I once read an e-book from an internet marketing company that said they created 50 different pages for a local business website.  The idea was to have a targeted page for each town in the coverage area to increase search engine rankings. 

I thought this was a great idea, so I went to work on it immediately.  I mapped out the local towns and created a couple of pages, but soon abandoned the project because it was boring, time-consuming and I was creating ‘hidden pages’ with ‘duplicate content.’ 

But after converting my wife’s property management website to WordPress, I had an alternate strategy.

With WordPress I am able to add a new blog post for each town in our coverage area.  This creates a new page for the search engines to index, with keyword rich URLs.  The content of each post includes zip codes, keywords and links.

This improves our search engine rankings by adding new, relevant content to the site. For smaller, more obscure searches, we are able to dominate the rankings.  If there is a certain area that we want to focus on to get more leads, we can simply write more posts about those particular areas. 

In our case we created Property Management Perspective which is a series of local reports on the towns and neighborhoods in our coverage area.  We give quality insider information on the area and current rental market. 

This strategy can be applied to any type of local business.  The posts should not be hard to write since you already know the area and can give some expert advice.

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If you have gone to all the trouble of writing an article for your business, then you might as well get some mileage out of it. If no one reads what you write, then what is the point?  You have to promote your message, drive traffic to your site and create backlinks.  Here are three tools that can help you promote your content and save you time.

Ping is a free service that makes updating your social networks easy.  You have your own dashboard where you can post to up to 40 different social networks at once.  It takes some time to sign up for all of the networks, but once you are done it is very simple to use.

Su.pr is from stumble upon and when you post a link to it, it automatically updates stumble upon, facebook and twitter. This helps to increase your exposure on the internet and drive traffic to your site.  It also shows the amount of stumbles (impressions) the site receives, the amount of clicks you get and the number of followers on twitter.   Another feature is that it gives you a suggested posting time, letting you know when to post to get the most amount of traffic.  There is also a su.pr wordpress plugin that allows you to host tiny urls on your domain.

Spin Distribute is an article marketing service I have used that has helped improve my search rankings. You write an article and then go through it and put in two or three different options for words.  Example:  The dog went to the [store|park|house].  The spin distribute program will change out the words to create many different versions of your article.  It then automatically distributes your article to hundreds of different article directories.  This is a good way to quickly build a lot of links to your site and avoid duplicating content.

By using these three tools on every article for my wife’s local business, I am able to increase the online presence, build links, increase search rankings and drive traffic.

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The concept of the referral generation is that as the world gets more connected, referrals will account for almost all of your business.  Businesses that are good at generating referrals will quickly rise to the top, while businesses who are not, will not last long.  Here are five ways to effectively build a referral network in the new economy.

1. Ask -  Yes, it is that simple. This is often overlooked, but if you can ask a satisfied customer if they know of anyone else that would also benefit from your service, you will be way ahead of the game.

2. Email List – Build a quality email list, use a service like AWeber so that you can stay on top of mind with your current customers and give updates on your company’s promotions and news.

3. Affiliate Network – Have a network of affiliates doing your marketing for you.  By paying them a commission for referring sales you can broaden your reach and have your business marketed in ways you would have never thought of.

4. Gifts – The law of reciprocity refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action.  If you are giving to your clients, they will give back to you.

5. Gimmicks – You have to have some type of edge, whether your product or service is the fastest, cheapest, best quality, most convenient, etc.  Be known for what you do.  People love to be able to spread the word that they know someone who can get the job done right.

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I recently signed up for Google Voice, and I have to say that I am impressed.  Another superior product offered by Google for free. 

My wife’s property management company covers three counties, that have two different area codes.  Since our office is in one area code, I was considering adding a line with the other area code to appeal to the prospective clients in that area.  With Google Voice we were able to create a phone number in the other area code, and just have it forwarded to our regular office line (problem solved).

This helps out with local business marketing as you can create new phone numbers to have the same area code as your potential clients.  By doing this you also give the perception that you might have more locations or be bigger than you are.  It is very easy to then create a widget to put on your websites and blogs, so that customers can just click on it and have Google connect their call for free.  This is a very clear, convenient call to action for your marketing.

Google Voice has many cool features, but I like the voicemail the best.  When I answer the phone it will say the person’s name and I can decide if I want to pick it up immediately, send it directly to voicemail or listen in on the voicemail with the option to pick up.  I also have my voicemails transcribed and emailed to me.

Google Voice is currently by invitation only, but you can request an invite here.

Yes, Google now has your phone calls, emails, searches, blogs, blog feeds, analytics and they want your health records too.  No, you do not have any privacy.  Yes, Google is taking over the world and there is nothing you can do about it, so don’t worry and just enjoy it.

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I know what you are thinking, I’m an accountant, not a writer, or I’m a roofer, not an author. But, your future customers are online seeking information and you must be able to deliver it.  In the Information Age, writing on a blog can be the most effective way to market your business.

Blogs are considered to be more trustworthy than static web pages.  They allow your business to provide useful information and news, become an authority in your field, express personality, build communities and keep your website ranking high on search engines.

Blogs are naturally search engine friendly because they are constantly updated with new content.  They also allow you to incorporate lots of your keywords in the titles, posts, categories and tags.  Readers can participate with comments and build a community around your business through email and RSS subscriptions.

Having a blog does not have to seem like an impossible task.  It is actually free and easy to set up and update.

WordPress and Blogger are the most popular.  You can go to these sites and create an account, pick out a template and you are ready to go.  The hosting is free on these sites but you can buy the domain name at a place like www.GoDaddy.com so you do not have wordpress or blogspot in your url.

Your content can come from helpful tips you have learned from your experience.  Observations and opinions on the state of your current industry,  Links to local news stories, company news, promotions, tips, etc.

Most businesses offer services that people could do themselves, if they have the resources and wanted to invest the time required to learn how to do it.  Usually hiring a professional will save time and money.  For my wife’s property management company, the strategy I employ is to give away the information for free, and then when they choose to hire a professional, they call us. Example- a new real estate investor read our blog and learned how to buy investment property and manage it.  He would comment on the blog and email me questions.  He was enjoying managing his property until his job transferred him out of state and he could no longer effectively manage it.  Who do you think he called to manage his property?

One tactic is to have your domain as your business name, but then set up the blogs with keyword phrases and links pointing to your main site.This works well for building relevant links to your main site and long term branding.

Don’t think taking on multiple blogs will take up all of your time.  You can use Windows Live Writer to post to all of your blogs from one spot.  Just make sure you change each article so that none of them have duplicate content ( a negative in search engine rankings).  Include links to your main site in the content of your posts with strong anchor text.

Blogs are a great way to connect with your clients, become an expert in your field and a resource for information.  Blogs are also a great way to network with other bloggers in your industry in order to generate referrals and traffic to your site.

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