Looking for More Local Leads?

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Brandon

This month we have already taken a look at the new Google Places result format and briefly explained how that can affect your rankings. Our FREE monthly webinar, “Localized Online Marketing: Winning Over the Locals,” scheduled for Wednesday November 17th will cover what you need to know about how to attract local leads by expanding upon our Google Places article as well as touching upon other local marketing strategies including how to reduce your pay-per-click campaigns and using social media to draw in potential customers.

We hope that you’ll join us but seating is limited so we recommend signing-up ASAP.

ELEMENTS Local Marketing Webinar:

“Localized Online Marketing: Winning Over the Locals”
Wednesday, November 17th @10am PST

Click Here to Sign-Up Now!

Google’s New Places Search Results and How They Will Affect Your Rankings

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Russ Lubin

As mentioned in my previous post Google’s search results have changed. In order to better understand how these new search results will affect SEO strategies I think it’s best to take a look at Google’s original intent behind these changes.

As you are probably aware Google has a variety of search types available. One can search for information through Google Images, Google News, Google Maps and more. Towards the end of October Google rolled out a new type of search they titled Google Places. The goal behind Google Places was to provide the searcher with a group of local results relevant to their search phrase that conveniently displays information about the business gathered from various sources like Google’s main search, its’ map search and external websites as well. Google would then blend the information gathered and produce a results page bearing that information along with a map of all of the competing Places on that results page. This format allows the user to get various information about local competing businesses right from a single search.

The image to the right shows the results of a Google Places search I ran for local BBQ restaurants. As you can see the results provides us with external links to review sites like Yelp, contact information including telephone numbers and physical address, a map location relative to their competitors and a link to the local business’s official website. Previously, in order to get all of this information about a single business a person would have to run multiple searches and some on external websites as well to find the corresponding reviews, and that was just for a single business. Now all of that information is displayed for the top local business and its’ nine top competitors.

These new search results would appear to be very useful, so useful in fact that when someone searches in the Google “Everything” search the search engine will attempt to determine whether the surfer could possibly be looking for local results. If Google determines that searcher is looking for local results it will provide a Google Places summary result at the very top of the search results. The picture on the left shows the results of a search run in Google’s “Everything” search using the same key phrase that we used in the Google Places search above. As you can see, Google is still giving us a map with competing locations, contact information, a link to the business’ official website and a link to Google’s own Places page which lists offsite reviews, pictures and customer testimonials. The link at the top of the results that reads “Places for bbq near San Luis Obispo, CA” will take the surfer directly to a Google’s Places search result, as will the “More results near San Luis Obispo, CA” below the Places summary.

So what do these new blended or hybrid results mean for Google’s general search results and SEO? It means quite simply that if your business does not receive one of these top Google Places results on the first page of Google then your website’s results are going to slip below the fold of the page and not be seen by nearly as many searchers. It means that if you have a brick & mortar business the time when you could just focus your efforts on either organic listings in the general search or local search results has passed and you will now need to focus on both.

7 tips to help your website rank well in the new blended search results:

Claim your places page. While sites can rank well without this effort, it is rare and far easier to have your listings rise to the top when you have claimed your Places page and added content to that page like photos of the business, hours of operation or even your menu.
Place your contact information in a clear spot on every page of your website; somewhere like the header or footer.
Use micro-formatting on your contact information. Google has stated that they use hCard formatting on contact information to tie websites & places together in their blends.
If you have multiple locations, build a separate website or page for each location focusing your optimization efforts on service & location.
Encourage recent customers to submit reviews of your service to varyious review sites like Yelp or Trip Advisor.
Place customer testimonials on your website and label them in a micro format to clarify that they are a reviews of your business.
Verify that your correct contact information is in the various online yellow pages websites and if it is not make an effort to correct it.

Google Local Results Are Finally Changing

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Russ Lubin

We touched upon the upcoming changes to local Google results in our article here, and it looks like those changes are finally taking place. Currently local results are mostly moved over to the new format as you can see in the image to the right, but there are still some areas that haven’t received the new format roll-out yet. The major changes are the move of the map to the right sidebar, the merging of the Google Places info with the organic result and the preview text of a user review is no longer seen in the result but instead just the number of reviews.

If you would like to check out the new format but it is still showing the old style results in your area, you can check it out by clicking on this link.

Link Location Matters to Google

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Russ Lubin

In 2004 Google filed a patent that was just recently granted to them on what they dubbed their “Reasonable Surfer” model, which is really just a way for them to determine a link-importance hierarchy on any given web page. The idea behind their patent is that links that are reasonably more interesting to surfers should carry more weight and be of more value in regards to their website ranking system.

“This means that certain links, like footer and sidebar links in particular, are likely to be devalued. And it’s as they should, right? If a link is tucked away in the footer, the webmaster is stating that he doesn’t care much for it – or it has little value other than for extraneous pleas to the search engines.” Search Engine Journal

Well it makes sense as the sidebar and footer are often populated with paid or reciprocal links, neither of which Google views in a positive light. Sure there are instances when those sidebar links are more valuable or should carry more weight than inline links but no system is perfect. But is that the end of the implications of Google’s “Reasonable Surfer” model?

