Google Dramatically Changes Search Result Page For Restaurants, Hotels, Bars...

It's called the "carousel".  It's a brand new search result layout that Google has implemented for some local business categories such as hotels, restaurants and bars.  Do a local Google search for one of these categories and you'll now see an interactive list of results on the top of the page (even above the ads).  Check out an example below:

This new layout has big marketing implications for small business owners as we predict that even more business verticals will be added to this format in the coming months. If you're an owner of a restaurant, hotel or bar, and would like to discuss how to optimize your online strategy to take advantage of this new "carousel" layout please give us a call at 866-234-7170 or contact us online at info@networkforsolutions.com

"Behind The Curtain" (Part 2) - 5 Things Small Businesses MUST KNOW

In part 1 of "Behind The Curtain" we exposed the 2 biggest Internet marketing falsehoods that small business owners are told. Part 2 takes it a step further. If there were only 5 critical pieces of advice we could give to a small business owner regarding the marketing & advertising of their business today they would be:

1. Isolate your advertising programs and evaluate each one individually - Many small businesses do multiple advertising programs at once (yellow pages, direct mail, online advertising, etc.) with a single large media corporation, and do not know which programs are performing well and which programs are not. Representatives from these media corporations will often present "bundles" where multiple programs are packaged as one. The problem with this approach is the business owner does not see the cost and performance of each program individually. Ask your representative to review with you the cost & performance of each program individually so you can decrease or eliminate the programs that are not performing up to par, and devote more of your budget to the programs that are working well. Another recommendation is to seek the expertise of an independent consultant, who is not biased towards any particular advertising medium. They will give you an honest evaluation of each individual campaign and recommendations on how to better invest your budget.
2. Refuse to pay as much for print advertising as you did in the past - If the audience has declined (which it has) then so should your investment. People still use the phone book and read the newspaper but not nearly as many as before. There's still some value for your business in having visibility in these mediums so don't decrease your presence, just decrease your investment. Your yellow pages or newspaper rep will not like this, and will say you can't do it, but you can. If you need help executing this strategy contact us.
3. Refuse to do long contracts with Internet marketing programs - If a company tries to make you sign a 6 or 12 month contract for Internet marketing services just say no. Most reputable Internet marketing firms offer short term, or month to month programs because they know if you're happy with their services then you will continue on with them, without needing to be "locked" into a contract.
4. Own and have full control of your website domain name - There's been far too many nightmare situations where a business buys a website from a company without realizing they don't own the domain name. When they decide to sever ties with that company they lose the website and have to start over from scratch with a new domain. Make sure you are the owner of your domain name and have it registered under your own registrar.
5. Don't advertise on Yelp - We have nothing personal against Yelp and actually stress the importance of a business having a free listing with them but stick with just the free listing. The truth is Yelp has a very aggressive sales force and the most inflated pricing on the Internet. Until this changes don't sink your advertising funds into Yelp because the return on investment can't be justified. There's far better places on the Internet to invest your budget.

The goal of "Behind The Curtain" is to help make the Internet marketing industry more open and honest, and to help educate small business owners with the knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions, based on the truth.

"Behind The Curtain" (Part 1) - The 2 Biggest Internet Marketing Lies That Small Businesses Are Told

Unfortunately the Internet marketing industry contains some salespeople who either don't have the experience and knowledge to properly advise small business owners, or deliberately mislead business owners into doing business with their company by giving them false information.

In part 1 of "Behind The Curtain", we expose the 2 most widely told falsehoods in the Internet marketing industry and how business owners can protect themselves from being misled.

Here are the 2 most common Internet marketing lies that small business owners are told:

1. We run your search engine advertising for free! 100% of your monthly budget goes to the search engines and we get paid by Google! The truth is when you run your Google advertising through a large media corporation there are a lot of hands in the pot. In most cases you are paying a 50% margin or more to the media corporation. For example, if you invest a $1000/month budget into a Google advertising program through a media company, $500 of that is going directly to the media company and only $500 is going to the Google Advertising. No one is saying that the media corporation doesn't deserve to be paid to provide this service, but 50% is absurd. A fair percentage is 10-20% and most smaller firms are in that range. If you have the time and knowledge to run your own, you could do the self-serve option with Google, but we typically recommend working with a smaller firm that is transparent and honest about the cost of providing the service. Google advertising can be extremely beneficial to a business if done properly and with the right strategy, but proceed with caution! If a company won't disclose what the cost of their service is, or says there is no cost, steer clear!

