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End of an Era: Yellow Book, Dead?

February 4th, 2010 by Jason Koop No comments »

101 Ways to Use a Phone Book

Last time I flipped through a thick yellow book to find help was over 10 years ago. This was a result of my being new to town and embarrassed about driving around without a muffler. I remember scanning the pages in the automobile section looking for service shops. There was AAA Muffler & Brakes, AAA Muffler Man, Midas, and Tank’s Mufflers ‘N’ Donuts (just kidding about the last one – but can you imagine the combination?).

There must have been 50-plus local services. It was hard to know which one to pick. Beyond the cheap “triple-A” tactics to nudge for first place in service name listings, paying a little extra for bold red font, or a few eye-catching star stamps, I wanted to know about their reputations, prices and wait-times.

Turning the next page I saw quarter-page ads. These shops pay a lot more for their heightened exposure, adding graphics and wordage to attract me. They listed benefits, spelled out guarantees and, on some layouts, pasted Hot Rod cover models holding mufflers in one hand while adjusting stilettos in the other hand.

Times have certainly changed. While yellow books still get regularly tossed on my driveway, they serve different purposes, such as:

A booster seat for my young’ins
An x-treme fly swatter
Last resort toilet paper

I have bookshelves overflowing with editions and I need to pare down. Can spring-cleaning come any sooner?

These days, for mufflers and much more I turn to the Internet and I bet you do too. The Internet has become so much more effective at finding a local business I need.

An article published by David Clarke, an Internet marketing consultant, former Yellow Pages sales rep, and obvious Brit, explores the current challenges small businesses (SMB) face with their marketing plans. Should SMB continue to spend chunks of their budgets on ads in phone directories that modern society may not cracking?

Check it out at: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/internet-marketing-vs-yellow-pages-529254.html

To learn more about our local online marketing services visit us at boostability.com

–JK

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Posted in Local Online Marketing, Small Business

Local Internet Marketing Resource – Google Webmaster Tools.

October 28th, 2009 by TravisThorpe No comments »

I can’t say enough about how useful Google Webmaster tools has been for us. Thanks to Matt Cutts(a Google developer) for promoting this resource on his blog. However I don’t think most small and local businesses have a clue who he is or read his blog.

Dear local Business owner who designed and hosted his own site. Let me introduce you to Google’s Webmaster tools.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

One problem I have with the site is there isn’t enough help to utilize all the information they have available. I just want to point out and explain a few of the reports/tools.

Dashboard:

This will give you a high level overview of your site. Including if Google detected any errors while indexing your site. You can also see who they report linked to your site. Also what are people search for when finding your site.

Site Configuration: Sitemaps:

The quickest way to get your site indexed is to link from another domain such as Yelp. However you want to make sure all your pages get indexed by submitting a sitemap. A sitemap is generally and xml document laying out your website structure. If you need help creating one, Boostability does it automatically for you. No xml knowledge required.

Labs: Fetch as Googlebot:

The Labs section is for the new cool stuff Google is working on. This great tool shows you how your site will appear to Google. This will be the quickest way to identify problems with your site.

These are just a few highlights of the great information you can see on Google’s Webmaster Tools. Boostability software will help small and local businesses use and understand this useful resource.

Want to find out how your site’s SEO value stacks up against the competition? Get a Automated Free Website Analysis. Then let us be part of your team and help Market your site on the web. Boostability, we can help.

www.Boostability.com

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Posted in Local Online Marketing

Tags: free website analysis google local businesses local internet marketing seo webmaster tools

5 Search Engine Optimization Actions every Small and Local Business should do.

August 19th, 2009 by TravisThorpe No comments »

5 Search Engine Optimization Actions every Small and Local Business should do.

Typically most small and local businesses don’t have a big budget to advertise on the internet. So the biggest question they have is “How do I get traffic?” To start getting traffic immediately they will turn to PPC or pay-per-click. You only pay for the visitors sent to your site. This is an expensive option.

Your best ROI(return on investment) is through natural search. Here are 5 steps that any small and local business should do first to optimize for search engines.

1. Analytics. You need to start tracking where your customers are coming from and what search terms or sites are driving traffic to you. If you don’t know what works and what doesn’t you are throwing your money away.

2. Keyword Selection. Picking the right keywords requires a little research. You need a tool that will tell you traffic estimates and how competitive is that keyword organically. Currently Googles tool only tells you ppc competitiveness, but does give you good traffic estimates. If you don’t choose the right keywords you may be wasting your time.

3. Meta Tags. After step 2 the easiest meta tag you can set is the keyword meta tag. Some search engines will use this data and others will not.

4. Directory submission. There are thousands of directories, some are good and a lot are bad. You need to make sure you stay with the highest valued ones like DMOZ.org.

5. Profile submissions. Profiles are similar to directories, there are some bad ones out they you need to avoid. Start with Google local. Even if you are not a local customer it will add value.

Boostability walks businesses through these steps for free, giving them a head start to acquiring customers. Search Engine Optimization is a long term investment and just requires someone doing something. They give you the tools and easy instruction so that any business can do this.

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