Five More Ways Reviews Help SEO

 How does leaving reviews help a business’s online presence?

Here are five more ways that reviews help small business SEO! (For the first five ways, see our previous blog, “Five Ways Reviews Help SEO.)

Local Pack Rankings

Positive reviews can help a business's position in the “local pack,” which is a set of local businesses that appear at the top of a search result. High-ranking businesses in the local pack are more likely to attract clicks.

Build Trust and Reputation

This is the companion to “user generated content.” Positive reviews build trust and credibility for a business. Search engines aim to provide users with helpful information, so they are more likely to promote a business that appears to be trusted by other users.

Increased Dwell Time and Engagement

The amount of time that a user spends on a business’s page is called “dwell time.” Reviews are an effective way of engaging readers, which means they are more likely to spend time interacting with your business page. Higher dwell time tells search engines that the content is relevant and valuable.

Mobile Search Impact

Many people perform searches on their smart phones or other mobile tech. Positive reviews can have a significant impact on mobile search rankings, as mobile search algorithms often prioritize local businesses with positive reviews.

Social Proof

This is the main function that people think of when writing or reading reviews. When users see that others have had a positive experience with a business, they are more likely to engage with that business, which influences all the previous points.

Get More Marketing Tips from a Local Michigan SEO Agency

Or better yet, let us help your business with SEO!

MSG is a local Michigan SEO agency run by real people who are excited to help you grow your business. For more information, call (877) 815-6974 or submit a contact form here. Or click here to read Google reviews from our happy clients!

Five Way Reviews Help SEO

Did you know that Google reviews can contribute to a business’s SEO?

Here are five ways that reviews help SEO:

Improved Local SEO

This one is pretty simple: positive reviews that contain relevant keywords can make a business appear more often in local search results.

Increased Click-Through Rates (CTRs)

Businesses with a lot of positive reviews are more likely to get clicks. More clicks equal a higher click-through rate, and a higher click-through rate improves your search engine ranking.

Keyword Relevance

Including keywords that are relevant to the business will make them show up more when those words are searched in Google. For example, “SEO Agency Michigan” and “Internet Marketing Company” are relevant keywords for Michigan SEO Group.

Fresh Content and Regular Updates

Google favors fresh, consistently-updated content. Since reviews are continuously updated over time, they are a strong source of fresh content. This in turn tells the search engine that the business is active.

User-Generated Content

This one goes hand-in-hand with “fresh content and regular updates.” Search engines often prioritize content created by users because it reflects real-world experiences, which contributes to the credibility of a business.

Get More Marketing Tips from a Local Michigan SEO Agency

Or better yet, let us help your business with SEO!

Michigan SEO Group is run by real people who are excited to help you grow your business. For more information, call (877) 815-6974 or submit a contact form here. Or click here to read Google reviews from our happy clients!

SEO and Giving Back!

We’ve talked about this before, but at Network Services Group (NSG) and Michigan SEO Group (MSG) we try to run our business based on principles.  One of the most powerful principles that we’ve found is that consistent effort performed over the long term produces amazing results.  Consistency pays dividends.

Nick Sunio, NuStepping to end Alzheimer's on The Longest Day.

This is especially true for the work we do for our customers, but it’s also true in many other areas, and with life in general.  Want to lose weight?  We all know what we need to do – eat healthy and exercise.  That’s not the hard part.  What’s hard is doing it consistently.

One thing that we’d like to do more of is giving back.  We feel blessed to be able to help our clients doing work that we love, but we also love supporting other worthy causes and doing our little part to make the world a better place.  Giving back.


In the past we’ve supported many worthy causes.  We’ve participated in the ALS ice water challenge.  The 22 push-up challenge to support veterans who suffer from PTSD.  Habitat for Humanity.  We’ve also worked with, and made donations to other non-profit organizations such as the Brain Injury Association of Michigan, Partners in Personal Assistance, and the Humane Society of Livingston County.

Our Internet Marketing Directors working on Habitat for Humanity.

