The results of not working on local business marketing became very obvious today when I tried to book a table at my local curry shop. We have used them every couple of weeks or so and the food is always excellent. Twice they even agreed to open especially for us on Sunday lunchtime... but we were the sole patrons.
Their restaurant was located about 50 yards up a side road from the main High Street in an area famous all over the uk for its curry shops. Their food was excellent and they could alter their menu to cater for vegans, carnivores, curry aficionados and those of us who prefer a nice casserole, vegetarians, as well as those who like the spiciest or mildest curries. But they never seemed to be able to fill the restaurant.
The trouble was that, whenever we looked for his eatery on the web, we could never locate it. Not only was he not on the front page of Google, he wasn’t on any of the subsequent pages either. And it was just as difficult when we used our mobile phones. His competitors were all there, none of whom provided such great food, but not his business.
Because my own area of interest is local seo, I asked him what his strategy was for advertising and marketing the restaurant both on the internet and off but he reassured me that he had everything organised.
Three months after this talk, our telephone call to book a table received a ’this number is no longer in service’ message. Driving down to find out the problem, the restaurant was quite clearly no longer serving. The sign outside had been taken down and the fittings removed.
So what precisely could he have done?
I have never been able to understand why people will spend several hundred pounds on an entry in a directory that does not even show up on the front page of Google for the keywords that relate to their market. Free entries in local listing directories are normally the smart choice because you can maximise on their domain authority to boost your own listing..
Keyword research should be at the heart of any local business SEO to help Yahoo and google match your website with its search queries. So, before you start doing anything online, you have to decide what your prospective customers are actually going to be keying in into the search engines to find your business
This is the reason why it is essential to identify which words and phrases are being tapped out into Google by men or women who are intent on buying your product or service and then building those search terms into the infrastructure of your web pages so that Google can understand that you are the most significant resource of data on those online searches and start sending you the targeted visitors that want to know more. This is a local SEO Strategy
Get on Google First Page - Places listings
Not too long ago Google realised that local search had grown to be dominant, consumers wanted to buy from a business in close proximity and adapted their own search formula to give prominence to local suppliers.
This was also a marketing possibility not to be neglected and they started issuing businesses their own local listing called Google Places. However, where they felt anything was incorrect or missing, they would get their details from the free entries in the other local online directories making it crucial that you confirm that these are also complete.
The act of adding the new seven pack of Google Places entries on the first page of their SERPs (search engine results pages), Google had cut down the amount of room that was left for the other organic entries.
There are now three ways that a local business can use to get listed on the search engines for their keywords - through their website, its Google Places Page and their free entries in a local directory.
I just wish my local curry house had known.
How many parents use bath time as an event to signify a calming period in the run-up to bedtime? Warm water and bubbles all contributing to a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere.
Well no, not always, if we’re honest. Far from being a gentle start to the bedtime routine, bathing can often be a hideous battle with a slippery, squirmy and very upset baby that leaves a parent’s nerves in tatters and ears ringing.
For older babies there are lots of nifty things around to help make bathing easier as little ones grow, from full length supports that hold them snugly as they lie back to seats that stick to the tub and prevent slips and topples. These are perfect for bigger bubbas that have learned to love their nightly splash, also known as the soak mum/dad session in my house, but sadly, no good for tiny infants.
It’s not really the baby’s fault, they’ve recently emerged from nine months in the best bath ever. If we then put them into a huge bright space with an inch of water in the bottom and struggle to juggle them, soapy stuff and a flannel or sponge can we really blame them for letting us know they’re miffed? Imagine what it feels like to be dragged out of a neck-high warm jacuzzi and dumped into a half-empty outdoor pool! The case rests, m’lud.
But your back doesn’t rest though. Because, instead, we use baby bath sets - small baths which sit in the big bath or on the floor.
Occupational therapists despair at the positions we adopt to keep our slippery newborns safe in the water. It’s bad enough for even the strongest back to be bending over at a strange angle using both hands to support and wash a baby - any woman that’s not long given birth will tell you it’s agony and no, you can’t have gas and air!
Thankfully, some clever genius has devised something that solves all these issues. It’s called a Tummy Tub and it’s an upright bath that is shaped like a womb, holding baby in the familiar foetal position, warm and cocooned right up to the shoulders. Despite this, a standard sized baby bath uses considerably more water, so it is heavier to lift and far less ecologically friendly.
