Search Engine Optimization

Should Website Translation Be Part of Your SEO Strategy?

2012-04-30T13:38:46Z

If the information, products or services offered on your website could appeal to an international audience, it might be time to think about having your website content translated. But what steps can you take to make sure this is the right strategic move?

Determine Your Audience
The first step is to determine who your current online audience is and where they are coming from geographically. If you have Google Analytics, or another analytics platform, take a look at your audience demographics, and review the locations where visitors are coming from and the languages they use. A growth over time in a particular location or language can be a good indicator of a possible translation need.

Another way to determine the need for translation is to examine which pages website users are translating with an online translation tool such as Google Translate or Babel Fish for example. To do this, look at the top pages section of your analytics and filter by the word “translate”; the results will show only the pages which users have translated using a translation tool and which language pairs they translated. This will not only help prove the need for translation of a particular language, it will also help determine which pages or sections of your site warrant translation. Content management systems make site translation easier. Auctori is a content management system that can translate to better reach your ManyLingual audiences.

Decide on a Language

Once you have done your homework to determine your current audience and translation needs, the next step is to research the opportunity in the particular countries where you are considering translation. For example, if after looking at your analytics you determine that visitors from France and Sweden are driving a lot of your international traffic, you may want to first consider the competition in these countries. While there may be more French speaking people, the opportunity in the Swedish market may be better based on the competition. If there are few online competitors in your space, it is sometimes better to be a “big fish in a small pond” in terms of better search engine rankings resulting in more organic traffic.

Partner with In-Country Translation Specialists

With unique content becoming an increasingly important part of the SEO strategy, website translation can help ensure that your content is reaching as large an audience as possible. Once you determine your need for translation, take a close look at your website content, and make a plan for which pages you want translated. You might not want to include pages which have information that changes often or is very time sensitive such as latest news or recent press releases unless you intend on translating your content frequently. When you have your pages defined, partner with in-country translation specialists to perform the content translation and localization.

When all of the elements are properly researched, analyzed and executed, website translation can be a very effective part of the SEO strategy.

3 SEO Elements Your Website Should Have

2012-10-17T05:09:23Z

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is a way to optimize your site so that it appears in a search engine’s organic results. Constant algorithm changes make it difficult to determine exactly what search engines use to determine ranking, but there are a few factors that remain constant. Valuable content and relevant keywords can help influence your organic rankings. Taking advantage of page titles, descriptions and H1s can also help.

When you are creating a website, having good content is crucial, and optimizing that content for search engines is equally important. Keywords are an important part of this optimization process. When creating your website’s content, you should not only think about what keywords are relevant to your business or organization, but what the terms or phrases are that people are searching for online. If you have a wonderfully written site that is full of great content, but it doesn’t use keywords that people are actively looking for, your website won’t rank very well. Keyword research is a great place to start when optimizing your site.

Once you have completed keyword research and created unique content for your website, there are three elements that you should focus on for search engine optimization: the page title, description and heading (H1). These three basic SEO elements both describe your website and can help increase organic rankings when done correctly. It is important to incorporate your keywords into all three of these elements.

Title

According to a survey done by SEOMoz of 37 influential individuals in the SEO industry, “35 of the 37 participants said that keyword use in the title tag was the most important place to use keywords to achieve high rankings.” The page title appears at the top of the page in Internet browsers. If keywords are used in your page title, they will also appear bolded in search results when users search for those terms. There are a few things you want to keep in mind when creating page titles. First, you want to create a unique page title for each page on the website that is a brief but accurate description of the page’s content. Most search engines limit the page title length to 70 characters. Second, because page titles are limited in length it is important to have keywords in the front of the title. The frontal location of the keyword can help with rankings. Third, page titles are a great way to increase brand awareness. At The Net Impact, we recommend incorporating your brand into each page title. Fourth, consider your readers. While search engines control the rankings, your readers are the ones choosing your website; be sure that your page titles are readable and appropriately describe the page’s content to searchers.

Description

The meta description is a 160 character explanation of a webpage’s content that appears beneath your webpage’s listing in search results. The description is another opportunity for you to describe your website’s content to searchers and search engines using keywords. It is important to use keywords in descriptions, even though they do not influence rankings, because they appear bolded and help to show searchers why your site is relevant. The more relevant and persuasive your page’s description, the higher your click through rate should be.

