Are you a local business that is eagrly looking for a way to be found online? or possibly you have a lot to say about your industry? If you haven’t launched a company blog yet you should really do so. A blog can give your business or company a local voice to be heard. There is no set way that you must use a blog it can be entirely customized to your style of business.

many businesses use blogs in a variety of different ways. If you target local business you can write about anything and everything local to drive traffic and gain visibilty. if you are a local business put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Lets say you are a boutique selling womens shoes and you have a blog on your stores website. try to think about what it is that those women would like to read about. Don’t get scared to even write about competitors. If you are confident about your business you won’t have a problem. Let’s say you write about an event going on at a nearby competitors store. You have a good chance of pulling away a customer that typically shops at your competitor. Maybe they haven’t heard about your shop before and while they where searching for your competitor they found your business and plan on visiting it. Not syaing you should be promoting your competition non-stop but a little here and there can pull in some of that business and it also sends an important message, a message that says you are confident about your business that you are not scared to mention your competitor.

How do you promote your business online? Do you even have a website? If not, why? If you are like many smaller local businesses you might have seen the doors to your business just not opening as much as they used. How much competition do you have? Have you taken the time to see what they are doing online so that you can keep up with them?

It is important to analyze your competition’s efforts online. if you have not taken your business online yet you need to stop waiting and get to it. We understand that the reality of venturing into the unknown can be very daunting.  For a business to really survive and flourish they must adapt with times and embrace change. Take a step back and learn as much as you can about what types of online marketing exist. It can be something simple like search for your competitors company names to see what websites their information is sitting in. Do you live in an area where their are any colleges? reach out to your local colleges and see if you can get an intern or a college student part time to help you get your business off the ground in the online space. Local internet marketing will be a must as time moves forward. Newspapers and phone books are increasingly growing less in traction and use. Start by analyzing what your competition is doing if you are truly confused on where to begin. It will at the bare minimum give you a benchmark or starting point. As you attempt to launch some of the various profiles and efforts you find your competition doing you will gain an understanding on what kind of approach you should be taking for your online marketing approach. Once you really get going you will have a much better understanding of things work. If you absolutely need to learn it yourself just take things slow. Learn one thing at a time. You most likely have heard the names of some of the more popular online sites like Twitter and Facebook. Create an account at one website and take your time and learn how to use it. Once you have done that you can then move onto the next.

If you have started performing search engine optimization efforts for your online business but want to add something to the mix for you local advertising efforts to gain some traction try researching some local blogs that your audience might be on. For example if you own a restaurant in Boston try finding all the various blogs and foodie related discussion boards and message boards and become active on these sites.

This will give you exposure for your business or restaurant fairly quickly. By isolating all the relevant blogs you can put together a solid blog commenting campaign for your business. One thing that you have to remember is to always leave well written and educated comments on these blogs so you are not flagged as a spammer. Blogs are amazing tools for business and communication and your local business could generate great traffic to your website if you use them correctly. Sticking to the example of the restaurant if you target foodie type blogs at first this will give you great experience on how to target other blogs. You have to put yourself in the mindset of your audience. Ask yourself, what type of blogs would they visit? If your business is near a high traffic tourist area than travel blogs might also be a good place to comment and leave your link behind. Someone visiting the area could plan around a time when they might want to eat at your restaurant. The more you can think how your audience thinks the more likely you can find a way to be visible in front of them. Even if you have not had experience marketing your business online and have only done offline same principals still apply.

If you are a local business that makes a living of selling products or providing a service than you know that budgets are tight and most businesses are being very careful they way they spend any marketing dollars right now. Most businesses are avoiding anything that has a long term goal on it but it is important to not avoid it entirely. There are many ways you can market your business or yourself online that only cost you time. If you have a business that has seen the door swinging open much less than usually than a few hours per week to brand your self online really should be a problem. Now is not the time to roll over and take a hit, it is survival of the fittest and only the best will be left standing when the dust settles. Here are a few ways to keep your branding moving forward.