Link location is just one of the many factors that could influence the importance of a link on any given web page, at least in Google’s eyes. Font-size could certainly point to the importance of a link with smaller fonts being less important than larger ones. Do links above the fold carry more weight than those only a paragraph or two below? What about the number of words in the anchor text, could that effect link weight? In all honesty we don’t actually know, but we can conjecture and make best practice judgements based on the patent’s inferences.

This actually isn’t anything new, it was just something most folks didn’t really consider too much until the publishing of the patent brought it to the media’s attention. Of course, we also cannot say that Google’s determination of a link’s quality ends with a six year old link-heirarchy strategy. What this patent is however, is a patent reminder that inline links that we as a surfer might click on are far more important than throw-away links in a web page’s footer.

ELEMENTS Launches New Technology: Franchises Can Automatically Create and Control Facebook Fan Pages for Every Location

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Jeremy LaDuque

San Luis Obispo, CA, October 15, 2010 — ELEMENTS, Inc., an industry leader in franchise online marketing and developers of the ElementsLocal™ online marketing solution announced today the release of its latest technology enhancement that allows Franchise marketers to develop and control branded Facebook Fan pages for every one of their franchisee location.

“This is a breakthrough technology for Franchise marketers struggling to launch a successful Facebook marketing campaign. Today, Franchise marketers fear issues like protecting their brand and successfully providing franchisees Facebook Fan pages,” said Jeremy LaDuque, CEO of ELEMENTS.

If trends continue, early next year Facebook should reach over 600 million members and over 3 million businesses will be marketing through the Facebook platform. Nobody denies the benefits that a well-managed viral inducing Facebook campaign can have on any given product or brand, but what most miss is that Facebook can be leveraged to build awareness for your brand, drive traffic to your website and generate new sales for your business.

ELEMENTS, supports clients such as Maaco, Sport Clips, Glass Doctor, and franchisees of Jiffy Lube and Curves, and plans on releasing this technology to its current clients this month.

“Franchisors will be able to do things they’ve only dreamed of,” says LaDuque, as the new technology will support:

- Automatically creating a Facebook Fan page for every franchisee;
- Giving the Franchisor Administrative rights over all Fan pages;
- Allowing the Franchisor to take down or put up any Fan page at will;
- And allowing the Franchisor to post to all franchisee Fan pages at once.

Franchisors are searching for ways to use Social media to increase sales, Elements feels one of most valuable features of its new technology is the ability to redirect anyone searching for your franchise in Facebook to individual franchisee websites that contain their own Facebook Fan pages, where customers can engage with that franchisees website.

“As search engines, social media and mobile marketing converge to create more and more opportunities for businesses, franchises in particular are increasingly challenged to maintain their brand, monitor their reputation and leverage new opportunities to their advantage. This new technology is a great leap forward to allow franchises to control their brand and provide more marketing opportunity to their franchisees,” says LaDuque.

October Is All About Facebook

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Brandon

There’s some big Facebook news out there this month and it just so happens to coincide with Elements Inc focusing this entire month to Facebook. If you haven’t already read our blog post on Facebook as an SEO Tool you should take a look at it as it goes over some very simple steps that can be beneficial to your corporate website.

On October 27th Elements CEO Jeremy LaDuque will be presenting a webinar on the 7 Steps to Socializing Strategically which will focus primarliy on Facebook. Sign-up immediately because it is first come first serve and there are a limited number of spaces available.

As for the Facebook news: Earlier this month Facebook anounced a couple of changes that could have a big impact on how people use Facebook. The first was their addition of a new Groups feature which lets Facebook users segregate the dismination of their social news. This would allow discusssions of last night’s kegger to be shared with people in your ‘friends’ group, but not in your ‘work’ or ‘family’ group. The other feature Facebook announced that has received less visibility is the ability for users to export all of their Facebook information, including pictures and videos.

Just today Microsoft announced that Bing will integrate Facebook like data into their search engine results. Bing users will now see customized content based on their likes and the likes of their friends. Bing will now also be able to recommend Facebook friendship connections based on mutual friendships and similiar likes as well.

Again, don’t forget to check out our social media webinar at the end of October, details can be found here.

Should Your Facebook Presence Be Part of your SEO Strategy

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Russ Lubin

Should your Facebook presence be part of your SEO strategy? In short, yes!

Social media platforms are all the rage nowadays because they provide an easy and mobile solution for users looking to socially express their thoughts and statuses. If trends continue, early next year Facebook should reach over 600 million members and over 3 million businesses will be marketing through the Facebook platform. Nobody denies the benefits that a well managed viral inducing Facebook campaign can have on any given product or brand, but what most miss out on is that Facebook can be leveraged to drive traffic to your website and brands through search engines as well.

