This minimalistic guide to Handling your Photo and Video for Google+ would like to provide you with the simplest way to manage your multimedia content and share them to the world.

There are many ways to upload, tag and share your videos and images in Google+.

Some people, like professional photographers, have complex workflow before they upload the pictures in Google+, but as a small business owner, we’d like to leverage the power of Google+ by bringing more visitors to our websites, without spending a lot of time figuring this new technology.

I’ve tried numerous combinations and I’ve tried to figure out the simplest ways to upload pics and videos in Google+. There may be other ways to do it, but this is what’s working for me.

2 Great methods to share your video and content in Google+

1. Use your Smartphone

2. Use Picasa (Google’s very own image and desktop publishing software)

How to Use your Iphone (or any Smartphone) with Google+

Sorry Android users, I’m using an iOS enabled phone, but the concept is basically the same.

a. Grab the latest Google+ app for your smartphone. (or update them if you haven’t done it yet). Launch the app.

b. Sign-in using your Google Plus account.

c. Usually it will ask you if you want to use Instant Upload.

*Be Careful that you choose only to Upload when you are connected via Wifi connection or else you’ll get a huge bill for data charges.

d. I usually turn Instant Upload ON with only wifi connection enabled. This way, anything that I took via my smartphone will instantly be uploaded to Google+. How cool is that?

If you are worried that they will be automatically be shown publicly, you don’t need to. The images and videos you’ve “Instantly Uploaded” will only be available on your own profile and they will not be shared to other people unless you explicitly enable it.

The default instant upload creates an album just for your own viewing pleasure.

e. Take Snapshots and upload them later or you can immediately upload using your phone.

* You can choose to share them with a specific circle only (your clients, suppliers, etc), publicly or just to yourself.

* You can add locations if you have a GPS enabled phone. Just finished a client renovation? Take a snapshot with location and share it with your customer.

What?? No smartphone?

Then check out Method 2

How to Use Picasa with Google Plus (you need a computer though)

You don’t need expensive software like Photoshop or Lightroom to edit your pictures and add effects like Orton, Lomo, Sepia, B&W, Saturation, and more.

Just download Picasa (which is Free) and sign in with your Google+ account. BTW you can use Picasa without a Google+ account because it’s a standalone desktop program, but there’s a huge benefit of using Picasa with Google+

* You can use Picasa to edit your pictures. You can crop them, remove red eye filters, etc with just a few clicks of the button.

* You can create albums inside Picasa and they can be synced automatically in your Google+ account.

* Picasa can handle videos, and images and you can also share them with specific circles that you’ve created in Google+

* There are many features in Picasa, but since this is a minimalist guide, here’s my basic workflow:

1. Upload pictures to computer (via memory card, dropbox, dvd, camera, d-slr) and save it into your My Pictures folder.

2. If you have set Picasa to monitor My Pictures folder, the pictures will automatically be added to the Picasa database when you open up the program.

3. Edit the pictures to your hearts content. I love to crop my images and add some effects (Sepia, B&W and Orton). This is usually done in less than 5 mins. No need to learn complicated software.

4. Click the Share Button or Upload button. Make sure you’re signed into your Google+ account.

You can then add blurbs and descriptions to your pictures, add a location, and share it to the public or your circles.

Huge Tip: Use the first line as an SEO Title. This line is used as the title snippet that is shown in the search results. Make sure you target a keyword here if you want the full seo benefit of Google+ posts.

There you have it– 2 easy, yet very powerful ways to handle videos and images with Google+

If you like this Minimalist Guide to Google+ Video and Images, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends and family members.

Do you know other “Minimalistic” strategies in using Google+? Share them with us by sending me a message in Google+ or by leaving a comment below. 

Photo Credit by JoeHart42 under CC2.0

Here’s a screenshot of how our clients have used Google+ to improve their website’s traffic and search engine rankings (by increasing the Click through rate to their websites).

This strategy is a part of our Google plus Authorship Guide.  You can immediately improve your website’s SEO by simply implementing authorship to your websites.

In order to complete Google+ Authorship, you’ll need to complete your Google+ profile first.

Follow these steps to have your Google Plus Profile completed in less than 10 minutes.

1. Sign up for a Google account or use your existing one to login to http://plus.google.com/

2. Follow interesting people and pages. (Optional)

3. Upload a picture and add more details about you (not your business)

This needs to be a real person. Social Media is about connecting and providing great value to other people. If you are not ready to upload your personal image in Google+, then you can’t use Google+ because they require “real” people.

TIP: Be careful what you put in your Google+ profiles publicly.