H1s

The third element to consider when optimizing your website is headings. Although their influence on ranking is debated, H1s are another opportunity for you to describe to the search engine and reader exactly what your page is about. You want to keep your H1s consistent and correlated with your title and page descriptions. Using a keyword or phrase that identifies what your page is about can help the reader to more easily navigate your website.

Incorporating page titles, accurate descriptions and relevant H1s is a great way to perform basic SEO on your site. When creating a website you should always keep in mind that content is the most important element. In-depth keyword research during content creation will make coming up with titles, descriptions and H1s much easier.

Learn more about Search Engine Optimization.

Social: The Ying to Search’s Yang

2012-10-17T05:30:56Z

The Union of Search and Social Media

There has been a lot of conversation on the web regarding social media and search engine optimization – but what does this union really mean? With people actually interacting online, rather than just going online to seek information – the web as a whole is moving in a more social direction. As the shift to social is showing no signs of slowing down, the search engines are continuing to focus their algorithms on how people share content with their online communities via social media. Facebook, Twitter, +1, blogging, YouTube and Quora – are just a few of the social networks that now greatly affect the way search results are calculated in the major search engines.

A few of the many trends associated with “social search” include: personalized search results, social media feed integration, side-wikis and search engines recognizing sites with Twitter feeds and other forms of social ratings. While search engines are now including social functionality, social networking sites are also enhancing their search functionality. Searches are now taking place on destinations other than search engines. According to comScore, Facebook is among the top ten destinations in terms of total search volume. Facebook and Bing have created a relationship to show Bing’s search results within the Facebook’s internal search results. These search trends that have evolved as a result of the marriage of social and search are changing how people use the Internet and why.

What does this mean for your business? This means your company website, social media sites, blogs and your online press releases have to attract a target audience that wants to comment, share and suggest your content to others in their online communities. The core of search engine marketing is to make online content more visible, shareable, and engaging for users – and the more your content is shared via social media, the better it does in organic search results. In other words, the more effective a company’s social media presence, the greater the listening power of the search engines.

The union of social and search is in harmony with the latest Google algorithm update – the Panda Update. Google’s Panda Update zeroes in on unique and engaging content, and as a result, awards better search rankings to higher quality content. What this means is that each press release, tweet or other form of content can help your organization reach more viewers, convert more leads, appeal to search engines and even trigger additional content creation.

Aside from the integration of social media content into search engine results, social networking sites have the power to affect search engine rankings in other ways. Any good search strategy is focused on relevance, and social media is becoming one of the major indicators of relevance. Keyword-rich content and inbound links have always been two of the strongest components of effective search engine optimization strategies and the social promotion of content has the power to generate natural links. The effect of social media initiatives on inbound links cannot be underestimated. Blogging, engagement via Facebook/Twitter, and other social media activities have a direct impact on the quantity, and more importantly, the quality, of editorially awarded links that your site can benefit from. For example around 25% of all Tweets contain a URL, which makes Twitter a great platform to share quality content with the masses.

When it comes to social and search – “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Your potential and current customers are using both, and the existing web infrastructure involves interplay between the two. It is a vital part of your Internet marketing strategy to take a holistic approach to both search and social. Using search and social media to find what they’re looking for online – give them the tools to do this. A new study from GroupM Search developed with comScore sheds light on the causal relationship between social and search, and how they influence the conversion path.

A few main points to take away from this study include:

• In 58% of all consumer journeys that end in purchase, the starting point is a search
• Consumers who convert are equally likely to use a combination of search and social (48%) as opposed to just search (51%)
• When it comes to aiding the purchase decision, the top social option is user reviews (30%)
• 45% use search throughout the purchase process versus 26% only at the beginning and 18% only at the end

As the line between search and social continues to blur – you will want your brand to be prominent in search and on social media. When one goes up, the other goes up, as search and social rely on the appropriate implementation of the other, illustrating an inversely proportional relationship.

In the end, social media increases your online presence as well as your search engine optimization, in turn calling great attention to this unique relationship. If your company is producing ground-breaking, informative and useful content, you will naturally turn up on the top of the SERPs because people will share it via social networks. If not, enhance your online marketing strategy and improve the quality of your content to compete with other companies who have embraced the convergence of search and social.

