Below find an info-graphic on how this is rolling out in the area of link building. This is from the esteemed (IMO) Aaron Wall over at seobook.com – highest recommendation to read his blog for more search geek wisdom BTW.

The challenges of link building continue. These are highly problematic challenges for small businesses. These are challenges that we research and experiment with, untangle and solve every day.

SEO Infographic by SEO Book

I hear this question occasionally… being so deep in data and the results of good campaigns vs. “others” I am well past ever questioning it.

Yes – It Works and is getting better and harder at the same time. Competition does that! The increase in mobile device use is also a major factor that many businesses are increasing ill prepared for.

GroupM just published some research on search detail and value.

Buyers are more likely to click on your search result!

To quote: “The Web is influencing more than $1 trillion of in-store sales, and search is the number one online channel for driving that revenue,” said Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search. “This new understanding of the retail shopper represents a behavioral shift. The intent shown in search provides brands an opportunity to maximize their online revenues and encourage and cultivate greater in-store sales.”

Eighty-Six Percent of In-Store, Retail Buyers Search on Generic versus Branded Keywords… these findings are consistent with the results of research we have conducted in multiple industries around the important role search plays in a consumer’s path-to-purchase.

My favorite: 10 percent of shoppers report using tablets during the retail shopping process. 10% already from tablets. This is a brand spanking new baby still!

For more at Business Wire

The above happened in the last … week!

If you know me at all, you know I tend to bleat on endlessly about how things are changing so incredibly fast in the mobile space and that the transition from desktops to mobile devices is the biggest, fastest business change in history.

The above is more evidence of this. A huge player in mobile, namely Google, spends 12.5 Billion dollars to purchase a money losing mobile device maker. Once the deal closes that adds 60% more people to the Google team. Wow. Good or bad time will tell but this is a massive change!

Hewlett Packard (HP) is the worlds largest computer seller. Last week they reported earnings and added in the second paragraph that they were killing their mobile division webOS (which they got from purchasing Palm last year.) Pre phones and (2 month old) Tablets – discontinued. They went on sale at bargain prices and pretty much sold out over the weekend. For those interested, this is a fast way to burn $100 million.

HP also stated their intention to explore selling off their consumer computer division! Yo, the largest computer manufacturer just said they cannot compete in mobile or in computers and the business sucks and they want out. Wow.

Acer is the second largest computer manufacturer in the world. They released their quarterly numbers early this week and for the first time in 10 years lost money. They said they will not make a profit this year. Their chairman Wang, stated that tablets were fading in popularity and Acer would be blah blah big blah blah sell more than anyone blah blah, wait until next year blah blah.

The second biggest computer seller is in trouble. Wow.

This data supports how big the transition is. Mobile devices are exploding in popularity and there will be more of them than computers very soon – before the end of this year, 2011.

For small business it means that your business is best served by looking to the future as to where your customers are going to be looking for, and hopefully finding you.

Is it on a mobile device? Do you know if you are ready? Do you know what it will take to get ready?

You already know that YellowPages, TV, newspapers, direct mail don’t work as well as they used to – if at all.

So what’s your plan? Wait and watch to see if it really happens… or get started?

Since we’re so deep in data from all the customers we serve, we see it every day… search volumes are growing in every sector. Local business niches that were simple to get top ranks for because the competition was sparse 2 years ago, are tougher and tougher now!

The gun has gone off and the race has started! The scale – At worst your competition is taking your online business and are disappearing over the horizon. At best you’ve got started marketing online and you’re putting competition in the rearview.

Where are you on that scale with your online marketing plan?

We knew it was coming; the man has had serious health problems for a number of years now. I truly wish him all the best!

Steve Jobs is a technology giant.

His vision and drive at the start of the personal computer industry; his crazy drive and purpose in launching the Mac; the vision of NExt and the superb operating system they created (which makes all Apples more recent accomplishments possible); the historic return to save Apple years after his ouster; the long term vision involved in setting up and connecting the dots of the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad; the unprecedented turn around and now decimation of the computer industry by Apple; his single minded pursuit of the best solutions for customers possible while making a decent profit… are legendary.

My first computer was an Osborne, and it pretty much killed me for quite a few years from using computers. My first deeply useable computer was a Mac and in a couple years on from then the internet entered. Now it seems Apple computers are tools I use 14+ hours a day – for work, for communication, and for recreation.

Steve Jobs vision made that possible. We have 5 Macs, 3 iPads, 3 iPhones, 2 Apple TV’s, 2 Airports and Airport Extreme, 5 or 6 iPods… many other people have the same sort of quiver. It is any wonder that Apple is flirting with being the most valuable company on earth?

Mr. Jobs was rewarded… worth over $500 million when he was 26 years old. A multi billionaire today.

