Hi, my name is Lee Waltham

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, and as cliche as it sounds…YES, it’s because I’ve been busy. Alot of the stuff I’ve been working on over the past few months has been focused around Local SEO. So, What is ‘Local SEO’? It’s just that…Local…SEO. It’s the process of optimizing your website so that it can be found by local customers when they are searching online.

For example, if you are searching for an electrician in Winnipeg, youre more than likely going to use a phrase similar to “winnipeg electrician” The results for the electricians in Winnipeg show up at the top of the search results under “Places for electrician near Winnipeg, MB”

When searching online for information on Local SEO strategies you’ll find the same 5 blogs with the same 10 tips repeated and recycled. So what I wanted to do was share some tips, that through my recent experiences, have allowed me to push ahead of the my competitors. These are tips and tricks that fall outside of the typical Local SEO set up and foundation; Google places, Local Directories and Citations, URL’s, Local # on the site, etc.

Note: It’s still very important not to skip out on ‘the usual steps’ I just mentioned as they are an important part of the Local SEO foundation…but once you have completed that foundation…there are some things you can do that might set you ahead a little!

(These are in no order of importance BTW)

1. Image Optimization

Using pictures is a great way to be transparent with your business, but one crucial area of optimization that many businesses overlook is in optimizing their images. Here are some steps that you might want to consider:

- Optimize your file name to include your keywords and phrases   eg. electrician-in-winnipeg.jpg
- Add your images to your Google Places page
- Upload your images to Flickr and then link them back to your website

This type of image optimization should really be done for all images on your site. SEO is about consistency so continue to add new images over time — to your website, to your blog, to Facebook, and on Flickr (linked back to your site) and optimize them. Images alone are good insight into your business and help build trust…and with all of these extra optimizations over time it should help you with your overall SERP Rank.

2. Foursquare

With GPS enabled smart phones and geo targeted search marketing applications like Foursquare.com becoming ‘mainstream’ ( even my parents are checking into places on Foursqaure) and heavily used with a large user base…these tools can be used as an effective part of your strategy.

Google Maps and now Bing Maps display Foursquare venues when someone performs a local search and Google is now starting to use the tips and shouts from Foursquare venues for citations about local businesses…and these citations are used in the rank algorithm. Foursquare venue pages are ranking in search results…and those venue pages have your business name, address and again link directly to your Foursquare venue page which lists your contact info, including your phone number… See whee I’m going with this?

One simple strategy that I’ve seen help rankings, is to start getting all your employees using Foursquare, and get them to check-in when they get work. This is a simple way to start using Foursquare but believe me it helps.

Depending on the type of business and industry you can develop some creative ways to use Foursqaure with both staff and customers, like contests, rewards, games etc.

3. N.A.P. or Name, Address, and Phone

N.A.P. Consistency is HUGE when it comes to local SEO. I was recently reading an article on State of Search that covered the SMX Advanced New York 2011 session, and almost all of the panel members menitoned this as one of the most important factors when it comes to local SEO and getting your local business to that prized position at the op of the Google SERP’s.

So what does N.A.P. stand for? N.A.P. stands for Name, Address, Phone Number. It might not seem like a big deal but when you start to realize how Google and other search engines look at your business you will quickly realize why N.A.P. Consistency is such an important piece of the puzzle.

Here is one of the best explanations I’ve been able to find to give you some more insight:

‘Each link (or citation) to your business on the web gives your overall Google Place page, and your main website “credit”. It takes a certain amount of credits to reach the top of Google’s search engine for the keywords that would potentially represent your business. ’

However long it takes you…go through and make sure that all your websites, landing pages, citations, social profiles ALL list the same contact information. This could mean the difference of you being listed above the Google Maps listing or below…and that could be costing your big business.

Can’t Give Away All The Tricks….