We will continue to participate in, and make donations to support charitable causes that are near and dear to our hearts.  While we can’t say yes to everything, we do want to step up and make giving less of something we do on an ad-hoc basis, and more of something we do on a regular basis.

To that end, and applying the principle of consistency pays dividends, we are going to be making regular monthly donations to worthwhile causes.  We are going to start off by giving $200 per month to causes that we hold near and dear to our hearts.  We realize that this isn’t a huge amount of money, but it’s a start.  It’s something we feel we can do every month on a consistent basis, and we can always look for additional opportunities to donate when we have the additional time and resources to do so.

We’ll be picking causes that our principles hold near and dear.  We’ll also ask for input from our team members, so we can support causes that they love.  It’s just one more reason for them to feel good about the work they do here. 

Who knows?  Maybe we’ll get some publicity.  Maybe some of the people we know will see us doing our bit, and it will encourage them to do theirs.  But more importantly, we want to feel good about supporting these causes, and hopefully our humble donations can help make a difference.

A wise man once said that making a difference in the world means that other people need to know what you did.  That’s why we’re putting this out there.  We’re going to do it.  We’re going to feel good about it.  We hope that you will join us.

Responsive Website Design is Getting Even More Important!

How's business?
Are you getting as much awareness and as many leads as you want?
Have you noticed a drop in your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) listings lately?

SEO Ann Arbor Website Design Guidelines

It's time to pay attention to Google's moves to encourage responsive web design. They previously told us that they would factor in mobile friendliness to their search algorithm. Now, they're increasing the strength of that ranking.

There's a useful article at Fast Company that you might want to read.

Getting good search position is so competitive now that you really can't afford to overlook any factors when you work on your healthy online presence. Mobile friendliness is now one of the more significant factors. To make sure your website design is mobile friendly, check with your webmaster. Ask if your site is "mobile-optimized" or "responsive."

A mobile optimized website design is one that can distinguish between laptop, desktop, tablet and smartphone, and show you a site designed for that particular platform. Basically, there's a separate design for tablets and mobile.

Responsive Web Design 

A responsive design is one that responds to the type of device you're using. The design "responds" to changes in the size and orientation of the viewer, so rather than there being multiple designs, there is a design whose parameters change as the parameters of the viewer change.

At SEO Ann Arbor, website design is done using responsive technology. Whichever your webmaster recommends, be sure you get it done soon ... or you could lose search position!

Google Pay-Per-Click – What Happened to the Missing Right Side Ads!

On or around February 22, 2016, Google eliminated the ads that used to appear on the right side of search engine results pages (SERPs). Google says that typically there will now be up to three paid ads at the top of the results, except with what it calls “highly commercial searches,” which will have up to four paid ads at the top. There will be up to three ads below the 10 organic listings. There will be no Adwords ads in the right side column, except for Product Listing Ads (PLAs). It’s not clear how this real estate on your screen will eventually be filled, but you can bet it will be with something that creates revenue for Google.

What Does the Change in Google’s Pay-Per-Click Rules Mean for You?

Read More in our article on this change!

We Love Our Clients - Partners in Personal Assistance!

We are so proud to be helping to promote Partners in Personal Assistance (PPA) with their online presence! 

Partners in Personal Assistance is an Ann Arbor nonprofit that provides in-home and community-based personal assistant services. PPA offers an empowering solution for people with disabilities and elders who want to exercise independence and self determination in their personal care.

PPA's innovative approach to personal assistance achieves a level of integration, empowerment, and equality that benefits both Consumer Partners (Consumers) and Personal Assistants (PAs). People with disabilities are able to live more stable lives due to high-quality assistance, and personal assistants are able to make a meaningful difference in their clients' lives while earning a decent income. 

Consumers and PAs interview each other to decide if they want to work together. Each one has a choice in whether to collaborate as a team and set their schedule together.

If you'd like to find ways to help PPA, please let us know. We'd love to make the introductions! If you'd like to learn more about how SEO Ann Arbor could help with your online presence, take a look at our website!