2. We have a "special relationship" with Google that allows us to get your business better placement, results, lower cost per click, etc. The truth is no company has any advantage because of how big they are or how many clients they advertise on Google. Large corporations have been claiming for years that they are "tied in" with Google or can deliver better results because of their size or "secret partnership". This is, and has always been, a flat out lie. If a sales rep tries this approach with you steer clear! It's a major red flag that they either lack serious knowledge on the subject or are straight out lying to you. Either way that's not someone you want to do business with.

The goal of "Behind The Curtain" is to help make the Internet marketing industry more open and honest, and to help educate small business owners with the knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions, based on the truth. In part 2 we will disclose the 5 most critical things for a small business owner to know right now about marketing/advertising.

Important New Data About Working From Home

Telecommuting (working form home) is a hot topic right now. Marissa Mayer (new CEO of Yahoo) recently told employees they couldn't work from home because it hurts "speed and quality." The debate will fuel on with opinions from both sides, but we predict that telecommuting will continue to increase at a rapid rate moving forward. Here are 5 interesting things to consider based on new data:

1. Telecommuters are almost twice as likely to work more than 40 hours a week.
2. The average annual savings for a business if an employee with a telecommute-compatible job works from home half the time is $11,000.
3. The average telecommuter saves $2,000 to $7,000 annually on transportation and other expenses.
4. The percentage of telecommuters increased 60% from 2005 to 2011.
5. Telecommuters are 6% to 10% less productive than on-site employees when doing repetitive work but are 11% to 20% more productive when performing creative tasks.

[sources]

A New Free Tool From Google To Help Keep You Organized

We all seem to be living busier, more fast-paced lives than before due to an abundance of information flying at us from all directions. There's more to do and more to remember these days, and being efficient is crucial to success in business and life overall. Google has unveiled an application called Google Keep to help the average person stay organized (ideal for the busy small business owner). Below is a quote and short video from Google:

"Every day we all see, hear or think of things we need to remember. Usually we grab a pad of sticky-notes, scribble a reminder and put it on the desk, the fridge or the relevant page of a magazine. Unfortunately, if you’re like me you probably often discover that the desk, fridge or magazine wasn’t such a clever place to leave the note after all...it’s rarely where you need it when you need it.

To solve this problem we’ve created Google Keep. With Keep you can quickly jot ideas down when you think of them and even include checklists and photos to keep track of what’s important to you. Your notes are safely stored in Google Drive and synced to all your devices so you can always have them at hand.

If it’s more convenient to speak than to type that’s fine—Keep transcribes voice memos for you automatically. There’s super-fast search to find what you’re looking for and when you’re finished with a note you can archive or delete it."



Google Keep is available on Google Play for devices running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and above. You can access, edit and create new notes on the web at http://drive.google.com/keep and in the coming weeks you'll be able to do the same directly from Google Drive.

What You Need to Know About Your Website Traffic

We believe that every business website should have some form of analytics or tracking installed so that traffic can be measured and analyzed. Along with that though comes the need to understand the information that is captured. An analytics report will give back an awful lot of data & metrics but what does the business owner really need to know in order to evaluate the performance? Keep reading and we will tell you exactly what's most important to know:

One of the single most important (and often overlooked) aspects of a website traffic report is the % of new visitors vs. returning visitors. Google defines a "new visitor" as someone who visited your website for the first time. Your current customers most likely search for your business by name. But prospective customers tend to search by topic, such as "dentist" or "florists" or "oil change".


If a major goal of your Internet marketing program is to generate potential new customers (as it is in most cases) then the new visitor % stat is a really important one since it's a great indicator of who is visiting your website. Is your website traffic mostly existing customers and returning visitors, who probably typed your business name into a search engine? Or do you have a higher percentage of new visitors (potential new customers) who found your website by typing in a new business search (like "insurance agent", "transmission repair shop", "roofing company in Boston", etc.)?

The ideal new visitor % in your website traffic report will differ based on your business category but if you are finding a small percentage of your website traffic coming from new visitors then you probably have a case of poor search engine rankings for new business searches in your local market. For example, if you are a dentist in Providence, RI and your website does not show on the first page of Google for the keyword search "Dentist Providence, RI" then you most likely are not getting a large percentage of new visitors to your website. Instead, your website traffic is mostly comprised of existing patients who need to find your phone number or address. Existing customers finding you is certainly a good thing but if business growth from the Internet is a goal then you also need a healthy percentage of new traffic consistently visiting your website.

