Helping small businesses increase their web presence is a key value E. David Callender Consulting provides. I wanted to provide a case study of La Costa Upholstery, a small business in San Diego to show how any local small business can gain value by making a small effort every week.

The first step was revamping their website. The original website described La Costa Upholstery background and not was the value potential customers could gain by re upholstering their furniture. On the technical side the old website lacked basic on page search optimization: Little key word content, missing keywords in the title of the homepage), no meta tags (keywords) or meta descriptions. We chose to use WordPress as the framework of the site development and optimizing their website for the key phrases “Upholstery Repair and Upholstery Fabric“ within the geographic area of San Diego and more specifically the cities of Encinitas and Carlsbad.

The first effort for the development of the website was to created content that would both be of value for potential customers and would show search engines like Google and Bing that this website was about “Upholstery Repair and Upholstery Fabric. “ We chose to present information about the title “When is it time for Upholstery Repair?).

This content was placed in two locations of the website; the homepage and a blog post within the website. This allowed the viewer to get a quick understanding of La Costa Upholstery on the homepage and if they are interested to click on a hyper link to the blog post to get more information. From a on page search optimization point of view, having a homepage that is targeted to the key phrases and create “a deep link” within the website that will help with the ranking of the website in the future as we expand the content of the website.

La Costa Upholstery’s Google Places is here

The obvious goal of this project is to bring more customers to La Costa Upholstery. This will be done with standard Search Engine Optimization including:

• Increasing the ranking of La Costa Upholstery’s Local Search listing
• Link building
• Social Media development
• Use of Pay Per Click advertising

So as we move forward I will be tracking status of their:

• Present ranking for both local placing listing and web page ranking (1st page for both is goal)
• How much effort we expended by both E. David Consulting and the client
• Website’s traffic
• New customers contacting and coming into their business

If you have not already figured out, the other use of this blog post on my site is to create a directed link to La Costa Upholstery with the key words of interest. We will have to see if the gods at Google and Bing think that my blog post and the links I placed within the article are worthy of indexing and increasing the rank of the best Upholstery Shop near Encinitas CA.

Go to the Facebook homepage. Log into your account by typing your email address and password into the space provided and clicking the button marked “Login.”

Navigate to your Facebook fan page. Look the fan page over to make sure that you meet the prerequisites for having a custom vanity URL. You need to be an Administrator of the fan page and the page must have a minimum of 25 fans.

Go to the Facebook username menu by single clicking in browser’s address bar to place the cursor in it. Type “facebook.com/username” and click the “Enter” button. Note that you should actually type the word “username.” Do not substitute this with your personal user name.

Review the username menu screen. The screen is divided, with the top half devoted to your personal Facebook page, and the bottom half devoted to the fan pages of which you are an Administrator. Look over the page and familiarize yourself with the layout.

If you have 25 or more Fans get this done!

Click the drop down menu on the bottom half of the screen to retrieve a list of fan pages you administrate. Click on the page for which you wish to create a custom vanity url.

Choose a unique url. Type the address that you would like to use into the box provided as “facebook.com/myname,” replacing the “myname” portion with the actual name you would like to use. Click the “Check Availability” button to confirm that the selection is not already in use by another fan page, then click “Save” to complete the process.

Just remember: names will be given out on a first come, first served basis. Certain exceptions will be made for public figures and trademarked names, but that’s probably not an option unless your name is Madonna

Thumbtack.com
Guerilla Marketing for the Small Business

More Changes for Google Local Business Places

Talking the time to make it as easy as possible for customers to review your business on a variety of sources just got a big shot in the arm. Google made the decision to place the third party reviews above the fold and above Google’s own reviews. Most people do not scroll so reviews that are placed directly on Google may not be seen. Potentially, your best reviews on Google will be hidden behind old content from years ago on third party sites. On the positive side, a review on Yahoo shows not only on Yahoo local, but in Google as well. Total exposure is the goal, not just showing well on Google.

The first third party site displayed is the review site that has the most reviews (opentable.com above), then up to two other third party sites (yelp.com & tripadvisor.com) are displayed.