Press Release Vs. Articles in Content Marketing

2012-10-17T05:34:50Z

Are your online press releases newsworthy?

With consumers becoming increasingly web savvy, it is important for companies to produce online content that is credible, informative, relevant, up-to-date and consistent. Content marketing is an Internet marketing technique which consists of creating and distributing valuable and solution oriented content to attract, acquire and engage a target audience – with the goal of driving conversions. Two effective components of content marketing are online press releases and articles. In many ways the two online marketing vehicles work together but are structurally, very different.

Of course excellent copywriting is essential to both the creation of online press releases and articles, and both press release and articles are optimized to contain targeted keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. But the relationship between article marketing and press releases ends there. When you distribute online press releases that read like an informational article, you may be acquiring some backlinks, but you will most likely experience little luck when it comes to attracting the media, social networkers or niche bloggers who can create quality traffic and effective branding.

Press releases are time sensitive. They are used within a narrow window to make an announcement, draw attention or build excitement. Here are some Press Release Examples. However; it is common that a press release refer to a particular article by linking where it makes sense. Article content that is stretched enough to look like press releases are not newsworthy. Both readers and search engines can spot this type of content, and neither is interested in it.

Articles are usually longer and contain more in-depth information in comparison to a press release. The main objective behind article creation is to supply the reader with useful informational, to sell, to suggest, link to, and to drive targeted traffic to your site. Unlike press releases, articles are written specifically for the target demographic that is to read them, so utilizing keywords and looking at current trends in your particular industry is essential.

If your content is not newsworthy and more of a general information piece, it is an article, not a press release. However, just because it is not ‘newsworthy’, this content should not go waste. You can increase the promotion of your website by submitting different articles to article submission sites, also known as article marketing. Article Marketing is the distribution of well-written, informative articles to article directories in the hopes that they will get syndicated by or reprinted on other websites and blogs. The more you continue to publish unique content the better your chances to extend the attention of the reader and ultimately increase conversions. Article marketing can be of great value to SEO, since the search engines favor fresh and regularly updated content.

Writing and then publishing articles using online article directories, such as E-Zine articles, can be one of the best ways to improve your content marketing strategy. By linking from these articles back to your site you are not only able to generate more visitors to your site but more importantly you will be building a network of relevant back links to your website which will be picked up by the search engines. The search engines such as Google having seen that your site is linked to other credible, relevant sources will then improve your search engine ranking.

In conclusion, in order to succeed in content marketing, you need to be able to communicate in different ways. When it comes to content marketing strategies, such as blogs, articles, press releases, white papers..etc, it is important to understand how to effectively write content for each individual platform in order to increase exposure and attract the attention of readers. While the search engines have dramatically changed the way in which we write for the web, one aspect has remained constant, the best marketing strategy remains to find a worthwhile angle to a story and to create quality content that is visible to your target audience.

Looking to increase your online visibility with content marketing? Our team can write, optimize and distribute your press releases and articles to improve your company’s overall search engine marketing strategy. Contact The Net Impact to increase your brand’s online exposure.

Searching for a Cause: SEO For-Profit

2012-10-17T05:14:32Z

Search Engine Marketing and the Non-Profit Sector

Looking to increase awareness and funding for your charity or non-profit organization? Look no further than search engine optimization. In 2010 charity organizations in the United States alone collected near $300 billion in donations. Studies have shown a large majority of this funding was done online.

With the advancement of technology and the explosion of social media marketing, non-profits now have the ability to create a strong online presence, and reach audiences that would have otherwise never known about their cause. Whether a non-profit organization is looking to reach a target audience, attract sponsors or donors, or provide educational information, there is no better way to communicate in today’s busy world than through a website. But is your non-profit’s website getting found online? If you are not getting found in the search engines, then you are not getting found by people who have not yet been introduced to your brand.

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to designing and structuring your website content, so the search engines are likely to find your site and know what it is about. SEO includes the strategic placement of keywords in your content and using other methods, such as linking and social media, to get your site on that first page of Google for your selected keywords. An increasing number of non-profits and advocacy groups are beginning to leverage search engine opitimization best practices to help promote their cause, and to connect with more potential supports and donors. Below are a six tips for non-profit’s to follow to reap the benefits of search engine optimization and help promote their mission online.

