Check out the full article here.

Jeremy and COO Michael Boyer also hosted a free webinar of the same title this morning. To sign up for future webinars here.

]]> http://blog.elementslocal.com/2012/05/16/elementslocal-article-published-on-franchising-com/feed/ 0 http://blog.elementslocal.com/2012/05/08/elementslocal-company-bbq/ http://blog.elementslocal.com/2012/05/08/elementslocal-company-bbq/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 21:57:22 +0000 tphillips http://blog.elementslocal.com/?p=1795 On April 27th, after a week of rain the skies opened up and the group here at ElementsLocal stepped outside to have a company barbeque. Connecting on a personal level is important to us and this was a great opportunity to relax and hang out with colleagues, family and friends. This outing was also a great way to introduce ElementsLocal’s two new employees, Suzan Ehdaie and Theresa Phillips. Suzan is a great new addition to our engineering team and Theresa will use her experience with client services to help us out with our directory optimization and correction services. Michael Boyer, our CFO manned the BBQ and served up some Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip, while the rest of the crew pitched in for this potluck picnic. Check out the pictures below to see some great candid photos taken by our Lead Engineer Mark Montano.

Matt was responding to a great question asked by someone in the audience:

“With so many SEO companies showing up claiming to do SEO, a lot of markets are getting saturated with optimized content…What are you doing to prevent, for example, if you’re looking for something, and the first page is just optimized content, and it’s not what you’re actually looking for? Are you pretty much out of luck if you’re not optimizing your site but it has relevant content? If I’m a mom or pop and I’m trying to optimize a site by myself, I’m going to get beat by people paying thousands of dollars.“

Matt’s response was:

“We don’t normally pre-announce changes but there is something we are working in the last few months and hope to release it in the next months or few weeks. We are trying to level the playing field a bit. All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly SEO – versus those making great content and great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, whether they throw too many keywords on a page, or whether they exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect in a particular area. It is an active area where we have several engineers on my team working on this right now.”

Cutts said the new “over optimization” penalty will be introduced into the search results in the upcoming month or next few weeks.

This news came as no surprise to ElementsLocal. As we monitor the constant Google changes we’ve noticed one thing – that Google is the great equalizer. They continually updates their algorithms in an attempt to normalize results, or as Cutts said  “level the playing field.”

We believe this new change will give websites with great content a better chance at ranking above sites that have content that is just simply optimized. And who better to create great content, as well as create the vehicle to deliver that content locally, than a franchise system!

Franchise systems can really take advantage of this, as well as many other updates happening with Google, by doing two things. First, by putting a system in place that allows Franchisees to contribute great local content that is brand and SEO compliant. Second, by putting a system in place that allows the Franchisor to ‘push down’ or roll down content to all Franchisees with properly applied SEO, avoiding wasted time and energy and avoiding Google’s new penalties.

Here are 5 tips that will help you adhere to SEO best practice and avoid any potential penalties for having an “over-optimized” website:

1. Keyword repetition on page
   Websites should repeat their target keyword phrase at most 3 or 4 times on any given page.  Repetition beyond that can draw negative attention to that page.
2. Internal ‘spammy’ site links
   You should use a normal linking scheme when linking to the other webpages of your website.  If you have a webpage about your company’s history, don’t link to that page using your top keywords if they don’t relate to that webpage.  Link to it using the term “Company History” or “Our Plumbing Company’s History”.
3. Purchasing exterior links
   Paying external websites to link to your own website is against Google’s terms of use policies and if discovered your site will be penalized or removed completely.  The word on the street is that this upcoming over-optimization algorithm Google is putting into place is much better at determining which links are paid links.
4. Backlinks from ‘spammy’ websites like link farms
   Web directories like yellow pages websites linking to your website does have value, even though that value will be small.  Some directories have little to no value and only serve the purpose of linking to you if you link to them.  Incoming links from these link farms or directories will send up ‘spammy’ signals to Google’s algorithm, so it’s better to avoid these types of links if possible.
5. Too many external links pointing to your website using keywords and not website name
   In recent years it has become common practice for link partners such as blogs to ask you what keywords you want in your anchor text pointing back to your website.  Having the keywords in all your inbound links reading “best seo company” appears ‘spammy’.  Instead, the anchor text should include your website name and possibly a keyword, such as “Elements, an SEO company”.  More often than not, letting the linking website create the anchor text will allow for a much more natural looking linking scheme.

The SportClips.com website features:

• Implemented SEO best practices
• Simplified navigation to make it easier for users to find Sport Clips locations near them
• Striking sports-themed visuals that are consistent with the Sport Clips in-store design

Sport Clips is a themed haircut chain for men that includes services such as a relaxing massaging shampoo, a hot towel facial and a neck and shoulder massage to finish.  “Our new website was inspired by our unique Sport Clips Client Experience,” said Martha England, Vice President of Marketing at Sport Clips, Inc. “SportClips.com features better search engine optimization and an enhanced user interface that will make finding our site easier and learning more about Sport Clips an enjoyable experience.”