Local search is hot right now, and everyone is trying to figure out their strategy and perfect their techniques that will push them ahead of their competition – so obviously I can’t give away everything…but never forget that there are potential customers that are actively trying to find you via the search engines everyday. Local SEO strategies simply aim to get your info, website, and business in front of the people that are most likely to use – those that are physically located near it. Utilizing local SEO techniques as a part of your marketing strategy will make it much easier for potential customers to find your local business and result in more sales and cash flow.

If you have ideas about local marketing and local seo I would love to hear them here. Even if you have a related article you would like to share, send it to me so I can read it!

In 2011…Every business absolutely needs to have a web / digital strategy…Yes, especially small businesses. The Internet  and technology are now the two most important tools for driving new business and increasing efficiency. You may be reluctant to change the way you do business, but your customers aren’t. Your customers are changing they way they do business very rapidly and as a business owner you must adapt. Without an effective web presence your business is at risk of falling behind while your web savvy competitors thrive.

Your digital strategy can be as simple as having a landing page with a web form for customers to submit their information, and then following up on each submission with an automated email auto responder.

Gone are the days of just putting up a website with some information and not giving it any thought. These days you need to think STRATEGY.

Just like traditional advertising you need to be creative and give your digital strategy some thought and like I said earlier, the ones who rise to the occasion are the ones who will thrive. Your website is the center of your digital strategy and obviously for that reason it’s very important.

What all did you consider when you created your current website?

Will you host the site yourself or will your web company host?
Will you require the ability to manage your own content?
What content management system will you use? Custom or Opensource?
Who will manage the content on the site?
Who will create the content?
What content, text, info, videos, images, etc do we need to incorporate?
Will vistors be able to submit their information for a quote?

And these are just SOME of the things you should run through before even thinking of building your website!
There is much more to consider when it comes to usability and conversion optimization.

“What exactly is the purpose of your website and what do you want it to do?”

In my personal experience, a lot of business owners make the mistake of not taking their digital strategy serious and making their decisions based only off cost. Having a good strategy doesn’t necessarily mean an expensive one, and in the end it’s all relevant.

You can still have an effective website that is cost effective.
(why does your website need 15 pages anyway???)

If you have a plan, develop a strategy, create a mockup of your site, think of how users will USE your website, and have quality yet compelling content…you’d be off in the right direction and it wouldn’t be long until you see a return on your initial investment.

Instead of thinking “how cheap can I get my website made for”…start thinking about how your going to use your website to make connections, generate interest, and increase awareness for your brand.

Your website is just a piece of the entire equation. You also need to start thinking about search engine optimization, driving traffic, optimizing site conversions, and more. However, your website is still the center so it is one of the most important pieces of your overall strategy.

Remember…you might be reluctant to change, but your customers aren’t. Please give it some thought.

LW

I’m very excited for this event. It’s hosted by @matshepseo

Wednesday, August 24, 2011, 5:30 PM

4Play SportsBar & Entertainment Zone
323 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB (map)

http://www.meetup.com/Social-Media-Manitoba-Tweetup/events/25672671/

This isn’t a ‘Website Vs. Landing Page’ blog post. The two are completely different and serve different functions. This is just some insight I thought I’d share as to my perspective on the whole landing page and website topic. I find myself explaining the difference between a landing page and a website to clients a lot more frequently now.

The term ‘Landing Page’ has definitely become more popular over the last year or so, and I’ve had many potential clients tell me they just want/need a ‘landing page’, and NOT an entire website. In the majority of cases the potential client just wants a one-page website because it’s cheaper than building out an entire site from the ground up.

But this isn’t always the case. I’ve seen single page landing pages that cost $10k-$15k to produce. That’s right…for one page.

So, what is a landing page? A landing page is basically a web page that a visitor arrives at after clicking a link. Depending upon the situation, a landing page can be part of your website or might be hosted separately from your website. Most commonly landing pages are hosted separately because they are set up to target a single particular product or service, with a single traffic stream, for example a highly targeted Google Adwords campaign. With that being said, there is always going to be some overlap. Your website may have several “landing pages” within it. Like a Roofing Contractor that specializes in roofs, windows, soffit and fascia, etc. and has a separate landing page for each specialty.