Internet Marketing Secrets - What You Do Very, Very Well

What Do You Do Very, Very Well?

Before you start working to build your internet presence, it's so important to make sure you know what it is that you do very, very well. When you say it out loud, it sounds silly, but we've worked with so many clients who have never taken the time to really narrow down what they're best at, what they most enjoy, where they make the most difference, and where they make the most profit. As a result, not only does their internet marketing lack focus, not only are they wasting a lot of money on their pay-per-click marketing, but often their businesses struggle as well!

Learn more about narrowing down your online marketing to focus on what you do best with this article.

Internet Marketing Secrets - Use Pay-Per-Click Marketing? Absolutely!

What is Pay-Per-Click Marketing?

Pay-Per-Click marketing is pretty much what it sounds like - you pay a marketing service each time a visitor clicks on a link to your website. The biggest player is Google's Adwords program, but there are others, with Facebook paid ads running a close second. You set up a campaign, select some initial keywords, and write one or more ads that tell potential customers what you offer. Other than a few high-dollar categories like legal services, real estate, and some home improvement categories, most clicks will cost you very little.

Visit our website to learn more about pay-per-click marketing!

Internet Marketing Secrets - The Sweet Spot!

What's one thing every business should know about internet marketing? The sweet spot!

What's the Sweet Spot in Internet Marketing?

That's where what you do very, very well and what the world wants come together. We see mistakes all the time in internet marketing ... usually by people who just post random things on their website and social media. They're inconsistent with their posts, but most important, they haven't taken the time to nail both aspects of this critical core of internet marketing.

Wouldn't it be great to know that you're using your online presence as effectively as possible?
Would you like to be sure you're spending your internet marketing dollars wisely?

To learn more, read the complete post on our website!

Five SEO Tips You Can't Live Without!

First, find the best keywords! 
There are two things that the average business website does that are NOT very helpful to SEO. 

First, they choose words that only a person who already knows about their business would type into Google. For example, a local heating a cooling business we know optimized their site for the word “mechanical.” Now, an educated person might know that “XYZ Mechanical” would repair and install home furnaces, but someone whose furnace just quit will probably type in “furnace repair.” You have to make that kind of calculation for all your keywords.

Second, they choose keywords that very few people are searching for. If you have limited space on your site (and you SHOULD limit the number of words on your homepage, at least), then you want to focus on the keywords that most people are searching for. There are a number of good tools to find out, including the keyword tool on Google Adwords, and many free services offered by the search engines. Make sure the keywords you select are actually ones being commonly searched in your area of specialty. Don't forget to check your successful competitors!

Find out how many incoming links your competitors have, and their top five keywords. This will give you very specific guidance as to (1) how many links you’ll need to compete, and (2) what keywords they deemed important.

You’ll have to dig a little deeper to make this information meaning, however. The quality of incoming links is at least as important as the number, so you can use of the many free back link checkers to find out the Page Rank of your competitor’s incoming links. 

You’ll also want to go further with your analysis of your competitor’s keywords. Review them just as you do your own – make sure they’re keywords that are widely searched, and figure out how to incorporate them into key phrases that generate sustained search interest.

Third, add great content! This is the thing Google is trying to get you to do, anyway. You want to include actual content that inspires people to visit your site and share it with others. If you aren’t a great writer, find someone who is. In the large context of your advertising budget, freelance web writers are often very affordable. Here are some of the qualities of good online content: originality, usefulness, worth sharing, accuracy, detail, excitement. One way to learn more about shareable content is to visit one of the free sites that allows you to search for most shared articles. Study those articles and you’ll figure out some of the things they do that make them so shareable.

Fourth, make sure you optimize your page titles and meta description. Page titles are those words that appear at the top of your browser window, usually in the gray or blue space above the URL (uniform resource locator). Make sure your page titles contain as many of your top keywords as possible while still reasonably indicating the purpose of the page. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Google only considers the first 66 characters of a page title, but many SEO experts still advise including as many words as you think are necessary to adequately describe the page. 