1.) Get in the mind of the search engine users. You can best answer this question by using a keyword research tool, such as Google AdWords to find the words your audience is using to find information on your specific non-profit sector. Type a couple of phrases you would use to describe your core services, and the program will return additional search terms that searchers are using to find information. Choose about five keywords and create a consistent keyword strategy. This includes incorporating these specific words into your website content, blog posts and other online communications.

Google has launched a nonprofit website program- with free domains, hosting and Adwords money for any companies that qualify. The Google site set up for this wants to help nonprofits “reach and engage supporters, improve you operations and raise awareness for your cause.”

2.) Get listed. Online directories, specifically local directories and industry-related directories, are an excellent way to attract the attention on the search engines. Search engines place heavy interest on these directories because they are a place where one can go to gather a lot of useful information (how can you find a company or organization if you don’t know where they are and how to reach them?). Since the goal of search engines is to report websites with the most relevant results, directories often receive high rankings. The search engines like to see your website associated with your phone, number address, etc. If you are not already listed in directories, Guide Star, – Guide Star is the most complete source of information about U.S. nonprofits, and is an excellent place to list your business.

3.) Link up. Your supporters love you, but do they “link love” you? One of the most crucial factors for boosting your search engine rankings is having incoming links from relevant, credible websites. This is where non-profits have the leg up. Your organization likely has a lot of companies that support your cause, have them show this on their website. Many organizations will be glad to do this to boost their public image, and don’t be afraid to take advantage of this. Also, encourage people in your community to link to your site, this includes: vendors, volunteers, similar non-profit organization, and local government sites. Another way to gain more links is to be a guest blogger or article writer on related blogs or websites, just be sure to include a link back to your website.

Don’t forget to make linking easy for other websites – make sure your content is easily shareable. Do this by provide logos, badges, or widgets that your supporters can easily plug into their own web sites. You can find an excellent example of this at: http://www.karlasmithfoundation.org/. Since 2005, The Karla Smith Foundation has worked to combat the stigma of mental illness, and in 2009, partnered with the BringChange2Mind campaign, co-founded by actress Glenn Close. Each of these two organizations has each other’s logo on their website to increase each organization’s visibility and awareness. Reaching out to other sites, can do more than just help your non-profits search engine results, it can also expands your community of donors, volunteers and supporters.

4.) Write.Share.Repeat. Generating online content for SEO purposes is an excellent approach that also gives you the chance to tell your stories, share your accomplishments and generate buzz, which in turn gives your brand a personality – an important things for non-profits. Search engines love new content; make sure your website, blogs and other online assets are updated frequently with original content, unique metadata and internal linking.Whether its blogging to tell a specific story of how your non-profit made a difference in someone’s life, looking to get donors or volunteers, giving advice, or increasing awareness about a fundraising event—nonprofits have the opportunity to create original, unique and meaningful content – which is exactly what the search engines are looking for. Another benefit of blogging is that it increases the likelihood of other sites linking to your content.

5.) Get social. I’m sure seen Microsoft’s Bing commercials– but just in case you haven’t, the search engines are now taking your Facebook friends’ opinions into consideration when it comes to search results. Search engines have become increasingly social, as Google and Bing have begun incorporating social content and activity into their ranking factors. This fastening of hands between search and social is a good thing for those looking for a way to boost SEO. The partnership between SEO and social is constantly evolving in an effort to keep results fresh, relevant and personal. The continued integration of social media in their marketing efforts can only help non-profit organizations, a great candidate for social media marketing, meet and exceed many different goals. Social media is a platform that allows people to participate in a conversation about what they think, feel and care about, making social media and excellent space for the non-profit sector to continue to explore.

For example, a lot of Facebook Pages have sprouted up to help residents find loved ones and help in the recovery process, such as the Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery Page . With a lot of people looking for a way to help Joplin recover for this disaster, these pages are likely to show up in search results if the searcher has friends in their social media networks that ‘like’ the page.

6.) Make it easy for your website user. Someone came to your website, they read your content, they are interested in your cause and want to help. What do they do now? Be sure each page of your website has a clear call to action. These actions can include: Donate now, Volunteer, Sign up for our Newsletter, and other calls to action. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain another supporter, make your website user-friendly and let your visitors know how they can help.