SEOMOZ is a good example of a site that has many landing pages within it, but also has very popular information, blog, and resource pages.

The online marketplace is extremely competitive so usability and conversion optimization have never been more important. Everyday there are more and more businesses competing for emails, calls, leads, and customers. You want to make sure that you are getting the best bang (conversion rate) for your buck and that none of the traffic that you’ve invested time and resources into, is slipping through your hands.

You may be loosing out on customers because you have too much information on your website. Give your website visitors exactly what they were looking for and you will compel them to stay on the site and potentially convert. Below is a beautiful example of a simple, clean, and extremely effective landing page. Again from SEOMOZ, this time their Pricing Plans Page.

The concept of designing a web page around converting the visitor into a customer, is not by any means a recent concept but only recently has the general public started catching on. It’s probably accurate to assume that most websites that have been around for a while were not developed with this as a primary design factor.  It has only been in the last few years, with the rising popularity of web marketing, design, and technology that most have begun to understand the importance (depending on the situation) of designing a website focused primarily on converting. That conversion can be in the form of a phone call, a web enquiry, an email, newsletter sign up, or a purchase.

People are used to buying things online and using your credit card and doing business on the internet isn’t a big deal anymore. The net has evolved and so has the way people use it. Today, even the majority of offline retail purchases only take place after the potential customer performed research online. For me, this has been a real positive because clients are now starting to understand the value of strategy. In my experience it has been very cool to see clients latching on quickly to #’s (analytics, conversion rates, cpc, cpa, etc.)

Online Marketing and digital media have now become one of the most important tools for a business owner when it comes to business development and strategy.

So ….. if you were a Contractor who’s average customer spent $5000.00 to $10,000.00, would you pay $10k-$15k for a professionally designed landing page that helped to convert 5% more of your web visitors customers? Of course you would!

People are used to spending for advertising. Business owners have been paying through the roof for ‘yellow’ book ads for years with no idea of how many people were actually viewing the ad. Now as a business owner you can have total control over your marketing and by using the tools available out there, you can make more educated business decisions with better #’s.

So long story short… landing pages aren’t always cheaper because the’re only 1 page.

Keep posted as I’ll have some more stuff coming on this topic.

You all remember late last year when Groupon reportedly turned down Googles offer of (a rumoured) $6 Billion? Then in January of this year, Google announced that it had plans to launch Google Offers.

Google’s Statement:

Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.

Now it seems as if Google is looking to take this program to new heights by lauching it in three major markets; The Bay Area, Portland, and New York City.

Google has now put up a page where you can sign up for Google Offers BETA and “receive up to 50% off or more at places you’ll love”.

Google Offers BETA Page

It’s going to be exciting to see this program roll out and very interesting to see how it integrates into Google’s existing Local  initiatives.

“Hey, another major company looking to compete in the local coupon / deal market?”

Sounds good to me. I know a lot of friends and business owners alike who’ve had tons of success with these types of sites. Friends cashing in on some serious savings with tons of companies offering awesome discounts, and business owners getting crazy amounts of exposure and repeat business they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Even here at the office we called a custom tailor that we found on Groupon and ended up buying almost a dozen custom suits between the office.

Google is notorious for keeping projects in BETA, but it is definitely going to be interesting as this rolls out.  Keep your eyes on this one.

On Wednesday April 13th we held the April meeting for the Manitoba Executive Group. It was a good turn out and we’ve started getting some really positive feedback.

Info on the Manitoba Executive Group from LinkedIn:

In today’s ever changing environment those that succeed are those that have a strong network around them to collaborate with. The Manitoba Executive Group was created to help accomplish that.

This is an opportunity to get introduced to more executives and exchange, ask questions and host discussions around issues relevant to us competing from a Manitoba base to a local or global market place.

Take advantage of the monthly events to build your network, your career and your business.

