What exactly is website hosting?
I already have hosting, do I need to use the Local Buzz hosting?
There are 1000s of website design companies to choose from, what makes Local Buzz different?
Overview of Website Development
The goal of EVERY small business website is to get the viewer to Take Some Form of Action.
The Call-To-Action is the single MOST IMPORTANT part of any small business website. Most website companies are great at development, but they do nothing for marketing.
How to determine the correct Call-To-Action:
1. Consider WHO is viewing your site:
New Prospects?
Current or Repeat Clients?
Referred Prospects?
Employees or Prospective Employees?
Vendors?
2. WHY are they on your site?
To learn something new?
To research price?
To learn about a company?
To find contact info?
The 4 D’s of the Website Building Process
1. Define goals of website (generate leads, educate, gather info, etc)
2. Design Ideas
3. Development of actual site
4. Deployment
The Header
Top Left: Benefits (Most Valuable Spot)
Center: Company Logo or Name
Top Right: Phone Number (Call-To-Action)
IMPORTANT : How To Set Up and CLAIM Your Personal Facebook Vanity URL Website Address
If you don’t claim your Facebook vanity URL somebody else will. What exactly is a vanity URL? It’s basically your name or business name attached to the end of the Facebook.com address. For example: My name is Joe Burnich so my vanity URL is: www.facebook.com/joeburnich.
Get A Free Google Local Business Map Listing (Google Places Page Setup)
In order to fully optimize your website you need a Google Place page. It is absolutely necessary for local business SEO. Read more »
4 BIG Reasons You Should Use Facebook Fan Pages For Business – Not Personal Profiles
I just got an email from a local social media firm JAM Media Group. It really got me thinking and kind of freaked me out. Here is how it went:
“I have seen an increasing trend in my area of businesses setting up a personal profile on Facebook for their business instead of using Official (Fan) Pages. I’m not sure why there is such a sudden increase other than Facebook has definitely become mainstream and businesses are looking for a way to use this powerful tool to promote their products and services.”
Personally I (and I think most business owners) set up a business under a personal account because it is much easier to “request friends” than to get “likes”. Anyway, the email continues:
“Here are just a few of the benefits a business receives through the use of Official (Fan) Pages:
1.) Pages Are Easy to Find, Thanks to Search Engine Optimization: Do you want to make your business easy to find online for current and potential customers? Official Pages are public and they are also indexed by the search engines, unlike personal pages. This means that your customers may be able to find you through your Official Page using Google. Also, when your page is used properly, it may even rank as high or higher than your company website.
2.) Terms of Service Compliance: Are you violating Facebook’s Terms of Service?
Section 4.2 “You will not create more than one personal profile.” Read more »
Little Known Secret On How To Get Reviews On Google Places
One of the many factors that goes into ranking Google places is getting lots of reviews from lots of different sources. Online reviews are GOLD for local internet marketing. Google Places is now reaching across local blogs, portals and news sites and retrieving blog entries and comments for inclusion as reviews on their Places Pages. It can difficult and time consuming to find sites that Google draws information from (until now).
Follow these steps to easily find local sites get reviews on Google Places:
1. Search Google for locally prominent blog and news websites that have a strong presence in your city or area. For example: I live in Missoula Montana so I searched for “Missoula News”. Of course this resulted in all the top newspaper sites and blogs. Read more »
The Big Local Advertising Shift
Consider the following consumer behavior:
• “70% of US household now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services” (Kelsey Group)
• 31% of all business buyers turn to a Search Engine first when looking for a locally based product or service
• Product Research and Comparison shopping happens online, but 67% of those purchases happen offline (Accenture)
• 90% of purchases are made within 50 miles of a person’s home (Kelsey) Consider the following local search data:
• 43% of all searches on the Google network included a geographical identifier. 86% of those people followed up with a phone call. 61% of those people ended up making a purchase offline. Read more »