In conclusion, when non-profits implement search engine optimization best practices, the results will follow. While seeing results from search engines optimization may take some time, it is worth the wait. The higher your website is ranked in search results, the more opportunities you have to create a lasting impression in the hearts, minds (and pockets) of sponsors, volunteers, other non-profits and donors.

Want to learn more about non-profit online marketing for your St. Louis Non-Profit? Join The Net Impact, The Karla Smith Foundation and other Non-Profit organizations on on Tuesday June 21st to hear Non-Profit success stories and valuable tactics for a variety of budgets from professionals in the non-profit sector. Find more information and register for the FREE nonprofit seminar.

Optimize Your Social Networks for Personal Branding

2012-10-17T05:16:53Z

Companies recognize the importance of building a strong brand. Over the last few years, it has become apparent that personal branding is just as important as establishing a recognizable brand for your company. Research has shown that consumers trust people more than they trust a brand; in order to build trust among your target market, you must gain credibility. Branding is a strategy that requires the implementation of several methods which work cohesively to ensure optimal results both on search engines and social networks.

Branding your personal Facebook page:
If you mention the company you work for anywhere on your Facebook page, you must commit to treating it like a business account.

To maintain consistency throughout your branding campaign use the same photo that you will use for your Twitter avatar, your blog avatar, YouTube avatar, etc. The objective in branding yourself is much the same as advertising a product; you want it to be easily recognizable.

Search Engine Optimize your Facebook page.
Another key aspect of a branding campaign includes search engine optimization. Social networks give users the opportunity to optimize their page through places like the Vanity URL, “About” box, and the “Info” tab.

Vanity URL
Upon creating a Facebook page, users are given the opportunity to choose a “Vanity URL.” What name will people use to search for you online? Create a Vanity URL (if available) that is in direct correlation to the brand you are creating whether it be your name or the name you are most known by in business. Creating a vanity URL will allow search engines to find you through yet another avenue, Facebook.

About Me
The “About Me” box on a profile page also gets indexed by search engines. Take advantage of this opportunity to include your website and a phrase (including keywords) about yourself.

Info
The “Info” section is often overlooked because it isn’t immediately noticed when landing on a Facebook page. It should, however, still be taken full advantage of because search engine crawlers need food and they will bite at an opportunity to index any page. Include your website, your twitter handle, all of the social networks you maintain a presence on, and also include keywords that correlate with your industry.

Branding your personal Twitter account:

Select an SEO-Friendly Twitter Handle
Just as choosing an SEO-friendly URL is important, a Twitter handle (username) should be as well.
Why? Twitter handles have their own customized URL which creates a static address for future indexing; Twitter URLs are indexed by search engines the same as any other URL.

Select an SEO-Friendly Account Name
Yes, this matters as well.
Choosing the proper account name helps brand companies – it can also be a great resource for search engines. Determine which variation of your brand’s name is searched the most each month.
Google Adwords is an excellent tool for determining the most effective keywords.

Don’t Forget the “Bio” Section
The biography section is yet another avenue to include keywords. Twitter bios are consistently indexed; crucial keywords should be used in the [160 character] description of the company.

How Effective is the Tweet’s Lead?
The first few words (42 characters) of every tweet will appear in search engine results next the account name and username. These first 42 characters of the tweet will impact SEO as well.

The body of tweets is also likely to be indexed by search engine rankings
Utilize relevant keywords relating to the brand to increase search results on those terms.

Is the Message Re-Tweetable?
Twitter allows companies to share their information with others, and hope others will find it useful and share it as well. A tweet’s length must be less than 140 characters if the intention is to have others re-tweet it; if the tweet is too long, the last few characters of the tweet will be dropped.
Re-tweets are indexed on search engines as well and will have a positive effect on a company’s search engine ranking.

Call to Action
Twitter pages should have a call to action. Just as companies encourage people to look at their website, visitors can also be invited to visit a Twitter page. Because a Twitter page’s URL is indexed as a website, companies have yet another opportunity to increase their search engine rankings and another avenue on which to promote their brand.

Branding all of your social channels requires each to be cohesive with one another. The same “voice” should be used in each post/tweet/update; the same photo should be used on profiles across all channels to build brand recognition.