You don’t want to put personal details like personal address, personal phone numbers. As a rule of thumb, add only details that are related to your business like:

Place of Work
Job Title
Work Phone
Work Address
Social Media Profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (only if you have them)

Now that you’ve joined Google+, it’s time to complete your profile by filing up the details in your About us page and uploading a cover photo in your Profile (a must!)

Here’s a Great Video that will teach you how to create your own cover photo if you have Photoshop.

If you don’t have photoshop, you can use online editing tools like

http://pixlr.com/

http://coverphotoeditor.com/

TIP: Choose images that reflect what you do and what your business is about. Avoid using Stock Photo images unless you don’t have any choice. Stock photo images are great for web designs and business pages. But for your personal profile, it’s best to showcase your past projects than use a stock image.

4. What to include in your about Page

Tagline: Add a famous quote that you like, your personal mantra or even your business tagline. The key is to be able to share something that you want to resonate to others.

Introduction: I’d like to welcome and thank the visitors who’ve landed in my Google+ profile. I would never scare them away by pitching my business or “asking” them to add me in their “Google+ Circle”.

I would just tell a little bit about myself and what I do.  Add credibility by linking and mentioning what your business can do for them. If you’re a licensed contractor and that you do a great job doing house renovations, make sure you link to work portfolios and credentials on your about page.

Also, remember the acronym, WIIFM or what’s in it for me. Your readers would most likely follow and interact with you if they know that there is a benefit for them.

You don’t need to fill up all the details in this about page, but you’ll need to add your website and other social profiles in your about page.

Other Profiles: Add your social media profiles, like Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin

Contributor to: Add your blog, website, guest blog posts, and where you’ve written and posted articles (if you have any).

Links: Links to trade shows, memberships, association, sponsorship,etc. that are part of your business.

Here’s my Google+ profile and about page if you need further reference.

Now that you’ve completed setting up your Google+ profile page, it’s time that you  setup Google Authorship for your website.

This article on How to setup your Google Plus profile was originally posted on our internet marketing blog.

What’s Next?

To be able to provide the best internet marketing products and services to our clients, we’re constantly enriching our knowledge by attending industry conferences on SEO and PPC.

We make sure that we know what’s working and what’s not.

This is part of our goal to provide the best products and services to our clients.

Internet Marketing is Constantly Evolving…

Google alone has mentioned that over 500+ search engine algorithm updates are made each year. They’ve also released the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, which aims to eliminate or at least reduce search engine spam.

If you’re a small business owner, we’d like to share several tips and takeaways from the conference.

But first, Watch this 6 sec video made using Vine which gives you a quick tour of SMX Toronto.

Awesome. RT @ryancruzrn: my first #vine 6 sec vid thnx 2 @kmullett via @ryancruzrn @wsiryan #smx 2013 vine.co/v/bp3EwUrUK53

— Kevin Mullett (@kmullett) March 21, 2013

#pintastic tips. Pinners 1st. Curate collection. Inspire. Be authentic. Share. w/ @socialmicheller at #SMX Toronto — Smartest Guy In CA (@smartestguyinca) March 21, 2013

Don’t use G+ for express purpose of SEO. With no engagement you will fail @samfiorella #SMX — Alan K’necht (@aknecht) March 20, 2013

Ultimate guide to #TwitterChats #SMX Toronto docs.google.com/spreadsheet/cc… — Michelle StinsonRoss (@SocialMichelleR) March 21, 2013

Be careful when translating content to target multiple countries. Check with GWMT guidelines for dup issues. #SMX 2013 via @andyatkinskruge — Ryan @WSIMilton (@wsiryan) March 21, 2013

Testing and Keeping Search Engines Happy at the Same Time semrush.com/blog/tips/test… — Sean Malseed (@seanmalseed) March 22, 2013

Rule 101 on Privacy – Never share something on #Facebook that you will regret later on. (@jenerationy #SMX Toronto) – FB Graph — Ryan @WSIMilton (@wsiryan) March 21, 2013

If there’s a tool that’s gonna help, USE it. (via @pjmckeown #SMX Toronto 2013 #socialmedia #Seo) — Ryan @WSIMilton (@wsiryan) March 21, 2013

Engagement on Google+ communities are 10 to 1 better than Facebook groups. @samfiorella #SMX — SEJournal (@sejournal) March 20, 2013

81% of people reach out to family and friends on social sites before purchasing a product #SMX — Leanne Labelle (@LeanneLabelle) March 21, 2013

Social proof is understanding the personalization of influence marketing #SMX via @samfiorella — Gary Henderson (@GaryLHenderson) March 21, 2013

59% of consumers say user generated reviews have significant impact on buying behaviour #smx — Peter Broadley (@pbroadley) March 21, 2013

When guest posting…aim high, make sure the pitch will solve a problem of the editor @stonetemple #SMX — Benj Arriola (@BenjArriola) March 20, 2013

80% of Pinterest users are women 50% have childrenavg age 35-40 – are these your users @socialmicheller #SMX — Alan K’necht (@aknecht) March 21, 2013

78% of consumers trust their friends recommendations when making a purchase decision #SMX — Laura Hagerman (@LauraHagerman) March 21, 2013

Our social media strategy is also about building relationships and engaging with people.