To learn more about the new Sport Clips website or their business partnership with ElementsLocal you can view the press releasse here.

We are real people here at ElementsLocal.  We think about your business and how to improve your business.  Our passion is promoting your business through online marketing. Your business is appreciated.

Read theFull Story – San Luis Obispo Tribune

While Franchise Online Marketing has changed, our mission to deliver the best tools and solutions for online marketing hasn’t.

We’re looking forward to launching our ‘BrandLocal’ Campaign at IFA 2012 in Orlando FL.  

Our passion for the franchise industry and our passion for delivering the best, most comprehensive, online marketing platform for franchises has blossomed over the past 5 years. We now support over 3500 franchisees worldwide on our software.

We make franchisees LOCALLY WORLD FAMOUS. Through the use of our software, we drive national brands into local communities. This is our passion – to have every franchisee known as the Mom and Pop store of Everytown, USA.  Let us make your franchise locations the HUB of the town.

Here are some preparations we are taking in anticipation of the IFA convention and can also be applied to any conventions you will be attending in 2012:

• Find the Twitter hashtag – IFA’s is #IFA
• Download the IFA mobile app on your smartphone
• Prepare to collect contact info – business cards yes,  but better yet  get the information electronically

In anticipation of the IFA Covention, we are collecting data for our upcoming Webinar on January 18th, 2012 at 12pm CST ( register Franchise Online Marketing Boot Camp 2012).  To thank you for your time, we are giving away an IPad at the IFA convention to be drawn from those that took the time to help us by completing the survey.

Click Here to: Schedule a meeting with Elements at the 2012 IFA Conference.

Please take a few minute to take our marketing survey :  Franchisor Survey

CFE

The Institute of Certified Franchise Executives CFE accreditation courses for 2012 have been posted.

Visit this link for course and registration information:

2012 CFE Accreditation course and registration info.

Having just completed a major upgrade of their franchisee store websites, ColorTyme is looking to ElementsLocal™ to now equip the new web sites with world-class Search Engine Optimization (SEO), with an emphasis on enhancing localized results.

“We’re pleased that ColorTyme has chosen us to leverage our expertise in SEO, and to take them to the next level by improving the customer experience on the web site, and improve their overall search engine optimization strategy,” says Jeremy LaDuque, President & CEO of ElementsLocal™.

One key aspect of the ElementsLocal™ strategy is to leverage the trust customers have in the national ColorTyme brand. “That’s really the winning combination,” LaDuque explains, “to strike the best possible balance between national brand awareness and local presence.”

Amy Woods, ColorTyme’s Director of Marketing, says she recognized a parallel between ColorTyme’s focus on supporting locally owned businesses and ElementsLocal’s expertise in optimizing web sites to deliver results to local franchise stores. Woods added, “We believe that people like to shop where they live, where they’ll be buying from locally owned businesses that share their values. Every ColorTyme franchise is an independently owned business, and we are all about driving customers to the local stores. We are happy to have found such a well-matched partner in ElementsLocal.”

About ElementsLocal™

ElementsLocal™ provides online marketing solutions to franchise companies looking to leverage local franchise websites, email campaigns and social media marketing.  The ElementsLocal™ platform can be seen at www.elementslocal.com which includes a virtual tour of their franchise solution software. Based in San Luis Obispo, CA, and founded in 1999, clients include Glass Doctor, Sport Clips, MAACO, Jiffy Lube, Curves, Home Helpers,  and Floor Coverings International.

The announcement from MAACO’s corporate offices in King of Prussia, PA comes after a nearly five year relationship with ElementsLocal to provide other marketing solutions including localized, content managed, websites for franchisees.

Warren Stoll, the Director of Marketing for MAACO commented that, “[he’s] excited about some of the new enhancements ElementsLocal will provide. Adding things like social media and making the website mobile ready are critical in today’s world.”

“With this new initiative MAACO has entrusted ELEMENTS to provide our online marketing services to drive more leads to their nearly 500 franchisees nationwide,” says Jeremy LaDuque, President & CEO of ElementsLocal. LaDuque continues, “recent efforts with MAACO have been very positive, with increases upwards of 300% to their websites and search rankings. This effort will build upon those successes to ultimately drive more business to the local Franchisees.”

Additionally, the industry acclaimed ElementsLocal™ Content Management Software (CMS) will be leveraged for local content contribution, lead management and social media marketing. The result will be a new modern design, updated functionality and an extension of the company’s online brand presence which will result in increased leads at both the local and national level.