Optimizing Your YouTube Account
Posting videos of yourself sharing education information about your industry can help build credibility amongst other professionals, future employers, and prospects.

Title
Create a keyword rich title; make it as long and descriptive as you can. Every word counts.

Video Description
Begin your video description with your personal website address. Then include your name and the video description. Again, include as many keywords as you can that correlate to your industry.

Tags
It is imperative to include keyword tags for your video – preferably the same ones used throughout the video description.

Date and Location
In order for your video have a higher likelihood of appearing in local search results, include the date you created the video and the location when prompted to do so on YouTube’s map.

Personal social networks can also include presentation sharing sites such as SlideShare, DocStoc, etc. Whatever platform you use to distribute information, be sure your profile is filled out in its entirety and that the profile picture you choose matches the avatars from each social network utilized for your personal branding campaign.

Multilingual Search Engine Optimization

2011-02-03T16:08:08Z

When implementing a global search engine optimization campaign, it is imperative that companies understand which best practices correspond with the market they intend to target.

How will you translate your website?
Technical Translation

Technical translation means translating the information from your company’s website into the target language, by native speakers in your company’s country.
Example: If you are a company in the United States and you want your website translated into German, be sure than the translator is someone from the U.S. who speaks German to ensure your message is delivered correctly. Neglecting to do this may result in a mistranslation.

How will you translate your marketing materials?
Marketing Translation

Marketing materials generally grab a reader’s attention when they speak to the soul of the reader. By doing this, the company lures in a potential client then turns them into paying customers. Technical translation does not always convey the same “emotional” marketing message as was in the original language, and this is where, many times, the message gets lost in translation.

To do this, companies must take the content from the “technical translation”, and have it re-written by a marketing copywriter to make it less technical and more relatable.

Are you considering your global audience?
Only 7 countries, and 30% of Internet users, have English as their first language.

If you have an E-Commerce website, remember: Research has shown that buyers are 10 times more likely to buy from a website that is in their own language. (www.markettheglobe.com)

Each version of your website needs to be localized down to the graphics, colors, and text. It is imperative that companies take the time to tailor each version of their website to the specific target market.

Are you researching popular search engines from other countries?
Google isn’t the go-to search engine across the globe.

AdAge Report Shows Facebook’s Influence Worldwide

2010-12-14T15:47:31Z

Advertising Age recently published a white paper on the top 10 trends now shaping global media habits in 2010.

Below you will find the AdAge statistics and the influence Facebook has gained across the globe.

1. Even relatively poor populations now consider TV a necessity.

2. Despite the Internet, we’re watching more television- not less.

3. The world is watching Football and American Idol-like contests relative to the particular country.

4. Though the United States and Europe are losing newspaper circulation, the rest of the world is experiencing a “boom” in newspapers.

5. Global Facebook Usage:

a. 6 hours per day per user.

b. 517 million users.

c. 70% of users live outside of the United States.

d. Average “fan” is 31 years old.

e. Average “fan” follows 9 brands.

f. 95% will advocate for the brand if necessary.

6. Cyber cafes are the entry for emerging market populations to get online.

7. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia lead the world in online video consumption.

8. Internet usage rates are determined by access costs. Mobile is not.

9. Netbooks, e-readers, and tablets will drive growth of Internet use.

10. The forecast for the world’s future media habits: More.

AdAge reports that time spent on computers has tripled over the past decade among youths 8 years old to 18 with the bulk of time spent on social media. Is your company prepared for the future of advertising?

To view the report, visit the Advertising Age website.

Google’s Newest Feature, Hotpot, Stirs Up Local Search Results

2010-11-18T22:05:09Z

This week, Google announced the launch of their newest feature, Hotpot, which now incorporates user ratings to personalize search results.
Prior to Hotpot’s launch, Google Maps provided user reviews which it cultivated from across the web. Now Google has taken that feature a step further by obtaining reviews and recommendations from venues you and people in your Hotpot Network have rated highly on the web personalizing your search results even more.

Utilizing Hotpot for Cities
Step by Step:

1) Create a Google Places nickname.

Ratings of places are public on the web – even to those who aren’t in your network.

2) Choose a photo.

Your photo should be consistent with your city/organization’s logo.

3) Click “Start rating.”

