Getting Your Local Business Found in Search Engines

Many local businesses around the world are looking to the search engines to help find customers.

The following steps will help these businesses increase the number of visitors to their website and therefore find new customers:

1) Get listed in the Google Local Directory

Google is the biggest player in the search world. When you use Google to search something like "eye doctor New York" or "dentist Fargo" there is typically a top 10 listing of results for local businesses at the top of the page.

Having your local business listed here is the cheapest and easiest way to attract new customers. You can sign up for the Google Local Directory here: www.google.com/local/add. It only takes a few minutes and it’s quite a simple process.

If you’re a bit more web savvy, David Mihm has a very thorough post on increasing your ranking for local listings.

2) Build a great website

What is the purpose of your website?

My guess is that you want more customers to contact you – therefore you should make sure that your contact information is very prominent throughout your website.

Happy New Year!

Wahhhh Damnnnnnnnnnn….

Just like that. And a year has passed. In a blink of an eye.

So here it is. 2010 – the last year of the decade.

All I want to say is much more power to you. And may it be the best one – yet!

Jag Foo

Use Pillar Content to Generate Loads of Link Love

That title might not make sense to a lot of you reading this post.  You’re likely asking yourself, "What in the world in Pillar Content?"  I define Pillar Content as some piece of content, not on a website’s homepage, that generates tons of links and influence. 

Many sites completely rely on a few pieces of Pillar Content to rank well and position themselves as an authority.  It’s a really simple concept but maybe something you have not taken much time to think about.

Improve on Someone Else’s Idea

The great thing about Pillar Content is you don’t have to be a genius to come up with lots of great ideas on what you should produce.  My first project in a new niche is always to read through as many of my competitor’s sites as possible.  As I go, I jot down what content they are promoting most heavily and also what pages seem to pick up the most links (whether they are gained actively or passively).

Words of Wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it.

He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Ghandi on serving customers

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Ghandi on life

Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory.

Ghandi on importance of putting in effort

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

Ghandi on humility

As usual, I love to hear your comments.

All success,

Jag Foo

Small Change Big Impact Part 3

Here’s another example of how a little tweak can effect a huge change.

In this case, we are going to talk about the power of consensus.
Or the power of the crowd.

How does this fit into the “small change big impact” theme? Let me explain…

There’s this product where buyers can call in to buy.

The product was advertised as an infomercial.
And the call-to-action line was “Call now and our operators will be there to serve you”.

Well…the response was okay, but not fantastic.

So the call-to-action line was re-written and tested.

It now read, “Operators are busy. Please call back again later if the line is engaged”.

Straight away, orders went through the roof!

Why was there such a big impact when the change to the call-to-action script is so small?

Because of the power of consensus!

In the first case, you get the mental picture that operators are free, and are probably twiddling their thumbs waiting for calls to come in.

How to Measure the Return on Investment of Social Networking for You and Your Clients

Editor note: I came across the great article on measuring Social Media ROI (AWAI) and I thought I published it down here.

By Kathleen Cleary

Congratulations! You’ve jumped on the Social Media bandwagon and set up your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Perhaps you’ve even created a Facebook fan page and scouted out some niche-oriented sites to post comments to, answer questions, and start discussions on.

But wait … do you find yourself wondering if your Social Media efforts and time are really paying off? How do you measure the Return on Investment of relationship-building and engagement? How can you be sure you’re not sucking the time out of your most productive hours each day with little return?

If you are participating in Social Networks in a willy-nilly fashion — a tweet here, a blog post there — without much thought to what your true purpose is, you are just a ship without a rudder in the vast sea of Social Media. And, you won’t be gaining the kind of attention which will drive business to you, or to a client you may be advising on how to effectively use Social Networks.