Have questions about whether your website traffic is helping you achieve your business goals? Contact us!

Network For Solutions

A short video that explains who we are and what we do for small businesses:

What Einstein Would Say to Internet Marketing Companies

I think those in the Internet marketing industry would all agree that it's a very complex field they work in.  One part of the job is to be a subject-matter expert - to be a master of search engine optimization, social media marketing, and website design, among other things.  It's an industry that's constantly changing.  Google updates their website ranking algorithm hundreds of times a year now and new social media sites are popping up left and right.  It's our job to stay ahead of the curve for our clients and deliver results in this ever-changing landscape.  It's a complicated and tough job but we know what we signed up for and are very grateful for the opportunity to help businesses online.

However, there's a second piece of the job that many are failing at in this industry, which goes back to Einstein's quote.  Far too often, Internet marketing firms are confusing small business owners by failing to simplify the message.  Granted, it's no easy task to take all this highly-complicated information and put it into a simplified form that the business owner will understand, but it's crucial. If the business owner is confused about what services they are getting, and what the results of the program are, then the Internet marketing firm is not doing the full job.

In far too many cases online marketing companies are either not relaying this information at all, or relaying the information to the business owner in "industry terms", with technical jargon that means nothing to them.  I often compare it to a doctor speaking a bunch of medical terms to the patient when giving the diagnosis and treatment plan.

So remember, a good Internet marketing firm should not only have expertise in Internet marketing, but also in communicating a simplified message to the client.

The Most Misunderstood Metric in Website Analytics - Bounce Rate

At Network For Solutions we feel it's critically important for our clients to track the performance of their Internet marketing.  One of the best ways to do that is by periodically looking at website traffic reports (or website analytics).  These reports provide extremely valuable information such as how many visitors a website is getting, where they are coming from, how they got there, how long they are staying on the site, how many pages of the site they visited, and percentage of new visitors vs. returning visitors.  These are some of the best metrics to look at when measuring performance and there will be future posts on each one, but right now we want to focus on one metric that we feel is the most misunderstood and often times most misleading one - the bounce rate.

The official definition of bounce rate is the percentage of website visitors who view only one page of a website.  So for example, if your website gets 100 visitors in a month, and 50 of those visitors only viewed 1 page on the site, then the bounce rate of the website would be 50% for that month.

First off, whoever came up with the name bounce rate made a big mistake in our opinion.  It's a very misleading name when considering what bounce rate actually stands for.  If you just heard the name without knowing what it means the logical first impression would be that a website bounce is when a visitor lands on a website and quickly leaves.  In reality, bounce rate has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of time a visitor stays on a website.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard someone who works in the Internet marketing industry misrepresent the meaning of bounce rate.  The most frightening instance was a couple of years ago when I witnessed a high-level executive of a very large media corporation tell a room full of small business owners that a website's bounce rate is the "percentage of website visitors that bounce from the site within 7 seconds of arriving" (yikes!).  Now this person was not intentionally trying to mislead the business owners in the room, but it's a scary reminder that some of the people who are considered experts in the Internet marketing industry are not as fully educated as they should be.  This results in misled business owners who deserve to know the true meanings of these metrics.

The real problem with this common myth about bounce rate is that business owners often get freaked out when they see the bounce rate of their website.  They see a bounce rate of 50% and immediately think that half of their website visitors are instantly leaving their site and chalk those up as useless traffic.

Here's the reality:  bounce rate is actually a relatively insignificant metric for most small business websites.  A well-optimized small business website should be designed to quickly convert visitors into leads (mainly in the form of phone calls).  For most small business websites the optimal process should go something like this:

Step 1:  A consumer searches for a local service or product they need (usually on Google) and chooses a business that is highly visible in the search results.

Step 2:  The consumer arrives on the business website, is comforted by the professional design, sees that this business can serve their needs, and contacts the business by calling the phone number on the same page of the website that they arrived on.

So yes, this scenario would be considered a bounce because the website visitor only visited one page of the site.  Does a high bounce rate seem like such a bad thing now?  I know plenty of small business owners who would take website bounces all day long.