The meta description is a phrase that often shows up in the snippet of text Google shows below the link to your site. It’s a chance to point out what your page is all about. As part of what we call “four-in-one” keyword optimization, we like to be sure our most important keywords are included in the URL, page title, headers, and text of our home page, and to make sure the meta-description is compelling.
 
Fifth, be sure to use title and ALT attribute 
The title attribute is included in the html of a link. Though the viewer won’t see it (unless she’s looking .. or actually, if he or she is blind. Browsers for the visually impaired often read the title and ALT attributes) it tells the search engines more about where they will end up if they click the link. Since this isn’t meant to be a technical article, we’ll just say here that the link will not only contain the URL of the destination page, but also a short description of it. Once again, this is a good place to employ keywords.

The ALT attribute is also for the search engines and those who use browsers or readers for the visually impaired. It gives more information about an image, which otherwise wouldn’t have any value to the search engine.

This is far from an exhaustive list of SEO methods. But it will help get you started. If you’re not inclined to do this kind of work for yourself, or if you’re too busy, give us a call at 877-815-6974. We’ll do a quick FREE evaluation of your website, and let you know if we can help get you to page one of Google!

I WANT A NEW WEBSITE!

I Want a New Website!

(And, oh yeah, I also want to be number on on Google…)

We actually get this kind of request fairly often, both here at SEO Ann Arbor, and at our sister company, Network Services Group.* New clients, or potential clients who’ve just decided they want a new website, often seem to emphasize things in a way that’s almost exactly opposite to the way we would emphasize them.

The typical conversation is all about the design and the bells and whistles these clients want on their new website – “I want a white background, be sure to use mauve and chartreuse on the sidebar, and I definitely want a slide show of photos on the home page where I can feature all the ideas I have about my services.” We spend an hour or two making sure we understand the outline of what they want so we can get our designers to rough out something for them. Then, usually near the end of the meeting when everybody’s standing up and maybe even halfway out the door, the new client says something like this: “oh, and by the way, people are going to find my new site on Google, right?”

Whoops, what did you just say?

Folks can’t be blamed for this approach. After all, we’re the website and SEO professionals, and the people we meet at work are usually very good at the things they do to make their own companies run. But we’re here to tell you (and explain why) you should take a few moments to understand why the conversation should probably be fundamentally the opposite of what we normally experience. It should go something like this:

“I Want to Be Number One on Google!”

“What’s it to going to take to get there?”

and…

“Do you think I need a new website as part of the process?”
Here’s why: the process of designing and building most websites is relatively simple, involves a limited amount of data, can usually be accomplished within 90 days or so, and usually has a specified, finite fee.

On the other hand, the best website in the world has very little chance of becoming prominent on Google without some serious SEO and other sustained efforts. The process of getting a client’s website or web pages to appear prominently in the search engines – and then at or near position one on Google – can be very, very complex, can involve many different kinds of effort, cannot be accomplished in a set period of time, and requires lots of work by professionals on a continuous basis (which means there’s a recurring monthly fee).

It's more than just a website, it's all about a "healthy online presence"!

Besides those points, it’s important to realize that simply getting to a top position in Google and the other search engines is not a guarantee that your business will get a lot of traffic, leads, or sales. At least two other things have to come together before you start seeing real results. The first is what we call a “healthy online presence.”** That means you have compelling content that truly appeals to the kinds of visitors you want, posted in relevant places, with a sufficient number of links back to that content from other website, blogs, and social media.

The second is that you have to have a way to engage your visitors so they either come back again, stay in touch with you, contact you, or actually make a purchase or use your services. That means a high percentage of people who visit your website should get real value out of the experience. Ideally, you give them a way to share their contact information so you can continue to add value to their lives. That way, when the time comes to meet with you or to actually buy your products, they’ll have already developed a good idea of how helpful you are.

