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I have added a new service for Social Media promotions. Partnering with an extensive network of social media experts I can add this service at a relatively low cost. Here are the types of social media promotions that are offered:

1. Facebook
   
2. Twitter
   
3. Pinterest
   
4. Google+
   
5. Stumbleupon
   
6. YouTube
   
7. More to come

Check out the services here: Social Media Promotion
With the integration of social search and social signals in the serps it is becoming more important to promote your products, services and brand on the major social networks.

Google+ Local
I like to dig deep into any kind of Social Analytics to see how I can further market a local clients business or give some insights to a future client. We all know by now Google+ Local has a rating system depending on the reviews (Local Citations) and it helps with the display of Rankings and also helps drive foot traffic.

For this little exercise I'm going to use Google+ Local as I have stated above already. This wonderful platform lets you drill down into niche markets and target potential clients, customers and followers.

Lets start by opening up Google+ Local and Discover some Sports Bars Located in or near Lake Havasu City, AZ. This is football season and competing for those sports enthusiasts that like food & drink will help increase foot traffic and gain some much needed citations.

For the Search Query I used "Sports Bars" and for the location I used "Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Now you can scroll down the list and check out to see how many reviews and what the overall score is for an establishment. I chose the one that came up in the first listing (Mad Dogs) as I have been there many times before at the Bullhead City, AZ location.

After I clicked on mad dogs, I looked down to check out the reviewers and scroll over to see how many reviews that persona has given to local businesses.

Donald Cook has rated the establishment Excellent and has 83 reviews. If I owned Mad Dogs I would extend a thank-you and maybe a coupon for maybe the next time he stops in, also I would ask him to check-in with FourSquare and let him get a deal on something every so often when he checks in.

Now Donald has many reviews so we are interested in the ones he has written on for "bars". Type that in the query and Google+ drills down deeper to show you exactly what your looking for. Donald has many reviews on bars, 18 to be exact. This is the kind of data (analytics) that Businesses and Local marketers should be looking for and Google+ Local is a great platform for Social Marketing.

Mad Dogs should use this data to increase the number of +1's by asking patrons for reviews if they liked the service and provide a link to their Google+ Local Business page or a QR Code they can scan with their mobile device that will take them right there or to their website. With Social Signals being integrated into the Organic Search results these citations on Google+ and Zagat are increasingly becoming more important especially according to the recent research on Mobile Search that says "64% of mobile restaurant searches convert within the hour".

Facebook
On Mad Dogs Bar & Grill Google+ page is a link to the business website. I check to see how the website is socially connected and noticed they have a big plugin for facebook with 345 likes. On the bottom of the page is a twitter and Google+ button.

Facebook is a great place for Local Businesses to connect with their customers and I found one local patron (Sean kerns) that looks like a happy customer.

Mad Dogs can ask him for a citation on Google+ and a Tweet since he already liked the business on Facebook. Sean Kerns has 451 friends and 99 Likes, you can drill down further to engage his friends by sorting through the ones that live in Lake Havasu and friend them, Facebook already lets them know that Sean Kerns likes the business.

Facebook lets you sort through his friends by the city from the drop down list. Immediately you see Mallorie Baker holding a shot Glass and Tricia Rill Jandrew who is a Food & Beverage Manager. This is targeted data that Facebook allows marketers and Local Businesses to use in order to create a bigger fan base and increase foot traffic to brick and mortar establishments. You can use the same techniques on their profiles and search their posts to see if they have also frequented Mad Dogs or any other Sports Bar in Lake Havasu.

Facebook already breaks the ice for you, now its up to you to offer coupons, Drink & Food Specials, deals etc... and hopefully, they will recommend, Like, Tweet, +1 and give a citation as well come in and visit your business increasing the bottom line.

Bing has integrated Social Search with Foursquare and Facebook. This is another reason why businesses need to be socially active, writing posts, making comments, asking for citations etc.....

You can use these Social Networks to mine data for any business. The goal here is to create relationships, Increase Citations and foot or web traffic to your Local Business. The benefit of citations and social signals helps with an increase of organic rankings in local search and helps people find you in social applications for mobile devices.