Of course not every situation is exactly the same and in some cases an extremely high bounce rate can be a red flag, but the point is that Small Business America need not fear the bounce rate!  In most cases it's an insignificant statistic and there's plenty of much more important metrics within your website analytics that will help you measure performance.  Have questions or feedback? (866) 234-7170 or info@networkforsolutions.com

A Brand New Reason Why Your Small Business Needs Facebook

One of the most common questions we get asked by small business owners is "Why is it important for my business to have a Facebook page?"  Up to this point our answer included:

1.  It helps the visibility of your business on search engines like Google.
2.  It's a great way to engage your existing customer base.

Now we can add another huge new reason: Facebook is on its way to becoming a search engine for local businesses.

Yesterday, Facebook updated the Nearby feature in its iPhone and Android apps to enable users to find nearby local businesses by name or by category. Results will be ranked by ratings, recommendations, check-ins and "Likes".

Facebook is entering the local search arena.

Only those businesses that have a Facebook Page will be listed, creating a powerful new incentive to create a Facebook Page.

It’s only mobile (for now). And there are no ads planned for the immediate future, but you can imagine that will change in all probability over time and we believe that the goal is to compete with search engines like Google and review sites like Yelp.

Below is an official statement from Facebook as well as a few tips for local businesses:

Local businesses have always relied on word-of-mouth recommendations to gain new customers and grow their sales. Whether they’re a new restaurant in the neighborhood, a favorite salon, or a trusted tailor, small businesses often depend on social endorsements to get discovered.

And recommendations from friends become even more important when people are on the go. In fact, 150 million people visit Pages on Facebook every day globally. And in the US, over half of visitors to Facebook Pages are visiting them from a mobile device. 

Today we're pleased to announce updates to Nearby, accessed via the Facebook mobile app: now, in addition to showing which friends have checked in at a particular place, Nearby helps people discover places near them based on their friends’ recommendations. People can explore by category (ex: restaurants or hotels); connect to businesses directly from their phone (by liking, checking in, calling, or getting directions); rate the places they visit via a five-star system; and share their recommendations with friends.

If you have a Page on Facebook with a location, your business now has another way to be discovered by Facebook's 600 million-plus mobile consumers.

When someone looks for a place, the results that appear in their Nearby list are based on things like their friends' recommendations, ratings, check-ins, and likes. If you're a business with a physical location, here's what you can do to ensure your place is more easily discoverable in Nearby:

• Update your Page to include all of your basic information, including your address, store hours, phone number, and details about your business in the About section
• Update your category to make sure you appear when people are looking for your specific type of business
• Encourage your consumers to like, check into, rate, and recommend your place

Based on this news, there has never been a better time for a small business to contact Network For Solutions.  We will make sure your business is ahead of the curve and utilizing the Internet the right way!

Small Business Saturday Gaining Traction

With the third annual Small Business Saturday now behind us, the data is showing that the movement is gaining momentum and increased popularity:

American Express created Small Business Saturday in 2010 with a basic concept: If you build it, they will come. This year, to encourage consumers to shop locally (and, ostensibly, to improve its image in the small-business community), AmEx offered 100,000 cardmembers a $25 credit for shopping locally. That's a possible $2,500,000 in free money.

So far, it seems, that logic--along with those dollars--has paid off on Main Street.

This year, about 500,000 small businesses around the country participated in the event, which attracted some 100 million consumers; the National Federation of Independent Businesses reported that 67% of consumers planned to shop small. And although American Express is notoriously tight-lipped about the incremental revenue generated by the promotion, anecdotally, at least, it seems business owners around the country are enjoying a modest windfall from the event.

Store owners in Wichita, Kansas, and Athens, Alabama, for instance, saw an increase in foot traffic firsthand because of Small Business Saturday. Nancy Robinson, the owner of Best of Times, a small gift shop in Wichita, told the Wichita Eagle that Small Business Saturday "made people stop and think about supporting local stores and how their money stays in the community."

In Iowa City, Iowa, a business owner reported a 30% increase in sales, while independent store owners in Saratoga Springs, New York saw a sales increase of 25% on Saturday.

While revenue data is scant, Google Insight data offers a top-level sense of the growing interest in Small Business Saturday. According to the chart below, the user search volume for Small Business Saturday is growing at a steady pace. The day was especially popular (at least from a search perspective) in New York, Phoenix, and Boston.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/11/24/2579769/wichita-business-owners-report.html#storylink=cpy

The Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/11/24/2579769/wichita-business-owners-report.html#storylink=cpy

Twitter also offers some valuable insight into the interest in shopping locally on Small Business Saturday. Data from Topsy, a social insight and analytics start-up based in San Francisco, shows that Small Business Saturday (or a variation of the #SmallBizSaturday hashtag) was mentioned about 200,000 times on Saturday.



