and as the graphic below illustrates, those that do usually have “issues”…

Not having a mobile site may be forgivable for some small family businesses (though restaurant chains really should know better at this point), but the bad news doesn’t end there. More than half of the restaurants surveyed in this study didn’t even have a website to begin with (the researchers actually called all these restaurants to make sure they really weren’t online).

This is hard to believe, especially considering that this past Valentines Day 62% of total searches for popular national chain restaurants occurred on high end mobile devices or tablets!

Local Business owners CAN and SHOULD understand the truth about their online visibility. They need to be visible, they need to be found, and need to generate new sales/increase clients; so let’s cut to the chase…  

A couple of years back I posted an article about the complexities of Internet marketing for local businesses. I discussed the challenges and frustrations business owners face, and the benefits of working with a “trusted adviser” or third party.

More recently, I wrote about the increasing fragmentation, and the proliferation of questionable sales practices being used within the “local search” industry. Local online marketing can be dangerous!

Unfortunately, many of these issues still exist – but they’re some relatively simple things every business owner needs to be aware of if they want to get online, get found, and increase sales/clients.

Let’s face the facts -they’re countless reasons local businesses fail. But if you focus on what I believe are the most critical, controllable factors with the online piece of the puzzle, you’ll be off to a good start.

Here’s the truth. Hope you can handle it…

1. Invest in a well-built website – this is your foundation for everything going forward! You’ll be rewarded on multiple levels, especially if you stay away from those free, template websites. Rule of thumb: “you get what you pay for”, but that doesn’t  mean you need to spend thousands of dollars. As a marketing tool, is your website doing it’s job? Is it optimized for mobile (check here if you’re not sure)? Learn more here, and take a look at Search Engine Land’s 8-point checklist for local websites.
2. And by “well-built” (above), I’m also talking about the site’s optimization. For example, if Google doesn’t know who you are, what you do, and where your located, your site is nothing more than “an expensive secret”. Make sure your site is search engine friendly!
3. Take control of your online business information – this is critical information (like your name, number, URL, hour of operation,  and address) that’s distributed across the web and shared across various properties – so if it’s inaccurate or incomplete in one place, it’s probably inaccurate or incomplete in many other places. Yes, Google Places is an important first step, but due to continued technological advances and user fragmentation they’re literally hundreds of other directories, databases, search engines and app’s to consider. Time consuming – yes. But necessary. Start by checking your listing and profile information here.
4. “Get social”. For two reasons; you be found in more places, and your be rewarded with some positive organic rank/optimization. Focus on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and G+ to start.
5. Reputation management – Rep. Mgt tools (and even something as easy as Google Alerts) allow you to monitor your online ratings, reviews and citations. How will you address those unfair or negative reviews if you don’t know about them?
6. Search Engine Marketing - simply put, pay-per-click advertising plugs the holes that SEO cannot fill. You want to be found regardless of how prospects are searching, right? A properly designed campaign uses hundreds of keywords and keyword combinations, as well as multiple ad groups and sophisticated analytic analysis and call/lead tracking to drive a strong return-on-investment.  And don’t forget about the strong relationship between paid search and organic visibility.
7. Internet Yellow Pages – always a basic component of local online visibility. And the bonus; IYP users typically convert (buy) at much higher levels than those finding you on Search Engines or Social Media.

Stay tuned, and subscribe by email, or follow us on Twitter for a deeper dive on this topic in the near future.

What this is essentially talking about is the importance of both paid and organic visibility – something I’ve discussed on this blog previously.

Initially, this research found a 89% drop in total clicks when a paid ad is paused. This new wave of research found that even if you have the #1 organic position, a paid ad provides 50% incremental clicks. In other words, if your paid ad is paused half of  your overall clicks will be “lost”.

You can dig-in deeper here.

