Category Archives: Local SEO

Chula Vista Business Listings online

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Posted by admin on December 1, 2009 – 4:40 pm
Filed under Local SEO, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the easiest things to do to get your business online is to get yourself listed in Google Local.

At this point in the game, you’re ahead of the small business pack if you sign yourself up and get a proper listing, but this is a general statement and your local (really local) competition may vary.  To get yourself listed in Google business directory, first, see if you’re listed already.  Go to maps.google.com and search for your business name and city, like my favorite coffee shop, Donny’s in Bonita, CA.

Are you there?  Is your listing there?  There are 3 answers to this question:

  1. Yes, and it’s not awesome > Fix it
  2. No, it’s not there > Create it
  3. Yes, and it’s awesome > You’re done
Fix it
Claim and edit.  To do this, click the listing on the left and it will pop up on the map.  On the map, click edit, Claim your business.  You’ll have to prove it but it’s a reasonably simple process.

Create it
Go to www.google.com/local/add and follow the instructions

You’re done…ish
Whee!  You know that just means done with step one, right? Now see how you rank by doing a search for your business’s service or key terms, like: coffee shop, bonita CA.  If you are ranking well, then you are truly awesome and I’ll take you to Donnys when you’re in town.  If you’re not showing up then you aren’t the only game in town and it’s going to take more work.  This is usually the case unless you’re the only manicurist in Orderville.  Then you’ll need the services of a pro.  Email dan@kin3tic.com for a consultation.

Fixing and Creating notes:
- For phone verification, you’ll need a direct line without any forwarding or wierdness (mobile phones are fine)
- Pick all the categories you can think of (there’s a max of 3 – use them all), and if you can’t think of 3, get another thinker to help you.

*Awesome means it has a picture (or several), the name is correct with spaces, capitalization, etc., the categories are spot-on, the address and phone number are perfect and you have some reviews.

Find Business Leads Using Twitter

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Posted by admin on October 13, 2009 – 11:02 pm
Filed under Consulting, Local SEO, Q&A, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you have come here from Twitter, you’ve come for free SEO and Internet Marketing advice – in the form of Q & A.  Tweet any SEO or Internet Marketing question to http://www.twitter.com/kineticSEO and we’ll answer you, free of charge.

Now that you’re here, why don’t you read how we’re using this page to find business leads using Twitter?

*****

We area a small Internet Marketing / SEO company based in San Diego (Chula Vista to be exact), and finding business leads using Twitter is one way we are fishing in the small river of local small businesses who might need our help.  We support non-local businesses also, but we are super selective.

In regard to leads from Twitter, our effort is low bandwidth, and here is the approximate method:

  1. Create a Twitter account at Twitter.com (5 minutes)
  2. Create a Twellow profile at Twellow.com (6 minutes)
  3. Follow a small number of people who match your target criteria – like 50 or less.  You may have see the garbage follows that you get from people who are following 1733 and have 6 followers.  It’s a robot and it managed to nab 6 followers for their garbage. (5 minutes)
  4. Put up something awesome on your Twitter account so that when they are notified that they have been followed and they don’t recognize the name, the ones that check it will see something good and follow you (5 minutes)

(Whistling sound) – Wait a week, hopefully posting something good once or twice in that time.

  1. Monitor how many follow you back.  If it’s a high portion, good.  If it’s low, put up better stuff, following a more directly connected group of people or live with it. Nope, there isn’t a generic threshold for what high means.  Guess and go with it.
  2. After a while, unfollow those who don’t follow you so that your follow/unfollow ratio is good and you don’t look spammy.  (And please, don’t be spammy).  Twellow just introduced a great feature for this called ‘non-mutual’; meaning, you can see who you are following that isn’t following you back and vice versa.

Rinse, repeat. These steps will take a few hours a week.

Details:

* Your posts might also have links to your site, or may directly have good (static) content in the tweets.

* If you see something interesting from a follower, respond.  Make nice.

* Social media is good, and it can be a useful tool for business.  However, you are dealing directly with humans, not Twitter, and people are people.  Everybody likes to have a real response and a friend.  Be one.  Be your awesome, legit self as though you were speaking to them at Starbucks.

* Don’t take on a social campaign expecting it not to be social.  What does this mean?  It means that successful campaigns take work, and take real, human interaction.  This isn’t plug and play and it’s not necessarily any easier than handing out flyers.  Depending on your product or service, it may be much better than flyers, but there are no free rides here.

* Using Twitter for a social campaign is really only something to consider if your SEO is already in very good condition and you have an ongoing, well-crafted program in place.  If you don’t, contact a good SEO consultant and get that in order before you take on social.

If you see something I missed, let me know and I’ll add it.

Happy Twittering..!

Chula Vista Internet Marketing and SEO

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Posted by admin on October 13, 2009 – 9:54 pm
Filed under Local SEO, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

While we are based in Chula Vista, we also serve surrounding areas.  Our Internet marketing goals are to have a group of local small businesses as ongoing clients.  We know that small business Internet marketing is even more directly connected to results than large business, and that the demands for return on SEO investment are shorter-term.  There are no large budgets to spend from; there is a budget, but it must perform!

What we intend to have is a collection of businesses in the surrounding areas also, making us National City’s SEO team, Eastlake’s, Rancho del Rey’s, etc. There are a few reasons to larget locally.  Here are our reasons:

  1. We live here.  It is better for our clients to get to see us and discuss how we will support their business at their office than just over the phone.  Most SEO, even local SEO, is performed by people that clients never see face to face.  You’ll see us.
  2. SEO works better.  If we have a handful of clients in close proximity to each other, and each are very good at what they do, there are ways that their web sites can lend ‘authority’ to each other.  We will not work with competing companies.
  3. It’s less expensive SEO.  We charge fairly and provide a good value; when we work locally we can make an honest buck while keeping the clients bills low because our bills are lower.  Why are they lower?  Because we don’t maintain a big office.  We work in a small office and meet you at your place.  We figure you don’t want to be paying for our conference table, right?
  4. We teach SEO.  Often, clients want to learn how to do what we do, or at least some of it.  Sometimes we teach ourselves out of a job, and sometimes clients work alongside us to get things done faster.  We don’t mind if clients take over – those are some fantastic referrals.