Sincerely,

Glen Buhler
Chair, Manitoba Executive Group

- Manitoba Executive Group on LinkedIn

- For those with Facebook Check out the Manitoba Executive Group Facebook Page

Work has been busy. Haven’t had too much time to update my personal site. Here’s some recent stuff we’ve been working on.

1. Clearview Rentals Website

We recently launched a site we’ve been working on for a local company called Clearview Rentals. Clearview Rentals is a local scissor lift rental agency that rents lifts to commercial and industrial contractors.

Here is a shot of their site; but go to http://clearviewrentals.ca to check out then entire website.

Overall this was an awesome project to be a part of and I look forward to working with Clearview on more stuff in the future.

2. Primal Contracting Landing Page

About a month or so ago we started working with Primal Contracting. Primal is a Winnipeg Foundation Repair company that has been around locally since 1996. In recent years the company has aggressively spent on advertising and has started to expand. Primal was spending (alot) on radio ads, yellow paged ads, newspaper, custom decals for their trucks, and more. We needed to create a website for Primal Contracting that would convert the large amount of web traffic coming to the site from offline sources, into leads. Phone calls, estimate requests, and emails.

Here is the screenshot of the new Primal Contracting site:

This past Friday Google unveiled their newest ad model dubbed “Media Ads”. In a recent blog post on the AdWords Blog, Dan Freidman goes into detail about the new service. The first thing that came to mind for me was that Google already has a program called “Video Extensions” that is currently in Beta. How is this any different?

“To start, Media Ads isn’t targeted like typical AdWords ads on Google.com. With Media Ads, you don’t pick any keywords — the targeting is completely automated. When someone enters a search on Google.com that our algorithms determine is directly related to your movie title (most commonly the title and variations on it), we automatically display your Media Ad at the top of the search results page. ” writes Friedman.

Friedman continues and explains the new “lightbox” feature (which I think is pretty cool)

“Unlike Video Extensions, which uses an in-line video player to show videos on Google.com, Media Ads introduces a new Lightbox media player. When someone plays your video either by clicking the thumbnail or the “watch” link, the Lightbox player expands to the center of the screen and dims the rest of the page around it. The experience is meant to put the viewer’s full attention on the video and to create a much more theater-like experience.”

Check out this pic of the lightbox:

Google Media Ads Lightbox

Friedman finishes his post by mentioning that Media Ads is still limited for use by Major Movie Studios but Google plans to make the option available to all advertisers in the future.

My Take:

As a long time Google AdWords user I can’t for this and other media features to be released for use to all advertisers. Video is extremely powerful and to be able to use video ads as a part of your AdWords campaigns, it gives potential customers a new way to interact with your product, service, or company, without having to leave the Google results page.

I personally can’t wait to be able to use these types of ad formats for clients. We already recommend the use of video to the majority of our clients, so to be able to incorporate that into paid search campaigns would make things very exciting.

So it’s my first post on my new blog and instead of trying to think of a witty first blog post title, I’ve decided to just keep it as is.

So Hello World!

I don’t really know what else to say in this post – but I’ll let you know a couple of cool things about the site:

1. I created this site to be as simple as possible.

I’m really busy with work and I just need a basic blog to experiment with strategies, share ideas and thoughts, network, and connect with other people who have the same interests.

2. I’m using WordPress to manage my blog.

I’m a fan of custom but for a simple blog WordPress has everything I need.

3. I used the Yoast SEO plug-in for wordpress to manage my SEO.

This plug-in is awesome and one of the better plug-ins I’ve used. They have made some great improvements on this plug-in and I’d love to list all the features for you here but it’s probably easier if you go to the Yoast site and check it out for yourself…There’s alot.

4.  I created and published this post from my iPhone4 using the WordPress App

How cool is that? Now I can pretty much manage all of my social media from my phone, on the go. If you blog, or are thinking of starting up a blog or mini-site, and you have an Iphone (or other smart phone) I suggest you check out the WordPress app.