This past week business owners received notice that their Facebook Pages will be automatically updated to the new “timeline” design… 

As you may already know, Facebook offers two primary adverting options local businesses; Pay-per-click based ads and Business Pages: 

1. Facebook PPC ads can be extremely targeted – you have some incredible options like gender, age, local geo, interests, etc. This allows you to reach a very relevant audience (which drives a strong conversion rate), but the challenge is  overall click-thrus can be low. Don’t rely solely on FB PPC ad’s  to reach your entire local market.
2. Business Pages are the second option. They’re free, and are the basic foundation for a Business’s representation on FB. Like all Social Media platforms simply having a page or account set-up is not the key – it’s some level of  active participation. You have to post interesting, relevant content to build fans and drive engagement.  This content also helps from a  SEO perspective, potentially boosting visibility and rank within the organic sections of some search engines.

 Surveys have shown that over 50% of SMB’s now have a Facebook Page – so this a significant change. Are you ready?

Here are some tips and pointers:

• First, if you have a Facebook Places Page – merge it with your primary business page – this way all your posts will show up in the same place. Also, it will bring your “check ins” together with the pages main content – allowing you to streamline your efforts. Note: never attempt to use a “personal” Facebook page for your business.

• The new cover photos are the most important aspect of the new Facebook Timeline format. They provide your business with a wide, open space to upload images, which will undoubtedly be the first impression made upon visitors arriving at a Facebook Business Page. Therefore, it is important to utilize this space in a unique way in order to make your brand stand out and capture visitors’ attention. Many local businesses are  choosing photos that best represent their companies such as a logo, storefront picture, or staff photo. Brands or primary services offered may also be a good choice here.

• Share content and engage your fans! Ideally, post daily and at different times. Realistically this may not always be possible – but it should be your goal. Keep the information in your posts interesting, sincere and non-intrusive – you don’t want to have anyone “unfan” you! They should be short; like two sentences max. Simple, engaging questions are always a good idea, and a special discount or deal will be especially effective. Photo’s are highely recommended as well.

• Let your “fans” share and post to your wall – that’s what social networking is all about! Of course, you’ll want to monitor the page on a regular basis – but without some level of interaction you’ll never fully realize the power of social networking.

• Take advantage of the free (for now) “deals” application. This way, your customers will be prompted to “check-in” which is a fantastic form of engagement.

• Create your Facebook badge and place into all of your website pages and blogs (along with your Twitter and G+ badges). Also, link it into your email signatures and include the page address marketing materials.

Learn more about Facebook’s Marketing solutions: Facebook advertising

Yahoo’s slice of the U.S. search engine market continued to evaporate in February reaching a new low, according to comScore’s latest figures. Google and Bing both saw gains, with Google nearly matching its highest recorded search share (in December 2010).

Yahoo has seen its share of searches drop for six straight months. After peaking in August 2011 at 16.3 percent, it’s been all downhill since for Yahoo.

For the first time, Yahoo’s search market share dropped below 14 percent in February – to 13.8 percent, down from 14.1 percent in January and down from 16.1 percent in February 2011.

A recent search engine usage study from Pew also highlighted how Yahoo’s popularity is sinking among the general public. Only 6 percent of respondents reported using Yahoo most often, whereas 26 percent of people named Yahoo as their top choice in 2004.

Meanwhile, Bing, the company the powers Yahoo’s organic search results, continued its incremental growth for the second straight month. At 15.3 percent, Bing grabbed its highest search engine share since launching in 2009, topping its previous high of 15.2 percent, set in January.

Bing became the number two U.S. search engine in the U.S. when it surpassed Yahoo for the first time in December 2011. In February 2011, Bing’s search market share was 13.6 percent.

Least surprisingly of all, Google continued to lead the U.S. search market, with 66.4 percent, up from 66.2 percent in January. Google commanded 65.5 percent of the search engine market last February.

However, Google’s 66.4 percent is noteworthy because Google nearly matched a high previously set in December 2010 – 66.6 percent. Still, that was good enough for its second all-time highest monthly share. Google has also seen its share of searches increase for three straight months.

In the all-important Google vs. Bing “powered by” metric, Google continued to dominate, powering 68.6 percent of organic searches (up from 68.4 percent in January), while Bing powered 26.2 percent of organic searches (down from 26.5 in January).

As for Ask, its 3 percent share of searches in February remained unchanged from January. AOL saw its share of searches fall to 1.5 percent, down from 1.6 percent in January.