How will his leaving the CEO post effect Apple? Not at all! Certainly not for years anyway. They have planned, crafted and executed the biggest come back in business history. The result of this revolutionary change to the “post-pc” era wil roll on.

Apple has a deep team who have been there a long time. They are well setup for the future and anyone who says anything else is talking out their hat!

They started planning, testing, building the iPad 10 years ago – so I’m willing to bet they have products for at least the next 5 years already started.

The iPad and it’s next versions will continue to eat the rest of the PC industry alive for years. No one else has a realistic opportunity to quickly put all the pieces together the way Apple has; Google, Microsoft and Amazon are the only players with a remote chance and each of them has big gaps to fill.

But today I celebrate Steve jobs and his family. I hope and pray his health gives him all the years he wants. He’s earned it.

• Canadian consumers use the internet more than any other country on earth – the average is 42.5 hours a week!

• Canadians use YouTube more than any other country

• Canadians are tops in social media use (tied with Finland and Sweden)

Here’s the mind boggling one….

Less than 50% of the 2 million small businesses in Canada have a website! …Let alone are doing any marketing online.

There is clearly a disconnect between our business community and the public. We lead the world in the above (and more categories like smart phone use, use of online search…) and our businesses are not prepared to take advantage. But – to quote…

Here’s the Great News!

• Canadian consumers use the internet more than any other country on earth – the average is 42.5 hours a week!

• Canadians use YouTube more than any other country

• Canadians are tops in social media use (tied with Finland and Sweden)

Here’s the mind boggling one….

Less than 50% of the 2 million small businesses in Canada have a website!  …Let alone are doing any marketing online.

There is clearly a disconnect between our business community and the public. We lead the world in the above (and more categories like smart phone use, use of online search…) and our businesses are not prepared to take advantage. But – to quote…

Here’s the Great News!

But is content -all- you need?

The structure of that content and where the clues are left as to the relevance and meaning of the content is also just as important; that is what a good seo team helps with. Add in proper and ongoing keyword research both from online databases and from proper tracking of visits to your website through what people are using to find your business, and then optimizing based on that data makes for large increases in website traffic.

Search is a rapidly changing marketing area that with the ongoing slow demise of YellowPages both on and offline, has become much more important for businesses.

Search engines use algorithms that are continuously updated, refined and added to. As an example, Google alone now has multiple search engines for images, video, blogs, shopping, books, news, mobile and more. All of these prefer structured data with a taxonomy that Google has indicated they support… Search engines also gather data and fit it into a taxonomy in order to parse, organize and rank it. That is how they find your content and sometimes rank you well for some terms.

This SE preference for structured data is clearly shown in the use of KML (keyhole markup language) in Google Maps, Google Mobile and Google Places searches, where providing this markup on the appropriate page on your site and in Search Engines Webmaster Tools accounts increases find-ability on all devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets) as well as increases your ability to rank higher and stay there. The search engines highly recommend that and the use of other taxonomy like hCard, hReview, etc., – it’s not just me spouting off.

Google makes a lot of changes to search to improve it. In 2009 they made over 500. They have a corporate mandate to make one major improvement to search -every- day. In 2010, the additions of the Caffeine update where site speed, clean html and RDFa structured data were increased as ranking factors followed by the introduction of instant search, the addition of social media results and rich snippets of structured data into search, and then the integration of local search results into natural search results in Oct. were the biggest and most drastic, influential changes they have made in 10 years.

Your ranking could be reaping the benefit of that last change of integrating local search and natural search for some keywords, if you’ve claimed your Google Places page, filled it out and gotten reviews. Great Job! There are further steps that could be taken to cement your position against optimization by competitors. An example — citation links – 30 – 60 are best for stable high ranking in our experience so far. There are many more things to do to optimize your local listing.

Keeping up to these massive changes made by the search engines is what a real search engine optimizer stays on top of. Then we take that information, test it, and then provide accurate actions both on and off page for customers which results in their websites ranking higher. We’ve never failed to increase ranking and increase traffic significantly.

The basics of our business are relatively simple – good keyword research, leading to proper on-page optimization for those keywords both in the code (html, structured data like kml, hReview, hCard, etc) and in the content, proper focusing of site page rank flow through the site’s structure, and off-page high value link building. The devil is in the details of doing the work and tracking the results.

Doing these steps allows both search engines and searchers to easily find the information they want. That leads to higher ranking for more keywords and more business.

If you’ve started on seo and local seo for your website, what you’ve done is good! The danger of thinking that it’s enough is that it assumes that the competition is standing still. We are in the midst of an internet boom that makes 1999 look like a minor pimple — for a myriad of reasons. Social networks, online video, mobile device growth and the easy spread of information is enabling this while traditional media like YP, radio, newspapers and TV are all less effective advertising media, with less users and struggles to stay profitable.

