In the 1700’s signs with the letters “T.I.P” began to appear on signs in English pubs. Standing for the phrase, “To Insure Promptness”, the practice of giving gratuities for prompt, efficient service, or ‘tipping’ began. Flash forward: What are the best ‘TIP’s for medium-sized or small businesses ‘to insure people’, or even better ‘purchasers’, entering local search terms on Google or Yahoo! will visit your website and ultimately buy your products or services?

1. Make sure your website’s main page (your “landing” or “splash” page) is optimized so the “spiders”, “robots” or “web crawlers” – programs from the search engines that visit individual websites – are able to visit your site and know what it is about. (Focusing on what keywords describe your business is essential.)
2. Make sure the search engine spiders can navigate your site once they are there. (Having a site directory on your landing page will ensure searchability, not just for the web crawlers but for your potential customers as well, ensuring they can easily find what they need on your site.)
3. Make sure you regularly add new pages and content to your website. ‘Spiders’ prefer to eat the new ‘flies’ they catch in their webs rather than flies that have been stuck there, drying out for weeks or months. (Remember: ‘Content is King.’)
4. Make sure you content is useful and interesting for your ultimate reader – the potential customer who visits your site. Optimize your site all you like to obtain top rankings on Google, but you’ve wasted your time if the person who reaches your site finds nothing interesting or relevant on it. (Another site where the reader can look for more relevant content is just one click away!)
5. Make sure the ideas and content on your website are spread over a range of different pages. Try to restrict yourself to one idea, one product per page. (Each time you put new content or pages on your website, you are training the search engine spider to revisit your site more often – hopefully increasing your search engine page ranking each time with fresh, relevant content.)

Working with a knowledgable and experienced SEO company (search-engine optimization) that specializes in local search capabilities for small business or mid-size companies, and/or attending a search optimization seminar, may prove invaluable in building and improving your local search capabilities driving more traffic and potential customers to your website.

Kudos (and thanks) to John Alexander of Search Engines Workshops for the detailed insight and knowledge he shared with the author and others in the recent Toronto-area SEO training seminar held in conjunction with Barry Byers and Greg Mate Search Engine Academy.

Industry revenues from newspaper advertising fell 7.9% in 2007, the New York Times recently reported. Background figures from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) show that the steep decline in traditional ad revenues would have been greater still if the drop in traditional ad revenue had not been offset by an almost 19% increase in online advertising revenues. Overall, in 2007 online advertising accounted for 7.5% of newspaper revenues in the United States, up from 5.7% in 2006.

“Even with the near-term challenges posed to print media by a more fragmented information environment and the economic headwinds facing all advertising media, newspaper publishers are continuing to drive strong revenue growth from their increasingly robust Web platforms,” NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm said.

These figures highlight the increasing trend away from traditional advertising media - newpapers, television, radio - to expanding online marketing opportunities. This shift highlights how important it is for companies, both large and small, to have an effective and search friendly online presence. Whether a company’s target market is global, national or local, the trend is sharply away from traditional media advertising.

The numbers from the NAA should indicate to businesses, no matter how large the scope of their market, how important it is for them to optimize their local search engine presence and capabilities, since newspaper advertising is particularly aimed at local consumers. Search engine optimization (SEO) of a company’s website should take into account this sharp shift away from newspaper advertising, particularly local newspaper ads, and optimize the effectiveness of their business’ local search capabilities.

Sesimi welcomes ITX to our online marketing family. ITX supplies Canada Computer Rentals including: 

• Laptops
• Servers
• Desktops
• Projectors
• Perpherals

ITX provides rentals for short-term and long-term projects along with the hardware and software you need to make your project a success.   

Search Engine Land reports on the addition of 7 new listings n the local search results on Google. Local search results now account for the first 10 listings in a search query instead of the first three.This is  a great opportunity for local small business owners to get into the rankings without search engine optimization or pay-per-click advertising.  

SearchEngineWatch  reports that IYP publishers are gaining ground on Google local. Yellowbook’s traffic numbers jumped 137%  over the past 3 months  thanks to the initiation of an aggressive local search engine traffic campaign.Market fragmentation leaves the door wide open for even the smallest directory to expand, as long as they are engaged in search engine marketing.

I spoke to a prospective client today about his website and the keywords he was using to drive traffic. I asked him if he had set up Google Analytics yet and he replied, “What for?” Incredible as it may seem, many small businesses are not using the free Google Analytics tools to track how their customers engage their website. If they had they would see the trend towards local search. Internet users are increasingly using terms like mortgages Toronto rather than just mortgages. They have been schooled to the fact that by just adding a local identifier in the search box, their success at finding a local company escalates.You can ad or adjust content to go after local terms if it suits your business.

We are proud to announce that we have reached a working arrangement with a Toronto estate lawyer who will be reaping the benefits of one of Sesimi’s online business profiles.

We are proud to announce that Canadian Mortgages Inc has joined the Sesimi site. They offer Toronto mortgages as well as competitive mortgage rates throughout Canada.

Every year your YellowPages™ rep calls and you are so busy with your business or fed up with the costs of placing even a bold listing that you tell him/her to renew the ad. Then one day you are searching your keywords on Google local and guess what? You’re not there!

Since Google and Yahoo! and MSN (Sympatico) draw their Canadian business listings from the YellowPages™, the heading you choose when placing your ad or free listing with YellowPages™ has gained importance.

Here are a 3 tips for using YellowPages™ in your local search efforts.

1. Make sure the heading you choose when placing your ad or listing relates to a highly searched keyword term.
2. Add you keywords to your company name. Instead of Oliva Services, use Oliva Carpet Cleaning Services.
3. Ask your YellowPages™ rep if you can provide him with a keyword list. Several types of ads
   come with a keyword form that allows you to provide a keyword list so customers can find you with keywords, not just under a specific heading.
4. Make sure your keywords are in your print YellowPages™ ad. Most YellowPages™ companies can add your print ad online. Your print ads are digitized and will appear when a user uses a keyword search and the keywords are in you ad.
5. Don’t get carried away by jamming keywords in your ad. You still need a good tag line, list of benefits and a call to action if you want a potential customer to call or visit your website.

If you think the Yellow Pages™ is dead in Canada, think again. Search for a local business on Google Maps Canada or Yahoo! Canada Local and you scroll down to the bottom of the results pages, in the fine print you will find the statement, “Business Listings distributed by YellowPages.ca™”

That’s right, YellowPages.ca™ supplies the local Canadian business search results for both Google and Yahoo!, as well as the following national websites:

• AOL.ca
• Canada.com
• GlobeandMail.com
• NationalPost.ca
• Netscape.ca
• Sympatico MSN
• Yahoo! Canada Business Finder

Still, don’t think Google is going to walk away from the lucrative Canadian local search market any time soon. Just scroll down to their comments in their Google Local Business Center.

Update your listing at any time. Use the Local Business Center to edit your listing whenever and however you like. Your Google Maps results will be updated in a few weeks, not next year.

“Update your listing in a few weeks, not next year”. Obviously Google is referring to the annual YellowPages™ renewal system that drives small business owners crazy.

It’s time to take YellowPages™ seriously. You may not agree with the sales pitch that your local YellowPages™ representative brings with him each year but now is not the time to cancel your YellowPages™ advertising program.

We’ll tell you how YellowPages™ effects your small business in your search engine marketing efforts in our next post.