How a good NAP will boost your search engine success
Watch a crime drama on television and you’ll see that the culprits never want to leave their fingerprints behind. For a small business owner, it’s exactly the opposite! You want to leave your “digital fingerprint” so Google and other search engines can find it on as many websites as possible – especially the higher quality websites. The question is: Exactly what is your digital fingerprint? Answer: It’s your NAP, or name, address, and phone number. (You could toss in your web address to that as well.) Sounds simple, right? But there’s a catch. What if your NAP is inconsistent all over the Internet? That adds an element of confusion to the process. Can Google be certain that Joe’s Widgets, Inc. is the same company as Joe’s Widgets? In crime fighting, if the fingerprints are different, they cops don’t have a match. In search engine optimization, if your NAP is all over the place, it won’t benefit your small business as much as when it’s rock solid consistent. Typically, your NAP is found in what are classified as “citations.” These are usually directory listings – local, state, country, industry, etc. Do you know how your business is being listed across the cybersphere? Do some searches – by your business name, telephone number, and address – and see what it reveals. You can also get some free reports from the services listed in this guest post Megan Totka wrote for us. There are really only three possibilities: You don’t have any citations, Your citations are consistent, or Your citations are inconsistent. As Megan’s guest post explains, there are both paid and free services that will help you establish your consistent citations. It is well worth the time to explore which is best for you. Not only will the effort help you rank better on the search engines, you might find major mistakes. I know businesses that have changed locations but have discovered that directories are still listing their old location. Here’s the bottom line: Establish a good, strong, and consistent NAP and then be sure you’re leaving your digital fingerprint in all the right places across the...
read moreHow a good NAP will boost your search engine success
Watch a crime drama on television and you’ll see that the culprits never want to leave their fingerprints behind. For a small business owner, it’s exactly the opposite! You want to leave your “digital fingerprint” so Google and other search engines can find it on as many websites as possible – especially the higher quality websites. The question is: Exactly what is your digital fingerprint? Answer: It’s your NAP, or name, address, and phone number. (You could toss in your web address to that as well.) Sounds simple, right? But there’s a catch. What if your NAP is inconsistent all over the Internet? That adds an element of confusion to the process. Can Google be certain that Joe’s Widgets, Inc. is the same company as Joe’s Widgets? In crime fighting, if the fingerprints are different, they cops don’t have a match. In search engine optimization, if your NAP is all over the place, it won’t benefit your small business as much as when it’s rock solid consistent. Typically, your NAP is found in what are classified as “citations.” These are usually directory listings – local, state, country, industry, etc. Do you know how your business is being listed across the cybersphere? Do some searches – by your business name, telephone number, and address – and see what it reveals. You can also get some free reports from the services listed in this guest post Megan Totka wrote for us. There are really only three possibilities: You don’t have any citations, Your citations are consistent, or Your citations are inconsistent. As Megan’s guest post explains, there are both paid and free services that will help you establish your consistent citations. It is well worth the time to explore which is best for you. Not only will the effort help you rank better on the search engines, you might find major mistakes. I know businesses that have changed locations but have discovered that directories are still listing their old location. Here’s the bottom line: Establish a good, strong, and consistent NAP and then be sure you’re leaving your digital fingerprint in all the right places across the...
read moreThe power of Retro-New: Happy Days are here again!
Grab your boombox…or your Sony WalkMan! Cassettes are back! Have you heard the news? Many of today’s top recording artists are issuing their new tunes on the venerable cassette tape. Over the last decade, you probably heard how many music aficionados have been buying up vinyl LPs, but right now the big thing is cassette tapes, as Jason Evangelho describes in his Forbes article, Forget Vinyl, Let’s Talk About The Cassette Comeback. I’m not pointing this out to make you start digging through the bottom of your closet to find your old Walkman, but to point out trend that could present a marketing opportunity for many business owners: Retro-New. We have three big buying groups active in the marketplace right now: Millennials, GenXers, and Baby Boomers. I’ve noticed that the Millennials have a fondness for things that were iconic to the two older generations. These items are new to Millennials, but nostalgic to older buyers, therefore my term Retro-New…or maybe I should say “newstalgic.” In most ways, this isn’t unanticipated; things come around in cycles. However, what is new is that people are living longer and are more active consumers later in their lives. Gone are the days when an individual would retire and then go live a quiet life. Today’s “retirees” are different. They are less likely to join AARP. Heck, they’re less likely to retire! For marketers, this means that they have the potential to tap two markets when something comes back into style that was earlier popular with older generations: Sell it as retro-new to Millennials, and Sell it as nostalgia to Baby Boomers, and increasingly to GenXers. Going back to the example of boomboxes and cassette tapes, if you sell music or electronics, along with new boomboxes and the new music being published on cassette, you could find some of the classic albums Millennials and GenXers listened to over-and-over-again in their cars. Cassette tapes even rank their own sub reddit – r/cassetteculture – where a member recently posted about how he just opened a record store in Boston and it already is featuring more than 1,000 cassettes. I’ve included the photo he uploaded with his reddit post. Note the titles! The ability to understand and appreciate yesterday is one of the best ways to predict what will happen tomorrow. In fashion and people’s tastes, what is old is new again. Let’s take the boombox as a jumping off point. The boombox hit U.S. markets in the mid 1970s. (The Walkman came out at about the same time.) If you do a Google search for “What was popular in 1975?” you’ll get a lot of good information. I just discovered that the movie Jaws was released in 1975; is it a coincidence that another shark movie, 47 Meters Down, was just released? And if an Internet search doesn’t give you some ideas of products or services you might feature today that would be new and cool to Millennials and nostalgic to Baby Boomers or GenXers, then head to a good library and thumb through some popular magazines for ideas. The comforting lesson here is that we don’t all have to be like Steve Jobs and create whole new categories of products and services; we can be successful putting new twists on old ideas or by simply...