It is somewhat technical, but Google has also announced the development of “Rich Snippets” for local search which means that testimonials placed on your website could be aggregated on Google Places and treated as a review.

Key take home points

• Create a review page to make it easy for people to see and review your business
• Consider updating testimonials on your website so Google will capture and place them on Google Places
• Do not concentrate on Google as the only place to direct good customers to review you.

My guess is that Google is continuing to develop Google places as the prime access point for smart phones to use for local business.  So keep up and continue to provide and link information about your business on a variety of local third party websites.

How to use Facebook Places

Facebook’s How to Video
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
Keep Facebook Places From Driving You Crazy

Marketing Opportunities of Facebook Places

Three ways business can take advantage of Facebook Places
What Facebook ‘Places’ Means for Marketers and Developers

Competitors & Partners – Facebook Places

Why Recommended Places Are the Next Big Thing in Location
To 100 million and beyond with Google Maps for mobile

The Dark Side to Facebook Places

How to Almost Sabotage a Dinner Party With Facebook ‘Places’

Is it Time to get on Board the Facebook Train?

Facebook Places (just announced) is a direct competitor to Google Places.   Any small business that wants to take advantage of people shopping, and looking for places & services with their Smartphones should consider developing their Facebook presence.

What is Facebook Places?

Facebook Places is a mobile product that  can be accessed through Facebook’s most recent iPhone app or via on other phones by accessing touch.facebook.com.  If a Facebook Place is already created, a business can claim its Facebook Place and merge their existing Facebook Fan Page with Facebook’s Place page. Facebook Places is similar to Google Places because information about the business is created and available.  The extra spin is that Facebook allows Facebook users to “check in” themselves and any of their Facebook  friends.  Check out Facebook’s video below to get a better understanding of Facebook Places:

Why should I care?
Remember that Facebook is the #1 application used on iPhones and Droids.  When people check into a Facebook Place, they are broadcasting that business to their Facebook network and any network of a friend they may have also checked in.  Right now if  10% of FB users use Facebook Places , that’s 50 Million people!  Over 100 Million people a month using Google Maps on mobile phones to find local businesses, Facebook Places may instantly have 50% of the value of Google Places.

I am not yet recommending investing in Facebook Places for all businesses. But if you are a restaurant or a business where people meet their friends,  Facebook Places could become as useful as Google Places, Review sites (ex. Yelp or UrbanSpoon) and Twitter combined.

For some large consumer brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks, their Facebook Fan page is becoming more important than their own websites.  Kraft Foods’ Oreo is the No. 3 brand page on Facebook with an 8.7 million fan base growing at a clip of 71,000 a day.

At a minimum I would recommend that you search Facebook to determine if they have created a Facebook Place for you business.  If Facebook has not I would create one.  This is a small effort for any small business, that could be the next big thing in promoting your business.  As always if you need help give me a call or send me an email.

This is a big topic and Part I of a series of Posts about Facebook Places I look to develop.  If you want more information now, here is a list of useful Facebook Places Articles.

Check out Appbrain

Customers seeing wrong review ratings

The greatest asset for a business’s  Local Business Listing is favorable reviews placed on the listing  by satisfied customers.  New customers seeing a poor review rating can drive customers to pass you by and contact your competitors.

Hopefully this will be a short term problem, but you should check your business listing on Google Places.  Hopefully only a few unlucky business owners are having the problem of Google  displaying the opposite star rating of review sites that it imports.

An example is The Paper Place.  Their ratings have been reduced from over 4 out of 5 stars to less than 2 out of 5 stars.

The Real Story - Good Reviews

The real data from the imported review sites are:
Ourfaves.com
13 reviews – average 4 stars
Toronto.ibegin.com
5 reviews – average 4.25 stars
Blogto.com
average 3 stars
Yelp.ca
8 reviews – average 4 stars

The good news is that The Paper Place posted this in the Google Maps Forum and Google’s Joel H states that this is now a problem that Google hopes to fix in the next few weeks.