(photo credit by Wonderlane under CC 2.0)

And here are just some of the results of social media when done properly. It’s big social proof for you and your customers.

#ItsAboutOthers: Yesterday it was about @ryancruzrn, who put the “social” in #SMX. Sought me out & struck up a conversation. #79 of #365 — Kevin Mullett (@kmullett) March 21, 2013

@wsiryan Yes! “Just Discovered” is available to free users, though number of results is limited (just like inbound links) — Rand Fishkin (@randfish) March 21, 2013

@wsiryan Thanks for attending my sessions! Hope they were helpful. Enjoy the rest of the conference! #SMX — Jennifer Wong (@JenerationY) March 21, 2013

@wsiryan Thanks Ryan!

— BuzzStream (@buzzstream) March 21, 2013

 

As part of our growing commitment to provide the best internet marketing products and services to our clients, we’ll definitely attend more events and conferences like these.

If you are not yet on Google+, we are inviting you to join Google’s own social network (because it’s awesome, and it’s Google). Click here to join Google Plus. (Another SEO Tip)

Then visit our Google+ Business page to connect with us.

(You can find the original article here)

(photo credit by jimbowen0306 under CC2.0)

The ultimate goal  of the search engines is to provide the most relevant and useful of information for the keywords being searched. And in order to achieve this goal, Google has to “weed” out spammy and irrelevant websites from the top of the search results.

While Google claims to make at least several hundred updates in a year (500+), they have also released several “animal” updates targeting low quality websites.

@gregrysmith yes. 500+ algo launches/year mean 1-2 a day. I know of at least one other algo rolling out over same timeframe for example.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) September 30, 2012

These “animal” updates are popularly known as the Panda and Penguin updates. The Panda update was launched in February 2011 which targeted low quality websites with duplicate content, content farms, and thin pages of content. Currently, there have been 24 Panda updates since it was first launched.

The Penguin algorithm update was launched last April 2012 to target spammy link building techniques like irrelevant links, unrelated blog posts, and link networks.

How to Determine if your Website has been affected by the Panda and Penguin updates?

Open up your Google Analytics and check your traffic and keyword stats. Go to the day view and check your stats to determine when your traffic dropped.

Check with the dates below to find out if you have been affected by the Panda or the Penguin update.

If you have a local business, then you’ll benefit from local SEO service updates for 2013.

For 2013, utilize Google+ heavily for local search engine optimization.

Are you using Google+ local and Google+ authorship?

If you have used Google places for your local business before, you might have noticed that it has now been transitioned into Google+ local which is part of Google+ (the search giant’s own social network).

The reason Google+ local is important for SEO is because it’s being indexed by the search engines. This means that your Google+ local page is an added exposure in the search results.

Here’s what you need to do for your website’s Local SEO:

1. Claim Google+ Authorship of your website’s content.

Using Google+ Authorship adds an eye-grabbing image in the search results. There are numerous studies that show that it can increase the CTR to your websites in the search results.

Click here to learn how to start using Google+ authorship.

2. Start using the same address and business number when citing your local website

This helps create relevance for your website and increases your chances of ranking higher in the search results.

Use tools like http://www.mylocalcitationfinder.com which helps you find websites that you can use to submit your URL and phone number.

3. Start building social presence in Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & Pinterest.

These 4 networks are huge in terms of getting traffic and visitors to your websites.

Here at WSI Milton, we have implemented several strategies that have been helping local business owners get more clients from the search engines and use social media to reach more customers.

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// This article on Local SEO has been previously published in the IM Blog.

If you’re thinking of getting a new website for your local business, or even redesigning your existing site, we highly recommend WordPress (the self hosted option, not wordpress.com).

English: The logo of the blogging software WordPress. Deutsch: WordPress Logo 中文: WordPress Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Secrets of Google Analytics for WordPress Websites.

As an important part of our internet marketing strategy, we prioritize the installation of Google Analytics in your WordPress blog. There’s a ton of configuration that needs to be done in order to maximize its use. It’s not enough to just paste the Google analytics code on your website and leave it there.

Here are the steps that you can take to make sure your Google Analytics settings are working properly:

1. Signup for Google Analytics 

You will need a Gmail account in order to be able to sign up for Google Analytics. Another option is to use your Google Apps email. If you have Google Apps for Business (Currently at $50/year), you can use it to signup with analytics.

