Internet Marketing Consultant – Dan Blakeslee

How To Spy On Your Local Business Competition (Legally Of Course): Google Trends

A secret way to improve your local business competitive advantage on the web is to spy on your competition and then simply outdo them. In this article we will look at how to do that using Google Trends.

Google Trends is often used to get trend information on hot topics and searches, but you can also use it to investigate the performance of your competitor’s website over a period of time.

Follow these three steps to get data on your competition:
Go to Google.com/ trends
In the search term box, type in the website address of your competition. You can compare two or more competitors by adding their website addresses.
In the new window that appears, click on the Websites link

Google Trends shows you the following data:
Daily Unique Visitors
The daily number of unique visitors that visits the site over a period of time is shown using a graph. You can change the time frame using the pull down menu titled “all years”.
By analyzing this data, you will be able to tell what years, months and days attract the most or least number of visitors and also if the traffic to the site is increasing or declining.
Regions
A list of countries where the site is most visited will also give you pointers on your competitor’s popular markets and you can even know which regions in a country attract the most traffic by simply clicking on the country link.
Also visited
This list shows other websites visited by the same people who visit your competition. This gives you insight into other sites your local business is competing with. You can use the same process to investigate them too.
Also searched for
This list gives you search terms that are used most by those visitors. You can use this list to add new keywords to your content to draw in more visitors to your website.

How to Spy On Your Local Business Competition (Legally Of Course): Alexa

A final resource that helps you spy on your local business competition is the website called Alexa. Alexa is most popular for its ability to rank websites based on traffic flow.

Go to Alexa.com and type in your competitors website address in the search box and you will be given the following data upfront:

Alexa traffic rank
Traffic rank in the US
Number of sites linking into the website

To get more detailed information, click on the ‘get details’ button and you’ll uncover more secrets about your competition such as:

A brief summary of the products or services they offer, the percentage of traffic that comes from search engines, the number of years the site has been in operation, the demographics of the visitors they appeal to, how long each visitor takes on average on each pageview and to the site in total.

In-depth analysis of various categories such as:
Traffic stats- unravel the sources of their traffic
Search-find the top search terms driving traffic to the site from search engines
Demographics-discover who their most popular visitors are by age, gender, race, education and location
Contact- find out who owns the site, their contact and the size of their company
Reviews- check out positive and negative reviews about the site
Related links- shows the link network they have developed
Clickstream-shows you the sites visitors go to after visiting the competitors site (downstream) and the sites they visited immediately before landing on their site (upstream)

I hope that this series of articles on how to legally spy on your competition has given you the tools to measure the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and enabled you to compare your local business to theirs so that you can outsmart them.

How to Spy On Your Local Business Competition (Legally Of Course): Quantcast

If you have been struggling to improve your rankings and wonder why your competition always seems to outrank you, there are resources available that will unmask their strengths and weaknesses. In this article we look at how to do this using Quantcast.

The beauty of Quantcast is that it offers your local business great insight into the demographics of your competition. Demographics reveal the characteristics of your target market so that you can customize your marketing to reach out to them.

To get you started, go to Quantcast.com and type in the website address of your competition in search box at the top of the page. Quantcast will then show you some interesting information:

1. Traffic
The estimated monthly number of visitors per month in the United States. You can also view the number per day or week and the trends over 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year.
2. Demographics- the demographics are divided into the following categories
Male and Female
Age bracket-3-12,13-17,18-34,35-49,50+
Race- Caucasian, African American, Asian, Hispanic and Other
No kids and Has Kids from age 0 to 17under the age of 18
No kids and had kids from age 0-2
No kids and has kids from age 3-12
No kids and has kids from age 13-17
Annual income brackets $0-30k, $30-60k, $60-100k and over $100k
Educational level: no college, college and graduate school

To get a simplified overall view of your competitors demographics, click on the ‘demographics’ tab and Quantcast will display the people your competitor’s site is most popular with in the various categories.
Armed with this information, your business can tailor its marketing efforts to appeal to the same popular target markets and imitate the success of the competition. In our next article we will look at a third resource to spy on your competition called Alexa.

