Google celebrating small business week

Happy Small Business Week

Google is celebrating small business week in recognition of all the small businesses who use their services and who make up the majority of their customers.

Google believes that these businesses make up a vital part in the American and European economy, with over 60% of all new jobs being created in America coming from small businesses.

Check out this video Google has created to say thank you for all that small businesses do for us and our local communities. Thanks for doing something that you really love and enriching our lives.

Google realizes that some of its biggest customers are small businesses and has created a series of tools which small businesses can use to help promote their business online or improve their local search engine ranking.

Want to get your business on the web

                Create a free Google + Page for your businesses here

Create a viral video promoting your business

        Upload your business videos onto youtube here

Free business tools

               Google Mail Businesses Emails, Document Sharing, Storage

Analysis your website traffic and the health of your website 

Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools

Are you a small business based in the UK? What do you think about Google new features to help you promote your businesses online?

"By Robert Mackin"

Google Authorship

Google's Author Rank - Improve your online exposure

Google’s Author Rank

Google has made some changes to its Author Rank meaning that if you write at all on your website you are an author. This new change allows you to claim credit for the content on your website or blog, as Google moves one step closer to ridding the web of spam. 

This new author rank allows authors to gain the trust of Google once it has been confirmed that their content is unique and of high value, this allows Google to promote reputable authors as opposed to unsigned or less reputable author. 

In simple terms improved author rank, improved website ranking. 

This means that content which has been written by a reputable author will organically rank higher than if the content was written by an unsigned author or author who was not trusted by Google.

How Google determines Author Rank?

Google does not openly share how it determines author rank, we can only really guess as to how they determine it. As the author rank needs to be confirmed through Google + initially to create the author rank. The Google Plus account is likely to be linked into the Google authorship mark up. Google probably takes into account, the number of followers and the number of plus ones on the story or page linked. So it is a great idea to have Google plus buttons on your blog or website, allowing Google to help you promote your content if it is commonly liked and shared.

Google may also be using signals from other social media websites such as, facebook and twitter. As an indication of the popularity of the content, with more popular content receiving more links. The speed at which these links are created is believed to been an indication of how popular the content is.

How to step up author rank?

The Google Authorship basically allows writers to identify themselves to the search engines by linking their Google+ profiles to the content they write online. Once the authorship has been validated by Google a small profile picture of the author will appear in the search results, as illustrated in the screen shot below.

Research has shown that search results with an author picture next to them receive higher click through rates then results which do not have authorship photos. This maybe initially in part due to the fact that these logos are novel, however over time readers may start to like a particular writer as they gain popularity over time. If a reader starts to recognize an author’s profile photo from previous articles which they enjoyed or found useful, this will also create high click through rates.

There are two main methods to verify your Google Authorship.

Use a verified email address with your Google+ Account

If you are writing content on a website domain you own, you will be able register this email address with your Google + account. For example if my email address is Robert@localexposure.co.uk and I blog on localexposure.co.uk, I will be able to use Google verify email tool. Check out these steps below.

1. Log into your Google + account.
2. Verify your email account https://plus.google.com/authorship
3. Add your matching domain email address eg. Robert@Localexposure.co.uk
4. Google will then send you a confirmation email, which you can then add to your Google+ account.

Once this is completed you can then add an author byline to any content on the domain which you verified, which would be localexposure.co.uk in this example. So I would add “By Robert Mackin” or “Author. Robert Mackin”, if I wanted the authorship mark up to be displayed in the search results.

Alternative Method, Link inside your content to your Google + Profile

This sort of method should be used when you do not own the domain or have an associated email address.  To implement this method you simply need to insert a link with a small extra bit of code within the article, back to your Google + account.

<a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/103310584282020550273/?rel=author“>Robert Mackin</a>

For this Google Authorship link to work you need to add a link to your Google profile as shown below

https://plus.google.com/u/0/103310584282020550273/

You then need to add the following hyperlink text to the back of the author text link

“?rel=author” to allow Google to tell that you are the gunuant aurthor of the article.

The next step of this method is to add a link back to the same domain in your “About” page on your Google + profile.

Log into Google+, go to your about page.

Select the Links box, then select edit, then add a new link to the Contributor to section

Then save this new edited version of your profile

Those articles should start to show up with the Google Author mark up in the search results.

Selecting the best Google Authorship photo

Better photo better click through rates

Google has set restrictions on what types of photos can appear in the author box, the photo must be a picture of a face. Company logos or pictures of other things are not allowed, Google will scan all the author profile photos before allowing all their photos to appear in the search results.

Research carried out by several bloggers has discovered that a well lit profile photo with a coloured back ground has higher click through rates then a photo which is poor lit and has a messy background.

Allowing authors to establish trust with their readers. 

Benefits of Getting a Google Business Tour

Benefits of getting Google Business Photos done

As a trusted Google Photography Agency we commonly get asked, why should I get Google business photos done and how exactly will it help my business?