2. Create A New Account, and Don’t Forget to Enter all the Details

You’ll need the name of your website, URL, country, and time zone. Enter them below.

Google Analytics Accounts? Properties? Profiles?

Accounts can either be your business account or personal account. If you are managing both personal websites and business websites in one Google account, you’ll want to separate them in different accounts. Just label them as personal and business.

Properties would be your website presence. If you have 3 websites, you’ll need to create 3 separate properties for each website that you have.

Profiles are “snapshots” or “subdomains” of your website.

Here’s what we did for our own website: http://www.yourwsiadvantage.com/

It’s under the Business Account and this website is 1 Property. Our business account have several properties (client websites)

Property: http://www.yourwsiadvantage.com/

This property then has 3 Profiles.

Profile 1: http://www.yourwsiadvantage.com/
Profile 2: http://blog.yourwsiadvantage.com/
Profile 3: Raw Backup for http://www.yourwsiadvantage.com/

It’s great practice to always have a backup of your data without ANY filters. Create a backup copy of the main profile without setting any filters. We like to name it RAW (Don’t Touch) as a way of reminding us not to mess with this raw profile.

In case there was problem with the main profile, you can always compare it with the unfiltered data from your backup profile.

3. Set Goals in Analytics.

Goals or conversions are probably the most important metrics to measure on our website.

They can either be a download, a thank you page, a sale made, length of visit, or even pages browsed on your site.

It’s important that these goals are properly setup, especially if you are launching a paid advertising campaign.

The easiest way to set goals in analytics is to use the URL destination as a goal.

Simply enter the goal url that you would like to track when conversions are met.

4. Use one account for Google Analytics, Webmaster tools and Adwords.

It’s best if you can use a single account for all these tools. It will allow them to communicate with each other a lot better. But if that’s not possible, you can request the admin to give you access to your website’s profiles.

If you’re a local business owner, you’ll need lot of skills,knowledge and patience to understand how Google analytics work.

Let us do the work for you, so that you can focus on your business.

Here at WSI Milton, we handle the tracking and conversions for hundreds of WordPress website owners.

WSI Milton has helped hundreds of local businesses get more traffic from the search engines and social media.

Today, I’m going to share a very powerful tip on how local business owners can use twitter to get more clients.

If you still haven’t started with Twitter, then 2013 is the best year to start.

Twitter is currently growing at a very fast rate with over 200 Million users last Dec 2012.

This post will not be about how to setup a twitter account but on how to use Twitter #hashtags for your Local Business.

If you need help with setting up your social media profiles like Google+, Facebook Fanpage and Twitter accounts, you can download this free guide .

So What are #Twitter #Hashtags?

Basically, twitter hashtags are words that includes the number operator sign (# sign).

Here are the Trending Hashtags in Twitter (as of Jan 15, 2013)

#LetsGoPlaces
#33MillionBeliebers
#HMV

When you click on those links, you’ll see the latest tweets (messages) from people who have included those hashtags.

Hashtags are very powerful because they allow you to find highly targeted and relevant twitter users in your business or niche.

But How can Local Business Owners Use the Twitter #Hashtags for their business?

It’s actually simple.

You can do 2 things with the Twitter hashtags.

First, use it to locate what your target customers are talking about. You can also use it to find where they are.

Here’s an example. If I want to know what’s the latest in the SEO niche, All I need to do is use the #SEO hashtag in my twitter search url.

You can also use the advanced twitter tool here for searching twitter.

Use the Twitter hashtag to find tweets that are location based.

If I want to know who’s tweeting in Toronto or Oakville, all I need to do is search for the hashtag, #toronto and #oakville.

You can also try searching for multiple hashtags in one query. You can try searching #SEO and #Toronto at the same time to find tweets with #SEO and #Toronto as hashtags

Try searching for hashtags relevant to your niche. Try different keywords as well. It’s not uncommon to find that no one is using that hashtag.

For example, I’m using the hashtag #seoninja and no one is using it, but it’s ok because you can basically create your own hashtag.

TIP: Use hashtags of your Business name. This creates and boosts the relevance to your brand in twitter.

Finally, use Twitter hashtags to connect with the influencers in your business.

Find people who are tweeting and communicating quality tweets in your niche.

Build relationships with them and your clients.

You can also use Hashtags to create exclusivity of your tweets.

In conferences and seminars, the host usually provides the crowd with a hashtag that they can use to connect with the presenters and attendees.

There are tons of ideas on how to use Twitter Hashtags.

Now, start using them to boost your local business.

This article on Twitter Hashtags was originally posted in our blog.

These tools are 100% free, so let’s get started.

