One of the continuing challenges that we've found that local business owners face with online marketing is the endless complexity of how the technology companies have set things up.

Why does it have to be so damn complicated? Seriously… why? I surely don't know; what I do know is that it certainly hasn't gotten any better since I started online in 1994. It seems like the rule is that everything has to have it's own unique way of doing things – intricate little steps, convoluted pathways, secret gotcha's. By everything I mean hosting, video, email, software, wordpress, etc., and don't even get me started about seo!

So to attempt to make things a bit easier to navigate, please check out the above video showing how to access your Google Place page link. You need this link in order to send it to your customers, in order for them to give you a review.

Remember: Google Places Reviews are very important; both for your local search rank and to get more customers into your business.

The interweb is moving ever more towards a social environment; ideally a place where your opinion and insight is both valued and effective.

One of those places where it can have a big effect is in Google Places which are found in Google Maps. (I know its complicated but they're engineers and they love complicated stuff…)

A small business that has more customer reviews will generally benefit by ranking higher in local search. Frankly if they are doing a good enough job for you to review them, I think they deserve a better, higher ranking.

Here's a quick video on just how to do it:

To learn more about Social Media Marketing visit ExactTarget.com/SFF

You can download it here… Social Profile It's free.

Does the link building have to be done every month? If I don’t do it every month, does that mean my site will fall by the wayside again?

Once a site is optimized, does a person have to keep re-doing the optimization? If they don’t keep paying an SEO… does it mean the site will again fall into ether-land?

Below Are My Answers:

Think about your online efforts – website, optimization, link building and Facebook, etc. as marketing and advertising. In comparing and assuming the ads work, if you stop buying ads, do they still keep working?

You stop buying ads and the customers you get from the ads stop! So it all takes maintenance and attention… either you do it or you hire someone.

Link building gets it's best results to increase your position on all search engines from being ongoing. Just like your website is never done, adding links to your website is never done either.

If you were to just not do any link building, your site would eventually fall in rank for 3 main reasons – 1. Google gives sites with increased links and new content better ranks; 2. The competition is doing online marketing, and… 3. Some of the old links will disappear.

Your rank comes from the content on your site and the links to that content. That's the big picture. There are lots of details after that but in the big scheme, continually adding content and getting more links to your site will keep your rank growing or stable.

A simplified but useful way of looking at things is to examine your current linking. In this case, the site being discussed shows about 60 links right now… (these numbers are approximate from Yahoo Site Explorer)

To compare, the top 10, page one SERP competition for "keyword term" pages – range from 70 to 7,000 links to that page on their sites (not the whole site.) To get you on the first page for that term we have to get you more than 70 links to your subject page. That guideline applies to each page and subject.

We could build you thousands of links in the next week, but I know that will get your site sandboxed (penalized) by Google, ie. not showing at all in search. We do it gradually, safely and through watching the traffic, attend to each part of the site as needed.

Another thing to keep in mind is what will the competition do in response to your increase in web marketing? Chances are they are going to spend more money and time optimizing and advertising! It's competitive out there.

For instance, I know from many conversations that business people are pulling their ad money from YellowPages and using that to do online marketing. Google and Facebook are the new YellowPages for local small businesses.

Once your pages are optimized there is no need to redo them. We don't use any gimmicks – what we do on-page works now and for many years to come.

Google Places prefers a local phone number, not an 800 number, and it needs to be the same number that appears on the front page of your website and elsewhere on the web…just like the name and address. …

Publish Date: 06/30/2010 14:19

http://www.abfabnewmedia.co.uk/google-local-plymouth-devon/

When our company optimizes your Google Places listing, we start with these basic steps and then do a lot more: like getting many citation links, making kml and hcard files for your site, optimizing your site for speed, making and distributing videos about your business… and even more.

It's a lot of work, but that is what produces results in an increasingly competitive online market.

More people are increasingly using their smartphones for local search, social networking and gaming, according to a new survey from Compete. Nearly one in three smartphone owners has called or stopped into a local business after finding it using a loc… … SEO Keyword local search …

Publish Date: 07/06/2010 12:23

http://www.internet-marketing-tips.bobbybeaulieu.com/11463/more-smartphone-owners-using-local-search-and-social-networking

At home or in my own businesses since, I have not used anythink else. We've got 6 networked here, with many ipods, iphones, and airports. Our Mac Pro file server is 9 years old and still going strong.

I remember in '97 telling a work compatriot that – if my only choice was to use Windows (effing winders – if memory serves…) I'd stop using computers! I truly meant it.

Since Steve Jobs came back to Apple, it's been one amazing product after another… and the business rebound of the company is historic. Seriously, has there ever been such a turn around before? They just passed M$ in market cap and will pass them in profit this year to boot. Whoa…

Remember – Michael Dell was asked what would he do to turn Apple around and he famously said, "Sell it and give the money back to the share holders." Wonder what Steve Jobs would say to that same question reversed, today?

To all the boneheads, who endlessly told me over the years that Apple was dead – well – peace be unto you.

Today's new iPhone 4 is another, outta the park, "how you gonna deal wif 'dis," magic product. I can't wait to get mine! Android who??

Many people do not realize that Google is responsible for only ~25% of all internet traffic. Where does the other 75% come from you ask?

Here's a great video outlining the vast shift that's underway…