Does ReachLocal Offer SEO?

18 March, 2010 (17:52) | Search Engine Marketing | By: admin

Does ReachLocal offer SEO Services?

Since Yodle announced the launch of Yodle Organic, there seems to be a greater interest in weather ReachLocal has plans on launching a comparable SEO service..

Today: ReachLocal DOES NOT offer SEO services…

But – if you’re looking for SEO services, ReachLocal has a plethora of qualified vendors ready to help your small business compete online with a combination of PPC through ReachLocal’s powerful SEM services and outsourced SEO.

SEO + PPC + LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION + SOCIAL MEDIA is in high demand, especially within the local online advertising & marketing field.

ReachLocal has a platform not to be reckoned with so it wouldn’t be a far stretch to say that SEO is in their future…

Sean Hakes vs. Meineke Car Care Center

17 March, 2010 (21:50) | Business News | By: admin

Meineke Car Care Center

Sean Hakes vs. Meineke Car Care Center

Let’s talk.

Most of you know about my beef with Meineke. Right now I’m out at least $3200 cash not to mention a vehicle that’s in worse condition then when I dropped it off…

Anyway – it’s official. I spent a lot of time today at the Jefferson County Courthouse filling my official complaint/suit against Meineke Car Care Center.

I am seeking Loss of Use, and other damages. Hopefully this case (pending I win, which I am confident I will…) will serve as a wake-call to all your Meineke Franchisees  who think they can play around with someones money and not expect recourse.

The official court data has been set towards the end of May.

Additional Details:

Sean Hakes VS.

Remy Enterprises, Inc
Thomas B. Remy
135664 W. 67th Way
Arvada, CO 80004

Yahoo! Acquires Citizen Sports

17 March, 2010 (17:56) | Business News | By: admin

Yahoo, Inc has confirmed the acquisition of Citizen Sports, a Mobile based sport to fan’s social networking website.

Yahoo Acquires Citizen Sports

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — As part of its ongoing commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Citizen Sports (www.citizensports.com), a company that brings the world of sports to fans’ favorite social networking sites and mobile devices through innovative applications. This acquisition will strengthen Yahoo!’s social strategy of enriching, aggregating and distributing social content from across the entire Web, and offering a highly customizable social experience.

“Yahoo! is in a unique position to combine our deep expertise in content and aggregation technology to offer a highly personalized social experience,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!. “Sports has been among the earliest online categories to experience rapid social proliferation, and the combination of Citizen Sports leading products with our world-class sports experience on Yahoo! Sports is a win-win for sports fans globally.”

Millions of people across the globe use Citizen Sports’ array of social and mobile products to play fantasy sports, fill out brackets, check live scores and read up-to-the minute news on sports including football, hockey, soccer, baseball, racing, rugby, hockey and cricket. Yahoo! Sports’ content will be integrated into these products, creating a seamless experience for sports fans wherever they are. On Yahoo! Sports, users will be able to broadcast their allegiances, create or join a conversation with friends and fans and cheer for their teams through Citizen Sports’ applications. This integration will further transform Yahoo! into a more personally relevant experience, drive deeper user engagement and create opportunities for advertisers to interact with audiences in new environments.

As the #1 destination for online Sports with more than 39 million monthly unique users in the U.S.*, Yahoo! Sports provides people with the most timely, relevant and comprehensive sports news, information and programming. Citizen Sports’ network of popular applications for Facebook, MySpace, hi5, iPhone and Android span professional, college and high school sports.

“Citizen Sports was founded with the intent to enable fans to access news, scores and fantasy games on the platform of their choice,” said Mike Kerns, founder and CEO of Citizen Sports. “We look forward to becoming a part of Yahoo! and bringing our social experiences to their 600 million users around the globe.”

Citizen Sports was founded by Mike Kerns and Jeff Ma in 2004. Since then the company has brought together millions of sports fans from around the world to enjoy sports and connect with their friends. Citizen Sports is based in San Francisco.

Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the second quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.

* February 2010, comScore, U.S.

Thinking Social? Think again…

17 March, 2010 (16:37) | Google / SEO, Social Media | By: admin

Everyone’s in a stink over the fact that Facebook landed a few more visits than Google last week and these so-called ‘social media experts‘ are trying to divert the need for SEO to popular social networking websites like Facebook.com.

Here are some statistics I think you might find fascinating…

  1. 70% of Facebook users came from outside the United States
  2. > 1% of Facebook Users, use facebook to search for local businesses. (According to a local Social Media Survey.)
  3. Of businesses surveyed locally, >10% say they have seen a benefit from Tweeting on Twitter. A Social Media Guru would argue that it’s because you’re not doing it right… ;)

Sure you can argue there are a few benefits to Facebook, Twitter, Yelp etc… but the bottom line is there is not enough data to support any real networking benefit to small businesses.

I would argue that Twitter is great for B2B connections, Facebook… not so much. Facebook users are more concerned with their peeps updates then scooping out local business fan pages – period. Twitter had a very similar effect in a recent local survey.

Be very weary of ’social media experts’ who promote cutting back on local online advertising (seo, ppc, Google local etc..) and focusing primarily on social media because it’s the ‘new revolution.’

What most ‘Social Media Experts or Social Media Guru’s’ fail to understand is Social Media and SEO work hand-in-hand. SEOs would know how Google Caffeine directly correlates with social media – a Social Media Expert wouldn’t. All they know is that if they follow 6500 people on Twitter, 5500 are most likely to follow back.. har har har.

This will lead into my next topic on why it’s a good idea to hire a SEO and not a Social Media Marketer for your next business endeavor.

Cheerio!

Hitwise: Facebook surpassed Google in the U.S. to become the most visited website last week.

16 March, 2010 (00:18) | Google / SEO | By: admin

I originally heard out about this news through a tweet by Nick Hantge over at Iniquitous , another Denver SEO firm which pointed to a brief article published by Website Magazine (which I must say, is one of my favorite web/seo based mags, check them out), anyway this is HUGE news for web folks…

This is pretty cool and is a good indicator to let other SEOs know that things are changing and it’s time to be ready to keep up with them… Here’s a few  more bits from Website Magazine’s article which you can read in it’s entirety here.

The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.” – Website Magazine

Denver SEO Meetup

15 March, 2010 (23:46) | Google / SEO | By: admin

Jim Kreinbrink the owner of Hyperdog Media, a very successful Denver SEO and Web Design Firm is your host for the local Denver SEO Meetup. If you’re a Denver SEO who hasn’t had the opportunity to come down and meet some truly great people and local SEO’s, here’s your chance… You will also not want to meet the monthly SEMPO meetups as well. Here’s some info…

What: Denver SEO Meetup
When: Thursday March 18, 2010 @6PM
Where: Fuel Cafe in Denver, CO

Looking forward to seeing fellow Denver SEOs!

How to: Predict Future Google Results With Google Caffeine Data Center

15 March, 2010 (19:29) | Google / SEO | By: admin

Do you think it’s possible to predict future SEO results in Google by utilizing the Google Caffeine Data Center IP Address, 209.85.225.103? Believe it or not – you can, so how do you go about this?

Let’s say I want to know where I might rank for Denver SEO in a few days… Here’s what  to do:

Google Search Query:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=denver+seo

Next, Replace www.google.com with the Caffeine Data Center i.p address:

http://209.85.225.103/search?hl=en&q=denver+seo

And that’s it – a quick sneak peek into the future SERPs! Now go ‘wow’ your clients and tell them you are a SEO prodigy.

Tom Martino, Played Twice by Meineke Car Care Center

15 March, 2010 (00:26) | Business News, Rant | By: admin

Tom Martino Gets Played by Meineke Car Care Center, just like me!