1. GKT – Google Keyword Tool

Probably the most useful tool for SEO is Google’s own keyword research tool. Basically this tool allows you to find keywords and related keywords that would be relevant for your local business.

You can also check the search volumes of these keywords. There are 3 types of keywords in Google Keyword tool, broad match, exact match, and phrase match.

To use GKT, simply enter the keyword/keywords that are related to your local business.

If you’re a landscape supplier, simply enter keywords like

topsoil
soil
mulch
etc.

then complete the captcha details and you’ll be able to retrieve keywords that have search volumes.

You can also find related keywords that you can use for your blog posts.

As a general rule, you would want keywords that have at least 1,000 monthly search volume. Keywords that have higher search volumes tend to be also be very competitive.

2. Screaming FROG SEO Spider tool

This is an advanced FREE On page and SEO tool that runs on your desktop. It allows you to view common on page factors and check your entire website.

This tool can save you a lot of time.

Watch this video on how to use this tool:

Download this Free tool and start checking your On page factors for your website.

3.  Site and Page Comparison Tool

This tool compares 2 urls or 2 websites side by side.

This will help you determine what your competitors are doing and what optimization issues you might be missing.

Click here to check out the Site and Page comparison tool

These tools are very valuable especially if you are on a budget. If you need to let the experts handle your search engine optimization campaigns, we’d love to hear from you.

This article on Free SEO Tools was originally posted in our WSI Milton Blog.

If you’re not fond of Chinese Zodiac Calendars, I just wanted to share that with 2013, we can expect a lot of things to happen in the world of Search Engine Optimization

Before I share the Top SEO Predictions and trends for 2013, let’s have a recap of what happened in the previous years, 2011 and 2012.

The SEO world had major overhauls.

Panda was first released in 2011, targeting hundreds of low-quality websites.

Penguin targeted spammy link building techniques and link networks during summer of 2012.

If you relied mostly on these spammy link building methods and link networks, you will most likely be hit with the Penguin Update.

If you’re a business owner, it’s important to have Google Analytics installed and mark the date and week your traffic and rankings dropped.

These drops in dates will give you clues whether you have been penalized by the Panda or Penguin updates.

Don’t know where to start? No problem, we can help you get your site out of the Panda and Penguin penalties.

So What’s In Store for SEO in 2013?

1.  Google Authorship – If you are a business owner and have a website, it’s highly recommended that you claim your content and get a Personal Google+ profile that links to your site.

Google has been pushing Google+ across all their products and this could mean a bigger shift to what the search engine giant wants to do in the future.

Ever noticed the (not provided) results in your analytics? Most of those visits are coming from people who are logged in one of Google’s products.

I was thinking of saying Social Signals, but until Facebook gives full access to their data for the search engines to crawl, we might not be seeing a lot of SEO benefits from facebook shares.

2. Build a Twitter Profile – If you have daily deals, updates, events and new products and services for your business, then you need to have a twitter account.

Twitter profiles and links can give a significant boost to your SEO campaigns, if you have built an Authority Twitter profile.

3. Repurpose your Content in Different Forms of Media – You can now transform your articles into PDF files and submit them to doc sharing sites like slideshare.com and scribd.com

Turn your Viral Posts and Top Tips into Youtube Videos. The most popular Youtube Videos are either the funniest, or the most helpful videos.

Start a Podcast or Create an Ebook and Promote it as a Free Download in Exchange of their emails or contact details.

4. Use WordPress – Self Hosted WordPress allows you to do a lot of things to your website that a standard html or php program won’t.

Mobile websites
Responsive Design
E-Commerce Sites
Search Engine Optimized Websites
and more…

The Top Websites and Small businesses uses wordpress. It’s free and highly customizable.

5. Diversify Links  – Unfortunately a link is still a link. Even after the Panda and Penguin updates, no one will argue that a backlink is what helps the search engines rank a website for a particular term.

But it’s important now than ever, not to rely on only one or two types of links. If people asked us how we build links and acquire them, this is what we do.

In order of top priority, we gather links from:

1. Most powerful links / link neighborhood of your competitors. – Your top 10 competitors will have diverse links. We are experts in discovering which links would beneficial to your site and which links aren’t.

2. Golden Linking opportunities that are not spammy and that are hard to get, but will also be hard for your competitors to acquire.

These require a lot of work and is part of our Search Engine Optimization process.

3. Foundation links - These are links from Directories, web 2.0 sites, blog comments, guest posts and more. These creates the initial layer of links that supports your website’s link profile.

Are These Predictions Enough? What Do You Think?

In my opinion, 2013 is like SEO when it first started. No one knows about it, and people kept wondering how to rank their websites.