One of the hardest jobs we have (and you can get a huge jump on your competition if you make this leap with us), is helping our clients learn to think like their customers, not just sometimes, but continuously and continually in the course of doing business. It’s so much easier to think about what we’re doing and what we offer (heck, we’re often guilty of it, too) than it is to truly think about what our customers need and how we can offer it in the most helpful manner possible. And yet, we have to engage in exactly that process to be effective on the internet. There are so many options for almost every idea, product, or service that if we fail to communicate in a truly customer friendly way, we’re almost guaranteed to lose out to our competition.

Don’t make this mistake! If we end up working together, or even if you end up finding other website or SEO professionals you prefer to work with, remember to do everything in your power to figure out what your ideal customers want, how they want it presented, and how you can provide those things better than anybody else.

So here’s a quick summary:

Ask not what it takes to build that new website you want. Instead, let’s sit down and figure out together what makes your ideal customer tick. We’ll determine what to offer, how to offer it, and figure out if there’s anything you’re not already doing that you could be doing to really hit it out of the park. We love success and we have a pretty good idea of how to get most businesses there. If that’s something we can work on with you and help you achieve your dream of a successful, growing business and an abundant life – which would mean you do well, we do well, and your customers are very well served – then you may be a good fit for our professional services!

There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to get hold of us. Don’t wait … we’re very busy and we’d hate to find out that you’re losing business to your competitors … who happened to call us first!  Feel free to email or call today at 877-815-6974. We promise not to yell at you if the first thing you say is “I Want a new website!”



*By the way, both companies design and build websites. Network Services Group (NSG) typically gets website requests from the companies that are already using its I.T. services. Here at SEO Ann Arbor, people are more likely to call us specifically because they’ve heard we build websites and do extremely effective S.E.O. There’s a lot of crossover between our two companies because, basically, when you find people who are incredibly good at what they do, it makes sense to stick close to them.

**Actually, our friend Charly Caldwell said that before we did. Charly’s one of the pioneers of internet marketing and has helped us tremendously as we’ve built up our abilities to rock out success on the internet!

What on Earth is an "Opt-In"?!

We’ve talked before about the need for an “opt-in” of some kind. That’s a method where we offer something that visitors to your website might want (an “incentive”), so they share their email address with us. We've used this approach with many of our most successful clients.

We urge you to let us create an opt-in for you!

We’ve seen again and again that it’s an important part of a robust online presence, and it really helps us get the message out there that you care. In the long run, that’s very valuable for building your brand and getting you more qualified customers!

How it works:

1.    We offer an incentive of some kind – a handy guide, a white paper, a coupon.
2.    We create a button or other place on your website that tells people they can get the incentive by sharing their email with us.
3.    Once we get the email, we have an automated system in place to follow up with them and share more useful information.
4.    Customers learn that you are good at what you do and that you are abundant.
5.    When they need services like your, they think of you in a positive way!

Why we need it:

In the course of our work, we've seen that many visitors will come to a website, but most leave, right away or after a minute or two. You have no way of knowing who they are or reminding them what you do. Some are potential clients, but they may leave and forget about you. If you think about it, that’s a loss that should make you feel the pain of missing out on business that you really deserve to get.

On the other hand, if they claim your incentive, you have a fighting chance to get their business, and make all your effort on website design, blogging, social media, and opportunity scouting worthwhile!

What we need from you:

1.    First, just say “yes!”
2.    We’ll suggest some ideas for the opt-in and VVVS sequence.
3.    You let us know if the ideas seem okay, or suggest others.
4.    We create the draft of the whole sequence.
5.    You approve the draft or suggest changes.
6.    We implement the opt-in and automated VVVS sequence.
7.    You start building a list of potential customers who think you are awesome!

It may seem like a bit of trouble, but many of our clients have been very successful using this approach as part of their overall marketing strategy. Imagine what just one or two more customers or clients per month could mean to your bottom line!

If one of your competitors is using it, you will likely see their business growing as clients chose them instead of you. You don’t want that to happen, and neither do we!

Give us the okay. We’ll get to work, and try to keep it as simple as possible for you!