If you think a blog is just a platform for an individual’s self expression, think again! Business blogging is one of the newest, hottest ways to build your business and increase your profits – no matter what kind of products or services you offer! Here are just a few reasons why every business should take advantage of blogging.
Blogging is Easy and Inexpensive
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to improve your Google page rank and get your business noticed. Essentially, when you have a good blog going, and you keep it updated, Google’s search engines will notice your business before other similar businesses in the area, especially if your entire website has been built with SEO in mind.
It is simple to have a blog built into your website, and it is easy to either maintain it yourself or have your SEO company’s writers craft updates that will keep your customers informed and get your blog noticed most easily. Blog entries are inexpensive – even if you hire someone else to do them, they often cost less than $10 apiece. One word of warning – do not outsource to a non-native English speaker to write blogs for you! Writers in countries like India and Pakistan, as well as the Philippines and other Asian countries will write content for pennies on the dollar, but the results are not normally useable and can even result in a lower page rank. In a nutshell, you get what you pay for.
Blogging Is Immediate
You can write a blog entry and publish it immediately, so it’s up on your website just as soon as you’ve hit the “publish” button. You don’t have to worry about page structure, coding, or establishing links – and you don’t have to wait for your IT person to work your new information into his or her schedule. You can basically keep people informed on an up-to-the minute basis, if you want!
Blogging Converts To Income For Your Company
Considering the fact that more and more people conduct internet research on their own before investing in a product or service, companies that have a great looking website that includes a blog filled with useful information tend to see a great return on investment once they’ve got the site and blog optimized.
Contact an individual or company that specializes in SEO, to find out more about how blogging can help increase your profitability.

Just what exactly is Web 2.0? Well, Web 2.0 can be defined as the new age of internet usage in today’s society. It is a concept or a set of ideas that is similar to brainstorming or networking. It involves a set of technologies designed to make the internet easier to use for marketing your business and getting your product information out to your customers.

What technologies are included in Web 2.0?
The Web 2.0 concept includes, but is not limited to, such web services as Google Ad Sense, Facebook, Wikipedia, and various blogging sites. The differences between these services and what was used previously (i.e. Netscape, personal websites, Britannica online, and evite) is simply the use of huge platforms instead of basic software. Sites such as Google are in fact huge databases of information that can be accessed and utilized in a variety of ways.

How does it work?
Web 2.0 brings businesses closer to the public by making them more accessible. It works in a way similar to a network diagram. In the center circle, you have the information that a business wants to get out to the public. That business can use the internet as a platform to deliver their information. The circles linked to the center circle would represent the Web 2.0 services that businesses could use to get that information to their customers. There are many marketing firms available to help businesses set up these web services.
The most useful parts of Web 2.0 are blogging and social networking. By using blogging and social networking, businesses can deliver information about their products to a wider market. They just simply have to set up a blogging site or create a page on a social network like Facebook, and promote their products. The consumers can simply click the like button on the business’s Facebook page and be kept up to date on products and information. This brings businesses to a more personal level for the customer.
Businesses can also get information to more consumers by having the consumers subscribe to RSS feeds. RSS feeds are designed to send notifications to the subscriber whenever content changes on the page that they have linked to. This helps businesses keep their information current.
Another way to use the Web 2.0 concept is through pay per click advertising such as Google Ad Sense, or Amazon’s one click program. These applications help businesses enhance their customer service relations. No time to work Web 2.0 on your own? Hire a company that can do it for you – it’s a small investment that can really pay off.

