I good friend of mine a sailing instructor, who loves teaching sailing. Just gave a great sailing lesson in Westport CT.
Many people taking sailing lessons, really need a larger boat.
Here’s a photo of david.
Westport Sailing Lessons
Google+ Business
If you have a brick and mortar company Google+ Business is perhaps the most cost effective way to market your business. Google’s mantra has always been to give the user the best possible experience. They know that 97% of consumers look for local business online. Thus they recognize the importance of local search and recently made some sweeping changes in response to this demand.
Google+ Business and Google Search are directly linked and Google Search is the largest search engine in the world. Thus it’s imperative that any local business create and optimize its Google+ Business page.
Below are the highlights of the importance of having a good Google+ Business page:
- free and fast way to get number one ranking on Google
- drive more traffic to your site/store
- help you stand out from your competitors
- boost engagement with images/videos/blog
- ability to offer coupons
- feedback from your potential/existing customers
- increase profits
This short primer will discuss best practices to ensure that your Google+ Business page ranks well and serves as powerful magnet to attract customers to your store.
First and foremost claim your listing. Unbeknownst to you Google is usually able to glean information about your company and create a simple Google+ Business page. However, this is a very thin page and you should claim it so you can manage the page.
The easiest way to go to http://plus.google.com/pages/create Follow the wizard, and choose the most appropriate option to classify your business. You will then need to verify the business sometime they will send a postcard or make a phone call to the number associated with your account. This procedure ensures that only the actual owner of the business can make changes to the page. Once you are verified you can administer your account. Below are some best practices.
1: Edit your business information – In this section you list basic company information there’s also a spot for a description of your company. This should be short but compelling and persuasive. You also can list various categories. Please make certain you belong in the categories. Lastly don’t skip and sections, 100% completing is critical for high rankings.
2: Add photos and videos – You can add up to 10 photos and 5 videos. At the very least you should upload 5 photos. Maxing out your photos and videos will really help push you to the top.
3: Get reviews – 90% of people trust reviews from people they know, but 70% trust reviews from people they don’t know. This is way reviews are so important as they establish “social proof”. However, it’s very difficult to get customers to add reviews to your Google+ Business page. That’s the bad news, the good news is that all your need is a handful of reviews to climb to the top. Lastly too many reviews can actually hurt you, ideally you want to get a maximum of one review a month.
4: Monthly postings. Writing a short blog post about your business is a great way to engage your audience, learn about and show of your knowledge.
Couple of things never to do
1: No gaps fill out all fields, even optional ones
2: Set it and forget it, update on regular basis and read reviews
3: Post fake reviews
4: Stuff your page with key words
FAQ –
1: How to get high rankings – Complete all section, add photos with good description, try and get one review a month. Add a new post once a month.
2: How to handle bad review – Respond publicly, this can be a PR win because it proves that you take review seriously. Negative feedback can be helpful, they might be correct. You can adjust and then publicly thank them. Also a few negative reviews adds authenticity to your overall listings. Plus we all know that nobody can make everyone happy all the time.
3: Why isn’t my listing showing up in the search results – Google+ Business is starting to get competitive, it’s imperative to follow the steps outlined here.
4: Why is there already a listing for my business – Google spiders can crawl the web and create pages on their own.
5: Why do I need to claim my listing – You now control and have access to stats, such as how people asked for directions to your business.
Kaoud Antique Rugs now online
We were very excited to work with Rumzi Kaoud of Kaoud rugs located in Guilford CT. The gorgeous showroom was filled with hundreds of antique rugs many of them over one hundred years old. It took over a week just to photograph the rugs. But it was a real pleasure working with Rumzi learning about rugs and being surround by their ageless art.
Here’s a peek at part of the site, you really need to view in a large monitor to appreciate its beauty. Click here to view the site.
There were so many gorgeous rugs so it difficult to pick my favorite. But this one is on top of my list, an elegant vibrant antique Serapi.
The Dangers of Losing Net Neutrality That Nobody’s Talking About
You might have heard the recent hubbub about and wondered what exactly is “net neutrality”. Here’s a very short overview and should allow you to handle yourself when the topic comes up during casual dinner conversation.
“net neutrality” – the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.
As a result of the recent ruling cable and phone companies like Verizon and AT&T can now legally block any website, webpage, blog, video from their network. Even as an extreme example they could block this post.
One action might hit closer to home. Perhaps you are one of the growing number of users that are scaling back on your expensive cable channels and saving money using Netflix, HULU and other streaming services. Comcast or Time Warner Cable can now block Netflix. Last month there was little Comcast could do, however, now they can slow down Netflix streams, or charge a premium to stream that content. Upset want to learn more ? Below is a link to an excellent article on recently published in Wired magazine.
Latest Launch – High End Custom Headphone Cable site
We were very excited to finally launch this site. The owner, James Serdechny a former Sennheiser Applications Engineer, musician and long-time audiophile designs custom headphone cables. After designing cables for audiophile recording studios started his own company to developed custom audiophile and high-end cables for headphone systems.
Site was developed in WordPress using Woocommerce for the shopping cart.
Over 100 different products with numerous variations were imported. It was easy to add special discount coupons as well as special shipping discounts.
Click here to view the site.
New Years's Resolution – Get a mobile site for your business
Resolve to make this a MOLO year for your business. What is MOLO? Beyond being our contribution to the societal ill known as acronymitis, MOLO is a strategy to harness the power of the mobile phone to drive customers to your local business.
More people will access the Internet via mobile devices than with their home or office PCs in 2014. This presents some great opportunities for local businesses but some challenges must also be addressed if you are to convert these on-the-go customers.
Mobile prospects are dealing with smaller screens, smaller bandwidth capabilities and, in most cases, smaller decision-making windows. They need locally-driven content optimized for the mobile platform. But you know all this – how many times have you used your phone to search for a product or service?
Making sure you win your share of customers in the mobile arena will take some effort and focus. Luckily for you, we at Walden Pond Design have made Mobile a priority for local businesses for the last few years. In fact, we were one of the first CT shoreline companies to develop a mobile website. We’ve developed them for local businesses like Bar Bouchee, Madison Art Cinemas, Wilcox Energy, Union League Café and Thimble Island Cruises. We’d be happy to develop one for you.
Last year, we gave a presentation at the Blackstone Library in Branford on some of the best practices in developing mobile sites. Click here to download the slide deck of our Mobile Design Presentation.
Like most technology solutions, things change fast and applications vary by business situation; if you are interested in seeing what a mobile site might look like for your specific business, click here.
Want to continue the conversation? Over the next couple of months, we will use our blog to impart our own unique take on how local businesses can best take advantage of the mobile computing wave.
So stay tuned. And stay on course to make MOLO marketing a key to your success in 2014.
Andrew Kaplan
WaldenPondDesign.com
Office: 203-779-5805