New Update at Bottom of Article:

I’m going to get away from my typical marketing talk for a second and vent my frustration with a local Meineke Car Care Center (Lakewood, CO). This particular Meineke Car Car Center played me, they played my lawyers and they most recently played Colorado’s top-dog consumer advocate, Tom Martino not once, but twice.

Meineke Car Care Center
2010 South Oak Street
Lakewood, CO 80227
Phone: 303-456-0949

I took my 1990 4 Runner to Meineke Car Care Center in Lakewood, CO for a simple break change. When I went to pick the truck up I was told that the engine was misfiring and they would recommend a engine rebuild or replacement. They assured me they were the shop for the job, they up sold me from a used engine to a new complete engine rebuild. Read more »

Dex One Promotes Clicks, You Shouldn’t!

12 March, 2010 (00:19) | Business News, Search Engine Marketing | By: admin

Dex One formally R.H Donnelley

Click, Click… Click, Click, Click… That’s the sound of your Dex One budget withering away to a bucketful of mostly useless clicks.

Face it – Google’s cluttered and with a demand much more significant then the supply, click rates are through the roof. PPC Advertising is expensive and here’s why…

The average website converts at 6%, and that’s on a good day. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to test out $1000 on a local Google AdWords campaign. Hypothetically speaking, the average cost-per-click for your typical service industry market is roughly $8 for decent positioning. If you were to manage the AdWords campaign you might get 125 clicks. If you outsource it it you can cut that number  in half…

Going back to the average website conversion rate… Of the 125 clicks you’ve  driven to your website, 7.5 of those  customers are likely to call you generating a generous $133 cost per lead (cpl) average. To some businesses, that might not be a big deal, but to small businesses with a lower point of sale – this would be outrageous, and it doesn’t even include the fees that Dex One would charge you…

I’ve tried pretty hard to like Dex One, but it’s hard.. I have not seen a product that is worth vesting time and money to and I cannot pitch a business who approaches small businesses on the fact  that they need, clicks.

Small businesses don’t need clicks – they need to know that their cost per lead or lead acquisition rate is far enough below their point of sale that they have a chance of making an ROI, even if it’s small.

My personal opinion is this: Dex One misleads small business owners. I’ve heard ads that claim they have some special relationships with major search engines, I’ve heard ads that preach to consumers the need for clicks when in fact they should be talking about how they can increase their bottom line by driving up their site conversions and down their lead acquisition rate – but they don’t.

Business owners are  smart and they are starting to realize, local internet advertising isn’t about clicks. It’s about driving the greatest number of locally targeted phone calls for the lowest cost available…

Believe it or not; there are some local online marketing companies who won’t sell you on clicks; they will sell you on value and the ability to convert traffic and drive up your ROI. Advertising is meant to make you money, not take it.

Don’t buy clicks, buy leads.

Until next time -

SHAKES

Craigslist Performance Ads – Maximizing Your Craigslist Experience

10 March, 2010 (17:50) | iclick websites | By: admin

Craigslist Logo

Craigslist.org

I’m going to be a bit bias here regarding the recent news of the iClick Websites, Craigslist Performance Ads.

Craigslist for many small business owners is their primary channel to advertise their small business. Some may argue that placing your business on craigslist somehow reflects on your financial standing and professionalism as a business owner, and many times – their right.

Craigslist is cluttered with unlicensed pros in the home service areas. These contractors are looking to undercut the contractors who hold current state certifications and licensing – this is a trend consumers are  catching on to.

Over the past month I’ve worked personally with a very select group of iClick Website clients to pinpoint a ROI for Craigslist ads. The old adage was to determine how many clicks you could get, some companies still pitch this. The new Craigslist Performance Ads by iClick focus on capturing a greater number of CL searches by developing a highly CL optimized web ad, the second step is turning that visitor into a viable sales opportunity for our iClick Performance Website clients.

For more information about Craigslist Performance Ads please visit the iClick Blog at http://blog.iclickwebsites.com.