1. LinkedIn: If you are an accountant, web designer or any type of service related business LinkedIn is a website dedicated towards business minded professionals can meet and network right from the comfort of your computer. LinkedIn is filled with opportunities to be able to engage in conversations and discussions with other industry professionals that might be looking for what you offer.

2. Blog Commenting: Do some research online and find other industry related blogs that are regionally targeted to your specific area and start leaving some educated comments on blog posts to get web traffic over to your site.

3. Set up a MySpace and  Facebook Page: Yes I know that people talk about all the hype about these sites and many people are clueless how to use them but it is important you venture into this area real soon, like yesterday. These social networking powerhouses allow you to search regionally and by demographics so you can really isolate the type of customer you are looking and then try connecting with them.

4. Twitter: Now for someone who still is not sure how to set up a MySpace page Twitter might be a little difficult to understand but just realize that you need to be there. Just look at it as the fast moving forum discussion you will ever see. You can see thousands of little conversations and really chime in at any moment. Over time this will brand your business or your name depending on which direction you are taking on Twitter.

5. Your Website: Before you look at all this other stuff take a look at your website first. Do you have one? If not climb out from under the rock you have been sleeping under and build yourself a decent website. Get someone that knows what they are doing not one of your buddies who took a class five years ago. If you do have a site ask yourself when was the last time it was updated? If the last time it was updated was during the dot com boom you are probably due for a revamping of your website. People judge a book by it’s cover every you go. Personal branding is important so make sure your website is new, fresh and inviting.

With nationwide commerce hurting worse than most of us have ever seem it is important to find your local customers and start building a relationship with them no matter what it is you sell. Regardless of what you offer if you have seen a slow down in your business it might be time to focus on your immediate community. In this time it is easier to big a big fish in a smaller pond through local advertising. Here are some ways that can help you do that.

Keywords: Do the research and find out what people in your area are typing into the search engines to find what you are selling. Once you do the research and find these words you can then target specific campaigns aiming at those people.

Launch a Blog: This shouldn’t be news to you. Launching a blog will help drive traffic, especially with localized keywords that you have done in your keywrod research.

Social Networking: Almost all social networks will allow you to drill down geographically to find people in your area you can strike up conversation. Don’t down play this process, it works if done correctly.

Optimize: If you have felt a significant impact in business try optimizing your website with localized keywords to drive in new business through your website.

Boston web marketing firm, Brick Marketing has launched a series of workshops in 2009 for any small or large brick and mortar business looking to get started on marketing their business online.

Nick Stamoulis, the president of Brick Marketing, will be conducting a series of workshops in order to help with everything from search engine optimization for your small business website to a successful and powerful email marketing campaign that will help generate sales. He will teach you how to effectively implement compelling copy into your newsletters in order to keep your email list interested and engaged in your newsletter. He will be going over the basics of how important it is to have a well optimized website in order to be 100% search engine friendly and readable by all the main search engines that most of your traffic uses. He will show real examples of good quality SEO techniques used in the industry along with proper link building techniques.

For any growing small business that has not made it online these workshops can really help clear up some doubts or fears you might have had in the past.

For more information on how the Brick Marketing Internet workshops can help your business please visit the following link:
http://www.brickmarketing.com/internet-marketing-workshops.htm

Tele Atlas, which is a leading global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, announced today that they have signed a long term licensing agreement with Google. This agreement will give Google the access to Tele Atlas maps and dynamic content in a global market of more than 200 countries from around the world.

“Google’s innovation and leadership is undisputed, and we are proud to have the opportunity to be the map foundation for one of the world’s most progressive web companies,” said Bill Henry, CEO of Tele Atlas. “This agreement is important too because it gives us access to input from a significant online community of map users, whose feedback can help us keep our maps fresh and accurate.”
“Geospatial data enhances global search significantly by organizing data and delivering results based on location,” said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps. “Tele Atlas’ map quality and the company’s innovative approach to business were the key drivers for our decision.”