Today, the search engines has filters and tons of penalties that can drop your site’s rankings and traffic overnight. This could mean an overnight loss of business and could definitely cripple or shutdown your business.

But fortunately a lot of developments happened in SEO. The right tools are now available at our disposal to help us determine what works and what doesn’t. We don’t “blindly” guess what would work for your website and small business.

We have a proven track record of improving our client’s SEO and rankings in the past few years by as much as 6742% in a span of just a few years.

Would you Like to Get the Same SEO results for 2013?

Click the Orange button below to get started

This SEO Trends in 2013 article was taken(with permission) from our Internet marketing Blog.

Photo Credit Tiny Snake by Tobyotter under CreativeCommons 2.0

It’s interesting to know that Justin was first discovered by his American talent manager when his Youtube video’s become viral back in 2008.

I’m not a “Belieber“, but I’m a fan of how he has effectively used “inbound marketing” strategies to help him become world famous, and he might not have even known it.

What is Inbound Marketing?

It’s entirely based on the concept of getting the attention of your prospects or target clients. It’s also making yourself easily found in the search engines or social media.

It’s effectively drawing visitors and clients to your website or business, and 99% of the time, it’s because of producing amazing content or service.

Top “Inbound Marketing” Methods that we can learn from him.

1. He uses Youtube.com – the world’s 2nd largest search engine.

He might have NEVER heard of search engine optimization or how to get more youtube fans and likes, but he knows how to create great content (music video) and upload it into youtube.

You’ll never know what makes people “tick”. He just created great content and people loved it.

If you’re a business owner, does your video provide great content? Does it help your readers understand what your product or service do? Or does it sound and look like a sales presentation?

Today we can inexpensively create a 1080p video in full HD for less than $150. If you have the latest smartphone, you already have a video recorder that you can use to create your awesome content.

2. He leverages and personally uses Social Media.

Justin has 31,613,859 twitter followers as of this moment.
He averages 32K Retweets according to this study.
His Twitter profile is full of personalized tweets.

I know that for most business owners, they don’t think they have the time to handle these social media channels, but the truth is you are missing a lot of opportunities if you don’t.

Fortunately, we have a well-planned social media marketing strategy that helps build your brand in twitter, facebook, and google without you spending a lot of time on things that don’t matter.

 3. He keeps creating great content and sharing it in different types of media.

You may or may not like Justin Bieber’s song, but the fact is a lot of people love it. Check out these stats.

He uses Youtube.
He uses Instagram.
He uses Twitter.
He goes around the world promoting his concerts.

No wonder he is so popular.

Here’s a Great Tip To help You Create Great Content

When you create content, it’s important to visualize your readers.

Who are they?
Are they mostly female or male?
Are they mostly baby boomers or yuppies?

You can use tools like quantcast.com and doubleclick ad planner to learn more about your demographics. Just enter your site or a competitor’s site to see the demographic of people visiting them.

Don’t try to communicate to all of them, because if you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one.

Create great content for your target demographic.

If you’re a landscaping company, provide content that teaches people how to maintain their lawn and care for it. They might not need your services immediately, but because you’ve earned their trust, and they know who you are. Guess who are they gonna call when they get busy and weeds start growing on their lawns.

What have we learned here

I think that most small business owners are still in the “traditional advertising” mindset, but this has proven how the Internet can boost someone’s business or make someone world famous like Justin B.

Are you excited to achieve the level of success our client’s are having?

Then download our complimentary guide that will help you in taking your business to new levels of success.

This article about Inbound Marketing was originally posted from our blog about internet marketing.

Photo Credit by Betsyweber under CreativeCommons 2.0

Google+ is the search giant’s own social network and although it’s not as popular as facebook, it’s gaining a lot of traction and attention lately.

How Can you Use This Tool to Boost your Local Business?

Even if you’re not into social media, there’s an obvious benefit to using it if you would like more traffic from the search engines.

If you publish content and have a website for your business here’s why you need to use it as soon as possible.

1. To claim ownership of your content in the search engines

Site scrapers and competitors can steal your original and well written content and outrank you in the search results. They can do these even if you wrote the original content because they might have a more popular domain. Using Google Authorship can help minimize these events.

2. It can help increase your CTR in the Search Results

CTR or Click through Rate is the percentage of clicks you get per impression. If 100 people saw your website and 10 people click to your site, then your CTR is 10%. The average CTR for a number 1 ranking is 18.20% according to this study.

Since not all website and content owners use Google authorship, you’re website will be able to stand out from the rest.

A small preview of your Google+ profile image will be shown beside your website.

Numerous studies have been done online and it shows that CTR can increase by as much as 22% through integration of Google+.

3. Social signals (FB likes, tweets and G+1′s) are driving SEO rankings

A lot of people are wondering if social signals are playing a role in the serps.