read moreThis week in small business: Bootstraps, Buffet, blockchain, and more
Grab your bootstraps, stay calm like Warren Buffet, and squeeze the most out of your tiny marketing budget! Those are some of the topics and advice you’ll glean from this week’s collection of curated small business content. Leadership, management, and productivity Looking for a loan? PayPal might be a source to consider. Gerri Detweiler outlines the company’s move in small business financing. It’s not just his mad investing skills that have made Warren Buffet a billionaire, says Bryan Falchuk, it’s because he stays calm. You don’t want to come across as a desperate networker at industry events! Ivan Misner describes the four signs of a desperate networker that you need to avoid. Tame your inbox with the three email hacks Courtney Connley gives us in this article. I love the title of Luke Hamann’s Inside Small Business piece: How to lose customers and inconvenience people. Marketing and sales Meghan Zuvelek is writing for real estate professionals, but almost anyone will benefit from the tricks and tactics she discusses here: Who’s Dominating the Online Space in Your Market? Here’s How to Find Out. Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead covers a lot of territory in her article A Big Guide to Sales and Your Small Business. Blockchain – the technology behind Bitcoin – has received a lot of attention lately. Steven Olenski thinks it might reinvent social media. Usually we love the “classics,” but in his Entrepreneur article, Brian Sutter gives us 10 classic small business social media mistakes that you must avoid! We always need to keep the fundamentals in mind and Wells Yu’s article on why SEO is valuable fills that bill. And, while we’re on the subject of SEO, Dan Blacharski says that it’s more than a numbers game – it’s about engagement. Neil Patel offers a load of practical advice in his list of 27 online marketing tactics for small businesses with similarly small budgets. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation A key to success when you’re bootstrapping you company is to start lean, according to John Doherty, and he’s done it. Think the challenges are over when you get into the black? Not so. Check out Josh Goldman’s article, Congratulations, Your Startup Is Profitable! Now What? If you have time for a 16-minute video, check out Bryan Elliot’s interview with Fox Sports commentator Jay Glazer on how to be an “unbreakable entrepreneur.”...
read moreRescue your small business from the summertime blues!
Every summer a lot of readers find an article I wrote a few years about on special summer marketing ideas. I wrote that in anticipation of the summer season but right now summer is winding down and if you’re like most small business owners, you’ve probably blasted through most – if not all – of your summer sales ideas. The end of summer has become an unusual time. In some areas, kids start back to school in almost the first week of August. In others, they don’t go back until after Labor Day. Further, there’s no national holiday in August around which business owners can organize a promotion. However, rather than allow yourself to get overcome by the summertime blues (or blahs), let’s brainstorm some ideas that can reinvigorate your marketing and send you into the next season in a stronger position. Use some visual “pick-me-ups.” Find inviting summery photos to use in your marketing materials, even if they don’t relate directly to what you’re selling. If you’re brick-and-mortar, spruce up displays with appealing imagery. Do the same with your website and emails. Back-to-school. I don’t have to tell retailers who sell school clothes and other school-related items to leverage the back-to-school theme, but let’s look at the other side of that coin: Lots of parents eagerly await the day when their kids are back in school and out of house. (You know it’s true!) How about restaurant owners offering back-to-school long-lunch specials so those parents can decompress after having a house full of kids all summer? Ditto for local gyms, yoga instructors, or massage studios. There’s change in the air! Summer officially ends and fall begins on Sept. 22, but by the end of August, people are sensing the change. Promote final flings at summertime activities and encourage your customers to start preparing for the colder weather and what it brings. Eclipse. This year a wide swath of the country is going to be treated to a full eclipse of the sun on August 21. It’s being called The Great American Total Eclipse. Work it into your marketing. Pepper newsletters and advertisements with some fun facts. I want to make one final point: You don’t have to use these ideas to sell to your customers. Some businesses can take themes like these and turn them directly into promotions. However, if that’s not you, use these and similar ideas to strengthen your relationships with your customers and clients. For example, you might make personal recommendations on great end-of-summer weekend getaways. Customers appreciate hearing from you even when you aren’t trying to sell them...
read moreOne Percent Edge #Podcast: Jenny Evans
Taking Care of Your High Performing Team with Jenny Evans High performing teams are essential for your company to be competitive and innovative. But does your team look like it’s on life-support? What could be going on? Today’s guest is Jenny Evans, CEO of Powerhouse Performance, and she is obsessed with human performance. Business leaders need a high-performing team in order to grow, but stress kills that performance. What can leaders do to get us out of this stress rut? What can we do to physiologically train our brains to leave stress at the door and move towards success? Jenny describes her intense research on brain chemistry, and how we can create true solutions to biological problems. These are large, deep-rooted problems that can feel insurmountable, but don’t worry! What’s great about Jenny is that she has easy, practical ways to change our habits, our environments, and change the stress cycle. A less stressed team means a confident, competent team, and a thriving business. Are you ready to tackle stress? <<Subscribe or listen on iTunes or iHeartRadio>> Podcast highlights: Jenny’s thoughts on managing stress by building resiliency. Translating resiliency to business. Your brain on stress: what’s really happening. The difficulty to adjust to change from an evolutionary perspective. Making small tweaks in our environment to make the easy choices the best choices. Building confidence through coaching. Conscientiously consuming information that helps us battle stress. Moving your body as a safe way to get through discomfort. Links and resources: Jenny’s Website: http://ph-performance.com/ Pick up your copy of Jenny’s book! The Resiliency rEvolution: Your Stress Solution for Life 60 Seconds at a...
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