Thanks for letting us know. We’re working on a fix and hope to get it resolved soon. It will likely be a multiple weeks before it’s resolved.   Thanks for reporting the issue!

Joel H

Google Employee
7/14/10

So check your Google Places listing to make sure you are not one of the unlucky. All you need to do is search for your business on Google Maps.  Click here http://maps.google.com/ , type in your business name and city, and search for your Google Places listing. Take a minute and make sure your business is not effected.

Tell us if you are experiencing this issue.  If you are we can help mitigate  the issue.

I have been working with Rib City Grill in American Fork and have established a great starting point for taking advantage of Google Tags.  The key is that when you search for “Restaurants American Fork” Rib City Grill is on that list (Click here to understand how to get on the Box 7).  If that is established then Google Tags can be leveraged very effectively.

Good Reviews & a Coupon - How can Customers not find out more

By being on the Box 7 list on the first page of Google searches, a business has a great deal of free exposure to potential customers.  The next step is having the customer first (or only) look at your information on Google Places.  Before Google Tags, having multiple, great reviews was the only key differentiator.  Now with Google Tags, you can differentiate by being the only one (at least right now) with a coupon or promotion.

If a customer is viewing Google Maps, Google Tags are also highlighted and right now with few businesses taking advantage of this new offer from Google you really stand out.  Check out some of the views of  how Google is highlighting Rib City Grill’s use of Google Tags.

The last view can potentially expand your reach and notice beyond the local map.  In a sea of red pins, customers will start to look for those lonely Yellow Tags with scissors indicating a coupon that saves them money.  And Remember that all these views are also on Google’s applications on smartphones.

Customers will be looking for those Yellow Scissor Tags

Take advantage of this new Advertising tool quickly and get ahead of your competitors that are either not in the know, or are slow to move.  But there is a process here.  They are:

1. Take control of your Local Business Identity
2. Maximize your presence and get on the Box 7 on Google
3. Get positive reviews of your business
4. Start advertising with Google Tags

I can help you with this effort

Tags are yellow markers that allow business owners to promote important aspects of their businesses. Scroll over Tags on Google or click on the sponsored link to view coupons, photos, or other select features.  Tags do not affect the rank of search results; they simply add more information when a particular user is searching.

Hightlight Coupons with Google Tags

If you are already on the Top 7 Box for your key search words and have a coupon or event your want to promote, spending $25.00 per month could be a no brainer.  It is clear that Google is looking to make some money from the development of Google Places.  Google is charging less then $1 a day to post a small ad of 22 characters under the short listing that appears next to the Business listing within the Top 7 Box on the Google Search Page.

To get the most out of those  little yellow arrows you need to be in that Top 7Box.  Knowing how we all want a deal,  being able to mention discounts, events and coupons directly on the search results page is going to help you entice people call or click.

Google Places Tags used on Mobile Web Applications

Coupons for Customers that are Smart Phone Enabled

With Nielsen’s latest study that 21% of all wireless subscribers in the U.S. now have smartphones,  Google Maps being the 2nd most popular download (after Facebook) and Google is providing retailers the ability to include coupons as part of their location search results – You have a real winner for a great way to promote your business on cell phones.

For an example of how Tags works, enter “hair salon” as a Google search on your phone. (You do not have to type the location – Your phone knows where you are). At the top of the page you will see a Google local search result listing a number of hair salons in Washington DC,  and one of the listings, Easel Hair Studio has a little yellow tag. When you tap the tag, which is clearly marked as a sponsored item, a coupon displays that you can present to the retailer for a savings.

I have not yet come across one of these ads yet in my own smartphone searches, but I will keep an eye out for them.  I anticipate using this service to find coupons for my favorite bike shop in the near future.

Have you received a call from a Google sales person yet about this service? It may be happening soon.  One of my clients got a call yesterday.  You can get in touch  with a customer service person at 800-838-7971.  I just wish that there was someone at Google to talk to when you have a problem (One of my mantras is that there is no customer service at Google.)

If you have used me to set up your Google Places listing, I will set up Google Tags for you for FREE.