Have you ever had difficulty getting the information you need to finish that big project? One of the easiest ways to get that information is through a keyword search. However, if you are using the wrong word, you may still never find what you are looking for. Customers have the same problem. Some searches do not target businesses that match what the customer is looking for. As a result, internet marketing experts are finding some pretty innovative ways to reach potential customers with Keyword Search. Basically, they’re finding ways to infuse sites with words that they think potential customers would use. Just about any business can take advantage of this kind of service. Here are some helpful details to give you more insight into what it’s all about.
What is Keyword Search?
Keyword Search looks for words that are in records or on websites. Keywords can be used if you don’t know the heading, title, or author. Most search engines or searchable databases have a keyword search option where the user can type in the word or a group of words for the subject that he or she is looking for.
Also, there are keyword tools available for businesses wanting to target specific groups of customers. These keyword tools work by having businesses try to think of the way their potential customers would think when conducting a search. After selecting keywords they think their customers would use to search for their product, businesses can use the keyword tools to string together key phrases. Businesses can use those key phrases to help narrow down the topic so that the information will have a better chance of leading customers to their site.
How can Keyword Search help businesses gain the upper hand?
If a business uses the wrong keywords, then their customers would have a harder time trying to find them. Businesses can use services such as Word Tracker to help determine the best words or phrases to draw attention to their product. By creating lists of these words and monitoring them for their usage, marketing experts can determine how effective they are at reaching customers for their clients. If they find that the words are not drawing in desired amount of potential customers, then these marketing wizards can adjust their lists and monitor them again. This process can be repeated as many times as needed to get the desired results.
In a world where many small, local businesses struggle to survive in the face of big box competition, a company that specializes in SEO services and other internet marketing techniques can help make a huge difference.
You’ll find that a good SEO campaign will target the right keywords that will gain your business greater exposure to a larger number of customers – and that’s a worthwhile investment.

If you think press releases are the stuff of public entities and gigantic corporations, think again! Using a system that includes frequent press releases is a great way to get your business noticed and increase your bottom line. Press releases are an excellent way for small, local businesses, nonprofits, and larger companies with specific local markets to get the attention of the media, as well as clientele of all kinds. Here are some strategies for putting press releases to work to increase profitability – no matter what kind of business or nonprofit you’re invested in.
Write and Release Information Frequently
Press releases don’t have to be large, complicated chunks of information – in fact, if you stop to think about the types of news articles that attract your own attention, you might realize that the most effective tend to be small, catchy, interesting bits of news. So, don’t think writing press releases frequently will take a lot of time and energy. Here are some suggestions for implementing this particular strategy.
Any time you have a new program – If you’ve got a new solution or customer appreciation program, publicize it!
If you’re a business and you are collecting for charity – publicize this information! You’ll make more money for your charity or cause, and you’ll attract more clients, who will appreciate the fact that you or your employees care about others.
If you produce a new, helpful product or come up with insight about a problem – Let people know about this. People like to be involved in their communities, and if you stop to look at what major corporations do, you can duplicate their efforts on a smaller, local scale.
Keep in mind, press releases are not the same thing as paid advertisements, but they do make people take notice of your presence and give you one more way to shine and stand out from the competition.
Create an Online Press Room, and Post Your Press Releases There
If there’s one thing search engines love, it is frequent updates. Just as a blog that is updated regularly can increase your visibility, so can press releases.
Make your press room easy to use by posting your press releases in reverse chronological order (the newest should be on top) and once you have enough press releases, you can start to categorize them by topic or keyword as well.
Distribute Your Press Releases To a Large Audience
Using an online tool for distributing press releases is fairly inexpensive, and can be limited to a particular geographic area. In addition, your press releases will be picked up by search engines, and this alone can boost your visibility – whether you have a local or global audience. There are many popular press release distribution services to try – check with your SEO specialist to see what he or she recommends.
AScribe
Business Wire
Marketwire
PrimeNewsWire
PR Newswire
AlterNet (focuses on environmental, human rights, civil liberties, and social justice)

How to Sign Up For a Google Adwords Account in 3 Easy Steps

If you have ever wanted to advertise your local business using the Google Adwords program, this article will show you how to create an Adwords account in three easy steps. It should take you not more than ten minutes to set up a new account. Go to google.com/Adwords and follow these three steps

Step 1 Create an account
Create Google account: this is where you create a new account. Google asks you if
you have an email account and password that you use with its other services like Adsense, Gmail, Orkut or iGoogle or
you do not use these services

Chose the second option b) to create a new account.
Choose an email address name
Type in a password
Re-enter your password
Fill in the captcha section
Click ‘Create account’

Step 2 Set Time Zone and Currency
Note that you cannot change your time zone and currency and they remain permanent so think carefully as you choose them
Choose your time zone by selecting your preferred country and the right time zone for your location in the country
Choose the currency you would like to use to pay Google and the one Google will use to display all money values in your account
Click ‘Create’
.