Still, the day hardly compares to Black Friday, which garnered just under 1 million mentions on Twitter at its peak on November 21. Cyber Monday--as of Sunday--was generating quite a bit of buzz with about 350,000 mentions on Twitter.

In other words, Small Business Saturday may attract just a sliver of the attention received by big-box retailers on Black Friday, but retailers are happy to take what they can get.

"I think it's a good cause," one Massachusetts entrepreneurs told the North Adams Transcript. "It's good for the Berkshire economy. I know I spend my money locally...it's a good time to be a small business. A lot of people are really conscious of supporting that."

[Article Source]

72% of Consumers Want Mobile-Friendly Sites: Google Research

Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly annoy users and that’s bad business. Consumers are doing more on mobile devices, including shopping and product research; when they do, users look for content to meet their on-the-go needs.

A recent Google survey of mobile users found that 72 percent of mobile users say it’s important to them that websites are mobile-friendly, yet 96 percent have visited a site that doesn’t work well on their device.

Almost three-quarters of respondents said they are more likely to revisit a mobile-friendly site. Users are five times more likely to abandon the task they are trying to complete if the site isn’t optimized for mobile use, with 79 percent saying they will go back to search and try to find another site to meet their needs.

Consumers are more likely to buy online when the site meets their mobile needs. Unfortunately for e-commerce stores, 61 percent said they are likely to leave if the site isn’t mobile-friendly.

Worse still, many fans of the brand are disappointed in the company itself if the mobile experience doesn’t meet their expectations. Fifty-five percent of respondents agreed, “A frustrating experience on a website hurts my opinion of the brand overall.”

So what, exactly, are consumers looking for in a website accessed from a mobile device?

• Site speed - loading time of 5 seconds or less
• Big, mobile-friendly buttons
• Limited scrolling and pinching
• Quick access to business contact information
• “Click to call” access to phone the business
• Links to the company’s social media profiles

Usability and design features matter. Mobile users indicated they are most looking for (in order of priority):

• Information in just one or two clicks
• A search bar that is easy to find and use
• A site that fits the small screen
• Clean and efficient design
• An option to visit the non-mobile site
• The ability to save information for later
• Big, finger-friendly buttons
• Non-scrolling forms with a limited number of fields
• A “click to call” button
• One-direction scrolling, either horizontal or vertical, but not both.

Consumers seeking retail information are looking for things they can act on immediately. They still prefer to do deep research, read reviews, and make big purchases on desktops; making contact and taking action are their priorities when mobile consumers are on the go.

Google’s survey involved 1,088 US smartphone Internet users and was performed by independent market research firms Sterling Research and SmithGeiger in July 2012.

so does your business have a mobile-friendly website?  If the answer is "no" or "not sure" contact Network For Solutions today!

Article Sources:

http://googlemobileads.blogspot.ca/2012/09/mobile-friendly-sites-turn-visitors.html

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2208496/72-of-Consumers-Want-Mobile-Friendly-Sites-Google-Research

Andrew Dargan Memorial Golf Tournament

Network For Solutions was a proud sponsor of the 2012 Andrew Dargan Memorial Golf Tournament at the Mount Hood Golf Course in Melrose, MA.

The Andrew Dargan Memorial Tournament is a “Not for Profit” organization with a sole mission of raising money for deserving charities. All proceeds go directly to people and/or charitable organizations that need the help.

We feel very fortunate to be able to support such a great event that contributes to worthy local charities.

Small Business Did You Know?

• 97% of Americans who use the Internet are looking online for local products and services.

• Yet, more than half of all small businesses in the U.S. don’t have a website.

• Businesses that make use of the web are expected to grow 40 percent faster and are nearly twice as likely to create jobs.

• Since small businesses make up half of the U.S. GDP and contribute two-thirds of all new jobs, the potential impact of getting these businesses (more than 15 million of them) online is enormous.

Call (866) 234-7170 to plug your business into the network today!

www.networkforsolutions.com

Take the Google vs. Bing Challenge - "Bing It On!"