I recommend adding Google Authorship for Google+ and joining Bing's So.cl Network. The key is to share, Re-share, Comment, Circle, Like and +1 content that is directly correlated with your niche. Become the so called "expert" and you will see your rankings, relationships, citations and business increase across the web as well to your Local Business. Don't forget to sign up on FourSquare, its growing tremendously and allows businesses to offer coupons and discounts with check-Ins. Showcase your businesses products and services on Pinterest, you would be surprised how much traffic this social network is driving to websites and Local Businesses.

There are many Social Networks out there. Here is a list of the ones I joined and try to stay active on, feel free to sign up, add me and more!
Facebook
FourSquare
Google+
Linkedin
Manta
Pinterest
Reddit
So.cl
Twitter
Webmaster World
Yammer
Yelp
Yahoo
YouTube
Zurker

Back in April Google started showing results with Geo-Tags in local search. With the integration of Social Signals and Google+ Local, Geo-Tags have become more so important in ranking your business and products. If you have the Google Authorship Markup enabled from your site linked to Google+ this will greatly increase the visibility and click-through rates in Organic Rankings.

Adding Geo-Tags to your HTML code of your web-page is easy with a Geo-Tag Generator. Add these Tags in the header section between the head and body. These tags are also known as Meta-Tags, search engines read this Metadata to tell what your site is about and Geo-Tags tell them where the web-page is located.

The easiest way to generate the Geo-Tag code is to put in the address of your Local Business and press search. All the information will be automatically generated so you can copy and paste the source code into your HTML.

Check the Dublin Core Box and put in a description as some Geo-Databases use this in their search results. Adding in a description is very useful as it gives specific keywords for you local business and products or services, with mobile search this becomes more valuable for short and long-tail keywords as most people click on the auto-complete feature offered.

The last step is to Validate your Geo-Tags with the Geo-Tag Validator and this will tell you if everything is intsalled and working OK. The end result you want to see is something like this towards the bottom:
"Conclusion: All geo-tag items are complete and valid!
The page contains valid 'ICBM' and 'DC.title' tags as well!"

Any recommendations will be displayed as well with any other data. It is important that these Geo-Tags are implemented properly as Bing uses them in Search results and Google uses them in Google Maps to find your local business

Now that you have your website Geo-Tagged, lets focus on Geo-Tagging your images. Most businesses have a Logo, this of course increases your brand awareness. If you have images for your products and services this will work to. The goal here of course is to increase the rankings of your business, products and services images above your competitors. Geo-Tagging these images will have a positive impact in the SERP's for your organic rankings.

Add photos using Picasa <---instructions and Geo-Tag them. Next you can export them to a place on your Hard Drive them upload them to your Google+ Local account or Local Business page and all the data with the Geo-Tags will be exported with the photo in the EXIF metadata. As you can see here one of the photos are showing up for my local business listing on Google Maps.

You can do this with many photo's and upload an unlimited amount through picasa and they all will be Geo-Tagged in your Google+ Photo Albums. To see them in action just click on the photo you want then click on Photo details and click on the map. don't forget to add a description (your Business Keywords) of the photos as well for each one after you view it in the album.

I hope this helps you in Ranking your local business higher in the SERP's
"By Shawn Lippert"

Do you know how to rank for multiple cities in Google+ Local Listings for Businesses?this is going to be a quick tip here, simple to follow.

Log Into your Google+ Local Business Listing account, Edit Listing and scroll down. A quarter of the way down on the left hand side you will see a field form for the Service Areas and Location Settings for your Local Business. Click the radial button so it is marked yes and it will open up the rest of the form as you see in the picture on the left.

Next mark the Distance from one Location field and where it says Service Area within [ 100   ] <---put in the number of how many miles your business is willing to cover for it's service area, for example I put in 100 miles which covers three states and multiple cities as I live Close to the Arizona, Nevada and California state lines that covers multiple cities like Bullhead City AZ,  Las Vegas & Laughlin NV as well Needles California.

The result you will see is a map of the service area your local business covers. The benefit of doing it this way allows you to cover multiple cities and areas all at once and include all the area and zip codes so you do not have to list each one separately and in-case you may have forgotten to list one or just don't know the area and zip codes.