Our Ideal Client Communication

Our Ideal Client Communication

“We believe in helping people achieve their dream of a successful, growing business and an abundant life…starting today!”  We do this by employing a vast number of website design, internet marketing and SEO strategies and tactics. However, our work is not done in a vacuum! 

We need consistent communication and content from you to maximize your success. We encourage you to think of your SEO specialist as an extension of your team. 

We design your SEO campaign to work best for your  particular customers, products, and services. Your expertise in your business and your knowledge of your customers’ needs is invaluable to us.  Here are a few examples of the kinds of information you can help provide:

•    Phone calls – who is calling or emailing you, and what are they asking for? – Let us know, early and often! 

•    Upcoming sales and events:  If you have a big sale or open house planned – Let us know!

•    Cancellations:  If an event or promotion is cancelled that we’ve advertised for you – Let us know! 

•    Conferences and community service projects:  Your staff “Races for the Cure” or attends a special conference or training session – Let us know!

•    New products or services:  You change your hours, launch a new product, recall a product, or find a new use for it – Let us know! 

•    Awards and recognition:  If you or a staff person becomes a member of an organization, your business receives accolades, or the baseball team you sponsor wins a tournament – Yep, you guessed it! Let us know! 

•    Industry news:  You recently read any interesting trade journals or blogs related to your business – Let us know!  [and please provide us with a link or copy of the article]

•    Staff news:  You hire a new employee, an employee retires, or other notable events occur like marriages, certifications, graduations, babies, etc. – Let us know! Are you noticing a theme yet?

•    Customer testimonials or reviews.  Stories about customers are worth their weight in gold.  Your staff went above and beyond to help a customer – Let us know! 

Are you wondering what a staff change or a community service event could have to do with your SEO campaign?  For getting the word about your business out there, ALL news is good news!  We can add your keywords into almost any content. Not only that, any “feel good” or personal news will tend to attract more human visitors via social media, especially if you provide us with photographs! 

Speaking of photographs, when you have an event, it’s really, really important to designate someone to take photographs (with permission) of happy customers to post on social media and your website.  We’re serious! It would be wonderful if you would assign someone the task of taking photographs and ONLY taking photographs, to make sure photos don’t become an afterthought. 

The more you “Let us know,” sooner rather than later, the more successful your campaigns will be!

Katie Rocks it at SEO Ann Arbor!

We love the people who work at SEO Ann Arbor, and we love to tell you about them! Katie Kazda rocks it out every day, somehow balancing all her work - at the front desk, on the phone, and most importantly, helping to make your online presence more and more robust every day! She knows SEO (search engine optimization) takes consistent hard work over the long term, and she simply knows how to grind it out, day after day, with a smile on her face!

SEO Ann Arbor specializes in helping get the word out about businesses and what they do best. Whether it's website design, digital marketing, social media management, search engine optimization, or content that lives in the "sweet spot" between what you do best and what the world really, really wants, together with the great people who work at SEO Ann Arbor, we can help!

Web Design Ann Arbor: Three Things to Know and One Thing to Avoid

Are you trying to improve your businesses web design?

Are you unsure if you’re making the right moves to increase leads and engagement on your website?

Here at SEO Ann Arbor, we want to help you make sure that you’re getting the most out of your website, and it all starts with web design.

Three Things You Need to Know:

1. More graphics are not always better! Graphics, while eye-catching, can be distracting if they clutter the page. You want graphics that make sense and serve a purpose, rather than graphics that just take up space.
2. Clean design is the way to go. A website that’s organized; well thought out and functional will attract more leads than a complex, hard to follow design.
3. Responsive design is the way of the future. Eventually, Google will be penalizing sites that aren’t responsive, and search results will suffer. For the ease of your customers, a site that can be viewed on any size screen is not only convenient, but will get you bonus points with Google.

A responsive design that adapts to tablets and smartphones is an essential element of web design.