There’s even a stand that lifts it to the perfect back-saving height then turns into a step as baby turns into independent tiddler then a box for them to store their treasures in after that. No wonder it’s won awards, it’s one of those things that makes you wonder why someone didn’t think of it years ago. Maybe because we were all busy clinging to slippery babies then holding our aching backs, huh?
If I think back to my children when they were babies, I learned about child home safety by trial and error and there were so many times when I wished I’d had the right child safety products that could have prevented some of the bumps and scrapes they got themselves into.
One baby required a visit to the hospital to check out some badly squashed fingers.
As he sat on my lap on a chair by the door, unbeknown to be, he had reached out his hand and grabbed the hinge side of the door frame. It was such an interesting looking gap, he wanted to experience what that material felt like and so he stuck his fingers in it.
As another adult came in and closed the door, he was not prepared for such an eventuality and watched as the tips of two of his fingers disappeared between the two pieces of wood. It was a peculiar sensation for him and I was not aware of the problem until I got up to allow him to crawl on the floor, only to realise that I was restrained in some way. Which is when I realised that his fingers were jammed between the door and its frame and I tugged the handle to pull it open.
At which point, all hell was let loose as the trapped blood was suddenly allowed into the ends of those squidged digits and my little boy became aware of the downside of being an explorer - intense pain. He howled for the next hour as his white fingertips clearly showed the red indentation resulting from their adventure.
Fortunately for him, after several hours in Accident and Emergency and the perusal of a nurse, junior doctor and consultant, the hospital confirmed that the tendons and bones within his finger tips were sufficiently soft and malleable to have sustained no permanent damage. Of course, by now, he was enjoying the attention and that didn’t stop over the next few months as his blackened finger nail dropped off to reveal the new one growing underneath.
If only I had had a door stop to hinder the door’s progress on the floor or one of those special C-shaped pieces of foam that hook over the top or edge of the door to prevent it from fully closing. But it’s all very well being wise after the event, so long as you learn from the experience. He stopped putting his fingers into inviting but possibly dangerous places and I went out and bought every child safety product that was available.
Keeping your children safe at home - you can’t take it for granted.
With over 750 million members and counting, it’s not surprising that all the Social Media Strategy experts tell small business owners they should have a Facebook Page.
However, even the creation of a company page can be fraught with problems without the help of a social media course.
Personal Profile or Business Page
The most common mistake is to set up your business on a personal profile and you see this a lot on Facebook. It’s easy to spot because you have friends instead of ’likes’. Personal profiles are for people and they have friends, pages are for businesses which people can then like.
Another often seen error is to create a personal profile with one email and then create a business page with a second email log-in because they don’t want their Facebook friends to know they are associated with the business.
The First Rule of Facebook is that you can only have one email log-in. From here, you can operate your personal profile and access any business pages for which you are an admin.
So, you create your personal profile and then use the ’create a page’ facility whilst you are logged in as yourself. The page you have created will then show you as an ’admin’ and you can also invite other friends or likers of your page to be admins too. You can then switch between using Facebook as yourself or as your Business Page. But no one needs to know that your two accounts are connected, unless you tell them. The admin panel does not show unless the person viewing is already an admin of that page.
Converting Personal Profiles to Business Pages
Of course, the big question is what to do once you realise that your business page has been set up on a personal profile?
Fortunately, Facebook now offers that facility without losing any ’friends’ that you may have accumulated already. During the ’merge’ process, these friends are changed to ’likes’ but any other information and photos will not be transferred so you should use the download to archive option beforehand. The new business page can still be accessed using the original email log-in, whilst you re-upload the photos and other information.
Once the new business page is properly set up, you can allow yourself access by making your main personal profile an additional admin and then delete its original email log-in so you are now back to having just one email log-in for Facebook.
Which is where there is another area of confusion - delete or deactivate?
Deactivate Your Facebook Account
This is a service that young people use a lot when they are not able to access their Facebook account during the week or when they go on holiday and don’t want to come back to less than wholesome messages left by ’friends’ on their walls. Deactivating the account means that everything they have uploaded will be stored offline by Facebook until such time as they are ready to reopen their account.
Delete Your Facebook Account
As in the case above, where you have made an account for a personal profile that should have been a business page, there are times when you need to delete a Facebook account. It could just be that you don’t want to be involved any more. Facebook have the facility to delete your account upon request.
The cost of a professional image is more cost effective than you think! Don’t get lumbered with something you hate for a decade
