If you pay close attention to Google – and most people probably don’t like I do – you may have noticed some changes in the way Google displays search results. The map has moved! It used to be in the main area of the page, right below the first three sponsored listings. Now, it is in the right column, above the column of paid listings and the locations on the map? They are now mixed in with the organic results in the main area of the page:
Google's new search results screenshot
What, if anything does this mean? It means different things to different users. For instance, for the average Google searcher, it probably doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot. You’ll still see a combination of paid/sponsored results, Google Places results (the map) and organic results. But for businesses and marketers, the change in how Google displays results is more significant.
Google is clearly trying to make its Places more important by taking up more space on the first results page. By making each Places listing it’s own quasi-organic search result, Google’s Places listings now account for a lot more of the results on page one of a Google search. The many local/review sites have been taking over the first page of Google’s results for the past couple of years – Yelp, InsiderPages, MerchantCircle, DexKnows, YellowPages, etc. and it seems that Google really wants a piece of that action.
What should you do for your business? Making sure you have created and/or claimed your Google Places page is great place to start. As these results are served more often and as search becomes more local every day, you’ll want to make sure you’re listed. How will this impact traditional SEO – the jury’s still out. It is definitely a topic we will be monitoring in the coming months! Stay tuned…
Google Social Media + Lead Generation and you’ll find a wide variety of opinions on this topic. I’d like to suggest that can social media generate leads, is not even the best question to ask. A better question is how can we use social media to best support our business/organization and our customers?
There is an interesting article on just this topic over at the American Express OPEN Technology Forum “Is Social Media Failing to Produce Business Leads?” – read it here. In it, the author suggests that perhaps social media’s “job” isn’t so much to produce leads, but to allow companies to better or more strongly engage with their customers.
I tend to agree with this premise. I think there is an almost involuntary urge to try to make every technology fit in to an old school box about how to use it and what it does. That kind of thinking is a mistake. While those of you who have read posts here before know that I do believe selling is still about putting the right offer in front of the right person at the right time - with social media, we have a whole host of new tools to help accomplish this task.
Social media can do a lot of things, but expecting to setup a Twitter account, a Facebook business page and/or even a LinkedIn profile and then just have the leads flowing in, is a completely unrealistic view of how these tools work. In order to get benefit from them, you have to actively use them. And not just to post your sales information or press releases, but to actually talk to your customers and potential customers.
Social media has opened up brand new ways for people and businesses to communicate and engage with each other, it’s true. But it is important to understand what these tools can and cannot do and how to make them work for you.
It used to be that you only had to worry about your own web site(s) when it came to your online reputation… not so any more! Try doing a search for your business specifically or search for your type of business in your geographic area. You’ll likely be surprised by the results.
These days, search results returned include not only your web site and blog, but will often include a link to entities such as: Google Maps, Yelp.com, SuperPages.com, as well as many other locally or industry focused sites. Did you even know such things existed? Do you know if your business is listed?
These sites take it one step further too. They let people post reviews about your business, often with no verification that they are or were an actual customer of yours. To make matters even more complicated, people often wait weeks or months before posting a nasty review about your business. Good luck finding them to even try to rectify the issue!
So what is a business owner to do? Don’t we all have a million other things we’re already managing on a daily, weekly and monthly basis? How can you possibly get a grip on this brave new world? You can start by claiming your business on some of the major local web sites. If you have not claimed your business on Google, do it now! If you advertise in any of the yellow pages, make sure your online information is correct. If you serve the public, I’d recommend checking out Yelp and InsiderPages and see what, if anything people are saying.
Managing your online reputation is incredibly important. Especially today when more and more people are sharing their views and reviews via local web sites and social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Getting control starts with knowledge – find out where you’re already listed and claim your listings.
So unless you’ve been living under a rock or in outer Mongolia for the past couple of years, you’ve probably found yourself wondering what the heck you should be doing to take part in this brave new world of social media to advance your career or business…
The prospect can really be quite overwhelming – which media to choose? How to choose? What to post? How often to post? How to interact with others? When not to engage with others? The questions can seem endless!
The good news is, that social media, like anything else is something you can figure out one step at a time. When you break it down into reasonable steps, it suddenly seems like an achievable goal. And don’t we all want to set achievable goals?!?
A few questions to get you started:
- Who is my target audience?
- Where do they spend the most time – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, YouTube, etc.?
- How much time do you have to commit to social media on a weekly basis?
- Who in your organization will be responsible for keeping your presence up?
- Who will develop your social media policies?
Developing and implementing a social media strategy takes time and effort, but beginning to think about these questions is a great place to start!
Spring always seems to inspire the urge to purge – at least it does at my house! Why not use the spring as a time to take a critical look at your web presence and strategy? This notion makes sense this year, even more so than in the past, as many of our target markets have undergone significant changes.
It is time to ask yourself:
- What parts of our web strategy are working well? What parts are not working so well?
- Who is our target market today? Are they the same demographic that they were 2 years ago?
- How can we adjust our web strategy to gain traction in the new economy?
- What can we learn from our competitors?
It is an important practice to critically review your web strategy annually – why not do it now and put your business in the position to have a strong 2010? There is a lot of opportunity out there – smart organizations realize it and know they can no longer sit on the sidelines and expect to be around in 2011.
Not sure how to get started or how to analyze your web strategy? Don’t really have a web strategy? Spend some time and money with a professional web consultant and get on your way to a stronger business and better bottom line!
Conversion – it’s been a buzzword in SEO and SEM for the past few years, but with the sluggish economy, it seems to have taken on new vigor lately. It is, in many ways, the holy grail of web site creation and internet marketing.
So, how do you convert web site visitors into customers? How do you get the people who are ready to buy what you’re selling onto your site and then close the deal?
Here are the top web customer conversion factors I recommend focusing on:
- Be Relevant. If you work hard to be indexed for a particular product or service, make sure you can actually offer that specific product or service. Nothing drives visitors off of your site quicker than feeling like they have been mislead.
- Be Direct. Search engine optimize your site properly so that when a user finds a link to your site, they will go to a page that is specific to what they are interested in finding. This is especially true with PPC placements! Do not send all traffic to your home page and make them figure it out from there.
- Ease Pain. From your web site, within a nanosecond a visitor can exit your site and move on to option two, three or four. Make sure that your site clearly spells out exactly what it is you have to offer and why it will make the visitor’s life better.
- Offer Value. Chances are, you are not the only game in town. What makes working with you or buying from you better? Special expertise or experience? Free shipping? Giveaway products with purchase? Free consultation or report? Offer something!
I often tell clients, think about your own behavior when it comes to interacting with web sites. If something annoys YOU as a user, chances are it will annoy a potential customer. Design and optimize your site with THEM in mind and you’ll be amazed at the results!
There seems to be a prevailing myth out there that none of the “old rules” apply to the web. It’s all about new thinking, the new economy and new media.
Unfortunately, that statement is only half true. It is about new thinking and about a new economy and new media. But, it is also about applying sound business and marketing strategies to these new challenges and choosing appropriate technologies.
It is still, and will always be, about putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Some old math will never change. Making smart business decisions and marketing choices hasn’t changed – only the avenues and tools available to craft our messages, find the people and deliver it to them have.
The key to building successful marketing for your organization involves applying the old school work ethic and methodology – research, plan, test and target – to the appropriate technologies and media to reach your desired audience(s).
There is no short cut. There is no magic bullet. There is only smart strategy and creative execution.
Comments (0) 
Themocracy