In fear of becoming antiquated Google is adding more social media content into their search results.

… we’re excited to share a few new innovations in the areas of real-time, mobile and social search that we feel are important steps in the evolution of information access.

.. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we’re announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca – along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago. The Official Google Blog

That being said, a company planning to create a Facebook presence should put some best practice SEO methods into their social media efforts.

Currently, search relevant Facebook images can be found near the top rankings in Google Images and sometimes in the general results as well. It makes sense to upload images to your Facebook albums on a regular basis that have optimized image names with a splash of relevant keywords in the comments below the picture. That possibly means more views on your brand coming directly from ‘search’ which is known for its’ great goal conversion ratio. It’s also possible to get the company’s Facebook Wall or other informational Facebook page listed highly in the search engine results as well. The Facebook and Twitter accounts of well entrenched or unique brands often land on the first page results in Google.

Facebook is also a great example of leveraging offsite optimizations to increase the view-ability of your company’s websites. Facebook itself has a very high authority ranking and is a trusted source which means that links to your corporate or franchisee websites inside of a text rich status update or comment can inject a little bit of Facebook’s link juice into the destination website, and every little bit of link juice helps.

While applying best practice SEO methods into your Facebook campaign will not make you rich overnight, any planned Facebook marketing strategy should include optimizing your text, links and images for maximum benefit.

Our Elements Local platform allows a franchisor or their franchisee’s the ability to manage Facebook campaigns directly through the content management dashboard built into our software. Our built in Facebook tools maximize the benefits of the company’s Facebook campaign strategy with a minimal amount of training and effort.

Google Acknowledges Benefits of hCard Formatting

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Michael Boyer

hCard is a microformat that can be placed inside an existing web page to clarify the contact details of companies and organizations. When a search engine or other application indexes a website with hCard formatting it will increase the likelihood that the website’s contact details and physical location will be correctly listed in their index or mapping system.

SEO experts have been arguing about the benefits of the hCard format – especially in regards to local SEO – since their inception. Google recently made a statement on one of their corporate blogs that confirms the benefits of the hCard format in regards to Google Maps & Places, two current hot targets of SEO experts.

“By using structured HTML formats like hCard to markup the business or organization described on your page, you make it easier for search engines like Google to properly classify your site, recognize and understand that its content is about a particular place, and make it discoverable to users on Place pages” says Carter Maslan, Director of Product Management, Local Search here. He goes on to conclude, “…your precise markup helps associate your site with the search results for that particular place.”

While this is not shocking news, it does confirm that hCard formatting is a must have on any website that intends to drive local traffic to their places pages and physical storefronts.

ELEMENTS Interactive Acquires NetFuel Interactive and Expands its Franchise Online Marketing Capabilities

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Jeremy LaDuque

- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

San Luis Obispo, CA, September 15, 2010 — ELEMENTS, Inc., an industry leader in franchise website development and developers of the ElementsLocal™ online marketing solution has acquired NetFuel Interactive (formerly Screen Matter).

NetFuel was founded by Stephen Bronte in 1999 and has been providing online marketing, local franchisee websites and custom web solutions to franchises for over 8 years. Its customers include Maaco, CertaPro Painters, Weed Man, Pillar To Post, Floor Coverings International, and Handyman Connection and many others.

NetFuel will continue to operate from its Philadelphia offices, as a business unit of ELEMENTS. NetFuel President, Stephen Bronte will play a key role in ELEMENTS’s integration of NetFuel by managing all existing clients currently supported by NetFuel and their exclusive Content Management Software for franchise businesses.

Jeremy LaDuque, CEO of ELEMENTS said, “The acquisition of NetFuel will strengthen ELEMENTS’ position in the franchise space by adding a client list of successful franchises and the long term franchise marketing experience that the staff of NetFuel brings to the table.”

LaDuque says he is looking forward to bringing both companies together. “Our new team members at NetFuel greatly enhance our experience with franchise specific business needs in local search, social media and mobile marketing. We are also going to expand our services to address lead generation across the franchise organization, from franchisee leads to new franchise sales.” LaDuque added.

Bronte added that he’s, “excited about joining forces with such a well established company that provides the same unique services we do.” And added, “I’ve been truly impressed with the thought leadership I’ve found in working with the ELEMENTS management team and their vision for comprehensive online local marketing solutions.”

“The combination of our respective solutions is a perfect fit. NetFuel has custom solutions in franchisee lead generation and franchise sales that ELEMENTS is adopting into their Software-as-a-Service ElementsLocal platform,” said LaDuque. By combining these assets ELEMENTS is expanding its abilities to deliver an exact fit for franchise businesses to successfully achieve a return on investment from their online marketing efforts.

“As local search becomes increasingly important for top positions in search engines, franchises are definitely going to have to put into place a solution to help their franchisees obtain the best local search results possible,” says LaDuque. “The combination of ELEMENTS and NetFuel’s deep understanding of the franchise space and online marketing represents the best of what’s available today in the franchise local online marketing space.”