A businesses internet presence is a critical component of attracting customers now. It’s only going to become more competitive. We can help.

This is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately (…been training new staff!) What is the core, must have stuff that we know works if you aspire to get to #1 on page one; and then -really- expand your brand online? Expanding your online brand is the key to getting “more than your share” of online business.

Search Engines Rank Pages

Before I get to those basics though, I think there are a few key factors that frame this conversation. First is that any modern search engine – Google, Bing, Blekko… ranks pages – not websites! So each webpage on your website must be optimized in order to maximize your traffic, and build your brand online.

On-Page Brand Potential

Another concept to frame your efforts is to think about pages in terms of total on-page brand potential. A 100% potential score would be a page that is not useful for human beings but great for search engines. So it’s more realistic to aim to get most of the steps right and balance those actions against making sure your content is also optimized to turn visitors into business.

Keyword Research

Another important… no; critical factor is keyword research. Just relying on one source for keywords guarantees that you will miss significant amounts of traffic. Search engines are in the business of making money and with quarterly result reports and the stock markets ravenous need for growth, it means they are always optimizing their cash flow – where perhaps in the past they had different goals.

So let’s just state that they “might” be limiting the information they share, in order to get more competition for their advertising business. Google Keyword Research Tool Not Popular

However, you can follow this keyword discovery methodology and reap the benefit. Clever Keyword Research

It all starts with keywords because that’s what your customers use to search for your business… but what’s next? Are targeting keyword phrases – say by putting them into an article a few dozen times and posting that up on your website – enough? Well, this can work for a dribble of traffic.

On-Page Online Branding

If you want to get a lot of traffic, brand visibility and business from your online efforts then you must do on-page branding and seo. Below I’ve listed the core, must have steps.

(…this is not the be-all end all, end of the steps; this is just the core. There are many more steps that are available that a professional online branding company will be able to do for you… these arcane steps include page rank sculpting, page rank flow, full indexing of your site, canonicalization, duplicate content, automatic-daily-updated-relevant content, etc.)

1) URL

An easily identified and useful signal a page can provide searchers and search engines is the domain name structure and URL. It’s the most important element for rank.

This brings up the issue of domain names. Keyword centric domain names (contrary to Google’s ongoing protestations that this is not the case) rank high, and if the pages are done as below, they rank high fast.

So one option to consider; your domain name optimally can contain an important (high traffic, low competition, high converting) keyword phrase. The ending tld is not a critical difference if you chose from .com; .org; .net; or your country domain. Other domains like .tv, .info etc. do not rank as well.

However, I’m not saying turf your business domain name and start over. That’s a big decision and there are a lot of things to be considered before undertaking something radical like that.

If you’re just starting out though, or you want to expand your online brand, adding a website or more with a high traffic keyword phrase domain name might be something worth looking at. Do not overpay for the domain!

As far as domain name structure within your website is concerned, it’s always best to have the theme of the page identified after the tld. Here are 2 examples:

URL 1: www.domain.org/hp/page/5408/0/-1/?.php

URL 2: www.domain.org/keyword-phrase

While the first domain name structure is generated in this case by the CMS and shows where the files for the page can be found, it doesn’t give searchers or a search spider any useful information about the content on this page. The second name structure identifies what the theme of the page is. It’s searcher friendly information that search engines reward with higher rankings. Good content management systems allow you to create your page URLs.

This is a very, very important element for product catalogs and online selling!

2) Title Tag or Page Title

The title tag is a code element that appears in the first part of the html code for a webpage and ideally identifies what the page is about. It is the text that shows uppermost in most browsers (not Chrome) above the url area of the browser window.

Most webpages do not include a keyword optimized page title. Many have the company’s name and main keyword – repeating on all the pages of the website. Not optimal.

Another example:

Page Title tag (repeated on each page): Billy Bob’s Shop | Bait Shop

or better:

Page Title tag optimized: Billy Bob’s Bait Shop, Gibson’s Landing, BC | Fresh Bait

The second example adds location information which is now critical for local businesses to rank well and follows the proven principal to have less than 11 words and 70 characters in your title tag. The title tag must only be listed once in the code and only on one page of your website.

Pages rank highest if there is one subject on the page, contained in the title tag, in the meta description, in the H1,H2 tags etc. You can break this rule by putting more than one keyword in the title tag but it is not optimal and in my experience only works well if the competition is weak!

My advice is to prepare for the future where there is both much more competition, and more mobile search. As much as possible stick to one subject matter per page, one keyword phrase in the title tag.