The second most popular search engine, Bing, is taking it to the streets to combat the industry giant, Google.  People are stopped on the streets of  "Google’s backyard" and asked to take the “Bing It On” challenge, and win an Xbox if they choose Google!  Check out the video below and take the challenge yourself!

Do you think Bing can compete with Google?

How To Reach Your Target Audience

On Small Business Saturday®, an estimated 103 million people shopped small on November 26th of last year. But did you know that you have access to tools and resources that can help encourage your customers to shop small and help grow your business all year-round?

It starts with our toolkit at www.facebook.com/shopsmall, which we've updated and expanded so you can reach your ideal clients. You'll find tools like My Business Story, which shows you how to create a video that allows potential customers to see what makes your business special and learn about the kinds of services you offer. Find more ways to promote your business with Facebook in this month's Expert Analysis by blogger and social media strategist Angela Stringfellow.

We've also teamed up with Facebook to give you the opportunity to boost your social media presence with the Big Break contest. In our Featured Video, learn how to enter for an opportunity to win $25,000 to grow your business and drive customers to your door – and a one-on-one strategy session with American Express and Facebook to put it all into action. Enter through July 9, 2012 at www.facebook.com/OPEN.

Search Engine Market Share: Google Sets Record

Google is now (more than ever) the single most important place for a business to be highly visible and Bing is still #2:

Google increased its stranglehold on the U.S. search engine market, reaching a record high in May, according to the latest comScore report.  Meanwhile, Yahoo’s share of the search engine market decreased for the ninth straight month. Bing’s share held steady.

Google’s search hit 66.7 percent in May (up from 66.5 in April and up from 65.5 percent from May 2011). Previously, Google’s highest recorded share was 66.6 percent, recorded in December 2010.

Meanwhile, Yahoo continued its slide, reaching a new low of 13.4 percent (down from 13.5 percent and down from 15.9 percent in May 2011). Yahoo, which once upon a time was neck-and-neck with Google, has lost market share since September 2011.

Bing’s search engine market share remained unchanged in May at 15.4 percent. However, Bing was up year-over-year, having inrecreased its share of searches from 14.1 in May 2011.

Ask also remained unchanged at 3 percent in May (but up slightly from its 2.9 percent share in May 2011), while AOL dropped to 1.5 percent (down from 1.6 percent in April, but unchanged year-over-year).

More than 17.5 billion “explicit core” searches were conducted in May, up from 17.1 billion in April. Google ranked first with 11.7 billion searches (up from 11.4 billion in April); Bing was 2.7 billion (up from 2.6 billion); Yahoo with 2.3 billion (same as April); Ask with 521 million (up from 511 million); and AOL with 268 million (down from 271 million).

24 SEO Stats Every Business Needs To Know

Keep the following statistics in mind when looking at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your business:

1. Content marketing rocks. Marketing Sherpa reports distribution lead to a 2,000% increase in blog traffic and a 40% increase in revenue.
2. 70% of the links search users click on are organic.
3. 70-80% of users ignore the paid ads, focusing on the organic results.
4. 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
5. GroupM states “when consumers were exposed to both search and social media influenced by a brand that overall search CTR went up by 94 percent.”
6. Search and e-mail are the top two internet activities.
7. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages. And companies with more indexed pages get far more leads.
8. Inbound leads cost 61% lower than outbound leads. An example of an inbound lead might be from search engine optimization. An outbound lead might be from a cold call.
9. 81% of businesses consider their blogs to be an important asset to their businesses.
10. A study by Outbrain shows that search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%
11. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
12. For Google, a study from Slingshot SEO shows 18% of organic clicks go to the #1 position, 10% of organic clicks go to the #2 position, and 7% of organic clicks go to the #3 position.
13. In that same study, tests for Bing show the following: 9.7% of organic clicks go to #1, 5.5% of organic clicks go to #2, and 2.7% of organic clicks go to #3.
14. 79% of search engine users say they always/frequently click on the natural search results. In contrast, 80% of search engine users say they occasionally/rarely/never click on the sponsored search results.
15. Google owns 65-70% of the search engine market share.
16. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
17. MarketingCharts reports that over 39% of customers come from search
18. The search engine industry is estimated to be worth more than $16 billion.
19. There are over 100 billion global searches being conducted each month.
20. 88.1% of US internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012.
21. Search directly drove 25% of all online U.S. device purchases in 2010.
22. 82.6% of internet users use search. 
23. Mobile internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up from 97.3 million in 2011.
24. Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2012

Contact Network for Solutions today to position your business for success with the right SEO strategy!