One Thing to Avoid:

1. Inconsistent fonts! It can be tempting to use different font styles and sizes in order to make certain information stand out, but don’t go crazy! Many consumers agree that varying font sizes and styles is not only distracting, but can actually end up being harder to read.

Need More Tips?

 

Visit SEO Ann Arbor online, and see how our design and SEO experts can help you use web design to grow your business. Contact us today for a free website evaluation!

Do’s and Don’ts of Web Design

Are you in the process of designing a new website for your business?

Are you up-to-date on the best practices of web design?

Don’t let the process of designing a website overwhelm you! Follow these simple do’s and don’ts and get the most out of your web design!

Do:

• Make sure your website is structured well. A busy website with too many graphics or text boxes can be very distracting to someone visiting your site. In the case of web design, less is more!
• Try to focus on your most relevant topics. The focus for your site should be with a specific goal in mind. Focus on what’s important, and what is going to drive in the most business.
• Make an easy navigation bar. The easier your site is to navigate, the better customers and clients are going to be able to find the information they’re looking for. They won’t get frustrated about having to sort through page after page, either.

Don’t:

• Have too many text boxes or graphics. You want your site to be eye-catching, but not at the expense of giving out information or making sales. Too many distractions on a page can drive potential customers away. 
• Have irrelevant content/images on pages. Make sure to keep everything simple and clear. Don’t confuse a visitor to your site by having information about four different topics on one page. Dedicate each page to a relevant piece of information regarding your business.
• Go overboard with images and colors. Pick a color scheme and stick to it throughout the site. Also be sure to use colors that are easy on the eyes, as opposed to neon colors, for example, which are eye-catching, but can be overwhelming and distracting.

Looking For More?

Visit SEO Ann Arbor’s website or give us a call at 877-815-6974 to see how we can help you create a great web design for your business!

Do You Know How to Succeed on Yelp? We Do!

Are you struggling to retain visibility on Yelp?


Do you log into Yelp on a regular basis?


Are you finding it a challenge to get reviews?


Do you communicate effectively with your clients?


Knowing the best search engine marketing practices when it comes to Yelp is always a good tactic so you can be one step ahead of your competition. Many people have heard of Yelp, but don’t know what it takes to succeed there. We have the inside scoop, so we’re going to tell you almost everything we know ... and more!

According to Yelp.com, there are numerous things you can do to succeed, they include:

•     Track how many people view your business page. You can use the info gathered here to inform your decisions on things like “When is the best day of the week to run a special?”
•     Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties.
•     Recommend other businesses.
•     Put a badge and link to your Yelp listing on your website.
•     Put a "Find us on Yelp" sign in your place of business, on the front counter or window.
•     Include a link to your Yelp business listing in your email signature with the words, "Check us out on Yelp!"
•     Allows you to communicate with your customers.
•     Respond to positive and negative reviews.

All these things have been tested and proven, so you know you’re getting the good stuff from experts who use Yelp firsthand. If you start using Yelp on a regular basis and still don’t see a lot of activity on your analytics page, you may need to consult with an SEO expert or online marketing expert.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much time must I commit to my Yelp listing?


It depends on how much success you want! If you want to be successful, at least 1-2 hours weekly would be sufficient as a minimum.


Can I designate Yelp tasks to someone on my team?


Yes, you can designate Yelp tasks to someone on your team who is knowledgeable about your business. They will need to implement a description, history of the company, coupons, pictures, and more.


Is Yelp user-friendly?


Yes, Yelp is user-friendly. If you need help for any reason and can’t figure out the answer, Yelp has a business support section that answers common questions.


At SEO Ann Arbor, “We believe in helping people achieve their dream of a successful, growing business and an abundant life…starting today!” Feel free to give us a call to talk about what you’d like to achieve for your business. We’ll even take a quick look at your website and share our impressions without charging you anything. Even if you don't end up hiring us to do your search engine marketing for you, we like to think we can help educate and inform you. If your website is not on Page One of Google, contact us today!