More than 17.6 billion explicit core searches were conducted in February, down from 17.8 billion in January. Google ranked first with 11.7 billion searches (down from 11.8 billion in January); Bing with 2.7 billion; Yahoo with 2.4 billion (down from 2.5 billion); Ask with 535 million (up 2 percent); and AOL with 266 million (down from 277 million).

I know that’s a challenging concept to understand – most business owners I speak with can’t imagine how this communications (or “micro-blogging”) platform can help grow and market their business, but trust me; it’s not just for Geeks and Teens anymore!

Twitter (and all social media) should be considered an important part of a more inclusive local marketing strategy.

Twitter’s platform provides a real-time measurable marketing and communications channel for businesses. The benefits include:

• Gaining a true understanding of customers and clients, and gaining feedback.
• Monitoring your local “buzz” and reputation.
• It’s an effective forum to proactively handle customer service or product issues.
• It allows you to increase local customer engagement and offer local deals and incentives.

A recent survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey found 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from or recommend a brand they follow. In short, it serves as a real-time source of market research.

Start by opening a Twitter account!

You can then “follow” Local Search Source (me) here: http://twitter.com/#!/richhargrave

Take a look at the “basics” of Twitter, including a helpful glossary.

Check out this Twitter Marketing Strategy, or consider getting some help with your campaign.

Still not convinced that Twitter has potential for impacting your business?  Check out these four examples which will provide insight into how other B2C businesses both small and large have used Twitter to attract and engage new customers.

“A whopping 62 percent of total searches for popular national chain restaurants [in the US] on Valentine’s Day occurred on high end mobile devices or tablets.”

62 percent of all US-based national chain restaurant queries on Google came from mobile devices. Google focused on national restaurant chains because it could disambiguate and identify them as such. It could well be that the 62 percent figure extends across the entire restaurant category.

This is very impressive, powerful data that every local business (not just restaurnant owners) should consider, and it’s in-line with last April’s local smartphone research from Google. Among those findings…

• 95 percent of smartphone users have looked for local information
• 61 percent call a business, 59 percent visit a business and 44 percent purchase
• 88 percentof local information seekers take action within a day

Hey doctors (that includes you dentists too) do you know where your patients’ first impressions are being made? It is not your telephone. It is not your waiting room. Often it isn’t even your website’s homepage.   It is time for you to realize that most of the time your patients’ first impressions are made on Google!

Please take the time to claim your Google Places listings. I am going to show you some examples of what can happen if you don’t. Keep in mind that if you do not take the time to fill out your Google Places listing Google will take what it can from your website to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, what they find is not always a good thing. Also, Google is allowing people to edit unclaimed listings and people can purposefully hurt your listing. So don’t wait another day! You risk the chance of losing potential clients if you don’t claim and update your Google Places listing.  Don’t believe me?

Here’s what I found searching for a “Sarasota Plastic Surgeon”.

The first surgeon listed has not claimed their listing. Google filled in the blanks. What plastic surgeon, who includes breast augmentation in their services, would honestly utilize a before picture of a woman’s breasts as their main picture? I have to admit, it did get my attention! Just not for the right reason. That poor woman spent a lifetime (and a small fortune) to improve those and now you let Google use her (previous) breasts as your Google Places main image.  At least I put a small black box over her chest.

OK dentists, stop laughing at the plastic surgeons! You need to claim your Google Places listings too.

Look what I found looking for a “Dentist in Houston”

Hands?  No, not just hands, but one is missing part of a finger.  Is this dentist trying to tell me he/she is missing a finger? Was this an in office accident?  I really don’t know, nor do I care.  I just know I won’t be seeing this dentist because I don’t understand the message.

Claiming a Google Places Listing is EASY!

Got to Google.com and click on “Maps”. Search for your business and click on it. If you haven’t claimed your listing you will see links above the map; see “Business Owner?” in the image below? You should click on the business owner link and begin the process. Once you have control of your listing you can add the images you want to be displayed and not be at the mercy of Google or those that choose to edit your business and add an images that could hurt your business.

Don’t risk losing potential patients and take control of how you want your first impression to be made by taking control of your Google Places listing.