pages. All pages should utilize coding and URL’s that are easy for the search engines to read. These are some of the bare minimums, but are excellent places to start on your own.

Tip number two, which also is ingrained in most people’s minds is to build quality links from outside sites. Those on a tight budget are likely best with reciprocal exchanges. They are not as powerful as one-way links, but also only take the time required to establish the contact with another webmaster. When doing such it is crucial that to exchange link only with websites that are directly related to the company’s niche. Pass on everything else. As a cautionary note, link exchanges are often difficult on sites that are brand new and Google does not display a PR since others are less likely to want to trade.

As more companies and individuals are trimming budgets, these two tips alone will take a website far. Nonetheless, do not expect miracles overnight, nor to learn as much as individuals or companies who do this for a living. At some point in time it almost always makes sense to turn to a professional SEO company for help.

In the previous post we tested out our hypothesis regarding backdating and back links in order to regain a Google Page Rank. Now is what occurred a SEO fluke or fix? Agilis Marketing is happy to report that the experiment resulted in a successful outcome. While it cannot be ascertained if either factor singularly resulted in the change, the blogs PR is now restored. As originally mentioned, it is imagined to be a result of the two and we might further hypothesize that it simple a result of an increase in links.

First and foremost Agilis Marketing wanted to restore the Page Rank to its search engine marketing blog. Therefore, if another blog performs a similar experiment it is first suggested to see if relevant blog owners are willing to provide links back as a first step to see if that works. Afterwards, if that has no impact then attempt backdating posts. Please keep in mind there is always an unknown delay in updates to the Google PR bar.

Determining the exact factor for the change failed since Agilis Marketing’s primary goal quickly became making its SEM content easily accessible once again. Therefore we utilized both methods mentioned in the previous blog posting. Either way, individuals and firms can draw one definitive conclusion, that a minimum a combination of the two previous efforts is effective, although further experimentation is suggested. Many blog owners might be able to use these techniques on their own. Others who rather seek assistance from a company that already succeeded are welcome to contact us (shameless plug). If anyone else had similar issues with their blogs or extends this experiment please feel free to update the community with insights.

Lately the blog on this site took a back burner to ongoing clients and Agilis Marketing spent much more face time with these clients rather than simply posting information on the blog. I am now refocused on the search engine marketing blog and this post is in part a test on the ability to reclaim Google Page rank for a blog. The SEM blog dropped from a 4 to the dreaded grey bar. The hypothesis is that one or both of the following events caused this.

1. Google loves content and blog posters often lose touch in updating their blogs. Therefore a distinct possibility is that if a blog does not show recent posts after a set time frame Google no longer value the blog as highly. While this goes against the PR algorithm it could fall into the realm of a penalty that eliminates the visible page rank.
2. Fewer sites decided to point links to the blog since Agilis Marketing failed to keep the content up to date. Eventually, all links pointing to the blog, aside from the site’s internal ones disappeared, and thus the page rank indicator turned into a grey bar. This also goes against Google’s algorithm since Agilis Marketing’s internal link structure should allow for the blog itself to still maintain a decent page rank.

Therefore an end hypothesis is that is a combination of the two events outlined above. Backdating this post may help, but I have my doubts. Therefore the first control will be to address item one. However in doing so if another site provides a link here, and it is certainly welcome, then the experiment loses its control and the only definitive conclusion that is possible to draw is that both the above factors play a role. Of course if the search engine marketing blog never regains its Page Rank than it is known that neither one of the above can help reclaim the PR a blog might lose once the Google’s indicator turns grey and another method is required to correct this.

It is important to keep in mind the idea behind this entire experiment is not to circumvent anything Google wants to accomplish, but rather to make pertinent information that is contained within this blog easily accessible to the public that searches the internet using Google.