If there is a incorrect location it also allows you to fix the marker for exact location and service areas for your local business as you see in the picture to the right.

Using the Service Area and Location Settings form on Google+ Local is really beneficial for multiple cities and towns especially if you live in a compact area like Los Angles that has Anaheim, Escondido, Huntington Beach, San Diego and More. I use this Local Strategy for my local Business clients and they continually rank high for their niche listings in the Organic and Local rankings

I was reading an article a month or two ago on how high the percentage is for mobile ads that get clicked on, however the conversion rate is very low. Then I realized what was happening as I constantly found myself clicking on mobile banner ads accidentally as I was browsing the web or playing a game with in-app advertising on my Samsung Galaxy S.
I constantly Search Google and use the Auto-Complete feature allot and use it to check out the SERP's on my mobile device for some of my local clients products and services. Most of the keywords I searched for were only 1 to 2 words long as the Auto Complete feature populated the best keywords for the query.I came up with a list of these mobile keywords

You are probably wondering where I'm going with this right? Well For one of my Local Clients I started optimizing their Google Adwords with Mobile Ads using these keywords and of course Geo-Targeting them. In their Local Business listing on Google+ I optimized their Posts, pictures and descriptions with the keywords optimized for Mobile Search. Notice how many impressions in the picture to the right, there was a total of 355 impressions and exactly 157 calls to action most of them for driving directions and more info on maps

This tells me that most people are searching for local products and services with their mobile devices, as you can see my local client Furniture Closeouts on Google is in second place for the Maps Listing. The first place listing is for a business that moved to another city in Arizona. They also have their own website they can optimize as where my local client does not. it is possible to optimize a local client using Google+ Local and have them rank high in the Organic Listings even with-out a website of their own.
As for the Mobile Ads there was a slight increase in the clicks for the past month. I need to do more optimizing and I will see what happens.
If you have a Local Business Start optimizing for Mobile Search with shorter keywords instead of Long-Tail as the Auto Complete feature shows these more and it seems that is what people are clicking on.

This is the link you need to paste into you Google Local Business page in order for it to work properly as the shortened version does not. Check out the screenshot to the left.

Benefits

Adding Video with proper descriptions and linking them from YouTube, and Google+ Local Business Pages gives Authority as they come from two high Page Rank pages and Google+ Allows you to add The Rel=Author Tag and link it to your site or blog in-turn increases the click through rank in the organic listings by enhancing your snippet displayed in the SERP's

The Google+ platform released a tool that allows you to customize the snippet people see when your page is shared. Using this tool, you can generate code for your page that indicates the images and text that best represent what's being shared.

When used in conjunction with Google Authorship, you should gain a higher click-through rate in the SERP's as you post will be optimized with a good description, and a relevant image.

You have the choice of adding the code to the header or body source of your webpage.

Link to your Google+ Local Page with Keywords and Address in Anchor Text.
This is one of the most important factors in Local Search, as when a person does a Search Query for a product or service they put in the location and the product or service they are looking for.
Follow these steps to implement this.

1. sign into your Google+ account
2. Go to Local on bottom left hand side.
3. Type in the city you want to rank for.
4. Type in the keywords you want to rank for
5. scroll to your listing
6. Copy the Google+ address
7. Link to that page with those Keywords in your Anchor text

Now for the example here is my local page address: https://plus.google.com/116368352494138894332/about
So I'm going to create anchor text with my desires keywords: Bullhead City Website Design.This links to my Google+ Local Page as you can see below. I rank for the #2 right now as I have no citations.

Send Out Social Signals
Send the following Social Signals to Google.

1. +1 page-If you have not done already
   
2. Share the page- with friends to your other Google+ networks and such
   
3. Add Citation-Have your friends or customers review your page for the products and services you offer.
4. On your Google+ page add links to your products and services.
   

One last think is to use Keyword Variation in your Anchor Text as I have done to the Images above using the alt-tag and link it to your Goggle+ Local Page. There is more tips to come on Local Search Ranking for Google+ hope this helped out to get you started. Thanks
"By Shawn Lippert"

The Panda Update was launched on February 24th 2011 and was known as the (Farmer Update) because  people published dozens of low-quality, keyword stuffed articles, or their site was rife with spelling errors, duplicate content etc.  Google went page to page on a given site and if it thought there was significant spam it devalued the site.