3) Header Tags H1, H2

For readers – Think of H1 tags as being the headline of the page… It both contains the keyword phrase of that page as well as selling the reader on reading the content. This is an important online branding opportunity.

H2 and H3 tags are like sub headlines and sub sub headlines. They allow readers who skim to get the highlights of the page and serve as emphasis points to break up a large amount of content. They provide content structure, context and an overview of the subject of the page. They are the outline points of the page subject.

For search engines – Since H1, H2 are specified as headlines and subs in Html, search engines also use them as clues to determine what the content on the page is about. So use them!

Be wary of other ways of using code to create headlines. Designers like to use CSS and create their own classes of text that looks like a headline but do not use the H1, H2 or even H3 tags. This is common and it dilutes the branding potential of the page.

Headlines must be used appropriately. One H1 tag per page containing the Keyword phrase from the Title Tag; and only as many H2 tags as make sense to outline the content. Put your keyword phrase or a semantically similar phrase in H2 tags.

4. Content

Optimizing your content is not as complicated as is often made out in a lot of the dated information on the interwebs. There is no value in writing for a specific “keyword density” or endless repeating of a keyword phrase in order to keyword, the keyword by using the keyword over and over again in the keyword subject. NOT!

The process we use is to write freely on what the subject of the page is. Often that’s good enough. If after inspection the keyword phrase is not appearing, then add it to the first sentence, somewhere in the middle that makes sense, and to the last sentence of the content.

That’s it. Optimized branded content done.

Let me point out that our research also shows that – given that the subject of the page is consistent throughout – more content will rank higher than less content.

Aim for at least 300 words, while knowing that 500 – 1000 is better.

Don’t use this as a reason to write boring repetitive shite… the better the quality of your content; concise, interesting, entertaining, having a POV, etc… the higher your engagement factor, traffic and conversions will be.

5. Image Filenames and Image Alt tags

Image search is growing and can actually drive significant traffic to your website. Without optimizing your images you are both missing out on that specialized search traffic as well as significantly lowering the total seo potential of your page.

Use brief descriptive filenames and alt text on all images. Avoid gibberish filenames or lengthy, overstuffed keyword phrase names.

A good structure to rank well is to use a sub headline h2, then image file img – with proper filename and alt tag, followed by a description of the image with the keyword phrase.

Core Elements of Online Branding – Use them and Profit

These are the core elements of good on-page online branding. There are also other important elements but these are the primary on-page elements that are easiest to do and return the highest results for time invested.

You can add in localization, smooth mobile device content delivery, optimized video content, daily updated relevant content… etc., etc. for more competitive situations.

But what about negative reviews? As much as we all may want to or even strive to, no one has completely 100% happy customers, 100% of the time. We’re human and humans have communication problems, make mistakes and have issues. So how do we deal with the fact that inevitably, we’re going to get negative reviews?

There are 3 steps to dealing with unhappy customer, negative reviews online:

1. None of us like negative feedback and really just want it to go away… but what if there’s a kernel of truth there and you can use this feedbacks to make your business better? A beneficial way of looking it at it is that complaints are a high value request to keep doing business with you! (People who don’t complain just go elsewhere.)

The hardest step – using these comments as a mirror for your business. This is potentially a game changer for your business. Is there any truth to the statements made… and how can you make systemic changes in your business procedures, training, motivation, etc. that might address any issues, no matter how slight?

People find it easier to complain online since most don’t like confrontation. Use it as constructive feedback and make your business better!

2. Answer the comments. On some of the review forums, you as the owner can address the complaints. Offer explanations and solutions if possible.

For instance Google Places allows you as the business owner to respond and they have some well though out guidelines about how to do it. Check them out!

Bottom line it’s about being your most accommodating, reasonable and super nice self to answer - Never EVER be negative or confrontational. (that just fans the flames – you’re much better off not answering at all than engaging in angry fights online – Don’t Do It!)

3. Implement a systematic review getting process from your clients. More reviews will grow your business. More positive reviews will drown out the negative ones. Part of our Search process includes showing you just how to do this.

This must not be faked!! Google, Yelp and many more both log and track IP addresses as well as using increasingly sophisticated programs to detect chicanery. So you cannot fake reviews, get your staff to do it, hire people in India, etc.

You will get busted – maybe not immediately, but for sure eventually. Google is working hard on this. Is it worth taking the easy route vs. getting sandboxed?

Google is now removing fake (…and some not fake!! Oh the humanity!!) reviews without recourse. You risk that they will delist your company from search when you get caught.

With these 3 steps, you can simply deal with any negative postings and feedback

. This is now a must do… The bonus is that properly applied, this sort of feedback will make your business better and that always means more success!

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPJ5meBPxNI" type="youtube"]Finding Your Google Place Link[/mc]

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.