An infographic showing a study done about this shows that 100 Google Plus followers can boost search engine rankings by 14.63%, 300 GooglePlus +1 votes boosted it by 9.44%, Facebook promotion was boosted by 6.9% and tweets and retweets, boosted it by 2.88%.

And the control in the study has no social activity and there was no meaningful change in the search results.

Here’s a Quick Step-by-step guide to get Google Authorship for your website:

1. Sign up for a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, then you’re good to go. Otherwise, you can sign up for one here.

2. Create your Google Plus profile. Use your Real name. According to Google’s TOS, you can use pen names if you are publicly known as that name. Will.I.Am is an example of a G+ profile using a pen name.

You also need to use a real picture in your profile. Use a headshot image that you’d like to use publicly. Don’t use stock photos or corporate logos. You can use your logo for your Google+ business page.

3. Complete your About page by logging into your account, then clicking on the profile circle on the left tab and click on the edit profile button. Fill in all the relevant information.

4. You need to link your website and your Google Plus profile. You can do this by adding your website to the Contributor to links in your Profile.

Add subdomains of your site as well. If you have a blog subdomain, like what we have for our Internet marketing blog, you’ll need to add that as well.

5. Then get your Google+ profile url. It will look like this:

https://plus.google.com/100638437358385248683

Then add this GoogleAuthorship Tag

?rel=author

The Final HTML code would look like this.

<a href=”https://plus.google.com/100638437358385248683?rel=author”>Ryan</a>

6. Include this link in your website. For most website owners, they can add it to their author profile (see image below)

Or you can also add it to the footer of your website. If you are using wordpress, you can edit the footer.php file and add the link in the footer of your site. This way all your pages will be claimed for Google Authorship.

If you have a Multi-Authored blog, it’s best to use the author profile link method than the footer method, because it would be a sitewide link.

7. Last step is to verify if your Google Plus authorship is working. Publish and make your article live. Use Google’s Rich Snippet’s tool to check out if it’s working.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

If it’s working, you’ll see something like this:

Congratulations! Now you’ve completely setup Google Authorship for your website.

Now’s the best time to leverage this tool from Google. They are pushing Google+ in almost all of their products-recently with Youtube and Google places.

If you have a small business or a local business owner, you’re missing a lot of free opportunities to get more traffic from the search engines.

Did you like this Google Authorship article?

If you do, then you’ll love our award winning guide. Get your complimentary copy by clicking on the button below.

This article about Google Authorship was originally posted from our all-new Internet marketing blog.

Discover How to Improve the Search Engine Rankings of your Websites even if you’re not a ‘Jedi’.

Search Engine Optimization is important if you want to have a good source of leads coming from Google, Yahoo and Bing.

If you have a website for your small business, landscaping company or home improvement company, you can definitely benefit from a well-planned internet marketing strategy.

And a big part of that strategy is getting found in the search engines for your chosen terms and keywords.

These 7 ‘Jedi’ Tricks might be a bit technical for most people, but they are invaluable to your online success.

You can definitely start using some of the tricks I’ve mentioned but if you needed more professional help, all you need to do is ask.

1. Create Content that your target readers would love. (While focusing on Best SEO practices when writing content)

If you’re selling mulches or soil, talk about the benefits of using a specific type of soil or mulch.

Instead of writing about how many hours it took you to create the soil mix, tell them why this specific product would save them time and money.

But while writing content, you’ll also need to incorporate the “most” common terms and phrases that are found in the Top 10 results.

This will help the search engines rank your website faster than most websites.

You can use tools like the Ultimate keyword tool to find these synonyms and sprinkle them when writing your article.

You can also use Google Keyword tool and it will show you related terms and phrases that you can use.

2. Use Video on your Website, Embed PDF files and Images

Youtube is currently the 2nd largest search engine. And there has been numerous case studies on how video improve site engagement.

You can also build embed PDF files using GoogleDocs or other sharing site like Slideshare.com and Docstoc.com

3. Build your Social Profiles

Google might be the 800lb Gorilla of traffic but it’s not the only source of traffic.  And because of this, Google is starting to look at social signals for ranking websites.

Probably the most important social profile to start building right now would be your Google+ profile.

Connecting your Website and Google+ profile can increase the clicks to your site because a small profile image is shown in the search results.

It’s Google’s own social network. If you want to benefit from long-term, free search engine traffic, now’s the time to create your Personal Google+ profile.

Make sure you have also accounts created in the 3 biggest Social Networks:
http://www.twitter.com/
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/

If you are interested in registering your brand name/company name across all known social profiles you can visit knowem.com to check if your brand url is still available. (Highly recommended)

4. Spy on your Competitor’s SEO and PPC Strategy.

Do you want to know if a competitor is doing pretty well in SEO and PPC? Do you want to know what keywords they are ranking for? Do you want to know their most successful ads in PPC?