The agreement between the two companies will encompass Google’s current and future map-based services, as well as their navigation offerings that span mobile, online and desktop environments. This will, of course, include Google Maps (including Google Maps for Mobile) and Google Earth. Tele Atlas, for their part, will be given access to geographical edits from Google’s global community of users.

Tele Atlas, with the previous purchase of Tom Tom, has access to the largest navigation community, which they tap to continually point out errors and corrections to maps. With the Google partnership, they now also have access to the largest internet-based community.

In the end it means more users, more accurate maps and most likely, more accurate ads when all is said and done. The real interest will be in the dynamic changes and advances to be made with a real merging of dynamic geographical information and a company that pushes for locally pinpointed mobile advertising.

We have a lot of emails in our box asking us “Which is the best promotional strategy?”

First let’s look at the background:

There are over 140 million websites currently in existence, with millions more pages within them. While only a fraction of those sites are actively updated and promoted, statistically it still means that if your site doesn’t have a promotion strategy, it will never stand out bright enough to be seen in an endless internet sky.

Now let’s look at what your current strategy is for your website or internet business:

Are you relying on home-learned SEO tactics? Are you launching an all out Local Mobile Media Campaign? Are you relying upon a Pay Per Click model? What’s working? What’s falling flat?

Now lets give you the answer that you might not like:

There a lot of strategies out there to increase your exposure and traffic, and ultimately make you a tidy profit, but which strategy is the best for you? You’ll notice that I didn’t ask “Which is the best promotional strategy?” I didn’t ask it, because it’s a trick question, there is no magic bullet to internet marketing, there is only the creation of a strategy that fits your business model the best.

So What is Your Solution?

The solution for a business that is serious about their internet marketing campaign is to have a Local Web Marketing expert look at your business from every available angle and personalize a strategy for you. It’s possible that your current strategy needs only to be fine-tuned, and it’s possible that it will need to re-hauled completely to look into new marketing arenas.

Just about everyone is talking about Google Earth’s 3-D mapping images and how incredibly cool it is. Accesses maps, satellite imagery and aerial photography taken in the last three years has been combined to create 3-D maps that can be manipulated using a variety of features including navigational controls for tilting, zooming in and out and moving left or right.

Standard mapping tools such as distance calculators and routing directions are included, but it is the pure inclusive experience of really looking at something with the ability to explore it that has people buzzing.

Remarkably, I have seen very little about the local advertising potential that is exploding with this new imagery software. The travel industry is understandably the most excited, and why wouldn’t they be? If Travel Company A advertises its offerings using Google 3-D, customers will have the ability to really know and get excited about their destination; they can virtually visit the surrounding area of restaurants, shops, and fascinating side streets. If Travel Company B is advertising the same trips, with 5 static 2-D images, I can tell you straight out who is going to win that advertising war.

If you want to see how great this can be, go and see the Disney Google Earth site. I bet you’ll be taking a virtual vacation, and planning a trip there, in about 2 minutes flat.

There is potential for an absolute explosion of commercial applications for Google Earth 3-D for local advertising. Real Estate firms, retailers, service firms, Parks and Travel are just the beginning. If these companies don’t get into the 3-D game, they might find themselves lost in the dusty pages of search engine static.

It´s commonly known that Google and Yahoo are two of the biggest local pay per click networks around and many people use them. However, these two advertising giants aren´t the only ones out there and you may find that there are quite a few advantages to advertising with another local pay per click service.

In general, you will end up paying less per click with a smaller advertising network than you would with Google, particularly with the more popular keywords that often end up in bidding wars. This means you can save a lot of money, stretching your local pay per click advertising dollars out a lot further.

When looking for an alternative to the PPC giants, it´s a good idea to find one that fits the following requirements:

• Has been around for more than a few months
• Offers a banning system where you can decide which sites your ads should NOT appear on
• Has good to great reviews
• Offers quick replies to any questions or problems you may have
• Gives you an easy to use layout

Finding the right local pay per click alternative will take some research, but in the end you could save quite a bit of money and end up gaining a lot more visitors to your website. After which, it´s time for your landing page to do the work!