Increased search page listing, increased probably of people clicking on website

Businesses that choose to get a virtual tour created of their premise will benefit from an extra-large Google Places listing when their online browsers search for a related keyword which triggers the appearance of their Google Places Page.

Check out the comparisons below showing how much more visible your business will become once you get a Google business tour done.

See what happens when an enhanced Google Places page is displayed within Google's search results. 

Compare it to a search result without an enhanced listing. 

More clicks on your business listing

Partly because of the novelty of the newly styled Google Places listing and the call to action text, the enhance Google Places listings have higher click through rates, which in turn converts to higher traffic on your website.

More traffic normally equates to more exposure and more business.

Increased traffic to your shop

Is your business getting noticed, if your business does not stand out on the high street you may not be getting the traffic that you need. If you shop front looks dated or you are situated on a quieter street then Google business photos could be the prefect service to help you promote your business and increase its exposure.

Imagine a customer found your business online and took a virtual tour of your business premise, they would know exactly how your business looked and where it was located. Providing much needed exposure for your business, even if it is situated on a quieter side street and has a dated store front.

Help you get online

Many businesses especially small local businesses still do not have websites, despite their relatively cheap cost and low maintenance fees. Many of these small local businesses are also in very uncompetitive local niches with few online competitors. Getting a Google business tour created requires the creation of a Google Places page which can be optimized to rank of several local search terms. The tour is uploaded onto this page by Google, normally the page rank of just the businesses Google places page is enough to get some local businesses ranking for key search terms.

Google business photos prove to be an excellent way to improve the Local SEO of a small business, on a small budget.  

 Interact with customers online

Many small businesses do not have websites and do not interact with customers online at all. Many feel that they simply do not need to embrace this new technology, Google businesses photos will allow your business to interact and engage more customers online without even a website, as you will be able to post business updates on your Google Places page where your Google business tour is hosted.

Allow people to get a feel for what your business is all about without actually visiting

Many small business simply do not have the money to run and expensive advertising campaign to allow customers to get a feel for what their business is all about, especially if the business involves an out of the box type concept.

Google provided an example of how a dog food restaurant has used a new created Google business tour to promote their business effectively on a small budget and allow customers to understand what they are all about.

The Google Virtual Tours are integrated into the New Google Maps

Google has recently launched a new Google Maps with an improved interface. The Google business tours now feature on the new Google Maps, allowing businesses that have had tours created to promote themselves on yet another medium.

The new Google maps have not yet been released, you can ask for a pre-release invite. Click Here

The new Google maps also allow users to service for local businesses which have been reviewed by experts, as shown in the screen shot below.

Searched for restaurants Nottingham

The search results can also be displayed as a list as shown here. At the moment this type of listing is free, but over time Google will probably start to introduce advertising. 

"By Robert Mackin"

Negative SEO is here

Google does not deny that Negative SEO exists

Interestingly Google recently updated the wording in its Webmasters Tools help section, from websites linking to your website can not harm your ranking to Google works hard to prevent other webmasters from being able to harm your ranking.

Sounds pretty unclear, if you think competitors may be harming your website. Get in touch with Local Exposure, one of our SEO consultants will be happy to have a look at the back links pointing back into your website.

Google now recommends that if webmasters have concerns over other websites linking to their website, they should contact the webmaster who runs the site and ask them to remove the link from their site or sites.

In the post penguin 2.0 world it can be difficult to know where to turn and which linking strategies to use going forward. The best long term strategy is to focus on creating high quality content and to start to build a loyal fan base through the use of social media, who will be more than happy to use you as a preferred supplier. 

"By Robert Mackin"

Responsive Website Design

Web design is going responsive

The way we use the internet is evolving and the devices we use to access the internet is changing. People are now starting to use smart phones and iPads to browse websites online.

Traditional websites do not resize so well on these smaller devices, with many of them really only being designed for viewing on the larger screen of a desktop or laptop.

Responsive Designs

As with anything technology related it is constantly evolving and moving forward. The new buzz in website design is responsive website design, which is simply a website which resizes itself for different sized web browsers.

Responsive design styling is becoming increasingly popular among website designers as it means they no longer have to develop two separate websites one for mobile browsers and one for desktop or laptop browsers.

Responsive websites current have a few teething problems, but over time as more of the internet switches to responsive designs these problems will get sorted out.

Vertical and Horizontal Scaling

As an increasing number of websites aim to become responsive sites,  which are sites that resize and enable vertically scrolling.  This allows the website to resize on a smaller mobile device; the user can then scroll down the page viewing all the content.

Local Exposures website developers are starting to roll out their first responsive websites, providing a great looking website on multiple devices, which engages customers like never before. 

If your a business based in the UK and are looking to get a responsive website developed, why not contact Local Exposure for a free quotation. 

"By Robert Mackin"