The SEO Investment: Long Term, High Reward

When business owners are looking at a search engine optimization (SEO) investment it is very important that they understand the nature of the investment; a long term solution with an extremely high return.

A good way to look at SEO is as an investment into establishing highly valuable real estate for your business online.  The first page organically of search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) is the most coveted real estate around for a business website right now because over 92% of searchers looking for a local business choose a result on the first page of the search results.  As with most things in life that are highly valuable prime real estate online for your business is not easily and quickly acquired.

The reality of a search engine optimization investment is that it generally does not provide an immediate return on investment.  While other options like search engine marketing (or Pay Per Click) can often provide a decent return on investment in the first month or two, SEO often takes several months.  SEO is about making a website more relevant and popular in the eyes of search engines and creating relevancy and popularity for a website takes serious work and time. Time to improve the website, build the content, and have the search engines recognize the improved website and increased relevant content about the business online.

A proper SEO program should consist of website improvement, blogging, social media, inbound linking, business listings, ratings & reviews, among other factors.  There are many components that go into creating a high amount of visibility for a business online.

While other programs such as search engine marketing may provide a quicker return on investment, SEO provides the largest return on investment by far in the long run.  After 3 months of search engine marketing you may have a moderate ROI and no ROI from SEO but if you look at the ROI after 6 months or a year, SEO will be exponentially larger in most cases.

In closing, the SEO investment is one of patience and long term growth.  It does take a significant investment up front to achieve high returns several months later.  The key is choosing an SEO firm that has the experience and expertise to deliver the desired future results.  An SEO firm should be looked at as a long term business partner and trusted advisor that helps a business grow.

The Benefits of a Blog for a Small Business

Many articles have been written over the years enumerating the benefits of blogging for online lead generation. While blogging is but one of many ways to generate leads online, there is significant data to back these assertions up. Here are just a few data points in support of business blogging:

• B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads/month
• B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads/month
• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors

For the sake of simplicity, there are three broad reasons why blogging helps companies generate leads online:

1.      It drives traffic your brand

2.      It amplifies your brand message

3.      It helps legitimize your brand

DRIVE TRAFFIC

Blogging helps drive traffic to your website by creating indexed pages and (eventually) inbound links to your site, both of which are critical to SERP (search engine page rankings).

Exemplified by Google’s Panda update, search engines are increasingly favoring fresh, high-quality content in search rankings. The nice thing about blogging is that each blog has a discrete URL, and as such is a separate web page that can be indexed by search engines. The more blog posts you publish, the more indexed pages you create for search engines to display in their results, which in turn helps your page ranking on Internet searches. Also, search engine web-crawlers tend to favor original content that has a more recent timestamp; they may skip over content deemed replicated or already indexed.

Inbound links (aka “backlinks”) are simply links that come from an external site to your website. When you blog, you are creating fresh, thoughtful (hopefully) content that others may find relevant or interesting. If an external site references your blog, they will usually include a backlink to your original blog page. The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or authority of a website.

Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines like Google give more credit to websites that have a large number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.

By creating indexed pages and attracting inbound links, blogging will help your company generate organic traffic, the first step in online lead generation.

AMPLIFY YOUR MESSAGE

With the massive growth of social, integrating your web-based blog posts with social media can exponentially amplify your message.

As a matter of form, blogging is considered to be part of social media.  Hair-splitting aside, most business blogs are website-based, therefore it is critical that brands actively integrate blog posts with their social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and especially Google+. Each time a blog is published, it should be automatically shared throughout your various social media. Moreover, you should dedicate resources to actively promote your blog posts on each social media channel.

LEGITIMIZE YOUR BRAND

As Randa Clay aptly pointed out in a recent Fast Company blog, the more customers know you, the more loyal they become. Blogging builds consumer loyalty and trust by helping prospects and customers solve problems or address pain-points.  Most blogs will offer a subscription option through RSS and email, giving your company an opportunity to interact with subscribers every time a post is published.

Brands often use business blogging as a platform to show off their industry expertise and establish thought leadership. A recent survey conducted by Fast Company found that 71% of respondents said blogs affect their purchasing decisions either somewhat or very much.

In an increasingly crowded Internet, blogging provides your company an actionable way to drive web traffic, amplify your message, and legitimize your brand. In turn, all of these efforts will help your business generate leads online.