Step 3 Verify Account
Google congratulates you on opening your new Adwords account and requests you to open your email to click on the confirmation link they have sent you. They do this to make sure that the email address you provided is correct.
Go to your email account, open your inbox and click on the verification link sent by Google
Google confirms that your email address is correct and that your Adwords account is now active.

You can now go ahead and create advertisements with the Google Adwords program that will drive traffic to your local business website.

As a small business owner, you are very likely barraged with information and various opinions about your website. Clients might like the photos of you and your dog on the “About Us” page, and various companies might be calling asking if you would like to “buy a top spot” on their search pages. The worst thing you can probably hear, besides “Your site crashed,” is “We looked for you online but couldn’t find you!”
The fact is, you’re basically sunk without SEO. But, what kind of SEO should you incorporate into your website? Some say “Content is King”, and believe on page SEO rules the internet, while others declare that off page SEO is more important: “Links Reign Supreme!” Who should you listen to?
What is On Page SEO?
On page Search Engine Optimization includes things like optimizing keywords, tags, and web content. Search engines love heading tags that emphasize key points, and they grab on to images that include “img alt” tags that include those same keyword phrases.
Additional strategies for using on page SEO include labeling folders and naming files so that they are keyword rich, since search engines crawl through and index your site using folder and file names. Don’t rely on a snappy title alone, and think that your page is optimized.
What is Off Page SEO?
Off page SEO is the term that refers to any search engine optimization that takes place off your webpage. Things like article marketing, linking and backlinking, and social media marketing are an important part of off page SEO.
Which Type of SEO is Better?
It turns out that both camps in the search engine optimization debate have something valuable to offer. If you want to make the most of your website, include plenty of each type of SEO and you’ll come out ahead.
How To Optimize
All this may have you feeling a bit overwhelmed – and that’s not surprising! Optimizing a website properly takes research, time, and effort. As a small business owner, you very likely lack both the time and desire to take all these steps yourself. If you had a major water main break inside your building you wouldn’t try to fix it yourself – and the same is true for getting your site up to speed. Get an SEO expert onboard. Find someone who can help you with both on page SEO and off page SEO. Your site will be optimized in just a short amount of time, and you’ll see site traffic as well as your bottom line increase.

Online branding is absolutely the newest, hottest way for any small businesses to grow. The question is, how can you, a busy professional who is likely fully invested in running many of the everyday aspects of your business, find the time to decide what to do, and then implement the strategic changes that need to be made, in order for your online branding to work at an optimal level? We’ve taken on the challenge of making that task a whole lot easier for you. Here are three outstanding methods to combine – they make online branding work for you, so you can focus on the work you do every day to make your business great.
Use The Right Words
Plainspoken, conversational content written in a way your consumer demographic is likely to understand, is certain to appeal to those people in a way that the standard “less is more” standard of internet writing just can’t do. While you do want to use headings and bulleted lists, and avoid making your content look too much like a textbook, you don’t want to make your customers feel as though you’re approaching them on a kind of kindergarten level.
This being said, the same kind of content is not going to work on every single site. If you sell cosmetics and home decorating items, for instance, you’re going to word your content much differently than you would if you sold a landscaping service or classic auto restoration supplies. If you’re not the best writer, hire someone to use the best words possible to get your ideal audience’s attention. If you’re a mediocre writer, consider putting your content together and then having it edited. The fact is, your customers don’t care who writes your content. They simply want to read it, get the facts, and move on with their day.
Visual Appeal Is Important
Choose an appropriate design scheme, and put great photos up on your site. If you don’t have good photos and you don’t have anyone to take them, invest in some stock photos, or place an order with a freelance photographer. The right visual appeal can make an amazing difference in your online branding success.
Pick A Few Things, and Do Them Perfectly
Be “THE” authority on one or two specific things. If you specialize in tea, put up articles, stories, and photos of different kinds of tea to go along with the teas in your online catalogue. Offer tea accessories, and add in some things that people might enjoy along with the tea they buy from you. An internet marketing company could help a small tea company become the best in the business. Why? Because people want a one stop shop. They want to get their shopping over with, and move on. They want to visit a few select places on the internet, not search endlessly. Be the best, and you’ll win customers’ loyalty faster than you could ever imagine.