4) Google will ask you to enter a category and establish your location to start rating places.

Example: City

5) Once you have entered Hotpot, you can begin rating local places related to the keyword you typed in such as libraries, city museums, even the mayor’s office.

Ratings range from “Hated It” to “Best Ever”

6) Places to rate can be filtered by:

Places you’ve previously visited on the web.

Places you have saved while logged into Google Places on your mobile phone.

Places you have previously rated on Google Places.

Places your Hotpot network has rated.

7) After you rate the individual venues, Hotpot will ask you to explain why you chose that rating.

Google will also provide you with specifics about the venue to be rated with either a happy or sad face.

8) Once you have rated at least 3 places in the category you are searching in, Google’s Hotpot will provide you with recommendations based on what you’ve liked and disliked in your reviews.

Once users have established a solid network of “friends” on Hotpot, Google will use their reviews to recommend places to you in the event that you are out of town and are looking for a particular type of establishment. This is an excellent resource for visitors not wishing to write a review but to find out what people like themselves enjoy.

Hotpot’s one downfall is that it is not as infused with social networks as many of its competitors such as Bing and Yelp – Hotpot is its own social network. Hotpot is solely an extension of Google applications such as Google Places and Google Maps but its mobile integration may make up for the lack of social integration and the fact that nearly everyone with access to the web uses Google. Google Hotpot can be accessed through Google Maps and Places both on a PC and mobile devices, and the Hotpot mobile application can be used with any Android (1.6 and above) and the iPhone.

To ensure your city, government or any establishment with a physical address appears in Hotpot’s search results, you must register with Google Places. Be sure to include as much keyword-rich information about your business as possible, and include pictures.

To try Google Hotpot for yourself and review your city/government establishment, visit http://www.google.com/hotpot.

5 Emerging Internet Marketing Trends to Boost Business in 2010

2010-11-10T17:26:56Z

A short and sweet overview of The Net Impact’s Search Engine Strategies Session

1) Getting Mobilized with Mobile SEO
Mobile Marketing is on the cusp of becoming the most powerful form of marketing in years.

Why?
- Nearly 35 of all mobile handsets are smart phones
- 3x more mobile handsets are installed than PC’s
- Mobile is always connected – it can be used anytime, anywhere

Two important factors to keep in mind when designing and developing a mobile Internet presence:

1. Ranking

2. Display

2) Optimizing Press Releases
“The old world of PR is changing and it’s not coming back” – SES San Francisco 2010

3 things to remember in today’s press releases:
- Optimize
- Publicize
- Socialize
- Crunchin’ the stats:
  - 89% of reporters/editors turn to blogs for story research
  - 52% turn to microblogging services such as Twitter
  - 65% of media use social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn for story sources
  - 100% of journalists use Google as a tool when working on stories.
  - Quick tips for optimizing
    - If longer than a few paragraphs, include a subheader
    - Don’t shorten familiar terms
    - Post to your website and through wire services
    - Include keywords in URL
    - Include a description tag
    - Include title of release

3) The Importance of Local Search

Fast facts

1. 74% of all users perform local searches

2. 61% of all local searches result in purchase

3. 57% of online shoppers say they shop online but plan to make purchases offline

4. 82% of local searchers follow up offline with an in-store visit, phone call or purchase

7 keys to being found on Google Map results

1. Have a verified listing

2. Have the same info from your verified listing in multiple popular directories

3. Have the appropriate categories selected

4. Have a website linked to your Google Places page

5. Have web references that verify your business

6. Have a physical address and local phone number

7. Have only one Google Places page associated with your business

4) Creating Compelling Content

Two types of content
- The unique content your create
- User generated content
- The main advantage of the good content you create
  - Control

§ Conversions + SEO

The CUL guide to creating great SEO sales content
- Customer personas are key
- Understand the benefits your bring to the table
- Leverage SEO opportunities

5) Simplifying Your Social Media Strategy

Locate your audience
- Aim for your audience
- Attract with Facebook landing pages
- Attract with contests and coupons
- Post fresh, relevant, and optimized content
- Integrate other social mediums and offline outlets
- Measure Engagement
  - Monitor analytics
  - Set up Google Alerts
  - Measure Fans
  - Monitor Comments
  - Measure “Likes”