The Penguin Update launched on April 24 2012 and according to Google "Penguin is an important algorithm change targeted at web-spam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.” This effected sites that used link farms, has to many backlinks with the same keywords etc.

Local Search
Local Search has gone Social and Mobile, integration of Maps and Mobile Search into Smartphone devices, Tablets and Vehicles through applications are skyrocketing. More people are using their Mobile devices for online access every day and this trend will continue to grow for years to come. If you are looking to drive more foot traffic to a brick and mortar store or increase the visibility of your brand, optimizing for Local Search is the right move for search engine rankings and conversions.

So what do we need to do now to make sure we clean up our sites and gain back our Organic Rankings? This is the question I get constantly emailed and phone calls on every day.

First create a link report to see what sites and keywords are used to link to you with. Here is a Tool called Open Site Explorer that will do that for you. Visit those sites that you do not want linking to you anymore and email the administrator or webmaster asking if they can remove the link pointing to your site.

Second is to do on page and off page Search Engine Optimization, then submit a webspam re inclusion form (Link at bottom of post) to Google.

There are two important factors here we are going to look at, On-page and Of-page SEO. I know you have heard about this before and I'm probably sure you know how to do this but after the Penguin update there are a few tweaks you must add to these factors in order for you to gain back your Organic listing in the SERP's

*Update, Here is a Video called "SEO for Startups in under 10 Minutes" by Maile Ohye a Developers Tech Lead at Google.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization

• Title Tag
• One of the most important factors in on page Search Engine Optimization is your Title Tag, put your keywords before your brand name or Location, when someone uses those keywords in a search query, Search Engines show a snippet of The title, description, and those keywords are highlighted in the results. For Local Search it is much easier to rank for popular keywords with your address in the title.
• Social Integration
• Social Buttons are a form of a call to action. When someone shares your page or post on Social Networks, the Link to your site generally has the Title of that page with those keywords.
  
• Context
  
• Context in a page matters because some words have multiple meanings and with Google's Knowledge Graph  and Bing's Entity & Social Search Integration Search Engines are getting smarter so word Meanings and Intentions play a greater role.Your keywords and keyphrases should be spread out about 5-7% in your web copy with nice paragraphs that explain your niche market. I would say no more than 2-3 keywords per page as well
• Keyword and Keyphrase Variations
• Use variations of your Keywords and Keyphrases, Use them in different sentences spread out through your site or the page you are trying to optimize. Variations tell Google and Bing that your content is relevant to the topic and not just keyword stuffed.
• Fresh Content
• You always want to add fresh content, update old pages or even add new pages. Fresh content lets the search engines know the site is being maintained and kept updated.
• Keyword Density
• According to Google Keyword Density does not matter, however if you look at most of the top ranking sites for their niche keywords, they have a density around 5-7% You can check out the Keyword Density with this tool: Keyword Density Tool
• Semantic
• Supporting text for your keyword or keyphrases is important for search engines and readers as well. Search Engines use Semantic Search to determine what keyword or keyphrase you searched for and what that page is about
• Pictures
• Include at least one picture with a description and use the alt image tag with either your keywords or the keyword describing the picture. We live in a visual world and pictures make your content stand out. Search Engines read pictures by their supporting text and alt image tags.
• Call To Action
• Use links in your web copy for call to actions to other pages or your services. What is the use of providing good content and just have your visitors leave without them knowing more about what you have to offer.
• Contact Info
• Your business name, address and phone number on the Main page is one of the most important factors in ranking your page higher in the search engines organically for local searches.
• Internal Linking
• Search Engines use internal links to determine what the site is about and determine the relationship between pages. Internal links have Anchor Text with keywords and description of the page that correlates
  
• Site-Map
• For your readers Site-Maps offer a easy way of finding your pages and gives your page structure. For Search Engines Site-Maps give page hierarchy and lets search engins know all the pages to your site so they get indexed.
  