You can ‘easily’ spy on your competitor’s backlinks, keywords, ppc ads by using subscription tools like Keywordspy and Spyfu.

For checking backlinks and top 10 competitors, you can use Market Samurai.

5. Use Google Webmaster Tools.

If you’re not using Google webmaster tools, you should. It’s actually simple to implement and use.

All you need to do is have a working gmail (use the same gmail for analytics, adwords, etc), install Google analytics (asynchronous) tracking in your website, then verify your Google webmaster account by adding your site.

Here are some of the benefits of using it:

• Detect Malware issues on your site
• Set the Preferred URL (www or non www) for your website
• Discover all the links being created (useful for your link building plan)
• Find out which keywords are being found on your website’s content.

6. Promote your website.

After creating great content, you still need to promote it. The best way is to leverage your existing source of traffic.

• If you have an email list, send an email to everyone on your list that you have a new blog post.
• Usually, the best people to target when promoting your content are people who already know you or have expressed permission to receive information from you. Send them an email or tweet that you have new content that might be useful to their readers.
• Send a Press Release if your article is news worthy.
• Build a Viral Fanpage and offer incentives to share your content.
• Start driving traffic through PPC. Don’t forget to use Bing Adcenter as well. They might have lower traffic, but they have higher conversions.
• Identify the top referrals of traffic to your new blog post and simply thank them for sending traffic. This can become a great start of building stronger relationships with other leaders and webmasters in your niche.

7. Monitor your Website’s rankings.

You can’t improve what you can’t measure.

Fortunately, there are many ways to track if your rankings are improving or not. You can use the Rank tracker module of market samurai to track all the rankings for your websites.

Simply enter your domain and keywords then Market samurai will track the rankings in the ‘cloud’.

Getting top rankings in the search results can provide you with a generous amount of leads  just like what ours client experienced in 2012.

Are you going to be our next Success story?

We’ll guide you step-by-step on how you can boost your business sales online. Simply click the button and download our “Essential Guide” to start learning how you can capture better sales leads online.

(Photo credit Jedi by PhillipWest)

This article on “how to improve search engine rankings” was originally posted in our internet marketing blog.

Are you a business owner who needs to use the Internet to generate more leads and sales?

Then you may or may not have heard of SEO or Search engine optimization.

It’s basically building a site that your users and search engines love.This part of SEO is called On-page optimization.

But the other and most important part of SEO, is getting the word out.

For decades, website owners called it “linkbuilding”.

Which basically means getting a hyperlink or url back to your website.

But it’s not 2006 anymore.

Forget Link Building. It always has been “Link Earning“.

As Danny Sullivan and Barry Schwartz mentioned in SERoundtable and Searchengineland:

Link earning means acquiring links that are hard to get, and not just easy links.

You want the links the most of your competitors will not be able to get.

2 Things that You Can Do Immediately to Get These Links

1. Connect with the “leaders” in your business.

When I first started building backlinks for websites, I remember finding the “leaders” in my niche. I then started contacting them directly via their contact submission form.

If you are tech savvy, you can easily do a domain whois search to grab their emails. It’s public info but some of them will have privacy whois settings.

Some will reply, some won’t.

It’s a tedious process, but done correctly, you’ll be able to get a backlink that you’re competitors will never get.

Today, it’s a lot easier to connect with your influencers. There’s a lot of tools that you can use to reach out to them.

Aside from using Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to connect with your demographic market you can also use this tool to build relationships and monitor them across all your social networks.

2. Create Content for Opposing Parties.

I’ve not originally thought of this idea but an example of a well written article on how this technique was used can be found here.

Let’s say you offer Organic Lawn Care programs. The key is to create content that is against a commonly held belief and create controversy.

In order for this to work and get earned links, you’ll need to invite both parties to read and comment on your content.You’ll need to promote your content to people who are die-hard fans of organic lawn care and people who are die-hard fans of the traditional methods of lawn care.

This is where tip #1 comes in place.

Why does this work?

Because people love to hold on to their beliefs. They would not simply change their beliefs because of one article.

Some of them will retweet your post, mention your article or even blog about you, and this is one of the ways to build “hard-to-get” backlinks to your website.

There are tons of ways to start earning links (that Google loves). Make sure you’ve subscribed to our RSS feed to get updates on these.

What’s next?

We can help you get top rankings in the search results through link-earning methods, and not just the traditional link building methods that the search results doesn’t want.

Follow these steps to learn more:

This “Link Earning” Article was Originally Posted on WSI Milton’s Internet Marketing Blog