Many business owners know that they will have better luck with long tail keywords than short, general search terms. Now, Google local (maps) advertisers can choose their very own categories, and make use of long tail category names if they wish.

This is something that could potentially add a lot of value to the Google Local ads. The ability to figure out which long tail keywords people are searching for in order to find your type of business can greatly increase the chances of them finding you. Just use that long tailed keyword as your category.

Not all the pre-made categories on Google Local are actually appropriate for some businesses, so if someone feels the need to place their business in another category, a custom one, it can be very useful in searches. You might want to make use of this great new feature if you are currently advertising or plan to advertise on Google local ads.

Do you run a local hospitality business? If so, then you need to check out this post by Miriam Ellis on where Google Local Maps are sourcing their reviews. This is great news if you have your own local business in the hospitality industry . . . send your happy customers to one of the following websites to review your hotel or restaurant and you have a far better chance of getting some great reviews showing up on Google local maps.

10best.com
Aol.com
ChefMoz.org
Citysearch.com
Dine.com
DiningGuide.com
Dinnerbroker.com
Frommers.com
Gayot.com
Giatamedia.com
Greenopia.com
Holidaycheck.com
Holidaycheck.de
Holidaycheck.es
Holidaycheck.fr
Holidaycheck.it
Holidaycheck.nl
Holidaycheck.pl
Holidaycheck.ru
Hotelchatter.com
HotelGuide.com
Hotelguide.net
Insiderpages.com
Menupages.com
Mytravelguide.com
Priceline.com
RestaurantRow.com
Travelocity.com
Travelpost.com
Tripadvisor.com
Virtualtourist.com
Yahoo.com
Yelp.com
Zagat.com

All of these are from Miriam´s research of over 1,000 Google local map reviews. While some of these websites may not be very well known, they are obviously interesting to Google and should be watched carefully. Others, like Tripadvisor and Yahoo, are obviously already huge. Using these websites to your advantage can be a very intelligent move!

Yesterday, we looked at some methods of on-page local search engine optimization techniques to help boost your website´s search engine rankings. The ones covered yesterday were pretty basic and something that anyone can do, really. Today, we will take a look at some slightly more advanced local search engine optimization techniques. You´ll need to know a bit more to get these ones done, but you could also hire someone to help you integrate them into your blog.

Meta tags. Including your keywords in the meta tags of your webpage can really help with local search engine optimization.

Keyword tags. Add all your keywords and keyword phrases to the keyword tags. The latest version of Wordpress makes this super easy with a separate line below the posting area.

Text links. Using text links that have your keywords as the anchor text can help things as well.

No-follow tags. This can be very useful when linking out to a “bad neighborhood”. Search engines won´t penalize you for linking to sites they don´t approve of if you use a no-follow command.

Sitemap. A sitemap lets search engine bots find each and every page on your website quickly and easily and helps you rank higher for keywords.

Themed keywords. Use your primary keywords, but add other ones in the same topic category. For example if your keyword is “make money online”, you might also use “earn money” and “home business”.

These more advanced local search engine optimization techniques allow you to get higher rankings, thus bringing in more traffic. It´s a good idea to employ as many local search engine optimization methods as possible to boost your chances of making it to that number one spot.

We took the day off for Thanksgiving. We hope you had a happy holiday as well. Many of you are probably still not back at work, taking the weekend to go shopping. Many more of you are working today because your store is where the other half are shopping. Without you, the world would shut down. You’re called retailers and we love you.

When it comes to local business, there is perhaps no business more entrenched in the local community than retail. Your products may come from anywhere, or they could be locally produced. But your customers, unless you do heavy volume from your website, likely come from your local community. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the Web to increase your business. And during this busy time of year, between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas, it is highly likely that your business will see increased volume. If you have a website then that is probably more true.

Having a Web presence for your local retail store is necessary because more and more people are going online to find businesses nearby to shop at. At one time, advertising in the local newspaper was the necessity. Then it was the radio. Then TV. More and more every day, the Internet is the place to be. If you haven’t started advertising online yet then you likely are falling behind your competition. Don’t you think it’s time?