Check Google Trends

A good way to get a rough idea of how many people are searching for a particular word or phrase is to use Google Trends. Trends allows you to enter up to five words or phrases (separated by commas). Your results will show the relative number of people searching for each word or phrase.

Suppose you sell floor coverings and you're trying to decide whether to focus this month's online advertising on tile, plank flooring, bamboo, or carpet (we realize this example probably seems excessively simple if you're in the business, but we don't sell floor coverings!). You just type those words into Google Trends and you'll know which of them is being searched for most, which second, which third, and so forth. You'll have a good general understanding of the online trends (we're pretty sure that's what they call it "Trends").

There are a few things to keep in mind both about the value of Google Trends and about its limitations. Trends shows results for the entire English internet (though it does break those results down by geographic region), not necessarily for your city. It's more of a butter knife than a scalpel. It's also true that just because lots of people are searching for a particular term doesn't mean they're going to find your website. We'll talk more about how to become successful by avoiding the most searched-for terms, but for now we'd just like you to keep in mind that Trends is more of a tool for getting to know the big picture than it is for developing a detailed keyword list for your website.

One neat aspect of Google Trends that can be helpful for websites dealing with hot topics or current events is that it shows spikes in searches and correlates them with major news stories. That can be very helpful if you're researching when to emphasize certain words and phrases and what information to correllate them with to take advantage of surges in search numbers.

Once you've got an idea of the big picture, it's time to go to step 3: the Adwords Keyword Tool.

Make sure you have a page on your site dedicated to each keyword/phrase

Let’s say you have an auto repair shop that specializes in providing service for European imports such as Audi, VW, and BMW.  When people go to Google and search for “bmw auto repair ann arbor” you would like your site to show up on the first page, if not first in the list.

Your current site has a “services” page that mentions that you work on BMW, VW, Audi, and other imports, but you don’t have a page specifically for “bmw auto repair ann arbor.”  Do you see the problem here?  You are hoping to be featured in the search results for a very specific search phrase, but you don’t have a page on your site that was specifically designed for that purpose.

But imagine if your competitor does.  Whoops!

The solution is to create a specific landing page just for “bmw auto repair ann arbor”.  You should go so far as to make sure the filename of the page includes those keywords (e.g. bmw_auto_repair_ann_arbor.html).  The HTML title of the page should also contain those keywords (more on page titles later).  The page should contain a lot of text that contains the phrases BMW, auto repair, and Ann Arbor.  Each one of those phrases should also be included in an HTML H1 header tag.

Try to include some specific information as to what advantages your facility would offer to someone with a BMW.  Do you have a BMW certified technician on staff?   What makes you so good at repairing BMW’s as compared to anyone else? The more information that you can provided, the more opportunities there are for you to include keywords, and that will help improve the relevance of your site for those particular words and phrases.  You might even go so far as to reserve a keyword rich domain name such as “bmw-repair-ann-arbor.com”.

Now go back and do it again for all of the other keywords and phrases that you are trying to optimize.

What is the ONE thing I can do to optimize my site?

Let’s face it, SEO can be confusing. There are a dozen major things, and dozens of minor things that can and probably should be done to optimize your site. Worse yet, many of them are time consuming and involve disparate skills. Still, you have to start somewhere, and we get asked all of the time, “what is the one thing I can do to optimize my site?”

The answer is simple. Write! People use words to search the Internet. When I am looking for someone to install a sprinkler system at my house, I don’t upload a picture of my brown lawn to Google and hope they figure it out. No, I type in “Ann Arbor Sprinkler” or “Sprinkler System Installation.” Google and the other search engines understand text. Sure, there are other things that can help, but one of the biggest factors in convincing Google and the other search engines that your site is pertinent for a given set of keywords, is to make sure that your site contains those keywords.

If you install sprinkler systems in Ann Arbor, then make sure that your website liberally mentions that fact. Again and again. For any given set of keywords, you want them to appear at least once in the page title, once in a header tag, once inside of paragraph text, and also in the name of the page. We call it 4 in 1 optimization. You’ll call it “magic” once you see how well it works.