Offsite Search Engine Optimization

• Link Building
• Link Building is one of the major factors that search engines use to rank a website in the organic results. Link Building helps create brand, Authority and credibility. Link should come from sites that correlate with your site and from sites that have high authority. Link should be natural and dripped out over time
• Authority Links
• You want sites that are popular and that have good page rank  to link to your site. Authority sites give better credibility and can drive allot more traffic to your site. Search Engines see these types of Authority Links and rank your site higher in the organic results because Authority sites are trusted and usually have been around  a while. Write the webmasters or website administrators and ask for a link. They may be interested in a Link Exchange. Search Engines like Google and Bing are adding Authority Links to organic listings, Google+ Search Your World uses the Authorship Tag and Bing shows "People Who Know". Authority Links give better credibility with a picture and help increase the click through rate.
• Do Follow Links
•  Links that are do follow pass on Link Juice or Page-Rank. These types of Do Follow Links coming from Authority sites share this juice and search engines see that the links pointing to a certain page must be relevant and important
• Social Links
• Links coming from Social Networks are a word of mouth link. People care enough to share your content and spread the word. Social Links are targeted and contain Keywords and a description of the content they are linking to. Social Networks are including Local Search into their Network and Applications and as well including them in Organic Listings. This is why putting your keywords or keyphrase in the title tag next to your address or brand are important for local search.
• Correlating Links
• Correlating links is one of the most important factors in offsite search engine optimization. You want sites that are based on the same subject or niche  to link to your site. Search Engines read these correlating links and follow them, its kind of like saying here is more information based on what you were just looking for so come check it out.
• Anchor Text
• When building links make sure your Anchor Text is the keyword or keyphrase you want to rank for that links to your main page or any page you want to rank higher. Add a description to your Anchor text to add further correlation.
• Link Variation
• Use keyword variations in your Anchor Text. People tend to search using different terms, Link Variation gives your keywords a chance in ranking higher for multiple keywords. Search engines will consider it link spam if you have the same Anchor Text plastered everywhere linking to your site.
• Blog links
• Links coming from blogs are generally correlated as they have something to do with a certain niche, usually you can see these Blog Links in a blog roll in the sidebar of a blog. You can add links using keyword or keyphrase variation and leave a useful description in the comments. Add value to the comment!
• Forum Links
• A Signature link  in your profile gives credibility, allot of forums let you include this right away, however you may not be allowed to add links in comments till you have been active in the forums posting in threads.
• Directory Links
• For local search Directory Links are a must. Local Directories like YP.com, Manta, Yelp, and Google Places list your brand name with address and your keywords. Search Engines and Social Networks are using these directories and maps in their network and applications.
• Video & Photo Links
•  Video and Photo sharing services like You Tube, Chill and Pinterest allow you to add your address and keywords in the title of a video with a description, People can share, like and re-pin potentially turning viral creating lots of targeted links

Follow Up Form
After you have cleaned up the site using the Search Engine Optimizations guidelines above use the following Form from Google to explain what you have done and give an example of your efforts.Here is the link to the  WebSpam Form for re-inclusion.

Conclusion
Ranking higher in the Organic Listings for Local Search can be achieved pretty quick as you are only competing with other Local Businesses. The use of Long-Tail Keywords also help as most of them are not as competitive as 1 and 2 word keywords. With everything going Social and Mobile, its a good idea to optimize your site for fingers and thumbs<----easy navigation.

There are much more factors in ranking a page in the organic listings and in fact Google has 200 such signals. No one knows the true algorithm except for search engines and the coders themselves. The best option is to keep up with the latest information  in search engine news. Join Forums, Blogs and Social Networks that have Search Engine Marketing groups.

Remember, No true Search Engine Optimization Specialist can guarantee you first place rankings in the Organic Listings. While many claim they can, they probably could when it comes to non competitive keywords and for Local search it is much easier to rank. Let them show you results of their work and check out their following on social networks, this will give you a good idea of reputable companies!
By "Shawn Lippert"

Additional Resources:
These are the 10 Videos Webmasters must watch according to Google, Thanks to Chris Crum form WebProNews
Google Webmaster Videos